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You think, therefore you are. Get a straightforward rundown on philosophy from the ancient world to today
If you’ve ever pondered your existence over your morning coffee or considered the nature of crime and punishment, you’re an amateur philosopher. From everyday questions about happiness and responsibility to deep, spiritual examinations about God and the cosmos, philosophy pervades every part of our lives. And even though it might seem complex at first glance, these questions that affect everyone on the planet can be understood and talked about by anyone!
In Philosophy For Dummies, Dr. Tom Morris delivers a refreshing and engaging exploration of the fundamentals of philosophy and shows you that philosophy can be fascinating and fun at the same time. You’ll be introduced to topics like the meaning of life, religious belief, and ways to live in the most satisfying ways. You’ll also learn about the insights of some of history’s greatest philosophers.
This book is full of the questions—and proposed solutions—to the questions that keep philosophers up at night, like:
Whether you’re interested in the nature of the mind/soul versus the body, or you want to learn more about morals and ethics, Philosophy For Dummies will be your personal guide to some of life’s most enduring problems and questions.
Tom Morris holds a PhD degree in Philosophy and Religious Studies from Yale University, and is a former Professor of Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame. He is also the founder of the Morris Institute for Human Values and author of over 30 books, including The Stoic Art of Living: Inner Resilience and Outer Results.
Introduction 1
About This Book 1
Foolish Assumptions 2
Icons Used in This Book 3
Beyond the Book 3
Where to Go from Here 3
Part 1: What is Philosophy, Anyway? 5
Chapter 1: Great Thinkers, Deep Thoughts 7
Listening to the critics 8
Consulting Socrates on What Counts 11
Asking The Deeper Questions 14
Chapter 2: Philosophy as an Activity 17
Adventuring for the Mind 17
Mapping Our Way Forward 18
Understanding the Power of Belief 19
The image of Plato’s Cave 21
The philosophical Houdini 21
Chapter 3: The Love of Wisdom 25
Identifying Some Skills of Philosophy 26
Mastering analysis 26
Improving assessment 28
Using argument 29
Seeing How Wisdom Rules 33
Embarking on the Socratic Quest for Wisdom 36
Part 2: How Do We Know Anything? 39
Chapter 4: Belief, Truth, and Knowledge 41
Understanding Belief 42
The Importance of Belief 44
The Ideal of Knowledge 45
The truth about truth 48
The complete definition of knowledge 50
Truth and rationality 51
Chapter 5: The Challenge of Skepticism 57
Introducing the Ancient Art of Doubt 58
Asking Questions We Can’t Answer 60
The questions of source skepticism 61
The questions of radical skepticism 66
What the skeptics show us 70
When it’s good to doubt your doubts 70
Where Do You Go from Here? 71
Chapter 6: The Amazing Reality of Basic Beliefs 73
The Foundations of Knowledge 74
Empiricism and rationalism 74
What’s lurking at the foundations 76
Evidentialism 76
The Principle of Belief Conservation 79
Belief conservation and radical skepticism 81
Belief conservation and source skepticism 82
The basic status of belief conservation 82
Evidentialism refuted and revised 83
William James on Precursive Faith 85
Leaps of Faith 87
Part 3: What is the Good? 89
Chapter 7: What’s Good? 91
Looking at Ethics and Morality 92
Defining the Good 93
Evaluating Three Views on Evaluation 94
The philosophy of noncognitivism: The boo/yay theory 95
Ethical subjectivism 97
Moral objectivism 99
Taking Teleological Target Practice 102
Chapter 8: Happiness, Excellence, and the Good Life 105
Memo to the Modern World 106
Exploring The Idea of Good 106
Divine command theory 107
Social contract theory 107
Utilitarianism 109
Deontological theory 109
Sociobiological theory 110
Virtue theory 111
Four Dimensions of Human Experience 112
The intellectual dimension 114
The aesthetic dimension 117
The moral dimension 119
The spiritual dimension 120
The ultimate context of good 123
Chapter 9: Ethical Rules and Moral Character 125
Weighing Rules and Virtues 126
The Golden Rule and what it means 128
The precise role of the Golden Rule 129
Character, wisdom, and virtue 131
Teaching the Path of Goodness 135
Who am I? — A test of character 136
What should I do? — A test of action 136
The answer to the question 137
Part 4: Are We Ever Really Free? 139
Chapter 10: Fate, Destiny, and You 141
Appreciating Free Will 142
Revealing the Theological Challenge 143
Considering the Logical Challenge 147
Determining the Scientific Challenge 149
Chapter 11: Standard Views of Freedom 153
Pondering God, Logic, and Free Will 154
The theological challenge answered 154
The Logical Challenge answered 156
Taking on The Scientific Challenge 156
Scientific determinists 157
Metaphysical libertarians 158
Compatibilism 159
Which approach is the right one? 162
Chapter 12: Doing: Human Agency in the World 163
Gaining Wisdom on Freedom 164
Being an Agent and Getting Your Due 166
Part 5: The Incredible, Invisible You 169
Chapter 13: What Is a Person? 171
Learning about Guitars and Ghosts 171
Glimpses of the Mind 172
Views of the Person 174
Monism 174
Dualism 175
The Contenders 178
Interactionism 179
Epiphenomenalism 179
Parallelism 180
Narrowing the Options 181
Chapter 14: The Case for Materialism 183
Analyzing The Positive Arguments 184
The man-is-an-animal argument 184
The artificial intelligence argument 185
The brain chemistry argument 186
Considering The Negative Arguments 187
The superfluity argument 187
The mystery objection 189
The problem of other minds 191
Arriving at a Verdict on the Materialist Case 192
Chapter 15: The Case for Dualism 193
Examining Dualism 194
Being a Soul, Man 195
The introspection argument 195
The discernibility argument 196
The Cartesian argument 198
The Platonic argument 199
The parapsychology argument 200
Needing More Evidence 201
Part 6: What’s The Deal With Death? 203
Chapter 16: From Dust to Dust: Fear and the Void 205
Exiting Life and the Four Fears 206
Fear of the process of dying 208
Fear of punishment 209
Fear of the unknown 210
Fear of annihilation 211
Chapter 17: Philosophical Consolations on Death 213
Calming Us, Philosophically 214
The stoic response to fear of the process 214
The Natural Process Argument 215
The Necessity Argument 215
The Agnostic Argument 217
The Two Eternities Argument 217
Epicurus’ argument 218
Considering Materialist Consolations 220
Social immortality 220
Cultural immortality 221
Cosmic immortality 221
Scientific immortality 222
Chapter 18: Is There Life after Death? 225
Considering Doubts and Denials 226
The psychological origin argument 226
The silence argument 228
The trumpet analogy argument 229
The brain damage argument 231
Identifying Arguments for Survival 233
Plato’s indestructibility argument 233
The nature analogy argument 234
The argument from desire 236
Moral arguments 237
Seeing Light at the End of the Tunnel 239
Claims of former lives 239
Apparent contact with the dead 240
Near-death experiences 241
Part 7: Is There a God? 245
Chapter 19: Two Worldviews 247
Finding a Lost Beach Ball 247
The Great Divide 250
The mainline theistic worldview 253
The naturalistic worldview 253
How the two worldviews compare 254
The Great Debate 255
Chapter 20: Theistic Visions 257
Reasoning to God’s Existence 258
The Ontological Argument 258
Cosmology and God 260
Living in a Designer Universe 268
Having Experience Beyond Argument 273
Chapter 21: The Problem of Evil 277
Expecting Things of a God 277
Understanding the Problem 279
The main argument against theism 279
The alleged incompatibility of God and evil 280
Moral justification for allowing evil 281
Moral justification and the atheist’s argument 282
The theist’s claim 284
Considering The Great Theodicies 285
The punishment theodicy 285
The free will theodicy 287
The soul-making theodicy 289
A fourth and combination theodicy 292
Exploring the Element of Mystery 292
Part 8: The Meaning of Life 295
Chapter 22: What Is the Meaning of Life? 297
Asking Critical Questions 298
Pondering Meaning and This World 301
Nihilism: The ultimate negativity 302
The Do-It-Yourself Approach to the meaning of life 303
Pairing Meaning and God 306
Chapter 23: Pascal’s Wager: Betting Your Life 309
Introducing Pascal: Philosopher-Genius 310
Wagering like Pascal 311
Criticizing the Wager 315
The immorality objection 315
The probability assignment objection 317
The many claimants objection 318
The single case objection 320
Choosing a Worldview Right for You 320
Chapter 24: Success and Happiness in Life 323
Finding Enough in The Race for More 324
Aiming for True Success 327
Mastering the Conditions of Success 329
A clear conception of what we want, a vivid vision, a goal clearly imagined 331
A strong confidence that we can attain the goal 331
A focused concentration on what it takes to reach the goal 332
A stubborn consistency in pursuing our vision 333
An emotional commitment to the importance of what we’re doing 334
A good character to guide us and keep us on a proper course 334
A capacity to enjoy the process along the way 335
Concluding with a Note on Happiness 336
Part 9: The Part of Tens 339
Chapter 25: Ten Great Philosophers 341
Socrates 341
Plato 342
Aristotle 343
Saint Thomas Aquinas 344
William of Ockham 345
René Descartes 346
Immanuel Kant 346
G.W.F Hegel 348
Soren Kierkegaard 349
Bertrand Russell 350
Chapter 26: Ten Great Questions 353
Is Philosophy Practical? 353
Can We Ever Really Know Anything? 354
Is There Ultimately an Objectivity to Ethics? 355
Who Am I? 355
Is Happiness Really Possible in Our World? 356
Is There, After All, a God? 357
What Is the Good Life? 359
Why Is So Much Suffering in the World? 360
Does a Tree Falling Solo Make a Sound? 360
What’s Stronger: Reason or its Opposite? 362
Index 365
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