Books in the Central Problems of Philosophy series

Explores two foundational questions about God: are there adequate reasons to think that God exists and if God exists, what is God like.

What is the nature of causation? How is causation linked with explanation? And can there be an adequate theory of explanation? These questions and many others are addressed in this examination of the philosophical problems surrounding causation, laws and explanation. It provides an introduction to one of the enduring problems of philosophy.

What is death and why does it matter to us? How should the knowledge of our finitude affect the living of our lives and what are the virtues suitable to mortal beings? Does death destroy the meaningfulness of lives, or would lives that never ended be eternally and absurdly tedious? These, and many other, questions are addressed in this book.

Over the years many influential philosophers have advocated that philosophy is an a priori science. This book offers students the standard topics and debates within a priori knowledge, including necessity and certainty, rationalism, empiricism and analyticity, Quine's attack on the a priori, Kantianism, Aristotelianism, and more.

The issue of relativism looms large in many contemporary discussions of knowledge, reality, society, religion, culture and gender. This book offers a path through these debates. It begins by clarifying what exactly relativism is and how it differs from scepticism and pluralism. It then examines five main types of cognitive relativism.

What is it about knowledge that makes us value it more highly than mere true belief? This question lies at the heart of epistemology and has challenged philosophers ever since it was first posed by Plato. This title examines the historical and contemporary answers to this question that provides an introduction to the development of epistemology.