Metaphysics and Epistemology

Stephen Hetherington is Professor of Philosophy at the University of New South Wales, Australia. His publications include Good Knowledge, Bad Knowledge (2001), Reality? Knowledge? Philosophy! (2003), Self-Knowledge (2007), Yes, But How Do You Know? (2009), and How To Know (2011).

• Source Acknowledgments xPreface and Acknowledgments xvIntroduction xviiPart I The Philosophical Image 11 Life and the Search for Philosophical Knowledge 3Plato, Republic2 Philosophical Questioning 14Bertrand Russell, The Problems of Philosophy3 Philosophy and Fundamental Images 20Wilfrid Sellars, “Philosophy and the Scientific Image of Man”4 Philosophy as the Analyzing of Key Concepts 27P.F. Strawson, Analysis and Metaphysics5 Philosophy as Explaining Underlying Possibilities 33Robert Nozick, Philosophical ExplanationsPart II Metaphysics: Philosophical Images of Being 41How Is the World at all Physical? 436 How Real Are Physical Objects? 43Bertrand Russell, The Problems of Philosophy7 Are Physical Objects Never Quite as They Appear To Be? 48John Locke, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding8 Are Physical Objects Really Only Objects of Thought? 54George Berkeley, The Principles of Human Knowledge9 Is Even the Mind Physical? 60D.M. Armstrong, “The Causal Theory of the Mind”10 Is the Physical World All There Is? 66Frank Jackson, “Epiphenomenal Qualia”How Does the World Function? 7411 Is Causation Only a Kind of Regularity? 74David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding12 Is Causation Something Singular and Unanalyzable? 81G.E.M. Anscombe, “Causation and Determination”How Do Things Ever Have Qualities? 8813 How Can Individual Things Have Repeatable Qualities? 88Plato, Parmenides14 How Can Individual Things Not Have Repeatable Qualities? 95D.M. Armstrong, Nominalism and RealismHow Are There Any Truths? 10215 Do Facts Make True Whatever Is True? 102Bertrand Russell, “The Philosophy of Logical Atomism”16 Are There Social Facts? 107John Searle, Mind, Language and Society17 Is There Only Personally Decided Truth? 114Plato, TheaetetusHow Is There a World At All? 12018 Has the World Been Designed by God? 120David Hume, Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion19 Is God’s Existence Knowable Purely Conceptually? 131St. Anselm, Proslogion20 Has This World Been Actualized by God from Among All Possible Worlds? 145G.W. Leibniz, Monadology21 Does This World Exist Because It Has Value Independently of God? 149Nicholas Rescher, Nature and Understanding22 Can Something Have Value in Itself? 158Plato, EuthyphroHow Are Persons Persons? 16123 Is Each Person a Union of Mind and Body? 161René Descartes, “Meditation VI”24 Is Self-Consciousness what Constitutes a Person? 164John Locke, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding25 How Strictly Does Self-Consciousness Constitute a Person? 170Roderick M. Chisholm, “Identity through Time”26 Are Persons Constituted with Strict Identity At All? 177Derek Parfit, Reasons and Persons27 Are We Animals? 187Eric T. Olson, “An Argument for Animalism”How Do People Ever Have Free Will and Moral Responsibility? 19628 Is There No Possibility of Acting Differently To How One Will in Fact Act? 196Aristotle, De Interpretatione29 Could Our Being Entirely Caused Coexist with Our Acting Freely? 200David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding30 Would Being Entirely Caused Undermine Our Personally Constitutive Emotions? 206P.F. Strawson, “Freedom and Resentment”31 Is a Person Morally Responsible Only for Actions Performed Freely? 213Harry G. Frankfurt, “Alternate Possibilities and Moral Responsibility”32 Is Moral Responsibility for a Good Action Different to Moral Responsibility for a Bad Action? 218Susan Wolf, “Asymmetrical Freedom”How Could a Person Be Harmed by Being Dead? 22433 Is It Impossible To Be Harmed by Being Dead? 224Epicurus, “Letter to Menoeceus”34 Is It Impossible To Be Harmed by Being Dead at a Particular Time? 226Lucretius, De Rerum Natura35 Would Immortality Be Humanly Possible and Desirable? 