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‎public/posts/philosophy-101/01-introduction.txt‎

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# Philosophy 101: Introduction - The Examined Life
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## Welcome to Class
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Sit down, grab a coffee (black, preferably, like the abyss we're about to stare into). Welcome to **Philosophy 101**.
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You might be here because you want to win arguments on the internet, or maybe you're having an existential crisis at 3 AM. Whatever the reason, you've taken the first step into a larger world.
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This series is going to be a "university-style" crash course in Philosophy. We aren't just going to quote dead guys in togas; we're going to learn how to *think*.
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## What is Philosophy?
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The word comes from the Greek *philosophia*, meaning **"love of wisdom."** But that's a bit fluffy, isn't it?
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In practice, philosophy is the critical examination of the most fundamental questions of human existence. It's the art of asking "Why?" until people get annoyed with you, and then asking "Why does that annoy you?"
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It's not just about having opinions. Everyone has opinions. Philosophy is about **arguments**. It's about building a structure of logic to support a conclusion.
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## Why Study This?
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1. **Critical Thinking:** You will learn to spot bullshit from a mile away.
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2. **Clarity:** You'll learn to express complex ideas simply.
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3. **The Examined Life:** Socrates said, "The examined life is not worth living." (Wait, no, he said "The **unexamined** life is not worth living." See? We need to pay attention to details).
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## Course Syllabus
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Over the next few posts, we will cover:
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* Logic and Arguments (The Toolset)
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* Epistemology (What can we know?)
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* Metaphysics (What is real?)
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* Ethics (What should we do?)
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## Required Reading & Resources
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For this session, your homework is simple:
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**1. The Website:**
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[Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (SEP)](https://plato.stanford.edu/)
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* This is the bible of online philosophy. It's peer-reviewed, academic, and free. Bookmark it.
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**2. The Book:**
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* **"Think" by Simon Blackburn**.
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* It's a fantastic, readable introduction that doesn't get bogged down in jargon too early.
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See you in the next lecture, where we learn how to actually construct an argument without looking like a fool.

‎public/posts/philosophy-101/02-logic-and-arguments.txt‎

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# Philosophy 101: Logic - The Toolbox
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## The Architect's Tools
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Before we can build a worldview, we need tools. In philosophy, our hammer and saw are **Logic**.
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You can have the most beautiful, poetic thoughts in the world, but if your logic is flawed, your philosophy is just poetry (no offense to poets).
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## What is an Argument?
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In philosophy, an argument isn't a shouting match. It's a set of statements (premises) intended to determine the degree of truth of another statement (the conclusion).
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**The Standard Form:**
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1. **Premise 1:** All humans are mortal.
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2. **Premise 2:** Socrates is a human.
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3. **Conclusion:** Therefore, Socrates is mortal.
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## Validity vs. Soundness
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This is where 90% of internet debates fail.
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* **Validity:** If the premises are true, the conclusion *must* be true. The *structure* is correct.
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* **Soundness:** The argument is valid *AND* the premises are actually true.
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**Example of a VALID but UNSOUND argument:**
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1. All toasters are time machines. (False premise)
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2. This object is a toaster. (True premise)
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3. Therefore, this object is a time machine. (Valid logic, but garbage conclusion because Premise 1 is false).
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## Deduction vs. Induction
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* **Deductive:** Top-down. If premises are true, the conclusion is **certain** (like the Socrates example).
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* **Inductive:** Bottom-up. Observation to pattern. The conclusion is **probable**, not certain. (e.g., "The sun has risen every day of my life, therefore it will rise tomorrow." High probability, but not logically guaranteed by the premises alone).
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## Recommended Resources
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**1. The Website:**
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[Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy (IEP) - Logic](https://iep.utm.edu/)
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* Generally more accessible than the SEP for beginners.
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**2. The Book:**
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* **"A Rulebook for Arguments" by Anthony Weston**.
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* It's short, cheap, and essential. It breaks down how to write and assess arguments without 500 pages of theory.
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Next time, we ask: **How do we know anything at all?** (Epistemology).

