Just bought this as an introduction to philosophy. Did I fall for a meme?

Just bought this as an introduction to philosophy. Did I fall for a meme?

Yes

No, you bought the best history on the topic ever written.

Don't let the memesters tell you different.

It's very opiniated and biased and that's not something you want from an introductory textbook. But it's well written and quite ambitious in scope

Is it objective or does russell editorialize?

Also sorry for leaving my trip on

Russell pls go

The book is very biased and shouldn't be used at all, let alone for introduction.

It's just a giant steaming pile of shit. Just read Plato complete works my nigga.

It's not objective, Rusell was a guy that thought every kind of philosophy he doesn't like or understand is just shit. That doesn't inherently make a it bad book but it makes it a bad introduction if you can't tell where he is just shitting on people.

Yes. You should read Coppleston's collection.

...

100% meme.

He-he-he-heeeee!

I believe most, if not all who post about this here, are strongly discouraged by people to buy it. Go for Kenny or Copleston instead.

He seems to have written it mostly by memory or guesswork, and quotes a few other histories here and there. It is almost as if he wrote it in a prison cell over two weeks.

No, it's pretty great. It's fairly clear that everyone who says it's shit hasn't actually read it.

I don't know

I agree. It's like eating shit. Those who don't like it obviously never tried.

I enjoyed it and learned a lot. I would guess most of the commenters here haven't read it since it's a 700 page doorstop, but it really is very good, as long as you take it with a pinch of "Russell-opinion" salt. It's quite easy to tell when he's voicing his thoughts vs historical fact and discussion, and he has some top quality banter thrown in. One of my favourite books on philosophy.

"Top quality banter"
"obviously people who I don't like can't have possibly had reasons for their stances beyond psychology, which means of course that st. Augustine converted to Christianity because his mother was nagging him"
-Bertnard Russel

His Nietzsche vs Buddha part is so bad it's good. Look forward to it

Hegel is an indecipherable hack though, so he got that right