The Big Questions Tackling the Problems of Philosophy with Ideas from Mathematics, Economics, and Physics

by Landsburg, Steven E.

• ISBN13: 9781439148228
• ISBN10: 1439148228
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-10-19
• Publisher: Free Press

Summary

Steven Landsburg uses concepts from mathematics, economics, and physics to address the big questions in philosophy.

Author Biography

Steven E. Landsburg is a professor of economics at the University of Rochester. He is the author of More Sex Is Safer Sex, The Armchair Economist, Fair Play, two textbooks on economics, and over thirty scholarly and popular articles.

Table of Contents

Introduction: The Beginning of the Journey	p. xiii
Reality and Unreality	p. 1
On What There Is	p. 3
Unfinished Business: Going Bananas	p. 21
How Richard Dawkins Got It Wrong: The Case Against God	p. 29
Beliefs	p. 39
Daydream Believers	p. 41
Unfinished Business	p. 45
What Do Believers Believe?	p. 55
On What There Obviously Is	p. 67
Diogenes' Nightmare	p. 75
Knowledge	p. 87
Knowing Your Math	p. 89
Unfinished Business: Hercules and the Hydra	p. 99
Incomplete Thinking	p. 105
The Rules of Logic and the Tale of the Potbellied Pig	p. 111
The Rules of Evidence	p. 123
The Limits to Knowledge	p. 135
Unfinished Business: Quantum Entanglement	p. 143
Right and Wrong	p. 151
Telling Right from Wrong	p. 153
The Economist's Golden Rule	p. 163
How to Be Socially Responsible: A User's Guide to the Economist's Golden Rule	p. 171
On Not Being a Jerk	p. 181
The Economist on the Playground	p. 191
Unfinished Business: Let the Rabbi Split the Pie	p. 205
The Life of the Mind	p. 215
How to Think	p. 217
What to Study: Some Advice to College Students	p. 237
Appendix	p. 249
Acknowledgments	p. 257
Index	p. 259
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