Philosophy can be very abstract and apparently remote from our everyday
concerns. In this book Ralph Blumenau brings out for the non-specialist
the bearing that thinkers of the past have on the way we live now, on the
attitude we have towards our lives, towards each other and our society,
towards God and towards the ethical problems that confront us.
The focus of the book is those aspects of the history of ideas which
have something to say to our present preoccupations. After expounding the
ideas of a particular thinker there follows a discussion of the material
and how it relates to issues that are still alive today (indented from
the margin and set in a different typeface), based on the author’s classroom
debates with his own students.
Another feature of the book is the many footnotes which refer the reader
back to earlier, and forward to later, pages of the book. They are intended
to reinforce the idea that throughout the centuries philosophers have often
grappled with the same problems, sometimes coming up with similar approaches
and sometimes with radically different ones.
"Consistently Blumenau reminds us that philosophical texts shoould
not serve as the be-all and end-all: they should be starting points, ideological
springboards that begin something new, autonomous and unexpected . . .Structuring
the work in such a manner gives it an unusual vivacity and energy." Michael
Donkor, Wadham College Gazette
About the author
Ralph Blumenau was Head of the History Department at Malvern College.
Since his retirement in 1985 he has been teaching senior citizens at the
University of the Third Age in London, where one of his courses is the
History of Philosophy.
