Philosophy: Made Simple, Second Edition provides information pertinent to the fundamental philosophical problems. This book discusses the developments in philosophy.
Organized into seven chapters, this edition begins with an overview of the usage of philosophy in the interpretation or evaluation of what is important or meaningful in life. This text then examines the intimate connections of political philosophy with ethics and with the social sciences. Other chapters consider some of the fundamental metaphysical problems that have persisted throughout the ages and examine the most popular metaphysical systems in the history of philosophy. This book discusses as well the aspect of philosophy that examines the intellectual questions that arise in considering religious views. The final chapter examines some of the main movements in modern philosophy.
This book is a valuable resource for teachers as well as undergraduate and graduate students. Readers who are seeking the simplest introductions to philosophy will also find this book useful.

Contenu

Preface
Introduction
1 Ethics
Definition of "ethics"
Ethics originates in everyday life
Classification of ethical theories
Classical theories
Platonism
Aristotle: the doctrine of the mean
Hedonism: the philosophy of Epicurus
Cynicism
Stoicism
Christian ethics
Philosophy of Spinoza
Utilitarianism: Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill
Kantian ethics
Modern ethics
Subjectivism and objectivism
Naturalism, non-naturalism and emotivism
Motivist, deontological and consequence theories
Analysis of subjectivism and objectivism
Applied ethics
Suggested further reading
2 Political philosophy
Definition of "political philosophy"
Plato"s political philosophy
Political philosophy of Thomas Hobbes
Political philosophy of John Locke
Political philosophy of John Stuart Mill
Political philosophy of Karl Marx
Contemporary political theory
Suggested further reading
3 Metaphysics
What is metaphysics?
Pluralism and monism
Scope of metaphysics
The problem of permanence and change
The mind-body problem
The problem of free will and determinism
Types of metaphysical system
Some criticisms of metaphysics
Suggested further reading
4 Philosophy of religion
Philosophy and religion
The problem of religious knowledge
Natural and revealed religion
Hume"s argument
The cosmological (or causal) argument
The ontological argument
Conclusions
The problem of the nature of God
Suggested further reading
5 The theory of knowledge
Rene Descartes: the problem posed
The problem of knowledge: a closer look
Ancient Greek philosophy
Plato
Socrates"s theory of universal forms
The philosopher-king
Descartes"s theory of knowledge
The argument for objective reality
Rationalist theories of knowledge
Empirical philosophy
John Locke
Bishop George Berkeley
David Hume
Summary of the empirical theory of knowledge
The empiricist critique of rationalism
Summary
6 Logic
Definition of "logic"
Deductive and inductive logic
Deductive logic: the syllogism
Terminology of logic
Affirmative and negative propositions
Universal, particular and singular propositions
The four standard propositions of logic
Distribution of terms
Middle, major and minor terms
Rules for determining validity and invalidity
Translating ordinary into logical sentences
Equivalent sentences
Obversion
Conversion
Contraposition
Fallacies
Logic, semiotics and semantics
Summary
Answers to exercises
Suggested further reading
7 Contemporary philosophy
Pragmatism
The pluralistic universe
Instrumentalism
Some criticisms of pragmatism
Philosophical analysis
Logical atomism: the philosophy of Bertrand Russell and Ludwig Wittgenstein
Logical positivism: Schlick, Carnap, A. J. Ayer
Ordinary language philosophy: Moore and the later Wittgenstein
Existentialism and phenomenology
Soren Kierkegaard
Contemporary existentialism
Suggested further reading
Indexes