Doing Philosophy : An Introduction Through Thought Experiments

Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Preface
Contents
Chapter 1: The Philosophical Enterprise
	Objectives
	Section 1.1 Explaining the Possibility of the Impossible: Philosophical Problems and Theories
		Philosophical Problems
			Metaphysics
			Epistemology
			Axiology
			Logic
		The Stakes in Philosophical Inquiry
			The Mind-Body Problem
			The Problem of Free Will
			The Problem of Personal Identity
			The Problem of Moral Relativism
			The Problem of Evil
			The Problem of Skepticism
		Box: What Is Your Philosophy?
		Necessary and Sufficient Conditions
		Socrates and the Socratic Method
		Box: In the News: The Oracle at Delphi
		Box: Pre-Socratic Philosophers
		Science and the Scientific Method
		Box: The Laws of Thought
		Logical versus Causal Possibility
		Thought Probe: Possibilities
		Summary
		Study Questions
		Discussion Questions
		Internet Inquiries
	Section 1.2 Evidence and Inference: Proving Your Point
		Identifying Arguments
		Deductive Arguments
			Some Valid Argument Forms
			Some Invalid Argument Forms
		Inductive Arguments
			Enumerative Induction
			Analogical Induction
			Hypothetical Induction (Abduction, Inference to the Best Explanation)
		Informal Fallacies
			Unacceptable Premises
			Irrelevant Premises
			Insufficient Premises
		Summary
		Study Questions
		Discussion Questions
		Internet Inquiries
	Section 1.3 The Laboratory of the Mind: Thought Experiments
		Thought Probe: Platonic Humans
		Case Study: Explaining How Moral Abortions Are Possible
		Thought Experiment: Warren’s Moral Space Traveler
		Thought Probe: Nonhuman Persons
		How Are Thought Experiments Possible?
		Criticizing Thought Experiments
		Conceivability and Possibility
		Scientific Thought Experiments
		Thought Experiment: Impossibility of Aristotle’s Theory of Motion
		Summary
		Study Questions
		Discussion Questions
		Thought Experiment: Tooley’s Cat
		Thought Experiment: Thomson’s Diseased Musician
		Internet Inquiries
	Readings
		Bertrand Russell: The Value of Philosophy
			Reading Questions
		Brand Blanshard: The Philosophic Enterprise
			Reading Questions
	Notes
Chapter 2: The Mind-Body Problem
	Thought Experiment: Descartes’ Mechanical Moron
	Thought Experiment: Leibniz’s Mental Mill
	Box: In the News: The Approaching Singularity
		Thought Probe: Artificial Intelligence
	Objectives
	Section 2.1 The Ghost in the Machine: Mind as Soul
		Descartes’ Doubt
		Thought Probe: Are We Living in a Computer Simulation?
		Box: René Descartes: Father of Modern Philosophy
		I Think, Therefore I Am
		The Conceivability Argument
		Box: The Biblical Conception of the Person
		Box: In the News: Descartes and Vivisection
		Thought Probe: Heaven without Bodies
		The Divisibility Argument
		Thought Probe: A Split-Brain Patient of Two Minds
		The Problem of Interaction
		Box: Parallelism: Occasionalism and the Preestablished Harmony
		The Causal Closure of the Physical
		Thought Probe: Mental Relay Stations
		The Problem of Other Minds
		Summary
		Study Questions
		Discussion Questions
		Internet Inquiries
	Section 2.2 You Are What You Eat: Mind as Body
		Empiricism
		Box: David Hume: The Model Philosopher
		Logical Positivism
		Logical Behaviorism
		Box: Ryle’s Category Mistake
			Thought Experiment: Ryle’s University Seeker
		Thought Experiment: The Perfect Pretender
		Thought Experiment: Putnam’s Super-Spartans
		Box: Behavioral Therapy
		Thought Experiment: Chisholm’s Expectant Nephew
		The Identity Theory
			Identity and Indiscernibility
		Box: Do You Use Only 10 Percent of Your Brain?
			Conscious Experience
		Thought Experiment: Nagel’s Bat
		Thought Experiment: Lewis’s Pained Martian
		Thought Experiment: Putnam’s Conscious Computer
		Thought Probe: Speciesism
		Thought Experiment: Searle’s Brain Replacement
		Thought Probe: Neural Prostheses
		Box: In the News: Neural Chips
		Summary
		Study Questions
		Discussion Questions
		Thought Experiment: Your Mother, the Zombie
		Internet Inquiries
	Section 2.3 I, Robot: Mind as Software
		Artificial Intelligence
		Box: Transhumanism and the Promise of Immortality
			Thought Probe: Transhumanism
		Functionalism and Feeling
		Thought Experiment: Lewis’s Pained Madman
		Thought Experiment: Block’s Chinese Nation
		Thought Experiment: Putnam’s Inverted Spectrum
		Box: Inverted Spectra and Pseudonormal Vision
			Thought Probe: Pseudonormal Vision
		The Turing Test
		Thought Experiment: The Imitation Game
		Box: Alan Turing: Father of Code and Computers
		Thought Experiment: Searle’s Chinese Room
		Thought Probe: Total Turing Test
		Intentionality
		Thought Experiment: Block’s Conversational Jukebox
		Thought Probe: Devout Robots
		Summary
		Study Questions
		Discussion Questions
		Internet Inquiries
	Section 2.4 There Ain’t No Such Things as Ghosts: Mind as Myth
		Thought Experiment: Rorty’s Demons
		Folk Psychology
		Subjective Knowledge
		Thought Experiment: Mary, the Color-Challenged Scientist
		Box: In the News: Seeing Color for the First Time
			Thought Probe: Seeing Color
		Thought Experiment: Zombies
		Thought Probe: Zombies
		Summary
		Study Questions
		Discussion Questions
		Internet Inquiries
	Section 2.5 The Whole Is Greater Than the Sum of Its Parts: Mind as Quality
		Primitive Intentionality
		Box: The Double Aspect Theory
		Thought Experiment: Jacquette’s Intentionality Test
		Emergentism
		Box: Integrated Information Theory and the Consciousness Meter
		Panpsychism
		Summary
		Study Questions
		Discussion Questions
		Internet Inquiries
	Readings
		René Descartes: Meditations on First Philosophy: Meditation II
			Reading Questions
		David M. Armstrong: The Mind-Brain Identity Theory
			Reading Questions
		David Chalmers: The Puzzle of Conscious Experience
			Reading Questions
	Notes
Chapter 3: Free Will and Determinism
	Box: In the Courts: The Devil Made Me Do It
	Objectives
	Section 3.1 The Luck of the Draw: Freedom as Chance
		Hard Determinism
		Thought Experiment: Laplace’s Superbeing
		Thought Probe: The Book of Life
		Box: Freedom and Foreknowledge
			Thought Probe: Freedom and Foreknowledge
			The Consequence Argument
		Box: Fatalism versus Causal Determinism
		Thought Probe: A World without Responsibility
			Science and the Nature/Nurture Debate
		Box: Free Will: A Noble Lie?
			Thought Probe: A Noble Lie
		Thought Probe: Behavior Modification
		Box: Is Determinism Self-Refuting?
