Questions That Matter: An Invitation to

This accessible text-reader includes extensive student pedagogy--running summaries, high-interest boxes, biographies, epigrams, a philosophical dictionary, and a timeline/map. The new edition offers a new chapter on virtue ethics, new cases and questions from environmental and biomedical ethics, a new chapter on communitarian and feminist critiques of contemporary liberalism, and more!

PREFACE

vii

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

xv

INTRODUCTION: THE NATURE OF PHILOSOPHY

1

(36)

Chapter 1: What Is Philosophy?

3

(22)

The Word Itself

4

(1)

The Fields of Philosophy

4

(5)

A Rational, Critical Enterprise

9

(4)

Differing Conceptions

13

(7)

A Working Definition

20

(1)

Professor Miller's Four Principles

20

(2)

Chapter 1 in Review

22

(3)

Chapter 2: A Little Logic

25

(12)

The Three Laws of Thought

26

(2)

What Is an Argument?

28

(2)

Informal Fallacies

30

(3)

Chapter 2 in Review

33

(4)

PART ONE: THE QUESTION OF REALITY

37

(100)

Chapter 3: The Idea of Form

39

(38)

Plato and Socrates

39

(3)

The Two Worlds: Appearance and Reality

42

(5)

The Theory of Forms

47

(6)

Degrees of Reality and Knowledge

53

(4)

The Good, the Sun, and the Cave

57

(8)

Aristotle's Criticism of Plato

65

(2)

Aristotle's View of Form

67

(4)

After Plato and Aristotle

71

(2)

Chapter 3 in Review

73

(4)

Chapter 4: Mind and Matter

77

(28)

Descartes: The Father of Modern Philosophy

78

(1)

"What Can I Know for Certain?"

79

(1)

The Intuition of Mind

80

(5)

The Deduction of God

85

(4)

The Deduction of Matter

89

(4)

Some Objections

93

(1)

The Mind-Body Problem

93

(4)

Mind: A Set of Dispositions or Functions

97

(4)

Chapter 4 in Review

101

(4)

Chapter 5: Materialism

105

(32)

What Is Materialism?

106

(5)

Man a Machine

111

(4)

The New Materialism

115

(4)

Are the Mind and Body Identical?

119

(4)

Beyond Freedom and Dignity: Skinner

123

(7)

Are All Things Determined?

130

(2)

Chapter 5 in Review

132

(5)

PART TWO: THE QUESTION OF KNOWLEDGE

137

(78)

Chapter 6: The Way of Reason

139

(29)

Two Main Theories about the Basis of Knowledge

139

(1)

Reason as the Basis of Knowledge

140

(2)

The Rationalism of Plato

142

(9)

The Rationalism of Descartes

151

(8)

A Contemporary Version: Chomsky

159

(5)

Chapter 6 in Review

164

(4)

Chapter 7: The Way of Experience

168

(30)

What Is Empiricism?

168

(1)

Classical Empiricism: Aristotle and St. Thomas

169

(4)

Modern Empiricism: Locke

173

(11)

Radical Empiricism: Hume

184

(10)

Chapter 7 in Review

194

(4)

Chapter 8: The Problem of Certainty

198

(17)

Kant and Hume

199

(1)

Some Important Terminology

199

(2)

Is There Synthetic A Priori Knowledge?

201

(9)

The Limits of Reason

210

(2)

Chapter 8 in Review

212

(3)

PART THREE: THE QUESTION OF GOD

215

(120)

Chapter 9: God and the World

218

(38)

Natural Theology

219

(1)

The Cosmological Argument

220

(13)

The Teleological Argument

233

(10)

The Problem of Causality

243

(9)

Chapter 9 in Review

252

(4)

Chapter 10: Religious Experience

256

(40)

The Experience of the Numinous

257

(4)

The Mystical Ascent

261

(10)

Mysticisms East

271

(4)

The Way of Zen

275

(9)

Is Religious Experience Evidence for God?

284

(8)

Chapter 10 in Review

292

(4)

Chapter 11: God and Evil

296

(39)

What Is the Problem? 297 Some Solutions

301

(4)

Evil as a Privation of Goodness

305

(4)

The Free-Will Defense

309

(6)

Evil as Therapy

315

(6)

Evil Is Irrational

321

(8)

Chapter 11 in Review

329

(6)

PART FOUR: THE QUESTION OF MOØITY

335

Chapter 12: Challenges to Morality

337

(37)

The Challenge of Relativism

338

(4)

The Challenge of Determinism

342

(11)

The Challenge of Psychological Egoism

353

(4)

The Challenge of Existentialism

357

(12)

Chapter 12 in Review

369

(5)

Chapter 13: Utilitarianism

374

(27)

The Question of Consequences

374

(1)

What Is Utilitarianism?

375

(3)

Bentham's Version: Quantity over Quality

378

(3)

Mill's Version: Quality over Quantity

381

(11)

Some Objections

392

(6)

Chapter 13 in Review

398

(3)

Chapter 14: The Role of Duty

401

(22)

Morality as Unconditional

401

(6)

The Good Will

407

(3)

Kant's Categorical Imperative

410

(1)

The Test of Moral Actions

411

(4)

Some Objections

415

(5)

Chapter 14 in Review

420

(3)

Chapter 15: Virtue

423

Character and Action

424

(1)

Aristotle on Happiness and Virtue

424

(7)

The Virtues

431

(4)

Objections

435

(1)

Is There a Natural Law?

436

(5)

Chapter 15 in Review

441

Glossary

G-1

Acknowledgments

A-1

Index

I-1

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Questions That Matter: An Invitation to Philosophy, Brief Version

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Table of Contents

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