Philosophy has been viewed as an obscure, difficult subject with no connection to the real world. This book presents a clear, concise survey the basic ideas of the major philosophers of western civilization starting form the ancient Greeks, through the philosophies of the middle ages and the renaissance to the philosophy of the modern era. The various schools of philosophy - rational, irrational, idealist, empirical, dialectical, existentialist, and analytic - are described in understandable language. Emphasis is placed on the big philosophic questions: What is ultimate reality? What is good and evil? What can we know with certainty? What is the meaning of life? Grappling with such questions helps us to conduct ourselves in this troubled world.