Philosophy Made Simple

by POPKIN, RICHARD H.STROLL, AVRUM

• ISBN13: 9780385425339
• ISBN10: 0385425333
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Trade Paper
• Copyright: 1993-07-01
• Publisher: Three Rivers Press

Summary

For almost four decades,Made Simplebooks have set the standard for continuing education and home study. In answer to the changing needsof today's marketplace, theMade Simpleseries for the '90s presents a thoroughly up-to-the-minute portfolio of skills, information, and experience, with revised and updated editions of bestselling titles, plus a whole range of new subjects from personal finance to office management to desktop publishing. B & W illustrations throughout

Author Biography

Richard H. Popkin was a prominent philosopher and professor who specialized in the history of enlightenment philosophy and early modern antidogmatism. Among his honors, Popkin was awarded the Nicholas Murray Butler Medal by Columbia University and was a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He was the president emeritus and founding editor of the Journal of the History of Philosophy.

Avrum Stroll was a distinguished philosopher and a noted scholar in the fields of epistemology, the philosophy of language, and twentieth-century analytic philosophy.

Table of Contents

Preface	vii
Introduction: What is philosophy?	ix
Ethics	1	(58)
The definition of ``ethics''	1	(1)
Ethics originates in everyday life	2	(1)
Classification of ethical theories	2	(1)
Classical theories	2	(40)
Platonism	3	(4)
Aristotle: the doctrine of the mean	7	(4)
Hedonism: the philosophy of Epicurus	11	(4)
Cynicism	15	(3)
Stoicism	18	(4)
Christian ethics	22	(4)
The philosophy of Spinoza	26	(6)
Utilitarianism: Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill	32	(3)
Kantian ethics	35	(7)
Modern ethics	42	(15)
Definition of ``modern ethics''	42	(3)
Subjectivism and objectivism (moral realism)	45	(1)
Naturalism, nonnaturalism, and emotivism	46	(1)
Motivist, consequence, and deontological theories	47	(1)
Analysis of subjectivism and objectivism	48	(4)
Applied ethics	52	(5)
Suggested further reading	57	(2)
Political philosophy	59	(40)
Definition of ``political philosophy''	59	(1)
Plato's political philosophy	60	(6)
The political philosophy of Thomas Hobbes	66	(4)
The political philosophy of John Locke	70	(6)
The political philosophy of John Stuart Mill	76	(6)
The political philosophy of Karl Marx	82	(11)
Contemporary political theory	93	(5)
Suggested further reading	98	(1)
Metaphysics	99	(52)
What is metaphysics?	99	(1)
Pluralism and monism	99	(1)
Scope of metaphysics	100	(1)
The problem of permanence and change	100	(5)
The mind-body problem	105	(9)
The problem of free will and determinism	114	(7)
Types of metaphysical systems	121	(17)
Some criticisms of metaphysics	138	(11)
Suggested further reading	149	(2)
Philosophy of religion	151	(30)
Philosophy and religion	151	(1)
The problem of religious knowledge	151	(3)
Natural and revealed religion	154	(1)
Hume's argument	155	(7)
The cosmological (or causal) argument	162	(4)
The ontological argument	166	(3)
Conclusions	169	(4)
The problem of the nature of God	173	(6)
Suggested further reading	179	(2)
The theory of knowledge	181	(56)
Rene Descartes: the problem posed	181	(5)
The problem of knowledge: a closer look	186	(1)
Ancient Greek philosophy	187	(2)
Plato	189	(1)
Socrates's theory of universal forms	190	(1)
The philosopher-king	191	(6)
Descartes's theory of knowledge	197	(5)
The argument for objective reality	202	(1)
Rationalist theories of knowledge	203	(2)
Empirical philosophy	205	(1)
John Locke	206	(8)
Bishop George Berkeley	214	(8)
David Hume	222	(11)
Summary of the empirical theory of knowledge	233	(1)
The empiricist critique of rationalism	233	(1)
Summary	234	(1)
Suggested further reading	235	(2)
Logic	237	(37)
The definition of ``logic''	237	(1)
Deductive and inductive logic	238	(3)
Deductive logic: the syllogism	241	(1)
The terminology of logic	241	(1)
Affirmative and negative propositions	242	(2)
Universal, particular, and singular propositions	244	(1)
The four standard propositions of logic	245	(1)
The distribution of terms	246	(2)
Middle, major, and minor terms	248	(2)
Rules for determining validity and invalidity	250	(3)
Translating ordinary into logical sentences	253	(3)
Equivalent sentences	256	(1)
Obversion	257	(1)
Conversion	257	(1)
Contraposition	258	(1)
Fallacies	259	(8)
Logic, semiotics, and semantics	267	(2)
Summary	269	(1)
Answers to exercises	269	(4)
Suggested further reading	273	(1)
Contemporary philosophy	274	(45)
Pragmatism	274	(4)
The pluralistic universe	278	(1)
Instrumentalism	279	(2)
Some criticisms of pragmatism	281	(1)
Philosophical analysis	282	(2)
Logical atomism: The philosophy of Bertrand Russell and the early Ludwig Wittgenstein	284	(7)
Logical positivism: Schlick, Carnap, Ayer	291	(5)
Ordinary language philosophy: Moore and the later Wittgenstein	296	(6)
Existentialism and phenomenology	302	(1)
Søren Kierkegaard	302	(7)
Contemporary existentialism	309	(4)
Deconstructionism	313	(2)
Rorty	315	(1)
Conclusion	316	(1)
Suggested further reading	317	(2)
Index	319