Modern Philosophy: From Descartes to Leibnitz (A History of Philosophy, Vol. 4)
Conceived originally as a serious presentation of the  development of philosophy for Catholic seminary students, Frederick  Copleston's nine-volumeA History Of Philosophyhas journeyed  far beyond the modest purpose of  its author to universal acclaimas the  best history of philosophy in English.Copleston, an Oxford Jesuit  of immense erudition who once tangled with A.J. Ayer in a fabled debate  about the existence of God and the possibility of metaphysics, knew  that seminary students were fed a woefully inadequate diet of theses  and proofs, and that their familiarity with most of history's great  thinkers was reduced to simplistic caricatures.  Copleston set out to  redress the wrong by writing a complete history of Western philosophy,  one crackling with incident and intellectual excitement - and one that  gives full place to each thinker, presenting his thought in a  beautifully rounded manner and showing his links to those who came  after him.