The goal of this course is that you become familiar with some of the main ideas of some of the most famous and influential philosophers in history. Rather than reading what I or someone else has to say about these philosophers and what they said and thought, you will be reading the words of the philosophers themselves. The first thing to keep in mind is that the world’s most famous philosophers wrote about very abstract and difficult topics, and they are very smart, which can make reading their work difficult. This is why I call this text “A Guided Tour of the History of Philosophy.”

Think of the text like a guided tour of a museum or a different country. I will be your tour guide. I am the tour guide because I know “Philosophy Land” very well. I have studied and taught philosophy for more than 20 years. My job is to point out the main sights and ideas in the texts along the way. I have formatted the texts for this purpose. The texts are interspersed with comments, questions, and a few pictures, to help you understand what is going on and to get you thinking about, and asking questions about, and responding to, what the philosophers are saying. I would encourage you to read the texts paragraph-by-paragraph, and think and write about the comments/questions. This way, you should be able to get the main points.

A good tour guide, though, doesn’t just tell you what you should be seeing and noticing and thinking. A good tour guide asks what the tourists like and dislike in what they see as well. Good tour guides realize that no matter how many times they been through the museum or the country, someone else might see something that the tour guide has never noticed before. I encourage you to take notes, or write a journal, about what you see and hear in Philosophy Land. If you see something that I haven’t mentioned, share it with me and the other studets! One of the main tasks of philosophy, and one of the main objectives of this text, is to encourage you to come up with your own unique, personal responses to the philosophers and their ideas (in fact, that’s one of the basic meanings of the terms “philosophy” and “philosopher”!).

Studying philosophy presents several particular challenges. Studying philosophy successfully requires good reading, writing, and critical thinking skills. If you are lacking in those skills, you will struggle with this material. However, there is good news if your skills need development (and that’s true for everyone). Studying philosophy is one of the greatest ways to develop reading, writing, and critical thinking skills. As you move through the texts and struggle with the difficult ideas and material, your ability to read, write, and think critically will be developing quickly. By the end of the text, you will be on your way to being a critical and philosophical reader, writer, and thinker.

So I invite you to enter the strange and wonderful world of Philosophy Land - Enjoy the tour!