Exploring Philosophy An Introductory Anthology

by Cahn, Steven M.

• ISBN13: 9780195136197
• ISBN10: 0195136195
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2000-03-02
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Those who begin the study of philosophy may easily become discouraged. Many classic texts are daunting in their complexity, and much contemporary writing is intended primarily for a professional audience. In Exploring Philosophy , Steven M. Cahn has gathered recent essays by noted philosophers who place a premium on clarity, plus a number of the most accessible historical sources, thereby showing general readers what it means to think like a philosopher. Here is a remarkably accessible and engaging introduction to philosophy. These carefully edited essays are topically organized, and address issues drawn from the major fields of philosophy, such as knowledge and skepticism, freedom and determinism, mind and body, the existence of God, the problem of evil, faith and reason, cultural relativism, abortion, euthanasia, democracy, privacy, capital punishment, affirmative action, death, and the meaning of life. The collection also contains, in preeminent translations and with explanatory notes, the complete texts of Plato's Meno, Euthyphro, Apology , and Crito as well as specially selected materials by Aristotle, Aquinas, Descartes, Hume, Kant, and Mill. Also provided are an introduction to logic and scientific method and guiding commentary by the editor. Steven M. Cahn has proved that it is possible to discuss the core topics of philosophy without arcane terminology, unexplained references, or convoluted arguments. For anyone interested in delving into philosophy, this anthology offers an impressive sampling of lucid, inviting articles that tackle some of the field's most provocative questions.

Author Biography

Steven M. Cahn is Professor of Philosophy at The Graduate School of the City University of New York. He is the author of Saints and Scamps: Ethics in Academia, Revised Edition (1994), editor of Classics of Western Philosophy, 5/e (1999) and Classics of Modern Political Theory: Machiavelli to Mill (OUP, 1997), and coeditor of Ethics: History, Theory, and Contemporary Issues (OUP, 1998). He lives in New York City.

Table of Contents

Preface	xi
Acknowledgments	xii
Introduction
What Is Philosophy?	3	(10)
Monroe C. Beardsley
Elizabeth Lane Beardsley
Historical Source
Defence of Socrates	13	(30)
Plato
Reasoning
The Scope of Logic	43	(7)
Wesley C. Salmon
Improving Your Thinking	50	(6)
Stephen F. Barker
Fixing Belief	56	(3)
Morris R. Cohen
Ernest Nagel
Testing Hypotheses	59	(4)
Steven M. Cahn
Patricia Kitcher
George Sher
Science and Common Sense	63	(8)
Ernest Nagel
Knowledge and Self
Appearance and Reality	71	(4)
Bertrand Russell
What Can I Know?	75	(5)
D. Z. Phillips
The Problem of Induction	80	(3)
Bertrand Russell
Will the Future Be Like the Past?	83	(5)
Frederick L. Will
Free Will or Determinism?	88	(11)
Steven M. Cahn
Free Will and Determinism	99	(2)
W. T. Stace
Mind and Body	101	(12)
Richard Taylor
Death	113	(4)
Thomas Nagel
Historical Sources
Meno	117	(34)
Plato
Meditations on First Philosophy	151	(11)
Rene Descartes
An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding	162	(13)
David Hume
God
Does God Exist?	175	(8)
Ernest Nagel
Why God Allows Evil	183	(11)
Richard Swinburne
Theology and Falsification	194	(4)
Antony Flew
Basil Mitchell
Do Miracles Occur?	198	(4)
Monroe C. Beardsley
Elizabeth Lane Beardsley
Faith	202	(3)
Richard Taylor
Faith and Reason	205	(5)
Michael Scriven
Historical Sources
Euthyphro	210	(20)
Plato
Summa Theologiae	230	(3)
Saint Thomas Aquinas
Meditations on First Philosophy	233	(2)
Rene Descartes
An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding	235	(10)
David Hume
Morality
The Challenge of Cultural Relativism	245	(11)
James Rachels
How Not to Answer Moral Questions	256	(4)
Tom Regan
The Nature of Ethical Disagreement	260	(5)
Charles L. Stevenson
A Supreme Moral Principle?	265	(5)
Steven M. Cahn
Abortion	270	(15)
Joel Feinberg
Giving Birth	285	(3)
Virginia Held
Active and Passive Euthanasia	288	(6)
James Rachels
Active and Passive Euthanasia: A Reply	294	(6)
Thomas D. Sullivan
Choosing Death	300	(3)
Sidney Hook
Historical Sources
Nicomachean Ethics	303	(5)
Aristotle
Foundations of the Metaphysics of Morals	308	(5)
Immanuel Kant
Utilitarianism	313	(8)
John Stuart Mill
Society
Democracy	321	(5)
John Dewey
Political Action: The Problem of Dirty Hands	326	(4)
Michael Walzer
Privacy	330	(4)
Charles Fried
The Death Penalty	334	(2)
Burton Leiser
Capital Punishment	336	(15)
Hugo Adam Bedau
Two Concepts of Affirmative Action	351	(9)
Steven M. Cahn
Are Quotas Sometimes Justified?	360	(4)
James Rachels
What Is a Liberal Education?	364	(9)
Sidney Hook
Historical Sources
Crito	373	(13)
Plato
On Liberty	386	(19)
John Stuart Mill
Conclusion
The Meaning of Life	405	(8)
Richard Taylor
The Value of Philosophy	413	(4)
Bertrand Russell
Historical Source
Phaedo	417	(4)
Plato
Suggestions for Further Reading	421	(4)
Index	425