Exploring Philosophy An Introductory Anthology

by Cahn, Steven M.

• ISBN13: 9780190204419
• ISBN10: 0190204419
• Edition: 5th
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2014-11-12
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Extensively revised and updated in its fifth edition, Exploring Philosophy: An Introductory Anthology is a uniquely accessible and engaging introduction to philosophy. Steven M. Cahn brings together exceptionally clear recent essays by noted philosophers and supplements them with influential historical sources. Most importantly, the articles have been carefully edited to make them understandable to every reader. The readings are enhanced by concise introductions, study questions, explanatory notes, and suggestions for further reading. While most other widely used introductory philosophy anthologies contain fewer than five articles authored by women, Exploring Philosophy, Fifth Edition, includes more than thirty, thus reflecting the major role of women in contemporary philosophy.

Author Biography

Steven M. Cahn is Professor of Philosophy at The City University of New York Graduate Center. He is the author or editor of fifty books. Most recently, he wrote From Student to Scholar: A Candid Guide to Becoming a Professor (2008) and coauthored Polishing Your Prose: How to Turn First Drafts into Finished Work (2013). Dr. Cahn is the editor of Political Philosophy, Third Edition (2014) and Exploring Ethics, Third Edition (2013), and coeditor of Ethics, Fifth Edition (2011), all published by Oxford University Press.

