Western Philosophy: An Anthology, 2nd Edition [Rental Edition]

Preface xvii

Acknowledgements xxii

Advice to Readers and Format of the Volume xxx

Part I Knowledge and Certainty 1

1 Innate Knowledge 3
Plato, Meno

2 Knowledge versus Opinion 12
Plato, Republic

3 Demonstrative Knowledge and its Starting-points 18
Aristotle, Posterior Analytics

4 New Foundations for Knowledge 21
René Descartes, Meditations

5 The Senses as the Basis of Knowledge 25
John Locke, Essay concerning Human Understanding

6 Innate Knowledge Defended 31
Gottfried Leibniz, New Essays on Human Understanding

7 Scepticism versus Human Nature 35
David Hume, Enquiry concerning Human Understanding

8 Experience and Understanding 40
Immanuel Kant, Critique of Pure Reason

9 From Sense-certainty to Self-consciousness 43
Georg Hegel, Phenomenology of Spirit

10 Against Scepticism
G. E. Moore, A Defence of Common Sense 48

11 Does Empirical Knowledge have a Foundation? 54
Wilfrid Sellars, The Myth of the Given

12 The Conditions for Knowledge 60
Edmund Gettier, Is Justified True Belief Knowledge?

Specimen Questions 63

Suggestions for Further Reading 64

Part II Being and Reality 67

1 The Allegory of the Cave 69
Plato, Republic

2 Individual Substance 76
Aristotle, Categories

3 Supreme Being and Created Things 80
René Descartes, Principles of Philosophy

4 Qualities and Ideas 86
John Locke, Essay concerning Human Understanding

5 Substance, Life and Activity 91
Gottfried Leibniz, New System

6 Nothing Outside the Mind 97
George Berkeley, Principles of Human Knowledge

7 The Limits of Metaphysical Speculation 102
David Hume, Enquiry concerning Human Understanding

8 Metaphysics, Old and New 108
Immanuel Kant, Prolegomena

9 Being and Involvement 115
Martin Heidegger, Being and Time

10 The End of Metaphysics? 121
Rudolf Carnap, The Elimination of Metaphysics

11 The Problem of Ontology 127
W. V. O. Quine, On What There Is

12 Why is There Anything? 132
Derek Parfit, The Puzzle of Reality

Specimen Questions 137

Suggestions for Further Reading 138

Part III Language and Meaning 141

1 The Meanings of Words 143
Plato, Cratylus

2 Language and its Acquisition 150
Augustine, Confessions

3 Thought, Language and its Components 152
William of Ockham, Writings on Logic

4 Language, Reason and Animal Utterance 155
René Descartes, Discourse on the Method

5 Abstract General Ideas 157
John Locke, Essay concerning Human Understanding

6 Particular Ideas and General Meaning 161
George Berkeley, Principles of Human Knowledge

7 Denotation versus Connotation 165
John Stuart Mill, A System of Logic

8 Names and their Meaning 170
Gottlob Frege, Sense and Reference

9 Definite and Indefinite Descriptions 174
Bertrand Russell, Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy

10 Non-descriptive Uses of Language 180
J. L. Austin, Performative Utterances

11 Language, Meaning and Context 185
Paul Grice, Logic and Conversation

12 How the Reference of Terms is Fixed 191
Saul Kripke, Naming and Necessity

Specimen Questions 197

Suggestions for Further Reading 197

Part IV Mind and Body 201

1 The Immortal Soul 203
Plato, Phaedo

2 Soul and Body, Form and Matter 210
Aristotle, De Anima

3 The Human Soul 214
Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae

4 The Incorporeal Mind 221
René Descartes, Meditations

5 The Identity of Mind and 227
Body Benedict Spinoza, Ethics

6 Mind–Body Correlations 230
Nicolas Malebranche, Dialogues on Metaphysics

7 Body and Mind as Manifestations of Will 236
Arthur Schopenhauer, The World as Will and Idea

8 The Problem of Other Minds 240
John Stuart Mill, An Examination of Sir William Hamilton’s Philosophy

9 The Hallmarks of Mental Phenomena 244
Franz Brentano, Psychology from an Empirical Standpoint

10 The Myth of the ‘Ghost in the Machine’ 251
Gilbert Ryle, The Concept of Mind

11 Mental States as Functional States 256
Hilary Putnam, Psychological Predicates

12 The Subjective Dimension of Consciousness 263
Thomas Nagel, What is it Like to be a Bat?

Specimen Questions 268

Suggestions for Further Reading 269

Part V The Self and Freedom 273

(a) The Self 275

1 The Self and Consciousness 275
John Locke, Essay concerning Human Understanding

2 The Self as Primitive Concept 280
Joseph Butler, Of Personal Identity

3 The Self as Bundle 285
David Hume, A Treatise of Human Nature

4 The Partly Hidden Self 290
Sigmund Freud, Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis

5 Liberation from the Self 296
Derek Parfit, Reasons and Persons

6 Selfhood and Narrative Understanding 302
Charles Taylor, Sources of the Self

(b) Freedom 307

7 Human Freedom and Divine Providence 307
Augustine, The City of God

8 Freedom to Do What We Want 312
Thomas Hobbes, Liberty, Necessity and Chance

9 Absolute Determinism 318
Pierre Simon de Laplace, Philosophical Essay on Probability

10 Condemned to be Free 320
Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness

11 Determinism and our Attitudes to Others 326
Peter Strawson, Freedom and Resentment

12 Freedom, Responsibility and the Ability to do Otherwise 332
Harry G. Frankfurt, Alternate Possibilities and Moral Responsibility

