Philosophy is "the study of the most general and abstract features of the world and categories with which we think: mind, matter, reason, proof, truth etc. In philosophy, the concepts by which we approach the world themselves become the topic of enquiry. "[1] The main branches of philosophy are logic, epistemology, metaphysics, ethics,[2] as well as philosophy of mind, political philosophy, and aesthetics. Logic is the study of the principles of valid demonstration and Inference. Epistemology (from Greek επιστήμη - episteme, "knowledge" + λόγος, " Logos " or theory of knowledge Metaphysics is the branch of Philosophy investigating principles of reality transcending those of any particular science Ethics is a major branch of Philosophy, encompassing right conduct and good life Philosophy of mind is the branch of Philosophy that studies the nature of the Mind, Mental events Mental functions mental properties Political philosophy is the study of questions about the City, Government, Politics, Liberty, Justice, Property, Rights Aesthetics or esthetics ( also spelled æsthetics) is commonly known as the study of sensory or sensori-emotional values sometimes called [3]. Its investigations use reason, striving to make no unexamined assumptions. [4]
The word philosophy is of Ancient Greek origin: φιλοσοφία (philosophía), meaning "love of knowledge", "love of wisdom". The Ancient Greek language is the historical stage in the development of the Hellenic language family spanning the Archaic (c Etymology is the study of the History of Words &mdash when they entered a language from what source and how their form and meaning have changed over time Love is any of a number of Emotions and experiences related to a sense of strong Affection. Wisdom is a concept of personal gaining of Knowledge, Understanding, Experience, discretion and intuitive understanding, along with a capacity [5][6][7]
The philosophers of East and South Asia are discussed in Eastern philosophy, while the philosophers of North Africa and the Middle East, because of their strong interactions with Europe, are usually considered part of Western philosophy. Eastern philosophy refers very broadly to the various philosophies of Asia, including Indian philosophy, Chinese philosophy, Persian North Africa or Northern Africa is the Northernmost Region of the African Continent, separated by the Sahara from Sub-Saharan The Middle East is a Subcontinent with no clear boundaries often used as a synonym to Near East, in opposition to Far East. Western philosophy is a term that refers to philosophical thinking in the Western or Occidental world, as distinct from Eastern or Oriental philosophies
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Branches of philosophy
To give an exhaustive list of the main branches of philosophy is difficult, because there have been different, equally acceptable divisions at different times, and the divisions are often relative to the concerns of a particular period. However, the following branches are usually accepted as the main ones.
Metaphysics investigates the nature of being and the world. Metaphysics is the branch of Philosophy investigating principles of reality transcending those of any particular science Traditional branches are cosmology and ontology. Cosmology (from Greek grc κοσμολογία - grc κόσμος kosmos, "universe" and grc -λογία -logia) is study In Philosophy, ontology (from the Greek, genitive: of being (part
Epistemology is concerned with the nature and scope of knowledge, and whether knowledge is possible. Epistemology (from Greek επιστήμη - episteme, "knowledge" + λόγος, " Logos " or theory of knowledge Among its central concerns has been the challenge posed by skepticism and the relationships between truth, belief and justification. In ordinary usage skepticism or scepticism ( Greek 'σκέπτομαι' skeptomai, to look about to consider see also spelling differences The meaning of the word truth extends from Honesty, Good faith, and Sincerity in general to agreement with Fact or Reality Belief is the psychological state in which an individual holds a Proposition or Premise to be true
Ethics, or 'moral philosophy', is concerned with questions of how persons ought to act or if such questions are answerable. Ethics is a major branch of Philosophy, encompassing right conduct and good life Plato's early dialogues include a search for definitions of virtue. Biography Early life Birth and family Plato was born in Athens Greece Metaethics compares and contrasts various systems of ethics, and investigates what ethics is. In Philosophy, meta-ethics (sometimes called "analytic ethics" is the branch of Ethics that seeks to understand the nature of ethical properties Ethics is also associated with ideas of morality. Morality (from the Latin la moralitas "manner character proper behavior" has three principal meanings
Philosophy of Mind deals with the nature of the mind an its relationship to the body, and is typified by disputes between dualism and materialism. Philosophy of mind is the branch of Philosophy that studies the nature of the Mind, Mental events Mental functions mental properties Dualism denotes a state of two parts The word's origin is the Latin duo, "two". The Philosophy of materialism holds that the only thing that can be truly proven to exist is Matter, and is considered a form of Physicalism. In recent years there is an increasing connection between this branch of philosophy and cognitive science
Logic deals with patterns of thinking that lead from true premises to true conclusions. Cognitive science may be broadly defined as the multidisciplinary study of mind and behavior Logic is the study of the principles of valid demonstration and Inference. Beginning in the late 19th century, mathematicians such as Frege began a mathematical treatment of logic, and today the subject of logic has two broad divisions: mathematical logic (formal symbolic logic) and what is now called philosophical logic. The 19th century of the Common Era began on January 1, 1801 and ended on December 31, 1900, according to the Gregorian calendar A mathematician is a person whose primary area of study and research is the field of Mathematics. Friedrich Ludwig Gottlob Frege ( 8 November 1848, Wismar, Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin &ndash 26 July 1925 Mathematical logic is a subfield of Logic and Mathematics with close connections to Computer science and Philosophical logic. This article is about Philosophical logic not Philosophy of logic Philosophical logic is the study of the more specifically philosophical aspects of
Aesthetics deals with beauty, art, enjoyment, sensory-emotional values, perception, and matters of taste and sentiment. Aesthetics or esthetics ( also spelled æsthetics) is commonly known as the study of sensory or sensori-emotional values sometimes called
Political Philosophy is the study of government and the relationship of individuals and communities to the state. Political philosophy is the study of questions about the City, Government, Politics, Liberty, Justice, Property, Rights In includes questions about law, property, and the rights and obligations of the citizen.
Most academic subjects have a philosophy, for example the philosophy of science, the philosophy of mathematics, and the philosophy of history. Philosophy of science is the study of assumptions foundations and implications of Science. The philosophy of mathematics is the branch of Philosophy that studies the philosophical assumptions foundations and implications of Mathematics. Philosophy of history or historiosophy is an area of Philosophy concerning the eventual significance if any of human History. In addition a range of academic subjects have emerged to deal with areas which would have historically been the subject of philosophy. These include Psychology, Anthropology and Science. Psychology (from Greek grc ψῡχή psȳkhē, "breath life soul" and grc -λογία -logia) is an Academic and Anthropology (/ˌænθɹəˈpɒlədʒi/ from Greek grc ἄνθρωπος anthrōpos, "human" -λογία -logia) is the study of In Science, the term natural science refers to a naturalistic approach to the study of the Universe, which is understood as obeying rules or law of
Western philosophy
The history of Western philosophy is customarily divided into three periods: Ancient philosophy, Medieval philosophy, and Modern philosophy. Western philosophy is a term that refers to philosophical thinking in the Western or Occidental world, as distinct from Eastern or Oriental philosophies This page lists some links to ancient philosophy. In Western philosophy, the spread of Christianity through the Roman Empire marked the end of Hellenistic Medieval philosophy is the Philosophy of Europe and the Middle East in the era now known as Medieval or the Middle Ages, the period roughly extending from Modern philosophy is Philosophy done in Europe and North America between the 17th and early 20th centuries. For a map with the dates and places of birth of most western philosophers see here.
Ancient philosophy
Ancient philosophy is the philosophy of the Graeco-Roman world from the fifth century B. This page lists some links to ancient philosophy. In Western philosophy, the spread of Christianity through the Roman Empire marked the end of Hellenistic C. to the fourth century A. D. It is usually divided into four periods: the pre-Socratic period, the periods of Plato and Aristotle, and the post-Aristotelian period (or Hellenistic period). The Pre-Socratic Greek philosophers were active before Socrates or contemporaneously but expounding knowledge developed earlier Biography Early life Birth and family Plato was born in Athens Greece Aristotle (Greek Aristotélēs) (384 BC – 322 BC was a Greek philosopher a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. This article focuses on the historical aspects of the Hellenistic age for the cultural aspects see Hellenistic civilisation. Sometimes a fifth period is added that includes the Christian and Neo-Platonist philosophers. A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, a monotheistic Religion centered on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth Neoplatonism (also Neo-Platonism) is the modern term for a school of religious and mystical Philosophy that took shape in the 3rd century AD founded by The most important of the ancient philosophers (in terms of subsequent influence) are Plato and Aristotle[8].
The themes of ancient philosophy are: understanding the fundamental causes and principles of the universe; explaining it in an economical and uniform way; the epistemological problem of reconciling the diversity and change of the natural universe, with the possibility of obtaining fixed and certain knowledge about it; questions about things which cannot be perceived by the senses, such as numbers, elements, universals, and gods; the analysis of patterns of reasoning and argument; the nature of the good life and the importance of understanding and knowledge in order to pursue it; the explication of the concept of justice, and its relation to various political systems[9]. The Universe is defined as everything that Physically Exists: the entirety of Space and Time, all forms of Matter, Energy Many ancient philosophies used a set of archetypal classical "elements" to explain patterns in Nature. In Metaphysics, a universal is what particular things have in common namely characteristics or qualities God is the principal or sole Deity in Religions and other belief systems that worship one deity. Reasoning is the cognitive process of looking for Reasons for beliefs conclusions actions or feelings The good life is an ambiguous term for the life that one would like to live JUSTICE is a Human rights and law reform organisation based in the United Kingdom. A political system is a System of Politics and Government. It is usually compared to the Law system, Economic system, Cultural
In this period the crucial features of the philosophical method were established: a critical approach to received or established views, and the appeal to reason and argumentation. Philosophical method (or philosophical methodology) is the study of how to do Philosophy.
