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PHILOSOPHY
Asking Questions - Seeking Answers
STEPHEN STICH
THOMAS DONALUDSON
OXFORD
UNIVERSITYPRESS
Philosophy
Asking Questions—Seeking Answers
Philosophy
Asking Questions—Seeking Answers
SLEPHEN STICH
RUTGERS UNIVERSITY
TOM DONALDSON
SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY
9876543210
Printed by Sheridan Books, Inc., United States of America
CONTENTS
eee ee
Preface xi
Evaluating Arguments 11
Deductive Validity 12
Induction and Abduction 13
Multistep Arguments 16
Evaluating Multistep Arguments 18
Some Arguments to Evaluate 21
Answers to Problems 23
What to Lookat Next 26
Glossary 27
Notes 28
vi CONTENTS
SNARK AYWN
Some Questions about the First Cause Argument 35
Leibniz's Cosmological Argument 36
The Design Argument 38
Criticisms of the Design Argument 41
Anselm's Ontological Argument 46
What, If Anything, Is Wrong with Anselm's Ontological
Argument? 49
9. A Pragmatic Case for Theism? 50
10. Conclusion 53
Glossary 53
Comprehension Questions 54
Discussion Questions 55
What to Look at Next 57
Notes 58
8. Descartes’s Legacy 89
9. Conclusion 91
Glossary 91
Comprehension Questions 92
Discussion Questions 93
What to Look at Next 94
Notes 95
POnawy
Coherentism 148
Internalism and Externalism 150
Fallibilism and Skepticism 152
Gettier Cases—A Challengeto the Justified True Belief
Account of Knowledge 154
Glossary 155
Comprehension Questions 156
Discussion Questions 157
Whatto Look at Next 159
Notes 159
xi
xii PREFACE
Can an I ski
skip thee chapters
chapters that
that d don't interest me?
The chapters of this book are largely independent. You can read them in
any order, and you can omit chapters that don’tinterest you.
and encouraging students to make up their own minds about which side
has the strongercase.
Stephen Stich
Tom Donaldson
WhatIs Philosophy?
1. Philosophy Is Everywhere
Many people think that philosophy is an esoteric subject. Admittedly,
professional philosophers in universities do sometimes devote them-
selves to abstruse questions. We have colleagues who've devoted many
years to figuring out exactly how “a” and “the” differ in meaning, and
we have friends whostay up late at night discussing whether God could
change the lawsoflogic.
But, in fact, philosophical questions often come up in everydaylife.
Think about the familiar question of whetherit is okay to buy andeat
meat. This is a philosophical question, and it quickly leads to others. As
well see in chapter 15, some vegetarians argue that you should not buy
meatbecauseit is wrongto inflict pain on animals. Meat eaters might reply
that it is okay to buy meat from humanefarmsorthatit is okay to buy the
meat of animals incapable of experiencing pain—oysters, for example.
Let’s think about that last claim for a moment. How canwetell
whether oysters experience pain? You might think that we can figure
out whether oysters experience pain by investigating their nervoussys-
tems. But to do this, wed have to understand the relation between con-
scious mental states (such as pain) and the nervous system—andthisis
a notoriously difficult philosophical problem. We'll discuss the topic in
chapter 10.
2 PuiLosopHy: ASKING QUESTIONS—SEEKING ANSWERS
5. Why Bother?
Students in their first philosophy class (especially those for whom the
class is compulsory!) often ask why they should bother with philosophy.
Ouransweris that philosophyis inevitable. We all have to think about
howto live, and so weare forced to think about normative questionsat
onetime or another. What's more, we nowlivein pluralist societies; that
is, we live with people whose worldviewsdiffer greatly from our own.
Whenwe meet such people and try to understand our differences, we
are forced to discuss our basic assumptions—andthis is philosophy.
So even though philosophical questions don’t come up every day,
we're all forced to confront them sometimes. We hopethis book helps you
to think about philosophical questions and to reach your own conclusions.
And evenif you aren't able to reach your own conclusions, we think
you can benefit from the time spent thinking the issues through. In such
cases, philosophy shows you something important aboutthe limitations
of your knowledge. What's more, even if you can’t find the right answer
to a philosophical question, you maystill be able to achieve a deeper
understanding of other people's views about the topic. And the better
weunderstand each other’s views, the better we understand each other.
Discussion Question
1. Lookat the list of philosophical questions with a friend. Do the two
ofyou disagree about the answerto a question?If you find a disagree-
ment, can you articulate it precisely? Then, how well can you give an
argument supporting your view?
Notes
1. Gen. 9:1-3 (NRSV).
2. You maybeableto find partsof this discussion online. Fora full transcript,
look in Bertrand Russell, Why I Am Not a Christian (London: Routledge,
2004), 125-152.
3. Russell and Coppleston could perhaps have beenstill more precise about
their disagreement. Their claim that Godis “supreme”is, we think, slightly
obscure. We suspect that when Coppleston says that Godis “supreme,” he
meant that Godis all-powerful, all-knowing, and perfectly morally good—
butit’s hard to be completely sure.
4, Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow, The Grand Design (New York:
Bantam Books, 2010), 1.
CHAPTER; 2
eee
1. Introduction
You probably know people who have profoundly different worldviews
from you and profoundly different views about howto lead a good life.
