The Complete Idiot's Guide to Philosophy; 3rd Edition

by Stevenson, Ph.D., Jay

• ISBN13: 9781592573615
• ISBN10: 1592573614
• Edition: 3rd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-06-07
• Publisher: DK Publishing, Inc.

Summary

You're no idiot, of course. You know the difference between Confucius and confusion, and that Plato isn't something kids play with. But when it comes to telling your Hegel from your Schegel or phenomenology from existentialism, things get a little more complicated.

Author Biography

Jay Stevenson received his Ph.D. in English literature from Rutgers University and currently works as a writer and editor in New Jersey. He is also an adjunct professor of reading at Rider University. His most recent books are The Complete Idiot-'s Guide-é to Eastern Philosophy, and The Complete Idiot-'s Guide-é to Angels.

Table of Contents

Part 1: The Nuts and Bolts of Philosophy	1	(36)
The Big Picture	3	(6)
Why Ask Why?	4	(1)
You Are What You Think	4	(1)
A Slice of Life	5	(1)
Is You Ism or Is You Ain't My Philosophy?	6	(1)
How the Parts Fit Together	7	(2)
Being There	9	(8)
The Myth-Math of Existence	10	(1)
To Order Is to Understand	10	(1)
Enter Metaphysics	11	(1)
Is There a God?	11	(2)
Perfection Is Truth	12	(1)
Being Leads to Knowing	13	(1)
Being and Thinking	13	(4)
Dualism vs. Materialism	14	(3)
What There Is to Know About Knowing	17	(12)
A Time of Crisis	18	(1)
Descartes's Reason	18	(1)
Look Ma, No Senses!	19	(1)
Getting Testy	19	(1)
Can We Get There from Here?	20	(3)
Going Down: Deduction	21	(1)
Going Up: Induction	21	(1)
Double-Checking Your Hypothesis	22	(1)
The Ping-Pong Ball Called Dialectic	23	(6)
Pro or Con?	23	(1)
Both Sides Now	24	(1)
Can He or Kant He? Combining Reason and Experience	25	(1)
Can History Think?	25	(1)
Marx on the Mind	26	(3)
How to Act	29	(8)
Me vs. Us	30	(2)
Good Harmony	30	(1)
The ``We'' Culture	31	(1)
Me First	32	(1)
Why I'm So Important	32	(3)
Religion's Part in Individualism	33	(1)
Truth and Me	34	(1)
Science and Me	34	(1)
Capitalism and Me	34	(1)
Philosopher See, Philosopher Do	35	(2)
Part 2: Ancient and Medieval Philosophy	37	(62)
Golden Oldies	39	(12)
It's Not About Us	40	(3)
Earth, Wind, and Fire	41	(1)
The Math and Music Man	42	(1)
Who's a Monkey's Uncle?	42	(1)
Out of His Senses	43	(1)
Virtue's in the Eye of the Beholder	43	(4)
It's All Relative	43	(1)
Double Standard	44	(1)
What's Fair Is Fair---or Is It?	45	(1)
Politics as Usual	46	(1)
Knowledge Is Virtue	47	(4)
Socrates, a Pain in the Protagoras	48	(1)
Rebuilding Knowledge	48	(3)
The Philosopher King	51	(10)
Politics' Loss Was Philosophy's Gain	52	(1)
Philosophy Through Dialogue	52	(1)
What's the Big Idea?	53	(1)
Finding the Ideal	53	(1)
Understanding the Ideal World	54	(4)
It's Logical	54	(1)
The Light at the End of the Tunnel	55	(2)
Remembering Truth	57	(1)
Immortal Souls	57	(1)
The True Sciences	58	(1)
Living Up to Perfection	58	(3)
The Republic: Plato's Paradise	58	(1)
Rulers, Soldiers, and Tradespeople	59	(1)
Better Than Democracy or Tyranny	60	(1)
A Sense of Purpose	61	(12)
Bad Form	62	(1)
Change Has Purpose	63	(2)
Changing Beliefs About Change	63	(1)
Aristotle vs. Darwin	64	(1)
Born to Think	65	(1)
Natural Soul	65	(1)
For a Good Cause	66	(1)
Why It Happened	67	(1)
Aristotle's Mental Breakdown	67	(2)
Aristotle's Categories	68	(1)
The Golden Mean	69	(1)
A Legacy Up for Grabs	70	(3)
Ancient Hardheads	73	(12)
Who Cares?	74	(2)
It's All in the Mind	74	(1)
People Are Scum	75	(1)
A Twist on Fate	75	(1)
Don't Worry, Be Happy	76	(2)
Why Suffer?	76	(1)
The Gods Make Us Crazy	77	(1)
It's All in the Atoms	78	(2)
Born Free	78	(1)
Not Their Scene	79	(1)
Who Knows?	80	(5)
Are You Hallucinating?	80	(1)
Curb Your Dogma	81	(1)
The Seeds of Doubt	82	(1)
Alma Maters	82	(3)
God and Knowledge	85	(14)
Faith Meets Reason	86	(2)
God Thinks of Everything	86	(1)
Words Get in the Way	87	(1)
The Hebrew Bible Goes Greek	87	(1)
Getting a Read on Things	88	(2)
If It's Written Down, It Must Be Important	88	(1)
Time Warp	89	(1)
It All Adds Up to One	90	(2)
A Private Line to God	90	(1)
You Can't Blame God	90	(1)
The Reason for Evil	91	(1)
Getting With It, or Getting in the Way	92	(1)
Philosophy Goes to School	92	(2)
Aristotle Goes Islamic	93	(1)
Proving God Exists	94	(1)
Logic Chopping	94	(5)
A Real Controversy	95	(1)
Sidling Up to the Big Questions	96	(1)
Shaving Explanations	96	(3)
Part 3: Eastern Philosophy	99	(32)
Far Eastern Philosophy	101	(10)
A Gentleman and a Scholar	102	(2)
We're All in This Together	102	(1)
Leading by Example	103	(1)
Governing Wise-Li	104	(1)
Just a Little Respect	104	(1)
Working with Tradition	104	(1)
A Good Mind-Set	105	(1)
Respecting What You Do	105	(1)
Confucius vs. Confusion	106	(1)
Philosophy for the Well En-Tao'd	106	(5)
Going With the Flow	107	(1)
Worry Less, Live Longer	108	(1)
The More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same	108	(1)
Philosophy or Fortune-Telling?	109	(2)
Indian Philosophy	111	(10)
Above the Suffering	112	(2)
Karma Chameleons	112	(1)
Hindu Castes	113	(1)
Practice Makes Perfect	114	(1)
Hindu Duty	114	(1)
Is Karma a Good Idea?	114	(1)
The Awakened One	115	(3)
Freeing the Self from Itself	116	(1)
The Eightfold Path Unfolded	117	(1)
Budding Buddhism	117	(1)
Fighting with Peace	118	(3)
You've Got to Admire His Moksa	118	(3)
Middle Eastern Religious Philosophy	121	(10)
One God	122	(4)
Who's Got the Power?	122	(1)
Somebody Up There Likes Me	123	(1)
By the Book	123	(1)
Sharing the Wrath	123	(1)
Evil Ways	123	(1)
Explaining Evil Under a Just God	124	(1)
The End Is Near	125	(1)
History Is Us	126	(1)
You Always Hurt the Ones You Love	126	(1)
Brand X: Newer, Bigger, Brighter	127	(1)
Come Again?	127	(1)
Feeling Their Pain	127	(1)
The Latest Word	128	(3)
The Five Pillars of Islam	128	(1)
One God, Many Points of View	129	(2)
Part 4: Making Progress	131	(78)
