Medieval Philosophy: A New History of Western Philosophyvolume 2

By Anthony Kenny

Book Overview

Sir Anthony Kenny here continues his fascinating account of the history of philosophy, focusing on the thousand-year-long medieval period. This is the second volume of a four-book set in which Kenny will unfold a magisterial new history of Western philosophy, the first major single-author history of philosophy to appear in decades.
In this volume, Kenny takes us on a fascinating tour through more than a millennium of thought from 400 AD onwards, charting the story of philosophy from the founders of Christian and Islamic thought through to the Renaissance. The Middle Ages saw a great flourishing of philosophy, and the intellectual endeavor of the era reaches its climax in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, with the systems of the great schoolmen such as Thomas Aquinas and John Duns Scotus. With Kenny as guide, we see these major philosophers through the eyes of a man who has spent a lifetime contemplating their work. Thus we do not simply get an overview of philosophy, but also a penetrating and insightful critique of it. Kenny offers an illuminating account of various thinkers and schools of thought, from Augustine to Maimonides and from Grosseteste to Pomponazzi. And he offers much insight into medieval thinking about logic and language, knowledge, physics, metaphysics, the mind, the soul, and God.
Vividly written, but serious and deep enough to offer a genuine understanding of the great philosophers, Kenny's lucid and stimulating history will become the definitive work for anyone interested in the people and ideas that shaped the course of Western thought.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 019875275X
• ISBN13: 9780198752752
• Release Date: September 2005
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 1.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 9.3" x 6.3"

Customer Reviews

Good Introduction to Medieval Philosophy

Just like the first volume I've enjoyed reading this work on Medieval Philosophy. For a casual student of philosophy this is probably as light an introduction as can be imagined. Anything less and it would miss out on a lot of important details. But it's a good book to start your studies in philosophy and follow up with something a bit more in-depth.

Great overall reference!

I took classes in philosophy for years and I have to say that I was very surprised with this book. Kenny has a great knack for rephrasing the arguments of the Schoolmen in modern philosophical vocabulary without loss of substance. You'll be shocked by how relevant medieval philosophy really is; I'm a little angry undergrad students aren't made more aware of this material. This book accomplishes what every history aspires to: you close the book feel well-informed and freshly energized about the craft of philosophy. The only minor downsides to the book are stylistic. A few strangely-worded cultural references make you feel like you're listening to 'Old Man Kenny' on occasion. More seriously, there are some instances where it's a little hard to follow the narrative voice, leaving you unsure at first where critical exposition ends and judgment begins. Thankfully, though, these defects are minimal in number and effect. Anyone with a moderate interest in philosophy will find this a worthwhile purchase.

A Good Resource

A good introductory survey of philosophical topics as they were treated by various medieval thinkers throughout the entire period, from late antiquity and the commentators of Aristotle, to the inception of the humanists. The survey combines what is properly called intellectual history and philosophy proper. The historical aspect is kept to a minimum (as it ought to be in a philosophy book) without sacrificing salient features of the historical context in which the topic under discussion occurred. The philosophy, on the other hand, is more developed and Kenny has an emphasis on concept explanation, as opposed to explicating arguments; though he does do both at times. This includes the following topics: God, Mind and Soul, Logic and Language, Knowledge, Physics, Metaphysics, Ethics, as well as an excellent treatment of philosophy and religious belief from Augustine to Maimonides,and scholasticism from the twelfth century renaissance (Abelard and the 'nominales' school) to the so-called renaissance proper (roughly 1360-1550), at which point scholasticism began to give way to the new schoolman, the humanists. Kenny is especially good at explaining the intellectual current of a given period and how such a current has bearing on the topic at hand, this is particularly seen in his discussion of physics. As such, the historical context of each topic and its subsequent development is presented thoroughly but briefly; however, little attention is given to the explication of any particular thinker's arguments on any given topics. For that reason, you will find little critical analysis of the particular arguments presented. All in all it's an excellent work, written clearly and informatively, by a very capable philosopher. It's a good introduction for undergraduates at the freshman and sophomore level. But if you've had more than a survey course in medieval philosophy, you need something with a bit more depth.

A Pleasure

The book expounds the main ideas of the medieval thinkers with great clarity and a pleasing lightness of touch. The book is not only a pleasure to read but to hold and look at. Author and publisher have both done an excellent job.