Philosophy An Introduction to the Art of Wondering

by Christian, James L.

• ISBN13: 9780534512507
• ISBN10: 053451250X
• Edition: 9th
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-05-11
• Publisher: Wadsworth Publishing

Summary

Whether it's cartoons, quotations, or interesting anecdotes from related fields, you've never seen a more interesting philosophy textbook than this one. PHILOSOPHY: AN INTRODUCTION TO THE ART OF WONDERING explains the central concepts of philosophy in ways you can understand by showing how it's all connected. And best of all, this philosophy textbook helps you develop the analytical skills you need to critically engage the "big picture" of Western philosophy for yourself.

Table of Contents

Prelude	v
Credit, Blame, and Acknowledgments	vii
What Do You Mean, Philosophy??	xix
Part One The Fine Art of Wondering	1	(74)
The World-Riddle	3	(19)
Just in Case...	3	(1)
The Human Condition	4	(3)
The Search for Meaning	7	(3)
Why-Questions	10	(1)
The World-Riddle	11	(9)
Marcus Aurelius: Philosopher-King	16	(4)
Reflections	20	(2)
The Spirit of Inquiry	22	(13)
The Love of Wisdom	22	(1)
The Greek Miracle	23	(1)
Freedom to Wonder and to Ask Questions	24	(1)
A Western Dilemma	25	(1)
Belief, Doubt, Critical Thinking, and Faith	26	(8)
Socrates: The Wisest Man Alive	30	(4)
Reflections	34	(1)
Critical Analysis	35	(21)
The Philosophic Mind	36	(1)
Critical Skills	37	(6)
Brief Skirmishes/Examples of Critical Thinking	43	(6)
A Special Kind of Listening	49	(5)
Plato: The First Educator	51	(3)
Reflections	54	(2)
Synoptic Synthesis	56	(19)
And He Wants to Understand It	56	(1)
Life on a Picture-Puzzle	57	(1)
The Annihilation of Boundaries	58	(2)
How to Do Synoptic Philosophy	60	(3)
The Synoptic Venture: Risks and Rewards	63	(3)
``I Can Float Over the Orchard as in a Balloon''	66	(6)
Aristotle: The First Scientific Worldview	68	(4)
Reflections	72	(3)
Part Two The Condition and the Odyssey	75	(80)
Predicament	77	(14)
The Coherent Worldview	77	(1)
The Egocentric Predicament	78	(3)
Aristocentric Claims	81	(2)
Egocentric Illusions in Time and Space	83	(6)
Albert Camus: Man and the Absurd	87	(2)
Reflections	89	(2)
Self	91	(18)
How Much of Me Is Me?	91	(2)
A Sense of Self	93	(1)
A Sense of Worth	94	(3)
The Autonomous Self	97	(10)
Ayn Rand: The Productive Life	102	(5)
Reflections	107	(2)
Growth	109	(20)
When Things Go Wrong	109	(3)
The Masks We Wear	112	(2)
I Will Not Stop Till I Know	114	(1)
Growth and Insecurity	115	(1)
The Answer-Givers	116	(2)
Crisis of Authority	118	(2)
Developing Self-Awareness	120	(1)
The Law of Pathei Mathos	121	(7)
Sigmund Freud: Our Humanity Is Blocked by Our Pain	124	(4)
Reflections	128	(1)
Lifetime	129	(26)
All the World's a Stage...	129	(1)
Mapping a Lifetime	130	(1)
The Ground Plan	131	(1)
Infancy to Childhood	131	(3)
The Adolescent Years	134	(2)
The Maturing Years	136	(10)
The Shriek of Ivan Ilytch	146	(7)
Voltaire: The Laughing Philosopher	149	(4)
Reflections	153	(2)
Part Three The Real World: Knowing and Unknowing	155	(58)
Knowledge	157	(12)
Epistemic Awareness	157	(1)
The Senses: Empirical Knowledge	158	(2)
Knowledge from Others	160	(1)
Reason: Using Known Facts	161	(1)
Intuition: Knowledge from the Depths	162	(5)
John Locke: Reality and Appearance	164	(3)
Reflections	167	(2)
Senses	169	(17)
We Never See the Real World	169	(2)
The Mind Manufactures Experience	171	(2)
Our Senses Deceive	173	(2)
Sensory Limitations and Reality	175	(2)
