ABSTRACT

Engaging undergraduate students and instigating debate within philosophy seminars is one of the greatest challenges faced by instructors on a daily basis. How to Get Philosophy Students Talking: An Instructor’s Toolkit is an innovative and original resource designed for use by academics looking to help students of all abilities get the most out of their time spent in group discussions.

Each chapter features thought experiments, discussion questions and further readings on topics within the following core areas of philosophy:

  • Metaphysics
  • Epistemology
  • Philosophy of Mind
  • Philosophy of Language
  • Philosophy of Religion
  • Philosophy of Science
  • Political Philosophy
  • Normative Ethics
  • Applied Ethics
  • Metaethics
  • Aesthetics

Group discussions and debates are a key part of undergraduate study and one of the best ways for students to learn and understand often complex philosophical theories and concepts. This book is an essential toolkit for instructors looking to get the most out of their philosophy students.

part I|22 pages

Epistemology

chapter 1|2 pages

The ‘a priori'

chapter 2|2 pages

Contextualism

chapter 3|2 pages

Epistemic injustice

chapter 4|2 pages

Intuitions

chapter 5|1 pages

Foundationalism

chapter 6|2 pages

Coherentism

chapter 7|2 pages

Analysing knowledge

chapter 8|2 pages

Perception

chapter 9|2 pages

Scepticism

chapter 10|3 pages

Trust

part II|24 pages

Philosophy of language

chapter 11|2 pages

Frege and names

chapter 12|3 pages

Russell and definite descriptions

chapter 15|1 pages

Indeterminacy of translation

chapter 16|2 pages

Kripkenstein

chapter 17|3 pages

Verification in language

chapter 18|2 pages

Grice and an intentional theory of meaning

chapter 19|2 pages

Truth-conditional semantics

chapter 20|2 pages

Indexicals

part III|24 pages

Metaphysics

chapter 21|2 pages

Abstract objects

chapter 22|2 pages

Causation

chapter 23|3 pages

Composition

chapter 24|2 pages

Constitution

chapter 25|2 pages

Persistence

chapter 26|2 pages

Possible worlds

chapter 27|3 pages

Properties and their bearers

chapter 28|2 pages

Something rather than nothing

chapter 29|2 pages

Time travel and the grandfather paradox

chapter 30|2 pages

Time

part IV|22 pages

Philosophy of mind

chapter 31|2 pages

Chinese room

chapter 32|2 pages

Artificial intelligence

chapter 33|2 pages

The mind and the brain

chapter 34|2 pages

Eliminative materialism

chapter 35|2 pages

Emotions

chapter 36|2 pages

Externalism

chapter 37|2 pages

Free will

chapter 38|1 pages

Panpsychism

chapter 39|2 pages

Qualia and the mental

chapter 40|3 pages

Rationality

part V|22 pages

What is Aging?

chapter 41|2 pages

Scientific realism

chapter 42|2 pages

Demarcation

chapter 43|2 pages

Falsificationism

chapter 44|2 pages

Observation in science

chapter 45|2 pages

Science: one or many?

chapter 46|2 pages

Science versus philosophy

chapter 47|1 pages

Anti-realism

chapter 48|2 pages

Theories and evidence

chapter 49|2 pages

What are the laws of nature?

chapter 50|3 pages

Are there any laws of nature?

part VI|24 pages

Applied ethics

chapter 51|2 pages

Judith Jarvis Thomson on abortion

chapter 52|3 pages

Euthanasia

chapter 53|2 pages

Charity

chapter 54|2 pages

Environment

chapter 55|2 pages

Animals

chapter 56|2 pages

Human cloning

chapter 57|2 pages

Jules Holroyd on blame and implicit bias

chapter 59|2 pages

Potentiality and personhood

chapter 60|3 pages

Capital punishment

part VII|24 pages

Normative ethics

chapter 61|2 pages

The experience machine

chapter 62|2 pages

Psychological egoism

chapter 63|2 pages

Philippa Foot's trolley problem

chapter 64|3 pages

Moral luck

chapter 65|2 pages

Consequentialism and favouring others

chapter 66|2 pages

Higher and lower pleasures

chapter 67|2 pages

Ring of Gyges

chapter 68|2 pages

Deontology

chapter 69|2 pages

Virtue theory

chapter 70|3 pages

The Doctrine of Double Effect

part VIII|22 pages

Epistemology

chapter 71|2 pages

Internalism versus externalism

chapter 72|2 pages

Moral motivation

chapter 73|2 pages

Error-theory and beyond

chapter 74|2 pages

Divine Command Theory

chapter 75|2 pages

Convergence and truth in ethics

chapter 76|2 pages

The Frege-Geach problem

chapter 77|2 pages

Moral Twin Earth

chapter 78|2 pages

Moral realism and the real

chapter 79|2 pages

Internal and external reasons

chapter 80|2 pages

Moral progress and truth

part IX|24 pages

Aesthetics

chapter 81|2 pages

What is art?

chapter 82|2 pages

Moral value and aesthetic value

chapter 83|3 pages

Forgery

chapter 84|2 pages

What is music?

chapter 85|1 pages

The ontology of music

chapter 86|2 pages

Film and emotion

chapter 87|3 pages

Aesthetic testimony

chapter 88|2 pages

Is photography art?

chapter 89|2 pages

The paradox of tragedy

chapter 90|3 pages

What is humour?

part X|24 pages

Philosophy of politics

chapter 91|2 pages

Rawls and the veil of ignorance

chapter 92|2 pages

Nozick and Wilt Chamberlain

chapter 93|2 pages

Group and individual reasons

chapter 94|2 pages

The state of nature

chapter 95|3 pages

Tacit consent

chapter 96|2 pages

Freedom and the State

chapter 97|1 pages

Negative and positive freedom

chapter 98|2 pages

What's so great about democracy?

chapter 99|3 pages

Terrorism

chapter 100|3 pages

Multiculturalism

part XI|22 pages

Philosophy of religion

chapter 101|2 pages

The ontological argument

chapter 102|2 pages

Pascal's Wager

chapter 103|2 pages

Divine foreknowledge and free will

chapter 104|2 pages

Worship

chapter 105|3 pages

The problem of suffering

chapter 106|2 pages

The cosmological argument

chapter 107|2 pages

The design argument

chapter 108|2 pages

God and time

chapter 109|1 pages

Miracles

chapter 110|2 pages

Petitionary prayer