Frederick Charles Copleston
Conceived originally as a serious presentation ofÂ the development of philosophy for Catholic seminary students, Frederick Copleston's nine-volumeÂ ,A History Of Philosophy, hasÂ journeyed far beyond the modest purpose of its author to universal acclaim as the best history ofÂ philosophy in English.,Copleston, an Oxford JesuitÂ of immense erudition who once tangled with A. J. Ayer in a fabled debate about the existence of GodÂ and the possibility of metaphysics, knew thatÂ seminary students were fed a woefully inadequate dietÂ of theses and proofs, and that their familiarityÂ with most of history's great thinkers was reducedÂ to simplistic caricatures. Copleston set out toÂ redress the wrong by writing a complete history ofÂ Western philosophy, one crackling with incident andÂ intellectual excitement -- and one that gives fullÂ place to each thinker, presenting his thought in aÂ beautifully rounded manner and showing his linksÂ to those who went before and to those who cameÂ after him. ,The result of Copleston's prodigious labors is a history of philosophy that is unlikely ever to be surpassed. ,Thought, magazine summed up the general agreement among scholars and students alike when it reviewed Copleston's ,A History of Philosophy, as "broad-minded and objective, comprehensive and scholarly, unified and well proportioned... We cannot recommend [it] too highly."
Philosophy,History,Nonfiction,Reference,Historical,Medieval
A History of Philosophy, Vol. 3: Late Medieval and Renaissance Philosophy, Okham, Francis Bacon, and the Beginning of the Modern World