Philosophy Metabiases

Second-order biases about philosophy—systematic distortions in how philosophy is practiced, taught, and valued. Philosophy Metabiases include: canon bias (studying the same dead white men); method bias (privileging analytic over continental); progress bias (assuming philosophy progresses like science); gatekeeping bias (deciding who counts as a philosopher); relevance bias (assuming philosophy must be technical to be serious). Philosophy Metabiases shape the discipline itself—what counts as philosophy, who gets to do it, and what it's for.

Philosophy Metabiases "Real philosophy is analytic philosophy." That's Philosophy Metabias—confusing one tradition with the whole discipline. Philosophy is a vast conversation across traditions, times, and cultures. The metabias is thinking your corner of philosophy is philosophy itself."

by Dumu The Void March 1, 2026

Philosophical Metabiases

Second-order biases in how we do philosophy—the assumptions we bring to philosophical inquiry that shape what questions seem important and what answers seem plausible. Philosophical Metabiases include: realism bias (assuming concepts map reality); rationalism bias (trusting reason over experience); individualism bias (focusing on individual knowers); presentism bias (judging past philosophers by current standards); technical bias (valuing technical sophistication over wisdom). Philosophical Metabiases are the invisible lenses through which philosophers see—and they determine what philosophers see and what they miss.

Philosophical Metabiases "He dismissed ancient philosophy as 'primitive.' That's Philosophical Metabias—presentism, judging the past by the present. The Greeks weren't primitive; they were asking different questions with different tools. The metabias is thinking your standards are universal, not historical. Philosophy without metabias would be conversation across time, not judgment of it."

by Dumu The Void March 1, 2026

Cognitive Metalogic

An area of metalogic and a subfield within infralogic that studies how human beings—individually and collectively—cognitively process, deploy, and respond to logical structures. Cognitive metalogic asks not just what logic is, but how actual human minds do logic: how we perceive logical relationships, how we generate inferences, how we recognize (or fail to recognize) fallacies, and how social contexts shape our logical judgments. It examines the gap between ideal logic (what perfectly rational agents would do) and real logic (what actual humans actually do), exploring how cognitive biases, social pressures, and psychological factors inflect logical practice. Cognitive metalogic is the psychology of logic—the study of logic as a lived human activity rather than an abstract formal system.

Example: "He couldn't understand why his perfectly valid syllogism convinced no one. Cognitive metalogic explains why: humans don't process logic in isolation—they process it through trust, emotion, and social identity, and his argument failed at all those levels."

by Abzugal March 16, 2026

Covid's Metamorphoses

An epic poem, waiting to be written.

Chronicling the transformations of the world, from its creation to its breakdown, due to the coronavirus and the self-deification a Julius Caesar wannabe, Covid's Metamorphoses will be read in the 22nd Century as a charming fable of humanity as it once was.

by Monkey's Dad October 7, 2020