229Bernard Williams, “The Makropulos Case: Reflections on the Tedium of Immortality”36 Can a Person be Deprived of Benefits by Being Dead? 236Fred Feldman, Confrontations with the ReaperFurther Readings for Part II 240Part III Epistemology: Philosophical Images of Knowing 245Can We Understand What It Is to Know? 24737 Is Knowledge a Supported True Belief? 247Plato, Meno38 When Should a Belief be Supported by Evidence? 251W.K. Clifford, “The Ethics of Belief”39 Is Knowledge a Kind of Objective Certainty? 256A.J. Ayer, The Problem of Knowledge40 Are All Fallibly Supported True Beliefs Instances of Knowledge? 260Edmund L. Gettier, “Is Justified True Belief Knowledge?”41 Must a True Belief Arise Aptly, if it is to be Knowledge? 264Alvin I. Goldman, “A Causal Theory of Knowing”42 Must a True Belief Arise Reliably, if it is to be Knowledge? 268Alvin I. Goldman, “Discrimination and Perceptual Knowledge”43 Where is the Value in Knowing? 273Catherine Z. Elgin, “The Epistemic Efficacy of Stupidity”44 Is Knowledge Always a Virtuously Derived True Belief? 279Linda Trinkaus Zagzebski, Virtues of the MindCan We Ever Know Just through Observation? 28745 Is All Knowledge Ultimately Observational? 287David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding46 Is There a Problem of Not Knowing that One Is Not Dreaming? 292René Descartes, “Meditation I”47 What Is It Really to be Seeing Something? 295David Lewis, “Veridical Hallucination and Prosthetic Vision”48 Is There a Possibility of Being a Mere and Unknowing Brain in a Vat? 302Hilary Putnam, Reason, Truth and History49 Is It Possible to Observe Directly the Objective World? 311John McDowell, “The Disjunctive Conception of Experience as Material for a Transcendental Argument”Can We Ever Know Innately? 31750 Is It Possible to Know Innately Some Geometrical or Mathematical Truths? 317Plato, Meno51 Is There No Innate Knowledge At All? 325John Locke, An Essay Concerning Human UnderstandingCan We Ever Know Just through Reflection? 33552 Is All Knowledge Ultimately Reflective? 335René Descartes, Discourse on Method53 Can Reflective Knowledge Be Substantive and Informative? 340Immanuel Kant, Critique of Pure Reason54 Is All Apparently Reflective Knowledge Ultimately Observational? 349John Stuart Mill, A System of Logic55 Is Scientific Reflection Our Best Model for Understanding Reflection? 355C.S. Peirce, “Some Consequences of Four Incapacities” and “How To Make Our Ideas Clear”56 Are Some Necessities Known through Observation, Not Reflection? 363Saul A. Kripke, Naming and NecessityCan We Know in Other Fundamental Ways? 36957 Is Knowing-How a Distinct Way of Knowing? 369Gilbert Ryle, “Knowing How and Knowing That”58 Is Knowing One’s Intention-in-Action a Distinct Way of Knowing? 376G.E.M. Anscombe, Intention59 Is Knowing via What Others Say or Write a Distinct Way of Knowing? 383Jennifer Lackey, “Knowing from Testimony”60 Is Knowing through Memory a Distinct Way of Knowing? 391Bertrand Russell, The Analysis of MindCan We Fundamentally Fail Ever To Know? 39961 Are None of our Beliefs More Justifiable than Others? 399Sextus Empiricus, Outlines of Pyrrhonism62 Are None of Our Beliefs Immune from Doubt? 407René Descartes, “Meditation I”63 Are We Unable Ever To Extrapolate Justifiedly Beyond Our Observations? 410David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human UnderstandingCan Skeptical Arguments Be Escaped? 41764 Can We Know at Least Our Conscious Mental Lives? 417René Descartes, “Meditation II”65 Can We Know Some Fundamental Principles by Common Sense? 422Thomas Reid, Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man66 Do We Know a Lot, but Always Fallibly? 434Karl R. Popper, “On the Sources of Knowledge and of Ignorance”67 Is It Possible to have Knowledge even when Not Knowing that One Is Not a Brain in a Vat? 444Robert Nozick, Philosophical ExplanationsFurther Readings for Part III 452