If you think philosophy is complicated or boring, think again! In this refreshingly different guide, author Tom Morris not only explains philosophical fundamentals, but shows you how philosophy can help you find more meaning in life, understand religious belief, and look at the world in a whole new light.  This book takes a light-hearted approach to considering what it is to be a human being in this world, what life is all about, and how we can live in the most satisfying ways.

Tom Morris holds a PhD degree in Philosophy and Religious Studies from Yale University, and is a former Professor of Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame. He is also the founder of the Morris Institute for Human Values and author of over 30 books, including The Stoic Art of Living: Inner Resilience and Outer Results.

Introduction 1

About This Book 1

Foolish Assumptions 2

Icons Used in This Book 3

Beyond the Book 3

Where to Go from Here 3

Part 1: What is Philosophy, Anyway? 5

Chapter 1: Great Thinkers, Deep Thoughts 7

Listening to the critics 8

Consulting Socrates on What Counts 11

Asking The Deeper Questions 14

Chapter 2: Philosophy as an Activity 17

Adventuring for the Mind 17

Mapping Our Way Forward 18

Understanding the Power of Belief 19

The image of Plato’s Cave 21

The philosophical Houdini 21

Chapter 3: The Love of Wisdom 25

Identifying Some Skills of Philosophy 26

Mastering analysis 26

Improving assessment 28

Using argument 29

Seeing How Wisdom Rules 33

Embarking on the Socratic Quest for Wisdom 36

Part 2: How Do We Know Anything? 39

Chapter 4: Belief, Truth, and Knowledge 41

Understanding Belief 42

The Importance of Belief 44

The Ideal of Knowledge 45

The truth about truth 48

The complete definition of knowledge 50

Truth and rationality 51

Chapter 5: The Challenge of Skepticism 57

Introducing the Ancient Art of Doubt 58

Asking Questions We Can’t Answer 60

The questions of source skepticism 61

The questions of radical skepticism 66

What the skeptics show us 70

When it’s good to doubt your doubts 70

Where Do You Go from Here? 71

Chapter 6: The Amazing Reality of Basic Beliefs 73

The Foundations of Knowledge 74

Empiricism and rationalism 74

What’s lurking at the foundations 76

Evidentialism 76

The Principle of Belief Conservation 79

Belief conservation and radical skepticism 81

Belief conservation and source skepticism 82

The basic status of belief conservation 82

Evidentialism refuted and revised 83

William James on Precursive Faith 85

Leaps of Faith 87

Part 3: What is the Good? 89

Chapter 7: What’s Good? 91

Looking at Ethics and Morality 92

Defining the Good 93

Evaluating Three Views on Evaluation 94

The philosophy of noncognitivism: The boo/yay theory 95

Ethical subjectivism 97

Moral objectivism 99

Taking Teleological Target Practice 102

Chapter 8: Happiness, Excellence, and the Good Life 105

Memo to the Modern World 106

Exploring The Idea of Good 106

Divine command theory 107

Social contract theory 107

Utilitarianism 109

Deontological theory 109

Sociobiological theory 110

Virtue theory 111

Four Dimensions of Human Experience 112

The intellectual dimension 114

The aesthetic dimension 117

The moral dimension 119

The spiritual dimension 120

The ultimate context of good 123

Chapter 9: Ethical Rules and Moral Character 125

Weighing Rules and Virtues 126

The Golden Rule and what it means 128

The precise role of the Golden Rule 129

Character, wisdom, and virtue 131

Teaching the Path of Goodness 135

Who am I? — A test of character 136

What should I do? — A test of action 136

The answer to the question 137

Part 4: Are We Ever Really Free? 139

Chapter 10: Fate, Destiny, and You 141

Appreciating Free Will 142

Revealing the Theological Challenge 143

Considering the Logical Challenge 147

Determining the Scientific Challenge 149

Chapter 11: Standard Views of Freedom 153

Pondering God, Logic, and Free Will 154

The theological challenge answered 154

The Logical Challenge answered 156

Taking on The Scientific Challenge 156

Scientific determinists 157

Metaphysical libertarians 158

Compatibilism 159

Which approach is the right one? 162

Chapter 12: Doing: Human Agency in the World 163

Gaining Wisdom on Freedom 164

Being an Agent and Getting Your Due 166

Part 5: The Incredible, Invisible You 169

Chapter 13: What Is a Person? 171

Learning about Guitars and Ghosts 171

Glimpses of the Mind 172

Views of the Person 174

Monism 174

Dualism 175

The Contenders 178

Interactionism 179

Epiphenomenalism 179

Parallelism 180

Narrowing the Options 181

Chapter 14: The Case for Materialism 183

