Founders of Western Philosophy: Thales to Hume

Based on a lecture course given by Leonard Peikoff in 1972, this book provides essential knowledge for everyone whose life pursuits are threatened by our culture’s widespread irrationality.

“To fight for your values in a world such as ours, you must regard yourself as a psychotherapist of an entire culture,” states Dr. Peikoff in his opening lecture. “Its present state at any given time cannot be understood except as an outgrowth from its past. The errors of today are built on the errors of the last century, and they in turn on the previous, and so on back to the childhood of the Western world, which is ancient Greece.”

Key Ideas Explored in the Book:

• The phenomenon of progressive education: Dr. Peikoff explains that this can only be understood by referencing John Dewey.
• The chain of philosophical influence: Dewey’s principles are traced back to William James, who derived his ideas from Hegel.
  • Hegel, in turn, was influenced by Kant.
  • Kant was responding to Hume, who represented the consistent consequence of the trend that began with Descartes and Locke.
  • Descartes and Locke reformulated Augustine’s principles in a more secular way.
  • Augustine reinterpreted Plato’s ideas in a more religious manner.
  • Plato’s philosophy was an attempt to resolve the dilemma posed by Heraclitus and Parmenides.
  • Heraclitus and Parmenides, in turn, were inspired by the foundational ideas of Thales.

Dr. Peikoff emphasizes: “We are beginning tonight with Thales.”