I bought pic related at a thrift shop for 1 €. I dimly recollect that Veeky Forums hates it...

I bought pic related at a thrift shop for 1 €. I dimly recollect that Veeky Forums hates it. Somebody care to explain what's wrong with it? I just started reading the introduction.

Fuck Veeky Forums. it's a great read.

Russell did not even try to be unbiased

It's not only Veeky Forums, you just have to use Google, at best it's very controversial, I would never waste time on it personally when I can instead choose Copleston.

(un)biased towards what?

Philosophers he liked/disliked or agreed/disagreed with

>you just have to use Google
you were right. so, is it a complete waste of time or does it have at least have some redeeming value?

Russell was a smart man and you will get a decent overview of western philosophy. It will just come with his biases pre-installed.

>Copleston
11 volumes, fuck, isn't there a more concise way to get just an introduction into western philosophy that is alo worthwile?

He barely read and didn't even try to understand half of the philosophers he talks about. Failing at nearly every philosophical endeavor he himself had attempted, he decided to frame philosophy itself as essentially a failure. He is largely responsible for this being the predominant view today.

If you want to join some kind of analytical circlejerk where you don't need to have any knowledge of "outside" philosophers but you all like to look down on them it's pretty good I guess.

...

i just need an introduction as a general overview before starting to get deeper into philosophy. russell's book (or any other introduction for that matter) will not be the end of my journey into philosophy.

Well if you want to get into philosophy it's actually time consuming and hard as hell contrary to what Veeky Forums says usually since every work is mostly related to the works before it. If you want just an overlook you can use Wikipedia for the most famous ones.

First of all, it is extremely biased. For instance, Russell deems German idealism worthless. He politicizes philosophy in the most irritating manner - by projecting his own views, shamelessly devalorizing anything that doesn't fit his agenda. I still remember how Russell opens the chapter on Leibniz with the claim that Leibniz was an awful person. Not to mention Russell's terrible style. There is no need for wasting more words, A History of Western Philosophy is a detestable piece of trash. Read it and see for yourself.

Then just go for Copleston, he is the best there is for history of philosophy, you don't need any knowledge to understand his 1st volume, he builds up everything from the start.
If you want you can read the primary sources he mentions but even just going through his books will give you a pretty good idea of every important philosopher and movement in general.

Anthony Kenny

Just start with the damn Greeks. Fucking brainlets, wanting to be spoofed before everything they do.

It's really bad. If you don't know anything about philosophy already, you might believe him and become retarded.

oy vey 11 volumes? 11 FUCKING VOLUMES?? I want my philosophy NOW. I WANT short articles, I WANT podcasts, and I WANT SHORT BOOKS. FUCK copleston just give ME my instant philosophy NOW.

you have no idea how ridiculous you sound, fucking spergs.

At that bulk you might as well just read the classics themselves

It's like 4-5 thousand pages, nowhere near the complete works of the most important philosophers, also you might as well read the analysis of somebody who has knowledge of the whole field of philosophy first so you won't miss necessary pieces and in the meantime you can also think about his arguments to improve your analysis.

Hegel, Nietzsche, Kierkegaard, Augustine, Aquinas, alongside simply leaving out many "in-between" philosophers.

I'm close the 10k pages read this year alone, obviously you need more time to process philosophy but it's not that bad.

I also like how he tried to remove elements of Christianity in his philosophy as something he was forced to do.

Just listen to a History Of Philosophy Without Any Gap at 1.5x speed. The dude is a bit quirky but you come away with a decent working knowledge