ABSTRACT
This chapter prescribes a method for doing philosophy, nor to provide "tips" or "tricks". It is very hard to imagine philosophy without argument, conceived of broadly as rational persuasion. Conceptual analysis is the most striking example of a philosophical method that responds to perceived limitations. The positivistic idea about this analytic exercise is that a good definition is analytic in the technical sense: it is a truth of meaning. John Rawls developed the approach in the context of moral and political philosophy and coined the phrase "reflective equilibrium". David Lewis is the most influential advocate of this method in metaphysics, Lewis endorses coherentism both as an accurate description of philosophical justification, and as a methodological prescription for philosophers. Williamson begins with the epistemology of counterfactuals, a topic which Lewis leaves untouched, despite the centrality of counterfactuals in his philosophy. Identifying and answering philosophical questions that arise in the course of non-philosophical pursuits, and thus overcoming its glorious isolation.
