Although this is primarily a textbook written for a specific purpose, I said in the Preface that it ought to be useful to ordinary people in the ordinary course of their lives—that is, not just to those who face a general paper, or have to do a course in philosophy. This is not just a pious hope: but it may seem rather a forlorn one, because the gap between philosophy and ordinary life is horrifyingly large. Consequently it may be useful to say something about the way in which the techniques illustrated in this book come into philosophy, and the way in which philosophy may come into ordinary life. Of course this is an immense subject, and I cannot do it justice: but I hope at least to show that the ordinary person may justifiably be more optimistic about the relevance of philosophy than perhaps some philosophers have led him to expect.

Everything turns on the business of philosophy. One view, perhaps still the most popular, is that philosophy is directly and immediately concerned with a way of life and with the truth about reality. It has to do with what people are, what they do, and what they feel: with their behaviour, their emotions, their beliefs and moral judgements. By this account a man's philosophy is a sort of blend between his motives, his behaviour, and his values.