Ward, Dave
(Alasadair Richmond, Matthew Chrisman, Duncan Pritchard, Jane Suilli Lavelle, Michela Massimi)
Philosophy for Everyone
Routledge, London and New York,
The University of Edimburgh, 2014
It was great finding the PDF file of this text, convert it to Word, and using it as one of the tools for the Coursera / University of Edinburgh introductory 5-week course of Introduction to Philosophy. The six authors write on epistemology, philosophy of science, philosophy of mind, moral philosophy, and metaphysics.
The book was a powerful tool because it is structured like the university course. Then it becomes a good instrument to find relevant questions, reading references, advanced reading, podcasts … and homework! The experience is that though it offers a vast content in 5 weeks, it goes far beyond the student’s capacity.
In our present world, when the key political systems have failed, and when we have the COVID19 pandemics, Philosophy is one of the most important topics to think about what should be coming next, after Capitalism or Communism, at the moment when computer languages, systems, and networks are “replacing” many functions of individuals. In this field, we are connecting the pre-Socratic philosophers (5th century BC) with authors like Yuval Noah Harari (XXI st Century).
I enjoyed how the authors characterize philosophy as stepping back on any of its fields, even philosophy included: getting it right and think! Well, and this has been happening during the last 26 centuries, at least! It has been difficult, important, and developed everywhere.
The titles of the different chapters were:
• Knowledge we have and meaning of having a mind
• Morality, is it objective, relative, or emotive?
• Should we believe what we hear?
• Are scientific theories true?
• Time travel and metaphysics
I love the way how every chapter ends with:
• Summary
• Study questions
• Further reading
• Advanced further reading
• Internet resources
• Glossary of key terms (final chapter).
It’s interesting to see how the text opens the readers’ attention to the many ways of thinking and tools that have been used by philosophers.
Philosophy is something that we can’t escape in our lives. For philosophers, this is the same as the task of trying to think about things in the right, or best, way. What might be meant by the ‘right way’ to think about things? Could I consider the Eightfold Path from Buddhists?
Let’s see about the importance of developing philosophical works as dialogues. Are we free? Capacity to formulate hypotheses.
Two things that just about every epistemologist agrees on are that a prerequisite for possessing knowledge is that one has a belief in the relevant proposition and that that belief must be true.
Consciousness is the ‘what-it’s-likeness’ to have certain psychological states. There is something it is like to listen to a symphony orchestra, to smell baking bread, or to see a red rose, however, pinning down consciousness beyond this what-it’s-likeness is very difficult.
Moral judgments explain three types of philosophical theories about the status of morality: objectivism, relativism, and emotivism.
My feeling is that I should:
• find the time to go back to the book,
• work on the different chapters (which means reading again the specific chapter) and develop a deeper understanding.
• Read and study about the Enlightenment, which was an important period of intellectual history, roughly from 1700 to 1800.
• Hume
• Kant - Enlightenment is man’s emergence from his self-incurred immaturity. Immaturity is the inability to use one’s own understanding without the guidance of another. … The motto of the enlightenment is, therefore: Sapiere aude! Have the courage to use your own understanding. (1784/1991: 54)
• Scientific antirealism: Bas van Fraassen’s constructive empiricism.
• Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
That’s why I think that working through this book, you will be investing time in an activity that is valuable for us all.