Philosophy

The Quest for Truth

Eleventh Edition

Louis P. Pojman and Lewis Vaughn

Organizes many of the essays to present pro/con dialogues, allowing students to compare and contrast the philosophers' positions
Covers a range of major topics so that students are exposed to all the key arguments in the main areas of philosophy
Addresses several areas often omitted from other introductory readers: political philosophy, the meaning of life, and contemporary moral problems
Each reading is accompanied by study questions, end-of-reading reflective questions, and an individual introduction featuring a biographical sketch of the philosopher
A tutorial on logic and argument, a time line, boldfaced key terms, a detailed glossary, and an appendix on reading and writing philosophy papers further enhance the text's pedagogical value
Each major section opens with a substantial introduction and ends with a short bibliography
An Ancillary Resource Center (ARC) contains an Instructor's Manual with sample syllabi, selection summaries, key terms with definitions, and web links and a Computerized Test Bank with multiple-choice, true/false, and essay questions
A Companion Website offers student resources including essay questions, interactive quizzes, flashcards, and additional web links

New to this Edition:

Nine new readings-- featuring work from Kwame Anthony Appiah, Laurence Blum, Michael Martin, Igor Primoratz, Russ Shafer-Landau, W.T. Stace, Richard Taylor, and Susan Wolf--enhanced by headnotes, study questions, and discussion questions
A new section, "Who Is a Racist?," in Part IX: Contemporary Moral Problems
Revised content in Part II: Philosophy of Religion, Part VI: Ethics, and Part VIII: What Is the Meaning of Life?
Additional key terms in several chapters

Philosophy

The Quest for Truth

Eleventh Edition

Louis P. Pojman and Lewis Vaughn

Description

Praised for its unique combination of accessibility and comprehensiveness, Philosophy: The Quest for Truth, Eleventh Edition, provides an excellent selection of ninety-seven classical and contemporary readings--on twenty key problems in philosophy--carefully organized so that they present pro/con dialogues that allow students to compare and contrast the philosophers' positions.

Philosophy

The Quest for Truth

Eleventh Edition

Louis P. Pojman and Lewis Vaughn

Each part opens with an Introduction and ends with Key Terms and Suggestions for Further Reading.
*=New to this Edition
Preface
Time Line
I. WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?
The Good of Philosophy
Philosophical Terrain
Thinking Philosophically
Reasons and Arguments
Fallacious Reasoning
Identifying Arguments
Some Applications
Exercises in Critical Reasoning
Study and Discussion Questions
1. Plato: Socratic Wisdom
2. Plato: The Allegory of the Cave
3. John Locke: Of Enthusiasm and the Quest for Truth
4. Bertrand Russell: The Value of Philosophy
II. PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION
II.A. Is Belief in God Rationally Justified? Arguments for the Existence of God
The Cosmological Argument
Pro
5. Thomas Aquinas: The Five Ways
6. William Lane Craig: The Kalam Cosmological Argument and the Anthropic Principle
Contra
7. Paul Edwards: A Critique of the Cosmological Argument
The Teleological Argument
Pro
8. William Paley: The Watch and the Watchmaker
Contra
9. David Hume: A Critique of the Teleological Argument
The Ontological Argument
Pro et Contra
10. St. Anselm and Gaunilo: The Ontological Argument
11. William Rowe: An Analysis of the Ontological Argument
II.B. Why Is There Evil?
12. Fyodor Dostoevsky: Why Is There Evil?
13. B.C. Johnson: Why Doesn't God Intervene to Prevent Evil?
14. John Hick: There Is a Reason Why God Allows Evil
15. William L. Rowe: The Problem of Evil and Some Varieties of Atheism
II.C. Is Faith Compatible with Reason?
16. Blaise Pascal: Yes, Faith Is a Logical Bet
17. W.K. Clifford: The Ethics of Belief
18. William James: The Will to Believe
19. Alvin Plantinga: Religious Belief Without Evidence
* 20. Michael Martin: Faith and Foundationalism
21. Søren Kierkegaard: Faith and Truth
22. Bertrand Russell: Can Religion Cure Our Troubles?
III. KNOWLEDGE
III.A. What Can We Know? Classical Theories of Knowledge
23. René Descartes: Cartesian Doubt and the Search for Foundational Knowledge
24. John Locke: The Empiricist Theory of Knowledge
25. George Berkeley: An Idealist Theory of Knowledge
26. David Hume: The Origin of Our Ideas
27. G.E. Moore: Proof of an External World
III.B. Truth, Rationality, and Cognitive Relativism
28. Bertrand Russell: The Correspondence Theory of Truth
29. William James: The Pragmatic Theory of Truth
30. Richard Rorty: Dismantling Truth: Solidarity versus Objectivity
31. Daniel Dennett: Postmodernism and Truth
III.C. Feminist Perspectives on Knowledge
32. Eve Browning Cole: Philosophy and Feminist Criticism
33. Alison Ainley: Feminist Philosophy
III.D. Induction
34. David Hume: Skeptical Doubts Concerning the Operations of the Understanding
35. Wesley C. Salmon: The Problem of Induction
IV. PHILOSOPHY OF MIND: THE MIND-BODY PROBLEM
IV.A. What Am I? A Mind or a Body?
36. RenéDescartes: Substance Dualism
37. Gilbert Ryle: Exorcising Descartes' "Ghost in the Machine"
38. J.P. Moreland: A Contemporary Defense of Dualism
39. Paul Churchland: On Functionalism and Materialism
40. J.J.C. Smart: Sensations and Brain Processes
41. Thomas Nagel: What Is It Like to Be a Bat?
42. Jerry A. Fodor: The Mind-Body Problem
43. David Chalmers: Property Dualism
44. John Searle: Minds, Brains, and Computers
45. Ned Block: Troubles with Functionalism
IV.B. Who Am I? Do We Have Personal Identity?
46. John Locke: Our Psychological Properties Define the Self
47. David Hume: We Have No Substantial Self with Which We Are Identical
V. FREEDOM OF THE WILL AND DETERMINISM
Contra
48. Baron d'Holbach: We Are Completely Determined
Pro
49. William James: The Dilemma of Determinism
50. Roderick M. Chisholm: Human Freedom and the Self
Pro et Contra
51. Harry Frankfurt: Freedom of the Will and the Concept of a Person
52. David Hume: Liberty and Necessity
* 53. W.T. Stace: Compatibilism
VI. ETHICS
VI.A. Are There Objective Moral Truths or Is Morality Relative?
54. Ruth Benedict: Morality Is Relative
55. James Rachels: Morality Is Not Relative
VI.B. Ethics and Egoism: Why Should We Be Moral?
56. Plato: Why Should I Be Moral?: Gyges' Ring and Socrates' Dilemma
57. Louis P. Pojman: Egoism and Altruism: A Critique of Ayn Rand
58. Joel Feinberg: Psychological Egoism
VI.C. Which Is the Correct Ethical Theory?
59. Immanuel Kant: The Moral Law
60. John Stuart Mill: Utilitarianism
* 61. Russ Shafer-Landau: Consequentialism: Its Difficulties
62. Aristotle: The Ethics of Virtue
63. Virginia Held: The Ethics of Care
64. Alison M. Jaggar: Feminist Ethics
65. Annette C. Baier: The Need for More than Justice
66. Jean-Paul Sartre: Existentialist Ethics
67. James Rachels: The Divine Command Theory
68. Thomas Nagel: Moral Luck
* 69. Susan Wolf: Moral Saints
VII. POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY AND JUSTICE
VII.A. What Is the Most Just Form of Government?
70. Robert Paul Wolff: In Defense of Anarchism
71. Thomas Hobbes: The Absolutist Answer: The Justification of the State Is the Security It Affords
72. John Locke: The Democratic Answer: The Justification of the State Is Its Promotion of Security and Natural Human Rights
73. John Stuart Mill: A Classical Liberal Answer: Government Must Promote Freedom
74. John Rawls: The Contemporary Liberal Answer
75. Robert Nozick: Against Liberalism
VII.B. What Is Social Justice?
76. Martin Luther King, Jr.: Nonviolence and Racial Justice
77. Susan Moller Okin: Justice, Gender, and Family
78. Mary Wollstonecraft: A Vindication of the Rights of Women
VIII. WHAT IS THE MEANING OF LIFE?
79. Epicurus: Moderate Hedonism
80. Epictetus: Stoicism: Enchiridion
81. Albert Camus: Life Is Absurd
82. Julian Baggini: Living Life Forwards
83. Louis P. Pojman: Religion Gives Meaning to Life
84. Thomas Nagel: The Absurd
* 85. Richard Taylor: The Meaning of Life
* 86. Susan Wolf: Meaning in Life
IX. CONTEMPORARY MORAL PROBLEMS
IX.A. Is Abortion Morally Permissible?
Contra
87. Don Marquis: Why Abortion Is Immoral
88. Francis J. Beckwith: Arguments from Bodily Rights
Pro
89. Mary Anne Warren: On the Moral and Legal Status of Abortion
90. Judith Jarvis Thomson: A Defense of Abortion
Pro et Contra
91. Jane English: The Moderate Position: Beyond the Personhood Argument
IX.B. Is the Death Penalty Morally Permissible?
Pro
92. Burton Leiser: The Death Penalty Is Permissible
Contra
* 93. Igor Primoratz: A Life for a Life
*IX.C. Who Is Racist?
* 94. Lawrence Blum: "Racism": Its Core Meaning
* 95. Kwame Anthony Appiah: Racisms
IX.D. Do We Have Obligations to the Poor and Hungry?
Pro
96. Peter Singer: Famine, Affluence, and Morality
Contra
97. Garrett Hardin: Living on a Lifeboat
Appendix: The Truth About Philosophy Majors
Appendix: How to Read and Write a Philosophy Paper
Glossary

Philosophy

The Quest for Truth

Eleventh Edition

Louis P. Pojman and Lewis Vaughn

Author Information

Lewis Vaughn is the author or coauthor of several textbooks, including Bioethics (2019); The Power of Critical Thinking, Sixth Edition (2018); Philosophy Here and Now, Third Edition (2018); Writing Philosophy, Second Edition (2018); and Living Philosophy, Second Edition (2017).

The late Louis P. Pojman was Professor of Philosophy at the United States Military Academy at West Point and the author, editor, or coeditor of more than twenty books.

Philosophy

The Quest for Truth

Eleventh Edition

Louis P. Pojman and Lewis Vaughn

Reviews and Awards

"Philosophy: The Quest for Truth does a nice job of taking many of the most important texts in the western philosophical canon and condensing them so that even students with no background in the discipline can access them. My students have expressed high praise for the book's arrangement, with its pro and contra style. I cannot speak highly enough of Pojman and Vaughn's writing style. It says everything that needs to be said, but does so in a way that is easy for students to access."--Kayla Bohannon, University of Kentucky

"The book's strengths include coverage of a very nice variety of philosophical topics; an excellent, pro and contra reading arrangement; and introductory material on arguments that is great to have. Pojman and Vaughn's introductions and narrative sections are definitely engaging, direct, informative, and clear, and the level of this material would be good for my students."--Dave Yount, Mesa Community College

"I give it a 10 out of 10. Philosophy: The Quest for Truth is a good book that keeps students' interests in mind."--Keith Hess, College of Southern Nevada