The Norton introduction to philosophy

pt. I. Philosophy of religion

1. Does God exist?

Introduction

The ontological argument, from 'Proslogion' / Anslem of Canterbury

The five ways, from 'Summa theologica' / Thomas Aquinas

The problem of evil and some varieties of atheism / William L. Rowe

The argument from design, from 'Natural theology' / William Paley

Theism, from 'Three essays on religion' / John Stuart Mill

The argument from cosmological fine-tuning / Roger White

Analyzing the arguments

2. Is it reasonable to believe without evidence?

Introduction

The wager, from 'Pensées' / Blaise Pascal

Pascal's ultimate gamble / Alan Hájek

The will to believe / William James

Is belief in God properly basic? / Alvin Plantinga

Analyzing the arguments

pt. II. Epistemology

3. What is knowledge?

Introduction

Meno / Plato

Is justified true belief knowledge? / Edmund Gettier

Evidence one does not possess, from 'Thought' / Gilbert Harman

The inescapability of Gettier problems / Linda Trinkaus Zagzebski

Knowledge and belief / Timothy Williamson

Analyzing the arguments

4. How can we know about what we have not observed?

Introduction

Sceptical doubts concerning the operations of the understanding, and sceptical solution of these doubts, from 'An enquiry concerning human understanding, sections IV-V / David Hume

The "justification" of induction, from 'Introduction to logical theory' / P.F. Strawson

The problem of induction, from 'Replies to my critics / Karl Popper

The new riddle of induction, from 'Fact, fiction, and forecast' / Nelson Goodman

The inference to the best explanation / Gilbert Harman

Analyzing the arguments

5. How can we know what causes what?

Introduction

Of the idea of necessary connexion, from 'An enquiry concerning human understanding / David Hume

The visual experience of causation / Susanna Siegel

The method of difference, from 'System of logic / John Stuart Mill

Causation and correlation / Ned Hall

Analyzing the arguments

6. How can you know your own mind, or the mind of another person?

Introduction

The analogical inference to other minds / Alec Hyslop and Frank Cameron Jackson

Wittgenstein and other minds, from 'Wittgenstein on rules and private language' / Saul Kripke

Man seen from the outside, from 'The world of perception' / Maurice Merleau-Ponty

Introspection, from 'A materialism theory of the mind'

Self-knowledge, from 'The concept of mind' / Gilbert Ryle

Skepticism about the internal world / Alex Byrne

Analyzing the arguments

7. How can we know about the external world?

Introduction

Meditation I: what can be called into doubt, from 'Meditations on first philosophy' / René Descartes

Of scepticism with regard to the senses / David Hume

Proof of an external world / George Edward Moore

Contextualism / Stewart Cohen

Skepticism and inference to the best explanation / Jonathan Vogel

Ignorance of things in themselves / Rae Langton

Analyzing the arguments

pt. III. Metaphysics and the philosophy of mind

8. Is mind material?

Introduction

Meditation II: the nature of the human mind, and how it is better known than the body, and meditation VI : ... the real distinction between mind and body, from 'Meditations on first philosophy' / René Descartes

Descartes' myth, from 'The concept of mind' / Gilbert Ryle

Sensations and brain processes / J.J.C. Smart

The nature of mental states / Hilary Putnam

Can computers think?, from 'Minds, brains, and science' / John Searle

Analyzing the arguments

9. What is consciousness?

Introduction

What is it like to be a bat? / Thomas Nagel

Epiphenomenal qualia / Frank Jackson

Postscript on qualia / Frank Jackson

Are mental states irreducible to neurobiological states?, from 'Neurophilosophy' / Patricia Smith Churchland

The hard problem of consciousness / David Chalmers

The puzzle of transparency / Michael Tye

Analyzing the arguments

10. What is color?

Introduction

Some further considerations concering our simple ideas, from 'An essay concerning human understanding' / John Locke

The secondary qualities, from 'A materialist theory of mind' / D.M. Armstrong

Are "scientific" objects coloured? / C.L. Hardin

Secondary qualities, from 'The subjective view' / Colin McGinn

Analyzing the arguments

11. What is there?

Introduction

Fiction and metaphysics / Peter Van Inwagen

Numbers and other immaterial objects / Gideon Rosen

A thing and its matter / Stephen Yablo

Science and metaphysics / Tim Maudlin

Analyzing the arguments

12. What is personal identity?

Introduction

Of identity and diversity, from 'An essay concerning human understanding' / John Locke

The dualist theory, from 'Personal identity' / Richard Swinburne

Personal identity, from 'Reasons and persons' / Derek Parfit

The self and the future / Bernard Williams

Analyzing the arguments

pt IV. From metaphysics to ethics

13. Do we possess free will?

Introduction

Free will / Galen Strawson

Human freedom and the self / Roderick Chisholm

Freedom and necessity / A.J. Ayer

Alternate possibilities and moral responsibility / Harry Frankfurt

Asymmetrical freedom / Susan Wolf

Freedom and resentment / P.F. Strawson

Analyzing the arguments

14. Is morality objective?

Introduction

The subjectivity of values, from 'Ethics: inventing right and wrong' / J.L. Mackie

Moral subjectivism / R. Jay Wallace

Ethics, from 'The last word' / Thomas Nagel

Moral relativism / Philippa Foot

Does anything really matter or did we just evolve to think so? / Sharon Street

Analyzing the arguments

pt. V. Ethics and political philosophy

15. Why do what is right?

Introduction

The republic /

Plato

Why ought we do what is right? / Judith Jarvis Thomson

Of the passions and of morals, from 'Treatise of human nature, books II and III' ; Why utility pleases, from 'An enquiry concerning the principles of morals' / David Hume

Groundwork of the metaphysics of morals / Immanuel Kant

Analyzing the arguments

16. How do we reason about what is right?

Introduction

Utilitarianism / John Stuart Mill

Groundwork of the metaphysics of morals / Immanuel Kant

Contractualism and utilitarianism / Thomas M. Scanlon

Virtue ethics / Rosalind Hursthouse

A theory of justice / John Rawls

Is it reasonable to "rely on institutions" in ethics? / Elizabeth Harman

On the genealogy of morals, beyond good and evil, and the gay science / Friedrich Nietzsche

Analyzing the arguments

17. Do your intentions matter?

Introduction

Of justice and injustice, from "A treatise of human nature' / David Hume

Mr. Truman's degree / G.E.M. Anscombe

When do intentions matter to permissibility? / Thomas M. Scanlon

Impermissibility and wrongness / Barbara Herman

Analyzing the arguments

18. What is the right thing to do?

Introduction

Famine, affluence, and morality / Peter Singer

The moral perplexities of famine and world hunger / Onora O'Neill

A defense of abortion / Judith Jarvis Thomson

Why abortion is immoral / Don Marquis

War and massacre / Thomas Nagel

On the killing of civilians in wartime, from 'The law of peoples' / John Rawls

Analyzing the arguments

19. How can the state be justified?

Introduction

Politics / Aristotle

Leviathan / Thomas Hobbes

The social contract / Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Rights-based justifications for the state / A. John Simmons

The utilitarian justification of the state / David Lyons

Analyzing the arguments

20. What is the value of liberty?

Introduction

A letter concering toleration / John Locke

On liberty / John Stuart Mill

Morals and the criminal law / Patrick Devlin

Elements of a theory of human rights / Amartya Sen

Analyzing the arguments

21. Does justice require equality?

Introduction

Two principles of justice, from 'A theory of justice' / John Rawls

Equality as a moral ideal / Harry Frankfurt

Political equality / Martha Nussbaum

Equality as a basic demand of justice / Johnathan Wolff

Distributive justice, from 'Anarchy, state, and utopia' / Robert Nozick

Analyzing the arguments

A brief guide to logic and argumentation

Some guidelines for writing philosophy papers

Glossary

Credits

Name index.