Title: Philosophy /
Authors: Papineau, David, 1947-
Publisher: Oxford University Press,
Year: 2009
Subjects: Philosophy Introductions
Abstract: What does it mean for someone to exist? What is truth? Are we free to choose to think or act? What is consciousness? Is human cloning justifiable? These are just some of the questions philosophers have attempted to answer, striking right at the heart of what it means to be human. This important new books shows that philosophy need not be dry or intimidating. Its highly original treatment, combining philosophical analysis, historical and biographical background and thought-provoking illustrations, simultaneously informs and stimulates the reader. Western Philosophy: An Illustrated Guide is structured thematically, in terms of major issues, with chapters on World, Mind and Body, Knowledge, Faith, Ethics and Aesthetics, and Society. Cutting across this organization by theme is a parallel organization that focuses on the great thinkers and their influence, as well as the schools or "--Isms" to which they subscribed. A highly accessible introduction to the subject, founded upon impeccable academic scholarship, Western Philosophy: An Illustrated Guide offers life-changing perspectives on what really matters.
Contents: World / Tim Crane -- What is reality? -- Aristotle -- The physical world -- The supernatural -- Cause -- Hume -- Idealism -- Berkeley -- Hegel -- Phenomenology -- Truth -- Mathematics -- The infinite -- Leibniz -- Time and space -- Mind and body / Jesse Prinz -- What is the mind? -- Descartes -- Thinking -- Fodor -- Consciousness -- Feelings and emotions -- Language -- Wittgenstein -- Free will -- Spinoza -- The self -- Sanity and insanity -- Life and death -- Knowledge / Adam Morton -- What is knowledge? -- Plato -- Perception and experience -- Locke -- Scepticism -- Relativism -- Foucault -- Quine -- Logic and reasoning -- Carnap -- Induction and deduction -- Bacon -- Diderot -- Science -- Rationality -- Common sense -- Pragmatism -- Wisdom -- Faith / John Cottingham -- Is there a God? -- Aquinas -- Faith and reason -- Augustine -- Miracles -- The afterlife -- Pascal -- Atheism and agnosticism -- Pain and evil -- Voltaire -- Kierkegaard -- The meaning of life -- Ethics and aesthetics / Brenda Almond -- What is morality? -- Stoicism -- Mill -- Kant -- Lying -- Conscience -- Altruism and egoism -- Responsibility -- Moral absolutes -- Nietzsche -- Existentialism -- Sartre -- Goodness -- Love and friendship -- Sex -- Reproduction -- Animals -- Technology and nature -- Beauty -- Schopenhauer -- Art -- Taste and decency -- Society / Jonathan Woolf -- What is society? -- Authority -- Hobbes -- Democracy -- Rousseau -- Freedom -- Tradition -- Rights -- Laws -- Bentham -- Crime and punishment -- Social justice -- Rawls -- Equality -- Ownership -- Rich and poor -- Marx -- Globalization -- War.