28 articles · about 8 hours · 14 written

Analytic core

The sequence an analytic philosophy department would recognise as the spine of its own training. Formal logic first, then the Gettier literature, then the metaphysics of modality and time, then the mind. It ends in metatheory, where the tools get turned on themselves. Assumes you have done the beginner tier or its equivalent.

Propositional Logic and Well-Formed FormulasLogic · Intermediate
The formal grammar of the language, stated recursively, and why recursion is the right tool
12 min
Natural DeductionLogic · Intermediate
Introduction and elimination rules, conditional proof, and reductio
18 min
Predicate LogicLogic · Intermediate
Quantifiers, variable binding, scope, and multiply quantified sentences
20 min
Identity and Definite DescriptionsLogic · Intermediate
Adding the identity predicate, numerical claims, and Russell's analysis of 'the'
15 min
Soundness and Completeness, InformallyLogic · Intermediate
What the two metatheorems claim, before anyone tries to prove them
12 min
The JTB AnalysisEpistemology · Beginner
Knowledge as justified true belief, stated as three separate conditions
10 min
Gettier Cases and Post-Gettier RepairsEpistemology · Intermediate
Justified true belief that falls short, and the patches that were tried
14 min
Internalism versus ExternalismEpistemology · Intermediate
Whether what justifies you has to be something you can reflect on
14 min
Reliabilism and Virtue EpistemologyEpistemology · Intermediate
Justification from truth-conducive processes, or from good intellectual character
16 min
A Priori and A PosterioriEpistemology · Intermediate
Knowledge whose justification does not rest on experience, and whether any exists
15 min
The Analytic/Synthetic Distinction and Quine's AttackEpistemology · Intermediate
Truth by meaning alone, and Quine's argument that the notion runs in a circle
16 min
Universals and ParticularsMetaphysics · IntermediatePlanned
Three answers to how two red things share one property: realism, nominalism, tropes
16 min
Persistence: Endurantism and PerdurantismMetaphysics · IntermediatePlanned
Being wholly present at each moment versus having a different temporal part at each
15 min
Theories of TimeMetaphysics · IntermediatePlanned
McTaggart's argument, and what presentism, eternalism, and the growing block each keep
18 min
Modality and Possible WorldsMetaphysics · IntermediatePlanned
Using worlds to analyse de re and de dicto claims, and the cost of transworld identity
16 min
Modal Logic: Possible Worlds SemanticsLogic · Intermediate
The box and diamond, frames, models, and the accessibility relation
22 min
The Normal Systems K, D, T, B, S4, S5Logic · Intermediate
Each system's characteristic axiom and the frame condition it corresponds to
24 min
Modal Realism and ErsatzismMetaphysics · IntermediatePlanned
Lewis's concrete worlds against abstract surrogates, and what each charges for actuality
22 min
Essentialism and the Argument from OriginsMetaphysics · IntermediatePlanned
Kripke's case that a thing could not have come from different material, and the necessary a posteriori it depends on
20 min
Quine's Criterion and 'On What There Is'Ontology · IntermediatePlanned
To be is to be the value of a bound variable, and what that test does and does not settle
16 min
Carnap's Internal and External QuestionsOntology · IntermediatePlanned
Questions asked inside a framework against questions asked about it, and Quine's reply
24 min
Functionalism and Multiple RealizabilityPhilosophy of Mind · IntermediatePlanned
Defining mental states by their causal role, and the octopus case that made type identity look parochial
17 min
The Knowledge Argument and Mary's RoomPhilosophy of Mind · IntermediatePlanned
A colour scientist who knows every physical fact and still learns something on leaving the black and white room
16 min
Philosophical Zombies and ConceivabilityPhilosophy of Mind · IntermediatePlanned
Running from what we can coherently imagine to what is metaphysically possible, and where that step can be blocked
18 min
The Hard Problem and the Explanatory GapPhilosophy of Mind · AdvancedPlanned
Why explaining every cognitive function can leave the question of experience untouched
22 min
Mental Causation and the Exclusion ProblemPhilosophy of Mind · AdvancedPlanned
Kim's argument that a sufficient physical cause leaves no work for a mental one, unless overdetermination is accepted
24 min
Gödel's Incompleteness TheoremsLogic · Advanced
Arithmetization, the fixed-point lemma, and what the theorems do and do not show
32 min
Metaontology and Carnapian DeflationismMetaphysics · AdvancedPlanned
Internal versus external questions, quantifier variance, and whether ontological disputes are real
22 min