Readings About the Ultimate Questions: Thinking About Philosophy (Penguin Academics Series)

by Rauhut, Nils Ch.; Smith, Renee J.

• ISBN13: 9780321195494
• ISBN10: 0321195493
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-01-01
• Publisher: Longman

Summary

Helps readers understand the issues and problems in philosophy by reading original materials that demonstrate that philosophy is not about remote questions, but rather issues that lie deep within ourselves. With a blend of classic and contemporary readings, this anthology covers the major topics in philosophy, includes readings by outstanding contemporary philosophers that are enjoyable to read, encourage philosophical thought, and show readers how contemporary philosophers approach philosophical problems, and presents historical readings that show the work of figures in the history of philosophy. For anyone interested in understanding philosophical issues and how they relate to our lives.

Table of Contents

Preface	ix
PART 1 What Is Philosophy?	1	(52)
What Is Enlightenment?
IMMANUEL KANT	3	(7)
Treatise on the Emendation of the Intellect
BARUCH SPINOZA	10	(3)
Philosophy, a Bus Ride, and Dumb Luck
ALFRED MELE	13	(3)
Apology
PLATO	16	(21)
The Value of Philosophy
BERTRAND RUSSELL	37	(5)
Classical Conceptual Analysis
DENNIS EARL	42	(11)
PART 2 What Is Knowledge?	53	(80)
Meditations 1 and 2
RENÉ DESCARTES	57	(11)
Brain in a Vat Skepticism
CHRISTOPHER GRAU	68	(12)
Knowing as Having the Right to Be Sure
A.J. AYER	80	(8)
Is Justified True Belief Knowledge?
EDMUND L. GETTIER	88	(2)
An Alleged Defect in Gettier Counter-examples
RICHARD FELDMAN	90	(2)
Science and the Physical World
W.T. STACE	92	(6)
Proof of an External World
G.E. MOORE	98	(1)
A Pragmatic Solution to the Problem of Induction
JOHN HOSPERS	99	(25)
The Problem of Induction-Old and New
HOWARD KAHANE AND PAUL TIDMAN	124	(9)
PART 3 Do We Have Free Will?	133	(50)
The Mythical Threat of Genetic Determinism
DANIEL C. DENNETT	135	(5)
Freedom and Necessity
A.J. AYER	140	(8)
The Incompatibility of Free Will and Determinism
PETER VAN INWAGEN	148	(14)
Alternative Possibilities and Moral Responsibility
HARRY G. FRANKFURT	162	(9)
Human Freedom and the Self
RODERICK CHISHOLM	171	(12)
PART 4 Is There an Enduring Self?	183	(70)
A Dialogue on Personal Identity and Immortality
JOHN PERRY	185	(12)
The Buddhist Theory of 'No-Self'
SERGE-CHRISTOPHE KOLM	197	(5)
Where Am I?
DANIEL C. DENNETT	202	(13)
The Unimportance of Identity
DEREK PARFIT	215	(25)
Feminist Perspectives on the Self
DIANA MEYERS	240	(13)
PART 5 What Is the Mind?	253	(128)
Dualism
PAUL CHURCHLAND	259	(14)
Philosophical Behaviorism
JOHN HEIL	273	(14)
The Nature of Mind
DAVID ARMSTRONG	287	(13)
Mad Pain and Martian Pain
DAVID LEWIS	300	(9)
Functionalism, Qualia, and the Inverted Spectrum
TERRANCE HORGAN	309	(7)
Why People Think Computers Can't
MARVIN MINSKY	316	(29)
Minds, Brains, and Programs
JOHN R. SEARLE	345	(21)
Epiphenomenal Qualia
FRANK JACKSON	366	(15)
PART 6 Does God Exist?	381	(130)
The Ethics of Belief
WILLIAM CLIFFORD	385	(6)
The Will to Believe
WILLIAM JAMES	391	(14)
The Cosmological Argument
RICHARD TAYLOR	405	(9)
The Ontological Argument
WILLIAM L. ROWE	414	(17)
Pascal's Wager
GEORGE SCHLESINGER	431	(16)
Molecular Machines: Experimental Support for the Design Inference
MICHAEL J. BEHE	447	(15)
Born-Again Creationism
PHILIP KITCHER	462	(10)
Evil And Omnipotence
J.L. MACKIE	472	(12)
Why God Allows Evil
RICHARD SWINBURNE	484	(12)
Male-Chauvinist Religion
DEBORAH MATHIEU	496	(15)
PART 7 What Is Moral?	511	(132)
The Case for Moral Objectivism
LOUIS P. POJMAN	515	(17)
Must God's Commands Conform to Moral Standards?
JAMES RACHELS	532	(3)
Utilitarianism
JOHN STUART MILL	535	(23)
Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals
IMMANUEL KANT	558	(11)
Nicomachean Ethics
ARISTOTLE	569	(16)
Virtue Ethics in TV's Seinfeld
AEON J. SKOBLE	585	(6)
The Practice of Partiality
MARILYN FRIEDMAN	591	(22)
The Moral Basis of Vegetarianism
TOM REGAN	613	(6)
Do Animals Have Rights?
CARL COHEN	619	(13)
The Case for Gay Marriage
MICHAEL NAVA AND ROBERT DAWIDOFF	632	(5)
The Case Against Gay Marriage
MANUEL LOPEZ	637	(6)
Credits	643