---
title: Preface
section-id: front-matter
sort: 100
author: Prof. James Okafor
created: 2026-01-10 09:00
modified: 2026-03-15 14:30
language: en
description: An introduction to the aims and scope of this philosophical survey.
---

# Preface

This work began as a series of lectures delivered to undergraduates at the University of Lagos between 2018 and 2024. Students consistently asked for a written version—something they could return to, annotate, and argue with. What follows is my attempt to honour that request.

Philosophy is not a body of settled doctrine. It is a practice: the practice of asking questions carefully, of following arguments where they lead, and of remaining honestly uncertain when certainty is not available. My hope is that this book conveys that spirit as much as any particular set of conclusions.

I have organised the material into three broad areas: epistemology, metaphysics, and ethics. These divisions are somewhat artificial—a theory of knowledge shapes what counts as a moral argument; a view about free will bears on questions of perception and identity. I ask readers to keep the connections in mind even when I proceed as though the areas are separate.

The thinkers discussed here are drawn disproportionately from the Western tradition, not because other traditions are less valuable—they are not—but because that tradition forms the background against which my own education was conducted. I have tried, wherever possible, to signal where non-Western philosophy intersects with or challenges the positions under discussion, and I have listed resources in the Further Reading section for those who wish to pursue those intersections.

A word on difficulty. I have written for students who have read little or no philosophy before. But I have not simplified the ideas. Where a position is subtle or a distinction is fine-grained, I have tried to describe it accurately rather than reduce it to something more comfortable. Philosophy done honestly is not always comfortable.

Finally, a note on disagreement. I have my own views on many of the questions discussed here, and I have not entirely concealed them. Where I state a position as my own, I have tried to say so explicitly and to give the strongest version of the opposing view. Philosophy is not improved by pretending to a neutrality one does not possess. It is improved by being honest about one’s commitments and rigorous in examining them.

I am grateful to the students who asked for this book, to colleagues who read earlier drafts, and to the many philosophers whose work I have tried, imperfectly, to represent.

*James Okafor*
*Lagos, January 2026*
