Philosophy: An Introduction to the Art of Wondering

Cover......Page 1
Title Page......Page 2
Copyright......Page 4
Contents......Page 13
Prelude......Page 5
Credit, Blame, and Acknowledgments......Page 7
What Do You Mean, Philosophy??......Page 23
PART ONE: THE FINE ART OF WONDERING......Page 27
Just In Case …......Page 29
The Human Condition......Page 30
The Search for Meaning......Page 33
Why-Questions......Page 36
The World-Riddle......Page 37
Philosopher-King......Page 42
Reflections......Page 46
The Love of Wisdom......Page 48
The Greek Miracle......Page 49
Freedom to Wonder and to Ask Questions......Page 50
Belief, Doubt, Critical Thinking, and Faith......Page 52
The Wisest Man Alive......Page 56
Reflections......Page 60
1-3 Critical Analysis......Page 61
The Philosophic Mind......Page 62
Critical Skills......Page 63
Brief Skirmishes / Examples of Critical Thinking......Page 69
A Special Kind of Listening......Page 76
The First Educator......Page 77
Reflections......Page 80
And He Wants to Understand It......Page 82
Life on a Picture-Puzzle......Page 83
The Annihilation of Boundaries......Page 84
How to Do Synoptic Philosophy......Page 86
The Synoptic Venture: Risks and Rewards......Page 89
“I Can Float Over the Orchard as in a Balloon”......Page 92
The First Scientific Worldview......Page 95
Reflections......Page 100
PART TWO: THE CONDITION AND THE ODYSSEY......Page 101
The Coherent Worldview......Page 103
The Egocentric Predicament......Page 104
Aristocentric Claims......Page 106
Egocentric Illusions in Time and Space......Page 109
We Live in Two Worlds......Page 111
Man and the Absurd......Page 117
Reflections......Page 119
How Much of Me Is Me?......Page 121
A Sense of Self......Page 124
A Sense of Worth......Page 125
The Autonomous Self......Page 127
The Productive Life......Page 132
Reflections......Page 137
When Things Go Wrong......Page 139
The Masks We Wear......Page 142
I Will Not Stop Till I Know......Page 144
Growth and Insecurity......Page 146
Crisis of Authority......Page 147
Developing Self-Awareness......Page 150
The Law of Pathei Mathos......Page 152
Our Humanity Is Blocked by Our Pain......Page 154
Reflections......Page 158
All the World’s a Stage …......Page 160
Mapping a Life/Time......Page 161
Infancy to Childhood......Page 162
The Adolescent Years......Page 165
The Maturing Years......Page 167
The Shriek of Ivan Ilytch......Page 176
The Laughing Philosopher......Page 181
Reflections......Page 185
PART THREE: THE REAL WORLD: KNOWING AND UNKNOWING......Page 187
Epistemic Awareness......Page 189
The Senses: Empirical Knowledge......Page 190
Knowledge from Others......Page 192
Reason: Using Known Facts......Page 193
Intuition: Knowledge from the Depths......Page 194
Reality and Appearance......Page 196
Reflections......Page 199
We Never See the Real World......Page 201
The Mind Manufactures Experience......Page 203
Our Senses Deceive......Page 206
Sensory Limitations and Reality......Page 207
The Pragmatic Nature of Knowing......Page 209
The Irish Immaterialist......Page 212
Reflections......Page 216
Why We Think in Abstractions......Page 218
Classifying and Labeling......Page 220
Our Mental Grids......Page 224
What It Means to Be a Hummingbird......Page 226
Reflections......Page 230
The Correspondence Test......Page 231
The Coherence Test......Page 232
The Pragmatic Test......Page 233
The Pragmatic Paradox......Page 235
“Truth Happens to an Idea”......Page 238
Reflections......Page 241
PART FOUR: THE INNER WORLD: THE FANTASTIC JOURNEY......Page 245
The Exploration of Inner Space......Page 247
Huxley’s Deep Reflection......Page 251
Mystical Unity......Page 252
Religious Ecstasy......Page 253
The Fantastic Journey......Page 254
One Who Awakened......Page 256
Reflections......Page 260
A Philosophy of Time......Page 262
Psychological Time......Page 263
Real Time......Page 265
Newton: Absolute Time......Page 266
Time Future......Page 267
Time Present......Page 269
Time and Personal Existence......Page 271
The Starry Heavens and the Moral Law......Page 275
Reflections......Page 281
The Feeling of Freedom......Page 283
The Dilemma of Determinism......Page 284
The Case for Determinism......Page 285
The Case for Freedom of Choice......Page 288
Apostle of Freedom......Page 292
Reflections......Page 296
The Functions of Language......Page 297
The Many Roles of Language......Page 298
Communications Analysis......Page 300
Definitions and Contexts......Page 304
Dissolving the Riddles of Life......Page 307
Reflections......Page 313
PART FIVE: DELICATE COEXISTENCE: THE HUMAN LOVE/HATE CONDITION......Page 315
Theater of the Absurd......Page 317
The Meaning of History......Page 319
Toynbee’s Organismic Interpretation of History......Page 327
The Plight of Western Civilization......Page 329
The Roots of Violence......Page 332
Can We Learn from History?......Page 335
“Reason Is the Substance of the Universe”......Page 338
Reflections......Page 342
Conflicting Loyalties......Page 344
Good Laws and Bad Laws......Page 346
