--- product_id: 1187751 title: "The History of Western Philosophy" price: "195.40 DT" currency: TND in_stock: true reviews_count: 13 url: https://www.desertcart.tn/products/1187751-the-history-of-western-philosophy store_origin: TN region: Tunisia --- # The History of Western Philosophy **Price:** 195.40 DT **Availability:** ✅ In Stock ## Quick Answers - **What is this?** The History of Western Philosophy - **How much does it cost?** 195.40 DT with free shipping - **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship - **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.tn](https://www.desertcart.tn/products/1187751-the-history-of-western-philosophy) ## Best For - Customers looking for quality international products ## Why This Product - Free international shipping included - Worldwide delivery with tracking - 15-day hassle-free returns ## Description Hailed as “lucid and magisterial” by The Observer , this book is universally acclaimed as the outstanding one-volume work on the subject of Western philosophy. Considered to be one of the most important philosophical works of all time, the History of Western Philosophy is a dazzlingly unique exploration of the ideologies of significant philosophers throughout the ages—from Plato and Aristotle through to Spinoza, Kant and the twentieth century. Written by a man who changed the history of philosophy himself, this is an account that has never been rivaled since its first publication over sixty years ago. Since its first publication in 1945, Lord Russell’s A History of Western Philosophy is still unparalleled in its comprehensiveness, its clarity, its erudition, its grace, and its wit. In seventy-six chapters he traces philosophy from the rise of Greek civilization to the emergence of logical analysis in the twentieth century. Among the philosophers considered are: Pythagoras, Heraclitus, Parmenides, Empedocles, Anaxagoras, the Atomists, Protagoras, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, the Cynics, the Sceptics, the Epicureans, the Stoics, Plotinus, Ambrose, Jerome, Augustine, Benedict, Gregory the Great, John the Scot, Aquinas, Duns Scotus, William of Occam, Machiavelli, Erasmus, More, Bacon, Hobbes, Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz, Locke, Berkeley, Hume, Rousseau, Kant, Hegel, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, the Utilitarians, Marx, Bergson, James, Dewey, and lastly the philosophers with whom Lord Russell himself is most closely associated—Cantor, Frege, and Whitehead, coauthor with Russell of the monumental Principia Mathematica. Review: My first successful attempt at reading a philosophy-related book - I'm almost 40 and I've been mildly curious about philosophy throughout my adult life. Unfortunately, I had yet to read anything meaningful about it, because all the previous attempts to educate myself were thwarted by the pretentiousness of all the authors I had tried to read on the topic; I suspect one can't be accepted in this field if they speak like human beings. History of Western Philosophy, however, is different: even non-experts can read this introductory book! How amazing is that? On top of that, Russell has a delicious whimsical side to him, which transpires in this book just enough for the occasional comic relief. Although an atheist himself, he does show the necessary formal reverence to religious matters as avoid offending anyone (in fact, he even uses the appropriate jargon regarding heathens, heretics and the such, although I believe most of it is tongue in cheek). Apart from all that (which was the critical part for me), the book is obviously well respected, and it's remarkably thorough (which means you shouldn't be concerned with the content's verity or its coverage of the topic). Speaking of thoroughness, I'm quite happy that I happened upon it in digital format, because I later realized how thick the paper version must be, and that I would most likely have been intimidated by it to the point of not buying the book in the first place. The Kindle version does have a few OCR problems (typically spaces missing between words), but they're few and far apart enough not to become any meaningful hindrance to fluid reading. UPDATE: I finally finished reading the book, and I wanted to add a few things specifically for novices like myself. If you're a newcomer to philosophy AND you're just a casual reader, expect that you won't be able to understand everything, and that you will remember much less than what you understand. This is important in two ways. On one hand, knowing this, you shouldn't get discouraged when you don't understand something as well as you'd want to: you'd probably forget it anyway, so just keep on reading -- the important thing is to get an overall idea, not to remember every little detail (which is anyway impossible). On the other hand, the fact that you'll unavoidably forget a lot of stuff is quite unfortunate, because after you finish with the Antics, the cross-references become increasingly more important and relevant. So I suggest that, if your reading habits allow it, you