THE BELLARMINE SERIES IX: A HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY, VOL. I: GREECE AND ROME.

by Frederick. Copleston

Hardcover, 1947

Status

Available

Call number

190

Series

Copleston's History of Philosophy (1)

Collections

Your library, Philosophy

Publication

Burns, Oates & Washbourne (1947)

Description

Conceived originally as a serious presentation of the development of philosophy for Catholic seminary students, Frederick Copleston's nine-volume A History Of Philosophy has journeyed far beyond the modest purpose of its author to universal acclaim as the best history of philosophy in English. Copleston, an Oxford Jesuit of immense erudition who once tangled with A. J. Ayer in a fabled debate about the existence of God and the possibility of metaphysics, knew that seminary students were fed a woefully inadequate diet of theses and proofs, and that their familiarity with most of history's great thinkers was reduced to simplistic caricatures. Copleston set out to redress the wrong by writing a complete history of Western philosophy, one crackling with incident and intellectual excitement -- and one that gives full place to each thinker, presenting his thought in a beautifully rounded manner and showing his links to those who went before and to those who came after him. The result of Copleston's prodigious labors is a history of philosophy that is unlikely ever to be surpassed. Thought magazine summed up the general agreement among scholars and students alike when it reviewed Copleston's A History of Philosophy as "broad-minded and objective, comprehensive and scholarly, unified and well proportioned... We cannot recommend [it] too highly."… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member WalkerMedia

Copleston, a Jesuit, wrote a series of books on the history of philosophy so that his students could have a deeper understanding of philosophy to complement their theological knowledge. This first volume covers Greece (from the pre-Socratics forward) and Rome. The text shows its age (written in the

late 1940's) in its tone, and it reflects an understandable bias. Clearly, much of the thought is seen in light of its impact to or conflict with Catholic views of the universe. The text is detailed and well-referenced to original works. The index is, however, a bit slight for the amount of material covered. Also, as with many works which are images of earlier-printed texts, the type is not as crisp as with modern printing and fatigues the eyes a bit quickly. I would not recommend this as the sole source of information on this subject/period, but its detail would serve the reader well in conjunction with a less biased book as supplement.

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LibraryThing member davidpwithun

One of the best introductions to ancient Greek philosophy out there. My only two complaints about it are: 1. Like many texts published a half century or longer ago Coplestone consistently leaves Greek and Latin phrases that he quotes (even at some considerable length) untranslated. For modern

readers like myself, this only serves as a reminder of how far downhill our educational standards have gone -- we don't know ancient Greek and/or Latin anymore! 2. Coplestone's choice of verbiage is often far more dense and complicated than it has to be. I've never seen such a difficult explanation of Plato's theory of the Forms. Those two criticisms aside, the book is a great over all and well laid out in its presentation. I read this alongside the opening chapters of Bertrand Russell's much lengthier "History of Western Philosophy" and the combination of the two, I think, served me well as I was able to receive the same information from two very different perspectives. Great learning experience!

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