Philosophers: Their Lives and Works

Summary

An illuminating celebration of more than 80 of the world's most important thinkers, this book explores the fascinating stories of their lives, their loves, and their pioneering ideas. Introduced with a 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. This auidobook 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 provides a compelling glimpse into the personal lives, loves, and influences of the great philosophers as they probed into life's "big ideas". Simon Blackburn is a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, the Emeritus Bertrand Russell Professor of Philosophy at the University of Cambridge, and the author of many books, including the best-selling Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy (1994), Think (1999), and Being Good: A Short Introduction to Ethics (2001).