Henry Boynton Smith

A history of philosophy Henry Boynton Smith

Dr. Ueberweg's Grundriss der Geschichte der Philosophie, in three parts, was first published at Berlin, 1862 to '66. It met with such approval, notwithstanding the competition with other able compends, that the first part has already reached a fourth edition (1871). Since Tennemann's Manual (1812, 5th edition by Wend, 1829), * no work has appeared so well adapted to meet the wants of students. Indeed, no work on the subject contains such a careful collection of authorities and citations, or so full a bibliograr phical apparatus. The opinions of the various schools and their contrasted principles, as well as the views of individual philosophers, are presented with clearness and precision. This is the great value of the work. It is not written, like some histories of philosophy, to propound or fortify the special theories of the author. It shows a full mastery of the whole course of philosophic thought, with independent investigations and criticisms. The various systems are given, as far as possible, in the phraseology of their authors, and this imparts variety to the style. It is eminently impartial. The undersigned selected it as the best work with which to begin the philosophical division of their proposed Library, after a full comparison of it with other works of its class, and upon consultation with those best qualified to judge about its merits. It is more concise than Hitter's General Sistory, and more full and authentic than Schwegler's Outline, which was first prepared for an Encyclopsedia. The works of Fries, and Eisner, and Reinhold have been supplanted by more recent investigations. Hitter's Sistory of Civristian Philosophy (1858-'59), though very valuable, covers only a part of the ground, and presupposes some acquaintance with the sources which Ueberweg so fully cites. The well-known Mstory of Morell is restricted to the later European systems. The able critical histories of modern philosophy by Erdmann and Kuno Fischer are limited in their range, yet too extended for our object. The work with which we most carefully compared Ueberweg's Treatise, was Professor Erdmann's Compend of the Whole History of Philosophy.