Philosophy for dummies
Book - 1999
Saved in:
- Subjects
- Published
-
New York :
Wiley
c1999.
- Language
- English
- Main Author
- Physical Description
- 361 p. : ill. ; 24 cm
- Bibliography
- Includes index.
- ISBN
- 9780764551536
- Introduction
- About This Book
- Conventions Used in This Book
- What You're Not to Read
- Foolish Assumptions
- Icons Used in This Book
- Where to Go from Here
- Part I. What Is Philosophy, Anyway?
- Chapter 1. Great Thinkers, Deep Thoughts
- A Few Nuts Spice the Cake
- Socrates on the Examination that Counts
- The Questions We'll Ask
- Chapter 2. Philosophy as an Activity
- Outward Bound for the Mind
- Mapping Our Way Forward
- The Extreme Power of Belief
- The image of Plato's Cave
- The philosophical Houdini
- Chapter 3. The Love of Wisdom
- The Triple-A Skill Set of Philosophy
- Paralysis without analysis
- The skill of assessment
- The use of argument
- Wisdom Rules
- The Socratic Quest for Wisdom
- Part II. How Do We Know Anything?
- Chapter 4. Belief, Truth, and Knowledge
- Our Beliefs about Belief
- The Importance of Belief
- The Ideal of Knowledge
- The truth about truth
- The complete definition of knowledge
- Truth and rationality
- Chapter 5. The Challenge of Skepticism
- The Ancient Art of Doubt
- Incredible Questions We Cannot Answer
- The questions of source skepticism
- The questions of radical skepticism
- What the skeptics show us
- Doubting Your Doubts
- Where Do We Go from Here?
- Chapter 6. The Amazing Reality of Basic Beliefs
- The Foundations of Knowledge
- Empiricism and rationalism
- The foundations of knowledge
- Evidentialism
- The Principle of Belief Conservation
- Belief conservation and radical skepticism
- Belief conservation and source skepticism
- The basic status of belief conservation
- Evidentialism refuted and revised
- William James on Precursive Faith
- Leaps of Faith
- Part III. What Is the Good?
- Chapter 7. What Is Good?
- A Basic Approach to Ethics and Morality
- Defining the Good in the Context of Life
- Three Views on Evaluative Language
- The philosophy of noncognitivism: The boo/yay theory
- Ethical subjectivism
- Moral objectivism
- Objectivism and the moral skeptic
- Teleological Target Practice
- Chapter 8. Happiness, Excellence, and the Good Life
- Memo to the Modern World
- The Idea of Good: A Short Course in Options
- Divine Command Theory
- Social Contract Theory
- Utilitarianism
- Deontological Theory
- Sociobiological Theory
- Virtue Theory
- Four Dimensions of Human Experience
- The intellectual dimension
- The aesthetic dimension
- The moral dimension
- The spiritual dimension
- The Ultimate Context of Good
- Chapter 9. Ethical Rules and Moral Character
- Commandments, Rules, and Loopholes
- The Golden Rule and what it means
- The precise role of The Golden Rule
- Character, Wisdom, and Virtue
- Can Goodness Be Taught?
- What am I? -- A test of character
- What should I do? -- A test of action
- The answer to our question
- Part IV. Are We Ever Really Free?
- Chapter 10. Fate, Destiny, and You
- The Importance of Free Will
- Foreseeing the Future: The Theological Challenge to Freedom
- What Will Be Will Be: The Logical Challenge to Freedom
- Robots and Cosmic Puppetry: The Scientific Challenge to Freedom
- Chapter 11. Standard Views of Freedom
- God, Logic, and Free Will
- The Theological Challenge answered
- The Logical Challenge answered
- The Modern Scientific Challenge
- Scientific Determinists
- Libertarians
- Compatibilism
- Which approach is the right one?
- Chapter 12. Just Do It: Human Agency in the World
- Some Wisdom about Freedom
- The Big Picture
- How to Be an Agent and Get More than 15 Percent
- Part V. The Incredible, Invisible You
- Chapter 13. What Is a Person?
