An illuminating celebration of the world’s most important and influential thinkers, this book explores the fascinating stories of their lives and pioneering ideas.

Introduced with a stunning portrait of each featured philosopher, entries trace the ideas and beliefs, and the relationships and rivalries that inspired the great thinkers and influenced their work, providing revealing insights into what drove them to question the meaning of life and come up with new ways of understanding the world.

Lavishly illustrated with photographs and paintings of their homes, friends, studies, and their personal belongings, together with pages from original manuscripts, first editions, and correspondence, this book introduces the key ideas, themes, and working methods of each featured individual, setting their ideas within a wider historical and cultural context. 

Charting the development of ideas across the centuries in both the East and West, from ancient Chinese philosophy to the work of contemporary thinkers, Philosophers Who Changed History provides a compelling glimpse into their lives and loves, and the influence of other great philosophers as they probed into life’s “big ideas.”