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Philosophy: The Great Thinkers
This book brings together the world's greatest philosophers in one comprehensive and easy to use volume. Designed to be dipped into again and again, this book will please people with both a casual and more serious interest in philosophy.
- GenresPhilosophyNonfiction
304 pages, Paperback
First published November 30, 2007
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
October 11, 2018
Great insight to Philosophy. Starting point and guide to additional readings.
December 24, 2025
I got this book (a historical introduction to philosophy, ordered alphabetically by the names of the key thinkers) sometime late in the first decade of the 21st century, as a $7 'red hot' special from, of all places, The Warehouse. When I took it to the counter, the young checkout operator looked at it and said, 'Oh,' which I thought spoke well of his character and future potential.
I must have started reading it previously, because this time I discovered a bookmark just after the second chapter (on Thomas Aquinas). The bookmark was a receipt from United Video Cherrywood - so that gives you some idea of the timeframes involved. Meanwhile, it had languished on the bottom shelf, in range of an inveterate pint-sized marker-of-territory, the book's pages at the foot of the text block becoming infused with dog wee (make of that what you will). Thankfully, that particular historical odour, if not the stain, had passed by the time I took up the book once more.
The reading was a long process, covering quite vast territory (112 thinkers), but overall I enjoyed it. I think the book presents the material at a good level - upper high-school / stage one university, I suppose - which is no mean feat given the complexity of the sources. It's image-rich in its format, and digestible. The glossary at the back is excellent and almost worth the 'red hot' price alone.
There were a few thinkers that piqued particular interest for me, and I ticked them for further investigation (alongside my already established guys, Heraclitus, (William) James, Jung, Kierkegaard and Pascal): Bergson, Husserl, Kuhn (?), Merleau-Ponty, Plotinus, Schiller and Whitehead. I suppose that betrays my interest in phenomenology, explorations of the mystery of being etc (especially when I sense those areas of investigation are inflected with themes that might be, or are, related to the divine, where they might then expand outward to the metaphysical).
Not that it was about this for me in the reading experience, and I don't really want to make it about this (especially not in any reductive way): but I did notice that, although the book is admirably even-handed, it can occasionally be a bit stink on theists - especially if they're trying to prove the existence of God. Maybe that's fair enough.
Anyway, in this collection of 'great thinkers' I decided to do a survey of whether the thinkers represented 'believed in God'; a survey assisted by AI for summary information (let's not even go there with the highways and byways of that philosophical can of worms (excuse the mixed metaphor); or the problems with this data-gathering method). I wasn't seeking to make a particular point as such - just interested.
A note that 'believed in God' ended up being a catch-all for theism, deism, polytheism and pantheism etc, and even vitalism (ie philosophies positing a non-material 'life force', eg Bergson) - so quite a diversity of thought. For a very small number of the thinkers, I couldn't easily find any info either way - it simply wasn't part of their field of enquiry, so didn't come up publicly.
Meanwhile, agnosticism was a grey area that for the sake of this survey I tended to classify towards non-belief in God or classify as 'unknown' - though some self-identified agnostics had some very interesting and compelling ideas that touch on areas associated with the divine - take Carl Jung, for example, who I ended up tagging 'unknown' because I just didn't know how to classify him. Meanwhile, I included William James as a yes. Perhaps the most famous agnostic was Einstein. It pained me to do so (given an attitude that seemed generous towards religious belief and modes of knowing) but in the end I classified him a 'no'. All a bit arbitrary, but there we go.
I've noticed that an agnostic position can sometimes contain more humility/potentiality than a fundamentalist position (whether that fundamentalism be theist or atheist). Which is to say, I have a soft spot for agnostics. I'm a theist, but in some ways I feel more of an affinity for the potentiality that seems to be inherent in the agnostic position than I do with the rigidity of fundamentalism(s).
Anyway, on to the results of my (more or less unscientific) survey. Of the 112 thinkers in the book, 57 'believed in God' (51%), 41 did not (37%), and 14 fell into the 'unknown' category (12%).
These results carry a weighting towards a relatively high proportion of 20th century thinkers appearing in the book, and we all know that theism was uncool in 20th century philosophy.
That's not to say that there weren't some very fine theistic thinkers in the 20th century. There were. Of course, by this time theology and philosophy had often been functionally separated out (cheers to the Enlightenment and cultural shifts). More's the pity. It is what it is. However, it's worth noting that many of the highly influential earlier thinkers who appear in this book, and had a major impact on philosophy, would be categorised as theologians today (and usually are). People like the A's - Anselm, Aquinas and Augustine.
In the 20th century there was no place cooler in philosophy than France. So I'd like to leave here this little roll-call of highly regarded 20th century French Christian thinkers - variously (and in no particular order) (neo)Thomist, existentialist, phenomenologist, anarchist, personalist and process in approach - for my own kicks and (continued) follow-up, if not wider edification:
Simone Weil, Gabriel Marcel, Jacques Maritain, Jacques Ellul, Paul Ricœur, Emmanuel Mounier, Jean-Luc Marion, René Girard and Pierre Teilhard de Chardin.
