Synopses & Reviews
"thinking things through..."
David H. Lund describes the core of his brief, engaging approach to philosophic inquiry as one of enticing students' interest and enriching and enlarging students' understandings of fundamental intellectual problems. Using a problems-based approach, Lund helps students "think things through" by inviting their participation in problematizing, criticizing, and evaluating particular questions in philosophy.
The key questions, or problems, on which Lund focuses include:
Knowledge, reality, mind, self, God, free will, value, morality, death, and the meaning of life. New to this Second Edition:
- Expanded material on most topics, especially on universals, causation, personal identity, and evil
- Treatment of agency theory
- New section on "the quest for meaning"
Synopsis
This brief and engaging book on philosophic inquiry shows readers why and how philosophic thought about fundamental problems in epistemology, ontology and moral theory can be of great help to us in our attempt to live “the good life” —characterized (in part) by a deeper understanding of the world within and around us. It encourages higher-order thought—the critical examination of views, conceptual analysis, integrative thought, and the evaluation of arguments—and shows what an important and mind-transforming activity philosophic inquiry can be. Chapter topics include knowledge, reality, the mental and the physical, self, God, free will, value and morality, death, and the meaning of life. For anyone who wants to “make sense of it all.”
Table of Contents
1. Introduction.
2. Knowledge.
3. Reality.
4. The Mental and the Physical.
5. Self.
6. God.
7. Free Will.
8. Value and Morality.
9. Death.
10. The Meaning of Life.
Notes.
Further Reading.
Index.