This unique text focuses on ethical puzzles and hypothetical problems to help students at all levels understand and refine their moral principles and see how they apply to various situations. An extensive, thoughtfully written introduction provides the theoretical background and lays out numerous moral puzzle cases that are analyzed and discussed throughout the text. Challenging follow-up articles argue a variety of stances on the ethical puzzles set forth in the introduction.

Ethics: Problems and Principles

Politics & Social Sciences

Fischer, John Martin

Ravizza, Mark

Philosophy

Harcourt, Brace. Jovanovich

Introduce your students to philosophy with the most widely used, trusted, and comprehensive topically organized collection of classical and contemporary readings available. Easy to use for both students and instructors, Introduction to Philosophy: Classical and Contemporary Readings incorporates boldfaced key terms (listed after each reading and defined in the glossary), a "Logical Toolkit," and a guide to writing philosophy papers. The seventh edition features eleven new readings, including eight by contemporary women philosophers, bringing the total number of essays by women to twelve. It is also accompanied by a robust support package that includes a more extensive test bank, available on the new online Ancillary Resource Center, and expanded self-quizzes for students on the Companion Website.

Introduction to Philosophy: Classical and Contemporary Readings

Perry, John

Bratman, Michael

Oxford University Press

Near-death experiences offer a glimpse not only into the nature of death but also into the meaning of life. They are not only useful tools to aid in the human quest to understand death but are also deeply meaningful, transformative experiences for the people who have them. In a unique contribution to the growing and popular literature on the subject, philosophers John Martin Fischer and Benjamin Mitchell-Yellin examine prominent near-death experiences, such as those of Pam Reynolds, Eben Alexander and Colton Burpo. They combine their investigations with critiques of the narratives' analysis by those who take them to show that our minds are immaterial and heaven is for real. In contrast, the authors provide a blueprint for a science-based explanation. Focusing on the question of whether near-death experiences provide evidence that consciousness is separable from our brains and bodies, Fischer and Mitchell-Yellin give a naturalistic account of the profound meaning and transformative effects that these experiences engender in many. This book takes the reality of near-death experiences seriously. But it also shows that understanding them through the tools of science is completely compatible with acknowledging their profound meaning.

Near-Death Experiences: Understanding Visions of the Afterlife

Mitchell-Yellin, Benjamin

Introduce your students to philosophy with the most widely used, trusted, and comprehensive topically organized collection of classical and contemporary readings available. Easy to use for both students and instructors, Introduction to Philosophy: Classical and Contemporary Readings incorporates boldfaced key terms (listed after each reading and defined in the glossary), a "Logical Toolkit," a guide to writing philosophy papers, and study questions after each reading selection. The eighth edition features nine new selections that broaden the book's scope to include work by non Western philosophers and contemporary women philosophers.

Introduce your students to philosophy with the most widely used, trusted, and comprehensive topically organized collection of classical and contemporary readings available. Easy to use for both students and instructors, Introduction to Philosophy: Classical and Contemporary Readings incorporates boldfaced key terms (listed after each reading and defined in the glossary), a "Logical Toolkit," a guide to writing philosophy papers, and study questions after each reading selection. The eighth edition features nine new selections that broaden the book's scope to include work by non-Western philosophers and contemporary women philosophers.

The most recent addition to the Fundamentals of Philosophy series, John Martin Fischer's Death, Immortality, and Meaning in Life offers a brief yet in-depth introduction to the key philosophical issues and problems concerning death and immortality. Its engaging and accessible narrative is clearly organized into ten chapters that address meaning in life, death, the badness of death, time and death, ideas on immortality, near-death experiences, and extending life through medical technology.

Death, Immortality, and Meaning in Life (FDMNTLS PHILOS)

Religion & Spirituality

My Way: Essays on Moral Responsibility

This is a selection of essays on moral responsibility that represent the major components of John Martin Fischer's overall approach to freedom of the will and moral responsibility. The collection exhibits the overall structure of Fischer's view and shows how the various elements fit together to form a comprehensive framework for analyzing free will and moral responsibility. The topics include deliberation and practical reasoning, freedom of the will, freedom of action, various notions of control, and moral accountability. The essays seek to provide a foundation for our practices of holding each other (and ourselves) morally and legally accountable for our behavior. A crucial move is the distinction between two kinds of control. According to Fischer, "regulative control" involves freedom to choose and do otherwise ("alternative possibilities"), whereas "guidance control" does not. Fischer contends that guidance control is all the freedom we need to be morally responsible agents. Further, he contends that such control is fully compatible with causal determinism. Additionally, Fischer argues that we do not need genuine access to alternative possibilities in order for there to be a legitimate point to practical reasoning. Fischer's overall framework contains an argument for the contention that guidance control, and not regulative control, is associated with moral responsibility, a sketch of a comprehensive theory of moral responsibility (that ties together responsibility for actions, omissions, consequences, and character), and an account of the value of moral responsibility. On this account, the value of exhibiting freedom (of the relevant sort) and thus being morally responsible for one's behavior is a species of the value of artistic self-expression.

