Introduction to Philosophy Classical and Contemporary Readings

by Pojman, Louis P.; Fieser, James

• ISBN13: 9780195311617
• ISBN10: 0195311612
• Edition: 4th
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2007-12-11
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Introduction to Philosophy: Classical and Contemporary Readings, Fourth Edition, is a highly acclaimed topically organized anthology featuring eighty-four selections that cover five major areas of philosophy--theory of knowledge, philosophy of religion, philosophy of mind, freedom and determinism, and moral philosophy. Louis P. Pojman and new coeditor James Fieser enhance the text's topical organization by presenting opposing articles on each issue so that students can better understand different perspectives. Offering a unique feature for a collection of this depth, the editors also include accessible introductions to each part, subsection, and individual reading, providing context for the essays and summarizing their key themes. Beginning with the opening section, "What Is Philosophy?", the book focuses on a compelling sampling of classical material--including selections from Plato, Aristotle, Descartes, Locke, Berkeley, Hume, and Kant. It also incorporates some of philosophy's best contemporary work, offering articles by Harry Frankfurt, Richard Taylor, John Searle, Thomas Nagel, and others. The volume is enriched by helpful pedagogical features including "Questions for Further Reflection" after each selection; "Suggestions for Further Reading" at the end of the book; a glossary; and two appendices--"How to Read and Write a Philosophy Paper" and "A Little Bit of Logic." The fourth edition includes the complete text of Descartes' Meditations on First Philosophy and nine new selections: * Sextus Empiricus: "Skepticism and Tranquility" * Lorraine Code: "A Feminist Epistemology?" * Samuel Clarke and David Hume: "The Causal Argument for God" * Voltaire: "The Best of All Possible Worlds?" * Rene Descartes: "Interactive Dualism" * Anne Conway: "Mind and Body as a Continuum" * Epictetus: "Stoic Resignation to Fate" * David Hume: "Morality Not Derived from Reason" * Alfred Jules Ayer: "Emotivism and Prescriptivism"

Table of Contents

Preface

What is Philosophy?

Socratic Wisdom

Philosophy as the Love of Truth versus Enthusiasm

The Value of Philosophy

Theory of Knowledge

Classical Theories on Certainty and the Sources of Knowledge

The Theory of Forms and Doctrine of Recollection

Skepticism and Tranquility

Meditations on First Philosophy (complete)

Knowledge through Experience

An Idealist Theory of Knowledge

Experience and the Limits of Human Reason

The Copernican Revolution in Knowledge

Contemporary Theories on the Limits of Knowledge

Science and Myth

Two Types of Knowledge

Epistemology without a Knowing Subject

Dismantling Truth: Solidarity versus Objectivity

Postmodernism and Truth

A Feminist Epistemology?

Philosophy of Religion

A Traditional Arguments for the Existence of God

The Five Ways

The Causal Argument for God

A Debate on the Argument from Contingency

The Watch and the Watchmaker

A Critique of the Teleological Argument

The Ontological Argument

A Debate on the Argument from Religious Experience

The Argument from Religious Experience

The Problem of Evil

The Best of All Possible Worlds?

Moral Responsibility

Voluntary Action and Responsibility

Stoic Resignation to Fate

The Impossibility of Moral Responsibility

A Compatibilist Defense of Moral Responsibility

A Libertarian Defense of Moral Responsibility

Punishment

The Right to Punish: Retributivism

Utilitarianism and Punishment

The Crime of Punishment: The Humanitarian Theory

Against the Humanitarian Theory of Rehabilitation

Two Concepts of Punishment

Moral Philosophy

Socratic Morality: Crito

Moral Relativism

Custom Is King

In Defense of Moral Relativism

Ethical Relativism versus Ethical Objectivism

The Subjectivity of Values

A Critique of Mackie''s Theory of Moral Subjectivism

Why Is There Evil?

The Problem of Evil: Why Is There So Much Suffering?

A Theistic Response to the Problem of Evil

Faith and Reason

A Debate on Rationality and Religious Belief

Faith Is a Rational Wager

The Ethics of Belief

The Will to Believe

Religious Belief without Evidence

Philosophy of Mind

The Mind-Body Problem

Interactive Dualism

Mind and Body as a Continuum

Consciousness and the Mind-Body Problem

A Critique of Dualism

On Functionalism and Materialism

What Is It Like to Be a Bat?

Against Materialism: Can Consciousness Be Reductively Explained?

Minds, Brains, and Computers

The Problem of Personal Identity

The Self as Psychological Properties

The Self as a Bundle of Perceptions

Brain Transplants and Personal Identity: A Dialogue

Personal Identity and Survival: Will I Survive My Death?

Arguments for the Immortality of the Soul

The Illusion of Immortality

In Defense of Life after Death

Freedom of the Will, Responsibility, and Punishment

Free Will and Determinism

A Defense of Determinism

Libertarianism: Defense of Free Will

Compatibilism: Free Will Is Consistent with Determinism

Determinism: Free Will and Psychoanalysis

Freedom of the Will and the Concept of a Person

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