"An Introduction to Philosophy for Young People"

Doug McManaman
Copyright 2007
Reproduced with Permission

Synopsis: The typical university philosophy course today often gives students the impression that philosophical knowledge is radically inconclusive. But philosophy has a very important place in Catholic theological tradition. St. Thomas Aquinas calls philosophy the handmaiden of theology. This Online Introduction to Philosophy is designed to provide young people with a foundation that will allow them to become familiar with some of the most basic concepts that one finds within the tradition of Catholic philosophy, thus enabling them to navigate slowly through the murky waters of our post-modern culture without sinking.


Table of Contents:

Chapter 01: What in the World is Philosophy?

Chapter 02: Some Points on Knowledge and Opinion

Chapter 03: A Note on Holding Truth in Common

Chapter 04: The First Three Self-Evident Principles

Chapter 05: Change, Principles, and the Absurd

Chapter 06: Ideological versus Philosophical Thinking

Chapter 07: An Introduction to Logic

Chapter 08: An Introduction to Universals

Chapter 09: An Introduction to Definitions

Chapter 10: An Introduction to the Idea of Happiness

Chapter 11: An Introduction to the Idea of the Soul

Chapter 12: Some Points on the Powers of the Soul

Chapter 13: Aristotle and the Good Life.

Chapter 14: More First Principles of Speculative Reason

Chapter 15: The Ten Categories of Being

Chapter 16: The Hylomorphic Doctrine

Chapter 17: A Brief Glance at Reductionism

Chapter 18: Essence and Existence

Chapter 19: The Existence of God

Chapter 20: Some Implications of God as Ipsum Esse Subsistens

Chapter 21: Is God the First Cause of Evil?

Chapter 22: The Immortality of the Soul

Chapter 23: The Purpose of Human Life

Chapter 24: Personhood, Integrity, and the Virtues

Chapter 25: The First Principles of Practical Reason

Chapter 26: A Note on the Difference Between Man and Brute


APPENDIX

Appendix 01: What is wrong with Reductionism?

Appendix 02: Why Scientism is False

Appendix 03: Chance and Spontaneity

Appendix 04: Reductionism in Biology

Appendix 05: Reductionism and the Priority of Being

Appendix 06: Scientism, Assumption, and the Real

Appendix 07: An Analysis of Free Choice

Appendix 08: Truth in Perspective

Next Page: Chapter 01: What in the World is Philosophy?
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