Did it ever cross your mind that all introduction to philosophy textbooks are the same? Well, here's the antidote to that way of thinking. PHILOSOPHY: A NEW INTRODUCTION is a wide-ranging exploration of numerous fields of philosophy. All of the standard fields are here: metaphysics, epistemology, philosophy of religion, and ethics. What isn't so standard is the inclusion of fields such as Political Theory, Aesthetics, Feminism, and the Philosophy of Culture--all via a provocative set of philosophers and readings rarely, if ever, found in an introductory textbook. Featuring editors well-versed in Historical, Analytic, Pragmatic, and Continental schools of thought, this book offers as diverse a set of perspectives and genres of thought as you're ever apt to find in an introductory text. Born out of the contention that students and scholars alike come to philosophy with a desire to study a wider array of interests and concerns than many traditional textbooks would admit, PHILOSOPHY: A NEW INTRODUCTION seeks to expand the limits of the introductory canon and to give introductory students a much more accurate glimpse into the expansive worlds of inquiry in which contemporary philosophers actually dwell.

Table of Contents:
Preface. AN INTRODUCTION TO THE GREAT CONVERSATION OF PHILOSOPHY. Philosophy and its Problems. A Meta-Narrative of the History of Philosophy. General Bibliography for Readers. 1. THE ANCIENT GREEK ORIGINS OF WESTERN PHILOSOPHY. Introduction: The Birth of Philosophy in Ancient Greece. An Overview of the Presocratics. Thales and the Milesians Contemplate the Cosmos. The Great Speculators on Being and Becoming: Heraclitus, Parmenides and Empedocles. The Philosopher as Pesky Gadfly: Socrates' Apology. Plato, THE APOLOGY. Plato's Republic. Plato, THE REPUBLIC, Part 1; Selections from Part 2; Selections from Part 3. Aristotle. Aristotle, ON VIRTUE AND THE ETHICAL MEAN. THE STATE'S ORIGIN IN THE HOUSEHOLD. FORMS OF THE STATE. THE BEST STATE. Study Questions. Bibliography. Internet Resources. 2. THE PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION. An Introduction to the Philosophy of Religion. Medieval Proofs for the Existence of God. Anselm, GOD TRULY IS. Rene Descartes, THE ONTOLOGICAL ARGUMENT REVISITED. Thomas Aquinas, REASONS IN PROOF OF THE EXISTENCE OF GOD. Soren Kierkegaard on the Christian Church. Soren Kierkegaard, ATTACK UPON "CHRISTENDOM". David Hume's Skeptical Attacks on Religion. David Hume, DIALOGUES CONCERNING NATURAL RELIGION. Friedrich Nietzsche and the Death of God. NIETZSCHE ON GOD. NIETZSCHE ON CHRISTIAN BELIEF AND THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. NIETZSCHE ON CHRISTIANITY AS HERD MORALITY. The Problem of Evil. B.C. Johnson, GOD AND THE PROBLEM OF EVIL. John Hick, THE PROBLEM OF EVIL. Contemporary Questions in the Philosophy of Religion. Alvin Plantinga, CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHY AT THE END OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY. Study Questions. Bibliography. 3. MIND, BODY, AND SELF. Part 1: The Mind/Body Problem. The Mysterious Case of the Mind and the Body. Descartes' Dualism. Rene Descartes, MEDITATIONS. Ryle on the Ghost in the Machine. Gilbert Ryle, THE GHOST IN THE MACHINE. The Problem of Consciousness. Thomas Nagel, WHAT IS IT LIKE TO BE A BAT?. Paul M. Churchland, ELIMINATIVE MATERIALISM. Part II: The Self Five Theories of the Self. Empiricism: The Self as a Bundle of Perceptions. David Hume, OF PERSONAL IDENTITY. Romanticism: The Self as an Active, Creative Energy. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, THE SORROWS OF YOUNG WERTHER. Percy Bysshe Shelley, A DEFENSE OF POETRY. Existentialism: The Absurdly Free Self. Jose Ortega y Gasset, MAN HAS NO NATURE. Albert Camus, THE MYTH OF SISYPHUS. Jean-Paul Sartre, EXISTENTIALISM IS A HUMANISM. Sociological Theory: The Socially Constructed Self. Erving Goffman, THE PRESENTATION OF SELF IN EVERYDAY LIFE. Study Questions. Bibliography. Internet Resources. 