The Great Philosophers presents lively and informative biographical portraits of 50 of the most important names in the history of human thought. Each chapter charts the personal life and intellectual breakthroughs of one essential philosopher and, crucially, focuses on a straightforward explanation of their grand idea. Accompanied by a famous image of the philosopher, everyday examples of how his or her ideas are relevant today and memorable quotations from their key works, this is the perfect introduction to the world of philosophy. The Great Philosophers explains the ideas of the following key thinkers: Buddha Confucius Parmenides Zeno Socrates Plato Aristotle Augustine Anselm Ibn Rushd Thomas Aquinas William of Ockham Machiavelli Bacon Hobbes Descartes Pascal Locke Spinoza Leibniz Berkeley Hume Rousseau Kant Bentham Hegel Schopenhauer J S Mill Kierkegaard Marx Peirce James Nietzsche Frege Husserl Russell Moore Wittgenstein Heidegger Ryle Popper Sartre Arendt de Beauvoir Quine Ayer Strawson Thomson Kripke Singer