PHIL DISCUSSION 11
Cooper2021
Chapter18-Page461.pdf
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CHAPTER OBJECTIVES
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!e Meaning of Life
CHAPTER 18
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18.1 THE SEARCH FOR MEANING
At one time or another, in one way or another, most people ask themselves if life has any meaning, any point. Many of them seem satisfied with their lives—until they begin to wonder whether it is a meaningless charade. !en “the meaning of life”—a phrase often tossed around in mock seriousness or for comedic e"ect—is infused with a more somber tone. A few insist that questions about the meaning of exis- tence are themselves meaningless. But most who have contemplated such things take them to be extremely important and relevant to their lives. Many philosophers have tried to clarify the concepts involved and to give discussions of life’s meaning more precision, but they too think the questions about meaningful or meaningless lives are worth asking and answering. !e existentialist philosopher Albert Camus, for one, declares that “Judging whether life is or is not worth living amounts to an- swering the fundamental question of philosophy. All the rest—whether the world has three dimensions, whether the mind has nine or twelve categories—comes afterwards.”1
Some people, including a fair number of students, think philosophy is mostly about the question of life’s meaning. In a sense, they are not far wrong. Most of the philosophers and topics covered in the preceding chapters can inform your thinking about this important sort of meaning. And your conclusions about the meaningful- ness of life are directly or indirectly related to your actions and beliefs regarding lifestyle, work, morality, political involvement, free will, God, and other issues. If by thinking carefully about life’s meaning (or lack thereof ) you decide to dramatically change your career choice, you would not be the first.
What, besides a course in philosophy, can push someone into this kind of serious reflection? Often the tripwire is a disturbing thought—the inevitably of death, the brevity of life, the smallness and triviality of our lives compared with the unimagin- ably vast universe, the shortness of our lives in the context of eternity, or the eventual obliteration of everything we have cared for or created.
Consider this odd fairytale based very loosely on a real event. A graduate student with a master’s in business pays a visit to a philosophy professor. !e student has come seeking something that she has so far failed to acquire in her studies: the ultimate secret, the meaning of life. !e professor pauses, then answers in his best guru-like voice, “!e meaning of life is . . . a big purple thing.” Silence. !e professor chuckles; the student doesn’t know whether to laugh or sigh.
With his absurd answer the professor means to make a point, or several. !ere is no great secret concerning the mean- ing of life, no cryptic bit of knowledge that, once known, will reveal all. !ere is no slogan or incantation or parable that will ensure your life is worth living. Moreover, no one can simply hand you the meaning of life as if it were a gift basket. !e process of examining the question of life’s meaning or purpose is personal. You have to make that journey yourself. No one can
“For the meaning of life di"ers from man to man, from day to day and from hour to hour. What mat- ters, therefore, is not the meaning of life in general but rather the specific meaning of a person’s life at a given moment.”
—Viktor E. Frankl
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“Life has no meaning the moment you lose the illu- sion of being eternal.”
—Jean-Paul Sartre
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5IF�4FBSDI�GPS�.FBOJOH� 419
bestow upon you what you must find for yourself, no more than a friend can tell you what your favorite foods are supposed to be.
Probably most philosophers would agree with all this. Many would also add that although there is no straight road to understanding the “big question,” there are guideposts here and there that can help you find your way, some of which we discuss in the following pages.
Many people think they have an intuitive grasp of what is meant by “the mean- ing of life.” But the concept in common usage is actually vague and slippery. So for purposes of this discussion, we can say that to ask whether your life has meaning is to ask whether it has significant value or purpose over time, beyond the good of merely being alive. !rough the centuries, people have claimed that such significant value is derived from being part of God’s plan, serving the greater good of human- kind, helping others, caring for and protecting family, giving and receiving love, creating art, searching for knowledge, and many other activities and states.
Philosophers have gone further and distinguished life’s value or meaning from happiness and moral rightness. Someone might be continually and blissfully happy because she is, for example, taking psychotropic drugs, but few would call such a life meaningful. And some people can lead meaningful lives while being miserable because their meaningful activities are arduous or dangerous. Physicians working in a war zone treating wounded children may be sad because of the su"ering they witness—and still feel their lives have meaning. Moreover, many things that people do to add meaning to their lives are also morally right, but moral rightness and meaningfulness need not go together. While creating a beautiful painting, an artist might add meaning to his life, but the act of creation seems to be morally neutral. Morality and meaningfulness are not synonymous.
Perhaps the main impediment to clear thinking about life’s meaning is confu- sion about what meaning refers to. Consider the phrase “the meaning of life.” For most people, these words refer to external meaning—meaning or purpose that comes from outside humanity. Whatever meaning people have in their lives is bestowed or assigned by God, by some metaphysical order, or by the workings of some universal principle. For Christians, to have a meaningful life is to be part of God’s plan for all of humankind. But many people also speak of a di"erent kind of meaning—what some refer to as “meaning in life.” !is is internal meaning—meaning or purpose that comes from inside people, that humans can give to themselves. On this view, life can be meaningful for persons if they come to see their goals or purposes as inherently valuable or worthwhile.
Many people, including those who accept a religious worldview, assume that if life has no external meaning, it has no meaning period. !ey believe humans can have a purposeful life only if God created them with a purpose. !e opposing view is that even if there is no external meaning, people’s lives can still be meaningful because meaning and purpose come from within. Because of these di"erent senses of meaning, a person who states that life is meaningless may actually be asserting only that life has no external meaning but still has internal meaning. Someone who declares that life has meaning may reject the notion that humans are given a purpose by a higher power, claiming that lives are made meaningful only by human choices.
“My life has no purpose, no direction, no aim, no meaning, and yet I’m happy. I can’t figure it out. What am I doing right?”
—Charles M. Schulz
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“Life takes on meaning when you become moti- vated, set goals and charge after them in an unstop- pable manner.”
—Les Brown
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Unfortunately, the phrase “the meaning of life” is frequently used to refer to both external and internal meaning.
To the question of whether life holds any meaning for us, there are two principal answers: (1) life has no meaning (the pessimist’s view) and (2) life in some sense does have meaning (the optimist’s view). !e optimist’s answer can be further divided: either (1) life’s meaning is external (the common religious perspective) or (2) life’s meaning is internal (the view held mostly by the nonreligious or nontheistic).
18.2 PESSIMISM: LIFE HAS NO MEANING
!e pessimists (also called nihilists) have something in common with the religious optimists: they both believe that unless a divine entity or transcendent reality has provided the world with ultimate purpose or value, life is meaningless. In other words, life can have no meaning if external meaning is nonexistent.
Among famous pessimists we can count the renowned Russian novelist Leo Tol- stoy (1828–1910). Before undergoing a Christian conversion (and becoming an opti- mist), he found himself at age fifty doubting the existence of God and being tortured by the thought that life was entirely without meaning or purpose. Here we can see that his agony at the loss of meaning was extreme:
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“Life is without meaning. You bring the meaning to it. !e meaning of life is whatever you ascribe it to be. Being alive is the meaning.”
—Joseph Campbell
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“!e sole meaning of life is to serve humanity.”
—Leo Tolstoy
!e German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860), another famous pessimist, argues that life is so bereft of meaning, and so fraught with misery, that the nonexistence of the world is preferable to its existence.
-FP�5PMTUPZ�� My Confession
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!e distinguished atheist lawyer Clarence Darrow (1857–1938), defense attorney in the famous Scopes “monkey trial,” came to the same conclusion that Tolstoy and Schopenhauer did: life is not worth- while. “Life is like a ship on the sea,” he says, “tossed by every wave and by every wind; a ship headed for no port and no harbor, with no rudder, no compass, no pilot; simply floating for a time, then lost in the waves.”4
Figure 18.5 "SUIVS�4DIPQFOIBVFS� ����o���� �
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“I have always believed, and I still believe, that whatever good or bad fortune may come our way we can always give it meaning and transform it into something of value.”
—Hermann Hesse
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Against the pessimists, it has been argued that most of them have been guilty of perpetrating the confusion mentioned earlier—mixing up the two senses of mean- ing. Contemporary philosopher Julian Baggini explains:
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18.3 OPTIMISM: LIFE CAN HAVE MEANING
Optimists say human existence can be meaningful but are divided on how this meaning is possible. As noted earlier, some believe life’s meaning has an external source, and some think it arises internally.
Meaning from Above Most of those who take the externalist approach view the matter from a religious standpoint. Typically the central doctrine is that a human life has meaning only be- cause it is part of God’s plan, a grand cosmic order that encompasses every entity in the universe. As participants in this plan, people have a preeminent role to play and a purpose preordained by God. To have a meaningful existence is to align your life with God’s plan, either by performing certain duties or being a particular kind of person. To live contrary to God’s plan is to live a meaningless life. And, of course, if there is no God, there is no point to living.
Tolstoy not only gave us a glimpse of his fall into pessimism, he also wrote about his gradual acceptance of a deeply religious understanding of life’s meaning:
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“Faith consists in being vi- tally concerned with that ultimate reality to which I give the symbolical name of God. Whoever reflects earnestly on the meaning of life is on the verge of an act of faith.”
—Paul Tillich
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DETAILS
Is Religion Necessary for a Meaningful Life? Rick Warren, author of !e Purpose-Driven Life and the pastor who delivered the invocation at Barack Obama’s inauguration ceremony, maintains that religion is required if your life is to have meaning. “You were made by God and for God,” he says, “and until you understand that, life will never make sense.” Is that true?
!e results of a Gallup poll raise doubts about it. !e pollsters surveyed thousands of people in eighty-four countries. !ey concluded that “!ere is some support in Gallup’s data for Warren’s premise that religious involvement makes devotees more likely to feel their lives have a purpose. On the other hand, the results also suggest that religious involvement is not necessary for most people to feel that way.” Here are some of the results.
Do you feel your life has an important meaning or purpose? Among those claiming any religious a#liation: 92% yes; 6% no. Among those claiming to be secular, nonreligious, atheist, or agnostic: 83% yes; 14% no.
Do you feel your life has an important meaning or purpose? Percentage answering yes: Christian: 93%; Hindu: 92%; Muslim: 91%; Buddhist: 90%; Other: 89%; Jewish: 88%; Secular/atheist/agnostic: 83%.
Do you feel your life has an important meaning or purpose? Percentage answering yes: Elementary education or less: 88%; Secondary education up to 3 years of tertiary education: 91%; At least 4 years of tertiary education: 91%; Have a job: 92%; Do not have a job: 89%.
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Gallup survey, 2007, data from 1,000 adults per country across 84 populations; ±4 percentage points sampling error.
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428 CHAPTER 18 5IF�.FBOJOH�PG�-JGF
vau28703_ch18_417-434.indd 428 05/09/17 06:06 PM
So Tolstoy says he found the true meaning of life through a leap of faith, not through the rational knowl- edge of his circle of sophisticates. He chose the religious path trod by millions of the poor and unlearned.
Nonbelievers, however, would not be impressed by Tolstoy’s appeal to faith. !ey would insist that his position be backed by reasons and arguments. But theistic belief is di#cult to support this way. More- over, some critiques of Tolstoy’s view do not depend on a denial of God’s existence. Several philosophers have argued that the notion of a God assigning a pur- pose to humans should be objectionable to believers and nonbelievers alike. !is is how Baggini expresses the point:
Figure 18.6 (BOEIJ�XBT�OPU�B�$ISJTUJBO��%JE�IF�OFWFSUIF- MFTT�MFBE�B�NFBOJOHGVM�MJGF �8IBU�BCPVU�4PDSBUFT �&JOTUFJO �
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“Ever more people today have the means to live, but no meaning to live for.”
—Viktor E. Frankl
+VMJBO�#BHHJOJ��What’s It All About?
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vau28703_ch18_417-434.indd 429 05/09/17 06:06 PM
0QUJNJTN��-JGF�$BO�)BWF�.FBOJOH� 429
Meaning from Below Internalists believe they can have meaningful lives without relying on the concepts of God or transcendent realms. !ey hold that they can confer meaning on their own lives. !e proof of this, they might say, is all around us. !ere are many people who seem to lead meaningful lives, and we would judge this to be the case even if we thought no external being or force existed to confer meaning. Consider Socrates, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., Rosa Parks, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Marie Curie, George Washington, Confucius—these men and women, by all ac- counts, were driven by a sense of purpose and led lives full of meaning.
But exactly what property or state of a"airs is the conveyor of meaning? Internal- ists di"er on that score. Here is Paul Edwards’s view:
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“Religion is the state of being grasped by an ulti- mate concern, a concern which qualifies all other concerns as preliminary and which itself contains the answer to the question of a meaning of our life.”
—Paul Tillich
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Figure 18.7 #BHHJOJ�BTLT �i*T�JU�CFUUFS�UP�CF�TMBWFT�XJUI�B�SPMF�JO�UIF�VOJWFSTF�PS�UP�CF�GSFF�QFPQMF�MFGU�UP� DSFBUF�B�SPMF�GPS�PVSTFMWFT w
430 CHAPTER 18 5IF�.FBOJOH�PG�-JGF
vau28703_ch18_417-434.indd 430 05/09/17 06:06 PM
Many philosophers reject this dismal outlook, arguing that the fact of death and the ephemeral nature of human endeavors are irrelevant to the meaningfulness or meaningless of a person’s existence. If life is meaningful, then it is meaningful no matter how long or short it is. Edwards is one of the philosophers who make this point:
“I would rather live my life as if there is a God and die to find out there isn’t, than live my life as if there isn’t and die to find out there is.”
—Albert Camus
1BVM�&EXBSET��The Encyclopedia of Philosophy
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vau28703_ch18_417-434.indd 431 05/09/17 06:06 PM
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DETAILS
What Can and Cannot Give Life Meaning Here is a quiz to help you assess your views on life’s meaning. For each statement below, indicate whether you agree or disagree with it (or have no opinion on it). !is is the easy part. !e more di#cult task is to support your beliefs with good argu- ments or evidence. !is exercise asks you to specify not what has caused your beliefs but what justifies them.
1. Unless there is an eternal af- terlife, human life can have no meaning.
2. Life has meaning only if there is a God who has created us for a purpose.
3. Life has meaning if you are happy. 4. Life has no meaning and no purpose. 5. Having a meaningful or purposeful life does not matter; what matters is the next life
of everlasting bliss. 6. People cannot give meaning to their own lives; life’s meaning is derived from God or
some other transcendental reality. 7. A study of people past and present would show that some of them live or have lived
meaningful lives, and this sense of meaning does not depend on their belief in God. 8. Death has no bearing on whether we can live meaningful lives. 9. !e eventual obliteration of everything we have created or strived for is irrelevant to
whether our lives can be meaningful. 10. !e notion that God has assigned to humans a purpose or plan to live by is an a"ront
to human dignity. 11. Without a transcendental reality, and humanity’s relationship to it through faith,
human life is meaningless. 12. Some moral, aesthetic, or intellectual goals or endeavors are enough to confer meaning
on one’s life. 13. As Tolstoy says, a meaningful life requires a leap of faith. 14. People who trust that God has a plan for their lives have no understanding of what the
purpose of their lives is. 15. Socrates, Mahatma Gandhi, Marie Curie, and Confucius led meaningful lives.
Figure 18.8 %FUFSNJOJOH�XIFUIFS�ZPVS�MJGF�IBT�NFBOJOH�VTVBMMZ�SF- RVJSFT�B�CSPBE �FODPNQBTTJOH�WJFX�PG�UIJOHT�
432 CHAPTER 18 5IF�.FBOJOH�PG�-JGF
vau28703_ch18_417-434.indd 432 05/09/17 06:06 PM
3&7*&8�/05&4
18.1 THE SEARCH FOR MEANING t� .PTU�XIP�IBWF�UIPVHIU�BCPVU�JU�CFMJFWF�UIBU�RVFTUJPOT�DPODFSOJOH�UIF�NFBOJOH�PG�
human existence are extremely important and relevant. t� ɨF�QSPDFTT�PG�FYBNJOJOH�UIF�RVFTUJPO�PG�MJGF�T�NFBOJOH�JT�QFSTPOBM�OP�POF�DBO�
do it for you. t� ɨF�NBJO�JNQFEJNFOU�UP�DMFBS�UIJOLJOH�BCPVU�MJGF�T�NFBOJOH�JT�DPOGVTJPO�BCPVU�
what meaning refers to. !e word can refer to external meaning or internal meaning.
18.2 PESSIMISM: LIFE HAS NO MEANING t� 1FTTJNJTUT�CFMJFWF�UIBU�MJGF�IBT�OP�NFBOJOH��PQUJNJTUT�CFMJFWF�UIBU�JU�EPFT��4PNF�
optimists believe that life’s meaning is external; other optimists think it’s internal. t� 5PMTUPZ� BU�POF�QPJOU�JO�IJT�MJGF �4DIPQFOIBVFS �BOE�%BSSPX�BSF�QFTTJNJTUT��#BH-
gini thinks they mix up the two senses of meaning; when they say “life is mean- ingless,” they likely mean only that life has no meaning in the external sense.
18.3 OPTIMISM: LIFE CAN HAVE MEANING t� .PTU�PG�UIPTF�XIP�UBLF�UIF�FYUFSOBMJTU�BQQSPBDI�WJFX�UIF�NBUUFS�GSPN�B�SFMJHJPVT�
standpoint. Typically they believe that a human life has meaning only because it is part of God’s plan. Tolstoy took this view and maintained that finding meaning in life requires a leap of faith.
t� 6OCFMJFWFST�XPVME�JOTJTU�UIF�SFMJHJPVT�WJFX�PG�NFBOJOH�CF�CBDLFE�CZ�SFBTPOT�BOE� arguments. Several philosophers have argued that the notion of a God assigning
WRITING AND REASONING CHAPTER 18
1. Devise an argument for the proposition that life is (or is not) meaningful. 2. Explain Tolstoy’s case for believing that life can have meaning through
a leap of faith—then show how skeptics have argued against Tolstoy’s view. Conclude by stating which side in this controversy you think is stronger.
3. Some maintain that we are here to do God’s will. Lay out an argument showing that such a purpose would or would not make life meaningful.
4. State whether you believe that Socrates and Marie Curie led meaningful lives. Give reasons for your assertion.
5. Does the prospect of death undermine life’s meaningfulness? Give reasons for your answer.
vau28703_ch18_417-434.indd 433 05/09/17 06:06 PM
'PS�'VSUIFS�3FBEJOH� 433
a purpose to humans should be objectionable to believers and nonbelievers alike. !ey maintain that this idea of God creating people for a purpose is an a"ront to human dignity.
t� *OUFSOBMJTUT�CFMJFWF�UIFZ�DBO�IBWF�NFBOJOHGVM�MJWFT�XJUIPVU�SFMZJOH�PO�UIF�DPODFQUT� of God or transcendent realms. !ey hold that they can confer meaning on their own lives.
t� .BOZ� QIJMPTPQIFST� SFKFDU� UIF� OPUJPO� UIBU� EFBUI� SPCT� QFPQMF� PG� NFBOJOH� JO� MJGF�� !ey argue that the fact of death and the ephemeral nature of human endeavors are irrelevant to the meaningfulness or meaningless of a person’s existence. If life is meaningful, then it is meaningful no matter how long or short it is.
/PUFT 1. Albert Camus, !e Myth of Sisyphus, trans. J. O’Brien (New York: Alfred A.
Knopf, 1955), i. 2. Leo Tolstoy, My Confession, trans. Leo Wierner (New York: J. M. Dent and Sons,
1905). 3. Arthur Schopenhauer, “On the Su"erings of the World,” Parerga and Paralipom-
ena, trans. T. Bailey Saunders (1851). 4. Clarence Darrow, “Is Life Worth Living?” (debate), March 28, 1920. 5. Julian Baggini, What’s It All About?: Philosophy and the Meaning of Life (Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 2005), 160–161. 6. Tolstoy. 7. Baggini, 17, 19–20. 8. Paul Edwards, !e Encyclopedia of Philosophy, vol. 4, ed. Paul Edwards (New
York: Macmillan, 1967). 9. Edwards.
'PS�'VSUIFS�3FBEJOH Julian Baggini, What’s It All About?: Philosophy and the Meaning of Life (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005). An excellent primer on meaning in life; argues that meaning can have an internal source.
Kurt Baier, “!e Meaning of Life,” 1957, reprinted in !e Meaning of Life: A Reader, eds. E. D. Klemke and Steven M. Cahn (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008), 82–113. A classic essay on the basic issues.
E. D. Klemke and Steven M. Cahn, eds., !e Meaning of Life: A Reader (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008). A good anthology featuring most of the must-read articles.
Bertrand Russell, “A Free Man’s Worship,” Why I Am Not a Christian (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1957). A much-anthologized essay by the famous twentieth- century philosopher; discusses how life can have meaning in a godless world.
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435
APPENDIX
How to Write a Philosophy Paper
In conversations, letters to the editor, or online discussions, have you ever taken a position on an issue and o!ered reasons why your view is correct? If so, then you have defended a thesis. You have presented an argument, giving reasons for accept- ing a particular thesis, or conclusion. If you elaborate on your argument in a written paper, you create something even more valuable—a thesis defense (or argumentative) essay. In a thesis defense essay, you try to show the reader that your view is worthy of acceptance by o!ering reasons that support it. Your thesis may assert your posi- tion on a philosophical, social, or political issue; on the arguments or claims of other writers (including some famous or not-so-famous philosophers); or on the interpre- tation of a single work or several works. In every case, you a"rm a thesis and give reasons for your a"rmation.
#is type of essay is not merely an analysis of claims, a summary of points made by someone else, or a reiteration of what other people believe or say—though a good thesis defense essay may contain some of these elements. A thesis defense essay is supposed to be a demonstration of what you believe and why you believe it. What other people think is, ultimately, beside the point.
BASIC ESSAY STRUCTURE
#esis defense essays usually contain the following elements, though not necessarily in this order:
I. Introduction (or opening)
A. #esis statement (the claim to be supported)
B. Plan for the paper
C. Background for the thesis
II. Argument supporting the thesis
III. Assessment of objections
IV. Conclusion
Introduction #e introduction often consists of the paper’s first paragraph, sometimes just a sentence or two. Occasionally it is longer, perhaps several paragraphs. #e length
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436 APPENDIX How to Write a Philosophy Paper
depends on how much ground you must cover to introduce the argument. Whatever the length, the introduction should be no longer than necessary. In most cases the best introductions are short.
If there is a rule of thumb for what the introduction must contain, it is this: !e introduction should set forth the thesis statement. #e thesis statement usually appears in the first paragraph. It is the claim that you hope to support or prove in your essay, the conclusion of the argument that you intend to present. You may want to pose the thesis statement as the answer to a question that you raise, or as the solution to a problem that you wish to discuss. However presented, your thesis statement is the assertion you must support with reasons. It is like a compass to your readers, guid- ing them from paragraph to paragraph, premise to premise, showing them a clear path from introduction to conclusion. It also helps you stay on course. It reminds you to relate every sentence and paragraph to your one controlling idea.
Your thesis statement should be restricted to a claim that you can defend in the space allowed. You want to state it in a single sentence and do so as early as possible. You may need to add a few words to explain or elaborate on the statement if you think its meaning or implications unclear.
#e other two parts of an introduction—the plan for the paper (B) and back- ground information for the thesis (C)—may or may not be necessary, depending on your thesis and your intent. In more formal essays, you will need not only to state your thesis, but also to spell out how you intend to argue for it. You will have to summarize your whole argument—each of your premises and conclusion—or, if your argument is long or complex, at least the most important points. Providing background informa- tion for your thesis is a matter of explaining what your thesis means (which includes defining terms and clarifying concepts), what its implications are, why the issue is so important or pressing, or why you have decided to address it. Sometimes the needed background information is so extensive that you must supply much of it after the in- troduction. At any rate, by adding the right kind of background information, you give your readers good reason to care about what you are saying and to continue reading.
In many philosophy papers, the background information includes a summary or sketch of the views of other philosophers—what they have said that is relevant to the issue or to your thesis. Providing this kind of material can help the reader understand why your topic is worth exploring and why your argument is relevant.
Argument Supporting the Thesis Between your paper’s introduction and conclusion is the body of the essay. #e basic components of the body are (1) the premises of your argument plus the material that supports or explains them and (2) an evaluation of objections to your thesis. Each premise must be clearly stated, carefully explained and illustrated, and prop- erly backed up by examples, statistics, expert opinion, argument, or other reasons or evidence. You may be able to adequately develop the essay by devoting a single paragraph to each premise, or you may have to use several paragraphs per premise.
Whatever tack you take, you must stick to the central rule of paragraph develop- ment: Develop just one main point in each paragraph, embodying that point in a topic sentence. Make sure that each paragraph in turn relates to your thesis statement.
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APPENDIX How to Write a Philosophy Paper 437
If your essay is a critique of someone else’s arguments, you should examine them in the body, explaining how they work and laying out the author’s response to any major criticisms of them. Your account of the arguments should be accurate and complete, putting forth the author’s best case and providing enough detail for your readers to understand the import of your own argument. After the presentation of the author’s side of things, you can then bring in your critique, asserting and explain- ing each premise.
Some premises, of course, may be so obvious that they do not require support. #e determining factor is whether your readers would be likely to question them. If your readers are likely to accept a premise as it is, no backup is required. If they are not, you need to support the premise. A common mistake is to assume that a premise would be accepted by everyone when in fact it is controversial.
Recall that in a good argument the conclusion logically follows from the prem- ises, and the premises are true. Your task in the body of your essay is to put forth such an argument and to do so plainly—to demonstrate clearly to your readers that your premises are properly related to your conclusion and that they are true. You should leave no doubt about what you are trying to prove and how you are trying to prove it. In longer papers, you may want to back up your thesis with more than one argument. #is is an acceptable way to proceed, providing you make the relation- ships between the separate arguments and your thesis clear.
Assessment of Objections Very often an argumentative essay includes an assessment of objections—a sincere e!ort to take into account any objections or doubts that readers are likely to have about points in your essay. (In some cases, however, there may be no significant objections to assess.) You must show your readers that the objections are unfounded, that your ar- gument is not fatally wounded by likely criticisms. Contrary to what some may think, when you deal e!ectively with objections in your essay, you do not weaken it—you strengthen it. You lend credibility to it by making an attempt to be fair and thorough. You make your position stronger by removing doubts from your readers’ minds. If you don’t confront likely objections, your readers may conclude that you are either ignorant of the objections or you don’t have a good reply to them. An extra benefit is that in dealing with objections, you may see ways to make your argument stronger.
On the other hand, you may discover that you do not have an adequate answer to the objections. #en what? #en you look for ways to change your arguments or thesis to overcome the criticisms. You can weaken your thesis by making it less sweeping or less probable. Or you may need to abandon your thesis altogether in favor of one that is stronger. Discovering that your beloved thesis is full of holes is not necessarily a setback. You have increased your understanding by finding out which boats will float and which will not.
Conclusion Unless your essay is very short, it should have a conclusion. #e conclusion usually appears in the last paragraph. Many conclusions simply reiterate the thesis state- ment and then go on to emphasize how important it is. Others issue a call to action,
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438 APPENDIX How to Write a Philosophy Paper
present a compelling perspective on the issue, or discuss further implications of the thesis statement. Some conclusions contain a summary of the essay’s argument. A summary is always a good idea if the argument is complex, long, or formal.
WRITING THE ESSAY: STEP BY STEP
Now we examine the steps involved in crafting a good thesis defense essay. You have the best chance of writing a good essay if you try to follow these steps. Just remember that the process is not linear. You may not be able to follow the steps in the sequence suggested. You may have to backtrack or rearrange the order of the steps. #is kind of improvising on the fly is normal—and often necessary. At any stage in the pro- cess, you may discover that your argument is not as good as you thought, or that you did not take an important fact into account, or that there is a way that you can alter the essay to make it stronger. You may then want to go back and rework your outline or tinker with the draft you are working on—and your essay will be better for it. Rethinking and revising are normal procedures for even the best writers.
Here are the steps:
1. Select a topic and narrow it to a specific issue. 2. Research the issue. 3. Write a thesis statement. 4. Create an outline of the whole essay. 5. Write a first draft. 6. Study and revise your first draft. 7. Produce a final draft.
Step 1. Select a topic and narrow it to a specific issue. #is step is first for a reason. It is here to help inexperienced writers avoid a tempting but nasty trap: picking a thesis out of the air and writing their paper on it. Caution: Any thesis that you dream up without knowing anything about it is likely to be unus- able—and a waste of time. It is better to begin by selecting a topic or issue and nar- rowing it through research and hard thinking to a manageable thesis.
A topic is simply a broad category of subject matter, such as human cloning, the mind, capital punishment, and God. Within topics there lurk an infinite number of issues—that is, questions that are in dispute. From the topic of capital punish- ment, for example, countless issues arise: whether executing criminals deters crime, whether executing a human being is ever morally permissible, whether it is ethical to execute people who are insane or mentally impaired, whether the system of capi- tal punishment in the United States is unfair, whether the death penalty should be mandatory for serial killers, whether executing juveniles is immoral . . . the list could go on and on. #e basic idea is to select from the roster of possibilities an issue that (1) you are interested in and (2) you can adequately address in the space allowed.
Step 2. Research the issue. #e main reason for researching an issue is to find out what viewpoints and argu- ments are involved. Often your instructor will suggest good sources to research for
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APPENDIX How to Write a Philosophy Paper 439
a particular writing assignment. Your assigned reading may be the only source you need to check. Otherwise, you can read articles and books, talk to people who have studied the issue or at least thought about it carefully, or go online to review topical or philosophical sites.
Step 3. Write a thesis statement. #e conclusion of your selected argument will serve as the basis for your thesis state- ment. Often the conclusion is your thesis statement. Writing a good thesis statement is an essential step, because the entire essay is built on it. An imprecise or clumsy thesis statement can lead to an imprecise or clumsy argument, which can wreck any argumentative essay.
At this stage, you should try to get the wording of your statement just right, even though you may revise it later on. Its scope should be restricted to what you can handle in the space you have. It should also be focused on just one idea, not several. A good thesis statement must be clear. No one should have to guess about the mean- ing of your thesis. #e thesis “Same-sex marriages are intolerable,” for example, is intolerably vague, since there are many ways that something can be intolerable. It gives us very little information about what will be discussed in the essay.
It is possible to devise a thesis statement that is restricted, focused, clear—and trivial. A trivial thesis statement is one that either concerns an insignificant issue or makes an insignificant claim. People generally don’t care about insignificant issues, and few would bother to disagree with an insignificant claim. Who cares whether pens are better than pencils, or whether gambling is more fun than beachcombing? And who would care to contest the claim that pleasure is better than pain? An essay built on a trivial thesis statement wastes your readers’ time (if they bother to read it at all), and you learn nothing and change nothing by writing it. #esis statements should be worthy.
Here are some thesis statements that meet the preceding criteria:
• Jeremy Bentham’s moral theory known as act-utilitarianism conflicts with our commonsense ideas about human rights.
• #e U.S. government should be allowed to arrest and indefinitely imprison without trial any American citizen who is suspected of terrorism.
• Subjective relativism—the view that truth depends on what someone believes—is self-refuting.
• Racial profiling should not be used to do security screening of airline passengers.
Step 4. Create an outline of the whole essay. If you can write out your thesis statement and outline the argument used to defend it, you have already come far. Your argument and thesis statement will constitute the skeleton of your essay. #e next step is to flesh out the bones with introductory or explanatory material, responses to objections, and support for the premises (which may consist of subordinate arguments, examples, explanations, analogies, statistics, scientific research, expert opinion, or other evidence). Producing a detailed, coherent outline of the whole essay is the best way to manage this task, and if you already have an outline of your argument, creating an outline for the whole essay will be easy. An outline helps you fill out your argument in an orderly fashion, showing you how the
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440 APPENDIX How to Write a Philosophy Paper
pieces fit together, and whether any parts are missing or misaligned. #is filling-out process will probably require you to research your thesis further—to check the truth of premises, examine alternative arguments, look for additional evidence, or assess the strength of objections to your argument.
Do not be afraid to alter your outline at any stage. As you write, you may realize that your thesis is weak, your argument flawed, or your premises vague. If so, you should go back and adjust the outline before writing any further. Writing is an act of exploration, and good writers are not afraid to revise when they find something amiss.
When you outline your essay, include your full thesis statement in the introduc- tion. #en, as you work on the outline, you can refer to the statement for guidance. #e major points of your outline will include the premises, conclusion, objections, and responses to objections.
You will find that as you tweak the outline, you may need to adjust the thesis statement. And as you perfect the thesis statement, you may need to adjust the out- line. In the end, you want to satisfy yourself that the outline is complete, accurate, and structurally sound, tracing a clear and logical progression of points.
Step 5. Write a first draft. Good writers revise . . . and revise and revise. #ey either write multiple drafts, revis- ing in successive passes, or they revise continuously as they write. #ey know that their first tries will always be in need of improvement. Inexperienced writers, on the other hand, too often dash o! a first draft without a second look—then turn it in! A much more reasonable approach (and the best one for most students) is to at least write a first draft and a final draft or—better—several drafts and a final one.
In argumentative essays, because of the importance of articulating an argument carefully, and the di"culty of writing later drafts of the essay unless the first one is in reasonable shape, the first draft should be fairly solid. #at is, in your first draft, you should write a tentative version of each paragraph, and the wording of your thesis statement, and all premises should be at least close to final form.
Give your draft a good introduction that lays out your thesis statement, provides background information on the issue, and draws your readers into the essay. Make it interesting, informative, and pertinent to the question at hand. Do not assume that your readers will automatically see that your paper is worth reading.
Every paragraph in your paper should relate to the thesis; every sentence in each paragraph should relate to a topic sentence. Delete any sentence that does not serve the essay’s purpose. Ensure that paragraphs appear in a logical sequence and are clearly linked by transitional words and phrases or references to material in preced- ing paragraphs. Your readers should never have to wonder what the connection is between parts of your paper.
Step 6. Study and revise your first draft. Your first draft is likely to have problems, both big and small. At this stage, though, you should scrutinize mostly the big ones. #is is no time for proofreading (correct- ing spelling, fixing punctuation, repairing typos, and the like). #is is the time to make substantive changes.
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APPENDIX How to Write a Philosophy Paper 441
Step 7. Produce a final draft. After completing all substantive changes, you should generate a final draft, the one you will turn in. #e final draft should reflect not only the big changes, but the cor- rections of all minor errors as well—misspellings, typos, grammatical errors, mis- placed words, faulty punctuation, and documentation mistakes. #is task should be primarily a proofreading job. At this stage, you should also format the manuscript according to your instructor’s requirements.
#e key to producing a clean final draft is down time—an interim in which you leave the last draft alone and focus on something else. Coming back to your paper after a day or so away from it can help you see errors that passed right by you before. You may be surprised how many mistakes this fresh look can reveal. If you cannot set the essay aside, ask a friend to read it and give you some constructive criticism.
FORMATTING YOUR PAPER
#e formatting conventions discussed here are used in the humanities and are consis- tent with the general guidelines in !e Chicago Manual of Style, 16th edition. #e for- matting preferences of your instructor, of course, trump anything in this appendix.
General Specifications • Use good-quality paper (neither onion-skin thickness nor card stock),
8$ ! 11, white. • Use a 12-point standard font such as Times New Roman, a common word-
processing font. • Ensure that there are margins of at least one inch at the top, bottom, and sides
of the page. Double-space the text. • Assign consecutive numbers to all pages, starting with 1, and insert the num-
bers in the upper right corner of each page. #e first page is the title page. Do not show the page number on the title page. #e first visible page number should begin on the next page—page 2.
• On the title page, center (1) the full title of your essay, (2) your name, (3) the title of the course, (4) your instructor’s name, and (5) the date.
Quotations and Citations • Indent and double-space block quotations. Leave a blank line before and after the
block quote and by indenting the left edge of the block quote four or five spaces. • Start endnotes on their own page. Number the endnote pages along with the
rest of the pages. Center Notes at the top of the page. Indent endnotes as shown in the sample paper.
• Single-space each endnote. Insert one line space between entries. • Start a list of works cited on its own page. Number the pages with the rest of
the paper. Center Works Cited at the top of the page. Indent entries as shown in the sample paper.
• Double-space each line of works cited notes.
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442 APPENDIX How to Write a Philosophy Paper
A SAMPLE PHILOSOPHY PAPER
#e Dilemma of the Divine Command #eory by Jane Doe
Philosophy 101 March 10, 2017
What is the connection between God and morality? In the past, many people would take this question to be about whether someone can behave morally even if they are atheists. But nowadays most people in the West would probably answer yes to this question. If there are moral standards of behavior, then it seems that anyone can live by them. A more important question (for both the religious and nonreligious) is not whether someone can be moral without belief in God, but whether morality itself is possible without God. #e answer that many give to this question is the divine com- mand theory, the view that morality absolutely requires God.
It says that an action is right if God commands or wills it. In other words, cer- tain actions are right or wrong only because God says they are, for he is the author of the moral law. God’s commanding an action is what makes it right; God’s forbidding it is what makes it forbidden.1
#ose who accept the divine command theory could consistently think that they should perform actions that promote the common good, as an act-utilitarian would. Or they could believe that they should always act to serve their own interests, as an ethical egoist does.2 Or they could assume that their duty is to act according to a set of deontological principles. But no matter what approach they take, they would still maintain that ultimately an action is right because God commands it.
But is the divine command theory plausible? Does God make right? I intend to argue that the theory is untenable—and for reasons that both theists and nontheists can appreciate. I will show that there is a crucial di"culty for the theory that would come to fore even if God’s existence and our knowledge of his will are assured. #e source of the problem is that the divine command theory forces a dilemma on us that can be satisfactorily resolved only by abandoning the theory.3
Plato lays out the dilemma in his dialogue Euthyphro. In it Socrates asks, in e!ect, Are actions right because God commands them, or does God command them because they are right? #e first option says that God creates morality, and the divine command theory is true. #e second option says that the divine command theory is false: morality exists independently of God’s will, and even he must obey it.
Introduces topic.
De!nes key term.
Further explains the divine command theory.
Thesis statement.
Provides background for the issue.
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APPENDIX How to Write a Philosophy Paper 443
If one accepts the theory, unpalatable implications arise. If an action is morally right only because God says so, then any action at all could be morally right. If God so willed, the torture of children or the murder of innocents would be morally right. As the divine command theory would have it, there could be no reasons for God’s willing one way or the other. He just commands, and that makes an action right (or wrong). But if God has no reasons for his commands, no standards other than his say-so, his commands are arbitrary. If the theory is correct, then God doesn’t have reasons—and doesn’t need reasons—to make the moral rules. But in that case, God’s decisions would amount to no more than a throw of the dice. If rape and murder are morally wrong (or morally right), they are arbitrarily so. #is result is implausible, and both theists and nontheists agree. In fact, most Christian philosophers reject the divine command theory.4
To reject the theory is to give up the idea that God is the maker of the moral law and to acknowledge that morality is independent of God’s will. Actions are right or wrong for reasons that do not depend on God. We try to do right because it’s right, not because a divine power has made an arbitrary decision. #eists who reject the divine command theory believe that God commands humans to obey moral standards that exist regardless of what God commands. God is perfect. He obeys the moral law and expects his children to obey it also.
#e chief argument against the charge of arbitrariness is this: God would never command the murder of one’s neighbors, the torture of children, or any other evil acts because God is all-good. And because God is all-good, his commands would not be arbitrary—they would be good. But to say this is to argue in a circle and undermine—not strengthen—the divine command theory. #e theory is supposed to tell us what morality is, or what makes something good. But if goodness is a de- fining property of God, then God cannot be used to define goodness. Such a tack would result in an empty definition of the divine command theory: Good actions are those commanded by an all-good God. When theists say that God is good, they surely mean more than this.5
In conclusion, the divine command theory is unfounded. To avoid the arbi- trariness problem, and to preserve a credible idea of goodness, the theory must be rejected. #e much more plausible view is located on the other side of Socrates’ dilemma: #e moral law is independent of God and applies to both God and man.
The main argument for the thesis.
Writer explains and rebuts the chief argument against the thesis.
Conclusion and brief reiteration of the argument in its favor.
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444 APPENDIX How to Write a Philosophy Paper
Notes
1. Alasdair MacIntyre, A Short History of Ethics (New York: Macmillan, 1966), 178–79. 2. Michael Beaty, Christian !eism and the Problems of Philosophy (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1990), 5. 3. Russ Shafer-Landau, Whatever Happened to Good and Evil? (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004), 81–82. 4. MacIntyre, 190. 5. John Chandler, “Divine Command #eories and the Appeal to Love,” Ameri- can Philosophical Quarterly 22 (1985): 231–239.
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APPENDIX How to Write a Philosophy Paper 445
Works Cited
Audi, Robert, and William Wainwright eds. Rationality, Religious Belief, and Moral Commitment. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1986.
Beaty, Michael, ed. Christian !eism and the Problems of Philosophy. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1990.
Chandler, John. “Divine Command #eories and the Appeal to Love,” American Philosophical Quarterly 22.1 (1985).
Darwall, Stephen L. !e Second-Person Standpoint: Morality, Respect, and Account- ability. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2006.
MacIntyre, Alasdair. A Short History of Ethics. New York: Macmillan, 1966.
Shafer-Landau, Russ. Whatever Happened to Good and Evil? New York: Oxford University Press, 2004.
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447447
Glossary
a posteriori knowledge Knowledge that depends entirely on sense experience.
a priori knowledge Knowledge gained in- dependently of or prior to sense experience.
absolute idealism !e doctrine that the universe is an objective reality consisting of ideas in the universal mind.
absurdity In existentialism, a sense of meaninglessness and irrationality in the world arising from the conflict between our need for meaning in life and the meaningless, indi"erent universe.
act-utilitarianism !e idea that the right- ness of actions depends solely on the overall well-being produced by individ- ual actions.
ahimsa !e principle of not harming living beings (often referred to as the “non-harm” or “nonviolence” principle).
Analects Confucian text containing the conversations of Confucius and his followers.
analytic statement A logical truth whose denial results in a contradiction.
anatta !e impermanence of the self; or not-self, or no-soul.
ancient atomism !e theory that reality consists of an infinite number of minute, indivisible bits called atoms moving ran- domly in an infinite void, or empty space.
anicca Impermanence; the ephemeral nature of everything.
appeal to ignorance. !e fallacy of trying to prove something by appealing to what we don’t know. It is arguing either that
(1) a claim is true because it hasn’t been proven false or (2) a claim is false be- cause it hasn’t been proven true.
appeal to popularity !e fallacy of argu- ing that a claim must be true not be- cause it is backed by good reasons but simply because many people believe it.
appeal to the person (ad hominem fal- lacy) !e fallacy of rejecting a statement on the grounds that it comes from a particular person, not because the state- ment itself is false or dubious.
appearances !e way things in the world appear to us.
argument A group of statements in which one of them (the conclusion) is supported by the others (the premises).
aristocracy A society ruled by a privileged class.
asceticism !e denial of physical comfort or pleasures for religious ends.
atman One’s soul or self. axiology !e study of value, including
both aesthetic value and moral value. begging the question !e fallacy of trying
to prove a conclusion by using that very same conclusion as support.
Bhagavad-Gita !e most highly ven- erated and influential scriptures in Hinduism.
Brahman !e impersonal, all-pervading spirit that is the universe yet transcends all space and time.
brahmin A priest or teacher; a man of the priestly caste.
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448 GLOSSARY
capitalism A socioeconomic system in which wealth goes to anyone who can acquire it in a free marketplace.
categorical imperative Kant’s fundamen- tal moral principle, which he formulates as (1) “I am never to act otherwise than so that I could also will that my maxim should become a universal law,” and (2) “So act as to treat humanity, whether in thine own person or in that of any other, in every case as an end withal, never as a means only.”
communism A term broadly synony- mous with socialism but associated with nominally Marxist countries such as the Soviet Union in the twentieth century.
composition !e fallacy of arguing er- roneously that what can be said of the parts can also be said of the whole.
conclusion In an argument, the statement being supported by premises.
consequentialist theory A moral theory in which the rightness of actions depends solely on their consequences or results.
cosmological arguments Arguments that reason from the existence of the uni- verse, or cosmos (or some fundamental feature of it) to the conclusion that God exists.
cosmopolitanism !e idea that we have moral duties to all persons, even those outside our family and community.
cultural relativism !e view that the truth about something depends on what cultures believe.
Dao !e “Way” in Daoism, the mysterious first principle of the universe; the eternal source of all that is real and the under- pinning of the world.
deconstruction A way of unpacking a text (philosophical, literary, or other) to reveal hidden assumptions and contradictions that subvert the ostensible meaning.
deductive argument An argument in- tended to give logically conclusive sup- port to its conclusion.
democracy Rule by the people as a whole. deontological (or nonconsequentialist)
theory A moral theory in which the rightness of actions is determined not solely by their consequences but partly or entirely by their intrinsic nature.
distributive justice (or social justice) !e fair distribution of society’s benefits and burdens—such things as jobs, income, property, liberties, rights, welfare aid, taxes, and public service.
division !e fallacy of arguing errone- ously that what can be said of the whole can be said of the parts.
doctrine of double e!ect !e moral prin- ciple that performing a bad action to bring about a good e"ect is never mor- ally acceptable but that performing a good action may sometimes be accept- able even if it produces a bad e"ect.
dualism !e view that the mind (or soul) and matter (or body) are two disparate things.
dukkha !e inevitable su"ering and dis- satisfaction inherent in existence.
e"cient cause !e main source or initia- tor of a change.
empiricism !e view that our knowledge of the world comes solely from sense experience.
empiricists !ose who believe that our knowledge of the world comes solely from sense experience.
Epicureanism !e philosophy of Epicu- rus; the view that life’s highest aim is happiness attained through moderate pleasures and the avoidance of mental disturbance.
epistemology !e philosophical study of knowledge.
equivocation !e fallacy of assigning two di"erent meanings to the same signifi- cant word in an argument.
ethics (moral philosophy) !e study of mo- rality using the methods of philosophy.
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GLOSSARY 449
ethics of care A moral perspective that emphasizes the unique demands of spe- cific situations and the virtues and feel- ings that are central to close personal relationships.
evidentialism !e view that we are justi- fied in believing something only if it is supported by su#cient evidence.
existentialism A term applied to di"erent philosophies that share themes about the uniqueness of each human being, the cen- tral importance of choice, and the indi- vidual’s response to an indi"erent, absurd universe.
fallacy A common but bad argument. fallibilism !e view that our claims to
knowledge may turn out to be false. false dilemma !e fallacy of arguing er-
roneously that since there are only two alternatives to choose from, and one of them is unacceptable, the other one must be true.
feminist ethics An approach to morality aimed at advancing women’s interests, underscoring their distinctive experi- ences and characteristics, and advancing the obvious truth that women and men are morally equal.
fideism !e notion that religious belief is grounded in faith, not reason.
final cause What a thing is for or for what purpose it exists.
form !e shape, pattern, or function of material stu".
formal cause A thing’s structure and properties that make it what it is.
Forms In Plato’s philosophy, the objec- tively real, eternal abstract entities that serve as models or universals of higher knowledge.
genetic fallacy Arguing that a statement can be judged true or false based on its source.
hedonism !e doctrine that pleasure is the supreme good.
Hellenistic era !e period from the death of Alexander in 323 $%& to the end of the Roman Republic in 31 $%& in which Epicureanism, Stoicism, and skepticism flourished.
inductive argument An argument in- tended to give probable support to its conclusion.
instrumental good Something good be- cause it helps us attain something else good; something good for the sake of something else.
intrinsic good Something good in itself; something good for its own sake.
invalid argument A deductive argument that fails to provide conclusive support for its conclusion.
justice !e idea that people should get what is fair or what is their due.
karma !e universal principle that gov- erns the characteristics and quality of each rebirth, or future life.
language-game A pattern of social activ- ity in which words play a crucial role and derive their meaning from how they are used in the activity.
li In early Confucianism, ritual, etiquette, principle, and propriety; conscientious behavior and right action.
logic !e study of correct reasoning.
logos Heraclitus’ central idea—the prin- ciple, formula, or law of the world order.
Lyceum Aristotle’s school of philosophy and science, named after its location, a grove just outside Athens dedicated to the god Apollo Lyceus.
material cause A thing’s material composition.
meritocracy A system of rule by those most qualified to govern.
metaphysics !e study of reality.
monads Leibniz’s term for the only true substances—immaterial, mental entities that constitute reality.
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450 GLOSSARY
moral evil Evil that comes from human choices and actions.
moral theory A theory that explains why an action is right or wrong or why a person or a person’s character is good or bad.
morality Beliefs about right and wrong actions and good and bad persons or character.
mysticism !e belief in the alleged abil- ity to access, through trances or visions, divine knowledge that is unattainable through sense experience or reason.
natural law theory !e view that right actions are those that conform to moral standards discerned in nature through human reason.
necessary truth A truth that could not have been false.
Neoplatonism !e philosophical view consisting of a blend of Plato’s metaphys- ics (primarily concerning the theory of the Forms) and other nonmaterialist or religious ideas.
nirvana A state of bliss and well-being at- tained when one extinguishes the flames of desire and thus halts the repeating cycle of death and rebirth.
ontological arguments Arguments that reason from the concept of God to the existence of God.
panentheism !e view that God is in every part of the universe but is also more than the universe.
pantheism !e view that God is identical with everything.
phenomenology A way of painstakingly describing the data of consciousness with- out the distortions of preconceived ideas.
philosophical method !e systematic use of critical reasoning to try to find an- swers to fundamental questions about reality, morality, and knowledge.
picture theory of meaning !e view that the logical structures of language mirror the structures of the world.
pragmatism !e doctrine that the mean- ing or truth of a belief is synonymous with the practical results of accepting it.
premise A statement that supports the conclusion of an argument.
pre-Socratics !e first philosophers, most of whom flourished before Socrates (fifth century $%&).
principle of induction !e presumption that events that followed one another in the past will do the same in the future, that the future will be like the past.
propositional knowledge Knowledge of a proposition.
rationalism !e view that some or all of our knowledge about the world is gained independently of sense experience.
rationalists !ose who believe that some or all of our knowledge about the world is gained independently of sense experience.
reductio ad absurdum An argument form in which a set of statements is assumed, and absurd or false statements are derived from the set, showing that at least one of the original statements must be rejected.
relativism !e doctrine that the truth about something depends on what per- sons or cultures believe.
ren !e essential Confucian virtues, in- cluding benevolence, sympathy, kind- ness, generosity, respect for others, and human-heartedness.
rhetoric !e art of verbal persuasion. rule-utilitarianism !e doctrine that a right
action is one that conforms to a rule that, if followed consistently, would create for everyone involved the most beneficial bal- ance of well-being over su"ering.
samsara One’s cycle of repeated deaths and rebirths.
skepticism !e view that we lack knowl- edge in some fundamental way.
slippery slope !e fallacy of arguing erroneously that a particular action should not be taken because it will lead
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GLOSSARY 451
inevitably to other actions resulting in some dire outcome.
social contract theory !e view that jus- tice is secured, and the state is made le- gitimate, through an agreement among citizens of the state or between the citi- zens and the rulers of the state.
socialism !e political and economic view that the means of production (property, factories, businesses) should be owned and controlled by the state for the gen- eral welfare.
Socratic method Question-and-answer di- alogue in which propositions are method- ically scrutinized to uncover the truth.
sophists Itinerant professors who, for a fee, would teach a range of subjects that could be of practical or intellectual benefit.
statement (or claim) An assertion that something is or is not the case and is therefore the kind of utterance that is either true or false.
Stoicism !e view that we can attain happi- ness and peace of mind if we focus on con- trolling only what is up to us (attitudes, intentions, perceptions, and feelings) and ignoring what is not up to us (body, reputation, property, and political o#ce), thereby restraining our desires, cultivating virtue, and conforming our lives to Nature (or God).
straw man !e fallacy of misrepresent- ing a person’s views so they can be more easily attacked or dismissed.
subjective relativism !e notion that truth depends on what a person believes.
syllogism A deductive argument made up of three statements—two premises and a conclusion.
synthetic statement A statement that is not analytic.
teleological arguments Arguments that reason from apparent signs of design or purposeful creation in the world to the existence of a supreme designer.
teleology !e existence of purpose or ends inherent in persons or things.
term A word that names a class, or cate- gory, of things in a deductive argument.
Upanishads Vedic literature concerning the self, Brahman, samsara, and liberation.
utilitarianism !e view that right actions are those that result in the most ben- eficial balance of good over bad conse- quences for everyone involved.
valid argument A deductive argument that succeeds in providing conclusive support for its conclusion.
Vedas Early Hindu scriptures, developed between 1500 and 600 $%&.
virtue A disposition to behave in line with a standard of excellence.
will to power !e fundamental nature of existence as a drive to control and dominate.
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Page 335, Jean-Paul Sartre, Existential- ism: Jean-Paul Sartre, “Existentialism Is a Humanism” from Existentialism, translated by Bernard Frechtman. Copyright 1947
by Philosophical Library, Inc. Copyright renewed 1974. Reprinted by permission of Philosophical Library, New York.
Page 340, Albert Camus, !e Myth of Sisyphus: Albert Camus, “"e Myth of Sisyphus” from !e Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays by Albert Camus and translated by Justin O’Brien, translation copyright © 1955, copyright renewed 1983 by Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House LLC. Originally published in France as Le Mythe Sisyphe. Copyright 1942 by Librairie Gallimard. Used by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, a division of Random House LLC, and Penguin Books Ltd. All rights reserved. Any third party use of this material, outside of this publica- tion, is prohibited. Interested parties must apply directly to Random House LLC for permission.
Page 342, “!e Top 10 Existential Movies of All Time”: George Dvorsky, “"e Top 10 Existential Movies of All Time,” June 7, 2009, www.sentientdevelopments.com. Reprinted by permission of the author.
Page 371, Simone de Beauvoir, !e Second Sex: Simone de Beauvoir, excerpts from !e Second Sex by Simone de Beau- voir and translated by Constance Borde and Sheila Malovany-Chevallier, English translation copyright © 2009 by Constance Borde and Sheila Malovany-Chevallier. Originally published in French as Le deux- ième sexe. Copyright © 1949 by Editions Gallimard. Used by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, a division of Random House LLC, Georges Borchardt, Inc. for Editions Gallimard, and "e Random House Group Limited. All rights reserved. Any third party use of this material, outside of this publication, is prohibited. Interested parties must apply directly to Random House LLC for permission.
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458 CREDITS
Page 378, Virginia Held, !e Ethics of Care: Virginia Held, !e Ethics of Care (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006). Copyright © 2006 by Oxford Uni- versity Press, Inc. By permission of Oxford University Press, Inc. www.oup.com
Page 382, Eva Browning Cole, Philoso- phy and Feminist Criticism: Eve Brown- ing Cole, Philosophy and Feminist Criticism. Copyright © 1993 by Paragon House. Reprinted by permission of the publisher.
Page 406, Martha Nussbaum, !e New Religious Intolerance: Martha C. Nussbaum, reprinted by permission of the publisher from !e New Religious Intoler- ance: Overcoming the Politics of Fear in an Anxious Age by Martha C. Nussbaum, pp. 2–3, 61, 65–66, 67–68, Cambridge, Mass: "e Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Copyright © 2012 by Martha C. Nussbaum.
Page 410, Martin Luther King, Jr., “Violence and Racial Justice”: Martin Luther King, Jr., “Violence and Racial Justice,” !e Christian Century, vol. 74, no. 6 (February 6, 1957). Reprinted by ar- rangement with "e Heirs to the Estate of Martin Luther King Jr., c/o Writers House as agent for the proprietor New York, NY.
© 1957 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. © renewed 1985 Coretta Scott King.
Page 411, Martin Luther King, Jr., “A Letter from a Birmingham Jail”: Martin Luther King, Jr., “Letter from a Birming- ham Jail.” Reprinted by arrangement with "e Heirs to the Estate of Martin Luther King Jr., c/o Writers House as agent for the proprietor New York, NY. © 1963 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. © renewed 1991 Coretta Scott King.
Page 420, Leo Tolstoy, My Confession: Leo Tolstoy, My Confession, trans. Leo Wierner (New York: J. M. Dent and Sons, 1905).
Page 423, Arthur Schopenhauer, On the Su"erings of the World: Arthur Schopen- hauer, “On the Su!erings of the World,” in Parerga and Paralipomena, trans. T. Bailey Saunders (1851).
Page 424, Julian Baggini, What’s It All About?: What’s It All About? Philosophy and the Meaning of Life (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), 160–161.
Page 430, Paul Edwards, !e Encyclo- pedia of Philosophy: !e Encyclopedia of Philosophy, vol. 4, ed. Paul Edwards (New York: Macmillan, 1967).
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A Ackrill, J. L., 106 Alcibiades, 56, 67 Anselm, 191 Appiah, Kwame Anthony, 403, 405 Aquinas, 191, 193, 196, 198 Aristotle, 45, 82, 109, 111, 112, 115,
117, 120, 121, 122 Augustine, 183, 186, 187 Avicenna, 199
B Bacon, Francis, 13, 21, 221 Barnes, Jonathan, 107 Berkeley, George, 244 Bradbury, Ray, 140 Brown, Les, 419 !e Buddha, 138 Buddha, Gautama, 144
C Campbell, Joseph, 420 Camus, Albert, 339, 340, 341, 430 Chadwick, Henry, 185 Cixous, Hélène, 398 Confucius, 151, 154, 155, 156 Copleston, Frederick Charles, 96
D Dalai Lama XIV, 146 Davidson, !omas, 114 da Vinci, Leonardo, 219 de Beauvoir, Simone, 371, 374 Democritus, 43, 44 Derrida, Jacques, 396 Descartes, 211, 213, 214, 218,
222, 225
Dewey, John, 354 Durant, Will, 2, 10, 33
E Einstein, Albert, 381, 392 Eliot, T. S., 320 Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 134 Engels, Friedrich, 313, 314 Epictetus, 16, 73, 168, 169, 170, 171 Epicurus, 163, 164, 165, 166 Erasmus, Desiderius, 84
F Frankl, Viktor E., 418, 428 Froude, James A., 278
G Galileo, 78 Gandhi, Mahatma, 132 Glaspell, Susan, 28 Guthrie, W. K. C., 58
H Hamilton, Alexander, 400 Hegel, G. W. F., 306 Heidegger, Martin, 332, 333 Heraclitus, 36 Hesse, Hermann, 423 Hintikka, Jaako, 218 Hobbes, !omas, 229, 230, 231, 234 Hubbard, Elbert, 46 Hume, David, 10, 218, 246, 249, 251
I Inge, Dean, 18 Ingersoll, Robert, 288 Isidore, 198
J James, William, 27, 355, 359, 360 Je"erson, !omas, 214 Jobs, Steve, 54
K Kant, Immanuel, 264, 265,
267, 268, 273, 274, 280, 281, 283, 379
Keyes, Daniel, 95 Kierkegaard, Søren, 69, 319,
321, 322 King, Martin Luther, Jr., 409
L Lao-Tzu, 149, 150 Leibniz, G. W., 255, 256 Lewes, George Henry, 19 Locke, John, 235, 237, 239,
240, 242 Lucretius, 165
M Magee, Bryan, 266 Maimonides, 200 Marlowe, Christopher, 117 Marx, Karl, 309, 310, 311 McKee, Robert, 85 Mill, John Stuart, 289, 294, 299
N Nhat Hanh, !ich, 144 Nietzsche, Friedrich, 98, 291, 322,
324, 325, 327, 341 Nin, Anaïs, 245 Nussbaum, Martha, 2, 405, 406, 407
Index of Marginal Quotations
459
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460 INDEX OF MARGINAL QUOTATIONS
O O’Rourke, P. J., 399
P Parmenides, 40 Peirce, Charles S., 350, 351, 353 Pike, Albert, 20 Plato, 4, 6, 37, 72, 79, 80, 81,
84, 86, 89, 90, 91, 94, 98, 99, 100, 272
Poe, Edgar Allan, 215
R Rachels, James, 380 Reagan, Ronald, 401 Richard Dawkins, 329 Roosevelt, Eleanor, 12 Rorty, Richard, 396 Russell, Bertrand, 4, 8, 24, 112, 118,
175, 216
S Santayana, George, 173 Sartre, Jean-Paul, 334, 335, 336,
337, 418 Schopenhauer, Arthur, 357 Schulz, Charles, 7 Schulz, Charles M., 419 Shakespeare, William, 25, 268, 384 Shaw, George Bernard, 133, 275 Shermer, Michael, 92 Smith, Huston, 88 Snow, C. P., 298 Socrates, 47, 55, 60, 62, 66, 71, 377 Spinoza, Baruch, 252, 253 Suzuki, David, 175
T Tertullian, 295 !ales, 34 !oreau, Henry David, 128 Tillich, Paul, 10, 424, 429
Tolstoy, Leo, 422 Trumbull, H. C., 274 Twain, Mark, 135
U Urlaub, Ivan, 250
V Vanbrugh, John, 46 Vivekananda (Swami), 128 Voltaire, 189
W Washington, James Melvin, 408 Waterfield, Robin, 95 West, Rebecca, 383 Whitehead, Alfred North, 11,
35, 42, 70 Wittgenstein, Ludwig, 14, 392,
394, 396 Wollstonecraft, Mary, 367, 368, 370
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A abolitionists, 288, 296–97 abortion, 11–12, 376 absolute idealism, 305 Absolute Reality, 132 absurdity, 320, 324, 339, 341, 424 Academy, 8, 78, 106 Achilles in the Quantum World, 195 Ackrill, J. L., 106 active reading, 21 act-utilitarianism, 288 ad hominem fallacy, 23 Advaita Vedanta, 135 aesthetics, 306 a!nity argument, 93 a!rming the antecedent, 17 a!rming the consequent, 15, 17 Africa, 184 Aglaeon, 93 agnosticism, 18, 140 Agora ruins, 56 ahimsa, 145 Ainley, Alison, 366 Ajahn Sumedho, 140 Alcibiades, 55–56 Alexander the Great, 107, 108, 162,
172, 181 Alexandria, 19, 269 alienation, 309 Allegory of the Cave, 88, 89–91 Almohads, 200 ambiguous figures, 271 Ambrose (bishop), 184 American Beauty (film), 342–43 American Psychological Association,
375 Amsterdam, 252
Analects, 148, 152, 153–55 analytic geometry, 211, 213 analytic statement, 265–66 anarchists, 325 anatta, 140 Anaxagoras the Clazomenian, 69 Anaximander, 34 ancestor worship, 162 ancient atomism, 43, 115 Anderson, Elizabeth, 381 anguish, 320, 337 anicca, 140 animal sacrifices, 128–29, 138 Annas, Julia, 94 Another Death in Venice (novel), 403 Anselm, 187–89 antecedent, 14, 15 Anthony, Susan B., 47 antithesis, 306, 309 Antony, Louise M., 367 Anytus, 69, 71 apeiron, 35 Apocalypse Now (film), 342 Apollodorus, 65, 72 Apollo Lyceus, 107 Apology, 8, 60, 62–73, 79, 92–93 a posteriori knowledge, 214, 251 a posteriori statements, 265, 266 appeal to ignorance, 26 appeal to popularity, 24–25 appeal to the person, 23–25 appearances, 174–75 appetites, 94, 95, 98 Appiah, Kwame Anthony, 403, 404–5 applied ethics, 403 a priori knowledge, 214, 251,
266–68, 272, 350, 352
a priori statements, 265, 266 Aquinas, "omas
and Avicenna, 199 biography, 191 faith and reason, 184 first-cause argument, 192, 193,
194, 195 Five Ways, 192–96 on God, 128 and King, 408 pictured, 191 Summa !eologica, 192–93 on women, 372
arbitrariness, 283 architecture, 393 argument from motion, 192–93 arguments
a!rming the consequent, 15 appeal to ignorance, 26 argument from motion, 192–93 begging the question, 27, 225 Cartesian circle, 225 composition, 28 conclusion, 12–13 cosmological arguments, 191–92,
201 deductive arguments, 12–14, 109 definition, 10 denying the antecedent, 15–16 dialectic, 41 division, 28 dreams, 219 e!cient cause, 193 equivocation, 25–26 fallacious reasoning, 22–28 false dilemma, 26–27 first-cause argument, 192–93
General Index
461
Page numbers in bold indicate figures or tables.
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462 GENERAL INDEX
arguments (continued ) genetic fallacy, 25 illustrations, 11–17 indicator words, 12, 18–19 inductive arguments, 13–14, 236 invalid arguments, 13, 17, 110 and logic, 12 modes (arguments), 172–76 ontological argument, 188–90 vs. persuasion, 11 and philosophy, 10 predicate logic, 7 premises, 12 reductio ad absurdum, 59 rhetoric, 45 slippery slope, 27–28 sound arguments, 14 syllogism, 110 teleological arguments, 188,
195–96 third man argument, 83 valid argument, 17, 110
arhat (saint), 144 Arignote, 57 aristocracy, 98 Aristophanes, 60, 61, 66 Aristotle
Academy, 8, 78, 106 and Alexander the Great, 108 Aristotle the Philosopher, 106 and Augustine, 183 and Avicenna, 199 biography, 106–7 and Christian philosophy, 191 death of, 108 dialectic, 41 feminist philosophy, 367 geocentric earth, 269 On the Heavens, 35 influence of, 105 Logic, 110 logic invention, 105, 109 and the Lyceum, 107, 111 and Maimonides, 200 Metaphysics, 34–35, 105, 109,
114–16, 199 moderation, 122 moral relativism, 278 Nicomachean Ethics, 120, 121, 122 Physics, 117
pictured, 3, 105 and Plato, 106 Posterior Analytics, 112 relativism, 276 School of Athens, 109 and the Sophists, 45 on souls, 123 teleological arguments, 196 teleology, 120 "ales’ writings, 34–35 Unmoved Mover, 149 on virtue, 377 on women, 372, 382–83 works, 105
Arit, 8 Arjuna, 133–34 asceticism, 39, 132, 134, 138, 141,
144, 328 Assertion and Conditionals, 403 Assos, 106–7 astrology, 162 astronomy, 213 ataraxia, 175 Atharva-Veda, 131 atheism, 135, 252, 254, 320, 325,
336, 361 Athena, 163 Athens
Academy founded, 8, 78, 106 Agora ruins, 56 Athena procession, 163 birthplace of Stoicism, 168, 172 democracy, 97 Lyceum founding, 107 Peloponnesian War, 8 Plato’s birthplace, 78 Protagoras, 44–45 remains pictured, 107 Socrates birthplace, 54 Socrates’ prison, 64 Socrates’ trial, 62
atman (soul), 132, 144 atomism, 43–44, 164–65, 167 Augustine
biography, 183 bishop of Hippo, 184 City of God, 186 Confessions, 183–84 converts to Christianity, 184 On Free Will, 187
great chain of being, 186 hierarchy of being, 185–86 and King, 408, 411 Middle Ages and, 182 pictured, 183, 184
Aurelius, Marcus, 169, 171, 173 authenticity, 320, 333 authoritarianism, 98 authority, 352 autonomy, 376, 385 auxiliaries, 98 Avenging Angel (novel), 403 Averroës, 201 Avicenna, 199, 200 axiology, 6 axioms, 112 Ayrans, 129
B Bacon, Francis, 167, 230 Baggini, Julian, 424, 428–29 Baier, Annette C., 381 Barre, Poulain de la, 374 Barth, Karl, 320 Basel University, 325 !e Basic Problems of Phenomenology,
332 Beauvoir, Simone de, 320, 335, 338,
371, 373, 374–75 Beckett, Samuel, 342 begging the question, 27, 225 being, 190–91 Being and Nothingness, 334, 335 Being and Time (Sein und Zeit), 331 being-in-itself, 428 beliefs
Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion, 248
and doubt, 219–20 evidentialism, 354 “"e Fixation of Belief,” 352 fundamental, 2–5 Hinduism, 128 and knowledge, 80–82, 109,
218, 221 leap of faith, 354 moral absolutism, 276 and morality, 272 Nietzsche’s view, 327 philosophical, 4–5
GENERAL INDEX 463
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pragmatism and, 350, 353–54 propositional knowledge, 212 reason and, 109 relativism and, 80, 239 skepticism, 173–75 See also faith; religion
Benedictine monastery, 191 Benedict XVI, 203 Bentham, Jeremy, 162, 287–89, 290,
350 Berkeley, George, 86, 215, 236, 243,
244–46 Berlin, 255 “best of all possible worlds,” 257 Beyond Good and Evil, 325, 327 Bhagavad-Gita, 133–34 bhakti-marga, 134–35 biases, 366 binary oppositions, 396–97 !e Birth of Tragedy, 325 bisexual writing, 398 Black Death, 203 Blade Runner (film), 342 blind man and the elephant, 176 Blood, Fanny, 369 Bloom, Allan, 405 “Book of Divine Works,” 202 “"e Book of Life’s Merits,” 202 Book of the Commandments, 200 Boston University, 408 bourgeoisie, 309–11, 313–15 Brahman, 132, 134 brahmins, 129 Brown v. Board of Education, 409 Buber, Martin, 412 Buddha, 138, 141, 144–45 Buddhism
in America, 137 arhat (sainthood), 144 atman (soul), 132, 144 Buddha’s teachings, 140, 142–43 complexities of, 138–39 empiricism, 139, 143 Four Noble Truths, 140, 141, 144 Great Buddha, 138 Groundhog Day (film), 343 karma in, 144 meditation in, 143 mental discipline, 146–47 Middle Way, 144
monks praying, 139 morality in, 143–45 nirvana, 142–44 Noble Eightfold Path, 140–41,
144–47 nonviolence, 145, 147 reality/appearance in, 138–40 rebirth in, 144 and Schopenhauer, 328 scientific knowledge and, 143 Second Noble Truth, 142 secularism and, 143 souls, 128 and Stoicism, 168 "ird Noble Truth, 142 Tibetan Buddhism, 145 violence and, 146, 147 What the Buddha Taught, 142–43 wisdom, 141, 144–45
Burke, Edmund, 368 Butler, Bishop, 167 Butler, Judith, 405
C Cambridge University, 351, 393, 403 Camus, Albert, 320, 339, 340, 341,
342, 418, 424 Candide, 257 Canon of Medicine, 199 Canterbury, 187 capitalism, 307–8, 398, 402 capital punishment, 296, 297 caste system, 129–31, 133, 138 castles, 182 categorical imperatives, 279–83, 367 Categories, 105 Catt, Carrie C., 370 Causae et Curae, 202 causality, 249, 266, 268 causes, 117, 119 certainty, 7, 221–25, 246–47 Chaerephon, 66 chain of reasoning, 191–93 Chalcis, 108 change, 116–17 Charles II, 229 Charon, 92 Chomsky, Noam, 217, 405 Christianity
and absurdity, 324
ancient atomism, 43 Aquinas as o!cial
theologian, 191 and Aristotle, 191 and Augustine, 183–87 excommunication, 182–83 gender inequality, 202 Kierkegaard’s view of, 321,
323–24 the meaning of life, 419, 427 natural law theory, 196–97 and Nietzsche, 324–25 Nonviolence and Racial
Justice, 411 and philosophy, 182–83, 201 and the Renaissance, 181–82 rise of, 181 and Roman Empire, 181 scientific revolution, 213 slave morality, 329 and Stoicism, 166–67, 172–73 utilitarianism, 292 See also faith; individual
denominations Chuang Tzu, 148 circular reasoning, 27 City of God, 184, 186 Civil Rights Act, 409 civil rights movement, 407 Cixous, Hélène, 397, 398 class struggle, 309, 310, 315 Cli#ord, W. K., 354 A Clockwork Orange (film), 342 Clouds, 60, 61 Code, Lorraine, 382 Code of Jewish Law, 200 cogent, 14 Cole, Eve Browning, 382–85 Commentary on the Mishnah, 200 common sense, 42–43 communism, 151, 307, 310–15 !e Communist Manifesto, 310–15 Communist Party, 335 compassion, 377 composition, 28 compound statement, 14–15 computer science, 105 !e Concept of Anxiety, 321 Concluding Unscientific Postscript,
321, 324
464 GENERAL INDEX
vau28703_gidx_461-480.indd 464 05/10/17 12:36 PM
conclusion appeal to popularity, 24–25 arguments and, 12 begging the question, 27, 225 critical reading, 21 deductive arguments, 13, 109 definition, 10 determinism defense, 18–20 inductive arguments, 13 necessary truth, 112
conditional premise, 14 Confessions, 183–84 conformity, 322 Confucianism
Analects, 148, 152, 153–55 ancestor worship, 151 beginnings, 150–51 ethics, 128 filial piety, 155–56 Five Classics, 152–53 “Five Relationships,” 154–55 harmony, 155 li, 153–54 and the meaning of life, 429 ren, 153–54 shu (reciprocity), 153 virtues, 151, 153
Confucius, 151, 151–52 conscience, 274 consciousness, 332 consequentialist theory, 275–76,
287, 380 consequent statement, 14 conservatism, 403 contingent being, 199–200 contraceptives, 197 coordinate geometry, 224 Copenhagen, 323 Copernicus, Nicolaus, 212, 213,
224, 268, 269 Copleston, Frederick Charles,
204–5, 256 Coppola, Francis Ford, 342 Cordova, 200, 201 Cornell University, 398 cosmological arguments, 191–92, 201 cosmology, 202 cosmopolitanism, 168–69, 404–5 Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of
Strangers, 404–5
covenants (contracts), 231, 235 Craig, William Lane, 192 Creating Capabilities: !e Human
Development Approach, 406 creation, 186, 188 Critias, 8, 78 !e Critical Journal of Philosophy, 306 critical reading, 21, 45 critical reasoning, 12 critical thinking, 56–59 Critique of Practical Reason, 264 Critique of Pure Reason, 190–91,
264, 266–67, 270 Crito, 65, 72 Crito (Socrates), 8, 78 Critobulus, 54–55, 72 Crosthwaite, Jan, 376–77 Crozer "eological Seminary, 408 Cultivating Humanity: A Classical
Defense of Reform in Liberal Education, 405
cultural relativism, 46–48, 80, 239, 276–77, 404–5
culture, 403 Curie, Marie, 429 Cynics, 404 Cyril of Alexandria, 19
D Dahmer, Je#rey, 47 Dalai Lama, 143, 145, 147 dalit caste, 130, 131 Daoism (Taoism), 148–51 Dark Ages, 182 Darrow, Clarence, 18, 19, 423 darshana (schools), 135 Darwin, Charles, 38, 113 Dasein, 332–33 da Vinci, Leonardo, 167 Daybreak, 325 death, 44, 164, 169 death penalty, 296, 297 debtors, 290 de Chirico, Giorgio, 83 Declaration of Independence, 236 deconstructionism, 384–85, 396–97 deductive arguments, 6–7, 12–14,
16, 40, 109–12, 252 Deliverance, 199 Delphi oracle, 62, 63, 66
democracy, 44–45, 62, 97 Democritus, 43 demonstration proof, 112 denying the antecedent, 15–17 deontological theory, 275–83,
287, 380 dependent premise, 20 depression, 287, 356 Derrida, Jacques, 396, 397 Descartes, René
analytic geometry, 211, 213 Cartesian circle, 225 certainty, 221–25 doubt, 185, 215, 218–21 dream argument, 219 dualism, 93, 253, 255 existence, 332 existence of the soul, 199 as founder of modern philosophy,
211, 229 Meditations on First Philosophy,
218–25 pictured, 211, 224 Principles of Descartes’s
Philosophy, 252 as rationalist, 86, 215, 223–24,
238, 252 scientific revolution, 213 skepticism, 218, 220, 225 substances, 255 wax metaphor, 224–25
desegregation, 410 desires, 142, 144, 166, 168, 170 despair, 337 Details
Aristotle’s God, 119 Aristotle’s understanding of the
Soul, 123 Buddhism and Violence, 146, 147 Confucian Canon, 152, 153–55 Critiques of the Forms, 83 Einstein on Socialism, 308 Ethics Terminology, 380 Four Ways to Fix a Belief, 352 Main Divisions of Philosophy, 6 !e Matrix (film), 220 Meaning of Life, 431 Nietzsche: Myths and Rumors, 326 philosophical beliefs, 4–5 Rationalism, 217
GENERAL INDEX 465
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Religion and Meaning of Life, 425 Ring of Gyges, 96, 97 Sartre as rock star, 338 Science and the Uncaused
Universe, 194–95 Self-Destruction of Skepticism, 174 Socrates in the Clouds, 61 "e Telling Gesture, 395 Utilitarianism and the Golden
Rule, 292 Valid and Invalid Argument
Forms, 17 Zeno’s Paradoxes, 41
determinism, 257, 337, 356, 360–61 determinism defense, 18–19 Dewey, John, 367 Dhammacakapparattana Sutta, 142 dharma, 130, 140 dialectic, 8, 41, 60, 78, 84, 106,
306, 309 dialogues, 78, 83 Dialogues Concerning Natural
Religion, 248 Dictionary of Global Culture, 403 Diderot, 336 dignity, 406–7 Diogenes Laertius, 57, 106 Diotima of Mantinea, 79 Discourse on Metaphysics, 224, 256–57 disharmony, 96 distributive justice, 230, 399–400, 403 divine right of kings, 231 division, 28 doctrine of double e#ect, 197–99 dominant knowledge practices, 381 Dominican order, 191 Dostoevsky, Fyodor, 320, 337,
341–42 doubt, 185, 213, 215, 218–21, 223 !e Dream of Reason: A History of
Philosophy from the Greeks to the Renaissance, 109
dreams, 219 dualism, 93, 135–36, 253, 255 dukkha, 142 duty for duty’s sake, 380
E East India Company, 287 Echecrates, 64–65
economics, 309 Edinburgh, 251 Edwards, Paul, 429–30 e!cient cause, 117 egalitarianism, 399 egoism, 264 Einstein, Albert, 252 Either/Or, 321–22 “Embodiment and
Epistemology,” 367 emotions, 274, 378–80, 405 Empedocles, 38 empiricism
Berkeley as, 242 British philosophers, 215, 350 in Buddhism, 139, 143 definition, 40, 86 epistemology and, 7 experience and, 270 feminist philosophy, 382 Hume and, 86, 215, 236, 246, 267 innate knowledge, 217 Kant’s theory, 267 knowledge and, 40, 86, 215,
236–37 Mill and, 287 and pragmatism, 350 vs. rationalism, 88 reason and, 7 scientific knowledge, 113 sense data and, 40, 86, 214–16 skepticism and, 236, 266–67
empiricists, 214–15 Encheiridion, 169–70 !e Encyclopedia of Philosophy,
429–30 ends justify the means, 287 Engels, Friedrich, 306, 310–15 Enlightenment, 246, 385 An Enquiry Concerning Human
Understanding, 247–51 An Enquiry Concerning the Principles
of Morals, 248 entitlement, 399 enumerative induction, 16–17 Ephesus, 36 Epictetus, 166, 168, 169–70, 403 Epicureanism
atomism, 164–65 definition, 162
desires, 166 happiness, 166, 292–93 hedonism, 162 Hellenistic era, 162–66, 181 Lucretius, 167 and the meaning of life, 426 moderation, 166 peace of mind, 175 pleasures, 164–66 “Romans During the
Decadence,” 165 and utilitarianism, 292–93
Epicurus, 3, 162, 163–66 epigrams, 36–37 episteme, 111 epistemology
definition, 7, 211 “Embodiment and
Epistemology,” 367 An Enquiry Concerning Human
Understanding, 248 “Feminist Epistemology and
Philosophy of Science,” 381 feminist philosophy, 366 feminist standpoint theory,
383–85 Hinduism, 135 Hume’s theory, 248 Kant’s theory, 264, 268, 272 knowledge and, 6–7 philosophy and, 6 Plato’s dialogues, 78 and pragmatism, 356
equality, 230, 307–8, 374, 407 equivocation, 25–26 An Essay Concerning Human
Understanding, 237, 238, 239–42 essence, 116, 320, 332, 334, 394–95 ethics
applied ethics, 403 Bentham’s theory, 290 Confucianism, 128 consequentialist theory, 287 Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World
of Strangers, 404–5 definition, 7, 272, 380 doctrine of double e#ect, 197–99 and emotions, 274 ethical egoism, 264 Ethics (Spinoza), 252
466 GENERAL INDEX
vau28703_gidx_461-480.indd 466 05/10/17 12:36 PM
ethics (continued ) ethics of care, 377–81 feminist ethics, 376–81 feminist philosophy, 366 !e Fragility of Goodness: Luck and
Ethics in Greek Tragedy and Philosophy, 405
“Gender and Bioethics,” 377 Hegel’s ideas, 306 Hildegard of Bingen, 202 Kant’s theory, 264 and morality, 272–75 natural law theory, 191 Nicomachean Ethics, 105, 120 Politics, 105 and pragmatism, 356 skepticism, 176 teleology, 120 and virtues, 7
!e Ethics of Care, 378–80 Euboea, 108 euthanasia, 198, 289 Euthyphro, 8, 78 evidentialism, 354 evil
Augustine’s view, 186–87 Beauvoir’s views, 371 capitalism and, 308 evil genius, 220, 222, 242 God as evil genius, 220 hierarchy of being, 186 individual liberty and, 301 Leibniz’ theory, 257 Leviathan, 231 Manicheanism, 184, 186–87 moral evil, 187 privation of good, 186–87 slave morality, 328–29
evolution, 38, 113, 423 excommunication, 182–83, 203 existence, 189–90, 224, 319–20,
325–26, 331–37 existentialism
absurdity and, 339, 341 anguish and, 337 atheism and, 336 Beauvoir’s views, 371 definition, 319 despair and, 337 determinism and, 337
essence and, 332 Existentialism (Sartre), 335–37 Existentialism: A Very Short
Introduction, 333 forlornness and, 337 and God, 337 and Heidegger, 331 humanism and, 338 individuality, 321–22 Kierkegaard as father, 319 literature and film, 342–43 meaninglessness and, 424 meaning of life and, 418 and Sartre, 319 subjectivity and, 336
experience, 238, 251, 265–67, 270 externalists, 424
F faith, 6, 184, 188, 324, 357–58,
360–61, 427–29. See also beliefs !e Fall, 342 fallacious reasoning, 22–28, 225 fallacy, 22 fallenness, 333 fallibilism, 351 false dilemma, 26–27 Fear and Trembling, 321 feminism, 288, 325, 366. See also
feminist philosophy “Feminist Epistemology and
Philosophy of Science,” 381 feminist ethics, 376–81 feminist philosophy
Beauvoir and, 335 deconstructionism, 385 “Embodiment and Epistemology,”
367 empiricism, 382–83 ethics, 368 “Feminist Epistemology and
Philosophy of Science,” 381 feminist postmodernism, 382 Hélène Cixous, 397–98 Nussbaum and, 405–7 Philosophy and Feminist Criticism,
382–85 postmodernists, 384–85 standpoint theory, 382–85 See also individual philosphers
fideism, 321 Fight Club (film), 342 filial piety, 155–56 final cause, 118–20 Fincher, David, 342 first-cause argument, 119,
192–93, 194 Five Classics, 152–53 Five Precepts, 145 “Five Reasons Why Stoicism Matters
Today,” 173 “Five Relationships,” 154–55 Five Ways, 192–96 “"e Fixation of Belief,” 352 Flynn, "omas R., 333 forlornness, 337 For Love of Country, 405 formal cause, 117 Forman, Milos, 342 forms, 115–17 Forms (Ideas)
Allegory of the Cave, 91 Averroës’ philosophy, 201 definition, 82 and innate knowledge, 84, 93 knowledge and, 216–17 Neoplatonism, 184 reality/appearance, 84, 108,
186, 218 reason and, 216–17 third man argument, 83 universals as, 204
For Truth in Semantics, 403 Foucault, Michel, 405 Four Books, 152–53 Four Noble Truths, 140, 141, 144 Four Passing Sights, 141 !e Fragility of Goodness: Luck and
Ethics in Greek Tragedy and Philosophy, 405
Fragment, 37 Franciscan order, 203 Frank, Anne, 282 Frankenstein, 369 freedom, 3–4, 320, 334, 374, 402 free market, 308, 402 free will, 18–19, 184, 187, 253, 256,
356, 360–61, 402 Freiburg University, 331, 333 French Revolution, 313
GENERAL INDEX 467
vau28703_gidx_461-480.indd 467 05/10/17 12:36 PM
Freud, 252 Frodo, 96 From Disgust to Humanity: Sexual
Orientation and Constitutional Law, 405–6
Frontiers of Justice: Disability, Nationality, Species Membership, 405
fundamental beliefs, 2
G Galileo, 105, 167, 213, 224, 230 Gandhi, Mohandas K., 47, 131, 408,
428, 429 Ganesha, 129, 135 Garden (school), 163 Gardiner, Patrick, 322 Gaunilo, 189 Gautama, 135 !e Gay Science or Joyful Wisdom,
325, 330 gender, 371–75, 381, 385. See also
feminist philosophy “Gender and Bioethics,” 377 !e Genealogy of Morals, 325 genetic fallacy, 25 geocentric earth, 113 Ghazali, 192 Gilligan, Carol, 377, 381 Gladiator, 171 Glaucon, 90, 96–97, 99–100 globalization, 172, 403 God
Aquinas’ Five Ways, 192–93 arguments, 11 Atheism: A Philosophical
Justification, 361 as Augustine’s Good, 186 Avicenna’s philosophy, 200 Berkeley’s theory, 246 Bhagavad-Gita, 134–35 as Brahman, 132 in Buddhism, 138 in Confucianism, 152 cosmological arguments, 192–93 death of, according to Nietzsche,
325, 329–30 Descartes’ view, 220, 223, 225 e!cient cause, 193 Epicureanism, 165
as evil genius, 220 and existentialism, 337 first-cause argument, 119, 192,
194 and free will, 256–57 fundamental beliefs, 2 Heidegger’s view, 337 Hinduism, 134–35 Hume’s skepticism, 248 inauthenticity, 320 Maimonides philosophy, 200 and the meaning of life, 419, 424,
428–29 monads and, 256 natural law theory, 191, 196–97 and necessary truth, 185 ontological argument, 188–90 panentheism and, 305 pantheism and, 253 pragmatism and, 361 skepticism, 171 Spinoza’s substance, 253 as Spirit, 305–6 Stoicism, 166 as Unmoved Mover, 119, 149 World-Soul, 134 See also religion
god-kings, 162 Godwin, William, 369 golden mean, 122 Golden Rule, 292 golden rule (Confucianism), 153 Goodman, Rob, 172–73 Gorgias (Plato), 8, 78 Gorgias of Leontium, 66 Goths, 181 Gottlieb, Anthony, 109 government, 230, 235–36, 399 Grau, Christopher, 220 gravediggers, 309 Grayling, A. C., 393 Great Buddha, 138 great chain of being, 186 Greatest Happiness Principle, 291,
294–95 greatest possible island, 190 Greece, 36 Greek philosophers, 114 Greenblatt, Stephen, 167 Grotius, 224
Groundhog Day (film), 342–43 Groundwork of the Metaphysic of
Morals, 264, 278–81 Grube, G. M. A., 83, 91 guardians, 98 Guide for the Perplexed, 200
H Hades, 92 happiness
Bentham’s theory, 289–90 Buddhism, 142 Declaration of Independence, 236 Epicureanism, 162, 166, 292–93 feminist philosophy, 368 Greatest Happiness Principle, 291,
294–95 Ideal Society, 99 impartiality and, 291 and the meaning of life, 419 “"e Myth of Sisyphus,” 341 Nicomachean Ethics, 120, 121 Stoicism, 166 tripartite soul, 95–96 utilitarianism, 289–90
hard determinism, 360–61 Harding, Sandra, 385 harmony, 155 Harvard University, 351, 398 !e Healing, 199 health care, 401, 402 Heaven (Tian), 151 hedonism, 162, 275, 289–90 Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich, 40,
305, 306, 321, 334, 350, 383 Heidegger, Martin, 320, 331, 332–
35, 337–38 Held, Virginia, 378–80 !e Hêlène Cixous Reader, 398 heliocentric solar system, 269 Hellenistic era, 162, 181 Hellenistic Philosophers: Stoics,
Epicureans, and Sceptics, 166–68 henotheism, 128 Heraclitus, 36, 37, 78, 149 herd morality, 329 heresy, 183, 184, 203, 230, 252 Herpyllis, 107 hierarchy of being, 185–86 Higgins, Kathleen M., 326
468 GENERAL INDEX
vau28703_gidx_461-480.indd 468 05/10/17 12:36 PM
Hildegard of Bingen, 201, 202, 203 Hinduism
animal sacrifices, 128–29 asceticism, 134 atheism, 135 beginnings, 129 Bhagavad-Gita, 133–34 Brahman, 132, 134 caste system, 129–31 dualism, 135–36 epic literature, 133 knowledge, 134, 135 Mahabharata, 133 mantras, 128 meditation, 132–33 modernity, 136, 137 philosophy, 135–36 reality/appearance, 132, 135 reincarnation, 132, 135 secularism, 136–37 and Socrates, 135–36 Upanishads, 131–32, 135 Vedas, 129–33 yoga, 132, 134
Hippias of Elis, 66 Hippo, 184 An Historical and Moral View of the
Origin and Progress of the French Revolution, 369
History of England, 248 A History of Philosophy: Volume II:
Medieval Philosophy: From Augustine to Duns Scotus, 205
A History of the World’s Religions, 155–56
A History of Western Philosophy, 108, 254
Hitler, Adolf, 11, 46, 393 Hobbes, "omas, 229, 230, 231–35,
399 Holocaust, 47 Holocaust Memorial, 276 Homer, 91, 133, 340 Hooker, Richard, 167 “How to Make Our Ideas Clear,”
351 humanism, 338 human rights, 282 Hume, David
on causality, 249, 266, 268
character of, 328 as empiricist, 86, 215, 236,
246, 267 An Enquiry Concerning Human
Understanding, 247 essays, 248 feminist philosophy, 367 infinite regress, 194 knowledge, 246–47 pictured, 248, 251 principle of induction, 250–52 relations of ideas, 249, 256, 266 skepticism, 215–16, 246, 249,
251–52, 265 social contract theory, 399 on the soul, 128
Husserl, Edmund, 332, 334, 335 Huygens, Christian, 255 Hypatia, 19 hypothetical imperatives, 279
I Ibn Rushd. See Averroës Ibn Sina. See Avicenna idealism, 305, 350 Ideal Society, 94, 98–100 ideas (sensations), 243 Ideas (the Forms). See Forms (Ideas) “I Have a Dream” speech, 409 Iliad, 133 Imlay, Gilbert, 369 immortality, 79, 91–93, 97 impartiality, 273, 274, 291, 298–99,
377–80 impressions, 249 In a Di"erent Voice, 377 inauthenticity, 320, 333 independent premise, 20 indeterminism, 360–61 indicator words, 12, 18–19 individualism, 320 individuality, 321–22 individual liberty, 288, 300–301 individual rights, 99 Indra, 135 inductive arguments, 13, 14,
16–17, 236 inductive reasoning, 215, 250 Industrial Revolution, 305 Indus Valley civilization, 129
inequality, 400–401 infallibility, 47, 276–77 infinite regress, 193–94 infinitesimal calculus, 255 inherent value, 280–81 innate ideas, 236–38 innate knowledge, 84, 86, 92–93,
217, 218 innocence, 369 instrumental good, 120 internalists, 429–30 intolerance, 48, 406–7 intrinsic good, 120 An Introduction to Plato’s Republic, 94 Introduction to the Principles of
Morals and Legislation, 290 Introduction to !e Second Sex by
Simone de Beauvoir, 371 invalid arguments, 13, 17, 110 Islam, 151 Islamic scholars, 199–200 “Is the Universe a Vacuum
Fluctuation?,” 195
J Jaggar, Alison, 376 James, Henry, 356 James, William, 350–51, 353, 354,
355–60 jatis, 130 jnana-marga, 134 Journal, 323 Judaism, 151, 200, 252, 254, 276,
326 Judeo-Christianity, 329 junzi (noble), 154 justice
civil rights movement, 407 definition, 230 distributive justice, 230, 399–400 ethics of care, 377 Frontiers of Justice: Disability,
Nationality, Species Membership, 405
Leviathan, 233, 235 and morality, 94 “"e Need for More "an
Justice,” 381 Nonviolence and Racial Justice,
410–11
GENERAL INDEX 469
vau28703_gidx_461-480.indd 469 05/10/17 12:36 PM
!e Republic, 94–95 Ring of Gyges, 96–97 social contract theory, 230–31,
399 Socratic method, 58–59 state of nature and, 231 A !eory of Justice, 398–401 and utilitarianism, 230, 298–99
Justinian I, 8, 78
K Kaf ka, Franz, 342 Kalama Sutra, 139–40 Kali, 135 Kamakura, 138 Kant, Immanuel
atheism, 336 biography, 264 categorical imperatives, 279–83 Critique of Pure Reason, 190–91,
266–68, 270 critiques of, 272, 282–83 deontological theory, 276–83, 287 duty for duty’s sake, 380 empiricism and, 270 epistemology, 268, 272 feminist philosophy, 367, 380 on God, 128 Groundwork of the Metaphysic of
Morals, 278–81 and Hume, 265 on knowledge, 272 noumena, 268 a priori knowledge, 266–68 as small-town genius, 264 stamp picture, 270 Stoicism and, 167 tomb of, 279 writings, 264
karma, 132, 144 karma-marga, 134 Kaufmann, Walter, 3 Kenny, Anthony, 253 Kepler, 213, 224 Kierkegaard, Søren Aabye
biography, 321 and Christianity, 323–24 as father of existentialism, 319–21 individuality, 321–22 Journal, 323
Kierkegaard: A Very Shot Introduction, 322
leap of faith, 324 nineteenth century philosophy,
305, 350 pictured, 321, 323 !e Point of View, 323 on reason and religion, 324 writings, 321
King, Martin Luther, Jr. civil rights movement, 407 “I Have a Dream” speech, 409 “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,”
411–12 and the meaning of life, 429 Nobel Prize, 409 Nonviolence and Racial Justice,
410–11 pictured, 47, 408, 409 A Testament of Hope, 408–9
KKK (Ku Klux Klan), 48, 409 knowledge
Allegory of the Cave, 88–91 Aristotle’s view, 108 Augustine and, 184 and beliefs, 80–82, 109, 218, 221 Berkeley’s theory, 242–44 and certainty, 7, 221–25 Confucianism, 154 Descartes’ view, 211 dominant knowledge practices,
381 empiricism and, 40, 86, 215,
236–37 epistemology and, 6–7, 211 experience and, 265, 267 fallibilism and, 351 feminist philosophy, 366, 381–85 Forms (Ideas) and, 108, 216–17 Hinduism, 134, 135 Hume’s theory, 246–47 intuitive knowledge, 240 Kant’s theory, 264, 267, 270, 272 Kierkegaard’s view of, 323 knowledge revolution, 265–72 Locke’s theory, 239–42 mind as white paper, 238 and mysticism, 202 and perceptions, 216 a posteriori knowledge, 214, 251
Of the Principles of Human Knowledge, 243–46
a priori knowledge, 214, 251, 266–68, 272, 350, 352
propositional knowledge, 212 rationalism and, 224, 270 reality and, 79–82 reason and, 214, 224 scientific revolution, 213 sense data and, 82, 109, 214, 216,
224, 236, 242, 265 skepticism and, 80, 171–76, 213 Socratic method, 59–60 and the Sophists, 45 synthetic statement, 266–68 truth and, 79–82 universals and, 205 Vedas, 129 virtues and, 60 “"e Will to Believe and Other
Essays in Popular Philosophy,” 357–58
and the will to power, 327 See also empiricism; innate
knowledge; scientific knowledge Königsberg, 264 Koran, 201 Krishna, 133, 134, 135 Kristina, Queen, 224 Kubrick, Stanley, 342 Ku Klux Klan (KKK), 48, 409
L La Fleche College, 224 La Haye, France, 224 language, 392–96, 403 language-games, 395 Lao-Tzu, 148, 150 law, 45 Laws, 8, 78 Laws of Manu, 130, 133 laws of nature, 233, 360–61 leap of faith, 324, 427–29 Lectures on the History of Philosophy,
305–6 Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm, 86, 252,
254, 255, 256–57 Leontius, 93 Lesbos, 107 Les Temps Modernes, 338
470 GENERAL INDEX
vau28703_gidx_461-480.indd 470 05/10/17 12:36 PM
“Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” 411–12
Letter to Menoeceus, 162–66 Leucippus, 43 Leviathan, 230–35, 233 li (Confucianism), 153–54 liberalism, 385, 402 liberation, 132, 134 libertarianism, 399, 402 liberty, 233–34 Liberty of Conscience: In Defense of
America’s Tradition of Religious Equality, 405
literary criticism, 396 Lives of the Philosophers, 106 Locke, John
and Berkeley, 244 as empiricist, 86, 215 An Essay Concerning Human
Understanding, 237, 238, 239–42
feminist philosophy, 367 pictured, 236 skepticism, 238–39 social contract theory, 235, 399
