This book aims to make clear the enduring interest and relevance of philosophy, and invites readers to do philosophy themselves. It begins with a historical overview of what philosophy has been, and of the crisis it has faced since the scientific revolution about what philosophy can do and how we can do it. Each chapter then takes up a central philosophical topic: morality, freedom, knowledge and reality, the mind, and the nature of human life. In each case, it presents some of the central controversies that have arisen on the topic, and makes clear why it matters how we answer these questions. For how we think about these topics makes an enormous difference to the ways we structure our societies, investigate the world, and live together. Philosophy is needed now more than ever, and is of the deepest importance to human life.

Amie L. Thomasson is the Daniel P. Stone Professor of Intellectual and Moral Philosophy at Dartmouth College, and Professorial Fellow at The University of St. Andrews. She is the author of five books: Rethinking Metaphysics, Norms and Necessity, Ontology Made Easy (winner of the Sanders Book Prize), Ordinary Objects, and Fiction and Metaphysics. She also co-edited the book Phenomenology and Philosophy of Mind with David W. Smith. In addition, she has published more than 90 papers on topics in metaphysics, metaontology, fiction, philosophy of mind and phenomenology, the philosophy of art, and social ontology. She has held fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities, and in 2016 was named one of the “50 Most Influential Living Philosophers”.