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Animals & Ethics 101: Thinking Critically About Animal Rights

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Animals & Ethics 101: Thinking Critically About Animal Rights

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This book provides an overview of the current debates about the nature and extent of our moral obligations to animals. Which, if any, uses of animals are morally wrong, which are morally permissible (i.e., not wrong) and why? What, if any, moral obligations do we, individually and as a society (and a global community), have towards animals and why? How should animals be treated? Why?

We will explore the most influential and most developed answers to these questions – given by philosophers, scientists, and animal advocates and their critics – to try to determine which positions are supported by the best moral reasons.

This book provides an overview of the current debates about the nature and extent of our moral obligations to animals. Which, if any, uses of animals are morally wrong, which are morally permissible (i.e., not wrong) and why? What, if any, moral obligations do we, individually and as a society (and a global community), have towards animals and why? How should animals be treated? Why?

We will explore the most influential and most developed answers to these questions – given by philosophers, scientists, and animal advocates and their critics – to try to determine which positions are supported by the best moral reasons.

Subject:: Philosophy
Material Type:: Textbook
Author:: Nathan Nobis
Date Added:: 06/12/2020

A Concise Introduction to Logic

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A Concise Introduction to Logic

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A Concise Introduction to Logic is an introduction to formal logic suitable for undergraduates taking a general education course in logic or critical thinking, and is accessible and useful to any interested in gaining a basic understanding of logic. This text takes the unique approach of teaching logic through intellectual history; the author uses examples from important and celebrated arguments in philosophy to illustrate logical principles. The text also includes a basic introduction to findings of advanced logic. As indicators of where the student could go next with logic, the book closes with an overview of advanced topics, such as the axiomatic method, set theory, Peano arithmetic, and modal logic. Throughout, the text uses brief, concise chapters that readers will find easy to read and to review.

Reviews available here: https://open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/textbooks/a-concise-introduction-to-logic

Subject:: Philosophy
Material Type:: Textbook
Provider:: State University of New York
Provider Set:: OpenSUNY Textbooks
Author:: Craig DeLancey
Date Added:: 03/27/2017

Ethics and Public Policy

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Ethics and Public Policy

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This course will provide the student with an overview of the role that ethical, cultural, religious, and moral principles play in public policy. The course will introduce the student to common themes found in the foundational theories of ethics and morality in politics such as justice, equality, fairness, individual liberty, free enterprise, charity, fundamental human rights, and minimizing harm to others. These themes are integrated into various decision-making models that you will learn about. Students will examine five types of decision frameworks used to make and implement public policy, as well as rationales used to justify inequitable impact and outcomes of policies. Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to: explain how personal morality and ethics impact the policymaking process; discuss various ethical frameworks used to resolve policy dilemmas; identify statutes, ethical codes, and legal opinions that define the normative parameters of key domestic and international policy issues; assess the impact that public interest groups have on policymaking and execution of policies. (Political Science 401)

Subject:: Philosophy; Political Science
Material Type:: Assessment; Full Course; Lecture; Lecture Notes; Reading; Syllabus
Provider:: The Saylor Foundation
Date Added:: 04/29/2019

Ethics for A-Level

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Ethics for A-Level

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What does pleasure have to do with morality? What role, if any, should intuition have in the formation of moral theory? If something is ‘simulated', can it be immoral?

This accessible and wide-ranging textbook explores these questions and many more. Key ideas in the fields of normative ethics, metaethics and applied ethics are explained rigorously and systematically, with a vivid writing style that enlivens the topics with energy and wit. Individual theories are discussed in detail in the first part of the book, before these positions are applied to a wide range of contemporary situations including business ethics, sexual ethics, and the acceptability of eating animals. A wealth of real-life examples, set out with depth and care, illuminate the complexities of different ethical approaches while conveying their modern-day relevance.

This concise and highly engaging resource is tailored to the Ethics components of AQA Philosophy and OCR Religious Studies, with a clear and practical layout that includes end-of-chapter summaries, key terms, and common mistakes to avoid. It should also be of practical use for those teaching Philosophy as part of the International Baccalaureate.

Ethics for A-Level is of particular value to students and teachers, but Fisher and Dimmock's precise and scholarly approach will appeal to anyone seeking a rigorous and lively introduction to the challenging subject of ethics.

