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Necessary Questions: An Introduction to Philosophy
Newly bought text book. Gently used. No undue markings etc.
240 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 1989
About the author
Kwame Anthony Appiah
113 books446 followersKwame Anthony Appiah, the president of the PEN American Center, is the author of The Ethics of Identity, Thinking It Through: An Introduction to Contemporary Philosophy, The Honor Code and the prize-winning Cosmopolitanism. Raised in Ghana and educated in England, he has taught philosophy on three continents and is a former professor at Princeton University and currently has a position at NYU.
Series:
* Sir Patrick Scott Mystery (as Anthony Appiah)
Series:
* Sir Patrick Scott Mystery (as Anthony Appiah)
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April 19, 2026
AN INTRODUCTION TO THE ‘MAIN AREAS OF CURRENT PHILOSOPHICAL INTEREST’
Kwame Akroma-Ampim Kusi Anthony Appiah (b. 1954) is an English-born philosopher teaching at New York University; he previously taught at Princeton, Harvard, Yale, Cornell, and the University of Ghana (his father is from Ghana).
He wrote in the Preface to this 1989 book, “So far as I have been able to discover, there is no textbook of philosophy in English that sets out to introduce the subject as it is studied now. There are some good surveys of the history of the subject; there are a few good introductions to important areas of it. There are also some pretty bad surveys and introductions! What I have tried to write is a reliable and systematic introduction to the main areas of current philosophical interest in the English-speaking world. I hope I have also conveyed some of the excitement of the subject.
“I find I have now taught philosophy on three continents, and it is astonishing how the same questions arise in such culturally disparate circumstances. I am grateful to all of my students, in Ghana, in England, and in the United States: almost every one of them has taught me a new argument or---what is much the same---shown me an old one in a new light. This book is dedicated to them.”
He states in the Introduction, “People are normally introduced to philosophy by one of two routes. The first is through the reading of the more accessible of the great historical texts of philosophy---Plato’s dialogues, for example, or Descartes’ ‘Meditations.’ The second is by examining some central philosophical problem: What is knowledge? Is morality objective? In this book, I shall be following this second route, but I shall discuss the views of some of the great philosophers on the central questions on the way. Still, it is important to keep in mind that I will always be trying to move towards a philosophical understanding of the problem I am looking at, rather than trying to give an historically accurate account of a past philosopher… [T]he reason we philosophers continue to read Plato and many other philosophers between his time and ours is not simple curiosity about the history of our subject. Rather, we find in the great works of the past clues to a deeper understanding of the philosophical questions which trouble us now.
“My aim in this book is twofold: first, I would like anyone who reads it carefully to be able to go on to read contemporary philosophical discussions. Second, I would like such a reader to be able, when he or she comes to read Plato, say, or Descartes, to see why their work remains an enduring contribution to our understanding of the central problems of philosophy. I shall always have in mind a beginning philosophy student, who knows none of the technical language of philosophy, but is, nevertheless, willing to think through difficult questions…
“This book is organized around seven central topics: Mind, Knowledge, Language and Logic, Science, Morality, Politics, and Law. Here are the questions he addresses:
1. MIND: What is a mind? Could we make a machine with a mind? What is the relationship between minds and bodies?
2. KNOWLEDGE: What is knowledge? How can we justify our claims to knowledge? What can we know?
3. LANGUAGE AND LOGIC: How do words express thoughts? What is meaning? How does language relate to reality?
4. SCIENCE: What makes an explanation scientific? How can we justify scientific theories? What is a law of nature?
5. MORALITY: What do moral judgments mean? How can we tell what is right? When, if ever, is it right to kill someone?
6. POLITICS: What is a state? Do governments have a right to be obeyed? What is justice?
7. LAW: What is a law? When should we obey the law? When in punishment morally justified?
8. PHILOSOPHY: How does formal philosophy differ from folk-philosophy? Or from religion and science? Can there be equally adequate but incompatible ways of conceptualizing the world?
He also has brief sidebar introductions to the following philosophers: Descartes, Plato, Gottlob Frege, Karl Popper, Kant, Hobbes, and Thomas Aquinas.
He covers even some recent controversies such as the question of ‘language’ of chimpanzees and dolphins; John Rawls (‘A Theory of Justice’) vs. Robert Nozick (‘Anarchy, State, and Utopia'); behaviorism and Gilbert Ryles’ ‘The Concept of Mind,’ the ‘Prisoner’s Dilemma,’ etc.
