Table of Contents

Each part opens with an Introduction and ends with Key Terms and Suggestions for Further Reading.
*=New to this Edition
Preface:
Time Line:
I. WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?
The Good of Philosophy
Philosophical Terrain
Thinking Philosophically
Reasons and Arguments:
Fallacious Reasoning:
Identifying Arguments:
Some Applications:
Exercises in Critical Reasoning:
Study and Discussion Questions:
1. Plato: Socratic Wisdom
2. Plato: The Allegory of the Cave
3. John Locke: Of Enthusiasm and the Quest for Truth
4. Bertrand Russell: The Value of Philosophy
II. PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION
II.A. Is Belief in God Rationally Justified? Arguments for the Existence of God
The Cosmological Argument:
Pro:
5. Thomas Aquinas: The Five Ways
6. William Lane Craig: The Kalam Cosmological Argument and the Anthropic Principle
Contra:
7. Paul Edwards: A Critique of the Cosmological Argument
The Teleological Argument:
Pro:
8. William Paley: The Watch and the Watchmaker
Contra:
9. David Hume: A Critique of the Teleological Argument
The Ontological Argument:
Pro et Contra:
10. St. Anselm and Gaunilo: The Ontological Argument
11. William Rowe: An Analysis of the Ontological Argument
II.B. Why Is There Evil?
12. Fyodor Dostoevsky: Why Is There Evil?
13. B.C. Johnson: Why Doesn't God Intervene to Prevent Evil?
14. John Hick: There Is a Reason Why God Allows Evil
15. William L. Rowe: The Problem of Evil and Some Varieties of Atheism
II.C. Is Faith Compatible with Reason?
16. Blaise Pascal: Yes, Faith Is a Logical Bet
17. W.K. Clifford: The Ethics of Belief
18. William James: The Will to Believe
19. Antony Flew, R.M. Hare, and Basil Mitchell: A Debate on the Rationality of Religious Belief
20. Alvin Plantinga: Religious Belief Without Evidence
21. Søren Kierkegaard: Faith and Truth
22. Bertrand Russell: Can Religion Cure Our Troubles?
III. KNOWLEDGE
III.A. What Can We Know? Classical Theories of Knowledge
23. René Descartes: Cartesian Doubt and the Search for Foundational Knowledge
24. John Locke: The Empiricist Theory of Knowledge
25. George Berkeley: An Idealist Theory of Knowledge
26. David Hume: The Origin of Our Ideas
27. G.E. Moore: Proof of an External World
III.B. Truth, Rationality, and Cognitive Relativism
28. Bertrand Russell: The Correspondence Theory of Truth
29. William James: The Pragmatic Theory of Truth
30. Richard Rorty: Dismantling Truth: Solidarity versus Objectivity
31. Daniel Dennett: Postmodernism and Truth
* III.C. Feminist Perspectives on Knowledge
* 32. Eve Browning Cole: Philosophy and Feminist Criticism
* 33. Alison Ainley: Feminist Philosophy
III.D. Induction
34. David Hume: Skeptical Doubts Concerning the Operations of the Understanding
35. Wesley C. Salmon: The Problem of Induction
IV. PHILOSOPHY OF MIND: THE MIND-BODY PROBLEM
IV.A. What Am I? A Mind or a Body?
36. RenéDescartes: Substance Dualism
37. Gilbert Ryle: Exorcising Descartes' "Ghost in the Machine"
38. J.P. Moreland: A Contemporary Defense of Dualism
39. Paul Churchland: On Functionalism and Materialism
40. J.J.C. Smart: Sensations and Brain Processes
41. Thomas Nagel: What Is It Like to Be a Bat?
42. Jerry A. Fodor: The Mind-Body Problem
43. David Chalmers: Property Dualism
44. John Searle: Minds, Brains, and Computers
45. Ned Block: Troubles with Functionalism
IV.B. Who Am I? Do We Have Personal Identity?
46. John Locke: Our Psychological Properties Define the Self
47. David Hume: We Have No Substantial Self with Which We Are Identical
V. FREEDOM OF THE WILL AND DETERMINISM
Contra:
48. Baron d'Holbach: We Are Completely Determined
Pro:
49. William James: The Dilemma of Determinism
50. Roderick M. Chisholm: Human Freedom and the Self
Pro et Contra:
51. Harry Frankfurt: Freedom of the Will and the Concept of a Person
52. David Hume: Liberty and Necessity
VI. ETHICS
VI.A. Are There Any Moral Absolutes or Is Morality Completely Relative?
53. Ruth Benedict: Morality Is Relative
54. James Rachels: Morality Is Not Relative
VI.B. Ethics and Egoism: Why Should We Be Moral?
