
History of Western Philosophy Bertrand Russell
First published 1946 – sixth impression 1971
An enlightening evergreen I pick up time-to-time. Always interesting.
I used never write in a book, mark-up pages, underline stuff but over recent years I have heavily marked this one (and other books on philosophy, religion, political situations I know I’ll want to return to). Is that naughty of me to make notes, lines and squiggles on the pages?
Even in the introduction I attacked with underlining: “The conceptions of life and the world which we call ‘philosophical’ are a product of two factors: one, inherited religious and ethical conceptions; the other, the sort of investigation which may be called ‘scientific’, using this word in its broadest sense.”
Scraps of paper with notes also mark places like at page 43 “Orpheus*… ‘orgy’ meant ‘sacrament’ – from their influence arose the conception of philosophy as a way of life*” through to The Romantic Period, Rousseau, and on page 717 Byron, with Nietzsche and William James also marked a bit farther on.
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58
I read this book a long time ago, and am thinking about ordering a newer print and read it again.
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Thanks for visiting! and so quick! It would be interesting to know if he’d updated any thoughts before his death. My copy is 1971. The British polymath Bertrand Arthur William Russell (3rd Earl Russell), was born 1872 and died 1970 – so he lived to a ripe old age. The newer paper would be perhaps softer to touch than mine is.
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