Modern Challenges to Past Philosophy

Thomas Sullivan is Professor of Philosophy Emeritus, and before his recent retirement held the Aquinas Chair in Philosophy and Theology, at the University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, USA. He is the co-author, with Sandra Menssen, of The Agnostic Inquirer: Revelation from a Philosophical Standpoint (2007).Russell Pannier is Emeritus Professor of Law at William Mitchell College of Law, St. Paul, USA. He has published in the areas of philosophy of logic, metaphysics, jurisprudence, ethics, constitutional law, philosophy of religion, and decision theory. He has published several essays on some of those topics with Thomas D. Sullivan.

In their characteristically clear style, Sullivan and Pannier give an account of the nature of philosophy, and then they give a series of detailed arguments for the conclusion that philosophy is best carried out in dialogue not only with philosophers contemporary to us, but also with the philosophers of the past. Those who care about doing philosophy, or who care about teaching it, should care about this book.

• AcknowledgmentsChapter 1. Problems and PerspectivesChapter 2. The Essence of PhilosophyChapter 3. Arguments for Taking Past Philosophers SeriouslyChapter 4. Science, Scientism, and PhilosophyChapter 5. Scientistic Attacks on Past and Present PhilosophyChapter 6. Philosophic Attacks on Past and Present PhilosophyChapter 7. Philosophy, Time, and EternityBibliographyIndex