So begins S. E. Frost, Jr. in Basic Teachings of the Great Philosophers. He divides the topics of philosophy into ten major problems in order “to bring together what each philosopher has

written on each of these problems as briefly and concisely as possible” (3). Other reviewers take issue with his arrangement, and, indeed, it has its problems (too brief, too concise and sometimes puzzling); however, the previous quote shows Frost’s very clear purpose in being brief and concise. If the reader prefers a chronological, historical survey of the ideas of great thinkers, then Durant’s Story of Philosophy (Touchstone Books (Paperback)), Bertrand’s A History of Western Philosophy, or The Oxford Illustrated History of Western Philosophy (Oxford Illustrated Histories) are the books to consult.

However, the book at hand is this one: Basic Teachings of the Great Philosophers with each chapter a chronological survey of one idea. For example, Chapter 1, “The Nature of the Universe,” addresses such questions as How did the universe come to be? Who or what made it, and how was it made? and so on. Some of the early answers seem comical, but they formed the basics used by the next thinker. The ancient Greek thinker, Thales, about 600 BC, considered water as the “stuff” of the universe, Anaxamines thought it “air,” and Pythagoras and his followers believed the universe was made up of numbers. (Wherever you are, look around and find something not made of numbers.)

Heraclitus gave us “fire” as the “stuff” because it is always changing, making change the constant. His famous observation (and one which always thrills me) is this: “You could not step twice into the same river, for other and yet other waters are ever flowing on.” Plato’s idea of the copy world in changing, decaying matter and perfect forms in a non-matter, ideal, unchanging world, of course, set the standards for philosophers ever after in addressing the problem of nature. Aristotle tried to merge matter with form and charge it with purpose. A thing’s raison d’etre was teleological, or a striving to realize its purpose. Christian thinkers based their proof of God and His world on Greek thought.

All these developments led to the schism between faith and science in the medieval period. The forms, ideas, universals of Plato and Aristotle became the basis for religious, philosophical thought in that these universals are what is real and sense objects are mere copies. The soul in heaven is real; man’s flesh and blood body is what decays. Science developed from the opposite: that things we experience are what is real and that universals exist in our minds. That is why faith is based on what cannot be proved and science is based on what is set before us and can be measured.

Galileo, Newton, Bacon–all their ideas relating to the problem of nature are briefly explained. One thinker of interest here on Amazon is Giordano Bruno, who believed “the universe is composed of numerous uncaused and wholly imperishable parts…called monads”(29). He also said that the universe remains constant and that only its parts change. Descartes’ great contribution to science was his idea of dualism, or the two-fold nature of the mind and body, making each measurable. “I think, therefore, I am.”

Others, Spinoza as the “God-intoxicated man,” Locke, Hume, Leibnitz, Kant and his “categorical imperative,” Hegel, Mill, James, Dewey and his Pragmatism, and Santayana are included and summarized.

All other nine chapters follow this outline of identifying and introducing the problem, then chronologically showing the development of thought of the most significant philosophers concerning the problem. Other chapters address Man, Good and Evil, the Nature of God, Fate versus Free Will, Soul and Immortality, Man and State, Education, Mind and Matter, and Ideas and Thinking.

This book is satisfactory if the reader is seeking a general address of the Great Ideas. According to Socrates: “The unexamined life is not worth living.” Frost hands us a “brief, concise” summary of these ideas to think about and form our philosophy.