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A Must Have Book For Every Philosophy Student
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…
Logic
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…
Modern Branches of PhilosophyPhilosophy Branches
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”…
History Of PhilosophyMEDIEVAL PHILOSOPHY
November 15, 2023

SAINT AUGUSTINE

Like his contemporaries, Saint Augustine (354–430) was primarily influenced by Neoplatonism, and, indeed, credited Plotinus with helping him to understand Christian theology.
CLASSICAL PHILOSOPHYHistory Of Philosophy
November 15, 2023

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…
Writing Philosophy
November 24, 2023

WHAT IS GOOD WRITING?

What is good music? What is good art? What is good writing? Such questions unleash many opinions. The branch of traditional philosophy called Aesthetics is devoted to answering such questions…
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…
PHILOSOPHICAL BOOKS AND TEXT
November 27, 2023

CRITICAL THINKING AND LOGIC TEXTBOOKS

Textbooks on critical thinking and logic.
History Of PhilosophyPOST-KANTIAN PHILOSOPHY
November 15, 2023

PRAGMATISM

Pragmatism was a philosophical movement in the United States concerned with the relationship between abstract theory and practical activity, and with the value of philosophical reflection.
NON-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…
CLASSICAL PHILOSOPHYHistory Of Philosophy
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…
Writing Philosophy
November 23, 2023

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…
Logic
November 15, 2023

MODAL LOGIC

A common extension to the standard formal languages outlined above is to introduce the technical machinery required to evaluate natural language arguments containing modal terminology (that is, talk of possibility…
PHILOSOPHICAL BOOKS AND TEXT
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…
ANALYTIC PHILOSOPHYHistory Of Philosophy
November 15, 2023

ORDINARY LANGUAGE PHILOSOPHY

Between the 1940s and the 1960s, analytic philosophy shifted away from investigating the (supposed) underlying logical structure of language. While it was still primarily concerned with conceptual analysis, this was…

Books

  • Trivium: The Classical Liberal Arts of Grammar, Logic, & Rhetoric (Wooden Books)

    $20.57
  • Sun Tzu – The Art of War

    $5.99
  • Capitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative?

    $14.95
  • On the Genealogy of Morals and Ecce Homo

    $18.00
  • Sad Love: Romance and the Search for Meaning

    $14.79
  • Plato of Athens: A Life in Philosophy

    $18.57
  • Cognitive Behavioural Therapy: 7 Ways to Freedom from Anxiety, Depression, and Intrusive Thoughts

    $42.42
  • The Extended Mind: The Power of Thinking Outside the Brain

    $28.00
  • Descartes: The Essential Collection

    $19.99
  • The Little Book of Philosophy: An Introduction to the Key Thinkers and Theories You Need to Know

    $13.95
  • Ancient Greek Philosophers (Leather-bound Classics)

    $14.79
  • The Daily Stoic Paperback

    $17.66
  • UNDERSTANDING THOMAS HOBBES: The Smart Student’s Guide to Leviathan – Parts One and Two (Philosophy Study Guides)

    $9.24
  • The Varieties of Religious Experience

    $9.89
  • Humanly Possible

    $56.71
  • The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom

    $13.99

Terms & Concepts

T

Third Man argument

The argument that any theory of universals will entail an infinite regress because if a universal is required to explain the similarity between two individual objects, then another universal is…
B

Bad faith

The refusal to accept responsibility for one’s freedom and, therefore, also for one’s choices. The term comes from the twentieth-century existentialist Jean-Paul Sartre. https://youtube.com/shorts/U0965UIQpjU?feature=share
P

Preestablished harmony

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz’s (1646-1716) view of the universe as ordered by God. https://youtube.com/shorts/zjbIvhszGG4?feature=share
F
False dichotomy
I
Individual constant
C
Cosmological argument
C
Contraposition
J
Justification
E
Evidentialism
N
Necessary truth
D
Dukkha
A
Absurdity
View All