This text/anthology is designed to lead beginning students to an appreciation of Western philosophy through an exploration of its history, the problems (classical questions) it has dealt with, and the major philosophers and their works within that historical setting.

Features

• NEW--Current Dimensions (Ch. 30)�Offers five entries: 1) Summary reflection on women and philosophy contextualizing Susanne K. Langer's analysis of symbolism and art; 2) Revised account of W.V. Quine and his role in contemporary logic and language analysis; 3) John Rawls and his theory of justice and political philosophy; 4) John Searle and the question of mind and computers; 5) Peter Singer, with special attention to his critique of the traditional value of human life.
  • Introduces students to contemporary philosophical thought.
• NEW--Streamlined bibliography�At the end of the book.
  • Provides students with a manageable source of enrichment material.
• Historical approach to Western philosophy�Focuses on Western philosophy and uses a historical approach to cover philosophers from ancient through the contemporary periods.
  • Allows students to study philosophical thought within the context of the historical period in which it was conceived, giving them a full appreciation of both its history and the problems it dealt with.
• General introduction�Provides a general introduction on how philosophy differs from other disciplines.
  • Develops student interest in the field.
• Introduction to each major period�Shows why and how a new period begins, how it differs from the period preceding, and the causes of the transition.
  • Helps students fully understand different periods of philosophic thought.
• Primary source material�Provides readings written by the philosophers discussed. All readings are primary source material and are integrated into each chapter.
  • Enables students to experience the authors' thoughts in their own words.
• Each chapter is devoted to a single philosopher�Integrates philosophical themes in a historical context together with a brief biographical account, a statement of the main problems and a substantial selection of primary readings.
  • Enables students to share the experience of a mind at work.
• Two tables of contents�Provide a chronological and a thematic (categorized under main divisions of philosophy) table or contents.
  • Allow students to quickly locate areas of interest.
• Review questions for each chapter.
  • Allows students to test their understanding of chapter material and identify areas where further study is needed.
• Glossary of key terms.
  • Enables students to quickly find the definitions of unfamiliar terms.

New To This Edition

• A section on Jacques Derrida--Has been added and a chapter on St. Anselm has been restored.
• Some readings--Have been shortened.
• A significant amount of text--Has been reworked for greater clarity or further analysis.
• Sub-headings--Have been inserted into the text as a helpful tool for the student for following the presentation.
• A philosophic map of Greece--Has been added.

I. THE ANCIENT PERIOD�THE SPIRIT OF GREEK PHILOSOPHY: PHILOSOPHY AS WONDER.

1. The Predecessors of Socrates.

Selected Fragments from the Pre-Socratics.

2. Socrates (469-399 B.C.)

The Trial of Socrates (Plato's Apology).
The Death of Socrates (from Plato's Phaedo).

3. Plato (427-347 B.C.)

Doctrine of Forms (General Statement, from Parmenides).
Doctrine of Forms (Creation Myth, from Timaeus).
Knowledge: Allegory of the Cave (from The Republic, Book VII).
Learning as Recollection (from Meno).
Socrates' Dinner-Party Speech (from Symposium).
Virtue and the Highest Good (from Laws, Book IV).
Laying the Groundwork for Justice (from The Republic Book II).
The Philosopher King: 1 (Republic, Book V).
The Philosopher King: 2 (from Epistle VII, to the friends and companions of Dion).

4. Aristotle (384-322 B.C.)

Toward a Definition of Wisdom (from Metaphysics, Book I).
The Prime Mover: One and Eternal (from Physics, Books I and VIII).
Thought, Contemplation, and the Life of God (from Metaphysics, Book XII).
Happiness and Man's Good (from Nicomachean Ethics, Book I).
Moral Virtue and the Mean (from Nicomachean Ethics, Book II).
The End of Human Nature: Happiness (from Nicomachean Ethics, Book X).
Wisdom and Virtue as the Basis of Society (from Politics, Book VII).
The Civil Society (from Politics, Book I).

5. Epicurus (341-270 B.C.)

The Letter of Epicurus to Herodotus.

6. The Stoics: Epictetus (A.D. 50-138) and Marcus Aurelius (A.D. 121-180).

The Hymn of Cleanthes.
The Manual of Epictetus.
The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius.

II. THE MEDIEVAL PERIOD�THE SPIRIT OF MEDIEVAL PHILOSOPHY: PHILOSOPHY MEETS THEOLOGY.

7. St. Augustine (354-430).

Augustine's Conversion (from Confessions).
On Love of God (from Confessions).
The Problem of Human Freedom (from On Free Choice of the Will).
The Problem of Evil: 1 (from Confessions).
The Problem of Evil: 2 (from Enchiridion).
The Mystery of Time (from Confessions).

8. St. Anselm (1033-1109).

Faith Seeking Understanding (from Proslogion).
The "Ontological" Argument for the existence of God (from Proslogion).

9. St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274).

On the Existence of God (from Summa theologiae).
On the Soul (from Summa theologiae).
The Unity of Man (from Summa theologiae).
On Happiness (from Summa contra Gentes).
On the Various Kinds of Law (from Summa theologiae).
On Love and Happiness (from Summa theologiae and contra Gentes).

10. William of Ockham (c. 1280-1349).

On the Problem of Universals (from Logic, I, 14).
A Universal Is Not a Thing Outside the Mind (from Logic, 15).
A Universal Is Indistinct Knowledge of Many (from Commentary on Aristotle's `On Interpretation').
On Being (from Logic, I, 38).
Book I (ordinatio) Distinction 2, Question IX (from Commentary on the 'Sentences').

III. THE MODERN PERIOD�THE SPIRIT OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY: PHILOSOPHY AND THE RISE OF SCIENCE.

11. René Descartes (1596-1650).

Discourse on Method.
Meditations on First Philosophy.
Meditations on the First Philosophy in which the Existence of God and the Distinction between Mind and Body Are Demonstrated.

12. Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677).

Definitions and Axioms (from Ethics, Part I).
Seven Propositions on Substance (from Ethics, Part I).
The Third Degree of Knowledge and the Love of God (from Ethics, Part V).

13. Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716).

From The Monadology.
Evil as Privation (from Theodicy, #20).
The Analogy of the Boat (from Theodicy, #30-1).
No Better World Possible (from Theodicy, #193-5).

14. Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679).

From Leviathan, or the Matter, Form, and Power of a Commonwealth Ecclesiastical and Civil.

15. John Locke (1632-1704).

From Essay Concerning Human Understanding.
From The Second Treatise of Civil Government.

16. George Berkeley (1685-1753).

From A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge.

17. David Hume (1711-1776).

Impressions and Ideas (from An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Section II).
Doubts Concerning the Understanding: The Cause-and-Effect Relationship (from An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Section IV).
The Advantages of Scepticism (from An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Section XII, Part III).
Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion.

18. Immanuel Kant (1724-1804).

Introduction (from Critique of Pure Reason).
Transcendental Illusion (from Critique of Pure Reason).
The Three Regulative Ideas of Pure Reason (from Critique of Pure Reason).
The Categorical Imperative (from Foundations of the Metaphysics of Morals).
Postulates of Pure Practical Reason (from Critique of Practical Reason).

19. Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831).

The Absolute as Process of Self-Becoming (from Phenomenology of Spirit, Preface).
The Introduction to Phenomenology of Spirit: Consciousness and the Dialectical Process.

20. John Stuart Mill (1806-1873).

What Utilitarianism Is (from Utilitarianism).
Of the Law of Universal Causation (from A System of Logic).
On the Probable Futurity of the Laboring Classes (from Principles of Political Economy).
Liberty (from On Liberty).

IV. THE CONTEMPORARY PERIOD�THE SPIRIT OF CONTEMPORARY PHILOSOPHY: THE ASCENDANCY OF THE PERSON.

21. Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855).

The Search for Personal Meaning (from Journals).
Abraham and "Breaking through the Universal" (from Fear and Trembling).
The Subjective Truth, Inwardness; Truth Is Subjectivity (from Concluding Unscientific Postscript).

22. Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900).

The Death of God and the Ascendancy of the Overman (from Thus Spoke Zarathustra).
Fearlessness (from The Gay Science).
Anti-Christ and Revaluation (from The Anti-Christ).

23. Karl Marx (1816-1883).

A Chapter in the Exploitation of the Working Man (from Das Kapital).
On the Alienation of Man (from Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts).

24. Henri Bergson (1859-1941).

From Creative Evolution.
Open Morality and Dynamic Religion (from The Two Sources of Morality and Religion).

25. William James (1842-1910).

The Meaning of Pragmatism (from What Is Pragmatism?).
The Pragmatic Method Applied to the Problem of Substance (from What Is Pragmatism?).
The Pragmatic Method Applied to the Problem of Religion (from What Is Pragmatism?).
The Will to Believe.

26. Edmund Husserl (1859-1938).

Author's Preface to the English Edition (from Ideas: General Introduction to Pure Phenomenology).

27. Martin Heidegger (1889-1976).

The Fundamental Question of Metaphysics (from An Introduction to Metaphysics).
Selections from Being and Time.
Being-in-the-World in General as the Basic State of Dasein.

28. Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980).

The Meaning of Existentialism (from Existentialism and Humanism).
Reflections on Being and Nothingness (from Being and Nothingness).

29. Bertrand Russell (1872-1970).

Mathematics and Logic (from Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy).
Man's Place in the Universe (from An Outline of Philosophy).
The Value of Philosophy (from The Problems of Philosophy).

30. Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951).

Preface to Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus.
Language as Picture (from Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus).
Beyond the Limits of Language (from Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus).
Language as Language-Games (from Philosophical Investigations).

31. Current Dimensions

1. Women Philosophers: Susanne K. Langer, Philosophy in a New Key.
2. Willard V. Quine, Interview with W. V. Quine (from Men of Ideas, with Bryan Magee).
3. John Searle, The Rediscovery of the Mind (Chap. 1 and 2).

The Other Me (Review of Ray Kurzweil, The Age of Spiritual Machines).

4. John Rawls, The Main Idea of A Theory of Justice.

Two Principles of Justice.

5. Peter Singer, A Broadly Utilitarian Position (from Practical Ethics, second edition, chap. 1 and 2).

Equality for Animals?

6. Derrida, Deconstruction, Letter to a Japanese Friend.

EPILOGUE.

Past, Present, Future: Philosophy as Perennial.
Glossary.
Index.