Introduction to Modern Philosophy Examining the Human Condition

by Castell, Alburey; Borchert, Donald M.; Zucker, Arthur

• ISBN13: 9780130194589
• ISBN10: 0130194581
• Edition: 7th
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-09-20
• Publisher: Pearson

Summary

This popular introduction to modern philosophy features question-based chapters with a stimulating debate-style format, and intersperses primary sources with commentary. Each chapter deals with a fundamental question about human existence, exploring the subject through representative readings by classic, modern, and contemporary philosophers--with at least two contrasting perspectives for each main position. What Is Philosophy? Am I a Body and a Mind? Am I Free or Determined? What Grounds Do I Have For Belief in God? On What Principle Do I Judge Things Right or Wrong? When Should I Obey the Law? What Things Shall I Call Art? When Can I Say "I Know?" What Is Science? Positivism to Post-Modernism. Applied Ethics (medical ethics, business ethics, environmental ethics). Making Sense Out Of Life (a multi-cultural perspective). For anyone interested in modern philosophy.

Table of Contents

Preface	xi
Acknowledgments	xiii
What Is Philosophy	1	(18)
The Examined Life	2	(17)
Socrates
Am I a Body and a Mind?	19	(76)
The Question Posed	19	(1)
I am a Mind (Res Cogitans) and a Body (Res Extensa)	20	(19)
Rene Descartes
Descartes was Confused	39	(13)
Gilbert Ryle
The Identity Theory	52	(5)
J. J. C. Smart
Functionalism as a Critique of Identity Theory and Logical Behaviorism	57	(15)
Jerry Fodor
Can Machines Think?	72	(6)
A. M. Turing
Computers Cannot Think	78	(7)
John Searle
Searle is Mistaken	85	(10)
Paul
Patricia Churchland
Am I Free or Determined?	95	(42)
The Question Posed	95	(2)
I am Determined	97	(5)
Baron D'Holbach
I am Free	102	(4)
Jean-Paul Sartre
I am Determined and Free	106	(6)
Walter T. Stace
Psychology Shows we are not Free?	112	(11)
John Hospers
A Defense of Compatibilism	123	(11)
John W. Bender
An Argument for Indeterminism	134	(3)
Karl Popper
What Grounds Do I Have for Belief in God?	137	(70)
The Question Posed	137	(2)
Belief Leads to Understanding	139	(4)
St. Anselm
Belief Supported by Proofs	143	(8)
Thomas Aquinas
Belief Without Proofs	151	(8)
Blaise Pascal
Doubts About Natural Theology	159	(10)
David Hume
A Finite God	169	(9)
John Stuart Mill
Agnosticism---The Only Legitimate Response	178	(6)
Thomas Henry Huxley
Legitimate Belief in Spite of Agnosticism	184	(10)
William James
Falsification and Verification	194	(13)
Antony Flew
John Hick
On What Principle Do I Judge Things Right or Wrong?	207	(92)
The Question Posed	207	(3)
The Will of God	210	(6)
William Paley
The Categorical Imperative	216	(10)
Immanuel Kant
The Maximization of Happiness	226	(10)
John Stuart Mill
The Relativity of Morality	236	(16)
Friedrich Nietzsche
Emotivism Affirmed	252	(9)
A. J. Ayer
Emotivism Refined	261	(17)
C. L. Stevenson
Emotivism Critiqued	278	(8)
Brand Blanshard
Morality	286	(8)
Bernard Gert
The Moral Prism	294	(5)
Dorothy Emmet
Why should I Obey the Law?	299	(102)
The Question Posed	299	(2)
The Case for the Legislative Life	301	(7)
Thomas Hobbes
The Case for Resistance	308	(14)
John Locke
The Case for the Common Good	322	(11)
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
The Case for Revolution	333	(16)
Karl Marx
The Case for Liberty and Law	349	(18)
John Stuart Mill
The Case for Civil Disobedience with Religious Warrant	367	(10)
Martin Luther King
The Case for Anarchy	377	(12)
Robert Paul Wolff
The Case for Civil Disobedience with Secular Warrant	389	(12)
John Rawls
What Things Shall I Call Art?	401	(55)
The Question Posed	401	(1)
The Aesthetic Hypothesis	402	(7)
Clive Bell
Anything Viewed Might Be Art?	409	(7)
Paul Ziff
Art As Representation of Reality	416	(13)
H. Gene Blocker
Art As Communication of Emotion	429	(7)
Leo Tolstoy
Critique of Expressionism	436	(5)
John Hospers
Is Aesthetics Founded on A Mistake?	441	(9)
Morris Weitz
Against Interpretation	450	(6)
Susan Sontag
When Can I Say ``I Know''?	456	(46)
The Question Posed	456	(1)
An Appeal to Experience	457	(8)
David Hume
A Critique of Reason in Experience	465	(11)
Immanuel Kant
A Logical Positivist Critique	476	(8)
A. J. Ayer
The Presuppositions of Knowledge	484	(6)
R. G. Collingwood
The Elements of Epistemology	490	(7)
Alvin Goldman
The Analysis of Knowledge	497	(5)
Keith Lehrer
What Is Science? Positivism to Postmodernism	502	(58)
The Question Posed	502	(1)
The Positivist View of Science	502	(9)
Herbert Feigl
Problems with the Postivistic Interpretations of Science	511	(9)
Thomas Kuhn
Relativism, Even in Science, is the Only Conclusion	520	(3)
Paul Feyerabend
Kuhn Has Misread Science and Its History	523	(10)
Larry Laudan
Science is Neither Objective nor Unemotional	533	(10)
Alison Jaggar
Can There Be A Feminist Science?	543	(6)
Helen Longino
Relativism Means the End of Philosophy	549	(3)
Richard Rorty
An Explanation of Postmodernism	552	(8)
H. Gene Blocker
Epilogue I
Applied Ethics	560	(19)
The Question Posed	560	(1)
1. Medical Ethics: Euthanasia	561	(6)
Timothy E. Quill
2. Business Ethics: Making Profits	567	(6)
Milton Friedman
3. Environmental Ethics: Inescapable Speciesism	573	(6)
Arthur Zucker
Epilogue II
Making Sense Out of Life	579	(64)
The Question Posed	579	(3)
1. The Will to Meaning	582	(13)
Viktor E. Frankl
2. The Biblical Tradition: The Story of the God Who Acts	595	(11)
3. The Biblical Tradition: The Story of Transcending Suffering	606	(8)
4. The African Tradition: The Story of Pursuing The Moral Ideal	614	(12)
5. The Story of Combatting Suffering	626	(7)
Albert Camus
6. Is The Story to be Continued?	633	(10)
Peter Geach
Glossary	643

