Philosophy for dummies / by Tom Morris.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Morris, Thomas V.

Series:

--For dummies

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Philosophy.

Physical Description:

xxii, 361 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Foster City, CA : IDG Books Worldwide, [1999]

Summary:

If you think philosophy is complicated or boring, think again! In this refreshingly different guide, author Tom Morris not only explains philosophical fundamentals, but shows you how philosophy can help you find more meaning in life, understand religious belief, and look at the world in a whole new light.

Contents:

What You're Not to Read 5

Foolish Assumptions 5

Icons Used in This Book 8

Where to Go from Here 9

Part I What Is Philosophy, Anyway? 11

Chapter 1 Great Thinkers, Deep Thoughts 13

A Few Nuts Spice the Cake 13

Socrates on the Examination that Counts 16

The Questions We'll Ask 18

Chapter 2 Philosophy as an Activity 21

Outward Bound for the Mind 21

Mapping Our Way Forward 22

The Extreme Power of Belief 23

The image of Plato's Cave 25

The philosophical Houdini 25

Chapter 3 The Love of Wisdom 27

The Triple-A Skill Set of Philosophy 27

Paralysis without analysis 28

The skill of assessment 29

The use of argument 31

Wisdom Rules 34

The Socratic Quest for Wisdom 37

Part II How Do We Know Anything? 39

Chapter 4 Belief, Truth, and Knowledge 41

Our Beliefs about Belief 41

The Importance of Belief 43

The Ideal of Knowledge 44

The truth about truth 46

The complete definition of knowledge 48

Truth and rationality 49

Chapter 5 The Challenge of Skepticism 53

The Ancient Art of Doubt 54

Incredible Questions We Cannot Answer 56

The questions of source skepticism 57

The questions of radical skepticism 62

What the skeptics show us 65

Doubting Your Doubts 65

Where Do We Go from Here? 66

Chapter 6 The Amazing Reality of Basic Beliefs 67

The Foundations of Knowledge 68

Empiricism and rationalism 68

The foundations of knowledge 69

Evidentialism 70

The Principle of Belief Conservation 72

Belief conservation and radical skepticism 73

Belief conservation and source skepticism 74

The basic status of belief conservation 75

Evidentialism refuted and revised 76

William James on Precursive Faith 77

Leaps of Faith 80

Part III What Is the Good? 81

Chapter 7 What Is Good? 83

A Basic Approach to Ethics and Morality 84

Defining the Good in the Context of Life 85

Three Views on Evaluative Language 86

The philosophy of noncognitivism: The boo/yay theory 86

Ethical subjectivism 88

Moral objectivism 90

Objectivism and the moral skeptic 91

Teleological Target Practice 92

Chapter 8 Happiness, Excellence, and the Good Life 95

Memo to the Modern World 95

The Idea of Good: A Short Course in Options 96

Divine Command Theory 96

Social Contract Theory 97

Utilitarianism 98

Deontological Theory 98

Sociobiological Theory 99

Virtue Theory 100

Four Dimensions of Human Experience 101

The intellectual dimension 102

The aesthetic dimension 105

The moral dimension 107

The spiritual dimension 108

The Ultimate Context of Good 110

Chapter 9 Ethical Rules and Moral Character 111

Commandments, Rules, and Loopholes 112

The Golden Rule and what it means 114

The precise role of The Golden Rule 115

Character, Wisdom, and Virtue 116

Can Goodness Be Taught? 120

What am I?

A test of character 121

What should I do?

