"Shand writes with great clarity and simplicity, with sparing use of jargon. His methods will make it easy for beginners to identify from scratch a plausible outline of what is going on in a particular philosopher's arguments, so that they can go on to other books for more detail and for presentation of the problems with some usable idea of which way is up. A useful addition to the first-year reading list." - Philosophical Quarterly "a concise and readily surveyable account of the history of Western philosophy... it succeeds in being both an illuminating introduction to the history of philosophy for someone who has little prior knowledge of the subject and a valuable source of guidance to a more experienced student." - Times Literary Supplement "succeeds in nimbly tying autonomous episodes of Western thought into a coherent whole ... the selected philosophers and their work are examined rigorously and evenhandedly, including explanations of the standard objections and counterarguments." - Philosophical Books
