Puzzles & Perplexities: Collected Essays / Edition 2

by Steven M. Cahn

Overview

The thirty articles in Puzzles and Perplexitie, displaying clarity and acumen, present a balanced picture of Steven M. Cahn's wide-ranging work over more than four decades. Taken together, the signal essays in this volume guide the reader on a journey through Cahn's remarkable career as a philosopher and educator.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780739121160
Publisher:	Lexington Books
Publication date:	05/15/2007
Edition description:	Second Edition
Pages:	176
Product dimensions:	6.04(w) x 9.14(h) x 0.54(d)

About the Author

Steven M. Cahn is professor of philosophy at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Free Will or Determinism?
Chapter 2 Random Choices
Chapter 3 Time, Truth, and Ability
Chapter 4 Does God Know the Future?
Chapter 5 Does God Exist?
Chapter 6 The Problem of Goodness
Chapter 7 The Moriarty Hypothesis
Chapter 8 Job's Protest
Chapter 9 The Noes Have It: Hume'sDialogues
Chapter 10 Suppose God Exists
Chapter 11 Religion Without God
Chapter 12 The Question: Plato'sEuthyphro
Chapter 13 False Beliefs
Chapter 14 A Supreme Moral Principle?
Chapter 15 Happiness and Immorality
Chapter 16 Meaningless Lives?
Chapter 17 Two Concepts of Affirmative Action
Chapter 18 The Curious Tale of Atlas College
Chapter 19 Why Not Tell the Truth?
Chapter 20 The Divestiture Puzzle
Chapter 21 The Strange Case of John Shmarb
Chapter 22 The Wife of Lear
Chapter 23 John Dewey at Eighty
Chapter 24 Are the Humanities Useful?
Chapter 25 Should Liberal Education Change?
Chapter 26 How to Improve Your Teaching
Chapter 27 How to Teach Introductory Philosophy
Chapter 28 Taking Teaching Seriously
Chapter 29 Teaching Graduate Students to Teach
Chapter 30 Searching for Adminstrators: The Missing Step

Editorial Reviews

Steven M. Cahn is a master of the philosophical essay. In each chapter he confronts a perennial issue, such as God, free will, art, and social justice, and provides an original and provocative philosophical discussion. The chapters combine crisp thinking, elegant writing, and careful, imaginative analysis. These essays are models of philosophical writing.

APA Newsletter on Teaching Philosophy - Robert Talisse

Not only Cahn's lucidity but his philosophical passion and honesty shine through these essays. He is both scrupulously fair to opposing positions and straightforward in advocating his own, whether popular or not. The book will engage students and scholars alike. I found it a pleasure to read.

APA Newsletter on Teaching Philosophy - Alan H. Goldman

Steven M. Cahn is a master of the philosophical essay. In each chapter he confronts a perennial issue, such as God, free will, art, and social justice, and provides an original and provocative philosophical discussion. The chapters combine crisp thinking, elegant writing, and careful, imaginative analysis. These essays are models of philosophical writing.
— Robert Talisse, Vanderbilt University

Teaching Philosophy

Not only Cahn's lucidity but his philosophical passion and honesty shine through these essays. He is both scrupulously fair to opposing positions and straightforward in advocating his own, whether popular or not. The book will engage students and scholars alike. I found it a pleasure to read.
— Alan H. Goldman, College of William & Mary

Newsletter On Teaching Philosophy

Professor Cahn's essays make the mystery of philosopy accessible as he considers many of the important intellectual issues of our time.

Norman Bowie

Puzzles & Perplexities is a thought-provoking collection of Steven Cahn's far-reaching writings, ranging over such diverse topics as free will, the Book of Job, affirmative action, and divestiture. Each essay raises a problem, whether it be in metaphysics, ethics, philosophy of religion, or social policy, that will not only engage and stimulate students, but also challenge scholars to examine their own views as well....

Robert Simon

In Puzzles & Perplexities, Steven Cahn addresses questions about faith and rationality, social and aesthetic value, and the theory and practice of education. He writes lucidly and passionately about problems that are both timely and timeless, aboutissues that should engage all thinking persons....

Karen Hanson

The unusual virtue of this book of short essays is its combination of real clarity of style with often densely-packed arguments that are not watered down for bland consumption. The essays are easy reading without being easy-going, and they will stimulate without exhausting students' interests. Not only Cahn's lucidity, but his philosophical passion and honesty shine through these essays. He is both scrupulously fair to opposing positions and straightforward in advocating his own, whether popular or not. The book will engage students and scholars alike.

Apa Newsletter

These essays are models of philosophical writing; accordingly, Cahn's Puzzles & Perplexities is an ideal supplemental text for problems-based Introduction to Philosphy courses and would do nicely as a main text for any course emphasizing philosophical methodology and writing. Professors struggling to help students improve their critical writing couldn't do better than to incorporate Cahn's essays into their syllabi. Many of these essays represent professional philosophizing at its best: Cahn's arguments meet professional standards of precision and rigor, but are immediately engaging to persons at any level of philosophical sophistication...

APA Newsletter on Teaching Philosophy