There were a number of discrepancies between other references I have read about Socrates and certainly Jesus. Jaspers is not a Christian and his approach to philosophy is colored, but there is no doubt he brings much depth to the subjects. ( )

In an effort to be very fair, I will review this book for what it is, and not what I wanted it to be. What is it? A highly serviceable introduction to the lives, thought, and influence of the four titular historical personages. I cannot stress the word "introduction" enough here. Unless you have had no exposure to the figure that you are curious about, you will be hard-pressed in learning anything new about him. This, however, wasn't my first encounter with any of the four figures.

What did I want this book to be? Considering the reputation of Jaspers, I was expecting something more scholarly, yet I should have known better from the length of the book (just under 100 pages, not including the endnotes and bibliography). Considering he is mostly known for his "Philosophy and Existence," I thought that he might try to take a syncretic approach, blending his own brand of thought with these paradigmatic figures of the past. No such luck. I also thought that it might have had something other than strictly a "summary" type of feel that it did. It reads like lecture notes in that it's somewhat disjointed, a lot of the thoughts he explores do not go fully developed, and you are left wanting more.

Unfortunately, much of the stuff here is derivative and fails to shed any new light on the material it covers. Since this series pulled together from a variety of different sources in Jaspers' own writing (edited by his mentee, Hannah Arendt), it is difficult to tell whether or not this is the way he intended it to be. However, as I mentioned above, the book is not without its audience. It would be very suitable ancillary material for an introductory course in world religions. ( )

a nice overview of the these four man, I am sure you can say they were thinkers, especially buddha and jesus. enjoyable read ( )