The World Philosophy Made: From Plato to the Digital Age Hardcover – November 12, 2019

To say that philosophy made the world is no exaggeration; every historical advance in human knowledge was preceded or accompanied by philosophical thinking that laid the foundations for further scientific investigation or the practical implementation of some political or moral philosophy. In fact, it goes even deeper than that; you’d be hard pressed to identify any of your beliefs that did not have some origin in a philosophical work or intellectual movement of the past.It’s about time someone approached the subject from this angle. Rather than writing a standard history of the subject, philosopher Scott Soames shows the reader how philosophy has and continues to make contributions (often unnoticed) to civilization. Far from being a purely academic or largely irrelevant subject, philosophy informs every aspect of how we think about the world and ourselves.Soames takes the reader through the history of thought, beginning in ancient Greece, where the rigor and precision of Greek mathematics spilled over into the philosophical investigation of the material and social worlds. The Greeks “demonstrated the superiority of basing beliefs on evidence, argument, and rational examination, rather than on authority,” as Soames writes. The Greeks preferred naturalistic explanations of facts over the idea of divine intervention, and laid down the concepts of truth, proof, definition, matter, mind, motion, causation, and more that made it possible to think scientifically. Today, if you feel compelled to justify your beliefs with clearly defined and precise definitions and concepts, you can thank the ancient Greek mathematicians and philosophers who laid the groundwork for western rationalism.Soames then moves on to the Middle Ages and the attempted reconciliation of the Christian faith with Greek philosophy. Today, if you believe that science and religion are compatible, you owe a debt of gratitude to Thomas Aquinas, William of Ockham, and the long list of medieval theologians and philosophers who laid the groundwork for the reconciliation and/or compartmentalization of faith and reason as two separate but non-overlapping spheres of knowledge.Next, Soames tackles the Scientific Revolution. The idea that the universe is fully explicable in mathematical and natural terms is the result of the work of the “natural philosophers” of the 16th and 17th centuries, such as Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, and Newton. Lest you think this belongs exclusively to the history of science, recognize that Newton considered himself to be a natural philosopher. He thoroughly studied the works of Aristotle and Descartes, and his universal laws of motion and gravity are largely conceptual and based on the philosophical notion of absolute space and time (to which Einstein would improve upon, but only after a change of philosophy that saw space-time as relative). Many physicists, such as Lee Smolin, believe the next advance in our understanding of quantum physics will be conceptual or philosophical (leading to the design of better experiments or to a better interpretation of existing data).Soames next covers the Age of Enlightenment, the defining characteristic of which was the rejection of religious dogma and absolute monarchies maintained by belief in the “divine right of kings.” Rejecting revealed religion, the Enlightenment philosophers began to consider how to best establish the rules of morality and political organization from a rational perspective based on an understanding of human nature.Today, if you believe in limited constitutional government, the separation of powers, and fundamental human rights like free thought, speech, and expression, you can thank the Enlightenment philosophers such as Baruch Spinoza, John Locke, David Hume, Montesquieu, and others who originally argued for these positions against a backdrop of strident political and religious conservatism.If you’re conservative yourself, you owe a debt to the 18th century English philosopher Edmund Burke who articulated the philosophical foundations of the conservative position. And if you revere the founders of the United States and the US Constitution, you should recognize that the founders themselves were well-versed in the philosophy of John Locke, David Hume, Adam Smith, and others. The US founding is nothing if not the implementation of the political philosophy of the Enlightenment.Even today, computer science and technology would not be possible without the work of Gottlob Frege and others who laid the foundations of philosophical logic that would lead to computer technology. Contemporary ideas of the cosmos, physics, evolution, language, psychology, economics, politics, education, and morality all find their origins somewhere within the history of philosophy. And any advances in our ideas concerning these fields will undoubtedly come from new philosophical frameworks that will create new scientific methods and disciplines or else guide our interpretations of existing data, including how we should solve political problems and how we can lead fulfilling lives.While I fully agree with the main argument, the book is not without its limitations. First, Soames is an analytic philosopher and it shows. The logic, mathematics, and science sections are very dense and perhaps more detailed than the general reader would want. In fact, after the first four chapters, the direction of the book seems to shift from an analysis of how philosophy has contributed to the world to a textbook on analytical philosophy.Even the later chapter on ethics is quite dense. Consider this extract from the book:“For the slogan to have its intended force, the consequence relation must be conceptual, not merely logical—e.g., the relation must be necessary or a priori consequence. A proposition Q (expressed by a sentence) is a necessary consequence of a proposition P if and only if it is impossible for P to be true without Q being true—if and only if for any state of w that it is possible for the world to be in, if P would be true were the world in state w, then Q would also be true were the world in w.”Granted, I took this quote out of the context of the chapter, making it all the more difficult to follow, but you get the point. It’s not that this is undecipherable, but you had better be prepared to invest the time. More than likely, this level of formal logical analysis is beyond the interest of most readers.Soames also ignores most of what Enlightenment scholar Jonathan Israel would label the “radical Enlightenment.” Soames covers the moderate Enlightenment, led by Locke, but ignores the strain of thought led by Spinoza, Denis Diderot, and others that contributed the most to the campaign against superstition and ignorance and to the advance of the modern idea of freedom.Overall, I would recommend the book but with a big caveat. After the first four chapters, the going gets tough; be prepared for a lot of detail, formal logic, and dense arguments. It’s not that it is impossible to decipher, but I don’t think Soames was as clear as he could have been in several spots. Nevertheless, this is a useful reminder that philosophy is everywhere and that a truly independent thinker cannot ignore it—and civilization cannot survive without it.

When a well-established academic seeks to demonsrate the meaningfulness or usefulness of the knowledge base he has spent a lifetime developing, it is time to pay attention. Soames's new book, The World Philosophy Made, is a tour de force. The roots of human knowledge and analytical thinking strategies developed in philosophy are explored in relation to man's search for answers to the most basic questions of human existence. What the world has gained from philosophy over millennia is made clear, but so is what the field offers for clarifying contemporary intellectual and practical problems and for finding solutions. Simply put, the clarity of thinking annd exposition presented in this unique book creates a most stimulating intellectual adventure. The analytic thinking Soames demonstrates in formulating problems raised by experts in multiple scientific and social scientific fields and in envisioning pathways for finding solutions is dazzling. Exploring what philosophical thinking has enabled man to question and come to know over the ages is not only exhilarating, but also spirit raising when one contemplates what's possible in the future.Philosophers over the ages built the tools and strategies of analytic thinking that enabled scholars, scientists, and problem solvers to create the world we live in. The book makes a convincing case that philosophical thinking strategies can be usefully applied to find multidisciplinary solutions to contemporary intellectual issues and practical problems of life. Specific questions raised by experts in physical, biological, and behavioral sciences and law are used as examples to show how philosophical analysis can enhance problem formulation and lead to new pathways for developing solutions.What is most unique about this book is the intellectual courage Soames demonstrates by taking responsibility for answering the "so what" question asked to challenge any academic field of specialized knowledge. He answers in ways that readers not familiar with the field's knowledge base can understand. As one such reader, I can say that the book is an invaluable intellectual booster shot for thinking about many life issues. For example, in the final chapter Soames takes on "Virtue, Happiness, and Meaning in the Face of Death" academically and personally. He applies his knowledge in personal ways to address universal questions we all ask, and he provides direction for productive reflection. We all can use the world philosophy has given us.