Philosophy The Big Questions

by Sample, Ruth J.; Mills, Charles W.; Sterba, James P.

• ISBN13: 9781405108270
• ISBN10: 1405108274
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-02-13
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Summary

Philosophy: The Big Questions occupies a unique position among introductory texts in philosophy. Designed for a single-semester introductory course in philosophy, it includes both classic readings in philosophy and newer articles. The text is organized around central problems in philosophy and the diverse approaches that philosophers have taken toward those problems. Readers of this innovative and accessible volume will encounter canonical works in the history of philosophy, and at the same time see the relevance of philosophy to topics they have encountered in their everyday lives.

Author Biography

Ruth J. Sample is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of New Hampshire. She teaches social and political philosophy, early modern philosophy, and feminist philosophy, and is the author of Exploitation: What It Is and Why It’s Wrong (2003).

Charles W. Mills is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He works in the area of oppositional political theory and is the author of three books: The Racial Contract (1997), Blackness Visible: Essays on Philosophy and Race (1998), and From Class to Race: Essays in White Marxism and Black Radicalism (2003).

James P. Sterba is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame, Indiana, where he teaches ethics and political philosophy. His publications include How to Make People Just (1988), Feminist Philosophies (2nd edn., 1995), Justice for Here and Now (1998), Earth Ethics (2nd edn., 2000), Three Challenges to Ethics (2001),and Morality in Practice (7th edn., 2003).

Table of Contents

Preface	ix
Acknowledgments	xi
PART ONE WHAT CAN WE KNOW?	1	(100)
Introduction	3	(96)
1 From Meditations on First Philosophy	6	(28)
RENE DESCARTES
2 From An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding	34	(30)
DAVID HUME
3 Cartesian Skepticism and Inference to the Best Explanation	64	(7)
JONATHAN VOGEL
4 From Science as Social Knowledge	71	(7)
HELEN LONGING
5 The 'Maleness' of Reason	78	(5)
GENEVIEVE LLOYD
6 The Ethics of Belief	83	(4)
WILLIAM CLIFFORD
7 It Is Wrong, Everywhere, Always, and for Anyone, to Believe Anything upon Insufficient Evidence	87	(16)
PETER VAN INWAGEN
Epistemology: Suggestions for Further Reading	99	(2)
PART TWO WHAT CAN WE KNOW ABOUT THE NATURE AND EXISTENCE OF GOD?	101	(112)
Introduction	103	(8)
8 From Proslogium	106	(1)
ST. ANSELM
9 In Behalf of the Fool: An Answer to the Argument of Anselm in the Proslogium	107	(4)
GAUNILO
10 The Ontological Argument	111	(12)
WILLIAM L. ROWE
11 The Cosmological Argument	123	(10)
WILLIAM L. ROWE
12 From Dialogues concerning Natural Religion	133	(8)
DAVID HUME
13 The Argument from Design	141	(10)
R.G. SWINBURNE
14 The Wager	151	(3)
BLAISE PASCAL
15 The Recombinant DNA Debate: A Difficulty for Pascalian-Style Wagering	154	(1)
STEPHEN P. STICH
16 A Central Theistic Argument	155	(12)
GEORGE SCHLESINGER
17 Evil and Omnipotence	167	(9)
J.L. MACKIE
18 The Problem of Evil	176	(14)
ELEONORE STUMP
19 Male-Chauvinist Religion	190	(11)
DEBORAH MATHIEU
20 Divine Racism: A Philosophical and Theological Analysis	201	(11)
WILLIAM R. JONES
Religion: Suggestions for Further Reading	212	(1)
PART THREE ARE WE EVER FREE?	213	(64)
Introduction	215	(3)
21 From The System of Nature	218	(7)
PAUL HOLBACH
22 Freedom and Necessity	225	(6)
A.J. AYER
23 Human Freedom and the Self	231	(8)
RODERICK M. CHISHOLM
24 Alternate Possibilities and Moral Responsibility	239	(7)
HARRY G. FRANKFURT
25 How to Complete the Compatibilist Account of Free Action	246	(11)
JAMES P. STERBA AND JANET A. KOURANY
26 Living without Free Will: The Case for Hard Incompatibilism	257	(10)
DERK PEREBOOM
27 Metaethics, Metaphilosophy, and Free Will Subjectivism	267	(9)
RICHARD DOUBLE
Freedom and Determinism: Suggestions for Further Reading	276	(1)
PART FOUR DOES OUR EXISTENCE HAVE A MEANING OR PURPOSE?	277	(86)
Introduction	279	(1)
28 From My Confession	279	(9)
LEO TOLSTOY
29 The Absurdity of Life without God	288	(14)
WILLIAM LANE CRAIG
30 On the Vanity of Existence	302	(3)
ARTHUR SCHOPENHAUER
31 An Absurd Reasoning	305	(8)
ALBERT CAMUS
32 Existentialism Is a Humanism	313	(9)
JEAN-PAUL SARTRE
33 The Absurd	322	(8)
THOMAS NAGEL
34 What Makes Life Worth Living?	330	(7)
OWEN FLANAGAN
35 The Meaning of Life	337	(16)
JOHN KEKES
36 Tolstoi and the Meaning of Life	353	(8)
ANTHONY FLEW
The Meaning of Life: Suggestions for Further Reading	361	(2)
PART FIVE HOW SHOULD WE LIVE?	363	(156)
Introduction	365	(2)
37 Morality as Good in Itself	367	(7)
PLATO
38 The Problem of Rationality: Is Morality Rationally Required?	374	(9)
JAMES P. STERBA
39 From Utilitarianism	383	(16)
JOHN STUART MILL
40 Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysic of Morals	399	(15)
IMMANUEL KANT
41 From Two Treatises of Government	414	(7)
JOHN LOCKE
42 From A Theory of Justice	421	(24)
JOHN RAWLS
43 Distributive Justice	445	(10)
ROBERT NOZICK
44 Gender Inequality and Cultural Difference	455	(15)
SUSAN MOLLER OKIN
45 Race/Gender and the Ethics of Difference	470	(8)
JANE FLAX
46 A Response to Jane Flax	478	(4)
SUSAN MOLLER OKIN
47 Equality, Discrimination and Preferential Treatment	482	(8)
BERNARD R. BOXILL
48 All Animals Are Equal...	490	(15)
PETER SINGER
49 The Ethics of Respect for Nature	505	(14)
PAUL W. TAYLOR
Ethics: Suggestions for Further Reading	519	(1)
Index	520