Knowledge and Reality in Nine Questions: A First Book in Philosophy

Description

Have you ever wondered what makes the questions a philosopher asks different from those asked by a non-philosopher? Is it a desire to seek the truth? Is it their reliance on scientific methods? Or is a philosophical question one that deals with the world we live in? For the Ancient Greek thinkers Plato and Aristotle, questions about philosophy concerned the fundamental nature of reality and how we know about it. This introduction is based on their views, boiling philosophy down to nine essential questions and using them to reveal how we think about the major topics of metaphysics (the nature of reality) and epistemology (knowledge). From ‘What Am I?’ to ‘What is Time?’, this is a fast-paced tour of the Western philosophical tradition. It walks you through age-old questions about God, free will, skepticism, truth and perception and along the way introduces you to distinctive features and methods including: By unpacking and exploring each of the nine questions in turn, you find out what it really means to do philosophy. Not only do you emerge with a better understanding of the conceptual landscape around essential philosophical questions, you come to realize why it is that philosophers agree on very little. Here is a golden opportunity to think about some of the most important questions asked by philosophers over across the history of Western philosophical thought and discover why they still matter. Cover Half Title page Series page Title page Copyright page Dedication Contents HOW TO USE THIS BOOK ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Introduction A BIT ABOUT PHILOSOPHY Some Questions Philosophers Ask Thought Experiments Reflection
Questions Question 1 WHAT AM I? Answer One: I am nothing that lasts overtime. That is, I don’t exist, or exist only for
a moment. Answer Two: I am a persisting physical object of some kind. Answer Three
: I am a nonphysical mind. Answer Four: I am a combination of an
immaterial mind and a body. Conclusion Appendix: A proof that if it is possible thatx ≠ y, then actually x ≠ y. Reflection
Questions Question 2 CAN I ACHIEVE IMMORTALITY THROUGH TECHNOLOGY? Reflection Questions Question 3 WHAT IF I CAN’T TELL IF I’M IN THE MATRIX? Reflection Questions Question 4 WHAT IS IT TO ACT WITH FREE WILL? Reflection
Questions Question 5 WHAT IS GOD LIKE? I. Knowledge of God’s Nature II. God, Time, and Existence III. Omnipotence IV. Omniscience V. Perfect Goodness Reflection
Questions Question 6 WHAT IS TIME? Question 1: Is time real? Question 2: Are past and future times as real as the present time? Consideration 1: Cross- time causal relations. Consideration 2: Thank goodness that’s over. Consideration 3: From relativity. Consideration 4: Th ings change. Question 3: Does time really pass? Question 4: Is time essentially relatedto change? Taking Stock Reflection
Questions Question 7 IS TRUTH RELATIVE? What kinds of things are true? a) Relativism and its Motivations b) Arguments Against Relativism About Truth c) Relativism: Concluding Thoughts Reflection
Questions Question 8 DOES PERCEPTION GIVE US KNOWLEDGE OF THE EXTERNAL WORLD? Reflection
Questions Question 9 WHAT ARE FICTIONAL CHARACTERS? Views on which fictional objects exist Views on which fictional objects don’t exist Evaluation of the Views Reflection
Questions WHERE TO GO NEXT? GLOSSARY BIBLIOGRAPHY INDEX