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This Introduction to Philosophy Reader was developed as an Open Textbook (OER, Open Educational Resource) for use in a lower-level Philosophy course at Golden West College (a California Community College). It contains many important works with some background information on the people and history of Philosophy, as well as some original stories to spark discussion on important topics in Philosophy. All of the works contain licenses that allow this work to be used and distributed freely and openly and may be printed (even for commercial purposes). Please contact the editor for comments, feedback, or suggestions. This work is effectively an anthology of many important works in Philosophy that are freely available. It meets accessibility requirements as well. The Table of Contents is listed below: UNIT ONE: KNOWLEDGE AND SKEPTICISM 1. Introduction to Philosophy and Arguments 2. A Lesson in Thinking: The Trolley Problem 3. Theaetetus 4. The Republic, Book VII: The Allegory of the Cave 5. Descartes’ Meditations: Doubt 6. Hume’s “An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding”: Skepticism UNIT TWO: PERSONAL IDENTITY AND THE MIND-BODY PROBLEM 7. The Ship of Theseus 8. This Above All 9. Descartes’ Meditations: Cartesian Dualism 10. Hoops of Steel 11. The Devil Himself 12. Removing “identity” from “persons”: Derek Parfit UNIT THREE: PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION 13. Science and Theology 14. Pascal’s Wager 15. Anselm’s Ontological Argument and Gaunilo’s Lost Island 16. Aquinas’ Cosmological Argument 17. Paley’s Watchmaker Argument 18. Hume and “The Problem of Evil” UNIT FOUR: FREE WILL, DETERMINISM, AND RESPONSIBILITY 19. The Turing Test 20. Determinism 21. The Illusion of Free Will 22. Compatibilism 23. The Prisoner’s Dilemma 24. The Trial of Leopold and Loeb UNIT FIVE: ETHICS 25. The Myth of Gyges 26. The Euthyphro Dilemma 27. Utilitarianism 28. The Categorical Imperative 29. Beyond Good and Evil 30. Virtue Ethics

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