Abstract

This textbook is a modern version of a genre that in seventeenth and eighteenth century universities used to be called cursus philosophicus: a unique book aimed at giving an introduction to all parts of philosophy. Textbooks of this kind were usually taught during two terms and were destined to those students of the higher faculties of theology, law, and medicine who were required to become acquainted with the methods and the contents of philosophy. The first edition of Bochenski’s book in German dates back as far as 1959. Born in 1902 and recently deceased, the author was an eminent logician and metaphysician who taught at Fribourg in Switzerland. That the book has been translated into English after all these years testifies to the clarity of its exposition and of the continuity of its adoption by many philosophy instructors in German speaking countries. On the other side, the book has also a truly propaedeutic aspect, in so far as it was first conceived as a series of radio lectures on basic philosophical issues in which the discourse ranged from Plato to Wittgenstein, from Kant to Aristotle, and back. Besides, it has mnemonic boxes and blank space for reader’s notes at the end of every chapter.