Read the entire book online. We will be posting a new chapter of this newly edited version each week.

Preface

It isn't usual, surely, for a book to go to a fourth revised edition in a year. Such has been the case with this book. It isn't that the former editions were faulty. Rather, I kept seeing ways of clarifying the thoughts with better wording and examples. In the over eighty books I've written, this is the first time I've so reworked what had seemed good copy. For one thing, however, with the earlier versions of this book I faced deadlines—the writer's curse! Reading the chapters at greater leisure, I saw points here and there that could have been expressed more interestingly. A book like this needs, I feel, to be not only clear and logical, but fun to read. Not an easy undertaking when the subject matter is—well, let's face it—pretty heavy. In fact, I see now that what I've done here is take on the big guns of Western thought. That isn't something one does lightly. I've labored many times now over these pages, and I do think I've got it where I want it—like a wrestler who, after great effort, gets his opponent pinned to the floor.

Huff! Puff! My friends, I hope you agree.
J. Donald Walters