ANTHONY KENNY has held many prestigious titles over the course of his career, including Master of Balliol College, Oxford; Warden of Rhodes House, Oxford; President of the British Academy; President of the Royal Institute of Philosophy; and Chair of the Board of the British Library. With over fifty books published in his career, his most recent works are The Enlightenment: A Very Short History (2017) and a memoir, Brief Encounters, to be published in September 2018.

• Preface xiList of Illustrations xvAcknowledgements xviiIntroduction xixI PHILOSOPHY IN ITS INFANCY 1The Milesians 3Xenophanes 5Heraclitus 6The School of Parmenides 8Empedocles 14The Atomists 17II THE ATHENS OF SOCRATES 20The Athenian Empire 20Anaxagoras 22The Sophists 22Socrates 24The Euthyphro 26The Crito 29The Phaedo 30III THE PHILOSOPHY OF PLATO 36Life and Works 36The Theory of Ideas 38Plato’s Republic 41The Theaetetus and the Sophist 50IV THE SYSTEM OF ARISTOTLE 57Plato’s Pupil, Alexander’s Teacher 57The Foundation of Logic 59The Theory of Drama 63Moral Philosophy: Virtue and Happiness 64Moral Philosophy: Wisdom and Understanding 68Politics 71Science and Explanation 72Words and Things 74Motion and Change 76Soul, Sense, and Intellect 78Metaphysics 81V GREEK PHILOSOPHY AFTER ARISTOTLE 85The Hellenistic Era 85Epicureanism 87Stoicism 89Scepticism 91Rome and its Empire 93Jesus of Nazareth 94Christianity and Gnosticism 96Neo-Platonism 99VI EARLY CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHY 102Arianism and Orthodoxy 102The Theology of Incarnation 105The Life of Augustine 107The City of God and the Mystery of Grace 110Boethius and Philoponus 113VII EARLY MEDIEVAL PHILOSOPHY 118John the Scot 118Alkindi and Avicenna 121The Feudal System 123Saint Anselm 124Abelard and Héloïse 126Abelard’s Logic 128Abelard’s Ethics 130Averroes 131Maimonides 133VIII PHILOSOPHY IN THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY 135An Age of Innovation 135Saint Bonaventure 138Thirteenth-Century Logic 140Aquinas’ Life and Works 141Aquinas’ Natural Theology 143Matter, Form, Substance, and Accident 145Aquinas on Essence and Existence 147Aquinas’ Philosophy of Mind 148Aquinas’ Moral Philosophy 149IX OXFORD PHILOSOPHERS 154The Fourteenth-Century University 154Duns Scotus 155Ockham’s Logic of Language 162Ockham’s Political Theory 164The Oxford Calculators 167John Wyclif 168X RENAISSANCE PHILOSOPHY 171The Renaissance 171Free-will: Rome vs. Louvain 172Renaissance Platonism 175Machiavelli 176More’s Utopia 179The Reformation 181Post-Reformation Philosophy 185Bruno and Galileo 187Francis Bacon 189XI THE AGE OF DESCARTES 194The Wars of Religion 194The Life of Descartes 195The Doubt and the Cogito 198The Essence of Mind 200God, Mind, and Body 201The Material World 20XII ENGLISH PHILOSOPHY IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY 209The Empiricism of Thomas Hobbes 209Hobbes’ Political Philosophy 211The Political Theory of John Locke 214Locke on Ideas and Qualities 216Substances and Persons 219XIII CONTINENTAL PHILOSOPHY IN THE AGE OF LOUIS XIV 224Blaise Pascal 224Spinoza and Malebranche 227Leibniz 232XIV BRITISH PHILOSOPHY IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 237Berkeley 237Hume’s Philosophy of Mind 242Hume on Causation 246Reid and Common Sense 248XV THE ENLIGHTENMENT 251The Philosophes 251Rousseau 252Revolution and Romanticism 256XVI THE CRITICAL PHILOSOPHY OF KANT 259Kant’s Copernican Revolution 259The Transcendental Aesthetic 261The Transcendental Analytic: The Deduction of the Categories 263The Transcendental Analytic: The System of Principles 266The