From Socrates to the Supreme Court

<p>Philosophy and law are separate disciplines but they deal with many of the same issues—from the meaning of equality and liberty the nature of knowledge reasoning and mental states to the indeterminacy of language causation free will luck and personal identity. This textbook introduces philosophy to undergraduates in a new and refreshing way—by using cases concepts and doctrines from the law to illustrate philosophical issues. <i>From Socrates to the Supreme Court: An Introduction to Philosophy through the Law</i> introduces the major areas in the discipline—moral and political philosophy epistemology metaphysics philosophy of mind and language—and philosophy’s great thinkers from Plato Aristotle Hume and Kant to Russell Wittgenstein Austin and Anscombe. It shows how ideas in philosophy are not academic but play out in Supreme Court rulings and other court cases. Through example after example—the concept of <em>mens rea</em> in criminal law the rules governing the admissibility of evidence in court statutory interpretation free speech perjury the analogical nature of legal reasoning the use of the Socratic method in deciding cases and the laws against discrimination—this book deepens the student’s understanding of philosophy by driving home the fact that philosophical questions matter in the real world.</p>