			Thought Probe: Defending Determinism
		Thought Probe: Genetic Engineering
		Thought Experiment: Gardner’s Random Bombardier
			Common Sense and Causal Determinism
		Thought Probe: Living with Hard Determinism
		Indeterminism
		Box: William James: Physiologist, Psychologist, Philosopher
		Thought Experiment: Taylor’s Unpredictable Arm
		Summary
		Study Questions
		Discussion Questions
		Thought Experiment: Newcomb’s Paradox
		Internet Inquiries
	Section 3.2 The Mother of Invention: Freedom as Necessity
		Thought Experiment: Locke’s Trapped Conversationalist
		Box: Thomas Hobbes: The Great Materialist
		Traditional Compatibilism
			Punishment
			Prepunishment
		Thought Probe: Minority Report
		Thought Experiment: Taylor’s Ingenious Physiologist
		Box: In the News: Guilty Minds and Pre-Crime
			Thought Probe: Guilty Minds and Pre-Crime
		Thought Experiment: Taylor’s Drug Addiction
		Box: In the Courts: Government-Sponsored Brainwashing
			Thought Probe: The Manchurian Candidate
		Thought Probe: Religious Cults
		Hierarchical Compatibilism
		Thought Experiment: Frankfurt’s Unwilling and Wanton Addicts
		Thought Experiment: Frankfurt’s Happy Addict
		Thought Experiment: Frankfurt’s Decision Inducer
		Thought Experiment: Slote’s Hypnotized Patient
		Thought Probe: The Willing Bank Teller
		Summary
		Study Questions
		Discussion Questions
		Internet Inquiries
	Section 3.3 Control Yourself: Freedom as Self-Determination
		The Case for Freedom
			The Argument from Experience
			The Argument from Deliberation
		The Neurophysiological Challenge
		Thought Probe: Is Free Won’t Enough for Free Will?
		Box: Neurophysiological Evidence for Free Will
		Agent Causation
		Box: Sartre and Smullyan on Free Will
			Thought Probe: Self-Consciousness and Free Will
		Thought Probe: Free Androids
		Summary
		Study Questions
		Discussion Questions
		Internet Inquiries
	Readings
		Baron D’Holbach: A Defense of Hard Determinism
			Reading Questions
		Eddy Nahmias: Is Neuroscience the Death of Free Will?
			Reading Questions
		Mark Balaguer: Torn Decisions
			Reading Questions
		Geoffrey Klempner: The Black Box
			Reading Questions
	Notes
Chapter 4: The Problem of Personal Identity
	Box: In the Courts: Kathleen Soliah, a.k.a. Sara Jane Olson
		Thought Probe: A Different Person
	Objectives
	Section 4.1 We Are Such Stuff as Dreams Are Made On: Self as Substance
		Thought Probe: Hobbes’s Ship of Theseus
		Persons
		Thought Probe: Dolphins
		Animalism
		Thought Experiment: The Vegetable Case
		Box: In the News: Eternal Life through Cloning
			Thought Probe: Safe Cloning
		Thought Experiment: Benjamin’s Questionable Cure
		Box: The Definition of Death
			Thought Probe: Permanently Unconscious
		Thought Experiment: Locke’s Tale of the Prince and the Cobbler
		Thought Experiment: The Transplant Case
		Thought Experiment: Unger’s Great Pain
		Box: In the Courts: Multiple-Personality Disorder
			Thought Probe: Multiple Personalities
		The Soul Theory
		Box: St. Augustine: Soul Man
		Thought Experiment: The King of China
		Box: Transubstantiation
		Thought Experiment: Nestor and Thersites
		Thought Experiment: Kant’s Soul Switch
		Thought Probe: Souls in Heaven
		Summary
		Study Questions
		Discussion Questions
		Internet Inquiries
	Section 4.2 Golden Memories: Self as Psyche
		The Memory Theory
		Box: John Locke: The Great Empiricist
		Box: In the Courts: Sleepwalking and Murder
			Thought Probe: Sleepwalking and Murder
		Thought Probe: Memory Damping
			The Inconsistency Objection
		Thought Experiment: Reid’s Tale of the Brave Officer and Senile General
		Thought Probe: Were You Ever a Fetus?
			The Circularity Objection
		Box: In the News: Soul Catcher
			Thought Probe: Soul Catcher
		Thought Probe: Merging of the Minds
			The Insufficiency Objection
		Thought Probe: Should Joshua Blahyi Be Punished?
		The Psychological Continuity Theory
		Thought Probe: Is Darth Vader Anakin Skywalker?
