Solomon and Higgins's engaging text covers philosophy's central ideas in an accessible, approachable manner. Through an exploration of timeless "big questions" about the self, God, justice, and other meaningful topics, the authors provide students with the context they need for an understanding of the foundational issues, while giving them the impetus and confidence to establish their own informed positions on these "big questions." To give you maximum flexibility to fit the book to your course, each chapter is designed with self-contained discussions, making it easy for you to choose your preferred topics and presentation order. This edition is now also available with MindTap® Philosophy, the digital learning solution that helps instructors engage and transform today’s philosophy students into critical thinkers.

PREFACE.
Doing Philosophy. A Little Logic. Closing Questions. Key Words. Works Cited. Other Suggested Readings.
1. PHILOSOPHICAL QUESTIONS.
What is Philosophy? Opening Questions. Key Words. Works Cited. Other Suggested Readings.
2. THE MEANING OF LIFE.
Opening Questions. What Kind of Meaning? The Meanings of Life. Closing Questions. Key Words. Works Cited. Other Suggested Readings.
3. GOD.
Opening Questions. Believing in God, Gods and Goddesses. The Traditional Western Conceptions of God. The Problem of Evil. Faith and Reason: Grounds for Believing.
Religious Tolerance: Ritual, Tradition, and Spirituality. Doubts. Closing Questions. Key Words. Works Cited. Other Suggested Readings.
4. THE NATURE OF REALITY.
Opening Questions. The Real World. What is Most Real? The First Metaphysicians. Early Nonphysical Views of Reality. Plato’s Forms. Aristotle’s Metaphysics. Mind and Metaphysics. Idealism. Teleology. Metaphysics and the Everyday World. Closing Questions. Key Words. Works Cited. Other Suggested Readings.
5. THE SEARCH FOR THE TRUTH.
Opening Questions. What is True? Two Kinds of Truth. Rationalism and Empiricism. The Presuppositions of Knowledge. Skepticism. Knowledge, Truth, and Science. The Nature of Truth. Rationality. Subjective Truth and the Problem of Relativism. Closing Questions. Key Words. Works Cited. Other Suggested Readings.
6. SELF.
Opening Questions. The Essential Self. The Self and Its Emotions. The Egocentric Predicament. The Mind-Body Problem. Other Theories of the Self. Closing Questions. Key Words. Works Cited. Other Suggested Readings.
7. FREEDOM.
Opening Questions. Freedom and the Good Life. Free Will and Determinism. Closing Questions. Key Words. Works Cited. Other Suggested Readings.
8. MORALITY AND THE GOOD LIFE.
Opening Questions. Moral Philosophy. Pleasure and the Good Life. The Place of Self-Interest: Egoism Versus Altruism. Morality: Relative or Absolute? Morality and Theories of Morality. Duty-Defined Morality. Consequentialist Theories. Aristotle and the Ethics of Virtue. Feminist Ethics: The Ethics of Care. Closing Questions. Key Words. Works Cited. Other Suggested Readings.
9. JUSTICE AND THE GOOD SOCIETY.
Opening Questions. Morals and Society. The Nature of Society. Who Should Rule? The Question of Legitimacy. Anarchism, the Free Market, and the Need for Government. What is Justice? The Meaning of Equality. The Origins of Justice and Social Contract. Justice Beyond Our Borders. Rights and the Self. Justice Denied: The Problem of Race. Sexual Politics: The Rise of Feminist Philosophy. Closing Questions. Key Words. Works Cited. Other Suggested Readings.
10. BEAUTY.
Opening Questions. Aesthetics, Beauty and Truth. Enjoying Tragedy. Arguing About Taste, Art, Ethics, and Religion. Why Is It Art? The Aesthetics of Popular Culture. Closing Questions. Key Words. Works Cited. Other Suggested Readings.
11. NON-WESTERN PHILOSOPHY.
Opening Questions. Beyond the Western Tradition. The Challenges of Broadening Our Horizons. Other Cultures, Other Philosophies. Closing Questions. Key Words. Works Cited. Other Suggested Readings.
Appendix A: Writing Philosophy.
Opening Questions. The Rules of Good Writing in Philosophy. Indirect Styles. Works Cited. Other Suggested Readings.
Appendix B: Deductive Logic Valued Argument Forms.
Works Cited.
Appendix C: Common Informal Fallacies.
Informal Fallacies. Works Cited.
Glossary.
Index.

Solomon and Higgins's engaging text covers philosophy's central ideas in an accessible, approachable manner. Through an exploration of timeless "big questions" about the self, God, justice, and other meaningful topics, the authors provide students with the context they need for an understanding of the foundational issues, while giving them the impetus and confidence to establish their own informed positions on these "big questions." To give you maximum flexibility to fit the book to your course, each chapter is designed with self-contained discussions, making it easy for you to choose your preferred topics and presentation order. This edition is now also available with MindTap® Philosophy, the digital learning solution that helps instructors engage and transform today’s philosophy students into critical thinkers. Biography boxes are indicated by the heading "Meet the Philosopher" (or, occasionally, "Meet the Thinker"), and they provide a glimpse into the lives of many of the philosophers covered in the main text. "From the Source" boxes offer a wide variety of quotations and brief excerpts from key philosophical writings, as well as relevant popular sources. "Master the Concepts" boxes draw attention to important terms and point out important conceptual distinctions. Occasional "Apply the Concept" boxes also encourage the student to link particular philosophical concepts with phenomena they encounter in everyday life. The sources of quotations are more evident than in previous editions by virtue of a section of endnotes (under the heading "Works Cited") at the end of each chapter showing the source of each quotation, followed by other suggested readings. This edition is also supplemented by an expanded range of options through MindTap, a personalized program of digital products and services that provides interactive engagement for students and offers a range of choices in content, platforms, devices and learning tools. In this edition, Chapters 10 and 11 in the previous edition have been rearranged in order to group the chapter entitled "Beauty," which is primarily Western in focus, with the other chapters on Western philosophy. It is then followed by the chapter on non-Western philosophy. The chapter on ethics in this edition has considerably expanded discussion of basic moral theories and gives greater indication of how they can be applied to situations in everyday life. A number of topics that were not or were barely discussed in the previous edition are addressed in this edition: liberation theology (Chapter 3), intellectual virtues (Chapter 8), practical syllogisms (Chapter 8), metaethics (Chapter 8), good will (Chapter 8), and the mean (Chapter 8).