The Big Questions: A Short Introduction to Philosophy

An introductory textbook that teaches philosophy by working through questions people already ask. Robert C. Solomon first published it in 1982, and later editions were revised with Kathleen M. Higgins. It opens by explaining what makes a question philosophical and how to argue about it, then moves topic by topic: the meaning of life, God and religion, the nature of reality, the search for truth and the limits of knowledge, the self, freedom and determinism, morality and the good life, justice and the good society, and beauty. Recent editions add a chapter on non-Western philosophy, together with appendices on writing philosophy, valid argument forms and common informal fallacies. Each chapter combines the authors' own explanations with short extracts from classic and modern sources, from Plato, Descartes and Hume to Nietzsche, Sartre and Rawls. The tone is open and inviting rather than technical, and the authors encourage readers to form and defend their own answers.

It shows beginners that philosophy starts from questions they already care about, and gives them the tools and sources to argue their own way to answers.