Critics’ Reviews

“Andrew Stumpf’s Ancient Philosophy: A Companion to the Core Readings is a superb introductory text. Eminently clear and accessible, it provides judicious and balanced coverage of key thinkers and their systems. I would recommend it highly to any instructor developing a course in the field and to any student or interested layperson seeking a useful aid in self-study.” — Travis Dumsday, Concordia University of Edmonton

“Stumpf’s Ancient Philosophy is a very attractive—a very teacherly—introduction to the subject, aimed at undergraduate students. Succinct, well-organized, and clear, it is designed as a companion volume to the primary texts that are standardly read in a basic university course on the subject; it is not a substitute for those texts themselves. Clearly the product of a good deal of experience in the classroom, it is shrewd in anticipating what in the material is likely to mystify—or to entrance—a student; its judicious use of illustrations is particularly striking. Most important, it keeps its eye on the big picture: the overall shape of the first millennium of philosophical work in the West and the substantial contribution of that work to our own scientific and philosophical outlook.” — John Thorp, Western University