Mark asked:

In my life I've encountered a lot about what philosophers have concluded. But next to nothing about
how they did it. How does a philosopher do his or her job? What kind of tools, real or ethereal, does
he/she use? How does he/she use them? Can you recommend some not-too-challenging books
about it?

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Any good introduction to philosophy will give you a sense of how philosophers go about their job. Or,
better still, you might have a look at one of the more accessible philosophical classics. I have listed
some contemporary introductions, and some classic works, in the Pathways introductory book list.

Yet, in a strange way, reading philosophy is never enough. You can read the same passage a dozen
times, and each time, you feel that you have witnessed a clever magic trick. You feel somehow
persuaded by the argument, yet it is not apparent how the process worked. How is it that, in merely
assembling words together in a particular order, without looking at the world or calling upon any
pieces of factual evidence, a philosopher can make us believe something we did not believe before?
Isn't it just incredible that one could ever do that?

The solution is simple. It is not enough to read philosophy. You have to learn to write it. The surest
way to comprehend how philosophers are able to do what they do is to work at acquiring the skills of
the philosopher yourself. You are a philosopher already, just an unskilled one. My short piece, Writing
a Philosophy Essay gives some guidelines about how to get started.

Geoffrey Klempner