Table of Contents

*=New to this Edition
1. INTRODUCTION
What Is Philosophy?, Monroe C. Beardsley and Elizabeth Lane Beardsley
The Value of Philosophy, Bertrand Russell
Historical Source
Defence of Socrates, Plato
2. REASONING
The Scope of Logic, Wesley C. Salmon
Improving Your Thinking, Stephen F. Barker
* Necessary and Sufficient Conditions, Steven M. Cahn
* Thinking to Some Purpose, L. Susan Stebbing
* Pushover Arguments, Scott F. Aikin and Robert B. Talisse
Fixing Belief, Morris R. Cohen and Ernest Nagel
Scientific Inquiry, Carl G. Hempel
* Antiscientism, Gillian Barker and Philip Kitcher
3. KNOWLEDGE
* Caring and Epistemic Demands, Linda Zagzebski
What Is Knowledge?, A. J. Ayer
Is Justified True Belief Knowledge?, Edmund L. Gettier
Conditions for Knowledge, Robert Nozick
Appearance and Reality, Bertrand Russell
What Can I Know?, D. Z. Phillips
The Problem of Induction, Bertrand Russell
Induction Without a Problem, P. F. Strawson
* Puzzling Out Knowledge, Susan Haack
Historical Sources
Meditations on First Philosophy, René Descartes
An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, John Locke
A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge, George Berkeley
An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, David Hume
Critique of Pure Reason, Immanuel Kant
4. MIND
The Ghost in the Machine, Gilbert Ryle
Body and Soul, Richard Taylor
* The Mind-Body Problem, Paul M. Churchland
What Is It Like to Be a Bat?, Thomas Nagel
* The Qualia Problem, Frank Jackson
Knowing What It's Like, David Lewis
Computing Machinery and Intelligence, Alan Turing
Do Computers Think?, John Searle
* The Body Problem, Barbara Montero
Historical Source
Meditations on First Philosophy, René Descartes
5. FREE WILL
Free Will, Thomas Nagel
Free Will and Determinism, W. T. Stace
Free Will or Determinism?, Steven M. Cahn
The Principle of Alternative Possibilities, Harry G. Frankfurt
The Capacities of Agents, Neil Levy
Historical Sources
An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, David Hume
The Dilemma of Determinism, William James
6. GOD
Does God Exist?, Ernest Nagel
Why God Allows Evil, Richard Swinburne
* The Desires of the Heart, Eleonore Stump
Pascal's Wager, Simon Blackburn
* Assessing Pascal's Wager, Linda Zagzebski
* The Problem of Hell, Marilyn McCord Adams
Faith and Reason, Michael Scriven
The Hiddenness of God, Robert McKim
* God and Forgiveness, Anne Minas
* God and Morality, Steven M. Cahn
Historical Sources
The Ontological Argument, Anselm and Gaunilo
Summa Theologiae, Thomas Aquinas
Natural Theology, William Paley
Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion, David Hume
The Wager, Blaise Pascal
The Will to Believe, William James
7. IDENTITY AND IMMORTALITY
A Case of Identity, Brian Smart
The Problem of Personal Identity, John Perry
* The Unimportance of Identity, Derek Parfit
Life After Death, Terence Penelhum
Do We Need Immortality?, Grace M. Jantzen
Historical Sources
An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, John Locke
A Treatise of Human Nature, David Hume
Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man, Thomas Reid
8. MORAL THEORY
How Not to Answer Moral Questions, Tom Regan
* Moral Isolationism, Mary Midgley
* The Nature of Ethical Disagreement, Charles L. Stevenson
* The Rationality of Moral Action, Philippa Foot
Kant's Ethics, Onora O'Neill
Assessing Utilitarianism, Louis P. Pojman
A Supreme Moral Principle?, Steven M. Cahn
Virtue Ethics, Bernard Mayo
The Ethics of Care, Virginia Held
Happiness and Morality, Christine Vitrano
Existentialism, Jean-Paul Sartre
Historical Sources
Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle
Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals, Immanuel Kant
Utilitarianism, John Stuart Mill
9. MORAL PROBLEMS
A Defense of Abortion, Judith Jarvis Thomson
* On the Moral and Legal Status of Abortion, Mary Anne Warren
Why Abortion Is Immoral, Don Marquis
* Virtue Theory and Abortion, Rosalind Hursthouse
Active and Passive Euthanasia, James Rachels
* The Intentional Termination of Life, Bonnie Steinbock
Famine, Affluence, and Morality, Peter Singer
World Hunger and Moral Obligation, John Arthur
* The Case for Animal Rights, Tom Regan
* Why Animals Have No Rights, Carl Cohen
* Speaking of Animal Rights, Mary Anne Warren
10. SOCIETY
* Two Concepts of Citizenship, Jean Hampton
Democracy, John Dewey
Letter from a Birmingham Jail, Martin Luther King, Jr.
What Is a Liberal Education?, Sidney Hook
* Cultivating Humanity, Martha Nussbaum
* Proportional Representation, Celia Wolf-Devine
* Facing Facts and Responsibilities, Karen Hanson
* What Good Am I?, Laurence Thomas
* Five Faces of Oppression, Iris Marion Young
Historical Sources
Crito, Plato
On Liberty, John Stuart Mill
Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844, Karl Marx
11. SOCIAL JUSTICE
A Theory of Justice, John Rawls
Distributive Justice, Robert Nozick
The Idea of Justice, Amartya Sen
Non-contractual Society: A Feminist View, Virginia Held
Historical Sources
The Republic, Plato
Leviathan, Thomas Hobbes
Second Treatise of Government, John Locke
12. ART
The Role of Theory in Aesthetics, Morris Weitz
Interpreting Poetry, Charles L. Stevenson
Fearing Fictions, Kendall Walton
* The Aesthetic Appreciation of Nature, Marcia M. Eaton
Historical Sources
The Republic, Plato
Poetics, Aristotle
13. LIFE AND DEATH
* The Trolley Problem, Judith Jarvis Thomson
* Turning the Trolley, Judith Jarvis Thomson
Death, Thomas Nagel
* The Badness of Death, Shelly Kagan
* The Afterlife, Samuel Scheffler
* How the Afterlife Matters, Harry G. Frankfurt
* The Significance of Doomsday, Susan Wolf
Historical Sources
Phaedo, Plato
Writings, Epicurus
The Handbook, Epictetus
14. THE MEANING OF LIFE
The Meaning of Life, Richard Taylor
Meaning in Life, Susan Wolf
Meaningless Lives?, Christine Vitrano
* Philosophy and the Meaning of Life, Robert Nozick