None of these appear in the book (I'm not saying they should have - just noting that they don't). I'd also like to name-check a firm favourite of mine, the presumably agnostic Gaston Bachelard, with his lovely explorations of the poetic, the subconscious and the imagination. And there are, of course, many others that could be noted outside of France.
Another thinker to mention is the Jewish German American (agnostic) Hannah Arendt. She took on one of the major themes of the 20th century - a critique of power and totalitarianism. I understand the non-inclusion of the names I've listed above, and I'm sure the editor had to make a lot of tough choices in general, but in a book severely lacking in female voices (there are only two in the whole thing: Simone de Beauvoir and Mary Wollstonecraft), I find it weird that Arendt isn't there.
So there we are. As for the general outcome of my reading experience, further investigations of ideas will hopefully ensue. Expansion. Exploration of being (Being)... What's the point otherwise?
I must have started reading it previously, because this time I discovered a bookmark just after the second chapter (on Thomas Aquinas). The bookmark was a receipt from United Video Cherrywood - so that gives you some idea of the timeframes involved. Meanwhile, it had languished on the bottom shelf, in range of an inveterate pint-sized marker-of-territory, the book's pages at the foot of the text block becoming infused with dog wee (make of that what you will). Thankfully, that particular historical odour, if not the stain, had passed by the time I took up the book once more.
The reading was a long process, covering quite vast territory (112 thinkers), but overall I enjoyed it. I think the book presents the material at a good level - upper high-school / stage one university, I suppose - which is no mean feat given the complexity of the sources. It's image-rich in its format, and digestible. The glossary at the back is excellent and almost worth the 'red hot' price alone.
There were a few thinkers that piqued particular interest for me, and I ticked them for further investigation (alongside my already established guys, Heraclitus, (William) James, Jung, Kierkegaard and Pascal): Bergson, Husserl, Kuhn (?), Merleau-Ponty, Plotinus, Schiller and Whitehead. I suppose that betrays my interest in phenomenology, explorations of the mystery of being etc (especially when I sense those areas of investigation are inflected with themes that might be, or are, related to the divine, where they might then expand outward to the metaphysical).
Not that it was about this for me in the reading experience, and I don't really want to make it about this (especially not in any reductive way): but I did notice that, although the book is admirably even-handed, it can occasionally be a bit stink on theists - especially if they're trying to prove the existence of God. Maybe that's fair enough.
Anyway, in this collection of 'great thinkers' I decided to do a survey of whether the thinkers represented 'believed in God'; a survey assisted by AI for summary information (let's not even go there with the highways and byways of that philosophical can of worms (excuse the mixed metaphor); or the problems with this data-gathering method). I wasn't seeking to make a particular point as such - just interested.
A note that 'believed in God' ended up being a catch-all for theism, deism, polytheism and pantheism etc, and even vitalism (ie philosophies positing a non-material 'life force', eg Bergson) - so quite a diversity of thought. For a very small number of the thinkers, I couldn't easily find any info either way - it simply wasn't part of their field of enquiry, so didn't come up publicly.
Meanwhile, agnosticism was a grey area that for the sake of this survey I tended to classify towards non-belief in God or classify as 'unknown' - though some self-identified agnostics had some very interesting and compelling ideas that touch on areas associated with the divine - take Carl Jung, for example, who I ended up tagging 'unknown' because I just didn't know how to classify him. Meanwhile, I included William James as a yes. Perhaps the most famous agnostic was Einstein. It pained me to do so (given an attitude that seemed generous towards religious belief and modes of knowing) but in the end I classified him a 'no'. All a bit arbitrary, but there we go.
I've noticed that an agnostic position can sometimes contain more humility/potentiality than a fundamentalist position (whether that fundamentalism be theist or atheist). Which is to say, I have a soft spot for agnostics. I'm a theist, but in some ways I feel more of an affinity for the potentiality that seems to be inherent in the agnostic position than I do with the rigidity of fundamentalism(s).
Anyway, on to the results of my (more or less unscientific) survey. Of the 112 thinkers in the book, 57 'believed in God' (51%), 41 did not (37%), and 14 fell into the 'unknown' category (12%).
These results carry a weighting towards a relatively high proportion of 20th century thinkers appearing in the book, and we all know that theism was uncool in 20th century philosophy.
That's not to say that there weren't some very fine theistic thinkers in the 20th century. There were. Of course, by this time theology and philosophy had often been functionally separated out (cheers to the Enlightenment and cultural shifts). More's the pity. It is what it is. However, it's worth noting that many of the highly influential earlier thinkers who appear in this book, and had a major impact on philosophy, would be categorised as theologians today (and usually are). People like the A's - Anselm, Aquinas and Augustine.
