The Philosophical Debates

What follows is intended to be a moderately helpful yet woefully incomplete bibliographic guide to some of the longstanding issues of debate in philosophy. Wherever possible, we have provided links to the topics in the bibliography, and we have always provided brilliant introductory comments and running analysis.

The Main Questions are:

What is Knowledge?

What is the nature of Reality?

What is the relationship between the Mind and the Body?

Is there a God?

How can Science tell us anything?

Other Burning Philosophical Questions....

Knowledge and Certainty

"What did you know and when did you know it?" While these words might strike fear into any politician in the post-Watergate era, they are the philosopher's bread and butter. In fact, the question that we all want to ask Ollie and Ronnie is rather presumptuous by philosophical standards, because we need to agree on exactly which mental states count as knowledge before we can answer it. For any position you might take on this issue, there is probably some famous philosopher who has endorsed it, so be of good cheer.

Classic Texts

• Plato Meno
• Plato- Republic
• Aristotle, Posterior Analytics
• Rene Descartes- Meditations
• John Locke Essay Concerning Human Understanding
• Gottfried Leibniz New Essays on Human Understanding
• David Hume, Enquiry concerning Human Understanding
• Immanuel Kant- Critique of Pure Reason
• Georg Hegel- Phenomenology of Spirit
• The Problems of Philosophy, BERTRAND RUSSELL

Contemporary Writings

• Alston, W. What's Wrong With Immediate Knowledge? Synthese 55 (1983): 73-96. Reprinted in Epistemic Justification
• Ayer, A.J. The Problem of Knowledge. London: Macmillan ,1956.
• Ayer, A.J. Has Austin Refuted the Sense-Datum Theory. Synthese 17 (1967)
• Austin, J.L. Sense and Sensibilia. Oxford: Oxford University Press (1961)
• BonJour, L. 1985: The Structure of Empirical Knowledge, Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press
• Brueckner, A. 1988: Problems with Internal Coherentism. Philosophical Studies, 54.
• Bunnin, N. and Tsui-James, E.P. (ed) The Blackwell Companion to Philosophy. Oxford: Blackwell Pub., 1996.
• Burnyeat, M., (ed) 1983: The Sceptical Tradition. Berkeley: University of California Press.
• Chisholm, R. 1977: Theory of Knowledge. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
• Clay, M. and Lehrer, K. (eds.) 1989: Knowledge and Scepticism. Boulder: Westview Press.
• Cottingham, J. (ed.) Western Philosophy: An Anthology. Oxford: Blackwell Pub., 1996.
• Dancy, J. 1985: Introduction to Contemporary Epistemology. Oxford: Blackwell.
• Dancy, J. (ed.) 1988 Perceptual Knowledge. Oxford: Oxford University Press
• Dancy, J. and Sosa, E. (eds) A Companion to Epistemology. Oxford: Blackwell.
• Dretske, F. 1971: Conclusive Reasons. Australian Journal of Philosophy, 49.
• Feldman, R. 1985: Reliability and Justification. The Monist, 68.
• Gettier, E. 1963: Is Justified True Belief Knowledge? Analysis, 23.
• Goldman, A. 1979: What is s Justified True Belief? In G. Pappas, (ed.) Justification and Knowledge, Dordrecht: Reidel.
• Goldman, A. 1980: The Internalist Conception of Justification. In Midwest Studies in Philosophy 5, eds. P.A. French et al. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
• Goldman, A. 1986: Epistemology and Cognition. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
• Grayling, A.C., 1985: The Refutation of Scepticism. London: Duckworth.
• Harman, G. 1973: Thought. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
• Harman, G. 1984: Positive versus Negative Undermining in Belief Revisionism. Nous, 18.
• Jackson, F. 1977: Perception. Cambridge, MA: CambridgeUniversity Press.
• Lehrer, K. 1974: Knowledge.Oxford: Clarendon Press.
• Moore, G.E. A Defence of Common Sense
• Moore, G.E 1959: Philosophical Papers. London: Allen and Unwin.
• Moser, P. 1985: Empirical Justification. Dordrecht: Reidel.
• Nozick, R. 1981: Philosophical Explanations. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
• Pappas, G. and Swain, M. (eds) 1978: Knowledge and Justification. Ithaca: Cornell University Press
• Perkins, M. 1983: Sensing the World. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Co.
• Pollack, J. 1979 A Plethora of Epistemological Theories. In G. Pappas, (ed.) Justification and Knowledge, Dordrecht: Reidel.
• Pollack, J. 1984: Reliability and Justified Belief. Canadian Journal of Philosophy, 14.
• Pollack, J. 1986: Contemporary Theories of Knowledge. Totowa: Rowman and Littlefield.
• Popkin, R. 1979: The History of Scepticism. Berkeley: University of California Press.
• Rorty, R. 1979: Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
• Shope, R. 1983: The Analysis of Knowing. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
• Sosa, E. 1981: The Raft and the Pyramid: Coherence versus Foundations in the Theory of Knowledge. In Midwest Studies in Philosophy 5, eds. P.A. French et al. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
• Strawson, P.F. 1959: Individuals. London: Methuen.
• Strawson, P.F. 1985: Skepticism and Naturalism: Some Varieties. London: Methuen.
• Stroud, B. 1984: The Significance of Philosophical Scepticism. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
• Swartz, R. (ed.) 1965: Perceiving, Sensing and Knowing. Berkeley: University of California Press.
• Unger, P. 1975: Ignorance. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
• Williams, B. 1978: Descartes: The Project of Pure Enquiry. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
• Williams, M. 1991: Unnatural Doubts. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
• Wittengenstein, L. 1969: On Certainty. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.

