For years, Ian Olasov has set up his booth with the sign "Ask the Philosopher!" in central locations around New York City, engaging in discussions with passersby. In this book, he has gathered his responses to questions posed by various people during these conversations.

Questions such as: Are people inherently good or bad? Is it wrong to have a fish as a pet? Should I have children? Should I give money to the homeless? Is there a God? If humans colonize Mars, who should the land belong to?

Ask the Philosopher! demonstrates that philosophy can help each of us, that it can relate to our everyday lives, and that it can open up new paths for us. From the big questions to the more personal ones and those you may never have thought of, the answers in this book will certainly do one thing: they will make you think.

I set up the "Ask the Philosopher!" booth because I want philosophy to respond to the needs of ordinary people. It is important to allow and encourage people to discover the issues that concern professional philosophers, but it is equally important to allow and encourage philosophers to discover the issues that concern everyone else – and to help solve them.

- Ian Olasov