Philosophy The Big Questions

Philosophy: The Big Questions occupies a unique position among introductory texts in philosophy. Designed for a single-semester introductory course in philosophy, it includes both classic readings in philosophy and newer articles. The text is organized around central problems in philosophy and the diverse approaches that philosophers have taken toward those problems. Readers of this innovative and accessible volume will encounter canonical works in the history of philosophy, and at the same time see the relevance of philosophy to topics they have encountered in their everyday lives.

Ruth J. Sample is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of New Hampshire. She teaches social and political philosophy, early modern philosophy, and feminist philosophy, and is the author of Exploitation: What It Is and Why It’s Wrong (2003).

Charles W. Mills is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He works in the area of oppositional political theory and is the author of three books: The Racial Contract (1997), Blackness Visible: Essays on Philosophy and Race (1998), and From Class to Race: Essays in White Marxism and Black Radicalism (2003).

James P. Sterba is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame, Indiana, where he teaches ethics and political philosophy. His publications include How to Make People Just (1988), Feminist Philosophies (2nd edn., 1995), Justice for Here and Now (1998), Earth Ethics (2nd edn., 2000), Three Challenges to Ethics (2001),and Morality in Practice (7th edn., 2003).

Preface

ix

Acknowledgments

xi

PART ONE WHAT CAN WE KNOW?

1

(100)

Introduction

3

(96)

1 From Meditations on First Philosophy

6

(28)

RENE DESCARTES

2 From An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding

34

(30)

DAVID HUME

3 Cartesian Skepticism and Inference to the Best Explanation

64

(7)

JONATHAN VOGEL

4 From Science as Social Knowledge

71

(7)

HELEN LONGING

5 The 'Maleness' of Reason

78

(5)

GENEVIEVE LLOYD

6 The Ethics of Belief

83

(4)

WILLIAM CLIFFORD

7 It Is Wrong, Everywhere, Always, and for Anyone, to Believe Anything upon Insufficient Evidence

87

(16)

PETER VAN INWAGEN

Epistemology: Suggestions for Further Reading

99

(2)

PART TWO WHAT CAN WE KNOW ABOUT THE NATURE AND EXISTENCE OF GOD?

101

(112)

Introduction

103

(8)

8 From Proslogium

106

(1)

ST. ANSELM

9 In Behalf of the Fool: An Answer to the Argument of Anselm in the Proslogium

107

(4)

GAUNILO

10 The Ontological Argument

111

(12)

WILLIAM L. ROWE

11 The Cosmological Argument

123

(10)

WILLIAM L. ROWE

12 From Dialogues concerning Natural Religion

133

(8)

DAVID HUME

13 The Argument from Design

141

(10)

R.G. SWINBURNE

14 The Wager

151

(3)

BLAISE PASCAL

15 The Recombinant DNA Debate: A Difficulty for Pascalian-Style Wagering

154

(1)

STEPHEN P. STICH

16 A Central Theistic Argument

155

(12)

GEORGE SCHLESINGER

17 Evil and Omnipotence

167

(9)

J.L. MACKIE

18 The Problem of Evil

176

(14)

ELEONORE STUMP

19 Male-Chauvinist Religion

190

(11)

DEBORAH MATHIEU

20 Divine Racism: A Philosophical and Theological Analysis

201

(11)

WILLIAM R. JONES

Religion: Suggestions for Further Reading

212

(1)

PART THREE ARE WE EVER FREE?

213

(64)

Introduction

215

(3)

21 From The System of Nature

218

(7)

PAUL HOLBACH

22 Freedom and Necessity

225

(6)

A.J. AYER

23 Human Freedom and the Self

231

(8)

RODERICK M. CHISHOLM

24 Alternate Possibilities and Moral Responsibility

239

(7)

HARRY G. FRANKFURT

25 How to Complete the Compatibilist Account of Free Action

246

(11)

JAMES P. STERBA AND JANET A. KOURANY

26 Living without Free Will: The Case for Hard Incompatibilism

257

(10)

DERK PEREBOOM

27 Metaethics, Metaphilosophy, and Free Will Subjectivism

267

(9)

RICHARD DOUBLE

Freedom and Determinism: Suggestions for Further Reading

276

(1)

PART FOUR DOES OUR EXISTENCE HAVE A MEANING OR PURPOSE?

277

(86)

Introduction

279

(1)

28 From My Confession

279

(9)

LEO TOLSTOY

29 The Absurdity of Life without God

288

(14)

WILLIAM LANE CRAIG

30 On the Vanity of Existence

302

(3)

ARTHUR SCHOPENHAUER

31 An Absurd Reasoning

305

(8)

ALBERT CAMUS

32 Existentialism Is a Humanism

313

(9)

JEAN-PAUL SARTRE

33 The Absurd

322

(8)

THOMAS NAGEL

34 What Makes Life Worth Living?

330

(7)

OWEN FLANAGAN

35 The Meaning of Life

337

(16)

JOHN KEKES

36 Tolstoi and the Meaning of Life

353

(8)

ANTHONY FLEW

The Meaning of Life: Suggestions for Further Reading

361

(2)

PART FIVE HOW SHOULD WE LIVE?

363

(156)

Introduction

365

(2)

37 Morality as Good in Itself

367

(7)

PLATO

38 The Problem of Rationality: Is Morality Rationally Required?

374

(9)

JAMES P. STERBA

39 From Utilitarianism

383

(16)

JOHN STUART MILL

40 Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysic of Morals

399

(15)

IMMANUEL KANT

41 From Two Treatises of Government

414

(7)

JOHN LOCKE

42 From A Theory of Justice

421

(24)

JOHN RAWLS

43 Distributive Justice

445

(10)

ROBERT NOZICK

44 Gender Inequality and Cultural Difference

455

(15)

SUSAN MOLLER OKIN

45 Race/Gender and the Ethics of Difference

470

(8)

JANE FLAX

46 A Response to Jane Flax

478

(4)

SUSAN MOLLER OKIN

47 Equality, Discrimination and Preferential Treatment

482

(8)

BERNARD R. BOXILL

48 All Animals Are Equal...

490

(15)

PETER SINGER

49 The Ethics of Respect for Nature

505

(14)

PAUL W. TAYLOR

Ethics: Suggestions for Further Reading

519

(1)

Index

520

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Philosophy The Big Questions

Summary

Author Biography

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials