The philosophy answer book

About the Author Naomi Zack received her Ph.D from Columbia University, NY, and has taught at the University at Albany, State University of New York She is currently Professor of Philosophy at the University of Oregon in Eugene Her recent publications include: Inclusive Feminism (2005), Thinking about Race (2006), and Ethics for Disaster (2009) Also from Visible Ink Press The Handy Anatomy Answer Book by James Bobick and Naomi Balaban ISBN: 978-1-57859-190-9 The Handy Math Answer Book by Patricia Barnes-Svarney and Thomas E Svarney ISBN: 978-1-57859-171-8 The Handy Answer Book for Kids (and Parents) 2nd edition by Gina Misiroglu ISBN: 978-1-57859-219-7 The Handy Ocean Answer Book by Patricia Barnes-Svarney and Thomas E Svarney ISBN: 978-1-57859-063-6 The Handy Astronomy Answer Book by Charles Liu ISBN: 978-1-57859-193-0 The Handy Physics Answer Book by P Erik Gundersen ISBN: 978-1-57859-058-2 The Handy Biology Answer Book by James Bobick, Naomi Balaban, Sandra Bobick, and Laurel 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us at www.visibleink.com THE HANDY PHILOSOPHY ANSWER BOOK THE HANDY PHILOSOPHY ANSWER BOOK NAOMI ZACK, PhD Detroit THE HANDY PHILOSOPHY ANSWER BOOK Copyright © 2010 by Visible Ink Press™ This publication is a creative work fully protected by all applicable copyright laws, as well as by misappropriation, trade secret, unfair competition, and other applicable laws No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who wishes to quote brief passages in connection with a review written for inclusion in a magazine, newspaper, or website All rights to this publication will be vigorously defended Visible Ink Press® 43311 Joy Rd., #414 Canton, MI 48187-2075 Visible Ink Press is a registered trademark of Visible Ink Press LLC Most Visible Ink Press books are available at special quantity discounts when purchased in bulk by corporations, organizations, or groups Customized printings, special imprints, messages, and excerpts can be produced to meet your needs For more information, contact Special Markets Director, Visible Ink Press, www.visibleink.com, or 734-667-3211 Managing Editor: Kevin S Hile Consulting Editor: Ed D’Angelo Art Director: Mary Claire Krzewinski Typesetting: Marco Di Vita ISBN 978-1-57859-226-5 Cover images: iStock Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Zack, Naomi, 1944The handy philosophy answer book / Naomi Zack p cm Includes bibliographical references (pp 447-466) and index ISBN 978-1-57859-226-5 Philosophy I Title B72.Z33 2010 100—dc22 2009042559 Printed in the United States of America 10 Contents I NTRODUCTION ix ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xi THE BASICS … EARLY MODERN PHILOSOPHY … 119 ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY … 11 Seventeenth Century Rationalism … Francisco Suárez … René Descartes … Benedict de Spinoza … Nicolas Malebranche … Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz … Seventeenth Century Empiricism … Thomas Hobbes … John Locke … The Cambridge Platonists … Gender and Early Modern Women Philosophers Greek Pre-Socratics … The Sophists … Socrates … Plato … Aristotle … Hellenistic and Roman Philosophy … Women Philosophers in Ancient Greece and Rome NEOPLATONISM THROUGH THE RENAISSANCE … 49 Neoplatonism … Medieval Philosophy … Islam’s Influence … The Scholastics … Maimonides … Thomas Aquinas … Other Important Medieval Philosophers … Renaissance Humanism SKEPTICAL AND NATURAL PHILOSOPHY … 83 Michel de Montaigne … The Scientific Revolution … Johannes Kepler’s Influence … Francis Bacon and the Scientific Revolution … Medicine and Philosophy THE ENLIGHTENMENT PERIOD … 157 George Berkeley … David Hume … JeanJacques Rousseau … Thomas Reid and Jeremy Bentham … Immanuel Kant … Mary Wollstonecraft and William Godwin … The Philosophes … Counter-Enlightenment Figures NINETEENTH CENTURY PHILOSOPHY … 201 Nineteenth Century Empiricism … William Whewell … John Stuart Mill … August Comte … Intuitionism … Philosophy of Mathematics and Logic … German Idealism … Johann Gottlieb Fichte … Friedrich vii Schelling … Friedrich Hegel … Arthur Schopenhauer … Bernard Bosanquet … Materialism, Marxism, and Anarchists … Ludwig Andreas von Feuerbach … Marxism … Anarchism … Psychology and Social Theory … Franz Brentano … Alexius Meinong … Sigmund Freud … Herbert Spencer … Sociology