This book deals with the basic views of those philosophers and their influence on Chinese history and culture.

On Indic philosophy, classical literature, and modern Indian philosophers; contributed articles, with introductions to the contributors.

In her book, Soper uses the classical humanism of the Enlightenment as a starting point and then takes the “Positivistic humanism” of the British Humanist Association as a contemporary British version of it. Turning to the Continent she then discusses the dialecticalism of Hegel, a form of idealistic humanism, and the dialecticalism of Feuerbach and Marx as a type of materialistic humanism.