Book Review: From Ionia to Antiquity, by Stephen West
I’ve been listening to Stephen West’s podcast (Philosophize This!) for about three months, and found it both incredibly educational and entertaining. I was moved enough to leave a 5-star review on iTunes, as somebody who almost never leaves reviews (even Spotify, my most used application, doesn’t have my review). I went to the Philosophize This! site with the intention of making a small donation to support the show when I suddenly noticed that Stephen had an ebook he had authored for sale for $12! Seemed like about the amount I was looking to donate, and I figured I might as well get his book instead.
From Ionia to Antiquity is an attempt to understand the legacy and historical significance of the western philosophical tradition, beginning with Thales of Miletus (624 BC — 546 BC), the earliest documented western philosopher, and progressing as a connected narrative up through Aristotle (384 BC — 322 BC). Overall, I found it a highly enjoyable and educational book, and would highly recommend it to anyone who wants a quick crash course in early western philosophy.
Especially since the ideas explored in this book are so old, it might not seem at first that ~300 years of philosophy is all that much. In actuality, these ideas are all quite groundbreaking. One example is Democritus’ theory of atoms in ~400 BC. In a nutshell, Democritus reasoned that things can be split into smaller and smaller pieces, but not forever. At some point, there must be a unit of existence which can no longer be cut — an atom, from ‘a’ (not) and ‘tomos’ (divisible). This is a pretty interesting insight granted that the first telescopes appeared around 1600 AD. This type of reasoning is absolutely foundational to future philosophers’ work in areas that might be more relevant to our lives today, such as economic and political theory.
But it’s not just the exploration of the ideas that makes From Ionia to Antiquity so great. Philosophy has a reputation of being really dense, dry, and esoteric. This is especially true of early primary texts, such as Aristotle’s Metaphysics, which is a particularly infamous example. But Stephen West does a great job of explaining ideas simply, and illustrating them with humorous examples. Not only do the ideas come to you easily and surprise you with a new perspective, you get a good laugh out of it in the process! If more philosophy was taught this way, I truly believe it wouldn’t have a reputation of being inaccessible and useless.
I have two main criticisms of this book. The first is that it ends very abruptly after explaining and contextualizing the basics of Aristotle’s philosophy. I hit the right arrow (reading an ebook) expecting another chapter, and suddenly the book ends. No closing words from West hoping that you enjoyed his book or apologizing that it’s impossible to find a “best” serialization of philosophy this old (although he does bring that up in the introduction). Not even a few words on what happens next and where these ideas end up going. It’s just a rough way to close out the book, and feels almost like the book became an abandoned project at some point and West said “screw it, I’m gonna publish.” I wouldn’t actually really be surprised if that was the case.
The other is that almost all of the content appears in the podcast series, and certain passages seem to be taken verbatim from the podcast transcript. On one hand, it’s pretty understandable since the content itself is good and there may be readers of the book who don’t follow the podcast, but on the other, I’d like to see a higher proportion of original content and further analysis.
My complaints are relatively small and don’t break the book by any means.
To close out, I’d like to leave the book’s dedication here, which is really reflective of West’s educational and inspirational vision of philosophy:
This book is dedicated to the three things I cherish most in this world:
A cat that genuinely doesn’t try to change me, a bear I saw in the woods almost 10 years ago that I can only assume is living a better life today, and the countless people that are brave enough to know more today than they did yesterday.
I think that’s pretty awesome. It’s a rather flippant message, but ultimately one that carries an incredibly beautiful message. It’s the collective effort of those who love wisdom and truth, even when knowledge can be painful, that make a brighter world. It captures the essence of the importance of philosophy: without reason, our beliefs about the world and ourselves are only as good as delusion. It’s on all of us to illuminate reality.
Stephen West’s content has helped me learn about a lot of fascinating ideas that have truly changed the way I think about the world, and the way I think about my own thinking. I don’t think there are many studies that can invoke radically transformative experiences the way philosophy does, but being limited to primary texts really makes it hard unless you’re extremely passionate and dedicated to learning the material. Listening to a podcast is so much clearer and more entertaining, and as a result, I find that the knowledge is better retained and the overall effect on one’s thinking is stronger.
In conclusion: great book despite the abrupt ending, and I highly recommend checking it (and the Philosophize This! podcast) out.
