Anthony Kenny (1) (1931–)

This is essentially Sophie's World for grown-ups, a useful compact (well, fairly compact - 400 pages) outline of the development of philosophy as a discipline from the Greeks to Wittgenstein with enough history to let us understand the context in which the main figures were working, and at least a critical outline of their most important work. Some of the most important get a reasonably detailed discussion - Plato, Aristotle, Aquinas, Descartes, Kant, Bentham/Mill and Wittgenstein all get chapters to themselves, lesser figures have to squash in with their neighbours.

It's a fairly anglocentric book - from the middle ages on, Kenny generally alternates chapters on "British" and "foreign" philosophers, and a neutral observer might also suspect that there's a certain Oxford bias involved - until we get to Russell and Wittgenstein there's absolutely no mention of any universities that might have existed in the East of England, and even Hume and Berkeley seem to suffer a bit from their status as remote provincials. Kenny's background seems to creep in in other ways as well - there's a lot more about Augustine and Aquinas than about any Reformation figure. Kenny clearly doesn't approve of the Reformation - he sees the hardening of doctrinal attitudes on both sides as a step backwards from the "patient subtlety which characterised the best scholastics". Erasmus and Grotius are only mentioned in passing, and even Thomas More gets more space than Luther and Calvin.

However, that little bit of personal bias is also one of the real strengths of the book - this isn't merely a neutral account of the subject designed to cram you with information, but it's a critical discussion in which the author doesn't hesitate to point out the strengths and weaknesses of his distinguished predecessors' arguments. As philosophers do, he's trying to provoke the reader into doing some actual thinking. I'm not sure how well that worked for me - there were several points where I found myself promising that I would come back and have another go at that chapter later, especially when it came to Kant.

The stress seems to be on the core subject areas of metaphysics and philosophical logic - other areas like ethics and political philosophy are there, but are covered in rather less detail. Obviously something has to give if you want to make a book that is both accessible and of a manageable size.

But I did come out of the struggle with a few pointers about where I'd like to go next in exploring philosophy, and with a clearer idea of what "philosophy" is and how it's evolved over the last two-and-a-half millennia. So a success, I think!… (mere)

Now I know why I don't read too many books on philosophy: they can be so damn difficult to understand.

I read this as part of my continuing interest in late medieval literature. Another avenue to explore in my search to discover how educated people of the 14th century viewed their world. Anthony Kenny has organised his material by subject matter and so there are chapters on; Philosophy and Faith, The Schoolmen, Logic and language, Knowledge, Physics, Metaphysics, Mind and Soul, Ethics and God. In each chapter he uses Augustine as his starting point and moves chronologically through the development of thoughts taking in those of; the Islamic school, Thomas Aquinus, Duns Scottus and Ockham. He will also stop to pick up on the way, where appropriate ideas from; Boethius, Wycliff, Abelard, Bonaventure and Anselm. I found this approach very useful in assisting my understanding of each subject and the chronological development of the arguments through the various philosophers meant that by the time I arrived at the final chapter I had a pretty good idea of what they would say on the subject of God.

Some of the chapters tested my grasp of the subject matter to the limit. At times I felt I was in very deep water struggling to find a foothold. This was no doubt because of my unfamiliarity with some of the technical language and terms used. After all this is a book subtitled the History of Western Philosophy and so the reader should not be surprised by some of the content. Kenny does his best to explain many of the terms used and provides plenty of examples. There was enough here to hold my interest and keep me going through some of the more demanding chapters. It is a book I will come back to. It is a splendid reference tool. It is nicely presented with some very good illustrations.

One LT reviewer has said "I finally finished this book! I'm ready for the agent intellect to beam me up" I know what he/she means, its not a book to be read quickly, it does require patience and perseverance, but if the subject interests you, it is well worth the time and effort. I can understand why some readers rate this a 5 star book.… (mere)