Kelly (philosophy, New York Institute of technology) gets to the heart of major arguments and sticks to leading thinkers in the nature of philosophy and its history, logic and language, and the evolution of concepts ranging from reason to faith to the Enlightenment and beyond, to rationalists, empiricists, pragmatism and the splits between the English-speaking and those whose thought occurs mainly on the continent. He covers metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, social and political philosophy, the philosophy of religion and thought on science and human nature. Although very usable in a first-level college course, this also works as a desk reference and guide for further reading. Annotation ©2007 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)