Great Western Thinkers
Eriksen, Trond Berg (ed.): Vestens store tenkere. Fra Platon til våre dagerFull title: Great Western Thinkers. From Plato to the Present Day
This book offers a concise overview of the history of ideas as inherited by the European culture. It covers the personalities of the thinkers themselves and the times and places in which they lived, and draws a picture of the problems addressed by each of them.
The book is divided into three main sections: from Plato to Galileo, from Descartes to Nietzsche and from Freud to Baudrillard. The emphasis is mainly on presenting the world"s great thinkers in such a manner as to enable the reader to understand their relevance to modern society. The point is that they belong not to a past that does not concern us but that they espoused values which, to varying degrees, have remained viable down through the ages. We cannot afford not to take into consideration such values when we ourselves seek to form an overall view - a philosophy of life.
First published: 2002, Aschehoug Non-Fiction
Trond Berg Eriksen: Biography and bibliography
