Western Philosophy History Volume 2

Author: (English) Bertrand Russell, translated by Ma Yuande
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2001-11-12
Features: Our library has always attached great importance to translating academic masterpieces from all over the world. Since the 1950s, we have been dedicated to translating and publishing classical academic works that predate the birth of Marxism, while appropriately introducing representative works of contemporary well-established schools. Thanks to the tireless support of authors and translators, we have published no fewer than three hundred titles over the past three decades. We firmly believe that only by enriching our minds with the entire wealth of human knowledge can we build a modern socialist society. The intellectual and academic value contained in these books is well-known among scholars and needs no elaboration. These translations were previously published as separate volumes, making it difficult to see the bigger picture. Collecting them into a series will enhance their overall impact, making them more convenient for study and reference, as well as contributing to cultural accumulation. For this reason, we have started to publish them in installments this year. Due to current printing capabilities, we are currently publishing fifty titles, and plan to gradually expand the series in the future, so that after several years, the systematic nature will become apparent. As we are using the original typesetting, the translations have not been re-edited, and the formatting is not entirely uniform. We have retained all usable prefaces and postfaces from the original translations, with only a few exceptions corrected or removed. The reading community fully understands the need to approach these works with a correct analytical attitude, extracting their valuable essence while discarding outdated or unsuitable content—this requires no further explanation from us. We hope to receive criticism and suggestions from scholars and translators at home and abroad to help us produce this series to the best of our ability.
The period commonly referred to as the "modern era" differs significantly from the medieval period in terms of people's thoughts and perspectives. Two important changes took place: the decline of the church's authority and the gradual rise of scientific authority. Other divisions are all closely related to these two points. Modern culture can be better described as secular rather than monastic. The state increasingly replaced the church as the dominant force in cultural governance. The supreme power of governance in each nation initially rested with kings, but later, as in ancient Greece, kings were gradually replaced by democratic states.