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Voices of Wisdom With Infotrak: A Multicultural Philosophy Reader

Gary E. Kessler

Kessler, Gary E.;

Voices of Wisdom With Infotrak: A Multicultural Philosophy Reader (4th edition)

Wadsworth Pub Co, 2000-07 (Paperback, 637 pages $69.48)

ISBN 9780534535728 / 0534535720

topics: |  philosophy | china | india

Contents


Preface	xi
PART I	INTRODUCTION	1

Chapter 1	What Is Philosophy?	2
1.1	A Definition of Philosophy	2
1.2	What Is Rationality?	7
1.3	Does Philosophy Bake Bread?	12
	BERTRAND RUSSELL: On the Value of Philosophy	14

Chapter 2	How Should We Read Philosophy?	19
2.1	Getting Started	19
2.2	The Critical Precis	21
2.3	A Test Case	23
	LAWRENCE A. BLUM: Antiracism, Multiculturalism, and Interracial
		Community: Three Educational Values for a Multicultural Society	25

Part II	Ethics	33

Chapter 3	How Should One Live?	34
3.1	Introduction	34
3.2	The Buddha and the Middle Way	36
	THE BUDDHA: The Four Noble Truths	37
	WALPOLA RAHULA: The Fourth Noble Truth	39
3.3	Confucius and the Life of Virtue	43
	D. C. LAU: Confucius and Moral Character	45
3.4	Socrates on Living the Examined Life	51
	PLATO: The Apology	53
3.5	Aristotle on Happiness and the Life of Moderation	67
	ARISTOTLE: Nicomachean Ethics	69
3.6	The Song of God	77
	BHAGAVAD-GITA	80
3.7.	Does Life Have Meaning?	86
	DANIEL KOLAK AND RAYMOND MARTIN: Meaning	87

Chapter 4	How Can I Know What Is Right?	93
4.1	Introduction	93
4.2	Kant and the Categorical Imperative	94
	IMMANUEL KANT: Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals	96
4.3	Utilitarianism	101
	JEREMY BENTHAM: Of the Principle of Utility	103
4.4	Revaluation of Values	107
	FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE: Beyond Good and Evil	109
	FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE: On the Genealogy of Morality	114
4.5	Toward a Feminist Ethic	119
	RITA MANNING: Just Caring	121
4.6	Some African and Western Conceptions of Morals	137
	KWASI WIREDU: Custom and Morality	139

Chapter 5	What Makes a Society Just?	152
5.1	Introduction	152
5.2	God and Justice	153
	MAJID KHADDURI: The Islamic Conception of Justice	156
5.3	Capitalism and Exploitation	163
	KARL MARX AND FRIEDRICH ENGELS: Manifesto of the Communist Party	165
5.4	The Original Position	174
	JOHN RAWLS: A Theory of Justice	175
5.5	Our Obligation to the State	187
	PLATO: Crito	188
5.6	Civil Disobedience	195
	MARTIN LUTHER KING, Jr.: Letter from Birmingham Jail	197
5.7	Sovereignty and Justice: An Indigenist's Viewpoint	207
	WARD CHURCHILL: Perversions of Justice	208

Chapter 6	Is Justice for All Possible?	219
6.1	Introduction	219
6.2	Universal Human Rights	220
	RENE TRUJILLO: Human Rights in the "Age of Discovery"	221
	United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights	223
6.3	Are Human Rights Universal?	227
	XIAORONG LI: "Asian Values" and the Universality of Human Rights	228
6.4	Racism and Feminism	234
	BELL HOOKS: Ain't I a Woman	235
6.5	The Affirmative Action Debate	244
	WARREN KESSLER: Is Affirmative Action a Second Wrong?	245
	SHELBY STEELE: The Price of Preference	250
6.6	The Animal Rights Debate	256
	TOM REGAN: The Case for Animal Rights	257
	MARY ANNE WARREN: Difficulties with the Strong Animal Rights Position	264
6.7	Environmental Ethics	271
	J. BAIRD CALLICOTT AND THOMAS W. OVERHOLT: Traditional American Indian
		Attitudes Toward Nature	272
6.8	Development, Environment, and the Third World	289
	RAMACHANDRA GUHA: Radical American Environmentalism and Wilderness
		Preservation	290
6.9	International Business Ethics	298
	DAVID M. ADAMS AND EDWARD W. MAINE: International Competition and
		Corporate Social Responsibility	300

