How Should We Reason? Philosophical Thinking and Arguments

1. What is Philosophy?

• 1. What is Philosophy? by Thomas Metcalf
• 2. Plato’s Allegory of the Cave: the Journey Out of Ignorance by Spencer Case
• 3. Philosophy as a Way of Life by Christine Darr
• 4. Philosophical Inquiry in Childhood by Jana Mohr Lone

2. Arguments and Critical Thinking

• 1. Arguments: Why Do You Believe What You Believe? by Thomas Metcalf
• 2. Critical Thinking: What is it to be a Critical Thinker? by Carolina Flores
• 3. “That’s Subjective”: Subjectivism about Truth, Beauty, and Goodness by Nathan Nobis
• 4. Needed: something on fallacies

What Do We Know? Epistemology and Philosophy of Science

3. Epistemology: Theory of Knowledge

3.1. Knowledge and Justification

• 1.1. Epistemology, or Theory of Knowledge by Thomas Metcalf
• 1.2. Epistemic Justification: What is Rational Belief? by Todd R. Long
• 1.3. “The Ethics of Belief”: Is it Wrong to Believe Without Sufficient Evidence? by Spencer Case

3.2. Skepticism: What We Might Not Know

• 2.1. Descartes’ “I think, therefore I am” by Charles Miceli
• 2.2. Descartes’ Meditations 1-3 and Descartes’ Meditations 4-6 by Marc Bobro

3.3. Knowledge and Society

• 3.1. Expertise: What is an Expert? by Jamie Carlin Watson
• 3.2. Conspiracy Theories by Jared Millson
• 3.3. The Epistemology of Disagreement: How Should We Respond When People Disagree? by Jonathan Matheson
• 3.4. Epistemic Injustice by Huzeyfe Demirtas

4. Philosophy of Science

• 1. The Problem of Induction by Kenneth Blake Vernon
• 2. Needed: Distinguishing Science from Pseudoscience: on Demarcation

What Are We? Metaphysics and Philosophy of Mind

5. Metaphysics

5.1. Personal Identity

• 1.1. Personal Identity: How We Exist Over Time by Chad Vance
• 1.2. Psychological Theories of Personal Identity: Do Memories and Consciousness Make Us Who We Are? by Kristin Seemuth Whaley

5.2. Free Will and Moral Responsibility

• 2.1. Free Will and Free Choice by Jonah Nagashima
• 2.2. Free Will and Moral Responsibility by Chelsea Haramia
• 2.3. Alternate Possibilities and Moral Responsibility by Rachel Bourbaki

5.3. Space and Time

• 3.1. Philosophy of Space and Time: Are the Past and Future Real? by Dan Peterson
• 3.2. Time Travel by Taylor W. Cyr

6. Philosophy of Mind

• 1. The Mind-Body Problem: What Are Minds? by Jacob Berger
• 2. Artificial Intelligence: The Possibility of Artificial Minds by Thomas Metcalf
• 3. Animal Minds by Tiina Carita Rosenqvist

Does God Exist? Philosophy of Religion

7. Philosophy of Religion: Belief and God

7.1. Ideas of God

• 1.1. The Concept of God: Divine Attributes by Bailie Peterson

7.2. Arguments for God’s Existence and Belief in God

• 2.1. Cosmological Arguments for the Existence of God by Thomas Metcalf
• 2.2. Design Arguments for the Existence of God by Thomas Metcalf
• 2.3. The Ontological Argument for the Existence of God by Andrew Chapman
• 2.4. Arguments from Religious Experience: Richard Swinburne’s ‘Principle of Credulity’ by Matthew Sanderson

7.3. Arguments Against God’s Existence and Belief in God

• 3.1. Agnosticism about God’s Existence by Sylwia Wilczewska
• 3.2. Atheism: in progress: near complete
• 3.3. The Problem of Evil: Is Suffering Evidence that God Does Not Exist? by Thomas Metcalf
• 3.4. “God is dead”: Friedrich Nietzsche and the Death of God by Justin Remhof

7.4. Reason, Faith and Evidence

• 4.1. Desired: faith and reason.
• 4.2. Pascal’s Wager: A Pragmatic Argument for Belief in God by Liz Jackson
• 4.3. “Properly Basic” Belief in God: Believing in God without an Argument by Jamie B. Turner

7.5. An Afterlife

• 5.1. Hell and Universalism: Could God Sentence Anyone to Eternal Punishment? by A.G. Holdier
• 5.2. Is Immortality Desirable? by Felipe Pereira

How Should We Live? Ethics and Social and Political Philosophy

8. Ethical Theory

8.1. Ethics and Authority

• 1.1. Cultural Relativism: Do Cultural Norms Make Actions Right and Wrong? by Nathan Nobis
• 1.2. Because God Says So: On Divine Command Theory by Spencer Case
• 1.3. Ethical Egoism: The Morality of Selfishness by Nathan Nobis
• 1.4. Why be Moral? Plato’s ‘Ring of Gyges’ Thought Experiment by Spencer

8.2. Consequentialist Ethics

• 2.1. Consequentialism and Utilitarianism by Shane Gronholz

8.3. Kantian and Non-Consequentialist Ethics

• 3.1. Kantian Deontology: Immanuel Kant’s Ethics by Andrew Chapman
• 3.2. In progress: moral and legal rights

8.4. Virtue Ethics

• 4.1. Virtue Ethics by David Merry
• 4.2. The African Ethic of Ubuntu by Thaddeus Metz
• 4.3. Mengzi’s Moral Psychology, Part 1: The Four Moral Sprouts by John Ramsey and/or Mengzi’s Moral Psychology, Part 2: The Cultivation Analogy by John Ramsey

8.5.  Ethical Pluralism

• 5.1. W.D. Ross’s Ethics of “Prima Facie” Duties by Matthew Pianalto
• 5.2. Principlism in Biomedical Ethics: Respect for Autonomy, Non-Maleficence, Beneficence, and Justice by G. M. Trujillo, Jr.

