Table Of ContentThe Mind
Classical
Contents of A History of Western Philosophy, second edition
I. The Classical Mind
1 Pre-Socratic Philosophy / 2 Education Through Violence / 3 Atonnism / 4 Plato:
The Theory of Forms / 5 Plato: The Special Sciences ' 6 Aristotle: Metaphysics,
Natural Science, Logic / 7 Aristotle: Ethics, Politics, Art / 8 The Late Classical Period
The Medieval Mind
II.
1 The New Religious Orientation / 2 Christianity: The Formative Years ' 3 Augustine:
God the Creator 4 Augustine: The Created Universe 5 The Medieval Interval /
6 Thomas: Metaphysics / 7 Thomas: Psychology, Ethics, Politics / 8 The End of the
Middle Ages
III. Hobbes to Hume
1 Renaissance / 2 Reformation / 3 Science and Scientific Method / 4 Hobbes /
5 Descartes / 6 Spinoza ' 7 Leibniz 8 Locke / 9 Berkeley / 10 Hume
IV. Kant to Wittgenstein and Sartre
1 The Age of Reason / 2 Kant: Theory of Knowledge / 3 Kant: Theory of Value /
4 Reactions Against Kantianism: Hegel and Schopenhauer 5 Science, Scientism,
and Social Philosophy 6 Kierkegaard and Nietzsche 7 Three Philosophies of
Process: Bergson, Dewey, and Whitehead / 8 The Analytical Tradition: Russell and
Wittgenstein / 9 The Phenomenological Tradition: Husserl and Sartre
W.T. JONES
Pomona College
The
Mind
Classical
A
History of Western Philosophy
SECOND EDITION
bF
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Copyright 1952, © 1969 by Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc.
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LIST OF COPYRIGHTS AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The author records his thanks for the use ofthe selections reprinted in this bookby permission of
the following publishers and copyright holders:
GEORGE ALLEN & uNwiN LTD. for exccrpts from Euripides' Medea, translated by G. Murray, from
Ten Greek Plays; and from Eviripides' The Trojan Women, translated by G. Murray.
GEORGEBELL&SONS, LTD., forexcerptsfrom Euripides' Medea, translatedbyE. P. Coleridge, from
The Complete Greek Drama, edited by W. J. Gates and E. O'Neill, Jr.
A. AND c. BLACK LTD. for excerpts from Early Greek Philosophy, translated by J. Burnet.
THE CLARENDON PRESS, OXFORD, for cxcerpts from Aristotle's DeAnima, translatedbyJ. A. Smith;
Nicomachean Ethics, translated by W. D. Ross; PosteriorAnalytics, translated by G. R. G. Mure;
and Physics, translated by R. P. Hardie and R. K. Gaye; all from The Works ofAristotle, edited
by A. Smith and W. D. Ross. And for excerpts from Epicurus: The ExtantRemains, translated
J.
by C. Bailey; from Lucretius' On the Nature of Things, translated by C. Bailey; from Simonides'
"Human Imperfection," translatedby G. Highet, from The OxfordBook ofGreek Verse; and from
Sophocles' Antigone, translated by R. Whitelaw, from Fifteen Greek Plays, copyright 1943. All
reprinted by permission of the Clarendon Press, Oxford.
HARVARD UNFVERSiTY PRESS for the following excerpts reprinted by permission of the publishers
from the Loeb Classical Library: Cicero's De Finibus and DeLegibus, translated by H. Rackham,
copyright 1914; Hesiod's Works and Days, translated by H. G. Evelyn-White, copyright 1926;
Marcus Aurelius Antonius' Meditations, translated by C. R. Haines, copyright 1924; Plato's
Apologia, Crito, and Phaedo, translated by H. N. Fowler, copyright 1914, and Plato's Symposium,
translated by W. R. M. Lamb, copyright 1925; Sextus Empiricus' Outlines ofPyrrhonism, trans-
lated by R. G. Bury, copyright 1933, and Empiricus' Against the Logicians, translated by Bury,
copyright 1935.
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY for cxccrpts from Mosters of Political Thought: Machiavelli to
Bentham by W. T. Jones.
HUMANITIES PRESS, INC., NEW YORK, for excerpts from Plato and Parmenides, Plato's Cosmology:
The Timaeus, and Plato's Theory ofKnowledge: The Theaetetus, all translated by F. M. Comford.
DAVID MCKAY COMPANY, INC., NEW YORK, for an cxcerpt from Euripides' The Bacchae, trans-
lated by G. Murray, from The Complete Greek Drama, edited by W. J. Oates and E. O'Neill, Jr.
Reprinted by permission of David McKay Company, Inc.
