Luc Ferry (born January 1, 1951) is a French philosopher and a notable proponent of Secular Humanism. He is a former member of the Saint-Simon Foundation think-tank.
He received an Agr茅gation de philosophie (1975), a Doctorat d鈥橢tat en science politique (1981), and an Agr茅gation de science politique (1982). As a Professor of political science and political philosophy, Luc Ferry taught at the Institut d'茅tudes politiques de Lyon (1982鈥�1988) 鈥� during which time he also taught and directed graduate research at the Pantheon-Sorbonne University 鈥�, at Caen University (1989鈥�96). He was a professor at Paris Diderot University (since 1996) but did not teach there.
From 2002 and until 2004 he served as the Minister of Education on the cabinet led by the conservative Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin. During his tenure, he was the minister in charge of the implementation of the French law on secularity and conspicuous religious symbols in schools. He received the award of Docteur honoris causa from the Universit茅 de Sherbrooke (Canada). He is the 2013 Telesio Galilei Academy of science Laureate for Philosophy. He was enthroned to Chevalier De La Dive Bouteille De Gaillac on the 20 march 2012 together with Max Karoubi and Francesco Fucilla.
This book is one of the most engrossing books I have read in a long time. Luc Ferry knows philosophy, and it is clear he loves philosophy. But what sets this book apart - and what is rare with a book like this - is that Ferry clearly loves his reader. Also his prose (even translated?!) is a joy in itself.
I appreciated his generous posture toward "believers." Though he rejects revelation-based philosophies, he respects them. For instance, he wants the Christian doctrine of resurrection to be true - but cannot rest in it. Instead, he carries the reader along the history of thought, drawing out the dizzying reach and eventual limitations of humanistic philosophy through the ages. In the end, he commends a humanism - following Husserl - that embraces "transcendence within immanence." Ferry's outline of humanism stands in stark opposition to revealed Christianity. Yet in the end (with Ferry!) I found the resurrection beautiful in the way it meets our deepest problems. He resists, but I found my love and gratitude for this promise grow.
鈥淚f you read only one book on culture,鈥� Tim Keller said in 2012, 鈥渞ead this one.鈥� It is 鈥渁 terrific, fast way to get a handle on Western culture.鈥�
Ferry is an atheistic French philosopher who, in a way similar to someone like Jonathan Haidt, seems 鈥渘ot far from the kingdom.鈥� And this is indeed one of those rare paradigm-shaping books. As the title suggests, Ferry traces the development of big ideas and philosophical movements, exploring (and contrasting) each era鈥檚 account of three things: knowledge, morality, and 鈥渟alvation.鈥� The result is explanatory power of a kind that will serve any Christian interested in cultural apologetics.
John Calvin once commended the value of 鈥渓ucid brevity鈥濃€攏ot a thing for which philosophers, no offense, are known. I鈥檓 impressed, therefore, by how much Ferry packs into less than 300 pages. The book is sweeping in scope yet fluid in style. In that regard it reminded me of Joseph Ellis鈥檚 masterful book on the American revolutionary generation, 鈥淔ounding Brothers,鈥� which accomplishes the same feat.
鈥淎 Brief History of Thought鈥� is no breezy poolside read, to be sure, but Ferry simplifies and synthesizes complex ideas about as well as one could expect. As for Christianity, well, he admits that he finds it too good to be true. May God sovereignly bring him to faith in the Lord Jesus, 鈥渋n whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge鈥� (Col. 2:3).
This is a fascinating book. First, it's refreshing to read an Atheist that isn't a New Atheist. Ferry is able to be both critical and appreciative of religion and of other atheist or non-religious systems that he rejects. Second, the title and subtitle could probably be reversed because the emphasis of the book is not on a history of thought or philosophy, but on philosophy as a guide to living. Ferry unfolds this theme with a narrow historical scetch of some Greek philosophical systems, then with Christianity, humanism, post-modernism, and then his view of our contemporary philosophical state. He ends by encouraging his own philosophy for living. The potential reader should be aware that this book is *not* a history of philosophy in the vain of Julian Marias or Bertrand Russell's works. It is Ferry's understanding of the philosophical task and he informs the reader of how that has roughly played out to the present day.
I have a lot more to say about the book. I found myself simultaneously agreeing and disagreeing with a lot of what he says, particularly about his understanding of Christianity, but I don't have time to explore that now. I'll try to come back and update this later.
This book will provide you with a smart intro to Philosophy! Starting from the Greek Miracle, to Christianity's victory over Philosophy, followed by Humanism, then Nietzsche & Post-Modernity till we reached to Contemporary Philosophy.
