Introducing Philosophy for Canadians: A Text with Integrative Readings

604 Pages·2011·39.718 MB·English

by  Robert C. Solomon

OXFORD
Introducing
Philosophy
for Canadians
Robert C. Solomon
& Douglas McDermid
History of Philosophy
2000 BCE 1000 Karl Marx (1818-1883)
Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1821-1881)
Abraham (c. 1900) St Anselm (c. 1033-1109) Charles Sanders Peirce (1839-1914)
Mohammad al-Ghazali (1058-1111) William James (1842-1910)
Moses Maimonides (1135-1204) Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900)
1500
St Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) Edmund Husserl (1859-1938)
John Dewey (1859-1952)
Earliest Hindu Vedas (c. 1500)
Swami Vivekananda (1863-1902)
Moses (fl. 1220-1200) 1500
Bertrand Russell (1872-1970)
G.E. Moore (1873-1958)
Rene Descartes (1596-1650)
1000
Mohammad Iqbal (1877-1938)
Albert Einstein (1879-1955)
Homer (9th-8th century) 1600
Karl Jaspers (1883-1969)
Zoroaster (c. 628-551)
Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan
Thales (c. 624-545) Blaise Pascal (1623-1662)
(1888-1975)
Pythagoras (c. 580-500) Benedictus de Spinoza (1632-1677)
Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951)
Lao-zi (c. 6th century) John Locke (1632-1704)
Martin Heidegger (1889-1976)
Siddhartha Gautama (Buddha) Isaac Newton (1642-1727)
Charles Hartshorne (1897-2000)
(c. 563-483) Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz
Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986)
Confucius (c. 551-479) (1646-1716)
Heraclitus (c. 535-470) Samuel Clarke (1675-1729)
Bishop George Berkeley (1685-1753) 1900
Joseph Butler (1692-1752)
500
Gilbert Ryle (1900-1976)
Keiji Nishitani (1900-1990)
Socrates (c. 469-399) 1700
Michael Oakeshott (1901-1990)
Plato (427-347)
Thomas Reid (1710-1796) Karl Popper (1902-1994)
Job (c. 400)
John Wisdom (1904-1993)
David Hume (1711-1776)
Aristotle (384-322)
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) Bernard Lonergan (1904-1984)
Mencius (372-289)
Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) Tommy Douglas (1904-1986)
Zhuang-zi (c. 369-286)
Edmund Burke (1729-1797) Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980)
Xun-zi (c. 300-230)
William Paley (1743-1805) Maurice Merleau-Ponty (1908-1961)
Jesus Christ (c. 5 bce-30 ce)
Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) Simone de Beauvoir (1908-1986)
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel W.L. Morton (1908-1980)
0 CE (1770-1831) Simone Weil (1909-1943)
Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) Albert Camus (1913-1960)
St Paul (c. 10-65)
George Woodcock (1912-1995)
The Questions of King Milinda (c. 100)
Roderick Chisholm (1916-1999)
Plotinus (c. 204-270) 1800
Emil Fackenheim (1916-2003)
St Augustine (354-430)
George Grant (1918-1988)
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)
Pierre Trudeau (1919-2000)
John Stuart Mill (1806-1873)
5i John Rawls (1921-2002)
James Frederick Ferrier (1808-1864)
Michel Foucault (1926-1984)
Charles Darwin (1809-1882)
Muhammed (c. 570-632) Richard Rorty (1931-2007)
Spren Kierkegaard (1813-1855)
St John Damascene (c. 676-749) G.A. Cohen (1941-2009)
Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862)
Introducing
Philosophy
for Canadians
Robert C. Solomon
& Douglas McDermid
OXPORD
UNIVERSITY PRESS
OXTORD
UNIVERSITY PRESS
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Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Solomon, Robert C.
Introduction philosophy to Canadians: a text with integrative readings/Robert C. Solomon &
Douglas McDermid.—1st Canadian ed.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-19-543096-7
