"A Made Simple book."

Includes bibliographical references and index.

What is philosophy? -- Ethics. The 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 ; The philosophy of Spinoza ; Utilitarianism : Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill ; Kantian ethics ; Modern ethics ; Definition of "modern ethics" ; Subjectivism and objectivism (moral realism) ; Naturalism, nonnaturalism, and emotivism ; Motivist, consequence, and deontological theories ; Analysis of subjectivism and objectivism ; Applied ethics -- Political philosophy. Definition of "political philosophy" ; Plato's political philosophy ; The political philosophy of Thomas Hobbes ; The political philosophy of John Locke ; The political philosophy of John Stuart Mill ; The political philosophy of Karl Marx ; Contemporary political theory -- 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 systems ; Some criticisms of metaphysics -- 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 -- The theory of knowledge. Ren�e 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 -- Logic. The definition of "logic" ; Deductive and inductive logic ; Deductive logic : the syllogism ; The terminology of logic ; Affirmative and negative propositions ; Universal, particular, and singular propositions ; The four standard propositions of logic ; The 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 -- Contemporary philosophy. Pragmatism ; The pluralistic universe ; Instrumentalism ; Some criticisms of pragmatism ; Philosophical analysis ; Logical atomism : the philosophy of Bertrand Russell and the early Ludwig Wittgenstein ; Logical positivism : Schlick, Carnap, Ayer ; Ordinary language philosophy : Moore and the later Wittgenstein ; Existentialism and phenomenology ; S�ren Kierkegaard ; Contemporary existentialism ; Deconstructionism ; Rorty.

Written with authority and scholarship, this lively and comprehensible text includes all the important recent developments in philosophy.