Where does philosophy begin? It begins, I believe, in an experience of disappointment, that is both religious and political. That is to say, philosophy might be said to being with two problems: (i) religious disappointment provokes the problem of meaning, namely, what is the meaning of life in the absence of religious belief?; and (ii) political disappointment provokes the problem of justice, namely, 'what is justice' and how might justice become effective in a violently unjust world?

-- From the Preamble to Very Little, Almost Nothing: Death, Philosophy, Literature by Simon Critchley.