Books in the Routledge Contemporary Introductions to Philosophy series

Is life a purely physical process? What is human nature? Which of our traits is essential to us? Exploring concepts, such as supervenience; the controversies about genocentrism and genetic determinism, the authors lay out the broad terms in which we should assess the impact of biology on human capacities, social institutions, and ethical values.

A Contemporary Introduction.

Sets out the major theories of perception together with their motivations and attendant problems. While providing historical background to debates in the field, this title focuses on presentations and defenses of the different theories, and looks beyond visual perception to take into account the role of other senses.

Taking a thematic approach, the author introduces and assesses continental philosophy's relation to fundamental questions in philosophy, such as ethics, humanism, phenomenology, politics and metaphysics. He also introduces various thinkers of the continental tradition: from Kant, Nietzsche and Husserl to Heidegger, and Merleau-Ponty.

This is designed to help students who have already done an introductory course in philosophy - guiding them to think more clearly about how to form their moral beliefs in the wisest and most rational way.

Philosophy of Psychology is an introduction to the nature and mechanisms of cognition and behaviour, aimed at students who have already done an introductory philosophy course.

Introducing students to the famous philosophers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, this book explores their most important works.

Philosophy of Art is a textbook for undergraduate students interested in the topic of philosophical aesthetics, introducing the techniques of analytic philosophy in addition to a selection of the major topics in this area.

This text should be useful to any student coming to social and political philosophy for the first time. It provides a broad survey of fundamental social and political questions in modern society, as well as clear, accessible discussions of the philosophophical issues central to political thought.

Identifies the philosophical problems that science raises through an examination of questions about its nature, methods and justification. A valuable introduction for science and philosophy students alike.

Epistemology, or 'the theory of knowledge', is concerned with how we know what we know, what justifies us in believing what we believe, and what standards of evidence we should use in seeking truths about the world and human experience. This title explains the concepts and theories central to understanding knowledge.

Now in its Third Edition, Philosophy of Language: A Contemporary Introduction introduces students to the main issues and theories in twentieth-century philosophy of language, focusing specifically on linguistic phenomena.

Now in its Third Edition, Philosophy of Language: A Contemporary Introduction introduces students to the main issues and theories in twentieth-century philosophy of language, focusing specifically on linguistic phenomena.