Solving, Resolving, and Dissolving Philosophical Problems

Equips readers with the intellectual tools required to tackle perennial philosophical problems Solving, Resolving, and Dissolving Philosophical Problems is addressed to all who are interested in philosophical questions. It presupposes little philosophical knowledge, only curiosity and an open mind. It demands a willingness to learn not doctrine but method, and the courage to suspend judgement and to challenge received ideas. Advocating the method of the 3 C-s: Connective, Contrastive, and Contextual Analysis, the book demonstrates the method by putting it to work — examining fifteen salient philosophical questions that concern all thinking people. It is organized thematically into four parts. Part I introduces questions in philosophy of psychology (the nature of the mind; the mind/body problem; the nature of consciousness and its demystification; knowledge of other minds). Part II deals with epistemological questions (knowledge, belief; memory; imagination, thinking; dreaming). Part III deals with value (the roots of morality; the nature of good and evil; the need for a secular conception of the soul; happiness). The application of the method in the essays produces striking, original and unanticipated results that will give readers pause. The final part of the book articulates in detail the methodology of the 3 C-s exemplified by the fifteen essays and defends it against objections. Solving, Resolving, and Dissolving Philosophical Problems: On the Methodology of Connective, Contrastive, and Contextual Analysis is an excellent textbook for undergraduate students in introductory philosophy courses alongside more advanced scholars, as well as an invaluable resource for educated general readers with an interest in philosophical methodology.

Introduction ix Acknowledgements xvi Part I Philosophical Psychology 1 Essay 1 The Nature of the Mind 3 Essay 2 The Nature of Our Body and the Mind/Body Relation 14 Essay 3 What Is Consciousness? 25 Essay 4 Consciousness and Experience or ‘What It Is Like to Be a Bat’ Revisited 37 Essay 5 Other Minds and Other People 49 Part II Epistemology 61 Essay 6 Knowledge 63 Essay 7 Belief 75 Essay 8 Memory 88 Essay 9 Imagination 101 Essay 10 Thinking 117 Essay 11 On Dreams and Dreaming 131 Part III Axiology 143 Essay 12 The Place of Value in a World of Facts 145 Essay 13 Morality and the Analysis of Moral Goodness 160 Essay 14 Badness, Wickedness, Evil and the Death of the Soul 175 Essay 15 Happiness 190 Part IV Methodology 203 Essay 16 On Method: Connective, Contrastive, and Contextual Analysis 205 Further Reading 224 Index 228