A Biographical History of Philosophy

by Lewes, George Henry; Lubbock, John

• ISBN13: 9781108050241
• ISBN10: 1108050247
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2012-07-12
• Publisher: Cambridge Univ Pr

Summary

The philosopher and critic George Henry Lewes (1817-78) published this work in two volumes in 1845-6. This is a reissue of an 1892 printing, which brought the volumes into one book. Lewes wrote widely on literature, science and philosophy, and was also the long-term intimate companion of George Eliot. This book is a narrative history, rather than an encyclopedia, of key philosophers. It is, therefore, a partial and personal study instead of an exhaustive textbook. The first volume concentrates solely on Greek philosophy, beginning with the Pre-Socratics and ending with the Neo-Platonists. The second volume jumps to Francis Bacon, concentrating on British, German and French philosophy, and addressing, among others, Spinoza, Locke, Hume and Kant, and ending with Auguste Comte. Containing both historical anecdotes and pithy analyses of ideas, this book reflects the expertise and intellectual sympathies of a Victorian polymath.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Preface

Introduction

Speculations on the nature of the universe

Speculations on the creation of the universe, and on the origins of knowledge

Intellectual crisis

A new era opened by the invention of a new method

Partial adoption of the Socratic Method

Complete adoption and application of the Socratic Method

Philosophy again reduced to a system

Second crisis of Greek philosophy

Philosophy allies itself with faith

Appendix

Preface

Introduction

Foundation of the inductive method

Foundation of the deductive method

Philosophy reduced to a question of psychology

The subjective nature of knowledge being established leads to idealism

The arguments of idealism carried out into scepticism

The origin of knowledge reduced to sensation by the confusion of thought with feeling

Second crisis - idealism, scepticism, and materialism producing the reaction of common sense

Recurrence to the fundamental question respecting the origin of knowledge

The demonstration of the subjectivity of knowledge once more leads to idealism

Objective idealism

The third form of idealism, viz., absolute idealism

Final crisis in the history of philosophy, and definite establishment of positivism

Conclusion

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