As a beginner, I found this book very informative, the writer's style was flawless, I was reading, taking notes & contemplating over each topic separately. Then the writer's commentaries came as a great explanation to all that. Maybe I just wanted it to be a little more explained, a little more elaborated & not skipping parts or philosophical eras. At times I felt irritated of the writer's unbelief (neither in Christianity nor any other religion likewise), but he gave his reader the freedom to read, compare & judge for himself, the way he emphasized all over his book & concluded below: ------------------------------ "Every great philosophical system epitomizes in the form of thought a fundamental human experience, just as every great work of art or literature translates human possibility into the most concrete and sensuous form. Respect for the Other does not after all exclude personal choice. On the contrary, it is its primary condition. " -------------------------------
A couple of things I found very interesting about this book:
One is that the author was raised in a French philosophical tradition and in French schooling that had wholly given up even the description of Christian theology and Christian philosophy.
Another thing that I found so interesting was that he finds a theme of salvation to be a鈥攊f not the鈥攎ajor theme of all philosophy.
Also: he saw Friedrich Nietszche himself as upholding a morality and offering a salvation.
Something massive that I found very refreshing: I've come to expect from this genre of book mere description, but Ferry gave his own opinions throughout the book and especially at the end. That above-the-fray position I find to be very off-putting because fundamentally dishonest. No one who is smart enough to summarize so many philosophers can have failed to establish his or her own viewpoint on at least some of the major matters at issue. Writers win my trust when they do what Ferry did.
At the very end of the book he openly wishes Christianity were true. It has the best soteriology, in Ferry's opinion. This has to be why so many Christian readers have recommended the book to me.
Excellent summary of philosophy throughout recorded history that hits all the major schools and explains them in a concise, digestible manner without dumbing things down excessively. This is exactly what I was hoping to get out of this book (a basic primer on all the different philosophies starting with the ancient Greeks and Stoicism), and feel much more knowledgeable about Stoicism, Secular Humanism, Kant, Nietzche, and Heidegger. Ferry is very readable and approaches all of the different schools of thought with a basic trinity: the theoria, or reasoning behind the philosophy, the morals or ethics of it and finally the salvation which explains how the philosophy will tackle coping with the fear of death that has to be faced (religions approach this by promoting an afterlife of some kind). A few of the reviews on amazon state that Ferry starts out strong with the Greeks and so forth but gets bogged down in his chapter on deconstruction/postmodernism and Nietzche and I can see that point but I did find the whole discussion very enlightening and rather crucial due to the amount of misunderstanding and confusion surrounding Nietzche (his name it seems cannot be invoked without strong reactions in a lot of circles). The other criticism which I somewhat agree with is the meandering nature of the final chapters post-Nietzche, but I didn't feel that the overall scope and goal of the book was compromised just that it wasn't quite as straight-forward as the beginning. This could easily be due to the amorphous nature of the subject, and so I didn't find it to be a major detractor. I would definitely highly recommend this book to someone curious about philosophy looking for more of an academic approach but not reading the direct source material which might require a more intense amount of research to comprehend and digest. I imagine I will be returning to and re-reading this book in the years to come as a reference, and will definitely seek out some more details about areas of interest.
If you're looking for a broad overview of western philosophical thought, with an emphasis on how one system of thought came to displace preceding ones, leading all the way up to contemporary deconstruction, this is the book.
It's philosophy, so it's not always an easy read, but Ferry does an exceptional job of making concepts understandable and practical. And he always seeks to be fair and respectful to all views, even those he rejects.
Most impressive is that Ferry, though not a Christian or even a theist, and in stark contrast to the New Atheists, is actually sympathetic to the Christian worldview, and grants its legitimate place in the field of philosophy with a 37-page chapter. And even though he rejects Christianity (and yet does not really explain why), he has the integrity to admit that the Christian response to mortality is the "most effective of all responses," the only one that enables us "to beat death itself" (p. 90), and that Christianity is "infinitely more tempting" (p. 263) to him personally than Buddhism.
