Chapter 1: Introduction -- Chapter 2: René Descartes -- Chapter 3: John Locke -- Chapter 4: Blaise Pascal -- Chapter 5: Mary Astell -- Chapter 6: Benedict Spinoza -- Chapter 7: David Hume -- Chapter 8: Immanuel Kant -- Chapter 9: Georg W.F. Hegel -- Chapter 10: Søren Kierkegaard -- Chapter 11: John Stuart Mill -- Chapter 12: Friedrich Nietzsche -- Chapter 13: Leo Tolstoy -- Chapter 14: Albert Einstein.

The book starts off by giving a quick overview of the main phases within the history of philosophy in the Western tradition. It then homes in on the “modern” phase and proceeds to select key thinkers that represent that slice from the rich intellectual heritage of the West. The main chapters have these thinkers’ names as heading. The work is meant to be expository and discursive, suited to introduce the neophyte in philosophy to some of the big questions asked by philosophers and their methods of addressing these questions as well as their unique proposed answers. The coverage is selective rather than extensive; and hence, only a small portion of the philosopher’s corpus of writings will be hand-picked and considered. Peter Chong-Beng Gan’s interest in philosophy encompasses several fields, but his favourite is philosophy of religion. Apart from research and writing, teaching a philosophy class with enthusiastic students ever eager to engage their teacher and challenge him and their classmates with difficult and mind-blowing questions never fails to affirm him in why he’s doing what he’s doing.