Loyalty to Higher Authority......Page 347
Obedience to the Rule of Law......Page 349
The Personal Dilemma......Page 350
“I Will Breathe After My Own Fashion”......Page 354
Reflections......Page 358
The Bonds of Culture......Page 359
Prisoners......Page 362
Alternatives to Remaining Prisoners......Page 364
Cultural Relativity......Page 365
Personal Alienation......Page 367
“I Learned This, at Least …”......Page 371
The Hound-Dog Philosopher......Page 372
Reflections......Page 375
We Are Political Animals......Page 377
What Form of Government Is Best?......Page 378
Observations......Page 384
Three Contemporary World-Systems......Page 386
The Long Road to Freedom......Page 393
Reflections......Page 398
Debatable and Nondebatable Value Judgments......Page 400
The Morality of Ethics/The Ethics of Morality......Page 403
Who Really Makes Decisions?......Page 406
What Makes a Decision Right or Wrong?......Page 408
Whom (and What) Should I Care About?......Page 412
Courage and Compassion in the Modern World......Page 418
Reflections......Page 422
PART SIX: THE PROTOPLASMIC VENTURE......Page 425
Four Great Etiological Questions......Page 427
Biochemical Evolution......Page 428
The Beginning of Life on Earth......Page 432
Biogenetic Theories......Page 433
Can “Life” Be Defined?......Page 434
Evolution as a Field Theory......Page 435
Evolution and Meaning......Page 437
Evolution and Progress......Page 439
Suffering and the Arms Race......Page 444
Philosophic Implications......Page 447
Philosophic Problems......Page 448
The Grandest Synthesis......Page 450
Reflections......Page 454
The Sculptor-Gods......Page 456
The Story of Human Origins......Page 459
Update: Human Origins......Page 461
Still Trying to Define “Human”......Page 466
The Killer-Ape Theory......Page 469
The Immense Journey......Page 471
“That Individual”......Page 473
Reflections......Page 477
Our Place in the Scheme of Things......Page 479
An Ecospheric Ethic......Page 481
Coexistence—In Life and Death......Page 487
“No Man Is an Iland”......Page 491
Reverence for Life......Page 493
Reflections......Page 497
The Theoretical Life......Page 498
Research into the Future......Page 499
The Futurists and the Future......Page 502
A New Kind of Realism......Page 506
A Special Kind of Hope......Page 511
Many Futures: A Common Vision......Page 515
The Glory of Becoming Human......Page 517
Reflections......Page 525
PART SEVEN: MICROCOSM/MACROCOSM/COSMOS......Page 527
Empirical Knowledge......Page 529
A Priori Knowledge......Page 531
Other Ways of Knowing?......Page 532
Realities beyond Appearances......Page 533
This World—What Is It?......Page 534
The Dematerialization of Matter......Page 538
What Is the Origin of Matter?......Page 539
The Universe Is Made of Numbers......Page 541
Reflections......Page 545
What Physics Is and Isn’t......Page 547
Classical Physics......Page 550
Relativity Physics......Page 551
Quantum Mechanics......Page 557
The Second Scientific Revolution......Page 562
Reflections......Page 566
Ancient Cosmologies......Page 568
Today’s Universe......Page 570
The Expanding Universe......Page 571
The Story of the Universe......Page 575
There Are Still Mysteries......Page 579
What Does It All Mean (if Anything)?......Page 580
“The Noblest Eye Is Darkened”......Page 583
Reflections......Page 587
We Are Not Alone......Page 588
A Cosmic Context for Mankind......Page 591
Our Expanding Consciousness......Page 592
Consequences......Page 593
The Human Preserve......Page 595
The Encyclopaedia Galactica......Page 599
Reflections......Page 602
PART EIGHT: OF ULTIMATE CONCERN......Page 605
Greek Tragedy......Page 607
Transformation......Page 608
The Role of Myth......Page 614
The Anthropomorphic Spirits......Page 617
Spirit Possession......Page 618
Apocalyptic Dramas......Page 619
The Eschaton—End of Drama......Page 622
All Religion Is One......Page 623
The Hero with a Thousand Faces......Page 626
Reflections......Page 630
Ultimate Questions......Page 632
The Problem of Divine Knowledge......Page 633
Arguments for the Existence of God......Page 636
The Death(s) of God(s)......Page 638
The Other Side of Kanchenjunga......Page 642
Reflections......Page 646
All Graves Are Wrong......Page 647
Death Is a Nonexperience......Page 649
Fear of Nonbeing......Page 651
The Denial of Death......Page 655
Arguments for Immortality......Page 657
Arguments Against Immortality......Page 658
The Future of Death......Page 659
“One Thing at Least Is Certain—This Life Flies”......Page 662
Reflections......Page 667
The Knowledge That Hurts Most......Page 669
What Did I Want?......Page 670
Existence and the Real: Persistent Confusion......Page 671
Trivialities......Page 673
Work, Work ... to Kill the Flowers......Page 674
The World-Riddle......Page 677
“I Know Not If I Shall Ever Anchor”......Page 679
Reflections......Page 684
Postlude......Page 686
Glossary......Page 687
Credits......Page 699
Index to Marginal Quotations......Page 703
Name/Subject Index......Page 707