There Are Two Errors In The The Title of This Book: A Sourcebook of Philosophical Puzzles, Paradoxes, and Problems

Table of Contents:
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ABOUT THIS BOOK CHAPTER I: DIFFERENCES THAT MAKE NO DIFFERENCE 1 . THE UNANSWERABLE William James and the Squirrel Empty Questions More Empties Something or Nothing? 2 . YOU CAN NEVER TELL Double or Nothing? The Right-Handed Universe Fake Antiques 3 . SENSATIONAL PROBLEMS Mildred’s Peculiar Sensations Another Inversion in Mildred The Cheezy Puzzle Taste-Tests 4 . THE TRUE AND THE USEFUL It’s Practically True What’s So Good about True Beliefs Anyway? INTO THE MAINSTREAM OF PHILOSOPHY CHAPTER II: GOD 1 . RELIGIOUS BELIEF The Invisible Gardener Industrial Prayer The Anti-Flu Flight I Believe in One Outpouring of Existence Itself Religious Truths (1) Divine Geology (2) One Hell of a Rainstorm Faith Brainless Spirituality The Philosophy Poll 2 . GOD’S DIFFICULTIES God Made Me Do It God Knows! God the Counterfeiter A Proof That Everything Is Hunky-Dory God When He Was a Baby The Fawn in the Fire 3 . ODDBALL THEORIES OF RELIGION How There Got to Be Only One God God Is Love? Where Heaven Came From 4 . PROVING THE EXISTENCE OF GOD God as the Tortoise on the Bottom The Miracle on the Expressway Unusual Arguments for God’s Existence Miraculous Evidence I Believe in Love God and the Printing-Factory Explosion 5. BETTING ON GOD Why Believing in God Is a Good Bet Why Believing in God Is Not a Good Bet 6 . WHAT IF THERE ISN’T ANY GOD? INTO THE MAINSTREAM OF PHILOSOPHY CHAPTER III : TAKING CHANCES 1. SOME PROBABLE FACTS Rosencrantz Flips a Coin to be or not to xq Another Surprising Sequence You’re On a Roll! Why We’re All Nasty Psychic Powers in Your Classroom Your Extraordinary Ancestors How Many Ancestors Do You Have? The Miracle of You 2 . SOME PROBABILITY SURPRISES One-Third of Two How to Play Russian Roulette Happy Birthday Dear You-Two 3 . UNHEALTHY MISTAKES Canada’s Colonic Sweetheart Hazards to Your Mental Health Guess the Percentages Sweinfeld: The Epidemic about Nothing 4. YOU’RE WRONG The Trouble with Taxis The Basketball Blunder Better Pay or Worse? Why It’s Not Certain That You’ll Be in a Plane Crash Predicting Priscilla INTO THE MAINSTREAM OF PHILOSOPHY CHAPTER IV: MAKING CHOICES : Decision Theory 1 . LOTTERIES AND OTHER GAMBLES The Proof That Lots of People Are Crazy or Stupid A Good Lottery Strategy How to Go Home a Winner 2 . GETTING MONTY’S GOAT The Monty Hall Paradox In Which I Try to Convince You That I’m Right Pigeon Reasoning 3 . MORE PROBABILITY PUZZLES The Paradox of the Three Prisoners The Other Envelope Is Always Better The Sleeping Beauty Conundrum Paradoxical Babies 4 . PREFERENCES AND VOTING Why You Shouldn’t Vote Fred’s Confusing Preferences How Not to Choose a Movie How to Win at Dice Rock, Scissors, Paper 5 . SLIPPING DOWN THE SLOPE The Elusive Wine-Bottle Why You Should Always Have Another Glass of Beer Why Everyone Is Poor INTO THE MAINSTREAM OF PHILOSOPHY CHAPTER V: LOGIC AND PARADOX 1 . THE ILLOGIC OF ENGLISH “Or” Confusions Nothing If Not Complicated “The” Confusions Much Ado about Nothing The Messy Counterfactual 2 . THINKING IN CIRCLES The Divine Circle There’s Always a Catch The Münchhausen Trilemma 3 . THE UNSPOKEN IMPLICATION It Never Turns Blue Either Has the Present King of France Stopped Robbing Banks? 4 . IMPOSSIBLE SURPRISES The Surprise Quiz That Never Happens Why You Can’t Pick Any Number The Surprising Meatloaf Why All Numbers Are Interesting 5 . PARADOXES OF SELF - REFERENCE The Non-Existent Barber The Trouble with Adjectives The Troublesome Statement in the Box A Silly Proof of God’s Existence Self-Referential Jokes On Being a Member of Yourself This Is Not the Title of This Item There Are Two Errors 6 . OH NO! MORE SILLY PROOFS OF GOD’S EXISTENCE! The Universal Prover God Knows That He Exists 7. ZENO’S PARADOXES The Speedy Tortoise The Runner Who Never Gets to the Finish Supertask: Able to Leap Short Time-Intervals How to Finish an Autobiography Thinking about Changing? There’s a Lot to Do. INTO THE MAINSTREAM OF PHILOSOPHY CHAPTER VI : BELIEF, LOGIC, AND INTENTIONS 1 . BELIEVE IT OR NOT Why You Should Never Change Your Mind The Zen of Chicken-Sexing Be Careful What You Believe Knowing Nothing about Birds The Hobgoblin of Little Minds You’ll Believe Just Anything Impossible Beliefs 2 . IT HAS TO BE TRUE Descartes’s Thought The Unexamined Life A Guaranteed True Belief 3 . SELF-FULFILLING/SELF-DEFEATING The Power of Positive Thinking How to Fail at Baseball The Pursuit of Happiness Fooling Yourself Sorry, I’m Not Free Right Now 4 . MENTAL IMPOTENCE Believe or I’ll Shoot! How to Intend to Kick Your Cat INTO THE MAINSTREAM OF PHILOSOPHY CHAPTER VII : GOOD AND BAD REASONING 1 . THOUGHT - TRAPS FOR THE UNWARY The Price of a Ball Splitting Up the Diamonds The Disappearing Dollar Free Beer Nobody Works at All The Disappearing Day Who’s Looking? The Jelly-Bean Peculiarity The General Makes Some Bad Choices More Math Troubles His Father’s Son The Card Mistake Roses and Mice 2 . THE REASONING OF OTHER CULTURES AND PAST CULTURES Azande Witches Camels in Germany If We Had Three Nostrils, Would There Be Eight Planets? Nobody Could Be That Wrong Charity for All? Warning for Tourists: Watch Out for Extreme Politeness 3 . THINKING IN GROOVES Ungroovy Thinking (1) The Boy with Two Fathers (2) How to Win a Camel Anti-Race (3) Thinking Straight about Roman Numerals (4) Reducing Speeding Violations (5) Smashing a Fly (6) The Enormous Tiddly-Wink Tournament (7) Notes from the Underground Thinking Outside the Box Getting Out of the Box The the Title of This Book The Mushroom Hunt INTO THE MAINSTREAM OF PHILOSOPHY CHAPTER VIII : LEARNING FROM EXPERIENCE 1 . WHAT’S KNOWLEDGE? Justification Lucy the Baseball Oracle Galileo as Scientist Kekulé’s Dream 2 . SCEPTICAL DOUBTS AND PUZZLES Life Is But a Dream The Stuff That Dreams Are Made On The Brain in a Vat What Pink Socks Tell You about Ravens Something Even Worse about Pink Socks Ravens in Rutland Chicken Induction How Long Will This Keep Going On? The Inevitability of Scientific Error: Another Circle Dunno No Future to Know 3 . SCIENTIFIC SURPRISES The Depressing Sample Your Popular Friends 4 . SCIENTIFIC MISTAKES Bad Predictions The Board of Miseducation True Scotsmen 5 . CAUSE AND EFFECT Cause and Correlation The Tickle Defence 6 . SCIENCE AND NON - Too Good to Be True I Dreamed That Would Happen! Is It a Boy or a Girl? The Wisdom of the Noble Savage The Wisdom of the Dumbest Yokel INTO THE MAINSTREAM OF PHILOSOPHY CHAPTER IX : KNOWING WITHOUT EXPERIENCE 1 . THE A PRIORI AND DEFINITIONS Why Your Sisters Are Female Truth “By Definition” The Dictionary with Very Few Definitions Sisters without Language Honest Abe and the Sheep The Disappearing Planet 2 . CONCEPTUAL TRUTHS I Forget What I