Synopses & Reviews
PHILOSOPHICAL TRADITIONS introduces students to philosophy by combining the insights of Louis Pojman, one of contemporary philosophy?s foremost teachers, with an impressive, yet not overwhelming collection of primary source excerpts drawn from the canon of Western philosophy. Organized topically, this book encourages students to critically explore all of the major lines of thinking and all of the major schools of thoughts that have formed around philosophy?s basic fields--the philosophy of religion, epistemology, metaphysics, ethics, and the meaning of life. With readings of manageable length for today?s typical undergraduate student, Pojman?s commentaries in PHILOSOPHICAL TRADITIONS provide straightforward demonstrations of the implications of the book's featured arguments and ideas.
Synopsis
Critically explore all the major lines of thinking and the major schools of thoughts formed around philosophy's basic fields--the philosophy of religion, epistemology, metaphysics, ethics, and the meaning of life with Pojman's PHILOSOPHICAL TRADITIONS: A TEXT WITH READINGS. This broad group of philosophical selections has been hand-picked for clarity and includes commentaries by the author so you'll not only quickly pick up the concepts, you'll also be familiar with some of history's greatest works.
About the Author
Louis P. Pojman (1935-2005) was Professor of Philosophy, Emeritus, at the United States Military Academy and a Life Member of Clare Hall, Cambridge University. He received an M.A. and Ph.D. from Union Theological Seminary/Columbia University. He was a Fulbright Fellow at the University of Copenhagen and a Rockefeller Fellow at Hamburg University. He received his D.Phil. in Philosophy from Oxford University in 1997.His first position was at the University of Notre Dame, after which he taught at the University of Texas at Dallas. Later, at the University of Mississippi, he served for three years as Chair of the Department of Philosophy and Religion. In 1995, he became Professor of Philosophy at the United States Military Academy at West Point. He most recently was Visiting Professor at Brigham Young University in Utah and Visiting Fellow at Clare Hall, Oxford University. Pojman won several research and teaching awards, including the Burlington Northern Award for Outstanding Teaching and Scholarship (1988) and the Outstanding Scholar/Teacher in the Humanities at the University of Mississippi (1994). He wrote in the areas of philosophy of religion, epistemology, ethics, and political philosophy and authored or edited more than 30 books and 100 articles. Pojman passed away in 2005.
Table of Contents
Preface. A Personal Word to the Student. Part I: AN INTRODUCTION. 1. What Is Philosophy? 2. A Little Bit of Logic. Part II: THE BEGINNING OF PHILOSOPHY: THE ANCIENT GREEKS: THE SOPHISTS, SOCRATES, PLATO AND ARISTOTLE. 3. The Rise of the Sophists. 4. A Portrait of a Philosopher: Socrates. 5. The Philosophy of Plato: Knowledge and Reality. 6. Aristotle. Part III: PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION. An Introduction. Arguments for the Existence of God. 7. The Cosmological Argument for the Existence of God. 8. The Teleological Argument for the Existence of God. 9. The Ontological Argument for the Existence of God. 10. The Argument from Religious Experience. 11. The Problem of Evil. 12. Faith and Reason. Part IV: THE THEORY OF KNOWLEDGE. 13. What Can We Know? An Introduction. 14. Skepticism. 15. Perception: Our Knowledge of the External World. 16. Kants Copernican Revolution. 17. Schopenhauers Transcendental Idealism. 18. Truth, Rationality, and Cognitive Relativism. Part V: METAPHYSICS: PHILOSOPHY OF MIND. 19. What Am I? A Mind or a Body? 20. Materialist Monism. 21. Functionalism. 22. Who Am I? The Problem of Personal Identity. 23. Is There Life After Death? Personal Identity and Immortality. Part VI: FREEDOM OF THE WILL AND DETERMINISM. 24. Determinism. 25. Libertarianism. 26. Compatibilism: How to Have Your Cake and Eat It Too. Part VII: ETHICS. 27. What Is Ethics? 28. Ethical Relativism: Whos to Judge What Is Right or Wrong? 29. Egoism: Why Should I Be Moral? 30. Utilitarianism. 31. Kantian Deontological Ethics. 32. Religion and Ethics. Part VIII: EXISTENTIALISM AND THE MEANING OF LIFE. 33. What Is Existentialism? 34. Freedom: The Core of Our Being. Appendix: How to Read and Write a Philosophy Paper. Glossary. Index.