The Views Of Freedom In A Little History Of Philosophy By Nigel Warburton

Nigel Warburton is a British philosopher born in 1962. He attended the University of Bristol from where he got a BA. He also received a PhD from Darwin College in Cambridge. Later he went on to become a lecturer in the University of Nottingham, and in 1994, Warburton joined the Department of Philosophy at the Open University. Apart from his path in the academic career, he’s also written numerous books on philosophy like Philosophy: The Basics, Philosophy: The Classics, and Thinking from A to Z , to name a few. As an addition to this, Nigel Warburton interviews various philosophers with David Edmonds on his podcast Philosophy Bites as well as runs a blog called Virtual Philosopher.

In A Little History of Philosophy, Warburton presents a wide

The concept of freedom has a very wide range of definitions to it, making it another highly discussable topic. However, numerous philosophers have thought that being free is almost like being in a cage, which is ironic. A French philosopher by the name of Jean-Paul Sartre said, “freedom is hard to handle and many of us run away from it” (198). Though freedom is a basic human right, it is oftentimes very difficult to manage. With freedom, everything is a choice, which is very overwhelming. In a sense, freedom is actually a sort of cage because one can not be free without being forced to make any sort of choices and these choices dictate a certain path in life. So, this way, a person can never truly be free to do anything they want. Rousseau, a philosopher in the 18th century, also had a similar thought to that of Sartre’s. Rousseau felt that all human beings were born free, like Sartre had believed. In The Social Contract, which Rousseau published in 1761, he wrote, “man was born free, and everywhere he is in chains” (106). Just like Sartre, Rousseau concludes that as humanity, people enchain each other. Taken out of the natural environment and placed in cities, people have less freedom than in the wild though so many laws guarantee the freedom of everyone’s

It was simple and quick to read as well as easy to understand. Even though it was 245 pages long, it gave enough background information on the numerous philosophers to get me interested about their ideas. I think this is a good starter book for anyone who is looking for a quick way to get into philosophy. Another thing I really liked that Warburton did was the way he tied the chapters together. At the end of each chapter, Warburton introduced the next chapter’s subject. These transitions kept the reader absorbed in the text. For these reasons, I believe A Little History of Philosophy is a book for ages 11 and up because of the clear descriptions and uncomplicated language. For my taste though, I would probably add more higher level vocabulary to help expand my knowledge even