The Blackwell guide to the modern philosophers

the long version

"This guide brings together eighteen original interpretations of the modern philosophers from Descartes to Nietzsche. The contributors succeed brilliantly in placing their figures within a rich historical, cultural, and philosophical context, noting some of the important ways in which their ideas and arguments were shaped by the intellectual currents of the time, and how they in turn shaped subsequent philosophical debate.". "Each chapter focuses on the central ideas and arguments of an individual philosopher with discussion ranging over a wide variety of topics, including morality, politics, religion, epistemology, metaphysics, aesthetics, logic, mathematics, and the natural sciences."--BOOK JACKET.