MINDSCAPES: A Short Introduction to Philosophy

Who Can Benefit from Reading This Book? 

I. ARE YOU A PHILOSOPHER? 
1. Are You a Philosopher? 
2. Death Cult or Path to True Salvation? 
3. Existing Narratives 
4. Your Amazing Dream 
5. Is Kelly in Love with Brandon? 
6. God Wanted Me to Steal the Money 
7. What Makes Philosophy . . . Possible 
8. Stuck in Neutral 
9. Loneliness 
10. Best Friends Forever? 
11. The Ring of Gyges 
12. Kleptocracy, Plutocracy, Idiocracy? 

II. WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?
1. Philosophy Is Looking Up at the Stars and Wondering 
2. Philosophy Is Looking at the World Through the Eyes of a Child at Play 
3. Philosophy Is an Interrogative Way of Being in the World 
4. Philosophy, as the Parent of All Domains of Reflective Thought, Is Tasked with Both Establishing the Groundwork for and Interrogating the Pre-Suppositional Framework of All Disciplines—the Humanities, Certainly, but also the Sciences—Social and Otherwise 
5. Philosophy Is Exercising a Fully Operational BS Detector 
6. Philosophy Is a Way of Approaching the World with Respect and Reverence, with a Bow that Extends to All Creation 
7. Philosophy Is a Discipline that Seeks Truth, but Recognizes that a Pre-established Truth Relegates Truth to the Narrow Confines within which It Has Been Defined 
8. Philosophy Is a Way to Get to Know Yourself, to Get to Know What You Think and How You Feel 
9. More Broadly, Philosophy Is the Process of Fumbling to Articulate Human Experience in Both Individual and Universal Terms 
10. Philosophy Recognizes the Need for and Limits of Introspective Self-Awareness 
11. Philosophy Is the Process Whereby We Attempt to Make Rational, Linguistic, Conceptual, or Logical Sense of the World 
12. Philosophy Is a Collaborative Enterprise Reaching Back to Antiquity, Ideally Comprising All of Humanity, and Projecting Itself into the Future as a Means of Understanding Ourselves, the Cosmos, and Our Place in It 
13. Philosophy Is the Application of the Intellect in an Attempt to Solve Pressing and Perennial Existential Issues 
14. Philosophy Is the Process Whereby One Acknowledges that Rational, Linguistic, Conceptual, and Logical Categories Are Variations on the Theme of the Procrustean Bed 
15. Philosophy Is a Creative Endeavor through Which You Make Contact with Your True Humanity, Your Core (transhistorico-socio-cultural) Self, Your Raison d’être 
16. The Realm of Ethics Is Central to the Discipline of Philosophy. When Functioning in the Domain of Ethics, We Operate in the Realm of What Should Be the Case, not What Is the Case 
17. Philosophy Teaches Respect and Empathy for Others 
18. A Philosophical Approach to Living can Generate True Appreciation for Nature 
19. Philosophy Is the Practice of Preparation for Death 
20. Philosophy Is the Practice of Transcendence 
21. The Practice of Philosophy Can Help You Grapple with Freedom, Anxiety, and Dread 
22. Philosophy Is a Practice that Seeks to Wrestle with the Guilt that Is an Indelible Aspect of the Human Condition 
23. Philosophy Can Be Used Addictively to Mask the Pain of Living 
24. Philosophy Is a Way of Listening 
25. Philosophy Is a Way of Dealing with the Fear That Is an Indelible Aspect of Everyday Living 
26. Philosophy Can Satiate—at Least in Some Measure—Your Hunger for Knowledge 
27. Philosophical Reflection Is a Form of Therapy. Philosophical Counseling 
28. Philosophy Can Function as a Surrogate Religion 
29. Philosophy Is a Discipline by Means of which We Are Able to Grapple with the Experience of Free Will 
30. Philosophy Is the Practice of Love 

III. ESSAYS 101
1. On Reading Philosophical Texts 
2. What Is Philosophy and Why Does Anybody Care? 
3. On the Nature and Existence of God 
4. What Do I Know? 
5. What Is Love? 
6. Why Read Plato Today? 
7. Commentary on Euthyphro 
8. Post-Industrial, Post-Apocalyptic, Post-Human: Ruin Porn 

IV. FUTURE READING, THINKING, AND RESEARCH 
1. SIGNIFICANT WEBSITES FOR THE EDUCATED INDEPENDENT THINKER 
2. ESSENTIAL PHILOSOPHICAL AND CLASSICAL READING (Short list) 
3. OTHER ESSENTIAL READING (Short list) 

V. BIBLIOGRAPHY