
The Story of Philosophy
by Will Durant
The Story of Philosophy: the Lives and Opinions of the Greater Philosophers is a book by Will Durant that profiles several prominent Western philosophers and their ideas, beginning with Plato and on through Friedrich Nietzsche. Durant attempts to show the interconnection of their ideas and how one philosopher’s ideas informed the next. There are nine chapters each focused on one philosopher, and two more chapters each containing briefer profiles of three early 20th century philosophers.
CONTENTS
EDITORS PREFACE
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION
INTRODUCTION: On the Uses of Philosophy
CHAPTER ONE: Plato
CHAPTER TWO: Aristotle and Greek Science
CHAPTER THREE: Francis Bacon
CHAPTER FOUR: Spinoza
CHAPTER FIVE: Voltaire and the French Enlightenment
CHAPTER SIX: Immanuel Kant and German idealism
- Roads to Kant
- Kant Himself
- The Critique of Pure Reason
- The Critique: Transcendental Esthetic
- The Critique: Transcendental Analytic
- The Critique: Transcendental Dialectic
- The Critique of Practical Reason
- On Religion and Reason
- On Politics and Eternal Peace
- Criticism and Estimate
- A Note on Hegel
CHAPTER SEVEN: Schopenhauer
CHAPTER EIGHT: Herbert Spencer
CHAPTER NINE: Friedrich Nietzsche
CHAPTER TEN: Contemporary European Philosophers
CHAPTER ELEVEN: Contemporary American Philosophers