A History of Philosophy, Vol. 8: Modern Philosophy - Empiricism, Idealism, and Pragmatism in Britain and America

Conceived originally as a serious presentation ofthe development of philosophy for Catholic seminary students, Frederick Copleston's nine-volumeA History Of Philosophy hasjourneyed far beyond the modest purpose of its author to universal acclaim as the best history ofphilosophy in English.

Copleston, an Oxford Jesuitof immense erudition who once tangled with A. J. Ayer in a fabled debate about the existence of Godand the possibility of metaphysics, knew thatseminary students were fed a woefully inadequate dietof theses and proofs, and that their familiaritywith most of history's great thinkers was reducedto simplistic caricatures. Copleston set out toredress the wrong by writing a complete history ofWestern philosophy, one crackling with incident andintellectual excitement -- and one that gives fullplace to each thinker, presenting his thought in abeautifully rounded manner and showing his linksto those who went before and to those who cameafter him.

The result of Copleston's prodigious labors is a history of philosophy that is unlikely ever to be surpassed. Thought magazine summed up the general agreement among scholars and students alike when it reviewed Copleston's A History of Philosophy as broad-minded and objective, comprehensive and scholarly, unified and well proportioned... We cannot recommend [it] too highly.