In the 20th century there was no place cooler in philosophy than France. So I'd like to leave here this little roll-call of highly regarded 20th century French Christian thinkers - variously (and in no particular order) (neo)Thomist, existentialist, phenomenologist, anarchist, personalist and process in approach - for my own kicks and (continued) follow-up, if not wider edification:
Simone Weil, Gabriel Marcel, Jacques Maritain, Jacques Ellul, Paul Ricœur, Emmanuel Mounier, Jean-Luc Marion, René Girard and Pierre Teilhard de Chardin.
None of these appear in the book (I'm not saying they should have - just noting that they don't). I'd also like to name-check a firm favourite of mine, the presumably agnostic Gaston Bachelard, with his lovely explorations of the poetic, the subconscious and the imagination. And there are, of course, many others that could be noted outside of France.
Another thinker to mention is the Jewish German American (agnostic) Hannah Arendt. She took on one of the major themes of the 20th century - a critique of power and totalitarianism. I understand the non-inclusion of the names I've listed above, and I'm sure the editor had to make a lot of tough choices in general, but in a book severely lacking in female voices (there are only two in the whole thing: Simone de Beauvoir and Mary Wollstonecraft), I find it weird that Arendt isn't there.
So there we are. As for the general outcome of my reading experience, further investigations of ideas will hopefully ensue. Expansion. Exploration of being (Being)... What's the point otherwise?
March 18, 2021
I JUST HAVE TO SAY
It took me 2 years to read this book and in that time I've forgotten a lot of what I've read and have confused a lot of philosophical concepts. BUT - it got me thinking.
MY RATING ★★★★★
RATING EXPLAINED
5 - AMAZING! I definitely recommend it. This book taught me directly on Philosophy
REVIEW
This book is a list in alphabetical order or 100 of history's greatest thinkers. they all read as short essays of the Philosophers work and sometimes as short biographies.
This is a wonderful refence tool and it does a decent job of explaining some rather complex theories and arguments in layman's terms.
I will say of the 100 people 98 are men and 2 are women. It only makes me wonder how much farther we would be as a society if this number was closer to 50/50. What we have lost to sexism from women historically being uneducated or smothered when found to hold great concepts.
It took me 2 years to read this book and in that time I've forgotten a lot of what I've read and have confused a lot of philosophical concepts. BUT - it got me thinking.
MY RATING ★★★★★
RATING EXPLAINED
5 - AMAZING! I definitely recommend it. This book taught me directly on Philosophy
REVIEW
This book is a list in alphabetical order or 100 of history's greatest thinkers. they all read as short essays of the Philosophers work and sometimes as short biographies.
This is a wonderful refence tool and it does a decent job of explaining some rather complex theories and arguments in layman's terms.
I will say of the 100 people 98 are men and 2 are women. It only makes me wonder how much farther we would be as a society if this number was closer to 50/50. What we have lost to sexism from women historically being uneducated or smothered when found to hold great concepts.
January 25, 2009
The book is a great source for the basic concepts behind the 112 philosophers featured.
January 12, 2020
A very good introduction to the diverse array of philosophical schools of thought. It is approachable and easy to read. It deals in ordinary language accessible to those not familiarised with philosophical lingo and provides a glossary of terms at the back.
I would have preferred some more depth in some cases as the accounts were left a little brief and it would have been interesting to see the book written not in alphabetical order but rather chronological so as to see the development of theories throughout time. It can be a little confusing when reading of any given philosopher wherein the text refers to those who precede them but have not yet been encountered alphabetically in the book.
All in all a very good read.
I would have preferred some more depth in some cases as the accounts were left a little brief and it would have been interesting to see the book written not in alphabetical order but rather chronological so as to see the development of theories throughout time. It can be a little confusing when reading of any given philosopher wherein the text refers to those who precede them but have not yet been encountered alphabetically in the book.
All in all a very good read.
December 29, 2021
Excellent book to gain an overview of the major philosophers. It provides an introduction to their ideas and the effect those ideas have had on the wider world. This book would be beneficial as a reference or resource regarding philosophy.
March 31, 2021
Good summaries. Includes many philosophers that weren't discussed much in my high school and college courses in the late 80's/early 90's.
October 7, 2022
لینک دریافت از طاقچه
برای کسانی که علاقه مند به فلسفه هستند مفید خواهد بود.
دانستن زندگینامه و افکار فیلسوفان میتونه راهنمای خوبی برای درک چگونگی شکلگیری فلسفه انها باشد.
برای کسانی که علاقه مند به فلسفه هستند مفید خواهد بود.
دانستن زندگینامه و افکار فیلسوفان میتونه راهنمای خوبی برای درک چگونگی شکلگیری فلسفه انها باشد.
October 11, 2024
A great who’s who in philosophy.
Read
July 1, 2014Good summary of the world's most important philosophers. Not entirely free from the author's bias but still fairly objective
Want to read
August 12, 2008gift from my friend carol!
Read
June 9, 2017This is the second time I have read this book. It is a very interesting and easy to understand introduction to many of the great thinkers.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews