The Latest Answers to the Oldest Questions: A Philosophical Adventure with the World's Greatest ThinkersThe work of the classic philosophers is well known. But what do contemporary thinkers say about what it is to be a human being? In his serious, challenging, and remarkably accessible new book, Nicholas Fearn turns to contemporary philosophers to ask the age old questions: Who am I? What do I know? What should I do? In his search for higher meaning, Fearn consults with thinkers from around the world (including John Searle, Martha Nussbaum, Peter Singer, Richard Rorty, Daniel Dennett, Noam Chomsky, Derek Parfit, Nick Bostrom, among many others) to create an impressive survey of recent thought. Variously, they believe that free will, identity, and consciousness are not what they seem; that the difference between virtue and wickedness can be a matter of sheer luck; and that, one day, we will all be vegetarians. Fearn discovers that the topics haven’t changed, though our world has. Or has it? Moving deftly from pop culture to the writings of Plato, Philosophy is a brilliant and entertaining guide to the current state of the philosophical thought. |
Contents
the problem of the self | 3 |
free will and fate | 18 |
minds and machines | 38 |
bodies and souls | 56 |
the problem of knowledge | 75 |
the problem of meaning | 93 |
innate ideas | 107 |
the language of thought | 119 |
Other editions - View all
The Latest Answers to the Oldest Questions: A Philosophical Adventure with ... Nicholas Fearn No preview available - 2005 |
Common terms and phrases
able According achieved actions American philosopher animals answer argued behaviour Bernard Williams better body Bostrom brain causal century Chalmers Chomsky cognitive Colin McGinn colour compatibilist concepts consciousness Daniel Dennett death Descartes Dreyfus Earth English philosopher example existence experience explain external fact faculties feel Fodor Friedrich Nietzsche H₂O human idea identity imagine Immanuel Kant individual innate Jerry Fodor Kant kind knowledge language learning linguistic lives look Ludwig Wittgenstein machine matter McGinn meaning mental mind moral luck mysterians neurons never Nick Bostrom Noam Chomsky Nozick objects once one's Oxford Perhaps person Peter Singer philo philosopher Plato possess possible postmodern Putnam question reason Robert Nozick Rorty Searle seems sense simulation Singer Sisyphus Socrates someone soul supposed survive Swampman talk theory things thinkers Thomas Nagel thought true belief truth understand University Press utilitarian Wittgenstein words wrote