Is hubris detectable in the title? It’s not A History of Philosophy but The History of Philosophy, as if the author lays claim to the authoritative account. Covering his subject in nearly 700 pages, Oxford’s A.C. Graying can certainly be credited for the scope of his achievement as well as his ambition. Grayling describes and sometimes critiques ideas from the pre-Socratics through the postmodernists—hundreds of thinkers are covered in clear, descriptive prose—and addresses philosophy as a method of thinking, a coherent body of thoughts and a way of living. He admittedly devotes most of The History to what we are pleased to think of as Western philosophy, with its ancient Greek origins, reserving comments on other civilizations for a few short chapters. Grayling takes pains to detach philosophy from religion but finds he cannot separate many of the philosophers from religious conceptions.
What’s striking in The History of Philosophy is the lack of agreement among philosophers as they grapple with meaning and truth through the finite resources of human language and reason. Perhaps we can do no better than repeat the paradox of the Cretan, cited by Grayling, who says that all Cretans are liars.
