This book is an introduction to European philosophy for English-speaking readers. This is a neutral description, both of the subject matter and of the intended audience — but to be neutral covers up the unavoidable fact that the situation is, and for a long time has been, extremely polemical: European philosophy and Anglo-Saxon thought are supposed to be two opposing — and maybe irreconcilable — camps, and the authors of a book such as this cannot do to forget such circumstances. Whether one likes it or not, one is involved in the polemic.