This advanced introductory text offers a synoptic view of philosophical inquiry, discussing such topics as consciousness, the self, meaning, free will, the a priori, and knowledge. The emphasis is on the fundamental intractability of these questions, and a theory is proposed as to why the human mind has so much difficulty in resolving them. This theory turns upon a naturalistic picture of the scope and limits of human intelligence.

Colin McGinn is Professor of Philosophy at Rutgers University, New Jersey, and lives in Manhattan. He was previously Wilde Reader in Mental Philosophy at the University of Oxford. He is the author of several books, including Mental Content (1989), The Problem of Consciousness (1991), Moral Literacy (1992), as well as a novel, The Space Trap (1992).