Metaphysics and Epistemology A Guided Anthology [Paperback]

Metaphysics and Epistemology: A Guided Anthology presents a comprehensive introductory overview of key themes, thinkers, and texts in metaphysics and epistemology.

• Presents a wide-ranging collection of carefully excerpted readings on metaphysics and epistemology
• Blends classic and contemporary works to reveal the historical development and present directions in the fields of metaphysics and epistemology
• Provides succinct, insightful commentary to introduce the essence of each selection at the beginning of chapters which also serve to inter-link the selected writings

Preface and Acknowledgments xv

Introduction xvii

Part I The Philosophical Image 1

1 Life and the Search for Philosophical Knowledge 3
Plato, Republic

2 Philosophical Questioning 14
Bertrand Russell, The Problems of Philosophy

3 Philosophy and Fundamental Images 20
Wilfrid Sellars, “Philosophy and the Scientific Image of Man”

4 Philosophy as the Analyzing of Key Concepts 27
P.F. Strawson, Analysis and Metaphysics

5 Philosophy as Explaining Underlying Possibilities 33
Robert Nozick, Philosophical Explanations

Part II Metaphysics: Philosophical Images of Being 41

How Is the World at all Physical? 43

6 How Real Are Physical Objects? 43
Bertrand Russell, The Problems of Philosophy

7 Are Physical Objects Never Quite as They Appear To Be? 48
John Locke, An Essay ConcelóH