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Frederick Copleston was an Oxford Jesuit, who, concerned with the quality of philosophy textbooks, endeavored to write a nine volume classic on developments, definitions and figures of philosophy. He starts with the pre-Socratics, such as Thales, and ends with the contemporaries (relative to his time period) like Sartre and other existentialists. In my opinion, there has never been such an accurate presentation of past thinkers available to the layman. Especially impressive is his work on the medieval writers. Being a Catholic, Copleston possesses an amazing insight in the area of Thomas Aquinas. Here you see the greatest Aristotelian at work in communicable (in time) language. He considers himself a Thomist, and as such delivers a solid piece. If you are interested in Aquinas or other Scholastics, this volume (II) is a definite must-read. Though the language teeters slightly on the technical side when reading the enlightenment writers and German philosophers, you should be able to work yourself through this book with a medium understanding of philosophical verbiage. On a scale of 1 to 10, I would give this an 8. Strengths
Weaknesses
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