Philosophy BranchesTraditional Branches of PhilosophyPHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION
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…
WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?PHILOSOPHY AS METHOD
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…
Writing PhilosophyESSENTIAL WRITING SKILLS
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…
CLASSICAL PHILOSOPHYHistory Of PhilosophyCYNICISM
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…
LogicMODAL 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…
FORMS OF PHILOSOPHICAL WRITINGWriting PhilosophyTHE EXPOSITORY PAPER
November 19, 2023

THE EXPOSITORY PAPER

We have already touched on the expository paper, but let’s discuss it briefly here. Look at the adjective expository. It is derived from the noun exposition, which is the noun…
Philosophy BranchesTraditional Branches of PhilosophyPHILOSOPHY OF LAW
December 12, 2023

PHILOSOPHY OF LAW

The philosophy of law is concerned with all aspects of theoretical reflection on laws and legal systems and therefore encompasses historical and sociological studies in addition to the philosophical questions…
Philosophy BranchesTraditional Branches of PhilosophyPOLITICAL PHILOSOPHY
December 12, 2023

POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY

Political philosophy is at least as old as Plato (428/227 or 424/423-348/347 BC) and is concerned with the nature of the state and, more broadly, with coercive institutions, and their…
LogicPROPOSITIONAL CALCULUS (PROPOSITIONAL LOGIC)
November 15, 2023

PROPOSITIONAL CALCULUS (PROPOSITIONAL LOGIC)

The simplest formal (logical) language is the propositional calculus. This considers the logical relationships that hold between complete propositions.
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…
PHILOSOPHICAL BOOKS AND TEXTGUIDES TO PHILOSOPHICAL WRITING
November 27, 2023

GUIDES TO PHILOSOPHICAL WRITING

As with developing any skill, learning to write philosophically takes practice. Here are some links to academic sites, along with several style guides, to aid you.
History Of PhilosophyPOST-KANTIAN PHILOSOPHY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY
November 15, 2023

POST-KANTIAN PHILOSOPHY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY

Kant’s philosophy continued to dominate throughout the nineteenth century, although there were increasing concerns about the overall coherence of his system; in particular, there was doubt as to whether the…
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,…
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”…
PHILOSOPHICAL BOOKS AND TEXTESSENTIAL READING IN THE HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY
November 27, 2023

ESSENTIAL READING IN THE HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY

A comprehensive list of essential readings in the history of philosophy.

Books

  • Letters from a Stoic (Collins Classics)

    $7.99
  • The ethics of ambiguity;

    $158.00
  • The Compassionate Brain: How Empathy Creates Intelligence

    $16.03
  • A Thousand Brains

    $15.39
  • Tao Te Ching: With Over 150 Photographs by Jane English

    $19.74
  • Confessions

    $38.00
  • Why Buddhism is True: The Science and Philosophy of Meditation and Enlightenment

    $10.89
  • Be Not Afraid of Life: In the Words of William James

    $17.29
  • On Liberty

    $8.99
  • Context Changes Everything: How Constraints Create Coherence

    $44.50
  • Seeing Is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees: Expanded Edition

    $25.69
  • The Second Sex

    $4.99
  • Shape: The Hidden Geometry of Information, Biology, Strategy, Democracy, and Everything Else

    $16.79
  • Pablo Escobar: Beyond Narcos (War On Drugs Book 1)

    $4.89
  • The Art of Living: Peace and Freedom in the Here and Now

    $11.37
  • Determined: A Science of Life without Free Will

    $23.49

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Environmental Philosophy: An IntroductionAtomosENVIRONMENTAL PHILOSOPHY

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Terms & Concepts

C

Contraposition

An immediate inference made by exchanging the subject and predicate terms of a categorical proposition, and then adding the complement to the subject and predicate terms. Contraposition is a valid…
T

Thick concept

A concept with both substantially descriptive and evaluative content (as opposed to a thin concept). Paradigmatic examples are found in virtue ethics, and aesthetics. Some philosophers maintain that thick concepts…
R

Raven Paradox

A paradox of confirmation based on the fact that if a hypothesis is confirmed by its instances,then any hypothesis will also be confirmed by evidence for its contrapositive; thus, both…
A
Atheism
P
Primary qualities
A
Agnosticism
I
Impression
R
Realism
I
Imperative
C
Counterexample
E
Ethics
B
Brentano’s Thesis
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