The philosopher's toolkit: a compendium of philosophical concepts and methods

Abstract

Preface. Acknowledgements. 1. Basic Tools for Argument. 1.1 Arguments, premises and conclusions. 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 ofnon-contradiction. 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 Reduction. 2.9 Thought experiments. 2.10 Useful fictions. 3. Tools for Assessment. 3.1 Alternative explanations. 3.2 Ambiguity. 3.3 Bivalence and the excluded middle. 3.4 Category mistakes. 3.5 Ceteris paribus. 3.6 Circularity. 3.7 Conceptual incoherence. 3.8 Counterexamples. 3.9 Criteria. 3.10 Error theory. 3.11 False dichotomy. 3.12 False cause. 3.13 Genetic fallacy. 3.14 Horned dilemmas. 3.15 Is/ought gap. 3.16 Masked man fallacy. 3.17 Partners in guilt. 3.18 Principle of charity. 3.19 Question-begging. 3.20 Reductios. 3.21 Redundancy. 3.22 Regresses. 3.23 Saving the phenomena. 3.24 Self-defeating arguments. 3.25 Sufficient reason. 3.26 Testability. 4. Tools for Conceptual Distinctions. 4.1 A priori/a posteriori. 4.2 Absolute/relative. 4.3 Analytic/synthetic 4.4 Categorical/modal. 4.5 Conditional/biconditional. 4.6 De re/de dicto. 4.7 Defeasible/indefeasible. 4.8 Entailment/implication. 4.9 Essence/accident. 4.10 Internalism/externalism. 4.11 Knowledge by acquaintance/description. 4.12 Necessary/contingent. 4.13 Necessary/sufficient. 4.14 Objective/subjective. 4.15 Realist/non-realist. 4.16 Sense/reference. 4.17 Syntax/semantics. 4.18 Thick/thin concepts. 4.19 Types/tokens. 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 Hume's fork. 5.5 Indirect discourse. 5.6 Leibniz's law of identity. 5.7 Ockham's razor. 5.8 Phenomenological method(s). 5.9 Signs and signifiers. 5.10 Transcendental argument. 6. Tools for Radical Critique. 6.1 Class critique. 6.2 Deconstruction and the critique of presence. 6.3 Empiricist critique of metaphysics. 6.4 Feminist critique. 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'. 7. Tools at the Limit. 7.1 Basic beliefs. 7.2 Godel and incompleteness. 7.3 Philosophy and/as art. 7.4 Mystical experience and revelation. 7.5 Paradoxes. 7.6 Possibility and impossibility. 7.7 Primitives. 7.8 Self-evident truths. 7.9 Scepticism. 7.10 Underdetermination. Internet Resources for Philosophers. Index.

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