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Philosophy

Philosophy

A New History of Western Philosophy

Anthony Kenny

A one-volume history of Western philosophy from the Presocratics to the late twentieth century by a single author, bringing together four earlier volumes. Each part combines a chronological narrative of thinkers with thematic chapters that trace how particular problems, such as knowledge, mind, ethics and God, were treated across the period.

Prerequisites: An introductory philosophy course and some familiarity with the main branches of the subject.

Difficulty Level
Beginner
Academic Level
Undergraduate
history of philosophywestern philosophymetaphysicsEthicsepistemologyReference

01 / Reading Guide

Reading Guide

Citation

Kenny, A. (2010). A New History of Western Philosophy. Oxford University Press.

Chapter Summary

This is a single-volume edition of Anthony Kenny's four-part history, about 1,060 pages in all, followed by a chronology, a list of abbreviations and conventions, a bibliography and an index. The book is arranged in four parts: Ancient Philosophy, Medieval Philosophy, The Rise of Modern Philosophy, and Philosophy in the Modern World. Each part opens with its own introduction and contents. The publisher describes a narrative that runs from Plato and Aristotle through medieval, early modern and nineteenth- and twentieth-century thinkers, with certain themes followed through the whole: what exists and how we can know it, the nature of humanity, mind, truth and meaning, God's place in the universe, how to live and how society should be ordered.

Part One, Ancient Philosophy: "Beginnings: From Pythagoras to Plato" and "Schools of Thought: From Aristotle to Augustine"

The first two chapters (from p. 8) are chronological. They cover the founders of Western thought, beginning with Pythagoras and ending with Plato in the first, and carrying the story from Aristotle to Augustine in the second.

Part One, thematic chapters: Logic; Epistemology; Physics; Metaphysics; Soul and Mind; Ethics; God

Seven chapters (pp. 95–250) turn from the thinkers to the problems: "How to Argue: Logic", "Knowledge and its Limits: Epistemology", "How Things Happen: Physics", "What There Is: Metaphysics", "Soul and Mind", "How to Live: Ethics" and "God". Each takes the ancient treatment of its topic as a whole.

Part Two, Medieval Philosophy: "Philosophy and Faith: Augustine to Maimonides" and "The Schoolmen: From the Twelfth Century to the Renaissance"

The chronological chapters of the second part (pp. 261–343) cover a thousand years of medieval thought. The publisher singles out Augustine, Aquinas and Ockham.

Part Two, thematic chapters: Logic and Language; Knowledge; Physics; Metaphysics; Mind and Soul; Ethics; God

The medieval part repeats the thematic structure with seven chapters (pp. 344–494). Here "Logic and Language" replaces the ancient "Logic".

Part Three, The Rise of Modern Philosophy: "Sixteenth-Century Philosophy"; "Descartes to Berkeley"; "Hume to Hegel"

Three chronological chapters (pp. 503–587) lead from the sixteenth century to the great early modern figures. The publisher names Descartes, Hobbes, Locke, Leibniz, Spinoza, Hume and Kant.

Part Three, thematic chapters: Knowledge; Physics; Metaphysics; Mind and Soul; Ethics; Political Philosophy; God

Seven chapters (pp. 588–748) follow the topics through the early modern period. Political Philosophy appears as a separate chapter for the first time in this part.

Part Four, Philosophy in the Modern World: "Bentham to Nietzsche"; "Peirce to Strawson"; "Freud to Derrida"

The chronological chapters (pp. 757–828) run from the nineteenth century to the late twentieth. The publisher names Hegel, Mill, Nietzsche, Freud and Wittgenstein among those who transformed how the world is seen.

Part Four, thematic chapters: Logic; Language; Epistemology; Metaphysics; Philosophy of Mind; Ethics; Aesthetics; Political Philosophy; God

Nine thematic chapters (pp. 829–996) close the book, the only part to include chapters on Aesthetics and on Language as separate topics, together with Logic, Epistemology, Metaphysics, Philosophy of Mind, Ethics, Political Philosophy and God.

Key Concepts

Chronological chapters

  • The founders of Western thought: Plato, Aristotle and the thinkers around them, the starting point of the story.
  • Philosophy and faith: the relation of reason to Christian belief in the medieval chapters.
  • The great early modern systems: the works of Descartes through Kant that the publisher calls essential reading.
  • Nineteenth- and twentieth-century transformations: from Hegel and Mill to Wittgenstein and beyond.

Thematic chapters

  • Logic and language: how to argue, and what words mean.
  • Knowledge and its limits: the epistemology chapters in each part.
  • Physics and metaphysics: how things happen and what there is.
  • Mind and soul: the nature of the person.
  • Ethics, political philosophy and God: how to live, how to organise society, and the place of God in the universe.

Critical Analysis

Strengths

  • A single voice across the whole history. The publisher stresses that one author guides the reader through twenty-five centuries, which gives the four parts a consistent method and a common vocabulary.
  • Narrative and thematic chapters side by side. Each part pairs chronological chapters with thematic ones on the same recurring problems, so a reader can follow a person or follow a topic.
  • Reference apparatus. A chronology, a list of abbreviations and conventions, a bibliography of about thirty pages and an index make it usable for looking things up as well as for continuous reading.
  • Written for general readers. The publisher recommends it to anyone interested in ideas and their history, and the chapter titles ("How to Argue", "How to Live") reflect that tone.

Limitations

  • Length. At more than a thousand pages the book is more than a single course can absorb; readers must choose among parts and chapters.
  • Western focus. As the title says, the book covers the Western tradition; readers wanting Chinese, Indian or other traditions need other books.
  • Repeated structure. The thematic chapters repeat across the four parts (logic, knowledge, mind, ethics, God appear in each), which helps for comparison across periods but means a single topic is spread across several hundred pages.
  • Ends with the late twentieth century. The final chronological chapter runs "Freud to Derrida", so the book does not cover the most recent decades.

Where It Fits in the Course

Within the introduction-to-philosophy list, Kenny is the long historical reference. Introduction to Philosophy (OpenStax) is an open textbook for a first university course that surveys logic, metaphysics, epistemology, value theory and the history of philosophy thematically, with sources from many traditions. Russell's The Problems of Philosophy is a short classic organised around the theory of knowledge; Blackburn's Think is a short introduction built around a handful of enduring problems; Nagel's The View from Nowhere is a monograph arguing for one connected outlook rather than surveying the field.

Kenny complements these by supplying the historical background they assume: it is what to use when a name or an argument from a short introduction needs to be placed in its period.

How to Use This Book

The book suits first- and second-year students, and general readers, who want a map of the whole tradition. It assumes no technical background, though the later thematic chapters reward some earlier study of philosophy.

A practical plan: read the introduction to Part One and the two chronological chapters first to get the shape of ancient thought; read selectively afterwards. For a course on a single period, take that part's chronological chapters and the thematic chapters on the topics the course covers. For a course on a single problem, such as knowledge, mind or ethics, follow that thematic chapter across all four parts, which shows how the question changes over time. Use the chronology and bibliography to find primary sources and further reading.