Helps you understand the central debates in the three main branches of Continental philosophy: metaphysics, epistemology and ethics What is real? How can we know what is real? How might we live authentically? These are the three fundamental questions about metaphysics, epistemology and ethics. John Macready guides you through these questions by reading three pairs of philosophers and texts: - Metaphysics: Plato's Sophist and Descartes's Meditations on First Philosophy - Epistemology: Hume's An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding and Kant's Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics - Ethics: Nietzsche's 'Schopenhauer as Educator' and Arendt's 'Labor, Work, and Action' Each chapter introduces you to basic philosophical problems, concepts and methods of philosophical inquiry. You'll learn how to read and understand these key texts so that you can answer these three questions for yourself. - Defines key terms like forms (Plato), substance (Descartes), impressions (Hume), transcendental (Kant), culture (Nietzsche) and action (Arendt) at the beginning of each chapter - Teaches you how to read philosophical texts by introducing you to five elements that can be analysed in every text: question, concept, claims, evidence and implications - Includes chapter summaries, questions for further discussion to help you consolidate your own ideas and a historical timeline to contextualise each philosopher's life and work. John Douglas Macready is Professor of Philosophy in the Philosophy Department at Collin College in Plano, Texas.