This is the fourth and final part of Kreeft's four-volume history of
philosophy . . . on ancient, medieval, modern, and contemporary
philosophy.
Kreeft focuses on the "big ideas" that have influenced present people
and present times, and includes relevant biographical data,
proportionate to its importance for each thinker. Moreover, the aim of
the work is to stimulate philosophizing, controversy, and argument. It
uses ordinary language and logic, not jargon and symbolic logic, and it
is commonsensical (like Aristotle) and existential in the sense that it
sees philosophy as something to be lived and experienced in life.
Philosophy, after all, is not about philosophy but reality . . . about
wisdom, life and death, good and evil, and God.
Kreeft seeks to be simple and direct and clear. But it is not dumbed
down and patronizing. It will stretch the reader, but it is meant for
beginnings, not just scholars. It can be used for college classes or
do-it-yourselfers. It emphasizes surprises; remember, "philosophy begins
in wonder." And it includes visual aids: charts, cartoons, line
drawings, and drawings of philosophers.
Peter Kreeft teaches philosophy at Boston College and is a very prolific
author of philosophy and theology texts, including, from St. Augustine's
Press, Socratic Logic, An Ocean Full of Angels, The Philosophy of
Jesus, Jesus-Shock, The Sea Within, I Surf Therefore I Am, If
Einstein Had Been a Surfer, the first nine titles in his Socrates
Meets series, including Philosophy 101 by Socrates and the titles on
Machiavelli, Descartes, Hume, Kant, Marx, and Sartre, and the first
three volumes of this series, Socrates' Children: Ancient, Socrates'
Children: Medieval, and Socrates' Children: Modern.
