Philosophy An Introduction to the Art of Wondering (with InfoTrac)

by Christian, James L.

• ISBN13: 9780155059054
• ISBN10: 015505905X
• Edition: 8th
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-08-12
• Publisher: Wadsworth Publishing

Summary

Whether it's cartoons, quotations, or interesting anecdotes from related fields, you've never seen a more interesting philosophy textbook than this one. PHILOSOPHY: AN INTRODUCTION TO THE ART OF WONDERING explains the central concepts of philosophy in ways you can understand by showing how it's all connected. And best of all, this philosophy textbook helps you develop the analytical skills you need to critically engage the "big picture" of Western philosophy for yourself.

Table of Contents

Prelude	v
Credit
Blame
Acknowledgments	vii
What Do You Mean, Philosophy??	xix
The Fine Art of Wondering
The World-Riddle	3	(18)
Just in Case . . .	3	(1)
The Human Condition	4	(4)
The Search for Meaning	8	(2)
Why-Questions	10	(2)
The World-Riddle	12	(4)
Philosopher-King	16	(4)
Marcus Aurelius
Reflections	20	(1)
The Spirit of Inquiry	21	(14)
The Love of Wisdom	21	(1)
The Greek Miracle	22	(2)
Freedom to Wonder and to Ask Questions	24	(2)
A Western Dilemma	26	(1)
Belief, Doubt, Critical Thinking, and Faith	26	(4)
The Wisest Man Alive	30	(4)
Socrates
Reflections	34	(1)
Critical Analysis	35	(22)
The Philosophic Mind	36	(1)
Critical Skills	37	(7)
Brief Skirmishes/Examples of Critical Thinking	44	(7)
A Special Kind of Listening	51	(1)
The First Educator	52	(3)
Plato
Reflections	55	(2)
Synoptic Synthesis	57	(20)
And He Wants to Understand It	57	(2)
Life on a Picture-Puzzle	59	(1)
The Annihilation of Boundaries	60	(1)
How to Do Synoptic Philosophy	61	(4)
The Synoptic Venture: Risks and Rewards	65	(4)
The First Scientific Worldview	69	(4)
Aristotle
Reflections	73	(4)
The Condition and the Odyssey
Predicament	77	(16)
The Coherent Worldview	77	(2)
The Egocentric Predicament	79	(3)
Aristocentric Claims	82	(2)
Egocentric Illusions in Time and Space	84	(4)
Man and the Absurd	88	(3)
Albert Camus
Reflections	91	(2)
Self	93	(23)
How Much of Me Is Me?	93	(3)
A Sense of Self	96	(2)
A Sense of Worth	98	(5)
The Autonomous Self	103	(6)
The Productive Life	109	(5)
Ayn Rand
Reflections	114	(2)
Growth	116	(21)
When Things Go Wrong	116	(3)
The Masks We Wear	119	(2)
I Will Not Stop Till I Know	121	(2)
Growth and Insecurity	123	(1)
The Answer-Givers	124	(1)
Crisis of Authority	125	(3)
Developing Self-Awareness	128	(2)
The Law of Pathei Mathos	130	(2)
Our Humanity Is Blocked by Our Pain	132	(3)
Sigmund Freud
Reflections	135	(2)
Lifetime	137	(32)
All the World's a Stage . . .	137	(1)
Mapping a Lifetime	138	(1)
The Ground Plan	139	(1)
Infancy to Childhood	140	(2)
The Adolescent Years	142	(2)
The Maturing Years	144	(12)
The Shriek of Ivan Ilytch	156	(5)
The Laughing Philosopher	161	(3)
Voltaire
Reflections	164	(5)
The Real World: Knowing and Unknowing
Knowledge	169	(13)
Epistemic Awareness	169	(1)
The Senses: Empirical Knowledge	170	(2)
Knowledge from Others	172	(2)
Reason: Using Known Facts	174	(1)
Intuition: Knowledge from the Depths	175	(2)
Reality and Appearance	177	(3)
John Locke
Reflections	180	(2)
Senses	182	(17)
We Never See the Real World	182	(2)
The Mind Manufactures Experience	184	(2)
Our Senses Deceive	186	(3)
Sensory Limitations and Reality	189	(1)
Epistemic Loneliness	190	(1)