Reviews available here: https://open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/textbooks/ethics-for-a-level

Subject:: Philosophy
Material Type:: Textbook
Provider:: Open Book Publishers
Author:: Andrew Fisher; Mark Dimmock
Date Added:: 04/24/2019

Ethics in America

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Ethics in America

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This series uses the Socratic method to build analytical skills and examine ethical questions. The programs aim to sharpen moral reasoning without favoring a particular position by exploring ethical dilemmas in legal, political, medical, corporate, and military arenas. Panelists include Antonin Scalia, Faye Wattleton, and Peter Jennings. A video instructional series on ethics for college and high school classrooms and adult learners; 10 one-hour video programs, audiocassettes.

Subject:: Philosophy
Material Type:: Lecture
Provider:: Annenberg Learner
Date Added:: 01/01/1989

Form and Content: An Introduction to Formal Logic

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Form and Content: An Introduction to Formal Logic

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Derek Turner, Professor of Philosophy, has written an introductory logic textbook that students at Connecticut College, or anywhere, can access for free. The book differs from other standard logic textbooks in its reliance on fun, low-stakes examples involving dinosaurs, a dog and his friends, etc.

Outline
The Logic Sheet
Getting Rid of Content
§1. Modus ponens
§2. Abstraction and Form
§3. Use and Mention
§4. Statements, Statement Forms, and Bivalence
§5. Statements, Propositions, and Truth
§6. Modus ponens arguments in Langerese: Syntax
§7. Modus ponens arguments in Langerese: Semantics
§8. The Bed of Procrustes
Logical Operators
§9. The Counter-intuitiveness of the Arrow
§10. Conjunction and Material Equivalence
§11. Translating Conjunctions
§12. Non-Truth Functional Operators
§13. Negation and Disjunction
§14. Unless
§15. Necessary vs. Sufficient Conditions
§16. Translating Conditional and Biconditional Statements
§17. Fun with Longer Statements
Truth Tables
§18. Calculating Truth Values for Statements
§19. Tautologies
§20. Two Ways of Constructing Truth Tables
§21. Human Limitations
§22. Short Truth Tables for Tautologies
§23. The Anti-Laws of Logic
§24. Analyticity
§25. Testing for Logical Equivalence
§26. Quirks of Logical Equivalence
§27. Contradiction
§28. Logical Consistency
§29. How Many Logical Operators Do We Need?
Validity and Soundness
§30. Validity
§31. Validity’s Quirks
§32. Deductive Arguments
§33. Soundness
§34. Abbreviated Truth Tables for Validity
§35. Inductive Arguments
§36. Translation and Testing for Validity
§37. Logic, Rhetoric, and the Principle of Charity
How to Prove Stuff
§38. Natural Deduction
§39. Introduction Rules
§40. Other Inference Rules: HS and CD
§41. Conditional Proof
§42. Using Conditional Proof to Prove Tautologies
§43. Logical Equivalence and Replacement Rules
§44. Formalizing Philosophical Arguments
§45. Reductio Ad Absurdum
§46. Other Valid Arguments
Predicates and Quantifiers
§47. Chrysippus’s dog
§48. Subjects and Predicates
§49. Relations
§50. Individual Constants and Variables
§51. Interpreting the Quantifiers
§52. Modus ponens with the Universal Quantifier
§53. Modus ponens with the Existential Quantifier
§54. Putting Langerese to Work
§55. Quantifiers and Negation
§56. Translation Holism
§57. Some Technicalities
§58. Identity
§59. Form and Content: The Value of Formal Logic
Technical Definitions

Subject:: Philosophy
Material Type:: Textbook
Author:: Derek D. Turner
Date Added:: 02/11/2020

Fundamental Methods of Logic

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Fundamental Methods of Logic

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Fundamental Methods of Logic is suitable for a one-semester introduction to logic/critical reasoning course. It covers a variety of topics at an introductory level. Chapter One introduces basic notions, such as arguments and explanations, validity and soundness, deductive and inductive reasoning; it also covers basic analytical techniques, such as distinguishing premises from conclusions and diagramming arguments. Chapter Two discusses informal logical fallacies. Chapters Three and Four concern deductive logic, introducing the basics of Aristotelian and Sentential Logic, respectively. Chapter Five deals with analogical and causal reasoning, including a discussion of Mill's Methods. Chapter Six covers basic probability calculations, Bayesian inference, fundamental statistical concepts and techniques, and common statistical fallacies.