Christians should not worry that a book on philosophy like this will undermine their faith. For me, it was quite to the contrary. I came away with a more balanced respect for other worldviews, and with a deeper gratefulness for the riches of the Christian tradition, which offers the best answers for the longings of the human spirit.
i really enjoyed this book; why doesn鈥檛 goodreads have half stars? it鈥檚 better than a 3, but i rounded down due to the lack of works cited. this was an intentional choice, as this is supposed to be an introduction to philosophy, so instead ferry opted for a 鈥榝urther reading鈥� section of 6 or 7 books. there are no notes. you basically have to take ferry鈥檚 word on everything, which was a problem for me when it started getting into ideas i was familiar with, and found i didn鈥檛 always agree with ferry, which then led me to wonder about the areas i didn鈥檛 know so much about, and how helpful ferry was being. but that鈥檚 always the case with these kind of books; i鈥檓 a big believer in going to the source, reading the text and drawing your own conclusions, but i鈥檇 still prefer books like this exist rather than not, and for my purposes they are fun to read as a sort of supplement. and that鈥檚 why i don鈥檛 agree with opting for a small further reading section (for fear of overwhelming someone new to philosophy) over conventional notes and bibliography; there were specific points in the books i鈥檇 have loved to know where ferry was drawing from, most notably the historical context he provided to shed light on why certain thought had come about (not just helping one to understand the ideas themselves). that was the highlight of the book for me, and i鈥檓 now just left wondering where to look.
a further example: ferry dedicates a large part of the book to nietzsche, and goes on to define nietzsche鈥檚 nihilism as devaluing life through a belief in the ideal, so as to say that Christians and the like are sort of like 鈥渟ecret nihilists鈥� because of this, and this is what nietzsche meant by the death of god. this is definitely an idea of nietzsche, and it鈥檚 not wrong, but it鈥檚 a rather peculiar way to define nihilism, and it鈥檚 the only context ferry provides. traditionally, nihilism is the conviction life is devoid of any meaning, that the universe is hostile to life even, and the death of god (meaning) meant nihilism may begin to sweep over the world. this was nietzsche鈥檚 prediction. to accept ferry鈥檚 definition is to have a biased and incomplete version of that monumental declaration by nietzsche, thus the importance of a more comprehensive bibliography, and main reason why one should be wary of books like this: you are not reading a brief history of thought, you are reading ferry鈥檚 interpretation of various notable philosophies.
that may all be obvious, but it鈥檚 so much the case here that i actually find the title misleading. ferry is tracing the history of thought to prepare readers for his own philosophy, his 鈥減ost-nietzschean humanism鈥�, which he spends most of the second half of the book on. it鈥檚 more a book of philosophy in its own right than a history. and it鈥檚 a more successful book when viewed this way. spending half your book tracing most of philosophy to show how it all logically progresses to your own is hard not to respect!
most of all i appreciate the clarity and lack of jargon ferry writes with. skepticism and bias aside, it鈥檚 obvious he does know what he鈥檚 talking about and is a very good teacher. look to his explanation of nietzsche鈥檚 takedown of socrates, the greeks concept of the cosmos, or how he deals a fatal blow to communism in a single sentence. he is able to sum up an incredibly complex line of thinking in a paragraph without significant compromise. overall, one is better off for reading this, either as a supplement to their own readings, or as an introduction.
Bem interessante o apanhado geral que 茅 feito aqui contando como o conceito de "filosofia" foi se alterando com o tempo e como as religi玫es foram tendo um papel crucial nessas mudan莽as.
Para um ateu/agn贸stico, 茅 interessante perceber como a "doutrina da salva莽茫o" se tornou praticamente um "monop贸lio" das religi玫es, mas que nem sempre foi assim.
Provavelmente n茫o toque todo mundo da mesma maneira, fica mais como registro pessoal, mas o 煤ltimo cap铆tulo que fala sobre a "singularidade dos seres", "amor 脿s qualidades" etc confirmou algo que eu sempre tive como vis茫o, mas n茫o sabia que havia toda uma teoria sobre. Foi uma descoberta bem interessante.
It was all over the place. If it has a central theme then maybe the focus would of been easier to read and understand. The book was marketed as a small guide to the history of philosophy, but I think it missed quite a lot of it, especially for modern philosophy. It would be better to go by philosopher and philosopher or by period by period. Overall, the book needed better organization, which ultimately caused it to appear a pointless book with a few interesting sections.
2.5 stars - the concept of the book is better than the content. I鈥檓 not sure if it鈥檚 an issue with translation (the original text is french) but this book took me forever to get through. The author cannot make a point without going off into pages of verbose tangents. Like this paragraph, so wordy for no reason.
鈥淔or the deconstructionist, for the genealogist, there can be no 鈥榦bjective鈥� or 鈥榙isinterested鈥� value judgments 鈥� independent of the vital interests of the speaker 鈥� which devastates the classical conceptions of law and ethics 鈥� and there can be neither autonomous and disinterested judgments, nor objective and universally valid 鈥榝acts鈥�. All our judgments, all our utterances, all the sentences we employ, all our ideas, are expressions of our vital energies, emanations of our inner life and in no sense abstract entities, autonomous and independent of the forces within. The whole project of genealogy is to prove this new truth.鈥�
I鈥檓 not sure I learned much but I鈥檓 at least intrigued by the original texts he references. I also thought the author would unnecessarily inject his opinion on the philosophical era in what is supposedly just an overview. Also, not sure if this was disclaimed, but this book only mentions classic western philosophies and feels very euro centric.
