The Elements of Philosophy

Description

The Elements of Philosophy: Readings from Past and Present offers an extensive collection of classic and contemporary readings, organized topically into five main sections: Religion and Belief, Moral and Political Philosophy, Metaphysics and Epistemology, Philosophy of Mind and Language, and Life and Death. Within these broad areas, readings are arranged in clusters that address both traditional issues--such as the existence of God, justice and the state, knowledge and skepticism, and free will--and contemporary topics--including God and science, just war theory, vegetarianism, and time travel. Carefully chosen selections from a wide range of pre-20th-century philosophers are paired with writings from more than fifty leading contemporary philosophers and thinkers. The traditional philosophers represented range from Plato and Aristotle to Immanuel Kant and A.J. Ayer; the contemporary philosophers include Saul Kripke, David Lewis, Thomas Nagel, Derek Parfit, Hilary Putnam, Robert Nozick, Judith Jarvis Thomson, John Rawls, Bernard Williams, and Susan Wolf. Also included are selections from linguist Noam Chomsky, physicist Albert Einstein, and psychologist William James.
Edited by a team of scholars who are also highly esteemed instructors, The Elements of Philosophy is uniquely student-friendly. A team of undergraduate philosophy majors played a central role in helping to select topics, choose readings, and identify terms likely to require clarification. In response to their suggestions, the volume includes detailed introductions to each section, explanatory footnotes that define unfamiliar terms and concepts, an extensive glossary, and a guide to further resources. A companion Instructor's Manual, available on CD, offers article summaries, suggested essay questions, reading guides, model handouts, and sample syllabi. One of the most extensive and expansive anthologies available, The Elements of Philosophy is an ideal choice for both general and targeted introductory philosophy courses.

