system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
Is "a history of philosophy" by Frederick Coplestone the best/most comprehensive philosophy textbook to build a fundamental understanding of philosophy as a whole?

I'm really trying to get into philosophical literature, but i feel overwhelmed by all the different branches, resources and the "diffuseness" of the subject in general. So i'm looking for a textbook that can give me a fundamental but comprehensive overview, which i can then hopefully expand on. What do you guys think of Coplestone? Or are there any better textbooks that are as detailed?
gpt
Copleston's series is a history of philosophy, which is not the same thing as the whole of philosophy, although it's certainly a part of that whole and a useful step in getting acquainted with that whole. As histories go, Copleston's is still the best the single source--notwithstanding the significant hurdle of its length--although it's getting significantly dated, and more recent specialized secondary scholarship in particular periods or figures in philosophy's history will tend to give a better treatment than one finds in Copleston.