A Comprehensive History of Western Philosophy (Modern Philosophy Volume)

Author: Chang Jian, Li Guoshan (editors)
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-07-01
Features: This is a Western philosophy textbook written for undergraduate philosophy majors in universities. Based on years of teaching experience, we strive to make it a good textbook. By "good textbook," we mean one that is suitable for students' learning. Why do students use textbooks? First, for previewing before class—to see what interesting or challenging content is included. Therefore, the textbook should be engaging, not too dry, yet challenging enough to provoke questions. Second, for reviewing after class—to clarify points the teacher didn’t explain clearly or what the student didn’t fully grasp, consolidating what was learned. Thus, the textbook should be well-organized, with clear highlights, making it easy for students to review and master, rather than just reflecting the teacher's personal style, which might leave students lost. Third, for further research—to deepen understanding of ideas and perspectives that interest them and to find pathways for further exploration. Therefore, the textbook should be rich in content, guiding students' further research, and in style, it should resemble the original works of philosophers, serving as a bridge for students to approach Western philosophers rather than a barrier. Based on this, we have positioned this textbook between the teacher's lecture notes and the original works of philosophers. It aligns with the teacher's lecture flow while connecting students to the original readings. It is more substantial and comprehensive than lecture notes but easier to read and grasp than original texts. This gives the textbook the following structure and features:
1. Modern Western philosophy is diverse and complex. To help students grasp the main threads, we categorize the development of modern Western philosophical thought into five major lines from the perspective of problems and methods:
1. "The Challenge to Traditional Rationalism": It covers the transition from modern to contemporary philosophical problems, with methods closer to traditional philosophy.
2. "The Analysis of Meaning and the Demarcation of Science": It involves issues of analytic philosophy and philosophy of science, with the dominant method being modern analytical methods.
3. "Phenomenological Revelation of Consciousness, Existence, and Truth": It covers phenomenology, existential philosophy, and philosophical hermeneutics, with the dominant method being phenomenological methods.
4. "Dialectical Critique of Society and the Construction of Political Norms": It involves Western Marxism and social and political philosophy, with the dominant method being dialectical methods.
5. "From Structure to Deconstruction": It covers structuralism, deconstructionism, and postmodernism, with the dominant method being structural and deconstructive methods.
2. To help students focus on key points, we design titles that highlight the distinctive features of each philosopher's views and explicitly state the key takeaways for each chapter at the beginning.
3. To enable students to understand the philosophers' thoughts more specifically, deeply, and accurately, we not only discuss the philosophical views proposed by the philosophers but also delve into the arguments they used to support their ideas and critiques from other philosophers.
4. To facilitate further reading of the philosophers' original works, we not only list further reading materials at the end of each section but also adopt the philosophers' own concepts and narrative styles in our writing. We also include the foreign names of key philosophers and, where possible, the original foreign terms for important philosophical concepts.