Philosophical Traditions A Text with Readings

by Pojman, Louis P.

• ISBN13: 9780534570422
• ISBN10: 0534570429
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-02-09
• Publisher: Cengage Learning

Summary

Preface. A Personal Word to the Student. Part I: AN INTRODUCTION. 1. What Is Philosophy? 2. A Little Bit of Logic. Part II: THE BEGINNING OF PHILOSOPHY: THE ANCIENT GREEKS: THE SOPHISTS, SOCRATES, PLATO AND ARISTOTLE. 3. The Rise of the Sophists. 4. A Portrait of a Philosopher: Socrates. 5. The Philosophy of Plato: Knowledge and Reality. 6. Aristotle. Part III: PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION. An Introduction. Arguments for the Existence of God. 7. The Cosmological Argument for the Existence of God. 8. The Teleological Argument for the Existence of God. 9. The Ontological Argument for the Existence of God. 10. The Argument from Religious Experience. 11. The Problem of Evil. 12. Faith and Reason. Part IV: THE THEORY OF KNOWLEDGE. 13. What Can We Know? An Introduction. 14. Skepticism. 15. Perception: Our Knowledge of the External World. 16. Kant's Copernican Revolution. 17. Schopenhauer's Transcendental Idealism. 18. Truth, Rationality, and Cognitive Relativism. Part V: METAPHYSICS: PHILOSOPHY OF MIND. 19. What Am I? A Mind or a Body? 20. Materialist Monism. 21. Functionalism. 22. Who Am I? The Problem of Personal Identity. 23. Is There Life After Death? Personal Identity and Immortality. Part VI: FREEDOM OF THE WILL AND DETERMINISM. 24. Determinism. 25. Libertarianism. 26. Compatibilism: How to Have Your Cake and Eat It Too. Part VII: ETHICS. 27. What Is Ethics? 28. Ethical Relativism: Who's to Judge What Is Right or Wrong? 29. Egoism: Why Should I Be Moral? 30. Utilitarianism. 31. Kantian Deontological Ethics. 32. Religion and Ethics. Part VIII: EXISTENTIALISM AND THE MEANING OF LIFE. 33. What Is Existentialism? 34. Freedom: The Core of Our Being. Appendix: How to Read and Write a Philosophy Paper. Glossary. Index.

