Introduction to Philosophy: Deducing Answers
Edition: 2
Copyright: 2025
Pages: 598
Choose Your Format
Website
$140.00
Introduction to Philosophy: Deducing Answers offers students a wide range of challenging readings from both historical and contemporary philosophy, while providing extensive commentary by the author geared to engage students in the deep underlying questions behind the text. The book provides a careful and precise introduction to philosophy focused on extracting arguments, at the same time as providing an anthology of background readings that an instructor can assign for students to recognize the sources of ideas. A detailed study guide is provided at the end of each chapter.
Topics covered include:
- Introductory Logic, Validity and Soundness, and Argumentation
- Historical Readings in Epitemology and Metaphysics from Plato, Descartes, Locke, Hume, and others
- Contemporary Readings in the Philosophy of Mind, Personal Identity, Philosophy of Religion, and Free Will
- An overview of Ethical Theory, designed to encourage future study in Ethics
Introductory Unit
0.1 What Is Philosophy?
0.2 Why Study Philosophy?
0.3 Reasons and Causes
0.4 Constructing Valid Arguments
0.5 Extracting, Explaining, and Evaluating an Argument
0.6 A Guide to Writing Definitions in Philosophy
Unit 1-Truth and Logic
1.0 Overview: Truth and Logic
1.1 Notes on Unit 1 Source Texts
1.2 A Brief History of Western Thought
1.3 A Guide to Philosophical Argument
1.4 Plato, Apology
1.5 Plato, "The Cave"
1.6 John Locke, "Enthusiasm"
1.7 Unit 1 Study Guide
Unit 2-Knowledge
2.0 Overview: Knowledge
2.1 What Can Be Known?
2.2 Plato, Meno, selections
2.3 Rene Descartes, The Meditations
2.4 John Locke, "Against Innate Ideas"
2.5 David Hume, "The Origins of Ideas"
2.6 George Berkeley, "The First Dialogue"
2.7 Immanuel Kant, The Critique of Pure Reason, selections
2.8 Unit 2 Study Guide
Unit 3-Philosophy of Mind
3.0 Overview: Philosophy of Mind
3.1 What Am I?
3.2 Paul Churchland, Matter and Consciousness, selections
3.3 Frank Jackson, "What Mary Didn't Know"
3.4 David Chalmers, The Conscious Mind, selections
3.5 Thomas Nagel, "What Is It Like to Be a Bat?"
3.6 Alyssa Ney, "Defining Physicalism"
3.7 Aristotle, "The Four Causes"
3.8 Unit 3 Study Guide
Unit 4-Personal Identity
4.0 Overview: Personal Identity
4.1 Who Am I?
4.2 John Locke, "On Identity and Diversity"
4.3 Derek Parfit and Godfrey Vesey, "Personal Identity"
4.4 David Hume, "Personal Identity"
4.5 Charles Daniels, "Personal Identity", selections
4.6 Plato, Phaedo, selections
4.7 Unit 4 Study Guide
Unit 5-Philosophy of Religion
5.0 Overview: Philosophy of Religion
5.1 Does God Exist?
5.2 Anselm, "The Ontological Argument"
5.3 Aquinas, "The Five Ways"
5.4 Craig, "Professor Mackie and the Kalam Cosmological Argument", selections
5.5 Paley, "The Watchmaker"
5.6 Hume, "The Teleological Argument Critiqued"
5.7 C.D. Broad, "Religious Experience"
5.8 Fyodor Dostoevsky, "Can Evil ever Be Justified?"
5.9 B.C. Johnson, "God and the Problem of Evil"
5.10 Richard Swinburne, "The Problem of Evil"
5.11 Unit 5 Study Guide
Unit 6-Ethics and Free Will
6.0 Overview: Ethics and Free Will
6.1 What Is My Responsibility?
6.2 Immanuel Kant, Fundamental Principles for the Metaphysics of Morals, selections
6.3 J.S. Mill, Utilitarianism, selections
6.4 Aristotle, The Nicomachean Ethics, selections
6.5 Baron d'Holbach, "Determinism"
6.6 Richard Taylor, "Libertarianism"
6.7 W.T. Stace, "Compatibilism"
6.8 Judith Thomson, "The Trolley Problem"
6.9 Unit 6 Study Guide
Final Unit
7. Philosophy and the Meaning of Life
Appendix
A.1 Writing a Philosophy Paper
A.2 Example Term Paper
B.1 Writing a Final Exam
B.2 Example Final Exam Essay
C.1 How to Cite your Sources
D.1 Lecture Participation Forms
Jeffrey Watson is a Lecturer in Philosophy at Arizona State University.