Everything You Need to Know: How Philosophy Can Set You Free

A fresh, irreverent, and wildly original take on why philosophy matters and how it has changed the world.

Why do humans return, again and again, to the "big questions" of philosophy? Why have so many philosophers risked their lives for their vocation? Why have reigning authoritarian rulers been so keen to silence them?

Philosophy, in Matthew Stewart's view, is nothing less than humanity's search for freedom. It is "as instinctual as a cat's desire to lick its own fur .?.?. a way of keeping co...