Modern Challenges to Past Philosophy Arguments and Responses

by Sullivan, Thomas D.; Pannier, Russell

• ISBN13: 9781441141668
• ISBN10: 1441141669
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2014-02-27
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic

Summary

Does philosophy have a timeless essence? Are the writings that have come down to us over the centuries from philosophers of genius mere souvenirs from a bygone era? Or are their thoughts still eminently worth examining with care?

Modern Challenges to Past Philosophy argues pondering past philosophy with modern problems in mind is worth the effort, even though earlier works are uninformed by modern science and lack some of tools of modern analysis. The great texts defamiliarize our world and offer solutions to crucial questions often forgotten as we fixate on current philosophical trends.

Modern Challenges is no appeal to a return to a golden past but a study designed to show how and why understanding earlier works of some of the most penetrating minds ever to ponder eternally valid questions can contribute to a renewal of our own culture.

Author Biography

Russell Pannier is Emeritus Professor of Law, William Mitchell College of Law, USA. He has published in the areas of philosophy of logic, metaphysics, jurisprudence, ethics, constitutional law, philosophy of religion, and decision theory. He has published several essays on some of those topics with Thomas D. Sullivan.

Thomas D. Sullivan is Professor of Philosophy, University Ireland Professor, and Aquinas Chair in Philosophy and Theology at the University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, USA. He is the co-author, with Sandra Menssen, of The Agnostic Inquirer: Revelation from a Philosophical Standpoint (2007).

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Chapter I. Problems and Perspectives
Chapter II. The Essence of Philosophy
Chapter III. Arguments for Taking Past Philosophers Seriously
Chapter IV. Science, Scientism, and Philosophy
Chapter V. Scientistic Attacks on Past and Present Philosophy
Chapter VI. Philosophic Attacks on Past and Present Philosophy
Chapter VII. Philosophy, Time, and Eternity
Bibliography
Index