balderdash9,

I read and write in academic philosophy for a living. Philosophers causally throw around Latin phrases in their writing (and, sometimes embarrassingly, even when speaking):

  • Many from historical figures (e.g., Kant’s a priori/a posteriori, Berkeley’s “esse ist percepi”, Descartes “cogito ero sum”, Leibniz’s “salva veritate”, etc.)
  • Forms/rules in logic (e.g., “modus ponens”, “modus tollens”, “reductio ad absurdum”, etc.)
  • Informal fallacy names (e.g., “ad hominem”, “tu quoque”, “ad populum”, etc)
  • As well as a myriad of other commonly used terms you’re expected to know when reading philosophy (e.g., prima facie, mutatis mutandis, a fortiori, eo ipso, ex nihilo, sui generis, ceteris paribus, ad hoc, non sequitur, etc. etc.).

This is not a random list. Every one of these Latin phrases sees heavy use in today’s philosophical literature.

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