How Philosophy Works: The Concepts Visually Explained (How Things Work)

Description

What is the meaning of life? Are we truly free? How can we make ethical choices? Discover the answers to life's greatest questions. Demystifying the key ideas of the world's greatest philosophers, and exploring all of the most important branches of philosophical thought in a uniquely visual way, this book is the perfect introduction to the history of philosophy. How Philosophy Works combines bold infographics and jargon-free text to demystify fundamental concepts about the nature of reality. Covering everything from ethics to epistemology and phenomenology, the book presents the ideas and theories of key philosophical traditions and philosophers - from Plato and Socrates to Nietzsche and Wittgenstein via Kant - in a novel, easy-to-understand way. Its infographics will help you to understand the elements of philosophy on a conceptual level and, by tackling life's "big questions", it will help you to look at the world in an entirely new way. With its unique graphic approach and clear, authoritative text, How Philosophy Works is the perfect introduction to philosophy, and the ideal companion to DK's The Philosophy Book in the "Big Ideas" series. CONTENTS Introduction FOUNDATIONS The source of everything Cosmic origins Sacred geometry All is flux All is one Zeno’s paradoxes Elements and forces Immortal seeds Atomic theory Examining ideas Platonic realms Plato’s allegory of the cave One world only Form is function An Earth-centered cosmos Purposes in nature Scholastic philosophy Transubstantiation Occam’s razor The scientific revolution Doubting the world Mind and body The body as a machine The one substance The blank slate An infinity of minds Facts and ideas Shaping the world with the mind Kinds of truth Reality as a process The end of history Class conflict in history Useful truths The value of truth Ideas as tools ANALYTIC PHILOSOPHY What does a word mean? Russell’s theory of descriptions Picturing the world Meaning and observation Dispensing with metaphysics A private language is impossible Wittgenstein’s language-games Science and falsification The nature of scientific truth Words as actions Scientific revolutions Points of view Feminist epistemology CONTINENTAL PHILOSOPHY Objects in the mind Phenomenology Time consciousness What is it like to be human? Life before death Freedom and identity The “other” Gender identity The lived body Critical theory Power plays Deconstruction Feminist postmodernism PHILOSOPHY OF MIND Dualism The limits of language Behaviorism The mind-brain identity theory Eliminative materialism Functionalism Biological naturalism Panpsychism The nature of the body RIGHT AND WRONG Rules and principles Ethics and the law Free will? Do we have moral knowledge? Does moral truth exist? The fact-value distinction Aristotle’s virtue ethics Humean ethics Deontology Utilitarianism Existentialist ethics Animal rights Euthanasia Cloning POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY Who should rule? Justifying absolute rule Government by the people Popular sovereignty How are property rights justified? Consent and obligation What rights should people enjoy? Kinds of liberty Should rights be limited? How should we manage change? To work is human nature Making more objective political decisions Perspectivism and politics A just war? Women and patriarchy LOGIC Rationality Recognizing arguments Analyzing arguments Evaluating arguments Deductive arguments Inductive arguments Fallacies Formal logic Index Acknowledgments