1. Philosophy—Introductions—Textbooks.
1. McDermid, Douglas II. Title.
BD21.S642011 100 C2011-900194-2
Cover image: Paul Taylor/Gettyimages
Oxford University Press is committed to our environment. This book
is printed on permanent (acid-free) paper
Printed and bound in Canada
5 6 7 — 16 15 14
BRIEF CONTENTS
PART I: BEGINNING PHILOSOPHY
Introduction: Starting with Socrates 2
PART II: THE WORLD AND BEYOND
1. Reality 52
2. Religion 110
3. Knowledge 188
PART III: KNOW THYSELF
4. Mind and Body 286
5. Self and Freedom 331
PART IV: THE GOOD AND THE RIGHT
6. Ethics 390
7. Justice 477
CONTENTS
Preface xiii
Notes on the Canadian Edition xvii
PART I BEGINNING PHILOSOPHY
Introduction: Starting with Socrates 2
A. Socrates 2
Aristophanes, from The Clouds 2
Plato, from The Apology 3
Plato, from The Crito 4
Plato, from The Phaedo 7
Plato, from The Republic 8
B. Making Sense of Socrates 9
Plato, from The Apology 9
Plato, from The Meno 10
Plato, from The Theaetetus 10
Plato, from The Symposium 13
Paul Gooch, from Reflections on Jesus and Socrates 14
Karl Popper, from The Open Society and Its Enemies 16
Spren Kierkegaard, from The Sickness unto Death 17
C. What Is Philosophy? 18
Plato, from The Apology 19
Karl Jaspers, from ‘The “Axial Period’” 20
Lao-zi, from DaoDeJing 21
D. A Modern Approach to Philosophy 22
Rene Descartes, from Discourse on Method 25
Bertrand Russell, from The Problems of Philosophy 26
Mary Midgley, from Utopias, Dolphins, and Computers 26
E. Becoming a Philosopher 27
George Grant, from ‘What Is Philosophy?’ 27
Francis Sparshott, from ‘Philosopher’ (poem) 30
Simone Weil, from First and Last Notebooks 31
George Grant, from ‘What Is Philosophy?’ 32
James Frederick Ferrier, from Institutes of Metaphysic 33
F. A Brief Introduction to Logic 35
Summary and Conclusion 49
Review Questions’ 49
Key Terms 50
Further Reading 50
PART II THE WORLD AND BEYOND
Chapter L Reality 52
A. The Way the World Really Is 52
B. The First Greek Philosophers 53
Aristotle, from Metaphysics 53
Parmenides, from Fragments 59
C. Ultimate Reality in the East: India, Persia, and China 61
From the Brhadaranyaka ilpanishad (1.3.28) 61
From the Brhadaranyaka ilpanishad (4.3.32) 61
From the Isa Upanishad (4-6) 62
From the Brhadaranyaka Upanishad (5.1.1) 62
From the Brhadaranyaka Upanishad(3.7.3-23) 62
From the Chandogya Upanishad (6.11) 63
From the Katha Upanishad (1.25-27,2.11-12, and 2.20-23) 63
From the Zend-Avesta 64
Confucius, from The Analects 65
Lao-zi, from DaoDeJing 67
Buddha, from‘Fire Sermon’ 68
D. Two Kinds of Metaphysics: Plato and Aristotle 69
Plato, from The Symposium 71
Plato, from The Republic 71
Plato, from The Meno 75
Aristotle, from Metaphysics 80
Aristotle, from Physics 81
Aristotle, from Metaphysics 85
E. Modern Metaphysics 85
Rene Descartes, on Substance 88
Rene Descartes, from ‘Meditation VI’ 90
Benedictus de Spinoza, from Ethics 91
Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz, from Monadology 98
Summary and Conclusion 107
Review Questions 108
Key Terms 108
Further Reading 108
Chapter 2: Religion 110
A. What Is Religion? 110
John Wisdom, from‘Gods’ 111
Albert Einstein, on the Design of the Universe 112
Keiji Nishitani, from ‘What Is Religion?’ 112
Swami Vivekananda, from ‘Maya and Illusion’ 115
Bernard Lonergan, from Method in Theology 115
Maimonides, from The Guide for the Perplexed 116
B. The Western Religions 117
C. Proving God: The Ontological Argument 120
St Anselm, on the Ontological Argument 120
Rene Descartes, on the Ontological Argument 122
Immanuel Kant, against the Ontological Argument 124
Charles Hartshorne, on the Ontological Argument 126
D. Proving God: The Cosmological Argument 128
St Thomas Aquinas, on the Cosmological Argument 128
Samuel Clarke, from A Demonstration of the Being and Attributes of God 130
Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz, from Monadology 132
Samuel Clarke, from A Demonstration of the Being and Attributes of God 133
E. Proving God: The Teleological Argument 134
William Pa ley, from Natural Theology 134
St John Damascene, from An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith 135
St Thomas Aquinas, on the ‘Fifth Way’ 136
David Hume, on an Imperfect Universe 137
Richard Dawkins, from The Blind Watchmaker 137
Paul Davies, from The Mind of God 139
