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Book Reports/Extra Credit

The report should be double-spaced typed, a minimum of eight pages, and must be on one of the following books. (For ethics class, your book must be from the ethics or especially recommended books.) You should spend about ½ of the paper summarizing the main arguments of the book and the other half presenting your own response/reflections/comments. Each book is of approximately the same length and level of difficulty. (If you are in an ethics class, you must choose a book from the ethics category or an especially recommended book marked in bold by ***.)

These particular books were chosen because I have read them and they are: 1) well-written; 2) capable of being read and understood by laypersons; 3) on philosophical topics related to the course; 4) easily available; 5) contemporary; 6) quite inexpensive relative to textbooks; 7) written by true intellectuals; and 8) unusual to the extent that they present ideas that you have probably not encountered. However, I do not necessarily agree with or advocate the positions expressed in these books.

*** Especially recommended (and a bit easier to read)***

Logic and Critical Thinking (these books discuss how to think well.)

  1. ***The Age of American Unreason***, Susan Jacoby, 2008.
  2. Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time, Michael Shermer, 2002.
  3. The Demon-Haunted World: Science As A Candle in the Dark. Carl Sagan. 1996.
  4. How To Think About Weird Things. Theodore Schick & Lewis Vaughn, (any edition.). 
  5. Logic and Contemporary Rhetoric: The Use of Reason in Everyday Life, Kahane & Cavender, (any edition).
  6. Crimes Against Logic: Exposing the Bogus Arguments of Politicians, Priests, Journalists, and other Serial Offenders, Jamie Whyte, 2005.
  7. A 21st Century Rationalist in Medieval America: Essays on Religion, Science, Morality, and the Bush Administration, John Bice, 2007.

Political Philosophy/Contemporary Issues (American)

  1. ***The Wrecking Crew: How Conservatives Rule*** Thomas Frank, 2008.
  2. ***The Conscience of a Liberal ***, Paul Krugman, 2007.
  3. ***The Assault on Reason,*** Al Gore, 2007.
  4. The Sorrows of Empire: Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic. Chalmers Johnson, 2004.
  5. Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism. Susan Jacoby, 2004.
  6. Hegemony or Survival: America’s Quest for Global Dominance, Noam Chomsky, 2003.
  7. War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us To Death, Norman Solomon, 2005.
  8. What's The Matter With Kansas?, Thomas Frank, 2004.
  9. American Theocracy: The Peril and Politics of Radical Religion, Oil, and Borrowed Money in the 21stCentury, Kevin Phillips, 2006.
  10. Blowback, Chalmers Johnson, 2004.
  11. The End of America: Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot, Naomi Wolf, 2007
  12. The Post-American World, Fared Zakaria, 2008.

Technology & the Future

  1. The Singularity is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology, Ray Kurzweil, 2006.
  2. The Age of Spiritual Machines: When Computers Exceed Human Intelligence. Ray Kurzweil, 1999.
  3. Beyond Humanity: CyberEvolution and Future Minds. Paul & Cox. 1996.
  4. Visions: How Science Will Revolutionize the 21st Century and Beyond, Michio Kaku, 1997.
  5. Robot: Mere Machine to Transcendent Mind, Hans Moravec 1999.
  6. Flesh and Machines: How Robots Will Change Us, Rodney Brooks, 2002.

Philosophy of Religion

  1. ***The God Delusion***, Richard Dawkins, 2006.
  2. ***The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason***, Sam Harris, 2004.
  3. Living with Darwin: Evolution, Design, and the Future of Faith, Philip Kitcher, 2007.
  4. Religion Explained: The Evolutionary Origins of Religious Thought, Pascal Boyer, 2001.
  5. How We Believe: Science, Skepticism, and the Search For God. Michael Shermer, 2003.
  6. Breaking The Spell: Religion as Natural Phenomena, Daniel Dennett. 2006
  7. god is not great: How Religion Poisons Everything, Christopher Hitchens, 2007.
  8. Atheist Universe, David Mills, 2006.
  9. Why I Am Not A Christian, Betrand Russell, 1957.

Science & Philosophy

  1. ***Evolution for Everyone: How Darwin's Theory Can Change the way We Think About Our Lives***, David Sloan Wilson, 2007.
  2. On Human Nature. Edward O. Wilson, 1978.
  3. The Selfish Gene. Richard Dawkins, 1989.
  4. Darwin’s Dangerous Idea: Evolution and the Meanings of Life. Daniel Dennett, 1995.
  5. Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fate of Human Societies, Jared Diamond, 1996.
  6. Collapse: How Societies Chose to Fail or Succeed, Jared Diamond, 2005.
  7. The New Humanists: Science at the Edge, John Brockman, ed., 2003.
  8. Why Darwin Matters: The Case Against Intelligent Design, Michael Shermer, 2006.

Ethics

1. ***Created from Animals: The Moral Implications of Darwinism***, James Rachels, 1990.
2. ***The Science of Good and Evil: Why People Cheat, Gossip, Care, Share, and Follow the Golden Rule***, Michael Shermer, 2004.
3. ***The Moral Animal: Why We Are, the Way We Are: The New Science of Evolutionary Psychology***. Robert Wright, 1994.
4. Enchancing Evolution: The Ethical Case for Making Better People, John Harris, 2007.

History

A People's History of the United States, Howard Zinn, 1980.

Meaning of Life

The Meaning of Life, E.D. Klemke, Steven M. Cahn, eds., 2008

Shorter Books (any 2 of these equals one of the above)

***Man's Search for Meaning***, Victor Frankl, 1959.
***Our Endangered Values***, Jimmy Carter, 2006.
***Citizens of the Empire: The Struggle To Claim Our Humanity***, Robert Jensen, 2004.
***The Creation: An Appeal to Save Life on Earth***, E.O.Wilson, 2006.
Unspun: Finding facts in a world of disinformation, Jackson & Jamieson, 2007.
Letter to a Christian Nation, Sam Harris, 2004.

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2008