LooseLeaf for Does the Center Hold? An Introduction to Western Philosophy

1 What Are We Doing in This Class?

Is Philosophy Possible?

The Origins of Philosophy

Contemporary Branches of Philosophy

Epistemology

Ontology

Ethics

Political and Social Philosophy

Aesthetics

Logic

Contemporary Styles of Philosophy

The Philosophy of Socrates

Conclusion

Topics for Consideration

Suggestions for Further Reading: Paperback Editions

Notes

2 Truth Is Beauty; Beauty Is Truth

Rationalist Epistemology

The Philosophy of Plato

Images

Sensible Objects

Concepts

Forms

René Descartes’s Rationalism

Topics for Consideration

Suggestions for Further Reading: Paperback Editions

Notes

3 What You See Is What You Get

Empiricist Epistemology

The Empiricism of John Locke

Simple and Complex Ideas

Primary and Secondary Qualities

Substance

Berkeley’s Correction of Locke

Sense Data

The Source of Sense Data

Hume’s Radicalization of Berkeley’s Empiricism

Logical Positivism: The Further Radicalization of Empiricism

Attacks on Logical Positivism’s Notion of Sense Data

Attacks on Logical Positivism’s Language

Kant’s Compromise

Conclusion: Getting Up-to-Date

Quine’s Contribution

Rationalism in the Twenty-First Century

Topics for Consideration

Suggestions for Further Reading: Paperback Editions

Notes

4 Who’s on First; What’s on Second?

Ontology

Dualism

Materialistic Monism

Materialism

Behaviorism

The Mind-Brain Identity Theory

Eliminative Materialism

Functionalism and Its Discontents

Pluralism

Conclusion

Topics for Consideration

Suggestions for Further Reading: Paperback Editions

Notes

5 Mount Olympus, Mount Moriah, and Other Godly Places

Philosophy of Religion

Theism

The Ontological Argument

The Cosmological Argument

Hume’s Criticism of the Cosmological Proof

The Teleological Argument

Darwin’s and Hume’s Criticisms of the Teleological Proof

Atheism

Feuerbach’s “Religion of Man”

Marx’s Response to Feuerbach

Sigmund Freud: The Psychoanalysis of Religion

Volitional Justifications of Religious Belief

Religious Mysticism

Religious Existentialism

Conclusion

Topics for Consideration

Suggestions for Further Reading: Paperback Editions

Notes 208

6 The Largest Airline in the Free World

Philosophy of Freedom

Determinism: Ancient Greek and Enlightenment Views

Hard Determinism: Modern Views

B. F. Skinner

Sigmund Freud

The Attack on Free Will

Soft Determinism (a.k.a. Compatibilism)

Indeterminism

Libertarianism

Existential Freedom

Perverse Freedom

Conclusion

Topics for Consideration

Suggestions for Further Reading: Paperback Editions

Notes

7 Thou Shalt Become Perfected

Ethics

Ancient Greek Moral Philosophers

Justice/Morality

City/Soul

Egoism

Utilitarianism

The Calculus of Felicity

The Quality of Pleasure

Utilitarianism’s Problems

Duty-Oriented Morality: Immanuel Kant

Kant’s Strengths and Weaknesses

Kant’s Third Formulation

Kantianism Today?

Contractualism

Virtue Ethics

Conclusion

Topics for Consideration

Suggestions for Further Reading: Paperback Editions

Notes

8 Different Strokes for Different Folks

Critiques of Traditional Ethical Theories

Existentialism

Hume and the Naturalistic Fallacy

Logical Positivism

Cultural Relativism

No Universally Held Moral Values

No Value or Set of Values Recommendable for All People

Ethics and Feminism

Ethics and Deep Ecology

Conclusion

Topics for Consideration

Suggestions for Further Reading: Paperback Editions

Notes

9 Let Them Eat Cake

Political and Social Philosophy

Political Philosophy

Plato 327

Thomas Hobbes

John Locke

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

John Stuart Mill

Social Philosophy

Communism

The Minimal State

Liberalism

Conclusion

Topics for Consideration

Suggestions for Further Reading: Paperback Editions

Notes

10 But Is It Art?

Philosophy of Art

Analytic Philosophy of Art

Analysis of Expressionism

Analysis of Formalism

Analysis of the Aesthetic Experience

Analysis of Conventionalism

Analysis of Realism

Wittgenstein

Open Concepts

A Form of Life: The Artworld

Plato, Freud, and Art

Aristotle and Art

Marx and Art

Existentialism and Art

Conclusion

Topics for Consideration

Suggestions for Further Reading: Paperback Editions

Notes

Glossary

Credits

Index

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