The Philosophers Toolkit Quotes

“Any philosophy that can be put in a nutshell belongs there.”
― Julian Baggini, The Philosopher's Toolkit: A Compendium of Philosophical Concepts and Methods

“Working out whether or not the claims you make in your premises are true, while important, is simply not enough to ensure that you draw true conclusions. People make this mistake all the time. They forget that you can begin with a set of entirely true beliefs but reason so poorly as to end up with entirely false conclusions. The problem is that starting with truth doesn’t guarantee ending up with it.”
― Julian Baggini, The Philosopher's Toolkit: A Compendium of Philosophical Concepts and Methods

“The problem of induction is the problem of how an argument can be good reasoning as induction but be poor reasoning as a deduction.”
― Julian Baggini, The Philosopher's Toolkit: A Compendium of Philosophical Concepts and Methods

“2.1 Abduction No, we’re not talking about kidnapping but, rather, an important dimension of scientific and ordinary as well as philosophical rationality. Consider the following example. A man is found in a cabin in a remote forest, with all the doors and windows securely locked from the inside, hanging dead from a noose. A suicide note in the man’s handwriting lies on the table nearby. What would best explain this set of facts? Abduction, a term coined by the American pragmatist philosopher Charles Sanders Peirce (1839–1914), is a tool to do just that.”
― Julian Baggini, The Philosopher's Toolkit: A Compendium of Philosophical Concepts and Methods