Product Description
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Product Description
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Product Description
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Product Description
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Product Description
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Product Description
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Product Description
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Product Description
This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process.We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Product Description
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

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St. Thomas Aquinas is known for producing history’s most complete system of Christian philosophy. In the late 13th century, this quiet, reflective Dominican scholar combined the work of Aristotle with Christian, Jewish, Muslim, and pagan thought to reconcile reason and faith. For Thomas, intellectual knowledge is a sign of the spirituality that energizes the human center. He believed we can know that God exists, but not what god is like. Thomas's masterpiece, the Summa Theologiae, contains over 10,000 objections and replies to fundamental questions about God and the world. It includes Thomas's famous "five ways" to prove God's existence, which are (1) the unmoved mover, (2) the uncaused cause, (3) the necessary being, (4) the perfect Goodness, and (5) the guiding intelligence. His thought continues to influence Catholic philosophy today. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Great intro to Aquinas
This is an excellent way to begin an exploration of the ideas to Thomas Aquinas (Unlike most of the other reviews, I'm actually writing about Aquinas!). The information is mostly biographical, but I believe this should be the first step in studying any great thinker.

If all you want is to know who Aquinas was, then this program is enough. If you want to know about his theology, let this be the starting point.

A great alternative to Strathern
If you are looking for a thoughtful and honest summary of the more important aspects of Aquinas' contribution to the history of philosophy, this is the best audio book I have yet found.Unlike the glib and grossly naive attempts at dealing with Aquinas such as Strathern's cheesy "Aquinas in 90 Minutes", this is actually written by a scholar devoted to understanding Aquinas.The treatment of his "five proofs for the existence of God" is precise and accurate. In fact, if you listen closely to them it will save you from thinking that the flaccid objections of people like Bertrand Russel had anything to do with what Aquinas was communicating in these proofs. Of course, if you are looking for Aquinas' theology, it is not here addressed.But then again, the title of the series is not "Giants of Theology."Overall, this is the best bang for your buck in Aquinas on audio.

what better way is there to learn and drive
The way I look at these tapes as the best way of reading philosophy while you are driving. Please keep your eyes on the road while you are driving. These series are great. I believe they are not intended to be comprehensive and they could not be in two hours but they give you %60 biography %40 philosophy. Some of them even have accent as they though they were immigrants from original contries to US, Kant speakes with German/English accent. It is fun, entertaining, illuminating. Much better than talk shows. Please this is not a substitute for a real book so judge accordingly.

Great introduction to Hume
This brief introduction to Hume is exceptional.I went from this tape to Hume's "An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding" and "An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals".I don't think it would have been such an easy transition without learning how Hume fits into Western philosophical history and what problems concerned him.It startled me to discover that Hume's major point is that inductive thinking (thinking about "matters of fact" ) is irrational:forming general laws about the world has its basis in custom and experience and not by the sort of reasoning used in math and logic ("relations of ideas" in Hume's lexicon).

Hume's political, historical, and ethical ideas are also interesting and I was surprised to learn how much Hume's ideas on the separation of powers in government had influenced James Madison.

Pretty bad summary of Augustine.
The material is mostly biographical. It is also boring. Remember the kid in the school play who tries to do an accent and can't? The person doing the voice of Augustine is like that. Heston, as usual, is stiff as aspanker's paddle.

I note the other review is about Kant not Augustine. ... Read more

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Originally published in 1895.This volume from the Cornell University Library's print collections was scanned on an APT BookScan and converted to JPG 2000 format by Kirtas Technologies.All titles scanned cover to cover and pages may include marks notations and other marginalia present in the original volume. ... Read more

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Hegel was not only a great philosopher but a great historian of philosophy.He invented the idea of the philosophical tradition as a discussion among philosophers extending over centuries centering on a few main philosophical problems.This conceptual scheme, widely accepted in histories of philosophy, emerged in Hegel's lectures at the same time as German idealism itself.This new abridgment of a well-known edition makes the main insights of Hegel's famous LECTURES ON THE HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY widely available in an inexpensive edition.

Based on the second amended edition of the GESCHICHTE DER PHILOSOPHIE published in 1840, this edition--carefully prepared by Michelet, one of Hegel's students, and ably translated by E.S. Holdane and Frances H. Simson--was first published in England in 1892.Reprinted several times in the origianl 600-page, three-volume presentation, the work has continued to interest scholars for the insight it affords into Hegel's view of the history of philosophy, for an understanding of his own theory, and in itself, as the first philosophical history of philosophy.In this student-oriented text, Professor Tom Rockmore selects the most significant material in a one-volume abridgment.

