Every writing venture is a collaborative enterprise – and this one is no different. This book is the product of numerous conversations, with the philosophers included in these pages, and many other people besides. My editor, Lucy Warburton, has been constantly on hand with encouragement and editing prowess – and Victoria Marshallsay has done some sterling copy editing and proofreading. Nathaniel Adam Tobias has been a source of intellectual inspiration. The wonderful readers include Elianna Fetterolf, Jonathan Nassim, Joanna Burch-Brown, Thomas Quinn, Senuthuran Bhuvanendra and Chris Meyns. Anna, Seb, Axa and the Platform gang helped me test these ideas out. James Garvey and Liza Thompson have kept my spirits up, Harriet and David have kept them confused, and Emily, Viv, Mya, Flo and Luke have done an able job of soothing them. I owe further debts to temporally-and-spatially extended family members and friends. Most of all, Esther McManus has informed me (and by extension, this book), with her wisdom and her wit. I can say with confidence that the errors are all my own.