Invitation to Philosophy

In the revised and updated edition of this classic introductory text, Martin Hollis leads his readers through the age–old philosophical questions of free choice and human nature, appearance and reality, reason and experience, and to newer ones of rationality and morality, other minds and inner selves, and the relation between the natural and human worlds.

Using theories and examples ranging from Plato, Descartes, Hume and Kant to T. S. Eliot and Sherlock Holmes, the author paints a delightfully vivid picture of the discipline that is a perfect start for students beginning courses in philosophy or for anyone meeting the subject for the first time.

Acknowledgements.

1. Wonder, Paradox and Vision.

2. Reasoning. Proof. Evidence. Scientific Method.

3. The Cave.

4. Ants, Spiders and Bees.

5. The Web of Belief.

6. The Elusive "I".

7. The Ring of Gyges.

8. The Common Good.

9. Robots, Apes and Angels.

Further Reading.

Index.

Martin Hollis is Professor at the School of Economic and Social Studies at the University of East Anglia. He is author of numerous publications including Models of Man (1977), Philosophy of Social Science (1994) and Reason in Action (1996).

"A wonderful introduction to the subject for both the general reader and the beginning student, and will be read with profit and pleasure by those more seasoned in the discipline." Time Higher Education Supplement (of the first edition)

"This book is witty, wide–ranging, punchy, and engrossing. It could not fail to ignite the thoughts of those with even the faintest philosophical spark in them." Journal of Applied Philosophy (of the first edition)