Zowel de titel als de opmaak van de kaft zijn niet enigszins misleidend, dan wel compleet. Dit is geen handleiding voor een of andere power-yuppie levensfilosofie. Ik vermoed dat de uitgever hier voor iets tussenzit.
Het boekje beschrijft in grote lijnen de evolutie van het Westerse denken, te beginnen bij de Grieken (natuurlijk) en afsluitend met een (persoonlijke) poging tot zingeving in de chaos die Nietzsche ons naliet na zijn genadeloze afbraak van de grote idealen (godsdienst, wetenschap, humanisme, rationaliteit,...). De schrijver vergelijkt de historische visies in de filosofie aan de hand van hun drie grote actieterreinen (theorie, ethiek en zingeving) waardoor je een duidelijk overzicht krijgt van hun onderlinge verschillen.
Ik kan niet zeggen dat ik veel heb bijgeleerd, maar ik heb mijn bestaande kennis in een zinvoller verband kunnen plaatsen (dat is ook bijleren, zeker?). Het laatste hoofdstuk vond ik wat aan de zwakke kant: een beetje te abstract naar mijn zin. Alain de Botton's 'Religie voor athe茂sten' was voor mij een handzamere leidraad in een zoektocht naar zingeving.
Een belangrijk idee dat ik zeker wil onthouden uit het boek is het verwijt dat Ferry maakt aan de hedendaagse filosofie dat ze zich vooral uitspreekt over 'externe' thema's, gaande van bioethiek tot logica of wetenschapsfilosofie, behalve over haar eigenlijke core-business (wijsheid/filo-sofia). Ze stelt zich volledig ten dienst van de 'technologische wereld' (cfr. Heidegger/Adorno) en het WTK-bestel en degradeert zichzelf als dusdanig tot een nieuwe vorm van scholastiek ('dienstmaagd van de technologie'). Zingeving en wijsheid zijn woorden waar de meeste filosofen vandaag neerbuigend de neus voor ophalen en dat is jammer, nee?
Ik ga in ieder geval, op aanraden van Ferry, mijn eerste werk van Nietzsche lezen: The Twilight of the Idols (zijn laatste werk). Benieuwd of ik er een jota van zal begrijpen. Maar ik heb het gevoel dat ik nu wel voldoende rond deze filosoof heb gecirkeld (via literatuur) om er effectief zelf eens van te proeven.
The problem with life is that it ends, and we as humans are the only species aware of that. Pairing that understanding with the knowledge that those around me that I love will also stop living at some point I'm stuck with the question of how do I deal with impermanence?
This book will walk through many philosophical ideas starting with the Greeks --> Christianity --> Humanism -->Nietzsche --> Post Modernism --> Contemporary Philosophy. He explains how each idea made sense at the same as it was paired with the current understanding of the world. Before we try to make sense of the world we need to try to understand what we are experiencing... is the world a perfect cosmos as the Greeks thought, or intelligently designed like the theists, or are there universal morals that humans find through reason like the Kant believed, or are there no Ideals at all like Nietzsche believed and we should learn to love the present? From your starting point you can now decided how to move forward and think upon the questions of how do we make this life worth living. Am I a good person living a good life? How do I know? How do I deal with life when it isn't ideal?
Ferry does a great job describing these theories with enough simplicity to be a fairly easy read but seems to keep enough depth to be an useful read. (The chapter on Nietzsche was difficult though.) If anything it sparks my interest to read more in depth accounts of most of these thinkers and more.
I'd like to sit and read the writings of certain philosophers all day for a few weeks solid just to gauge how much more comfortable life might be on the other side of such an exercise. Seneca and Montaigne are the two that I've actually spent a fair amount of time with and I tend to believe that I could spend more without effort or regret. The discovery of which thinkers I was inclined to read required considerable trial and error, which would have been bypassed had I had access to books like this one.
This is a very well-written overview of the history of philosophical thought from the very beginning to post-modernism. It reminded me of why I'm a stoic, or at least why such an approach to life is so worthy of consideration, but more importantly relieved me of my general bias against most of post-modernist thought. While Nietzsche still strikes me as an inveterate whiner with an impossibly bushy mustache, the book shed more light on both the man and his facial hair. It's never too late to develop perspective on the people and ideas that have shaped history and this book is an ideal provider of such.