A test of action 121

The answer to our question 122

Part IV Are We Ever Really Free? 123

Chapter 10 Fate, Destiny, and You 125

The Importance of Free Will 125

Foreseeing the Future: The Theological Challenge to Freedom 127

What Will Be Will Be: The Logical Challenge to Freedom 131

Robots and Cosmic Puppetry: The Scientific Challenge to Freedom 133

Chapter 11 Standard Views of Freedom 135

God, Logic, and Free Will 135

The Theological Challenge answered 135

The Logical Challenge answered 137

The Modern Scientific Challenge 138

Scientific Determinists 139

Libertarians 139

Compatibilism 140

Which approach is the right one? 142

Chapter 12 Just Do It: Human Agency in the World 143

Some Wisdom about Freedom 143

The Big Picture 144

How to Be an Agent and Get More than 15 Percent 146

Part V The Incredible, Invisible You 149

Chapter 13 What Is a Person? 151

Guitars, Ghosts, and People 151

Glimpses of the Mind 152

Philosophical Views of the Person 154

Monism 155

Dualism 155

The Contenders 159

Interactionism 159

Epiphenomenalism 160

Parallelism 161

Narrowing the Options 161

Chapter 14 The Case for Materialism 163

The Positive Arguments 164

The man-is-an-animal argument 164

The artificial intelligence argument 166

The brain chemistry argument 167

The Negative Arguments 168

The superfluity argument 168

The mystery objection 170

The problem of other minds 172

A Verdict on the Materialist Case 173

Chapter 15 The Case for Dualism 175

The Natural Belief in Dualism 175

I'm a Soul Man 177

The introspection argument 177

The discernibility argument 178

The Cartesian argument 180

The Platonic argument 181

The parapsychology argument 181

The need for evidence 184

Part VI What's the Deal with Death? 185

Chapter 16 From Dust to Dust: Fear and the Void 187

The Final Exit and the Four Fears 188

Fear of the process of dying 191

Fear of punishment 192

Fear of the unknown 194

Fear of annihilation 195

Chapter 17 Philosophical Consolations on Death 197

Don't Worry, Be Happy 198

The stoic response to fear of the process 198

The natural process argument 199

The Necessity Argument 200

The Agnostic Argument 201

The Two Eternities Argument 202

Epicurus' argument 203

Materialist Conceptions of "Immortality" 205

Social immortality 206

Cultural immortality 206

Cosmic immortality 207

Scientific immortality 208

Chapter 18 Is There Life After Death? 211

Philosophical Doubts and Denials 211

The psychological origin argument 212

The silence argument 214

The trumpet analogy argument 215

The brain damage argument 217

Arguments for Survival 219

Plato's indestructibility argument 219

Then nature analogy argument 220

The argument from desire 222

Moral arguments 224

The Light at the End of the Tunnel 226

Claims of former lives 226

Apparent contact with the dead 227

Near-death experiences 227

Part VII Is There a God? 231

Chapter 19 Two World Views 233

The Lost Beach Ball 233

The Great Divide 236

The mainline theistic world view 239

The naturalistic world view 240

How the two world views compare 241

The Great Debate 242

Chapter 20 Theistic Visions 243

The Ontological Argument 243

Cosmology and God 246

A Designer Universe? 254

Religious Experience 258

Chapter 21 The Problem of Evil 261

Expectations of Theism 261

The Argument from Evil 263

The main argument against theism 263

The alleged incompatibility of God and evil 264

Moral justification for allowing evil 265

Moral justification and the atheist's argument 267

The theist's claim 268

The Great Theodicies 269

The punishment theodicy 270

The free will theodicy 271

The soul-making theodicy 273

A fourth combination theodicy 277

The Element of Mystery 277

Part VIII The Meaning of Life 279

Chapter 22 What Is the Meaning of Life? 281

The Questions We Can Ask 281

Meaning and This World 285

Nihilism: The ultimate negativity 286

The do-it-yourself-approach to the meaning of life 288

God and Meaning 290

Chapter 23 Pascal's Wager: Betting Your Life 293

Blaise Pascal: Philosopher-Genius 293

The Wager 295

Criticisms of the Wager 299

The immorality objection 300

The probability assignment objection 301

The many claimants objection 302

The single case objection 304

Choosing a World View Right for You 305

Chapter 24 Success and Happiness in Life 307

What is Enough? The Race for More 307

True Success 311

The Universal Conditions of Success 314

A clear conception of what we want, a vivid vision, a goal clearly imagined 315

A strong confidence that we can attain that goal 316

A focused concentration on what it takes to reach the goal 317

A stubborn consistency in pursuing our vision 318

An emotional commitment to the importance of what we're doing 318

A good character to guide us and keep

us on a proper course 319

A capacity to enjoy the process along the way 320

A Concluding Note on Happiness 321

Part IX The Part of Tens 323

Chapter 25 Ten Great Philosophers 325

Socrates 325

Plato 326

Aristotle 327

Saint Thomas Aquinas 328

William of Ockham 328

Rene Descartes 329

Immanuel Kant 330

G.W.F. Hegel 331

Soren Kierkegaard 332

Bertrand Russell 333

Chapter 26 Ten Great Questions 335

Is Philosophy Practical? 335

Can We Ever Really Know Anything? 336

Is There Ultimately an Objectivity to Ethics? 337

Who Am I? 338

Is Happiness Really Possible in Our World? 339

Is There, After All, a God? 340

What Is the Good Life? 341

Why Is So Much Suffering in the World? 342

If a Tree Falls in the Forest 343

Bishop Berkeley speaks 344

What's Stronger in Human Life, Rationality or Irrationality? 345.

Notes:

Includes index.

ISBN:

0764551531

OCLC:

42447833