This new, brilliantly written overview of the history of philosophy provides a philosophical summary of the guiding themes of philosophical thought from its beginnings to the present day, and also meets the criterion that one of the tasks of philosophy is to provide pleasure.

Content: The philosophy of Christian antiquity: The beginnings, the Cappadocians and Dionysius the Areopagite, Augustine, the end of antiquity. The philosophy of the Middle Ages: The philosophy of the early Middle Ages, Anselm of Canterbury, Abelard, new approaches of the 12th century, philosophy in the Islamic realm, Jewish philosophy of the Middle Ages, the reception of the writings of Aristotle and Arab science, Robert Grosseteste and Roger Bacon, Bonaventure and Albertus Magnus, Thomas Aquinas, the decrees of 1277: causes and consequences, Raymond Lull and Duns.