Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University's objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide.

Request Exam Copy

Print Price: $179.99

Format:
Paperback
736 pp.
231 mm x 188 mm

ISBN-13:
9780195139846

Copyright Year:
2002

Imprint: OUP US

A Historical Introduction to Philosophy

Texts and Interactive Guides

Edited by James Fieser and Norman Lillegard

Offering a unique pedagogical apparatus, A Historical Introduction to Philosophy: Texts and Interactive Guides provides selections from the most influential primary works in philosophy from the Presocratics through the twentieth century, integrating them with substantial commentary and study questions. It offers extensive treatment of the Hellenistic and Renaissance periods--which are typically given only minimal coverage in other anthologies--and devotes substantial chapters to nineteenth- and twentieth-century philosophy. The selections are organized historically and are presented in short and manageable sections with organizational headings and subheadings; archaic and difficult material has been adapted for clarity. Accompanying commentaries simplify difficult passages, explain technical terminology, and expand upon allusions to unfamiliar literature and arguments. Study questions are interspersed throughout the chapters in "Ask Yourself" boxes and vary with respect to format and level of difficulty. They require students to reconstruct arguments, summarize passages, complete blanks in statements and arguments, evaluate the success or viability of a philosophical point, or draw contemporary parallels and applications. The questions are carefully framed so as to avoid commitment to any particular side in controversies. Instructors can assign those questions that will best suit the aims of their courses and aid their students' comprehension of the primary source material. A Historical Introduction to Philosophy is enhanced by a comprehensive time line, a glossary, and lists of suggested further readings for both primary and secondary sources. This rich and flexible anthology and interactive textbook is ideal for introduction to philosophy and history of philosophy courses.

Reviews

"By far the best introduction to philosophy I've encountered. It's comprehensive and on-topic, while the reading guides are an excellent means of leading introductory students through the text. First-rate."--Mark Weedman, Minnesota Bible College
"[With this book], students not only get a clear concept of various major philosophical systems, but they are also given the opportunity to read what various philosophers had to say. Students are bound to learn immensely from the way the book is structured."--Charles Mercieca, Alabama A&M University
"Systematically presents the most popular primary works in philosophy from the Pre-Socratics through the twentieth century. The commentary and study guide questions are very helpful to both students and instructors."--Merigala Gabriel, Georgia Southern University
"Each historical period is given thorough treatment. The writing style draws students into dialogue with the material. The periodic study questions are extremely helpful."--S.N. Fratantaro, Providence College
"The texts have been carefully chosen. I was particularly pleased by the inclusion of Moses Maimonides, Martin Luther, and John Calvin, who are frequently overlooked. The scholarly remarks by the editors are easily accessible to students."--Lawrence C. Foard, Westfield State College (Emeritus)

