The Dream of Reason is a stunning successor to Bertrand Russell's 1945 classic, A History of Western Philosophy. In this landmark new study of Western thought, Anthony Gottlieb looks afresh at the writings of the great thinkers, questions much of conventional wisdom, and explains his findings with unbridled brilliance and clarity.
From the pre-Socratic philosophers 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.
Gottlieb builds through example and anecdote a vivid portrait of the human drive for understanding. After finishing The Dream of Reason, listeners will be graced with a fresh appreciation of the philosophical quest, its entertaining and bizarre byways, and its influence on every aspect of life.
Philosophy, as we know it in the West, began with the Greeks, when people first applied reason to the baffling world of phenomena that surrounded them. For that reason, it is all too often, as the title ironically suggests, a mere "dream." Creatures as irrational as we are can't rely exclusively on our reason, after all. Nadia May's reading of this refreshing history is tuned to Gottlieb's delicate irony as he traces his history from the pre-Socratics to Descartes, though better than three-quarters of the book focuses on the Greeks, especially the pre-Socratics and Gottlieb's beloved Aristotle. (Medieval and Renaissance thinkers are merely a footnote to Aristotle, one would suppose.) Nevertheless, Gottlieb's strength is really storytelling, not philosophy, and the cultural context of his stories. May's reading catches his narrative excitement. She is at once glib, catchy, erudite, but above all entertaining. Stay tuned for Gottlieb's take on the Moderns, which promises to be equally entertaining. P.E.F. (c) AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine
About the Creator
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 writes regularly on philosophy for the New York Times Book Review.
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