Epistemic Loneliness	177	(1)
The Pragmatic Nature of Knowing	177	(7)
George Berkeley: The Irish Immaterialist	180	(4)
Reflections	184	(2)
Mind	186	(14)
The Pragmatic Thinker	186	(1)
Why We Think in Abstractions	186	(2)
Classifying and Labeling	188	(4)
Our Mental Grids	192	(7)
Henri Bergson: What It Means to Be a Hummingbird	195	(4)
Reflections	199	(1)
Truth	200	(13)
Truth-Tests	200	(1)
The Correspondence Test	200	(1)
The Coherence Test	201	(1)
The Pragmatic Test	202	(2)
The Pragmatic Paradox	204	(6)
William James: ``Truth Happens to an Idea''	207	(3)
Reflections	210	(3)
Part Four The Inner World: The Fantastic Journey	213	(68)
Psyche	215	(14)
The Exploration of Inner Space	215	(4)
Huxley's Deep Reflection	219	(1)
Mystical Unity	220	(1)
Zen Satori	221	(1)
Religious Ecstasy	221	(1)
The Fantastic Journey	222	(6)
The Buddha: One Who Awakened	224	(4)
Reflections	228	(1)
Time	229	(21)
A Philosophy of Time	229	(1)
Clock Time	230	(1)
Psychological Time	230	(2)
Real Time	232	(1)
Saint Augustine: God's Time and Ours	233	(1)
Newton: Absolute Time	233	(1)
Time Past	234	(1)
Time Future	234	(2)
Time Present	236	(2)
Time and Personal Existence	238	(11)
Immanuel Kant: The Starry Heavens and the Moral Law	243	(6)
Reflections	249	(1)
Freedom	250	(14)
The Feeling of Freedom	250	(1)
The Dilemma of Determinism	251	(1)
The Case for Determinism	252	(3)
The Case for Freedom of Choice	255	(7)
Jean-Paul Sartre: Apostle of Freedom	259	(3)
Reflections	262	(2)
Symbols	264	(17)
The Functions of Language	264	(1)
The Many Roles of Language	265	(2)
Communications Analysis	267	(4)
Definitions and Contexts	271	(8)
Ludwig Wittgenstein: Dissolving the Riddles of Life	273	(6)
Reflections	279	(2)
Part Five Delicate Coexistence: The Human Love/Hate Condition	281	(86)
History	283	(27)
Theater of the Absurd	283	(2)
The Meaning of History	285	(7)
Toynbee's Organismic Interpretation of History	292	(3)
The Plight of Western Civilization	295	(2)
The Roots of Violence	297	(3)
Can We Learn from History?	300	(8)
G. W. F. Hegel: ``Reason Is the Substance of the Universe''	304	(4)
Reflections	308	(2)
Laws/Conscience	310	(15)
Conflicting Loyalties	310	(2)
Good Laws and Bad Laws	312	(1)
Loyalty to Higher Authority	313	(2)
Obedience to the Rule of Law	315	(1)
The Personal Dilemma	316	(8)
Henry David Thoreau: ``I Will Breathe After My Own Fashion''	320	(4)
Reflections	324	(1)
Lifestyles	325	(16)
The Bonds of Culture	325	(1)
Prisoners	326	(2)
Alternatives to Remaining Prisoners	328	(1)
Cultural Relativity	329	(1)
Personal Alienation	330	(5)
``I Learned This, at Least...''	335	(4)
Diogenes the Cynic: The Hound-Dog Philosopher	336	(3)
Reflections	339	(2)
Ethics	341	(26)
Sin and/or Virtue	341	(1)
Debatable and Nondebatable Value Judgments	341	(3)
The Morality of Ethics/The Ethics of Morality	344	(3)
Three Ethical Questions	347	(1)
Who Really Makes Decisions?	348	(1)
What Makes a Decision Right or Wrong?	349	(4)
Whom (and What) Should I Care About?	353	(11)
The Dalai Lama: Courage and Compassion in the Modern World	360	(4)
Reflections	364	(3)
Part Six The Protoplasmic Venture	367	(88)
Life	369	(21)
Four Great Etiological Questions	369	(1)
Biochemical Evolution	370	(3)
The Beginning of Life on Earth	373	(1)
Earth's Life-Forms: An Inventory	374	(1)
Biogenetic Theories	374	(1)
Can ``Life'' Be Defined?	375	(1)
Evolution as a Field Theory	376	(2)
Philosophic Implications	378	(1)
Philosophic Problems	379	(10)
