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The Dream of Reason: A History of Western Philosophy from the Greeks to the Renaissance

Name: The Dream of Reason: A History of Western Philosophy from the Greeks to the Renaissance
Author: Anthony Gottlieb

Anthony Gottlieb · 2000 · Long (over 350 pages)

4.0 from 2 reviews

Existence & being Greek & Roman Platonism Pre-Socratics

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What it is

A narrative history of philosophy written for general readers by a former editor at The Economist. Gottlieb begins with the Milesian thinkers and the other Presocratics, including Pythagoras, Heraclitus, Parmenides and the atomists, and gives particular care to separating what they said from later legend. He then devotes substantial chapters to Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, followed by the Hellenistic schools of Epicureans, Stoics and sceptics. A shorter section covers the long medieval period, and the book ends with the Renaissance. Throughout, Gottlieb argues that philosophy is not a separate discipline with its own mysterious subject matter but the persistent effort to think clearly about questions in every field, much of which later became science. A second volume, The Dream of Enlightenment (2016), continues the story into the early modern period.

Why read it

It is the most readable one-volume history of ancient philosophy, sceptical of myths and careful about sources.

Where to start

Begin with the Presocratics; the chapters are short and best read in order.

Reviews

Nikos Theodoridis Mar 2026

Excellent on the Greeks, and Gottlieb writes like a good journalist, which is a compliment. But for someone who works on Byzantine philosophy, the jump from late antiquity to the Latin West leaves out a thousand years of Greek-language thought. The title says Western, and it means Latin Western.

Giulia Ferrante Dec 2025

I recommend this to every parent who asks me what their child is reading in my Plato classes. Gottlieb is witty and careful, and he is good at showing how little we really know about some of the Presocratics. My only quarrel is that the medieval section is thin, but he says so honestly.

Nikos Theodoridis Mar 2026

Excellent on the Greeks, and Gottlieb writes like a good journalist, which is a compliment. But for someone who works on Byzantine philosophy, the jump from late antiquity to the Latin West leaves out a thousand years of Greek-language thought. The title says Western, and it means Latin Western.
Giulia Ferrante Dec 2025

I recommend this to every parent who asks me what their child is reading in my Plato classes. Gottlieb is witty and careful, and he is good at showing how little we really know about some of the Presocratics. My only quarrel is that the medieval section is thin, but he says so honestly.