Undoubtedly the greatest portion of gratitude must go to my editor at Princeton University Press, Rob Tempio, who has had the vision to first recommend this project to me. In matching me with this task, and this new way of engaging with philosophy, he saw more clearly than I an inclination that existed only in potentia, and its coming to actuality is entirely the result of his willingness to cultivate it. Throughout the process he has given expert and nuanced advice on the form the book should take, making intuitive suggestions that consistently show the mind of a real lover of books at work. I have also received invaluable intellectual guidance and input throughout the writing process from Stephen Menn, as well as from D. Graham Burnett, James Delbourgo, Jonardon Ganeri, Aaron Garrett, Patrick Lee Miller, Steve Nadler, Dalia Nassar, Anne-Lise Rey, Adina Ruiu, Lisa Shapiro, John Sutton, Anand Vaidya, Stéphane Van Damme, and Charles T. Wolfe. I have been fortunate to have early drafts of the manuscript, or portions thereof, read and commented on by Jerry Dworkin, Zoli Filotas, and Susanna Forrest. I have moreover benefited greatly from the opportunity to present portions of this work in venues at which I was able to receive feedback from such sharp minds as Ray Brassier, Karine Chemla, Tsuyoshi Matsuda, and Paul Yachnin, in Beirut, Cambridge, Kyoto, Paris, Sydney, and many other places besides. I am surely forgetting many other people, who will likely find my cryptomnesia at work in the following pages; the secret signs of their influence, I hope, can count in their own way as acknowledgments.