Philosophic Classics: From Plato to Derrida: (Philosophic Classics)

Philosophic Classics: From Plato to Derrida includes essential writings of the most important philosophers from almost two millennia of Western philosophy. In updating this Seventh Edition, editor Forrest E. Baird has continued to follow the same criteria established by the late-Walter Kaufmann when the Philosophic Classics series was first established: (1) to use complete works or, where more appropriate, complete sections of works (2) in clear translations (3) of texts central to each thinker’s philosophy or widely accepted as part of the "canon." To make the works more accessible to students, most footnotes treating textual matters (variant readings, etc.) have been omitted and important words from antiquity have been transliterated and put in angle brackets. In addition, each thinker is introduced by a brief essay composed of three sections: (1) biographical (a glimpse of the life), (2) philosophical (a résumé of the philosopher’s thought), and (3) bibliographical (suggestions for further reading). A timeline places important philosophers alongside other important thinkers, world leaders, and major global events. Photos and paintings with explanatory captions illuminate the ideas, debates, and places discussed in the text. New to the Seventh Edition: New translations: Plato, Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, and Phaedo; Aristotle, Nichomachean Ethics; Epicurus, Letter to Menoeceus and Principal Doctrines; Boethius, The Consolation of Philosophy; Anselm, Proslogion; Giovanni Pico Della Mirandola, Oration on the Dignity of Man; René Descartes, Correspondence with Princess Elizabeth; Gottfried Leibniz, Monadology; Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract; Immanuel Kant, Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics and Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals Additional material: Porphyry’s Life of Plotinus (in part); Francis Bacon, Aphorisms (selections from Novum Organum); Karl Marx, Theses on Feuerbach; A.J. Ayer, Language, Truth, and Logic (in part) Updated, annotated bibliographies with each bibliography now broken into two sections, one for beginning and another for advanced students.

Table of Contents:
Preface Timeline PART I: ANCIENT GREEK PHILOSOPHY Socrates and Plato Euthyphro Apology Crito Phaedo (72c–83e, 114e–118b) Republic (Book I, 336b–342e, 347b–e; Book II, 357a–362c, 368a–376e; Book III, 412b–417b; Book IV, 427c–445e; Book V, 449–462e, 473b–e; and Books VI–VII, 502c–521b) 59 Aristotle Physics (Book II, complete) Metaphysics (Book I, 1–4, 6, 9; and Book XII, 6–9) On the Soul (Book II, Chapters 1–3; and Book III, 4–5) Nicomachean Ethics (Books I–II; Book IV, 3; Books VI–VII; and Book X, 6–8) PART II: HELLENISTIC AND ROMAN PHILOSOPHY Epicurus Letter to Menoeceus Principal Doctrines Epictetus Handbook (Enchiridion) Pyrrho and Sextus Empiricus Outlines of Pyrrhonism (Book I, 1–13) Plotinus Porphyry’s Life of Plotinus (selections) Enneads (Ennead I, Tractate 6) PART III: CHRISTIANITY AND MEDIEVAL PHILOSOPHY Augustine Confessions (Book VIII, 5, 8–12; and Book XI, 14–28) City of God (Book XI, Chapter 26; and Book XII, Chapters 1–9) Boethius The Consolation of Philosophy (Book V, Chapter 6) Anselm (and Gaunilo) Proslogion (Preface; Chapters 1–4) Gaunilo and Anselm: Debate (selections) Hildegard of Bingen Scivias (Book I, Vision 4, 16–26) Moses Maimonides The Guide for the Perplexed (Part II, Introduction) Thomas Aquinas Summa Theologica (selections) William of Ockham Summa Logicae (On Universals Part I, Chapters 14–16) Giovanni Pico della Mirandola Oration on the Dignity of Man (in part) PART IV: MODERN PHILOSOPHY Francis Bacon Novum Organum (Preface, Book I, Chapters 3-4, 7-8, 11-12, 14, 19, 22, 24-25, 31, 36, 38-44; Book II, Chapter 10) René Descartes Meditations on the First Philosophy Correspondence with Princess Elizabeth (selections) Thomas HobbesLeviathan (selections from Chapters 1–3, 6, 9, 12–15, 17–18, 21) Blaise PascalPensées (selections) Baruch SpinozaEthics (Sections I and II) John LockeAn Essay Concerning Human Understanding (abridged) Gottfried LeibnizDiscourse on MetaphysicsThe Monadology George BerkeleyThree Dialogues Between Hylas and Philonous David HumeAn Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding Jean-Jacques RousseauThe Social Contract (Book I) Immanuel KantProlegomena to Any Future MetaphysicsGroundwork of the Metaphysics of MoralsOn a Supposed Right to Lie From Altruistic Motives Mary WollstonecraftA Vindication of the Rights of Woman (Chapter 6) PART V: NINETEENTH-CENTURY PHILOSOPHY G.W.F. HegelPhenomenology of Spirit (B, IV, A: "Independence and Dependence of Self-Consciousness: Relations of Master and Servant") Lectures on the History of Philosophy ("The Final Result") John Stuart MillUtilitarianism Søren KierkegaardFear and Trembling (Problema I: "Teleological Suspension of the Ethical") Concluding Unscientific Postscript (Section II, Chapter 2, "Subjective Truth, Inwardness; Truth Is Subjectivity") Karl MarxTheses on Feuerbach Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844 ("Alienated Labor") Manifesto of the Communist Party (Chapters 1 and 2) A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy (Preface) Notes on Bakunin’s Statehood and Anarchy (selections) William JamesPragmatism (Lecture II: What Pragmatism Means) Friedrich NietzscheThe Birth of Tragedy (Chapters 1–3) The Gay Science (selections) Twilight of the Idols (selections) The Anti-Christ (First Book, 2–7, 62) PART VI: TWENTIETH-CENTURY PHILOSOPHY Edited by Hans Bynagle Edmund HusserlPhenomenology (Encyclopaedia Brittanica article) W.E.B. Du BoisThe Souls of Black Folks (Chapter 1) Bertrand RussellThe Problems of Philosophy (Chapters 1 & 15) Martin HeideggerIntroduction to Metaphysics (Chapter 1: "The Fundamental Question of Metaphysics") 1101 Ludwig WittgensteinTractatus Logico-Philosophicus (Preface Sections 1–3.1431,4, 4.06, 4.1, 5, 5.6, 6.4–7) 1131 Philosophical Investigations (Paragraphs 1–47, 65–71, 241, 257–258, 305, 309) 1139 A.J. Ayer Language, Truth and Logic (Preface and Chapter 1: "Elimination of Metaphysics") Jean-Paul SartreExistentialism Is a Humanism Simone De BeauvoirThe Second Sex (Introduction) Willard Van Orman QuineTwo Dogmas of Empiricism Jacques DerridaOf Grammatology ("The Written Being/The Being Written")

About the Author :
Forrest E. Baird was Professor of Philosophy at Whitworth University in Spokane, WA from 1978 until he retired in 2021. He taught a wide range of courses focusing on the history of Western intellectual thought as well as logic and philosophy of religion. Baird has a B.A. from Westmont College, an M.Div. from Fuller Theological Seminary, and an M.A. and Ph.D. from Claremont Graduate University. His most recent publication is How Do We Reason: An Introduction to Logic (IVP, 2021). His other works include Human Thought and Action: Readings in Western Intellectual History (UPA, 1992) and Introduction to Philosophy: A Case Study Approach (Harper & Row, 1981, co-authored with Jack Rogers).