Synopses & Reviews
Explore the central issues of philosophy through more than 70 non-technical reading. PHILOSOPHICAL HORIZONS: INTRODUCTORY READINGS has put together the easiest to follow and yet most informative philosophy selections ever. Whether it's the ancient philosophical masters or more recent thinkers, it's all here and clearly presented.
Review
"Absolutely the authors are filling a need with this volume. How to balance classic and contemporary philosophy in an introductory course is a difficult task and this textbook provides flexibility by allowing individual instructors to balance their courses how they see fit."- Angela Coventry , Portland State University
Review
"It looks like a wonderful new introductory text that combines classic texts with contemporary ones in a well organized form."- Richard Curtis , Seattle Central Community College
Review
"The anthology is an attractive choice for those who want to present to their students some of the main issues of philosophy in a way that makes clear the historical continuity of the philosophical tradition."- Jennifer Lackey, Northwestern University
About the Author
Steven M. Cahn is one of America?s most distinguished teachers of philosophy. He has authored or edited more than forty books as well as numerous articles, most in the fields of metaphysics, philosophy of religion, ethics, political philosophy, and philosophy of education. Among his works are FATE, LOGIC, AND TIME; SAINTS AND SCAMPS: ETHICS IN ACADEMIA, 25th Anniversary Edition; FROM STUDENT TO SCHOLAR; A CANDID GUIDE TO BECOMING A PROFESSOR; PUZZLES and PERPLEXITIES: COLLECTED ESSAYS, Second Edition; EXPLORING ETHICS, Second Edition (ED.); POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY; THE ESSENTIAL TEXTS, Second Edition (ED.); THE AFFIRMATIVE ACTION DEBATE, Second Edition (ED.); EXPLORING PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION (ED.); and CLASSICS OF WESTERN PHILOSOPHY, Seventh Edition.Maureen Eckert is Assistant Professor at the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth. Her research areas include Ancient Greek Philosophy, Metaphysics, and Philosophy of Mind. She is the editor of THEORIES OF MIND: INTRODUCTORY READINGS, and co-editor of FATE, LOGIC AND
Table of Contents
Preface. INTRODUCTION. 1. Simon Blackburn: What is Philosophy? 2. Steven M. Cahn, Patricia Kitcher, and George Sher: The Elements of Argument. Part I: PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION. 3. PLATO: EUTHYPHRO (complete). 4. Anselm: The Ontological Argument. 5. Aquinas: The Five Ways. 6. William Paley: The Teleological Argument. 7. DAVID HUME: DIALOGUES CONCERNING NATURAL RELIGION (complete). 8. Ernest Nagel: A Defense of Atheism. 9. Richard Swinburne: Why God Allows Evil. 10. Steven M. Cahn: The Moriarty Hypothesis. 11. Blaise Pascal: The Wager. 12. W. K. Clifford: The Ethics of Belief. 13. WILLIAM JAMES: THE WILL TO BELIEVE. 14. Antony Flew, R. M. Hare, and Basil Mitchell: Theology and Falsification. 15. Robert McKim: The Hiddenness of God. Part II: METAPHYSICS. 16. Heraclitus, Parmenides, and Zeno: Being vs. Becoming. 17. Plato: The Divided Line and the Myth of the Cave. 18. Aristotle: Substance, Cause, and Change. 19. A. D. Woozley: Universals. 20. John Locke: Of Identity and Diversity. 21. Thomas Reid: Of Identity and Mr. Locke. 22. David Hume: Of Personal Identity. 23. Daniel Dennett: The Self as a Narrative Center of Gravity. 24. A. J. Ayer: Freedom and Necessity. 25. Richard Taylor: Freedom and Determinism. 26. Clarence Darrow: Compulsion. 27. Harry Frankfurt: Alternative Possibilities and Moral Responsibility. 28. Neil Levy: Counterfactual Intervention and Agents' Capacities. Part III: EPISTEMOLOGY. 29. RENE DESCARTES; MEDITATIONS ON FIRST PHILOSOPHY (complete). 30. O. K. Bouwsma: Descartes' Evil Genius. 31. John Locke: An Essay Concerning Human Understanding. 32. GEORGE BERKELEY: A TREATISE CONCERNING THE PRINCIPLES OF HUMAN KNOWLEDGE (complete). 33. DAVID HUME: AN ENQUIRY CONCERNING HUMAN UNDERSTANDING (complete). 34. Immanuel Kant: Critique of Pure Reason. 35. A. J. Ayer: The Argument from Illusion. 36. J. L. Austin: The Argument from Illusion: A Critique. 37. Edmund Gettier: Is Justified True Belief Knowledge? 38. Robert Nozick: Tracking the Truth. Part IV: PHILOSOPHY OF MIND. 39. Gilbert Ryle: Descartes' Myth. 40. Alan Turing: Computing Machinery and Intelligence. 41. Paul Churchland: Eliminative Materialism. 42. John Searle: Is the Brain's Mind a Computer Program? 43. Paul Churchland and Patricia Churchland: Could a Machine Think? 44. Thomas Nagel: What Is It Like to Be a Bat? 45. Keith Gunderson: Assymetries and Mind-Body Perplexities. 46. Barbara Montero: Rethinking the Mind-Body Problem. Part V: ETHICS. 47. Charles L. Stevenson: The Nature of Ethical Disagreement. 48. Renford Bambrough: A Proof of the Objectivity of Morals. 49. James Rachels: Egoism and Moral Skepticism. 50. Steven M. Cahn and Jeffrie G. Murphy: Happiness and Immorality. 51. Aristotle: Nicomachean Ethics. 52. Epicurus: The Pleasant Life. 53. EPICTETUS: ENCHEIRIDION (complete). 54. IMMANUEL KANT: GROUNDWORK OF THE METAPHYSICS OF MORALS (complete). 55. JOHN STUART MILL: UTILITARIANISM (complete). 56. Bernard Williams: A Critique of Utilitarianism. 57. Friedrich Nietzsche: Beyond Good and Evil. 58. JEAN-PAUL SARTRE: THE HUMANISM OF EXISTENTIALISM (complete). 59. Virginia Held: The Ethics of Care. 60. Thomas Nagel: Moral Luck. 61. Peter Singer: Famine, Affluence, and Morality. 62. James Rachels: Active and Passive Euthanasia. 63. Judith Jarvis Thomson: A Defense of Abortion. Part VI: POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY. 64. PLATO: APOLOGY (complete). 65. PLATO: CRITO (complete). 66. Thomas Hobbes: Leviathan. 67. John Locke: Second Treatise of Government. 68. James Madison: The Federalist, #10. 69. Karl Marx: Estranged Labor. 70. John Stuart Mill: On Liberty. 71. Elizabeth Cady Stanton: The Solitude of Self. 72. John Rawls: A Theory of Justice. 73. Robert Nozick: Anarchy, State, and Utopia. 74. Martin Luther King, Jr.: Letter from a Birmingham City Jail.