Medieval philosophy
Medieval philosophy is the philosophy of Western Europe and the Middle East during what is now known as the medieval era or the Middle Ages, roughly extending from the fall of the Roman Empire to the Renaissance. Medieval philosophy is the Philosophy of Europe and the Middle East in the era now known as Medieval or the Middle Ages, the period roughly extending from Western Europe at its most general meaning means 'all the countries in the West of Europe ' The Middle East is a Subcontinent with no clear boundaries often used as a synonym to Near East, in opposition to Far East. The Roman Empire was the post-Republican phase of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial The Renaissance (from French Renaissance, meaning "rebirth" Italian: Rinascimento, from re- "again" and nascere Medieval philosophy is defined partly by the rediscovery and further development of classical Greek and Hellenistic philosophy, and partly by the need to address theological problems and to integrate sacred doctrine (in Islam, Judaism and Christianity) with secular learning. Ancient Greek philosophy focused on the role of Reason and Inquiry. Hellenistic philosophy is the period of Western philosophy that was developed in the Hellenistic civilization following Aristotle and ending with Neoplatonism For other meanings including people named 'Islam' see Islam (disambiguation. Judaism (from the Greek Ioudaïsmos, derived from the Hebrew יהודה Yehudah, " Judah " in Hebrew יַהֲדוּת Yahedut Christianity ( Greek Χριστιανισμός from the word Xριστός ( Christ)is a monotheistic Religion centered on the life and teachings Secularism is generally the assertion that governmental practices or institutions should exist separately from Religion or religious beliefs
Some problems discussed throughout this period are the relation of faith to reason, the existence and unity of God, the object of theology and metaphysics, the problems of knowledge, of universals, and of individuation. Faith is a Belief in the trustworthiness of an Idea. Formal usage of the word "faith" is usually reserved for concepts of Religion, as in Reason involves the ability to think understand and draw Conclusions in an Abstract way as in Human thinking God is the principal or sole Deity in Religions and other belief systems that worship one deity. Theology is the study of a god or the gods from a religious perspective Metaphysics is the branch of Philosophy investigating principles of reality transcending those of any particular science
Philosophers from the Middle Ages include the Muslim philosophers Alkindus, Alfarabi, Alhacen, Avicenna, Algazel, Avempace, Abubacer and Averroes; the Jewish philosophers Maimonides and Gersonides; and the Christian philosophers Anselm, Peter Abelard, Roger Bacon, Thomas Aquinas, Duns Scotus, William of Ockham and Jean Buridan. ( أبو يوسف يعقوب إبن إسحاق الكندي) (c TemplateInfobox Muslim scholars --> Abū Nasr Muhammad ibn al-Farakh al-Fārābi ( Nastaliq:) or Abū Nasr al-Fārābi TemplateInfobox Muslim scholars --> ( Arabic: ابو علی، حسن بن حسن بن هيثم Latinized TemplateInfobox Muslim scholars --> ( Persian /ابو علی الحسین ابن عبدالله ابن سینا (born Abū Ḥāmid Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad al-Ghazālī (1058-1111 ( ابو حامد محمد ابن محمد الغزالی or امام محمد غزالی was born and died Abū-Bakr Muhammad ibn Yahya ibn al-Sāyigh ( Arabic أبو بكر محمد بن يحيى بن الصائغ known as Ibn Bājjah (ابن باجة was an Andalusian TemplateInfobox Muslim scholars --> Ibn Tufail (c 1105 Guadix Spain &ndash 1185 (full Arabic name Abū 'l-Walīd Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Rushd (Arabicأبو الوليد محمد بن احمد بن رشد better known just as Ibn Rushd (ابن رشد and in European Moses Maimonides ( March 30 1135 – December 13 1204) also known as the Rambam, was a Rabbi, Physician, and Levi ben Gershom ( לוי בן גרשום) better known as Gersonides or the Ralbag (1288-1344 was a famous Rabbi, philosopher Mathematician For the Nova Scotia premier see Roger Bacon (politician. Roger Bacon, O William of Ockham (also Occam, Hockham, or any of several other spellings ˈɒkəm (c Jean Buridan (in Latin, Johannes Buridanus; ca 1295 &ndash 1358 was a French Priest who sowed the seeds of the Copernican revolution
Early modern philosophy (c. 1600 – c. 1800)
The early modern period is usually considered to begin with the revival of skepticism and with the growth of modern physical science. John Locke (29 August 1632 – 28 October 1704 was an English Philosopher. In ordinary usage skepticism or scepticism ( Greek 'σκέπτομαι' skeptomai, to look about to consider see also spelling differences The main themes of this era are: the problem of how we can know anything about the world outside our own minds; the dispute between rationalists and empiricists, rationalists holding that the ultimate source of knowledge is reason, empiricists, that any genuine knowledge must be justified by experience; the nature of the mind or self, and its relation to the body, and the closely related problem of reconciling our belief in free will with the emerging scientific picture of the physical universe as deterministic; attempts to explain the relationship between God and science, and the rebirth of political philosophy. In Epistemology and in its broadest sense rationalism is "any view appealing to Reason as a source of knowledge or justification" (Lacey 286 In Philosophy, empiricism is a theory of Knowledge which asserts that knowledge arises from Experience. MIND ( Moving In New Directions) (est 1975 is an alternative education high school in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The question of free will Determinism is the philosophical Proposition that every event including human cognition and behaviour decision and action is causally determined God is the principal or sole Deity in Religions and other belief systems that worship one deity. Science (from the Latin scientia, meaning " Knowledge " or "knowing" is the effort to discover, and increase human understanding Political philosophy is the study of questions about the City, Government, Politics, Liberty, Justice, Property, Rights
Important figures include Montaigne, Descartes, Francis Bacon, Locke, Spinoza, Leibniz, Berkeley, Hume, and Kant. Michel Eyquem de Montaigne (French miʃɛl ekɛm də mɔ̃tɛɲ ( February 28 1533 &ndash September 13 1592) was one of the most influential writers Francis Bacon 1st Viscount St Alban KC QC (22 January 1561 – 9 April 1626 was an English Philosopher, Statesman, and author John Locke (29 August 1632 – 28 October 1704 was an English Philosopher. Baruch or Benedict de Spinoza (ברוך שפינוזה Bento de Espinosa Benedictus de Spinoza ( November 24, 1632 – February 21, George Berkeley (ˈbɑrkli (12 March 1685 14 January 1753 also known as Bishop Berkeley, was a Philosopher. David Hume (26 April 1711 25 August 1776 Scottish Philosopher, Economist, and Historian is an important figure in Western philosophy Immanuel Kant (ɪmanuəl kant 22 April 1724 12 February 1804 was an 18th-century German Philosopher from the Prussian city of Königsberg [10] Chronologically, this era spans the 17th and 18th centuries, and is generally considered to end with Kant's systematic attempt to reconcile Newtonian physics with traditional metaphysical topics. Immanuel Kant (ɪmanuəl kant 22 April 1724 12 February 1804 was an 18th-century German Philosopher from the Prussian city of Königsberg [11]
Later modern philosophy (c. 1800 – c. 1960)
Later modern philosophy is usually considered to begin after the philosophy of Immanuel Kant at the beginning of the 19th-century. Immanuel Kant (ɪmanuəl kant 22 April 1724 12 February 1804 was an 18th-century German Philosopher from the Prussian city of Königsberg [12] German idealists, such as Fichte, Hegel, and Schelling, expanded on the work of Kant by maintaining that the world is constituted by a rational mind-like process, and as such is entirely knowable. German idealism was a philosophical movement in Germany in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries Johann Gottlieb Fichte ( May 19, 1762 – January 27, 1814) was a German philosopher [13]
Rejecting idealism, other philosophers, many working from outside the university, initiated lines of thought that would occupy academic philosophy in the early and mid-20th century:
- Peirce and William James initiated the school of pragmatism
- Husserl initiated the school of phenomenology
- Kierkegaard and Nietzsche laid the groundwork for existentialism
- Frege's work in logic and Sidgwick's work in ethics provided the tools for early analytic philosophy
Contemporary philosophy (c. Charles Sanders Peirce (pronounced purse) (September 10 1839 &ndash April 19 1914 was an American Logician mathematician, philosopher For other people named William James see William James (disambiguation William James (January 11 1842 – August 26 1910 was a pioneering Pragmatism generally considered to have originated in the late nineteenth century with Charles Peirce, who first stated the Pragmatic maxim. Edmund Gustav Albrecht Husserl (ˈhʊsɛrl April 8 1859 – April 26 1938) was a philosopher, known as the father of Søren Aabye Kierkegaard (ˈsœːɐn ˈkʰiɐ̯kəˌɡ̊ɒˀ in Danish Anglicized as;) Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (October 15 1844 August 25 1900 ( was a nineteenth-century German philosopher and classical philologist Existentialism is a philosophical doctrine which posits that individuals create the meaning and essence of their lives and that this essence follows from their existence Friedrich Ludwig Gottlob Frege ( 8 November 1848, Wismar, Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin &ndash 26 July 1925 Henry Sidgwick ( May 31, 1838 – August 28, 1900) was an English Utilitarian Philosopher. Analytic philosophy (sometimes analytical philosophy) is a generic term for a style of Philosophy that came to dominate English-speaking countries in the 20th century 1960 – present)
In the last hundred years, philosophy has increasingly become an activity practiced within the modern research university, and accordingly it has grown more specialized and more distinct from the natural sciences. Much of philosophy in this period concerns itself with explaining the relation between the theories of the natural sciences and the ideas of the humanities or common sense.
It is arguable that later modern philosophy ended with contemporary philosophy's shift of focus from 19th century philosophers to 20th century philosophers. Philosophers such as Heidegger, the later Wittgenstein, and Dewey, occupied philosophical discourses exemplified in thinkers such as Derrida, Quine, Kripke, and Rorty. Martin Heidegger ( September 26, 1889 &ndash May 26, 1976) (ˈmaɐ̯tiːn ˈhaɪ̯dɛgɐ was an influential German philosopher John Dewey (October 20 1859 &ndash June 1 1952 was an American Philosopher, Psychologist, and educational reformer, whose thoughts and ideas have Willard Van Orman Quine (June 25 1908 Akron, Ohio &ndash December 25 2000 (known to intimates as "Van" Saul Aaron Kripke (born on November 13, 1940 in Bay Shore New York) is an American philosopher and Logician now Emeritus Richard McKay Rorty (October 4 1931 - June 8 2007 was an American Philosopher.
Eastern philosophy
Many societies have considered philosophical questions and built philosophical traditions based upon each other's works. Eastern philosophy refers very broadly to the various philosophies of Asia, including Indian philosophy, Chinese philosophy, Persian Eastern and Middle Eastern philosophical traditions have influenced Western philosophers. Russian (which to many people still counts as Western), Jewish, Islamic, African, and recently Latin American philosophical traditions have contributed to, or been influenced by, Western philosophy: yet each has retained a distinctive identity.
The differences between traditions are often well captured by consideration of their favored historical philosophers, and varying stress on ideas, procedural styles, or written language. The subject matter and dialogues of each can be studied using methods derived from the others, and there are significant commonalities and exchanges between them.