might want to jot down a few words about each philosopher IMMEDIATELY after finishing each chapter; you probably wouldn't need more that two or three phrases with what you found most distinctive about that person, so you can later remember more about each of them at a glance. Having said all that, expect that in the end you'll leave with maybe 10% of what you've been reading -- and that's if you're lucky. But that's ok: what matters is that you leave with an understanding of what philosophy is really all about, and that you will definitely get. Plus, you'll certainly be able to place almost any Western philosopher in roughly the right period, you'll develop likes and dislikes, and you'll end up with a much better understanding of what and why it is that Western philosophers have been doing what they've been doing for the past few thousand years. And let's be honest: what more can you hope for? Review: Probably 30% longer than it had to be. - Should have known from the name, but the focus is more on the history than the philosophy. You notice a definite lull through the dark ages, but the Hellenistic and the modern sections are still very interesting. For a philosophic historian though, I often felt Russell was combative and even deliberately obtuse in his arguably unnecessary responses to each famous philosopher's work. The book is called "history of philosophy," not "Bertrand Russell on why everyone is wrong but him." He did make me laugh a few times though, which was not expected. ## Technical Specifications | Specification | Value | |---------------|-------| | Best Sellers Rank | #26,661 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #6 in Modern Western Philosophy #33 in Ancient Greek & Roman Philosophy #1,680 in Reference (Books) | | Customer Reviews | 4.6 out of 5 stars 2,054 Reviews | ## Images ![The History of Western Philosophy - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/711XWHoMdjL.jpg) ## Customer Reviews ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ My first successful attempt at reading a philosophy-related book *by B***U on June 23, 2013* I'm almost 40 and I've been mildly curious about philosophy throughout my adult life. Unfortunately, I had yet to read anything meaningful about it, because all the previous attempts to educate myself were thwarted by the pretentiousness of all the authors I had tried to read on the topic; I suspect one can't be accepted in this field if they speak like human beings. History of Western Philosophy, however, is different: even non-experts can read this introductory book! How amazing is that? On top of that, Russell has a delicious whimsical side to him, which transpires in this book just enough for the occasional comic relief. Although an atheist himself, he does show the necessary formal reverence to religious matters as avoid offending anyone (in fact, he even uses the appropriate jargon regarding heathens, heretics and the such, although I believe most of it is tongue in cheek). Apart from all that (which was the critical part for me), the book is obviously well respected, and it's remarkably thorough (which means you shouldn't be concerned with the content's verity or its coverage of the topic). Speaking of thoroughness, I'm quite happy that I happened upon it in digital format, because I later realized how thick the paper version must be, and that I would most likely have been intimidated by it to the point of not buying the book in the first place. The Kindle version does have a few OCR problems (typically spaces missing between words), but they're few and far apart enough not to become any meaningful hindrance to fluid reading. UPDATE: I finally finished reading the book, and I wanted to add a few things specifically for novices like myself. If you're a newcomer to philosophy AND you're just a casual reader, expect that you won't be able to understand everything, and that you will remember much less than what you understand. This is important in two ways. On one hand, knowing this, you shouldn't get discouraged when you don't understand something as well as you'd want to: you'd probably forget it anyway, so just keep on reading -- the important thing is to get an overall idea, not to remember every little detail (which is anyway impossible). On the other hand, the fact that you'll unavoidably forget a lot of stuff is quite unfortunate, because after you finish with the Antics, the cross-references become increasingly more important and relevant. So I suggest that, if your reading habits allow it, you might want to jot down a few words about each philosopher IMMEDIATELY after finishing each chapter; you probably wouldn't need more that two or three phrases with what you found most distinctive about that person, so you can later remember more about each of them at a glance. Having said all that, expect that in the end you'll leave with maybe 10% of what you've been reading -- and that's if you're lucky. But that's ok: what matters is that you leave with an understanding of what philosophy is really all about, and that you will definitely get. Plus, you'll certainly be able to place almost any Western philosopher in roughly the right period, you'll develop likes and dislikes, and you'll end up with a much better understanding of what and why it is that Western philosophers have been doing what they've been doing for the past few thousand years. And let's be honest: what more can you hope for? ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Probably 30% longer than it had to be. *by M***T on April 10, 2026* Should have known from the name, but the focus is more on the history than the philosophy. You notice a definite lull through the dark ages, but the Hellenistic and the modern sections are still very interesting. For a philosophic historian though, I often felt Russell was combative and even deliberately obtuse in his arguably unnecessary responses to each famous philosopher's work. The book is called "history of philosophy," not "Bertrand Russell on why everyone is wrong but him." He did make me laugh a few times though, which was not expected. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Warm, Beguiling, Biased, and Brilliant. Just like Russell. *by L***E on August 7, 2013* Bertrand Russell. The man was a giant. Philosopher, historian, nobel laureate, activist unto his death, and now posthumous comic-book hero[1]. He was an Earl. He rewrote most of mathematics, but considered that a failure, as he aimed at reworking the basis of all thought. Even there, he was only foiled by some Austrian proving it to be impossible. By all accounts, a warm and charming man. Very tall, as well. A giant. This is his book about those giants whose shoulders he stood on. The book covers about two thousand five hundred years of smart people saying reasonably smart things (most the time). This is done in a dry and British fashion. It was the first work of academic philosophy I had read. I was 16. I was on my friend's couch. It was summer. I killed it in a week or so -- that's not a brag, it goes quickly because it's clear and clever. Russell clearly enjoyed writing it. I loved reading it. I was hooked. A bit later, I ended up with a highly marketable bachelor's degree in philosophy, and a set of cognitive tools that better prepared me for the myriad of random things I've had to do to eat (such as: children's parties, graphic design for a porn site, wearing a Cash4Gold sign while jumping, and software engineering) than any *real* coursework could have done. And I thank Bertie for his part in that. Since I've walked that road on the cover, too, I can say I agree with the other learned reviewers that Russell makes no effort to be balanced. I had a VERY Catholic upbringing, and I was a bit surprised at his outright hostility to the great doctors of the church. Like, Augustine, he was a pretty okay bloke, you know? He was the only one I liked! (Still, I have to admit I was both honestly surprised *and* vindictively pleased -- as you might expect of a 16-year-old boy. Yeah Bertie! Stick it too 'em! I wanna go drink Zima and catch crabs like St. A, but they won't let me!) I also agree it gets a bit ponderous as it creeps toward modernity. Gone are the days of our public intellectuals jumping into volcanos to prove their godhood. In exchange we get John Dewey, mostly famous for inventing a slightly better system for cataloging libraries. Alas and alack! So I clearly love the book. It's like an extremely eccentric uncle: acerbic, vastly opinionated, but even when you're 16 and think old people are merely repositories for funny smells, you still realize he says really, *actually* profound things between the rants about the Capitalists and the Imperialists. At the end of the day, this is an imperfect work of *philosophy* we're talking about. The whole point is to self-referentially explore our own knowledge, ruthlessly hunting for fallacies, failings, and pedantic technicalities, all whilst sipping slowly upon a snifter of brandy near the fireplace in your study. As an introduction, I think perhaps we're all the better off for Bertie's flaws. They give the novice something to chew on. They did a good job getting a 16-year-old to think. [1] Search up "Logicomix: An Epic Search for Truth" for another fun traversal of western history involving The Right Honourable The Earl Russell, OM, FRS. ## Frequently Bought Together - The History of Western Philosophy - The Conquest of Happiness - The Problems of Philosophy --- ## Why Shop on Desertcart? - 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016 - 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories - 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price - 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members) - 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection - ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews **Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.tn/products/1187751-the-history-of-western-philosophy](https://www.desertcart.tn/products/1187751-the-history-of-western-philosophy) --- *Product available on Desertcart Tunisia* *Store origin: TN* *Last updated: 2026-06-07*