Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Preface, iii
Chapter 1: Doing Philosophy, 1
What is Philosophy?, 1
The Beginning of Philosophy, 2
The Historical Development of Philosophy, 6
The Problem of Philosophy, 9
The Necessity of the Study of Philosophy, 10
The Nature of Philosophy, 11
Chapter Test, 15

Chapter 2: Methods of Philosophizing, 21
Philosophy, Sophistry, Pilosopo: What Philosophy is Not, 21
The Branches of Philosophy, 23
Philosophy of Thought, 24
Philosophy of Reality, 26
Philosophy of Morality, 27
The Philosophies of Discipline, 28
The Philosophies of Subject, 29
The Contemporary Philosophical Traditions, 30
Chapter Test, 33

Chapter 3: Man as an Embodied Spirit,
What is Man?, 37
Hinduism as the Foundation of the Eastern Philosophy, 38
The Buddhist Philosophy, 40
The Life of Siddhartha Gautama, 40
The Teachings of Buddha, 41
The Buddhists on the Human Person, 41
The Fourfold Noble Truth, 42
The Noble Eightfold Path, 43
The Buddhists’ Guide to Doing Good, 45
Chapter Test, 47
The Western Philosophy of Man, 51
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The Philosophical View of the Sophists, 51
Protagoras of Abdera, 52
The Sicilian Gorgias, 53
Thrasymachus, the Authoritarian, 54
The Influences of the Sophists to the Philosophy of Socrates, 55
The Life and Philosophy of Socrates, 55
The Philosophy of Socrates, 57
Socratic Concept of the Human Soul, 59
Chapter Test, 61
The Life and Philosophy of Plato, 63
The Development of the Philosophy of Plato, 64
On the Multiplicity of Things, 65
The Allegory of the Cave, 66
Plato’s Concept of a Human Person, 67
The Concept of Morality, 68
Chapter Test, 71
The Life and Philosophy of Aristotle, 73
The Philosophical View of Aristotle, 75
Aristotle and the Human Person, 76
The Function of the Human Person, 77
A Morally Virtuous Act, 81
An Action which Proceeds from Contemplation, 79
Chapter Test, 81
The Philosophy of St. Augustine of Hippo, 83
The Life of St. Augustine, 83
The Augustinian Philosophy of the Human Person, 85
St. Augustine’s Concept of Evil, 86
Chapter Test, 87
The Life and Philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas, 91
The Christian Philosophy of St. Thomas, 92
The Nature of God and His Relationship to Man, 93
Five Ways of Proving the Existence of God, 93
The Nature of God, 94
God’s Relationship with His Creatures, 95
The Nature of the Human Person, 95
The Threefold Natural Inclination of the Human Person, 97
The Happiness of the Human Person, 97
The Three Determinants of Moral Action, 98
The Moral Principles as Basis of Human Action, 99
The Rights and Duties of a Human Person, 101
The Six Natural Rights, 101
The Six Natural Duties of a Human Person, 102
Chapter Test, 103
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Chapter 4: The Human Person as a Thinking Being, 107
The Rationalist Rene Descartes, 108
The Philosophy of Rene Descartes, 109
The Cartesian Method, 109
The Methodic Doubt, 111
Chapter Test, 115
Baruch Spinoza and the Thinking Person, 117
Spinoza’s Philosophical Method, 119
The Nature of God, 120
God and the World, 121
The Mind and Body and the Acquisition of Knowledge, 122
Spinoza’s Ethics, 123
Chapter Test, 125
John Locke and the Thinking Person, 127
Locke’s Epistemology, 128
On the Existence of God, 129
The Moral Theory of John Locke, 130
Chapter Test, 132
George Berkeley and the Thinking Person, 134
The Nature of the Human Mind, 135
Chapter Test, 138
Immanuel Kant and the Thinking Person, 140
The Kantian Epistemology, 141
Chapter Test, 143

Chapter 5: Man in His Environment, 147
The Taoist Philosophy of Person, 147
Getting to Know Lao Tzu, 148
The Taoist Philosophy, 149
The Wu Wei Principle, 151
Chapter Test, 153

Chapter 6: Freedom of the Human Person, 157
Louis Lavelle’s Concept of Freedom, 157
Jean-Paul Sartre’s Existential Philosophy, 158
Freedom as Not Making a Choice, 159
The Idea of Interior Necessity in the Concept of Freedom, 160
On the Freedom of God, 161
Chapter Test, 163
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Chapter 7: Intersubjectivity, 167
Gabriel Marcel and the Intersubjectivity in Man, 167
The Philosophy of Gabriel Marcel, 168
Chapter Test, 171

Chapter 8: The Human Person in Society, 175
Kantian Concept of Morality: Deontologism, 176
The Categorical Imperative, 177
The Kantian Concept of a Human Person, 179
Chapter Test, 181
The Principle of Utilitarianism, 183
The Life of Jeremy Bentham, 183
Bentham’s Principle of Utility, 184
The Utilitarian John Stuart Mill, 185
The Utilitarian Principle, 186
The Hedonistic Calculus, 187
The Benevolent Spectator Principle, 188
Act Utilitarianism versus Rule Utilitarianism, 189
Chapter Test, 191
Pragmatism and Its Concept of a Good Life, 193
The Life of Charles Sanders Peirce, 193
The Pragmatism of Charles Peirce, 194
Understanding the Life of William James, 195
The Philosophy of William James, 195
Pragmatism as Basis for Doing Good, 196
Understanding the Life of John Dewey, 197
The Pragmatic Philosophy of John Dewey, 198
Chapter Test, 201
Karl Marx and His Socialist Political Theory, 203
Understanding the Life of Karl Marx, 203
The Philosophy of Karl Marx, 205
On His Concept of Religion, 206
Marx’s Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right, 206
On the Issue of Economics, 207
What Philosophy Should Be, 209
Chapter Test, 211
Friedrich Nietzsche and the Superman, 213
The Philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer, 214
The Writings of Nietzsche, 216
The Will to Power, 217
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Master Morality versus Slave Morality, 218
The Death of God, 219
Chapter Test, 221

Chapter 9: Man, Death, and God, 225
Man and God, 226
The Great Split, 226
Man and Death, 228
The Life of Martin Heidegger, 228
Martin Heidegger’s Philosophy, 230
Chapter Test, 233
Karl Rahner on Man and God, 235
The Philosophy of Karl Rahner, 235
Chapter Test 237
References, 241