Joseph Mahon charts the course of a debate on philosophy's contribution to public matters, examining the work of Albert Camus, Noam Chomsky, Simone de Beauvoir, Peter Singer, and others. He examines both the view that philosophers are exceptionally well-equipped to analyze and pronounce on such matters, and the opposing view that philosophers are uniquely ill-equipped, and unsuited, to expatiate on what are called "the big questions of life". In defending the role of philosophy in politics, Mahon highlights the influence of Karl Marx and J.S. Mill on this debate and also examines the committees of inquiry chaired by Bernard Williams (on obscenity and film censorship) and Mary Warnock (on human fertilization and embryology).