by Dennis Dalton, Alan Charles Kors, Robert H. Kane, Phillip Cary, Louis Markos, Darren Staloff, Robert C. Solomon, Jeremy Adams, Jeremy Shearmur, Kathleen M. Higgins, Mark Risjord, Douglas Kellner

For 3,000 years, mankind has grappled with life's most fundamental questions.
What is real?
What should be the purpose of my life, and how should I lead it?
Who or what is God?
How can there be freedom in a world determined by causal laws?
When is it legitimate for one person to have power over others?
What is justice? Beauty?

These are the crucial questions that thoughtful men and women have pondered since civilization began. The most brilliant minds in history focused on these questions—and their search for answers has left us an intellectual legacy of unsurpassed depth and richness.