There are two basic types of people in academic circles: those who think all the major issues in their discipline are settled and those who don't. The former type tends to be correlated with those who dabble in applied mathematical pursuits, though like all good generalizations, it has a countable infinity of exceptions, whereas the latter type tends to congregate in departments of history, anthropology, comparative literature, and sociology. The first type of person probably will not like this introduction or, indeed, many of the chapters in this volume.

Whenever one of the former types encounters one of the latter in some professional capacity, perhaps allowing him- or herself to be drawn out concerning his or her basic presuppositions, the resulting dispute often travels along well-worn grooves.