A History of Western Philosophy

by D.W. Hamlyn

Looks at the major philosophers from Socrates and Plato to Heidegger and Sartre, and traces the development of central philosophical themes

Genres: Philosophy, History, Nonfiction

352 pages, Hardcover

First published July 17, 1987

Reviews

[Ostap Bender]

Very dry. Reading portions of this was like licking dust. Certainly not a lively topic to begin with, and Hamlyn does not bring it to life in any way. I haven’t found it valuable as a reference either.

[Paul Girdler]

A fair and well-structured review of Western philosophy from the pre-Socratics to the last quarter of the last century, but rather dry and somewhat dated. Surprised given the authors field of interests there was no mention of the Würzburg School and Denkpsychologie, but I thought it was particularly good on drawing the relationship between Hegel and Marx and it was pleasing to see the latter treated as a philosopher.

[Belle Meade School]

190

[Martyn Lovell]

This book covers the history of "western" philosophy from the Ancient Greeks to the present day. This is a topic I am interested in. However, the writing style was pretty dry and the coverage of ideas pretty rapid. Perhaps this is just too short space (350 pages) to cover this material. I gave up after 100 pages.

Not recommended. There must be something better in this space.

[István Márton]

Hamlyn is one of the bests in this field of study. The book is concise, but it's not up-to-date in many cases and I consider new books are available, that keep a track of the newest researches.
Still, a very good book for all those who would like to have a general idea of the given theme.