People People (Renaissance Humanism)	133	(10)
Philosophy Reborn	134	(1)
Learned Ignorance	135	(1)
Will the Circle Be Unbroken?	135	(1)
We Are the World	136	(2)
Change Across the Board	137	(1)
Believing in Belief	138	(1)
Skepticism	138	(1)
Gimme That Old-Time Religion	138	(1)
Everybody Plays the Fool	139	(1)
Politics Is Torture	139	(2)
Prince Not Charming	140	(1)
Doubting Fair Play	140	(1)
Try, Try Again	141	(2)
Science Rises from the Mud	143	(10)
Bringing Home the Bacon	144	(2)
A Man with a Plan	144	(1)
Idolizing Error	145	(1)
Don't Believe Everything You Read	145	(1)
Science and Spirit	146	(2)
It's All in the Mind	146	(1)
Mind-Body Split	147	(1)
A Passionate Affair	147	(1)
Keeping Government in Mind	148	(1)
A Whale of a Worldview	148	(3)
Not in the Spirit	148	(1)
Thinking Machines	149	(1)
Weak Minds, Strong Ruler	150	(1)
Gentlemen Don't Fight	150	(1)
Eye of Newton	151	(2)
Formulas for Everything	151	(1)
Shedding New Light on Color	152	(1)
Men and Women of Substance	153	(12)
Being in the Know	154	(1)
God and Nature Are Us	154	(3)
Spinoza a la Mode	155	(1)
Where There's a Will, There's a Way	156	(1)
The Truth Will Set You Free	156	(1)
A Man of Many Monads	157	(2)
Many Views, One Picture	157	(1)
What Happens to You Is Part of You	158	(1)
The World Is a Math Problem	158	(1)
A Man of Principles	159	(1)
It's Only Logical	159	(1)
Taking a Chance on Substance	159	(6)
Pushing the Limits	160	(1)
The Matter with Cavendish	160	(1)
It's All Mental	161	(1)
Knowledge in Conflict	161	(1)
Imagining Philosophy	162	(3)
Learning by Observing	165	(12)
The Sun Never Sets on British Empiricism	166	(2)
Observant Brits	166	(1)
A Locke on Understanding	166	(1)
Your Mind Was a Blank	167	(1)
Is Knowledge Accidental?	168	(1)
Taking God Out of Government	168	(2)
Divine Right Bites the Dust	168	(1)
Back to Nature	169	(1)
My Work, My Stuff	169	(1)
Society's Dotted Line	170	(1)
A Better Idea	170	(2)
If a Tree Falls in the Forest	171	(1)
Soul Exceptions	172	(1)
Hume-an Nature	172	(5)
Blinded with Science	172	(1)
Ideas Associated	173	(1)
Hume's Fork	173	(1)
Inner Virtue	174	(1)
Is, Isn't, Ought	175	(2)
Light on the Subject	177	(8)
French Lights	178	(1)
A New Look at Laws	178	(2)
Building from the Bottom Up	179	(1)
Taking Power Apart	179	(1)
The New God of Reason	180	(1)
Keeping Freedom and Belief	180	(1)
It's Still Ticking!	180	(1)
The Enlightenment Speaks Volumes	181	(1)
A Feel for Philosophy	182	(3)
Civilized People Are Apple Polishers	182	(1)
Inventing Virtue and Vice	183	(1)
Learning to Be Natural	183	(2)
Wheeling and Idealing	185	(12)
Big Idealists	186	(1)
Ideal-List	186	(1)
A Falling Out over Unity	186	(1)
Not Too Soft, Not Too Crunchy	187	(3)
Judging Reality by Its Cover	187	(1)
The Way the Cookie Crumbles	188	(1)
Concepts Before Experience	188	(1)
A New Copernicus	189	(1)
We're All in This Together	189	(1)
Hegel Can Do What Immanuel Kant	190	(4)
Philosophy Goes Down in History	191	(1)
