Wisdom of the west
作者: (英)罗素著
出版社:中央编译出版社,2010
简介: "A BIG BOOK," said Callimachus the Alexandrian poet, "is a big
evil!" On the whole I feel inclined to share this view. If,
therefore, I venture to put the present volume before the reader,
it is because, as evils go, this book is a minor one.
Nevertheless, it calls for a special explanation; for I have some
time ago written a book on the same subject. Wisdom of the West is
an entirely new work; though, of course, it would never have
appeared had not my "History of Western Philosophy" preceded it.
What are philosophers doing when they are at work? This is
indeed an odd question, and we might try to answer it by first
setting out what they are not doing. There are, in the world
around us, many things which are understood fairly well. Take, for
instance, tile working of a steam engine. This falls within the
fields of mechanics and thermodynafiaics. Again, we know quite a
lot about the way in which the human body is built and functions.