.John O'Loughlin began writing dialogues in a play-like vein some time in 1976, two of which are included at the beginning of this collection, and soon progressed, via a study of Diderot and other French philosophers, to a more philosophical approach to the genre, which is amply documented in this first volume of a projected two volume 'collected dialogues'.The nineteen dialogues included here date from 1976-82 and become increasingly philosophical, in the sense of concerned with metaphysical and kindred issues, including ontology. Indeed, so much so that we have not hesitated to include, as with volume one of the author's 'collected essays', an aphoristic appendix, which properly follows the last seven dialogues, all of which were originally included in a collection entitled 'The Importance of Technology to the Transcendental Future; (1981-2). - A Centretruths editorial