The Progress of Philosophy

This book differs from other introductory philosophy readers in offering substantial selections from just seven philosophers—Plato, René Descartes, Thomas Hobbes, George Berkeley, David Hume, Charles Sanders Peirce, and W.V. Quine—in chronological order. The extensive commentary, interspersed throughout the selections, in addition to helping students over the difficult parts, relates each philosopher to elements of their social and scientific milieu—Plato to geometry, Descartes to planetary astronomy, Hobbes to the English civil war, Berkeley and Hume to Newton, Peirce to Darwin. The objective is to show philosophers organizing their philosophical, social and scientific beliefs into a coherent picture of the world and man’s place in it.