David West (3) (1955–)

West's book is a very good survey introduction to modern and postmodern thought. He does a fair job in explaining the thought of a great variety of modern thinkers and the way they have contributed to the thought of others and built upon yet others. I found his ability to link the influences of one thinker to another to be a particular strong point of the book, but also one that can cause some confusion as it can be difficult to follow his train of thought on some points, especially if one show more is very new to the subject being discussed. Overall, I recommend this book as a good introduction, though it requires at least a bit of background knowledge on the major movements of modern and postmodern philosophy. show less