• Guidebook for The Logic of Happiness
    with Jennifer Ault
    Royal Fireworks Press. 2023.
    The Logic of Happiness guidebook explores the logic concepts introduced in the novel and includes excerpts of original works by some of the most significant philosophers in human history: the Buddha, Lao Tzu, Plato, Aristotle, Epicurus, Marcus Aurelius, Thomas Aquinas, David Hume, John Stuart Mill, and Charles Darwin. The readings will introduce students to an array of theories about how to achieve happiness while also teaching them to use classical logic techniques to discern whether or not tho…Read more
  • The Logic of Happiness
    Royal Fireworks Press. 2023.
    Disillusioned with college, Everett takes a position teaching philosophy to kids at an innovative summer enrichment academy on an island off the New England coast. The academy is run by fellow student Juniper’s Aunt Laura, and at Laura’s recommendation, Everett uses as his curriculum an exploration of the concept of happiness as described by ten of history’s most significant philosophers. This idea is sparked by a collection of readings saved by Laura’s grandmother, a teacher who originally owne…Read more
  • The Original Position
    Royal Fireworks Press. 2022.
    Gloria is a typical twenty-one-year-old living in post-World War II America, spending her time making fashionable clothing for herself and going out with her boyfriend, when her brother Stanley goes missing. While on her way to speak with his friends at the Delta Psi fraternity house at Princeton University, she discovers the body of one of his fellow students. The young man has been murdered, and Gloria’s worry for her brother deepens into a terrible fear for his safety. Stanley is a member of …Read more
  • The Paradox Box
    Royal Fireworks Press. 2022.
    Ludwig Wittgenstein was a brilliant, intense, complex man, and this novel, a work of historical fiction but based on fact, explores his early thinking, which led him to publish one of the most important works of logic ever written. The story is told by David Pinsent, a student in mathematics who meets Wittgenstein at Trinity College in Cambridge, England, just before World War I. Despite Wittgenstein’s odd mannerisms and difficult personality, David is attracted to him, recognizing his genius im…Read more
  • Plato versus Aristotle: Philosophical Debates (edited book)
    Royal Fireworks Press. 2023.
  • An introduction to 25 major philosophers for kids ages 8 to 12. Learning about philosophy encourages kids to ponder big ideas and ask deep questions about the world around them. This book introduces kids to 25 major Eastern and Western philosophers with easy-to-understand explanations of their most well-known ideas. What sets this book about philosophy for kids apart: An introduction to philosophy--Kids will learn more about what a philosopher is, what kind of questions they ask, and the histor…Read more
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    John Dewey was the greatest American philosopher of the twentieth century, and this novel traces a fictionalized version of his intellectual development. Although the plot is invented, the concepts and ideas that the story explores are the ones that Dewey was primarily concerned with, and the novel brings together the thinkers who most influenced him. John Dewey was raised by a strict, puritanical mother who believed that he was his deceased brother reincarnated. The first John Dewey inexplicabl…Read more
  • The Transparent Eyeball and Guidebook
    Royal Fireworks. 2020.
    Nobody understands TJ, so when he finds an abandoned cabin in the woods, it feels to him like a haven from society. But that night, TJ starts having unusually vivid dreams that take him back to the middle of the nineteenth century, where he learns about the American philosophical movement known as Transcendentalism and where he is introduced to a man living in an identical cabin, this one on the shore of Walden Pond: Henry David Thoreau. TJ soon learns that his classmate Ivy is sharing the dream…Read more
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    What Philosophy Can Tell You about Your Lover
    Open Court / Cricket. 2012.
    Be warned—in your journey through this volume you will encounter many true stories. Some will make you laugh, others could make you cry, and all are enough to thoroughly embarrass the authors. These stories would never be allowed to see the light of day if they did not open the door to important truths about love. The authors speak to you, sometimes in their own voices, sometimes through dialogue, and sometimes through fiction. You will recognize yourself in their struggles and triumphs. Can the…Read more
  • Philosophy for Teens, Vols 1 and 2
    Prufrock Press. 2007.
    What is love? Is lying always wrong? Is beauty a matter of fact, or a matter of taste? What is discrimination? The answers to these questions, and more, are examined in Philosophy for Teens: Questioning Life's Big Ideas, an in-depth, teenager-friendly look at the philosophy behind everyday issues. The authors examine some of life's biggest topics, such as: lying, cheating, love, beauty, the role of government, hate, and prejudice. Both sides of the debates are covered on every issue, with inform…Read more
  • The Onion and Philosophy
    Open Court / Cricket. 2010.