Alien Life Forms	192	(1)
Slaves to Recognition	192	(1)
Different Slants on Hegel	193	(1)
Will Is the Way	194	(3)
A Will to Know	194	(1)
Not a Pretty Picture	195	(2)
Ideas of Freedom	197	(12)
Determine One, Get One Free	198	(1)
Freedom Goes Through the Mill	199	(1)
It All Comes Down to Happiness	199	(1)
Poetry vs. Pushpin	199	(1)
Freedom for Women	200	(1)
Determined to Be Free	200	(3)
The Rat Race	201	(1)
We Can't Go on Like This	201	(1)
Factory-Sealed Thinking	202	(1)
Freedom Is in Meaning	203	(2)
Trapped in Time	203	(1)
Just Do It	204	(1)
It's a Poet! It's a Philosopher! No, It's Superman!	205	(4)
Me and My Error	205	(1)
You Ain't Herd Nothing Yet	206	(1)
Deja Vu All over Again	207	(2)
Part 5: Modern Philosophy	209	(60)
New Fields of Thought: Psych, Sosh, and Anthro	211	(10)
Socializing Science	212	(1)
A New Way of Thinking	213	(2)
Secret Desires	213	(1)
Rain on the Parade	213	(1)
Tragic Beginnings	214	(1)
Your Problem Is Obvious	215	(1)
Jung at Heart	215	(1)
Why We All Work Too Hard	216	(1)
Mind over Money	216	(1)
God and Money	217	(1)
It's All Culture	217	(4)
Society's Big Mind	218	(1)
Patterns and Purposes	218	(3)
Works for Me	221	(10)
Working Knowledge	222	(2)
Peirce-ing Intellect	222	(1)
Where the Action Is	223	(1)
Need to Know	223	(1)
More Uses	224	(2)
Multitasking	224	(1)
Useful to Whom?	225	(1)
Not Hughie, Not Louie, but Dewey	226	(1)
Less Certain, More Pragmatic	226	(1)
Coping Strategy	226	(1)
Made in America	227	(4)
Making a Way	227	(1)
Bridging the Gap	228	(3)
The New Logic	231	(10)
Eminently Logical	232	(2)
Math's Deeper Meaning	232	(1)
Math Spoken Here	232	(2)
A Proposition You Can't Refuse	234	(1)
Inside Outside	234	(1)
Where Does Reality Fit In?	234	(2)
Logic Gets Real	235	(1)
Logic Spaces Out	235	(1)
Circular Logic	236	(1)
Second Thoughts	236	(1)
We Make the Rules	236	(1)
Meaning Is Everybody's Business	237	(1)
Fork in the Road	237	(4)
Philosophy Chooses Up Sides	238	(1)
It's All in How You Say It	238	(1)
You Can't Reason Your Way out of This	239	(2)
Let's Get Critical	241	(8)
Critical Condition	242	(4)
Exceeding Their Marx	242	(1)
Pillars of Oppression	243	(1)
Pieces of the Plan	244	(1)
Culture Vultures	244	(1)
Slaves to Shopping	245	(1)
Song and Dance	245	(1)
Blinded by the Enlightenment	246	(1)
Slaves to the Machine	246	(1)
War Machine	247	(1)
Cutting Both Ways	247	(2)
To Be or Not To Be	249	(10)
A Phenomenal Philosophy	250	(2)
Reality Meets Awareness	250	(1)
Intent on Thinking	251	(1)
The Intentions of Science	251	(1)
Bring on the Brackets	252	(1)
Painting with Your Brain	252	(1)
An Anti-Social Philosophy?	253	(1)
Let It Be	253	(2)
Time Traveling	254	(1)
Knowing What's What	254	(1)
The Real McCoy	255	(1)
Being Absurd	255	(4)
Too Free for Our Own Good	256	(1)
Heroic Existers	256	(1)
You Are What You Do	256	(3)
Structuring New Ideas	259	(10)
You Can't Beat the System	260	(3)
``Cat'' Might as Well Be ``Phthaloogazop''	260	(1)
History Is Now	261	(1)
