About Philosophy

by Wolff, Robert Paul

• ISBN13: 9780137442515
• ISBN10: 0137442513
• Edition: 7th
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1997-08-01
• Publisher: Prentice Hall

Summary

This classic text introduces the major fields, problems, theories, and personalities of philosophy through the biographies and writing of leading thinkers. Presenting philosophy as an activity whose guiding principle is reason and whose goal is critical self-understanding, this book explains in a clear, uncluttered manner not only what the great philosophers said, but why they said it. The book also includes discussions of Alternative Philosophies throughout the book where appropriate. Each chapter concludes with a Contemporary Application that relates the philosophy to important issues of current concern. The seventh edition of About Philosophy has been revised to include presentation of topics related to Medical Ethics; new Contemporary Applications; and a strengthening of feminist theory throughout the book.

Table of Contents

Preface	xi
1. What Is Philosophy?	1	(40)
What Do Philosophers Do? The Study of Human Nature	2	(13)
What Do Philosophers Do? The Study of the Universe	15	(5)
What Do Philosophers Do? Human Nature and the Universe	20	(9)
The Limitations of the Western Philosophical Tradition	29	(9)
The Main Points in Chapter One	38	(1)
Questions for Discussion and Review	38	(3)
2. Ethical Theory	41	(92)
The Varieties of Ethical Theory	42	(2)
Kant and the Commands of Duty	42	(2)
Three Reasons to Think About Ethics	44	(2)
Ethical Disagreement and the Categorical Imperative	46	(11)
Utilitarianism and the Calculation of Pleasures and Pains	57	(11)
The Theory of the Healthy Personality	68	(8)
The Feminist Critique of Ethical Theory	76	(10)
The Main Points in Chapter Two, Part One	86	(2)
(ABCNEWS) CONTEMPORARY APPLICATION: Same-Sex Marriage	88	(9)
Questions for Discussion and Review	97	(1)
The Ethical Dimensions of Medicine	97	(1)
The Ethical Dimensions of Medical Decisions	97	(6)
Withholding Food and Water	103	(5)
The Buying and Selling of Human Organs	108	(4)
What Should the Doctor Tell the Patient?	112	(7)
The Main Points in Chapter Two, Part Two	119	(2)
(ABCNEWS) CONTEMPORARY APPLICATION: Assisted Suicide	121	(10)
Questions for Discussion and Review	131	(2)
3. Social and Political Philosophy	133	(68)
Mill and Classical Laissez-Faire Liberalism	134	(3)
The Socialist Attack on Capitalism	147	(9)
Rousseau and the Theory of the Social Contract	156	(17)
The Pluralist Theory of the State	173	(4)
The Racial Critique of the Social Contract Theory of the State	177	(6)
The Main Points in Chapter Three	183	(1)
(ABCNEWS) CONTEMPORARY APPLICATION: Affirmative Action	184	(14)
Questions for Discussion and Review	198	(3)
4. Philosophy of Art	201	(54)
Plato's Attack on the Poets	202	(10)
Aristotle's Defense of the Poets	212	(6)
Romanticism	218	(4)
Tolstoy's Religious Defense of Art	222	(6)
Marcuse and the Uses of Negation	228	(6)
Art for Art's Sake	234	(4)
The Main Points in Chapter Four	238	(2)
(ABCNEWS) CONTEMPORARY APPLICATION: Pornography and Art	240	(13)
Questions for Discussion and Review	253	(2)
5. Philosophy of Religion	255	(50)
Kierkegaard's Encounter with Faith	256	(13)
Can We Prove That God Exists?	269	(1)
William Paley: The Argument from Design	270	(8)
St. Thomas Aquinas: The Cosmological Argument	278	(6)
St. Anselm: The Ontological Argument	284	(6)
The Problem of Evil	290	(3)
The Main Points in Chapter Five	293	(2)
(ABCNEWS) CONTEMPORARY APPLICATION: Creationism vs. Evolution	295	(7)
Questions for Discussion and Review	302	(3)
6. Theory of Knowledge	305	(46)
Descartes' Method of Doubt	306	(13)
Rationalism and Empiricism: Two Responses to Cartesian Doubt	319	(5)
Leibniz and Rationalism	324	(3)
Hume and Empiricism	327	(10)
Kant's Resolution of the Rationalism/Empiricism Debate	337	(3)
The Main Points in Chapter Six	340	(2)
(ABCNEWS) CONTEMPORARY APPLICATION: Virtual Reality	342	(6)
Questions for Discussion and Review	348	(3)
7. Philosophy of Science	351	(38)
The Place of Science in the Modern World	352	(1)
Francis Bacon and the Foundations of Scientific Method	353	(6)
The Relation Between Theory and Observation	359	(3)
Thomas Kuhn's Theory of Scientific Revolutions	362	(7)
Science as a Social Institution	369	(7)
The Main Points in Chapter Seven	376	(1)
(ABCNEWS) CONTEMPORARY APPLICATION: Cold Fusion	377	(10)
Questions for Discussion and Review	387	(2)
8. Metaphysics and Philosophy of Mind	389	(36)
What Is Metaphysics?	390	(2)
Hobbes' Materialism	392	(6)
Free Will and Determinism	398	(7)
The Mind and the Body: Some Puzzles and Odd Cases	405	(6)
The Main Points in Chapter Eight	411	(1)
(ABCNEWS) CONTEMPORARY APPLICATION: Do Computers Think?	412	(11)
Questions for Discussion and Review	423	(2)
Appendix: How to Write a Philosophy Paper	425	(20)
Glossary	445	(8)
Suggested Readings	453	(4)
Photo Credits	457	(2)
Index	459