A History of Philosophy. Volume 7, Modern philosophy, From the post-Kantian idealists to Marx, Kierkegaard, and Nietzsche

Conceived originally as a serious presentation ofthe development of philosophy for Catholic seminary students, Frederick Copleston's nine-volume A History Of Philosophy hasjourneyed far beyond the modest purpose of its author to universal acclaim as the best history ofphilosophy in English. Copleston, an Oxford Jesuitof immense erudition who once tangled with A. J. Ayer in a fabled debate about the existence of Godand the possibility of metaphysics, knew thatseminary students were fed a woefully inadequate dietof theses and proofs, and that their familiaritywith most of history's great thinkers was reducedto simplistic caricatures. Copleston set out toredress the wrong by writing a complete history ofWestern philosophy, one crackling with incident andintellectual excitement -- and one that gives fullplace to each thinker, presenting his thought in abeautifully rounded manner and showing his linksto those who went before and to those who cameafter 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." Conceived originally as a serious presentation of the development of philosophy for Catholic seminary students, Frederick Copleston's nine-volume "A History of Philosophy" has journeyed far beyond the modest purpose of its author to universal acclaim as the best history of philosophy in English. -- From publisher's description

conceived Originally As A Serious Presentation Of The Development Of Philosophy For Catholic Seminary Students, Frederick Copleston's Nine-volume a History Of Philosophy Has Journeyed Far Beyond The Modest Purpose Of Its Author To Universal Acclaim As The Best History Of Philosophy In English.

I. IN the German philosophical world during the early part of the nineteenth century we find one of the most remarkable flowerings of metaphysical speculation which have occurred in the long history of western philosophy.