Core Questions in Philosophy by Sober, Elliott; Velasco, Joel;

Short description:

In this 9th edition of Core Questions in Philosophy, Elliott Sober and Joel Velasco use an engaging lecture-style format to show students how philosophy is best used to evaluate many different kinds of arguments and to construct sound theories. 

Long description:

In this 9th edition of Core Questions in Philosophy, Elliott Sober and Joel Velasco use an engaging lecture-style format to show students how philosophy is best used to evaluate many different kinds of arguments and to construct sound theories. Well-known historical texts are discussed, not as a means to honor the dead or merely to describe what various philosophers have thought, but to engage with, criticize, and even improve ideas from the past. In addition—because philosophy cannot function apart from its engagement with the wider society—traditional and contemporary philosophical problems are brought into dialogue with the physical, biological, and social sciences. Text boxes highlight key concepts, and review questions, discussion questions, and a glossary of terms are also included.　

Core Questions in Philosophy has served as a premier introductory textbook for three decades, with updates to each new edition.　

Key updates to this 9th edition include:　

• A new concluding chapter on the meaning of life.


• The integration of non-Western thinkers throughout the book.


• Expanded discussions on utilitarianism, virtue ethics, free will, and epistemology.


• Updated material from philosophy and empirical research throughout.　　

Revisions to the online list of recommended resources include:　

• Additional recommendations of supplementary readings, with updated source links to all reading material.


• New recommended videos and podcasts, all organized by their relevance to each chapter in the book. 　

Praise for the previous editions:

"A really excellent introduction to philosophy does the following: meets the student at their level, then takes them up a notch, and approaches traditional topics in unique and interesting ways. This book does those things."

-- Fred Adams, University of Delaware

Table of Contents:

Part I: Introduction  1. What Is Philosophy?  2. Deductive Arguments  3. Inductive and Abductive Arguments  Part II: Philosophy of Religion  4. Aquinas’s First Four Ways  5. The Design Argument  6. Evolution and Creationism  7. Can Science Explain Everything?  8. The Ontological Argument  9. Is the Existence of God Testable?  10. Pascal and Irrationality  11. The Argument from Evil  Part III: Theory of Knowledge  12. What Is Knowledge?　  13. Descartes’ Foundationalism  14. The Reliability Theory of Knowledge  15. Justified Belief and Hume’s Problem of Induction  16. Can Hume’s Skepticism Be Refuted?  17. Beyond Foundationalism  18. Locke on the Existence of External Objects  19. Probability and Bayes’s Theorem  Part IV: Philosophy of Mind  20. Dualism and the Mind/Body Problem  21. Logical Behaviorism  22. Methodological Behaviorism  23. The Mind/Brain Identity Theory  24. Functionalism  25. Freedom, Determinism, and Causality  26. A Menu of Positions on Free Will  27. Compatibilism  28. Psychological Egoism  Part V: Ethics  29. Ethics—Normative and Meta  30. The Is/Ought Gap and the Naturalistic Fallacy  31. Observation and Explanation in Ethics  32. Conventionalist Theories  33. Utilitarianism  34. Kant’s Moral Theory  35. Aristotle on the Good Life  36. The Meaning of Life