This book showcases philosophy for people with little time. Therefore, it’s very short, like Thomas Nagel’sVery Short Introduction to Philosophy (1987). Nagel, though, presents only questions discussed at his time in philosophy seminars in the Western world. He doesn’t introduce to the philosophy that once was a historical factor, that was hated and died for, that split into schools of which the two most important ones are fighting still today, the party that claims to be true philosophy, led by Plato, and the party led by Protagoras, today known as ideology. Nagel doesn’t mention ideology, nor any philosopher’s name.

To focus on history in a short introduction risks bias. What do you pick out? I scan history by following two questions that are widely considered typically philosophical, metaphysical, and theultimate questions:What does it all mean? andWhat is real rather than illusionary? Themeaning question was used by Nagel as the first title of hisVery Short Introduction; I’m not alone in judging this question basic for philosophy. Thereality question is no less basic; it precedes the meaning question, historically and logically. Note that moral philosophy and aesthetics don’t seem to ask one of these questions; so, I’ll have to argue why they are philosophical, regardless.

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1. University of Hamburg, Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany

   Ulrich Steinvorth

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