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RANDOM HOUSE, INC., for exccrpts from Aristophanes' The Acharnians, The Ecclesiazusae, The
Knights, and The Wasps, all from The Complete GreekDrama, Vol. II, editedby WhitneyJ. Oates
andEugeneO'Neill,Jr.,copyright 1938andrenewed1966byRandomHouse, Inc.;andforexcerpts
from The Constitution of the Athenians and The Constitution of the Spartans, translated by
H. G. Dakyns; from The Persian Wars, translated by G. Rawlinson; and from Thucydides' The
Peloponnesian War, translated by B. Jowett; all from The Greek Historians, edited by Francis
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THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS for exccrpts from Euripides' The Bacchae, translated by
W. Arrovvsmith. Reprinted from Complete Greek Tragedies, Volume IV, edited by D. Grene and
R. Lattimore, by permission ofWilliam Arrowsmith, David Grene, andThe UniversityofChicago
Press. Copyright © 1958 by The University ofChicago. Volume IV published 1959.
Preface
The changes incorporated into this revision ofA History of Western Philosophy
reflect what I have learned, in the seventeen years since the book was first
published, about thehistoryofphilosophy, the nature ofthe philosophical enter-
prise itself, and the role that philosophy plays in the general culture. They also
reflect a good deal of thought about what characteristics make a textbook
useful.
The mostnoticeable innovationis thedivision ofthebookinto fourseparate
volimies: I. The Classical Mind; II. The Medieval Mind; III. Hobbes to Hume;
and IV. Kant to Wittgenstein and Sartre. This division has provided space for
expansion of the text, especially in the fourth volume. It also conforms to the
wayinwhichcoursesinthehistoryofphilosophyarenow organizedandenables
the reader to choose the periods on which he wishes to concentrate.
In my revision I have been able to condense and at the same time clarify
the exposition materially. In addition, I have greatly simplified the elaborate
VIII PREFACE
system of subheadings used in the first edition, for I believe that today's genera-
tion of students no longer needs such a complex set of guideposts. The conden-
sation of material and the elimination of superfluous heads have allowed me to
expand the discussions of a number of thinkers and to add discussions of many
others who were omitted from the earlier edition. For instance, in Volume I,
IhaveaddedashortsectiononaxiomaticgeometryandalongersectiononGreek
Scepticism, with extracts from the writings of Sextus Empiricus. In Volume II,
I have added a discussion ofGnosticism andhavebalancedthiswith asection on
physical theory in the late Middle Ages, illustrated by quotations from John
Buridan. It is Volume IV, however, that contains the most extensive additions.
The sectionson Hegel, Marx, andNietzsche havebeen completelyrewrittenand
greatlyexpanded; there are entirelynew chapters on Kierkegaard, Wittgenstein,
Husserl, and Sartre.
— —
Therearealso agreatmanychanges someofthemmajor inmy interpreta-
tionandevaluation ofindividual thinkers andtheir theories. For instance, Ihave
softenedmycriticismsofGreekAtomism andofAugustine, andinthesectionson
St. Paul and on the author of the Fourth Gospel I have taken account of recent
scholarship. There is, indeed, hardly a page that has not undergone extensive
revision. This edition is a thoroughgoing and rigorous updating of the first
version.
Despite all these alterations, my point of view remains basically the same.
In revising, as in originally writing, this history, I have been guided by four
—
principles concentration, selectivity, contextualism, and the use of original
sources.
An historian of philosophy can either say something, however brief, about
everyone who philosophized, orhe can limit himselfto giving a reasonably con-
secutive account of a number of representative thinkers, omitting discussion of
many second- and third-flight philosophers. I have chosen the latter approach,
for two reasons. First, many works based on the first approach are already
available, and I see no good reason for adding to their number. Second, such
works are likely to be unintelligible to the beginning student. I still recall my
ovm bewilderment as an undergraduate in seeking to understand a complicated
theory that some expositor had "boiled down" to a summary. The principle of
concentration rests on the thesis that it is better to understand a few theories
than to be superficially acquainted with a great many.
But concentration implies selectivity, and I can hardly hope that even those
who accept the principle ofconcentration will approve all my selections. There
will probably be no difference of opinion about the great figures of the remote
past. Everyone will surely agree that Plato and Aristotle are the masters of
their age. And perhaps there will be general agreement that Augustine and
—
Thomas occupy similar positions in the Middle Ages that Augustine demands
more attention than, say, Boethius, and Thomas more attention than Duns
Scotus. But how is one to choose among philosophers of more recent times?
Here one must try to anticipate the judgment of time. To some extent, I have
PREFACE IX
simply avoided the issue by dealing with more philosophers in the modem
period. The result is that, whereas the first two volimies cover more than two
millenia, the last two focus on hardly more than four hundred years.
Even so, I have been forced to be selective by my determination that here,
as in the earher periods, I would not mention a philosopher unless I could deal
with his views in some detail. Thus I have repressed a natural desire at least
to mention Fichte and Schelling, in order to provide extended analyses ofHegel
and Schopenhauer. All these thinkers represent reactions to Kantianism, and
although they differ among themselves in many ways, it is better, I believe, to
select and concentrate on a few than to attempt to give a complete enumer-
ation.
Also underlying the writing of this history is the generally recognized but
seldom adopted principle that philosophers are men, not disembodied spirits.
Some histories of philosophy treat theories as if they were isolated from
everything except other philosophical theories. But all the great philosophers
have actually been concernedwith what may be called "local" problems. To be
—
understood, their theories must be seen as expressions doubtless at a highly
—
conceptualized level of the same currents of thought and feeling that were
moving the poets and the statesmen, the theologians and the playwrights, and
the ordinarymen, ofthe age. Otherwise, how couldtheir philosophies everhave
been accepted? These philosophers furnished satisfactory answers only because
they were alert to the problems that were exercising their contemporaries and
because they were harassed by the same doubts. The cultm^al milieu in which a
given philosophy emerges canbe ignored only at the risk ofmaking the philoso-
phy seem a detached (and so meaningless and inconsequential) affair.
In carrying out this principle Ihavebegun my account ofGreek philosophy
by describing the state ofaffairs in Athens at the end of the Peloponnesian War,
and I have drawn on the plays of Euripides and Aristophanes to illustrate the
mood of the times. This, I believe, is a necessary setting for Plato, because his
— —
central thesis the theory of forms was an attempt to answer the scepticism
andcynicismofhisage. Plato'sinsistence ontheexistenceof"absolute"standards
forconductandforknowledgeisimderstandableonlyasareflectionofthesocial,
economic, andpoHtical chaosandthe moral andreligious collapsethatoccurred
at the end of the fifth century.
Similarly, my discussion ofmedievalphilosophy is prefacedwith an account
of the dissolving Roman Empire, and I have tried to indicate the rich and di-
versified cultural background within which Christian philosophy developed. In
discussing the theories of Augustine and Thomas I have kept in mind that,
whereas Augustine expressed the eschatological fervor of a new sect fighting
for its hfe, Thomas embodied the serenity of an imperial and universal religion
whose piety had been softened by a new sense of responsibility for "that which
is Caesar's."
Finally, in discussing the development of early modem philosophy I have
—
tried to show the many factors exploration and discovery, the rise of money
—
PREFACE
power, Humanism, the Reformation, and above all the new scientific method
that combined to overthrow the medieval synthesis and to create new problems
that philosophy even today is struggling to resolve. In a word, I have conceived
the history ofphilosophy tobe a part ofthe general history ofculture andhence
to be intelligible only in its cultural context.
—
The fourth principle is my conviction that in philosophy or in any disci-
—
pline, for that matter nothing takes the place of a direct, patient, and pains-
taking study of a great and subtle mind. For this reason there is much to be
said for the use of a source book. But a source book alone has serious limi-
tations, because its selections are apt to be discontinuous and difficult to follow.
The advantage of a text is that it can expHcate obscure passages and draw
comparisons. Even so, explication and interpretation are not substitutes for the
documents themselves. Therefore, each of the volumes in this series stands
halfway between textbook and source book and tries to combine the advantages
of both: I have set out a philosopher's thought in his own words by a careful
selection of key passages and have bound these together with my own com-
ment and criticism. The quoted passages constitute about one third of the con-
tents.
To undertake to give an account of the history of philosophy in its cultural
context is a formidable and perhaps presumptuous task for a single expositor.
In this undertaking I have received help from a wide variety of sources. In
additionto thosewhohavereadandcommentedonthefirstedition, whosenames
I shall not repeat here, I wish to thank many friends and colleagues who have
called my attention to points that needed correction: Stanley M. Daugert,
Stewart C. Easton, Robert L. Ferm, John H. Gleason, Douglas Greenlee, Ray-
mond Lindquist, Edwin L. Marvin, James A. McGilvray, Philip Merlan, John E.
Smith, Robert T. Voelkel, Culver G. Warner, Rev. S. Y. Watson, S.J., and R. M.
Yost, Jr. I am much indebted to Robert J. Fogelin, from whom I learned a great
deal during theyears we taught ajoint course onnineteenth-century philosophy,
andtoClark Glymour, whohassent me extensivenotes, especially on thehistory
of science. My greatest appreciation is due to Cynthia A. Schuster, who readthe
—
revised version of Volumes I, II, and III and commented in immense and
—
immensely helpful detail, and to Stephen A. Erickson, on whom I have con-
stantly leanedfor advice about matters small as well as great andwhose detailed
comments both on the first edition and on successive drafts of the revision have
beeninvaluable. These readershavesavedmefrom manyerrorsoffactandinter-
pretation; for errors that remain I must be responsible, and I shall be grateful if
any that come to notice are pointed out to me.
I am obliged to the many publishers and copyright holders (listed on pages
iv-v) through whose cooperation the quotations used in these volumes appear.
Since I have followed the style of the various writers and translators I have
quoted, there is some variation in spelling, capitalization, and punctuation in
the reprinted passages. Full bibliographical notes, keyed to the text by letters
rather than numbers, appear at the end of each volume.
