The Study of Philosophy

PART I PHILOSOPHY AND ITS BEGINNINGS
Chapter 1: The Nature and Scope of Philosophy
How Philosophy and Science Differ
How Philosophy and Religion Differ
Philosophy’s Three Main Subject Areas
Philosophy’s Main Method
Summary
Key Terms
Review Questions
Reading: “The Philosopher within You”—Andrew Pessin

Chapter 2: It Began Here: The Pre-Socratics
The Problem of Being

• Thales
• Anaximander
• Anaximenes

The Problem of Becoming

• Parmenides
• Zeno
• Heraclitus

The Theory of Atomism: A Synthesis
Summary
Key Terms
Review Questions
Reading: “Ionian Science before Socrates”—F. M. Cornford
Reading: On the Nature of Things—Lucretius

Chapter 3: Socrates and Plato
The Sophists
Socrates the Man
Life in Athens and Conquest by Sparta
Socrates’ Chronicler: Plato
The Dialogues: Socrates’ Trial and Death

• Euthyphro
• Apology
• Crito
• Phaedo

Plato’s Forms

• What Exactly Are Forms?
• Forms are Neither Perceivable, Changeable, Nor Even Here
• How Many Forms Are There?
• One More Important Implication
• Why Should We Believe in the Existence of Forms?

Philosophers and Cave-Persons
Summary
Key Terms
Review Questions
Reading: Apology—Plato

PART II PHILOSOPHY’S METHOD
Chapter 4: Aristotle and the Science of Logic
Aristotle
The Sophists Again
The Science of Logic
Logic as the Study of Argument
Distinguishing Arguments From Non-Arguments
Eliminating Verbiage
Supplying Missing Components
Distinguishing Deductive and Inductive Arguments
Evaluating Arguments: Truth, Validity, and Soundness

• Some Classic Examples of Valid Deductive Arguments
• Evaluating Arguments: Strategy

Summary
Key Terms
Review Questions
Reading: “What the Tortoise Said to Achilles”—Lewis Carroll
Reading: “Newcomb’s Problem and Two Principles of Choice”—Robert Nozick

Chapter 5: Common Fallacies
The Fallacies of Ambiguity

• Amphiboly
• Accent
• Equivocation

The Fallacies of Presumption

• Overlooking the Facts
• Evading the Facts
• Distorting the Facts

Fallacies of Relevance

• Genetic Fallacy
• Abusive ad Hominem
• Circumstantial ad Hominem
• Tu Quoque
• Poisoning the Well

Summary
Key Terms
Review Questions
Reading: “A Mad Tea-Party”—Lewis Carroll

PART III PHILOSOPHY’S MAIN QUESTIONS
Chapter 6: Ethics: What Are We Like, and What Should We Do?
Aristotle’s Ethics

• Goodness and Happiness
• Moral Virtues
• Intellectual Virtues

Kant’s Ethics

• A Good Will
• The Categorical Imperative
• The Role of Reason

The Utilitarian Theory

• Jeremy Bentham
• John Stuart Mill

Some Criticisms of Utilitarianism
Summary
Key Terms
Review Questions
Reading: Nicomachean Ethics—Aristotle
Reading: “Santa and Scrooge”—Andrew Pessin
Reading: “Of what sort of Proof the Principle of Utility is Susceptible”—John Stuart Mill
Reading: “The Experience Machine”—Robert Nozick

Chapter 7: Religion: The Nature and Existence of God
A Brief History of Philosophical Theology, 427 B.C.E.–1600 C.E.
Proofs for the Existence of God

• St. Anselm’s Ontological Argument
• St. Thomas Aquinas’s Cosmological Arguments
• William Paley’s Biological Teleological Argument
• Immanuel Kant’s Moral Argument
• Blaise Pascal’s Prudential Argument

