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A Brief Presentation of Philosophy and Its History

Two Basic Questions

  • Book
  • © 2024

Overview

Authors:
  1. Ulrich Steinvorth

    1. University of Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany

  • Offers a new way of thinking about the history of philosophy
  • Focusses on the questions of meaning and being
  • Explores how the answers to these questions have changed throughout the history of philosophy

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About this book

This book presents philosophy as a historical series of answers to two questions: the meaning question (what does it all mean?) and the reality question (what is real rather than illusory?). Presenting philosophy as a historical series of answers to these two questions gives a new view of philosophy. It reveals a coherence between the disparate problems of philosophy which is not apparent when philosophy is approached in a systematic and timeless manner.

On the basis of this historical approach, the book argues that philosophy was initially concerned primarily with the nature of reality but changed its focus when science was established as a separate discipline in the 17th century. Philosophy’s main concern is now the meaning question with a focus on questions of value as discussed in moral and political philosophy and in aesthetics.

This book is essential reading for all scholars and researchers in philosophy and especially those interested in the history of philosophy.

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Table of contents (12 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-vi
    Download chapter PDF

  2. What This Essay Aims at

    • Ulrich Steinvorth
    Pages 1-5

  3. The Reality Question, Science, or From Thales to Aristotle

    • Ulrich Steinvorth
    Pages 7-13

  4. Plato, or the Inebriant Answer to the Reality Question

    • Ulrich Steinvorth
    Pages 15-19

  5. Plotinus, or the Meaning of the Meaning Question

    • Ulrich Steinvorth
    Pages 21-27

  6. How Far Science Replaced Philosophy, or Descartes vs. Hobbes

    • Ulrich Steinvorth
    Pages 29-36

  7. Propositional Language and the Power of Negation, or Kant and Descartes

    • Ulrich Steinvorth
    Pages 37-44

  8. Morality, or Schopenhauer

    • Ulrich Steinvorth
    Pages 45-51

  9. Religion and Practical Metaphysics, or Kant, Feynman, and Hitler

    • Ulrich Steinvorth
    Pages 53-58

  10. Ideology, or Destutt de Tracy and Marx

    • Ulrich Steinvorth
    Pages 59-63

  11. Progress, or Weber

    • Ulrich Steinvorth
    Pages 65-73

  12. Applying Weber to Ideologies

    • Ulrich Steinvorth
    Pages 75-78

  13. Aesthetics, or Hegel

    • Ulrich Steinvorth
    Pages 79-85

  14. Back Matter

    Pages 87-96
    Download chapter PDF
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Authors and Affiliations

  • University of Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany

    Ulrich Steinvorth

About the author

Ulrich Steinvorth is a Professor Emeritus of the University of Hamburg, Germany. He has published books and papers in German, English and French, in political philosophy, ethics, and metaphysics, and has taught philosophy at universities in Germany, France, Turkey, Japan and China.

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Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: A Brief Presentation of Philosophy and Its History

  • Book Subtitle: Two Basic Questions

  • Authors: Ulrich Steinvorth

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-72533-3

  • Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham

  • eBook Packages: Religion and Philosophy, Philosophy and Religion (R0)

  • Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2024

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-031-72532-6Published: 29 November 2024

  • eBook ISBN: 978-3-031-72533-3Published: 28 November 2024

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: VI, 96

  • Topics: History of Philosophy, Philosophy, general

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