The Pragmatic Nature of Knowing	191	(3)
The Irish Immaterialist	194	(3)
George Berkeley
Reflections	197	(2)
Mind	199	(15)
The Pragmatic Thinker	199	(1)
Why We Think in Abstractions	199	(2)
Classifying and Labeling	201	(5)
Our Mental Grids	206	(3)
What It Means to Be a Hummingbird	209	(4)
Henri Bergson
Reflections	213	(1)
Truth	214	(15)
Truth-Tests	214	(1)
The Correspondence Test	214	(1)
The Coherence Test	215	(2)
The Pragmatic Test	217	(1)
The Pragmatic Paradox	218	(3)
``Truth Happens to an Idea''	221	(3)
William James
Reflections	224	(5)
The Inner World: The Fantastic Journey
Psyche	229	(15)
The Exploration of Inner Space	229	(5)
Huxley's Deep Reflection	234	(1)
Mystical Unity	235	(1)
Zen Satori	236	(1)
Religious Ecstasy	237	(1)
The Fantastic Journey	238	(1)
The Buddha: One Who Awakened	239	(4)
Reflections	243	(1)
Time	244	(23)
A Philosophy of Time	244	(1)
Clock Time	245	(1)
Psychological Time	246	(2)
Real Time	248	(1)
Saint Augustine: God's Time and Ours	248	(1)
Newton: Absolute Time	249	(1)
Time Past	249	(1)
Time Future	250	(1)
Time Present	251	(3)
Time and Personal Existence	254	(6)
The Starry Heavens and the Moral Law	260	(6)
Immanuel Kant
Reflections	266	(1)
Freedom	267	(15)
The Feeling of Freedom	267	(1)
The Dilemma of Determinism	268	(1)
Primal and Secondary Limitations	269	(2)
The Case for Determinism	271	(4)
The Case for Freedom of Choice	275	(2)
Apostle of Freedom	277	(4)
Jean-Paul Sartre
Reflections	281	(1)
Symbols	282	(21)
The Functions of Language	282	(1)
The Many Roles of Language	283	(2)
Communications Analysis	285	(5)
Definitions and Contexts	290	(3)
Dissolving the Riddles of Life	293	(5)
Ludwig Wittgenstein
Reflections	298	(5)
Delicate Coexistence: The Human Love/Hate Condition
History	303	(26)
Theater of the Absurd	303	(2)
The Meaning of History	305	(10)
Toynbee's Organismic Interpretation of History	315	(2)
The Plight of Western Civilization	317	(3)
Can We Learn from History?	320	(3)
``Reason Is the Substance of the Universe''	323	(4)
G. W. F. Hegel
Reflections	327	(2)
Laws/Conscience	329	(16)
Conflicting Loyalties	329	(2)
Good Laws and Bad Laws	331	(1)
Loyalty to Higher Authority	332	(3)
Obedience to the Rule of Law	335	(1)
The Personal Dilemma	335	(5)
``I Will Breathe After My Own Fashion''	340	(3)
Henry David Thoreau
Reflections	343	(2)
Lifestyles	345	(18)
The Bonds of Culture	345	(1)
Prisoners	346	(2)
Alternatives to Remaining Prisoners	348	(1)
Cultural Relativity	349	(2)
Personal Alienation	351	(5)
``I Learned This, at Least . . .''	356	(2)
Diogenes the Cynic: The Hound-Dog Philosopher	358	(3)
Reflections	361	(2)
Ethics	363	(26)
Sin and/or Virtue	363	(1)
Debatable and Nondebatable Value Judgments	363	(4)
The Morality of Ethics / The Ethics of Morality	367	(4)
Three Ethical Questions	371	(1)
Who Really Makes Decisions?	371	(2)
What Makes a Decision Right or Wrong?	373	(4)
Whom (and What) Should I Care About?	377	(4)
The God-Intoxicated Philosopher	381	(3)
Baruch Spinoza
Reflections	384	(5)
The Protoplasmic Venture
Life	389	(23)
The Four Great Etiological Questions	389	(1)
Biochemical Evolution	390	(4)
The Beginning of Life on Earth	394	(1)
Earth's Life-Forms: An Inventory	394	(1)
Biogenetic Theories	395	(1)
Can ``Life'' Be Defined?	396	(1)
Evolution as a Field Theory	397	(2)
Philosophic Implications	399	(1)
Philosophic Problems	400	(4)
Where Is Evolution ``Going''?	404	(3)
The Grandest Synthesis	407	(4)
