The Study of Philosophy

A Text with Readings

By (author) Andrew Pessin, S. Morris Engel

Not available to order

Publication date:

19 March 2015

Length of book:

530 pages

Publisher

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

ISBN-13: 9781442242838

This seventh edition of The Study of Philosophy presents a comprehensive treatment of the major fields and figures of philosophy alongside primary readings by seminal thinkers to fuel debate and further study.

New features of this edition include

a substantive account of philosophical theology
a reorganized treatment of early modern rationalism and empiricism
discussion of the major highlights of twentieth- and twenty-first-century philosophy
a survey of major contemporary moral problems

From Plato to Plantinga, from Aristotle to Ayer, and from Socrates to Singer, this text brings the power of both ancient and modern philosophy to students of the twenty-first century!

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: 20^th-21^st 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

The new edition of The Study of Philosophy retains the impressive coverage of topics of earlier editions—along with the excellent chapters on logic (including a superb treatment of the informal fallacies), and the student-friendly narrative—and adds many new, well-chosen topical readings, and a whole chapter on contemporary moral problems. The best introductory philosophy textbook on the market just got better!