Category: Philosophy and Economics

In the fourth lecture of the Commerce and Culture podcast, Paul Cantor discusses the economics of painting. Art flourished due to free trade and the exchange of ideas, which led to its accessibility and affordability today. Continue reading Paintings Revolutionized Art

I’m listening to a ten-part lecture series called Commerce and Culture and this episode was about Shakespeare’s success.

Here are some of the factors that lend to The Globe’s success.

Continue reading Shakespeare’s Theater and How Competition Made it Successful

It’s week three of module 4 and I’ve made fast progress in consuming content! Last week I reviewed and learned about the different types of philosophical fallacies and this week I’ll focus on history and culture.

Here are my notes from today’s lectures. Continue reading History and Culture: Free Markets Liberated the Arts

I learned how to apply critical thinking skills to avoid common philosophical fallacies.

Appeal to ignorance also called the burden of proof

• You haven’t proven/don’t know X to be the case. The burden of proof is on you. Therefore X isn’t the case

Examples of appeal to ignorance

• If you can’t prove it then you’re wrong
• Science hasn’t proven God exists, therefore, God doesn’t exist
• You can’t prove that you’re not cheating on me. You won’t let me go through your phone. Therefore you must be hiding something.

Begging the question/circular argument

• The basic structure is, premise⟶premise
• There is no conclusion
• Repeating a premise
• Lots of verbiages
•  Circular argument

Examples of circular arguments

• I should wear makeup often because cosmetics and beauty products make me look pretty
• What came first, the chicken or the egg?

The second week of the module is coming to a close and today I’ll be going over tow fallacies, the false dilemma, and the slippery slope. Continue reading False Dilemma and Slippery Slope Fallacies

You can become better at debate if you recognize the types of fallacious arguments. Let’s go over two of these fallacies, two wrongs don’t make a right and the red herring. Continue reading The Red Herring Fallacy and Two Wrongs Don’t Make a Right

The appeal to popularity is commonly practiced fallacy. It’s formally called argumentum ad populum, Latin for “argument to the people,” and it assumes that a statement must be true because the vast majority of people believe it. Millions of people can’t be wrong, can they?

Let’s take a look at examples of the ad populum fallacy. Continue reading Appeal to Popularity, a Common Fallacy

Today’s lesson focuses on the bad types of arguments, in particular, emotional arguments. These are the notes I took. Continue reading Fallacies: Emotions are Bad Arguments