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…
Traditional Branches of PhilosophyPhilosophy BranchesAESTHETICS
December 12, 2023

AESTHETICS

Aesthetics is concerned with the nature of art (whether visual, literary, dramatic, or in some other medium) and the way in which art is experienced. Two principal related issues, therefore,…
History Of PhilosophyTHE ELEATIC SCHOOL
November 15, 2023

THE ELEATIC SCHOOL

Based in the Ionian colony of Elea (modern-day Velia) in southern Italy, and primarily associated with Parmenides (early fifth century BC) and Melissus of Samos (mid fifth century BC), the…
PHILOSOPHICAL BOOKS AND TEXTINTRODUCTORY PHILOSOPHY TEXTS
November 27, 2023

INTRODUCTORY PHILOSOPHY TEXTS

There is no substitute for grappling primary sources. Nevertheless, secondary sources—including scholarly research, literary reviews, historical summaries—are valuable tools. They not only show you how you can begin thinking about…
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…
Modern Branches of PhilosophyPhilosophy BranchesHERMENEUTICS
November 14, 2023

HERMENEUTICS

Originally applied to scriptural exegesis (interpretation), hermeneutics is more generally the theory and method of all “textual” interpretation. In the modern context, this refers to both verbal and non-verbal “texts”…
THE EARLY MODERN PERIODHistory Of PhilosophyLIBERALISM
November 15, 2023

LIBERALISM

A political philosophy whose central claim is that a government’s authority is justified only insofar as it secures the liberty of its subjects, Liberalism is generally traced to John Locke…
CONTINENTAL PHILOSOPHYHistory Of PhilosophyEXISTENTIALISM
November 15, 2023

EXISTENTIALISM

A broad philosophical and literary movement that flourished during the first half of the twentieth century, Existentialism emphasized the uniqueness of human experience over the generalizations of traditional scientific or…
PHILOSOPHICAL BOOKS AND TEXTINTRODUCTORY LOGIC TEXTS
November 27, 2023

INTRODUCTORY LOGIC TEXTS

There are some fairly firm distinctions between critical thinking and formal (symbolic) logic texts. Whereas critical thinking focuses broadly on argumentation, formal logic is the study of the principles of…
LogicMANY-VALUE LOGICS
November 15, 2023

MANY-VALUE LOGICS

In the classical logics already discussed, the logical connectives are taken to be bivalent—that is, they allow of only two different truth values: true and false. One natural extension to…
MEDIEVAL PHILOSOPHYHistory Of PhilosophyMEDIEVAL PHILOSOPHY
November 15, 2023

MEDIEVAL PHILOSOPHY

The Medieval Period is usually dated between the fall of the Western Roman Empire (476)and the beginning of the Renaissance (c. 1300). In terms of philosophy, the period begins inthe…
MEDIEVAL PHILOSOPHYHistory Of PhilosophySCHOLASTICISM
November 15, 2023

SCHOLASTICISM

A general term for those philosophers influenced by the medieval rediscovery of classic texts, Scholasticism is broadly characterized by an interest in logic and disputation and is motivated to resolve…
CONTINENTAL PHILOSOPHYHistory Of PhilosophyPHENOMENOLOGY
November 15, 2023

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…
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.
CLASSICAL PHILOSOPHYHistory Of PhilosophyEPICUREANISM
November 15, 2023

EPICUREANISM

Founded by Epicurus (341–271 BC), this eponymous philosophy is best known through the Roman poet Lucretius (mid first century BC). Like the Atomists, the Epicureans maintained that everything is made…

Books

  • Thomas Aquinas in 50 Pages: A Layman’s Quick Guide to Thomism

    $19.00
  • The Middle Way: The Emergence of Modern-Religious Trends in Nineteenth-Century Judaism Responses to Modernity in the Philosophy of Z. H. Chajes, S. R. … Vol. 1 (Studies in Orthodox Judaism)

    $41.68
  • Discipline Is Destiny: The Power of Self-Control

    $24.50
  • Japanese Death Poems

    $289.97
  • Lying

    $12.99
  • The Kierkegaard Collection

    $7.99
  • Being and Nothingness

    $45.00
  • The Stoic Challenge: A Philosopher’s Guide to Becoming Tougher, Calmer, and More Resilient

    $12.99
  • Black Utopias: Speculative Life and the Music of Other Worlds

    $102.95
  • Humanly Possible

    $56.71
  • How Not to Be Wrong: The Power of Mathematical Thinking

    $23.19
  • Nicomachean Ethics

    $15.99
  • Aesthetic Theory (Volume 88) (Theory and History of Literature)

    $30.50
  • The Experience of Nothingness: Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj’s Talks on Realizing the Infinite

    $14.92
  • Lessons from Tozer for the Christian

    $6.99
  • Inspired Knowledge in Islamic Thought (Culture and Civilization in the Middle East)

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Terms & Concepts

D

Deconstruction

A philosophical school of thought begun by twentieth-century philosopher Jacques Derrida (1930-2004). Often contrasted with the Anglo-American analytic tradition, deconstruction involves a specifically critical reading of a text that upends…
E

Existential introduction

In symbolic logic, a valid inference in a system of quantifier rules. From a singular sentence,the inference to an existentially quantified claim is valid. The inference is to a restricted…
F

Formal cause

The essence, structural features, or attributes of a thing; one of Aristotle’s four explanationsfor a thing’s coming to be. https://youtube.com/shorts/FJqEZbim1y8?feature=share
N
Normative ethics
R
Rhetoric
PHIOLOSOPHICAL TERMS AND CONCEPTS
PHIOLOSOPHICAL TERMS AND CONCEPTS
S
Semantic holism
P
Probable
C
Conditional elimination
E
Ethics of care
A
Applied ethics
E
Exclusive disjunction
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