Acknowledgements
Introduction

Chapter 1 Pre-Socratic Philosophy

1.
Greek City-States: Humans in Community
2.
Thales
3.
Anaximander and Anaximenes
4.
Heraclitus, Parmenides, Zeno
Heraclitus
Parmenides
Xenon
5.
Mediational Philosophers: Empedocles and Anaxagoras
Empedocles
Anaxagoras
6.
Democritus
7.
Pythagorean school

question
More to read

Chapter 2: The Sophists and Socrates

1.
The Sophists
Gorgias
Trashma Course
Protagoras
2.
Socrates

question
Further Reading

Chapter 3: Plato - Theory of Ideas and the Ideal Republic

1.
Knowledge and existence
Ideas and Knowledge
Idea and good
Eros and Education
Some objections to the theory of ideas
Idea and Totality
Parables
Theory of Ideas and the Role of Humans
2.
Plato's Republic and Good
Education and social class differentiation
power and ability
Men and women
3.
The ethical responsibility of art

question
Further Reading

Chapter 4: Aristotle - The Natural Order and Man as a "Political Animal"

1.
Idea or substance?
Plato and Aristotle
Entity and Attributes
2.
Ontology and Epistemology
Basic concepts
Four causes
Change and Cosmology
Actuality-Potentiality and Hierarchical and Organic Worldview
3.
Aristotle and Ecology
4.
Knowledge and practice
Forms of knowledge
Anthropology and Sociology
good life
just society
5.
Art - Imitation and Catharsis

question
Further Reading

Chapter 5: Late Antiquity Philosophy

1.
Securing personal happiness
From Greek city-states to Hellenistic empires
A New Framework: Individuals and Universal Law
2.
Epicureanism - Ensuring Personal Well-being
3.
Stoicism - Securing Personal Happiness
Main contents of Stoic philosophy
Cynical school
Stoicism of Greco-Hellenistic times
Roman Stoics
4.
Neoplatonism
5.
skepticism
6.
Ancient science and learning
historical narrative
medicine
law
math
Physics and Chemistry
astronomy
philology
Ancient female scientists

question
Further Reading

Chapter 6: The Middle Ages

1.
Christianity and Philosophy
2.
The Pope and the King: Two Rulers in One Country
3.
Augustine - Faith and Reason
Philosophy and Theology
Refuting skepticism
Christian Neoplatonist Augustine
Knowledge and will
4.
The Problem of Universals and Scholasticism
Platonic realism
Aristotelian realism
5.
Thomas Aquinas - Harmony and Synthesis
Law and Justice
ontology
epistemology
Anthropology and Moral Philosophy
God and the World
The problem of evil
6.
Marsilius of Padua and William of Ockham - From Synthesis to Skepticism
7.
Martin Luther - Nominalism and Requirementism: Faith Alone
8.
University traditions
9.
Arab philosophy and science

question
Further Reading

Chapter 7: The Rise of Natural Science

1.
Methodological debate
2.
Astronomy - Copernicus and Kepler
Science and the Concept of Experience
Copernicus and the heliocentric theory
Kepler and planetary orbits
3.
Physics - Galileo and Newton
New discoveries
“Galileo's Case”
The Deconstruction of the Universe and the Mathematization of Nature
Newton: A Great Achievement in Physics
4.
biological sciences
5.
Humans as Sub-Yektum
Paradigm Shift in Astronomy
Paradigm Shift in Epidemiology
Paradigm Shift in Optics

question
Further Reading

Chapter 8: The Renaissance and Realpolitik - Machiavelli and Hobbes

1.
Machiavelli - Politics as Manipulation
2.
Politics by Contract and Politics by Natural Law - Althusius and Grotius
3.
Hobbes - The Individual and Self-Preservation
A society like clockwork
Natural law as a rule of reason
Exercise theory
Liberalism and liberalism

question
Further Reading

Chapter 9: Doubt and Faith - The Human Being at the Center
1.
Descartes - Methodological Doubt and Trust in Reason
I think, therefore I am.
God and Rationalism
Mechanistic worldview and the relationship between soul and body
2.
Pascal - Reason of the Heart
3.
Biko - History as an Example

question
More to read

Chapter 10 Rationalism as a System

1.
Spinoza - God is nature
Entity and Attributes
Necessity and Freedom
2.
Leibniz - Terminals and Predetermined Harmonies
Purpose and Cause - A New Synthesis
The best of all possible worlds

question
More to read

Chapter 11: Locke - Enlightenment and Equality

1.
Epistemology and Critique of Knowledge
Clarification of concepts
The origin of knowledge
2.
Political Theory - Individuals and Rights

question
More to read

Chapter 12: Empiricism and the Critique of Epistemology

1.
Berkeley - A Critique of Empiricism from Within
"Essay" is "Percipi" - Idealistic Empiricism
The substance goes out, and God comes in!
2.
Hume - Empiricism as Critique
Empiricist epistemology - "ideas" and "impressions"
Empiricist Critique of Epistemology - The Concept of Causality
Moral Philosophy - The Distinction Between "Being" and "Ought"
Practical trust and custom
Empiricism and Rationalism - Front Lines of Conflict

question
More to read

Chapter 13: The Enlightenment - Reason and Progress

1.
Modernization and Science
2.
worldly happiness
3.
Montesquieu - Separation of Powers and the Influence of Environment
4.
Helveticus - The Individual and Pleasure
5.
economic liberalism
Adam Smith
Ricardo and Malthus
6.
Rousseau - A Reaction to the Philosophy of the Enlightenment
7.
Edmund Burke - Conservative Reaction

question
Further Reading

Chapter 14 Utilitarianism and Liberalism

1.
Jeremy Bentham and James Mill: The Calculation of Pleasure and Legal Reform
Bentham
James Mill
2.
John Stuart Mill - Social Liberalism and Liberalism as a Condition of Rationality
3.
Thomas Hill Green
4.
John Maynard Keynes

question
Further Reading

Chapter 15: Kant: The "Copernican Revolution" in Philosophy

1.
Transcendental philosophy - epistemology
2.
Transcendental Philosophy - Moral Theory
3.
political theory
4.
Judgment - Teleology and Aesthetics

question
Further Reading

Chapter 16: The Rise of the Humanities

1.
background
2.
Herder and Historicism
3.
Schleiermacher and hermeneutics
4.
Historical School - Sabine and Ranke
5.
Droysen and Dilthey - The Uniqueness of the Humanities
6.
Deconstruction of the historicist paradigm

question
More to read

Chapter 17: Hegel - History and Dialectics

1.
Reflection, Dialectics, Experience
A priori preconditions - historically created and culturally relative
Experience as a drama of self-formation
Dialectics and Totality
2.
Masters and Slaves: The Struggle for Recognition and Social Identity
3.
Tradition as Reason - The Tension Between the Universal and the Individual
4.
Family, Civil Society, and the State
5.
Refutations of Hegel
There is no place for the individual in Hegel's system.
Hegel's philosophy is totalitarian
Hegel is “conservative”
Hegel's view of history is overly optimistic.
There is no room for ethics in Hegel's philosophy.
Hegel's dialectics is nonsense.

question
More to read

Chapter 18: Marx - Productivity Forces and Class Struggle

1.
Dialectics and Alienation
2.
historical materialism
3.
Productivity and production relations
4.
Surplus value and exploitation
5.
Counterarguments to Marx
Marx's theory undermines its own foundations.
Marx's theory is not empirical.
Some of Marx's predictions were wrong.
Marx's concepts of class and class struggle are inadequate.
Marx overlooked the importance of “natural conditions.”
Marxist socialism is dead
6.
Friedrich Engels - The Family from a Marxist Perspective

question
Further Reading

Chapter 19: Kierkegaard - Existentialism and Anonymity

1.
Direct communication and existential communication
2.
Three stages in life
educational interpretation
Comprehensive interpretation
An ironic and reflective interpretation
3.
Subjectivity is truth
4.
Democracy and Demagoguery

question
Further Reading

Chapter 20: Darwin - The Debate Surrounding the Concept of Man

1.
Natural Selection and Human Origins
2.
Darwinism and Sociobiology

question
Further Reading

Chapter 21: Nietzsche and Pragmatism

1.
“God is dead” - European nihilism
2.
Metaphysics and the Criticism of Christianity
3.
moral philosophy
4.
The Übermensch, the Will to Power, and Eternal Return
5.
epistemology
6.
Truth is Effectiveness - American Pragmatism

question
More to read

Chapter 22 Socialism and Fascism

1.
Communism - Lenin: The Party and the State
2.
Anarchism and Syndicalism
3.
Social Democracy - Social Welfare and Parliamentarism
4.
Fascism - Nationalism and Order
Crisis and Action
Politics and Economics
State and Racism

