{"product_id":"the-story-of-philosophy-9781087959443","title":"The Story of Philosophy","description":"\u003cp\u003eThere is a pleasure in philosophy, and a lure even in the mirages of metaphysics, which\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eevery student feels until the coarse necessities of physical existence drag him from the\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eheights of thought into the mart of economic strife and gain. Most of us have known some\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003egolden days in the June of life when philosophy was in fact what Plato calls it, \"that dear\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003edelight\"; when the love of a modestly elusive Truth seemed more glorious, incomparably, \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ethan the lust for the ways of the flesh and the dross of the world. And there is always some\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ewistful remnant in us of that early wooing of wisdom. So much of our lives is meaningless, a\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eself-cancelling vacillation and futility; we strive with the chaos about us and within; but we\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ewould believe all the while that there is something vital and significant in us; could we but\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003edecipher our own souls. We want to understand; we are like Mitya in \u003cem\u003eThe Brothers\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eKaramazov\u003c\/em\u003e - \"one of those who don't want millions, but an answer to their questions\"; we\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ewant to seize the value and perspective of passing things, and so to pull ourselves up out of\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ethe maelstrom of daily circumstance. We want to know that the little things are little, and the\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ebig things big, before it is too late; we want to see things now as they will seem forever -\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"in the light of eternity.\" We want to learn to laugh in the face of the inevitable, to smile\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eeven at the looming of death. We want to be whole, to coordinate our energies by criticizing\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eand harmonizing our desires; for coordinated energy is the last word in ethics and politics, \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eand perhaps in logic and metaphysics too. Truth will not make us rich, but it will make us\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003efree.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis book is not a complete history of Philosophy. It is an attempt to humanize knowledge\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eby centering the story of speculative thought around certain dominant personalities. Certain\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003elesser figures have been omitted in order that those selected might have the space required to\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003emake them live. Hence the inadequate treatment of the half-legendary pre-Socratics, the\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eStoics and Epicureans, the Scholastics, and the epistemologists. The author believes that\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eepistemology has kidnapped modern philosophy, and well-nigh ruined it; he hopes for the\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003etime when the study of the knowledge-process will be recognized as the business of the\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003escience of psychology, and when philosophy will again be understood as the synthetic\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003einterpretation of all experience rather than the analytic description of the mode and process\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eof experience itself. Analysis belongs to science, and gives us knowledge; philosophy must\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eprovide a synthesis for wisdom. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Andrew M. Kraiss Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50627382477074,"sku":"9781087959443","price":32.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_1b6db381-a580-4360-97b9-2c269dafebc1.jpg?v=1737267870","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/the-story-of-philosophy-9781087959443","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}