Philosophical Questions

Description

In Philosophical Questions: Readings and Interactive Guides, James Fieser and Norman Lillegard make classic and contemporary philosophical writings genuinely accessible to students by incorporating numerous pedagogical aids throughout the book. Presenting the readings in manageable segments, they provide commentaries that elucidate difficult passages, explain archaic or technical terminology, and expand upon allusions to unfamiliar literature and arguments. In addition, "First Reactions" discussion questions, study questions, logic boxes, and chapter summaries require students to delve more deeply into important issues and to reconstruct arguments in their own words. Some study questions test for minimal comprehension, while others are designed to provoke analysis and independent philosophical reflection. This extensive pedagogical support enables students to more easily comprehend and engage with challenging material by establishing an interactive dialogue with the philosophers.
This topically organized anthology and textbook includes numerous excerpts from contemporary philosophers, as well as from Western classics and major Eastern texts, encouraging students to explore connections between works from the Western and Eastern traditions and from different time periods. Topics covered include the philosophy of religion; human nature and the self; souls, minds, bodies, and machines; epistemology; ethics; and political philosophy.
A glossary, portraits of philosophers, title pages of famous works, and thirteen specially commissioned cartoons are also included. Philosophical Questions: Readings and Interactive Guides is a rich and flexible volume ideal for introduction to philosophy courses. An Instructor's Manual with Test Questions will be available to adopters of the book. In addition, a Companion Website accompanies the book.

