A Historical Introduction to Philosophy Texts and Interactive Guides

by Fieser, James; Lillegard, Norman

• ISBN13: 9780195139846
• ISBN10: 0195139844
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-01-03
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Offering a unique pedagogical apparatus, A Historical Introduction to Philosophy: Texts and Interactive Guides provides selections from the most influential primary works in philosophy from the Presocratics through the twentieth century, integrating them with substantial commentary and studyquestions. It offers extensive treatment of the Hellenistic and Renaissance periods--which are typically given only minimal coverage in other anthologies--and devotes substantial chapters to nineteenth- and twentieth-century philosophy. The selections are organized historically and are presented inshort and manageable sections with organizational headings and subheadings; archaic and difficult material has been adapted for clarity. Accompanying commentaries simplify difficult passages, explain technical terminology, and expand upon allusions to unfamiliar literature and arguments. Studyquestions are interspersed throughout the chapters in "Ask Yourself" boxes and vary with respect to format and level of difficulty. They require students to reconstruct arguments, summarize passages, complete blanks in statements and arguments, evaluate the success or viability of a philosophicalpoint, or draw contemporary parallels and applications. The questions are carefully framed so as to avoid commitment to any particular side in controversies. Instructors can assign those questions that will best suit the aims of their courses and aid their students' comprehension of the primarysource material. A Historical Introduction to Philosophy is enhanced by a comprehensive time line, a glossary, and lists of suggested further readings for both primary and secondary sources. This rich and flexible anthology and interactive textbook is ideal for introduction to philosophy and historyof philosophy courses.

