Philosophy in Practice

Adam Morton is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Oklahoma. He has previously taught at Princeton University, the University of Ottawa, and the University of Bristol. His publications include Frames of Mind (1980), Disasters and Dilemmas (Blackwell, 1991), The Importance of being Understood: Folk Psychology as Ethics (2002), A Guide Through the Theory of Knowledge (third edition, Blackwell, 2003), and On Evil (2004).

"This second edition of Morton's Philosophy in Practice is the best introductory textbook on the market. Morton's approach to teaching takes into account what we have learned about learning and critical thinking over the past twenty years, and the text emphasizes doing philosophy as an integral part of learning it. If you want an introductory textbook which makes it possible to teach philosophy as a verb to undergraduates, one that makes possible real conversation with beginners, this is it." Michael Silberstein, Elizabethtown College "I find it hard to imagine that one could get very far into this engaging book without wanting to think through, for oneself, the core issues of philosophy. Fortunately, Adam Morton has also provided the basic resources one would need to deal responsibly with those great issues." Gareth B. Matthews, University of Massachusetts–Amherst, author of Socratic Perplexity and the Nature of Philosophy

• Thanks xiNote to Teachers xiThe Contract xiiPart I The Lure of Certainty 11 Certainty and Doubt 31.1 Patterns of Thought 41.2 How Conventional Are Your Beliefs? 71.3 Conviction, Opinion, Doubt, and Belief 91.4 Trusting Textbooks 111.5 Certainty: the Closed-belief Trap 121.6 Cheat: a Story about Deception 141.7 Tree-worshipers and Flat-earthers 171.8 Revising History: 1984 201.9 Doubt 211.10 Doubting What Someone Says 231.11 How Skeptical Are You? 251.12 Moral Skepticism 271.13 When is a Skeptic a Cynic? 281.14 Socratic Skepticism 30Conclusions 33Further Reading 332 Sources of Conviction 352.1 Authority 362.2 Faith 392.3 Reason 402.4 Arguments 422.5 Eight Short Arguments 452.6 Puzzling Arguments 472.7 Arguments within Arguments 482.8 Proofs of God 492.9 Paradoxes 542.10 What to Trust on the Internet 552.11 Transforming the Question 57Conclusions 58Further Reading 583 Rationalism 593.1 Optimism about Reason 603.2 Individualism 613.3 Galileo’s Rationalism 633.4 Impossible Theories 643.5 Descartes’ Optimism: Certainty from Doubt 663.6 Doubting Anything versus Doubting Everything 703.7 Demon Possibilities, Paranoia, and Fantasy 713.8 The Matrix 743.9 How Doubt Can Increase Belief 763.10 Skepticism and Religious Faith 773.11 “I Think, Therefore I Am” 803.12 Doubting Even One’s Own Existence 813.13 Degrees of Certainty 84Conclusions 86Further Reading 864 Rationalism versus Relativism in Morals 894.1 The Appeal of Moral Rationalism 904.2 Four Golden Rules 904.3 Equality and Justice 924.4 Plato’s Moral Rationalism 964.5 Three Arguments from Plato’s Republic 984.6 Moral Relativism 1024.7 For and Against Moral Relativism 1044.8 The Ik 1094.9 Law and Morality 1104.10 Existentialism 1134.11 What Is Morality About? 115Conclusions 118Further Reading 1185 Induction and Deduction 1215.1 Simple Induction 1225.2 Applying Simple Induction 1235.3 Seeing Patterns in Nature 1265.4 Deduction 1: Syllogisms 1285.5 Deduction 2: Validity 1315.6 Deduction 3: Venn Diagrams and Counterexamples 1335.7 Induction versus Deduction 1365.8 The Induction-friendliness of the World 1385.9 Diagramming Induction-friendliness 1415.10 Hume’s Discovery: Nightmare or Liberation? 1425.11 Causation and Induction 1445.12 Choosing the Right Concepts 146Conclusions 148Further Reading 1486 The Retreat from Certainty 1496.1 Feeble Reason? 