Includes bibliographical references (pages 181-187) and index.
Contents:
Behavior vs. action. A continental tour of philosophy -- How to use this book -- How to read philosophical texts -- 12. METAPHYSICS WHAT IS REAL? PLATO AND DESCARTES -- 1. Plato: The Hunt for the Real -- The aim of philosophy -- Being and appearance and the problem of difference -- The Vermeer forgeries -- The problem of identity and difference -- How to give an account of the real -- Only forms are real -- The hunt for a slippery beast -- 2. Plato: The Net of Language -- The problem of being -- The problem of language -- Imitation and knowledge -- The hunt for being: four views -- The five kinds -- 3. Descartes: Mind and Reality -- The Meditations are spiritual exercises -- The substance of reality -- Meditation 1 Doubting Reality -- Meditation 2 The reality of me -- Meditation 3 The reality of God -- 4. Descartes: Truth and World -- Meditation 4 Judgment and truth -- Meditation 5 God, things, and ideas -- Meditation 6 The reality of the world -- pt. II EPISTEMOLOGY HOW CAN WE KNOW WHAT IS REAL? HUME AND KANT -- 5. Hume: The Mind is an Assemblage of Ideas -- A conceptual revolution -- Hume's clash with rationalism -- A new kind of philosophy -- Hume's atomism and associationism -- The Cartesian ego vs the assemblage of the self -- Innate ideas vs copies of impressions -- Knowledge vs belief -- The fragile connection between cause and effect -- 6. Hume: Skepticism and Truth -- Probability and belief -- The illusion of connection -- Are we free or determined? -- Should we believe in God or miracles? -- Skepticism as philosophical therapy -- Hume and the idea of race -- 7. Kant: The Architecture of the Mind -- Hume's problem and Kant's awakening -- Critical philosophy -- Knowledge and judgments -- Mathematical judgments are synthetic a priori judgments -- Natural Science judgments are synthetic a priori judgments -- 8. Kant: Virtual Reality and the Limits of Reason -- The problem of reality and appearances -- The threefold synthesis -- Reason and the three dialectical illusions -- Metaphysical judgments are synthetic a priori -- pt. III ETHICS HOW MIGHT WE LIVE AUTHENTICALLY? NIETZSCHE AND ARENDT -- 9. Nietzsche: Become Who You Are! -- How to know yourself -- Three exemplary qualities of an authentic life -- The dangers of an authentic life -- 10. Nietzsche: The Creative Life -- Modern culture is dehumanizing -- How to become a child -- Modern culture is egoistic and tyrannical -- Three images of creative spirits -- The meaning of life is to contribute to culture -- The two sacraments of culture -- Beware of the four enemies of culture -- 11. Arendt: Think What We Are Doing! -- The prejudice of philosophy and worldlessness -- The recovery of the public world -- The two ways of life -- The pre-philosophic view of the active life -- The philosophical view: political action as work -- The modern view: political action as labor -- 12. Arendt: The Political Life -- Labor is natural and necessary -- Labor is not work -- Work makes the world -- Action reveals who we are -- Behavior vs. action.
Summary:
What is real? How can we know what is real? How might we live authentically These 3 fundamental questions cover the traditional and interrelated philosophical branches of metaphysics, epistemology, and ethics. Here they are explored through readings of 3 pairs of authors and texts: Plato's Sophist and René Descartes's Meditations on First Philosophy (What is real?), David Hume's An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding and Immanuel Kant's Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics (How can we know what is real?), and Friedrich Nietzsche's essay "Schopenhauer as Educator" and Hannah Arendt's essay "Labor, Work, and Action." (How might we live authentically?). Each chapter introduces basic philosophical problems, concepts and methods of philosophical inquiry, orienting readers to key philosophical texts and making those texts transparent, so that they can answer the three questions for themselves. $c --From publisher's description.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.