The History of Philosophy, from the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Present Century. Drawn up from Brucker's Historia Critica Philosophiae. in Two Volumes.
London: W. Baynes, 1820. Second Edition. Hard Cover. Good / No Jacket. Item #2304791
Second edition. Rebound: cloth spines over paper-covered boards, with spine labels (original?) laid down. Boards rubbed with edges and corners exposed, binding margin lightly stained.
xxvii, 539, [23]; 628, [25] pp. Fold-out biographical chart opposite title page of volume one. The first English language history of philosophy to treat thinkers beyond ancient history (Locke, Newton, Hobbes, Leibniz, Descartes, etc.), by a friend of noted Unitarian Joseph Priestley. Enfield was also a Unitarian minister, and is best known for his 1774 work on elocution, entitled The Speaker. "Brucker's Historia, first published in Leipzig in six volumes between 1742 and 1767, is considered the founding work of the modern historiography of philosophy. Covering the period from Ancient Philosophy up through Descartes and Leibniz, it had a significant influence upon Kant and other philosophers of the Enlightenment. Enfield's abridged translation is intended to be "a faithful representation of the meaning and spirit," a distillation, of Brucker's monumental work. It was well-received and reprinted in 1792. A Unitarian minister, Enfield was associated with Joseph Priestley at the Warrington Academy with whom he engaged in respectful controversy. He contributed numerous reviews and articles to periodicals and was the author of a popular textbook, The Speaker (1774). As "an expert on German culture," Enfield was among a handful of British observers to glimpse the importance of the new Critical Philosophy (see Micheli, "Kant's Early Reception in England 1785-1805" in Kant & His Influence (Thoemmes 1990))."
Price: $350.00