The Philosopher's Toolkit

Acknowledgements xiii Alphabetical Table of Contents xv Preface xix Internet Resources for Philosophers xxi 1 Basic Tools for Argument 1 1.1 Arguments, premises, and conclusions 1 1.2 Deduction 7 1.3 Induction 9 1.4 Validity and soundness 15 1.5 Invalidity 19 1.6 Consistency 21 1.7 Fallacies 25 1.8 Refutation 28 1.9 Axioms 31 1.10 Definitions 34 1.11 Certainty and probability 38 1.12 Tautologies, self-contradictions, and the law of non-contradiction 42 2 More Advanced Tools 47 2.1 Abduction 47 2.2 Hypothetico-deductive method 51 2.3 Dialectic 55 2.4 Analogies 58 2.5 Anomalies and exceptions that prove the rule 61 2.6 Intuition pumps 64 2.7 Logical constructions 66 2.8 Performativity and speech acts 69 2.9 Reduction 72 2.10 Representation 76 2.11 Thought experiments 80 2.12 Useful fictions 82 3 Tools for Assessment 85 3.1 Affirming, denying, and conditionals 86 3.2 Alternative explanations 90 3.3 Ambiguity and vagueness 93 3.4 Bivalence and the excluded middle 97 3.5 Category mistakes 100 3.6 Ceteris paribus 102 3.7 Circularity 104 3.8 Composition and division 108 3.9 Conceptual incoherence 110 3.10 Contradiction/contrariety 112 3.11 Conversion, contraposition, obversion 115 3.12 Counterexamples 118 3.13 Criteria 121 3.14 Doxa/para-doxa 123 3.15 Error theory 125 3.16 False dichotomy 128 3.17 False cause 129 3.18 Genetic fallacy 132 3.19 Horned dilemmas 135 3.20 Is/ought gap 138 3.21 Masked man fallacy 141 3.22 Partners in guilt 143 3.23 Principle of charity 145 3.24 Question-begging 149 3.25 Reductios 152 3.26 Redundancy 154 3.27 Regresses 156 3.28 Saving the phenomena 158 3.29 Self-defeating arguments 161 3.30 Sufficient reason 164 3.31 Testability 167 4 Tools for Conceptual Distinctions 171 4.1 A priori/a posteriori 172 4.2 Absolute/relative 176 4.3 Analytic/synthetic 179 4.4 Belief/knowledge 182 4.5 Categorical/modal 185 4.6 Cause/reason 186 4.7 Conditional/biconditional 189 4.8 De re/de dicto 191 4.9 Defeasible/indefeasible 194 4.10 Entailment/implication 196

Peter S. Fosl is Professor of Philosophy and Chair of PPE at Transylvania University, Kentucky. He is author of Hume's Scepticism (2020), co-author of The Critical Thinking Toolkit (Wiley Blackwell, 2016) and The Ethics Toolkit (Wiley Blackwell, 2007), editor of The Big Lebowski and Philosophy (Wiley Blackwell, 2012), and co-editor of Philosophy: The Classic Readings (Wiley Blackwell, 2009). Julian Baggini is Academic Director of the Royal Institute of Philosophy and an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Kent. He was the founding editor of The Philosophers' Magazine and has written for numerous newspapers and magazines, as well as for the think tanks The Institute of Public Policy Research, Demos, and Counterpoint. He is the author, co-author, or editor of over 20 books, including How the World Thinks, The Virtues of the Table, The Ego Trick, Freedom Regained, and The Edge of Reason.