How ought we to live? What really exists? How do we know? This book introduces important themes in ethics, knowledge, and the self, via readings from Plato, Aristotle, Descartes, Hegel, Darwin, and Buddhist writers. It emphasizes throughout the point of studying philosophy, explains how different areas of philosophy are related, and explores the contexts in which philosophy was and is studied.

About the Series: Combining authority with wit, accessibility, and style, Very Short Introductions offer an introduction to some of life's most interesting topics. Written by experts for the newcomer, they demonstrate the finest contemporary thinking about the central problems and issues in hundreds of key topics, from philosophy to Freud, quantum theory to Islam.

Table of Contents

1 Philosophy

A very short introduction

2 What should I do? Plato’s Crito

3 How do we know?

Hume’s Of Miracles

4 What am I?

An unknown Buddhist on the self: King Milinda’s chariot

5 Some themes

6 Of ‘isms’

7 Some more high spots

A personal selection

8 What’s in it for whom?

Review

`[The Very Short Introduction to Philosophy] shows that philosophy really can be fascinating, broad-minded and full of surprise. As a means of stimulating interest in the subject it has few rivals.' Julian Baggini, The Philosopher's Magazine

Book Description

A brilliant look at the role philosphy can play in our lives

About the Author

Edward Craig is Knightsbridge Professor of Philosophy at Cambridge University, where he is also a Fellow of Churchill College. He has held visiting appointments at the Universities of Hamburg and Heidelberg, and the University of Melbourne. His publications include The Mind of God and the Works of Man (OUP, 1987), Knowledge and the State of Nature (OUP, 1990), and he is general editor of the Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy.