THINK --- A COMPELLING INTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHY
by Simon Blackburn. Oxford University Press, 1999
OUTLINE OF BOOK'S FACTS & IDEAS
PREFACE --- This book grew from years of wrestling with the problems of trying to interest people in ideas! I have done this as a teacher, but also as someone who has tried to explain the value of the humanitites in general, and philosophy in particular, to a wider audience. I had superb editing but nothing would have been possible without the support of my long-suffering wife who had to deal with the burdens of having a writing husband. (pv-vi)
INTRODUCTION --- This book is for people who want to think about the big themes --- Knowledge, Reason, Truth, Mind, Freedom, Destiny, Identity, God, Goodness, and Justice. These are the ideas that men and women wonder about naturally, for they structure the ways we think about the world and our place in it.
The word "philosophy" carries unfortunate connotations --- impractical, unworldly, weird. Therefore, the words "conceptual engineering!" are preferable for describing what philosophers do! For just as the engineer studies the structure of material things, so philosophers study the structure of thought.
Understanding the structure of thought involves seeing how parts function and how they interconnect. Philosophy means knowing what would happen for better or worse if changes were made! This is our purpose when we investigate the structures that shape our view of the world.
Our concepts or ideas form the "mental housing" in which we live. But, before we change our behavior, we have to know what our major ideas are in the first place!
This book is "self-standing" since the ideas are self-explanatory and do not need other books to comprehend them. However, after reading this book, you will be able to pick up the classics, or other books on logic or ethics, with a "prepared mind." (p1-13)
[1] What are we to think about? (p2-5)
[2] What is the point? --- It is because of ideas about what others are like, or who we are, or what our interests or rights require, that we go to war, or oppress others with a good conscience, or even sometimes acquiesce in our own oppression by others! (p6-13)
When these ideas or beliefs involve the sleep of reason (emotional disconnect), "critical awakening" is the antidote for survival!
REFLECTION enables you to step back and to see your perspective on a situation as perhaps distorted or blind. At the very least, you can see if there is an argument (reasons) for preferring your ways, or whether your ways are simply subjective!
Doing this analysis (reflection) properly is doing one more piece of conceptual engineering.
Historically, reflection can be seen as dangerous. There are always thoughts that opposed to reflection. Many people are uncomfortable, or even outraged, by philosophical questions. They are fearful that their ideas may not stand up as well as they would like if they start to think about them. Thus they are easily swayed by the "politics of identity" which is identification with a particular cult or group. Since reflection opens the door to criticism, and cult or group traditional folkways or customs are not compatible with criticism, ideologies become closed circles!
They are primed to feel outraged by the questioning mind. For the last approximately 2500 years the philosophical tradition has been the enemy of "politics as usual" or the "politically acceptable" cozy complacency of closed minds.
Philosophy has insisted that the "unexamined life" is not worth living! Philosophy has insisted on the "power of rational reflection" to discover the best ideas for survival and living the "good life!"
Philosophy has identified critical self-reflection with the idea of "freedom." The idea being that only when we can see ourselves "properly" can we get control over the direction in which we would want to move. It is only when we can see our situation steadily and see it whole that we can start to think what to do about it.
TRANSLITERATED QUOTE by Goya: "Imagination abandoned by reason produces impossible monsters
but united with reason imagination is the source of all artistic wonders in the world!
1) KNOWLEDGE (p15-48)
[1] Losing the world (p15-18)
[2] The evil demon (p18-19)
[3] Cogito, ergo sum (p19-21)
[4] Motivations, questions (p22-28)
[5] The elusive "I" (p28-32)
[6] Clear and distinct ideas (p32-33)
[7] The trademark argument (p34-37)
[8] The Cartesian circle (p37-40)
Very often we are more certain of particular verdicts (conclusions) than we are the principles
that we might cite when we try to defend them! (p39)
[9] Foundations and webs (p40-45)
[10] Local scepticisms (p45-47)
[11] The moral (p47-48)
How then should we regard knowledge?
Knowledge implies authority --- The people who know are the people to whom we should listen. It also implies RELIABILITY --- The people who know are those who are reliable at registering the TRUTH, like good instruments. To claim KNOWLEDGE implies claiming a sense of our own reliability! And to accord AUTHORITY to someone or some method involves seeing it as reliable.