4. KNOWING OUR WORLD. Knowledge and the Human Condition. John Locke's Blank Slate. John Locke, AN ESSAY CONCERNING HUMAN UNDERSTANDING. David Hume's Skeptical Empiricism. David Hume, AN ENQUIRY CONCERNING HUMAN UNDERSTANDING. William James's Pragmatic View of Truth. William James, PRAGMATISM'S CONCEPTION OF TRUTH. A. J. Ayer and Positivism. A. J. Ayer, THE ELIMINATION OF METAPHYSICS. R. G. Collingwood's Idea of History. R. G. Collingwood, HUMAN NATURE AND HUMAN HISTORY. Thomas Kuhn on the Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Thomas Kuhn, THE STRUCTURE OF SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTIONS. Richard Rorty on Truth: Deconstructing Knowledge. Richard Rorty, SCIENCE AS SOLIDARITY. Sandra Harding and the Case of Feminist Epistemology: Just Whose "Knowledge" Are We Talking About?. Sandra Harding, IS THERE A FEMINIST METHODOLOGY?. Study Questions. Bibliography. 5. ETHICS. Ethics: An Introduction. Adam Smith and Moral Sense Theory. Adam Smith, THE THEORY OF MORAL SENTIMENTS. John Stuart Mill and Utilitarianism. John Stuart Mill, WHAT IS UTILITARIANISM?. Immanuel Kant and Deontology. Immanuel Kant, GROUNDWORK OF THE METAPHYSICS OF MORALS. Friedrich Nietzsche: Beyond God, Good, and Evil . NIETZSCHE'S CRITIQUE OF CONVENTIONAL MORALITY. THE GENEALOGY OF MASTER AND SLAVE MORALITY. Justin Oakley: A Virtue Ethics Approach. Justin Oakley, A VIRTUE ETHICS APPROACH. Rita Manning and Feminist Care Ethics. Rita Manning, A CARE APPROACH. Study Questions. Bibliography. 6. POLITICAL THEORY. Introduction: The Basic Concepts and History of Political Theory. The Problem of Power 1: Machiavelli's Prince. Niccolo Machiavelli, THE PRINCE. The Problem of Power 2: The State of Nature and the Social Contract. Thomas Hobbes, LEVIATHAN. John Locke, THE SECOND TREATISE OF GOVERNMENT. The Problem of Power 3: Historical Materialism and The Class Struggle. Karl Marx, PREFACE TO A CONTRIBUTION TO A CRITIQUE OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. THESES ON FEUERBACH. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engles, MANIFESTO OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY. The Liberal Debate on Freedom and Justice. John Stuart Mill, ON LIBERTY. Mary Wollstonecraft, A VINDICATION OF THE RIGHTS OF WOMAN. John Rawls, A THEORY OF JUSTICE. Douglas Mann and Malcolm Murray, A DIALOGUE CONCERING LIBERTY AND COMMUNITY. Francis Fukuyama, THE END OF HISTORY. Study Questions. Bibliography. 7. FEMINIST THEORY. Sex, Gender, and the History of Feminist Theory. The Origins of Modern Liberal Feminism. Betty Friedan, THE PROBLEM THAT HAS NO NAME. Radical and Socialist Feminism. Shulamith Firestone, THE DIALECTIC OF SEX. THE ULTIMATE REVOLUTION. Marilyn Frye, OPPRESSION. Sexual Difference and the Social Construction of Gender. Carol Gilligan, IN A DIFFERENT VOICE. Feminism and Race. Bell hooks, TALKING BACK. The Revolt against the Second Wave. Naomi Wolf, FIRE WITH FIRE. Camille Paglia, NO LAW IN THE ARENA. Study Questions. Bibliography. 8. AESTHETICS. The Philosophy of Art and Beauty. Edmund Burke on the Sublime and the Beautiful. Edmund Burke, A PHILOSOPHICAL ENQUIRY INTO THE ORIGIN OF OUR IDEAS OF THE SUBLIME AND THE BEAUTIFUL. The Romantic View of Art. William Blake, THE TYGER. JERUSALEM. William Wordsworth, THE TABLES TURNED. ODE: INTIMATIONS OF IMMORTALITY. PREFACE TO LYRICAL BALLADS. Percy Bysshe Shelley, A DEFENSE OF POETRY. Thomas de Quincey, OPIUM DREAM. Tolstoy on the Religious Function of Art. Leo Tolstoy, WHAT IS ART?. Walter Benjamin on the Work of Art in the Mechanical Age. Walter Benjamin, THE WORK OF ART IN THE AGE OF MECHANICAL REPRODUCTION. Herbert Marcuse on Art as Negation. Herbert Marcuse, THE AESTHETIC DIMENSION. Naomi Wolf on the Beauty Myth. Naomi Wolf, THE BEAUTY MYTH. Arthur Danto on Censoring and Subsidizing the Arts. Arthur Danto, CENSORSHIP AND SUBSIDY IN THE ARTS. Harold Bloom on the Western Canon. Harold Bloom, AN ELEGY FOR THE CANON. Study Questions. Bibliography. 9. THE PHILOSOPHY OF CULTURE. Introduction: What is Culture?. Can We Philosophize about It?. Rotten at the Core: Narcissism and Malaise. Christopher Lasch, THE CULTURE OF NARCISSISM. Charles Taylor, THE MALAISE OF MODERNITY. The Unabomber aka Theodore Kaczynski, INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY AND ITS FUTURE. Our Technological Culture. Emilio Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, THE FUTURIST MANIFESTO. Marshall McLuhan, UNDERSTANDING MEDIA. Mark Kingwell, FAST FORWARD: OUR HIGH-SPEED CHASE TO NOWHERE. Heidi Nelson Hochenedel, LOVE AND WAR IN THE GLOBAL VILLAGE: A TECHNO-PRAGMATIC PERSPECTIVE. Postmodern Culture. Jean-Francois Lyotard, THE POSTMODERN CONDITION. Jean Baudrillard, SIMULACRA AND SCIENCE FICTION. Unconsciousness and Socratic Reason. John Ralston Saul, THE UNCONSCIOUS CIVILIZATION. Study Questions. Bibliography. Index.