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.
Rée 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.
*Financial Times*
Rée 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
*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
... Rée's book is stylish and entertaining.
*Guardian*
Rée'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.
*Spectator*
Rée, one of Britain's best-known living philosophers ... has
delivered an impressive reimagining of what a history of philosophy
ought to be.
*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
*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
*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*
|
Ask a Question About this Product More... |
|
