The Great Conversation
A Historical Introduction to Philosophy
Published on 7. July 2011
Book
Hardback
784 pages
978-0-19-539761-1 (ISBN)
Description
Now in its sixth edition, this historically organized introductory text treats philosophy as a dramatic and continuous story--a conversation about humankind's deepest and most persistent concerns. Tracing the exchange of ideas among history's key philosophers, The Great Conversation: A Historical Introduction to Philosophy, Sixth Edition, demonstrates that while constructing an argument or making a claim, one philosopher almost always has others in mind. The book addresses the fundamental questions of human life: Who are we? What can we know? How should we live? and What sort of reality do we inhabit? The sixth edition retains the distinctive feature of previous editions: author Norman Melchert provides a generous selection of excerpts from major philosophical works and makes them more easily understandable to students with his lucid and engaging explanations. Ranging from the Pre-Socratics to Derrida, Quine, and Dennett, the selections are organized historically and include four complete works: Plato's Euthyphro, Apology, and Crito, and Descartes' Meditations on First Philosophy.
The author's commentary offers a rich intellectual and cultural context for the philosophical ideas conveyed in the excerpts. Extensive cross-referencing shows students how philosophers respond appreciatively or critically to the thoughts of other philosophers. The text is enhanced by two types of exercises--"Basic Questions" and "For Further Thought"--and fifty illustrations. NEW TO THE SIXTH EDITION: * Coverage of Taoism, Iris Murdoch, and Zen * An expanded portrait of Jean-Paul Sartre * A more concise, single-chapter treatment of Wittgenstein (Chapter 22) * Key terms, boldfaced throughout and listed at chapter ends * Brief and provocative quotations that stimulate thought and provoke questions * A new section on how to read philosophy * A new appendix: Writing a Philosophy Paper * A two-color format that enhances the text's visual appeal * A Companion Website at www.oup.com/us/melchert featuring resources for students including key points, flashcards, multiple-choice questions, and Internet resources * A revised Instructor's Manual and Test Bank (available on the companion website and on CD) containing key points, teaching suggestions, and multiple-choice, short-answer, and essay exam questions The Great Conversation, Sixth Edition, is also available in two paperback volumes to suit your course needs.
Volume I: Pre-Socratics through Descartes includes chapters 1-13 of the combined volume, while Volume II: Descartes through Derrida and Quine includes chapters 12-25.
The author's commentary offers a rich intellectual and cultural context for the philosophical ideas conveyed in the excerpts. Extensive cross-referencing shows students how philosophers respond appreciatively or critically to the thoughts of other philosophers. The text is enhanced by two types of exercises--"Basic Questions" and "For Further Thought"--and fifty illustrations. NEW TO THE SIXTH EDITION: * Coverage of Taoism, Iris Murdoch, and Zen * An expanded portrait of Jean-Paul Sartre * A more concise, single-chapter treatment of Wittgenstein (Chapter 22) * Key terms, boldfaced throughout and listed at chapter ends * Brief and provocative quotations that stimulate thought and provoke questions * A new section on how to read philosophy * A new appendix: Writing a Philosophy Paper * A two-color format that enhances the text's visual appeal * A Companion Website at www.oup.com/us/melchert featuring resources for students including key points, flashcards, multiple-choice questions, and Internet resources * A revised Instructor's Manual and Test Bank (available on the companion website and on CD) containing key points, teaching suggestions, and multiple-choice, short-answer, and essay exam questions The Great Conversation, Sixth Edition, is also available in two paperback volumes to suit your course needs.
Volume I: Pre-Socratics through Descartes includes chapters 1-13 of the combined volume, while Volume II: Descartes through Derrida and Quine includes chapters 12-25.
More details
Edition
Sixth Edition
Language
English
Place of publication
Oxford
United Kingdom
Target group
College/higher education
Illustrations
Illustrations, maps
Dimensions
Height: 190 mm
Width: 228 mm
Thickness: 33 mm
Weight
1398 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-19-539761-1 (9780195397611)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Content
