The best summary of this book is in the author's foreword: "It is the proper aim and scope of the present book to show that the history of philosophy makes philosophical sense, and to define its meaning in regard to the nature of philosophical knowledge itself. For that reason, the various doctrines, as well as the definite parts of these doctrines, which have been taken into account in this volume, should not be considered as arbitrarily selected fragments from some abridged description of medieval and modern philosophy, but as a series of concrete philosophical experiments especially chosen for their dogmatic significance. Each of them represents a definite attempt to deal with philosophical knowledge according to a certain method, and all of them, taken together, make up a philosophical experience. The fact that all those experiments have yielded the same result will, as I hope, justify the common conclusion...that there is a centuries long experience of what philosophical knowledge is--and that such an experience exhibits a remarkable unity."

"A very lively and articulate book."
-Thomas Merton

"Recognizing there is a basic tendency in humans to seek truths in experience of reality, Gilson underlines the principle that man is a metaphysical animal. We use our reason to go beyond particular sciences seeking a transcendent explanation of our world. Gilson is thus confident not only that metaphysics is possible, but he has shown the way to be followed in achieving that science."
-Desmond Fitzgerald
Professor of Philosophy, University of San Francisco

Etienne Gilson achieved worldwide acclaim as philosopher and, more specifically as an interpreter of the Medieval Spirit. He was a professor of Medieval Philosophy at the Sorbonne in Paris, and director of the Institute of Medieval Studies at the University of Toronto. He authored numerous books including The Spirit of Medieval Philosophy.