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.