Western Philosophy : An Anthology

by Cottingham, John G.

• ISBN13: 9781405124782
• ISBN10: 1405124784
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2007-11-28
• Publisher: Wiley

Summary

Western Philosophy: An Anthology provides the most comprehensive and authoritative survey of the Western philosophical tradition from ancient Greece to the leading philosophers of today. In 144 substantial and carefully chosen extracts, the volume covers all the main branches of philosophy - theory of knowledge and metaphysics, philosophy of mind, religion and science, moral philosophy (theoretical and applied), political theory and aesthetics. Chronologically and thematically arranged, the readings are introduced and linked together by a lucid philosophical commentary which guides the reader through the key arguments. For this new edition, all the existing sections have been updated with additional contemporary extracts, and two completely new sections on logic and language, and philosophy and the meaning of life have been included. This outstanding text will support a wide variety of introductory courses in philosophy, as well as providing more advanced students with an indispensable collection of classic source materials.

Author Biography

John Cottingham is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Reading. He is the author of many books including Rationalism (1984), Descartes (1986), The Rationalists (1988), Philosophy and the Good Life (1998), and On the Meaning of Life (2003), and is co-translator of The Philosophical Writings of Descartes. He was from 1991–5 Chairman of the British Society for the History of Philosophy, and is (since 1993) editor of Ratio, the international journal of analytic philosophy.

Table of Contents

Preface

Acknowledgements

Advice to Readers and Format of the Volume

Knowledge and Certainty

Innate Knowledge: Plato, Meno

Knowledge versus Opinion: Plato, Republic

Demonstrative Knowledge and its Starting-points: Aristotle, Posterior Analytics

New Foundations for Knowledge: Ren? Descartes, Meditations

The Senses as the Basis of Knowledge: John Locke, Essay concerning Human Understanding

Innate Knowledge Defended: Gottfried Leibniz, New Essays on Human Understanding

Scepticism versus Human Nature: David Hume, Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding

Experience and Understanding: Immanuel Kant, Critique of Pure Reason

From Sense-certainty to Self-consciousness: Georg Hegel, Phenomenology of Spirit

Against Scepticism: G. E. Moore, A Defence of Common Sense

Does Empirical Knowledge Have a Foundation? Wilfrid Sellars, The Myth of the Given

The Conditions for Knowledge: Edmund Gettier, Is Justified True Belief Knowledge?.Specimen Questions.Suggestions for Further Reading

Being and Reality

The Allegory of the Cave: Plato, Republic

Individual Substance: Aristotle, Categories

Supreme Being and Created Things: Ren? Descartes, Principles of Philosophy

Qualities and Ideas: John Locke, Essay concerning Human Understanding

Substance, Life and Activity: Gottfried Leibniz, New System

Nothing Outside the Mind: George Berkeley, Principles of Human Knowledge

The Limits of Metaphysical Speculation: David Hume, Enquiry concerning Human Understanding

Metaphysics, Old and New: Immanuel Kant, Prolegomena

Being and Involvement: Martin Heidegger, Being and Time

The End of Metaphysics?: Rudolf Carnap, The Elimination of Metaphysics

The Problem of Ontology: W. V. O. Quine, On What There Is

Why Is There Anything?: Derek Parfit, The Puzzle of Reality.Specimen Questions.Suggestions for Further Reading

Language and Meaning

The Meaning of Words: Plato, Cratylus

Language and its Acquisition: Augustine, Confessions

Thought, Language and its Components: William of Ockham, Writings on Logic

Language, Reason and Animal Utterance: Ren? Descartes, Discourse on the Method

Abstract General Ideas: John Locke, Essay Concerning Human Understanding

Particular Ideas and General Meaning: George Berkeley, Principles of Human Knowledge

Denotation versus Connotation: John Stuart Mill, A System of Logic

Names and their Meaning: Gottlob Frege, Sense and Reference

Definite Descriptions: Bertrand Russell, Introduction to Mathematical Logic

Non-descriptive Uses of Language: J. L. Austin, Performative Utterances

Language, Meaning and Context: Paul Grice, Logic and Conversation

How the Reference of Terms is Fixed: Saul Kripke, Naming and Necessity.Specimen Questions.Suggestions for Further Reading

Mind and Body

The Immortal Soul: Plato, Phaedo

Soul and Body, Form and Matter: Aristotle, De Anima

The Human Soul: Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae

The Incorporeal Mind: Ren? Descartes, Meditations

The Identity of Mind and Body: Benedict Spinoza, Ethics

Mind-Body Correlations: Nicolas Malebranche, Dialogues on Metaphysics

Body and Mind as Manifestations of Will: Arthur Schopenhauer, The World as Will and Idea

The Problem of Other Minds: John Stuart Mill, An Examination of Sir William Hamilton's Philosophy

The Hallmarks of Mental Phenomena: Franz Brentano, Psychology from an Empirical St

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