In its vast scope, this book presents the continuum of Western philosophy. Ranging from ancient Greece to nineteenth-century America, it traces the history of our civilization through the seminal works of its most influential thinkers. Each philosopher in this volume made intellectual history; each created a revolution in ideas; each reaffirmed man's view of himself as a sentient being capable of creating order out of the baffling contradictions of existence. And the most powerful reflections and speculations of each are represented here.

Ten Great Works of Philosophy Introductory Remarks to the Reader

Plato: Apology; Crito and the Dath of Socrates, from Phaedo

Aristotle: Politics

St. Anselm and St. Thomas Aquinas: Proofs for the Existence of God: The Ontological Proof of St. Anselm, from Proslogium; St. Thomas' Proofs of God's Existence, from The Summa Theologica

Renée Descartes: Meditations on the First Philosophy

David Hume: An Inquiry Concerning Human Understanding

Immanuel Kant: Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics

John Stuart Mill: Utilitarianism

William James: The Will to Believe