The Big Questions

Robert C. Solomon (1942-2007) was internationally renowned as a teacher and lecturer in philosophy. He was Quincy Lee Centennial Professor and Distinguished Teaching Professor at the University of Texas at Austin. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan and over the course of his career taught at numerous institutions, including Princeton University, the University of Pittsburgh, the University of Auckland, and the University of California, in addition to the University of Texas. He authored more than 40 books, including Introducing Philosophy, A Short History of Philosophy (with Kathleen Higgins), The Passions, In the Spirit of Hegel, About Love, Above the Bottom Line, Fourth Edition (with Clancy Martin), Ethics and Excellence, The Joy of Philosophy, and True to Our Feelings, and he was co-editor of Twenty Questions, Fifth Edition (with Lee Bowie and Meredith Michaels), and Since Socrates (with Clancy Martin). Kathleen M. Higgins is professor at the University of Texas at Austin. She received her Ph.D. from Yale University and has taught at the University of Auckland and the University of California, Riverside, in addition to the University of Texas. She is the author of several books, including Nietzsche's "Zarathustra," The Music of Our Lives, Comic Relief: Nietzsche's "Gay Science," The Music between Us: Is Music the Universal Language? and co-author of What Nietzsche Really Said, A Short History of Philosophy, and A Passion for Wisdom (with Robert C. Solomon). She has edited or co-edited numerous books, including Aesthetics in Perspective and Thirteen Questions in Ethics and Social Philosophy, Second Edition (with Lee Bowie and Meredith Michaels).

• PREFACE.Doing Philosophy. A Little Logic. Closing Questions. Key Words. Works Cited. Other Suggested Readings.1. PHILOSOPHICAL QUESTIONS.What is Philosophy? Opening Questions. Key Words. Works Cited. Other Suggested Readings.2. THE MEANING OF LIFE.Opening Questions. What Kind of Meaning? The Meanings of Life. Closing Questions. Key Words. Works Cited. Other Suggested Readings.3. GOD.Opening Questions. Believing in God, Gods and Goddesses. The Traditional Western Conceptions of God. The Problem of Evil. Faith and Reason: Grounds for Believing. Religious Tolerance: Ritual, Tradition, and Spirituality. Doubts. Closing Questions. Key Words. Works Cited. Other Suggested Readings.4. THE NATURE OF REALITY.Opening Questions. The Real World. What is Most Real? The First Metaphysicians. Early Nonphysical Views of Reality. Plato’s Forms. Aristotle’s Metaphysics. Mind and Metaphysics. Idealism. Teleology. Metaphysics and the Everyday World. Closing Questions. Key Words. Works Cited. Other Suggested Readings.5. THE SEARCH FOR THE TRUTH.Opening Questions. What is True? Two Kinds of Truth. Rationalism and Empiricism. The Presuppositions of Knowledge. Skepticism. Knowledge, Truth, and Science. The Nature of Truth. Rationality. Subjective Truth and the Problem of Relativism. Closing Questions. Key Words. Works Cited. Other Suggested Readings.6. SELF.Opening Questions. The Essential Self. The Self and Its Emotions. The Egocentric Predicament. The Mind-Body Problem. Other Theories of the Self. Closing Questions. Key Words. Works Cited. Other Suggested Readings.7. FREEDOM.Opening Questions. Freedom and the Good Life. Free Will and Determinism. Closing Questions. Key Words. Works Cited. Other Suggested Readings.8. MORALITY AND THE GOOD LIFE.Opening Questions. Moral Philosophy. Pleasure and the Good Life. The Place of Self-Interest: Egoism Versus Altruism. Morality: Relative or Absolute? Morality and Theories of Morality. Duty-Defined Morality. Consequentialist Theories. Aristotle and the Ethics of Virtue. Feminist Ethics: The Ethics of Care. Closing Questions. Key Words. Works Cited. Other Suggested Readings.9. JUSTICE AND THE GOOD SOCIETY.Opening Questions. Morals and Society. The Nature of Society. Who Should Rule? The Question of Legitimacy. Anarchism, the Free Market, and the Need for Government. What is Justice? The Meaning of Equality. The Origins of Justice and Social Contract. Justice Beyond Our Borders. Rights and the Self. Justice Denied: The Problem of Race. Sexual Politics: The Rise of Feminist Philosophy. Closing Questions. Key Words. Works Cited. Other Suggested Readings.10. BEAUTY.Opening Questions. Aesthetics, Beauty and Truth. Enjoying Tragedy. Arguing About Taste, Art, Ethics, and Religion. Why Is It Art? The Aesthetics of Popular Culture. Closing Questions. Key Words. Works Cited. Other Suggested Readings.11. NON-WESTERN PHILOSOPHY.Opening Questions. Beyond the Western Tradition. The Challenges of Broadening Our Horizons. Other Cultures, Other Philosophies. Closing Questions. Key Words. Works Cited. Other Suggested Readings.Appendix A: Writing Philosophy.Opening Questions. The Rules of Good Writing in Philosophy. Indirect Styles. Works Cited. Other Suggested Readings.Appendix B: Deductive Logic Valued Argument Forms.Works Cited.Appendix C: Common Informal Fallacies.Informal Fallacies. Works Cited.Glossary.Index.