A fresh approach to the history of philosophy, by one of Britain's most admired philosophical writers.
Jonathan Ree is a freelance philosopher and historian. His previous books include Philosophical Tales, Proletarian Philosophers and I See a Voice.
Ree spans a vast ocean of ideas. He introduces us to their shapers
and breakers, and gently captains us in 50-year stretches across
the seas of English-language thought with astonishing skill as both
map-maker and way-finder ... enjoy its riches slowly, and savour
every generous, erudite and undogmatic page. -- Boyd Tonkin *
Financial Times *
Ree traces the history of English philosophy from 1601 to 1951,
making periodic 50-year leaps to follow the story a couple of
generations on. This structure allows him to make connections that
the conventional histories of philosophy seldom can ... dead
philosophers, and indeed dead philosophies, here feel alive, and
integrated with the rest of history -- Nakul Krishna * Daily
Telegraph *
Witcraft complicates the familiar narrative of philosophy. Rather
than whisking us from one prominent philosophical peak to another,
it spends a lot of time wandering the fertile valleys between them
... Ree's book is stylish and entertaining. -- Terry Eagleton *
Guardian *
Ree's book may well be the most fun we've ever had with
anglophone philosophy ... an intellectual adventure story in
which the usual suspects all figure, but get sidelined by his
heroes - the oddballs, underdogs and outcasts, many of them women,
some of them scary decapitators, who were obliged to operate
outside the patriarchal, class-bound academy. -- Stuart Jeffries *
Spectator *
Ree, one of Britain's best-known living philosophers ... has
delivered an impressive reimagining of what a history of
philosophy ought to be. -- Alex Dean * Prospect *
This book is a game-changer. It fills a giant hole that we did
not know was there. We will never be able to think of English
philosophy in quite the same way again. -- Professor David
Wood
Witcraft is the story of philosophy in English told in a new
way, narrated with relish and considerable wit -- Jonathan
Egid * Times Literary Supplement *
He offers a history of ideas that is about history and not just
ideas. We get a sense of the excitement of philosophical
conversation in its social context -- Daniel Callcut * New
Humanist *
belongs on the small shelf of genuinely readable histories of
philosophy which are also not over-simplified into intellectual
caricature... He keeps before the reader the historical
accidents which inform the development of philosophical thinking:
in fact, the history of philosophy is the history of thoughtful
humans bumbling after wisdom, not the history of reason fatefully
working itself out in an inevitable progression..... This is a
great book, and it deserves infinitely more clamorous applause
than it has yet received * Robert Minto *
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