Eastern philosophy refers to the broad traditions that originated or were popular in India, Persia, China, Korea, Japan, and to an extent, the Middle East (which overlaps with Western philosophy due to the spread of the Abrahamic religions and the continuing intellectual traffic between these societies and Europe. Eastern philosophy refers very broadly to the various philosophies of Asia, including Indian philosophy, Chinese philosophy, Persian India, officially the Republic of India (भारत गणराज्य inc-Latn Bhārat Gaṇarājya; see also other Indian languages) is a country For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Iran topics. China ( Wade-Giles ( Mandarin) Chung¹kuo² is a cultural region, an ancient Civilization, and depending on perspective a National Korea is a geographic area composed of two sovereign countries a civilization and a former state situated on the Korean Peninsula in East Asia. For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Japan topics. The Middle East is a Subcontinent with no clear boundaries often used as a synonym to Near East, in opposition to Far East. )
Babylonian philosophy
- Further information: Babylonian literature: Philosophy
The origins of Babylonian philosophy can be traced back to the wisdom of early Mesopotamia, which embodied certain philosophies of life, particularly ethics, in the forms of dialectic, dialogs, epic poetry, folklore, hymns, lyrics, prose, and proverbs. Babylonian literature is one of the world's oldest Drawing on the traditions of Sumerian literature, the Babylonians compiled a vast textual tradition of mythological Babylonia was an Amorite state in lower Mesopotamia (modern southern Iraq) with Babylon as its capital Wisdom is a concept of personal gaining of Knowledge, Understanding, Experience, discretion and intuitive understanding, along with a capacity Mesopotamia (from the Greek meaning "land between the rivers" is an area geographically located between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers largely corresponding Ethics is a major branch of Philosophy, encompassing right conduct and good life In classical Philosophy, dialectic (διαλεκτική is controversy the exchange of arguments and counter-arguments respectively advocating Propositions A dialogue (sometimes spelled dialog) is a reciprocal Conversation between two or more entities. An epic is a lengthy Narrative poem, ordinarily concerning a serious subject containing details of heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation History The concept of folklore developed as part of the 19th century ideology of Romantic nationalism, leading to the reshaping of oral traditions to serve modern ideological A hymn is a type of Song, usually religious specifically written for the purpose of praise adoration or Prayer, and typically addressed to a deity/deities Lyrics (in singular form Lyric) are a set of words that accompany music either by speaking or singing For the Wikipedia guideline regarding editing articles see WikipediaManual of Style. A proverb (from the Latin proverbium) also called a byword or nayword, is a simple and concrete Saying popularly known and repeated The reasoning and rationality of the Babylonians developed beyond empirical observation. Reasoning is the cognitive process of looking for Reasons for beliefs conclusions actions or feelings Rationality as a term is related to the idea of Reason, a word which following Webster's may be derived as much from older terms referring to Babylonia was an Amorite state in lower Mesopotamia (modern southern Iraq) with Babylon as its capital In Philosophy, empiricism is a theory of Knowledge which asserts that knowledge arises from Experience. [14]
It is possible that Babylonian philosophy had an influence on early Greek philosophy, and later Hellenistic philosophy. Ancient Greek philosophy focused on the role of Reason and Inquiry. Hellenistic philosophy is the period of Western philosophy that was developed in the Hellenistic civilization following Aristotle and ending with Neoplatonism The Babylonian text Dialog of Pessimism contains similarities to the agonistic thought of the sophists, the Heraclitean doctrine of contrasts, and the dialogs of Plato, as well as a precursor to the maieutic Socratic method of Socrates and Plato. An agonist is a term used to describe a type of ligand or drug that binds and alters the activity of a receptor. Heraclitus of Ephesus ( Ancient Greek: &mdash grc-Latn ''Hērákleitos ho Ephésios'' English Heraclitus the Ephesian) (ca Biography Early life Birth and family Plato was born in Athens Greece Maieutics is a complex procedure of Research introduced by Socrates, embracing the Socratic method in its widest sense The Socratic Method (or Method of Elenchus or Socratic Debate) named after the Classical Greek philosopher Socrates, is a form of SOCRATES is the European Community action programme in the field of Education. [15]
Chinese philosophy
Philosophy has had a tremendous effect on Chinese civilization, and East Asia as a whole. Chinese philosophy is Philosophy written in the Chinese tradition of thought China ( Wade-Giles ( Mandarin) Chung¹kuo² is a cultural region, an ancient Civilization, and depending on perspective a National Many of the great philosophical schools were formulated during the Spring and Autumn Period and Warring States Period, and came to be known as the Hundred Schools of Thought. The Spring and Autumn Period ( was a period in Chinese history which roughly corresponds to the first half of the Eastern Zhou dynasty (from the second half of the 8th century BC The Warring States Period ( also known as the Era of Warring States covers the period from some time in the 5th century BC to the unification of China by the The Hundred Schools of Thought ( were philosophers and schools that had flourished from 770 to 221 BC an era of great cultural and intellectual expansion in China. The four most influential of these were Confucianism, Taoism, Mohism, and Legalism. Confucianism ( is a Chinese ethical and philosophical system originally developed from the teachings of the fifth century B Taoism (pronounced /ˈdaʊɪzəm/ or /ˈtaʊɪzəm/ also spelled '''Daoism''') refers to a variety of related Philosophical and Religious traditions Mohism or Moism ( was a Chinese philosophy developed by the followers of Mozi (also referred to as Mo Di 470 &ndashc In Chinese history, Legalism ( was one of the four main philosophic schools during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period (the other Later on, during the Tang Dynasty, Buddhism from India also became a prominent philosophical and religious discipline. The Tang Dynasty ( Middle Chinese: dhɑng (June 18 618&ndashJune 4 907 was an imperial dynasty of China preceded by the Sui Dynasty and followed by Buddhism is a family of beliefs and practices Buddhism is a world religion which arose in Bihar, India and is based on the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama, who is known as the Buddha (literally (It should be noted that Eastern thought, unlike Western philosophy, did not express a clear distinction between philosophy and religion. A religion is a set of Tenets and practices often centered upon specific Supernatural and moral claims about Reality, the Cosmos ) Like Western philosophy, Chinese philosophy covers a broad and complex range of thought, possessing a multitude of schools that address every branch and subject area of philosophy. Western philosophy is a term that refers to philosophical thinking in the Western or Occidental world, as distinct from Eastern or Oriental philosophies Chinese philosophy is Philosophy written in the Chinese tradition of thought
See also: Yin-Yang, Qi, Tao, Li, I Ching
Related Topics: Korean philosophy, Bushido, Zen, The Art of War, Asian Values
Indian philosophy
- Further information: Hindu philosophy, Buddhist philosophy, and Jainism
In the history of the Indian subcontinent, following the establishment of an Aryan–Vedic culture, the development of philosophical and religious thought over a period of two millennia gave rise to what came to be called the six schools of astika, or orthodox, Indian or Hindu philosophy. The term Indian philosophy (Sanskrit Darshanas) may refer to any of several traditions of philosophical thought that originated in the Indian subcontinent Hindu philosophy is divided into six Sanskrit ''{{IAST|āstika}}'') schools of thought or darshanas (literally "views" Sankhya Buddhist philosophy deals extensively with problems in Metaphysics, phenomenology, Ethics, and Epistemology. Jainism, traditionally known as Jain Dharma / Shraman Dharma (जैन धर्म is an ancient religion of India. This article deals with the geophysical region in Asia For geopolitical treatments see South Asia. Aryan is an English word derived from the Sanskrit " Ārya " meaning "noble" or "honorable" The Vedic Period (or Vedic Age) is the period in the History of India during which the Vedas, the oldest sacred texts of Hinduism, were being These schools have come to be synonymous with the greater religion of Hinduism, which was a development of the early Vedic religion. Hinduism is a religious tradition that originated in the Indian subcontinent. This article discusses the historical religious practices in the Vedic time period see Hinduism and Indian religions for details
Hindu philosophy constitutes an integral part of the culture of Southern Asia, and is the first of the Dharmic philosophies which were influential throughout the Far East. Indian religions, also called Dharmic religions, are the related religious traditions that originated in the Indian subcontinent, namely Hinduism, The Far East is a term often used by people in the Western world to refer to the countries of East Asia. The great diversity in thought and practice of Hinduism is nurtured by its liberal universalism. Universalism can be classified as a Religion, Theology and Philosophy that generally holds all persons and creatures are related to God or the Divine and
Persian philosophy
Persian philosophy can be traced back as far as Old Iranian philosophical traditions and thoughts, with their ancient Indo-Iranian roots. Iranian philosophy or Persian philosophy can be traced back as far as to Old Iranian philosophical traditions and thoughts which originated in ancient Indo-Iranian These were considerably influenced by Zarathustra's teachings. Zoroaster ( Latinized from Greek variants) or Zarathushtra (from Avestan Zaraθuštra) also referred to as Zartosht (زرتشت Throughout Iranian history and due to remarkable political and social influences such as the Macedonian, the Arab, and the Mongol invasions of Persia, a wide spectrum of schools of thought arose. Alexander the Great ( or, Mégas Aléxandros; July 20 356 BC June 10 or June 11 323 BC also known as Alexander III of Macedon (el Ἀλέξανδρος Γ' The Islamic conquest of Persia (633–656 led to the end of the Sassanid Empire and the eventual extirpation of the Zoroastrian religion in Persia The Mongol invasion of Khwarezmia lasted from 1219 to 1221. It marked the beginning of the Mongol Conquest of the Islamic States and it also expanded These espoused a variety of views on philosophical questions, extending from Old Iranian and mainly Zoroastrianism-influenced traditions to schools appearing in the late pre-Islamic era, such as Manicheism and Mazdakism, as well as various post-Islamic schools. Zoroastrianism (ˌzɔroʊˈæstriəˌnɪzəm is the religion and philosophy based on the teachings Manichaeism (in Modern Persian fa-Arab آیین مانی Āyin e Māni; Chinese zh 摩尼教 was one of the major Gnostic Religions originating Mazdak (in Persian مزدک (died c 524 or 528 was a proto- socialist Persian reformer who gained influence under the reign of the Sassanian Iranian philosophy after Arab invasion of Persia is characterized by different interactions with the Old Iranian philosophy, the Greek philosophy and with the development of Islamic philosophy. The Persian Empire was a series of Iranian empires that ruled over the Iranian plateau, the original Persian homeland and beyond in Western Asia This page lists some links to ancient philosophy. In Western philosophy, the spread of Christianity through the Roman Empire marked the end of Hellenistic Ancient Greek philosophy focused on the role of Reason and Inquiry. Islamic philosophy is a branch of Islamic studies, and is a longstanding attempt to create harmony between Philosophy ( Reason) and the religious teachings The Illumination school and the Transcendent theosophy are regarded as two of the main philosophical traditions of that era in Persia. For other uses see Illuminati (disambiguation. Illuminationist Philosophy ( Arabic: حكمة الإشراق ḥikmah al-ishrāq, Persian Transcendent theosophy or al-hikmat al-muta’li ( حكمت متعالي) the doctrine and Philosophy that has been developed and perfected by the
African philosophy
Philosophical traditions, such as African philosophy, are rarely studied by foreign academia. African Philosophy is a disputed term used in different ways by different Philosophers. Since emphasis is mainly placed on Western philosophy as a reference point, the study, preservation and dissemination of valuable, but lesser known, non-Western philosophical works face many obstacles. Key African philosophers include the Fulani Usman Dan Fodio, founder of the Sokoto Caliphate of Northern Nigeria and Umar Tall of Senegal; both were prolific Islamic scholars. Shaihu Usman dan Fodio (عثمان بن فودي ، عثمان دان فوديو (also referred to as Shaikh Usman Ibn Fodio, Shehu Uthman Dan Fuduye or Shehu Usman dan Fodio The Sokoto Caliphate is an Islamic spiritual community in Nigeria, led by the Sultan of Sokoto, Sa’adu Abubakar. Northern Nigeria is a geographical region of Nigeria. It is more arid and has less population density than the south El Hadj Umar Tall, also Umar Tal, Umar Taal "Umar Futi" al-Hajj Umar ibn Sa'id Tal, or el-Hadj Omar ibn Sa'id Tal, (ca Senegal (le Sénégal officially the Republic of Senegal, is a country south of the Sénégal River in western Africa. Another African philosopher worthy of note in the pre-colonial period was Anton Wilhelm Amo [2]. Anton Wilhelm Amo or Anthony William Amo (1703 &ndash ca 1759 was born in what is now Ghana, taken to Europe, and became a respected Philosopher In the post-colonial period, different images of what could be argued as "African" Philosophy from the level of epistemology have risen. These could include the thoughts and enquiries of such individuals as Cheik Anta Diop, Francis Ohanyido, CL Momoh, and Chinweizu. Francis Ohanyido (born March 4, 1970) is an African philosopher poet essayist public health Physician and Rights Advocate [3]
The philosophy of the modern and contemporary African world, including the diaspora, is often known as Africana Philosophy. Key philosophers include Frantz Fanon, Kwasi Wiredu, Paget Henry, Lewis Gordon, Mabogo Percy More and many others. Frantz Fanon ( July 20, 1925 – December 6, 1961) was a Psychiatrist, philosopher, revolutionary and author from Kwasi Wiredu (born 1931) is one of the foremost African philosophers working today Lewis Ricardo Gordon (born 1962 is a Jamaican Philosopher who works in the areas of Africana philosophy, philosophy of human and life sciences phenomenology
Philosophical doctrines
Realism and nominalism
Realism sometimes means the position opposed to the 18th-century Idealism, namely that some things have real existence outside the mind. Nominalism is a metaphysical view in Philosophy according to which general or abstract terms and predicates exist but that either universals Classically, however, realism is the doctrine that abstract entities corresponding to universal terms like 'man' have a real existence. It is opposed to nominalism, the view that abstract or universal terms are words only, or denote mental states such as ideas, beliefs, or intentions. Nominalism is a metaphysical view in Philosophy according to which general or abstract terms and predicates exist but that either universals The latter position, famously held by William of Ockham, is conceptualism. William of Ockham (also Occam, Hockham, or any of several other spellings ˈɒkəm (c Conceptualism is a Doctrine in Philosophy intermediate between Nominalism and realism that says universals exist only within the
Rationalism and empiricism
Rationalism is any view emphasizing the role or importance of human reason. In Epistemology and in its broadest sense rationalism is "any view appealing to Reason as a source of knowledge or justification" (Lacey 286 In Philosophy, empiricism is a theory of Knowledge which asserts that knowledge arises from Experience. Extreme rationalism tries to base all knowledge on reason alone. Rationalism typically starts from premises that cannot coherently be denied, then attempts by logical steps to deduce every possible object of knowledge.
The first rationalist, in this broad sense, is often held to be Parmenides (fl. Parmenides of Elea ( Greek:, early 5th century BC was an Ancient Greek Philosopher born in Elea, a Greek city on the southern coast of 480 BCE), who argued that it is impossible to doubt that thinking actually occurs. But thinking must have an object, therefore something beyond thinking really exists. Parmenides deduced that what really exists must have certain properties – for example, that it cannot come into existence or cease to exist, that it is a coherent whole, that it remains the same eternally (in fact, exists altogether outside time). Zeno of Elea (born c. Zeno of Elea (ˈziːnoʊ əv ˈɛliə Greek: Ζήνων ὁ Ἐλεάτης (ca 489 BCE) was a disciple of Parmenides, and argued that motion is impossible, since the assertion that it exists implies a contradiction.
