Julian Baggini - The Philosopher's Toolkit

1 Cover

2 Acknowledgements

3 Alphabetical Table of Contents

4 Preface

5 1 Basic Tools for Argument 1 Basic Tools for Argument 1 1.1 Arguments, premises, and conclusions 2 1.2 Deduction 3 1.3 Induction 4 1.4 Validity and soundness 5 1.5 Invalidity 6 1.6 Consistency 7 1.7 Fallacies 8 1.8 Refutation 9 1.9 Axioms 10 1.10 Definitions 11 1.11 Certainty and probability 12 1.12 Tautologies, self‐contradictions, and the law of non‐contradiction 1.1 Arguments, premises, and conclusions 1.1 Arguments, premises, and conclusions Philosophy is for nit‐pickers. That’s not to say it is a trivial pursuit. Far from it. Philosophy addresses some of the most important questions human beings ask themselves. The reason philosophers are nit‐pickers is that they are commonly concerned with the ways in which the claims and beliefs people hold about the world either are or are not rationally supported, usually by rational argument. Because their concern is serious, it is important for philosophers to demand attention to detail. People reason in a variety of ways using a number of techniques, some legitimate and some not. Often one can discern the difference between good and bad reasoning only if one scrutinises the content and structure of arguments with supreme and uncompromising diligence. 1.2 Deduction 1.3 Induction 1.4 Validity and soundness 1.5 Invalidity 1.6 Consistency 1.7 Fallacies 1.8 Refutation 1.9 Axioms 1.10 Definitions 1.11 Certainty and probability 1.12 Tautologies, self‐contradictions, and the law of non‐contradiction

6 2 More Advanced Tools 2.1 Abduction 2.2 Hypothetico‐deductive method 2.3 Dialectic 2.4 Analogies 2.5 Anomalies and exceptions that prove the rule 2.6 Intuition pumps 2.7 Logical constructions 2.8 Performativity and speech acts 2.9 Reduction 2.10 Representation 2.11 Thought experiments 2.12 Useful fictions

7 3 Tools for Assessment 3.1 Affirming, denying, and conditionals 3.2 Alternative explanations 3.3 Ambiguity and vagueness 3.4 Bivalence and the excluded middle 3.5 Category mistakes 3.6 Ceteris paribus 3.7 Circularity 3.8 Composition and division 3.9 Conceptual incoherence 3.10 Contradiction/contrariety 3.11 Conversion, contraposition, obversion 3.12 Counterexamples 3.13 Criteria 3.14 Doxa/para‐doxa 3.15 Error theory 3.16 False dichotomy 3.17 False cause 3.18 Genetic fallacy 3.19 Horned dilemmas 3.20 Is/ought gap 3.21 Masked man fallacy 3.22 Partners in guilt 3.23 Principle of charity 3.24 Question‐begging 3.25 Reductios 3.26 Redundancy 3.27 Regresses 3.28 Saving the phenomena 3.29 Self‐defeating arguments 3.30 Sufficient reason 3.31 Testability

8 4 Tools for Conceptual Distinctions 4.1 A priori/a posteriori 4.2 Absolute/relative 4.3 Analytic/synthetic 4.4 Belief/knowledge 4.5 Categorical/modal 4.6 Cause/reason 4.7 Conditional/biconditional 4.8 De re/de dicto 4.9 Defeasible/indefeasible 4.10 Entailment/implication 4.11 Endurantism/perdurantism 4.12 Essence/accident 4.13 Internalism/externalism 4.14 Knowledge by acquaintance/description 4.15 Mind/body 4.16 Necessary/contingent 4.17 Necessary/sufficient 4.18 Nothingness/being 4.19 Objective/subjective 4.20 Realist/non‐realist 4.21 Sense/reference 4.22 Substratum/bundle 4.23 Syntax/semantics 4.24 Universal/particular 4.25 Thick/thin concepts 4.26 Types/tokens

9 5 Tools of Historical Schools and Philosophers 5.1 Aphorism, fragment, remark 5.2 Categories and specific differences 5.3 Elenchus and aporia 5.4 Hegel’s master/slave dialectic 5.5 Hume’s fork 5.6 Indirect discourse 5.7 Leibniz’s law of identity 5.8 Ockham’s razor 5.9 Phenomenological method(s) 5.10 Signs and signifiers 5.11 Transcendental argument

10 6 Tools for Radical Critique 6.1 Class critique 6.2 Différance, deconstruction, and the critique of presence 6.3 Empiricist critique of metaphysics 6.4 Feminist and gender critiques 6.5 Foucaultian critique of power 6.6 Heideggerian critique of metaphysics 6.7 Lacanian critique 6.8 Critiques of naturalism 6.9 Nietzschean critique of Christian–Platonic culture 6.10 Pragmatist critique 6.11 Sartrean critique of ‘bad faith’

11 7 Tools at the Limit 7.1 Basic beliefs 7.2 Gödel and incompleteness 7.3 Hermeneutic circle 7.4 Philosophy and/as art 7.5 Mystical experience and revelation 7.6 Paradoxes 7.7 Possibility and impossibility 7.8 Primitives 7.9 Self‐evident truths 7.10 Scepticism 7.11 Underdetermination and incommensurability

12 Index

13 End User License Agreement

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2 Table of Contents

3 Begin Reading

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