The Big Questions: A Short Introduction to Philosophy

Robert C. Solomon (1942-2007) was internationally renowned as a teacher and lecturer in philosophy. He was Quincy Lee Centennial Professor and Distinguished Teaching Professor at the University of Texas at Austin. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan and over the course of his career taught at numerous institutions, including Princeton University, the University of Pittsburgh, the University of Auckland, and the University of California, in addition to the University of Texas. He authored more than 40 books, including Introducing Philosophy, A Short History of Philosophy (with Kathleen Higgins), The Passions, In the Spirit of Hegel, About Love, Above the Bottom Line, Fourth Edition (with Clancy Martin), Ethics and Excellence, The Joy of Philosophy, and True to Our Feelings, and he was co-editor of Twenty Questions, Fifth Edition (with Lee Bowie and Meredith Michaels), and Since Socrates (with Clancy Martin).

Kathleen M. Higgins is professor at the University of Texas at Austin. She received her Ph.D. from Yale University and has taught at the University of Auckland and the University of California, Riverside, in addition to the University of Texas. She is the author of several books, including Nietzsche's "Zarathustra," The Music of Our Lives, Comic Relief: Nietzsche's "Gay Science," The Music between Us: Is Music the Universal Language? and co-author of What Nietzsche Really Said, A Short History of Philosophy, and A Passion for Wisdom (with Robert C. Solomon). She has edited or co-edited numerous books, including Aesthetics in Perspective and Thirteen Questions in Ethics and Social Philosophy, Second Edition (with Lee Bowie and Meredith Michaels).