Donald C. Abel is Professor of Philosophy at St. Norbert College in De Pere, Wisconsin. He holds a B.A. in Philosophy from Gonzaga University, an M.A. in Philosophy from Tulane University, a Ph.L. in Philosophy from St. Michael’s Institute, an M.Div. in Theology from Loyola University of Chicago, and a Ph.D. in Philosophy from Northwestern University. He is the author of Freud on Instinct and Morality (1989), Theories of Human Nature: Classical and Contemporary Readings (McGraw-Hill, 1992), Fifty Readings in Philosophy (McGraw Hill, 3d ed., 2008). He is the editor of Discourses (www.primisdiscourses.com), an electronic database of philosophy readings that is part of Primis,… McGraw-Hill’s online resource for creating customized textbooks. Professor Abel has received two awards for excellence in teaching and an award for outstanding scholarship. He is a member of the American Philosophical Association, the American Catholic Philosophical Association, the Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy, and the Society for Philosophy and Psychology.
SECTION 1: WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY? 1. Plato, Euthyphro (complete). Translated by Benjamin Jowett. 2. Bertrand Russell, The Problems of Philosophy (selection). SECTION 2: PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION. A. THE EXISTENCE OF GOD. 3. Anselm, Proslogion and Exchange with Guanilo (selection) Translated by Sidney NortonDeane. 4. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae (selection). Translated by the Fathers of the EnglishDominican Province. 5. William Paley, Natural Theology (selection). 6. David Hume, Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion (selection). 7. Richard Dawkins, The Blind Watchmaker (selection). B. THE PROBLEM OF EVIL. 8. J.L. Mackie, Evil and Omnipotence (complete). 9. John Hick, Philosophy of Religion… (selection). C. FAITH AND REASON. 10. Soren Kierkegaard, Philosophical Fragments (selection) Translated by Howard V. Hongand Edna H. Hong. 11. William James, The Will to Believe (selection). SECTION 3: THEORIES OF KNOWLEDGE. 12. Plato, The Republic (selection) Translated by Benjamin Jowett. 13. Rene Descartes, Meditations on First Philosophy (selection) Translated by Elizabeth S.Haldane and G.R.T. Ross. 14. John Locke, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (selection). 15. George Berkeley, Three Dialogues Between Hylas and Philonous (selection). 16. David Hume, An Equiry Concerning Human Understanding (selection). 17. Immanuel Kant, Critique of Pure Reason (selection) Translated by J.M.D. Meiklejohn. 18. Charles Sanders Peirce, The Fixation of Belief (selection). 19. Alison M. Jagger, Love and Knowledge: Emotion in Feminist Epistemology. SECTION 4. MIND, BODY AND SELF. A: THE MIND-BODY PROBLEM. 20. Rene Descartes, Meditations on First Philosophy (selection) Translated by Elizabeth S.Haldene and G.R.T. Ross. 21. Gilbert Ryle, The Concept of Mind (selection). 22. Richard Taylor, How to Bury the Mind-Body Problem (complete). 23. Jerry Fodor, The Mind-Body Problem (selection). 24. Morwenna Griffiths, Feminism, Feelings and Philosophy (selection). B. THE SELF. 25. Buddhist Scriptures, The Middle-Length Discourses of the Buddha (selection) Translatedby Nyanamoli Thera. 26. John Locke, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (selection). 27. David Hume, A Treatise of Human Nature (selection). 28. Risieri Frondizi, The Nature of the Self (selection). SECTION 5: FREE WILL AND DETERMINISM. 29. Paul-Henri Thiry, Baron d'Holbach, The System of Nature (selection). 30. William James, The Dilemma of Determinism (selection). 31. W.T. Stace, Religion and the Modern Mind (selection). 32. John Hospers, The Range of Human Freedom (selection). 33. C.A. Campbell, On Selfhood and Godhood (selection). 34. Richard Taylor, Metaphysics (selection). 35. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, An Idealist View of Life (selection). SECTION 6: ETHICS. A. CLASSICAL ETHICAL THEORIES. 36. Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics (selection) Translated by J.E.C. Welldon. 37. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae. Translated by the Fathers of the English Dominican Province. 38. Immanuel Kant, Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysics of Morals, (selection)Translated by Thomas Kingsmill Abbott. 39. John Stuart Mill, Utilitarianism (selection). B. CRITIQUES OF CLASSICAL THEORIES. 40. Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil (selection) Translated by Helen Zimmern. 41. Jean-Paul Sartre, Existentialism Is a Humanism (selection) Translated by Philip Mairet. 42. Annette C. Baier, What Do Women Want in a Moral Theory? (selection). SECTION 7: POLITICAL AND SOCIAL PHILOSOPHY. A. CLASSICAL POLITICAL THEORIES. 43. Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan (selection). 44. John Locke, The Second Treatise of Government (selection). 45. John Stuart Mill, On Liberty (selection). 46. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Manifesto of the Communist Party (selection) Translated bySamuel Moore. B. JUSTICE AND RIGHTS. 47. John Rawls, A Theory of Justice (selection). 48. Robert Nozick, Anarchy, State, and Utopia (selection). 49. Martin Luther King, Jr., Letter from Birmingham Jail (selection). 50. Virginia Held, Rights and Goods (selection).