The Broadview Introduction to Philosophy: Concise Edition
  • Publication Date: February 22, 2024
  • ISBN: 9781554816538 / 155481653X
  • 632 pages; 7¾" x 9¼"

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The Broadview Introduction to Philosophy: Concise Edition

  • Publication Date: February 22, 2024
  • ISBN: 9781554816538 / 155481653X
  • 632 pages; 7¾" x 9¼"

The concise edition of The Broadview Introduction to Philosophy offers 44 historical and contemporary readings on core topics in Western philosophy, including philosophy of religion, theories of knowledge, metaphysics, ethics, social-political philosophy, and issues of life, death, and happiness. Unlike other introductory anthologies, the Broadview offers considerable apparatus to assist the student reader in understanding the texts without simply summarizing them. Each selection includes an introduction discussing the context and structure of the primary reading, as well as thorough annotations designed to clarify unfamiliar terms, references, and argument forms. Canonical texts from the history of philosophy are presented alongside contemporary scholarship; women authors are included throughout.

A larger “complete” version of this anthology is also available. For courses on religion, epistemology, and metaphysics, or courses on ethics and social-political philosophy, a split-volume version is offered:

The Broadview Introduction to Philosophy, Volume 1: Knowledge and Reality
The Broadview Introduction to Philosophy, Volume 2: Values and Society

Comments

Comments on The Broadview Introduction to Philosophy

The Broadview Introduction to Philosophy is an outstanding text for introductory philosophy courses. It contains a wonderful collection of readings. Moreover, the editor provides highly informative introductions to the readings.” — Marc Ereshefsky, University of Calgary

The Broadview Introduction to Philosophy is a carefully curated collection of classic and contemporary philosophical texts. In this volume, Bailey attains a more equitable representation of philosophers than is typical of most introductory philosophy anthologies, and his inclusion of additional materials—useful introductions, descriptions of overall projects, and background information—makes this anthology ideal for students in today’s introductory courses.” — Andrea Sullivan-Clarke, University of Windsor

The Broadview Introduction to Philosophy offers helpful contextualization and clarification of its readings, along with overviews of how particular arguments fit into larger discussions. But it also offers something more. Blending the ‘canon’ with the new—in terms of both the issues raised and the voices raising them—this anthology offers a compelling answer to the perennial question in introductory courses: Why should I care about philosophy? Because it matters.” — Brynn Welch, University of Alabama at Birmingham

The Broadview Introduction to Philosophy is a very useful collection, as it initiates questions in metaphysics, epistemology, and ethics out of considerations in the philosophy of religion. This is a compelling way to help students start philosophizing.” — Scott F. Aikin, Vanderbilt University

Acknowledgments
How to Use This Book
Introduction

Part I: 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; Anselm’s Reply to Gaunilo
    • St. Thomas Aquinas
      • Summa Theologiae, Part I, Question 2: Does God Exist?
    • William Paley
      • from Natural Theology
    • J.L. Mackie
      • “Evil and Omnipotence”
    • Blaise Pascal
      • “The Wager,” from Pensées
    • William K. Clifford
      • “The Ethics of Belief”
    • William James
      • “The Will to Believe”

Part II: Theory of Knowledge

  • Is the External World the Way It Appears to Be?
    • Plato
      • “The Allegory of the Cave”
    • René Descartes
      • Meditations on First Philosophy
    • John Locke
      • from An Essay Concerning Human Understanding
    • Edmund L. Gettier
      • “Is Justified True Belief Knowledge?”
    • Jennifer Saul
      • “Scepticism and Implicit Bias”
    • Helen Longino
      • “Can There Be a Feminist Science?”

