Problems from Philosophy

This introduction to philosophy guides students through great philosophical problems, such as the existence of God, the nature of the mind, human freedom, the limits of knowledge, and the truth about ethics.

The book begins by reflecting on the life of the first great philosopher, Socrates. Then it takes up the fundamental question of whether God exists. Next comes a discussion of death and the soul, which leads to a chapter about persons. The later chapters consider whether objective knowledge is possible in science and ethics.
Problems from Philosophy represents the final work of philosopher James Rachels. In it, he brings the same liveliness and clarity to the introduction of philosophy present in his other best-selling books. Problems from Philosophy has been revised by James Rachels’ son Stuart, who has carefully refined his father’s work to further strengthen its clarity and accessibility.
The fifth edition features a new chapter on government and new content on AI and large language models in the chapter "Can a Machine Think?"

Preface
About the Fifth Edition

1. The Legacy of Socrates
1.1. Why Was Socrates Condemned?
1.2. Why Did Socrates Believe He Had to Die?

2. God and the Origin of the Universe
2.1. Is It Reasonable to Believe in God?
2.2. The Argument from Design
2.3. Evolution and Intelligent Design
2.4. The First Cause Argument
2.5. The Idea That God Is a Necessary Being

3. The Problem of Evil
3.1. Why Do Good People Suffer?
3.2. God and Evil
3.3. Free Will and Moral Character

4. Do We Survive Death?
4.1. The Idea of an Immortal Soul
4.2. Is There Any Credible Evidence of an Afterlife?
4.3. Hume’s Argument against Miracles

5. The Problem of Personal Identity
5.1. The Problem
5.2. Personhood at a Time
5.3. Personhood over Time
5.4. Bodily Continuity
5.5. Memory

6. Body and Mind
6.1. Descartes and Elizabeth
6.2. Materialist Theories of the Mind
6.3. Doubts about Materialist Theories

7. Could a Machine Think?
7.1. Brains and Computers
7.2. An Argument That Machines Could Think
7.3. The Turing Test
7.4. From Eliza to LLMs
7.5. Why the Turing Test Fails

8. The Case against Free Will
8.1. Are People Responsible for What They Do?
8.2. Determinism
8.3. Psychology
8.4. Genes and Behavior

9. The Debate over Free Will
9.1. The Experience of Freedom
9.2. The Scientific Challenge to Free Will
9.3. Libertarianism
9.4. Compatibilism
9.5. Does It Matter if We Lack Free Will?

10. Our Knowledge of the World around Us
10.1. Vats and Demons
10.2. Idealism
10.3. What Evidence for These Views Might Be Like
10.4. Descartes’ Theological Response
10.5. Direct vs. Indirect Realism
10.6. Vision and the Brain
10.7. Conclusion

11. Ethics and Objectivity
11.1. Thrasymachus’ Challenge
11.2. Is Ethics Just a Matter of Social Conventions?
11.3. Ethics and Science
11.4. The Importance of Human Interests

12. Why Should We Be Moral?
12.1. The Ring of Gyges
12.2. Ethics and Religion
12.3. Kant on Rationality and Respect
12.4. The Social Contract
12.5. Morality and Benevolence
12.6. Conclusion

13. Government
13.1 A Parable
13.2. The Problem of Political Authority
13.3. Four Proposed Solutions
13.4. Forms of Government
13.5. Political Philosophies
13.6 The Authoritarian Threat
13.7 Imperfections in American Democracy

14. The Meaning of Life
14.1. The Problem of the Point of View
14.2. Happiness
14.3. Death
14.4. Religion and the Indifferent Universe
14.5. The Meaning of Particular Lives

Appendix: How to Evaluate Arguments

Notes on Sources
Index

About the Authors

James Rachels was Professor of Philosophy at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, USA. He wrote The End of Life: Euthanasia and Morality, Created from Animals: The Moral Implications of Darwinism, Can Ethics Provide Answers? And Other Essays in Moral Philosophy, Problems from Philosophy, and The Legacy of Socrates: Essays in Moral Philosophy.
Stuart Rachels retired from teaching philosophy in 2024. He has revised several of James Rachels’ books, including The Elements of Moral Philosophy and The Right Thing to Do. He also wrote The Best I Saw in Chess: Games, Stories and Instruction from an Alabama Prodigy Who Became U.S. Champion.