General

• Epistemology, introduction
• The Skeptic's Dictionary
• The Left Hemisphere

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Being and Reality

Classic Texts

• The Allegory of the Cave, Plato- Republic
• Categories by Aristotle
• Descartes, Principles of Philosophy
• John Locke Essay Concerning Human Understanding
• Gottfried Leibniz New System
• Berkeley's "Principles of Human Knowledge" (Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
• David Hume, Enquiry concerning Human Understanding
• Immanuel Kant, Prolegomena
• Martin Heidegger, Being and Time
• Rudolf Carnap, The Elimination of Metaphysics

General

• Cottingham, J. (ed.) Western Philosophy: An Anthology. Oxford: Blackwell Pub., 1996.

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Mind/Body Problem

Is the light at the end of the tunnel really just the headlight of an oncoming train?  If so, then perhaps we should rethink the oft-heard advice to go into the light when we have our out-of-body experiences when we are clinically dead. Don't laugh! Even A. J. Ayer reported an out-of-body experience at the end of his life, and it motivated him to write that it wasn't logically impossible that we are possessed of nonphysical souls. But, of course, he was about a million years old, and as crazy as an outhouse rat when he said all this, so I guess you can laugh if you want.

Classic Texts

• Phaedo by Plato
• Aristotle, De Anima
• Summa Theologica of Saint Thomas Aquinas
• Rene Descartes- Meditations
• Spinoza's ETHICS:
• Nicolas Malebranche, Dialogues on Metaphysics
• Arthur Schopenhauer, The World as Will and Idea
• Mill An Examination of Sir William Hamilton's Philosophy
• Brentano, F. Psychology from an Empirical Standpoint
• Ryle, G. The Concept of Mind

General

• Mind and Body: Rene Descartes to William James   Follows the "rise of experimental psychology as it occurred at the interface between philosophical analyses of the mind/world relationship and physiological conceptions of the nervous system as a sensory-motor device mediating between the mind and the world."
• No Dogs or Philosophers Allowed: The Mind-Body Show   Includes the following Webtext articles: "Searle's Theory of Intentionality" "Mind-Body Continuism: Dualities Without Dualism" "On the Cognitive Contingency of Consciousness" and "The Freedom of Susan Smith"
• Mind/Brain Resources
• Cottingham, J. (ed.) Western Philosophy: An Anthology. Oxford: Blackwell Pub., 1996.

