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Readings on Ultimate Questions: An Introduction to Philosophy, 3rd edition

Published by Pearson (September 22, 2009) © 2010

  • Nils Ch. Rauhut Coastal Carolina University
$90.66

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Accessible and engaging, this brief and inexpensive anthology provides contemporary and classical readings in the key areas of Introductory Philosophy.

Designed to be used on its own or with its companion text, Ultimate Questions: Thinking About Philosophy 3e, this collection of readings covers the major topic areas in philosophy: Knowledge; Free Will; Personal Identity; Mind/Body; God; Ethics; and Political Philosophy. While focusing primarily on contemporary philosophy, it also includes many of the classic works essential to an introductory course.

o Inexpensive anthology  -  can be used on its own or bundled with the popular companion text, Ultimate Questions 3e by Nils Rauhut for less than other traditional texts plus readers.

o Contemporary readings - engage students, encourage philosophical thought, and promote lively discussion of philosophical issues and problems covered in an Introduction to Philosophy course.

o Historical readings - show the work of key figures in the history of philosophy: Plato, Spinoza, Descartes, Mill, and Kant, among others.

o Exclusive Readings - three readings on Reflective Equilibrium, Ontological Arguments, and the Concept of 'Self' in Buddhism written specifically and exclusively for this anthology.

Inclusion of excellent and accessible contemporary philosophy:        

  •     New essays by Michael Huemer, Laurence Bonjour, Robert Kane, Janet Radcliffe Richards and David DeGrazia. 
  •     These articles introduce beginning students to the way contemporary philosophers approach philosophical problems.  

Updated and revised article selections:

  •     Provide improved accessibility and better represent contemporary debates.

  •     For example, selections by Peter van Inwagen on free will and by John Searle on philosophy of mind have been replaced with clearer and more recent works by the same authors. 

New engaging and philosophically interesting material by non-philosophers.

CONTENTS

 

Preface

SECTION 1: Why Study Philosophy?
What is Enlightenment? IMMANUEL KANT
Treatise on the Emendation of the Intellect BARUCH SPINOZA
Letter to Menoeceus EPICURUS
Philosophy, a Bus Ride, and Dumb Luck ALFRED MELE
Apology PLATO
The Value of Philosophy BERTRAND RUSSELL


SECTION 2: What Do We Know?
Meditations 1 and 2 RENE DESCARTES
A Skeptic’s Manifesto MICHAEL SHERMER
The Lure of Radical Skepticism  MICHAEL HUEMER
Appearance and Reality  BERTRAND RUSSELL
An Essay Concerning Human Understanding JOHN LOCKE
A Priori Justification LAURENCE BONJOUR


SECION 3: Do We Have Free Will?
Determinism   RICHARD TAYLOR
Compatibilism W.T.STACE
Beyond Compatibilism: A Buddhist Approach to Freedom and Determinism MARK SIDERITS
The Consequence Argument PETER VAN INWAGEN
Human Freedom and the Self  RODERICK CHISHOLM
Libertarianism ROBERT KANE


SECTION 4: Is There an Enduring Self?
A Dialogue on Personal Identity and Immortality JOHN PERRY
No Self in Buddhism  RONALD GREEN
The Judaic-Christian Conception of the Person  JOHN HICK
A Critique of Locke’s Theory of Personal Identity  THOMAS REID
Brain Transplants and Personal Identity DEREK PARFIT andGODFREY VESEY
Where Am I?   DANIEL DENNETT
Feminist Perspectives on the Self   DIANA MEYERS


SECTION 5: WHAT IS the Mind?

They’re Made out of Meat   TERRY BISSON
An Argument for Dualism from “Alcibiades I” PLATO
A Critique of Dualism  PAUL CHURCHLAND
A Defense of Dualism  JOHN FOSTER
Philosophical Behaviorism JOHN HEIL 
The Nature of Mind  DAVID ARMSTRONG
Mad Pain and Martian Pain DAVID LEWIS
Arguments against Functionalism JOHN R. SEARLE


SECTION 6: Does God Exist?
The Evidential Value of Religious Experience D.E. TRUEBLOOD
The Five Ways    ST. THOMAS AQUINAS
The Ontological Argument  NILS RAUHUT
The Cosmological Argument  RICHARD TAYLOR
A Debate on the Cosmological Argument F.C. COPELSTON and BERTRAND RUSSELL
Molecular Machines:  Experimental Support for the Design Inference MICHAEL J. BEHE
Born-Again Creationism  PHILIP KITCHER
Pascal’s Wager   GEORGE SCHLESINGER
The Problem of Evil   B.C. JOHNSON
Why God Allows Evil   RICHARD SWINBURNE
The Ethics of Belief   WILLIAM CLIFFORD
The Will to Believe   WILLIAM JAMES
Male-Chauvinist Religion  DEBORAH MATHIEU 

 

SECTION 7: What Ought We To Do?

The Objective Basis of Morality THOMAS NAGEL
Relativism    JANET RADCLIFFE RICHARDS
Must God’s Commands Conform to Moral Standards? JAMES RACHELS
Reflective Equilibrium  ROBERT BASS
The Principle of Utility  JEREMY BENTHAM
Push-Pin and Poetry   JEREMY BENTHAM
Higher and Lower Pleasure     JOHN STUART MILL
Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals IMMANUEL KANT
Maria von Herbert’s Challenge to Kant RAE LANGTON
Nicomachean Ethics   ARISTOTLE
Regarding the Last Frontier of Bigotry       DAVID DEGRAZIA
Do Animals Have Rights?   CARL COHEN
The Case for Gay Marriage  MICHAEL NAVA and ROBERT DAWIDOFF
The Case Against Gay Marriage MANUEL A. LOPEZ  

Nils Ch. Rauhut studied philosophy and history at the University of Regensburg (Germany). He received an M.A. degree in philosophy from the University of Colorado at Boulder, and a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Washington in Seattle. He taught at Weber State University in Ogden, Utah, and he is currently teaching at Coastal Carolina University in Conway, South Carolina.

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