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THE COMPLETE PHILOSOPHY PRIMER

A Must Have Book For Every Philosophy Student

The Complete Philosophy Primer

An Undergraduate Study Companion

The Complete Philosophy Primer is all you need to do your best and get the most out of every undergraduate philosophy course. In fact, even if you’re just curious about philosophy in general, you found the right book. This book is a compendium that has everything you might want to learn about philosophy.

The Complete Philosophy Primer asks and answers

  • What is philosophy?
  • What are the branches of philosophy?
  • What is logic and where does logic fit into philosophy?
  • What are the key philosophical terms and concepts in philosophy?
  • What is the history of philosophy?
  • How do you create effective philosophical writing?
  • What processes and skills are needed to write a philosophy paper?
  • What are the forms of philosophical writing?
  • What strategic writing choices will best serve you in your class assignments?

This unique book includes a concise but comprehensive reference section, which includes:

  • 100s of key philosophical terms and concepts.
  • 100s of biographical essays on the philosophers that philosophy professors consider most important.
  • 100s of indispensable resources, including the books, websites, blogs, films, TV programs, and institutions you need to know about.

Finally, philosophy without fear—in a comprehensive guide and reference especially written for those who are taking or are about to take their first college-level philosophy course.

The Complete Philosophy Primer will improve your academic performance, your test results, and the grades you receive on the work you do and the papers you write in philosophy courses. It will enable you to get the very most out of the philosophy class you are taking now—and those you may take in the future.

The Complete Philosophy Primer will set you on the path of philosophy and guide you along its many branches. It will optimize your performance and elevate your grades. And if you can perform well in a philosophy course, you can excel in many other fields of study at levels both higher and more profound than you thought possible.

This book shows you how to do philosophy.

From the very beginning, at the introductory level, philosophy classes are like no other college or university courses. That is because philosophy is less about what to think than how to think.

Philosophy opens your mind and imagination but insists on doing so in a disciplined manner. It is about learning more productive ways to think and write and argue, and in writing well and arguing effectively, to think with even more originality and greater clarity.

Philosophy Student
By In ANALYTIC PHILOSOPHY

LOGICAL ATOMISM

Although mostly associated with the logical analysis of language, analytic philosophy began in the philosophy of mathematics. Working independently, both…
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History Of PhilosophyNON-WESTERN PHILOSOPHICAL TRADITIONS
November 15, 2023

PHILOSOPHIES OF EAST ASIA

The dominant philosophical traditions in this part of the world began in Ancient China from the sixth century to 221 BC, which saw the development of China’s great philosophical movements…
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CONTINENTAL PHILOSOPHYHistory Of Philosophy
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…
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PHILOSOPHICAL BOOKS AND TEXT
November 23, 2023

PHILOSOPHICAL BOOKS AND TEXT

ESSENTIAL READING IN THE HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY BOOKS TO GUIDE NOVICE PHILOSOPHY STUDENTS INTRODUCTORY PHILOSOPHY TEXTS GUIDES TO PHILOSOPHICAL WRITING INTRODUCTORY LOGIC TEXTS CRITICAL THINKING AND LOGIC TEXTBOOKS
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Writing Philosophy
November 21, 2023

ESSENTIAL WRITING SKILLS

Having just walked through the basic process of writing a philosophy paper, we turn now to the essential skillset you should develop and apply not only to the writing of…
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THE EARLY MODERN PERIODWHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?
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…
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Philosophy BranchesTraditional Branches of Philosophy
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,…
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WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?
November 12, 2023

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…
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Philosophy BranchesTraditional Branches of Philosophy
December 12, 2023

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…
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History Of PhilosophyTHE EARLY MODERN PERIOD
November 15, 2023

THE EARLY MODERN PERIOD

Philosophical thought during the Enlightenment was characterized by a rejection of existing sources of authority. The broadly Aristotelean scientific worldview was undermined by a period of scientific revolution—conventionally beginning with…
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History Of Philosophy
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…
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History Of PhilosophyNON-WESTERN PHILOSOPHICAL TRADITIONS
November 15, 2023

AFRICAN PHILOSOPHY

The earliest indigenous African philosophy to produce written documents emerged during the seventeenth century, especially in Ethiopia. Zera Yacob (1599–1692), whose Hatata (1667) has been compared to René Descartes’ Discourse…
Philosophy Student
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STRATEGIC WRITING CHOICESWriting Philosophy
November 18, 2023

STRATEGIC WRITING CHOICES FOR PHILOSOPHY CLASS

Writing philosophy should not be easy, but you cannot allow it to become impossible. Here are five strategic rules of thumb for embarking on a successful writing project for philosophy…
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Modern Branches of PhilosophyPhilosophy Branches
November 14, 2023

PHILOSOPHY OF LANGUAGE

The study of natural languages is conventionally divided among questions of syntax, semantics, and pragmatics, all of which raise significant issues for the philosophy of language. In terms of syntax…
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History Of PhilosophyTHE EARLY MODERN PERIOD
November 15, 2023

RATIONALISM

Rationalism designates a variety of philosophical schools maintaining that reason, as opposed to empirical investigation, is the most important method of acquiring knowledge.
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History Of PhilosophyMEDIEVAL PHILOSOPHY
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.
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Philosophy Student
By In History Of Philosophy

UTILITARIANISM

The French Revolution sparked legal and political reforms across Europe, which brought with them their accompanying philosophical frameworks.
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Logic

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Terms & Concepts

B

Biconditional

A two-way conditional claim, typically expressed by the phrase, “if and only if.” In symbolic logic, the phrase is often notated by a two-way arrow (↔) or a triple bar…
E

Empirical

That which is experiential or derived from experience. https://youtube.com/shorts/KIupsfRlT3k?feature=share
S

Socialism

The political view that members of society should own or control their means of production—that is, property, factories, businesses, and so on. https://youtube.com/shorts/ByWjJHmDbvA?feature=share
C
Consequentialism
E
Ethical absolutism
C
Categorical Imperative
S
Semantic theory of truth
C
Contraries
P
Paradigm
U
Unalienable rights
A
Atomic sentence
C
Causation (or causality)
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