Copleston’s ninth volume of his A History of Philosophy masterfully takes in over 150 years of French thought from the French Revolution to the mid-twentieth century.

Frederick Copleston was Professor of the History of Philosophy and Dean of the Faculty of Theology at London University. This eleven-volume work is one of the most remarkable single-handed scholarly enterprises of modern times. Volume 9 covers Henri Bergson, Albert Camus, Auguste Comte, Maine de Biran, Claude Lévi-Strauss and Jean-Paul Sartre.

This volume includes history from the ideologists, to positivists such as Comte, to the singular work of Bergson, to philosophers of science, religion and politics, to Sartre’s existentialism, and finally to the beginning of the dramatic and controversial changes that developed in French post-war philosophy with phenomenology and structuralism.

Brimming with detail and enthusiasm, A History of Philosophy gives an accessible account of philosophers from all eras and explains their works in relation to other philosophers. Each volume is an ideal guide for students studying specific eras and as a set offers a complete and unrivalled overview of the entire western philosophical tradition.

A monumental history . . . learned, lucid, patient and comprehensive. * New Statesman *
We can only applaud at the end of each act and look forward to applauding again at the final curtain. * Times Literary Supplement *
Lucid and luminous ... a most remarkable achievement, of which any scholar in the world of any field would justly be proud. * Church Times *

Frederick Copleston was born in Somerset in 1907. After studying at Oxford, he held a number of academic posts, including Professor of the History of Philosophy and Dean of the Faculty of Philosophy at London University. He died in 1994.