Philosophy BranchesBRANCHES OF PHILOSOPHY
December 12, 2023

BRANCHES OF PHILOSOPHY

Philosophy embraces the most ambitious field of inquiry—the universe, including the self and everything both physical and metaphysical. It is impossible to list all the branches of philosophy, which are…
History Of PhilosophyTHE SOPHISTS
November 15, 2023

THE SOPHISTS

The Sophists were not a single school but a professional grouping of largely itinerant teachers of rhetoric, philosophy, and legal argumentation. Their importance lies not in any specific doctrines but…
MEDIEVAL PHILOSOPHYHistory Of PhilosophyTHOMISM
November 15, 2023

THOMISM

A school of thought based on the work of Saint Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274), Thomism is, like Scholasticism, principally concerned with metaphysics and understanding the attributes of God.
Philosophy BranchesTraditional Branches of PhilosophyMETAPHYSICS
December 12, 2023

METAPHYSICS

Metaphysics is the philosophical investigation of reality, including the nature of the world and the entities it contains. While such an investigation inevitably overlaps with natural philosophy—the sciences, especially physics…
THE EARLY MODERN PERIODWHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?EMPIRICISM
November 15, 2023

EMPIRICISM

Empiricism covers a range of views prioritizing experience as the primary source of knowledge. During the Early Modern Period, this view was expounded by the so-called British Empiricists—Locke, Berkeley, and…
FORMS OF PHILOSOPHICAL WRITINGWriting PhilosophyTHE POSITION PAPER
November 19, 2023

THE POSITION PAPER

A position paper may be viewed as a type of argumentative paper in that it states a claim—your position—concerning a topic, issue, or question and presents a justification for that…
LogicINTUITIONISM
November 15, 2023

INTUITIONISM

One of the most familiar non-classical logics is intuitionism, which, in simple terms, is based upon the rejection of the law of excluded middle: (P ∨ ¬P). There are both…
History Of PhilosophyTHE PRE-SOCRATICS
November 15, 2023

THE PRE-SOCRATICS

The origins of Western philosophy are usually attributed to Thales of Miletus (fl. sixth century BC), who taught that “everything was made of water” and thus that the universe, all…
NON-WESTERN PHILOSOPHICAL TRADITIONSHistory Of PhilosophyMIDDLE EASTERN TRADITIONS
November 15, 2023

MIDDLE EASTERN TRADITIONS

As the Middle East is often called the cradle of civilization, it is also the source of some of the earliest philosophical literature. Much of it is devoted to what…
LogicQUANTUM LOGIC
November 15, 2023

QUANTUM LOGIC

Most non-classical logics are motivated by either philosophical considerations, such as the metaphysical status of the future, or technical concerns about the neutrality of the logical connectives or the notion…
WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?WHAT IS THE “SUBJECT MATTER” OF PHILOSOPHY
November 12, 2023

WHAT IS THE “SUBJECT MATTER” OF PHILOSOPHY

“There is a common misunderstanding that philosophy—like chemistry or history—has a content to offer, a content that a teacher is to teach and a student is to learn,” writes Professor…
NON-WESTERN PHILOSOPHICAL TRADITIONSNON-WESTERN PHILOSOPHICAL TRADITIONS
November 15, 2023

NON-WESTERN PHILOSOPHICAL TRADITIONS

As explained at the beginning of this chapter, this book is intended primarily for philosophy students, especially new philosophy students, whose focus is mainly or even exclusively on Western philosophical…
Philosophy BranchesTraditional Branches of PhilosophyNATURAL PHILOSOPHY
December 12, 2023

NATURAL PHILOSOPHY

An important historical branch designation rather than a current one, natural philosophy was the study of nature and the physical universe by philosophical (that is, largely empirical reason-based) methods.
Writing PhilosophyTHE PHILOSOPHICAL WRITING PROCESS
November 22, 2023

THE PHILOSOPHICAL WRITING PROCESS

Writing is work, and for many of us, writing is hard work. Writing philosophy adds to this labor an element of intimidation. Whether you are writing an expository—explanatory and descriptive—essay…
Writing PhilosophyGRADING CRITERIA FOR PHILOSOPHY ESSAYS
November 24, 2023

GRADING CRITERIA FOR PHILOSOPHY ESSAYS

The eight skills just listed are so central to philosophical writing that we may count them among the criteria most instructors use in grading essay assignments. Keep these eight skills…

Books

  • Language, Truth and Logic (Dover Books on Western Philosophy)

    $7.95
  • La disciplina marcará tu destino / Discipline Is Destiny: The Power of Self-Cont rol (LAS CUATRO VIRTUDES ESTOICAS) (Spanish Edition)

    $21.95
  • Tantra: The Supreme Understanding

    $16.95
  • Self-Reliance and Other Essays (Dover Thrift Editions: Philosophy)

    $5.00
  • Good Without God: What a Billion Nonreligious People Do Believe

    $7.69
  • Transcendentalism Collection: Thoreau’s Walden, Walking & Civil Disobedience, Emerson’s Self-Reliance, Nature & The American Scholar, Bryant’s Thanatopsis, & Hawthorne’s Artist of the Beautiful

    $14.88
  • Ralph Waldo Emerson Poetry Collection

    $15.99
  • Unplug Your Robot: The Secret to Lasting Happiness

    $12.95
  • The American Evasion of Philosophy: A Genealogy of Pragmatism (Wisconsin Project on American Writers)

    $21.95
  • The Routledge Companion to Islamic Philosophy (Routledge Philosophy Companions)

    $62.95
  • A Year of Zen Page-A-Day Calendar 2024: Sayings, Parables, Meditations & Haiku for 2024

    $14.27
  • The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom

    $26.00
  • The New Saints: From Broken Hearts to Spiritual Warriors

    $18.89
  • Metaphysical Presuppositions of Being-in-the-World

    $49.95
  • A History of the Islamic World, 600-1800: Empire, Dynastic Formations, and Heterogeneities in Pre-Modern Islamic West-Asia

    $48.95
  • Race Non-Conformity: From Exclusion to Inclusion

    $14.95

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Terms & Concepts

D

Dolor

A utilitarian ethical theory’s name for a unit of pain or displeasure. (See also Hedon.) https://youtube.com/shorts/r_-S6rf807s?feature=share
S

Social contract

A political philosophy concept or theory, originating in the Age of Enlightenment, which concerns the legitimacy of state authority over the individual. The term takes its name from The Social…
U

Uncogent argument

An evaluation term in inductive logic for an argument that is either weak or is strong but has at least one false premise. (See also Inductive argument, Strong argument, and…
H
Happiness calculus (felicity calculus or hedonic calculus)
S
Subject Term
N
Normative ethics
C
Critical thinking
Z
Zend-Avesta
B
Biconditional elimination
C
Category mistake
N
Negation elimination
D
Divine command theory
View All