‎public/posts/philosophy-101/03-epistemology.txt‎

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# Philosophy 101: Epistemology - How Do You Know That?
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## The Matrix and the Brain in a Vat
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How do you know you aren't a brain in a vat being fed electrical impulses by a mad scientist? How do you know this blog post isn't a hallucination?
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Welcome to **[Epistemology](/vocab/epistemology)**: the study of knowledge.
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Before we can claim to know anything about the world, we have to determine what "knowing" even means.
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## The Classic Definition: JTB
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For thousands of years, the gold standard for knowledge was **Justified True Belief (JTB)**.
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To say "I know X," three things must happen:
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1. **You must believe X.** (You can't know it if you don't think it's true).
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2. **X must actually be true.** (You can't "know" the earth is flat, even if you believe it).
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3. **You must have justification.** (You can't just guess correctly; you need a reason).
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## The Crash Course: Rationalism vs. Empiricism
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This is the biggest cage match in the history of philosophy.
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**1. Rationalism (Team Descartes)**
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* **Core Idea:** Reason is the chief source of knowledge.
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* **The Vibe:** "I can figure out the universe just by thinking hard enough."
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* **Key Figure:** René Descartes. He doubted everything—his senses, his memory, the physical world—until he hit bedrock: "I think, therefore I am." He couldn't doubt that he was doubting.
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**2. Empiricism (Team Locke/Hume)**
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* **Core Idea:** Sensory experience is the source of knowledge.
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* **The Vibe:** "Show me the data."
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* **Key Concept:** *Tabula Rasa* (Blank Slate). We are born knowing nothing, and experience writes upon us.
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## Radical Skepticism and Solipsism
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If you take doubt far enough, you end up at **[Solipsism](/vocab/solipsism)**: the idea that only your own mind is sure to exist. Everyone else might be an NPC (Non-Playable Character).
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It's a lonely philosophy, but logically, it's incredibly hard to disprove. (Try it. Go ahead. Prove to me you exist. I'll wait).
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## Recommended Resources
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**1. The Website:**
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[SEP - Epistemology](https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/epistemology/)
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* Dive into the deep end.
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**2. The Movie:**
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* **The Matrix (1999)**
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* It is literally just Plato's "Allegory of the Cave" with kung fu and leather trench coats. Essential viewing for this topic.
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Next up, we ask the question that usually follows a bong rip: **What is actually real?** (Metaphysics).

‎public/posts/philosophy-101/04-metaphysics.txt‎

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# Philosophy 101: Metaphysics - What is Real?
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## Beyond Physics
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If Physics is the study of how the physical world moves and interacts, **Metaphysics** is the study of what the world *is*.
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It asks the questions that science takes for granted. Science asks "How does gravity work?" Metaphysics asks "What is a 'law of nature'?"
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## Ontology: The Furniture of the Universe
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**[Ontology](/vocab/ontology)** is the study of *being*. It's like taking an inventory of the universe.
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* Do chairs exist? Yes.
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* Do numbers exist? Ideally, yes, but you can't trip over the number 4.
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* Do holes exist? A hole is just the *absence* of stuff, so is it a "thing"?
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## The Mind-Body Problem
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This is the big one.
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* **Materialism:** Everything is physical matter. Your thoughts are just neurons firing. Love is just dopamine.
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* **Dualism:** The mind and body are separate. There is a "ghost in the machine."
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If you are just atoms, how do you have **[Qualia](/vocab/qualia)**—the subjective feeling of the redness of a rose? Atoms aren't red. They don't feel. How does meat become magic?
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## Free Will vs. Determinism
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If the universe follows physical laws, and your brain is physical, then every thought you have is just the result of the previous physical state.
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* **Determinism:** You have no free will. You were always going to read this sentence.
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* **Libertarian Free Will:** You genuinely could have done otherwise.
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* **Compatibilism:** A messy middle ground where we redefine "free will" to make everyone happy.
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## Recommended Resources
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**1. The Book:**
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* **"Metaphysics: A Very Short Introduction" by Stephen Mumford**.
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* Does exactly what it says on the tin.
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**2. The Thought Experiment:**
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* **The Ship of Theseus.**
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* If you replace every plank of a ship one by one, is it still the same ship? If you teleport to Mars, but the machine destroys your body here and builds a copy there, is it still *you*?
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Next, we finish with the most practical question: **How should we live?** (Ethics).

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