The Philosopher's Handbook

by ROSEN, STANLEY

• ISBN13: 9780375720116
• ISBN10: 0375720111
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Trade Paper
• Copyright: 2003-04-08
• Publisher: Random House Reference

Summary

An ideal introduction for the casual reader and a beneficial reference for the student,The Philosopher's Handbookfeatures the writings of some of the world's most influential philosophers. Based on the premise that all human beings are curious about their existence, Rosen's collection brings together primary excerpts from the works of prominent thinkers such as Plato, Nietzsche, Descartes, Machiavelli, and Kant. Experts in each field have carefully selected the sources and provided brief introductions to help readers gain insight into the readings. Newly revised in order to emphasize its broad appeal,The Philosopher's Handbookis a solid introduction to Western philosophy for all inquiring minds.

Author Biography

Editor <b>Stanley Rosen</b> is Borden Parker Browne Professor at Boston University and the past president of the Metaphysical Society of America. He is the author of 13 books and over 100 articles and book chapters. He has held guest professor positions at universities around the world and is a frequent lecturer in the U.S., Canada, and Europe.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	xi
Introduction	xiii
Stanley Rosen
PART ONE: SOCIAL AND POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY
Introduction	5	(22)
Paul Rahe
Symposium	27	(12)
Plato
Gorgias	39	(6)
Plato
Republic	45	(28)
Plato
Politics	73	(4)
Aristotle
The Prince	77	(4)
Niccolo Machiavelli
Leviathan	81	(10)
Thomas Hobbes
The First and Second Discourses	91	(34)
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
PART TWO: PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION
Introduction	105	(20)
William Desmond
Confessions	125	(10)
Augustine
Guide for the Perplexed	135	(12)
Maimonides
Pensees	147	(18)
Blaise Pascal
Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion	165	(6)
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
Fear and Trembling	171	(30)
Søren Kierkegaard
PART THREE: PHILOSOPHY OF ART AND CULTURE
Introduction	185	(16)
Robert Pippin
Republic	201	(16)
Plato
Poetics	217	(16)
Aristotle
On the Aesthetic Education of Man in a Series of Letters	233	(12)
Friedrich Schiller
The Birth of Tragedy	245	(22)
Friedrich Nietzsche
Art as Experience	267	(22)
John Dewey
Aesthetic Theory	289	(40)
Theodor Adorno
PART FOUR: METAPHYSICS
Introduction	311	(18)
Richard Velkley
Metaphysics	329	(14)
Aristotle
Meditations	343	(6)
Rene Descartes
Lectures on the History of Philosophy	349	(18)
George Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
Reflections on the Common Concept of Justice	367	(18)
Gottfried William Leibniz
Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics	385	(8)
Immanuel Kant
The Blue and Brown Books	393	(22)
Ludwig Wittgenstein
PART FIVE: EPISTEMOLOGY
Introduction	401	(14)
Jaakko Hintikka
Meno	415	(10)
Plato
Posterior Analytics	425	(4)
Aristotle
Meditations	429	(10)
Rene Descartes
Abstract on a Treatise of Human Nature	439	(14)
David Hume
``Questioning as a Philosophical Method''	453	(40)
Jaakko Hintikka
PART SIX: PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE
Introduction	473	(20)
Gian-Carlo Rota
Jeffrey Thomas Crants
Against Method	493	(10)
Paul Feyerabend
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions	503	(18)
Thomas Kuhn
The Crisis of European Sciences	521	(14)
Edmund Husserl
``The Concept of Biological Progress''	535	(22)
Francisco J. Ayala
Science and the Scientist	557	(8)
Henri Poincare
Science and Hypothesis	565	(12)
Henri Poincare
``Logic and Mathematics''	577	(30)
Stephen G. Simpson
Contributors	607	(4)
Sources	611	(4)
Index	615