Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I give this book a five-star rating for being a great example of what it seeks to be - a simplified summary of a complex field of study. The main value of this book is that it summarizes the entire history of philosophy in easy-to-grasp terms, with pictures and quotes combined with a narration of historical periods. It leaves out some important things, but for the beginning explorer, it's a fine place to start. I would not, however, recommend that this book become one's "only" reference for a field of study that covers such a long time in history, and yet is constantly changing and evolving. It won't turn you into a college level professor of philosophy. Read it, or refer to it, as a kind of road map. Get some landmarks and travel information from it, identify some of the world-renowned leaders in philosophy, and then enter into a personal quest for more knowledge. Read some definitive books on one or more of the best names in philosophy, such as Socrates and Plato, Thomas Aquinas, Blaise Pascal, John Locke (how did he influence the development of modern democracy?), Immanuel Kant, all the way down to recent times, names such as Jean-Paul Sartre and Martin Heidegger, to name a few. Explore some current era writers such as Peter Singer. Philosophy is far too important and diverse to be limited to one book, no matter how excellent. For this unique book, its best quality, simplification, is perhaps its main fault as well. So for that reason, start here, drive around the "turf" of this book, but don't park your vehicle there.