Charles Darwin: The Grandest Synthesis	385	(4)
Reflections	389	(1)
Humans	390	(19)
The Sculptor-Gods	390	(2)
The Story of Human Origins	392	(5)
Still Trying to Define ``Human''	397	(3)
The Killer-Ape Theory	400	(2)
The Immense Journey	402	(5)
Søren Kierkegaard: ``That Individual''	404	(3)
Reflections	407	(2)
Earth	409	(19)
Our Place in the Scheme of Things	409	(2)
An Ecospheric Ethic	411	(6)
Coexistence---In Life and Death	417	(5)
``No Man Is an Iland''	422	(5)
Albert Schweitzer: Reverence for Life	423	(4)
Reflections	427	(1)
Future	428	(27)
The Theoretical Life	428	(1)
Research into the Future	429	(3)
The Futurists and the Future	432	(3)
A New Kind of Realism	435	(5)
A Special Kind of Hope	440	(4)
Many Futures: A Common Vision	444	(9)
Friedrich Nietzsche: The Glory of Becoming Human	446	(7)
Reflections	453	(2)
Part Seven Microcosm/Macrocosm/Cosmos	455	(74)
Knowledge of Nature	457	(17)
May 28, 585 BC	457	(1)
Empirical Knowledge	457	(2)
A Priori Knowledge	459	(1)
Other Ways of Knowing?	460	(1)
Realities beyond Appearances	461	(1)
This World---What Is It?	462	(3)
The Dematerialization of Matter	465	(1)
What Is the Origin of Matter?	466	(6)
Pythagoras: The Universe Is Made of Numbers	468	(4)
Reflections	472	(2)
Space/Time/Motion	474	(21)
What Physics Is and Isn't	474	(3)
Classical Physics	477	(1)
Relativity Physics	478	(7)
Quantum Mechanics	485	(8)
Albert Einstein: The Second Scientific Revolution	489	(4)
Reflections	493	(2)
Cosmos	495	(20)
Ancient Cosmologies	495	(2)
Today's Universe	497	(1)
The Expanding Universe	498	(4)
The Story of the Universe	502	(4)
There Are Still Mysteries	506	(1)
What Does It All Mean (If Anything)?	507	(7)
Galileo Galilei: ``The Noblest Eye Is Darkened''	510	(4)
Reflections	514	(1)
Biocosmos	515	(14)
We Are Not Alone	515	(2)
A Cosmic Context for Mankind	517	(1)
Our Expanding Consciousness	518	(1)
Consequences	519	(2)
The Human Preserve	521	(6)
Carl Sagan: The Encyclopaedia Galactica	524	(3)
Reflections	527	(2)
Part Eight Of Ultimate Concern	529	(80)
Of Ultimate Concern	531	(25)
Greek Tragedy	531	(1)
Transformation	532	(6)
The Role of Myth	538	(3)
The Anthropomorphic Spirits	541	(1)
Spirit Possession	542	(1)
Teleocosmic Dramas	543	(1)
Apocalyptic Dramas	543	(3)
The Eschaton---End of Drama	546	(1)
All Religion Is One	547	(7)
Joseph Campbell: The Hero with a Thousand Faces	550	(4)
Reflections	554	(2)
Ultimate Reality	556	(15)
Ultimate Questions	556	(1)
The Problem of Divine Knowledge	557	(3)
Arguments for the Existence of God	560	(2)
The Death(s) of God(s)	562	(8)
Thomas Merton: The Other Side of Kanchenjunga	566	(4)
Reflections	570	(1)
Death/Immortality	571	(22)
All Graves Are Wrong	571	(2)
Death Is a Nonexperience	573	(2)
Fear of Nonbeing	575	(4)
The Denial of Death	579	(1)
Arguments for Immortality	580	(2)
Arguments Against Immortality	582	(1)
The Future of Death	583	(7)
Omar Khayyam: ``One Thing at Least Is Certain---This Life Flies''	586	(4)
The Last Rite of Passage	590	(1)
Reflections	591	(2)
Meaning/Existence	593	(16)
The Knowledge That Hurts Most	593	(1)
What Did I Want?	594	(1)
Existence and the Real: Persistent Confusion	595	(2)
Trivialities	597	(1)
Work, Work ... to Kill the Flowers	598	(3)
The World-Riddle	601	(7)
Nikos Kazantzakis: ``I Know Not If I Shall Ever Anchor''	603	(5)
Reflections	608	(1)
Postlude	609	(2)
Glossary	611	(7)
Credits	618	(5)
Index to Marginal Quotations	623	(3)
Name/Subject Index	626