Dialectical philosophy books?

Shawn October 09, 2018 at 19:22 6700 views 9 comments

I'm interested in any books presenting philosophy as a dialectical method progressing from Plato, forward. My mind is too scattered to read each philosopher individually and then remember their premises and read the next philosopher of a historical period and how they then refute or affirm the previous philosopher.

I'm trying to get a grasp of the entirety of philosophy and form some meta-narrative of all philosophers since Plato, Aristotle, Spinoza to Kant, then Hegel, Schopenhauer, Wittgenstein, and so on.

I hope that makes sense?

Comments (9)

Deleted User October 09, 2018 at 19:37 #219159 0 likes

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Shawn October 09, 2018 at 19:39 #219162 0 likes

Quoting tim wood

But it's not clear to me you even know what you're asking.

Quoting tim wood

It's all there for the asking, which causes me to think that what you're asking for is not what you want.

I'm asking for a development in philosophy seen through the eyes of a dialectical philosopher. If you have any in mind, or think that it is possible to describe the entirety of the thought of previous philosophers through a dialectical method, please let me know.

Deleted User October 09, 2018 at 19:43 #219165 0 likes

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Shawn October 09, 2018 at 19:48 #219166 0 likes

Quoting tim wood

Will Durant, Fred Coplestone, others. Perhaps not what you mean by "dialectical." No doubt it can be done; perhaps you're the man to do it!

Just bought Copelsone's volumes 4-9 of historical philosophy. I'll be occupied for a while. Ouch, my wallet!

apokrisis October 09, 2018 at 19:51 #219167 0 likes

Reply to Posty McPostface Can’t offer you any particular book. But I well remember reading a history of Greek philosophy and realising how the standard story was told dialectically. If Heraclitus said all was,flux, Parmenides said all was stasis. And yet that very telling brushed over the way the individual philosophers were themselves making dialectical cases. Heraclitus for instance was opposing flux and logos.

So it is very useful, when telling a history, to be able to pose one historical figure against their “other”. But most of those figures turn out to be arguing in dialectical fashion themselves.

This then goes to what I would see as philosophy’s deep problem. Dialectics points the way out of the simplicities of monisms. But on the whole, few continue the journey to arrive at an explicitly triadic or hierarchical method of reasoning.

A history of these systems thinkers - Anaximander, Aristotle, Hegel, Kant to a degree, Peirce - might be a good book.

Shawn October 09, 2018 at 19:53 #219168 0 likes

Reply to apokrisis

I suppose forming a meta-narrative for philosophy is an individual effort. I bought what I was looking for though so thanks for the info.

Wayfarer October 09, 2018 at 20:30 #219177 0 likes

The Unity of Philosophical Experience, Etienne Gilson

Philosophy as a way of life, Pierre Hadot

Central Philosophy of Buddhism, T R V Murti (although this title concentrates on Buddhism, also contains an excellent exposition of the role of dialectic and extensive comparisons with the European tradition.)

Shawn October 09, 2018 at 20:33 #219178 0 likes

Quoting Wayfarer

The Unity of Philosophical Experience, Etienne Gilson

Thanks, will look into that one.

Deleted User October 10, 2018 at 16:08 #219497 0 likes

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