Charles Darwin
Reflections	411	(1)
Humans	412	(20)
The Sculptor-Gods	412	(3)
The Story of Human Origins	415	(5)
Still Trying to Define ``Human''	420	(2)
The Killer-Ape Theory	422	(3)
The Immense Journey	425	(2)
``That Individual''	427	(3)
Søren Kierkegaard
Reflections	430	(2)
Earth	432	(22)
Our Place in the Scheme of Things	432	(3)
An Ecospheric Ethic	435	(6)
Coexistence---In Life and Death	441	(6)
``No Man Is an Iland''	447	(2)
Reverence for Life	449	(4)
Albert Schweitzer
Reflections	453	(1)
Future	454	(27)
The Theoretical Life	454	(1)
Research into the Future	455	(3)
The Futurists and the Future	458	(4)
A New Kind of Realism	462	(2)
A Special Kind of Hope	464	(4)
Many Futures: A Common Vision	468	(2)
The Glory of Becoming Human	470	(7)
Friedrich Nietzsche
Reflections	477	(4)
Microcosm/Macrocosm/Cosmos
Knowledge of Nature	481	(18)
May 28, 585 BC	481	(1)
Empirical Knowledge	481	(2)
A Priori Knowledge	483	(1)
Other Ways of Knowing?	484	(1)
Realities beyond Appearances	485	(1)
This World---What Is It?	486	(4)
The Dematerialization of Matter	490	(1)
What Is the Origin of Matter?	491	(3)
Pythagoras: The Universe Is Made of Numbers	494	(3)
Reflections	497	(2)
Space/Time/Motion	499	(22)
What Physics Is and Isn't	499	(3)
Classical Physics	502	(2)
Relativity Physics	504	(7)
Quantum Mechanics	511	(5)
The Second Scientific Revolution	516	(3)
Reflections	519	(2)
Cosmos	521	(17)
Ancient Cosmologies	521	(1)
Today's Universe	522	(3)
The Expanding Universe	525	(1)
The Big-Bang Model	525	(1)
The Pulsating Model	526	(5)
A Multibubble Universe---?	531	(1)
Do We Live in a Curved Universe?	531	(2)
``The Noblest Eye Is Darkened''	533	(3)
Galileo Galilei
Reflections	536	(2)
Biocosmos	538	(17)
We Are Not Alone	538	(3)
A Cosmic Context for Mankind	541	(1)
Our Expanding Consciousness	541	(1)
Consequences	542	(2)
The Human Preserve	544	(4)
The Encyclopaedia Galactica	548	(2)
Carl Sagan
Reflections	550	(5)
Of Ultimate Concern
Of Ultimate Concern	555	(27)
Greek Tragedy	555	(2)
Transformation	557	(7)
The Role of Myth	564	(3)
The Anthropomorphic Spirits	567	(2)
Spirit Possession	569	(1)
Teleocosmic Dramas	569	(1)
Apocalyptic Dramas	570	(3)
The Eschaton---End of Drama	573	(1)
All Religion Is One	574	(2)
The Hero with a Thousand Faces	576	(4)
Joseph Campbell
Reflections	580	(2)
Ultimate Reality	582	(16)
Ultimate Questions	582	(1)
The Problem of Divine Knowledge	583	(3)
Arguments for the Existence of God	586	(2)
The Death(s) of God(s)	588	(5)
The Other Side of Kanchenjunga	593	(4)
Thomas Merton
Reflections	597	(1)
Death / Immortality	598	(25)
All Graves Are Wrong	598	(2)
Death Is a Nonexperience	600	(1)
Fear of Non-being	601	(6)
The Denial of Death	607	(2)
Arguments for Immortality	609	(2)
Arguments Against Immortality	611	(1)
The Future of Death	612	(2)
Death versus Life	614	(2)
``One Thing at Least Is Certain---This Life Flies''	616	(4)
Omar Khayyam
The Last Rite of Passage	620	(1)
Reflections	621	(2)
Meaning / Existence	623	(18)
The Knowledge That Hurts Most	623	(1)
What Did I Want?	624	(2)
Existence and the Real: Persistent Confusion	626	(2)
Trivialities	628	(1)
Work, Work . . . to Kill the Flowers	629	(2)
The World-Riddle	631	(3)
``I Know Not If I Shall Ever Anchor''	634	(5)
Nikos Kazantzakis
Reflections	639	(2)
Postlude	641	(2)
Glossary	643	(7)
Credits	650	(11)
Index to Marginal Quotations	661	(3)
Name / Subject Index	664