The Pimlico History of Western Philosophy, ed. Richard H. Popkin (Pimlico, £18 in UK)

At over 800 pages, this should prove useful to students and even the non-specialist reader, though its Anglo-American bias is…

At over 800 pages, this should prove useful to students and even the non-specialist reader, though its Anglo-American bias is sometimes too evident. There is a good deal on Greek and medieval thought, on the 17th century and the thinkers of the Enlightenment, on Kant and Kantianism, and, coming up to the present, on Gadamer, Foucault, Ricoeur, Derrida, etc. Schopenhauer is given only four pages and Kierkegaard three, while the 18th-century Scotsman Thomas Reid has seven (apparently he had a strong influence in America). Heidegger is deservedly given a chapter, but Croce seemingly is ignored, so is Ortega y Gasset, so is the important Russian Leo Shestov, and while there are some excellent chapters on medieval Islamic and Jewish philosophy, modern Spanish and Latin-American thinkers are ignored. A rather cursory chapter on the philosophical contribution of women seems rather to have been tacked on as an afterthought.