9780631228745

The Philosophers' Toolkit provides all the intellectual equipment necessary to engage with and participate in philosophical argument, reading and reflection. Each of its 87 entries explains how to use an important concept or argumentative technique accurately and effectively.

Julian Baggini is editor and co-publisher of The Philosophers' Magazine. He has written on philosophy for the general reader in The Independent, Independent on Sunday and Times Educational Supplement. His PhD was awarded by University College London in 1996.

Peter Fosl is Bingham Associate Professor of Philosophy and Program Chair at Transylvania University, Lexington, Kentucky. He serves as contributing editor to The Philosopher's Magazine. A graduate of Bucknell University and Emory University, Fosl also studied at the LSE and took a Fullbright Scholarship to the University of Edinburgh. He has published on Hume, scepticism and topics in the history of philosophy.

Preface

viii

Acknowledgements

x

Basic Tools for Argument

1

(37)

Arguments, premises and conclusions

1

(4)

Deduction

5

(2)

Induction

7

(5)

Validity and soundness

12

(3)

Invalidity

15

(2)

Consistency

17

(4)

Fallacies

21

(3)

Refutation

24

(2)

Axioms

26

(2)

Definitions

28

(3)

Certainty and probability

31

(4)

Tautologies, self-contradictions and the law of non-contradiction

35

(3)

Further Tools for Arguments

38

(28)

Abduction

38

(3)

Hypothetico-deductive method

41

(2)

Dialectic

43

(3)

Analogies

46

(2)

Anomalies and exceptions that prove the rule

48

(3)

Intuition pumps

51

(2)

Logical constructions

53

(2)

Reduction

55

(3)

Thought experiments

58

(2)

Transcendental arguments

60

(3)

Useful fictions

63

(3)

Tools for Assessment

66

(67)

Alternative explanations

66

(2)

Ambiguity

68

(2)

Bivalence and the excluded middle

70

(2)

Category mistakes

72

(2)

Ceteris paribus

74

(2)

Circularity

76

(3)

Conceptual incoherence

79

(2)

Counterexamples

81

(3)

Criteria

84

(2)

Error theory

86

(2)

False dichotomy

88

(1)

Genetic fallacy

89

(3)

Horned dilemmas

92

(3)

Hume's Fork

95

(2)

Is/Ought gap

97

(3)

Leibniz's law of identity

100

(3)

Masked man fallacy

103

(2)

Ockham's Razor

105

(2)

Paradoxes

107

(3)

Partners in guilt

110

(2)

Principle of charity

112

(3)

Question-begging

115

(2)

Reductios

117

(2)

Redundancy

119

(1)

Regresses

120

(2)

Saving the phenomena

122

(2)

Self-defeating arguments

124

(3)

Sufficient reason

127

(2)

Testability

129

(4)

Tools for Conceptual Distinctions

133

(41)

A priori/A posteriori

133

(3)

Absolute/Relative

136

(3)

Analytic/Synthetic

139

(3)

Categorical/Modal

142

(1)

Conditional/Biconditional

143

(2)

Defeasible/Indefeasible

145

(1)

Entailment/Implication

146

(3)

Essence/Accident

149

(3)

Knowledge by acquaintance/description

152

(3)

Necessary/Contingent

155

(3)

Necessary/Sufficient

158

(2)

Objective/Subjective

160

(3)

Realist/Non-realist

163

(2)

Sense/Reference

165

(2)

Syntax/Semantics

167

(2)

Thick/Thin concepts

169

(2)

Types and tokens

171

(3)

Tools for Radical Critique

174

(21)

Class critique

174

(2)

Deconstruction and the critique of presence

176

(2)

Empiricist critique of metaphysics

178

(2)

Feminist critique

180

(2)

Foucaultian critique of power

182

(3)

Heideggerian critique of metaphysics

185

(2)

Lacanian critique

187

(2)

Nietzschean critique of Christian-Platonic culture

189

(2)

Pragmatist critique

191

(2)

Sartrean critique of `bad faith'

193

(2)

Tools at the Limit

195

(18)

Basic beliefs

195

(2)

Godel and incompleteness

197

(2)

Mystical experience and revelation

199

(2)

Possibility and impossibility

201

(2)

Primitives

203

(2)

Self-evident truths

205

(3)

Scepticism

208

(3)

Underdetermination

211

(2)

Internet Resources for Philosophers

213

(2)

Index

215

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The Philosophers Toolkit: A Compendium of Philosophical Concepts and Methods

The Philosophers Toolkit: A Compendium of Philosophical Concepts and Methods

0631228748

Summary

Author Biography

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials