An essential companion to help students master one of the most important areas of their Religious Studies course in Philosophy: knowing the key thinkers. - Provides an overview of each thinker's life and their ideas, with key dates, social context and why they are important. - Helps students understand the thinkers' main arguments and how they justified their approach to philosophy, allowing students to evaluate the theories them for themselves. - Exam guidance section in each chapter provides a focus for revision and includes advice on how different types of questions could be tackled. - Encourages students to explore each area of scholarly knowledge required by the specification, from grasping key ideas to knowing how to best criticise a thinker's approach. - Puts ideas and theories into contemporary contexts to help students build their evaluation skills. - Timeline displaying an overview of the key dates for each thinker in relation to world events.