Plato (427–347 BCE) was also influenced by Parmenides, but combined rationalism with a form of realism. Biography Early life Birth and family Plato was born in Athens Greece Contemporary philosophical realism is the belief in a Reality that is completely Ontologically independent of our conceptual schemes linguistic practices beliefs The philosopher's work is to consider being, and the essence of things. But the characteristic of essences is that they are universal. The nature of a man, a triangle, a tree, applies to all men, all triangles, all trees. Plato argued that these essences are mind-independent 'forms', that humans (but particularly philosophers) can come to know by reason, and by ignoring the distractions of sense-perception.
Modern rationalism begins with Descartes. Reflection on the nature of perceptual experience, as well as scientific discoveries in physiology and optics, led Descartes (and also Locke) to the view that we are directly aware of ideas, rather than objects. John Locke (29 August 1632 – 28 October 1704 was an English Philosopher. This view gave rise to three questions:
- Is an idea a true copy of the real thing that it represents? Sensation is not a direct interaction between bodily objects and our sense, but is a physiological process involving representation (for example, an image on the retina). Locke thought that a 'secondary quality' such as a sensation of green could in no way resemble the arrangement of particles in matter that go to produce this sensation, although he thought that 'primary qualities' such as shape, size, number, were really in objects.
- How can physical objects such as chairs and tables, or even physiological processes in the brain, give rise to mental items such as ideas? This is part of what became known as the mind-body problem. Philosophy of mind is the branch of Philosophy that studies the nature of the Mind, Mental events Mental functions mental properties
- If all the contents of awareness are ideas, how can we know that anything exists apart from ideas?
Descartes tried to address the last problem by reason. He began, echoing Parmenides, with a principle that he thought could not coherently be denied: I think, therefore I am (often given in his original Latin: Cogito ergo sum). " la Cogito ergo sum " (I think therefore I am sometimes misquoted as la Dubito ergo cogito ergo sum (Latin "I doubt therefore I think therefore I am" From this principle, Descartes went on to construct a complete system of knowledge (which involves proving the existence of God, using, among other means, a version of the ontological argument). An Ontological argument for the existence of God attempts the method of a priori proof, which uses intuition and reason alone His view that reason alone could yield substantial truths about reality strongly influenced those philosophers usually considered modern rationalists (such as Baruch Spinoza, Gottfried Leibniz, and Christian Wolff), while provoking criticism from other philosophers who have retrospectively come to be grouped together as empiricists. Baruch or Benedict de Spinoza (ברוך שפינוזה Bento de Espinosa Benedictus de Spinoza ( November 24, 1632 – February 21, Christian Wolff (less correctly Wolf; also known as Wolfius) baron ( 24 January 1679 - 9 April 1754) was a German
Empiricism, in contrast to rationalism, downplays or dismisses the ability of reason alone to yield knowledge of the world, preferring to base any knowledge we have on our senses. In Philosophy, empiricism is a theory of Knowledge which asserts that knowledge arises from Experience. John Locke propounded the classic empiricist view in An Essay Concerning Human Understanding in 1689, developing a form of naturalism and empiricism on roughly scientific (and Newtonian) principles. An Essay Concerning Human Understanding is one of John Locke 's two most famous works the other being his Second Treatise on Civil Government Philosophical naturalism has been described in various ways In its broadest and strongest sense naturalism is the metaphysical position that "nature is all there is In Philosophy, empiricism is a theory of Knowledge which asserts that knowledge arises from Experience.
During this era, religious ideas played a mixed role in the struggles that preoccupied secular philosophy. Bishop Berkeley's famous idealist refutation of key tenets of Isaac Newton is a case of an Enlightenment philosopher who drew substantially from religious ideas. George Berkeley (ˈbɑrkli (12 March 1685 14 January 1753 also known as Bishop Berkeley, was a Philosopher. In Western civilization, Idealism is the philosophy which maintains that the Ultimate nature of reality is ideal or based upon ideas values essences The so-called Sir Isaac Newton, FRS (ˈnjuːtən 4 January 1643 31 March 1727) Biography Early years See also Isaac Newton's early life and achievements Other influential religious thinkers of the time include Blaise Pascal, Joseph Butler, and Jonathan Edwards. Blaise Pascal (blɛz paskal (June 19 1623 &ndash August 19 1662 was a French Mathematician, Physicist, and religious Philosopher You might also be looking for Joseph G Butler Jr, a philanthropist and historian or Joseph Campbell Butler, founding member of The Lovin' Spoonful This article is about the theologian (b 1703 for other uses of Jonathan Edwards see Jonathan Edwards. Other major writers, such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Edmund Burke, took a rather different path. Edmund Burke ( 12 January, 1729 9 July, 1797) was an Irish statesman author orator Political theorist, and The restricted interests of many of the philosophers of the time foreshadow the separation and specialization of different areas of philosophy that would occur in the 20th century.
Skepticism
Skepticism is a philosophical attitude that questions the possibility of obtaining any sort of knowledge. In ordinary usage skepticism or scepticism ( Greek 'σκέπτομαι' skeptomai, to look about to consider see also spelling differences It was first articulated by Pyrrho, who believed that everything could be doubted except appearances. Pyrrho (ca 360 BC - ca 270 BC a Greek Philosopher of Classical antiquity, is credited as being the first Skeptic philosopher and the inspiration Sextus Empiricus (2nd century CE) describes skepticism as an "ability to place in antithesis, in any manner whatever, appearances and judgments, and thus […] to come first of all to a suspension of judgment and then to mental tranquility. Sextus Empiricus (c 160-210 AD was a Physician and Philosopher, and has been variously reported to have lived in Alexandria, Rome, or "[16] Skepticism so conceived is not merely the use of doubt, but is the use of doubt for a particular end: a calmness of the soul, or ataraxia. Ataraxia (Ἀταραξία is a Greek term used by Pyrrho and Epicurus for a limpid state characterized by freedom from worry or any Skepticism poses itself as a challenge to dogmatism, whose adherents think they have found the truth. Dogma (the plural is either dogmata or dogmas, Greek, plural) is the established Belief or [17]
Sextus noted that the reliability of perception may be questioned, because it is idiosyncratic to the perceiver. The appearance of individual things changes depending on whether they are in a group: for example, the shavings of a goat's horn are white when taken alone, yet the intact horn is black. A pencil, when viewed lengthwise, looks like a stick; but when examined at the tip, it looks merely like a circle.
Skepticism was revived in the early modern period by Michel de Montaigne and Blaise Pascal. Michel Eyquem de Montaigne (French miʃɛl ekɛm də mɔ̃tɛɲ ( February 28 1533 &ndash September 13 1592) was one of the most influential writers Blaise Pascal (blɛz paskal (June 19 1623 &ndash August 19 1662 was a French Mathematician, Physicist, and religious Philosopher Its most extreme exponent, however, was David Hume. David Hume (26 April 1711 25 August 1776 Scottish Philosopher, Economist, and Historian is an important figure in Western philosophy Hume argued that there are only two kinds of reasoning: what he called probable and demonstrative (cf Hume's fork). In Philosophy, Hume's fork is a distinction drawn by David Hume between two different areas of human study All the objects of human reason Neither of these two forms of reasoning can lead us to a reasonable belief in the continued existence of an external world. Demonstrative reasoning cannot do this, because demonstration (that is, deductive reasoning from well-founded premises) alone cannot establish the uniformity of nature (as captured by scientific laws and principles, for example). Deductive reasoning is Reasoning which uses deductive Arguments to move from given statements ( Premises to Conclusions which must be true if the Such reason alone cannot establish that the future will resemble the past. We have certain beliefs about the world (that the sun will rise tomorrow, for example), but these beliefs are the product of habit and custom, and do not depend on any sort of logical inferences from what is already given certain. But probable reasoning (inductive reasoning), which aims to take us from the observed to the unobserved, cannot do this either: it also depends on the uniformity of nature, and this supposed uniformity cannot be proved, without circularity, by any appeal to uniformity. Induction or inductive reasoning, sometimes called inductive logic, is the process of Reasoning in which the premises of an argument are believed The best that either sort of reasoning can accomplish is conditional truth: if certain assumptions are true, then certain conclusions follow. So nothing about the world can be established with certainty. Hume concludes that there is no solution to the skeptical argument – except, in effect, to ignore it. [18]
Even if these matters were resolved in every case, we would have in turn to justify our standard of justification, leading to an infinite regress (hence the term regress skepticism). An infinite regress in a series of propositions arises if the truth of proposition P 1 requires the support of proposition P 2 and for any proposition [19][20]
Many philosophers have questioned the value of such skeptical arguments. The question of whether we can achieve knowledge of the external world is based on how high a standard we set for the justification of such knowledge. If our standard is absolute certainty, then we cannot progress beyond the existence of mental sensations. We cannot even deduce the existence of a coherent or continuing "I" that experiences these sensations, much less the existence of an external world. On the other hand, if our standard is too low, then we admit follies and illusions into our body of knowledge. This argument against absolute skepticism asserts that the practical philosopher must move beyond solipsism, and accept a standard for knowledge that is high but not absolute. Solipsism ( Latin: solus, alone + ipse, self is the philosophical idea that "My mind is the only thing that I know exists
Idealism
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Idealism is the epistemological doctrine that nothing can be directly known outside of the minds of thinking beings. In Western civilization, Idealism is the philosophy which maintains that the Ultimate nature of reality is ideal or based upon ideas values essences The so-called Or in an alternative stronger form, it is the metaphysical doctrine that nothing exists apart from minds and the "contents" of minds. In modern Western philosophy, the epistemological doctrine begins as a core tenet of Descartes – that what is in the mind is known more reliably than what is known through the senses. The first prominent modern Western idealist in the metaphysical sense was George Berkeley. George Berkeley (ˈbɑrkli (12 March 1685 14 January 1753 also known as Bishop Berkeley, was a Philosopher. Berkeley argued[21] that there is no deep distinction between mental states, such as feeling pain, and the ideas about so-called "external" things, that appear to us through the senses. There is no real distinction, in this view, between certain sensations of heat and light that we experience, which lead us to believe in the external existence of a fire, and the fire itself. Those sensations are all there is to fire. Berkeley expressed this with the Latin formula esse est percipi: to be is to be perceived. In this view the opinion, "strangely prevailing upon men", that houses, mountains, and rivers have an existence independent of their perception by a thinking being is false.
Forms of idealism were prevalent in philosophy from the 18th century to the early 20th century. Transcendental idealism, advocated by Immanuel Kant, is the view that there are limits on what can be understood, since there is much that cannot be brought under the conditions of objective judgment. Immanuel Kant (ɪmanuəl kant 22 April 1724 12 February 1804 was an 18th-century German Philosopher from the Prussian city of Königsberg Kant wrote his Critique of Pure Reason (1781–1787) in an attempt to reconcile the conflicting approaches of rationalism and empiricism, and to establish a new groundwork for studying metaphysics. The Critique of Pure Reason (Kritik der reinen Vernunft by Immanuel Kant, first published in 1781, second edition 1787, is one Kant's intention with this work was to look at what we know and then consider what must be true about it, as a logical consequence of, the way we know it. One major theme was that there are fundamental features of reality that escape our direct knowledge because of the natural limits of the human faculties. [22] Although Kant held that objective knowledge of the world required the mind to impose a conceptual or categorical framework on the stream of pure sensory data – a framework including space and time themselves – he maintained that things-in-themselves existed independently of our perceptions and judgments; he was therefore not an idealist in any simple sense. A conceptual framework is used in research to outline possible courses of action or to present a preferred approach to an idea or thought A framework is a basic conceptual structure used to solve or address complex issues Indeed, Kant's account of things-in-themselves is both controversial and highly complex. Continuing his work, Johann Gottlieb Fichte and Friedrich Schelling dispensed with belief in the independent existence of the world, and created a thoroughgoing idealist philosophy. Johann Gottlieb Fichte ( May 19, 1762 – January 27, 1814) was a German philosopher Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling ( January 27, 1775 – August 20, 1854) later von Schelling, was a German Philosopher
The most notable work of this German idealism was G.W.F. Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit, of 1807. German idealism was a philosophical movement in Germany in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries Phänomenologie des Geistes ( 1807) is one of GWF Hegel 's most important philosophical works Hegel admitted his ideas weren't new, but that all the previous philosophies had been incomplete. His goal was to correctly finish their job. Hegel asserts that the twin aims of philosophy are to account for the contradictions apparent in human experience (which arise, for instance, out of the supposed contradictions between "being" and "not being" ), and also simultaneously to resolve and preserve these contradictions by showing their compatibility at a higher level of examination ("being" and "not being" are resolved with "becoming") . This program of acceptance and reconciliation of contradictions is known as the "Hegelian dialectic". In classical Philosophy, dialectic (διαλεκτική is controversy the exchange of arguments and counter-arguments respectively advocating Propositions Philosophers in the Hegelian tradition include Ludwig Andreas Feuerbach, who coined the term projection as pertaining to our inability to recognize anything in the external world without projecting qualities of ourselves upon those things, Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, and the British idealists, notably T.H. Green, J.M.E. McTaggart, and F.H. Bradley. Ludwig Andreas von Feuerbach ( July 28, 1804 &ndash September 13, 1872) was a German Philosopher and Anthropologist Friedrich Engels (28 November 1820 – 5 August 1895 was a German social scientist and philosopher, who Absolute idealism is an ontologically Monistic philosophy attributed to G For the actor Thomas Hill see Thomas Hill. Thomas Hill Green ( April 7, 1836 – March 26, 1882) John McTaggart Ellis McTaggart ( September 3, 1866 – January 18, 1925) was an Idealist metaphysicist. Francis Herbert Bradley ( 30 January, 1846 &ndash 18 September, 1924) was a British idealist Philosopher.