			The Reduplication Problem I: Reincarnation
		Thought Experiment: Williams’s Reincarnation of Guy Fawkes
		Thought Experiment: Williams’s Reduplication Argument
			The Reduplication Problem II: Teletransportation
		Thought Experiment: Parfit’s Transporter Tale
		Box: Quantum Teleportation
			Thought Probe: Transporter Travel
		Thought Probe: Can You Go to Heaven?
		Summary
		Study Questions
		Discussion Questions
		Thought Experiment: Bodily Torture
		Internet Inquiries
	Section 4.3 You Can’t Step into the Same River Twice: Self as Process
		The Brain Theory
		Thought Experiment: Shoemaker’s Brain Transplant
		Box: A Brain Is a Terrible Thing to Waste
			Thought Probe: Body Transplants
		Split Brains
		Box: Alien Hand Syndrome
			Thought Probe: Who Is Behind the Hand?
		Thought Experiment: Parfit’s Division
		Closest Continuer Theories
		Box: Buddhists on the Self and Nirvana
		Thought Probe: Branch Lines
		Identity and What Matters in Survival
		Identity and What Matters in Responsibility
		Thought Experiment: Parfit’s Reformed Nobelist
		Explaining the Self
		Thought Probe: Robert and Frank
		Moral Agents, Narratives, and Persons
		Thought Probe: Being Clive Wearing
		Summary
		Study Questions
		Discussion Questions
		Internet Inquiries
	Readings
		John Locke: Of Identity and Diversity
			Reading Questions
		Derek Parfit: Divided Minds and the Nature of Persons
			Reading Questions
		Hans Moravec: Dualism from Reductionism
			Reading Questions
	Notes
Chapter 5: The Problem of Relativism and Morality
	Objectives
	Section 5.1 Don’t Question Authority: Might Makes Right
		Subjective Absolutism
		Subjective Relativism
		Emotivism
		Thought Experiment: Blanshard’s Rabbit
		Cultural Relativism
		Box: In the News: Universal Human Rights
			The Anthropological Argument
			The Logical Structure of Moral Judgments
		Thought Probe: When in Rome
		The Divine Command Theory
		Box: In the Courts: God Is My Attorney
			Thought Probe: Commanded to Kill
		Box: The Fortunes of Hell
		Are There Universal Moral Principles?
		Box: Moral Children
			Thought Probe: Moral Children
		Thought Probe: Moral Knowledge
		Summary
		Study Questions
		Discussion Questions
		Internet Inquiries
	Section 5.2 The End Justifies the Means: Good Makes Right
		Box: Is Life Intrinsically Valuable?
			Thought Probe: Moral Justification
		Ethical Egoism
		Box: Ayn Rand on the Virtue of Selfishness
		Thought Experiment: Feinberg’s Single-Minded Hedonist
		Act-Utilitarianism
		Box: Jeremy Bentham: Making Philosophy Do Work
		Thought Probe: Our Obligations to Future Generations
			Problems with Rights
		Thought Experiment: McCloskey’s Utilitarian Informant
		Thought Experiment: Brandt’s Utilitarian Heir
			Problems with Duties
		Thought Experiment: Ross’s Unhappy Promise
		Thought Experiment: Godwin’s Fire Rescue
			Problems with Justice
		Thought Experiment: Ewing’s Utilitarian Torture
		Thought Experiment: Ewing’s Innocent Criminal
		Thought Probe: The Utility Machine
		Rule-Utilitarianism
		Thought Experiment: Nozick’s Experience Machine
		Thought Probe: Paradise Engineering and the Abolitionist Project
		Summary
		Study Questions
		Discussion Questions
		Thought Experiment: Williams’s South American Showdown
		Thought Experiment: Thomson’s Trolley Problem
		Thought Experiment: Thomson’s Transplant Problem
		Internet Inquiries
	Section 5.3 Much Obliged: Duty Makes Right
		Kant’s Categorical Imperative
			The First Formulation
		Box: Immanuel Kant: Small-Town Genius
		Thought Probe: Enhanced Punishment
		Thought Experiment: Hare’s Nazi Fanatic