Specimen Questions 339

Suggestions for Further Reading 340

Part VI God and Religion 343

1 The Existence of God 345
Anselm of Canterbury, Proslogion

2 The Five Proofs of God 348
Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae

3 God and the Idea of Perfection 351
René Descartes, Meditations

4 The Wager 356
Blaise Pascal, Pensées

5 The Problem of Evil 359
Gottfried Leibniz, Theodicy

6 The Argument from Design 365
David Hume, Dialogues concerning Natural Religion

7 Against Miracles
David Hume, Enquiry concerning Human Understanding 370

8 Faith and Subjectivity
Søren Kierkegaard, Concluding Unscientific Postscript 376

9 Reason, Passion and the Religious Hypothesis 382
William James, The Will to Believe

10 The Meaning of Religious Language 387
John Wisdom, Gods

11 God’s Commands as the Foundation for Morality394
Robert M. Adams, Moral Arguments for Theistic Belief

12 Against Evidentialism 399
Alvin Plantinga, Is Belief in God Properly Basic?

Specimen Questions 406

Suggestions for Further Reading 407

Part VII Science and Method 411

1 Four Types of Explanation 413
Aristotle, Physics

2 Experimental Methods and True Causes 415
Francis Bacon, Novum Organum

3 Mathematical Science and the Control of Nature 422
René Descartes, Discourse on the Method

4 The Limits of Scientific Explanation 427
George Berkeley, On Motion

5 The Problem of Induction 433
David Hume, Enquiry concerning Human Understanding

6 The Relation between Cause and Effect 438
David Hume, Enquiry concerning Human Understanding

7 Causality and our Experience of Events 443
Immanuel Kant, Critique of Pure Reason

8 The Uniformity of Nature 447
John Stuart Mill, System of Logic

9 Science and Falsifiability 453
Karl Popper, Conjectures and Refutations

10 How Explaining Works 460
Carl G. Hempel, Explanation in Science and History

11 Scientific Realism versus Instrumentalism 469
Grover Maxwell, The Ontological Status of Theoretical Entities

12 Change and Crisis in Science 475
Thomas Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions

Specimen Questions 481

Suggestions for Further Reading 482

Part VIII Morality and the Good Life 485

1 Morality and Happiness 487
Plato, Republic

2 Ethical Virtue 492
Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics

3 Virtue, Reason and the Passions 496
Benedict Spinoza, Ethics

4 Human Feeling as the Source of Ethics 500
David Hume, Enquiry concerning the Principles of Morals

5 Duty and Reason as the Ultimate 506
Principle Immanuel Kant, Groundwork of the Metaphysic of Morals

6 Happiness as the Foundation of Morality 512
John Stuart Mill, Utilitarianism

7 Utility and Common-sense Morality 517
Henry Sidgwick, Methods of Ethics

8 Against Conventional Morality 524
Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil

9 Duty and Intuition 529
W. D. Ross, The Right and the Good

10 Rational Choice and Fairness 534
John Rawls, A Theory of Justice

11 Ethics as Rooted in History and Culture 540
Alasdair MacIntyre, After Virtue

12 Could Ethics be Objective?546
Bernard Williams, Ethics and the Limits of Philosophy

Specimen Questions 551

Suggestions for Further Reading 552

Part IX Problems in Ethics 555

1 Inequality, Freedom and Slavery 557
Aristotle, Politics

2 War and Justice 561
Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae

3 Taking One’s Own Life 563
David Hume, On Suicide

4 Gender, Liberty and Equality 569
Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Women

5 Partiality and Favouritism 574
William Godwin, Enquiry concerning Political Justice

6 The Status of Non-human Animals 576
Immanuel Kant, Lectures on Ethics

7 The Purpose of Punishment Jeremy 579
