Rene Descartes is arguably the most important seventeenth-century thinker and the father of modern philosophy. His seminal works are widely studied by students of philosophy. Yet his unique method and its divergence from the method of his scholastic predecessors and contemporaries raises complex and often challenging issues.
Edmund Husserl's work is a cornerstone of Continental philosophy and the phenomenological tradition. Husserl stands as a key influence on such major philosophers as Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty and Sartre, and is required reading for anyone studying phenomenology and European philosophy of the last 100 years. However, the complex ideas central to his work, and the rather convoluted language in which they are expressed, mean that arriving at a full and clear understanding of Husserlian phenomenology is no small undertaking.
This title presents a concise and coherent overview of Locke, ideal for second- or third-year undergraduates who require more than just a simple introduction to his work and thought. John Locke is a clear and lucid writer who wrote on many subjects and founded many new schools of thought. Yet, while his work is not impossible to read, his thought is sufficiently subtle, complex and intricate that he can be agonizingly hard to follow, presenting students of philosophy with a number of difficulties and challenges.
This book provides a concise and coherent overview of Marx, ideal for undergraduates who require more than just a simple introduction to his work and thought. Covering the full range of Marx's works and ideas, introducing all the key concepts and themes in Marxism, this book is an invaluable aid to study.It is widely acknowledged that Karl Marx was one of the most original and influential thinker of modern times. His thought has inspired some of the most important political movements of the past century and still today has the power to arouse controversy today.
It is widely agreed that Plato laid the foundations for the whole history of western thought and, well over 2000 years later, his work is still studied by every student of philosophy. Yet his thought and writings continue to evoke perplexity in readers; and perplexity (aporia) is itself a characteristic of many of his writings, a recurrent motif of his thought, and apparently an important stage one must pass through along the path to wisdom that Plato presents.