Synopses & Reviews
Accessible and engaging, this brief and inexpensive anthology provides contemporary and classical readings in the key areas of Introductory Philosophy.
Designed to be used on its own or with its companion text, Ultimate Questions: Thinking About Philosophy 3e, this collection of readings covers the major topic areas in philosophy: Knowledge; Free Will; Personal Identity; Mind/Body; God; Ethics; and Political Philosophy. While focusing primarily on contemporary philosophy, it also includes many of the classic works essential to an introductory course.
Synopsis
Designed to be used on its own or with its companion text, Ultimate Questions: Thinking About Philosophy 3e, this collection of readings covers the major topic areas in philosophy: Knowledge; Free Will; Personal Identity; Mind/Body; God; Ethics; and Political Philosophy. Contemporary selections engage the reader, encourage philosophical thought, and promote lively discussion of philosophical issues and problems. Readers of Ultimate Questions: Thinking About Philosophy 3e and those interested in introductory philosophy.
About the Author
Nils Ch. Rauhut studied philosophy and history at the University of Regensburg (Germany). He received an M.A. degree in philosophy from the University of Colorado at Boulder, and a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Washington in Seattle. He taught at Weber State University in Ogden, Utah, and he is currently teaching at Coastal Carolina University in Conway, South Carolina.
Table of Contents
New sections are marked with an **
I. WHY STUDY PHILOSOPHY?
1. What is Enlightenment? Immanuel Kant
2. Treatise on the Emendation of the Intellect Baruch Spinoza
3. Letter to Menoeceus. Epicurus **
4. Apology Plato
5. The Value of Philosophy Bertrand Russell
II. WHAT DO WE KNOW?
1. Meditations 1 and 2 Rene Descartes
2. Brain in a Vat Skepticism Christopher Grau
3. On the Value of Skepticism Bertrand Russell **
4. Is Justified True Belief Knowledge? Edmund Gettier
5. An Alleged Defect in Gettier Counter-examples Richard Feldman
6. Proof of an External World G. E Moore
7. An Essay Concerning Human Understanding John Locke **
8. A Pragmatic Solution to the Problem of Induction John Hospers
9. The Problem of Induction–Old and New Howard Kahane and Paul Tidman
III. DO WE HAVE FREE WILL?
1. Essay on the Freedom of the Will Arthur Schopenhauer **
2. Compatibilism W.T Stace **
3. Beyond Compatibilism: A Buddhist Approach to Freedom and Determinism Mark Siderits **
4. The incompatibility of free will and determinism Peter van Inwagen
5. Freedom of the Will and the Concept of a Person Harry Frankfurt **
6. Human Freedom and the Self , Roderick Chisholm
IV. IS THERE AN ENDURING SELF?
1. A Dialogue on Personal Identity and Immortality John Perry [selections]
2. The Buddhist theory of 'no-self’ Serge Christopher Kolm
3. Where Am I ? Daniel C. Dennett
4. Personal Identity: The Dualist Theory Richard Swinburne **
5. Feminist Perspectives on the Self Diane Meyers
V. WHAT IS THE MIND?
1. Alcibiades Plato [selections] **
2. A Defense of Dualism John Foster **
3. Philosophical Behaviorism John Heil
4. The Nature of Mind David Armstrong
5. Mad Pain and Martian Pain David Lewis
6. Functionalism, Qualia, and the Inverted Spectrum Terry Horgan
7. Minds, Brains and Programs John Searle
8. Epiphenomenal Qualia Frank Jackson
VI. DOES GOD EXIST?
1. The Five Ways Thomas Aquinas **
2. The Cosmological Argument Richard Taylor
3. A Debate on the Cosmological Argument Russell and F.C. Copleston **
4. The Ontological Argument William L Rowe
5. Molecular Machines: Experimental Support for the Design Inference Michael J. Behe
6. Born-Again Creationism Philip Kitcher
7. Pascal’s Wager George Schlesinger
8. Evil and Omnipotence J.L. Mackie
9. Why Does God Allow Evil? Richard Swinburne
10. The Ethics of Belief William Clifford
11. The Will to Believe William James
12. Male-Chauvinist Religion Deborah Mathie
VII. WHAT IS MORAL?
1. A Defense of Ethical Objectivism Louis P Pojman **
2. Must God’s Commands Conform to Moral Standards? James Rachels
3. Utilitarianism John Stuart Mill
4. From the Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals Immanuel Kant
5. Nichomachean Ethics 1 & 2 Aristotle
6. Virtue Ethics in TV’s Seinfeld Aeon Skoble
7. The Practice of Partiality Marilyn Friedman
8. The Moral Basis of Vegetarianism Tom Regan
9. Do Animals have Rights Carl Cohen
10. The Case for Gay Marriage Michael Nava; Robert Davidoff
11. The Case against Gay Marriage Manuel Lopez