- Guitars, Ghosts, and People
- Glimpses of the Mind
- Philosophical Views of the Person
- Monism
- Dualism
- The Contenders
- Interactionism
- Epiphenomenalism
- Parallelism
- Narrowing the Options
- Chapter 14. The Case for Materialism
- The Positive Arguments
- The man-is-an-animal argument
- The artificial intelligence argument
- The brain chemistry argument
- The Negative Arguments
- The superfluity argument
- The mystery objection
- The problem of other minds
- A Verdict on the Materialist Case
- Chapter 15. The Case for Dualism
- The Natural Belief in Dualism
- I'm a Soul Man
- The introspection argument
- The discernibility argument
- The Cartesian argument
- The Platonic argument
- The parapsychology argument
- The need for evidence
- Part VI. What's the Deal with Death?
- Chapter 16. From Dust to Dust: Fear and the Void
- The Final Exit and the Four Fears
- Fear of the process of dying
- Fear of punishment
- Fear of the unknown
- Fear of annihilation
- Chapter 17. Philosophical Consolations on Death
- Don't Worry, Be Happy
- The stoic response to fear of the process
- The natural process argument
- The Necessity Argument
- The Agnostic Argument
- The Two Eternities Argument
- Epicurus' argument
- Materialist Conceptions of "Immortality"
- Social immortality
- Cultural immortality
- Cosmic immortality
- Scientific immortality
- Chapter 18. Is There Life After Death?
- Philosophical Doubts and Denials
- The psychological origin argument
- The silence argument
- The trumpet analogy argument
- The brain damage argument
- Arguments for Survival
- Plato's indestructibility argument
- Then nature analogy argument
- The argument from desire
- Moral arguments
- The Light at the End of the Tunnel
- Claims of former lives
- Apparent contact with the dead
- Near-death experiences
- Part VII. Is There a God?
- Chapter 19. Two World Views
- The Lost Beach Ball
- The Great Divide
- The mainline theistic world view
- The naturalistic world view
- How the two world views compare
- The Great Debate
- Chapter 20. Theistic Visions
- The Ontological Argument
- Cosmology and God
- A Designer Universe?
- Religious Experience
- Chapter 21. The Problem of Evil
- Expectations of Theism
- The Argument from Evil
- The main argument against theism
- The alleged incompatibility of God and evil
- Moral justification for allowing evil
- Moral justification and the atheist's argument
- The theist's claim
- The Great Theodicies
- The punishment theodicy
- The free will theodicy
- The soul-making theodicy
- A fourth combination theodicy
- The Element of Mystery
- Part VIII. The Meaning of Life
- Chapter 22. What Is the Meaning of Life?
- The Questions We Can Ask
- Meaning and This World
- Nihilism: The ultimate negativity
- The do-it-yourself-approach to the meaning of life
- God and Meaning
- Chapter 23. Pascal's Wager: Betting Your Life
- Blaise Pascal: Philosopher-Genius
- The Wager
- Criticisms of the Wager
- The immorality objection
- The probability assignment objection
- The many claimants objection
- The single case objection
- Choosing a World View Right for You
- Chapter 24. Success and Happiness in Life
- What is Enough? The Race for More
- True Success
- The Universal Conditions of Success
- A clear conception of what we want, a vivid vision, a goal clearly imagined
- A strong confidence that we can attain that goal
- A focused concentration on what it takes to reach the goal
- A stubborn consistency in pursuing our vision
- An emotional commitment to the importance of what we're doing
- A good character to guide us and keep us on a proper course
- A capacity to enjoy the process along the way
- A Concluding Note on Happiness
- Part IX. The Part of Tens
- Chapter 25. Ten Great Philosophers
- Socrates
- Plato
- Aristotle
- Saint Thomas Aquinas
- William of Ockham
- Rene Descartes
- Immanuel Kant
- G.W.F. Hegel
- Soren Kierkegaard
- Bertrand Russell
- Chapter 26. Ten Great Questions
- Is Philosophy Practical?
- Can We Ever Really Know Anything?
- Is There Ultimately an Objectivity to Ethics?
- Who Am I?
- Is Happiness Really Possible in Our World?
- Is There, After All, a God?
- What Is the Good Life?
- Why Is So Much Suffering in the World?
- If a Tree Falls in the Forest
- Bishop Berkeley speaks
- What's Stronger in Human Life, Rationality or Irrationality?
- Index
- Book Registration Information