The Failures of Philosophy: A Historical Essay

The first book to address the historical failures of philosophy—and what we can learn from them Philosophers are generally unaware of the failures of philosophy, recognizing only the failures of particular theories, which are then remedied with other theories. But, taking the long view, philosophy has actually collapsed several times, been abandoned, sometimes for centuries, and been replaced by something quite different. When it has been revived it has been with new aims that are often accompanied by implausible attempts to establish continuity with a perennial philosophical tradition. What do these failures tell us? The Failures of Philosophy presents a historical investigation of philosophy in the West, from the perspective of its most significant failures: attempts to provide an account of the good life, to establish philosophy as a discipline that can stand in judgment over other forms of thought, to set up philosophy as a theory of everything, and to construe it as a discipline that rationalizes the empirical and mathematical sciences. Stephen Gaukroger argues that these failures reveal more about philosophical inquiry and its ultimate point than its successes ever could. These failures illustrate how and why philosophical inquiry has been conceived and reconceived, why philosophy has been thought to bring distinctive skills to certain questions, and much more. An important and original account of philosophy’s serial breakdowns, The Failures of Philosophy ultimately shows how these shortcomings paradoxically reveal what matters most about the field.

About the Author :
Stephen Gaukroger is emeritus professor of history of philosophy and history of science at the University of Sydney. His many books include Objectivity, Civilization and the Culture of Science and Descartes: An Intellectual Biography.

Review :
"Gaukroger displays a remarkably broad range: his sweep of knowledge is truly impressive. . . . Many of his local observations are startling, in a good way; he asks those of us who study the figures he discusses to step back and reflect on their ultimate objectives, their successes, and, yes, their failures. "---Christopher Shields, MIND "Gaukroger’s narrative is creative and convincing, extremely dense and elegant at the same time, based on a jaw-dropping breadth and depth of scholarship. . . . All this is a rather convoluted way of saying that to my mind, our losses are not as great as they may seem: the fact that we have Stephen Gaukroger’s brilliant studies to read makes up in no small part for the failures of philosophy."---Jeroen Bouterse, 3 Quarks Daily