This volume of Copleston's History of Philosophy examines idealist philosophies and the reactions against them that developed primarily in Germany during the 19th century.

Frederick Copleston served as Professor of the History of Philosophy and Dean of the Faculty of Theology at the University of London. This eleven-volume work is one of the most impressive studies undertaken by an individual in modern times.

Volume 7 covers Johann Gottlieb Fichte, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Søren Aabye Kierkegaard, Karl Marx, Friedrich Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm, Joseph von Schelling, Friedrich Schleiermacher, and Arthur Schopenhauer.

Copleston guides the reader through the work of post-Kantian idealists such as Schelling and Hegel, progressing to their various opponents like Schopenhauer, Marx, and Kierkegaard. He also discusses Neo-Kantianism and Nietzsche's influential work.