Synopses & Reviews
Western Philosophy: An Anthology provides the most comprehensive and authoritative survey of the Western philosophical tradition from ancient Greece to the leading philosophers of today. In 144 substantial and carefully chosen extracts, the volume covers all the main branches of philosophy – theory of knowledge and metaphysics, philosophy of mind, religion and science, moral philosophy (theoretical and applied), political theory and aesthetics. Chronologically and thematically arranged, the readings are introduced and linked together by a lucid philosophical commentary which guides the reader through the key arguments. For this new edition, all the existing sections have been updated with additional contemporary extracts, and two completely new sections on logic and language, and philosophy and the meaning of life have been included.
This outstanding text will support a wide variety of introductory courses in philosophy, as well as providing more advanced students with an indispensable collection of classic source materials.
Review
"Cottingham does a good job." Times Higher Education Supplement
Synopsis
Western Philosophy: An Anthologyprovides the most comprehensive and authoritative survey of the Western philosophical tradition from ancient Greece to the leading philosophers of today. In 144 substantial and carefully chosen extracts, the volume covers all the main branches of philosophy – theory of knowledge and metaphysics, philosophy of mind, religion and science, moral philosophy (theoretical and applied), political theory and aesthetics. Chronologically and thematically arranged, the readings are introduced and linked together by a lucid philosophical commentary which guides the reader through the key arguments. For this new edition, all the existing sections have been updated with additional contemporary extracts, and two completely new sections on logic and language, and philosophy and the meaning of life have been included.
This outstanding text will support a wide variety of introductory courses in philosophy, as well as providing more advanced students with an indispensable collection of classic source materials.
About the Author
John Cottingham is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Reading. He is the author of many books including Rationalism (1984), Descartes (1986), The Rationalists (1988), Philosophy and the Good Life (1998), and On the Meaning of Life (2003), and is co-translator of The Philosophical Writings of Descartes. He was from 1991–5 Chairman of the British Society for the History of Philosophy, and is (since 1993) editor of Ratio, the international journal of analytic philosophy.
Table of Contents
Preface.
Acknowledgements.
Advice to Readers and Format of the Volume.
Part I: Knowledge and Certainty:.
1. Innate Knowledge: Plato, Meno.
2. Knowledge versus Opinion: Plato, Republic.
3. Demonstrative Knowledge and its Starting-points: Aristotle, Posterior Analytics.
4. New Foundations for Knowledge: René Descartes, Meditations.
5. The Senses as the Basis of Knowledge: John Locke, Essay concerning Human Understanding.
6. Innate Knowledge Defended: Gottfried Leibniz, New Essays on Human Understanding.
7. Scepticism versus Human Nature: David Hume, Enquiry concerning Human Understanding.
8. Experience and Understanding: Immanuel Kant, Critique of Pure Reason.
9. From Sense-certainty to Self-consciousness:Georg Hegel, Phenomenology of Spirit.
10. Against Scepticism: G. E. Moore, A Defence of Common Sense.
11. Does Empirical Knowledge Have a Foundation?: Wilfrid Sellars, The Myth of the Given.
12. The Conditions for Knowledge: Edmund Gettier, Is Justified True Belief Knowledge?.
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Part II: Being and Reality:.
1. The Allegory of the Cave: Plato, Republic.
2. Individual Substance: Aristotle, Categories.
3. Supreme Being and Created Things: René Descartes, Principles of Philosophy.
4. Qualities and Ideas: John Locke, Essay concerning Human Understanding.
5. Substance, Life and Activity: Gottfried Leibniz, New System.
6. Nothing Outside the Mind: George Berkeley, Principles of Human Knowledge.
7. The Limits of Metaphysical Speculation: David Hume, Enquiry concerning Human Understanding.
8. Metaphysics, Old and New: Immanuel Kant, Prolegomena.
9. Being and Involvement: Martin Heidegger, Being and Time.
10. The End of Metaphysics?: Rudolf Carnap, The Elimination of Metaphysics.
11. The Problem of Ontology: W. V. O. Quine, On What There Is.
12. Why is There Anything?: Derek Parfit, The Puzzle of Reality.
Part III: Language and Meaning:.
1. The Meaning of Words: Plato, Cratylus.
2. Language and its Acquisition: Augustine, Confessions.
3. Thought, Language and its Components: William of Ockham, Writings on Logic.
4. Language, Reason and Animal Utterance: René Descartes, Discourse on the Method.
5. Abstract General Ideas: John Locke, Essay concerning Human Understanding.
6. Particular Ideas and General Meaning: George Berkeley, Principles of Human Knowledge.
7. Denotation versus Connotation: John Stuart Mill, A System of Logic.
8. Names and their Meaning: Gottlob Frege, Sense and Reference.
9. Definite and Indefinite Descriptions: Bertrand Russell, Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy.
10. Non-descriptive Uses of