Philosophers Who Changed History

A beautifully illustrated guide to the lives and works of the world's greatest ever philosophers

This stunning visual celebration of the world's most celebrated thinkers tells the fascinating stories of their lives and pioneering ideas.

Lavishly illustrated with portraits of each philosopher, alongside photographs of their homes and studies, and personal artefacts, Philosophers Who Changed History offers a unique window into the personalities of each individual, and their key ideas and beliefs.

Introduced with a stunning portrait of each philosopher, biographical entries trace the friendships, loves, and rivalries that inspired and influenced them, and provide revealing insights into what drove them to come up with new ways of understanding the world. Entries explore the key ideas and working methods of each individual, and set their ideas in context, conveying a powerful sense of the place and the period of history in which they lived.

Covering a broad range of thinkers from the Classical era to the present day, Philosophers Who Changed History provides a compelling, entertaining, and accessible glimpse of the lives and loves of each one.

About the Author

Simon Blackburn is a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, the Emeritus Bertrand Russell Professor of Philosophy at the University of Cambridge, and the author of many books, including the best-selling Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy (1994), Think (1999), and Being Good- A Short Introduction to Ethics (2001). These have sold well over 150,000 copies in English and are translated into more than 20 languages. OUP also published Lust, his contribution to their Seven Deadly Sins series, in 2005. He was a Fellow and Tutor at Pembroke College, Oxford, from 1969 to 1989, and from 1990 to 2000 an Edna J. Koury Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He edited the journal Mind from 1984 to 1990.