logic arguments and, 12 Aristotle’s invention, 105, 109 deductive arguments, 7 definition, 7 Greek philosophers, 181 Hinduism, 135 logocentrism, 396 main divisions of philosophy, 6–7 predicate logic, 7 and reason, 215 reductio ad absurdum, 59 relations of ideas, 246 !e Science of Logic, 306 Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus,
392–94 Logic (Aristotle), 110 logical fallacies, 11 logocentrism, 396–97 logos, 37, 149, 168, 331–32 Long, A. A., 166–68 Lucretius, 163 Ludwig Wittgenstein: A Memoir, 395 Lu government, 151–52 Luther, Martin, 183
Lyceum, 107, 111 Lycon, 69 lynching, 298, 299
M Macedonia, 106–7 magic, 162 Mahabharata, 133 Maimonides, Moses, 200, 252 Malcolm, Norman, 395 Manicheanism, 184, 186–87 mantras, 128 Marburg University, 331 March on Washington, 409 Marrakesh, 201 Martin, Michael, 361 Marx, Karl, 306, 307, 310–15, 335,
350, 383 Marxists, 325 Mary, A Fiction, 369 master morality, 327–29 material cause, 117 material objects theory, 245–46 mathematics
analytic geometry, 211, 213 and astronomy, 213 and beliefs, 81 coordinate geometry, 224 Descartes and, 211 gender di#erence and, 374–75 innate knowledge, 217, 218 Kant’s view, 267 Leibniz and, 255 Platonism, 87, 216 Principles of Descartes’s Philosophy,
252 Pythagoreans, 39, 57 relations of ideas, 246, 249 syllogism, 112 synthetic a priori knowledge, 272 Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, 392 and truth, 88, 185, 221 Wittgenstein and, 392 women philosophers, 57
!e Matrix (film), 220 matters of fact, 246–47, 249, 266 maxims, 163, 280, 283 meaninglessness, 424 meaning of life, 418–22, 424–31 !e Meaning of Truth, 356
means of production, 308, 309, 312, 402
meditation, 132–34, 143 Meditations on First Philosophy,
218–21 Meletus, 66, 69–71 Memorial to the Murdered Jews of
Europe, 276 Meno, 8, 78, 84–85 mental discipline, 146–47 meritocracy, 97 metaphysics
Allegory of the Cave, 88–91 definition, 5–6 Descartes and, 224 Discourse on Metaphysics, 256–57 Groundwork of the Metaphysic of
Morals, 264, 278–81 Hegel’s ideas, 306 Leibniz theory, 255 Metaphysical Foundations of
Natural Science, 264 Metaphysics (Aristotle), 34–35,
105, 109, 114–16, 199 Neoplatonism, 184 Plato’s dialogues, 78 pragmatism and, 351 Prolegomena to Any Future
Metaphysics, 264–65 Spinoza and, 252–53 teleology, 120 Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, 392
Michelangelo, 420 Middle Ages, 182, 199–200, 203 Middle Way, 141, 144 migraines, 202 Milan, 184 Miletus, 34 Mill, James, 287–88 Mill, John Stuart
applied philosophy, 403 biography, 287–88 as empiricist, 287 feminist philosophy, 367 and Hobbes, 230 On Liberty, 288, 301 pictured, 288 on pleasure, 290 as social reformer, 288 !e Subjection of Women, 288
GENERAL INDEX 471
vau28703_gidx_461-480.indd 471 05/10/17 12:36 PM
utilitarianism and, 162, 287, 291–97, 350
writings, 288 Mimamsa, 135 Mishneh Torah, 200 MIT, 398 moderation, 121–22, 168, 170 modernity, 136, 137, 147, 171–73 modes (arguments), 172–76 modus ponens, 15, 16 modus tollens, 15, 16 moksha, 132, 133 monads, 256 monotheism, 128 Monte Cassino, 191 Montgomery bus boycott, 409 moral absolutism, 276, 282 moral common sense, 298–99 moral evil, 187 morality
Aristotle’s view, 122 axiology, 6–7 in Buddhism, 143–45 categorical imperatives, 279–83 Confucianism, 151 and conscience, 274 cosmopolitanism and, 404–5 cultural relativism and, 276–77 definition, 272, 380 doctrine of double e#ect, 197–99 economics and, 309 emotions, 378 and ethics, 272–75 ethics of care, 377, 380–81 feminist ethics, 376 feminist philosophy, 366 Groundwork of the Metaphysic of
Morals, 278–81 herd morality, 329 in the Ideal Society, 99–100 impartiality and, 273, 274, 291,
377–78 infallibility and, 276 and justice, 94 master morality, 327–29 and the meaning of life, 419 moral absolutism, 276 moral judgement, 7 moral objectivism, 48, 276 moral relativism, 47–48, 276–77
moral theory, 275, 298 natural law theory, 196 normative enterprise, 273 obligations, 274 Plato and, 94–96 relativism and, 47, 276–77 slave morality, 327–29 and the Sophists, 45 souls and, 94–96 state of nature, 235 utilitarianism, 291–92 will to power, 327 See also religion
Morehouse College, 408 Morris, Richard, 195 Mott, Lucretia, 370 Munch, Edvard, 331 Munich, 203 Murray, Bill, 342 Muslims, 146, 406 Myanmar, 146 My Confession, 425–27 mysticism, 6–7, 39, 133, 201, 202 “"e Myth of Sisyphus,” 339–41
N natural law theory, 191, 196–97 natural rights, 290 nature, 34–35, 37, 42–45, 118, 149,
234, 253 Nausea, 335, 342 Nazis, 325, 326, 339 necessary being, 199–200 necessary truth, 112, 185 “"e Need for More "an Justice,”
381 negative golden rule, 153 Neoplatonism, 181, 184–86, 199, 201 !e New Religious Intolerance, 406–7 Newton, Isaac, 255 New York University, 403, 405 Nicomachean Ethics, 105, 120,
121, 122 Nicomachus, 106–7 Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm
biography, 325 Christianity and, 324–25 existentialism and, 320 !e Gay Science or Joyful
Wisdom, 330
God, death of, 325, 329–30 Overman, 325, 329 philosophy and, 350 pictured, 325, 331 and Schopenhauer, 325, 328 and Spinoza, 252 What Nietzsche Really Said, 326 will to power, 325–27 writings, 325
nihilism, 420 nirvana, 142–44 Nobel Prize, 335, 339, 409 Noble Eightfold Path, 140, 141,
144–47 Nobody Likes Letitia (novel), 403 No Exit, 342 nominalism, 203–4 nonconsequentialist theory, 380 nonmoral norms, 273 nonviolence, 145, 147 Nonviolence and Racial Justice,
410–11 nonviolent protest, 407, 409, 410–11 normative enterprise, 273 norms, 273 Noss, John B., 155–56 “Notes from the Underground,” 342 noumena, 268 Nozick, Robert, 399 numbers, 87 Nussbaum, Martha, 405, 406–7 Nyaya, 135
O Obama, Barack, 312 objective truth, 324 objectivity, 322–23, 385 obligations, 274, 282 Ockham’s razor, 182, 203–4 Odyssey, 133 Of Grammatology, 396 Of the Principles of Human
Knowledge, 243–46 Okin, Susan Moller, 405 Olsen, Regine, 321 the One, 42–44 One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
(film), 342 On Free Will, 184, 187 On Liberty, 288, 301
472 GENERAL INDEX
vau28703_gidx_461-480.indd 472 05/10/17 12:36 PM
On Man, 230 On Nature, 42, 163 On the Body, 230 On the Generation of Animals, 105 On the Heavens, 35, 105 On the Movement of Animals, 105 On the Nature of !ings, 163, 167 On the Soul, 105 On the Su"ering of the World, 423 On the Trinity, 184 ontological argument, 188–90, 253 optical illusions, 214, 271 optimism, 424–30 oral history, 130 original position, 400 Original Stories from Real Life, 369 the Other, 371–74 Outlines of Pyrrhonism, 172–76 Overman, 325, 329 overridingness, 273 Oxford University, 229–30,
290, 405
P pacifism, 147 paganism, 181, 183 panentheism, 305 pantheism, 253 paraphrasing, 22 Parks, Rosa, 409, 429 Parmenides, 8, 40, 42, 44, 78, 83,
116 Pascal, 183 !e Passions of the Soul, 224 Paths of Glory (film), 342 patriarchy, 398 Peirce, Charles Sanders, 350, 351,
352–53 Pella, 107 Peloponnesian War, 8, 9, 54, 78 perceptions, 214, 216, 241, 244, 251,
256, 270, 271, 352 perfection, 222–23 Pericles, 56 Persia, 199 persuasion, 11, 45 pessimism, 328, 329, 420–22 Phaedo, 64 Phaedo (Plato), 8, 78, 82, 92 phenomena, 268
phenomenology, 332, 334 !e Phenomenology of Mind, 306 !e Phenomenology of Spirit, 306 Philip of Macedonia, 107 Phillips, Christopher, 9 philosopher-kings, 98 philosophy
active reading, 21 Aquinas and, 191 and atheism, 336 axiology, 6–7 benefits of, 2–4 and Christianity, 182–83, 201 !e Critical Journal of Philosophy,
306 critical reading, 21 and the Dark Ages, 182 Descartes and, 211, 224 !e Dream of Reason: A History of
Philosophy from the Greeks to the Renaissance, 109
Eastern, 128 !e Encyclopedia of Philosophy,
429–30 and epistemology, 211 feminist philosophy, 366 !e Fragility of Goodness: Luck and
Ethics in Greek Tragedy and Philosophy, 405
Greek roots of, 3, 33 Heidegger in the twentieth
century, 331 Hellenistic era, 181 Hinduism, 135–36 A History of Philosophy: Volume II:
Medieval Philosophy: From Augustine to Duns Scotus, 205
A History of Western Philosophy, 108, 254
Islamic philosophers, 199–201 Jewish philosophers, 200 and language, 392–96 Lectures on the History of
Philosophy, 305–6 main divisions of, 6 Marx’s influence, 309 meaning of life and, 418–19 Meditations on First Philosophy,
218–25 Middle Ages and, 182
Nietzsche’s view, 327 Nussbaum’s view, 407 Philosophical Fragments, 321 Philosophical Investigations,
392–96 philosophical method, 2–4 Philosophical Rudiments
Concerning Government and Society, 230
Philosophy and Feminist Criticism, 355–59, 382–85
!e Philosophy of Right, 306 Plato as father of Western
philosophy, 77 Platonic philosophers, 83 and religion, 181, 229 rules for reading, 21–22 Six Questions of Socrates: A
Modern-Day Journey of Discovery through World Philosophy, 9
Socrates’ influence on, 54 Socratic method, 59 !inking It !rough, 403 twentieth century, 391, 398 Western philosophy beginning,
229 physics, 120 Physics (Aristotle), 117–18 picture theory of meaning, 394 !e Plague, 339, 342 Plato
Academy, founding of, 8, 106 Allegory of the Cave, 88, 89–91 Apology, 8, 60, 62–73 and Aristotle, 106 and Augustine, 183 biography, 78 death of, 124 dialogues, 78, 83 distributive justice, 230–31 dualism, 93 existence, 332 father of Western philosophy, 77 feminist philosophy, 367 Forms (Ideas), 82–86, 186 innate knowledge, 218 Kant’s critique of, 267 Meno, 80, 84–85 moral relativism, 278
GENERAL INDEX 473
vau28703_gidx_461-480.indd 473 05/10/17 12:36 PM
Neoplatonism, 181, 184–86, 199, 201
and Parmenides, 40 Parmenides, 83 Phaedo, 82 pictured, 8, 78, 81 propositional knowledge, 212 rationalism, 86, 88, 108, 215–18 as realist, 204 relativism, 49, 276 School of Athens, 109 sense data, 108 skepticism, 184 and Socrates, 8, 72, 78–79 and the Sophists, 45–46 on the soul, 92 Symposium, 55–56 !eaetetus, 46 tripartite mind, 94 tripartite soul, 98 universals, 204 on women, 374 writings, 8 See also !e Republic
Platonism, 87, 216 pleasures, 162, 164, 167, 289–90 Plotinus, 19 Plutarch, 40 !e Point of View, 323 politics, 23, 45, 402 Politics (Aristotle), 105 polymath, 255 polytheism, 128–29 Pontiers, 224 pornography, 300 Portrait
Aristotle and Alexander, 108 Averroës, 201 Buddha, 141 Copernicus, Nicolaus, 269 Descartes, René, 224 Diotima of Mantinea, 79 Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich,
306 Hume, David, 248 Lucretius, 167 Pythagoras and the Pythagoreans,
39 Sartre, Jean-Paul, 335 Schopenhauer, Arthur, 328
William and Henry James, 356 Wittgenstein, Ludwig Josef
Johan, 393 Wollstonecraft, Mary, 369 women philosophers, 57
!e Portrait of a Lady, 356 Posterior Analytics, 105, 112 postmodernists, 325, 382, 384–85 pragmatism, 350, 352, 353–54, 356 Pragmatism: A New Name for Some
Old Ways of !inking, 356 predestination, 18–19 predicate logic, 7 prejudice, 382, 406–7 premises
arguments and, 12 begging the question, 27, 225 conditional premise, 14 critical reading, 21 deductive arguments, 14, 109 definition, 10 dependent premise, 20 determinism defense, 18–20 equivocation, 25–26 independent premise, 20 inductive arguments, 14 necessary truth, 112 syllogism, 112
pre-Socratics, 33–35, 40, 44 primary qualities, 239, 244–45 prime matter, 115 Princeton, 398 principle of induction, 250–52 principle of parsimony, 203–4 principle of utility, 288 Principles of Descartes’s Philosophy, 252 Principles of Philosophy, 224 !e Principles of Psychology, 356 Prior Analytics, 105 prison reform, 290 private property, 313–14, 367 privation of good, 186–87 probabilistic semantics, 403 problem of induction, 251 Prodicus of Ceos, 66 producers, 98 projection, 333 Prolegomena to Any Future
Metaphysics, 264, 265 proletariat, 309, 311–13, 315, 341
propositional knowledge, 212 Proslogium, 188–89 Protagoras, 44, 45, 46, 49 Protagoras (Plato), 78 prudence, 165 Prytaneum (jail), 72 psyche (soul), 91 psychic conflict, 93 Ptolemy, 269 Puranas, 133 purpose, 118 Pyrrhonists, 172–76 Pyrrho of Elis, 173 Pythagoras, 39 Pythagoreans, 39, 57, 78 Pythias, 107
Q quantum physics, 194, 195, 266,
360, 361
R radical freedom, 334 Rahula, Walpola, 142–43 raja yoga, 135–37 Ramayana, 133 rationalism
definition, 40, 86, 214, 216 Descartes and, 86, 215, 223,
224, 238 vs. empiricism, 88 feminist postmodernism, 384 Greek philosophers, 181 innate ideas, 236 innate knowledge, 86, 217–18 Kant’s theory, 267, 270 and knowledge, 224, 270 Leibniz and, 255 logocentrism, 396–97 and the meaning of life, 428 natural law theory, 196 Plato and, 86, 88, 108, 215–18 pragmatism and, 350 Socrates and, 325 Spinoza and, 252–54 Stoicism and, 168
rationalists, 214–15, 223 rationality, 196, 396–97 Rawls, John, 398, 399, 400–401,
403, 405
474 GENERAL INDEX
vau28703_gidx_461-480.indd 474 05/10/17 12:36 PM
reactionaries, 325 realism, 203–4 reality/appearance
ancient atomism, 43 Aristotle’s view, 108–9 Augustine and, 184 Avicenna’s philosophy, 199 Beyond Good and Evil, 327 in Buddhism, 138–40 empiricism, 86 in the Forms, 84, 108, 186, 218 hierarchy of being, 186 Hinduism, 132, 135 Kant’s theory, 270 and knowledge, 79–82 logos, 37 mathematics, 57 Neoplatonism, 184 Nietzsche’s view, 325–26 noumena, 268 ontological argument, 189 Parmenides, 40, 42 picture theory of meaning, 394 and sense data, 82, 108, 186, 240 skepticism, 174–75 Sophists, 79–80 subjective relativism, 46 substances, 252–53 Ultimate Reality, 134
reason Augustine and, 184 and beliefs, 109 categorical imperatives, 279 chain of reasoning, 191 circular reasoning, 27 critical reasoning, 12 Critique of Practical Reason, 264 Critique of Pure Reason, 190–91,
264, 266–67, 270 and emotions, 380 and faith, 184, 191 fallacious reasoning, 22–28 and the Forms, 82–86, 216–17 and the good life, 121 Hume’s theory, 246–48 knowledge and, 214, 224, 267 logic and, 215 Maimonides philosophy, 200 matters of fact, 249 morality and, 274
natural law theory, 196–97 ontological argument, 188 Parmenides, 43 pre-Socratic, 33 principle of induction, 250–51 a priori knowledge, 214–15 propositional knowledge, 212 and religion, 187, 324, 360–61 in the Republic, 95 sense data, 40 social contract theory, 235 and the soul, 92, 94 teleological arguments, 188 tripartite mind, 94 tripartite soul, 98 truth and, 223
rebirth, 144 reductio ad absurdum, 59 Reformed Church, 252 reincarnation, 39, 132, 135, 343 relations of ideas, 246, 249, 266 relativism
beliefs and, 80, 239 definition, 46 Greek philosophers, 276 implications of, 47 Locke’s theory, 239 Socrates, 49 and the Sophists, 46 Sophists, 60 truth and, 46, 49, 79–80, 239
religion Dialogues Concerning Natural
Religion, 248 fideism, 321 Golden Rule, 292 James’ view, 356 Kierkegaard’s view of, 322 Liberty of Conscience: In Defense of
America’s Tradition of Religious Equality, 405
and the meaning of life, 419–20, 425
!e New Religious Intolerance, 406–7
philosophy and, 181, 229 pragmatism and, 352, 354 reason and, 324, 360–61 Religion within the Limits of Reason
Alone, 264
religious hypothesis, 354, 358–59 and science, 211, 329 secularism and, 329 slave morality, 329 !eological-Political Treatise, 252 "irty Years War, 234 !e Varieties of Religious
Experience, 356 See also beliefs; God; individual
denominations ren (Confucianism), 153–54 Renaissance, 167, 181–82 !e Republic
Allegory of the Cave, 88–91 Ideal Society, 94–95, 98–100 An Introduction to Plato’s Republic,
94 meritocracy, 97 morality and, 94–96 Plato, 8, 58–59, 78 psychic conflict, 93 Ring of Gyges, 96
retentionists, 296–97 retributivism, 287 rhetoric, 45, 184 Rig-Veda, 130–31 rishis, 133 Roman Catholics, 191, 196–99, 230 Roman Empire, 162, 181–82, 201 “Romans During the Decadence,”
165 Rome’s Last Citizen, 172–73 Rousseau, 368, 370 rule-utilitarianism, 288–89 Russell, Bertrand, 108, 204, 252,
254, 393
S sainthood, 203 Sakya, 141 salvation, 138, 141 samana, 141 Sama-Veda, 130 Samkhya, 135–36 Samos, 163 samsara, 131–32, 144, 343 Sanskrit, 129 Sarnath, 141 Sartre, Jean-Paul
and Beauvoir, 335, 338, 371
GENERAL INDEX 475
vau28703_gidx_461-480.indd 475 05/10/17 12:36 PM
Being and Nothingness, 334, 335 being-in-itself, 428 on essence, 332 existence precedes essence,
334–37 and existentialism, 319 Existentialism, 335–37 headstone, 373 and Heidegger, 338 inauthenticity, 320 Les Temps Modernes, 338 as Marxist, 335 Nausea, 335, 342 No Exit, 342 pictured, 334 as rock star, 338
School of Athens, 109 Schopenhauer, Arthur, 325, 328,
350, 422, 423 Schweitzer, Karl, 338 science, 211, 267 !e Science of Logic, 306 scientific knowledge
Aristotle’s understanding, 111 in Buddhism, 143 causes, 117 Christianity, 213 Copernican revolution, 268–69 empiricism, 113 “Feminist Epistemology and
Philosophy of Science,” 381 feminist postmodernism, 384–85 feminist standpoint theory,
383–85 Hume’s skepticism, 265 indeterminism, 361 inductive arguments, 236 Industrial Revolution, 305 necessary truth, 112 philosophical revolution, 212 pragmatism and, 352, 354 principle of induction, 250 and religion, 329 scientific revolution, 213 and skepticism, 265 synthetic statement, 266 “"e Will to Believe and Other
Essays in Popular Philosophy,” 357
Scivias, 202
Scopes monkey trial, 423 Scott, Ridley, 342 secondary qualities, 239, 244–45 Second Noble Truth, 142 !e Second Sex, 371–75 Secrétan, Charles, 358 secularism, 136–37, 143, 252, 329 security, 230, 235 segregation, 410, 412 self-awareness, 305 self-consciousness, 306 self-interest, 231 Sellers, Susan, 398 semantics, 403 Seneca, 169 sensations, 242, 243, 246 sense data
argument from motion, 192–93 Aristotle’s belief in knowledge,
108 Augustine’s philosophy, 185 Berkeley’s theory, 242–46 Critique of Pure Reason, 270 dream argument, 219 empiricism and, 86 evil genius, 242 Hume’s theory, 251 Kant’s theory, 268 and knowledge, 82, 109, 214, 216,
224, 236, 242, 265 Locke’s theory, 238–39 phenomena, 268 Plato’s reality, 108 a posteriori statements, 265 pragmatism, 352 primary qualities, 239 vs. reason, 40 secondary qualities, 239 sensations and, 243 skepticism and, 175–76 “to be is to be perceived,” 243 See also empiricism; reality/
appearance Sextus Empiricus, 171–73, 174,
175–76 sexuality, 374 sexual orientation, 405–6 sexual pleasure, 202, 290 Shankara, 135 Shelley, Mary, 369
Shelley, Percy Bysshe, 369 Shiva, 135 shu (reciprocity), 153 !e Sickness unto Death, 321 Siddhartha Gautama, 141 sin, 412 situated knowledge, 381 Six Questions of Socrates: A Modern-
Day Journey of Discovery through World Philosophy, 9
skepticism appearances, 174–75 ataraxia, 175 beliefs, 173–75 Berkeley rejection of, 242 in Buddhism, 140 definition, 80, 171, 213 Descartes and, 218, 220, 225 and doubt, 185, 223 and empiricism, 236, 266 An Enquiry Concerning Human
Understanding, 248 ethics, 176 Hellenistic era, 162 Hume and, 215–16, 246, 249,
251–52, 265–66 Kant’s theory, 270 knowledge and, 80, 171–76 Locke’s theory, 238–39 modes (arguments), 172–76 Outlines of Pyrrhonism, 172–76 Prolegomena to Any Future
Metaphysics, 265 reality/appearance, 174–75 sense data, 175–76 Sextus Empiricus, 171–73, 174,
175–76 truths and, 184–85 and universals, 205
Slaughterhouse Five, 342 slave boy, 84–86, 92–93 slave morality, 327–29 slavery, 288 slippery slope, 27–28 Smith, Adam, 248 smriti, 133 social contract theory, 230, 235–36,
312, 399–401 socialism, 307–8, 309, 311, 312, 402 social mobility, 98
476 GENERAL INDEX
vau28703_gidx_461-480.indd 476 05/10/17 12:36 PM
social reformer, 288, 290 Society for Philosophical Inquiry, 9 Society of the Sciences, 255 Socrates
a!nity argument, 93 Allegory of the Cave, 88–91 in the Apology, 79, 92–93 biography, 10 death of, 8, 72, 73, 78, 91, 98,
107–8, 169 death penalty, 71–72 and the Delphi oracle, 62–63 and the examined life, 7–10 Greek stamp, 58 influence on Greek philosophy, 54 innate knowledge, 84–86 and King, 408 and the meaning of life, 429 on morality, 99–100 moral relativism, 278 in Parmenides, 83 as philosophical gadfly, 9, 54–56 pictured, 3, 81 and Plato, 8, 78 prison in Athens, 64 rationalism, 325 relativism, 49, 276 in the Republic, 94–95 Ring of Gyges, 96 Socratic method, 9–10, 54–60, 84 and the Sophists, 45–46, 59–60, 62 on the soul, 92 Symposium, 79 trial of, 3, 62–74 and the unexamined life, 60, 68
Socrates Cafés, 9 Solomon, Robert C., 326 Soni, Jimmy, 172–73 Sophist (Plato), 8, 78 Sophists, 45, 59–62, 79–80, 94–95 souls
ancient atomism, 44 Aristotle’s understanding of, 123 ataraxia, 175 atman (soul), 132 Augustine’s philosophy, 186 Averroës’ philosophy, 201 Avicenna’s philosophy, 199 in Buddhism, 128, 138, 144 dualism and, 93–94
Epicureanism, 164–65 feminist philosophy, 368 immortality and, 79, 91–93 monads as, 256 morality and, 94–96 !e Passions of the Soul, 224 philosophical method, 3 Plato’s view, 123 Of the Principles of Human
Knowledge, 243–44 Pythagoreans, 39 reason and, 94 Socratic method, 56, 60, 61 On the Soul, 105 transmigration of souls, 79 and the unexamined life, 8–9
sound arguments, 14 Spinoza, Benedict
biography, 252 character of, 328 Ethics, 252 God and, 253 and Leibniz, 255 metaphysics, 252–53 pantheism, 253 pictured, 253 as rationalist, 86, 252–54 and Russell, 254 Stoicism, 167 substances, 252–53, 255
spirit, 94, 95, 98 Spirit (Absolute), 305–6 spontaneous generation, 105 sruti scriptures, 133 Stagira, 106 Stanton, Elizabeth, 370, 429 statement, 10 state of nature, 231, 235 stereotypes, 375 Stockdale, James, 173 Stoicism
Buddhism and, 168 Christianity and, 166–67 cosmopolitanism, 168–69, 404 definition, 166 desires, 168, 170 emotions and, 170 Epictetus, 166–71 happiness and, 166, 169 Hellenistic era, 162, 181
logos, 168 Marcus Aurelius, 171 moderation, 170 modernity, 171–73 peace of mind, 175 and su#ering, 171 utilitarianism and, 293 Zeno of Citium, 168
St. Pancras Gardens, 369 !e Stranger, 339, 342 straw man, 23 strong arguments, 13 Stuttgart, 306 !e Subjection of Women, 288 subjective relativism, 46, 47, 239 subjective truth, 324 subjectivity, 320, 324, 336 substances, 114–16, 252–53, 255–56 su#ering, 171 su#ragettes, 370 Summa !eologica, 192–93 sun-centered universe, 212, 213,
268, 269 Supreme Self (Atman), 134 !e Swerve: How the World Became
Modern, 167 Swinburne, Richard, 192 syllogism, 110–12 Symposium, 54–56, 78–79 synthesis, 306, 309 synthetic statement, 266–68 System of Logic, 288
T Tang Dynasty, 152 Taoism. See Daoism (Taoism) Tao Te Ching, 148–51 Taylor, Harriet, 288 teleological arguments, 188, 195–96 teleology, 118, 119 tenacity, 352 terms, 111 A Testament of Hope, 408–9 "ales, 34 !eaetetus, 8, 46, 78 "eano of Crotona, 57 "emistoclea, 57 !eological-Political Treatise, 252 A !eory of Justice, 398–401 thesis, 306, 309
GENERAL INDEX 477
vau28703_gidx_461-480.indd 477 05/10/17 12:36 PM
!inking It !rough, 403 third man argument, 83 "ird Noble Truth, 142 "irty Years War, 234 !oughts on the Education of
Daughters, 369 "rasymachus, 59, 94–96 thrownness, 332–33 "urman, Judith, 371 !us Spake Zarathustra, 325–27,
329–30 Tian (Heaven), 151 Tibetan Buddhism, 138, 145 Tillich, Paul, 320, 412 Timotheus the Athenian, 106 “to be is to be perceived,” 243 tolerance, 48, 252, 288, 405 Tolstoy, Leo, 420–21, 422, 424–28 Topics, 105 totalitarianism, 307 Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus,
392–94 transmigration of souls, 79 A Treatise of Human Nature, 248 !e Trial, 342 tripartite mind, 94 tripartite soul, 94–96, 98 Tristan und Isolde, 325 !e Truman Show (film), 343 truths
analytic statement, 265–66 Augustine, 184–85 in Buddhism, 142 cultural relativism, 46 deductive arguments, 12–13 epistemology and, 6 feminist postmodernism, 384 Greek philosophers, 181 Guide for the Perplexed, 200 James’ view, 355–56 Kant’s theory, 272 Kierkegaard’s view of, 323 and knowledge, 79–82 logocentrism, 396 Maimonides’ philosophy, 200 and mathematics, 185, 221, 249 !e Meaning of Truth, 356 necessary truth, 112, 185 Nietzsche’s view, 327 objective truth, 324
pragmatism and, 350, 353 principle of induction, 251–52 propositional knowledge, 212 rationalism vs. empiricism, 88 reality and, 79–80 reason and, 223 relativism and, 46, 49, 239 skepticism and, 184–85 Socratic method, 10, 57, 60 subjective relativism, 46 subjective truth, 324 “"e Will to Believe and Other
Essays in Popular Philosophy,” 355–59
Tryon, Edward, 195 !e Turn of the Screw, 356
U Übermensch (Overman or
Superman), 325 unexamined life, 8–9, 60, 68 United States, 351 universality, 274, 280 universals, 203–4 universe
absurdity of, 339 argument from motion, 193 Brahman, 132 cosmological arguments, 192 Daoism, 148 geocentric earth, 113 and the meaning of life, 418 Stoicism, 168 sun-centered universe, 212, 213, 269 as watch, 18
University College in London, 290 University of Altdorf, 255 University of Bonn, 325 University of Chicago, 405 University of Copenhagen, 321 University of Naples, 191 University of Paris, 397 Unmoved Mover, 119, 149 Untimely Meditations, 325 untouchables, 131 Upanishads, 131–32, 135 Upheavals of !ought: !e Intelligence
of Emotions, 405 Uranus, 264 U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, 351
U.S. Constitution, 230 utilitarianism
act-utilitarianism, 288 Bentham and, 287–89, 350 and Christianity, 292 consequentialist theory, 275 critiques of, 298–99 and the death penalty, 296–97 definition, 275, 380 ends justify the means, 287 and Epicureanism, 162, 292–93 euthanasia and, 289 Golden Rule, 292 Greatest Happiness Principle, 291,
294–95 happiness and, 289–90 hedonism and, 275, 289–90 human rights, 282 impartiality and, 291, 298–99 individual liberty and, 300–301 Introduction to the Principles of
Morals and Legislation, 290 justice and, 230, 298–99 Kant’s theory, 264 lynching, 298, 299 moral common sense, 298–99 morality and, 276 pleasures, 289–90 pornography, 300 principle of utility, 288 rule-utilitarianism, 288–89 and Stoicism, 293 Utilitarianism (Mill), 288, 291–97
V Vaisesika, 135 valid argument, 110 validity, 13, 15, 17 values, 274–75, 280–81, 404–5, 419 !e Varieties of Religious Experience,
356 varnas, 129 Varuna, 135 Vedanta, 135 Vedas, 129–33 vegetarians, 39, 325 veil of ignorance, 400 vices, 122 A Vindication of the Rights of Men,
368–69
478 GENERAL INDEX
vau28703_gidx_461-480.indd 478 05/10/17 12:36 PM
A Vindication of the Rights of Women, 368–70
virtues Aristotle’s view, 122, 377 Confucianism, 153–54 definition, 121, 380 ethics, 7 feminist ethics, 376 golden mean, 122 and knowledge, 60 Nicomachean Ethics, 122 Stoicism, 166, 168
Vishnu, 135 Visions (film), 202 void, 43–44 Voltaire, 257, 336 Vonnegut, Kurt, 342
W Wagner, Richard, 325 Waithe, Mary Ellen, 57, 79 Waiting for Godot, 342
!e Wanderer and His Shadow, 325 war of all against all, 234, 235 Washington, George, 429 water theory, 34–35 wax metaphor, 224–25 weak arguments, 13 wealth, 308 welfare liberalism, 402, 403 What Nietzsche Really Said, 326 What’s It All About?, 424, 428–29 What the Buddha Taught, 142–43 white paper, 238–39 William of Ockham, 182, 203, 203–4 “"e Will to Believe and Other Essays
in Popular Philosophy,” 355–59 will to power, 325–27 wisdom, 132, 141, 144–45 Wittgenstein, Ludwig Josef Johan,
183, 392–96 Wittgenstein: A Very Short
Introduction, 393 Wollstonecraft, Mary, 367, 368–71
Women and Human Development, 405
women philosophers, 201–2 women’s rights, 138, 288, 290 !e World as Will and Idea, 325 World-Soul, 134 World War II, 47, 147, 335, 338 wu-wei, 149–51
X Xenophon, 54–55
Y Yajur-Veda, 130 yoga, 132, 134 Yoga (school), 135–36
Z Zen Buddhism, 138 Zeno, 83 Zeno of Citium, 168 Zeno’s Paradoxes, 40, 41
