Our world has problems, but few new ones; how to live a happy life, the balance of power between man and state, or whether a new technology is good or bad. These are the kind of big questions that shape our world, and we've been thinking about them forever.

Sometimes, one of us thinks thoughts that make a splash. You know the biggest of names: Plato, Aristotle, Confucius, Machiavelli, Shakespeare, Marx, Freud, &c. Maybe you know Montaigne, Bacon, Smith, or one of the many others as well. These are the ones whose words shifted the sands upon which we've our society is built.

Less obvious, though just as influential, is the pull their ideas have on us today as we collectively decide what comes next. They tug on our minds when we re-read their works, of course, but more commonly by the way we talk about them to each other. Every day we invoke their names. Sometimes it's an appeal to authority, others as a shorthand for a complicated thought. Sometimes we do it wisely, sometimes not.

In the _Coherent Present_ I show you what we're saying about the great thinkers, be it a passing mention in a magazine or a deep analysis in a forum. Reading it is a stirring way for those of us who've planted ourselves firmly in the present or firmly in the past to broaden our stance. With such a steady footing we'll be less easily swayed by little waves from little minds.