Part III: Metaphysics

  • Philosophy of Mind
    • Thomas Nagel
      • “What Is It Like to Be a Bat?”
    • David Chalmers
      • “The Puzzle of Conscious Experience”
    • Amy Kind
      • “How to Believe in Qualia”
  • Free Will
    • Paul Rée
      • from The Illusion of Free Will, Chapters 1 and 2
    • Ishtiyaque Haji
      • from Incompatibilism’s Allure
    • Harry G. Frankfurt
      • “Alternate Possibilities and Moral Responsibility”
  • Personal Identity
    • John Locke
      • from An Essay Concerning Human Understanding
    • Daniel C. Dennett
      • “Where Am I?”
    • Derek Parfit
      • “Personal Identity”

Part IV: Ethics

  • How Ought We to Live Our Lives?
    • Plato
      • from Republic and Euthyphro
    • Aristotle
      • from Nicomachean Ethics
    • Immanuel Kant
      • from Foundations of the Metaphysics of Morals
    • John Stuart Mill
      • from Utilitarianism
    • Virginia Held
      • “Feminist Transformations of Moral Theory”
    • Judith Jarvis Thomson
      • “The Trolley Problem”

Part V: Social-Political Philosophy

  • Justice
    • Thomas Hobbes
      • from Leviathan, Parts I–II
    • John Stuart Mill
      • from On Liberty
    • Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels
      • from The Communist Manifesto
    • John Rawls
      • from Justice as Fairness: A Restatement
    • Robert Nozick
      • from Anarchy, State, and Utopia
    • Susan Moller Okin
      • “Justice and Gender”
  • Equality and Fairness
    • Mary Wollstonecraft
      • from A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
    • Simone de Beauvoir
      • from The Second Sex, Introduction
    • Talia Mae Bettcher
      • “Trans Women and the Meaning of ‘Woman’”
    • Iris Marion Young
      • “Five Faces of Oppression”
    • Kwame Anthony Appiah
      • “How to Decide If Races Exist”
    • Ta-Nehisi Coates
      • from Between the World and Me

Part VI: Life, Death, and Happiness

  • What Is the Meaning of Life?
    • Epictetus
      • from Enchiridion
    • A.J. Ayer
      • “The Claims of Philosophy”
    • Albert Camus
      • from The Myth of Sisyphus
    • Kathy Behrendt
      • “Reasons to Live versus Reasons Not to Die”

Permissions Acknowledgments

Andrew Bailey is Professor of Philosophy and Associate Dean of Arts at the University of Guelph.

  • A Mix of the Historical and the Contemporary: Forty-four readings are included, ranging from Plato through to the present day—including the full text of Descartes’s Meditations.
  • A Broad Selection of Topics: Extensive coverage of classic philosophical topics, including free will, the existence of God, and ethical theory.
  • Contextualizing Introductions: Each reading opens with a substantial introduction designed to provide the context and background knowledge needed to understand the primary source.
  • Thorough Annotations: Practical footnotes explain unfamiliar expressions, references, and concepts, making otherwise difficult readings accessible to those who are new to philosophy.
  • Women Authors: A higher proportion of readings by women than other leading introductory anthologies.
  • Supplemental Materials: Teaching notes and quiz questions are provided to instructors. Student readers receive complimentary access to a separate set of resources, including additional questions, writing exercises, and a unique interactive tool for constructing philosophy essay outlines.

Instructor Website:

  • Multiple-choice and true/false review questions on each of the book’s readings, which can be downloaded as Word files or in a digital format that can be uploaded to many Learning Management Systems (Blackboard, Moodle, etc.).
  • Teaching notes on each the book’s readings, written by an experienced philosophy instructor.

Student Website:

  • Self-Test Questions for each of the book’s readings, offered in an interactive format for immediate feedback.
  • • A unique Argumentative Essay Builder, through which one can generate a complete essay outline by responding to a series of prompts.
  • • Information on the conventions of writing in philosophy, including a list of fallacies, an annotated sample essay, and a guide to citation.
  • • A collection of philosophical puzzles and paradoxes.
  • Suggestions for further reading, as well as two additional texts introduced and annotated by Andrew Bailey.
  • Web links

Read a sample from The Broadview Introduction to Philosophy: Concise Edition. (Opens as a PDF.)