Saw Before I Was Born More on Conceptual Existence 3 . THE SYNTHETIC A PRIORI The Incompetent Repairman Kant on the Synthetic A Priori Nothing Made That Happen The Butterfly That Destroyed Oakland The Tribe without Arithmetic 7 + 5 ≠ 12 The Numbers Made Me Believe That Bizarre Triangles Discovered in Space 4 . A PRIORI SCIENCE Bad Physics The Infinity of Space Why It’s Dark at Night Thinking about Falling The Shadow Knows The Mirror Problem More Thoughts about Falling INTO THE MAINSTREAM OF PHILOSOPHY CHAPTER X : THINKING, SAYING, AND MEANING : The Philosophy of Mind and of Language 1 . THINKING MACHINES Could a Machine Think? Artificial Insanity The Turing Test How to Think Like a Computer Don’t Try This Recipe at Home, Kids! A Robot Has Feelings, Too The Mystery of Meat Let’s Not Get Physical What Zombies Tell Us Mildred Again The Material Girl (and Boy) The Astonishing Hypothesis Angels and Superman Believing in Angels Why Picnics Don’t Obey the Laws of Physics 2 . THE THOUGHTS OF ANIMALS Dog-Zombies Fido’s Logic Fido’s Mendacity Language Requirements? 3 . MEANING What Could They Have Meant? Saying What You Don’t Mean Thinking about Vienna The Incredible Swampman Thinking about Santa Claus INTO THE MAINSTREAM OF PHILOSOPHY CHAPTER XI : HERE AND NOW; YOU NDI 1 . TIME TRAVEL Not Killing Grandpa Meeting Yourself UFOs Contain Visitors from Planet Earth Time Travel and the End of Humanity 2 . WHEN , WHERE , AND WHO Telling Space Aliens What Day It Is I’m Here Now Fred Finds Himself in the Library What Two Gods Don’t Know 3 . THE IDENTITY OF THINGS Two Ways to Be the Same The Same Lump The Identity of My University The Disappearing Boat Three Odd Buildings (1) The Gold Pavilion Temple (2) The Hôtel de Glace (3) The Ugly Apartment House Puzzling Rivers in Klopstokia 4 . THE IDENTITY OF ANIMALS AND PEOPLE My Organism Is Bigger than Yours Rover and Clover The Adventures of Amoeba-Man Getting Someone Else’s Body Keeping Your Own Body Two Places Are Better than One What It Takes to Be in Heaven 5 . IDENTITY AND ESSENCE What Makes You You What Makes Us Us INTO THE MAINSTREAM OF PHILOSOPHY CHAPTER XII : WHY SHOULD I BE MORAL? 1 . WHAT’S IN IT FOR ME? Change for a Dollar The Ring of Gyges Rationality 2 . RELATIVISM AND REALISM Finger-Lickin’ Good and Evil It’s All Relative Can Ethics Be Taught? The Gurgling Wave When God Tells You to Do Evil Biblical Guides to Conduct 3 . THE PRISONER’S DILEMMA A Deal for the Prisoners The Tragedy of the Commons Coca-Cola Morality Why We Should Hire a Dictator Why People in Small Towns are Nicer Toucha Smasha 4 . THE PARADOX OF DETERRENCE Bombing the Russians When It’s Sane to Be Crazy The Swerving Chicken INTO THE MAINSTREAM OF PHILOSOPHY CHAPTER XIII : HOW TO THINK MORALLY 1 . JUSTICE AND DISTRIBUTION Why You Should Give Away Your Shoes Sell Whatsoever Thou Hast, and Give to the Rich Why You Don’t Have to Give Away Your Shoes Your Shoes and Your “Families” Supererogatory Acts Schadenfreude 2 . PUNISHMENT Getting Back at Eichmann Making a Statement Closure The Paradox of Punishment 3 . RIGHTS AND WRONGS Push-Pin Anyone? When Promise-Breaking Is Obligatory Don’t Torture That Baby! How to Prevent Crime Rights vs. Utility Special Today on Life: Only $2199.91/Day The Price of Life in Europe INTO THE MAINSTREAM OF PHILOSOPHY CHAPTER XIV: MORAL CONUNDRUMS 1 . GETTING WHAT YOU WANT Past and Future Desires Harming and Benefitting the Dead What Happens to