Exploring Philosophy An Introductory Anthology

by Cahn, Steven M.

• ISBN13: 9780195370102
• ISBN10: 0195370104
• Edition: 3rd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-01-09
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Exploring Philosophy: An Introductory Anthology, Third Edition, is a remarkably accessible and engaging introduction to philosophy. Steven M. Cahn brings together extraordinarily 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 topics are drawn from across the major fields of philosophy and include knowledge and skepticism, mind and body, freedom and determinism, the existence of God, the problem of evil, ethical reasoning, abortion, euthanasia, world hunger, democracy, capital punishment, affirmative action, and the meaning of life. The readings are enhanced by concise introductions, explanatory notes, and suggestions for further reading. Featuring twenty-two new selections, the third edition has been expanded to include a separate section on free will containing articles by A.J. Ayer, Steven M. Cahn, Harry Frankfurt, Thomas Nagel, and Richard Taylor. It offers two sections on morality--Moral Theory and Moral Problems--with new selections by John Arthur, Virginia Held, Don Marquis, Bernard Mayo, Peter Singer, Judith Jarvis Thomson, and Christine Vitrano. This edition also adds historical sources by St. Anselm, William James, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, as well as contemporary essays by A.J. Ayer, Steven M. Cahn, Nicholas Everitt, Edmund L. Gettier, Carl G. Hempel, Alan Turing, and Ernest van den Haag.

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 more than forty books. Most recently, he wrote From Student to Scholar: A Candid Guide to Becoming a Professor (2008), Puzzles Perplexities: Collected Essays, Second Edition (2007), and God, Reason, and Religion (2006). Dr. Cahn is the coeditor of Ethics, Fourth Edition (OUP, 2008), The Elements of Philosophy (OUP, 2007), Happiness (OUP, 2007), and The Meaning of Life, Third Edition (OUP, 2007). He is the editor of Exploring Ethics (OUP, 2008), Exploring Philosophy of Religion (OUP, 2008), Classics of Western Philosophy, Seventh Edition (2006), Political Philosophy (OUP, 2005), Ten Essential Texts in the Philosophy of Religion (OUP, 2005), Philosophy for the 21st Century (OUP, 2003), and Classics of Political and Moral Philosophy (OUP, 2001).

Table of Contents

Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction
What Is Philosophy?	p. 3
Historical Source: Defence of Socrates	p. 13
Reasoning
The Scope of Logic	p. 43
Improving Your Thinking	p. 50
Fixing Belief	p. 56
Scientific Inquiry	p. 59
Science and Common Sense	p. 65
Knowledge
Appearance and Reality	p. 73
What Can I Know?	p. 76
Knowledge and Belief	p. 82
The Problem of Induction	p. 86
Will the Future Be Like the Past?	p. 88
What Is Knowledge?	p. 93
Is Justified True Belief Knowledge?	p. 96
Historical Sources	p. 97
Meditations on First Philosophy	p. 130
An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding	p. 135
Mind
The Ghost in the Machine	p. 147
The Mind as a Function of the Body	p. 151
What Is It Like to Be a Bat?	p. 158
Computing Machinery and Intelligence	p. 162
Do Computers Think?	p. 166
Historical Source: Meditations on First Philosophy	p. 169
Free Will
Free Will	p. 179
Freedom and Determinism	p. 184
Freedom and Necessity	p. 191
Freedom or Determinism?	p. 199
Alternative Possibilities and Moral Responsibility	p. 210
Historical Source: An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding	p. 212
God
Does God Exist?	p. 223
Why God Allows Evil	p. 231
Theology and Falsification	p. 242
Do Miracles Occur?	p. 245
Pascal's Wager	p. 249
The Hiddenness of God	p. 252
God and Modern Science	p. 257
God and Morality	p. 262
Historical Sources: Proslogion	p. 265
Summa Theologiae	p. 268
An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding	p. 270
The Will to Believe	p. 276
Moral Theory
The Challenge of Cultural Relativism	p. 287
How Not to Answer Moral Questions	p. 298
The Nature of Ethical Disagreement	p. 302
A Supreme Moral Principle?	p. 307
Happiness and Morality	p. 312
Virtue Ethics	p. 315
The Ethics of Care	p. 317
Historical Sources: Nicomachean Ethics	p. 322
Foundations of the Metaphysics of Morals	p. 327
Utilitarianism	p. 332
Moral Problems
A Defense of Abortion	p. 341
Why Abortion Is Immoral	p. 356
Active and Passive Euthanasia	p. 362
Active and Passive Euthanasia: A Reply	p. 368
Famine, Affluence, and Morality	p. 374
World Hunger and Moral Obligation: The Case Against Singer	p. 382
Society
Democracy	p. 391
Letter from a Birmingham Jail	p. 396
Political Action: The Problem of Dirty Hands	p. 403
The Ultimate Punishment: A Defense	p. 407
Capital Punishment	p. 413
Two Concepts of Affirmative Action	p. 427
Are Quotas Sometimes Justified?	p. 436
What Is a Liberal Education?	p. 441
Historical Sources: Crito	p. 450
On Liberty	p. 463
The Solitude of Self	p. 472
Conclusion
The Meaning of Life	p. 483
The Value of Philosophy	p. 491
Historical Source: Phaedo	p. 495
Suggestions for Further Reading	p. 499
Index	p. 503
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