Preface:
Time Line:
1. EARLY GREEK PHILOSOPHY
Introduction
Homer and Hesiod
Principal concerns of the Presocratics
Milesians
Thales
Anaximander
Anaximenes
Other Ionians
Xenophanes
Pythagoras and the Pythagoreans
Heraclitus
The Eleatics
Parmenides
Zeno
Pluralist Alternatives to Parmenides
Empedocles
Anaxagoras
The Atomists: Parmenides as Pluralist
The Sophists: Rhetoric and Virtue for a Price
Protagoras and Gorgias
2. SOCRATES AND PLATO
Introduction
Socrates
The Euthyphro
Meno
The Apology
Plato
Introduction to the Theory of Forms
Phaedo
The Republic
Phaedrus
3. ARISTOTLE
Introduction
Logical Works
Categories
Nature and the Soul
Physics
On the Soul
Ethics
Book 1
Book 2
Book 3
4. HELLENISTIC PHILOSOPHY
Epicureanism
Atoms and Free Will
Fearing the Gods
Fear of Death
Pleasure and Pain
Prudence and Freedom
Stoicism
Zeno of Citium: Logic, Physics, and Ethics
Epictetus
Cynicism
Antisthenes and Diogenes
Skepticism
Academics and Pyrrhonians
The Goal and Criterion of Skepticism
The Ten Modes of Skepticism
5. MEDIEVAL PHILOSOPHY
Augustine
Book 1. Good and Evil
Book 2.
Book 3.
The Confessions: Augustine on Time
Anselm
Proslogion 1
Averroes (from The Decisive Treatise Determining the Nature of the Connection Between Religion and Philosophy)
Chapter 2: Philosophy and Religion Belong Together
Chapter 3: The Elite and Ordinary Believers
Moses Maimonides (from The Guide for the Perplexed)
God and Biblical Language
Thomas Aquinas (from Summa Theologica)
The Existence of God
Natural Law
6. RENAISSANCE AND EARLY MODERN PHILOSOPHY
Humanism
Pico's Oration
More's Utopia
The Reformation
Luther's Appeal
Calvin's Institutes
Fideism and Skepticism
Montaigne's Apology (from "Apology for Raymond Sebond")
Bayle's Dictionary (from "Psyrrho" in Historical and Critical Dictionary)
Pascal's Wager (from Thoughts)
Astronomy
The Earth-Centered System of the Universe
Copernicus ("Dedication" to On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres)
Galileo (from "letter to Giacomo Muti," and Dialogues on the Two Chief Systems of the World)
Newton (from "Preface" to Principia Mathematica)
Implications of Modern Astronomy
Scientific Method
Bacon and Induction
Descartes's Method
Newton's Method of Investigation (from Principia Mathematica and Optics)
Mathematics and Scientific Method
7. RATIONALISM
René Descartes
Meditation 1: Concerning Those Things That Can Be Called Into Doubt
Meditation 2: Concerning the Nature of the Human Mind: That the Mind Is More Known Than the Body
Meditation 3: Of God: That He Exists
Meditation 6: Of the Existence of Material Things, and of the Real Distinction between the Soul and Body of Man
Supplementary Selections
Benedict Spinoza (from The Ethics)
God Does Not Willfully Direct the Course of Nature
Nicholas Malebranche (from The Search after Truth)
Chapter 1, Section 1: What Is Meant by Ideas; That They Truly Exist, and That They Are Necessary to Perceive All Material Objects
Chapter 6: That We See All Things In God
Occasionalism
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
Monads
Human Perception
Good
Body and Soul
The Human Spirit
Against Atoms and a Vacuum
Anne Conway
All Creatures Are Changeable
Against Descartes, Hobbes, and Spinoza
8. BRITISH EMPIRICISM
John Locke (from Essay Concerning Human Understanding)
1:2. No Speculative Innate Principles in the Mind
2:1. Of Ideas in General and Their Origin
2:2. Of Simple Ideas
2:3. Of Simple Ideas of Sense
2:5. Of Simple Ideas of Diverse Senses
2:6. Of Simple Ideas of Reflection
2:7. Of Simple Ideas of Both Sensation and Reflection
2:8. Some Farther Considerations Concerning Our Simple Ideas
2:12. Of Complex Ideas
4:3. Of the Extent of Human Knowledge
4:9. Of Our Threefold Knowledge of Existence
4.11. Of Our Knowledge of the Existence of Other Things
George Berkeley
Dialogue One
Dialogue Two
Dialogue Three
David Hume (from Enquiries and Treatise of Human Nature
Section 2: Of the Origin of Ideas
Section 3: Of the Association of Ideas
Section 7: Of the Idea of Necessary Connection
Section 10: Of Miracles
Section 12: Of The Academical or Skeptical Philosophy
Personal Identity
Moral Theory
9. LATE MODERN AND NINETEENTH-CENTURY PHILOSOPHY
Thomas Reid (from Inquiry into the Human Mind)
Introduction
Chapter II. Of Smelling
Immanuel Kant (from Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics and Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals)
Introduction
Preamble on the Peculiarities of All Metaphysical Knowledge
How Is Pure Mathematics Possible?
How Is the Science of Nature Possible?
How Is Metaphysics in General Possible?
Kant's Ethical Theory
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (from Preface to Phenomenology of Mind)
Introduction
Philosophy and History
The Unity of Subject and Object
History as Rational
Soren Kierkegaard (from Either/Or vol. I and II)
Introduction: Kierkegaard's "Existentialism"
The Life of Enjoyment
The Ethical Life
Mary Wollstonecraft (from Vindication of the Rights of Women)
The Rights of Women; True Virtue and True Social Flourishing
Education, Virtue, and the Need for a Revolution in Manners
John Stuart Mill (from Utilitarianism)
1: General Remarks
2: What Utilitarianism Is
Friedrich Nietzsche (from The Birth of Tragedy, The Genealogy of Morals, The Joyful Science, and Thus Spake Zarathustra)
Art, Morality, and Religion
The Critique of Morality
The Death of God
10. TWENTIETH-CENTURY AND CONTEMPORARY PHILOSOPHY
Bertrand Russell
Knowledge by Acquaintance and Knowledge by
Description
Ludwig Wittgenstein
Introduction
Language and Use
Willard Van Orman Quine
The Nature of Modern Empiricism
Background for Analyticity
Definition
Interchangeability
The Verification Theory and Reductionism
Empiricism without the Dogmas
Jean-Paul Sartre
Freedom in a Godless World
G.E.M. Anscombe
Modern Moral Philosophy
Glossary:
Index:

There are no Instructor/Student Resources available at this time.

Norman Lillegard is at University of Tennessee at Martin.

Making Sense - Margot Northey and Joan McKibbin

Special Features

Features a flexible and unique pedagogical apparatus--commentaries and detailed study questions--which functions as a built-in study guide
Covers all the major works in Western philosophy from the Presocratics through the twentieth century
Offers substantial coverage of the Hellenistic and Renaissance periods, which are often given only minimal treatment in other anthologies
Provides new or newly revised translations of several of the Greek texts
Clarifies the writings of Hobbes, Locke, Berkeley, Hume, Reid, and Mill, making them easier for students to understand