		Thought Experiment: Ross’s Good Samaritan
			The Second Formulation
		Thought Probe: Animal Rights
		Thought Experiment: Broad’s Typhoid Man
		Thought Experiment: Ewing’s Prudent Diplomat
		Thought Probe: Easy Rescue
		Ross’s Prima Facie Duties
		Thought Probe: Desert Island Bequest
		Rawls’ Contractarianism
		Thought Probe: Just Policies
		Nozick’s Libertarianism
		Thought Experiment: Nozick’s Basketball Player
		Thought Probe: Consensual Cannibalism
		Justice, the State, and the Social Contract
			Hobbes
			Locke
			Nozick
		Thought Experiment: Widerquist’s Libertarian Monarchy
		Thought Probe: Libertarian Government
		Box: In the News: Jillian’s Choice
			Thought Probe: Jillian’s Choice
		The Ethics of Care
		Thought Probe: Lying with Care
		Making Ethical Decisions
		Thought Probe: The Zygmanik Brothers
		Summary
		Study Questions
		Discussion Questions
		Internet Inquiries
	Section 5.4 Character Is Destiny: Virtue Makes Right
		The Virtuous Utilitarian
		Thought Probe: Giving to Charity
		The Virtuous Kantian
		Thought Experiment: Stocker’s Hospitalized Patient
		Box: Children without a Conscience
		Thought Probe: Empathy and Agency
		The Purpose of Morality
		Aristotle on Virtue
		Box: Aristotle: Pillar of Western Thought
		Box: The Buddha on Virtue
		The Stoics on Virtue
		Thought Probe: Aristotle versus the Stoics on the Good Life
		MacIntyre on Virtue
		Nussbaum on Virtue
		Thought Probe: Medical Treatment
		Virtue Ethics
		Thought Probe: The Ring of Gyges
		Summary
		Study Questions
		Discussion Questions
		Internet Inquiries
	Readings
		Jeremy Bentham: Of the Principle of Utility
			Reading Questions
		Immanuel Kant: Good Will, Duty, and the Categorical Imperative
			Reading Questions
		Martha Nussbaum: Non-Relative Virtues
			Reading Questions
	Notes
Chapter 6: The Problem of Evil and the Existence of God
	Box: Biblical Archaeology
		Thought Probe: Biblical Truths
	Box: Religious Adherents
		Thought Probe: Deluded Believers
	Thought Probe: Holy Scripture
	Objectives
	Section 6.1 The Mysterious Universe: God as Creator
		The Traditional Cosmological Argument
		Box: Thomas Aquinas
		Box: An Actual Infinite: The Quantum Hilbert Hotel
		The Kalam Cosmological Argument
		Thought Probe: Why a Universe?
		The Teleological Argument
			The Analogical Design Argument
		Thought Experiment: Paley’s Watch
			The Best-Explanation Design Argument
		Box: In the Courts: Is Evolution Just a Theory?
		Box: Extraterrestrial Design
			Thought Probe: Intelligent Design
		Box: Creationism and Morality
		Thought Probe: Human Design Flaws
		The Argument from Miracles
		Box: Was Jesus a Magician?
			Thought Probe: Jesus’s Miracles
		Box: Parting the Red Sea
			Thought Probe: Parting the Red Sea
		Thought Probe: The Fivefold Challenge
		The Argument from Religious Experience
		Box: This Is Your Brain on God
			Thought Probe: Religious Experience
		Thought Probe: St. Paul on the Road to Damascus
		The Ontological Argument
			Anselm’s Ontological Argument
		Thought Experiment: Gaunilo’s Lost Island
			Descartes’ Ontological Argument
		Thought Experiment: Edwards’s Gangle
		Thought Probe: One More God
		Pascal’s Wager
		Thought Experiment: Pascal’s Wager
		Box: Silverman’s Wager
			Thought Probe: The Best Bet
		Thought Probe: Alien Religion
		God and Science
		Thought Probe: Goulder versus Augustine
		Summary
		Study Questions
		Discussion Questions
		Internet Inquiries
	Section 6.2 When Bad Things Happen to Good People: God as Troublemaker
		Thought Experiment: Rowe’s Fawn
		St. Augustine and the Free-Will Defense
		Thought Probe: Is There Free Will in Heaven?
