Philosophical Problems: Selected Readings

by Samuel Enoch Stumpf

Philosophical Problems, 4/e is a topically-organized philosophy reader containing 49 readings drawn from each major period from Classical to Contemporary. The fourth edition adds a unit on "Human Destiny" as well as new 20th century readings. The book is arranged in eight parts that cover these philosophical Knowledge, Reality and Idealism, God, Ethics, Freedom of the Will, Political Philosophy, Human Nature, and Human Destiny. An introduction contains Plato's three dialogues, Euthyphro, The Apology, and Crito, to show beginning students how a philosopher thinks about philosophical problems. Introductions to each philosophical problem acquaint readers with the nature of the problem to be explored, and headnotes precede each reading. Among other new fourth edition inclusions are Carol Gilligan on A Feminine Voice in Ethics, Simone de Beauvoir and Joyce Treblicott on the relevance of gender in the assignment of roles in society.

Genres: Philosophy

432 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1971

About the author

He was born to Hungarian immigrants Louis and Elizabeth Jergens Stumpf. Samuel Enoch Stumpf was Emeritus Professor of Philosophy and Emeritus Professor of Law at Vanderbilt University prior to his death in 1998, at the age of eighty.

He earned a B.S. in Business and Finance from the University of California at Los Angeles, a B.D. in Theology from Andover Newton Theological School, and a Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of Chicago. He joined the Vanderbilt faculty in 1948 and served as Chair of the Philosophy Department from 1952 to 1967.

After a five-year term as President of Cornell College, Professor Stumpf returned to Vanderbilt, where he remained until his retirement in 1984. Professor Stumpf's publications include Democratic Manifesto (1954), Morality and the Law (1966), and four McGraw-Hill textbooks: Socrates to Sartre: A History of Philosophy (1966; 6th ed., posthumous, 1999); Philosophical Readings: Selected Problems (1971; 4th ed., 1994); Philosophy: History and Problems (1971; 5th ed., 1994); and Elements of Philosophy: An Introduction (1979; 3rd ed., 1993).

Reviews

[Jonathan]

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[Jeremy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this for an introduction to philosophy class with Ron Horton.