Anthony Gottlieb

The Dream of Reason by Anthony Gottlieb covers the fascinating evolution of early Western philosophy from its inception in Ancient Greece to the flourishing of thought in the Middle Ages. This comprehensive account provides a crucial exploration of the ideas and arguments that have shaped intellectual history. The narrative delves into the philosophical contributions of iconic figures such as Socrates,...

The Dream of Enlightenment by Anthony Gottlieb offers a brilliant and engaging narrative of the evolution of modern philosophy, tracing its origins from the early 17th century to the brink of the French Revolution. The book brings to life the revolutionary ideas of great thinkers such as Descartes, Hobbes, Spinoza, Locke, Leibniz, and Hume, all of whom significantly shaped Western...

'If you put me to death,' Socrates warned his Athenian judges, 'you will not easily find anyone to take my place.' So indeed it would prove, a single cup of hemlock robbing the western philosophical tradition of its founding father. Yet Socrates' influence was not so easily to be done away with. His words were lovingly recorded by his devoted...

The first biography in more than three decades of the Austrian-born thinker Ludwig Wittgenstein, one of the most influential philosophers of the twentieth century According to the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951), philosophy is a "battle against the bewitchment of our intelligence by means of language." This audacious idea changed the way many of its practitioners saw their subject. In the...

Western philosophy is now two and a half millennia old, but much of it came in just two staccato bursts, each lasting only about 150 years. In his landmark survey of Western philosophy from the Greeks to the Renaissance, The Dream of Reason, Anthony Gottlieb documented the first burst, which came in the Athens of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. Now,...