God’s Nature

• God’s Power
• God’s Knowledge
• God’s Goodness, and the Problem of Evil

Summary
Key Terms
Review Questions
Reading: “That God truly exists”—Anselm
Reading: From Natural Theology; or, Evidences of the Existence and Attributes of the Deity—William Paley
Reading: From City of God—Augustine
Reading: From “Abridgement of the Argument Reduced to Syllogistic Form”—G. W. Leibniz

Chapter 8: Epistemology and Metaphysics: The Rationalists
Brief Overview of Early Modern Philosophy
René Descartes

• Descartes’ Dualism
• Descartes’ Theory of Mind
• Descartes’ Theory of Matter

Baruch Spinoza

• Spinoza’s Pantheism and Monism
• Spinoza’s Necessitarianism, Determinism, and Ethics

Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz

• Leibniz’s Monads and Pre-Established Harmony
• The Truth Argument for Pre-Established Harmony

Rationalism, Intelligibility, and Causation

• Rationalist Debates on the Nature of Causation

Summary
Key Terms
Review Questions
Reading: From Meditations on First Philosophy—René Descartes
Reading: “The Most Dangerous Error of the Philosophy of the Ancients”—Nicolas Malebranche
Reading: From Dialogues on Metaphysics and Religion—Nicolas Malebranche
Reading: “New System of Nature” and “Clarification of the Difficulties Which Mr. Bayle Has Found in the New System of the Union of Soul and Body”—G.W. Leibniz

Chapter 9: Epistemology and Metaphysics: The Empiricists and Kant
John Locke

• Locke’s Attack on Nativism
• The Structure and Contents of the Mind, and Substance
• The Distinction Between Primary and Secondary Qualities

George Berkeley

• Three Lines of Argument Against Materialism and For Idealism
• Idealism, Materialism, and Common Sense
• Some Problems For Idealism

David Hume

• Relations of Ideas and Matters of Fact
• Hume’s Critique of Causation
• Hume’s Critique of Inductive Reasoning

Immanuel Kant

• Three Ways to Frame the Discussion
• A First Pass through Kant’s Answer
• Four Kinds of Judgments
• Synthetic A Priori Judgments
• How is Mathematics Possible?
• How is Science Possible?
• Why Metaphysics is Impossible

Summary
Key Terms
Review Questions
Reading: From “First Dialogue”—George Berkeley
Reading: “Sceptical Doubts concerning the Operations of the Understanding”—David Hume

PART IV CONTEMPORARY DIRECTIONS
Chapter 10: 20th-21st Century Developments
Existentialism

• Søren Kierkegaard and Religious Existentialism
• Friedrich Nietzsche and Nihilistic Existentialism
• Jean-Paul Sartre and Humanistic Existentialism

Some Developments in Ethics

• A. J. Ayer and Logical Positivism

Some Developments in Philosophy of Religion

• Alvin Plantinga on Science and Theism

Some Developments in Epistemology

• The Traditional Definition of Knowledge
• The Gettier Problem

Some Developments in Metaphysics

• The Attack on Descartes’ Dualism
• Consciousness and Dualism

Summary
Key Terms
Review Questions
Reading: “A Panegyric upon Abraham”—Sören Kierkegaard
Reading: From Nausea—Jean-Paul Sartre
Reading: “Critique of Ethics and Theology”—A. J. Ayer
Reading: “Is Atheism Irrational?”—Alvin Plantinga
Reading: “What Mary Didn't Know”—Frank Jackson

Chapter 11: Contemporary Moral Problems, and Peter Singer
Peter Singer

• “All Animals are Equal”
• “Is the Sanctity of Life Ethic Terminally Ill?”
• The Life You Can Save: How to Do Your Part to End World Poverty

Summary
Key Terms
Review Questions
Reading: “Of Duties to Animals …”—Immanuel Kant
Reading: “Abortion and Infanticide” and “Taking Life: Humans”—Peter Singer
Reading: “Life after God? The Ethics of Peter Singer”—Peter May

Glossary
Index

Maintaining superb readability, the seventh edition adds key ingredients: more contemporary philosophy, impressive selections of primary sources, and excellent choices of additions within the chapters. There is much to commend in this newest edition.