This volume collects dozens of complete philosophical texts and many substantial selections from other texts. It is a very efficient collection, with 60 authors (all of them men) representing 2,500 years of Western philosophy. At the beginning of each author's section is a page of introduction. The collection contains several intellectual moments and pre-occupations. Represented are classical Greek and roman philosophers (Plato and Aristotle), Roman stoics and skeptics (e.g. Epictetus and Sextus Empiricus), neoplatonists and scholastics (e.g. Plotinus and Aquinas), rationalists and empiricists (e.g. Spinoza and Hobbes), German Idealists (e.g. Hegel and Kant), utilitarians and pragmatists (e.g. Mill and James), phenomenologists (e.g. Husserl, existentialists (Kierkegaard and Sartre) and philosophers of language (Wittgenstein and Austin). The text is organized more like a reference rather than a pedagogic text, though foot-notes at the bottom do help with references non-introduced ideas and historical particulars. There is no index. Annotation ©2012 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)