Philosophy isn't supposed to be easy. But it's also not supposed to put you to sleep. Beyond the Big Questions takes the perennial mysteries that have occupied thinkers from Aristotle to your favorite Great Courses professor—free will, God, the nature of the self—and strips away the academic jargon. What's left is a series of clear-eyed, conversational essays that treat these questions not as museum pieces but as live ammunition in the battle to understand what it means to be human. Essayist Seo Yun Kim doesn't claim to have all the answers. She's not even sure the questions are being asked correctly. But she's certain that philosophy matters—not in a dusty, theoretical way, but in the "how should I actually live my life" way. And she's not afraid to pick fights with the great minds who've tackled these topics before her. Inside these 10 chapters: • Logic and Reasoning – How we know what we know (and how we fool ourselves) • Epistemology – The limits of knowledge and the dangers of certainty • Testimony and Expertise – When should we trust the experts? • God's Existence – The arguments for and against, stripped to their bones • Free Will – Are you choosing to read this, or were you always going to? • Personal Identity – What makes you you across time? • The Mind-Body Problem – Consciousness, brains, and the ghost in the machine • Ethics – Moral frameworks that actually work in the real world • Social Contract – What we owe each other, and why • The Meaning of Life – The question that won't go away, no matter how sophisticated we get If you've worked through Daniel N. Robinson's brilliant philosophy lectures or devoured courses on metaphysics and ethics, you know the questions. Now it's time to argue with the answers. If you've ever paused a Great Courses lecture to yell "That's not quite right!" at your TV—or if you simply want philosophy that doesn't require a PhD to enjoy— Beyond the Big Questions is calling your name.