Sections 1 and 2 cover the Greek Era, from the pre-Socratics and the twin geniuses Plato and Aristotle, to the Neoplatonists like Plotinus. He begins with Plato and ends, roughly five hundred pages later, with a survey and analysis of Postmodernism. Tarnas divides his book into three macro-sections: classical, medieval, and modern, which, as he explains, are in turn dominated by ideas of a philosophical, theological, and scientific character, respectively. What fueled each thinker? What particular convictions influenced philosophy of the era? What pressing concerns building in history of thought motivated each thinker to construct their particular system? These are the invaluable insights Tarnas makes clear for the reader. Not only does the reader get the particular ideas of each philosophy and era of thought, but also the cultural influence and the context out of which each philosophy arose. Tarnas presents a history of thought with a level of insight and understanding that reaches depths previously not considered possible for an introductory work.

Unlike other Western philosophy books that can become dry and tedious even for a person with a moderate philosophical appetite, this book reads like a novel. If you have been searching for a book that covers the entire corpus of Western philosophical thought in one volume, you have to stop at The Passion of the Western Mind by Richard Tarnas. Richard Tarnas, The Passion of the Western Mind, New York: Random House, 1991.

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