Somebody Who Is Hardly Me How to Get What You Want Electronic Pleasure 2 . RELATIONSHIPS WITH OTHER PEOPLE I’m Gonna Buy a Plastic Doll That I Can Call My Own Replaceable People in Literature 3 . YUK Hello Dolly! Frankensurgery Canine Disrespect The Yuck Factor 4 . ACTING AND REFRAINING Two Ways to Kill Granny Moral Technology Ten-to-One Dilemmas How to Get Organ Donors How to Assault a Police Officer by Doing Nothing Poor Joshua! The Bad Samaritan INTO THE MAINSTREAM OF PHILOSOPHY CHAPTER XV: LAW, ACTION, AND RESPONSIBILITY 1 . WHY IS THAT ILLEGAL? Blackmailing Letterman How Not to Sell Ice in Alberta 2 . TWILIGHT - ZONE LEGISLATION Legislating π Some Unusual Laws 3 . WHEN RULES COLLIDE The Immigration Collision Trapped in the Airport 4 . PROBLEMS FOR JUDGES The Messier Contract What Do Judges Do? 5 . PROBLEMS ABOUT ACTIONS Why You Don’t Drive When You’re Drunk The Lucky Murderer A Time and a Place for Murder 6 . CANS AND CAN’TS Can Pierre Keep His Promise? Ought But Can’t? Saving Ought Implies Can What You Can’t Do The Incapable Golfer No Absolution for Pierre 7. FREE WILL I Just Had to Do It Freedom as Uncaused Action An Unfree Ass Freedom as Irrationality The Unpredictable Dealer Compatibilism The Evil Physiologist INTO THE MAINSTREAM OF PHILOSOPHY CHAPTER XVI : DEEP THOUGHTS Wisdom Cheer Sub Specie Aeternitatis Doubt BIBLIOGRAPHY DISCLAIMER

About the Author :
Robert M. Martin is Professor of Philosophy (retired), Dalhousie University.

Review :
“The sorts of questions Martin deals with range from the sublime (is it possible to prove the existence of the world outside your own mind?) to the ridiculous (what’s the best strategy to win at Let’s Make A Deal?), but all are aimed at giving his audience the tools they need to look clearly at complex problems, and distinguish false problems from real ones. Those are skills we all need, especially if we’re not very good at common sense, and that, along with Martin’s enthusiasm and sense of humour, makes this a perfect book for anyone who likes to think.” — Alex Rettie, reviewed in Alberta Views (October 2012) “In this delightful little book Bob Martin has made philosophy both exciting and fun. I’ve recommended earlier editions to all my first-year students, and I’ve gifted it to people aged 12 to 80. Everyone loves it. Philosophy is a collection of puzzles, and Martin covers pretty much all of them, in digestible snippets. If one doesn’t grab you, there’ll be ten more that do.” — Paul Viminitz, University of Lethbridge “I’ve used this book in teaching Critical Thinking, but really it’s for me. It’s useful and fun, and it reminds me why I love philosophy.” — Ben Caplan, Ohio State University “A wonderful book. Martin presents a wealth of puzzles, paradoxes and jokes, more than ever before, in this new and updated third edition. Frequently these raise significant philosophical issues, which are thus introduced in a natural and interesting way. This is a superb text for stimulating students’ interest and showing them how much sheer fun can be had from doing philosophy.” — Adam Rieger, University of Glasgow Comments on a previous edition “Demonstrates in interesting ways the connections between these puzzles and the great issues that philosophers have debated.” — Peter van Inwagen, Syracuse University “It will serve as an irresistible enticement to philosophical reflection.” — Geoffrey Sayre-McCord, University of North Carolina