Table of Contents

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?
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
Excursus: A Little Bit of Logic
Deductive and Inductive Reasoning:
Inference to the Best Explanation:
Identifying Arguments:
Some Applications:
Fallacies of Reasoning:
Exercises in Critical Reasoning:
Study and Discussion Questions:
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. Antony Flew, R.M. Hare, and Basil Mitchell: A Debate on the Rationality of Religious Belief
20. Alvin Plantinga: Religious Belief Without Evidence
21. Søren Kierkegaard: Faith and Truth
22. Michael Martin: Holy Spirit Epistemology
23. Bertrand Russell: Can Religion Cure Our Troubles?
III. KNOWLEDGE
III.A. What Can We Know? Classical Theories of Knowledge
24. René Descartes: Cartesian Doubt and the Search for Foundational Knowledge
25. John Locke: The Empiricist Theory of Knowledge
26. George Berkeley: An Idealist Theory of Knowledge
27. David Hume: The Origin of Our Ideas
* 28. G.E. Moore: Proof of an External World
III.B. Truth, Rationality, and Cognitive Relativism
29. Bertrand Russell: The Correspondence Theory of Truth
30. William James: The Pragmatic Theory of Truth
31. Richard Rorty: Dismantling Truth: Solidarity versus Objectivity
32. Daniel Dennett: Postmodernism and Truth
33. Harvey Siegel: Relativism
III.C. 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. René Descartes: 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
48. Buddhist Scripture: Questions to King Milinda
V. FREEDOM OF THE WILL AND DETERMINISM
Contra:
49. Baron d'Holbach: We Are Completely Determined
Pro:
50. William James: The Dilemma of Determinism
51. Peter van Inwagen: The Powers of Rational Beings: Freedom of the Will
52. Roderick M. Chisholm: Human Freedom and the Self
Pro et Contra:
53. W.T. Stace: Compatibilism
54. Harry Frankfurt: Freedom of the Will and the Concept of a Person
55. David Hume: Liberty and Necessity
VI. ETHICS
VI.A. Are There Any Moral Absolutes or Is Morality Completely Relative?
56. Ruth Benedict: Morality Is Relative
57. James Rachels: Morality Is Not Relative
VI.B. Ethics and Egoism: Why Should We Be Moral?
58. Plato: Why Should I Be Moral?: Gyges' Ring and Socrates' Dilemma
59. Louis P. Pojman: Egoism and Altruism: A Critique of Ayn Rand
60. Joel Feinberg: Psychological Egoism
VI.C. Which Is the Correct Ethical Theory?
61. Immanuel Kant: The Moral Law
62. John Stuart Mill: Utilitarianism
63. Aristotle: The Ethics of Virtue
* 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
VII. POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY
68. Robert Paul Wolff: In Defense of Anarchism
69. Thomas Hobbes: The Absolutist Answer: The Justification of the State Is the Security It Affords
70. John Locke: The Democratic Answer: The Justification of the State Is Its Promotion of Security and Natural Human Rights
71. John Stuart Mill: A Classical Liberal Answer: Government Must Promote Freedom
72. John Rawls: The Contemporary Liberal Answer
* 73. Robert Nozick: Against Liberalism
VIII. WHAT IS THE MEANING OF LIFE?
74. Epicurus: Moderate Hedonism
75. Epictetus: Stoicism: Enchiridion
76. Albert Camus: Life Is Absurd
77. Julian Baggini: Living Life Forwards
78. Louis P. Pojman: Religion Gives Meaning to Life
79. Thomas Nagel: The Absurd
80. Bertrand Russell: Reflections on Suffering
IX. CONTEMPORARY MORAL PROBLEMS
IX.A. Is Abortion Morally Permissible?
Contra:
81. Don Marquis: Why Abortion Is Immoral
* 82. Francis J. Beckwith: Arguments from Bodily Rights
Pro:
83. Mary Anne Warren: On the Moral and Legal Status of Abortion
84. Judith Jarvis Thomson: A Defense of Abortion
Pro et Contra:
85. Jane English: The Moderate Position: Beyond the Personhood Argument
IX.B. Is the Death Penalty Morally Permissible?
Pro:
86. Burton Leiser: The Death Penalty Is Permissible
Contra:
87. Hugo Adam Bedau: No, the Death Penalty Is Not Morally Permissible
*IX.C. Should Society Permit Same-Sex Marriage?
* 88. Sam Schulman: Gay Marriage--and Marriage
Contra:
* 89. Jonathan Rauch: For Better or Worse?
IX.D. Do We Have Obligations to the Poor and Hungry?
Pro:
90. Peter Singer: Famine, Affluence and Morality
Contra:
91. Garrett Hardin: Living on a Lifeboat
Appendix: How to Read and Write a Philosophy Paper
Glossary

About the Author

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.

Lewis Vaughn is the author or coauthor of several books including Philosophy Here and Now, The Moral Life, Fifth Edition, and The Power of Critical Thinking, Fourth Edition, all published in 2013 by Oxford University Press.

Reviews

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