		The Knowledge Defense
		The Ideal-Humanity Defense
		Box: In the News: Natural Evil
			Thought Probe: Wrath of God
		The Soul-Building Defense
		The Finite-God Defense
		Box: Karma and the Problem of Inequality
			Thought Probe: Karma
		Box: The Argument from Nonbelief
			Thought Probe: The Argument from Nonbelief
		Thought Probe: What If God Died?
		Alternatives to Theism
			Gnosticism
			Deism
			Pantheism
		Summary
		Study Questions
		Discussion Questions
		Thought Experiment: The Invisible Gardener
		Internet Inquiries
	Section 6.3 Faith and Meaning: Believing the Unbelievable
		The Leap of Faith
		Thought Probe: Kierkegaard and Russell
		Evidentialism
		Thought Probe: Blanshard’s Beliefs
			The Will to Believe
		Thought Probe: James and Pandeism
			The Meaning of Life
		Thought Experiment: God’s Plan
		Thought Probe: Meaning and Morality
		Existentialism
		Thought Probe: Meaning and Purpose
		Religion without God
		Summary
		Study Questions
		Discussion Questions
		Internet Inquiries
	Readings
		St. Thomas Aquinas: The Five Ways
			Reading Questions
		David Hume: Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion
			Reading Questions
		John Stuart Mill: A Finite God
			Reading Questions
	Notes
Chapter 7: The Problem of Skepticism and Knowledge
	Objectives
	Section 7.1 Things Aren’t Always What They Seem: Skepticism about Skepticism
		Greek Rationalism
			Parmenides
		Thought Probe: Thinking about Nothing
			Zeno
		Thought Experiment: Zeno’s Paradox of Bisection
			Plato
		Box: Solving Parmenides’ and Zeno’s Paradoxes
		Thought Probe: Innate Knowledge
		Cartesian Skepticism
			Cartesian Doubt
		Thought Experiment: Descartes’ Dream Argument
		Thought Probe: Dreams and Reality
		Thought Experiment: Descartes’ Evil Genius Argument
		Thought Experiment: Unger’s Mad Scientist
			Cartesian Certainty
		Reasonable Doubt
		The Empiricist Alternative
		The Problem of Induction
		Thought Probe: Science and Faith
		The Kantian Synthesis
		Thought Probe: Constructing Reality
		Mystical Experience
		Summary
		Study Questions
		Discussion Questions
		Internet Inquiries
	Section 7.2 Facing Reality: Perception and the External World
		Direct Realism
		Representative Realism
		Thought Probe: Hypothesizing the External World
		Phenomenalism
		Thought Experiment: The Inconceivability of the Unconceived
		Box: George Berkeley: The Ultimate Empiricist
		Summary
		Study Questions
		Discussion Questions
		Internet Inquiries
	Section 7.3 What Do You Know?: Knowing What Knowledge Is
		Thought Experiment: Gettier’s Guy in Barcelona
		The Defeasibility Theory
		Thought Experiment: Lehrer and Paxson’s Demented Mrs. Grabit
		The Causal Theory
		Thought Experiment: Goldman’s Fake Barns
		The Reliability Theory
		Thought Experiment: Lehrer’s Human Thermometer
		Virtue Perspectivism
		Summary
		Study Questions
		Discussion Questions
		Internet Inquiries
	Readings
		René Descartes: Meditations on First Philosophy: Meditation 1
			Reading Questions
		Bertrand Russell: On Induction
			Reading Questions
		Ernest Sosa: Getting It Right
			Reading Questions
		Thomas D. Davis: Why Don’t You Just Wake Up?
			Reading Questions
	Notes
Index