Philosophy in Practice

Philosophy in Practice is a completely new kind of introductory philosophy textbook, focusing on philosophy as an activity, rather than as a doctrine. Thoroughly revised edition of a popular introductory philosophy textbook. Contains new discussions of philosophy of religion, freedom, The Matrix, and the epistemology of the internet. Offers a wealth of pedagogical features to guide students through the text, including discussion plans at the beginning of each section, questions, chapter summaries, annotated guides to further reading, and a glossary. Classic passages from the history of philosophy are used throughout, and each part ends with a one-page historical summary. Includes an on-line teacher's guide with teaching suggestions, tests, and essay topics at: www.blackwellpublishing.com/pip

Thanks xi Note to Teachers xi The Contract xii Part I The Lure of Certainty 1 1 Certainty and Doubt 3 1.1 Patterns of Thought 4 1.2 How Conventional Are Your Beliefs? 7 1.3 Conviction, Opinion, Doubt, and Belief 9 1.4 Trusting Textbooks 11 1.5 Certainty: the Closed-belief Trap 12 1.6 Cheat: a Story about Deception 14 1.7 Tree-worshipers and Flat-earthers 17 1.8 Revising History: 1984 20 1.9 Doubt 21 1.10 Doubting What Someone Says 23 1.11 How Skeptical Are You? 25 1.12 Moral Skepticism 27 1.13 When is a Skeptic a Cynic? 28 1.14 Socratic Skepticism 30 Conclusions 33 Further Reading 33 2 Sources of Conviction 35 2.1 Authority 36 2.2 Faith 39 2.3 Reason 40 2.4 Arguments 42 2.5 Eight Short Arguments 45 2.6 Puzzling Arguments 47 2.7 Arguments within Arguments 48 2.8 Proofs of God 49 2.9 Paradoxes 54 2.10 What to Trust on the Internet 55 2.11 Transforming the Question 57 Conclusions 58 Further Reading 58 3 Rationalism 59 3.1 Optimism about Reason 60 3.2 Individualism 61 3.3 Galileo’s Rationalism 63 3.4 Impossible Theories 64 3.5 Descartes’ Optimism: Certainty from Doubt 66 3.6 Doubting Anything versus Doubting Everything 70 3.7 Demon Possibilities, Paranoia, and Fantasy 71 3.8 The Matrix 74 3.9 How Doubt Can Increase Belief 76 3.10 Skepticism and Religious Faith 77 3.11 “I Think, Therefore I Am” 80 3.12 Doubting Even One’s Own Existence 81 3.13 Degrees of Certainty 84 Conclusions 86 Further Reading 86 4 Rationalism versus Relativism in Morals 89 4.1 The Appeal of Moral Rationalism 90 4.2 Four Golden Rules 90 4.3 Equality and Justice 92 4.4 Plato’s Moral Rationalism 96 4.5 Three Arguments from Plato’s Republic 98 4.6 Moral Relativism 102 4.7 For and Against Moral Relativism 104 4.8 The Ik 109 4.9 Law and Morality 110 4.10 Existentialism 113 4.11 What Is Morality About? 115 Conclusions 118 Further Reading 118 5 Induction and Deduction 121 5.1 Simple Induction 122 5.2 Applying Simple Induction 123 5.3 Seeing Patterns in Nature 126 5.4 Deduction 1: Syllogisms 128 5.5 Deduction 2: Validity 131 5.6 Deduction 3: Venn Diagrams and Counterexamples 133 5.7 Induction versus Deduction 136 5.8 The Induction-friendliness of the World 138 5.9 Diagramming Induction-friendliness 141 5.10 Hume’s Discovery: Nightmare or Liberation? 142 5.11 Causation and Induction 144 5.12 Choosing the Right Concepts 146 Conclusions 148 Further Reading 148 6 The Retreat from Certainty 149 6.1 Feeble Reason? 150 6.2 Hume on the Power(lessness) of Reason 150 6.3 Four Famous Passages from Hume 153 6.4 Four Kinds of Irrationality 155 6.5 Degrees of Certainty 158 6.6 Valuing Values 158 6.7 How Tolerant Are You? 160 6.8 Mill on Freedom of Expression 163 6.9 Toleration in Science 166 6.10 Making Uncertainty Pay 167 Conclusions 168 Further Reading 169 Postcard History of Philosophy I 170 Part II Life in An Uncertain World 171 7 Utilitarianism 173 7.1 Naive Utilitarianism 174 7.2 Choosing the Utilitarian Action 175 7.3 Pleasure, Pain, and Consequences 177 7.4 Hedonism 178 7.5 Four Styles of Advice 181 7.6 Bentham and Mill 182 7.7 Quotations from Bentham and Mill 184 7.8 Arguments for Utilitarianism 186 7.9 Objecting to the Arguments 188 7.10 Two Controversial Recommendations 190 7.11 The Appeal of Utilitarianism 191 7.12 Utilitarianism and Risk 192 Conclusions 197 Further Reading 197 8 Kantian Ethics 199 8.1 Means and Ends 200 8.2 Motive, Rule, and Means 202 8.3 Kant’s Argument 203 8.4 Evaluating Kant’s Argument 206 8.5 Consequentialism versus Deontology 207 8.6 Diagnosing Disagreements 208 8.7 When it Might Be Right to Lie and Break Promises 209 8.8 Strong Deontology 211 8.9 The Demands of Morality: the Case of Famine 213 8.10 Morality in an Uncertain World 214 Conclusions 215 Further Reading 216 9 Empiricism 217 9.1 Are You an Empiricist? 218 9.2 The Appeal of Empiricism 221 9.3 Some Empiricist Views 222 9.4 The Idea Idea 224 9.5 Translation Exercises 226 9.6 Locke’s “Way of Ideas” 227 9.7 Locke against Innate Ideas 228 9.8 Concepts, Beliefs, and Sensations 230 9.9 Ways of Defining Concepts 233 9.10 Barriers to Concept Acquisition 235 9.11 Empirical Evidence 237 9.12 Adequate Evidence? 240 Conclusions 243 Further Reading 243 10 Beyond Empiricism 245 10.1 Risk of What? 246 10.2 Accuracy versus Informativeness about Friendship 247 10.3 Other Minds 249 10.4 Testing the Argument from Analogy 251 10.5 Folk Psychology: the Argument from Explanation 253 10.6 Being Wrong about Yourself 255 10.7 The Inference to the Best Explanation 256 10.8 Explanation 258 10.9 Justifying Astrology 261 10.10 Inference to the Best Explanation versus Simple Induction 262 10.11 Perception and Belief 264 10.12 Falsification 267 10.13 The Hypothetico-deductive Method 271 10.14 A Test Case: Continental Drift 274 Conclusions 277 Further Reading 277 11 Objectivity 279 11.1 Escape from the Cave 280 11.2 Background Beliefs: First Test Case – Probability 282 11.3 Background Beliefs: Second Test Case – Moral Status 286 11.4 Reflective Equilibrium 290 11.5 How Ethics Is Like Science 295 11.6 Fallibilism 301 Conclusions 304 Further Reading 304 Postcard History of Philosophy II 305 Part III Reality 307 12 Materialism and Dualism 311 12.1 Materialism, Naturalism, Idealism 312 12.2 Materialisms 313 12.3 Are You a Materialist or an Idealist? 315 12.4 Dualism 316 12.5 Leibniz on the Unimaginability of Materialism 321 12.6 Crude and Subtle Materialisms 322 12.7 Lucretius on Mind and Body 325 12.8 Antidepressants, Psychosomatic Medicine, and the Mind–Body Problem 326 12.9 Materialism and Self-knowledge 328 12.10 Technology versus Introspection 330 12.11 Eliminative Materialism 332 12.12 Five Typical Quotations 334 Conclusions 335 Further Reading 335 13 Morality for Naturalists 337 13.1 God and Morality 338 13.2 The Moralist’s Nightmare 341 13.3 Hobbes on the State of Nature 343 13.4 A Restaurant Dilemma 346 13.5 The Prisoner’s Dilemma 348 13.6 Hobbes and the Prisoner’s Dilemma 350 13.7 Implicit Contracts 352 13.8 Imaginary Social Contracts 355 13.9 Morals in Nature? Rousseau, Hegel, Marx 356 13.10 Real States of Nature 359 13.11 Moral Motivation: Decency, Villainy, and Hypocrisy 361 13.12 Morals within Nature? 362 Conclusions 365 Further Reading 365 14 Deep Illusions 367 14.1 Primary and Secondary Qualities 368 14.2 Hard Questions about Color 370 14.3 Color as Illusory 372 14.4 Free Will 373 14.5 Freedom and Responsibility 377 14.6 Freedom as a Secondary Quality 379 14.7 Fatalism versus Determinism 382 14.8 Identity through Time 384 14.9 Personal Identity: Problem Cases 387 14.10 Personal Identity: Theories 389 14.11 The Meanings of Lives 391 Conclusions 396 Further Reading 396 15 Realism 399 15.1 Science versus the Everyday World 400 15.2 Counting Objects 401 15.3 Berkeley’s Idealism 404 15.4 A Puzzle about Pain: the Locations of Qualities 408 15.5 Apples, Surprises, Scopes, and Existence 409 15.6 Verificationism 412 15.7 Instrumentalism versus Realism 415 15.8 First Case Study: Crystal Spheres 419 15.9 Second Case Study: Phlogiston 421 15.10 Arguments for Realism and Instrumentalism 423 15.11 The Last Word 426 Conclusions 427 Further Reading 427 Postcard History of Philosophy III 429 Definitions 430 Index 437