Philosophy: Basic Readings is an acclaimed anthology that brings philosophy to life with a rich and stimulating selection of philosophical writings on key topics. Preface xi Preface to the second edition xiii Introduction: What is Philosophy? 1(2) What Does It All Mean? 3(2) Thomas Nagel Philosophy 5(6) Edward Craig Think 11(6) Simon Blackburn Analytic Philosophy 17(4) D. H. Mellor The Method of Philosophy 21(3) A. J. Ayer The Value of Philosophy 24(5) Bertrand Russell Sense and Nonsense 29(10) Bryan Magee SECTION I: GOD 39(96) Proofs of God 41(14) Martin Gardner The Wager 55(3) Blaise Pascal Evil and Omnipotence 58(11) J. L. Mackie Why God Allows Evil 69(11) Richard Swinburne Of Miracles 80(11) David Hume Viruses of the Mind 91(12) Richard Dawkins Is God a Fiction? 103(15) Robin Le Poidevin The Makropulos Case: Reflections on the Tedium of Immortality 118(17) Bernard Williams SECTION II: RIGHT AND WRONG 135(88) About Ethics 137(9) Peter Singer The Categorical Imperative 146(2) Immanuel Kant The Experience Machine 148(3) Robert Nozick Higher and Lower Pleasures 151(5) John Stuart Mill A Critique of Utilitarianism 156(14) Bernard Williams The Solzhenitsyn Principle 170(4) Jonathan Glover Neo-Aristotelianism 174(13) Rosalind Hursthouse A Defence of Abortion 187(15) Judith Jarvis Thomson Moral Luck 202(12) Thomas Nagel Relativism 214(4) Bernard Williams Desire and the Meaning of Life 218(5) Simon Blackburn SECTION III: POLITICS 223(66) Political Philosophy 225(3) Jonathan Wolff Of the Natural Condition of Mankind 228(4) Thomas Hobbes Two Concepts of Liberty 232(11) Isaiah Berlin A New Map of Censorship 243(6) Ronald Dworkin Playthings of Alien Forces: Karl Marx and the Rejection of the Market Economy 249(9) Jonathan Wolff Discrimination and Sexual Justice 258(12) Janet Radcliffe Richards Letter From Birmingham City Jail 270(7) Martin Luther King Jr All Animals Are Equal 277(12) Peter Singer SECTION IV: THE EXTERNAL WORLD 289(48) About the Things We May Doubt 291(7) Rene Descartes Descartes 298(17) Bernard Williams Bryan Magee Colours 315(3) George Berkeley Of the Origin of Ideas 318(4) David Hume Disembodied Telepresence and the Remoteness of the Real 322(15) Hubert Dreyfus SECTION V: SCIENCE 337(50) Why Expect the Sun to Rise Tomorrow? 339(9) Stephen Law Nature 348(3) Jean-Paul Sartre The Problem of Demarcation 351(11) Karl Popper Anomaly and the Emergence of Scientific Discoveries 362(3) Thomas Kuhn How to Defend Society Against Science 365(11) Paul Feyerabend Feyerabend: Anything Goes 376(6) Alain Sokal Jean Bricmont Wittgenstein and the Two Cultures 382(5) Ray Monk SECTION VI: MIND 387(68) `The Diary' and `The Beetle in the Box' 389(2) Ludwig Wittgenstein Sensations and Brain Processes 391(12) J. J. C. Smart Minds, Brains, and Programs 403(19) John R. Searle What is it Like to Be a Bat? 422(12) Thomas Nagel Where Am I? 434(12) Daniel C. Dennett The Disembodied Lady 446(9) Oliver Sacks SECTION VII: ART 455(102) Art and Mimesis in Plato's `Republic' 457(18) M. F. Burnyeat Significant Form 475(5) Clive Bell The Intentional Fallacy 480(13) W. K. Wimsatt Jr Monroe C. Beardsley Of the Standard of Taste 493(15) David Hume Two Paradoxes 508(4) Michael Clark Photography and Representation 512(24) Roger Scruton What is Wrong with a Forgery? 536(14) Alfred Lessing Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote 550(7) Jorge Luis Borges Appendix 1: suggestions for further reading 557(3) Appendix 2: acknowledgements and sources 560(4) Index 564