Part III	Epistemology	307
Chapter 7	Is Knowledge Possible?	308
7.1	Introduction	308
7.2	Sufi Mysticism	310
	AL-GHAZALI: Deliverance from Error	312
7.3	Is Certainty Possible?	319
	RENE DESCARTES: Meditations I and II	322
7.4	Empiricism and Limited Skepticism	328
	DAVID HUME: An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding	331
7.5	Should We Believe Beyond the Evidence?	337
	WILLIAM K. CLIFFORD: The Ethics of Belief	339
	WILLIAM JAMES: The Will to Believe	341
7.6	Classical Indian Epistemology	346
	D. M. DATTA: Knowledge and the Methods of Knowledge	348
7.7	Afrocentric Feminist Epistemology	352
	PATRICIA HILL COLLINS: Toward an Afrocentric Feminist Epistemology	354

Chapter 8	Does Science Tell Us the Whole Truth and Nothing But the Truth?	363
8.1	Introduction	363
8.2	Science and Common Sense	364
	ERNEST NAGEL: The Structure of Science	365
8.3	Scientific Revolutions	374
	THOMAS S. KUHN: The Structure of Scientific Revolutions	376
8.4	Feminism and Science	387
	ELIZABETH ANDERSON: Knowledge, Human Interests, and Objectivity in
		Feminist Epistemology	389
8.5	Japanese Views of Western Science	401
	THOMAS P. KASULIS: Sushi, Science, and Spirituality	403
8.6	Science and Traditional Thought	416
	KWAME ANTHONY APPIAH: Old Gods, New Worlds	418

Part IV	Metaphysics	427

Chapter 9	What Is Really Real?	428
9.1	Introduction	428
9.2	The Dao	430
	LAOZI: Dao De Jing	433
9.3	Platonic Dualism	440
	PLATO: The Republic	443
9.4	Nondualism	450
	SHANKARA: The Crest-Jewel of Discrimination	451
9.5	Subjective Idealism	459
	GEORGE BERKELEY: The Principles of Human Knowledge	461
9.6	Materialism	466
	PAUL M. CHURCHLAND: Eliminative Materialism	467
9.7	Pre-Columbian Cosmologies	475
	JORGE VALADEZ: Pre-Columbian Philosophical Perspectives	477
9.8	So What Is Real?	483
	JORGE LUIS BORGES: The Circular Ruins	484

Chapter 10	Are We Free or Determined?	488
10.1	Introduction	488
10.2	We Are Determined	489
	ROBERT BLATCHFORD: Not Guilty	490
10.3	We Are Free	495
	JEAN-PAUL SARTRE: Existentialism	496
10.4	Karma and Freedom	504
	SARVEPALLI RADHAKRISHNAN: Karma and Freedom	506
10.5	We Are Both Free and Determined	509
	RAYMOND M. SMULLYAN: Is God a Taoist?	511

Chapter 11	What Am I? Who Am I?	519
11.1	Introduction	519
11.2	You Are Your Mind	522
	RENE DESCARTES: Meditation VI	524
	RENE DESCARTES AND PRINCESS ELISABETH: Correspondence with Princess
		Elisabeth, Concerning the Union of Mind and Body	530

11.3	You Are an Embodied Self	534
	EVE BROWNING COLE: Body, Mind, and Gender	535
11.4	There Is No Self	544
	False Doctrines About the Soul and the Simile of the Chariot	547
11.5	What Is Consciousness?	549
	COLIN MCGINN: Can We Ever Understand Consciousness?	551
11.6	How Much Can I Change and Still Be Me?	560
	JEFFRY OLEN: Personal Identity and Life After Death	561
11.7	Social Identity	571
	GLORIA ANZALDUA: How to Tame a Wild Tongue	572

Chapter 12	Is There a God?	579
12.1	Introduction	579
12.2	Cosmological Arguments	580
	MAIMONIDES: Guide for the Perplexed	583
	ST. THOMAS AQUINAS: Summa Theologica	589
12.3	The Origin of the Universe According to Modern Science	596
	VICTOR WEISSKOPF: The Origin of the Universe	592
12.4	Creationism Vs. Evolution	601
	RICHARD DAWKINS: The Blind Watchmaker	603
12.5	An Ontological Argument for God's Existence	613
	ST. ANSELM AND GAUNILO: A Debate	615
12.6	The Gender of God	617
	MARY DALY: Beyond God the Father	619
Appendix I	Glossary	627
Appendix II	Pronunciation Guide	636

"Does philosophy bake bread?" asks the introduction to this reader first
published in 1992, which contains Bertrand Russell's 1912 essay on the
value of philosophy. A dozen chapters feature lovers of wisdom from the
classical Greek, Christian, and Jewish philosophers to the Buddha,
scientist Richard q7: contents excerpts new matl in 5th edn


amitabha mukerjee (mukerjee [at-symbol] gmail.com) 2009 Aug 24