Does the world really need another capital ‘H’ History of philosophy? Yet another potted narrative from Aristotle through to Zizek? If you are anything like me, your answer to this question will be a resounding ‘no’. Thankfully, philosopher and historian Jonathan Ree agrees, which is why he has given us Witcraft — not so much a history of philosophy as an antidote to all those previous histories that would have us believe that philosophy’s progress is linear, and that it treats of a set of perennial problems whose significance is self-evident. This book is an absolute must for anyone with a sense that philosophy might have something to teach us, but who is turned off by the stuffy, professorial air of other philosophy books aimed at ‘the common reader’ (looking at you, A. C. Grayling). It helps that Ree is not only a nimble and erudite thinker but a highly entertaining writer to boot. Still, what really sets this book apart is Ree’s ability to situate the subject of philosophy within our actual practices of inquiry. This is a simple point, but it means that, for instance, when we come to the scene in which Ludwig Wittgenstein and Karl Popper face off over the question of moral realism in a Cambridge meeting room in 1946, we feel that there might actually be something at stake.
Passionate, humorous and idiosyncratic in the best way, Witcraft is not only a welcome addition to, but a redefinition of, the genre.
- Dan