Few 20th century philosophers have embraced idealism. However, quite a few have embraced Hegelian dialectic. Immanuel Kant's "Copernican Turn" also remains an important philosophical concept today.
Pragmatism
Pragmatism was founded in the spirit of finding a scientific concept of truth, which is not dependent on either personal insight (or revelation) or reference to some metaphysical realm. For other people named William James see William James (disambiguation William James (January 11 1842 – August 26 1910 was a pioneering Pragmatism generally considered to have originated in the late nineteenth century with Charles Peirce, who first stated the Pragmatic maxim. In the Philosophy of science, instrumentalism is the view that concepts and theories are merely useful instruments whose worth is measured not by whether the concepts and The truth of a statement should be judged by the effect it has on our actions and truth should be seen as that which the whole of scientific enquiry will ultimately agree on. [23] This should probably be seen as a guiding principle more than a definition of what it means for something to be true, though the details of how this principle should be interpreted have been subject to discussion since Peirce first conceived it. Like Rorty many seem convinced that Pragmatism holds that the truth of beliefs does not consist in their correspondence with reality, but in their usefulness and efficacy. [24]
The late 19th-century American philosophers Charles Peirce and William James were its co-founders, and it was later developed by John Dewey as instrumentalism. Charles Sanders Peirce (pronounced purse) (September 10 1839 &ndash April 19 1914 was an American Logician mathematician, philosopher For other people named William James see William James (disambiguation William James (January 11 1842 – August 26 1910 was a pioneering John Dewey (October 20 1859 &ndash June 1 1952 was an American Philosopher, Psychologist, and educational reformer, whose thoughts and ideas have In the Philosophy of science, instrumentalism is the view that concepts and theories are merely useful instruments whose worth is measured not by whether the concepts and Since the usefulness of any belief at any time might be contingent on circumstance, Peirce and James conceptualised final truth as that which would be established only by the future, final settlement of all opinion. [25] Critics have accused pragmatism of falling victim to a simple fallacy: because something that is true proves useful, that usefulness is the basis for its truth. [26] Thinkers in the pragmatist tradition have included John Dewey, George Santayana, W.V.O. Quine and C.I. Lewis. George Santayana ( December 16, 1863, Madrid &ndash September 26, 1952, Rome) was a Philosopher, Essayist Willard Van Orman Quine (June 25 1908 Akron, Ohio &ndash December 25 2000 (known to intimates as "Van" Clarence Irving Lewis ( April 12, 1883 Stoneham Massachusetts - February 3, 1964 Cambridge Massachusetts) usually Pragmatism has more recently been taken in new directions by Richard Rorty, John Lachs, Donald Davidson and Hilary Putnam. Richard McKay Rorty (October 4 1931 - June 8 2007 was an American Philosopher. John Lachs is the Centennial Professor of Philosophy at Vanderbilt University, where he has taught since 1967 Donald Davidson is the name of Donald Davidson (poet (1893–1968 American poet Donald Davidson (philosopher (1917–2003 American philosopher Hilary Whitehall Putnam (born July 31 1926 is an American Philosopher who has been a central figure in Western philosophy since the 1960s especially in Philosophy
Phenomenology
Edmund Husserl's phenomenology was an ambitious attempt to lay the foundations for an account of the structure of conscious experience in general. Edmund Gustav Albrecht Husserl (ˈhʊsɛrl April 8 1859 – April 26 1938) was a philosopher, known as the father of [27] An important part of Husserl's phenomenological project was to show that all conscious acts are directed at or about objective content, a feature that Husserl called intentionality. The term intentionality is often simplistically summarised as "aboutness" [28]
In the first part of his two-volume work, the Logical Investigations (1901), he launched an extended attack on psychologism. Psychologism is a generic type of position in Philosophy according to which Psychology plays a central role in grounding or explaining some other non-psychological In the second part, he began to develop the technique of descriptive phenomenology, with the aim of showing how objective judgments are indeed grounded in conscious experience – not, however, in the first-person experience of particular individuals, but in the properties essential to any experiences of the kind in question. [29]
He also attempted to identify the essential properties of any act of meaning. He developed the method further in Ideas (1913) as transcendental phenomenology, proposing to ground actual experience, and thus all fields of human knowledge, in the structure of consciousness of an ideal, or transcendental, ego. In Philosophy, the adjective transcendental and the noun transcendence convey three different but related primary meanings all of them derived from the word's literal Later, he attempted to reconcile his transcendental standpoint with an acknowledgement of the intersubjective life-world in which real individual subjects interact. Lifeworld (German Lebenswelt may be conceived as a universe of what is self-evident or given a world that subjects may experience together Husserl published only a few works in his lifetime, which treat phenomenology mainly in abstract methodological terms; but he left an enormous quantity of unpublished concrete analyses.
Husserl's work was immediately influential in Germany, with the foundation of phenomenological schools in Munich and Göttingen. Phenomenology later achieved international fame through the work of such philosophers as Martin Heidegger (formerly Husserl's research assistant), Maurice Merleau-Ponty, and Jean-Paul Sartre. Martin Heidegger ( September 26, 1889 &ndash May 26, 1976) (ˈmaɐ̯tiːn ˈhaɪ̯dɛgɐ was an influential German philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty (mɔʁis mɛʁlopɔ̃ti in French March 14, 1908 – May 3, 1961) was a French phenomenological Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre (21 June 1905 &ndash 15 April 1980 commonly known simply as Jean-Paul Sartre (ʒɑ̃ pol saʁtʁə was a French Indeed, through the work of Heidegger and Sartre, Husserl's focus on subjective experience influenced aspects of existentialism. Existentialism is a philosophical doctrine which posits that individuals create the meaning and essence of their lives and that this essence follows from their existence
Existentialism
Although they didn't use the term, the nineteenth century philosophers Søren Kierkegaard and Friedrich Nietzsche are widely regarded as the fathers of existentialism. Existentialism is a philosophical doctrine which posits that individuals create the meaning and essence of their lives and that this essence follows from their existence Christian existentialism describes a group of writings that take a philosophically Existentialist approach to Christian theology Søren Aabye Kierkegaard (ˈsœːɐn ˈkʰiɐ̯kəˌɡ̊ɒˀ in Danish Anglicized as;) Søren Aabye Kierkegaard (ˈsœːɐn ˈkʰiɐ̯kəˌɡ̊ɒˀ in Danish Anglicized as;) Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (October 15 1844 August 25 1900 ( was a nineteenth-century German philosopher and classical philologist Their influence, however, has extended beyond existentialist thought. [30][31][32]
The main target of Kierkegaard's writings was the idealist philosophical system of Hegel which, he thought, ignored or excluded the inner subjective life of living human beings. Kierkegaard, conversely, held that "truth is subjectivity", arguing that what is most important to an actual human being are questions dealing with an individual's inner relationship to existence. In particular, Kierkegaard, a Christian, believed that the truth of religious faith was a subjective question, and one to be wrestled with passionately. [33][34]
Although Kierkegaard and Nietzsche were among his influences, the extent to which the German philosopher Martin Heidegger should be considered an existentialist is debatable. Martin Heidegger ( September 26, 1889 &ndash May 26, 1976) (ˈmaɐ̯tiːn ˈhaɪ̯dɛgɐ was an influential German philosopher In Being and Time he presented a method of rooting philosophical explanations in human existence (Dasein) to be analysed in terms of existential categories (existentiale); and this has led many commentators to treat him as an important figure in the existentialist movement. Being and Time ( German: Sein und Zeit, 1927) is a book by German philosopher Martin Heidegger. However, in The Letter on Humanism, Heidegger explicitly rejected the existentialism of Jean-Paul Sartre. Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre (21 June 1905 &ndash 15 April 1980 commonly known simply as Jean-Paul Sartre (ʒɑ̃ pol saʁtʁə was a French
Sartre became the best-known proponent of existentialism, exploring it not only in theoretical works such as Being and Nothingness , but also in plays and novels. Being and Nothingness An Essay on Phenomenological Ontology ( French: L'Être et le néant: Essai d'ontologie phénoménologique) sometimes subtitled Sartre, along with Albert Camus and Simone de Beauvoir, all represented an avowedly atheistic branch of existentialism, which is now more closely associated with their ideas of nausea, contingency, bad faith, and the absurd than with Kierkegaard's spiritual angst. Albert Camus ( (7 November 1913 – 4 January 1960 was an Algerian born French Author, philosopher, and journalist who won the Nobel prize "La Beauvoir" redirects here also see Beauvoir (disambiguation Nevertheless, the focus on the individual human being, responsible before the universe for the authenticity of his or her existence, is common to all these thinkers.
Structuralism and post-structuralism
Inaugurated by the linguist Ferdinand de Saussure, structuralism sought to ferret out the underlying systems through analysing the discourses they both limit and make possible. For the use of structuralism in biology see Structuralism (biology Structuralism is an approach to the human sciences that attempts to analyze Post-structuralism encompasses the intellectual developments of continental philosophers and critical theorists who wrote with tendencies of twentieth-century Ferdinand de Saussure (fɛʁdinɑ̃ də soˈsyːʁ ( November 26, 1857 – February 22, 1913) was a Swiss linguist Discourse (L discursus, "running to and from" means either "written or spoken communication or debate" or "a formal discussion Saussure conceived of the sign as being delimited by all the other signs in the system, and ideas as being incapable of existence prior to linguistic structure, which articulates thought. This led continental thought away from humanism, and toward what was termed the decentering of man: language is no longer spoken by man to express a true inner self, but language speaks man.
Structuralism sought the province of a hard science, but its positivism soon came under fire by poststructuralism, a wide field of thinkers, some of whom were once themselves structuralists, but later came to criticize it. Structuralists believed they could analyse systems from an external, objective standing, for example, but the poststructuralists argued that this is incorrect, that one cannot transcend structures and thus analysis is itself determined by what it examines, that systems are ultimately self-referential. Furthermore, while the distinction between the signifier and signified was treated as crystalline by structuralists, poststructuralists asserted that every attempt to grasp the signified would simply result in the proliferation of more signifiers, so meaning is always in a state of being deferred, making an ultimate interpretation impossible.
