PHENOMENOLOGY
As originally developed by Edmund Husserl (1859–1938), phenomenology seeks to provide a detailed description of the way in which things are presented to us—that is to say, phenomena —in an…
PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION
PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION
Many religions distinguish between truths accessible through reason (natural theology), and truths accessible through faith (revealed theology). Both natural and revealed theology raise interesting philosophical questions about these two sources…
WHAT IS THE “SUBJECT MATTER” OF PHILOSOPHY
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…
ETHICS
ETHICS
Ethics is the study of morality and can be divided into three main areas of inquiry. Descriptive ethics concerns the actual moral beliefs held by specific individuals or societies and…
PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE
PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE
Many of the topics within the philosophy of science overlap with topics in metaphysics, epistemology, and the philosophy of language insofar as they apply within our scientific practice. Metaphysical issues,…
PHILOSOPHY AS METHOD
PHILOSOPHY AS METHOD
Our digital age suggests a useful analogy to further explain the role of philosophy in intellectual life. Philosophy is analogous to an operating system (OS), a software platform that enables…
WHAT PHILOSOPHY PROFESSORS WANT FROM STUDENT WRITERS
WHAT PHILOSOPHY PROFESSORS WANT FROM STUDENT WRITERS
Some 2,300 years ago, Aristotle introduced the syllogism into the intellectual world. A threeelement formula, it is the elementary building block of syllogistic logic and deductive reasoning. The syllogism combines…
THOMISM
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.
CYNICISM
CYNICISM
Founded by Antisthenes (c. 445–360 BC), who taught the importance of individual virtue over material luxury, Cynicism was contemptuous of political institutions and organized religion. It rejected refined philosophical speculation…
PREDICATE CALCULUS (PREDICATE LOGIC)
PREDICATE CALCULUS (PREDICATE LOGIC)
The next development of the propositional calculus is the predicate calculus. This considers the logical relationships that hold between predicate expressions, along with the quantifiers ∃x (“there is at least…
GOOD PHILOSOPHICAL WRITING
GOOD PHILOSOPHICAL WRITING
BASICS OF GOOD PHILOSOPHICAL WRITING: A DEEPER DIVE Having surveyed the elements of good writing from 30,000 feet, let’s swoop in on some of the most important specifics. This means…
THE FRANKFURT SCHOOL
THE FRANKFURT SCHOOL
A group of philosophers, cultural critics, and social scientists based around the Frankfurt (Germany) Institute for Social Research were primarily concerned with integrating philosophical analysis with then-recent results in the…
BOOKS TO GUIDE NOVICE PHILOSOPHY STUDENTS
BOOKS TO GUIDE NOVICE PHILOSOPHY STUDENTS
This list is aimed at curating those texts that will both challenge a novice researcher, and continually reward repeated encounters as you develop your philosophical interests.
THE PRE-SOCRATICS
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…
ANALYTIC PHILOSOPHY IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
ANALYTIC PHILOSOPHY IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
The analytic tradition arose partly as a rejection of Hegelian idealism in favor of what George Edward Moore (1873–1958) called a “common sense” view of the world, alongside developments in…
THE ELEATIC SCHOOL
Based in the Ionian colony of Elea (modern-day Velia) in southern Italy, and primarily associated with Parmenides (early fifth century…
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Discipline Is Destiny: The Power of Self-Control (The Stoic Virtues Series)
$15.99
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Stillness Is the Key
$7.99
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Right Thing, Right Now: Justice in an Unjust World (The Stoic Virtues Series)
$28.00
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How to Think Like a Roman Emperor: The Stoic Philosophy of Marcus Aurelius
$13.12
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Letters from a Stoic: Penguin Classics
$14.52
Books
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The Problems of Philosophy
$7.80 -
Moses and Abraham Maimonides: Encountering the Divine (Emunot: Jewish Philosophy and Kabbalah)
$35.00 -
Meditations: A New Translation
$7.99 -
Tantra of the Yoga Sutras: Essential Wisdom for Living with Awareness and Grace