Table of Contents

Preface for the Instructor
1. INTRODUCING THE BOOK
A. Philosophical Questions and Wonder
B. Features of This Book
C. A Little Logic
2. THE PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION
A. Challenges to Religious Belief
1. The Irrationality of Believing in Miracles, David Hume
2. Religion as the Opium of the Masses, Karl Marx
3. The Death of God, Friedrich Nietzsche
B. The Problem of Evil
1. God and Human Suffering, Fyodor Dostoevsky
2. The Logical Problem of Evil, John L. Mackie
3. The Logical Problem of Evil Challenged, William Rowe
4. A Soul-Making Theodicy, John Hick
C. Mysticism and Religious Experience
1. Hindu Mysticism
2. The Limited Authority of Mystical Experiences, William James
3. The Untrustworthiness of Mystical Experiences, Bertrand Russell
4. The Trustworthiness of Religious Experiences, Richard Swinburne
D. The Ontological Argument for God's Existence
1. Anselm's Proofs
2. Against the Ontological Argument, Gaunilo, Aquinas, and Kant
E. The Cosmological Argument for God's Existence
1. Aquinas's Proofs
2. Clarke's Proof and Hume's Criticisms
F. The Design Argument for God's Existence
1. Against the Design Argument, David Hume
2. The Design Argument Revisited, William Paley
3. Evolution and the Design Argument, Charles Darwin
4. The Fine-Tuning Argument, Robin Collins
G. Faith and Rationality
1. Waging on Belief in God, Blaise Pascal
2. The Will to Believe, William James
3. Can We Know God Without Arguments?, Alvin Plantinga and Jay Van Hook
3. HUMAN NATURE AND THE SELF
A. Determinism Versus Free Will
1. The Case for Determinism, Baron d'Holbach
2. Compatibilism, David Hume
3. In Defense of Free Will, Thomas Reid
4. Determinism, Indeterminism, and Agency, Richard Taylor
5. Determinism and Second-Order Desires, Harry Frankfurt
B. Identity and Survival
1. No-Self and Transmigration of the Soul, Buddhism
2. The Self as a Bundle of Perceptions, David Hume
3. Identity and Survival, Terence Penelhum
C. The Self as Active Being
1. The Self as Spirit, Søren Kierkegaard
2. The Self as Worker, Karl Marx
3. The Self as the Will to Power, Friedrich Nietzsche
4. The Self as Being Toward Death, Martin Heidegger
D. The Self Connected with a Larger Reality
1. The Self-God, Hindu Upanishads
2. The Way of Nature, Chuang-tzu
3. The Ecological Self, Arne Naess
4. Human Beings as Evolved Animals, Charles Darwin
4. SOULS, MINDS, BODIES, AND MACHINES
A. Ancient Western Views on Body, Soul, and Mind
1. Materialism, Atoms, and Sensation: Democritus and Lucretius
2. Body and Soul: Plato
3. Soul as Form of the Body: Aristotle
B. Classic Hindu Views on Soul, Self, and God
1. The Outer Empirical Self and the Inner Self-God, Katha Upanishad
2. Strict Monism, Sankara
3. Qualified Monism, Ramanuja
C. Modern Views on Mind and Body
1. Mental and Physical Substance, René Descartes
2. The Mixture of Body and Soul, Anne Conway
3. Idealist Monism and Parallelism, Benedict Spinoza and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
D. Twentieth-Century Views on Mind and Body
1. Logical Behaviorism, Gilbert Ryle
2. Mind-Brain Identity and Eliminative Materialism, J.J.C. Smart and Paul Churchland
3. Functionalism, Jerry Fodor
E. Intentionality
1. Intentionality as the Mark of the Mental, Franz Brentano
2. Kinds of Intentional Psychology, Daniel Dennett
F. Minds and Machines
1. Humans as Machines, Thomas Huxley
2. Reminders About Machines and Thinking, Ludwig Wittgenstein and Paul Ziff
3. Minds, Brains, and the Chinese Room Argument, John Searle
4. A Reply to Searle, William G. Lycan
5. Natural Languages, AI, and Existential Holism, John Haugeland
5. EPISTEMOLOGY
A. Skepticism and Certainty
1. The Relativity of All Things, Chuang-tzu
2. The Goals and Methods of Skepticism, Sextus Empiricus
3. Dreams, Illusions, and the Evil Genius, René Descartes
4. Skepticism About the External World, David Hume
5. The Problem of Induction, David Hume and Peter Strawson
B. Sources of Knowledge: Rationalism and Empiricism
1. Knowledge Does Not Come from the Senses, Plato
2. All Knowledge Derives from the Senses, John Locke
3. The Nature of Perception, John Searle
C. A Priori Knowledge
1. The Fork, David Hume
2. Analytic and Synthetic Judgments, Immanuel Kant
3. One Dogma of Empiricism, Willard Van Orman Quine
D. Foundationalism and Coherence
1. Foundationalism, René Descartes and John Locke
2. Knowledge and Coherence, Jonathan Dancy
3. The Raft Versus the Pyramid, Ernest Sosa
E. Problems with Justified Belief
1. True Belief Is Not Sufficient for Knowledge, Edmund Gettier
2. Justification, Internalism, and Warrant, Alvin Plantinga
3. Naturalist Externalism Versus Internalism, Keith Lehrer
4. Justified Belief and Intellectual Virtues, Linda Zagzebski
F. The Social Construction of Knowledge
1. Social Factors in the Development of Knowledge and Science, Thomas Kuhn
2. Epistemology and the Sex of the Knower, Lorraine Code
3. Confusions in Constructivist Views, Alan Sokal
6. ETHICS
A. Are Moral Values Objective?
1. Morality Grounded in Unchanging Spiritual Forms, Plato
2. Moral Relativism, Sextus, Montaigne, and Mackie
3. The Case Against Moral Relativism, James Rachels
B. Can Human Conduct Be Selfless?
1. Whether Human Nature Is Inherently Good or Evil, Mencius and Hsun-tzu
2. The Selfish Origins of Pity and Charity, Thomas Hobbes
3. Love of Others Not Opposed to Self-Love, Joseph Butler
4. Altruism and Sociobiology, Edward O. Wilson
C. Reason and Moral Judgments
1. Can We Derive Ought from Is?, David Hume and John Searle
2. Expressing Feelings, Alfred Jules Ayer
3. Morality and the Best Reasons, Kurt Baier
D. Gender and Morality
1. Rational Morality for Men and Women, Mary Wollstonecraft
2. Uniquely Female Morality, Carol Gilligan
E. Virtues
1. Virtue and Happiness, Aristotle
2. Traditions and Virtues, Alasdair MacIntyre
F. Duties
1. Duties to God, Oneself, and Others, Samuel Pufendorf
2. The Categorical Imperative, Immanuel Kant
3. Prima Facie Duties, William D. Ross
4. Duties Toward Animals, Kant and Regan
G. Pleasure and Consequences
1. Hedonistic Ethical Egoism, Epicurus
2. Utilitarian Calculus, Jeremy Bentham
3. Utilitarianism and Higher Pleasures, John Stuart Mill
7. POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY
A. Anarchism
1. Governments Contrary to the Way of Nature, Chuang-tzu
2. An Argument for Anarchy, Errico Malatesta
3. The Conflict Between Authority and Autonomy, Robert Paul Wolff
B. Sources of Political Authority
1. Natural Law, Samuel Pufendorf
2. The Social Contract, Thomas Hobbes
3. Natural Rights, John Locke
C. Liberalism and Communitarianism
1. Justice in the Original Position, John Rawls
2. Libertarianism, Robert Nozick
3. Communitarianism, Michael J. Sandel
D. Virtuous Leadership
1. Virtuous Leaders at the Root of Good Government, Confucianism
2. The Philosopher King, Plato
3. Political Survival, Niccoló Machiavelli
E. Limits of Political Coercion
1. The Limited Purpose of Punishment, Cesare Beccaria
2. Preserving Individual Liberty, John Stuart Mill
3. Offense to Others, Joel Feinberg
F. Civil Obedience, Disobedience, and Revolution
1. Obedience to the State, Plato
2. Civil Disobedience, Martin Luther King
3. A Defense of Revolution, John Locke
Glossary
Works Cited
Illustration Acknowledgments
Index