Kimberly - You bring up a good point but I have to agree with Nathaniel. I had a hard time with the Palmer text and found the Professor's handouts much more valuable.

Unlike you, this is my first philosophy course and I can honestly say that I started with some basic philosophy knowledge, but the Palmer book still is not my favorite.

It's decent but the text topics seemed to jump around a lot and I just found it difficult to really digest all of the information.