    The Onion, with its unique brand of deadpan satirical humor, has become a familiar part of the American scene. The newspaper has a readership of over a million, and it reaches millions more with its spin-off books and The Onion News Network. The Onion has shown us that standard ways of thinking about the news have their grotesque and silly side, and this invites philosophical examination. Twenty-one philosophers were commissioned to figure out just what makes the Onion so truthful and insightful…Read more
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    Written by Sharon Kaye, who is Professor of Philosophy at John Carroll University, Philosophy: A Complete Introduction is designed to give you everything you need to succeed, all in one place. It covers the key areas that students are expected to be confident in, outlining the basics in clear jargon-free English, and then providing added-value features like summaries of key books, and even lists of questions you might be asked in your seminar or exam. The book uses a structure that mirrors many …Read more
  •  10
    Critical thinking shows people how to analyze arguments, speeches, and newspaper articles to see which faults the authors are making in their reasoning. It looks at the structure of language to demonstrate rules by which you can identify good analytical thinking and helps people to formulate clear defensible arguments themselves. As people are always trying to put a certain point/opinion across in a variety of arenas in our lives, this is a very useful skill. With real life newspaper extracts, a…Read more
  •  5
    Why do good things happen to bad people? Can we prove whether God exists? What is the difference between right and wrong? Medieval Philosophers were centrally concerned with such questions: questions which are as relevant today as a thousand years ago when the likes of Anselm and Aquinas sought to resolve them. In this fast-paced, enlightening guide, Sharon M. Kaye takes us on a whistle-stop tour of medieval philosophy, revealing the debt it owes to Aristotle and Plato, and showing how medieval …Read more
  •  27
    Take a Stand! (grades 9-12) helps teens develop critical thinking skills by examining debates on issues directly relevant to their lives (that you won't find in most classroom materials). Each chapter: Covers an important topic relating to electronics, sex, mental health, and relationships. Presents a question for debate, such as "Should kids choose their own religion?" and "Is it possible to love more than one person?" Shows how each issue might arise in an ordinary teen conversation. Presents …Read more
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    Who are you? What is truly real? Is there such a thing as free will? If you have ever considered questions like these, that’s philosophy. The Philosophy Book for Beginners breaks down the core concepts of both Eastern and Western philosophy in clear language that explains the most important people and ideas. You’ll develop an understanding of the basic ideas and see your understanding of the world expand―no dense, academic texts required. The major branches―Explore the central questions of metap…Read more
  •  24
    Philosophy is both fun and good for kids’ brains, as it encourages them to think deeply and develop their own solutions to complex problems. With this colorful book about philosophy for kids, they’ll learn all about introductory concepts and important thinkers in a way that’s fun and approachable, but still in-depth and substantial. In this book, your child will explore questions like: “What is real?”, “How do I know something is true?”, “How can I be a good person?”, and “If this is true, what …Read more
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    Want to Learn Philosophy?
    The Philosophers' Magazine 94 49-54. 2021.
  •  2
    Russell, Strawson, and William of Ockham
    The Paideia Archive: Twentieth World Congress of Philosophy 9 27-34. 1998.
    Realism and conventionalism generally establish the parameters of debate over universals. Do abstract terms in language refer to abstract things in the world? The realist answers yes, leaving us with an inflated ontology; the conventionalist answers no, leaving us with subjective categories. I want to defend nominalism — in its original medieval sense, as one possibility that aims to preserve objectivity while positing nothing more than concrete individuals in the world. First, I will present pa…Read more
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  • William of Ockham's Theory of Conscience
    Dissertation, University of Toronto (Canada). 1997.
    This work is designed to show that there is an implicit connection between Ockham's academic and political careers in his theory of conscience. ;Thomas Aquinas offers a theory of moral responsibility according to which the conscientious individual has knowledge of the rightness of her act which does not preclude her doing otherwise. His account of the will, however, proves that this state of affairs never obtains. Ockham's alternative presupposes that we freely choose our own ends. He is therefo…Read more
  •  24
    William of Ockham on Metaphysics (review)
    British Journal for the History of Philosophy 21 (4): 798-800. 2013.
    No abstract
  •  4
    William of Ockham and the Unlikely Connection between Transubstantiation and Free Will
    Proceedings of the American Catholic Philosophical Association 81 123-132. 2007.
    William of Ockham was tried for heresy due to his assertion that certain qualities can exist independently of substances. Scholars have assumed he made thisstrange assertion in order to account for the Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation. I argue, however, that the assertion was philosophically rather than theologically motivated. Ockham develops a nominalist substance ontology, according to which most changes can be explained as the result of local motion. Knowledge and virtue are changes i…Read more
  •  5
    The Virtue of Playing Along
    Philosophy in the Contemporary World 14 (1): 1-10. 2007.
    Because playing along involves pretence, it is liable to be seen as an objectionable form of deception. In this paper, however, I argue that it is a virtue based on its role in creating and sustaining valuable relationships. According to William of Ockham and Michelle de Montaigne, to love another as a true friend is to will as he or she wills. Given that even the most like-minded individuals often will different things, there is need for a meta-level, at which one can validate the will of the o…Read more