What do you think?
Rate this book
Witcraft: The Invention of Philosophy in English
An ambitious new history of philosophy in English that broadens the canon to include many lesser-known figures
Ludwig Wittgenstein once wrote that “philosophy should be written like poetry.” But philosophy has often been presented more prosaically as a long trudge through canonical authors and great works. But what, Jonathan Rée asks, if we instead saw the history of philosophy as a haphazard series of unmapped forest paths, a mass of individual stories showing endurance, inventiveness, bewilderment, anxiety, impatience, and good humor?
Here, Jonathan Rée brilliantly retells this history, covering such figures as Descartes, Locke, Kant, Hegel, Marx, Nietzsche, Mill, James, Frege, Wittgenstein, and Sartre. But he also includes authors not usually associated with philosophy, such as William Hazlitt, George Eliot, Darwin, and W. H. Auden. Above all, he uncovers dozens of unremembered figures—puritans, revolutionaries, pantheists, feminists, nihilists, socialists, and scientists—who were passionate and active readers of philosophy, and often authors themselves. Breaking away from high-altitude narratives, he shows how philosophy finds its way into ordinary lives, enriching and transforming them in unexpected ways.
Ludwig Wittgenstein once wrote that “philosophy should be written like poetry.” But philosophy has often been presented more prosaically as a long trudge through canonical authors and great works. But what, Jonathan Rée asks, if we instead saw the history of philosophy as a haphazard series of unmapped forest paths, a mass of individual stories showing endurance, inventiveness, bewilderment, anxiety, impatience, and good humor?
Here, Jonathan Rée brilliantly retells this history, covering such figures as Descartes, Locke, Kant, Hegel, Marx, Nietzsche, Mill, James, Frege, Wittgenstein, and Sartre. But he also includes authors not usually associated with philosophy, such as William Hazlitt, George Eliot, Darwin, and W. H. Auden. Above all, he uncovers dozens of unremembered figures—puritans, revolutionaries, pantheists, feminists, nihilists, socialists, and scientists—who were passionate and active readers of philosophy, and often authors themselves. Breaking away from high-altitude narratives, he shows how philosophy finds its way into ordinary lives, enriching and transforming them in unexpected ways.
- GenresPhilosophy
768 pages, Paperback
Published October 20, 2020
4 people are currently reading
32 people want to read
About the author
Jonathan Rée
29 books20 followersJonathan Rée is a freelance philosopher who used to teach at Middlesex University in London, but gave up lecturing in order to "have more time to think," and was for many years associated with the magazine Radical Philosophy. His work has appeared in the Times Literary Supplement, the London Review of Books and elsewhere.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
November 12, 2020
This was really long. When I picked it up from the library, I truly did not expect to enjoy reading this history of philosophy. Its long because it pulled together so many threads: language, history, politics, theology, literature, science . . . and all the other bits and bobs that make up philosophy. Not in anyway being a student of philosophy, I guess that was my first lesson -- that philosophy does in one way or another take all other fields into account. Language and words play a large part in how we think. Whether simply how we translate from one language to another (or from one time to another); or what words actually mean (What does meaning mean?). On one level, it feels silly to ask what meaning means (made me think of Bill Clinton and his 'it depends on what it means'), but what does it mean? Does a word mean the same thing to you that it does to me? What does that mean if it doesn't?
This book also seemed to have a certain synchronicity with my life right now. A few months ago, I listened to a literary podcast wherein William James' Variety of Religious Experiences was mentioned. (I thought it fascinating, and put it on my to be read list) - and who pops up here but William James - and i got the full history of Variety of Religious Experiences, and, even more of a stunner for me, that William was Henry's older brother! It was the little unexpected ah-ha moments of this book that kept me plugging through its 650 pages. Chunks were, well, a slog. Wittgenstein played a huge part in the book, and honestly, I had no interest in the guy or his (to me) in intelligible ideas. Bertrand Russell also plays a huge part, and, while he was easier to understand, he was not very likeable as a person. In fact, all those aristocratic college guys seemed like jerks. I guess Wittgenstein and I agreed on that much, we have no love for bureaucrats.
I also didn't see George Eliot coming . . .that was a pretty good part as well.
I learned a ton from this book - allowed me to put personalities and events to all the "names" involved in philosophy I've come across in my years of other reading. Once I can put a personality to a name, remembering what their ideas are is so much easier.
This book also seemed to have a certain synchronicity with my life right now. A few months ago, I listened to a literary podcast wherein William James' Variety of Religious Experiences was mentioned. (I thought it fascinating, and put it on my to be read list) - and who pops up here but William James - and i got the full history of Variety of Religious Experiences, and, even more of a stunner for me, that William was Henry's older brother! It was the little unexpected ah-ha moments of this book that kept me plugging through its 650 pages. Chunks were, well, a slog. Wittgenstein played a huge part in the book, and honestly, I had no interest in the guy or his (to me) in intelligible ideas. Bertrand Russell also plays a huge part, and, while he was easier to understand, he was not very likeable as a person. In fact, all those aristocratic college guys seemed like jerks. I guess Wittgenstein and I agreed on that much, we have no love for bureaucrats.
I also didn't see George Eliot coming . . .that was a pretty good part as well.
I learned a ton from this book - allowed me to put personalities and events to all the "names" involved in philosophy I've come across in my years of other reading. Once I can put a personality to a name, remembering what their ideas are is so much easier.
Displaying 1 of 1 review