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Philosophy is not an easy subject, and the appearance of a third edition of this anthology has provided the opportunity to increase the amount of help and advice included for the benefit of students and other readers. In response to many requests, I have added, at the start of the volume, an introductory essay which offers advice on how to set about reading a philosophical text and how to write about it. There are no quick and easy formulas in philosophy, but I hope at least some of those using this anthology as a course text will find this essay helpful. In addition, the opportunity has been taken to revise and substantially augment the suggested further readings and sample questions accompanying the texts. Instead of a brief list of readings at the end of each part of the volume, each of the 144 individual extracts is now followed by several specimen questions designed to focus on some of the key philosophical problems raised by the excerpt, together with a list of readings related to the specific text in question. A particular point has been made of including references to online resources which give the student quick access to helpful critical and exegetical guidance.¹

Probably no two philosophers will agree on the ideal selection of texts for an anthology of this kind, and a survey the publishers conducted of current users of the second edition produced a wide variety of suggestions for alternative texts that might be included. Though I was wary of making any wholesale changes, I have as a result introduced a small number of changes to the texts chosen for this third edition, in order to fill some gaps; but reluctance to make what was already a fairly bulky volume more unwieldy decided me to make substitutions rather than additions, and I have retained the basic framework adopted for the second edition (twelve parts each of twelve sections). The overall character of the anthology has been preserved, with preference nearly always given to texts that have stood the test of time, as opposed to more recent offerings that may be attracting current interest, but whose long-term place in the canon of Western philosophy cannot yet be said to be secure.

I am grateful to several members of the team at Wiley for encouraging me to undertake the revisions for this third edition, and to many friends and colleagues who have been kind enough to offer advice, including Paul Lodge, David McPherson, Mark Tebbit and Ramón Tello. Particular gratitude is owed to Dr Julia Weckend for her invaluable work in updating and augmenting the specimen questions and reading suggestions at the end of each extract.

JC

West Berkshire, England

January 2020

1 ¹ In referencing an online resource the full url is provided, clicking on which will enable those using the ebook version of this volume to link directly to the item in question. Those using the print version of this volume can access such resources by typing the url provided into a browser; but where the link is is a long one it may be quicker simply to access the homepage of the relevant site (for example the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy) and then use the site’s own search facility to navigate to the particular article or item needed.