Echoes from the Cave Philosophical Conversations since Plato

Ideal for introductory philosophy courses that take a topical, problem-oriented approach, this anthology offers an in-depth exploration of the five main branches of philosophy: metaphysics, epistemology, morality, politics, and aesthetics. Considerations of these branches are anchored by readings from Plato and expanded through thoughtfully edited historical and contemporary pieces by a wide range of thinkers, inviting students to become active participants in the philosophical tradition.


Key Features:

* An issues-based approach features a broad representation of past and current readings chosen and edited to compare perspectives on philosophical issues over time

* A Comprehensive selection of readings includes canonical philosophical works along with a selection of non-philosophical writings that offer unique viewpoints on key problems

* Diverse perspectives, including readings from non-Western, Canadian, and female authors, provide students with a variety of viewpoints

* Classroom-tested content ensures that the level of each selection is suited to introductory philosophy students

* Author headnotes provide biographical context for the readings

Lisa Gannett is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Saint Mary's University in Halifax. She received her PhD in philosophy from the University of Western Ontario in 2004.

Each chapter includes an Introduction and Film Notes.
PART ONE: THE REAL
Cave Allegory, Plato
Personal Identity
Of Identity and Diversity, John Locke
The Lost Mariner, Oliver Sacks
Personal Identity, Derek Parfit
The Same and the Same: Two Views of Psychological Continuity, Marya Schechtman
Introduction to The Second Sex, Simone de Beauvoir
You're Not the Indian I Had in Mind, Thomas King
Freedom and Determinism
Of the System of Man's Free Agency, Baron d'Holbach
Of Liberty and Necessity, David Hume
The Antimony of Pure Reason, Immanuel Kant
When Is a Man Responsible?, Moritz Schlick
Alternate Possibilities and Moral Responsibility, Harry G. Frankfurt
Crime, Genes, and Responsibility, Marcia Baron
Natural and Social Kinds
Of Words, John Locke
Meaning and Reference, Hilary Putnam
Natural Kinds and Biological Taxa, John Dupre
Madness: Biological or Constructed?, Ian Hacking
Gender and Race: (What) Are They? (What) Do We Want Them to Be?, Sally Haslanger
Preface to The Order of Things, Michel Foucault
PART TWO: THE TRUE
From Meno, Plato
Knowledge of the External World
From Meditations on First Philosophy, Rene Descartes
From Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous, in Opposition to Skeptics and Atheists, George Berkeley
From Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, David Hume
From Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics, Immanuel Kant
Words, Works, Worlds, Nelson Goodman
Realism and Anti-Realism; Metaphysics and Empiricism, Anjan Chakravartty
Knowledge of the Mind
The Experience of the Body and Classical Psychology, Maurice Merleau-Ponty
From Philosophical Investigations, Ludwig Wittgenstein
The Solipsist, Troy Jollimore
Sensations and Brain Processes, J. J. C. Smart
The Nature of Mental States, Hilary Putnam
What Is it Like to Be a Bat?, Thomas Nagel
Methods of Scientific Inquiry
Aphorisms Concerning the Interpretation of Nature and the Kingdom of Man, Francis Bacon
A Survey of Some Fundamental Problems, Karl R. Popper
Birth of a New Physics or Death of Nature?, Kathleen Okruhlik
Teleology and the Relationship between Biology and the Physical Sciences in the Nineteenth Century, John Beatty
Public Knowledge, Public Trust: Toward Democratic Epistemic Practices, Lorraine Code
PART THREE: THE GOOD
Euthyphro, Plato
Moral Foundations
From Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle
From Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysic of Ethics, Immanuel Kant
What Utilitarianism Is, John Stuart Mill
On the Cognitive Content of Morality, Jurgen Habermas
Challenges to Moral Foundations
Morality as Anti-Nature, Friedrich Nietzsche
Critique of Ethics, A.J. Ayer
From "Existentialism and Humanism", Jean-Paul Sartre
Cultural Relativism and Cultural Values, Melville J. Herskovits
Gender and Morality
Judging Other Cultures: The Case of Genital Mutilation, Martha C. Nussbaum
Moral Orientation and Moral Development, Carol Gilligan
Ethics, "Feminine" Ethics, and Feminist Ethics, Susan Sherwin
Judging Other Cultures: The Case of Genital Mutilation, Martha Nussbaum
Moral Equality and "Natural" Subordination, Catherine Wilson
PART FOUR: THE JUST
Crito (or On Duty), Plato
Civil Disobedience
Resistance to Civil Government, Henry D. Thoreau
Letter from Birmingham Jail, Martin Luther King, Jr.
The Justification of Civil Disobedience, John Rawls
Democratic Government
From Second Treatise of Government, John Locke
From Considerations on Representative Government, John Stuart Mill
Quotas for Women, Anne Phillips
Modernity, Persons, and Subpersons, Charles W. Mills
Multiculturalism
The Politics of Recognition, Charles Taylor
From Multicultural Citizenship: A Liberal Theory of Minority Rights, Will Kymlicka
Liberalism's Last Stand: Minority Rights and the (Mis)recognition of Aboriginal Sovereignty, Dale Turner
On the Dark Side of Nation: Politics of Multiculturalism and the State of "Canada", Himani Bannerji
PART FIVE: THE BEAUTIFUL
Art as Imitation, Plato
Diotima on Beauty: Socrates' Speech in Symposium, Plato
Art and Aesthetics
On the Metaphysics of the Beautiful and Aesthetics, Arthur Schopenhauer
The Artworld, Arthur Danto
What Is Wrong with a Forgery?, Alfred Lessing
The Aesthetics of Cultural Appropriation, James O. Young
A Beautiful Life
From A Confession, Leo Tolstoy
The Meanings of Lives, Susan Wolf
The Makropulos Case: Reflections on the Tedium of Immortality, Bernard Williams
Glossary