Philosophy-The-Power-Of-Ideas-By
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Preface Chapter 1: Powerful Ideas What Is Philosophy? Misconceptions about Philosophy The Tools of Philosophy: Argument and Logic The Divisions of Philosophy The Benefits of Philosophy PART I: METAPHYSICS AND EPISTEMOLOGY: EXISTENCE AND KNOWLEDGE Chapter 2: The Pre-Socratics The Milesians Pythagoras Heraclitus and Parmenides Empedocles and Anaxagoras The Atomists Chapter 3: Socrates, Plato Socrates Plato Selection 3.1: Plato, Apology Selection 3.2: Plato, Republic Selection 3.3: Plato, Meno Chapter 4: Aristotle What Is It to Be? Actuality and Possibility Essence and Existence Ten Basic Categories The Three Souls Aristotle and the Theory of Forms Aristotle's Theory of Knowledge Logic Selection 4.1: Aristotle, Metaphysics Chapter 5: Philosophers of the Hellenistic and Christian Eras Metaphysics in the Roman Empire The Middle Ages and Aquinas Selection 5.1: St. Augustine, Confessions Chapter 6: The Rise of Modern Metaphysics and Epistemology Descartes and Dualism Hobbes and Materialism The Alternative Views of Conway, Spinoza, and Leibniz The Idealism of Locke and Berkeley Selection 6.1: René Descartes, Meditations on First Philosophy Selection 6.2: Benedictus de Spinoza, Ethics Selection 6.3: George Berkeley, Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge Chapter 7: The Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries David Hume Immanuel Kant The Nineteenth Century Selection 7.1: David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding Selection 7.2: Immanuel Kant, Critique of Pure Reason Selection 7.3: Georg Hegel, The Philosophy of History Selection 7.4: Arthur Schopenhauer, The World As Will and Representation Chapter 8: The Continental Tradition Existentialism Two Existentialists Phenomenology An Era of Suspicion Selection 8.1: Jean-Paul Sartre, Existentialism and Humanism Selection 8.2: Albert Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus Selection 8.3: Michel Foucault, The History of Sexuality Selection 8.4: Michel Foucault, Madness and Civilization Selection 8.5: Jürgen Habermas, Toward a Rational Society Selection 8.6: Richard Rorty, Philosophy and Social Hope Chapter 9: The Pragmatic and Analytic Traditions Pragmatism Analytic Philosophy The Philosophy of Mind Selection 9.1: A. J. Ayer, The Elimination of Metaphysics Selection 9.2: J. J. C. Smart, Sensations and Brain Processes Selection 9.3: Richard Rorty, Objectivity, Relativism, and Truth PART II: MORAL AND POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY Chapter 10: Moral Philosophy Skepticism, Relativism, and Subjectivism Egoism Hedonism The Five Main Ethical Frameworks The Early Greeks Epicureanism and Stoicism Christianizing Ethics Hobbes and Hume Kant The Utilitarians Friedrich Nietzsche Selection 10.1: Plato, Gorgias Selection 10.2: Epicurus, Epicurus to Menoeceus Selection 10.3: Aristotle, The Nicomachean Ethics Selection 10.4: Epictetus, The Encheiridion Selection 10.5: Immanuel Kant, Foundations of the Metaphysics of Morals Selection 10.6: John Stuart Mill, Utilitarianism Selection 10.7: Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil Chapter 11: Political Philosophy Plato and Aristotle Natural Law Theory and Contractarian Theory Two Other Contractarian Theorists American Constitutional Theory Classic Liberalism and Marxism Selection 11.1: Plato, Crito Selection 11.2: Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan Selection 11.3: John Stuart Mill, On Liberty Selection 11.4: Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Communist Manifesto Chapter 12: Recent Moral and Political Philosophy G. E. Moore Normative Ethics and Metaethics W. D. Ross Emotivism and Beyond John Rawls, a Contemporary Liberal Robert Nozick's Libertarianism Communitarian Responses to Rawls Herbert Marcuse, a Contemporary Marxist "Isms" Selection 12.1: James Rachels, Killing and Starving to Death Selection 12.2: John Rawls, A Theory of Justice Selection 12.3: Robert Nozick, Anarchy, State, and Utopia PART III: PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION: REASON AND FAITH Chapter 13: Philosophy and Belief in God Two Christian Greats Mysticism Seventeenth-Century Perspectives Eighteenth-Century Perspectives Nineteenth-Century Perspectives Twentieth-Century Perspectives Selection 13.1: St. Anselm, Proslogion Selection 13.2: St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica Selection 13.3: Friedrich Nietzsche, The Gay Science Selection 13.4: Antony Flew, Theology and Falsification Selection 13.5: Mary Daly, After the Death of God the Father PART IV: OTHER VOICES Chapter 14: Feminist Philosophy The First Wave The Second Wave Selection 14.1: Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Women Selection 14.2: Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex Selection 14.3: Marielouise Janssen-Jurreit, Sexism: The Male Monopoly on History and Thought Selection 14.4: Sandra Harding, Should the History and Philosophy of Science Be X-Rated? Selection 14.5: Susan Moller Okin, Justice, Gender, and the Family Selection 14.6: Karen J. Warren, The Power and the Promise of Ecological Feminism Chapter 15: Eastern Influences Hinduism Buddhism Taoism Confucianism Zen Buddhism in China and Japan The Philosophy of the Samurai (c. 1100-1900) Selection 15.1: Confucius, Analects Selection 15.2: Buddha, The Eightfold Path Chapter 16: Postcolonial Thought Historical Background Africa The Americas South Asia Selection 16.1: Léopold Sédar Senghor, On African Socialism Selection 16.2: Martin Luther King, Jr., The Sword That Heals Selection 16.3: Carlos Astrada, Existentialism and the Crisis of Philosophy Selection 16.4: Francisco Miró Quesada, Man without Theory Selection 16.5: Sonia Saldívar-Hull, Feminism on the Border: From Gender Politics to Geopolitics Selection 16.6: Mohandas K. Gandhi, Satyagraha Selection 16.7: Rabindranath Tagore, Towards Universal Man Appendix: Aesthetics, by Dominic McIver Lopes Photo Credits Glossary/Index Moore−Bruder: Philosophy: Front Matter Preface © The McGraw−Hill The Power of Ideas, Sixth Companies, 2005 Edition Preface What do you do with a philosophy degree? Well, of the twenty undergraduates se- lected to be on the USA TODAY 2004 All-USA College Academic First Team, four are philosophy majors. You could ask them. Jon Novotny, from the University of Tulsa, credits philosophy with helping him see the bigger picture. Sara Shoener, of the University of Scranton, says majoring in philosophy “is the most practical thing I’ve ever done.” Ryan Keller, of Brigham Young University, finds that philosophy opened his mind to different perspectives. And Cristina Bejan, of Northwestern University, used philosophy in writing two plays that were performed at Oxford’s Burton Taylor Theatre during her junior year abroad. All four, in short, credit philosophy with broadening their horizons.1 We hope the changes in this edition will help broaden the horizons of anyone who reads the book. Here’s what we’ve done: Most important, we’ve added an appendix on aesthetics, written by Domi- nic McIver Lopes, of the University of British Columbia. We didn’t write it, so we don’t mind saying that this is one of the best short introductions to aesthetics you could hope to find. We’ve also expanded our coverage by including new elements. The new ma- terials added and subjects covered include: • French feminism and psychoanalysis • Hegel on the master-slave relationship • Emmanuel Levinas • Gilles Deleuze • Alain Badiou • Ayn Rand • New reading excerpts from Plato’s Apology, Plato’s Crito, and Spinoza’s Ethics • New photographs • Numerous new print and online references • New profile and feature boxes 1 USA TODAY, Feb. 12, 2004. vii Moore−Bruder: Philosophy: Front Matter Preface © The McGraw−Hill The Power of Ideas, Sixth Companies, 2005 Edition viii Preface We have also done a bit of rearranging, consolidating the chapter titled “An Era of Suspicion” with the chapter “The Continental Tradition.” This book remains, however, the same straightforward, ungimmicky historical introduction to philosophy it has always been, one that contains separate treat- ments of the major branches of philosophy. Our presentation — a middle road be- tween the historical approach and the “problems” approach — helps readers keep similar concepts together and helps instructors avoid leaving an impression that philosophy is a parade of unconnected speculations. Philosophy — Powerful Ideas We concluded years ago that most people like philosophy if they understand it and that most understand it if it isn’t presented to them in exhausting prose. In this text we strive above all else to make philosophy understandable while not oversimplifying. We also concluded years ago that some people just aren’t moved by the sub- ject. Worse, we learned that among those who aren’t are a few who are sane, intel- ligent, well informed, and reasonable and who generally have sound ideas about the world, vote for the right people, and are even worth having as friends. Philosophy is just not for everyone, and no text and no instructor can make it so. So we do not expect that every student, or even every bright student, who comes in contact with philosophy will love the field. But we do hope every student who has had an introductory course in philosophy will learn that philosophy is more than inconsequential mental flexing. Philosophy contains powerful ideas, and it affects the lives of real people. Consequently, it must be handled with due care. The text makes this point clear. Philosophy: A Worldwide Search for Wisdom and Understanding Until the middle of the twentieth century, most philosophers and historians of ideas in American and European universities thought philosophical reflection occurred only within the tradition of disciplined discourse that began with the ancient Greeks and has continued