Central Works of Philosophy, Volume 3

Book excerpt: Ranging over 2,500 years of philosophical writing, this five-volume collection of essays is an unrivalled companion to the study and reading of philosophy. Central Works of Philosophy provides both an overview of particular works and clear and authoritative expositions of their central ideas, giving readers the resources and confidence to read the works themselves. These books offer remarkable insights into the ideas out of which our present ways of thinking emerged and without which they cannot fully be understood. VOLUME 3 introduces readers to the age of idealism, from which twentieth-century Western philosophy emerged. The volume begins with Kant's Critique of Pure Reason, which determined much of the course of nineteenth-century philosophy, and ends with the moral and political philosophy of Stuart Mill, perhaps the only philosopher in this volume to evade Kant's influence. Also included are works by two post-Kantian idealists, Fichte and Hegel, as well as Schopenhauer, Kierkegaard, Marx, and Nietzsche. Contributors include Curtis Bowman, Stephen Evans, Michelle Grier, Michael Inwood, Dale Jacquette, Jonathan Riley, Tom Rockmore, and Rex Welshon.