Shakespeare may be the greatest unacknowledged philosopher of all-time. His art reflects nearly every major documented philosophical movement. Examine Hamlet's famous "To be or not to be" soliloquy and you can foresee the upcoming schism between the continental and the analytic philosophers.
Colin McGinn's new book, Shakespeare's Philosophy, examines the impact of just six plays on the study of thought. So says the Amazon review:
The book examines Shakespeare in relation to Hume, Wittgenstein and such major philosophical questions as nothingness, language, causation and the nature of knowledge. McGinn makes a credible case that the essays of Montaigne as well as skepticism and naturalism had a clear influence on Shakespeare's writings, bringing unexpected freshness to topics that are well-worn in high school curriculums. Most interesting is McGinn's earnest delight in rediscovering Shakespeare's characters, such as the tragic Cordelia and the indecisive Hamlet. McGinn's gift, aside from his clear and beautiful prose, is in recognizing Shakespeare's genius in creating true and recognizable people, who ring as true to modern audiences as they did to his contemporaries. "He told us how the world looks from the perspective of itself. And the world never looked the same again." This conclusion implies that just as Shakespeare the playwright still moves his audiences, so, too, can Shakespeare the philosopher.
Shakespeare has stood the test of time because he connects to so many other texts, to so many other disciplines, and, most importantly, to so many of our hearts and heads.
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