Language on Parole	262	(1)
Them's Fightin' Words	262	(1)
Structure Goes Formal	263	(2)
The Structure of Purpose	263	(1)
Seeing Structure in 3D	264	(1)
At a Loss for Words	265	(1)
Culture Is All Talk	265	(4)
Meaning Gets Organized	265	(1)
Kin to Language	266	(1)
There's a Mind in Here Somewhere	266	(3)
Part 6: Knowledge Now	269	(68)
Philosophy After the Fact	271	(12)
Philosophy Eats Itself	272	(3)
Someone Who Dug Philosophy	272	(1)
What You Know Can Hurt You	272	(1)
Power + Knowledge = Padded Cell	273	(1)
Tell Me an Other	274	(1)
Great Minds Think Alike	274	(1)
Practicing What You Preach	275	(1)
Breaking Up the Structure	275	(1)
Nowhere Man	275	(2)
Meaning Turns Up Missing	276	(1)
Self-Centered Language	276	(1)
Vive la Differance	277	(1)
Beware of Philosophy	277	(1)
Psyching Yourself Out	278	(5)
Your Ego Is Your Enemy	278	(1)
Mirror, Mirror	279	(1)
Rattling the Chains	280	(1)
A Formula for Excess Meaning	280	(3)
Pomo Sapience	283	(10)
Are We There Yet?	284	(3)
Wrinkles in Time	284	(1)
How Big Was Modernism?	285	(1)
Scoping the Debates	286	(1)
Francois Lyotard: Not Just a Man in Tights	287	(1)
Knowledge Turns to IT	287	(1)
New Slants for Knowing	287	(1)
To Make a Grand Narrative Short	288	(1)
Rethinking Culture	288	(2)
Retro Chic	289	(1)
Money Changes Everything	290	(1)
Post-Modernism Lightens Up	290	(3)
The Side-Show	291	(1)
Does Society Need Philosophy?	291	(1)
Same Concepts, Different Conclusions	291	(1)
Smug or Sensible?	292	(1)
Women Get Wise	293	(10)
Woman Kinds	294	(2)
Forms of Feminism	294	(1)
Imported from France	295	(1)
Simone Says, ``Take a Big Step Forward''	296	(1)
Nature vs. Nurture	296	(1)
A Lonely Leader	297	(1)
Different, but the Same	297	(1)
Off the Mommy Track	298	(1)
Labor of Love	298	(1)
Writing the Wrongs	298	(1)
Class Acts	299	(4)
Politics Makes Strange Bedfellows	299	(1)
God Gets a Sex Change	300	(1)
hooks into Race and Sex	301	(1)
Butler Did It	301	(2)
The Shift Is On	303	(8)
Shifty Characters	304	(2)
How the Other Half Thinks	304	(1)
Make Yourself a Better World	305	(1)
A One-derful World	306	(1)
Einstein-Fu	306	(1)
The Metaphysical Kitchen Sink	307	(1)
Got Change for a One?	307	(1)
Keep the Spirit Clean	307	(1)
Bandwagon Earth	308	(1)
Cash Consciousness	308	(2)
Lifting Your Spiritual Bootstraps	309	(1)
No Business Like Know Business	309	(1)
What's Ahead?	310	(1)
Working the System	311	(26)
A New Tree Built Out of Old Branches	312	(2)
To Think'm Is to Noam	312	(1)
The Mind Computes	313	(1)
Moving the Cogs	314	(2)
I Think, Therefore I Am a Machine	314	(1)
Mental Blocks	315	(1)
A New Hook-Up	316	(2)
The Latest Models	316	(1)
Artificial Aptitude	317	(1)
Developing a Complex	318	(5)
A Butterfly in the System	318	(1)
Virtual Complexity	319	(1)
Now We Know Everything! (Except Whether We're Right)	320	(1)
Staying Organized	320	(3)
Appendixes
A Words for the Wise	323	(12)
B Further Reading: More Food for Thought	335	(2)
Index	337