and Philosophy CONTINENTAL PHILOSOPHY … 255 Existentialism … Søren Kierkegaard … Fyodor Dostoyevsky … Friedrich Nietzsche … Jean-Paul Sartre … Other Existentialists … Phenomenology … Edmund Husserl … Martin Heidegger … Maurice Merleau-Ponty … Critical Theory and Structuralism … Critical Theorists … Structuralists AMERICAN PHILOSOPHY … 295 Early American Philosophical Strains … St Louis Hegelians … New England Transcendentalists … Social Darwinism … Pragmatism and Process Philosophy … Charles Sanders Peirce … William James … Josiah Royce … John Dewey … Jane Addams … George Herbert Mead … Ralph Barton Perry … C.I Lewis … Process Philosophy ANALYTIC PHILOSOPHY … 331 Early Twentieth Century Analytic Philosophy … G.E Moore … Truth-Functional Logic and viii Logical Atomism … Bertrand Russell … Ludwig Wittgenstein … Other Logicians … Logical Positivism … The Vienna Circle … Ordinary Language Philosophy … Analytic Ethics … Analytic Political Philosophy … Epistemology and Metaphysics after Logical Positivism … W.V.O Quine … Hilary Putnam … Philosophy of Science … Philosophy of Mind and Philosophy of Language … Noam Chomsky … Jerry Fodor NEW PHILOSOPHY … 385 Postmodern Philosophy … Jacques Derrida and Deconstructionism … Richard Rorty … Jürgen Habermas … More French Postmodernist Philosophers … Other American Philosophies … African American Philosophy … Native American Philosophy … Latin American Philosophy … Other Continental Traditions … Afro-Centrism and African Philosophy … Buddhism and Confucianism … Feminist Philosophy … Environmental Philosophy … Other Trends in New Philosophy GLOSSARY 429 B IBLIOGRAPHY 447 I NDEX 467 Introduction What we really know? What is real? Does life have a meaning? Do you have free will? These are just a few philosophical questions, there are hundreds more They are called “philosophical questions” because they can’t be answered once and for all and have occupied philosophers for almost three thousand years You don’t have to be a philosopher to ask questions like these, although you may feel like one if you read this book! The Handy Philosophy Answer Book has hundreds of entries about specific philosophers and their ideas Each entry begins with a question about the philosopher, school of thought or time period, which goes to the heart of his, her, or its importance, followed by an answer, which is also a short overview of the main ideas in the chapter And each section within an entry also begins with a key question This answer is followed by further questions, and answers Each question and answer can be read independently, or as part of its broader context But you don’t have to read the whole book to answer a question about a philosopher or an idea If you go to the index and look up a name or a subject, you will know what page to find it on The main part of the book, a Who’s Who and What’s What in Philosophy, is divided into ten historical chapters, from ancient philosophy to the present day The table of contents, index, and glossary, can all be used as guides to the chapters If you don’t know what a philosophical word or idea means, you can find the answer in the glossary, a series of explanations and definitions of key terms, historical periods, schools of thought, and other “isms” in philosophy Philosophy is largely a matter of philosophers’ opinions and they rarely agree, but they respect each other’s expert opinions (This book is written by a professor of philosophy.) The bibliography contains a list of sources for the different philosophers, periods of philosophy, main subjects, and other reference material You can use this book in different ways If you want to learn the history of philosophy, you can read through the chapters in order If you are interested in building a ix ... Visit us at www.visibleink.com THE HANDY PHILOSOPHY ANSWER BOOK THE HANDY PHILOSOPHY ANSWER BOOK NAOMI ZACK, PhD Detroit THE HANDY PHILOSOPHY ANSWER BOOK Copyright © 2010 by Visible Ink Press™... Did philosophy lead to the other sciences all at once? No, until the end of the seventeenth century, the physical sciences were called “Natural Philosophy? ??; until the nineteenth century, there... justice to their curricula Did the study of some of the sciences get their start in philosophy? Yes Until the end of the seventeenth century, the physical sciences were called “Natural Philosophy, ”