Philosophical Tales: Being an Alternative History Revealing the Characters, the Plots, and the Hidden Scenes That Make Up the True Story of Philosophy

by Martin Cohen (The Philosopher); Illustrator: Raul Gonzalez

• ISBN13: 9781444301052
• ISBN10: 1444301055
• Additional ISBN(s): 9781405140362, 9781444301045
• Format: eBook
• Copyright: 2009-01-01
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Summary

Enlightening and entertaining, Philosophical Tales examines a few of the fascinating biographical details of history's greatest philosophers (alas, mostly men) and highlights their contributions to the field. By applying the true philosophical approach to philosophy itself, the text provides us with a refreshing 'alternative history' of philosophy. Opens up new philosophical debate by applying the true philosophical approach to philosophy itself Provides summaries of the most celebrated and philosophically interesting tales, their backgrounds, and assessments of the leading players Explores philosophers and schools of thought in one key philosophical text to supply a solid grounding in philosophical ideas and individuals Shakes some of the foundations of philosophy with the aim of encouraging the reinvigoration of philosophy itself

Table of Contents

Forward!

How to Use this Book

Philosophical Illustrations

The Tales

The Ancients

Socrates the Sorcerer (469-399 bce)

The Different Forms of Plato (ca. 427-347 bce)

Aristotle the Aristocrat (384-ca. 322 bce)

More Ancients

Lao Tzu Changes into Nothing (6th-5th c. bce)

Pythagoras Counts Up to Ten (ca. 570-495 bce)

Heraclitus Chooses the Dark Side of the River (ca. 5th c. bce)

Hypatia Holds Up Half of the Sky (ca. 370-415 ce)

Medieval Philosophy

Augustine the Hippocrite (354-430 ce)

St. Thomas Aquinas Disputes the Existence of God (1225-1274)

Modern Philosophy

Descartes the Dilettante (1596-1650)

Hobbes Squares the Circle (1588-1679)

Spinoza Grinds Himself Away... (1632-1677)

Enlightened Philosophy

John Locke Invents the Slave Trade (1632-1704)

The Many Faces of David Hume (1711-1776)

Rousseau the Rogue (1712-1778)

Immanuel Kant, the Chinaman of K_nigsburg (1724-1804)

The Idealists

Gottfried Leibniz, the Thinking Machine (1646-1716)

Bishop Berkeley's Bermuda College (1685-1753)

Headmaster Hegel's Dangerous History Lesson (1770-1831)

Arthur Schopenhauer and the Little Old Lady (1788-1860)

The Romantics

The Seduction of Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855)

Mill's Poetical Turn (1806-1873)

Henry Thoreau and Life in the Shed (1817-1862)

Marx's Revolutionary Materialism (1818-1883)

Recent Philosophy

Russell Denotes Something (1872-1970)

The Ripping Yarn of Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951)

Heidegger's Tale (and the Nazis) (1889-1976)

Benjamin Lee Whorf and the Color Pinker (ca. 1900-1950)

Being Sartre and Not Definitely Not Being Beauvoir (1905-1980 and not 1908-1986)

Deconstructing Derrida (1930-2004)

Scholarly Appendix: Women in Philosophy, and Why There Aren't Many

Key Sources and Further Reading

Acknowledgments

Index

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