Philosophy is a subject with a long history and a short memory. In this landmark new study of Western thought, Anthony Gottlieb looks afresh at the writings of the great thinkers, questions many pieces of conventional wisdom, and explains his findings with unbridled brilliance and clarity. From the pre-Socratic philosophers such as Empedocles, whose account of the cosmos seems "a mixture of the physics of Stephen Hawking and the romantic novels of Barbara Cartland," through the celebrated days of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, up to Renaissance visionaries like Erasmus and Bacon, "philosophy" emerges here as a phenomenon unconfined by any one discipline. Indeed, as Gottlieb explains, its most revolutionary breakthroughs in the natural and social sciences have repeatedly been co-opted by other branches of knowledge, leading to the illusion that philosophers never make any progress.
From the physics of angels to Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose, Gottlieb builds through example and anecdote a vivid portrait of the human drive for understanding. After closing The Dream of Reason, readers will be graced with a fresh appreciation of the philosophical quest, its entertaining and bizarre byways, and its influence on every aspect of life.
Editorial Reviews
"A delight....written with both wit and scholarship, providing a wonderful overall picture of Western philosophy up to the Renaissance. —Sir Roger Penrose
"Devoted, fresh, and surprisingly provocative, this book's serious and instructive text is at the same time very readable and entertaining—a rare treasure, in fact!" —Robert Conquest
"A delightfully written and wonderfully instructive new history of philosophy...Gottlieb's account is a paradigm of lucidity and accessibility." —A. C. Grayling
"Engaging, beautifully written, superbly professional and at the same time amateur in the best, traditional, sense." —Times Literary Supplement
About the Author
Anthony Gottlieb is the executive editor of The Economist. He studied philosophy at Cambridge University and University College London, and has been a Visiting Fellow at Harvard University. He has held visiting fellowships at Harvard University and All Souls College, Oxford. His work has appeared in The New Yorker and the New York Times. He writes regularly on philosophy for the New York Times Book Review.
