I want to thank the Department of Philosophy at Arizona State University for providing me with as stimulating and collegial an atmosphere for my graduate studies as I had ever imagined possible. In particular, I want to thank the three professors (fortunately for me all serving on my thesis committee) who most influenced my philosophical development while there.

     Bernard W. Kobes and Richard Creath not only provided some of the most challenging and enjoyable coursework I encountered, but supervised most of my work as a teaching fellow. Their guidance and example showed me what it means to be a philosopher and a teacher.

     Brad Armendt gave me my first formal exposure to the study of philosophy, and taught the provocative seminar on rationality from which this project was germinated. His frank but good-natured skepticism about my "radical ideas" simultaneously provided the challenge to muster good arguments in defense of them and an optimism that I could actually do so. His insightful advice trimmed what threatened to be a dissertation-length project, inspired many improvements, and helped me complete it on schedule.

     I want to acknowledge the early influence on my thought by Ayn Rand (against whose work I marshalled my first philosophical arguments) and E.O. Wilson (whose deflation of anthropocentrism still inspires me today). The most recent and surprising contribution to this project came from Daniel Dennett's marvelous book, Darwin's Dangerous Idea, which I found quite late in the project, but whose support for many of my arguments was so valuable as to warrant considerable rewriting.

     Finally, I want to thank Allan Gibbard for writing Wise Choices, Apt Feelings. The need to move beyond my intuitive and evaluative reactions to some of his more intuitive and evaluative views, and develop a reasoned and methodical rebuttal, has been the occasion for tremendous philosophical growth, for which I am very grateful.