Structuralism came to dominate continental philosophy from the 1960s onward, encompassing thinkers as diverse as Michel Foucault and Jacques Lacan. Michel Foucault ( (15 October 1926 – 25 June 1984 was a French philosopher, Historian, Intellectual, Critic and Sociologist. Jacques-Marie-Émile Lacan (French ʒak lakɑ̃ ( April 13, 1901 &ndash September 9, 1981) was a French Psychoanalyst
The analytic tradition
The term analytic philosophy roughly designates a group of philosophical methods that stress detailed argumentation, attention to semantics, use of classical logic and non-classical logics and clarity of meaning above all other criteria. Analytic philosophy (sometimes analytical philosophy) is a generic term for a style of Philosophy that came to dominate English-speaking countries in the 20th century Michael Dummett in his Origins of Analytical Philosophy makes the case for counting Gottlob Frege The Foundations of Arithmetic as the first analytic work, on the grounds that in that book Frege took the linguistic turn, analysing philosophical problems through language. Sir Michael Anthony Eardley Dummett FBA DLitt (born 1925 is a leading British Philosopher. Friedrich Ludwig Gottlob Frege ( 8 November 1848, Wismar, Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin &ndash 26 July 1925 Bertrand Russell and G.E. Moore are also often counted as founders of analytic philosophy, beginning with their rejection of British idealism, their defense of realism and the emphasis they laid on the legitimacy of analysis. Bertrand Arthur William Russell 3rd Earl Russell, OM, FRS (18 May 1872 – 2 February 1970 was a British Philosopher, Historian "GE Moore" redirects here For the cofounder of Intel see Gordon Moore. Russell's classic works The Principles of Mathematics,[35] On Denoting and Principia Mathematica, aside from greatly promoting the use of classical first order logic in philosophy, set the ground for much of the research program in the early stages of the analytic tradition, emphasising such problems as: the reference of proper names, whether existence is a property, the meaning of propositions, the analysis of definite descriptions, the discussions on the foundations of mathematics; as well as exploring issues of metaphysical commitment and even metaphysical problems regarding time, the nature of matter, mind, persistence and change, which Russell tackled often with the aid of mathematical logic. " On Denoting " written by Bertrand Russell, is one of the most significant and influential philosophical essays of the 20th century The Principia Mathematica is a 3-volume work on the Foundations of mathematics, written by Alfred North Whitehead and Bertrand Russell The philosophy developed as a critique of Hegel and his followers in particular, and of grand systems of speculative philosophy in general, though by no means all analytic philosophers reject the philosophy of Hegel (see Charles Taylor) nor speculative philosophy. Continental philosophy, in contemporary usage refers to a set of traditions of 19th and 20th century philosophy from mainland Europe Charlie and Chuck are common familiar or shortened forms for Charles. Some schools in the group include logical atomism, logical positivism, and ordinary language. Logical atomism is a philosophical belief that originated in the early 20th century with the development of Analytic philosophy. Logical positivism (later and more accurately called logical empiricism) is a school of philosophy that combines Empiricism, the idea that observational evidence is Ordinary language philosophy is a philosophical school that approached traditional philosophical problems as rooted in misunderstandings philosophers develop by forgetting what words actually The motivation behind the work of analytic philosophers has been varied. Some have held that philosophical problems arise through misuse of language or because of misunderstandings of the logic of our language, while some maintain that there are genuine philosophical problems and that philosophy is continuous with science.
In 1921, Ludwig Wittgenstein published his Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, which gave a rigidly "logical" account of linguistic and philosophical issues. Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus is the only book-length work published by Austrian Philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein. At the time, he understood most of the problems of philosophy as mere puzzles of language, which could be solved by investigating and then minding the logical structure of language. Years later he would reverse a number of the positions he had set out in the Tractatus, in for example his second major work, Philosophical Investigations (1953). Philosophical Investigations ( Philosophische Untersuchungen) is along with the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, one of the two major works Investigations was influential in the development of "ordinary language philosophy", which was promoted by Gilbert Ryle, J.L. Austin, and a few others. Gilbert Ryle ( 19 August 1900 - 6 October 1976) was a British Philosopher, and a representative of the generation of John Langshaw Austin ( March 26, 1911 – February 8, 1960) was a British philosopher of language, born in Lancaster and In the United States, meanwhile, the philosophy of W. V. O. Quine was having a major influence, with such classics as Two Dogmas of Empiricism. Willard Van Orman Quine (June 25 1908 Akron, Ohio &ndash December 25 2000 (known to intimates as "Van" W V O Quine's paper " Two Dogmas of Empiricism " published in 1951, is one of the most celebrated papers of Twentieth century Philosophy In that paper Quine criticizes the distinction between analytic and synthetic statements, arguing that a clear conception of analyticity is unattainable. He argued for holism, the thesis that language, including scientific language, is a set of interconnected sentences, none of which can be verified on its own, rather, the sentences in the language depend on each other for their meaning and truth conditions. A consequence of Quine's approach is that language as a whole has only a very thin relation to experience, some sentences which refer directly to experience might me somewhat modified by sense impressions, but as the whole of language is theory-laden, for the whole language to be modified, more than this is required. However, most of the linguistic structure can in principle be revised, even logic, in order to better model the world. Notable students of Quine include Donald Davidson and Daniel Dennett. Donald Davidson is the name of Donald Davidson (poet (1893–1968 American poet Donald Davidson (philosopher (1917–2003 American philosopher Daniel Clement Dennett (born March 28 1942 in Boston, Massachusetts) is a prominent American philosopher whose research The former devised a program for giving a semantics to natural language and thereby answer the philosophical conundrum 'what is meaning?'. A crucial part of the program was the use of Alfred Tarski's semantic theory of truth. Alfred Tarski ( January 14, 1901, Warsaw, Russian ruled Poland – October 26, 1983, Berkeley California Dummett, among others, argued that truth conditions should be dispensed with in the theory of meaning, and replaced by assertibility conditions. Some propositions, on this view, are neither true nor false, and thus such a theory of meaning entails a rejection of the law of the excluded middle. This, for Dummett, entails antirealism, as Russell himself pointed out in An Inquiry into Meaning and Truth.
By the 1970s there was a renewed interest in many traditional philosophical problems by the younger generations of analytic philosophers. David Lewis, Saul Kripke, Derek Parfit and others took an interest in traditional metaphysical problems, which they began exploring by the use of logic and philosophy of language. David Lewis may refer to: Academics David Lewis (lawyer (c1520–1584 civil lawyer and first Principal of Jesus College Oxford David Saul Aaron Kripke (born on November 13, 1940 in Bay Shore New York) is an American philosopher and Logician now Emeritus Derek Parfit (born December 11, 1942) is a British Philosopher who specializes in problems of personal identity, Rationality Among those problems some distinguished ones were: free will, essentialism, the nature of personal identity, identity over time, the nature of the mind, the nature of causal laws, space-time, the properties of material beings, modality, etc. In those universities where analytic philosophy has spread, these problems are still being discussed passionately. Analytic philosophers are now also interested in the methodology of analytic philosophy itself, with Timothy Williamson, Wykeham Professor of Logic at Oxford, publishing recently a book entitled The Philosophy of Philosophy. Timothy Williamson (born Uppsala, Sweden, 6 August 1955) is a distinguished British Philosopher whose main research interests are Some notable figures in contemporary analytic philosophy are: Timothy Williamson, Theodore Sider, John Hawthorne, Alvin Goldman, Peter van Inwagen, Graham Priest, Scott Soames, Nathan Salmon and, of course, Saul Kripke, who is currently lecturing at CUNY. John Hawthorne is the Waynflete Professor of Metaphysical Philosophy at Oxford University, though he continues to teach on a visiting basis at Rutgers University at New Brunswick Alvin Ira Goldman (born 1938 is an American professor of Philosophy at Rutgers University in New Jersey. Peter van Inwagen is John Cardinal O'Hara Professor of Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame. Graham Priest (born 1948, London) is Boyce Gibson Professor of Philosophy at the University of Melbourne and a regular visitor at St Scott Soames (born 1946) is a professor of Philosophy at the University of Southern California. Nathan U Salmon (né Nathan Salmon Ucuzoglu 1951 - is an American philosopher in the analytic tradition specializing in Philosophy of language Saul Aaron Kripke (born on November 13, 1940 in Bay Shore New York) is an American philosopher and Logician now Emeritus Analytic philosophy has sometimes being accused of not contributing to the political debate or to traditional questions in aesthetics, however, with the appearance of A Theory of Justice by John Rawls and Anarchy, State and Utopia by Robert Nozick, analytic political philosophy acquired respectability. A Theory of Justice is a widely-read book of political and Moral philosophy by John Rawls. John Rawls ( February 21, 1921 &ndash November 24, 2002) was an American Philosopher, a Professor of Anarchy State and Utopia is a work of Political philosophy written by Robert Nozick in 1974. Robert Nozick ( November 16, 1938 &ndash January 23, 2002) was an American Philosopher and Pellegrino University Analytic philosophers have also showed depth in their investigations of aesthetics, with Roger Scruton, Richard Wollheim, Jerome Levinson and others developing the subject to its current shape. Roger Vernon Scruton (born 27 February 1944) is an English Conservative Philosopher.
Ethics and political
Human nature and political legitimacy
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From ancient times, and well beyond them, the roots of justification for political authority were inescapably tied to outlooks on human nature. Thomas Hobbes (born 5 April 1588died 4 December 1679 was an English philosopher, whose famous 1651 book Leviathan established the foundation In The Republic, Plato declared that the ideal society would be run by a council of philosopher-kings, since those best at philosophy are best able to realize the good. Biography Early life Birth and family Plato was born in Athens Greece Philosopher kings are the hypothetical rulers or Guardians of Plato 's Utopian Kallipolis. Even Plato, however, required philosophers to make their way in the world for many years before beginning their rule at the age of fifty. For Aristotle, humans are political animals (i. Aristotle (Greek Aristotélēs) (384 BC – 322 BC was a Greek philosopher a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. e. social animals), and governments are set up in order to pursue good for the community. Aristotle reasoned that, since the state (polis) was the highest form of community, it has the purpose of pursuing the highest good. A polis ( πόλις, pronunciation, in English-- plural poleis ( πόλεις, pronunciation, in English --is a City, a Aristotle viewed political power as the result of natural inequalities in skill and virtue. Because of these differences, he favored an aristocracy of the able and virtuous. For Aristotle, the person cannot be complete unless he or she lives in a community. His The Nicomachean Ethics and The Politics are meant to be read in that order. The first book addresses virtues (or "excellences") in the person as a citizen; the second addresses the proper form of government to ensure that citizens will be virtuous, and therefore complete. Both books deal with the essential role of justice in civic life.
Nicolas of Cusa rekindled Platonic thought in the early 15th century. He promoted democracy in Medieval Europe, both in his writings and in his organization of the Council of Florence. Unlike Aristotle and the Hobbesian tradition to follow, Cusa saw human beings as equal and divine (that is, made in God's image), so democracy would be the only just form of government. Cusa's views are credited by some as sparking the Italian Renaissance, which gave rise to the notion of "Nation-States".