Excerpts

A Note on the Seventh EditionThroughout the various editions of this text, the aim has been to introduce students to the wonder and rigor of philosophical analysis. We have tried to achieve a balance between making things plain for beginners and displaying conventional philosophical rigor for the more advanced student. This is the justification for our editorial comments breaking up the original sources in many of the readings. Sometimes the material is just too difficult or too long for beginning students, who often need to be reassured that they have actually understood a passage before they continue their reading.While our strategy of shaping each chapter to reflect answers to the enduring questions of philosophy remains unchanged in this edition, nevertheless every chapter has undergone revisions ranging from enhanced editorial comments to new primary sources. Chapter 2 on the mind-body problem includes new material from Searle as well as a critique of him by Paul and Patricia Churchland. Chapter 3 has been enriched by a reading from John Hospers exploring the implications of psychology for the free will/determinism debate. Chapter 4 dealing with grounds for belief in God now includes St. Anselm's ontological argument for the existence of God. In discussing social and political philosophy in Chapter 6, we have added readings from John Locke, Robert Paul Wolff, and John Rawls. We enhanced our discussion of art in Chapter 7 by including material from Clive Bell, Paul Ziff, and Susan Sontag, and our examination of science in Chapter 9 by adding a discussion of the feminist philosophy of science by Helen Longino. We have also added another epilogue. The first epilogue deals with applied ethics in the fields of medicine, business, and the environment. The second epilogue continues to explore human cosmic stories from the biblical, Buddhist, African, Marxian, and existentialist traditions that invest life with meaning but concludes with an essay by Peter Geach on postdeath survival that introduces the issue of whether death is going to sleep or going on a journey, whether one's story ends at death or continues.Adding new material led to the painful decision to delete some of the material included in the sixth edition. We believe that our editorial decisions have made for a better text of which Alburey Castell, who edited the first edition in 1943 and continued to be senior editor until his death in 1987, would be proud.We would like to thank the Prentice-Hall staff, especially our production editor, Kim Gueterman, for the first-class professional assistance they have given us. Also, we are grateful to the secretaries in the Philosophy Department, Penny Schall and Patricia Black, who have aided us in so many ways.Finally, our wives, Mary Ellen and Laurie, deserve our gratitude for their encouragement and support during the many hours we spent in bringing this project to completion. Donald M. Borchert Arthur Zucker Ohio University Athens, Ohio