The Big Questions: Tackling the Problems of Philosophy with Ideas from Mathematics, Economics, and Physics

Title ......Page 3
Copyright ......Page 4
Epigraph ......Page 5
Contents ......Page 7
Introduction: The Beginning of the Journey ......Page 11
PART I. REALITY AND UNREALITY ......Page 19
1 On What There Is ......Page 21
2 Unfinished Business: Going Bananas ......Page 39
3 How Richard Dawkins Got It Wrong: The Case Against God ......Page 47
PART II. BELIEFS ......Page 57
4 Daydream Believers ......Page 59
5 Unfinished Business ......Page 63
6 What Do Believers Believe? ......Page 73
7 On What There Obviously Is ......Page 85
8 Diogenes\' Nightmare ......Page 93
PART III. KNOWLEDGE ......Page 105
9 Knowing Your Math ......Page 107
10 Unfinished Business: Hercules and the Hydra ......Page 117
11 Incomplete Thinking ......Page 123
12 The Rules of Logic and the Tale of the Potbellied Pig ......Page 129
13 The Rules of Evidence ......Page 141
14 The Limits to Knowledge ......Page 153
15 Unfinished Business: Quantum Entanglement ......Page 161
PART IV. RIGHT AND WRONG ......Page 169
16 Telling Right from Wrong ......Page 171
17 The Economist\'s Golden Rule ......Page 181
18 How to Be Socially Responsible: A User\'s Guide to the Economist\'s Golden Rule ......Page 189
19 On Not Being a Jerk ......Page 199
20 The Economist on the Playground ......Page 209
21 Unfinished Business: Let the Rabbi Split the Pie ......Page 223
PART V. THE LIFE OF THE MIND ......Page 233
22 How to Think ......Page 235
23 What to Study: Some Advice to College Students ......Page 255
Appendix ......Page 267
Acknowledgments ......Page 275
Index ......Page 277
About the Author ......Page 287