Think: A Compelling Introduction to Philosophy

Simon Blackburn is Professor of Philosophy at the University of
Cambridge. Until recently he was Edna J. Koury Distinguished
Professor of Philosophy at the University of North Carolina,
Chapel Hill, and from 1969 to 1989 a Fellow and Tutor at Pembroke
College, Oxford. His hooks include Spreading the Word (1984), Essays in Quasi-Realism (1993), The Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy
(1994), Ruling Passions (1998), Truth (co-edited with Keith Simmons, 1999), and Being Good (2001). He edited the journal Mind
from 1984 to 1990.

SIMON BLACKBURN

THIS BOOK GREW FROM years of wrestling with the problems of
trying to interest people in ideas. I have done this as a teacher, but
also as someone who has tried to explain the value of the humanities in general, and philosophy in particular, to a wider audience.
Indeed my first debt is to the climate of the times, whose scepticism
about the value of higher education made it evident to me just how
urgent this task is. A second, more serious debt is to all the students
of many years, whose nods and frowns eventually shaped the book.
I also owe a debt to teaching assistants here at the University of
North Carolina, who had first-hand experience of engaging students in earlier versions of the work. I would never have taken the
plunge, however, had it not been for the generous encouragement
of Catherine Clarke and Angus Phillips, at Oxford University
Press. Angus has closely monitored the progress of the work, and I
owe much to his support and advice.

Earlier versions of the material have been read by Huw Price and Ralph Walker, who each provided invaluable suggestions. Yuri Bal-
ashov and Dan Ryder gave me help with specific topics. For the
sake of brevity I have not included a glossary of philosophical
terms, which would in any case have echoed definitions found in
my Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy.

The superb editing of Maura High and Angela Blackburn gave
mean uncomfortable sense of my shortcomings as a writer, while
happily disguising them from the wider public. Angela, of course,
had also to suffer the usual burdens of having a writing husband,
and without her support nothing would have been possible.

Simon Blackburn

INTRODUCTION
I

I. Knowledge
15

2. Mind
49

3. Free Will
81

4. The Self
120

5. God
149

6. Reasoning
193

7. The World
233

8. What to I)o
270

NOTES
299

BIBLIOGRAPHY
307

INDEX
311

THIS BOOK IS FOR people who want to think about the big
themes: knowledge, reason, truth, mind, freedom, destiny, identity, God, goodness, justice. These are not the hidden preserve of
specialists. They are things that men and women wonder about
naturally, for they structure the ways we think about the world and
our place in it. They are also themes about which thinkers have had
things to say. In this book I try to introduce ways of thinking about
the big themes. I also introduce some of the things thinkers have
had to say about them. If readers have absorbed this book, then
they should be on better terms with the big themes. And they
should be able to read many otherwise baffling major thinkers
with pleasure and reasonable understanding.