Author: Thomas Metcalf Category: Logic and Reasoning, Metaphysics Word count: 992 Philosophical arguments are usually about what’s actually the case: whether it’s actually true that God exists or whether it’s actually true that we have free will. But commonly, we also want to talk about whether something is possible or impossible, or whether it might … Continue reading Modal Logic: Axioms and Systems for Alethic Modal Logic
Contemporary syllogisms are part of modern day quantificational logic, which is widely regarded as an improvement upon the approach originally described by Aristotle about 2,400 years ago. This essay discusses the contemporary approach to syllogisms.
Author: Timothy Eshing Category: Logic and Reasoning, Historical Philosophy Word Count: 999 Consider this argument: All humans are mammals. All mammals are animals. Therefore, all humans are animals. It’s an example of a classical syllogism. The logic of syllogisms, which are special kinds of deductive arguments, was famously discussed by the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle … Continue reading Classical Syllogisms
Author: Timothy Eshing Category: Logic and Reasoning Word count: 1000 Editor’s note: for many readers, this essay would be more profitably read after reading Formal Logic: Symbolizing Arguments in Sentential Logic by Thomas Metcalf. There are many varieties of formal logic of varying complexity. Here we survey one that’s somewhat more complex than sentential or … Continue reading Formal Logic: Symbolizing Arguments in Quantificational or Predicate Logic
This essay is an introduction to Bayesianism. Bayesianism says that degrees of belief or justification can be represented by probabilities, and that we can assess the rationality of degrees of belief — of credences — by seeing whether they follow a certain set of rules.
An introduction to W.K. Clifford’s “The Ethics of Belief.”
An introduction to the concept of indoctrination or what it is to indoctrinate someone, and whether that's problematic or bad or not.
An introduction to the theory and practice of critical thinking: what is it to be a critical thinker?
An introduction to sentential logic or symbolic logic.
Author: Liz Jackson Categories: Philosophy of Religion, Epistemology, Historical Philosophy, Logic and Reasoning Word Count: 996 Should you believe there’s a God? To answer this, we might examine arguments for theism—like first-cause and design arguments—and arguments for atheism—like arguments from evil. These arguments offer evidence for and against God’s existence.[1] Pascal’s wager, originally proposed by … Continue reading Pascal’s Wager: A Pragmatic Argument for Belief in God
1000-Word Philosophy: An Introductory Anthology 