The great works of philosophy

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.

• Plato: Apology, Crito and the Death of Socrates, from Phado

   

  • Aristotle: Poetics

     

    • St. Ansem: The ontological Proof of St. Ansem, from Proslogium

       

      • St. Thomas Aquinas: St. Thomas’ Proofs of God’s Existence, from the SummaTheologica

         

        • René 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