This introductory guide is written in an engaging, non-technical style that makes clear philosophy's rich and confusing history, encouraging critical, independent thinking and allowing newcomers to philosophy to engage with the great questions and ideas of the western tradition. Using the central idea of causality as a guiding principle, Brendan Wilson shows how the history of philosophy becomes a very clear and natural sequence of events. The resulting perspective reveals the deep connections between the problems of science, mind and reality, freedom and responsibility, knowledge, language, truth and religion.