This book is a guide to Western philosophy—the ideas that have underpinned our civilization for two millennia. Anthony Kenny narrates the history of philosophy from ancient Greece through the Middle Ages and the Age of Enlightenment to the modern world. He introduces us to the great thinkers and their ideas, beginning with Plato, Aristotle, and the other founders of Western thought.

In the second part of the book, he takes us through a thousand years of medieval philosophy and shows us the rich intellectual legacy of Christian thinkers such as Augustine, Aquinas, and Ockham. As we move into the early modern period, we explore the great works of René Descartes, Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Gottfried Leibniz, Baruch Spinoza, David Hume, and Immanuel Kant, which remain essential reading to this day.

In the 19th and 20th centuries, Hegel, Mill, Nietzsche, Freud, and Wittgenstein reshaped the way we view the world. The book develops specific themes that are enduring concerns of philosophy from its origins: the fundamental questions of what exists and how we can know it, the nature of humanity, mind, truth, and meaning, the place of God in the universe, how we ought to live, and how society should be organized.

Anthony Kenny traces the development of these themes over the centuries: we see how the questions raised and the answers offered by the great philosophers of the past remain alive today.

Anyone interested in ideas and their history will find this book fascinating and instructive. Pages: 1088, Dimensions: 16.3x16.3cm