This is a selection of essays on moral responsibility that represent the major components of John Martin Fischer's overall approach to freedom of the will and moral responsibility. The collection exhibits the overall structure of Fischer's view and shows how the various elements fit together to form a comprehensive framework for analyzing free will and moral responsibility. The topics include deliberation and practical reasoning, freedom of the will, freedom of action, various notions of control, and moral accountability. The essays seek to provide a foundation for our practices of holding each other (and ourselves) morally and legally accountable for our behavior. A crucial move is the distinction between two kinds of control. According to Fischer, "regulative control" involves freedom to choose and do otherwise ("alternative possibilities"), whereas "guidance control" does not. Fischer contends that guidance control is all the freedom we need to be morally responsible agents. Further, he contends that such control is fully compatible with causal determinism. Additionally, Fischer argues that we do not need genuine access to alternative possibilities in order for there to be a legitimate point to practical reasoning. Fischer's overall framework contains an argument for the contention that guidance control, and not regulative control, is associated with moral responsibility, a sketch of a comprehensive theory of moral responsibility (that ties together responsibility for actions, omissions, consequences, and character), and an account of the value of moral responsibility. On this account, the value of exhibiting freedom (of the relevant sort) and thus being morally responsible for one's behavior is a species of the value of artistic self-expression.

Our Stories: Essays on Life, Death, and Free Will

In this collection of essays on the metaphysical issues pertaining to death, the meaning of life, and freedom of the will, John Martin Fischer argues (against the Epicureans) that death can be a bad thing for the individual who dies. He defends the claim that something can be a bad thing--a misfortune--for an individual, even if he never experiences it as bad (and even if he does not any longer exist). Fischer also defends the commonsense asymmetry in our attitudes toward death and prenatal nonexistence: we are indifferent to the time before we are born, but we regret that we do not live longer. Further, Fischer argues (against the immortality curmudgeons, such as Heidegger and Bernard Williams), that immortal life could be desirable, and shows how the defense of the (possible) badness of death and the (possible) goodness of immortality exhibit a similar structure; on Fischer's view, the badness of death and the goodness of life can be represented on spectra that display certain continuities. Building on Fischer's previous book, My Way a major aim of this volume is to show important connections between issues relating to life and death and issues relating to free will. More specifically, Fischer argues that we endow our lives with a certain distinctive kind of meaning--an irreducible narrative dimension of value--by exhibiting free will. Thus, in acting freely, we transform our lives so that our stories matter.

Introduction to Philosophy: Classical and Contemporary Readings, Fifth Edition, is the most comprehensive topically organized collection of classical and contemporary philosophy available. Ideal for introductory philosophy courses, the text includes sections on God and evil, knowledge and reality, the philosophy of science, the mind/body problem, freedom of will, consciousness, ethics, political philosophy, existential issues, and philosophical puzzles and paradoxes. Insightful introductions to each part, study questions after each reading selection, and an extensive glossary of philosophical terms help make the readings more accessible to students. Revised and updated to make it more pedagogical, the fifth edition incorporates boldfaced key terms (listed after each reading and defined in the glossary); a guide to writing philosophy papers; and a "Logical Toolkit," which lists and explains common terminology used in philosophical reasoning. This edition also features five new readings and a separate section on existential issues. In addition, the book is accompanied by supplementary materials that enhance its utility. An updated Instructor's Manual and Testbank on CD contains sample syllabi, sample exam questions, summaries of each reading, and additional pedagogical tools. A Companion Website at www.oup.com/us/perry features the same material included in the Instructor's Manual and Testbank. It also links to a separate site for students, which offers multiple-choice self-quizzes; pedagogical material; and an interactive blog featuring recommended websites, news articles, helpful anecdotes, and interviews.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Fischer, John Martin. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Fischer, John Martin

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Fischer, John Martin. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Ethics: Problems and Principles

Introduction to Philosophy: Classical and Contemporary Readings

Near-Death Experiences: Understanding Visions of the Afterlife

Introduction to Philosophy: Classical and Contemporary Readings

Introduction to Philosophy: Classical and Contemporary Readings

Death, Immortality, and Meaning in Life (FDMNTLS PHILOS)

My Way: Essays on Moral Responsibility

My Way: Essays on Moral Responsibility

Our Stories: Essays on Life, Death, and Free Will

Introduction to Philosophy: Classical and Contemporary Readings