*=NEW TO THIS EDITION; 1. BEFORE PHILOSOPHY: MYTH IN HESIOD AND HOMER; Hesiod: War among the Gods; Homer: Heroes, Gods, and Excellence; 2. PHILOSOPHY BEFORE SOCRATES; Thales: The One as Water; Anaximander: The One as the Boundless; Xenophanes: The Gods as Fictions; SKETCH: PYTHAGORAS; Heraclitus: Oneness in the Logos; * PROFILE: THE TAO; Parmenides: Only the One; Zeno: The Paradoxes of Common Sense; Atomism: The One and the Many Reconciled; 3. THE SOPHISTS: RHETORIC AND RELATIVISM IN ATHENS; Democracy; The Persian Wars; The Sophists; Physis and Nomos; Athens and Sparta at War; Aristophanes and Reaction; 4. SOCRATES: TO KNOW ONESELF; Character; Is Socrates a Sophist?; What Socrates "Knows"; 5. THE TRIAL AND DEATH OF SOCRATES; Translator's Introduction; The Dialogue; Commentary and Questions; Translator's Introduction; The Dialogue; Commentary and Questions; Translator's Introduction; The Dialogue; Commentary and Questions; Phaedo (Death Scene); Translator's Introduction; The Dialogue (Selection); Commentary and Questions; 6. PLATO: KNOWING THE REAL AND THE GOOD; Knowledge and Opinion; The World and the Forms; The Love of Wisdom; The Soul; Morality; The State; Problems with the Forms; 7. ARISTOTLE: THE REALITY OF THE WORLD; Aristotle and Plato; Logic and Knowledge; The World; First Philosophy; The Soul; The Good Life; 8. EPICUREANS, STOICS, AND SKEPTICS: HAPPINESS FOR THE MANY; The Epicureans; The Stoics; The Skeptics; 9. THE CHRISTIANS: SIN, SALVATION, AND LOVE; Background; Jesus; The Meaning of Jesus; 10. AUGUSTINE: GOD AND THE SOUL; Wisdom, Happiness, and God; The Interior Teacher; God and the World; Human Nature and Its Corruption; Human Nature and Its Restoration; Augustine on Relativism; The Two Cities; Christians and Philosophers; 11. ANSELM AND AQUINAS: EXISTENCE AND ESSENCE IN GOD AND THE WORLD; Anselm: On That, Than Which No Greater Can Be Conceived; Thomas Aquinas: Rethinking Aristotle; SKETCH: AVICENNA (IBN SINA); SKETCH: AVERROES (IBN RUSHD); SKETCH: MAIMONIDES (MOSES BEN MAIMON); Ockham and Skeptical Doubts--Again; 12. MOVING FROM MEDIEVAL TO MODERN; The World God Made for Us; The Humanists; Reforming the Church; Skeptical Thoughts Revived; Copernicus to Kepler to Galileo: The Great Triple Play; 13. RENE DESCARTES: DOUBTING OUR WAY TO CERTAINTY; The Method; Meditations: Commentary and Questions; Meditation I; Meditation II; Meditation III; Meditation IV; Meditation V; Meditation VI; What Has Descartes Done?; 14. HOBBES, LOCKE, AND BERKELEY: MATERIALISM AND THE BEGINNINGS OF EMPIRICISM; Thomas Hobbes: Catching Persons in the Net of the New Science; SKETCH: FRANCIS BACON; John Locke: Looking to Experience; George Berkeley: Ideas into Things; 15. DAVID HUME: UNMASKING THE PRETENSIONS OF REASON; How Newton Did It; To Be the Newton of Human Nature; The Theory of Ideas; The Association of Ideas; Causation: The Very Idea; The Disappearing Self; SKETCH: THE BUDDHA; Rescuing Human Freedom; Is It Reasonable to Believe in God?; Understanding Morality; Is Hume a Skeptic?; 16. IMMANUEL KANT: REHABILITATING REASON (WITHIN STRICT LIMITS); Critique; Judgments; Geometry, Mathematics, Space, and Time; Common Sense, Science, and the A Priori Categories; SKETCH: BARUCH SPINOZA; Phenomena and Noumena; SKETCH: GOTTFRIED WILHELM VON LEIBNIZ; Reasoning and the Ideas of Metaphysics: God, World, and Soul; Reason and Morality; SKETCH: JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU; 17. GEORG WILHELM FRIEDRICH HEGEL: TAKING HISTORY SERIOUSLY; Historical and Intellectual Context; Epistemology Internalized; SKETCH: ARTHUR SCHOPENHAUER; Self and Others; Stoic and Skeptical Consciousness; Hegel's Analysis of Christianity; Reason and Reality: The Theory of Idealism; Spirit Made Objective: The Social Character of Ethics; History and Freedom; 18. KIERKEGAARD AND MARX: TWO WAYS TO "CORRECT" HEGEL; Kierkegaard: On Individual Existence; Marx: Beyond Alienation and Exploitation; 19. THE UTILITARIANS: MORAL RULES AND THE HAPPINESS OF ALL (INCLUDING WOMEN); The Classic Utilitarians; The Rights of Women; 20. FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE: THE VALUE OF EXISTENCE; Pessimism and Tragedy; Good-bye Real World; The Death of God; Revaluation of Values; * PROFILE: IRIS MURDOCH; The Overman; Affirming Eternal Recurrence; 21. THE PRAGMATISTS: THOUGHT AND ACTION; Charles Sanders Peirce; John Dewey; SKETCH: WILLIAM JAMES; * 22. LUDWIG WITTGENSTEIN: LINGUISTIC ANALYSIS AND ORDINARY LANGUAGE; Language and Its Logic; SKETCH: BERTRAND RUSSELL; Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus; * PROFILE: THE LOGICAL POSITIVISTS; The Continuity of Wittgenstein's Thought; * PROFILE: ZEN; Our Groundless Certainty; 23. MARTIN HEIDEGGER: THE MEANING OF BEING; What Is the Question?; The Clue; Phenomenology; Being-in-the-World; The "Who" of Dasein; Modes of Disclosure; Falling-Away; Care; Truth; Death; Conscience, Guilt, and Resoluteness; Temporality as the Meaning of Care; The Priority of Being; 24. SIMONE DE BEAUVOIR: EXISTENTIALIST, FEMINIST; Ambiguity; PROFILE: JEAN-PAUL SARTRE; Ethics; Woman; 25. POSTMODERNISM AND PHYSICAL REALISM: DERRIDA, QUINE, AND DENNETT; Postmodernism; * PROFILE: RICHARD RORTY; Physical Realism