Necessary Questions

This book was Larry King's idea; and like any good publisher he made me do the work, kept me to deadlines, and supported me with good advice. But the first thing he did was to persuade me that there was a need for it. So far as I have been able to discover, there is no textbook of philosophy in English that sets out to introduce the subject as it is studied now. There are some good surveys of the history of the subject; there are a few good introductions to important areas of it. There are also some pretty bad surveys and introductions! What I have tried to write is a reliable and systematic introduction to the main areas of current philosophical interest in the English-speaking world. | hope I have also conveyed some of the excitement of the subject.