8.6. Meta-Ethics: Are there Ethical Facts? Are there Ethical Truths?

• 6.1. Ethical Realism, or Moral Realism by Thomas Metcalf
• 6.2. Evolution and Ethics by Michael Klenk

9.Applied and Practical Ethics

9.1. Bioethics and Medical Ethics: Life and Death

• 1.1. Theories of Moral Considerability: Who and What Matters Morally? by Jonathan Spelman
• 1.2. The Ethics of Abortion by Nathan Nobis
• 1.3. An essay on anti- and pro-natalism is in progress
• 1.4. something on defining death (and life) (and their value) is in progress,
• 1.5. Desired. bodily autonomy: genital cutting: female and male .
• 1.6. Ethics and Absolute Poverty: Peter Singer and Effective Altruism by Brandon Boesch
• 1.7. Euthanasia, or Mercy Killing by Nathan Nobis

9.2. Ethics and Punishment

• 2.1. Theories of Punishment: What Justifies Punishment? by Travis Joseph Rodgers
• 2.2. Needed: punishing people for (illegal) drug use
• 2.3. The Death Penalty by Benjamin S. Yost

9.3. Ethics and Animals

• 3.1. Speciesism: Discrimination on the Basis of Species by Dan Lowe
• 3.2. “Can They Suffer?”: Bentham on our Obligations to Animals by Daniel Weltman OR In progress: vegetarianism and veganism
• 3.3. Ethics and Animal Research by Paul Bali

9.4. Ethics and Social Issues

• 4.1. Artificial Intelligence: Ethics, Society, and the Environment by Thomas Metcalf
• 4.2. Desired: something on guns.
• 4.3. Business Ethics by Thomas Metcalf

9.5. Ethics and Education

• 5.1. Indoctrination: What is it to Indoctrinate Someone? by Chris Ranalli
• 5.2. Ethics and “Extra Credit” by Nathan Nobis
• 5.3. Responding to Morally Flawed Historical Philosophers and Philosophies by Victor Fabian Abundez-Guerra and Nathan Nobis

9.6. Ethics and Relationships

• 6.1. What Is It To Love Someone? by Felipe Pereira
• 6.2. Aristotle on Friendship: What Does It Take to Be a Good Friend? by G. M. Trujillo, Jr.
• 6.3. “Hell Is Other People”: Sartre on Personal Relationships by Kiki Berk

10. Social and Political Philosophy

10.1. Theories of Justice

• 1.1. Social Contract Theory: Hobbes, Locke, and the State of Nature by David Antonini
• 1.2. John Rawls’ ‘A Theory of Justice’ by Ben Davies
• 1.3. Robert Nozick’s “Wilt Chamberlain” Argument for Libertarianism by Daniel Weltman

10.2. Economic Justice

• 2.1. Distributive Justice: How Should Resources be Allocated? by Dick Timmer and Tim Meijers
• 2.2. Karl Marx’s Conception of Alienation by Dan Lowe
• 2.3. Defining Capitalism and Socialism by Thomas Metcalf
• 2.4. Arguments for Capitalism and Socialism by Thomas Metcalf

10.3. The Law

• 3.1. Philosophy of Law: An Overview by Mark Satta
• 3.2. Free Speech by Mark Satta
• 3.3. Plato’s Crito: When should we break the law? by Spencer Case
• 3.4. Civil Disobedience: Seeking Justice by Breaking the Law by Henry Krahn

11. Philosophy of Sex, Gender and Race

• 1. What Is Misogyny? by Odelia Zuckerman and Clair Morrissey
• 2. Sexual Orientation, Sex, and Gender by Raja Halwani
• 3. Philosophy and Race: An Introduction to Philosophy of Race by Thomas Metcalf
• 4. Aristotle’s Defense of Slavery by Dan Lowe
• 5. Reparations for Historic Injustice by Joseph Frigault

Why Are We? Art, Happiness, and Meaning

 12. Aesthetics and Philosophy of Art

• 1. Definitions of Art by Brock Rough
• 2. Aesthetics vs. Art by Brock Rough
• 3. Videogames and Philosophy by Alex Fisher

 13. Phenomenology and Existentialism

• 1. Phenomenology: Describing Experiences From a First-Person Perspective by Matthew Sanderson
• 2. Existentialism by Addison Ellis
• 3. Camus on the Absurd: The Myth of Sisyphus by Erik Van Aken

 14. Meaning, Happiness and Hope

• 1. Happiness: What is it to be Happy? by Kiki Berk
• 2. Stoicism: Finding Happiness in What’s Under Your Control by Matthew Pianalto
• 3. Transformative Experiences: Can Life-Changing Choices Be Both Rational and Authentic? by Felipe Pereira
• 4. Meaning in Life: What Makes Our Lives Meaningful? by Matthew Pianalto
• 5. The Meaning of Life: What’s the Point? by Matthew Pianalto