2) MIND (p11-24)
[1] The ghost in the machine (p50-52)
[2] Zombies and mutants (p52-58)
[3] Locke and Leibniz and God's good pleasure (p58-65)
[4] Analysis (p65-68)
[5] A scientific model (p69-72)
[6] Inverted spectra --- private languages (p72-78)
[7] Thought (p78-80)
3) FREE WILL (p81-119)
[1] The bonds of fate (p82-85)
[2] Fig trees and waterfalls (p85-91)
Dualism tries to understand human freedom by introducing an extra ingredient,
the controlling soul. But how do we understand the freedom of the soul?
[3] Pulling yourself together (p91-97)
[4] Puppets and Martians (p97-99)
[5] Obsessions and twinkies (p100-107)
[6] Objectifying people (p107-110)
[7] Fate, oracles, and death (p110-117)
[8] Flexibility and dignity (p117-119)
4) THE SELF (p120-148)
[1] An immortal soul? (p120-125)
[2] Oak trees and ships (p125-127)
[3] Souls and elastic balls (p91-97)
[4] The brave officer (p130-135)
[5] The self as bundle (p135-138)
[6] The self as an organizing principle (p138-140)
[7] Delusions of imagination (p140-144)
[8] Scrambling the soul (p144-148)
5) GOD (p149-192)
[1] Beliefs and other things (p149-152)
[2] Anselm's argument --- dreamboats and turkeys (p152-158)
[3] Elephants and tortoises (p159-163)
[4] The wise architect (p163-168)
Argument by Analogy requires certain conditions in order to be reliable. First, the bases for the analogy should be extremely similar. Second, we should have experience covering the likely explanations. That is, you should know as much as possible about the kind of cause that produces this kind of effect.
You need more observation, more refined understanding of the way things fall out before you can be wise to make any such inference. It is this second kind of experience that is sadly lacking in traditional bureaucracies!
[5] The problem of evil (p168-176)
[6] Miracles and testimony (p176-185)
[7] Infini --- Rien (p185-189)
[8] Emotion and the will to believe (p189-192)
6) REASONING (p193-232)
[1] A little logic (p193-195)
[2] Truth-tables (p195-200)
[3] Nothing to be afraid of (p200-205)
[4] Language and logic (p206-210)
[5] Plausible reasonings (p211-213)
[6] The lottery for the golden harp (p213-217)
[7] Chancy stuff (p218-225)
[8] Explanations and paradigms (p225-232)
7) THE WORLD (p233-269)
[1] Colors, smells, sounds, feels, and tastes (p233-241)
[2] Good solic sense (p241-243)
[3] Berkeley's problems (p243-247)
[4] Forces, fields, and things (p247-250)
[5] Straightjackets and laws (p250-253)
[6] Kant's revolution (p253-0)
[7] The eye of the beholder (p260-264)
[8] Rules, universals (p265-269)
(1) Realism (p266)
(2) Conceptualism (p266)
(3) Nominalism (p266)
8) WHAT TO DO? (p270-298)
[1] Real concerns (p271-277)
[2] The voice within (p278-282)
[3] Truth and goodness (p282-287)
[4] Good bad feelings (p287-289)
[5] Practical reasoning (p289-293)
[6] Coherence, objectivity, imagination (p293-295)
[7] Relativism (p295-297)
[8] Farewell (p297-298)
NOTES (p299-305)
BIBLIOGRAPHY (p307-310)
INDEX (p311-312)
BOOK'S DESCRIPTION & REVIEWS
ABOUT THE AUTHOR = Simon Blackburn is the Edna J. Koury Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He was a Fellow and Tutor at Pembroke College, Oxford, from 1969 to 1990. His books for OUP are Spreading the Word (1984), Essays in Quasi-Realism (1993), The Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy (hbk 1994, pbk 1996), and Ruling Passions (1998). He edited the journal Mind from 1984 to 1990.
PRODUCT DESCRIPTION = Here at last is a coherent, unintimidating introduction to the challenging and fascinating landscape of Western philosophy. Written expressly for "anyone who believes there are big questions out there, but does not know how to approach them," Think provides a sound framework for exploring the most basic themes of philosophy, and for understanding how major philosophers have tackled the questions that have pressed themselves most forcefully on human consciousness.
Simon Blackburn, author of the best-selling Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy, begins by making a convincing case for the relevance of philosophy and goes on to give the reader a sense of how the great historical figures such as Plato, Hume, Kant, Descartes, and others have approached its central themes. In a lively and accessible style, Blackburn approaches the nature of human reflection and how we think, or can think, about knowledge, fate, ethics, identity, God, reason, and truth. Each chapter explains a major issue, and gives the reader a self-contained guide through the problems that the philosophers have studied. Because the text approaches these issues from the gound up, the untrained reader will emerge from its pages able to explore other philosophies with greater pleasure and understanding and be able to think--philosophically--for him or herself.
