Classic Philosophical Questions has presented decades of students with the most compelling classic and contemporary primary source readings on the most enduring and abiding questions in philosophy.
Classic Philosophical Questions is a longstanding and highly respected anthology of basic readings in philosophy, taken from ancient, modern, and contemporary sources. Issues are treated in a fundamentally open manner with arguments pro and con for the various positions covered. All selections are taken from primary sources, with introductions and study guides to facilitate reading for the beginning student.
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Table of Contents
Preface xiii
Part 1 Plato and the Trial of Socrates
What Is Philosophy?
1 Euthyphro: Defining Philosophical Terms 1
2 The Apology, Phaedo, and Crito: The Trial, Immortality, and Death of Socrates 12
Part 2 Philosophy of Religion
Can We Prove That God Exists?
3 St. Anselm: The Ontological Argument 37
4 St. Thomas Aquinas: The Cosmological Argument 43
5 William Paley: The Teleological Argument 50
6 Blaise Pascal: It Is Better to Believe in God's Existence Than to Deny It 56
7 William James: Free Choice Is the Basis of Belief 62
Does the Idea of a Good God Exclude Evil?
8 Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz: God Can Allow Some Evil 72
9 David Hume: A Good God Would Exclude Evil 83
Part 3 Ethics
Are Ethics Relative?
10 Ruth Benedict: Ethics Are Relative 91
11 W.T. Stace: Ethics Are Not Relative 99
Are Humans Always Selfish?
12 Humans Are Always Selfish: Glaucon's Challenge to Socrates 111
13 James Rachels: Humans Are Not Always Selfish 115
Which Is Basic in Ethics: Happiness or Obligation?
14 Aristotle: Happiness Is Living Virtuously 127
15 Jeremy Bentham: Happiness Is Seeking the Greatest Pleasure for the Greatest Number of People 137
16 Immanuel Kant: Duty Is Prior to Happiness 146
17 Friedrich Nietzsche: Happiness Is Having Power 160
18 Jean-Paul Sartre: Existentialist Ethics 168
19 Rosemarie Tong: Feminist Ethics Are Different 178
Two Contemporary Moral Problems: Abortion, Animal Rights
20 Jane English: Are Most Abortions Moral? 196
The Animal Rights Issue
21 Peter Singer: Do Animals Have Rights? 207
Part 4 Knowledge
What Is Knowledge?
22Plato: Knowledge Is "Warranted, True Belief" 221
What Method Is Best for Acquiring Knowledge?
23 Charles Sanders Peirce: Four Approaches to Philosophy 231
How Do We Acquire Knowledge?
24 Rene Descartes: Knowledge Is Not Ultimately Sense Knowledge 242
25 John Locke: Knowledge Is Ultimately Sensed 254
26 Immanuel Kant: Knowledge Is Both Rational and Empirical 267
How Is Truth Established?
27 Bertrand Russell: Truth Is Established by Correspondence 276
28 Francis. H. Bradley: Truth Is Established by Coherence 283
29 William James: Truth Is Established on Pragmatic Grounds 290
Can We Know the Nature of Causal Relations?
30 David Hume: Cause Means Regular Association 298
31 David Hume: There Are No Possible Grounds for Induction 305
Part 5 Metaphysics
Why Is There Something Rather Than Nothing?
32 Parmenides: Being Is Uncaused 317
33 Lao-Tzu: Non-Being Is the Source of Being 323
Is Reality General or Particular?
34 Plato: Universals Are Real 329
35 David Hume: Particulars Are Real 339
Of What Does Reality Consist?
36 Rene Descartes: Reality Consists of Mind and Matter 345
37 Paul Churchland: Reality Consists of Matter 352
38 George Berkeley: Reality Consists of Ideas 360
39 John Dewey: Reality Consists of Mental and Physical Qualities 373
Are Humans Free?
40 Holbach: Humans Are Determined 382
41 Robert Kane: Humans Are Free 392
Part 6 Social and Political Philosophy
What Is Liberty?
42 Fyodor Dostoevski: Liberty and Authority 409
43 John Stuart Mill: Liberty Is Independence from the Majority's Tyranny 422
44 Martin Luther King Jr.: Liberty and Racial Prejudice 434
Which Government Is Best?
45 Thomas Hobbes: Monarchy Is Best 445
46 John Locke: Democracy Is Best 453
47 Karl Marx: Communism and Nonalienated Labor Is Best 460
48 Alexis de Tocqueville: Democracy Can Have Serious Problems 476
49 Karl Popper: Utopias Lead to Violence 484
Part 7 Aesthetics
What Constitutes the Experience of Beauty?
50 Plotinus: Beauty, Sensuous and Ideal 495
What Is the Function of Art?
51 Aristotle: The Nature of Tragedy 505
52 Henri Bergson: The Nature of Comedy 514
Part 8 Philosophy and the Good Life
Two Classic Views of the Good Life
53 Epicurus and the Pleasant Life 525
54 Epictetus and the Life of Self-Control 534
What Gives Life Meaning?
55 Leo Tolstoy: Faith Provides Life's Meaning 541
56 Albert Camus: Each Person Determines His or Her Life's Meaning 553