Later, Niccolò Machiavelli rejected the views of Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas as unrealistic. The ideal sovereign is not the embodiment of the moral virtues; rather the sovereign does whatever is successful and necessary, rather than what is morally praiseworthy. Thomas Hobbes also contested many elements of Aristotle's views. Thomas Hobbes (born 5 April 1588died 4 December 1679 was an English philosopher, whose famous 1651 book Leviathan established the foundation For Hobbes, human nature is essentially anti-social: people are essentially egoistic, and this egoism makes life difficult in the natural state of things. Moreover, Hobbes argued, though people may have natural inequalities, these are trivial, since no particular talents or virtues that people may have will make them safe from harm inflicted by others. For these reasons, Hobbes concluded that the state arises from a common agreement to raise the community out of the state of nature. State of nature is a term in Political philosophy used in Social contract theories to describe the hypothetical condition of humanity before the State 's This can only be done by the establishment of a sovereign, in which (or whom) is vested complete control over the community, and which is able to inspire awe and terror in its subjects. Sovereignty is the exclusive Right to control a Government, a country, a people or oneself [36]
Many in the Enlightenment were unsatisfied with existing doctrines in political philosophy, which seemed to marginalize or neglect the possibility of a democratic state. Democracy is a form of government in which the supreme power is held completely by the people under a free electoral system David Hume was among the first philosophers to question the existence of God, circa 1700. David Hume (26 April 1711 25 August 1776 Scottish Philosopher, Economist, and Historian is an important figure in Western philosophy Jean-Jacques Rousseau was among those who attempted to overturn these doctrines: he responded to Hobbes by claiming that a human is by nature a kind of "noble savage", and that society and social contracts corrupt this nature. In the eighteenth-century cult of " Primitivism " the noble savage, uncorrupted by the influences of civilization was considered more worthy more authentically noble Another critic was John Locke. In Second Treatise on Government he agreed with Hobbes that the nation-state was an efficient tool for raising humanity out of a deplorable state, but he argued that the sovereign might become an abominable institution compared to the relatively benign unmodulated state of nature. The Two Treatises of Government (or " Two Treatises of Government In the Former The False Principles and Foundation of Sir Robert Filmer And His Followers are Detected [37]
Following the doctrine of the fact-value distinction, due in part to the influence of David Hume and his student Adam Smith, appeals to human nature for political justification were weakened. The fact-value distinction is a concept used to distinguish between arguments which can be claimed through Reason alone and those where rationality is limited to describing David Hume (26 April 1711 25 August 1776 Scottish Philosopher, Economist, and Historian is an important figure in Western philosophy Adam Smith ( baptised 16 June 1723 – 17 July 1790) was a Scottish moral philosopher and a pioneer of Political economy. Nevertheless, many political philosophers, especially moral realists, still make use of some essential human nature as a basis for their arguments. Moral realism (in the robust sense see below is the meta-ethical view which claims that Ethical sentences express Propositions
Consequentialism, deontology, and the aretaic turn
One debate that has commanded the attention of ethicists in the modern era has been between consequentialism (actions are to be morally evaluated solely by their consequences) and deontology (actions are to be morally evaluated solely by consideration of agents' duties, the rights of those whom the action concerns, or both). Consequentialism refers to those moral theories which hold that the consequences of a particular action form the basis for any valid moral judgment about that action Deontological ethics or deontology (from Greek grc δέον deon, "obligation duty" and grc -λογία -logia) is an Virtue theory is a branch of Moral philosophy that emphasizes character rather than rules or consequences as the key element of ethical thinking Consequentialism refers to those moral theories which hold that the consequences of a particular action form the basis for any valid moral judgment about that action Deontological ethics or deontology (from Greek grc δέον deon, "obligation duty" and grc -λογία -logia) is an
Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill are famous for propagating utilitarianism, which is the idea that the fundamental moral rule is to strive toward the "greatest happiness for the greatest number". Jeremy Bentham ( IPA: or) (15 February 1748&ndash6 June 1832 was an English Jurist, Philosopher, and legal and Social reformer John Stuart Mill (20 May 1806 &ndash 8 May 1873 British Philosopher, political economist, civil servant and Member of Parliament, was an influential Utilitarianism is the idea that the moral worth of an action is solely determined by its contribution to overall Utility, that is its contribution to happiness However, in promoting this idea they also necessarily promoted the broader doctrine of consequentialism.
Adopting a position opposed to consequentialism, Immanuel Kant argued that moral principles were simply products of reason. Immanuel Kant (ɪmanuəl kant 22 April 1724 12 February 1804 was an 18th-century German Philosopher from the Prussian city of Königsberg Kant believed that the incorporation of consequences into moral deliberation was a deep mistake, since it would deny the necessity of practical maxims in governing the working of the will. According to Kant, reason requires that we conform our actions to the categorical imperative, which is an absolute duty. The categorical imperative is the central philosophical concept of the Moral philosophy of Immanuel Kant, and of modern Deontological ethics An important 20th-century deontologist, W.D. Ross, has argued for weaker forms of duties called prima facie duties. Sir (William David Ross KBE ( 15 April 1877 &ndash 5 May 1971) was a Scottish philosopher known for work in Prima facie is a Latin expression meaning "on its first appearance" or "by first instance"
More recent works have emphasized the role of character in ethics, a movement known as the aretaic turn (that is, the turn towards virtues). The aretaic turn is a movement in contemporary Moral philosophy and Ethics to emphasize character and human Excellence or Virtue, One strain of this movement followed the work of Bernard Williams. Sir Bernard Arthur Owen Williams FBA (21 September 1929 &ndash 10 June 2003 has been described as the most important British moral philosopher of his time Williams noted that rigid forms of both consequentialism and deontology demanded that people behave impartially. This, Williams argued, requires that people abandon their personal projects, and hence their personal integrity, in order to be considered moral. Integrity is Consistency of actions values methods measures and principles
G.E.M. Anscombe, in an influential paper, "Modern Moral Philosophy" (1958), revived virtue ethics as an alternative to what was seen as the entrenched positions of Kantianism and consequentialism. G E M Anscombe ( 18 March, 1919 &ndash 5 January, 2001) born Gertrude Elizabeth Margaret Anscombe, but better known as Elizabeth Virtue theory is a branch of Moral philosophy that emphasizes character rather than rules or consequences as the key element of ethical thinking Aretaic perspectives have been inspired in part by research of ancient conceptions of virtue. For example, Aristotle's ethics demands that people follow the Aristotelian mean, or balance between two vices; and Confucian ethics argues that virtue consists largely in striving for harmony with other people. Aristotle believed that ethical knowledge is not certain knowledge (like Metaphysics and Epistemology) but is general knowledge. Confucius ( lit " Master Kung " September 28, 551 BC - 479 BC) was a Chinese thinker and social philosopher Virtue ethics in general has since gained many adherents, and has been defended by such philosophers as Philippa Foot, Alasdair MacIntyre, and Rosalind Hursthouse. Philippa Ruth Foot (née Bosanquet born 1920 is a British philosopher, most notable for her works in Ethics. Alasdair Chalmers MacIntyre (born January 12, 1929 in Glasgow, Scotland) is a philosopher primarily known for his contribution to moral Rosalind Hursthouse is a Moral philosopher noted for her work on Virtue ethics.
Applied philosophy
The thoughts a society thinks have profound repercussions on what it does. The applied study of philosophy yields applications such as those in ethics – applied ethics in particular – and political philosophy. Ethics is a major branch of Philosophy, encompassing right conduct and good life Political philosophy is the study of questions about the City, Government, Politics, Liberty, Justice, Property, Rights The political and economic philosophies of Confucius, Sun Zi, Ibn Khaldun, Ibn Rushd, Ibn Taimiyyah, Niccolò Machiavelli, Gottfried Leibniz, John Locke, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Karl Marx, John Stuart Mill, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr. and others – all of these have been used to shape and justify governments and their actions. Confucius ( lit " Master Kung " September 28, 551 BC - 479 BC) was a Chinese thinker and social philosopher Sun Tzu ( ("Master Sun" also called Sun Wu ( is traditionally considered to be the author of The Art of War (also simply called the Ibn Khaldūn or Ibn Khaldoun (full name أبو زيد عبد الرحمن بن محمد بن خلدون,, ( May 27, 1332 AD/732 AH &ndash March 19 Abū 'l-Walīd Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Rushd (Arabicأبو الوليد محمد بن احمد بن رشد better known just as Ibn Rushd (ابن رشد and in European Taqi ad-Din Ahmad ibn Taymiyyah ( January 22, 1263 &ndash 1328 was a Sunni Islamic scholar born in Harran, located John Locke (29 August 1632 – 28 October 1704 was an English Philosopher. John Stuart Mill (20 May 1806 &ndash 8 May 1873 British Philosopher, political economist, civil servant and Member of Parliament, was an influential Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi ( Gujarati: મોહનદાસ કરમચંદ ગાંધી moɦən̪d̪äs kəɾəmʧən̪d̪ gän̪d̪ʱi (2 October 1869 – 30 January Martin Luther King Jr ( January 15, 1929 April 4, 1968) was an American clergyman, Activist and prominent leader
In the field of philosophy of education, progressive education as championed by John Dewey has had a profound impact on educational practices in the United States in the 20th century. The philosophy of education is the study of the purpose process nature and ideals of Education. John Dewey (October 20 1859 &ndash June 1 1952 was an American Philosopher, Psychologist, and educational reformer, whose thoughts and ideas have The United States of America —commonly referred to as the Descendants of this movement include the current efforts in philosophy for children. Carl von Clausewitz's political philosophy of war has had a profound effect on statecraft, international politics, and military strategy in the 20th century, especially in the years around World War II. Carl Philipp Gottlieb von Clausewitz (ˈklaʊzəvɪts ( July 1, 1780 – November 16, 1831) was a Prussian soldier military historian The philosophy of war examines War beyond the typical questions of Weaponry and strategy, inquiring into such things as the meaning and Etiology Public administration can be broadly described as the development implementation and study of branches of government Policy. Military strategy is a National defence policy implemented by Military organisations to pursue desired strategic goals Derived from the Greek World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including Logic has become crucially important in mathematics, linguistics, psychology, computer science, and computer engineering. Mathematics is the body of Knowledge and Academic discipline that studies such concepts as Quantity, Structure, Space and Linguistics is the scientific study of Language, encompassing a number of sub-fields Psychology (from Greek grc ψῡχή psȳkhē, "breath life soul" and grc -λογία -logia) is an Academic and Computer science (or computing science) is the study and the Science of the theoretical foundations of Information and Computation and their Computer engineering (or Computer Systems Engineering) encompasses broad areas of both Electrical engineering and Computer science.
Other important applications can be found in epistemology, which aid in understanding the requisites for knowledge, sound evidence, and justified belief (important in law, economics, decision theory, and a number of other disciplines). Epistemology (from Greek επιστήμη - episteme, "knowledge" + λόγος, " Logos " or theory of knowledge Law is a system of rules enforced through a set of Institutions used as an instrument to underpin civil obedience politics economics and society Economics is the social science that studies the production distribution, and consumption of goods and services. Decision theory in Mathematics and Statistics is concerned with identifying the Values uncertainties and other issues relevant in a given The philosophy of science discusses the underpinnings of the scientific method and has affected the nature of scientific investigation and argumentation. Philosophy of science is the study of assumptions foundations and implications of Science. Scientific method refers to bodies of Techniques for investigating phenomena This has profound impacts. For example, the strictly empirical approach of Skinner's behaviourism affected for decades the approach of the American psychological establishment. Deep ecology and animal rights examine the moral situation of humans as occupants of a world that has non-human occupants to consider also. Deep ecology is a recent branch of ecological Philosophy ( Ecosophy) that considers Humankind an integral part of its environment. "Animal liberation" redirects here for other uses see Animal liberation (disambiguation. Aesthetics can help to interpret discussions of music, literature, the plastic arts, and the whole artistic dimension of life. Aesthetics or esthetics ( also spelled æsthetics) is commonly known as the study of sensory or sensori-emotional values sometimes called Music is an Art form in which the medium is Sound organized in Time. Literature is the Art of written works Literally translated the word means "acquaintance with letters" (from Latin littera letter Plastic arts are those Visual arts that involve the use of Materials that can be moulded or modulated in some way often in three dimensions In general, the various philosophies strive to provide practical activities with a deeper understanding of the theoretical or conceptual underpinnings of their fields.
Often philosophy is seen as an investigation into an area not sufficiently well understood to be its own branch of knowledge. What were once philosophical pursuits have evolved into the modern day fields such as psychology, sociology, linguistics, and economics, for example. Psychology (from Greek grc ψῡχή psȳkhē, "breath life soul" and grc -λογία -logia) is an Academic and Sociology (from Latin: socius "companion" and the suffix -ology "the study of" from Greek λόγος lógos "knowledge" Linguistics is the scientific study of Language, encompassing a number of sub-fields Economics is the social science that studies the production distribution, and consumption of goods and services. But as such areas of intellectual endeavour proliferate and expand, so will the broader philosophical questions that they generate.
The New York Times reported an increase in philosophy majors at United States universities in 2008. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the [38]
References
- ^ Blackburn, Simon (1994). "Philosophy", The Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- ^ Will Durant, Story of Philosophy: The Lives and Opinions of the World's Greatest Philosophers, Pocket, 1991, ISBN 978-0671739164.
