Philosophy: Basic Readings

by Warburton,Nigel

• ISBN13: 9780415337984
• ISBN10: 0415337984
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-12-17
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

"Nigel Warburton brings philosophy to life with an imaginative selection of philosophical writings on key topics. Philosophy: Basic Readings is structured around the same key themes as its companion volume, Philosophy: The Basics, but is also ideal for independent use on any introductory philosophy course."--BOOK JACKET.

Table of Contents

Preface	xi
Preface to the second edition	xiii
Introduction: What is Philosophy?	1	(2)
What Does It All Mean?	3	(2)
Thomas Nagel
Philosophy	5	(6)
Edward Craig
Think	11	(6)
Simon Blackburn
Analytic Philosophy	17	(4)
D. H. Mellor
The Method of Philosophy	21	(3)
A. J. Ayer
The Value of Philosophy	24	(5)
Bertrand Russell
Sense and Nonsense	29	(10)
Bryan Magee
SECTION I: GOD	39	(96)
Proofs of God	41	(14)
Martin Gardner
The Wager	55	(3)
Blaise Pascal
Evil and Omnipotence	58	(11)
J. L. Mackie
Why God Allows Evil	69	(11)
Richard Swinburne
Of Miracles	80	(11)
David Hume
Viruses of the Mind	91	(12)
Richard Dawkins
Is God a Fiction?	103	(15)
Robin Le Poidevin
The Makropulos Case: Reflections on the Tedium of Immortality	118	(17)
Bernard Williams
SECTION II: RIGHT AND WRONG	135	(88)
About Ethics	137	(9)
Peter Singer
The Categorical Imperative	146	(2)
Immanuel Kant
The Experience Machine	148	(3)
Robert Nozick
Higher and Lower Pleasures	151	(5)
John Stuart Mill
A Critique of Utilitarianism	156	(14)
Bernard Williams
The Solzhenitsyn Principle	170	(4)
Jonathan Glover
Neo-Aristotelianism	174	(13)
Rosalind Hursthouse
A Defence of Abortion	187	(15)
Judith Jarvis Thomson
Moral Luck	202	(12)
Thomas Nagel
Relativism	214	(4)
Bernard Williams
Desire and the Meaning of Life	218	(5)
Simon Blackburn
SECTION III: POLITICS	223	(66)
Political Philosophy	225	(3)
Jonathan Wolff
Of the Natural Condition of Mankind	228	(4)
Thomas Hobbes
Two Concepts of Liberty	232	(11)
Isaiah Berlin
A New Map of Censorship	243	(6)
Ronald Dworkin
Playthings of Alien Forces: Karl Marx and the Rejection of the Market Economy	249	(9)
Jonathan Wolff
Discrimination and Sexual Justice	258	(12)
Janet Radcliffe Richards
Letter From Birmingham City Jail	270	(7)
Martin Luther King Jr
All Animals Are Equal	277	(12)
Peter Singer
SECTION IV: THE EXTERNAL WORLD	289	(48)
About the Things We May Doubt	291	(7)
Rene Descartes
Descartes	298	(17)
Bernard Williams
Bryan Magee
Colours	315	(3)
George Berkeley
Of the Origin of Ideas	318	(4)
David Hume
Disembodied Telepresence and the Remoteness of the Real	322	(15)
Hubert Dreyfus
SECTION V: SCIENCE	337	(50)
Why Expect the Sun to Rise Tomorrow?	339	(9)
Stephen Law
Nature	348	(3)
Jean-Paul Sartre
The Problem of Demarcation	351	(11)
Karl Popper
Anomaly and the Emergence of Scientific Discoveries	362	(3)
Thomas Kuhn
How to Defend Society Against Science	365	(11)
Paul Feyerabend
Feyerabend: Anything Goes	376	(6)
Alain Sokal
Jean Bricmont
Wittgenstein and the Two Cultures	382	(5)
Ray Monk
SECTION VI: MIND	387	(68)
`The Diary' and `The Beetle in the Box'	389	(2)
Ludwig Wittgenstein
Sensations and Brain Processes	391	(12)
J. J. C. Smart
Minds, Brains, and Programs	403	(19)
John R. Searle
What is it Like to Be a Bat?	422	(12)
Thomas Nagel
Where Am I?	434	(12)
Daniel C. Dennett
The Disembodied Lady	446	(9)
Oliver Sacks
SECTION VII: ART	455	(102)
Art and Mimesis in Plato's `Republic'	457	(18)
M. F. Burnyeat
Significant Form	475	(5)
Clive Bell
The Intentional Fallacy	480	(13)
W. K. Wimsatt Jr
Monroe C. Beardsley
Of the Standard of Taste	493	(15)
David Hume
Two Paradoxes	508	(4)
Michael Clark
Photography and Representation	512	(24)
Roger Scruton
What is Wrong with a Forgery?	536	(14)
Alfred Lessing
Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote	550	(7)
Jorge Luis Borges
Appendix 1: suggestions for further reading	557	(3)
Appendix 2: acknowledgements and sources	560	(4)
Index	564