Questions That Matter: An Invitation to Philosophy, Brief Version

by Miller, Ed.; Jensen, Jon

• ISBN13: 9780072975017
• ISBN10: 0072975016
• Edition: 3rd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-08-08
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill Education

Summary

This accessible text-reader includes extensive student pedagogy--running summaries, high-interest boxes, biographies, epigrams, a philosophical dictionary, and a timeline/map. The new edition offers a new chapter on virtue ethics, new cases and questions from environmental and biomedical ethics, a new chapter on communitarian and feminist critiques of contemporary liberalism, and more!

Table of Contents

PREFACE	vii
ABOUT THE AUTHORS	xv
INTRODUCTION: THE NATURE OF PHILOSOPHY	1	(36)
Chapter 1: What Is Philosophy?	3	(22)
The Word Itself	4	(1)
The Fields of Philosophy	4	(5)
A Rational, Critical Enterprise	9	(4)
Differing Conceptions	13	(7)
A Working Definition	20	(1)
Professor Miller's Four Principles	20	(2)
Chapter 1 in Review	22	(3)
Chapter 2: A Little Logic	25	(12)
The Three Laws of Thought	26	(2)
What Is an Argument?	28	(2)
Informal Fallacies	30	(3)
Chapter 2 in Review	33	(4)
PART ONE: THE QUESTION OF REALITY	37	(100)
Chapter 3: The Idea of Form	39	(38)
Plato and Socrates	39	(3)
The Two Worlds: Appearance and Reality	42	(5)
The Theory of Forms	47	(6)
Degrees of Reality and Knowledge	53	(4)
The Good, the Sun, and the Cave	57	(8)
Aristotle's Criticism of Plato	65	(2)
Aristotle's View of Form	67	(4)
After Plato and Aristotle	71	(2)
Chapter 3 in Review	73	(4)
Chapter 4: Mind and Matter	77	(28)
Descartes: The Father of Modern Philosophy	78	(1)
"What Can I Know for Certain?"	79	(1)
The Intuition of Mind	80	(5)
The Deduction of God	85	(4)
The Deduction of Matter	89	(4)
Some Objections	93	(1)
The Mind-Body Problem	93	(4)
Mind: A Set of Dispositions or Functions	97	(4)
Chapter 4 in Review	101	(4)
Chapter 5: Materialism	105	(32)
What Is Materialism?	106	(5)
Man a Machine	111	(4)
The New Materialism	115	(4)
Are the Mind and Body Identical?	119	(4)
Beyond Freedom and Dignity: Skinner	123	(7)
Are All Things Determined?	130	(2)
Chapter 5 in Review	132	(5)
PART TWO: THE QUESTION OF KNOWLEDGE	137	(78)
Chapter 6: The Way of Reason	139	(29)
Two Main Theories about the Basis of Knowledge	139	(1)
Reason as the Basis of Knowledge	140	(2)
The Rationalism of Plato	142	(9)
The Rationalism of Descartes	151	(8)
A Contemporary Version: Chomsky	159	(5)
Chapter 6 in Review	164	(4)
Chapter 7: The Way of Experience	168	(30)
What Is Empiricism?	168	(1)
Classical Empiricism: Aristotle and St. Thomas	169	(4)
Modern Empiricism: Locke	173	(11)
Radical Empiricism: Hume	184	(10)
Chapter 7 in Review	194	(4)
Chapter 8: The Problem of Certainty	198	(17)
Kant and Hume	199	(1)
Some Important Terminology	199	(2)
Is There Synthetic A Priori Knowledge?	201	(9)
The Limits of Reason	210	(2)
Chapter 8 in Review	212	(3)
PART THREE: THE QUESTION OF GOD	215	(120)
Chapter 9: God and the World	218	(38)
Natural Theology	219	(1)
The Cosmological Argument	220	(13)
The Teleological Argument	233	(10)
The Problem of Causality	243	(9)
Chapter 9 in Review	252	(4)
Chapter 10: Religious Experience	256	(40)
The Experience of the Numinous	257	(4)
The Mystical Ascent	261	(10)
Mysticisms East	271	(4)
The Way of Zen	275	(9)
Is Religious Experience Evidence for God?	284	(8)
Chapter 10 in Review	292	(4)
Chapter 11: God and Evil	296	(39)
What Is the Problem? 297 Some Solutions	301	(4)
Evil as a Privation of Goodness	305	(4)
The Free-Will Defense	309	(6)
Evil as Therapy	315	(6)
Evil Is Irrational	321	(8)
Chapter 11 in Review	329	(6)
PART FOUR: THE QUESTION OF MOØITY	335
Chapter 12: Challenges to Morality	337	(37)
The Challenge of Relativism	338	(4)
The Challenge of Determinism	342	(11)
The Challenge of Psychological Egoism	353	(4)
The Challenge of Existentialism	357	(12)
Chapter 12 in Review	369	(5)
Chapter 13: Utilitarianism	374	(27)
The Question of Consequences	374	(1)
What Is Utilitarianism?	375	(3)
Bentham's Version: Quantity over Quality	378	(3)
Mill's Version: Quality over Quantity	381	(11)
Some Objections	392	(6)
Chapter 13 in Review	398	(3)
Chapter 14: The Role of Duty	401	(22)
Morality as Unconditional	401	(6)
The Good Will	407	(3)
Kant's Categorical Imperative	410	(1)
The Test of Moral Actions	411	(4)
Some Objections	415	(5)
Chapter 14 in Review	420	(3)
Chapter 15: Virtue	423
Character and Action	424	(1)
Aristotle on Happiness and Virtue	424	(7)
The Virtues	431	(4)
Objections	435	(1)
Is There a Natural Law?	436	(5)
Chapter 15 in Review	441
Glossary	G-1
Acknowledgments	A-1
Index	I-1