Laurence Houlgate is Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, California. He received M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in philosophy at the University of California, Los Angeles, and has previously held professorships at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and George Mason University, Virginia. He has published many articles in legal and philosophical journals and is the author of The Child and the State; Family and State; Morals, Marriage and Parenthood; and Philosophy, Law and the Family: A New Introduction to the Philosophy of Law. His most recent project is the publication of a six volume series of Houlgate Books of philosophy guides for beginning students, under the general title The Smart Student's Guides to Philosophical Classics.