THINK --- A COMPELLING INTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHY
by Simon Blackburn. Oxford University Press, 1999
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 stand 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 REFELCTION to discover the BEST IDEAS for survival and living the GOOD LIFE!
Philosophy has identified critical self-reflection with FREEDOM, the idea being that only when we can see ourselves properly can we obtain 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.
Imagination abandoned by reason produces impossible MONSTERS but united with reason imagination is the SOURCE of all artistic wonders in the world! (Goya transliteration).
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! (p3 9)
[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)
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