Thinking It Through: An Introduction to Contemporary ...

Thinking It Through: An Introduction to Contemporary Philosophy

Kwame Anthony Appiah

OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS

Thinking It Through

Thinking It Through

AN INTRODUCTION TO CONTEMPORARY P H I LO S O P H Y

Kwame Anthony Appiah

Oxford New York Auckland Bangkok Buenos Aires Cape Town Chennai Dar es Salaam Delhi Hong Kong Istanbul Karachi Kolkata Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Mumbai Nairobi S?o Paulo Shanghai Taipei Tokyo Toronto Copyright ? 2003 by Oxford University Press, Inc. Published by Oxford University Press, Inc. 198 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016 Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of Oxford University Press. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

ISBN 0?19?516028?2

9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper

CONTENTS

Preface ix

Introduction: A Few Preliminaries xi

CHAPTER 1: MIND 1 1.1 Introduction. 1. 1.2 Descartes: The beginnings of modern philosophy of mind. 5. 1.3 The private-language argument. 12. 1.4 Computers as models of

the mind. 19. 1.5 Why should there be a functionalist theory? 22. 1.6 Functionalism: A first problem. 23. 1.7 A simple-minded functionalist

theory of pain. 25. 1.8 Ramsey's solution to the first problem. 26. 1.9 Functionalism: A second problem. 28. 1.10 M again. 29. 1.11 Consciousness.

31. 1.12 The puzzle of the physical. 36. 1.13 Conclusion. 37.

CHAPTER 2: KNOWLEDGE 39 2.1 Introduction. 39. 2.2 Plato: Knowledge as justified true belief. 41. 2.3 Descartes' way: Justification requires certainty. 44. 2.4 Locke's way: Justification can be less than certain. 53. 2.5 The foundations of knowledge. 57. 2.6 Ways around skepticism I: Verificationism. 61. 2.7 Ways around skepticism II: Causal theories of knowledge. 66. 2.8 Causal theories contrasted with traditional accounts of justification. 70. 2.9 Epistemology naturalized. 74.

2.10 Conclusion. 77.

CHAPTER 3: LANGUAGE 79 3.1 Introduction. 79. 3.2 The linguistic turn. 80. 3.3 The beetle in the box. 84. 3.4 Frege's "sense" and "reference." 87. 3.5 Predicates and open

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