A short introduction explains the purpose and principles of the selections and assesses the continued importance of the work.This is followed by selections that include parts of the Introduction to the discussion of Greek philosophy, as well as the sections on Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle; the Introduction to modern philosophy; and then the sections on Descartes, Spinoza, Leibnitz, Locke, Berkeley, Hume, Kant, Fichte, Schelling, and the Final Result. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Good lectures, but too heavily abridged to be of use
Quick note, this is a different book than "Lectures on the Philosophy of History"

Hegel's "Lectures on the History of Philosophy" are really quite interesting and provide a great deal of readable insight into his system. I wouldn't dream of giving them 1-star, even if I have some issues with his system of philosophy.

However this edition is an abridgment of a public domain translation from 1892 that didn't need abridgment (the ordinarily verbose Hegel, shockingly, is really succinct in many of these entries) and is scandalously overpriced, so I feel it's necessary to recommend a more complete edition, like the Kansas or the public domain version.

This review is for the Prometheus Books 761 page edition. This book, outrageously priced at nearly $40, is taken from an 1892 translation of the Haldane translation of "Lectures on the History of Philosophy" drawn from Michelet's notes of different lectures of Hegel's on the History of Philosophy.

Michelet's original 3 volume set of Hegel's lectures as translated by Haldane is about 1800 pages (3 volumes). I can't imagine anyone who'd get anything out of an abridgement that eliminates 2/3rds of the material. Most of the people who are reading this probably know what it is and want the full book or at least a particular volume. Anyone looking for an introduction to the history of philosophy would be advised to look elsewhere - as this is too technical. Also, from a history of ideas and history of philosophy perspective, there are substantially better and more up-to-date books out there if you want a multi-volume.

Still, Hegel is pretty thorough and writes some pretty absorbing prose of some lesser studied philosophic figures (Hegel and good writing, never thought I'd see those two phrases in the same sentence) even if he is prone to summarize a philosophy then explain why it's wrong (conveniently other systems are always always wrong for failing to anticipate some element of Hegel's System rather than a specific logical failing). He has some biases besides that, too - namely against Berkeley, all the materialists, and anyone who lacks a complex metaphysical system esp. the Chinese (as he perceives them), the Cynics, Epicureans, and Stoics.

Hegel also doesn't seem to actually understand Zeno or calculus in Volume 1 as his view of both is a tad bit simplistic (but may be of interest to some scholars). Too bad he neglected Bishop Berkeley so much - reading him would've proved helpful. In all, it's a pretty interesting survey if overly reliant on Diogenes Laertius in volume 1 and 2, but these volumes are perhaps more useful for understanding Hegel than understanding philosophy anyway.

Ok, let me give you a guide to what's in each volume and maybe save you some time and money so you can buy, borrow, or download (it's public domain!) the volume that interests you (Kansas has reprinted the volumes individually) rather than all of them rather than this abridged version that's likely missing what you may need for your research.

Volume 1 is Presocratic Greek Philosophy and Philosophy contemporary or slightly before Plato and Aristotle, but excluding them. It includes a lengthy introduction, of interest. It also includes a section on Chinese philosophy which is grossly misinformed, a section on Indian philosophy which is mostly the same as what was in Lectures on the Philosophy of History. Then H treats the Ionics, the Pythagoreans, the Eleatics, Heraclitus, Empedocles/Leucippus/Democritus, Anaxogoras,Sophists, Socrates, the Socratics.

Lectures on the History of Philosophy, Volume 1: Greek Philosophy to Plato (Lectures on the History of Philosophy Vol. 1)

Volume 2 is Greek Philosophy including and after Plato and includes the Plato, Aristotle, the Stoics, Epicureans and Neo-Platonists.

Lectures on the History of Philosophy, Volume 2: Plato and the Platonists (Lectures on the History of Philosophy Vol. 2)

Volume 3 is medieval and modern. If you only want to get one volume and prefer a bound book, find a copy of this one. Volume 3 is the bread and butter of the set if you just want to buy one book (unless you're mostly interested in Hegel and Platonic thought). It's the least reliant on secondary sources (Hegel obviously read all these books quite well) it has the most to do with Hegel's thought and H has some interesting comments on medieval and modern philosophy. It starts with Christianity, then Arabic Philosophy, the Scholastics, the Pre-Reformation, then a very lengthy section on the various moderns and their respective schools.

Lectures on the History of Philosophy, Volume 3: Medieval and Modern Philosophy (Lectures on the History of Philosophy Vol. 3)

This really is one of Hegel's more interesting works and it's clearly written (well as far as Hegel goes). It forms an interesting counterpart to Hegel's Philosophy of History (though that addresses a different subdiscipline, many of the same themes recur).

Since this is based on such an old translation, it's in the public domain. You can find it for free on google books. All 3 volumes are available in .pdf and epub. Look for "Lectures on the History of Philosophy" Haldane and Simson.

If you're looking for a one volume history of western philo, get the Russell. He misrepresentsHegel, but otherwise the book's fine, especially for a one volume. If you're interested in this, get this for free online (I personally loaded the ebooks on my Sony Reader already) or check amazon for the U Nebraska reprints of the complete 3 volume set that I listed above.
... Read more

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