Description
This is Not a Book will stretch your mind, put your neurons through their paces and challenge the foundations of your opinions and of knowledge itself.
Filled with philosophical puzzles that have intrigued great minds of many nations for centuries, insoluble logical paradoxes and moral dilemmas, This is Not a Book provides an intellect workout that will force you to confront the consequences of your beliefs.
This is Not a Book is divided into four sections, reflecting the major fields of philosophy: Logic, Epistemology, Ethics and Metaphysics. Each section includes a subject overview and philosopher profiles, as well as quizzes, games and thought experiments which apply the tools of philosophy to ultimate questions and everyday life.
Thought-provoking and logic-defying, This is Not a Book will test your view on reality.
Table of Contents
What is Philosophy?
Chapter 1: Epistemology
Knowledge as Justified True Belief
Socrates
Cognitive Bias
Eastern Doubt
Plato
Western Doubt
Gettier Problems
What Were You Born Knowing?
Optical Illusions
Perception
The Problem of Self-Reliance
Noam Chomsky
Three Theories of Truth
David Hume
Chapter 2: Ethics and Morality
Moral Dilemmas
Moral Choices
The Prisoner's Dilemma
The Golden Rule
Moral Relativism
Four Meta-ethical Perspectives
Virtue: An Ethics of Character
Aristotle's Ethics
Rights: An Ethics of Persons
Utility and Pleasure
Care: An Ethics of Relationship
Ethics and Ecology
Spot that Meta-Ethical Perspective!
Confucian Virtues
Dwelling in Compassion
Chapter 3: Metaphysics and Spirituality
Appearance and Reality
Pythagoras
Aristotle's Metaphysics
Causal Powers
Modalities: Ways of Being
Space: Frontier Without Finality
Freedom and Necessity
This is Not a Bike
The Conflicts With Plato's Soul
Bend Your Mind!
Mind Your Head!
The Philosopher's God
Did God Sing the Universe
Good God!
Ultimate Choices
Gautama the Buddha
Chapter Four: Logic and Infinity
What is Logic?
What Makes a Good Argument
Paradigms of Reason
Reduction and Induction
Fallacy Spotting
And And or And Not
On Conditions and Conditionals
Ludwig Wittgenstein
Quantifier Logic
Nested Circles
Gottleb Frege
Liar, Liar!
Kurt Gödel
The Set of Nothing
The Set of Everything
Paradoxes of Infinity
Infinity and Beyond
Stairways to Heaven
George Cantor
Index of Philosophers
Index
References
Author(s)
Michael Picard,
Trained in mathematical logic and analytical philosophy, but at home in Eastern thought, Michael Picard’s interests in psychology include social and cognitive approaches to perception and language, with emphasis on history of psychology and cross-cultural issue. He moderates Café Philosophy, a weekly community-based participatory philosophy group that has run in Victoria, Canada, for over a decade.