Philosophy Now Forum

"Parts of this famous book are sketchy ... in other respects it is a marvelously readable, magnificently sweeping survey of Western thought, distinctive for placing it informatively into its historical context. Russell enjoyed writing it, and the enjoyment shows; his later remarks about it equally s...

"A precious book ... a work that is in the highest degree pedagogical which stands above the conflicts of parties and opinions." – Albert Einstein

You need to improve your reading skills Chaz... Not only do you castigate Russell for expressing an opinion, calling it bias, as if that were a crime, you exaggerate and say that he gets "everything wrong." I didn't castigate Russell for expressing an opinion, I castigated him for being a bad histor...

"A History of Western Philosophy errs consistently in this respect. Its author never seems to be able to make up his mind whether he is writing history or polemic.... [Its method] confers on philosophers who are dead and gone a kind of false contemporaneity which may make them seem important to the ...

"He did it to make money, he wrote it fast. Bertrand Russell was a great philosopher but a terrible historian." – Edward Pols, Professor of Philosophy and William J. Kenan Professor of the Humanities, Bowdoin College

Possibly relevant to this discussion. Dawkins (allegedly) bottles debate with American theologian William Lane Craig...

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/timst ... ane-craig/

Understood. If you are only talking about explaining the apparent motion of the stars, planets, moon and sun then I don't disagree with your original claim.

I'm sure there are good scientific reasons why the collection of theories fit the appearances, but you have to admit that even the Aristotelian universe fits the appearances. That's some pretty wonky history of science Chaz. The whole reason why the Aristotelian model of the universe was replaced i...

I'm sure there are good scientific reasons why the collection of theories fit the appearances, but you have to admit that even the Aristotelian universe fits the appearances. That's some pretty wonky history of science Chaz. The whole reason why the Aristotelian model of the universe was replaced i...

So French philosophy didn't begin until after after 1945? Brilliant.

Your brief history of philosophy is really beginning to take shape now. Next chapter - 'The Pre-Socratics and the Age of Disco: 1975-1981'.

I drink tomato juice and I just got my first speeding ticket. Needless to say I'll be on the red wine when driving in the future.

Russell's history is annoyingly biased. The chapter on American pragmatism is far too short and gets everything wrong. His treatment of 20th century French philosophy is risible. To call it whiggish is something of an understatement. Having said this, he is a very good writer and I'd rather read Ru...

Russell's history is annoyingly biased. The chapter on American pragmatism is far too short and gets everything wrong. His treatment of 20th century French philosophy is risible. To call it whiggish is something of an understatement. Having said this, he is a very good writer and I'd rather read Rus...

The one with the dogs playing snooker.

Pirates say "He be dead".