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The Philosophy CD-ROM from Hyper Link consists of seven sections that provide a description of the main branches of modern Western philosophy.
The Philosophy CD-ROM was created by Dr. John Stelzer. It forms the core content of Dr. Stelzer's three-term Philosophy course at Umpqua Community College in Southwestern Oregon. It is suitable for anyone interested in an introduction to Western philosophy -- its core concepts and ideas -- and may be especially useful to college students and undergraduate university students taking courses in Philosophy.
Sections include: Ethics, Metaphysics, Artificial Intelligence, Epistemology, Political Philosophy, Social Philosophy, Logic.
A general Introduction to Western Philosophy is included and contains three sections:
What is Philosophy, Ways of Knowing, and Beginnings.
The Ethics portion of the Philosophy CD-ROM is especially suitable for anyone interested in desiring to learn more about applying ethical concepts to contemporary ethical problems. Subjects discussed, along with numerous examples, are:
Philosophy includes a comprehensive word-wheel index and each subsection has its own word-wheel index. Price is $50.00 plus $5.00 shipping and handling. Covered are: deontology - Kantian duty ethics; consequentialism in its various forms - egoism, altruism, utilitarianism; and rights based ethics. Also included is an extensive section of applications of the main ethical theories to contemporary ethical problems. A special section on decision theory explains how to incorporate probabilistic analysis into the resolution of ethical dilemmas along consequentialistic lines.
Theories discussed include: materialism, dualism, idealism, puppetism, ownership, double aspect, and others. In addition, a special section describing religious beliefs about the soul is included. A fourth subsection concerns the Buddhist doctrine of anatman or "no-self" which is discussed in detail, and which includes a detailed description of the contents of the Tibetan Book of the Dead.
Controversy continues to surround research efforts and modern claims about artificial minds. Counter-examples to claims made by believers in artificial minds are described - the jukebox and Chinese room thought experiments. A subsection goes beyond artificial minds and raises the question whether or not artificial consciousness is possible.
These are the central issues in epistemology, and the Epistemology section of PHILOSOPHY describes the theories western philosophers have come up with to answer these questions. The main theories that have been put forward are: empiricism, rationalism, Kant's synthesizing perspective between empiricism and rationalism, and most recently theories such as: foundationalism, coherentism, reliabilism and naturalism.
Can we form organizations to secure ourselves against potential boundary crossings and to collect compensation? What form can those organizations take? What decision making procedures should those organizations use? What are the limits to the just state? Do we have the right to resist the state and the organizations it uses to coerce us? These and related questions and issues form the core of the Political Philosophy section of PHILOSOPHY.
How did Western society come to have the form it has? What are the philosophical underpinnings of the Western liberal and capitalistic social order? What are the main criticisms of Marxian socialism against the Western social system? Utopia is the perfect society, Dystopia the opposite. Several Utopian and Dystopian social systems are described, including: Plato's Republic, Sir Thomas More's Utopia, Walden II, Ecotopia, NASA's L-5, Brave New World, Orwell's Nineteen Eight-Four, and Nazi Germany. How does America stack up at the start of the new millennium? The War on Drugs and the War on Crime are discussed in detail, leading to the conclusion that America seems more dystopian than utopian for those who bear the brunt of America's social wars.
Recent important foundation results in the theory of sets are described clearly and succinctly. Several exercise sets are included that can be printed out for end user use to ensure mastery of the subject matter. Price is $50.00 plus $5.00 shipping and handling.
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The central ideas in ethics are defined and described in the Ethics section of Philosophy.
The concept of an ethical situation is defined first in order to delimit the range of problems to which ethical analysis might appropriately be applied. The question whether or not humans have free will and thus indeed have ethical choices is addressed. The major ethical theories that have been put forward by philosophers are defined and evaluated.
The mind-body problem is the central issue in Metaphysics.
What is the relationship of the mind to the body? Are we just physical entities or do we have nonphysical aspects? If we have both physical and nonphysical components, do they interrelate and how? The main western metaphysical theories about the self are clearly defined and evaluated in the Metaphysics section of PHILOSOPHY.
The focus of the Artificial Intelligence section of Philosophy is Alan Turing's AI test for intelligence.
The problems that occupied Turing early in life are clearly described, focusing on David Hilbert's quest for a proof of the reliability of mathematics and logic. This led Turing to the discovery of the mathematical concept of a computer and Turing machines in particular. Turing came up with an operational definition of intelligence that has formed the framework for research in what has come to be known as the field of Artificial Intelligence.
Epistemology has to do with human knowledge. What is knowledge? What does it mean to say someone knows something?
What is the difference between knowing and believing, and what are the differences between knowing and believing, and opinion? Is knowledge belief that is justified? What does it mean for a belief to be justified? Most importantly, can we ever be certain that what we know is correct? We know things about the world around us and we want that knowledge to accurately reflect what the world is really like. We want our knowledge to be the truth about the world. What is the relationship between knowledge and truth? If we say that we know something, does that mean that it is true? What does it mean to say that something is true?
Political Philosophy begins with the concept of individual rights. Exactly what individual rights do we have?
When an individual right is violated, a boundary crossing is said to have occurred. What are the limits to our right to protect ourselves against boundary crossings? Do we deserve compensation for losses suffered due to boundary crossings? How much compensation?
How ought we organize ourselves socially is the core question raised by Social Philosophy.
Logic presents the content for an entire term course in symbolic logic.
Topics covered are: sentential logic, Aristotelian syllogistic logic, quantification logic, set theory, and infinite numbers.
The Philosophy CD-ROM is organized into 32 distinct components.
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