Reviews available here: https://open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/textbooks/fundamental-methods-of-logic

Subject:: Philosophy
Material Type:: Textbook
Provider:: University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Author:: Matthew Knachel
Date Added:: 09/08/2017

General Philosophy Lectures

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General Philosophy Lectures

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A series of lectures delivered by Peter Millican to first-year philosophy students at the University of Oxford. The lectures comprise of the 8-week General Philosophy course, delivered to first year undergraduates. These lectures aim to provide a thorough introduction to many philosophical topics and to get students and others interested in thinking about key areas of philosophy. Taking a chronological view of the history of philosophy, each lecture is split into 3 or 4 sections which outline a particular philosophical problem and how different philosophers have attempted to resolve the issue. Individuals interested in the 'big' questions about life such as how we perceive the world, who we are in the world and whether we are free to act will find this series informative, comprehensive and accessible.

Subject:: Arts and Humanities; Philosophy
Material Type:: Full Course; Lecture
Provider:: University of Oxford
Provider Set:: University of Oxford Podcasts
Author:: Peter Millican
Date Added:: 02/19/2010

An Introduction to Formal Logic

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An Introduction to Formal Logic

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forall x is an introduction to sentential logic and first-order predicate logic with identity, logical systems that significantly influenced twentieth-century analytic philosophy. After working through the material in this book, a student should be able to understand most quantified expressions that arise in their philosophical reading.

This books treats symbolization, formal semantics, and proof theory for each language. The discussion of formal semantics is more direct than in many introductory texts. Although forall x does not contain proofs of soundness and completeness, it lays the groundwork for understanding why these are things that need to be proven.

Throughout the book, I have tried to highlight the choices involved in developing sentential and predicate logic. Students should realize that these two are not the only possible formal languages. In translating to a formal language, we simplify and profit in clarity. The simplification comes at a cost, and different formal languages are suited to translating different parts of natural language.

The book is designed to provide a semester's worth of material for an introductory college course. It would be possible to use the book only for sentential logic, by skipping chapters 4-5 and parts of chapter 6.

Table of Contents
Chapter 1: What is logic?
Chapter 2: Sentential logic
Chapter 3: Truth tables
Chapter 4: Quantified logic
Chapter 5: Formal semantics
Chapter 6: Proofs

Subject:: Philosophy
Material Type:: Textbook
Author:: P.D. Magnus
Date Added:: 06/12/2020

Introduction to Logic and Critical Thinking

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Introduction to Logic and Critical Thinking

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This is an introductory textbook in logic and critical thinking. The goal of the textbook is to provide the reader with a set of tools and skills that will enable them to identify and evaluate arguments. The book is intended for an introductory course that covers both formal and informal logic. As such, it is not a formal logic textbook, but is closer to what one would find marketed as a critical thinking textbook. Downloadable as a pdf file.

Subject:: Philosophy
Material Type:: Textbook
Provider:: Lansing Community College
Author:: Matthew J. Van Cleave
Date Added:: 01/04/2016

Introduction to Philosophy

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Introduction to Philosophy

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This course introduces students to the major topics, problems, and methods of philosophy and surveys the writings of a number of major historical figures in the field. Several of the core areas of philosophy are explored, including metaphysics, epistemology, political philosophy, ethics, and the philosophy of religion. Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to: Identify and describe the major areas of philosophical inquiry, explain how those areas differ from and relate to one another, and place the views and arguments of major philosophical figures within those thematic categories; Use philosophical terminology correctly and consistently; Identify and describe the views of a number of major philosophers and articulate how these views are created in response to general philosophical problems or to the views of other philosophers; Explain the broad outlines of the history of philosophy as a framework that can be applied in more advanced courses; Identify strengths and weaknesses in the arguments philosophers have put forward for their views and formulate objections and counterarguments of your own invention; Apply critical thinking and reasoning skills in a wide range of career paths and courses of study. (Philosophy 101)

Subject:: Arts and Humanities; Philosophy; Religious Studies
Material Type:: Assessment; Full Course; Homework/Assignment; Lecture; Reading; Syllabus
Provider:: The Saylor Foundation
Date Added:: 04/29/2019

An Introduction to Philosophy

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An Introduction to Philosophy