$14.95 -
The Way of Chuang Tzu
$9.99 -
The Art of War
$3.85 -
The Philosophy of Space and Time (Dover Books on Physics)
$20.00 -
Perfect Just as You Are: Buddhist Practices on the Four Limitless Ones: Loving-Kindness, Compassion, Joy, and Equanimity
$16.99 -
Self-Reliance: The Wisdom of Ralph Waldo Emerson as Inspiration for Daily Living
$14.99 -
The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable
$15.98 -
Living Buddha@@ Living Christ
$19.27 -
Fear and Trembling: A New Translation
$16.64 -
By the Book Series: MacArthur, Romans, Paperback, Comfort Print: Unleashing God’s Truth One Verse at a Time
$12.97 -
Stoicism: How to Use Stoic Philosophy to Find Inner Peace and Happiness
$19.99 -
De Anima (On the Soul) (Penguin Classics)
$13.68 -
How to Know a Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen (Random House Large Print)
$32.00
Reexamining Spacetime Substantivalism: A Critique of Modal Arbitrariness and Determinism in Teitel’s Framework
Reexamining Spacetime Substantivalism: A Critique of Modal Arbitrariness and Determinism in Teitel’s Framework
Reexamining Spacetime Substantivalism: A Critique of Modal Arbitrariness and Determinism in Teitel’s Framework
Reexamining Spacetime Substantivalism: A Critique of Modal Arbitrariness and Determinism in Teitel’s Framework
Rule-Following and Artificial Intelligence: A Kripkean Perspective
Rule-Following and Artificial Intelligence: A Kripkean Perspective
The Eternal Coexistence of Consciousness and Spacetime: A Philosophical Inquiry
The Eternal Coexistence of Consciousness and Spacetime: A Philosophical Inquiry
Embracing Contradiction: An In-Depth Analysis of Dialetheism
Embracing Contradiction: An In-Depth Analysis of Dialetheism
Analysis of, and Responses to Edmund Gettier’s “Is Justified True Belief Knowledge?”
Analysis of, and Responses to Edmund Gettier’s “Is Justified True Belief Knowledge?”
The Unstable Foundation: A Critique of the Ontological Proof of God’s Existence
The Unstable Foundation: A Critique of the Ontological Proof of God’s Existence
Meta-Modal Actuality: A Dynamic Framework for Possibility, Actualization, and Causality
Meta-Modal Actuality: A Dynamic Framework for Possibility, Actualization, and Causality
Killing, Morality, and the Human Condition: A Philosophical Investigation
Killing, Morality, and the Human Condition: A Philosophical Investigation
The Intricacy of Existence: A Philosophical Exploration of Complexity, Contingency, and Divine Agency
The Intricacy of Existence: A Philosophical Exploration of Complexity, Contingency, and Divine Agency
The Ethics of Procreation and the Rational Acceptance of Life: A Critical Engagement with Weinberg’s Argument
The Ethics of Procreation and the Rational Acceptance of Life: A Critical Engagement with Weinberg’s Argument
Imagination, Consciousness, and the Nature of the Soul: A Philosophical Inquiry
Imagination, Consciousness, and the Nature of the Soul: A Philosophical Inquiry
The Interplay of Karma, Rebirth, and Non-Self in Buddhist Philosophy: A Metaphysical Inquiry
The Interplay of Karma, Rebirth, and Non-Self in Buddhist Philosophy: A Metaphysical Inquiry
Metaphysical Perspectives: A Comparative Analysis of Theism and Atheism
Metaphysical Perspectives: A Comparative Analysis of Theism and Atheism
The Infinite Universe, Death, and the Search for Meaning: A Philosophical Exploration of Existence, the Divine, and Human Mortality
The Infinite Universe, Death, and the Search for Meaning: A Philosophical Exploration of Existence, the Divine, and Human Mortality
The Unconscious Artistry of Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Reflection on Spinoza’s God and the Blind Watchmaker
The Unconscious Artistry of Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Reflection on Spinoza’s God and the Blind Watchmaker
The Ethics of Procreation and the Rational Acceptance of Life: A Critical Engagement with Weinberg’s Argument
The Ethics of Procreation and the Rational Acceptance of Life: A Critical Engagement with Weinberg’s Argument
Terms & Concepts
Hypothetico-Deductive Method
Method of testing scientific theories whereby an observable prediction is logically deduced from the hypothesis in question (in conjunction with relevant auxiliary hypotheses and initial conditions). Repeated occurrences of the…
Conjunction introduction
In symbolic logic, a valid inference in a system of truth-functional rules. In a derivation, two statements can be inferred using the conjunction symbol, since a statement governed by the…
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