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12Thinking Tools 2: Superstition and the Miser's Favourite: Law Thinking toolsThink 1 (2): 99-101. 2002.Thinking Tools is a regular feature that introduces pointers on thinking clearly and rigorously. Here we get to grips with two everyday reasoning errors.
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20Rape is a sex act: Law rape is a sex actThink 8 (21): 69-70. 2009.In the preceding piece, Timothy Chambers agrees with some feminists that “rape is not a sex act”. Here, I briefly defend the view that, whatever else rape is, it is, indeed, a sexual act. Timothy will reply in another piece
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47What's wrong with gay sex?Think 2 (5): 53-68. 2003.Mr Jarvis, a Christian, was asleep in bed, dreaming of the Last Judgement. In his dream, Jarvis found himself seated next to God in a great cloud-swept hall. God had just finished handing down judgement on the drunkards, who were slowly shuffling out of the exit to the left. Angels were now ushering a group of nervous-looking men through the entrance to the right. As the men were assembled before Him, God began to speak
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231: Celebrity Endorsements and a Salesperson's Trick: Law Thinking toolsThink 1 (1): 77-79. 2002.Thinking Tools is a regular feature that introduces tips and pointers on thinking clearly and rigorously. Here we get to grips with two everyday reasoning errors.
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17Thinking tools: The relativist fallacy: Law Thinking toolsThink 3 (9): 57-58. 2005.Thinking Tools is a regular feature that introduces tips and pointers on thinking clearly and rigorously.
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212Five private language argumentsInternational Journal of Philosophical Studies 12 (2): 159-176. 2004.This paper distinguishes five key interpretations of the argument presented by Wittgenstein in Philosophical Investigations I, §258. I also argue that on none of these five interpretations is the argument cogent. The paper is primarily concerned with the most popular interpretation of the argument: that which that makes it rest upon the principle that one can be said to follow a rule only if there exists a 'useable criterion of successful performance' (Pears) or 'operational standard of correctn…Read more
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136The Meaning of LifeThink 11 (30). 2012.This is an article that explores the question "what is the meaning of life?" particularly with respect to humanism and theism. It defends a humanist position, and refutes a number of arguments for the conclusion that a meaningful human existence requires the existence of God
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10Just knowingThe Philosophers' Magazine 56 51-57. 2012.I remain entirely unconvinced that anyone who claims to “just know” that the dead walk among us, or that God exists, knows any such thing. Not only do I think the rest of us have good grounds for doubting their experience, I don’t believe it’s reasonable for them to take their own experience at face value either.
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41Thinking tools: The straw manThink 6 (16): 75. 2008.Thinking Tools is a regular feature that introduces pointers on thinking clearly and rigorously
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39Thinking Tools: The Sherlock Holmes Fallacy: Law Thinking toolsThink 6 (17-18): 219-221. 2008.Thinking Tools is a regular feature that introduces pointers on thinking clearly and rigorously.
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26Thinking tools 4: How to sound like a guru: Law Thinking toolsThink 2 (4): 85-87. 2003.Thinking Tools is a regular feature that introduces pointers on thinking clearly and rigorously. Here l explain some of the techniques commonly used by ‘gurus’ to dupe people into thinking they have something profound to say.
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42Is it all relative?Think 1 (2): 69-82. 2002.According to relativists, people who speak simply of what's ‘true’ are naïve. ‘Whose truth?’ asks the relativist. ‘No claim is ever true, period. What's true is always true for someone. It's true relative to a particular person or culture. There's no such thing as the absolute truth on any issue.’ This sort of relativism is certainly popular. For example, many claim that we are wrong to condemn cultures with moral codes different from our own: their moralities are no less valid. Similarly, some …Read more
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108IntroductionCamrbridge Core Philosophy 12 (34): 5-7. 2013.Introduction Stephen Law, Think, FirstView Article.
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24Thinking tools: The lottery fallacy: Law Thinking toolsThink 4 (11): 65-66. 2005.Thinking Tools is a regular feature that introduces tips and pointers on thinking clearly and rigorously.
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21Thinking Tools: Seductive secrets of the shopping mall: Law Thinking ToolsThink 3 (8): 53-54. 2004.Thinking Tools is a regular feature that introduces pointers on thinking clearly and rigorously. In this installment, we focus, not on faulty reasoning per se, but on an example of how we can be led astray or manipulated without our even realizing what is going on. Our critical faculties are entirely sidestepped!
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442The Pandora’s box objection to skeptical theismInternational Journal for Philosophy of Religion 78 (3): 285-299. 2015.Skeptical theism is a leading response to the evidential argument from evil against the existence of God. Skeptical theists attempt to block the inference from the existence of inscrutable evils to gratuitous evils by insisting that given our cognitive limitations, it wouldn’t be surprising if there were God-justifying reasons we can’t think of. A well-known objection to skeptical theism is that it opens up a skeptical Pandora’s box, generating implausibly wide-ranging forms of skepticism, inclu…Read more
