Uncommon sense : the strangest ideas from the smartest philosophers / Andrew Pessin.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Pessin, Andrew, 1962-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Philosophy--History.

Philosophy.

History.

Philosophers.

Physical Description:

ix, 223 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Lanham, Md. : Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, [2012]

Contents:

1 More Than What Meets the Eye: There's more to the world than what you see-or even could see / Plato (429 BCE-347 BCE) Plato, (429 BCE-347 BCE) 7

2 Neither You Will nor You Won't: Some ordinary statements about the future are neither true nor false / Aristotle (384 BCE-322 BCE) Aristotle, (384 BCE-322 BCE) 19

3 Forced to Be Free: You act freely despite the fact that you are caused to do perhaps everything you do, by events ultimately out of your control / Augustine (354 CE-430 CE) Augustine, (354 CE-430 CE) 31

4 God Is Not Just a Good Idea: You can prove the existence of God merely by thinking about God / Anselm (1033-1109) Anselm, (1033-1109) 43

5 Keeps Going, and Going, and Going... or Not?: The universe has either always existed, infinitely far back in time, or else had a first moment of creation-take your pick / Maimonides (1138-1204) Maimonides, (1138-1204) 55

6 God Has Not Been on Vacation Since the Original Creation: God didn't merely create the universe at the beginning but continuously re-creates it at every moment / Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) Aquinas, Thomas, (1225-1274) 67

7 "A Monstrous Thesis": Animals entirely lack thoughts, feelings, and sensations and instead are merely mindless automatons / René Descartes (1596-1650) Descartes, René, (1596-1650) 79

8 True Colors: Physical objects, such as bodies, are not really colored. Rather, colors exist only in the minds of the perceivers / John Locke (1632-1704) Locke, John, (1632-1704) 91

9 On Honoring Leeks and Onions: No ordinary things, such as minds and bodies, have any causal powers. Instead, God Himself directly causes everything that occurs / Nicolas Malebranche (1638-1715) Malebranche, Nicolas, (1638-1715) 103

10 Synchronicity: Each thing in the universe runs entirely on its own internal program, in perfectly coordinated harmony with every other thing-with no causal interactions between them / G. W. Leibniz (1646-1716) Leibniz, G. W., (1646-1716) 113

11 To Be Is to Perceive or Be Perceived: There is no physical world: all that exists are minds and their perceptions / George Berkeley (1685-1753) Berkeley, George, (1685-1753) 123

12 Stercus Accidit: Nothing can be explained, and you can't even make reasonable predictions about anything that will happen-even in the next few seconds / David Hume (1711-1776) Hume, David, (1711-1776) 135

13 Philosopher, Psychologist-Antichrist?: Pretty much everything we believe about morality is false / Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) Nietzsche, Friedrich, (1844-1900) 147

14 Time Does Not Fly Even When You're Having Fun: The passage of time is merely an illusion: in fact, time is not real / John McTaggart (1866-1925) McTaggart, John, (1866-1925) 159

15 The Voice in My Head Is Speaking Nonsense: There could be no such thing as a meaningful private language / Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951) Wittgenstein, Ludwig, (1889-1951) 183

16 Thinking Outside the (Cranial) Box: Thoughts are not, strictly speaking inside the head / Hilary Putnam (b. 1926) Putnam, Hilary, (b. 1926) 195

17 The Incredulous Stare: There are other possible worlds-literally / David Lewis (1941-2001) Lewis, David, (1941-2001) 195

18 Mind and Matter, Together Again at Last (Sort of)!: Conscious experience is associated with every physical process, all the way down to the subatomic level: mind is everywhere matter is, even down there / Thomas Nagel (b. 1937) Nagel, Thomas, (b. 1937), David Chalmers (b. 1966) Chalmers, David, (b. 1966) 207.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781442216082

1442216085

9781442216105

1442216107

OCLC:

777327385