This textbook introduction offers a new way of approaching metaphysics and epistemology - via links to ethical and social questions. It asks questions such as: Fundamentally, what are we? And what, if anything, do we know?

The world's best introduction to philosophy, Knowledge, Reality, and Value explains basic philosophical problems in epistemology, metaphysics, and ethics, such as: How can we know about the world outside our minds? Is there a God? Do we have free will? Are there objective values? What distinguishes morally right from morally wrong actions? The text succinctly explains the most important theories and arguments about these things, and it does so a lot less boringly than most books written by professors."My work is all a series of footnotes to Mike Huemer." -Plato"This book is way better than my lecture notes." -Aristotle"When I have a little money, I buy Mike Huemer's books; and if I have any left, I buy food and clothes." -ErasmusContentsPreface Part I: Preliminaries 1. What Is Philosophy? 2. Logic 3. Critical Thinking, 1: Intellectual Virtue 4. Critical Thinking, 2: Fallacies 5. Absolute Truth Part II: Epistemology 6. Skepticism About the External World 7. Global Skepticism vs. Foundationalism 8. Defining "Knowledge" Part III: Metaphysics 9. Arguments for Theism 10. Arguments for Atheism 11. Free Will 12. Personal Identity Part IV: Ethics 13. Metaethics 14. Ethical Theory, 1: Utilitarianism 15. Ethical Theory, 2: Deontology 16. Applied Ethics, 1: The Duty of Charity 17. Applied Ethics, 2: Animal Ethics 18. Concluding Thoughts Appendix: A Guide to Writing GlossaryMichael Huemer is a professor of philosophy at the University of Colorado, where he has taught since the dawn of time. He is the author of a nearly infinite number of articles in epistemology, metaphysics, ethics, and political philosophy, in addition to seven other amazing and brilliant books that you should immediately buy.

"Knowledge, Reality, and Values" provides readings that reflect the history of philosophy as it spread from ancient Greece into the Muslim world of the Middle Ages, which in turn influenced the development of philosophy in Medieval and Enlightenment Europe. It presents a broad view of philosophy, including a diversity of viewpoints representing the complexity of both the analytic and continental philosophical traditions, and offers critical perspectives from feminism, postcolonial theory, and critical race studies. "Knowledge, Reality, and Values" introduces philosophy through concise selections representing the diversity of philosophical thought, from ancient Greek philosophy through contemporary work in metaphysics, epistemology, and ethics. The text highlights a variety of contemporary approaches, including analytic philosophy, American pragmatism, and existentialism. Beginning with a section on critical thinking, introducing deductive validity and soundness and inductive reasoning, "Knowledge, Reality, and Values" equips the student with the reasoning skills needed to comprehend and assess the readings. "Knowledge, Reality, and Values" is best suited for introductory undergraduate courses in general philosophy, ethics, and social and political philosophy, as well as for continuing education courses and the interested casual reade b>Jamie Lindsay holds an M.A. from San Francisco State University and an M.Phil. from the Graduate Center, City University of New York, where he is currently working towards his Ph.D. He teaches Political Philosophy, Social Philosophy, and Ethics courses at Hunter College and Brooklyn College, where he has also taught within the SEEK Program and College Now. Dena Shottenkirk, a Lecturer at Brooklyn College, received her Ph.D. from the Graduate Center, City University of New York. She also holds an M.F.A. in visual art from Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University. Shottenkirk exhibits her artwork and disseminates her writings under the banner of The System Project.

Written simply yet comprehensively, Molnar's anlaysis of the history of philosophy and false mysticism leads him to conclude that a return to a moderate realism will save the philosophical enterprise from a series of epistemological and societal absolutes that are embodied in contemporary rationalism and mysticism alike. Issues that have been systematically excluded from discourse will have to be reintroduced into the discussion of person and providence Molnar divided the philosophical systems into two groups according to their vision of God, and consequently of reality One group removes God from the human scope, therefore rendering the world unreal, unknowable, and meaningless. The second group holds that God is immanent in the human soul, thereby emphasizing the human attainment of divine status, and reducing the extra-mental world to a condition of utter imperfection. Either way, the result is a pseudo-mysticism, a denial of the creaturely status of human beings What is most needed, Molnar claims, is a theory of knowledge whose ideal is not fusion but distinction-between God and Man, subject and object, the self and the society. By thus raising the question of philosophy over against magic Molnar seeks to awaken the reader from neo-dogmatic assumptions and restore speculative thought to its traditional place.