Table of Contents

Preface	xiii
Time Line	xvii
Early Greek Philosophy	3	(34)
Introduction	3	(3)
Homer and Hesiod	3	(1)
Principal Concerns of the Presocratics	4	(2)
The Milesians	6	(3)
Thales	6	(1)
Anaximander	7	(1)
Anaximenes	8	(1)
Other Ionians	9	(9)
Xenophanes	9	(3)
Pythagoras and the Pythagoreans	12	(3)
Heraclitus	15	(3)
The Eleatics	18	(4)
Parmenides	18	(2)
Zeno	20	(2)
Pluralist Alternatives to Parmenides	22	(7)
Empedocles	22	(2)
Anaxagoras	24	(2)
The Atomists: Parmenides as Pluralist	26	(3)
The Sophists: Rhetoric and Virtue for a Price	29	(8)
Protagoras and Gorgias	29	(8)
Socrates and Plato	37	(64)
Socrates	37	(34)
The Euthyphro	39	(7)
Meno	46	(1)
The Apology	47	(24)
Plato	71	(30)
Introduction to the Theory of Forms	71	(2)
Phaedo	73	(7)
The Republic	80	(17)
Phaedrus	97	(4)
Aristotle	101	(52)
Logical Works	101	(5)
Categories	101	(5)
Nature and the Soul	106	(7)
Physics	106	(5)
On the Soul	111	(2)
Ethics	113	(40)
Book 1	113	(19)
Book 2	132	(14)
Book 3	146	(7)
Hellenistic Philosophy	153	(24)
Epicureanism	153	(7)
Atoms and Free Will	154	(1)
Fearing the Gods	155	(1)
Fear of Death	156	(1)
Pleasure and Pain	157	(2)
Prudence and Freedom	159	(1)
Stoicism	160	(7)
Zeno of Citium: Logic, Physics, and Ethics	160	(3)
Epictetus	163	(4)
Cynicism	167	(2)
Antisthenes and Diogenes	168	(1)
Skepticism	169	(8)
Academics and Pyrrhonians	169	(1)
The Goal and Criterion of Skepticism	170	(2)
The Ten Modes of Skepticism	172	(5)
Medieval Philosophy	177	(74)
Augustine (from On Free Choice of the Will)	178	(28)
Book 1. God and Evil	179	(16)
Book 2. More on the Origin of Evil	195	(2)
Book 3. God's Foreknowledge and Freedom: The Great Chain of Being	197	(4)
The Confessions: Augustine on Time	201	(5)
Anselm	206	(5)
Proslogion 1	206	(5)
Averroes (from The Decisive Treatise Determining the Nature of the Connection between Religion and Philosophy)	211	(10)
Chapter 2: Philosophy and Religion Belong Together	212	(8)
Chapter 3: The Elite and Ordinary Believers	220	(1)
Moses Maimonides (from The Guide for the Perplexed)	221	(6)
God and Biblical Language	222	(5)
Thomas Aquinas (from Summa Theologica)	227	(24)
The Existence of God	228	(8)
Natural Law	236	(15)
Renaissance and Early Modern Philosophy	251	(68)
Humanism	251	(7)
Pico's Oration	251	(2)
More's Utopia	253	(5)
The Reformation	258	(14)
Luther's Appeal	259	(2)
Calvin's Institutes	261	(11)
Fideism and Skepticism	272	(9)
Montaigne's Apology	272	(4)
Bayle's Dictionary	276	(1)
Pascal's Wager (from Thoughts)	277	(4)
Astronomy	281	(14)
The Earth-Centered System of the Universe	282	(1)
Copernicus (from ``Dedication'' to On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres)	283	(4)
Galileo (from The Assayer, ``Letter to Muti,'' ``Letter to Costelli,'' and Dialogues on the Two Chief Systems of the World)	287	(5)
Newton (from ``Preface'' to Principia Mathematica and ``Letter to Bentley'')	292	(2)
Implications of Modern Astronomy	294	(1)
Scientific Method	295	(24)
Bacon and Induction (from New Organon)	296	(8)
Descartes's Methods (from Discourse)	304	(8)
Newton's Method of Investigation (from Principia Mathematica and Optics)	312	(2)
Mathematics and Scientific Method	314	(5)
Continental Rationalism	319	(84)
Rene Descartes 9from Meditations)	319	(30)
Meditation 1: Concerning Those Things That Can Be Called into Doubt	320	(6)
Meditation 2: Concerning the Nature of the Human Mind: That the Mind Is More Known Than the Body	326	(10)
Meditation 3: Of God: That He Exists	336	(5)
Meditation 6: Of the Existence of Material Things, and of the Real Distinction between the Soul and Body of Man	341	(5)
Supplementary Selections	346	(3)
Benedict Spinoza (from the Ethics)	349	(6)
God Does Not Willfully Direct the Course of Nature	350	(5)
Nicholas de Malebranche (from The Search after Truth)	355	(19)
Chapter 1, Section 1: What Is Meant by Ideas; That They Truly Exist, and That They Are Necessary to Perceive All Material Objects	356	(1)
Chapter 6: That We See All Things in God	357	(8)
Occasionalism	365	(9)
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (from ``Monadology'' and ``Letter to Clarke'')	374	(20)
Monads	374	(4)
Human Perception	378	(2)
God	380	(6)
Body and Soul	386	(3)
The Human Spirit	389	(2)
Against Atoms and a Vacuum	391	(3)
Anne Conway (from Principles)	394	(9)
All Creatures Are Changeable	394	(5)
Against Descartes, Hobbes, and Spinoza	399	(4)
British Empiricism	403	(106)
John Locke (from Essay Concerning Human Understanding)	403	(32)
No Speculative Innate Principles in the Mind	404	(6)
Of Ideas in General and Their Origin	410	(5)
Of Simple Ideas	415	(2)
Of Simple Ideas of Sense	417	(2)
Of Simple Ideas of Diverse Senses	419	(1)
Of Simple Ideas of Reflection	419	(1)
Of Simple Ideas of Both Sensation and Reflection	420	(3)
Some Farther Considerations Concerning Our Simple Ideas	423	(4)
Of Complex Ideas	427	(3)
Of the Extent of Human Knowledge	430	(2)
Of Our Threefold Knowledge of Existence	432	(1)
Of Our Knowledge of the Existence of Other Things	433	(2)
George Berkeley (from Dialogues)	435	(28)
Dialogue One	436	(9)
Dialogue Two	445	(7)
Dialogue Three	452	(11)
David Hume (from Enquiries and Treatise of Human Nature)	463	(46)
Section 2: Of the Origin of Ideas	464	(5)
Section 3: Of the Association of Ideas	469	(2)
Section 7: Of the Idea of Necessary Connection	471	(9)
Section 10: Of Miracles	480	(11)
Section 12: Of the Academical or Skeptical Philosophy	491	(4)
Personal Identity	495	(2)
Moral Theory	497	(12)
Late Modern and 19th-Century Philosophy	509	(110)
Thomas Reid (from Inquiry into the Human Mind)	509	(6)
Introduction	510	(4)
Of Smelling	514	(1)
Immanuel Kant (from Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics and The Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals)	515	(25)
Introduction	516	(3)
Preamble on the Peculiarities of All Metaphysical Knowledge	519	(5)
How Is Pure Mathematics Possible?	524	(2)
How Is the Science of Nature Possible?	526	(4)
How Is Metaphysics in General Possible?	530	(2)
Kant's Ethical Theory	532	(8)
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (from ``Preface'' to Phenomenology of Mind)	540	(15)
Introduction	540	(1)
Philosophy and History	541	(7)
The Unity of Subject and Object	548	(5)
History as Rational	553	(2)
Soren Kierkegaard (From Either/Or, vol. 1 and 2)	555	(17)
Introduction: Kierkegaard's ``Existentialism''	555	(1)
The Life of Enjoyment	556	(8)
The Ethical Life	564	(8)
Mary Wollstonecraft (from A Vindication of the Rights of Women)	572	(9)
The Rights of Women; True Virtue and True Social Flourishing	572	(6)
Education, Virtue, and the Need for a Revolution in Manners	578	(3)
John Stuart Mill (from Utilitarianism)	581	(12)
General Remarks	581	(2)
What Utilitarianism Is	583	(10)
Friedrich Nietzsche (from The Birth of Tragedy, The Dawn of Day, Joyful Wisdom, The Geneaology of Morals, Human, All Too Human, and Thus Spake Zarathustra)	593	(26)
Art, Morality, and Religion	593	(3)
The Critique of Morality	596	(7)
The Death of God	603	(16)
20th-Century and Contemporary Philosophy	619	(78)
Bertrand Russell (from Problems of Philosophy)	619	(10)
Knowledge by Acquaintance and Knowledge by Description	619	(10)
Ludwig Wittgenstein (from Philosophical Investigations)	629	(18)
Introduction	629	(1)
Language and Use	629	(18)
Willard Van Orman Quine (from Two Dogmas of Empiricism)	647	(13)
The Nature of Modern Empiricism	648	(1)
Background for Analyticity	649	(2)
Definition	651	(1)
Interchangeability	652	(2)
The Verification Theory and Reductionism	654	(3)
Empiricism without the Dogmas	657	(3)
Jean-Paul Sartre (from Existentialism and Humanism)	660	(14)
Freedom in a Godless World	661	(13)
G. E. M. Anscombe	674	(23)
Modern Moral Philosophy	694	(3)
Glossary	697	(7)
Credits	704	(1)
Index	705