Knowledge, Reality, and Value: A Mostly Common Sense Guide to Philosophy (Unabridged‪)‬

The world's best introduction to philosophy, Knowledge, Reality, and Value explains basic philosophical problems in epistemology, metaphysics, and ethics, such as: How can we know about the world outside our minds? Is there a God? Do we have free will? Are there objective values? What distinguishes right actions from wrong actions? The text clearly explains the most important arguments about these things, and it does so a lot less boringly than most books written by professors. 

Contents Preface Part I: Preliminaries   

1. What Is Philosophy?   

2. Logic   

3. Critical Thinking, 

1: Intellectual Virtue   

4. Critical Thinking, 

2: Fallacies   

5. Absolute Truth   

Part II: Epistemology   

6. Skepticism About the External World   

7. Global Skepticism vs. Foundationalism   

8. Defining “Knowledge” Part III: Metaphysics   

9. Arguments for Theism   

10. Arguments for Atheism   

11. Free Will   

12. Personal Identity   

Part IV: Ethics   

13. Metaethics   

14. Ethical Theory, 1: Utilitarianism   

15. Ethical Theory, 2: Deontology   

16. Applied Ethics, 1: The Duty of Charity   

17. Applied Ethics, 2: Animal Ethics   

18. Concluding Thoughts   

Appendix: A Guide to Writing   

Glossary 

Michael Huemer is a professor of philosophy at the University of Colorado, where he has taught since the dawn of time. He is the author of a nearly infinite number of articles in epistemology, metaphysics, ethics, and political philosophy, in addition to seven other amazing and brilliant books that you should immediately buy.