Scruton examines the thoughts of Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz, Hobbes, Locke, Berkeley, Hume, Kant, Hegel, Schopenhauer, Kierkegaard, Marx, Nietzsche, Mill, Frege, Husserl, Heidegger and Wittgenstein among others.

[1] George Henry Radcliffe Parkinson calls it a "lucid and intelligent guide to the history of modern philosophy."

Anthony Manser points out that Scruton reveals his commitment to analytic tradition and is clearly out of sympathy with philosophers like Heidegger and Sartre.

William Day (from Le Moyne College) criticizes the book's "parochialism" and believes that it has a bias towards British thinkers.

[2][3][4] The book has also received positive reviews from L. Gordon Graham and Alan Ryan.