Spirit of Western Philosophy (Illustrated Edition)

Author: He Zhaowu
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-01-01
Features: This small book was originally prepared from three lectures given to undergraduate students of the Chinese Department at Tsinghua University last year. It is nearly impossible to provide a concise and comprehensive introduction to Western philosophy for non-professional students in just three classroom sessions. For this reason, I intentionally minimized the discussion of philosophical issues themselves, making it very limited, while conversely giving more, perhaps too much, emphasis on the general historical background. According to the arrangements of the relevant authorities, the lecture content was to be published as a book by Tsinghua University Press for reference by the students. However, the publishing house required each book to meet a certain length, otherwise it would be difficult to cover costs. But this course only consisted of three lectures, and the written text was only about 70,000 to 80,000 words, so I added several related articles to supplement the content. Based on an analysis and evaluation of the theories and viewpoints of famous figures and schools in the history of Western philosophy from ancient to modern times, the author explains certain characteristics of Western philosophy and culture from a comparative perspective of China and the West. Additionally, this book includes selected excerpts from representative works of classic Western philosophy. The book is both accessible and profound, compiling the author's many years of research insights and experiences, making it suitable for undergraduate and graduate students of various disciplines, as well as the general public interested in Western philosophy.