Table of Contents

Preface	xvii
A Personal Word to the Student	xix
PART I AN INTRODUCTION	1	(28)
What Is Philosophy?	3	(12)
Perennial and Perplexing Questions	3	(2)
The Love of Wisdom	5	(3)
Major Subject Areas	8	(1)
The Rapier of Reason	8	(2)
Ten Rules of Philosophy	10	(1)
Summary	11	(4)
A Little Bit of Logic	15	(14)
Deductive and Inductive Reasoning	15	(5)
Abductive Reasoning	20	(2)
Arthur Conan Doyle: The Red-Headed League	20	(2)
Some Applications	22	(4)
Summary	26	(3)
PART II THE BEGINNING OF PHILOSOPHY: THE ANCIENT GREEKS---THE SOPHISTS, SOCRATES, PLATO, AND ARISTOTLE	29	(74)
The Rise of the Sophists	31	(7)
Sophistry: A New Profession	31	(1)
General Features of the Sophists	32	(4)
Summary	36	(2)
A Portrait of a Philosopher: Socrates	38	(14)
Life and Influence	38	(1)
The Trial	39	(8)
Plato: The Dialogues	40	(7)
Socrates' Moral Philosophy: Virtue Is Knowledge	47	(3)
Summary	50	(2)
The Philosophy of Plato: Knowledge and Reality	52	(31)
The Theory of Forms	52	(3)
Plato: Phaedo	53	(2)
Innate Ideas and the Theory of Recollection	55	(8)
Plato: Meno	55	(8)
The Ascent to Knowledge	63	(14)
Plato: The Ascent to Knowledge	63	(9)
Plato: The Allegory of the Cave	72	(5)
Critique of the Forms	77	(3)
Plato: Parmenides	78	(2)
Summary	80	(3)
The Philosophy of Aristotle: Philosophical Realism	83	(20)
Plato and Aristotle	84	(2)
Aristotle's Metaphysics	86	(2)
Ethics as a Branch of Politics	88	(3)
The Functionalist Account of Human Nature	91	(2)
What Is the Good Life?	93	(4)
The Ideal Type of Human	97	(2)
Summary	99	(4)
PART III PHILOSOPHY OF RELEGION: AN INTRODUCTION	103	(76)
Arguments for the Existence of God	105	(2)
The Cosmological Argument for the Existence of God	107	(11)
The First Cause Argument	107	(2)
The Argument from Contingency	109	(6)
Samuel Clarke: A Demonstration of the Being and Attributes of God	109	(2)
Richard Taylor: Metaphysics	111	(4)
Summary	115	(3)
The Teleological Argument for the Existence of God	118	(9)
A Designer	118	(2)
William Paley: Natural Theology	119	(1)
Hume's Critique	120	(4)
David Hume: Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion	120	(4)
The Darwinian Objection	124	(2)
Richard Swinburne: The Existence of God	124	(2)
Summary	126	(1)
The Ontological Argument for the Existence of God	127	(8)
Anselm's Argument	128	(1)
St. Anselm: Proslogium	128	(1)
Criticism of Anselm's Argument	129	(2)
Immanuel Kant: Critique of Pure Reason	129	(2)
The Second Version of Anselm's Argument	131	(2)
Summary	133	(2)
The Argument from Religious Experience	135	(16)
Encounters with God	136	(1)
An Analysis of Religious Experience	137	(11)
Sigmund Freud: The Future of an Illusion	138	(1)
William James: The Varieties of Religious Experience	139	(2)
C. D. Broad: The Argument from Religious Experience	141	(7)
Summary	148	(3)
The Problem of Evil	151	(15)
The Mystery of Evil	151	(4)
Fyodor Dostoyevsky: The Brothers Karamazov	152	(3)
The Argument from Evil	155	(1)
The Free-Will Defense	156	(1)
Evil and the God of Love	157	(5)
John Hick: Evil and the God of Love	157	(5)
Evolutionary Theory and Evil	162	(1)
Summary	163	(3)
Faith and Reason	166	(13)
The Challenge to Faith: An Outline of the Central Issues	166	(1)
Pragmatic Justification of Religious Belief	167	(6)
Blaise Pascal: Thoughts	167	(1)
W. K. Clifford: The Ethics of Belief	168	(3)
William James: The Will to Believe	171	(2)
Fideism: Faith Without/Against Reason	173	(3)
Soren Kierkegaard: Concluding Unscientific Postscript	174	(2)
Summary	176	(3)
PART IV THE THEORY OF KNOWLEDGE	179	(112)
What Can We Know? An Introduction	181	(16)
Rene Descartes: Discourse on Method	181	(1)
Rene Descartes: Meditations on First Philosophy	182	(4)
The Theory of Knowledge	186	(3)
Rationalism and Empiricism	189	(6)
Immanuel Kant: Critique of Pure Reason	191	(4)
Summary	195	(2)
Skepticism	197	(20)
The Meaning of Skepticism	197	(3)
Hume's Empirical Skepticism	200	(8)
David Hume: A Treatise of Human Nature	201	(1)
David Hume: Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding	202	(6)
Do We Have Knowledge of the External World?	208	(1)
Arguments Against Skepticism: Moore's and Malcolm's Defense of Common Sense	209	(5)
G. E. Moore: Proof of the External World	209	(2)
Norman Malcolm: Knowledge and Certainty	211	(3)
Summary	214	(3)
Perception: Our Knowledge of the External World	217	(20)
Arthur Eddington: The Nature of the Physical World	218	(3)
John Locke: An Essay Concerning Human Understanding	221	(5)
George Berkeley: A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge	226	(4)
George Berkeley: Three Dialogues Between Hylas and Philonous	230	(5)
Summary	235	(2)
Truth, Rationality, and Cognitive Relativism	237	(18)
The Kantian Epistemic Revolution	237	(2)
Immanuel Kant: The Critique of Pure Reason	238	(1)
Preamble on the Peculiarities of All Metaphysical Knowledge	239	(8)
Immanuel Kant: Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysic	239	(8)
Kant's Transcendental Apperception	247	(3)
Freedom of the Will	250	(1)
On God and Immortality	251	(1)
Summary	252	(3)
Arthur Schopenhauer and Transcendental Idealism	255	(15)
The World as Representation	256	(3)
Arthur Schopenhauer: The World as Will and Representation	257	(2)
The Will to Live	259	(5)
Salvation from the Sufferings of Existence	264	(3)
