Great Philosophers: A Brief History

Great Philosophers tells the story of Western philosophy through the thought of its main protagonists, the great philosophers. The narrative begins with the Presocratic philosophers Heraclitus and Parmenides and ends in recent times, as each philosopher wrestles with the problems and solutions of his or her predecessors. Along the way, Jeffrey Reid provides an engaging introduction to many of the principal ideas of luminaries such as Plato, Descartes, Hume, Kant, Hegel, Nietzsche and Sartre.

Great Philosophers not only provides an ideal introduction to philosophical thought, but also an original understanding of the discipline of philosophy itself. The book aims not only to recount an important tradition, but also to reveal something about how it has affected who we are.

Jeffrey Reid is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Ottawa. His books include The Anti-Romantic: Hegel Against Ironic Romanticism (Bloomsbury, 2014) and Real Words: Language and System in Hegel (University of Toronto Press, 2007). He teaches the Great Philosophers course at the University of Ottawa.