question
More to read

Chapter 23: Freud and Psychoanalysis

1.
Psychoanalysis: A New View of Humanity
2.
Dreams - The Path to the Unconscious
Freud's theory of sexuality
mental apparatus
3.
Oppressive Culture and Guilt
4.
Psychoanalysis and Philosophy of Science

question
More to read

Chapter 24: The Rise of Social Sciences

1.
background
2.
Auguste Comte - the "high priest" of sociology
3.
Alexis de Tocqueville - Democracy in America
4.
Ferdinand Tönnies - Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft
5.
Georg Simmel - Social Organization as Skin
6.
Émile Durkheim - Society and Social Solidarity
7.
Max Weber: Rationality and "Heroic Pessimism"
Philosophy of Science and Ideal Types
Types of actions and forms of justification
Protestantism and Capitalism
Weber's Diagnosis of the Age: "Heroic Pessimism"
8.
Talcott Parsons - Act and Function
Emotionality - Emotional Neutrality
Universalism - Particularism
Ego-oriented - group-oriented
Attribution - Achievement
Specificity? Multifacetedness

question
Further Reading

Chapter 25: New Advances in Natural Science

1.
Einstein and modern physics
From “looking at nature as technology” to “looking at nature with technology”
A glimpse into physics
2.
Scientific Diversity and Technological Advancement - Applications of Science and Interdisciplinary Approaches
The Usefulness and Limitations of Instrumental Reason - An Example of Normative Decision Theory
The need for interdisciplinary analysis

question
Further Reading

Chapter 26: Overview of Modern Philosophy

1.
Logical Positivism - Logic and Empiricism
New Logic
Logical positivism and logical atomism
2.
Karl Popper and “Critical Rationalism”
3.
Thomas Kuhn - Paradigm Shifts in Science
4.
Ludwig Wittgenstein - Analytical Philosophy as Practice
5.
Philosophy of Ordinary Language and Speech Act Theory - Austin and Searle
6.
Phenomenology and Existentialism - Husserl and Sartre
7.
Identity and Recognition - Simone de Beauvoir and Feminist Philosophy
8.
John Rawls - Justice as "Fairness"

question
More to read

Chapter 27 Modernity and Crisis

1.
Criticism of modernity
2.
Martin Heidegger - Through the Poetic
3.
Hannah Arendt - Vita Activa
4.
Gadamer - The Hermeneutic Tradition
5.
Derrida, Foucault, and Rorty - Deconstruction and Critique
6.
Jürgen Habermas - Through the Presentation of Arguments

question
More to read

Translator's Note
Search

“Clear and accurate”

The reason this book has received such global acclaim is, above all, its ability to explain difficult content in an easy-to-understand manner.
Explaining philosophical concepts and arguments in an accessible way without sacrificing content and depth is a very difficult task, and this book successfully accomplishes this task.
Moreover, the thematically oriented narrative and the rich connections between each philosophical discussion make one wonder what will happen next.
For this reason, books on the history of philosophy are so interesting to read that they make you abandon the prejudice that they are boring and difficult.
Just a glance at the table of contents of this book, which concisely summarizes the core of each philosophical discussion, will reveal how systematically the book is structured.

A broad and balanced perspective encompassing “natural science,” “social science,” and “political thought.”

Compared to other books on the history of philosophy, this book's most notable feature is its broad perspective encompassing natural science, social science, and political thought.
One of the book's greatest achievements is that it broadens the spectrum of the history of philosophy by describing many political, social, economic, and scientific thinkers who would never appear in a typical history of philosophy book.
While most books on the history of philosophy are academic histories that focus on the influence of philosophical thought, this book covers the historical background as well as the relationship between philosophy, political thought, and other academic disciplines in detail.
A particularly striking feature of this book is its detailed description of the mutual influence between natural science and philosophy.
It not only discusses the scientific transformation that influenced human self-understanding by focusing on the rise of natural science led by 'Copernicus', 'Kepler', 'Newton', and 'Galileo', but also devotes an entire chapter to 'Darwin' and examines the epistemological changes brought about by 'modern physics', including 'Einstein's' theories, from a philosophical perspective.

Furthermore, this book goes one step further and deals significantly with the humanities, social sciences, and psychoanalysis.
The authors believe that the rise of the humanities and the revolution in the social sciences, no less than the scientific revolution, challenged the contemporary worldview and created new epistemological and ethical problems.
The chapter on 'Socialism and Fascism' is placed between Nietzsche and Freud, and provides an overview of figures such as Comte, Tocqueville, Tönnies, Simmel, Durkheim, Weber, and Parsons, as well as the establishment of sociology.
In particular, we will focus on their analysis of modern society and their status in sociology.
Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, is also evaluated as having overturned our concept of human beings.
This book offers readers a balanced perspective, keeping in view the achievements of many disciplines that represent important philosophical challenges.