55. Plato: Why Should I Be Moral?: Gyges' Ring and Socrates' Dilemma
56. Louis P. Pojman: Egoism and Altruism: A Critique of Ayn Rand
57. Joel Feinberg: Psychological Egoism
VI.C. Which Is the Correct Ethical Theory?
58. Immanuel Kant: The Moral Law
59. John Stuart Mill: Utilitarianism
* 60. Bernard Williams: Against Utilitarianism
61. Aristotle: The Ethics of Virtue
62. Virginia Held: The Ethics of Care
63. Alison M. Jaggar: Feminist Ethics
64. Annette C. Baier: The Need for More than Justice
65. Jean-Paul Sartre: Existentialist Ethics
66. James Rachels: The Divine Command Theory
* 67. Thomas Nagel: Moral Luck
VII. JUSTICE AND POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY
VII.A. What Is the Most Just Form of Government?
68. Robert Paul Wolff: In Defense of Anarchism
69. Thomas Hobbes: The Absolutist Answer: The Justification of the State Is the Security It Affords
70. John Locke: The Democratic Answer: The Justification of the State Is Its Promotion of Security and Natural Human Rights
71. John Stuart Mill: A Classical Liberal Answer: Government Must Promote Freedom
72. John Rawls: The Contemporary Liberal Answer
73. Robert Nozick: Against Liberalism
* VII.B. What Is Social Justice?
* 74. Martin Luther King, Jr.: Nonviolence and Racial Justice
* 75. Susan Moller Okin: Justice, Gender, and Family
* 76. Mary Wollstonecraft: A Vindication of the Rights of Women
VIII. WHAT IS THE MEANING OF LIFE?
77. Epicurus: Moderate Hedonism
78. Epictetus: Stoicism: Enchiridion
79. Albert Camus: Life Is Absurd
80. Julian Baggini: Living Life Forwards
81. Louis P. Pojman: Religion Gives Meaning to Life
82. Thomas Nagel: The Absurd
83. Bertrand Russell: Reflections on Suffering
IX. CONTEMPORARY MORAL PROBLEMS
IX.A. Is Abortion Morally Permissible?
Contra:
84. Don Marquis: Why Abortion Is Immoral
85. Francis J. Beckwith: Arguments from Bodily Rights
Pro:
86. Mary Anne Warren: On the Moral and Legal Status of Abortion
87. Judith Jarvis Thomson: A Defense of Abortion
Pro et Contra:
88. Jane English: The Moderate Position: Beyond the Personhood Argument
IX.B. Is the Death Penalty Morally Permissible?
Pro:
89. Burton Leiser: The Death Penalty Is Permissible
Contra:
90. Hugo Adam Bedau: No, the Death Penalty Is Not Morally Permissible
IX.C. Should Society Permit Same-Sex Marriage?
Contra:
* 91. Maggie Gallagher: What Marriage Is For: Children Need Mothers and Fathers
Pro:
92. Jonathan Rauch: For Better or Worse?
IX.D. Do We Have Obligations to the Poor and Hungry?
Pro:
93. Peter Singer: Famine, Affluence, and Morality
Contra:
94. Garrett Hardin: Living on a Lifeboat
Appendix: How to Read and Write a Philosophy Paper:
Glossary:

About the Author

The late Louis P. Pojman was Professor of Philosophy at the United States Military Academy at West Point and the author, editor, or coeditor of more than twenty books.

Lewis Vaughn is the author or coauthor of numerous books, including Bioethics, Third Edition (2016), The Power of Critical Thinking, Fifth Edition, (2015), Philosophy Here and Now, Second Edition (2015), and Living Philosophy (2014), all published by Oxford University Press.

Reviews

"Philosophy: The Quest for Truth is simply superb. It is clearly one of the best--if not the best--introductory philosophy texts available today. Its greatest strengths are its clarity, its commitment to conveying the relevance of philosophy, its logic excursus, and its comprehensiveness. Pojman was, and Vaughn is, a master at accessible, clear, engaging writing for introductory students. And the pedagogical features are superb."--Mark Piper, James
Madison University
"This is an impressive collection of the most relevant readings one might hope for in conducting an introductory course. Students fearful of philosophy will have their prejudice ruptured upon seeing the relevant and enjoyable topics covered in this anthology. The book doesn't just speak the language of philosophy, it speaks the language of students. What a nice pairing!"--Shandon L. Guthrie, University of Nevada, Las Vegas