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Philosophy
Addresses 19 major Western philosophers, from Plato to Sartre. Concise biographies introduce each philosopher, followed by overviews of the major themes, arguments, and ideas that run through each philosopher's work. Each chapter also provides in-depth summary and analysis of the philosopher's most important works, as well as sample A+ student essays.
- GenresPhilosophyEducation
352 pages, Paperback
First published October 14, 2002
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43 people want to read
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If the author of the SparkNotes is known, they should be the first author. Please leave these SparkNotes Editors as the second author and the author of the original work as the last author. Do not combine with the original work. Do not put the author of the ORIGINAL work first.
Link to discussion.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
November 26, 2025
As a novice to philosophy, I found this book to be clearly-written, engaging, informative, and constantly thought-provoking. I feel so much more informed about basic philosophical concepts than I did before I read this book and I don't know what more you could expect.
February 23, 2018
I haven't read a philosophical text in God knows how long. so this was a life saver for me!
This book was among my old books back in Rochester and I selected this to bring to Turkey with me, because I wanted to get back into reading philosophical works. Boy, am I glad I did. This book did a great job in re-familiarizing me with important philosophers (being chronological helps idiots like me a lot) ideas and movements. The book is broken into chapter by chapter by philosopher, providing a biography, summary of key works and ideas, and analyzes them, so you feel ready to read the work on your own. It excludes some big time important philosophers which was why I gave this only 4 stars, but a book can't contain everyone and does a pretty neat job of presenting Western Philosophy to someone who wants to read this on her own, or for people like me, trying to get back into it. I would recommend this to self learners and self taught types of people.
This book was among my old books back in Rochester and I selected this to bring to Turkey with me, because I wanted to get back into reading philosophical works. Boy, am I glad I did. This book did a great job in re-familiarizing me with important philosophers (being chronological helps idiots like me a lot) ideas and movements. The book is broken into chapter by chapter by philosopher, providing a biography, summary of key works and ideas, and analyzes them, so you feel ready to read the work on your own. It excludes some big time important philosophers which was why I gave this only 4 stars, but a book can't contain everyone and does a pretty neat job of presenting Western Philosophy to someone who wants to read this on her own, or for people like me, trying to get back into it. I would recommend this to self learners and self taught types of people.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews