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As this book richly and entertainingly demonstrates, philosophy is as much the search for the right questions as it is the search for the right answers. Robert M. Martin’s popular collection of philosophical puzzles, paradoxes, jokes, and anecdotes is updated and expanded in this third edition, with dozens of new entries.

Philosophical Conversations is a light, informal, and contemporary introduction to the study of philosophy. Using a dialogue format, Robert M. Martin delves into the traditional questions of philosophy in a manner that readers will find engaging. These substantive yet entertaining conversations emphasize that philosophical questions are contested and open-ended. The characters in each dialogue advocate…

Writing Wrongs is a concise and thoughtful guide to common errors in English. It covers frequently confused and misused words along with problems of grammar, punctuation, and style, and offers a brief and up-to-date guide to major citation styles. Though it provides guidelines and recommendations for usage, Writing Wrongs acknowledges the evolution of language over…

The central aim of The Philosopher’s Dictionary is to provide a comprehensive and up-to-date guide of philosophical terms. Definitions are brief, clear, and user-friendly. Notes on usage, spelling, and pronunciation are included, and there are brief entries on hundreds of the best-known philosophers. Throughout, Martin writes in a style at once informative and authoritative, making…

Academic philosophy can be puzzling to newcomers. The conventions, terms, and expectations entrenched among philosophers aren’t always clear from the outside. Why are philosophers so preoccupied with finding “the truth”—doesn’t everyone have their own philosophy? Is philosophy so deep and difficult that its literature has to be incomprehensible? What kinds of arguments can there be…

The Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics serves dual purposes. It is an ideal entry point to Immanuel Kant’s broader thought and to his longer, more complex works. And it is also in itself an impressive and argumentatively powerful study of the methods and limits of metaphysics. Kant boldly declares to any reader aiming to construct…

This accessible, SHORT introduction to symbolic logic includes coverage of sentential and predicate logic, translations, truth tables, and derivations. The author’s engaging style makes this the most informal of introductions to formal logic. Topics are explained in a conversational, easy-to-understand way for readers not familiar with mathematics or formal systems, and the author provides patient,…

Scientific Thinking provides comprehensive coverage of such topics as inductive reasoning, confirmation, demarcation, sampling, correlations, causality, hypotheses, experimental methods, and the role of values in science. Drawing examples from both the history of science and more modern scientific work, the book helps readers recognize the ongoing importance of developing good habits of scientific thinking. Questions…