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Free Will-ly

Are you feeling as if it is up to you what you do next? Then, to coin a term, you are feeling "free will-ly." But don't despair. You are not alone. I'm feeling free will-ly, too. As much as I feel that way, I must confess I do not believe free will is possible. I'm an incompatibilist who thinks indeterminism holds no hope of free action, but that puts me in a small minority. Read on and trace the debate from the beginnings of the conflict between determinism and free will to the modern scientific age wherein we find indeterminisim at the root of all being and renewed interest in the idea that free will is incompatible with determinism. Let's just hope we can sort the whole mess out before there is another sequel and I have to figure out a way to incorporate 'Harpooned by Noncompliant Japanese Whaling Vessels: The Journey to the Market' into the patter.

Classic Texts

• John Locke Essay Concerning Human Understanding
• Butler, J. Of Personal Identity
• Hume, D. A Treatise of Human Nature
• Freud, S. Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis
• Parfit, D. Reasons and Persons
• Augustine of Hippo, The City of God (Augustine, City of God (introduction) Excerpts from Augustine's City of God )
• Hobbes, T. Liberty, Necessity and Chance
• Laplace, Philosophical Essay on Probability
• Sartre, J.P. Being and Nothingness
• Strawson, P. Freedom and Resentment

General

• Cottingham, J. (ed.) Western Philosophy: An Anthology. Oxford: Blackwell Pub., 1996.
• Richard Brian Davis - Seminar Papers

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God and Religion

God?  Are you there?  It's me, Michael. Well, I guess I understand why you're not answering me, but there are a lot of other people here who would like to talk to you. And a lot of them have not done half of the terrible stuff I have. So come on, tell them what's up.

Whether the existence of a supreme being can be proved by reason and/or evidence alone is probably the most often asked question in the history of humankind (the second being: How can the French find Jerry Lewis amusing?"). However you answer the question, you must explain the role of reason, the role of faith and you must explain the existence of evil to satisfy the philosopher's questions about the existence of god. Read from this list, and you'll be on your way to getting into the fray, and may God (or whatever) have mercy on your soul (if you have one).

Classic Texts

• Anselm of Canterbury, Proslogion
• Summa Theologica of Saint Thomas Aquinas
• Rene Descartes- Meditations
• Pensees - Blaise Pascal (text file) (excerpt in HTML)
• Leibniz, G. Theodicy
• Hume, D. Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion
• David Hume, Enquiry concerning Human Understanding
• Kierkegaard, S. Concluding Unscientific Postscript
• James, W. The Will to Believe
• Wisdom, J. Gods
• Why I Am Not A Christian, by Bertrand Russell

General

• Cottingham, J. (ed.) Western Philosophy: An Anthology. Oxford: Blackwell Pub., 1996.
• No Dogs or Philosophers Allowed: The God Show    Includes the following Webtext articles: "Lewis on Experience, Reason and Religious Experience" "Death, Nothingness, and Subjectivity" and "Ethical Theory in the Twenty-First Century"
• Variations on the Ontological Argument
• On the Logic of the Ontological Argument
• Argument From Design
• Theism, Atheism, and Rationality

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Science and Method

Classic Texts

• Physics by Aristotle
• Bacon, F. Novum Organum
• Descartes: The Discourse on Method
• Berkeley, G. On Motion
• David Hume, Enquiry concerning Human Understanding
• Immanuel Kant- Critique of Pure Reason
• Mill, J.S. System of Logic
• Popper, K. Conjectures and Refutations
• Kuhn, T. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions

General

• Cottingham, J. (ed.) Western Philosophy: An Anthology. Oxford: Blackwell Pub., 1996.

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Other Great Debates

We're still working on all of these links. Actually, we have a lot of good ideas about organizing these into a fantastic website, but I can't think of anything funny to say about the rest of these, so we're letting them lie for now. As soon as I think of some more riotously clever stuff to say about some area of philosophical inquiry, you can bet it will be deemed an important enough area of philosophy to be included in Patton's Argument Clinic.

Contemporary Philosophy of Mind: An Annotated Bibliography compiled by David Chalmers

Zombies on the web Also by David Chalmers. Bibliography of web articles related to the logical possibility of zombies and its impact on the questions related to consciousness.

No Dogs or Philosophers Allowed: The Consciousness Show and The Time Show

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Please let us know of suggestions for additions to this bibliography.