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The goal of this text is to present philosophy to newcomers as a living discipline with historical roots. While a few early chapters are historically organized, my goal in the historical chapters is to trace a developmental progression of thought that introduces basic philosophical methods and frames issues that remain relevant today. Later chapters are topically organized. These include philosophy of science and philosophy of mind, areas where philosophy has shown dramatic recent progress. This text concludes with four chapters on ethics, broadly construed. I cover traditional theories of right action in the third of these. Students are first invited first to think about what is good for themselves and their relationships in a chapter of love and happiness. Next a few meta-ethical issues are considered; namely, whether they are moral truths and if so what makes them so. The end of the ethics sequence addresses social justice, what it is for one’s community to be good. Our sphere of concern expands progressively through these chapters. Our inquiry recapitulates the course of development into moral maturity

Subject:: Philosophy
Material Type:: Textbook
Provider:: Bellevue College
Author:: W. Russ Payne
Date Added:: 04/24/2019

Introduction to Philosophy

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Introduction to Philosophy

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Table of Contents:

Chapter 1: External world skepticism
The problem of external world skepticism
Chapter 2: The problem of other minds
The problem of other minds
Chapter 3: The mind-body problem
The mind-body problem
Chapter 4: Personal identity
Personal identity
Chapter 5: The problem of free will and determinism
The problem of free will and determinism
Free will supplement: Quantum indeterminacy and the Libet experiments
Free will supplement: Libertarianism and dualism
Chapter 6: Philosophy of religion
Philosophy of Religion
Chapter 7: The ethics of belief
Pragmatic arguments and the ethics of belief
Chapter 8: Human well-being
Human well-being
Chapter 9: Post-modernism
What is Postmodernism?
Chapter 10: Property
The Nature of Property
Chapter 11: Capitalism, Communism, & Bernie Sanders
Capitalism, Communism & Bernie Sanders
Chapter 12: Buddhism
Dhamma: What the Buddha Taught
Chapter 13: Aesthetics
Issues in Aesthetics: How to Judge Art?

Subject:: Philosophy
Material Type:: Textbook
Author:: Christopher Schneck; Douglas Sjoquist; Matthew Van Cleave; Paul Jurczak
Date Added:: 09/21/2021

Introduction to Philosophy

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Introduction to Philosophy

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Lumen Learning Introduction to Philosophy course covers Nature of Philosophy, Logic, Ethics, Metaphysics and Epistemology, and Philosophy of Religion.

Subject:: Philosophy
Material Type:: Reading
Date Added:: 09/04/2019

Introduction to Philosophy: Ethics

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Introduction to Philosophy: Ethics

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Table of Contents
1. Aren’t Right and Wrong Just Matters of Opinion? On Moral Relativism and Subjectivism
2. Can We Have Ethics without Religion? On Divine Command Theory and Natural Law Theory
3. How Can I Be a Better Person? On Virtue Ethics
4. What’s in it for Me? On Egoism and Social Contract Theory
5. Utilitarianism
6. Kantian Deontology
7. Feminism and Feminist Ethics
8. Evolutionary Ethics

Subject:: Philosophy
Material Type:: Textbook
Author:: George Matthews; George Matthews
Date Added:: 06/11/2020

Introduction to Philosophy: Logic

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Introduction to Philosophy: Logic

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Introduction to Philosophy: Logic provides students with the concepts and skills necessary to identify and evaluate arguments effectively. The chapters, all written by experts in the field, provide an overview of what arguments are, the different types of arguments one can expect to encounter in both philosophy and everyday life, and how to recognise common argumentative mistakes.

Table of Contents
1. What is Logic?
2. Evaluating Arguments
3. Formal Logic in Philosophy
4. Informal Fallacies
5. Necessary and Sufficient Conditions

Access also available here: https://press.rebus.community/intro-to-phil-logic/

Subject:: Philosophy
Material Type:: Textbook
Author:: Bahram Assadian; Benjamin Martin; Cassiano Terra Rodrigues; Christina Hendricks; Matthew Knachel; Michael Shaffer; Nathan Smith
Date Added:: 11/24/2020

Introduction to Philosophy: Philosophy of Mind

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Introduction to Philosophy: Philosophy of Mind

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Introduction to Philosophy: Philosophy of Mind surveys the central themes in philosophy of mind and places them in a historical and contemporary context intended to engage first-time readers in the field. It focuses on debates about the status and character of the mind and its seemingly subjective nature in an apparently more objective world. Join the discussion for this and other books in the Introduction to Philosophy open textbook series!

