Table of Contents

How to Use This Book

Chapter 1: Philosophy

What is Philosophy?
A Brief Introduction to Arguments
Introductory Tips on Reading and Writing Philosophy

Chapter 2: Philosophy of Religion—Does God Exist?

St. Anselm of Canterbury

Proslogion, Preface and Chapters 2-5
Pro Insipiente (“On Behalf of the Fool”), by Gaunilo of Marmoutiers, Paragraph 6

St. Thomas Aquinas

Summa Theologiae, Part I, Question 2, The Existence of God (In Three Articles)

David Hume

Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion, Parts II-III, X-XI

J.L. Mackie

“Evil and Omnipotence”

Chapter 3: Epistemology—Is the External World the Way It Appears to Be?

Rene Descartes

Meditations on First Philosophy, Synopsis, First, Second, and Sixth Meditations

John Locke

An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (selections)

George Berkeley

Three Dialogues Between Hylas and Philonous, First Dialogue

Bertrand Russell

The Problems of Philosophy, Chapters 1-3

Lorraine Code

“Is the Sex of the Knower Epistemologically Significant?”

Chapter 4: Philosophy of Mind—What is the Place of Mind in the Physical World?

Gilbert Ryle

The Concept of Mind: “Descartes’s Myth”

J.J.C. Smart

“Sensations and Brain Processes”

Hilary Putnam

“The Nature of Mental States”

John R. Searle

“Minds, Brains and Programs”

Thomas Nagel

“What Is It Like To Be a Bat?”

Chapter 5: Metaphysics—Do We Have Free Will?

Paul Ree

The Illusion of Free Will, Chapters 1 and 2

C.A. Campbell

On Selfhood and Godhood: “Has the Self Free Will?”

Daniel Dennett

“On Giving Libertarians What They Say They Want”

Susan Wolf

“Sanity and the Metaphysics of Responsibility”

Chapter 6: Ethics: How Ought We to Live Our Lives?

Aristotle

The Nicomachean Ethics (selections)

Immanuel Kant

Foundations of the Metaphysics of Morals, Sections I and II

John Stuart Mill

Utilitarianism, Chapters 1-4

Friedrich Nietzsche

Beyond Good and Evil, §§ 259-261

Virginia Held

“Feminist Transformations of Moral Theory”

Mary Midgley

“Is a Dolphin a Person?”

Chapter 7: Social/Political Philosophy—What is Justice?

Aristotle

The Nicomachean Ethics, Book V, Sections 1-5

Thomas Hobbes

Leviathan (selections)

John Stuart Mill

On Liberty, Chapters I, II, and IV

Simone de Beauvoir

The Second Sex, Introduction

John Rawls

Justice as Fairness: A Restatement, §§ 12-13

Robert Nozick

Anarchy, State, and Utopia: “Distributive Justice,” Section I

Sources for Quotations