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…
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…
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ARISTOTLE
ARISTOTLE
Aristotle (384–322 BC) was born in Stagira but moved to Athens as a young man to study at Plato’s Academy. Following Plato’s death, Aristotle traveled, became tutor to Alexander the…
WHAT IS THE “SUBJECT MATTER” OF PHILOSOPHY
WHAT IS THE “SUBJECT MATTER” OF PHILOSOPHY
“There is a common misunderstanding that philosophy—like chemistry or history—has a content to offer, a content that a teacher is to teach and a student is to learn,” writes Professor…
THE ARGUMENTATIVE PAPER
THE ARGUMENTATIVE PAPER
Essays of assertion, affirmation, and refutation are all examples of the argumentative paper. An effective argument relies on factually true premises or premises for which you have strong support.
AFRICAN PHILOSOPHY
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…
WHAT IS GOOD WRITING?
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…
PROPOSITIONAL CALCULUS (PROPOSITIONAL LOGIC)
PROPOSITIONAL CALCULUS (PROPOSITIONAL LOGIC)
The simplest formal (logical) language is the propositional calculus. This considers the logical relationships that hold between complete propositions.
THOMISM
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.
MANY-VALUE LOGICS
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…
CLASSICAL PHILOSOPHY
CLASSICAL PHILOSOPHY
The Classical Period in philosophy was dominated by the teachings of Plato (427–347 BC) and Aristotle (384–322 BC) but gradually fell into a decline following the conquest of the independent…
SCHOLASTICISM
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…
POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY
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…
WHAT IS GOOD PHILOSOPHICAL WRITING?
WHAT IS GOOD PHILOSOPHICAL WRITING?
Writing effectively for a philosophy course does not merely start with the general principles of good writing just outlined, it sets out to show mastery of these principles. It embodies…
WRITING IS CENTRAL TO PHILOSOPHY
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,…
THE ESSAY OF AFFIRMATION
THE ESSAY OF AFFIRMATION
The essay of affirmation takes the position I agree. If you want to write an essay agreeing with—affirming—the ideas of another, such as a philosopher, a simple statement of agreement…
PHENOMENOLOGY
As originally developed by Edmund Husserl (1859–1938), phenomenology seeks to provide a detailed description of the way in which things…
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Discipline Is Destiny: The Power of Self-Control (The Stoic Virtues Series)
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Stillness Is the Key
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Right Thing, Right Now: Justice in an Unjust World (The Stoic Virtues Series)
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How to Think Like a Roman Emperor: The Stoic Philosophy of Marcus Aurelius
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Letters from a Stoic: Penguin Classics
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Books
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Nausea (New Directions Paperbook)
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Postmodernism: A Beginner’s Guide (Beginner’s Guides)
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The Way of Chuang Tzu
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Essays
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Cosmic Queries: StarTalk’s Guide to Who We Are, How We Got Here, and Where We’re Going
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Utilitarianism (Dover Thrift Editions: Philosophy)
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UNDERSTANDING IMMANUEL KANT: The Smart Student’s Guide to Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals (Philosophy Study Guides)
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The Sane Society
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TAO TE CHING: as read by Wayne Dyer
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Knowledge And Decisions
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No Death, No Fear: Comforting Wisdom for Life
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Letters from a Stoic (Penguin Classics)
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The Practicing Stoic: A Philosophical User’s Manual
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Beyond Good and Evil: Deluxe Edition
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On the Shortness of Life: Life Is Long if You Know How to Use It (Penguin Great Ideas)
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The Trouble with Being Born
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The Atomos Blog
Philosophy of Law: An Introduction
Philosophy of Law: An Introduction
Philosophy of Law: An Introduction
Philosophy of Law: An Introduction
Philosophy of Science: An Introduction
Philosophy of Science: An Introduction
Aesthetics: An Introduction
Aesthetics: An Introduction
Epistemology: An Introduction
Epistemology: An Introduction
Ethics: An Introduction
Ethics: An Introduction
Logic: An Introduction
Logic: An Introduction
Metaphysics: An Introduction
Metaphysics: An Introduction
Philosophy of History: An Introduction
Philosophy of History: An Introduction
Philosophy of Language: An Introduction
Philosophy of Language: An Introduction
Philosophy of Mind: An Introduction
Philosophy of Mind: An Introduction
Philosophy of Technology: An Introduction
Philosophy of Technology: An Introduction
Political and Social Philosophy: An Introduction
Political and Social Philosophy: An Introduction
Environmental Philosophy: An Introduction
Environmental Philosophy: An Introduction
Existentialism and Phenomenology: An Introduction
Existentialism and Phenomenology: An Introduction
Feminist Philosophy: An Introduction
Feminist Philosophy: An Introduction
Philosophy of Mind: An Introduction
Philosophy of Mind: An Introduction
Terms & Concepts
Necessary condition
A condition without which another statement does not obtain. Q is a necessary condition for Pin the claim, “If P then Q.” If Q does not obtain, P does not…
Conscience
One’s internal moral compass, as in the view that God instills in us a moral sense. Conscience is a sort of moral intuition—that is, an undefended or unexamined moral sense.…
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