Philosophy

by Baggini, Julian; Southwell, Gareth

• ISBN13: 9780230296640
• ISBN10: 0230296645
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2012-05-15
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

Philosophy: Key Themes is a beginner's guide to understanding and critiquing philosophical arguments. Each chapter introduces one of the major themes in philosophy. Baggini's approach combines explanation with summary while encouraging the reader to question the arguments and positions presented.

Author Biography

Julian Baggini (www.julianbaggini.com) is the author of several books, including Welcome to Even/town: A Journey into the English Mind, Complaint and, most recently, The Ego Trick. He has written for numerous newspapers and magazines, including the Guardian, the Financial Times, Prospect and the New Statesman, as well as for the think tanks The Institute of Public Policy Research and Demos. He is founding editor of The Philosophers Magazine (www.philosophersmag.com). He has also appeared as a character in two Alexander McCall-Smith novels. Gareth Southwell is a philosopher, author and illustrator based in Swansea, UK. He has run the website 'Philosophy Online' for the last 10 years. His other publications include guides to Descartes and Nietzsche, and Words of Wisdom, an exploration of 360 of philosophy's most important quotations.

Table of Contents

Preface to the Second Edition	p. viii
Acknowledgements	p. ix
Introduction	p. 1
Where do we start?	p. 1
Premises	p. 2
Forms of rational justification	p. 3
Critiquing arguments	p. 6
Beyond demolition	p. 8
Becoming a philosopher	p. 9
Theory of Knowledge	p. 11
What is the theory of knowledge?	p. 11
Rationalism	p. 12
Empiricism	p. 15
Foundationalism	p. 17
The tripartite account of knowledge	p. 20
Against the tripartite account	p. 23
The nature of belief	p. 25
Scepticism concerning knowledge	p. 29
Scepticism concerning perception	p. 32
Realism	p. 36
Idealism	p. 36
Phenomenalism	p. 38
Kant and the Synthetic A Priori	p. 39
The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis	p. 41
Objectivity and relativism	p. 43
Conclusion	p. 47
Moral Philosophy	p. 52
What is moral philosophy?	p. 52
The divisions of moral philosophy	p. 54
Morality and realism	p. 55
Non-cognitivism	p. 56
The role of reason	p. 57
Prescriptivism	p. 58
Deontological and consequentialist ethics	p. 61
Virtue ethics	p. 64
Utilitarianism	p. 66
Kantian ethics	p. 69
Aristotelian ethics	p. 71
Animal rights	p. 72
Abortion	p. 74
Euthanasia	p. 76
Approaches to applied ethics	p. 77
Conclusion	p. 78
Philosophy of Mind	p. 81
What is the philosophy of mind?	p. 81
Dualism	p. 83
Arguments against dualism	p. 85
Behaviourism	p. 88
Arguments against behaviourism	p. 91
Physicalism	p. 93
Functionalism	p. 95
Non-reductive materialism and epiphenomenalism	p. 98
Eliminativism	p. 101
Other minds	p. 103
Personal identity	p. 105
Personhood	p. 109
The problem of free will	p. 112
Conclusion	p. 115
Philosophy of Religion	p. 120
What is the philosophy of religion?	p. 120
What is God?	p. 121
The problem of evil	p. 122
Faith and reason	p. 124
Betting on God	p. 127
The status of religious language	p. 128
The ontological argument	p. 131
The cosmological argument	p. 133
The teleological argument	p. 134
Religious experience	p. 137
Miracles	p. 140
God and morality	p. 142
Conclusion	p. 143
Political Philosophy	p. 147
What is political philosophy?	p. 147
Liberalism	p. 148
Socialism	p. 150
Conservatism	p. 152
Anarchism	p. 154
Freedom	p. 156
Justice	p. 159
Rights	p. 162
Tolerance	p. 164
The justification of the state and its authority	p. 168
Laws and law-breaking	p. 170
Justifications for punishment	p. 172
Conclusion	p. 174
Aesthetics	p. 178
What is aesthetics?	p. 178
What counts as art?	p. 178
Art as imitation	p. 181
Conventions and representation	p. 183
Art as expression	p. 185
Art as form	p. 188
Art and society	p. 190
Authorship and meaning	p. 194
Art and morality	p. 196
Conclusion	p. 199
Glossary	p. 204
Further Reading	p. 205
Index	p. 206
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