History of Philosophy

by Julián Marías, Stanley Appelbaum (Translator), Xavier Zubiri (Prólogo)

In 1941 appeared the first edition of Historia de la Filosofia by Dr. Julián Marías, a Spanish scholar who has come to have an international reputation as a philosopher and teacher. It was greeted with enthusiasm in Spain, where it has gone through twenty-two editions, and it has been adopted throughout the Spanish-speaking world as the standard classroom text. It has also been rated by many as the best elementary-level history of
philosophy to emerge from Europe since the First World War.

Translated ino English for the first time, under the supervision of Dr. Marías, the History of Philosophy presents a full, detailed, lucid history of Western thought from the pre-Socratics to middle 20th century. It provides very thorough surveys of basic figures, currents and trends, with background, biographical data (where possible), survey of literature, summary of ideas, critical evaluation, and historical significance in the chain of Western philosophy.

Dr. Marías's book is superior to most other general histories in several important respects. Besides covering the major figures, especially those relatively unfamiliar to the English-speaking world, but still significant. It is also modern and up-to-date. Most of all, however, it is remarkable for its precision and clarity. Dr. Marías is most successful in presenting the most complex ideas in term that can be understood by practically any intelligent reader. As a result his book stands almost alone as a text for history of philosophy courses, as a refresher for students and teachers, and as an introduction for laymen.

Unabridged translation of the 22nd (1966) edition, by Stanley Appelbaum and Clarence C. Strowbridge. Author's preface to English edition. Bibliography. Index. xx + 505pp. 53/8 x 81/2. Paperbound.

Genres: Philosophy, History, Nonfiction, Spanish Literature, Theory

544 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1941

About the author

As one of the most remarkable spanish philosophers on the XX century, he wrote several books about philosofy, politics and social matters. After Spanish civil war, he left Spain with his family because, as oppositor of Franco's dictatorship, he was banned from teaching in the university and he couldn't appear in the media. The Marías traveled to the United States and there he taught at numerous institutions including Harvard University, Yale University, Wellesley College, and UCLA.

Marías wrote on a wide variety of subjects during his long career. A subject of particular interest was Cervantes's Don Quixote. In 1964 he was elected into the Real Academia Española, and he won a Prince of Asturias award in 1996. From 1.977 to 1.979 he was senator in the Spanish General Courts.

He is the father of the famous novelist Javier Marías

Reviews

[Kiof · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you were to look for a book on the history of philosophy in any good-sized library in the United States you would likely find this book, Bertrand Russell's History of Western Philosophy, and Will Durant's The Story of Philosophy (and their Dewey Decimals would probably be in the low 100's, in case you need to know). Of the three, Marias's is the least read and least known, and also by far the best. Perhaps it is the lack of quality books on the subject that made Marias's summary such a revelation to me, but it was a revelation nonetheless. He exposes the prejudices, oversights and pettiness of Russell and Durant. Russell's septic personality is legendary -- even Ray Monk, after writing a two volume biography of Russell, said that he still couldn't find it in himself to like the man. But even kindly, sage Will Durant takes his shots -- "It's hard to feel passionate about Aristotle because he felt so little passion," I remember one particularly unnecessary and inaccurate line roughly going. But Marias does a full study of Aristotle (even Hegel!) and all the more difficult philosophers. The ones he chooses to mostly overlook, Locke and Spinoza and Hobbes (whom he damns with faint praise; "another interesting English thinker"), are covered in great detail elsewhere.

The core strength of Marias's work is its comprehensiveness, and the thoroughness which coincides with it. Not only does he devote large sections to the parts of philosophy other historians simply overlooked -- the pre-Socratics and the Scholastics being key examples -- he does it in a fair and consistently lucid manner. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in the history of philosophy.

[Gaspar Juárez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ta bien

[Pilar · Rating 3 out of 5]

Manual de referencia que trabaja la historia de la filosofía occidental desde Grecia hasta Ortega y Gasset.
Tres estrellas. Me ha gustado por su intención de compendiar en un solo libro la historia entera de la filosofía occidental: útil como manual general y básico. Pero NO me ha gustado la proyección subjetiva de sus propias ideas (religiosas muchas de ellas) al exponer la concepción de la filosofía de autores y sistemas que se explican en el libro.

[Luis Miguel Garibaldi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simplemente el mejor libro a profundidad de la Historia de la Filosofia. Te gusta la filosofia? DEBES LEER ESTA PIEZA HISTORICA.

[Karla|]

Sabía que este libro no era para mí desde el principio, el primer capítulo comienza de la siguiente manera: Si dejamos aparte el oscuro problema de la filosofía oriental – india, china-, donde lo más problemático es el sentido de la palabra misma filosofía, y nos atenemos a lo que ha sido la realidad en Occidente, encontramos que su primera etapa es la filosofía de los griegos. Julián Marías pretende hacer una historia de la filosofía con una línea teleológica, la filosofía “verdadera” comienza con Platón y termina con Ortega y Gasset (su maestro). Y no me malinterpreten, el libro está escrito de la forma más llana y diáfana posible, es un gusto leerlo, pero todo ello queda empañado cuando inserta sus propias ideas y sus propios sesgos en la interpretación y explicación de los filósofos expuestos.

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good, and different, introduction to the history of philosophy from a Spanish philosopher that followed Ortega. I thought his treatment of ancient Greek philosophy (the pre-Socratics, Sophists, Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle) was very well done. Where Russell focuses more on the history, Marías focuses more on the philosophy.

