The story of philosophy is an epic tale- an exploration of the ideas views and teachings of
some of the most creative minds known to humanity. But since the long-popular classic Bertrand
Russell's History of Western Philosophy first published in 1945 there has been no
comprehensive and entertaining single-volume history of this great intellectual journey.
With his characteristic clarity and elegance A. C. Grayling takes the reader from the
world-views and moralities before the age of the Buddha Confucius and Socrates through
Christianity's dominance of the European mind to the Renaissance and Enlightenment and on to
Mill Nietzsche Sartre and philosophy today. And since the story of philosophy is incomplete
without mention of the great philosophical traditions of India China and the Persian-Arabic
world he gives a comparative survey of them too. Intelligible for students and eye-opening
for philosophy readers he covers epistemology metaphysics ethics aesthetics logic the
philosophy of mind the philosophy of language political philosophy and the history of debates
in these areas of enquiry through the ideas of the celebrated philosophers as well as less
well-known influential thinkers. He also asks what we have learnt from this body of thought
and what progress is still to be made. The first authoritative and accessible single-volume
history of philosophy for decades remarkable for its range and clarity this is a landmark
work.
