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Passed by when they’re old, outdated, and tired.

I’ve met many strange birds as I’ve travelled this road

And some of them helped write the book that you hold.

These doubters and why-ers these fabulous scholars

Address some big questions and offer some answers.

We begin with a huge, spectacular query

One for which all thinkers have their own theory.

The meaning of life, now we are talking

A question so big it leaves everyone gawking.

A question so big it can’t fit in one mind

So I’ve gathered a few to help with this bind.

But the number of answers is too great to count

And the answers we’ve counted are too great to mount

In the pages that follow, you’ll just have to deal

with a brief introduction to a very large field.

Ancients and Moderns, Greek, German, and French

All play the game, no one’s left on the bench.

They’ll tell you to flourish, live well free of pain.

Or perish and suffer, and struggle in vain.

They might be quite playful or doleful and dry

But at least these dear fellows do give it a try.

We have theories and guesses and tries by the oodle

Enough twisted fellows to twist up your noodle

And when thoroughly twisted we’ll keep right on going

We’ll ask about knowledge our minds over-flowing.

Epistemology! “What can I know?”

And why does it matter and how does it go?

This stuff is important for one cannot travel

The road of the wise if one can’t unravel

The true from the false, the sense from the babble

The solid and firm from the dribble and drabble.

And once we begin to get smarter on smarts

We can move ourselves on to the ethical arts.

There’s so much one can think o’er the good and the bad

And so many dear thinkers and thoughts that they’ve had.

We’ll do our best to give you a view

A snapshot or glimpse o’er a theory or two.

We’ve got Greeks once again, and our German friend Kant

As well as a Scotsman, that’s more than you’ll want.

We’ll do all the theory, apply it as well

To issues like nature and business pell mell.

We’ll give you a history as well as some praxis

And then we’ll move on to grind other axes.

It’s off to the realm of political thought

Where it isn’t just personal questions of “ought.”

Now we will wonder about our relations

How people should be and what of their nations.

Contracts and property, how to divide it

Diversity, needs, all the ways to contrive it

And once we’ve wound through these odd wiggled roads

we will find that our story has not all been told

there are questions that still have yet to be asked

but this book isn’t big enough for such a huge task.

Clearly one book can’t hold all the big thoughts

So we haven’t discussed all the whys, whats, and oughts.

This book offers a glimpse

It’s merely one look

If you seek understanding you’ll need more than one book.[1]

[1] Thanks to Kim Newman for her suggestions on the rhyme.

CHAPTER ONE

Oh, the Places You’ll Go! The Examined, Happy Life

Benjamin Rider

You have brains in your head.

You have feet in your shoes.

You can steer yourself

any direction you choose.

You’re on your own. And you know what you know.

And YOU are the guy who’ll decide where to go. (Places)

On the journey of life, we face many choices: What career should I pursue? Where should I live? What should I do with my money and time? What kind of person should I be, anyway, and what should I stand for? As we make these choices, large and small, we chart the courses of our lives, creating our unique selves and making an impact on the world and the people around us. And whether we think about it consciously or not, we want these choices to turn out well. We want to live good lives and be happy. Of course, people have different ideas about what it means to live a good life. One person might think her life is good when she has lots of money;