Do you know your Aristotelianism or asceticism from your egalitarianism? No? Alain Stephen aims to get you up to speed, making a brisk tour of Western philosophy as he explains what mankind has thought about happiness, politics, power, science, religion, and love. Along the way he offers quotations from philosophers and profiles some of the heavyweights, while accessibly conveys what's important about some of the major theories and the diverse moral and ethical arguments that have defined our civilization.