Philosophy: 100 Essential Thinkers

Ponder life’s biggest questions with this spectacular hardback guide to philosophy through its 100 key thinkers, beautifully illustrated in full-color throughout.

From the metaphysics of Plato to the nihilism of Nietzsche, this engaging and accessible book invites readers to contemplate the ideas of 100 key philosophers within the Western intellectual tradition. Covering philosophical, scientific, political and religious thought over a period of 2500 years, this serves as an excellent guide to this history of philosophy and the progress that has been made in interpreting the world around us.

These figures include:
- Aristotle
- Jean-Jacques Rousseau
- Karl Marx
- Simone de Beauvoir
- Noam Chomsky
- W.V.O Quine

By presenting details of their lives and the concerns and circumstances that motivated them, along with a range of full-color illustrations, this book makes philosophy come to life as a relevant and meaningful approach to thinking about the contemporary world.

Philip Stokes graduated with a BA(Hons) in Philosophy from the University of Reading in 1993, and gained his Masters degree from Bristol University in 1995. His Masters dissertation was a critique of Quine from a Wittgensteinian perspective. After working for several years in academic publishing, Philip returned to academia proper, beginning his PhD at the University of Reading, where he was Course tutor within the Department of Continuing Education at Reading. In 2005 he took up a post at Chulalongkorn University in Thailand, where he is a member of the Language Faculty.