Metaphysics and epistemology: a guided anthology

475 Pages·2014·3.686 MB·English

by  Hetherington, Stephen Cade

“Th is is an excellent anthology. It combines a wide range of readings on the central H E METAPHYSICS
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and lasting questions of metaphysics and epistemology. Th e selections are imaginative E and
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and in many cases unusual, and Stephen Hetherington introduces each reading with H T
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a lucid and lively introduction. Highly recommended!” E D EPISTEMOLOGY
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Tim Crane, University of Cambridge
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“Th is comprehensive and creatively chosen anthology provides an excellent coverage G
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of epistemological and metaphysical topics, from both historical and contemporary
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A GUIDED ANTHOLOGY
perspectives. It is highly recommended.”
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Duncan Pritchard, University of Edinburgh
EDITED BY STEPHEN HETHERINGTON
Metaphysics and Epistemology: A Guided Anthology presents a comprehensive
introductory overview of key themes, thinkers, and issues relating to metaphysics
and epistemology. Balancing classic with contemporary readings from centuries of
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philosophical refl ection on reality and knowledge, carefully edited selections focus
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on essential elements of each concept and argument. Th emes explored include
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philosophical ideas on the basic nature of the world and of ourselves, on the underlying I
nature of knowledge, and on fundamental ways we may – or may not – gain knowledge. ST
Phenomena discussed include the physical world, causation, minds, properties, truth, TA
persons, God, free will, fate, evidence, belief, observation, innateness, reason, doubt,
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fallibility, and more. Provocative and infl uential ideas from the annals of philosophy
are brought sharply into focus through succinct excerpts by great thinkers ranging MH
from Plato and Aristotle to Descartes, Kant, and Russell. Accessible and authoritative,
Metaphysics and Epistemology: A Guided Anthology off ers illuminating insights into the OY
origins, development, and core ideas relating to the universal philosophical pursuit of S
the nature of knowledge and of reality. L
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STEPHEN HETHERINGTON is Professor of Philosophy at the University of New S
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South Wales, Australia. His publications include Good Knowledge, Bad Knowledge
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(2001), Reality? Knowledge? Philosophy! (2003), Self-Knowledge (2007), Yes, But How Yn
Do You Know? (2009), and How To Know (2011). d

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Metaphysics and Epistemology
BLACKWELL PHILOSOPHY ANTHOLOGIES
Each volume in this outstanding series provides an authoritative and comprehensive collec-
tion of the essential primary readings from philosophy’s main fields of study. Designed to
complement the Blackwell Companions to Philosophy series, each volume represents an unpar-
alleled resource in its own right, and will provide the ideal platform for course use.
1 Cottingham: Western Philosophy: 17 Light and Rolston: Environmental Ethics:
An Anthology (second edition) An Anthology
2 Cahoone: From Modernism to Postmodernism: 18 Taliaferro and Griffiths: Philosophy of
An Anthology (expanded second edition) Religion: An Anthology
3 LaFollette: Ethics in Practice: An Anthology 19 Lamarque and Olsen: Aesthetics and the
(third edition) Philosophy of Art – The Analytic Tradition:
4 Goodin and Pettit: Contemporary An Anthology
Political Philosophy: An Anthology 20 John and Lopes: Philosophy of
(second edition) Literature – Contemporary and Classic
5 Eze: African Philosophy: An Anthology Readings: An Anthology
6 McNeill and Feldman: Continental 21 Cudd and Andreasen: Feminist Theory:
Philosophy: An Anthology A Philosophical Anthology
7 Lycan and Prinz: Mind and Cognition: 22 Carroll and Choi: Philosophy of Film
An Anthology (third edition) and Motion Pictures: An Anthology
8 Kuhse and Singer: Bioethics: 23 Lange: Philosophy of Science: An Anthology
An Anthology (second edition) 24 Shafer-Landau and Cuneo: Foundations
9 Cummins and Cummins: Minds, Brains, of Ethics: An Anthology
and Computers – The Foundations of 25 Curren: Philosophy of Education:
Cognitive Science: An Anthology An Anthology
10 Sosa, Kim, Fantl, and McGrath 26 Cahn and Meskin: Aesthetics:
Epistemology: An Anthology A Comprehensive Anthology
(second edition) 27 McGrew, Alspector-Kelly and Allhoff:
11 Kearney and Rasmussen: Continental The Philosophy of Science:
Aesthetics – Romanticism to Postmodernism: An Historical Anthology
An Anthology 28 May: Philosophy of Law:
12 Jacquette: Philosophy of Logic: Classic and Contemporary Readings
An Anthology 29 Rosenberg and Arp: Philosophy of
13 Jacquette: Philosophy of Mathematics: Biology: An Anthology
An Anthology 30 Kim, Korman, and Sosa: Metaphysics:
14 Harris, Pratt, and Waters: American An Anthology (second edition)
Philosophies: An Anthology 31 Martinich and Sosa: Analytic Philosophy:
15 Emmanuel and Goold: Modern An Anthology (second edition)
Philosophy – From Descartes to Nietzsche: 32 Shafer-Landau: Ethical Theory:
An Anthology An Anthology (second edition)
16 Scharff and Dusek: Philosophy of 33 Hetherington: Metaphysics and Epistemology:
Technology – The Technological A Guided Anthology
Condition: An Anthology
Metaphysics and Epistemology
A Guided Anthology
Edited by
Stephen Hetherington
This edition first published 2014
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1 2014
Contents
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”
vi contents
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”
contents vii
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 Is 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
viii contents
40 Are All Fallibly Supported True Beliefs Instances of Knowledge? 260
Edmund L. Gettier, “Is Justified True Belief Knowledge?”
41 Must a True Belief Arise Aptly, 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 Directly 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
René Descartes, Discourse on Method
53 Can Reflective Knowledge Be Substantive and Informative? 340
Immanuel Kant, Critique of Pure Reason
54 Is All Apparently Reflective Knowledge Ultimately Observational? 349
John Stuart Mill, 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”