Source Acknowledgments .......................................... x
Preface and Acknowledgments .................................... xv
Introduction ................................................. xvii
Part I The Philosophical Image ................................. 1
1 Life and the Search for Philosophical Knowledge .............. 3
Plato, Republic
2 Philosophical Questioning ................................... 14
Bertrand Russell, The Problems of Philosophy
3 Philosophy and Fundamental Images ........................... 20
Wilfrid Sellars, "Philosophy and the Scientific Image of
Man"
4 Philosophy as the Analyzing of Key Concepts ................. 27
P.F. Strawson, Analysis and Metaphysics
5 Philosophy as Explaining Underlying Possibilities ........... 33
Robert Nozick, Philosophical Explanations
Part II Metaphysics: Philosophical Images of Being ............. 41
How Is the World at all Physical? .............................. 43
6 How Real Are Physical Objects? .............................. 43
Bertrand Russell, The Problems of Philosophy
7 Are Physical Objects Never Quite as They Appear To Be? ...... 48
John Locke, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding
8 Are Physical Objects Really Only Objects of Thought? ........ 54
George Berkeley, The Principles of Human Knowledge
9 Is Even the Mind Physical? .................................. 60
D.M. Armstrong, "The Causal Theory of the Mind"
10 Is the Physical World All There Is? ......................... 66
Frank Jackson, "Epiphenomenal Qualia"
How Does the World Function? ................................... 74
11 Is Causation Only a Kind of Regularity? ..................... 74
David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding
12 Is Causation Something Singular and Unanalyzable? ........... 81
G.E.M. Anscombe, "Causation and Determination"
How Do Things Ever Have Qualities? ............................. 88
13 How Can Individual Things Have Repeatable Qualities? ........ 88
Plato, Parmenides
14 How Can Individual Things Not Have Repeatable Qualities? .... 95
D.M. Armstrong, Nominalism and Realism
How Are There Any Truths? ..................................... 102
15 Do Facts Make True Whatever Is True? ....................... 102
Bertrand Russell, "The Philosophy of Logical Atomism"
16 Are There Social Facts? .................................... 107
John Searle, Mind, Language and Society
17 Is There Only Personally Decided Truth? .................... 114
Plato, Theaetetus
How Is There a World At All? .................................. 120
18 Has the World Been Designed by God? ........................ 120
David Hume, Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion
19 Is God's Existence Knowable Purely Conceptually? ........... 131
St. Anselm, Proslogion
20 Has This World Been Actualized by God from Among All
Possible Worlds? ........................................... 145
G.W Leibniz, Monadology
21 Does This World Exist Because It Has Value Independently
of God? .................................................... 149
Nicholas Rescher, Nature and Understanding
22 Can Something Have Value in Itself? ........................ 158
Plato, Euthyphro
How Are Persons Persons? ...................................... 161
23 Is Each Person a Union of Mind and Body? ................... 161
René Descartes, "Meditation VI"
24 Is Self-Consciousness what Constitutes a Person? ........... 164
John Locke, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding
25 How Strictly Does Self-Consciousness Constitute a Person? .. 170
Roderick M. Chisholm, "Identity through Time"
26 Are Persons Constituted with Strict Identity At All? ....... 177
Derek Parfit, Reasons and Persons
27 Are We Animals? ............................................ 187
Eric T. Olson, "An Argument for Animalism"
How Do People Ever Have Free Will and Moral Responsibility? ... 196
28 Is There No Possibility of Acting Differently To How One
Will in Fact Act? .......................................... 196
Aristotle, De Interpretatione
29 Could Our Being Entirely Caused Coexist with Our Acting
Freely? .................................................... 200
David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding
30 Would Being Entirely Caused Undermine Our Personally
Constitutive Emotions? ..................................... 206
P.F. Strawson, "Freedom and Resentment"
31 Is a Person Morally Responsible Only for Actions
Performed Freely? .......................................... 213
Harry G. Frankfurt, "Alternate Possibilities and Moral
Responsibility"
32 Is Moral Responsibility for a Good Action Different to
Moral Responsibility for a Bad Action? ..................... 218
Susan Wolf, "Asymmetrical Freedom"
How Could a Person Be Harmed by Being Dead? ................... 224
33 Is It Impossible To Be Harmed by Being Dead? ............... 224
Epicurus, "Letter to Menoeceus"
34 Is It Impossible To Be Harmed by Being Dead at
a Particular Time? ......................................... 226
Lucretius, De Rerum Natura
35 Would Immortality Be Humanly Possible and Desirable? ....... 229
Bernard Williams, "The Makropulos Case: Reflections on
the Tedium of Immortality"
36 Can a Person be Deprived of Benefits by Being Dead? ........ 236
Fred Feldman, Confrontations with the Reaper
Further Readings for Part II .................................. 240
Part III Epistemology: Philosophical Images of Knowing ........ 245
Can We Understand What It Ь to Know? .......................... 247
37 Is Knowledge a Supported True Belief? ...................... 247
Plato, Meno
38 When Should a Belief be Supported by Evidence? ............. 251
W.K. Clifford, "The Ethics of Belief"
39 Is Knowledge a Kind of Objective Certainty? ................ 256
A.J. Ayer, The Problem of Knowledge
40 Are All Fallibly Supported True Beliefe Instances of
Knowledge? ................................................. 260
Edmund L. Gettier, "Is Justified True Belief Knowledge?"