Summary	267	(3)
Truth, Rationality, and Cognitive Relativism	270	(21)
The Correspondence Theory of Truth	271	(6)
Bertrand Russell: The Problems of Philosophy	272	(5)
The Pragmatic Theory of Truth	277	(10)
William James: Pragmatism: A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking	278	(1)
Richard Rorty: Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature	279	(2)
Richard Rorty: Science and Solidarity	281	(6)
Summary	287	(4)
PART V METAPHYSICS: PHILOSOPHY OF MIND	291	(72)
What Am I? A Mind or a Body?	293	(16)
Rene Descartes: Meditations on First Philosophy	297	(10)
Summary	307	(2)
Materialist Monism	309	(11)
J. J. C. Smart: Sensations and Brain Processes	311	(2)
Jeffrey Olen: Persons and Their Worlds	313	(1)
Richard Rorty: Mind-Body Identity, Privacy, and Categories	314	(4)
Summary	318	(2)
Functionalism	320	(11)
John Searle: Minds, Brains and Programs	323	(5)
Summary	328	(3)
Who Am I? The Problem of Personal Identity	331	(19)
What Is It to Be a Person?	332	(6)
John Locke: An Essay Concerning Human Understanding	332	(4)
David Hume: A Treatise of Human Nature	336	(2)
What Is Identity?	338	(2)
What Is Personal Identity?	340	(8)
Godfrey Vesey: Brain Transplants and Personal Identity	341	(7)
Summary	348	(2)
Is There Life After Death? Personal Identity and Immortality	350	(13)
Is There Life After Death?	350	(1)
Plato's Theory of Immortality	351	(2)
Plato: Phaedo	352	(1)
The Christian View of a New and Glorified Body	353	(4)
St. Paul: The First Epistle to the Corinthians	353	(4)
Indirect Evidence for Life After Life?	357	(1)
Raymond Moody: Life After Life	357	(1)
The Possibility of Reincarnation	358	(2)
Bhagavad Gita: A Dialogue Between Lord Krishna and Arjuna	358	(2)
Summary	360	(3)
PART VI FREEDOM OF THE WILL AND DETERMINISM	363	(36)
Determinism	365	(7)
Physical Determinism	365	(5)
Baron Henri d'Holbach: The System of Nature	365	(5)
Clarence Darrow: Attorney for the Damned	370	(1)
Teleological Determinism	370	(1)
Summary	371	(1)
Libertarianism	372	(11)
The Argument from Deliberation	372	(8)
Richard Taylor: Metaphysics	375	(5)
The Argument from Moral Responsibility	380	(1)
Summary	381	(2)
Compatibilism: How to Have Your Cake and Eat It Too	383	(16)
A Reconciling Project	383	(6)
Walter Stace: Religion and the Modern Mind	384	(5)
A Critique of Compatibilism: A ``Quagmire of Evasion''?	389	(6)
Lois Hope Walker: A Libertarian Defense of Moral Responsibility	390	(5)
The Compatibilist Response	395	(1)
Summary	396	(3)
PART VII ETHICS	399	(116)
What Is Ethics?	401	(19)
Moral Choice: A Case Study	401	(1)
Plato: Crito	402	(4)
What Is Morality?	406	(1)
Morality as Compared with Other Normative Subjects	407	(3)
Domains of Ethical Assessment	410	(2)
Why Do We Need Morality?	412	(2)
The Purposes of Morality	414	(2)
Summary	416	(4)
Ethical Relativism: Who's to Judge What Is Right or Wrong?	420	(18)
The Case for Ethical Relativism	420	(7)
Herodotus: Custom Is King	421	(1)
Ruth Benedict: Anthropology and the Abnormal	421	(6)
A Critique of Ethical Relativism	427	(5)
Louis Pojman: A Critique of Ethical Relativism	428	(4)
The Case for Ethical Objectivism	432	(3)
The Attraction of Ethical Relativism	435	(1)
Summary	436	(2)
Egoism: Why Should I Be Moral?	438	(15)
Why Should People Be Moral? Why Should I Be Moral?	438	(5)
Plato: The Republic	440	(3)
The Paradox of Morality and Self-Interest	443	(5)
Gregory Kavka: A Reconciliation Project	446	(2)
Summary	448	(5)
Utilitarianism	453	(23)
What Is Utilitarianism?	455	(9)
Jeremy Bentham: An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation	456	(5)
John Stuart Mill: Utilitarianism	461	(3)
Contemporary Utilitarianism	464	(2)
Strengths and Weaknesses of Utilitarianism	466	(3)
Utilitarian Responses to Standard Objections	469	(2)
Summary	471	(5)
Kantian Deontological Ethics	476	(21)
Kant's Rationalist Deontological System	477	(4)
Immanuel Kant: The Foundations of the Metaphysics of Morals	479	(2)
Duty and the Moral Law	481	(11)
Kant's Second Formulation of the Categorical Imperative	492	(2)
Summary	494	(3)
Religion and Ethics	497	(18)
Does Morality Depend on Religion?	498	(4)
Plato: Euthyphro	498	(4)
Is Religion Irrelevant or Even Inimical to Morality?	502	(8)
Bertrand Russell: A Free Man's Worship	503	(4)
George Mavrodes: Religion and the Queerness of Morality	507	(3)
Does Religion Enhance the Moral Life?	510	(2)
Summary	512	(3)
PART VIII EXISTENTIALISM AND THE MEANING OF LIFE	515	(37)
What Is Existentialism?	517	(17)
Soren Kierkegaard: Private Papers	517	(4)
The Three Theses of Existentialism	521	(11)
Jean-Paul Sartre: Existentialism and Human Emotions	521	(2)
Soren Kierkegaard: Concluding Unscientific Postscript	523	(4)
Albert Camus: The Myth of Sisyphus	527	(5)
Summary	532	(2)
Freedom: The Core of Our Being	534	(18)
Freedom and the Death of God in Modern Existentialism	534	(6)
Friedrich Nietzsche: The Madman and the Death of God	534	(3)
Friedrich Nietzsche: Beyond Good and Evil	537	(1)
Friedrich Nietzsche: The Will to Power	538	(2)
The Idea of Freedom in Sartre's Work	540	(7)
Jean-Paul Sartre: Existentialism and Human Emotions	542	(5)
Assessment	547	(2)
Summary	549	(3)
Appendix: How to Read and Write a Philosophy Paper	552	(3)
Glossary	555	(9)
Index	564