Through vivid and witty prose Richard Francks presents the ideas that have informed the development of philosophy as we know it. Our current approaches to central philosophical problems - the existence of God, the mind/body problem, the idea of the self, and the existence of the world - originated in the texts of these six thinkers, as did broader questions about political and social philosophy. This book is ideal for anyone encountering the ideas of these thinkers for the first time.