41 Must a True Belief Arise Apdy, if it is to be Knowledge? ... 264
Alvin I. Goldman, "A Causal Theory of Knowing"
42 Must a True Belief Arise Reliably, if it is to be
Knowledge? ................................................. 268
Alvin I. Goldman, "Discrimination and Perceptual
Knowledge"
43 Where is the Value in Knowing? ............................. 273
Catherine Z.Elgin, "The Epistemic Efficacy of Stupidity"
44 Is Knowledge Always a Virtuously Derived True Belief? ...... 279
Linda Trinkaus Zagzebski, Virtues of the Mind
Can We Ever Know Just through Observation? .................... 287
45 Is All Knowledge Ultimately Observational? ................. 287
David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding
46 Is There a Problem of Not Knowing that One Is Not
Dreaming? .................................................. 292
René Descartes, "Meditation I"
47 What Is It Really to be Seeing Something? .................. 295
David Lewis, "Veridical Hallucination and Prosthetic
Vision"
48 Is There a Possibility of Being a Mere and Unknowing
Brain in a Vat? ............................................ 302
Hilary Putnam, Reason, Truth and History
49 Is It Possible to Observe Direcdy the Objective World? ..... 311
John McDowell, "The Disjunctive Conception of Experience
as Material for a Transcendental Argument"
Can We Ever Know Innately? .................................... 317
50 Is It Possible to Know Innately Some Geometrical or
Mathematical Truths? ....................................... 317
Plato, Meno
51 Is There No Innate Knowledge At All? ....................... 325
John Locke, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding
Can We Ever Know Just through Reflection? ..................... 335
52 Is All Knowledge Ultimately Reflective? .................... 335
Rene Descartes, Discourse on Method
53 Can Reflective Knowledge Be Substantive and Informative? ... 340
Immanuel Kant, Critique of Pure Reason
54 Is All Apparendy Reflective Knowledge Ultimately
Observational? ............................................. 349
John Stuart Мill, A System of Logic
55 Is Scientific Reflection Our Best Model for Understanding
Reflection? ................................................ 355
C.S. Peirce, "Some Consequences of Four Incapacities" and
"How To Make Our Ideas Clear"
56 Are Some Necessities Known through Observation, Not
Reflection? ................................................ 363
Saul A. Kripke, Naming and Necessity
Can We Know in Other Fundamental Ways? ........................ 369
57 Is Knowing-How a Distinct Way of Knowing? .................. 369
Gilbert Ryle, "Knowing How and Knowing That"
58 Is Knowing One's Intention-in-Action a Distinct Way of
Knowing? ................................................... 376
G.E.M. Anscombe, Intention
59 Is Knowing via What Others Say or Write a Distinct Way of
Knowing? ................................................... 383
Jennifer Lackey, "Knowing from Testimony"
60 Is Knowing through Memory a Distinct Way of Knowing? ....... 391
Bertrand Russell, The Analysis of Mind
Can We Fundamentally Fail Ever To Know? ....................... 399
61 Are None of our Beliefs More Justifiable than Others? ...... 399
Sextos Empiricus, Outlines of Pyrrhonism
62 Are None of Our Beliefs Immune from Doubt? ................. 407
Rene Descartes, "Meditation I"
63 Are We Unable Ever To Extrapolate Justifiedly Beyond Our
Observations? .............................................. 410
David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding
Can Skeptical Arguments Be Escaped? ........................... 417
64 Can We Know at Least Our Conscious Mental Lives? ........... 417
René Descartes, "Meditation II"
65 Can We Know Some Fundamental Principles by Common Sense? ... 422
Thomas Reid, Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man
66 Do We Know a Lot, but Always Fallibly? ..................... 434
Karl R. Popper, "On the Sources of Knowledge and of
Ignorance"
67 Is It Possible to have Knowledge even when Not Knowing
that One Is Not a Brain in a Vat? .......................... 444
Robert Nozick, Philosophical Explanations
Further Readings for Part III ................................. 452
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