Problems from Philosophy: An Introductory Text PDF
Preview Problems from Philosophy: An Introductory Text
Problems from Philosophy Problems from Philosophy An Introductory Text Fourth Edition James Rachels and Stuart Rachels ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD Lanham • Boulder • New York • London Acquisitions Editor: Natalie Mandziuk Assistant Acquisitions Editor: Sylvia Landis Sales and Marketing Inquiries: [email protected] Credits and acknowledgments for material borrowed from other sources, and reproduced with permission, appear on the appropriate pages within the text. Published by Rowman & Littlefield An imprint of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc. 4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706 www.rowman.com 86-90 Paul Street, London EC2A 4NE, United Kingdom Copyright © 2021 by James Rachels and Stuart Rachels Third edition 2011 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Is Available ISBN: 978-1-5381-4958-4 (pbk. : alk. paper) ISBN: 978-1-5381-4959-1 (electronic) The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992. Contents Cover Half Title Title Copyright Contents Preface About the Fourth Edition 1 The Legacy of Socrates 1.1. Why Was Socrates Condemned? 1.2. Why Did Socrates Believe He Had to Die? 2 God and the Origin of the Universe 2.1. Is It Reasonable to Believe in God? 2.2. The Argument from Design 2.3. Evolution and Intelligent Design 2.4. The First Cause Argument 2.5. The Idea That God Is a Necessary Being 3 The Problem of Evil 3.1. Why Do Good People Suffer? 3.2. God and Evil 3.3. Free Will and Moral Character 4 Do We Survive Death? 4.1. The Idea of an Immortal Soul 4.2. Is There Any Credible Evidence of an Afterlife? 4.3. Hume’s Argument against Miracles 5 The Problem of Personal Identity 5.1. The Problem 5.2. Personhood at a Time 5.3. Personhood over Time 5.4. Bodily Continuity 5.5. Memory 6 Body and Mind 6.1. Descartes and Elizabeth 6.2. Materialist Theories of the Mind 6.3. Doubts about Materialist Theories 7 Could a Machine Think? 7.1. Brains and Computers 7.2. An Argument That Machines Could Think 7.3. The Turing Test 7.4. Why the Turing Test Fails 8 The Case against Free Will 8.1. Are People Responsible for What They Do? 8.2. Determinism 8.3. Psychology 8.4. Genes and Behavior 9 The Debate over Free Will 9.1. The Experience of Freedom 9.2. The Scientific Challenge to Free Will 9.3. Libertarianism 9.4. Compatibilism 9.5. Does It Matter if We Lack Free Will? 10 Our Knowledge of the World around Us 10.1. Vats and Demons 10.2. Idealism 10.3. What Evidence for These Views Might Be Like 10.4. Descartes’ Theological Response 10.5. Direct vs. Indirect Realism 10.6. Vision and the Brain 10.7. Conclusion 11 Ethics and Objectivity 11.1. Thrasymachus’ Challenge 11.2. Is Ethics Just a Matter of Social Conventions? 11.3. Ethics and Science 11.4. The Importance of Human Interests 12 Why Should We Be Moral? 12.1. The Ring of Gyges 12.2. Ethics and Religion 12.3. Kant on Rationality and Respect 12.4. The Social Contract 12.5. Morality and Benevolence 12.6. Conclusion 13 The Meaning of Life 13.1. The Problem of the Point of View 13.2. Happiness 13.3. Death 13.4. Religion and the Indifferent Universe 13.5. The Meaning of Particular Lives Appendix: How to Evaluate Arguments Notes on Sources About the Authors Preface This book is an introduction to some of the main problems of philosophy—the existence of God, the nature of the mind, human freedom, the limits of knowledge, and the truth about ethics. It begins by reflecting on the life of the first great philosopher, Socrates. Then it takes up the question of whether God exists. That question is discussed early because how we answer it will affect how we answer almost every other philosophical question. Next comes a discussion of death and the soul, which leads us to consider some modern ideas about persons. The later chapters of the book are about whether objective knowledge is possible in science and ethics. All of these chapters are self-contained and may be read independently of one another. Unfortunately, philosophical beliefs are often taken to be mere matters of opinion. After all, it is said, no one can prove whether God exists or whether life has a meaning. But these are topics for rational investigation. Like every responsible inquiry, philosophy is first and last an exercise in reason. We should try to figure out which beliefs are most reasonable, even if the questions are so complex that we cannot expect everyone to agree on the answers. Some philosophers believe that philosophy is a “pure” subject that can be pursued in isolation from the sciences. I do not share that belief. Problems from philosophy are best approached by using every available resource. The philosopher W. V. Quine (1908–2000) once remarked that “the universe is not the university.” The division of human inquiry into discrete disciplines may be useful in organizing academic departments, but it has no place in the study of philosophy. In this book you will find references to biology, psychology, history, and even to the discoveries of the magician the Amazing Randi. They are all part of a single project—the attempt to understand the world and our place in it.
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