Table of Contents

Preface
Note to the Reader
Note to the Instructor
Acknowledgments
About the Editors
INTRODUCTION
Simon Blackburn, What Is Philosophy?
Simon Blackburn, The Elements of Logic
I. RELIGION AND BELIEF
Introduction
A. TRADITIONAL ARGUMENTS FOR AND AGAINST THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
The Ontological Argument--and Replies
Saint Anselm, The Ontological Argument
Gaunilo, In Behalf of the Fool
G.E. Moore, Is Existence a Predicate?
William Rowe, Why the Ontological Argument Fails
The Cosmological Argument, the Argument from Design--and Replies
Richard Taylor, The Cosmological Argument
William Paley, The Argument from Design
Ernest Nagel, Does God Exist?
The Problem of Evil--and Replies
John Hick, The Problem of Evil
Steven M. Cahn, The Problem of Goodness
B. GROUNDS FOR BELIEF
Blaise Pascal, The Wager
W.K. Clifford, The Ethics of Belief
William James, The Will to Believe
Robert McKim, The Hiddenness of God
C. GOD AND SCIENCE: CONTEMPORARY DISCUSSIONS
Nicholas Everitt, Theism and Modern Science
II. MORAL AND POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY
MORAL PHILOSOPHY
Introduction
A. THREE MAJOR ETHICAL THEORIES
Utilitarianism
John Stuart Mill, Selections from Utilitarianism
J.J.C. Smart, Extreme and Restricted Utilitarianism
Bernard Williams, Utilitarianism, Integrity and Responsibility
Deontology
Immanuel Kant, Selections from Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals
Onora O'Neill, A Simplified Account of Kant's Ethics
Virtue Ethics
Aristotle, Selections from the Nicomachean Ethics
Rosalind Hursthouse, Normative Virtue Ethics
B. SOME APPLICATIONS
Moral Duties to the Poor
Peter Singer, Rich and Poor
Garrett Hardin, Lifeboat Ethics: The Case Against Helping the Poor
Thomas W. Pogge, "Aiding" the Global Poor
Vegetarianism and Animals
Alastair Norcross, Puppies, Pigs, and People: Eating Meat and Marginal Cases
Carl Cohen, A Critique of the Alleged Moral Basis of Vegetarianism
C. PUZZLES AND CHALLENGES
Puzzling Cases
Judith Jarvis Thomson, The Trolley Problem
Thomas Nagel, Moral Luck
The Value of Morality
Plato, "Glaucon's Challenge" from The Republic
Susan Wolf, Moral Saints
The Universality of Morality
James Rachels, Egoism and Moral Skepticism
James Rachels, The Challenge of Cultural Relativism
Morality and Social Science
Jennifer Saul, Women's "Different Voice"
Cass R. Sunstein, Morality and Heuristics
POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY
Introduction
D. JUSTICE, EQUALITY, AND THE STATE
Thomas Hobbes, "Contract and Commonwealth" from Leviathan
John Rawls, "Justice as Fairness" from A Theory of Justice
Robert Nozick, "Distributive Justice" from Anarchy, State and Utopia
E. JUST WAR
George I. Mavrodes, Conventions and the Morality of War
Robert K. Fullinwider, War and Innocence
Lawrence A. Alexander, Self-Defense and the Killing of Non-Combatants: A Reply to Fullinwider
III. METAPHYSICS AND EPISTEMOLOGY
KNOWLEDGE AND REALITY
Introduction
A. DEFINING "KNOWLEDGE"
Plato, "What is Knowledge?" from The Meno
Edmund Gettier, Is Justified True Belief Knowledge?
Robert Nozick, "Knowledge" from Philosophical Explanations
B. SKEPTICISM AND RESPONSES
René Descartes, Meditations 1 and 2
G.E. Moore, Proof of an External World
G.E. Moore, Certainty
Robert Nozick, "Skepticism" from Philosophical Explanations
Jonathan Vogel, Cartesian Skepticism and Inference to the Best Explanation
C. KNOWLEDGE AND THE NATURE OF REALITY
Plato, "The Allegory of the Cave" from The Republic
George Berkeley, Selections from Of the Principles of Human Knowledge
W.V.O. Quine, Posits and Reality
Hilary Putnam, Brains in a Vat
David J. Chalmers, The Matrix as Metaphysics
Robert Nozick, Fiction
D. INDUCTION
David Hume, "Induction" from An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding
Wesley Salmon, Selections from The Problem of Induction
Nelson Goodman, The New Riddle of Induction
METAPHYSICAL PERPLEXITIES
Introduction
E. TIME AND TIME TRAVEL
Albert Einstein, Time and the Relativity of Simultaneity
Theodore Sider, Time
David Lewis, The Paradoxes of Time Travel
F. FREE WILL
A.J. Ayer, Freedom and Necessity
Roderick M. Chisholm, Human Freedom and the Self
Harry Frankfurt, Freedom of the Will and the Concept of a Person
Peter Strawson, Freedom and Resentment
G. IDENTITY AND PERSONAL IDENTITY
John Locke, "Of Identity and Diversity" from An Essay Concerning Human Understanding
Bernard Williams, The Self and the Future
Derek Parfit, "Personal Identity" from Reasons and Persons
IV. PHILOSOPHY OF MIND AND LANGUAGE
MIND
Introduction
A. METAPHYSICS OF MIND
Dualism and Behaviorism
René Descartes, Sixth Meditation
Kisor Kumar Chakrabarti, Understanding Nyaya-Vaisesika Dualism
Gilbert Ryle, Descartes' Myth
Physicalism
Daniel Stoljar, Physicalism
J.J.C. Smart, Sensations and Brain Processes
Paul M. Churchland, Eliminative Materialism and the Propositional Attitudes
Challenges to Physicalism
Saul Kripke, The Modal Argument
Frank Jackson, The Knowledge Argument
B. CONSCIOUSNESS AND PERCEPTION
Consciousness
Thomas Nagel, What Is It Like to Be a Bat?
Daniel C. Dennett, Quining Qualia
Ned Block, Concepts of Consciousness
Minds and Machines
A.M. Turing, Computing Machinery and Intelligence
John Searle, Can Computers Think?
Perception
J.J. Valberg, Reasoning About Our Experience
A.J. Ayer, The Argument from Illusion: A Defense of Sense Data
J.L. Austin, The Argument from Illusion: A Critique of Sense Data
LANGUAGE
Introduction
C. LANGUAGE, MEANING, AND REFERENCE
H.P. Grice, Logic and Conversation
Noam Chomsky, Language and Problems of Knowledge
John Perry, The Problem of the Essential Indexical
V. LIFE AND DEATH
Introduction
A. LIFE
Plato, "On the Harmony of the Soul" from The Republic
Jean-Paul Sartre, Existentialism
Derek Parfit, What Makes Someone's Life Go Best
Thomas Nagel, The Absurd
B. DEATH
Thomas Nagel, Death
Walter Kaufmann, Death Without Dread
Glossary
Notes
Resources