Philosophy is a human endeavor that has changed the course of history. We are all what we are, in part, because of the ideas of philosophers. There are not too many people who believe this. There are not that many people who think very much of Philosophy at all. Yet Philosophy has and does impact the lives of just about every thinking person on the planet. In fact, the very way in which we think is partly the result of the ideas which philosophers have produced over the ages and in all cultures. Just how is this the case? This is something that is not immediately obvious in contemporary culture. Today philosophy, if it is thought about at all, probably is thought to be some obscure and complicated subject for intellectuals that has no bearing on the important matters of everyday life. Yet this is not the case at all. In fact there are many things that people think are true and believe that are not true at all. In fact there are many things that appear to us to be so clearly understood that are, in fact and reality, not the way they actually appear to us to be. Philosophers have been pointing out such things for over 2500 years in all major cultures. Philosophers have contributed to our ideas about our society and forms of government and to our ideas about deities or the deity. Our world is as it is , for better or worse, in part due to the contributions made by philosophers. The ideas of philosophers often times take centuries to work themselves into the everyday thought patterns of people but they have done so many times.