Synopses & Reviews
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.
Synopsis
This text is a fresh approach to the Western traditions of philosophy that includes readings of manageable length for the typical undergraduate student. Its approach encourages critical thinking about philosophical issues by offering appropriate readings and explanations, as well as straightforward demonstrations of the implications of the book's featured arguments and ideas.
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. Introduction. 1 . What Is Philosophy? Bertrand Russell: "The Problems of Philosophy." Jeffrey Olen: "Persons and Their World." William James: "What Is Pragmatism?" Mark Woodhouse: "A Preface to Philosophy." 2. A Little Bit of Logic. Arthur Conan Doyle: "The Red-Headed League." 3. Questioning the Universe: The First Philosophers. Diogenes Laertius: "Fragments from the Pre-Socratic Philosophers." Aristotle: "Metaphysics." Aristotle: "Physics." 4. The Rise of the Sophists. Critias: "Fragments from the Pre-Socratics." Plato: "Gorgias." Herodotus: "The Histories." Protagoras: "The Hymn to Relativism." 5. A Portrait of the Philosopher: Socrates. Plato: "The Apology." 6. The Philosophy of Plato. Plato: "The Phaedo." Plato: "The Meno." Plato: "The Republic." Lewis Carroll: "Through the Looking Glass." Plato: "The Parmenides." 7. The Cosmological Argument. St. Thomas Aquinas: "Summa Theologica." Samuel Clarke: "A Demonstration of the Being and Attributes of God." Richard Taylor: "Metaphysics." 8. The Teleological Argument. William Paley: "Natural Theology." David Hume: "Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion." Richard Swinburne: "The Existence of God." 9. The Ontological Argument. St. Anselm: "Proslogium." Immanuel Kant: "A Critique of Pure Reason." 10. The Argument From Religious Experience. William James: "Varieties of Religious Experience." Shankara: "Crest Jewel of Discrimination." C.D. Broad: "Varieties of Religious Experience." 11. The Problem of Evil. Fyodor Dostoevsky: "The Brothers Karamazov." John Hick: "Philosophy of Religion." 12. Faith and Reason. Blaise Pascal: "Thoughts." W.K. Clifford: "The Ethics of Belief." William James: "The Will to Believe." Soren Kierkegaard: "Concluding Unscientific Postscript." 13. What Can We Know? Rene Descartes: "Discourse on Method." Rene Descartes: "Meditations on First Philosophy." Plato: "The Republic." 14. Skepticism. David Hume: "A Treatise of Human Nature." David Hume: "Enquiries Concerning Human Understanding." G.E. Moore: "Proof of the External World." Norman Malcolm: "Knowledge and Certainty." 15. Can We Have Knowledge of the External World? Bertrand Russell: "Problems of Philosophy." Arthur Eddington: "The Nature of the Physical World." Bertrand Russell: "Inquiry Into Meaning and Truth." John Locke: "An Essay Concerning Human Understanding." George Berkeley: "A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge." W.T. Stace: "Science and the Physical World." 16. Truth, Rationality and Cognitive Relativism. Bertrand Russell: "The Problems of Philosophy." William James: "Pragmatism." Richard Rorty: "Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature." Richard Rorty: "Dismantling Truth." 17. What Am I? A Mind or a Body? Paul Churchland: "Matter and Consciousness." Rene Descartes: "Meditation on First Philosophy." 18. Materialist Monism. Thomas Hobbes: "Leviathan." J.C.C. Smart: "Sensations and Brain Processes." Jeffrey Olen: "Persons and Their Worlds." Richard Rorty: "Mind-Body Identity, Privacy, and Categories." Thomas Nagel: "The View from Nowhere." Daniel Dennett: "The Intentional Stance." 19. Functionalism. John Searle: "Minds, Brains and Programs." 20. Who Am I? The Problem of Personal Identity. John Locke: "An Essay Concerning Human Understanding." David Hume: "A Treatise of Human Nature." Derek Parfit and Godfrey Vesey: "Brain Transplants." 21. Is There Life After Death? Plato: "Phaedo." St. Paul: "The Epistle to the Corinthians." James Moody: "Life After Life." "Bhagavad Gita." 22. Determinism. Baron Henri d'Holbach: "The System of Nature." Clarence Darrow: "Attorney for the Damned." 23. Libertarianism. Richard Taylor: "Metaphysics." 24. Compatibilism: How to Have Your Cake and Eat It Too. W.T. Stace: "The Problem of Free Will." Lois Hope Walker: "A Libertarian Defense of Moral Responsibility." 25. What Is Ethics? Plato: "The Crito." William Golding: "Lord of the Flies." 26 Ethical Relativism: Who's to Judge What's Right and Wrong? Herodotus: "Custom is King." Ruth Benedict: "Anthropology and Abnormality." Louis Pojman: "A Critique of Ethical Relativism." 27. Egoism: Why Should I Be Moral? Plato: "The Republic." Gregory Kavka: "A Reconciling Project." John Rawls: "A Theory of Justice." A Student: "Why Not?" 28. Utilitarianism. Jeremy Bentham: "An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation." John Stuart Mill: "Utilitarianism." Richard Brandt: "Towards a Credible Form of Utilitarianism." 29. Kantian Deontological Ethics. Soren Kierkegaard: :Either/Or". Immanuel Kant: "The Fundamental Principles of Morals." 30. Ethics and Religion. Leo Tolstoy: "Religion and Morality." Plato: "Euthyphro." Carl F. Henry: "Christian Personal Ethics." Immanuel Kant: "Critique of Judgement." Bertrand Russell: "A Free Man's Worship." George Mavrodes: "Religion and the Queerness of Morality." Lois Hope Walker: "Religion Gives Meaning to Life." 31. The Argument from Autonomy for Anarchy. Robert Paul Wolff: "Defense of Anarchy." 32. Hobbes: The Absolutist Answer: Justification of the State Is the Security It Affords. Thomas Hobbes: "Leviathan." 33. Locke and Libertarianism: The Justification of the State Is the Preservation of Freedom. John Locke: "Second Treatise on Civil Government." John Hospers: "The Libertarian Alternative." 34. Marxism: The Justification of the State Is Promote Radical Equality. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels: "The Communist Manifesto." Karl Marx: "Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right." 35. Rawls: The Liberal Answer: The Justification of the State Is To Promote Fairness. John Rawls: "A Theory of Justice.". 36 What Is Existentialism? Soren Kierkegaard: "Papers."Soren Kierkegaard: "The Concluding Unscientific Postscript." Albert Camus: "The Myth of Sisyphus." 37. Freedom Is At the Core of Our Being. Friedrich Nietzsche: "The Gay Science." Friedrich Nietzsche: "Beyond Good and Evil." Friedrich Nietzsche: "The Antichrist." Friedrich Nietzsche: "The Genealogy of Morals." Jean-Paul Sartre: "Existentialism and Human Emotions." Appendix. How to Read and Write a Philosophy Paper. Glossary. Index.