Readings on the Ultimate Questions : An Introduction to Philosophy

by Rauhut, Nils Ch.; Bass, Robert H.

• ISBN13: 9780321413000
• ISBN10: 0321413008
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-01-01
• Publisher: Prentice Hall

Summary

Engaging and accessible, Readings on the Ultimate Questions provides contemporary and classical readings in the key areas of introductory philosophy. This brief anthology presents a variety of philosophical essays that will engage students, encourage philosophical thought, and promote lively discussion. The collection of readings covers the major topic areas in philosophy-Knowledge, Free Will, Personal Identity, Mind/Body, God, Ethics, and Political Philosophy. Contemporary writings by analytic, continental, and feminist philosophers intermingle with the works of significant figures in the history of philosophy.

Table of Contents

Preface	xi
SECTION 1 Why Study Philosophy?	1	(38)
What Is Enlightenment?
IMMANUEL KANT	3	(6)
Treatise on the Emendation of the Intellect
BARUCH SPINOZA	9	(4)
Letter to Menoeceus
EPICURUS	13	(2)
Philosophy, a Bus Ride, and Dumb Luck
ALFRED MELE	15	(3)
Apology
PLATO	18	(15)
The Value of Philosophy
BERTRAND RUSSELL	33	(6)
SECTION 2 What Do We Know?	39	(74)
Meditations 1 and 2
RENÉ DESCARTES	43	(12)
Bad Dreams, Evil Demons, and the Experience Machine: Philosophy and The Matrix
CHRISTOPHER GRAU	55	(7)
On the Value of Skepticism
BERTRAND RUSSELL	62	(9)
Is Justified True Belief Knowledge?
EDMUND L. GETTIER	71	(2)
An Alleged Defect in Gettier Counter-Examples
RICHARD FELDMAN	73	(2)
Proof of an External World
G.E. MOORE	75	(17)
An Essay Concerning Human Understanding
JOHN LOCKE	92	(7)
A Pragmatic Solution to the Problem of Induction
JOHN HOSPERS	99	(6)
The Problem of Induction—Old and New
HOWARD KAHANE AND PAUL TIDMAN	105	(8)
SECTION 3 Do We Have Free Will?	113	(66)
Essay on the Freedom of the Will
ARTHUR SCHOPENHAUER	115	(4)
Compatibilism
W.T. STACE	119	(8)
Beyond Compatibilism: A Buddhist Approach to Freedom and Determinism
MARK SIDERITS	127	(18)
The Incompatibility of Free Will and Determinism
PETER VAN INWAGEN	145	(14)
Alternative Possibilities and Moral Responsibility
HARRY G. FRANKFURT	159	(9)
Human Freedom and the Self
RODERICK CHISHOLM	168	(11)
SECTION 4 Is There an Enduring Self?	179	(78)
A Dialogue on Personal Identity and Immortality
JOHN PERRY	181	(12)
The Buddhist Theory of No-Self
SERGE-CHRISTOPHE KOLM	193	(5)
Personal Identity: The Dualist Theory
RICHARD SWINBURNE	198	(24)
Brain Transplants and Personal Identity
DEREK PARFIT AND GODFREY VESEY	222	(8)
Where Am I?
DANIEL C. DENNETT	230	(13)
Feminist Perspectives on the Self
DIANA MEYERS	243	(14)
SECTION 5 What Is the Mind?	257	(108)
An Argument for Dualism from "Alcibiades I"
PLATO	261	(2)
A Critique of Dualism
PAUL CHURCHLAND	263	(16)
A Defense of Dualism
JOHN FOSTER	279	(5)
Philosophical Behaviorism
JOHN HEIL	284	(14)
The Nature of Mind
DAVID ARMSTRONG	298	(13)
Mad Pain and Martian Pain
DAVID LEWIS	311	(9)
Functionalism, Qualia, and the Inverted Spectrum
TERRANCE HORGAN	320	(7)
Minds, Brains, and Programs
JOHN R. SEARLE	327	(22)
Epiphenomenal Qualia
FRANK JACKSON	349	(16)
SECTION 6 Does God Exist?	365	(138)
The Appeal to Religious Experience
C.D. BROAD	369	(11)
The Five Ways
ST. THOMAS AQUINAS	380	(3)
The Cosmological Argument
RICHARD TAYLOR	383	(10)
A Debate on the Cosmological Argument
F.C. COPLESTON AND BERTRAND RUSSELL	393	(12)
Molecular Machines: Experimental Support for the Design Inference
MICHAEL J. BEHE	405	(14)
Born Again Creationism
PHILIP KITCHER	419	(11)
Pascal's Wager
GEORGE SCHLESINGER	430	(16)
Evil and Omnipotence
J.L. MACKIE	446	(13)
Why God Allows Evil
RICHARD SWINBURNE	459	(12)
The Ethics of Belief
WILLIAM CLIFFORD	471	(7)
The Will to Believe
WILLIAM JAMES	478	(10)
Male-Chauvinist Religion
DEBORAH MATHIEU	488	(15)
SECTION 7 What Ought We To Do?	503	(120)
The Objective Basis of Morality
THOMAS NAGEL	506	(4)
Must God's Commands Conform to Moral Standards?
JAMES RACHELS	510	(4)
The Principle of Utility
JEREMY BENTHAM	514	(7)
Push-Pin and Poetry
JEREMY BENTHAM	521	(1)
Higher and Lower Pleasures
JOHN STUART MILL	522	(5)
Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals
IMMANUEL KANT	527	(12)
Maria von Herbert's Challenge to Kant
RAE LANGTON	539	(15)
Nicomachean Ethics
ARISTOTLE	554	(16)
The Practice of Partiality
MARILYN FRIEDMAN	570	(22)
The Moral Basis of Vegetarianism
TOM REGAN	592	(7)
Do Animals Have Rights?
CARL COHEN	599	(12)
The Case for Gay Marriage
MICHAEL NAVA AND ROBERT DAWIDOFF	611	(6)
The Case Against Gay Marriage
MANUEL A. LOPEZ	617	(6)
Credits	623