A history of philosophy focusing on “the issue of natural rights and the extension of science and scientific rationality”

“It is impossible for anyone to view Machiavelli, Marx, and Heidegger through a neutral lens.” The authors acknowledge that any account of the history of philosophy always bears the marks of the author’s academic perspective, background, research focus, and cultural orientation.
In this respect, the attitude of this book is honest.
Consequently, every historical narrative represents one perspective on previous thought.
Therefore, it is inevitable that within historical diversity, the author emphasizes what he believes is appropriate and important.
What is important is how to construct the history of philosophy persuasively and from what perspective.
According to the authors, this book is an introduction to the history of Western philosophy, focusing on “the question of natural rights and the extension of science and scientific rationality.”
In other words, the perspective that guides this book is the belief in the universal rationality that underlies the broad human rights and democratic ideas achieved by modern society and scientific thinking.
This book attempts to understand philosophers of the past within their premises, while simultaneously creating a dialogue with them.
He says that the only way we can take seriously and respond to the ideas of many philosophers, including Plato and Aristotle, is to try to take a position on what they said.
This book seeks to hear the voices of numerous philosophers from ancient to modern times, but also to respond to their voices.
In particular, the book's rebuttals to existing evaluations of philosophers such as Plato, Hegel, and Marx ("There is something unsettlingly authoritarian in Plato's thought," "There is no place for the individual in Hegel's system," "Hegel's philosophy is totalitarian," "Marx's theory undermines its own foundations") are noteworthy.
This book shows how to address rather than avoid sharp philosophical issues.

Use of rich examples and visual images
Friendly structure to help you understand philosophical concepts

The "Introduction" of this book, which explains the perspectives on the history of philosophy and how to read philosophical texts in a concise manner, is the best guide to guiding readers in reading the history of philosophy.


Each chapter in the text separately discusses the lives of major philosophers before delving into the full-scale discussion, and uses abundant examples and diagrams to explain philosophical concepts.
For example, diagrams on 'Plato's Allegory of Cognitive Ability', 'Aristotle's Hierarchical Universe', 'Two Authorities in the Middle Ages', 'Descartes's Argument', 'Kant's Epistemology', 'Hegel's Dialectical Synthesis', and 'Marx's Historical Materialism' are appropriately placed in the places where they explain each concept.
Additionally, illustrations related to the characters and historical background are added to help with a more accurate understanding.
We also do not forget to provide reference points so that the history of philosophy can be read from all angles.
In explaining Plato's ideas on women's rights, one might refer to Locke and Mill, who deal with universal individual rights.
The numerous references in this book reveal how perspectives from ancient and modern philosophy communicate across time and space.

Also, at the end of each chapter, there are 'Questions' and 'Books for Further Reading'. The 'Questions' that help organize the core content of the chapter are sharp and rich enough to constitute 'A History of Western Philosophy through Questions' in and of themselves (therefore, reading the 'Questions' of each chapter first and then reading the chapter itself is another way to read this book), and the 'Books for Further Reading' consisting of primary and secondary literature will help you study the philosophy in question more deeply.

“The first task of philosophy is to ask questions.
This is something we have to do ourselves.
But others can help,” the authors emphasize.
This book will provide readers who have tried and failed many times to read the history of Western philosophy, or readers who are reading it for the first time, with the pleasure of reading the history of philosophy without getting bored. For readers who have read other books on the history of Western philosophy, this book will provide a fresh and active approach that will bring new joy to reading the history of philosophy.
This book will be the best guide to accompany us as we draw our own philosophical map by asking ourselves questions.

Recommendation

“This book is not only an excellent history of philosophical thought, but it also opens the door to understanding a much wider range of thinkers than many introductory and historical books on philosophy.
“In this respect the authors deserve special praise.”
- Alastair Hannay (editor of the philosophy journal Inquiry)

“This book has successfully achieved its goal of being a history of philosophy, and is useful not only to philosophy majors but also to the general public.
This book offers a broader overview of the history of philosophy than other similar books on the history of philosophy, and is characterized by its logical structure and broad perspective that provoke intellectual challenge.
…this book offers readers the possibility of answers to fundamental, core questions that are urgently needed today.
…a book with great vision and powerful potential.”
- 『Thesis Eleven: Critical Theory and Historical Sociology』(British sociology journal)