Perhaps you disagree whether there is a god, whetherit’s okay to eat
meat, or whether morality is objective. Philosophy is a conversation
about questions like these; a conversation between people with very
different personal convictions. In philosophy, evocations of personal
feelings are usually oflittle value because people's feelings about philo-
sophical questions differ so greatly. Appeals to authority and tradition
are not much better: one person's revered authority is another person's
discredited blowhard.
So whatis to be done? The short answeris that philosopherspresent
arguments for their views.
Sometimes, the word “argument”is used to mean dispute or debate
or quarrel. That's not what we mean. An argument,in our sense,is an at-
temptto justify some conclusion by rational means. Here is an example:
The quality of government in a country correlates positively with
voter turnout: the greater the voter turnout, the better the govern-
ment. Therefore, low voter turnout causes bad government. So if
youreeligible and you fail to vote, you make the government worse.
What’s more, democracy can only persist if enough people turn out
8 PuiLosopHy: ASKING QUESTIONS—SEEKING ANSWERS
to vote; therefore, if you're eligible to vote and you don't do so, you
imperil democracyitself. It follows that if you're eligible to vote,it’s
morally wrong for younot to doso.
The conclusion of this argumentis that Jumbo is not a reptile. The other
two statements are premises—these are statements that the writer as-
sumes while making her case for the conclusion. The premises are the
starting points of the argument. Sometimesit’s helpful to write an argu-
mentin this form, with a horizontal line separating the premises from
the conclusion:
Noelephantis a reptile.
Jumbois an elephant.
Jumbois not reptile.
The advantage of presenting arguments this wayis that it makes it ex-
plicit what the conclusion of the argument is and what the premises are
Here is another example:
Fido didn’t comein throughthecatflap:it’s tiny, and Fidois a large dog.
In this case the writer assumes that the cat flap is tiny and that Fidois
a large dog; these are his premises. He infers that Fido could not have
comein throughthecatflap; this is his conclusion.
What Are Arguments, and How Should We Evaluate Them? 9
Thecatflapis tiny.
Fidois a large dog.
Fido didn't comein throughthecatflap.
Look at these arguments. In each case, identify the premises and the
conclusion:
(a) Tom was at the party, for sure. He must have been drinking
because everybody at the party was drinking.
(b) Everyone wholives in Snooty Towersis stuck up. Mehdilivesin
Snooty Towers. Therefore, Mehdiis a snob.
(c) You should stop dating James. He swears at strangers in the
street, he never leaves a tip when he goesto a restaurant, and
his breath smells.
(d) The walking stick won't be very useful to Li Na: the stick is
rather short, and sheis verytall.
(e) Along holiday would be better for both of us, so we should go
forit!
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Lincoln, Abraham, 117, 149
Little Falls, N.Y., 22, 42
Little Tennessee river, 135
Liverpool, 110
Locks, 45
Logan, 155
London, 110
Long House, the, 18
Longstreet, General, 168
Lookout Mountain, 173
Losantiville, 124
Louisville, 117, 127
Lulbegrud creek, 151
Luray, 131, 132
Lyell, Sir Charles, cited, 126
“Packers,” 72
Packets, 50
Parton, James, cited, 120
Penn, William, 66
Pennsylvania, settlement of, 66
Pennsylvania Railroad, 77–85
“Pennsylvania Dutch,” 66
Pennsylvania canal, 74
Phelps, Abner, 9
Philadelphia, 41, 63
Pike, Pittsburg, 72;
Frederick, 93
Pineville gap, 143, 147
Pittsburg, 64, 71, 75, 83, 107, 156;
description of, 111, 115, 120, 122;
pike, 72
Pittsfield, Mass., 5
Point Pleasant, 155
Portage Railway, Allegheny, 75, 76, 80
Post, John, 23, 24
Potomac Company, 99
Potomac river, 86, 106
Powell, Ambrose, 142
Powell’s river, 134, 142
Prairies in Kentucky, 152
Princeton College, 66
Providence, R.I., 4
Puncheon floors, 140
Railways:
through the Berkshires, 9, 10;
from Albany to Schenectady, 9, 53;
early, 53, 56;
opposition to, 55;
growth of, 60, 109, 181;
West Shore, 59;
Erie, 60;
New York Central, 20, 30, 58, 60, 62;
Wabash, 102;
Baltimore and Ohio, 99, 101, 102, 110;
Southern Pacific, 109;
Union Pacific, 109;
Lake Shore, 110;
Norfolk and Western, 133;
Southern, 134, 170
Reading, Pa., 79
Red Star line, 108
Redstone, 117
Richardson, Judge John, 46
Rivers important in a country’s growth, 5–7, 16, 17, 24, 26, 31, 41,
122, 126, 133
Roads, in New England, 4, 6, 7;
stage, 64;
development of, 72;
indifference to, 87;
national interest in, 92;
Braddock’s, 90;
Cumberland, 93;
Frederick, 93;
National, 91, 93, 96;
Wilderness (Boone’s trail, Kentucky road, Virginia road, Caintuck
Hog road), 127, 149
Roanoke, 134
Robertson, James, goes to Watauga, 137;
pacifies the Indians, 139;
helps protect the new settlement, 155;
founds Nashborough, 163;
trusted by the people, 164;
portrait, 164;
ability, 172
Rochester, N.Y., 25, 52
Rochester, Colonel, 26, 41, 61, 132
“Rolling roads,” 88
Rome, 22, 46, 61
Roosevelt, Theodore, cited, 137, 140, 160
Ross’s Landing, 174
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