A Short History of Modern Philosophy

A compact history of Western philosophy from Descartes to Wittgenstein, first published in 1981 and substantially rewritten for its 1995 edition. Scruton's approach is analytical rather than biographical: he reconstructs arguments and asks whether they work, and opens by distinguishing the history of philosophy from the history of ideas. Part One treats the rationalists, with chapters on Descartes, the Cartesian revolution, Spinoza and Leibniz. Part Two covers the empiricists Locke, Berkeley and Hume, and the idea of a moral science. Part Three places Kant at the centre, with one chapter on the Critique of Pure Reason and another on his ethics and aesthetics, then follows Hegel and the reactions of Schopenhauer, Kierkegaard and Nietzsche. Part Four traces political philosophy from Hobbes to Hegel, Marx, and utilitarianism. The last part turns to Frege, phenomenology and existentialism, and Wittgenstein. The writing is dense but clear, and it rewards readers willing to follow abstract argument.

It explains the arguments, not just the doctrines, of modern philosophy in one manageable volume, and shows why Kant sits at the turning point of the whole story.