To understand the world, you must have a basic understanding of Western philosophers and the philosophers who have shaped the world. This concise, jargon-free, plain-language layman's guide examines the writings of the major modern philosophers, including Socrates, Diogenes, Plato, Nietzsche, Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz, and others. These philosophers seek to answer questions such as: - Can science explain the world? - Is a wise person necessarily rational? - Should one aspire to authenticity? - Is God unbelievable? Throughout the book, God and faith - and what history's greatest thinkers have said on those topics - are major themes. For instance, Schopenhauer preferred Oriental mysticism to Enlightenment rationalism and scheduled his university lectures to clash with Hegel, whose grand vision of reasonable progress he hated. The author also examines what modern philosophers said about how we can live heroically, conflicts between Protestantism and Catholicism, and reconciling faith and reason. Find out why the gods will always exist and what their mere existence says about humanity by following what history's greatest philosophers have argued.