A Brief History Of Philosophy: From Socrates to Derrida

This history of Philosophy presents the basic ideas of a number of major philosophers in a very clear and simple way. The feeling is that the book is for the General Reader who wants some basic conception of Philosophy. Clarity of course can be misleading, and the complexity of thought of most of the thinkers presented is not encompassed here. While most of the Philosophers presented are truly in the main tradition of Western Philosophy there are some whose place there I would strongly question. Marx is a social thinker , and Derrida a Literary Critic as I understand their work. However the main point is that it is certainly possible to learn from this work basic conceptions of major philosophers.