To help students appreciate the relevance of philosophy and to equip them to recognize, analyze, and successfully navigate the philosophies they encounter on a daily basis, this textbook provides a comprehensive examination of each branch of philosophy as well as the main thinkers in the history of philosophy. The book is written from a Catholic perspective in a style that encourages readers to hone their critical thinking skills through suggested assignments for each chapter.

"The Basics of Philosophy: Navigating Currents of Thought is the rare high-school textbook that teaches students to think rather than merely memorize. Lucid, logically organized, and refreshingly honest, this outstanding textbook guides eleventh and twelfth graders through the four great divisions of philosophy?Being; Knowledge and Science; Man; and History?with a clarity and intellectual generosity that few college-level texts can match."
—Tammy Peterson, host, The Tammy Peterson Podcast Phoenix, Arizona

"Anne Francis's The Basics of Philosophy offers teachers precious help in making the young mind's entry into the philosophical world the challenging and liberating experience that it should be."
—Stephen L. Brock, professor of medieval philosophy, Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, Rome

Anne Francis is a high school teacher at Hawthorn School, in Toronto, Canada, for the past ten years. She holds a bachelor's and master's degree in economics and has post-secondary studies in philosophy and theology from the Roman College of Holy Mary (Italy).