Philosophy is often dismissed as a purely academic discipline with no relation to the "real" world non-philosophers are compelled to inhabit. Think dispels this myth and offers a springboard for all those who want to learn how the basic techniques of thinking shape our virtually every aspect of our existence.
FROM LIBRARY JOURNAL = Blackburn (philosophy, Univ. of North Carolina, Chapel Hill) has written this book "for people who want to think about the big themes, knowledge, reason, truth, mind, freedom, destiny, identity, God, goodness, justice"Abut, more importantly, to think about them philosophically. His method is to introduce what other philosophers, primarily Plato, Descartes, Locke, Berkeley, Leibniz, Hume, and Kant, have had to say about these themes. To make the arguments more understandable to the lay reader, he presents the problem and then makes extensive use of analogies to ordinary situations, thus making the philosophical point more perspicuous. To read this book is to sit down with an engaging, highly learned conversationalist; readers new to the subject could very well be captivated. Highly recommended for academic and public library collections. – Leon H. Brody, U.S. Office of Personnel Mgt. Lib., Washington, DC – Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
FROM BOOKLIST = Sensing that many people are daunted by the big questions in philosophy, university professor Blackburn supplies this primer. Its capital weapon is logic, but Blackburn shrewdly postpones discussing that until he explores such areas as the self, free will, the reality of sensory perception, and God. Doubt, either initially or continually, infuses anyone who reflects on those spheres, and Blackburn illustrates ways to begin thinking about them by using the example of Descartes. Descartes gave yes answers to the question of whether the four spheres exist or not, through a logical process with which, after Blackburn has mapped it out, one can agree or not. One spoil sport was eighteenth-century philosopher David Hume, and Blackburn deploys further disputations of Descartes' beliefs, as in mind-body dualism. Blackburn does, however, subscribe to a species of free will, which he describes as "revised compatibilism." Finding out its definition is sufficient reason to consult Blackburn's book, written with exemplary concision and with conviction that philosophy needn't be an ethereal subject, alienated from practical concerns. Gilbert Taylor.
REVIEWS = Think! Now what kind of title is that? Is it short for 'How to Think'? Or 'Things to Think'? It's not a sentence, its not a noun, its not even what philosophers might call a 'signifier'. As it stands, its just a lone participle masquerading as an activity. -- The Philosopher, March 2000
"Blackburn has produced the one book every smart person should read to understand, and even enjoy, the key questions of philosophy, ranging from those about free will and morality to what we can really know about the world around us." -- Time, Walter Isaacson, October 4, 1999From Library Journal = Blackburn (philosophy, Univ. of North Carolina, Chapel Hill) has written this book "for people who want to think about the big themes, knowledge, reason, truth, mind, freedom, destiny, identity, God, goodness, justice"Abut, more importantly, to think about them philosophically. His method is to introduce what other philosophers, primarily Plato, Descartes, Locke, Berkeley, Leibniz, Hume, and Kant, have had to say about these themes. To make the arguments more understandable to the lay reader, he presents the problem and then makes extensive use of analogies to ordinary situations, thus making the philosophical point more perspicuous. To read this book is to sit down with an engaging, highly learned conversationalist; readers new to the subject could very well be captivated. Highly recommended for academic and public library collections. – Leon H. Brody, U.S. Office of Personnel Mgt. Lib., Washington, DC – Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
"Blackburn has produced the one book every smart person should read to understand, and even enjoy, the key questions of philosophy, ranging from those about free will and morality to what we can really know about the world around us." -- Time, Walter Isaacson, October 4, 1999
A wonderfully concise and understandable introduction to philosophy....This handsome little volume rewards intelligence with intelligence. Challenging and dense, Think doesn't "do" philosophy for its readers; it simply makes the subject accessible for people willing to work at it and read carefully. -- Jeff Ignatius, Octopus, October 22, 1999
Blackburn does a fine job of rendering the big thinkers and their thoughts accessible, while picking his way through Western philosophy's murky territory. His writing ins simple and clear, and the liberal use of example and analogy makes "Think" a most readable work. Nearly every explanation is accompanied by an everyday case that helps turn the abstract into the real. -- Alsion McCulloch, Denver Post, December 12, 1999
Readers who still hunger for meaning after bringing on the latest pop-spirituality trifle might want to give professor Blackburn a try. His deceptively small book delivers just what its subtitle promises: A Compelling Introduction to Philosophy. -- Mike Maza, Dallas Morning News, December 12, 1999
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