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PRACTICAL PHILOSOPHYTHE JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY FOR PHILOSOPHY IN PRACTICEwww.practical-philosophy.org.uk www.society-for-philosophy-in-practice.org |
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PRACTICAL PHILOSOPHYTHE JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY FOR PHILOSOPHY IN PRACTICEwww.practical-philosophy.org.uk www.society-for-philosophy-in-practice.org |
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The Dream of Reason
Anthony Gottlieb
2000 London: Allen Lane Press.
pp. 469 ISBN 0-713-99143-7 (hb) £20
Practical Philosophy (Book Reviews) Spring 2002 Volume 4.2
Reviewed by: Tim LeBon
This book’s subtitle ‘A History of Philosophy from the Greeks to the Renaissance’, gives a much better idea of its scope and ambitions than the main title. Gottlieb is attempting no less than a history of the whole of Western philosophy (a second post-Renaissance book is to follow), suitable both for the general reader and as a reference and overview for the specialist. In the main, the book achieves this aim very well. Gottlieb’s writing is elegant and jargon-free and he demonstrates a thorough grasp of the individual philosophers and the historical flow between them.
The book covers all the philosophers one would expect, with prime of place being given to the ‘big three’ of ancient philosophy – Aristotle (chapter subtitle, ‘The Master of Those who Know’) is given 59 pages, Plato 51 and Socrates 38 pages. Yet decent air-space is also given to the Hellenistics (63 pages), Pre-Socratics (a whopping 108 pages) and the Sophists (21 pages). Also covered are quite a few names that I had to admit were new to me, for example Arcesilaus (a Sceptic, 3 pages) and Euclides (a Socratic, 2 pages).
As all this implies, this book is firmly in the tradition of Bertrand Russell’s History of Western Philosophy. The greatest praise one can give it is to say that it is fit to be mentioned in the same breath as Russell’s work. The comparison may seem a little over the top, since Russell was one of the most eminent philosophers of the twentieth century, whilst Gottlieb’s day job is as editor of The Economist. Yet Russell’s book has its idiosyncrasies and is perhaps now a little dated. Gottlieb’s book carries both authority and a freshness of style and can certainly be read alongside Russell’s to give a different perspective.
If I have any reservations, they relate to some rather high expectations raised by the first few pages. Gottlieb tells us that he is aiming for a fresh approach, that of a (good) journalist who would – ‘rely only on primary sources, where they still existed, to question everything that had become conventional wisdom, and to explain it all as clearly as I could’ (p. vii). It’s true he’s not afraid to mince words – for instance in talking of Heidegger – ‘Any subject that is responsible for producing Heidegger ... owes the world an apology’ (p. ix). But in the main the opinions passed are reliable rather than revolutionary. To take a random example, his description of Aristotle’s ethics is the sort one would expect to find in an introduction to Nicomachean Ethics – reliable, scholarly, clear but none too controversial or original.
Writing from the viewpoint of practical philosophy, it must be pointed out that the focus of Gottlieb’s history is more theoretical than practical. When dealing with a great ethicist like Aristotle, it’s disappointing that only nine of the fifty-nine pages on Aristotle are devoted to his ethics, and that mainly exegesis. So, all in all, a very good book – but not a significant addition to the canon of practical philosophy.
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