威尔·杜兰特

作品

• 《哲学的故事》，1926年
• 《文明的故事》，1935年至1975年

《历史的教训》，1968年（台湾译为《读历史，我可以学会什么？》）

William James Durant (; November 5, 1885 – November 7, 1981) was an American historian and philosopher, best known for his eleven-volume work, The Story of Civilization, which contains and details the history of Eastern and Western civilizations. It was written in collaboration with his wife, Ariel Durant, and published between 1935 and 1975. He was earlier noted for The Story of Philosophy (1926), described as "a groundbreaking work that helped to popularize philosophy".

Durant conceived of philosophy as total perspective or seeing things sub specie totius (i.e., "from the perspective of the whole")—a phrase inspired by Spinoza's sub specie aeternitatis, roughly meaning "from the perspective of the eternal". He sought to unify and humanize the great body of historical knowledge, which had grown voluminous and become fragmented into esoteric specialties, and to vitalize it for contemporary application. As a result of their success, he and his wife were jointly awarded the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction in 1968 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1977.

Early life

William James Durant was born in North Adams, Massachusetts, to French-Canadian Catholic parents, Joseph Durant and Mary Allard, who had been part of the Quebec emigration to the United States.

After graduating from St. Peter's Preparatory School in Jersey City, New Jersey, in 1903, Durant enrolled at Saint Peter's College (now Saint Peter's University), also in Jersey City, where he graduated in 1907.……

Teaching career

From 1907 to 1911, Durant taught Latin and French at Seton Hall College in South Orange, New Jersey.

After leaving Seton Hall, Durant was a teacher at Ferrer Modern School from 1911 to 1913. Ferrer was "an experiment in libertarian education," according to the Who's Who of Pulitzer Prize Winners. Alden Freeman, a supporter of the Ferrer Modern School, sponsored him for a tour of Europe.

In 1913, he resigned his post as teacher and married the 15-year-old Ariel Kaufman;……

Writing career

In 1908, Durant worked as a reporter for Arthur Brisbane's New York Evening Journal. At the Evening Journal, he wrote several articles on sexual criminals.

In 1917, while working on a doctorate in philosophy at Columbia University, he wrote his first book, Philosophy and the Social Problem. He discussed the idea that philosophy had not grown because it had refused to confront the actual problems of society. He received his doctorate from Columbia that same year. He was also an instructor at the university.

The Story of Civilization

Throughout their writing of The Story of Civilization, the Durants strove to create what they called "integral history" and resisted a "specialized" approach to history.……

Personal views

On his personal religious beliefs, Durant wrote that "I am prepared to have you put me down as an atheist, since I have reluctantly abandoned belief in a personal and loving God. But I am loath to leave the word God out of my life and creed," adding that he was "a Christian in the literal and difficult sense of sincerely admiring the personality of Christ and making a persistent effort to behave like a Christian."

Reception

While Durant's work was well received by popular audiences, and The Story of Civilization sold in vast quantities, thanks in part to its inclusion in the Book of the Month Club, academic reception of his work was more critical: the Classics scholar Moses Finley criticized Durant's The Life of Greece on a number of grounds, including the book's racial essentialism and support for the great man theory of history.

Selected bibliography

Will Durant's full bibliography can be found online.

1917. Philosophy and the Social Problem. New York: Macmillan.

1926. The Story of Philosophy. New York: Simon & Schuster.

1927. Transition. New York: Simon & Schuster.

1929. The Mansions of Philosophy. New York: Simon & Schuster.

1930. The Case for India. New York: Simon & Schuster.

1931. A Program for America. New York: Simon & Schuster.

1931. Adventures in Genius. New York: Simon & Schuster.

1932. On the Meaning of Life. New York: Ray Long and Richard R. Smith.

Little Blue Books contributions

1922. A Guide to Plato.……