Analyzing The Positive Arguments 184

The man-is-an-animal argument 184

The artificial intelligence argument 185

The brain chemistry argument 186

Considering The Negative Arguments 187

The superfluity argument 187

The mystery objection 189

The problem of other minds 191

Arriving at a Verdict on the Materialist Case 192

Chapter 15: The Case for Dualism 193

Examining Dualism 194

Being a Soul, Man 195

The introspection argument 195

The discernibility argument 196

The Cartesian argument 198

The Platonic argument 199

The parapsychology argument 200

Needing More Evidence 201

Part 6: What’s The Deal With Death? 203

Chapter 16: From Dust to Dust: Fear and the Void 205

Exiting Life and the Four Fears 206

Fear of the process of dying 208

Fear of punishment 209

Fear of the unknown 210

Fear of annihilation 211

Chapter 17: Philosophical Consolations on Death 213

Calming Us, Philosophically 214

The stoic response to fear of the process 214

The Natural Process Argument 215

The Necessity Argument 215

The Agnostic Argument 217

The Two Eternities Argument 217

Epicurus’ argument 218

Considering Materialist Consolations 220

Social immortality 220

Cultural immortality 221

Cosmic immortality 221

Scientific immortality 222

Chapter 18: Is There Life after Death? 225

Considering Doubts and Denials 226

The psychological origin argument 226

The silence argument 228

The trumpet analogy argument 229

The brain damage argument 231

Identifying Arguments for Survival 233

Plato’s indestructibility argument 233

The nature analogy argument 234

The argument from desire 236

Moral arguments 237

Seeing Light at the End of the Tunnel 239

Claims of former lives 239

Apparent contact with the dead 240

Near-death experiences 241

Part 7: Is There a God? 245

Chapter 19: Two Worldviews 247

Finding a Lost Beach Ball 247

The Great Divide 250

The mainline theistic worldview 253

The naturalistic worldview 253

How the two worldviews compare 254

The Great Debate 255

Chapter 20: Theistic Visions 257

Reasoning to God’s Existence 258

The Ontological Argument 258

Cosmology and God 260

Living in a Designer Universe 268

Having Experience Beyond Argument 273

Chapter 21: The Problem of Evil 277

Expecting Things of a God 277

Understanding the Problem 279

The main argument against theism 279

The alleged incompatibility of God and evil 280

Moral justification for allowing evil 281

Moral justification and the atheist’s argument 282

The theist’s claim 284

Considering The Great Theodicies 285

The punishment theodicy 285

The free will theodicy 287

The soul-making theodicy 289

A fourth and combination theodicy 292

Exploring the Element of Mystery 292

Part 8: The Meaning of Life 295

Chapter 22: What Is the Meaning of Life? 297

Asking Critical Questions 298

Pondering Meaning and This World 301

Nihilism: The ultimate negativity 302

The Do-It-Yourself Approach to the meaning of life 303

Pairing Meaning and God 306

Chapter 23: Pascal’s Wager: Betting Your Life 309

Introducing Pascal: Philosopher-Genius 310

Wagering like Pascal 311

Criticizing the Wager 315

The immorality objection 315

The probability assignment objection 317

The many claimants objection 318

The single case objection 320

Choosing a Worldview Right for You 320

Chapter 24: Success and Happiness in Life 323

Finding Enough in The Race for More 324

Aiming for True Success 327

Mastering the Conditions of Success 329

A clear conception of what we want, a vivid vision, a goal clearly imagined 331

A strong confidence that we can attain the goal 331

A focused concentration on what it takes to reach the goal 332

A stubborn consistency in pursuing our vision 333

An emotional commitment to the importance of what we’re doing 334

A good character to guide us and keep us on a proper course 334

A capacity to enjoy the process along the way 335

Concluding with a Note on Happiness 336

Part 9: The Part of Tens 339

Chapter 25: Ten Great Philosophers 341

Socrates 341

Plato 342

Aristotle 343

Saint Thomas Aquinas 344

William of Ockham 345

René Descartes 346

Immanuel Kant 346

G.W.F Hegel 348

Soren Kierkegaard 349

Bertrand Russell 350

Chapter 26: Ten Great Questions 353

Is Philosophy Practical? 353

Can We Ever Really Know Anything? 354

Is There Ultimately an Objectivity to Ethics? 355

Who Am I? 355

Is Happiness Really Possible in Our World? 356

Is There, After All, a God? 357

What Is the Good Life? 359

Why Is So Much Suffering in the World? 360

Does a Tree Falling Solo Make a Sound? 360

What’s Stronger: Reason or its Opposite? 362

Index 365