1506.2 Hume on the Power(lessness) of Reason 1506.3 Four Famous Passages from Hume 1536.4 Four Kinds of Irrationality 1556.5 Degrees of Certainty 1586.6 Valuing Values 1586.7 How Tolerant Are You? 1606.8 Mill on Freedom of Expression 1636.9 Toleration in Science 1666.10 Making Uncertainty Pay 167Conclusions 168Further Reading 169Postcard History of Philosophy I 170Part II Life in An Uncertain World 1717 Utilitarianism 1737.1 Naive Utilitarianism 1747.2 Choosing the Utilitarian Action 1757.3 Pleasure, Pain, and Consequences 1777.4 Hedonism 1787.5 Four Styles of Advice 1817.6 Bentham and Mill 1827.7 Quotations from Bentham and Mill 1847.8 Arguments for Utilitarianism 1867.9 Objecting to the Arguments 1887.10 Two Controversial Recommendations 1907.11 The Appeal of Utilitarianism 1917.12 Utilitarianism and Risk 192Conclusions 197Further Reading 1978 Kantian Ethics 1998.1 Means and Ends 2008.2 Motive, Rule, and Means 2028.3 Kant’s Argument 2038.4 Evaluating Kant’s Argument 2068.5 Consequentialism versus Deontology 2078.6 Diagnosing Disagreements 2088.7 When it Might Be Right to Lie and Break Promises 2098.8 Strong Deontology 2118.9 The Demands of Morality: the Case of Famine 2138.10 Morality in an Uncertain World 214Conclusions 215Further Reading 2169 Empiricism 2179.1 Are You an Empiricist? 2189.2 The Appeal of Empiricism 2219.3 Some Empiricist Views 2229.4 The Idea Idea 2249.5 Translation Exercises 2269.6 Locke’s “Way of Ideas” 2279.7 Locke against Innate Ideas 2289.8 Concepts, Beliefs, and Sensations 2309.9 Ways of Defining Concepts 2339.10 Barriers to Concept Acquisition 2359.11 Empirical Evidence 2379.12 Adequate Evidence? 240Conclusions 243Further Reading 24310 Beyond Empiricism 24510.1 Risk of What? 24610.2 Accuracy versus Informativeness about Friendship 24710.3 Other Minds 24910.4 Testing the Argument from Analogy 25110.5 Folk Psychology: the Argument from Explanation 25310.6 Being Wrong about Yourself 25510.7 The Inference to the Best Explanation 25610.8 Explanation 25810.9 Justifying Astrology 26110.10 Inference to the Best Explanation versus Simple Induction 26210.11 Perception and Belief 26410.12 Falsification 26710.13 The Hypothetico-deductive Method 27110.14 A Test Case: Continental Drift 274Conclusions 277Further Reading 27711 Objectivity 27911.1 Escape from the Cave 28011.2 Background Beliefs: First Test Case – Probability 28211.3 Background Beliefs: Second Test Case – Moral Status 28611.4 Reflective Equilibrium 29011.5 How Ethics Is Like Science 29511.6 Fallibilism 301Conclusions 304Further Reading 304Postcard History of Philosophy II 305Part III Reality 30712 Materialism and Dualism 31112.1 Materialism, Naturalism, Idealism 31212.2 Materialisms 31312.3 Are You a Materialist or an Idealist? 31512.4 Dualism 31612.5 Leibniz on the Unimaginability of Materialism 32112.6 Crude and Subtle Materialisms 32212.7 Lucretius on Mind and Body 32512.8 Antidepressants, Psychosomatic Medicine, and the Mind–Body Problem 32612.9 Materialism and Self-knowledge 32812.10 Technology versus Introspection 33012.11 Eliminative Materialism 33212.12 Five Typical Quotations 334Conclusions 335Further Reading 33513 Morality for Naturalists 33713.1 God and Morality 33813.2 The Moralist’s Nightmare 34113.3 Hobbes on the State of Nature 34313.4 A Restaurant Dilemma 34613.5 The Prisoner’s Dilemma 34813.6 Hobbes and the Prisoner’s Dilemma 35013.7 Implicit Contracts 35213.8 Imaginary Social Contracts 35513.9 Morals in Nature? Rousseau, Hegel, Marx 35613.10 Real States of Nature 35913.11 Moral Motivation: Decency, Villainy, and Hypocrisy 36113.12 Morals within Nature? 362Conclusions 365Further Reading 36514 Deep Illusions 36714.1 Primary and Secondary Qualities 36814.2 Hard Questions about Color 37014.3 Color as Illusory 37214.4 Free Will 37314.5 Freedom and Responsibility 37714.6 Freedom as a Secondary Quality 37914.7 Fatalism versus Determinism 38214.8 Identity through Time 38414.9 Personal Identity: Problem Cases 38714.10 Personal Identity: Theories 38914.11 The Meanings of Lives 391Conclusions 396Further Reading 39615 Realism 39915.1 Science versus the Everyday World 40015.2 Counting Objects 40115.3 Berkeley’s Idealism 40415.4 A Puzzle about Pain: the Locations of Qualities 40815.5 Apples, Surprises, Scopes, and Existence 40915.6 Verificationism 41215.7 Instrumentalism versus Realism 41515.8 First Case Study: Crystal Spheres 41915.9 Second Case Study: Phlogiston 42115.10 Arguments for Realism and Instrumentalism 42315.11 The Last Word 426Conclusions 427Further Reading 427Postcard History of Philosophy III 429Definitions 430Index 437