About the Book
The new edition of this introductory text presents, in an accessible way, classical and contemporary readings on topics central to and representative of all major periods of the Western philosophical tradition. The book presents 55 readings (23 of which are new to the fourth edition) on seven topics: epistemology, religion, metaphysics, personal identity and immortality, free will and determinism, ethics, and political and social philosophy. Pedagogical features make these readings accessible and interesting to beginning students.
Table of Contents:
PrefaceIntroduction: What Is Philosophy?Plato, Euthyphro (complete)Part 1 Theory of Knowledge 1 Opinion and Knowledge Plato, The Republic (selection)2 Knowledge through ReasonDescartes, Meditations on First Philosophy (selection)3 Knowledge through ExperienceHume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (selection)4 Experience Structured by the MindKant, Critique of Pure Reason (selection)5 Knowing and DoingJames, Pragmatism (selection)6 Knowledge and EmotionJaggar, Love and Knowledge (selection)Part 2 Philosophy of Religion 7 Proving the Existence of God Anselm, Proslogion (selection) Aquinas, Summa Theologiae (selection) Paley, Natural Theology (selection) Dawkins, The Blind Watchmaker (selection)8 Justifying Religious Belief Pascal, Pensees (selection) James, The Will to Believe (selection) Freud, The Future of an Illusion (selection)9 Confronting the Problem of Evil Mackie, Evil and Omnipotence (complete) Hick, Philosophy of Religion (selection)Part 3 Metaphysics 10 Idealism and Materialism Berkeley, Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous (selection) Armstrong, Naturalism, Materialism and First Philosophy (selection)11 The Mind-Body Problem Descartes, Meditations on First Philosophy (selection) Searle, Minds, Brains and Science (selection)12 Physics and Metaphysics O'Hear, Introduction to the Philosophy of Science(selection)Part 4 Personal Identity and Immortality 13 Personal Identity Hume, A Treatise of Human Nature (selection) Reid, Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man (selection) Dennett, The Origin of Selves (complete) Pali Canon (selection)14 Immortality Plato, Phaedo (selection) Penelhum, Religion and Rationality (selection)Part 5 Freedom to Choose 15 Libertarianism James, The Dilemma of Determinism (selection) Taylor, Metaphysics (selection)16 Determinism Hospers, Meaning and Free Will (selection) Skinner, Walden Two (selection)17 Compatibilism Stace, Religion and the Modern Mind (selection) Radhakrishnan, Indian Philosophy (selection)Part 6 Ethics 18 Fulfilling Human Nature Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics (selection)19 Loving God Augustine, The Morals of the Catholic Church & The City of God (selections)20 Following Natural Law Aquinas, Summa Theologiae (selection)21 Doing One's Duty Kant, Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysics of Morals (selection)22 Maximizing Utility Mill, Utilitarianism (selection)23 Turning Values Upside Down Nietzsche, Human, All Too Human & Beyond Good and Evil (selections)24 Creating Ourselves Sartre, Existentialism Is a Humanism (selection)25 Hearing the Feminine Voice Gilligan, In a Different Voice (selection) Baier, What Do Women Want in a Moral Theory? (selection)Part 7 Political and Social Philosophy 6 The State as Natural Plato, The Republic (selection) Aristotle, Politics (selection)27 The State as a Social Contract Hobbes, Philosophical Rudiments Concerning Government and Society (selection) Locke, The Second Treatise of Government (selection)28 Liberty of the Individual Mill, On Liberty (selection)29 Alienation in Capitalism Marx, Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844 (selection)30 Justice and Social Trust Rawls, A Theory of Justice (selection) Nozick, Anarchy, State, and Utopia (selection) Held, Rights and Goods (selection)31 Women in Society Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (selection) De Beauvoir, The Second Sex (selection)Conclusion: The Value of Philosophy Russell, The Problems of Philosophy (selection) Midgley, Philosophical Plumbing (selection) Glossary For Further ReadingIndex
About the Author :
Samuel Enoch Stumpf was Emeritus Professor of Philosophy and Emeritus Professor of Law at Vanderbilt University prior to his death in 1998, at the age of eighty. He earned a B.S. in Business and Finance from the University of California at Los Angeles, a B.D. in Theology from Andover Newton Theological School, and a Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of Chicago. He joined the Vanderbilt faculty in 1948 and served as Chair of the Philosophy Department from 1952 to 1967. After a five-year term as President of Cornell College, Professor Stumpf returned to Vanderbilt, where he remained until his retirement in 1984. Professor Stumpf's publications include Democratic Manifesto (1954), Morality and the Law (1966), and four McGraw-Hill textbooks: Socrates to Sartre: A History of Philosophy (1966; 6th ed., posthumous, 1999); Philosophical Readings: Selected Problems (1971; 4th ed., 1994); Philosophy: History and Problems (1971; 5th ed., 1994); and Elements of Philosophy: An Introduction (1979; 3rd ed., 1993). Donald C. Abel is Professor of Philosophy at St. Norbert College in De Pere, Wisconsin. He holds a B.A. in Philosophy from Gonzaga University, an M.A. in Philosophy from Tulane University, a Ph.L. in Philosophy from St. Michael's Institute, an M.Div. in Theology from Loyola University of Chicago, and a Ph.D. in Philosophy from Northwestern University. He is the author of Freud on Instinct and Morality (1989), Theories of Human Nature: Classical and Contemporary Readings (McGraw-Hill, 1992), and Fifty Readings in Philosophy (McGraw-Hill, 1994). Professor Abel also edits Discourses, the philosophy section of Primis, McGraw-Hill's electronic database for publishing customized textbooks. He has received two awards for excellence in teaching, and an award for outstanding scholarship. He is a member of the American Philosophical Association, the American Catholic Philosophical Association, the Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy, and the Society for Philosophy and Psychology.
