The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) launched its eight-volume edition of Western Philosophy History on Thursday.

Leng Rong, deputy CASS president, said work on the project began in 1998 and will form a valuable resource for academic research.

The CASS initiated publication was led by well-known Chinese philosophers Ye Xiushan and Wang Shuren.

The six million-word books detail the history of ancient Greek philosophy, Medieval philosophy, modern rationalism and empiricism, modern continental European philosophy, and modern British and American analytical philosophy.

Li Jingyuan, director of the CASS Institute of Philosophy, said that China has been greatly influenced by Western thought. The Chinese social scientific community has never before published a general history of Western philosophy.

(Xinhua News Agency April 14, 2006)