Customer Reviews

Masterpieces of World Philosophy

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Excellent review of books and related literature for philosophers of history and more recent contributors of the philosophic dialog. Very well written usually 2 to 4 page summaries of the philosopher's key books. A great way to review the philosophic dialog in print and especially helpful are the summary of basic ideas at the beginning of each book review. It is helpful for those as a guide for going on to read the

originals. Kind of a cliffs notes to philosophy. Very valuable.

Roland R. Kratzner

I have a copy of "Masterpieces of World Literature" which I have found to be a good reference (containing critical summaries of the major works of literature), and when I came across this title, I decided to get a copy for myself. I have always been interested in philosophy, yet never found the time to really delve into each individual work due to time constraints. This book suits my needs perfectly as it analyzes and summarizes about 100 major works of philosophy, beginning with The Analects of Confucius, covering the Bhagavad Gita, the Tao Te Ching, Saint Augustine's The City of God, Saint Thomas Aquinas' Summa Theologica, Niccolo Machiavelli's The Prince, Rene Descartes' Meditations on First Philosophy, Rousseau's The Social Contract,among others, and ending with John Rawls' Theory of Justice.

Each philosophical work has an essay analyzing the principal ideas advanced (at the beginning the name of the author, type of work, and the time it was first transcribed is provided), pertinent literature (analyzing these works), and also a list of recommended titles for additional reading on each philosophical work. This is a handy resource for those seeking an introduction to the major works of literature.

Gives main points to works, really helps you understand the philosophers so you can then think for yourself.

Very well written summaries of the major philosophers up to the 1950's stopping at an excellent review of Ludwig Wittgensein's work. Great for history of philosophy but unfortunately few modern philosophers included in volume 2. For these the 1990 edition of Masterpieces is needed as a supplement. This volume has many philosophers which the 1990 volume has to omit because of space restrictions so I see these volumes as also needed to supplement the 1990 edition.

Roland R. Kratzner