The Worlds Great Philosophers

The World’s Great Philosophers provides an introduction to a selection of the most profound and influential thinkers in the history of philosophy. The 40 essays in this volume, written by an outstanding international assembly of scholars, provide cogent and accessible discussions of key philosophers from both Eastern and Western philosophical traditions – including Aquinas, Buddha, Confucius, Derrida, Heidegger, Kant, Laozi, Marx, Nietzsche, Plato, Sankara, and Wittgenstein. Together, the essays convey the historical panorama of philosophical thought on the nature of reality, the human condition, and basic human values.

List of Contributors. Preface. 1. Aquinas. (Timothy Renick). 2. Aristotle. (Russell Dancy). 3. Augustine. (Vernon J. Bourke). 4. Berkeley. (Lisa J. Downing). 5. The Buddha. (Peter Harvey). 6. Confucius. (David L. Hall). 7. Derrida. (John C. Coker). 8. Descartes. (Georges Dicker). 9. Dewey. (James Gouinlock). 10. Foucault. (Ladelle Mcwhorter). 11. Frege. (Hans–Johann Glock). 12. Hegel. (Tom Rockmore). 13. Heidegger. (Thomas Sheehan). 14. Hobbes. (David Gauthier). 15. Hume. (James M. Humber). 16. Husserl. (J.N. Mohanty). 17. James. (Michael H. DeArmey). 18. Kant. (G. Felicitas Munzel). 19. Kierkegaard. (George J. Stack). 20. Laozi (Lao Tzu).( Chad Hansen). 21. Leibniz. (Nicholas Jolley). 22. Locke. (E.J. Lowe). 23. Marx. (Allen W. Wood). 24. Mencius. (Kwong–Loi Shun). 25. Mozi (Mo Tzu). (Chad Hansen). 26. Nagarjuna. (Bina Gupta). 27. Nietzsche. (Richard Schacht). 28. Plato. (C.D.C. Reeve). 29. Quine. (Roger F. Gibson). 30. Ramanuja. (Indira Carr). 31. Rorty. (Kai Nielsen). 32. Russell. (Peter Hylton). 33. Sankara. (Brian Carr). 34. Sartre. (William R. Schroeder). 35. Socrates. (John Beversluis). 36. Spinoza. (Genevieve Lloyd). 37. Wittgenstein. (P.M.S. Hacker). 38. Xunzi (Hsün Tzu). (John Knoblock). 39. Zhuangzi (Chuang Tzu). (Chad Hansen). 40. Zhu Xi (Chu Hsi). (Jonathan Herman). Index

Robert L. Arrington is Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at Georgia State University. He is author of Rationalism, Realism, and Relativism (1989) and Western Ethics (Blackwell, 1997). He is editor of A Companion to the Philosophers (Blackwell, 1999) and co–editor of three volumes of essays on the philosophy of Wittgenstein.

"A wonderful collection of discussions written by major commentators on a diverse and wide–ranging set of philosophers. A superb sourcebook including helpful bibliographies." Michael Hodges, Vanderbilt University <!––end––> "These expert and accessible essays range very widely, covering not only the familiar Anglo–American and Continental figures but thinkers from the Eastern tradition as well. Among the delights of the book are the many happy juxtapositions its alphabetical ordering presents. Thus the profound metaphysician Spinoza appears next to the profound anti–metaphysician Wittgenstein, and then one essay later we are given Zhuangzi – more familiarly, Chuang Tzu – a sage of an entirely different kind. Altogether a fascinating and enlightening collection." John V. Canfield, University of Toronto