[Víctor Alarcón · Rating 3 out of 5]

Creo que es lo más loco que he leído en mi vida, difícil de leer en muchas partes y nada amigable para alguien que no tiene ni idea de latín y griego ya que no incluye anotaciones a pie de página.
Además de que realmente tiene 850 páginas.

[J. Horne · Rating 5 out of 5]

What does an undergrad philosophy major read to brush up on the history of western philosophy a decade later (and then another decade later, and so on)? Julián Marías' History of Philosophy, a staple in the Spanish-speaking world for generations, and worthy of the same status in the English speaking world with this excellent translation. Marías acknowledges his debt to Ortega, but is open with his biases and specific viewpoints where they might influence his history.

For those with no background in philosophy, this book may be challenging, but I believe it will be ultimately rewarding. Marías has a gift for distilling complex thoughts into bit-sized, remarkably accurate summaries. The history of philosophy is, in many respects, philosophy itself, as successive generations of philosophers seek answers to questions unearthed by those who came before. Thus, in studying philosophy's history, you will rapidly gain an understanding of the growing set of questions under study, and insight into many of the answers offered.

[JOSE MARIA · Rating 3 out of 5]

To be honest, although the book is quite easy to read and the author provides very interesting food for thoughts, if you are not a humanities student it is a bit of a challenge, as it lacks annotations providing context (not even the translation of some greek/latin terms). I did enjoyed reading it, though, although it required a greater effort on my side (dictionaries on hand the full time, and stopping the reading every now and then to figure out the meaning of some reference on the Internet.
It feels OK as a companion book for humanities fresh(wo)men as a complement for their classes, but it felt a bit disorganised as a standalone lecture.

[Guillermo Acuna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Muy bueno, bien escrito y fácil de entender, pese a ser de un nivel relativamente alto, no es un libro de divulgación, sino para estudiantes de primer año de filosofía. Sólo al final tiene capítulos complejos, cuya dificultad hereda de los filósofos originales (Hegel, Husserl, Heidegger).

[Maxwell Ladhoff · Rating 4 out of 5]

A thorough introduction to the whole of philosophy in the West, this book paints the mental landscape of roughly three thousand years of thought. Extremely helpful.

[Gonzalo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un recorrido claro, sumamente bien explicado y muy llevadero de leer.
Además de un epílogo de Ortega que cierra excelentemente la narrativa de toda la historia de la filosofía.

[Ouning]

Leído:
Filosofía griega
El cristianismo
Filosofía medieval

[Víctor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Una buena forma de empezar a estudiar filosofía, como un primer escalón que luego debe llevar a otras perspectivas y, sobre todo, a leer a los propios filósofos.

[Kelton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Immensely important, entirely pointless.

[José Manuel González Pacheco · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rescatado de las profundidades de la biblioteca (con su P.V.P. de 5300 pesetas en el tique) para recordar en estos días lo maravillosa que es la Filosofía verdadera; un clásico absoluto de Julián Marías, en la antigua «@alianza_ed Universidad Textos».

[homoness · Rating 2 out of 5]

The exposition of the ideas of the thinkers presented here is quite well done. However, in terms of historiography the book is exactly what you'd expect from a white dude from the 1940s: a history of lots and lots of other white men. As is custom for this type of historiography, right at the beginning he kicks India and China out of the equation, in order to then proceed to pull off the usual: Presocratics, Aristole, Plato etc., some Roman stuff, Medieval (Aquinas, Scotus), Modern then Descartes, Kant, Hegel, Husserl aaaand it's done. Yeah, so that was apparently philosophy for the past 2500 years. The ideas of some 20 people. A boring historiography with complete disregard for collectives, for writings on the margin, for the influence of media and culture etc.

The defs of philo at the beginning are alright. Nothing unusual here; ofc philo begins with wonder, as Aristotle pointed out and so forth and so forth. Here, philo is truly an ever-reproducing, expansive, ultimately imperial, endeavor.

[Del Herman · Rating 4 out of 5]

A compelling, if sometimes hard to understand, history of philosophy. Marias is an insightful authority on these matters, but often can be somewhat of a self-promoter in his writing, almost always hearkening back to Ortega and the Madrid School (to which he was a member) in his analysis. Still, this book gave me a lot of great insight into the development of philosophy, explained the problems posed by each of the thinkers in great detail, and was able to expose me to a lot of obscure philosophers (especially from Spain) that will definitely be of interest in the future. Even though I think Bertrand Russell's similarly titled volume is a much easier to understand and less opinionated account of the subject, Dr. Marias' study is certainly worth a look for anyone who's interested in philosophy.

[Kessia Reyne · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a book that's served as a standard for classrooms all over the Spanish-speaking world and my Argentine professor assigned the English professor to me. My take? A book with good detail but lives up to every ounce of the reputation that philosophers have for being opaque and wordy. He has a special fondness for some of his own philosopher-professors, but it doesn't seem to get too much in the way of his work.

[Mohammed · Rating 3 out of 5]

it is alright, gives a brief history about the important philosophers. My problem with this book is that some of Latin and Greek sentences are not translated which was very confusing. There are much better books if you are interested in philosophy.

[Jimmy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as good as other books of this nature. Some of Marias's discussions just aren't interesting enough. He fills in a lot of unnecessary details. However, some of his insights are worthwhile.

[Brenton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a bad work, but start with Bryan Magee's "The Story of Philosophy" first.

[Daniel Savo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting look at the history of philosophical thought throughout the ages. Definitely not for people who struggle with that style of thinking.

[gr · Rating 4 out of 5]

notable, ★★★★