History Of PhilosophyCLASSICAL PHILOSOPHYPLATO
November 15, 2023

PLATO

Plato (427–347 BC) was born into a powerful family in Athens but abandoned politics after the execution of his teacher, Socrates; he subsequently traveled, became influenced by the Pythagoreans, and…
Writing PhilosophyWRITING IS CENTRAL TO PHILOSOPHY
November 24, 2023

WRITING IS CENTRAL TO PHILOSOPHY

For the great majority of us, writing is instrumental to thinking. Since it is reasonable to describe philosophy as the application of disciplined thought to a variety of topics, issues,…
PHILOSOPHICAL BOOKS AND TEXTPHILOSOPHICAL 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
THE EARLY MODERN PERIODHistory Of PhilosophyTRANSCENDENTAL IDEALISM
November 15, 2023

TRANSCENDENTAL IDEALISM

The philosophical system developed by Immanuel Kant (1724–1804), Transcendental Idealism sought to overcome the epistemological problems of Empiricism while providing a rational justification for Liberalism.
History Of PhilosophyANALYTIC PHILOSOPHYORDINARY LANGUAGE 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…
Philosophy BranchesTraditional Branches of PhilosophyMETAPHYSICS
December 12, 2023

METAPHYSICS

Metaphysics is the philosophical investigation of reality, including the nature of the world and the entities it contains. While such an investigation inevitably overlaps with natural philosophy—the sciences, especially physics…
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…
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…
WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?
November 12, 2023

WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?

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…
History Of PhilosophyANALYTIC PHILOSOPHYLOGICAL POSITIVISM
November 15, 2023

LOGICAL POSITIVISM

Originally founded by Auguste Comte (1798–1857), Positivism was primarily a view about science. Influenced by Immanuel Kant’s (1724-1804) assertion that knowledge of things-inthemselves was impossible, Comte argued that our scientific…
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…
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…
FORMS OF PHILOSOPHICAL WRITINGWriting PhilosophyFORMS OF PHILOSOPHICAL WRITING
November 20, 2023

FORMS OF PHILOSOPHICAL WRITING

The word essay comes from the French infinitive verb essayer, meaning “to try” or “to attempt.” In fact, when the word was first borrowed into the English language, as essay,…
Writing PhilosophyWHAT IS GOOD WRITING?
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…

Books

  • At the Existentialist Café: Freedom, Being, and Apricot Cocktails with Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Albert Camus, Martin Heidegger, Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Others

    $11.99
  • Bringing the Light into a New Day: African-centered Rites of Passage

    $19.95
  • An Introduction to General Systems Thinking

    $9.98
  • Intuition Pumps And Other Tools for Thinking

    $21.95
  • On Liberty

    $9.99
  • The Essays of Michel de Montaigne

    $5.95
  • Quran in English: Super-Easy to Read. For ages 9 to 99.

    $14.99
  • The 48 Laws of Power

    $14.55
  • Free Will [Deckle Edge]

    $7.99
  • Historia de la filosofía. II (2º): Filosofía judía y musulmana. Alta escolástica: desarrollo y decadencia

    $42.93
  • Beauty: The Invisible Embrace

    $10.99
  • Your Heart Was Made for This: Contemplative Practices for Meeting a World in Crisis with Courage, Integrity, and Love

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  • The Book of Five Rings: The Strategy of the Samurai (Arcturus Silkbound Classics)

    $16.99
  • The Persuaders: At the Front Lines of the Fight for Hearts, Minds, and Democracy

    $17.19
  • On Dialogue (Routledge Classics)

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  • The Consolation of Philosophy

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Rule-Following and Artificial Intelligence: A Kripkean PerspectiveAtomos

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The Unstable Foundation: A Critique of the Ontological Proof of God’s ExistenceAtomos

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Meta-Modal Actuality: A Dynamic Framework for Possibility, Actualization, and CausalityAtomos

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The Intricacy of Existence: A Philosophical Exploration of Complexity, Contingency, and Divine AgencyAtomos

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Metaphysical Perspectives: A Comparative Analysis of Theism and AtheismAtomos

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Terms & Concepts

I

Implication

In formal logic, “implication” is the name commonly given to the substitution of one of the statements for another, where the two are truth-functionally equivalent: ¬ P V Q ::…
S

Semiotics

The theory of signs and signification, including symbols (conventional signs such as language), indexes (natural signs with a causal correspondence to their referent), and icons(signs whose form resembles their referent).…
D

Dialectic

From Plato through Hegel and Marx, a form of progressive reasoning. In ancient Greek philosophy, methods of reasoning for discovering truth. Dialectic is an argumentative exchange in the form of…
F
First-order logic
R
Rule utilitarianism
I
Inference to the best explanation
T
Tautological equivalence
E
Existential quantifier
R
Rights
S
Samsara
C
Consistent
L
Logical contradiction
View All