1. Substance Dualism in Descartes
2. Materialism and Behaviorism
3. Functionalism
4. Property Dualism
5. Qualia and Raw Feels
6. Consciousness
7. Concepts and Content
8. Freedom of the Will

Subject:: Philosophy
Material Type:: Textbook
Author:: Christina Hendricks; Daniel Haas; Elly Vintiadis; Eran Asoulin; Heather Salazar; Henry Shevlin; Jason Newman; Paul Richard Blum; Tony Cheng
Date Added:: 02/11/2020

Logic and Critical Thinking

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Logic and Critical Thinking

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This course provides an introduction to critical thinking, informal logic, and a small amount of formal logic; its purpose is to provide students with the basic tools of analytical reasoning. Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to: Understand what critical thinking is and why it is valuable; Distinguish between good and bad definitions, Recognize the differences between explicit and implicit meaning, and remove ambiguities of meaning from unclearly worded statements; Recognize arguments in writing, pick out good and bad arguments by their form, and construct sound arguments of their own; Diagnose the most common reasoning errors and fallacies, as well as identify ways of improving them; Understand the basics of sentential and predicate logic and gain practice manipulating meaning symbolically; Understand the rudiments of scientific methodology and reasoning; Evaluate arguments that rely on specific types of visual representation; Understand the basics of strategic reasoning and problem solving; Understand the particular challenges involved in reasoning about values and morality; Diagnose fallacies and evaluate arguments about values and morality. (Philosophy 102)

Subject:: Arts and Humanities; Philosophy
Material Type:: Assessment; Full Course; Homework/Assignment; Lecture; Reading; Syllabus
Provider:: The Saylor Foundation
Date Added:: 04/29/2019

Modern Philosophy

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Modern Philosophy

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This is a textbook (or better, a workbook) in modern philosophy. It combines readings from primary sources with two pedagogical tools. Paragraphs in italics introduce figures and texts. Numbered study questions (also in italics) ask students to reconstruct an argument or position from the text, or draw connections among the readings. And I have added an introductory chapter (Chapter 0 Minilogic and Glossary), designed to present the basic tools of philosophy and sketch some principles and positions. The immediate goal is to encourage students to grapple with the ideas rather than passing their eyes over the texts. This makes for a better classroom experience and permits higher-level discussions. Another goal is to encourage collaboration among instructors, as they revise and post their own versions of the book.

Subject:: Arts and Humanities; Philosophy
Material Type:: Textbook
Provider:: BCcampus
Provider Set:: BCcampus Faculty Reviewed Open Textbooks
Author:: Alexander; Dunn; Ott; Walter
Date Added:: 02/06/2015

Open Logic Project

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Open Logic Project

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The Open Logic Text is an open-source, collaborative textbook of formal meta-logic and formal methods, starting at an intermediate level (i.e., after an introductory formal logic course). Though aimed at a non-mathematical audience (in particular, students of philosophy and computer science), it is rigorous.

The Open Logic Text is a collaborative project and is under active development. Coverage of some topics currently included may not yet be complete, and many sections still require substantial revision. We plan to expand the text to cover more topics in the future. We also plan to add features to the text, such as a glossary, a list of further reading, historical notes, pictures, better explanations, sections explaining the relevance of results to philosophy, computer science, and mathematics, and more problems and examples. If you find an error, or have a suggestion, please let the project team know.

The project operates in the spirit of open source. Not only is the text freely available, we provide the LaTeX source under the Creative Commons Attribution license, which gives anyone the right to download, use, modify, re-arrange, convert, and re-distribute our work, as long as they give appropriate credit.

Table of Contents
I Sets, Relations, Functions
II Propositional Logic
III First-order Logic
IV Model Theory
V Computability
VI Turing Machines
VII Incompleteness
VIII Second-order Logic
IX Normal Modal Logics
X Instuitionistic Logic
XII Methods
XIII History

Subject:: Computer Science; Philosophy
Material Type:: Textbook
Author:: Andrew Arana; Audrey Yap; Gillian Russell; Jeremy Avigad; Nicole Wyatt; Richard Zach; Walter Dean
Date Added:: 06/12/2020