Cory Juhl, on the ‘Fine-Tuning’ Argument 139
F. Mystical Experience and God 141
William James, from The Varieties of Religious Experience 141
Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, from An Idealist View of Life 142
Mohammad al-Ghazali, from The Deliverance from Error 143
Plotinus, from The Enneads 144
William James, from The Varieties of Religious Experience 147
Phillip Wiebe, ‘Religious Experience and Religious Belief 150
G. Religion and Practical Reason 153
Immanuel Kant, on God and Morality 153
William James, from ‘The Will to Believe’ 155
H. God and Evil 157
St Augustine, from Confessions 158
From the Bhagavadglta 162
Contents VII
I. A Hidden God? 164
J.L. Schellenberg, ‘Would a Loving God Hide from Anyone? Assembling and Assessing
the Hiddenness Argument for Atheism’ 165
Blaise Pascal, from Pensees 168
Emil Fackenheim, from ‘On the Eclipse of God’ 170
Isaac Bashevis Singer, from ‘Joy’ 172
J. Beyond Reason: Faith and Irrationality 173
Spren Kierkegaard, on Subjective Iruth 174
Paul Tillich, on the Ultimate Concern 176
K. Doubts about Religion 178
Fyodor Dostoyevsky, from The Brothers Karamazov 179
Karl Marx, from Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right 181
Friedrich Nietzsche, from Beyond Good and Evil 182
Friedrich Nietzsche, from The Antichrist 182
Friedrich Nietzsche, from The Gay Science 183
S i g m u n d Fre u d, f ro m The Future of an Illusion 183
Summary and Conclusion 185
Review Questions 185
Key Terms 186
Further Reading 186
Chapter 3: Knowledge 188
Bertrand Russell, from The Problems of Philosophy 189
Plato, from Theaetetus 191
A. The Rationalist's Confidence: Rene Descartes 193
Rene Descartes, from ‘Meditation I’ 193
Barry Stroud, from The Significance of Philosophical Scepticism 195
Rene Descartes, from ‘Meditation I’ 197
Rene Descartes, from ‘Meditation II’ 199
Rene Descartes, from ‘Meditation VI’ 202
B. Innate Ideas Concerning Human Understanding: John Locke 203
John Locke, from An Essay Concerning Human Understanding 204
Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz, from New Essays on Human Understanding 206
C. The Empiricist Theory of Knowledge 207
Joh n Locke, from An Essay Concerning Human Understanding 208
D. Common Sense Undone: Bishop George Berkeley 214
Bishop George Berkeley, from Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge 214
Jorge Luis Borges, Things’ 219
E. The Congenial Skeptic: David Hume 221
David Hume, from A Treatise of Human Nature 222
David Hume, from An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding 224
232
F. Common Sense Defended: Thomas Reid and G.E. Moore
Thomas Reid, from Essays on The Intellectual Powers of Man 233
Thomas Reid, from An Inquiry into the Human Mind on the Principles
of Common Sense 233
Thomas Reid, from An Inquiry into the Human Mind on the Principles
of Common Sense 237
G.E. Moore, from Some Main Problems of Philosophy 237
G. Immanuel Kant's Revolution 239
Immanuel Kant, from The Critique of Pure Reason 241
Immanuel Kant, from Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics 242
H. The Battle in Europe after Kant: Relativism and Absolutism 245
G.W.F. Hegel, from The Phenomenology of Spirit 247
G.W.F. Hegel, from Reason in History 250
Arthur Schopenhauer, from The World as Will and Representation 252
Friedrich Nietzsche, on Truth 254
I. Phenomenology 256
Edmund Husserl, from ‘Philosophy as Rigorous Science’ 256
Edmund Husserl, from The 1929 Paris Lectures 257
John Russon, from Human Experience 258
J. Hermeneutics and Pragmatism: Relativism Reconsidered 260
Richard Rorty, from ‘Solidarity or Objectivity?’ 262
Cheryl Misak, from Truth, Politics, Morality 266
K. The Nature of Truth: Three Theories 267
James 0. Young, ‘Could Truth Be Coherence with a System of Beliefs?’ 270
Mark Migotti, ‘Pragmatist Theories of Truth’ 273
L. Feminist Epistemology 276
Elizabeth Grosz, on Feminist Knowledge 277
Lorraine Code, from ‘Is the Sex of the Knower Epistemologically
Significant?' 279
Summary and Conclusion 282
Review Questions 283
Key Terms 283
Further Reading 284
PART III KNOW THYSELF
Chapter 4: Mind and Body 286
A. What Is Consciousness? 286
Rene Descartes, from ‘Meditation VI’ 287
Rene Descartes, from 'Meditation III’ 290
B. The Problem of Dualism 290
Rene Descartes, from ‘The Passions of the Soul’ 291