[dorlomin]

By Bertrand Russel

Slightly flawed though it is I think many on PO.com would benefit from this book. Accessable and light while hitting all the prewar majors (except in my opinion Kierkengaard). It mixes the history of the west with the history of western thought. It does underplay the history of Islamic and Juadic original thought on westhern philosphy on the scholastics and has other flaws but decades after its publication remains a widely used introduction to philosphy.

I cannot recomend it highly enough to people contemplating an inflection point in western civilisation.

[dorlomin]

Short version

[Cid_Yama]

I whole-heartedly recommend The Worldly Philosophers by Robert L. Heilbroner.

This is one of my top five books of all time.

Contents
Introduction
The Economic Revolution
The Wonderful World of Adam Smith
The Gloomy Presentiments of Parson Malthus and David Ricardo
The Dreams of the Utopian Socialists
The Inexorable System of Karl Marx
The Victorian World and the Underworld of Economics
The Savage Society of Thorstein Veblen
The Heresies of John Maynard Keynes
The Contradictions of Joseph Schumpeter
The End of the Worldly Philosophy?

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Another I would recommend is The Ominous Parrallels by Leonard Peikoff.

He does a good job of charting the course of the development of western philosophical thought.

In her introduction, Ayn Rand praises the book as offering “a truly revolutionary idea in the field of the philosophy of history.” What is that idea? It is the idea that philosophy is the motor of history—the fundamental cause of history’s major trends and the power that “determines the destiny of nations.” Because it addresses the most fundamental questions of man’s existence, philosophy sets the terms for all other fields of knowledge and for all human action.

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[AdamB]

"These stories have three things in common. They reverse climate change by gaining new respect for the element carbon upon which all life depends. They are powered by human ingenuity, working as part of, not against, nature. They are driven and emboldened by the astonishing, illimitable, force of youth." Sustainability is an overused and misused word in most languages. In the physical world absolutely nothing is sustainable. Nothing. We need to accept that. What sustains us is change, and our ability to adapt and innovate. Sustainability is a bit like treading water. What is it you are trying to sustain? The endless economic growth industrial paradigm? Creature comforts that require long supply chains and toxic pollution that hopefully you never have to see? A consumerist ethos backed by military might, sewing discord and terror around the planet? These are the things that must .

Carbon Cool