Nigel Warburton - Philosophy: The Classics

PHILOSOPHY

THE CLASSICS

Praise for the first edition:

The challenge is to convey to the modern reader the perennial freshness of ideas which might otherwise be clouded by historical scholarship. Nigel Warburton rises to the challenge with admirable skill.

Roger Scruton, The Times

Now in its fourth edition, Philosophy: The Classics is a brisk and invigorating tour through the great books of western philosophy. In his exemplary clear style, Nigel Warburton introduces and assesses thirty-two philosophical classics from Platos Republic to Rawls A Theory of Justice. The fourth edition includes new material on:

• Montaigne The Essays
• Thomas Paine The Rights of Man
• R.G. Collingwood The Principles of Art
• Karl Popper The Open Society and Its Enemies
• Thomas Kuhn The Structure of Scientific Revolutions

With a glossary and suggestions for further reading at the end of each chapter, this is an ideal starting point for anyone interested in philosophy.

Nigel Warburton is a freelance philosopher, podcaster and writer. He is the author of many books including Philosophy: The Basics (5th edition), Thinking from A to Z (3rd edition) and The Basics of Essay Writing. With David Edmonds, he makes the popular philosophy podcast Philosophy Bites.

Praise for the First Edition:

Nigel Warburton gives a characteristically lucid account of twenty philosophical classics. Philosophy: The Classics is sure to be of wide interest and appeal.

Andrew Pyle, University of Bristol

This is a lucid, engaging and eminently readable book

Michael Clark, University of Nottingham

Philosophy: The Classics is a clear-minded and fluent introduction to philosophy

Stephen Priest, University of Edinburgh

This book will be a very useful addition to every philosophy students library

E. J. Lowe, University of Durham

Other books by the same author

Philosophy: The Basics
Fifth Edition (2012)

Thinking from A to Z
Third Edition (2007)

Philosophy: Basic Readings
Second Edition (2005)

Freedom: An Introduction with Readings
(2001)

The Art Question
(2003)

Philosophy: The Essential Study Guide
(2005)

The Basics of Essay Writing
(2006)

with D. Matravers and J. Pike
Reading Political Philosophy: Machiavelli to Mill
(2001)

PHILOSOPHY

THE CLASSICS

Fourth edition

Nigel Warburton

First edition published 1998
Reprinted 1999, 2000

Second edition published 2001
Reprinted 2002, 2004, 2005

Third edition first published 2006
Reprinted 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010

Fourth edition published 2014
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

1998, 2001, 2006, 2014 Nigel Warburton

The right of Nigel Warburton to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Warburton, Nigel, 1962

Philosophy: the classics/Nigel Warburton. Fourth edition.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

1. Philosophy. I. Title.

B72.W37 2014

100dc23

2013028411

ISBN: 978-0-415-53467-3 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-415-53466-6 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-84920-1 (ebk)

For Anna

I am grateful to everyone who commented on parts or all of this book in its various editions, including Tony Bruce, Michael Clark, Caroline Dawnay, Jonathan Hourigan, Muna Khogali, Stephen Law, E.J. Lowe, Pauline Marsh, Derek Matravers, Anna Motz, Tom Stoneham, Charles Styles, Stephanie Warburton and Terence Wilkerson. This edition is substantially different from earlier ones, and includes five new chapters as well as revisions throughout. The chapter on Jean-Paul Sartres Existentialism and Humanism draws on my article A Students Guide to Jean-Paul Sartres Existentialism and Humanism which originally appeared in the magazine Philosophy Now.

Nigel Warburton

Oxford 2013

www.virtualphilosopher.com

This book consists of thirty-two chapters, each focused on a single great philosophical book. The point is to introduce each book, bringing out its most important themes. The books dealt with here are worth reading today because they engage with philosophical problems that are still worth discussing, and because they continue to offer insights. Apart from that, many of them hold their own as great works of literature.

Ideally, reading this book should be a spur to your reading (or rereading) the books it treats. But not everyone has the time or the energy to do that. At least I hope this will guide you to the books among the thirty-two that you are likely to find most rewarding, and offer you some suggestions about how you might read them critically. I have tried to avoid recommending books which are unnecessarily obscure. This has led me to omit some acknowledged masterpieces, such as Hegels The Phenomenology of Spirit and Philosophy of Right and Heideggers Being and Time, for which I make no apology. At the end of each chapter I have given guidelines for further reading.

My choice of books is in some ways controversial, more for what I have left out than for what I have included, I suspect. What I have done is focused on books that I believe repay study today and which are amenable to the sort of treatment possible in three or four thousand words. This is a personal top thirty-two; other philosophers, though their choices would certainly overlap with mine, would come up with a different top thirty-two.

I have included brief chronologies, but havent found space for any detailed historical background. My main aim is to introduce books rather than movements in the history of ideas. This doesnt mean that I am advocating a completely ahistorical reading of these texts. However, I do believe that the best way to approach them is, in the first instance, by getting an overview of their major themes and emphases. Those who want more contextual information can find it in the recommendations for further reading.

Dont be afraid to dip into chapters out of order. I have written each chapter to stand on its own without presupposing any knowledge of those which have gone before.

Further Reading

My two books, Philosophy: The Basics (London: Routledge, 5th edn, 2012) and Thinking from A to Z (London: Routledge, 3rd edn, 2007) complement this one. The first is a topic-based introduction to the central areas of philosophy; the second an alphabetically arranged introduction to critical thinking, the techniques of argument that are central to philosophical method. I have also edited a collection of readings,