Bentham, Principles of Morals and Legislation

8 Our Relationship to the Environment 585
Aldo Leopold, The Land Ethic

9 Abortion and Rights 590
Judith Jarvis Thomson, A Defense of Abortion

10 The Relief of Global Suffering 596
Peter Singer, Famine, Affluence and Morality

11 Medical Ethics and the Termination of Life 602
James Rachels, Active and Passive Euthanasia

12 Cloning, Sexual Reproduction and Genetic Engineering 608
Leon R. Kass, The Wisdom of Repugnance

Specimen Questions 616

Suggestions for Further Reading 617

Part X Authority and the State 621

1 Our Obligation to Respect the Laws of the State 623
Plato, Crito

2 The Just Ruler 627
Thomas Aquinas, On Princely Government

3 Sovereignty and Security 631
Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan

4 Consent and Political Obligation 636
John Locke, Second Treatise of Civil Government

5 Against Contractarianism 642
David Hume, Of the Original Contract

6 Society and the Individual 647
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract

7 The Unified State – From Individual Desire to Rational Self-determination 653
Georg Hegel, The Philosophy of Right

8 Property, Labour and Alienation 659
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, The German Ideology

9 The Limits of Majority Rule 665
John Stuart Mill, On Liberty

10 The Minimal State 671
Robert Nozick, Anarchy, State and Utopia

11 Social Co-operation and Rational Self-interest 677
David Gauthier, Why Contractarianism?

12 Liberalism, Resources and Equal Worth 683
Ronald Dworkin, Why Liberals Should Care about Equality

Specimen Questions 690

Suggestions for Further Reading 691

Part XI Beauty and Art 693

1 Art and Imitation 695
Plato, Republic

2 The Nature and Function of Dramatic Art 701
Aristotle, Poetics

3 The Idea of Beauty 706
Francis Hutcheson, Inquiry concerning Beauty, Order, Harmony, Design

4 Aesthetic Appreciation 711
David Hume, Of the Standard of Taste

5 The Concept of the Beautiful 716
Immanuel Kant, Critique of Judgement

6 The Metaphysics of Beauty 723
Arthur Schopenhauer, On Aesthetics

7 The Two Faces of Art 728
Friedrich Nietzsche, The Birth of Tragedy

8 The Value of Art 734
Leo Tolstoy, What is Art?

9 Imagination and Art 739
Jean-Paul Sartre, The Psychology of Imagination

10 What is Aesthetics? 744
Ludwig Wittgenstein, Lectures on Aesthetics

11 The Basis of Judgements of Taste 750
Frank Sibley, Aesthetic Concepts

12 Artistic Representation and Reality 756
Nelson Goodman, The Languages of Art

Specimen Questions 761

Suggestions for Further Reading 762

Part XII Human Life and its Meaning 763

1 How to Accept Reality and Avoid Fear 765
Lucretius, On the Nature of the Universe

2 Life Guided by Stoic Philosophy 768
Seneca, Moral Letters

3 Meaning through Service to Others 771
Augustine, Confessions

4 Contentment with the Human Lot 774
Michel de Montaigne, On Experience

5 The Human Condition, Wretched yet Redeemable 778
Blaise Pascal, Pensées

6 Human Life as a Meaningless Struggle 782
Arthur Schopenhauer, On the Vanity of Existence

7 The Death of God and the Ascendancy of the Will 786
Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spake Zarathustra

8 Idealism in a Godless Universe 790
Bertrand Russell, A Free Man’s Worship

9 Futility and Defiance 797
Albert Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus

10 Involvement versus Detachment 800
Thomas Nagel, The Absurd

11 Religious Belief as Necessary for Meaning 809
William Lane Craig, The Absurdity of Life without God

12 Seeing our Lives as Part of the Process 815
Robert Nozick, Philosophy’s Life

Specimen Questions 820

Suggestions for Further Reading 821

Notes on the Philosophers 823

Index 842