The Big Questions: A Short Introduction to Philosophy

Höfundur: Robert Solomon (Útgáfa: 10)
The Big Questions: A Short Introduction to Philosophy

Kaup valmöguleikar

THE BIG QUESTIONS, 10th Edition, covers philosophy's central ideas in an accessible, approachable manner. You'll explore timeless "big questions" about the self, God, justice, and other meaningful topics, gaining the context you need for an understanding of the foundational issues, as well as the confidence to establish your own informed positions on these "big questions. " This edition is now also available with MindTap Philosophy, a system of tools and apps -– from note taking to flashcards -- that help you understand course concepts, achieve better grades, and set the groundwork for your future courses.

Nánar um bókina

Útgefandi
Cengage Learning US
ISBN
9798214354439
Print ISBN
9781305955448
Format
ePub
Útgáfa
10
Höfundar
Robert Solomon
Tungumál
English
Útgefið
2017-01-01
Prent takmörkun á líftíma
100

Kaflar

  • Cover Page
  • Title Page
  • Copyright Page
  • Dedication
  • Preface
  • Acknowledgments
  • About the Authors
  • Introduction: Doing Philosophy
  • Beyond Buzzwords
  • Articulation and Argument: Two Crucial Features of Philosophy
  • Concepts and Conceptual Frameworks
  • Doing Philosophy with Style
  • A Little Logic
  • Deduction
  • Induction
  • Criticizing Arguments
  • Closing Questions
  • Key Words
  • Other Suggested Readings
  • Chapter 1. Philosophical Questions
  • What Is Philosophy?
  • Key Words
  • Other Suggested Readings
  • Chapter 2. The Meaning of Life
  • What Kind of Meaning?
  • Children as Meaning
  • God as Meaning
  • Afterlife as Meaning
  • No Meaning at All
  • The Meanings of Life
  • Life as a Game
  • Life as a Story
  • Life as Tragedy
  • Life as Comedy
  • Life as a Mission
  • Life as Art
  • Life as an Adventure
  • Life as Disease
  • Life as Desire
  • Life as Tranquility
  • Life as Altruism
  • Life as Honor
  • Life as Learning
  • Life as Suffering
  • Life as an Investment
  • Life as Relationships
  • Closing Questions
  • Key Words
  • Other Suggested Readings
  • Chapter 3. God
  • Believing in God
  • Gods and Goddesses
  • The Traditional Western Conceptions of God
  • God as Transcendent
  • God as Immanent
  • God as Totally Immanent: Pantheism
  • God as Universal Spirit
  • God as Process
  • God as Transcendent Creator: Deism
  • God as the Unknown Object of Faith
  • God as a Moral Being
  • The Problem of Evil
  • Denial of God
  • Two Kinds of Evil
  • Denial of Evil
  • The Least of the Evils
  • The Aesthetic Solution
  • The Free-Will Solution
  • Justice in the Afterlife
  • God’s “Mysterious Ways”
  • Working Out an Answer
  • Faith and Reason: Grounds for Believing
  • The Cosmological Argument
  • The Argument from Design
  • The Ontological Argument
  • Rational Faith
  • Pascal’s Wager
  • Irrational Faith
  • Religious Tolerance: Ritual, Tradition, and Spirituality
  • Doubts
  • Closing Questions
  • Key Words
  • Other Suggested Readings
  • Chapter 4. The Nature of Reality
  • The Real World
  • What Is Most Real?
  • The Reality Behind the Appearances
  • The Basis of Metaphysics
  • The First Metaphysicians
  • Thales
  • The Pre-Socratic Materialists
  • Early Nonphysical Views of Reality
  • Plato’s Forms
  • Aristotle’s Metaphysics
  • Mind and Metaphysics
  • René Descartes
  • Baruch Spinoza
  • Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz
  • Idealism
  • Teleology
  • Metaphysics and the Everyday World
  • Closing Questions
  • Key Words
  • Other Suggested Readings
  • Chapter 5. The Search for Truth
  • What Is True?
  • Two Kinds of Truth
  • Empirical Truth
  • Necessary Truth
  • Rationalism and Empiricism
  • The Presuppositions of Knowledge
  • Skepticism
  • René Descartes and the Method of Doubt
  • David Hume’s Skepticism
  • The Resolution of Skepticism: Immanuel Kant
  • Knowledge, Truth, and Science
  • The Nature of Truth
  • The Coherence Theory of Truth
  • The Pragmatic Theory of Truth
  • Rationality
  • Why Be Rational?
  • Subjective Truth and the Problem of Relativism
  • Closing Questions
  • Key Words
  • Other Suggested Readings
  • Chapter 6. Self
  • The Essential Self
  • Self as Body, Self as Consciousness
  • The Self and Its Emotions
  • The Egocentric Predicament
  • The Mind-Body Problem
  • Behaviorism
  • Identity Theory and Eliminative Materialism
  • Functionalism
  • Against the Mind-Body Problem
  • Other Theories of the Self
  • The Self as a Choice
  • No Self, Many Selves
  • The Self as Social
  • The Self and Relationships
  • Closing Questions
  • Key Words
  • Other Suggested Readings
  • Chapter 7. Freedom
  • Freedom and the Good Life
  • Why Is Freedom So Important to Us?
  • What Is Political Freedom?
  • Concepts of Self and Our Notions of Freedom
  • Free Will and Determinism
  • Determinism Versus Indeterminism
  • The Role of Consciousness
  • Compatibilism, or Soft Determinism
  • In Defense of Freedom
  • Closing Questions
  • Key Words
  • Other Suggested Readings
  • Chapter 8. Morality and the Good Life
  • Moral Philosophy
  • Pleasure and the Good Life
  • The Place of Self-Interest in Morality: Egoism Versus Altruism
  • Morality—Relative or Absolute?
  • Morality and Theories of Morality
  • Duty-Defined Morality
  • Immanuel Kant and the Authority of Reason
  • Consequentialist Theories
  • Utilitarianism: Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill
  • Aristotle and the Ethics of Virtue
  • Feminist Ethics: The Ethics of Care
  • Closing Questions
  • Key Words
  • Other Suggested Readings
  • Chapter 9. Justice and the Good Society
  • Morals and Society
  • The Nature of Society
  • Who Should Rule? The Question of Legitimacy
  • Anarchism, the Free Market, and the Need for Government
  • What is Justice?
  • The Meaning of Equality
  • The Origins of Justice and the Social Contract
  • Justice Beyond Our Borders
  • Rights and the Individual
  • Libertarianism
  • Liberalism
  • Communitarianism
  • Justice Denied: The Problem of Race
  • Sexual Politics: The Rise of Feminist Philosophy
  • Women and the Body
  • Plato: Patriarch or Early Feminist?
  • Feminist Epistemology and Feminist Science
  • Feminist Philosophy of Language
  • Closing Questions
  • Key Words
  • Other Suggested Readings
  • Chapter 10. Beauty
  • Aesthetics
  • Beauty and Truth
  • Enjoying Tragedy
  • Arguing About Taste
  • Art, Ethics, and Religion
  • Why Is It Art?
  • The Aesthetics of Popular Culture
  • Closing Questions
  • Key Words
  • Other Suggested Readings
  • Chapter 11. Non-Western Philosophy
  • Beyond the Western Tradition
  • The Challenges of Broadening Our Horizons
  • Other Cultures, Other Philosophies
  • Native American Philosophy
  • African Philosophy
  • Latin American Philosophy
  • Middle Eastern Philosophy
  • South Asian Philosophy
  • East Asian Philosophy
  • Closing Questions
  • Key Words
  • Other Suggested Readings
  • Appendix A. Writing Philosophy
  • Appendix B. Deductive Logic Valid Argument Forms
  • Appendix C. Common Informal Fallacies