This is a stimulating and highly informative collection of articles, giving us a very clear view of the philosophical significance of the nineteenth century, and its central issues and disputes. Anyone with interests in this field should find it worthwhile, and I recommend it highly.

Professor Robert Stern, The University of Sheffield

The Edinburgh Critical History of Philosophy is a seven volume series of reference works which presents the history of philosophy in an innovative way. Critical essays address the emergence and development of the themes and problematics that characterise each period. Particular attention is given to the diffusion of themes across disciplinary, geographical and historical boundaries, and to the changing practice of philosophy.

This volume begins with the rise of German Idealism and Romanticism, traces the developments of naturalism, positivism, and materialism and of later-century attempts to combine idealist and naturalist modes of thought.

Written by a team of leading international scholars this crucial period of philosophy is examined from the novel perspective of themes and lines of thought which cut across authors, disciplines, and national boundaries. This fresh approach will open up new ways for specialists and students to conceptualise the history of 19th-century thought within philosophy, politics, religious studies and literature.

Alison Stone is Reader in European Philosophy at Lancaster University.