Some readers (who know something of Appiah’s later works) may be disappointed to see that he does not mention Africana/African-American Philosophy, Egypt, etc. And although he includes a brief quotation from Elizabeth Anscombe, he does not mention feminist philosophy, either. (But remember---this book is just an ‘INTRODUCTION’ to the subject.) Perhaps a bigger objection is that topics like God, Religion, Life after Death, etc., are covered only briefly, or not at all.
Kwame Akroma-Ampim Kusi Anthony Appiah (b. 1954) is an English-born philosopher teaching at New York University; he previously taught at Princeton, Harvard, Yale, Cornell, and the University of Ghana (his father is from Ghana).
He wrote in the Preface to this 1989 book, “So far as I have been able to discover, there is no textbook of philosophy in English that sets out to introduce the subject as it is studied now. There are some good surveys of the history of the subject; there are a few good introductions to important areas of it. There are also some pretty bad surveys and introductions! What I have tried to write is a reliable and systematic introduction to the main areas of current philosophical interest in the English-speaking world. I hope I have also conveyed some of the excitement of the subject.
“I find I have now taught philosophy on three continents, and it is astonishing how the same questions arise in such culturally disparate circumstances. I am grateful to all of my students, in Ghana, in England, and in the United States: almost every one of them has taught me a new argument or---what is much the same---shown me an old one in a new light. This book is dedicated to them.”
He states in the Introduction, “People are normally introduced to philosophy by one of two routes. The first is through the reading of the more accessible of the great historical texts of philosophy---Plato’s dialogues, for example, or Descartes’ ‘Meditations.’ The second is by examining some central philosophical problem: What is knowledge? Is morality objective? In this book, I shall be following this second route, but I shall discuss the views of some of the great philosophers on the central questions on the way. Still, it is important to keep in mind that I will always be trying to move towards a philosophical understanding of the problem I am looking at, rather than trying to give an historically accurate account of a past philosopher… [T]he reason we philosophers continue to read Plato and many other philosophers between his time and ours is not simple curiosity about the history of our subject. Rather, we find in the great works of the past clues to a deeper understanding of the philosophical questions which trouble us now.
“My aim in this book is twofold: first, I would like anyone who reads it carefully to be able to go on to read contemporary philosophical discussions. Second, I would like such a reader to be able, when he or she comes to read Plato, say, or Descartes, to see why their work remains an enduring contribution to our understanding of the central problems of philosophy. I shall always have in mind a beginning philosophy student, who knows none of the technical language of philosophy, but is, nevertheless, willing to think through difficult questions…
“This book is organized around seven central topics: Mind, Knowledge, Language and Logic, Science, Morality, Politics, and Law. Here are the questions he addresses:
1. MIND: What is a mind? Could we make a machine with a mind? What is the relationship between minds and bodies?
2. KNOWLEDGE: What is knowledge? How can we justify our claims to knowledge? What can we know?
3. LANGUAGE AND LOGIC: How do words express thoughts? What is meaning? How does language relate to reality?
4. SCIENCE: What makes an explanation scientific? How can we justify scientific theories? What is a law of nature?
5. MORALITY: What do moral judgments mean? How can we tell what is right? When, if ever, is it right to kill someone?
6. POLITICS: What is a state? Do governments have a right to be obeyed? What is justice?
7. LAW: What is a law? When should we obey the law? When in punishment morally justified?
8. PHILOSOPHY: How does formal philosophy differ from folk-philosophy? Or from religion and science? Can there be equally adequate but incompatible ways of conceptualizing the world?
He also has brief sidebar introductions to the following philosophers: Descartes, Plato, Gottlob Frege, Karl Popper, Kant, Hobbes, and Thomas Aquinas.
He covers even some recent controversies such as the question of ‘language’ of chimpanzees and dolphins; John Rawls (‘A Theory of Justice’) vs. Robert Nozick (‘Anarchy, State, and Utopia'); behaviorism and Gilbert Ryles’ ‘The Concept of Mind,’ the ‘Prisoner’s Dilemma,’ etc.
Some readers (who know something of Appiah’s later works) may be disappointed to see that he does not mention Africana/African-American Philosophy, Egypt, etc. And although he includes a brief quotation from Elizabeth Anscombe, he does not mention feminist philosophy, either. (But remember---this book is just an ‘INTRODUCTION’ to the subject.) Perhaps a bigger objection is that topics like God, Religion, Life after Death, etc., are covered only briefly, or not at all.
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