Philosophy and Living

Good holiday reading in this sweeping new history of Western philosophy. It is the outcome of the author's course at the University of the Third Age following his career as a school history teacher. Most of the chapters or sections focus on individual contributions to the subject, and the emphasis is on the application of the ideas to living, as the title suggests. The unusual feature of the book is the commentaries interwoven with the text, which consist of the author's own reflections and/or those of his students. This gives both a text and a sub-text to the book. Footnotes also usefully refer the reader back and forward in the book to related themes.