-- The current edition has sold over 61,000 since its release in November of 1997.

-- Existing content is great, but needs to be added to in order to more effectively compete with Philosophy for Dummies, which, at 360 pages, is 100 pages over our current edition.

-- By its very nature, philosophy is not subject to a great deal of change over time, and therefore can be expected to continue to perform at or above current levels.

Philosophy is all about being, knowing, and acting. It poses daring questions such as what exists, what counts as knowledge, and how do we know things? And, as life becomes more and more complicated, people turn to philosophy to help themselves better understand the world around them-politics, religion, family, the environment, and more. The Complete Idiot's Guide "RM" to Philosophy, Second Edition will continue the first edition's success in exposing beginners to the world of philosophy, its ideas, and its philosophers. It will contain expanded content on existing ideas and philosophers covered in the first edition, but it will also introduce new philosophers whose ideas were not included in the first edition, but whose contributions to the world of philosophy are perhaps now less obscure.

You know who they are . . . if you've ever known fear.

In Palmerston, Pennsylvania, two men in long coats walk calmly into a crowded fast-food restaurant--then, slowly and methodically, gun down sixty-eight people. They take time to reload.

On the Promenade of Santa Monica, California, a teenage girl gives sightseeing tips to a distinguished English tourist. She won't be going home tonight.

In Dyersburg, Montana, a grief-stricken son tries to make sense of the accident that killed his parents--then finds a note stuffed in his father's favorite chair. It reads, "We're not dead."

Three seemingly unrelated events, these are the first signs of an unimaginable network of fear that will lead one unlikely hero to a chilling confrontation with The Straw Men. No one knows who they are--or why they kill. But they must be stopped. Michael Marshall's electrifying debut novel is an instant masterpiece of modern suspense. An epic thriller for anyone who has feared that someone is watching us.