How to Think and Reason Properly

When I was in college, I majored in philosophy, and ever since then I have been intensely interested in all things philosophical: metaphysics, ethics, epistemology, aesthetics, and logic.  I am so in love with the subject that even when I was studying for my master's degree in science writing at the University of Southern California, I made time to take a philosophy class on continental rationalism.  (We read Leibniz, Spinoza, and Descartes, as well as an assortment of lesser-known thinkers.)  On my Twitter feed, I follow a philosophy account, and I have downloaded several podcasts of Philosophy Talk, a radio show hosted by two Stanford professors and broadcast on 91.7 FM in California.  Something about the subject tickles my brain, and I just can't get enough.

So I was overjoyed to come across a series of animations produced by Bridge 8, a company in Australia.  The animations explain what an argument is, what logical thinking is, and how to think clearly.  (Reasoning and argumentation are at the heart of philosophy, as is the question of how to reason and argue properly.  Look here to see what I mean.)  I have included some of the videos below.  They're short, so take some time to browse through them.  You won't be disappointed.

Religion and Law

While watching C-SPAN, I came across an audio recording of the Supreme Court proceedings for the Hosanna-Tabor vs. EEOC case. Then, I came across a commentary on the case by Stanley Fish. I tend to agree with most of the justices: there's no way to resolve the case without the federal government getting involved in religious doctrine and definitions. Tough situation... In any case, hooray for jurisprudence!

Euclid in the Rainforest -- Book Review

Euclid in the Rainforest: Discovering Universal Truth in Logic and Math by Joseph Mazur
My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I really, really wanted to like this book. The table of contents sounded so interesting: infinity! logic! how math pertains to reality! But, the further I got into the book, the more frustrated I became. Each section -- infinity, logic, and reality -- contains several chapters, but it's never clear to the reader how each chapter relates to the overarching theme. Moreover, each chapter itself seemed just like a collection of math-related stories, one after the other, with no obvious link. (I'm sure there *were* links, but I would have had to work to find them.) Also -- and this may seem like a nit-picking critique -- the weak topic sentences really got in the way of my understanding each paragraph. Topic sentences have to set up the rest of the sentences in a paragraph, giving the reader a kind of road map, but these didn't. Arrrrgh! In my opinion, the book should be rewritten under the watchful eye of a careful editor.

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