Transcendental Dialectic: The Paralogisms of Pure Reason 269The Transcendental Dialectic: The Antinomies of Pure Reason 271The Transcendental Dialectic: The Critique of Natural Theology 274Kant’s Moral Philosophy 276XVII GERMAN IDEALISM AND MATERIALISM 280Fichte 280Hegel 281Marx and the Young Hegelians 285Capitalism and its Discontents 287XVIII THE UTILITARIANS 290Jeremy Bentham 290The Utilitarianism of J. S. Mill 295Mill’s Logic 297XIX THREE NINETEENTH-CENTURY PHILOSOPHERS 301Schopenhauer 301Kierkegaard 307Nietzsche 310XX THREE MODERN MASTERS 313Charles Darwin 313John Henry Newman 318Sigmund Freud 322XXI LOGIC AND THE FOUNDATIONS OF MATHEMATICS 329Frege’s Logic 329Frege’s Logicism 331Frege’s Philosophy of Logic 334Russell’s Paradox 335Russell’s Theory of Descriptions 337Logical Analysis 340XXII CONTINENTAL PHILOSOPHY IN THE EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURY 342Henri Bergson 342Husserl’s Phenomenology 347The Existentialism of Heidegger 349The Existentialism of Sartre and de Beauvoir 351XXIII THE PHILOSOPHY OF WITTGENSTEIN 356Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus 356Logical Positivism 359Philosophical Investigations 361XXIV RECENT CONTINENTAL PHILOSOPHY 372The Frankfurt School 372Jacques Derrida 379Jurgen Habermas 382XXV RECENT ANALYTIC PHILOSOPHY 388Elizabeth Anscombe 389W. V. O. Quine 390Donald Davidson 393Peter Geach 394Peter Strawson 396American Metaphysics 397The Cartesian Revival 399Analytical Ethics 401John Rawls 405Richard Rorty 406Afterword 409Suggestions for Further Reading 412Index 421

ANTHONY KENNY has held many prestigious titles over the course of his career, including Master of Balliol College, Oxford; Warden of Rhodes House, Oxford; President of the British Academy; President of the Royal Institute of Philosophy; and Chair of the Board of the British Library. With over fifty books published in his career, his most recent works are The Enlightenment: A Very Short History (2017) and a memoir, Brief Encounters, to be published in September 2018.

• Preface xiList of Illustrations xvAcknowledgements xviiIntroduction xixI PHILOSOPHY IN ITS INFANCY 1The Milesians 3Xenophanes 5Heraclitus 6The School of Parmenides 8Empedocles 14The Atomists 17II THE ATHENS OF SOCRATES 20The Athenian Empire 20Anaxagoras 22The Sophists 22Socrates 24The Euthyphro 26The Crito 29The Phaedo 30III THE PHILOSOPHY OF PLATO 36Life and Works 36The Theory of Ideas 38Plato’s Republic 41The Theaetetus and the Sophist 50IV THE SYSTEM OF ARISTOTLE 57Plato’s Pupil, Alexander’s Teacher 57The Foundation of Logic 59The Theory of Drama 63Moral Philosophy: Virtue and Happiness 64Moral Philosophy: Wisdom and Understanding 68Politics 71Science and Explanation 72Words and Things 74Motion and Change 76Soul, Sense, and Intellect 78Metaphysics 81V GREEK PHILOSOPHY AFTER ARISTOTLE 85The Hellenistic Era 85Epicureanism 87Stoicism 89Scepticism 91Rome and its Empire 93Jesus of Nazareth 94Christianity and Gnosticism 96Neo-Platonism 99VI EARLY CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHY 102Arianism and Orthodoxy 102The Theology of Incarnation 105The Life of Augustine 107The City of God and the Mystery of Grace 110Boethius and Philoponus 113VII EARLY MEDIEVAL PHILOSOPHY 118John the Scot 118Alkindi and Avicenna 121The Feudal System 123Saint Anselm 124Abelard and Héloïse 126Abelard’s Logic 128Abelard’s Ethics 130Averroes 131Maimonides 133VIII PHILOSOPHY IN THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY 135An Age of Innovation 135Saint Bonaventure 138Thirteenth-Century Logic 140Aquinas’ Life and Works 141Aquinas’ Natural Theology 143Matter, Form, Substance, and Accident 145Aquinas on Essence and Existence 147Aquinas’ Philosophy of Mind 148Aquinas’ Moral Philosophy 149IX OXFORD PHILOSOPHERS 154The Fourteenth-Century University 154Duns Scotus 155Ockham’s Logic of Language 162Ockham’s Political Theory 164The Oxford Calculators 167John Wyclif 168X RENAISSANCE PHILOSOPHY 171The Renaissance 171Free-will: Rome vs. Louvain 172Renaissance Platonism 175Machiavelli 176More’s Utopia 179The Reformation 181Post-Reformation Philosophy 185Bruno and Galileo 187Francis Bacon 189XI THE AGE OF DESCARTES 194The Wars of Religion 194The Life of Descartes 195The Doubt and the Cogito 198The Essence of Mind 200God, Mind, and Body 201The Material World 20XII ENGLISH PHILOSOPHY IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY 209The Empiricism of Thomas Hobbes 209Hobbes’ Political Philosophy 211The Political Theory of John Locke 214Locke on Ideas and Qualities 216Substances and Persons 219XIII CONTINENTAL PHILOSOPHY IN THE AGE OF LOUIS XIV 224Blaise Pascal 224Spinoza and Malebranche 227Leibniz 232XIV BRITISH PHILOSOPHY IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 237Berkeley 237Hume’s Philosophy of Mind 242Hume on Causation 246Reid and Common Sense 248XV THE ENLIGHTENMENT 251The Philosophes 251Rousseau 252Revolution and Romanticism 256XVI THE CRITICAL PHILOSOPHY OF KANT 259Kant’s Copernican Revolution 259The Transcendental Aesthetic 261The Transcendental Analytic: The Deduction of the Categories 263The Transcendental Analytic: The System of Principles 266The Transcendental Dialectic: The Paralogisms of Pure Reason 269The Transcendental Dialectic: The Antinomies of Pure Reason 271The Transcendental Dialectic: The Critique of Natural Theology 274Kant’s Moral Philosophy 276XVII GERMAN IDEALISM AND MATERIALISM 280Fichte 280Hegel 281Marx and the Young Hegelians 285Capitalism and its Discontents 287XVIII THE UTILITARIANS 290Jeremy Bentham 290The Utilitarianism of J. S. Mill 295Mill’s Logic 297XIX THREE NINETEENTH-CENTURY PHILOSOPHERS 301Schopenhauer 301Kierkegaard 307Nietzsche 310XX THREE MODERN MASTERS 313Charles Darwin 313John Henry Newman 318Sigmund Freud 322XXI LOGIC AND THE FOUNDATIONS OF MATHEMATICS 329Frege’s Logic 329Frege’s Logicism 331Frege’s Philosophy of Logic 334Russell’s Paradox 335Russell’s Theory of Descriptions 337Logical Analysis 340XXII CONTINENTAL PHILOSOPHY IN THE EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURY 342Henri Bergson 342Husserl’s Phenomenology 347The Existentialism of Heidegger 349The Existentialism of Sartre and de Beauvoir 351XXIII THE PHILOSOPHY OF WITTGENSTEIN 356Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus 356Logical Positivism 359Philosophical Investigations 361XXIV RECENT CONTINENTAL PHILOSOPHY 372The Frankfurt School 372Jacques Derrida 379Jurgen Habermas 382XXV RECENT ANALYTIC PHILOSOPHY 388Elizabeth Anscombe 389W. V. O. Quine 390Donald Davidson 393Peter Geach 394Peter Strawson 396American Metaphysics 397The Cartesian Revival 399Analytical Ethics 401John Rawls 405Richard Rorty 406Afterword 409Suggestions for Further Reading 412Index 421

ANTHONY KENNY has held many prestigious titles over the course of his career, including Master of Balliol College, Oxford; Warden of Rhodes House, Oxford; President of the British Academy; President of the Royal Institute of Philosophy; and Chair of the Board of the British Library. With over fifty books published in his career, his most recent works are The Enlightenment: A Very Short History (2017) and a memoir, Brief Encounters, to be published in September 2018.

• Preface xiList of Illustrations xvAcknowledgements xviiIntroduction xixI PHILOSOPHY IN ITS INFANCY 1The Milesians 3Xenophanes 5Heraclitus 6The School of Parmenides 8Empedocles 14The Atomists 17II THE ATHENS OF SOCRATES 20The Athenian Empire 20Anaxagoras 22The Sophists 22Socrates 24The Euthyphro 26The Crito 29The Phaedo 30III THE PHILOSOPHY OF PLATO 36Life and Works 36The Theory of Ideas 38Plato’s Republic 41The Theaetetus and the Sophist 50IV THE SYSTEM OF ARISTOTLE 57Plato’s Pupil, Alexander’s Teacher 57The Foundation of Logic 59The Theory of Drama 63Moral Philosophy: Virtue and Happiness 64Moral Philosophy: Wisdom and Understanding 68Politics 71Science and Explanation 72Words and Things 74Motion and Change 76Soul, Sense, and Intellect 78Metaphysics 81V GREEK PHILOSOPHY AFTER ARISTOTLE 85The Hellenistic Era 85Epicureanism 87Stoicism 89Scepticism 91Rome and its Empire 93Jesus of Nazareth 94Christianity and Gnosticism 96Neo-Platonism 99VI EARLY CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHY 102Arianism and Orthodoxy 102The Theology of Incarnation 105The Life of Augustine 107The City of God and the Mystery of Grace 110Boethius and Philoponus 113VII EARLY MEDIEVAL PHILOSOPHY 118John the Scot 118Alkindi and Avicenna 121The Feudal System 123Saint Anselm 124Abelard and Héloïse 126Abelard’s Logic 128Abelard’s Ethics 130Averroes 131Maimonides 133VIII PHILOSOPHY IN THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY 135An Age of Innovation 135Saint Bonaventure 138Thirteenth-Century Logic 140Aquinas’ Life and Works 141Aquinas’ Natural Theology 143Matter, Form, Substance, and Accident 145Aquinas on Essence and Existence 147Aquinas’ Philosophy of Mind 148Aquinas’ Moral Philosophy 149IX OXFORD PHILOSOPHERS 154The Fourteenth-Century University 154Duns Scotus 155Ockham’s Logic of Language 162Ockham’s Political Theory 164The Oxford Calculators 167John Wyclif 168X RENAISSANCE PHILOSOPHY 171The Renaissance 171Free-will: Rome vs. Louvain 172Renaissance Platonism 175Machiavelli 176More’s Utopia 179The Reformation 181Post-Reformation Philosophy 185Bruno and Galileo 187Francis Bacon 189XI THE AGE OF DESCARTES 194The Wars of Religion 194The Life of Descartes 195The Doubt and the Cogito 198The Essence of Mind 200God, Mind, and Body 201The Material World 20XII ENGLISH PHILOSOPHY IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY 209The Empiricism of Thomas Hobbes 209Hobbes’ Political Philosophy 211The Political Theory of John Locke 214Locke on Ideas and Qualities 216Substances and Persons 219XIII CONTINENTAL PHILOSOPHY IN THE AGE OF LOUIS XIV 224Blaise Pascal 224Spinoza and Malebranche 227Leibniz 232XIV BRITISH PHILOSOPHY IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 237Berkeley 237Hume’s Philosophy of Mind 242Hume on Causation 246Reid and Common Sense 248XV THE ENLIGHTENMENT 251The Philosophes 251Rousseau 252Revolution and Romanticism 256XVI THE CRITICAL PHILOSOPHY OF KANT 259Kant’s Copernican Revolution 259The Transcendental Aesthetic 261The Transcendental Analytic: The Deduction of the Categories 263The Transcendental Analytic: The System of Principles 266The Transcendental Dialectic: The Paralogisms of Pure Reason 269The Transcendental Dialectic: The Antinomies of Pure Reason 271The Transcendental Dialectic: The Critique of Natural Theology 274Kant’s Moral Philosophy 276XVII GERMAN IDEALISM AND MATERIALISM 280Fichte 280Hegel 281Marx and the Young Hegelians 285Capitalism and its Discontents 287XVIII THE UTILITARIANS 290Jeremy Bentham 290The Utilitarianism of J. S. Mill 295Mill’s Logic 297XIX THREE NINETEENTH-CENTURY PHILOSOPHERS 301Schopenhauer 301Kierkegaard 307Nietzsche 310XX THREE MODERN MASTERS 313Charles Darwin 313John Henry Newman 318Sigmund Freud 322XXI LOGIC AND THE FOUNDATIONS OF MATHEMATICS 329Frege’s Logic 329Frege’s Logicism 331Frege’s Philosophy of Logic 334Russell’s Paradox 335Russell’s Theory of Descriptions 337Logical Analysis 340XXII CONTINENTAL PHILOSOPHY IN THE EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURY 342Henri Bergson 342Husserl’s Phenomenology 347The Existentialism of Heidegger 349The Existentialism of Sartre and de Beauvoir 351XXIII THE PHILOSOPHY OF WITTGENSTEIN 356Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus 356Logical Positivism 359Philosophical Investigations 361XXIV RECENT CONTINENTAL PHILOSOPHY 372The Frankfurt School 372Jacques Derrida 379Jurgen Habermas 382XXV RECENT ANALYTIC PHILOSOPHY 388Elizabeth Anscombe 389W. V. O. Quine 390Donald Davidson 393Peter Geach 394Peter Strawson 396American Metaphysics 397The Cartesian Revival 399Analytical Ethics 401John Rawls 405Richard Rorty 406Afterword 409Suggestions for Further Reading 412Index 421