Gilje Nils | Skirbekk Gunnar: Istorija filozofije

Gunnar Skirbekk, Nils Gilje: History of Philosophy

From Ancient Greece to Modern Times

"I read Skirbek and Gilje's History of Philosophy in the first German translation from 1993. It is a translation of the 4th Norwegian edition from 1987. And those years alone speak volumes. There are good reasons for the long-term success of this work: I do not know of a more interesting and innovative history of Western philosophy. It was compiled by an original mind who never writes in the style of a mere review of the history of ideas, but presents each of them as a product of interconnected problem-solving processes. "

Jurgen Habermas

The History of Philosophy is a comprehensive review of the history of philosophical ideas and directions, from the time of the Presocratics to the end of the 20th century. In addition to the basic description of all the most important philosophical movements and teachings, the authors shed light on many factors that influenced the development of Western thought, such as natural sciences or political ideologies such as liberalism, socialism and fascism. The special value of this review is not only a competent description of a teaching or setting, but it is preceded by a skillful illumination of the issues and questions that some philosopher tries to answer at a given time. By devoting enough space to contextualization, the authors manage to bring thinkers such as Spinoza and Kant closer to a wider audience with some ease. There is no doubt that this is one of the reasons why this History of Philosophy has been translated into 17 languages and serves as a textbook at many universities (the English translation appeared under the name A History of Western Thought (ed. Routledge, 2011), and the distinguished German publisher Suhrkamp published it under the name Geschichte der Philosophie (1993). It should be noted that in this historical overview of philosophical thought, not only philosophers stricto sensu are represented, but also, for example, the most important sociologists (Durkheim, Weber, etc.), economic thinkers (from Smith to Keynes), and there are chapters on Freud and psychoanalysis, Darwin, the development of humanities (Herder, Dilthey) or historiography (Vico, Ranke). One chapter is also devoted to ancient Chinese and Indian thought. And finally, the rise of natural sciences and political philosophy, which separates it from the majority of known histories of philosophy, is the focus of this book.