- ^ See e. g. Roger Trigg Philosophy Matters (Blackwell 2002), p. 1
- ^ See, e. g. , John Cottingham, Western Philosophy: An Anthology (Blackwell, 2008), p. xxxi: "It is integral to the very idea of philosophy that every philosophical doctrine, without exception, is there to be scrutinized and challenged. A good philosophy student will never rest content with knowing what the great philosophers said, but will want to form a considered and critical view of whether their arguments are justified, and what issues, if any, they illuminate. "
- ^ Philosophia, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, at Perseus
- ^ Online Etymology Dictionary
- ^ The definition of philosophy is: "1. orig. , love of, or the search for, wisdom or knowledge 2. theory or logical analysis of the principles underlying conduct, thought, knowledge, and the nature of the universe". Webster's New World Dictionary, Second College.
- ^ Oxford Companion to Philosophy
- ^ ibidem
- ^ D. Rutherford (ed. ), The Cambridge Companion to Early Modern Philosophy (Cambridge UP, 2006)
- ^ S. Nadler (ed. ), A Companion to Early Modern Philosophy, (Blackwell, 2002)
- ^ Shand, John (ed. ) Central Works of Philosophy, Vol. 3 The Nineteenth Century (McGill-Queens, 2005)
- ^ Beiser, Frederick C. The Cambridge Companion to Hegel, (Cambridge, 1993)
- ^ Giorgio Buccellati (1981), "Wisdom and Not: The Case of Mesopotamia", Journal of the American Oriental Society 101 (1), p. 35–47.
- ^ Giorgio Buccellati (1981), "Wisdom and Not: The Case of Mesopotamia", Journal of the American Oriental Society 101 (1), p. 35–47 [43].
- ^ Sextus Empiricus, PH (= Outlines of Pyrrhonism) I. 8
- ^ Sextus Empiricus, PH (= Outlines of Pyrrhonism) I. 19–20
- ^ "And though a Pyrrhonian [i. e. a skeptic] may throw himself or others into a momentary amazement and confusion by his profound reasonings; the first and most trivial event in life will put to flight all his doubts and scruples, and leave him the same, in every point of action and speculation, with the philosophers of every other sect, or with those who never concerned themselves in any philosophical researches. When he awakes from his dream, he will be the first to join in the laugh against himself, and to confess, that all his objections are mere amusement. " (An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, 1777, XII, Part 2, p. 128)
- ^ Lewis Carroll (1895). What the Tortoise Said to Achilles.
- ^ Stephen Cade Hetherington (1996). Knowledge Puzzles.
- ^ First Dialogue
- ^ Kant, Immanuel (1990). Critique of Pure Reason. Prometheus Books. ISBN 0-87975-596-2
- ^ Murphy, John P. (1990). Pragmatism – From Peirce to Davidson. Boulder: Westview Press.
- ^ Rorty, Richard (1982). The Consequences of Pragmatism. Minnesota: Minnesota University Press, p xvi.
- ^ Putnam, Hilary (1995). Pragmatism: An Open Question. Oxford: Blackwell, especially pp 8–12.
- ^ Pratt, J. B. (1909). What is Pragmatism?. New York: Macmillan, p. 89.
- ^ Woodruff Smith, David (2007). Husserl. Routledge.
- ^ Dreyfus, Hubert (2006). A Companion to Phenomenology and Existentialism. Blackwell.
- ^ Woodruff Smith, David (2007). Husserl. Routledge.
- ^ Matustik, Martin J. (1995). Kierkegaard in Post/Modernity. Indiana University Press. ISBN 0-253-20967-6
- ^ Solomon, Robert (2001). What Nietzsche Really Said. ISBN 0805210946
- ^ Religious thinkers were among those influenced by Kierkegaard. Christian existentialists include Gabriel Marcel, Nicholas Berdyaev, Miguel de Unamuno, and Karl Jaspers (although he preferred to speak of his "philosophical faith"). Gabriel Honoré Marcel ( 7 December 1889, Paris – 8 October 1973, Paris) was a French Philosopher Nikolai Alexandrovich Berdyaev (Николай Александрович Бердяев ( &ndash March 24 1948) was a Russian religious and political Miguel de Unamuno y Jugo ( September 29, 1864 &ndash December 31, 1936) was an Essayist Novelist poet, playwright Karl Theodor Jaspers ( February 23, 1883 – February 26, 1969) was a German Psychiatrist and Philosopher who The Jewish philosophers Martin Buber and Lev Shestov have also been associated with existentialism. Martin Buber ( 8 February 1878 – 13 June 1965) was an Austrian Israeli Jewish Philosopher, translator Lev Isaakovich Shestov (Лев Исаакович Шестов born Yehuda Leyb Schwarzmann (Иегуда Лейб Шварцман was a Ukrainian/Russian - Jewish
- ^ Kierkegaard, Søren (1986). Fear and Trembling. Penguin Classics. ISBN 0-14-044449-1
- ^ Kierkegaard, Søren (1992). Concluding Unscientific Postscript. Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-02081-7
- ^ The Principles of Mathematics (1903) [1]
- ^ Hobbes, Thomas (1985). Leviathan. Penguin Classics.
- ^ Sigmund, Paul E. (2005). The Selected Political Writings of John Locke. Norton. ISBN 0-393-96451-5
- ^ "In a New Generation of College Students, Many Opt for the Life Examined. " The New York Times.
Further reading
Introductions
- Appiah, Kwame Anthony. Kwame Anthony Appiah (born 1954 in London) is a Ghanaian Philosopher, cultural theorist, and Novelist whose interests include Thinking it Through – An Introduction to Contemporary Philosophy, 2003, ISBN 0-19-513458-3
- Blumenau, Ralph. Philosophy and Living. ISBN 0-907845-33-9
- Craig, Edward. Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction. ISBN 0-19-285421-6
- Curley, Edwin, A Spinoza Reader, Princeton, 1994, ISBN 0-691-00067-0
- Durant, Will, Story of Philosophy: The Lives and Opinions of the World's Greatest Philosophers, Pocket, 1991, ISBN 0671739166, ISBN 978-0671739164
- Harrison-Barbet, Anthony, Mastering Philosophy. ISBN 0-333-69343-4
- Higgins, Kathleen M. and Solomon, Robert C. A Short History of Philosophy. ISBN 0-19-510196-0
- Russell, Bertrand. The Problems of Philosophy. ISBN 0-19-511552-X
- Sinclair, Alistair J. What is Philosophy? An Introduction. ISBN 0-19-0376594-3 ISBN-13: 978-1903765944
- Sober, E. (2001). Core Questions in Philosophy: A Text with Readings. Upper Saddle River, Prentice Hall. ISBN 0-13-189869-8
- Solomon, Robert C. Big Questions: A Short Introduction to Philosophy. ISBN 0-534-16708-X
- Warburton, Nigel. Philosophy: The Basics. ISBN 0-415-14694-1
Topical introductions
- Copleston, Frederick. Philosophy in Russia: From Herzen to Lenin and Berdyaev. ISBN 0-268-01569-4
- Critchley, Simon. Continental Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction. ISBN 0-19-285359-7
- Hamilton, Sue. Indian Philosophy: a Very Short Introduction. ISBN 0-19-285374-0
- Harwood, Sterling, ed. , Business as Ethical and Business as Usual (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Co. , 2000); www. sterlingharwood. com
- Imbo, Samuel Oluoch. An Introduction to African Philosophy. ISBN 0-8476-8841-0
- Knight, Kelvin. Aristotelian Philosophy: Ethics and Politics from Aristotle to MacIntyre. ISBN 0-7456-1977-0
- Kupperman, Joel J. Classic Asian Philosophy: A Guide to the Essential Texts. ISBN 0-19-513335-8
- Leaman, Oliver. A Brief Introduction to Islamic Philosophy. ISBN 0-7456-1960-6
- Lee, Joe and Powell, Jim. Eastern Philosophy For Beginners. ISBN 0-86316-282-7
- Nagel, Thomas. What Does It All Mean? A Very Short Introduction to Philosophy. ISBN 0-19-505292-7
- Scruton, Roger. A Short History of Modern Philosophy. ISBN 0-415-26763-3
- Smart, Ninian. World Philosophies. ISBN 0-415-22852-2
- Tarnas, Richard. The Passion of the Western Mind: Understanding the Ideas That Have Shaped Our World View. ISBN 0-345-36809-6
Anthologies
- Classics of Philosophy (Vols. 1 & 2, 2nd edition) by Louis P. Pojman
- Classics of Philosophy: The 20th Century (Vol. 3) by Louis P. Pojman
- The English Philosophers from Bacon to Mill by Edwin Arthur
- European Philosophers from Descartes to Nietzsche by Monroe Beardsley
- Contemporary Analytic Philosophy: Core Readings by James Baillie
- Existentialism: Basic Writings (Second Edition) by Charles Guignon, Derk Pereboom
- The Phenomenology Reader by Dermot Moran, Timothy Mooney
- Medieval Islamic Philosophical Writings edited by Muhammad Ali Khalidi
- A Source Book in Indian Philosophy by Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, Charles A. Moore
- A Source Book in Chinese Philosophy by Wing-tsit Chan
- Kim, J. Professor Wing-tsit Chan (陈荣捷( August 18, 1901 - August 12, 1994) was one of the world's leading scholars of Chinese philosophy and Ernest Sosa, Ed. (1999). Metaphysics: An Anthology. Blackwell Philosophy Anthologies. Oxford, Blackwell Publishers Ltd.
- The Oxford Handbook of Free Will (2004) edited by Robert Kane
- Husserl, Edmund and Welton, Donn, The Essential Husserl: Basic Writings in Transcendental Phenomenology, Indiana University Press, 1999, ISBN 0-253-21273-1
Reference works
- The Oxford Companion to Philosophy edited by Ted Honderich
- The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy by Robert Audi
- The Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy (10 vols. ) edited by Edward Craig, Luciano Floridi (available online by subscription); or
- The Concise Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy edited by Edward Craig (an abridgement)
- Encyclopedia of Philosophy (8 vols. Luciano Floridi (Laurea Università degli Studi di Roma La Sapienza, MPhil ) edited by Paul Edwards; in 1996, a ninth supplemental volume appeared which updated the classic 1967 encyclopedia.
- Routledge History of Philosophy (10 vols. ) edited by John Marenbon
- History of Philosophy (9 vols. ) by Frederick Copleston
- A History of Western Philosophy (5 vols. Fr Frederick Charles Copleston SJ, CBE (April 10 1907 Taunton, Somerset, England – February 3 1994 London, ) by W. T. Jones
- Encyclopaedia of Indian Philosophies (8 vols. ), edited by Karl H. Potter et al. (first 6 volumes out of print)
- Indian Philosophy (2 vols. ) by Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan
- A History of Indian Philosophy (5 vols. ) by Surendranath Dasgupta
- History of Chinese Philosophy (2 vols. ) by Fung Yu-lan, Derk Bodde
- Encyclopedia of Chinese Philosophy edited by Antonio S. Cua
- Encyclopedia of Eastern Philosophy and Religion by Ingrid Fischer-Schreiber, Franz-Karl Ehrhard, Kurt Friedrichs
- Companion Encyclopedia of Asian Philosophy by Brian Carr, Indira Mahalingam
- A Concise Dictionary of Indian Philosophy: Sanskrit Terms Defined in English by John A. Grimes
- History of Islamic Philosophy edited by Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Oliver Leaman
- History of Jewish Philosophy edited by Daniel H. Frank, Oliver Leaman
- A History of Russian Philosophy: From the Tenth to the Twentieth Centuries by Valerii Aleksandrovich Kuvakin
- Ayer, A. J. et al. , Ed. (1994) A Dictionary of Philosophical Quotations. Blackwell Reference Oxford. Oxford, Basil Blackwell Ltd.
- Blackburn, S. , Ed. (1996)The Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy. Oxford, Oxford University Press.
- Mauter, T. , Ed. The Penguin Dictionary of Philosophy. London, Penguin Books.
- Runes, D. , Ed. (1942). The Dictionary of Philosophy. New York, The Philosophical Library, Inc.
- Angeles, P. A. , Ed. (1992). The Harper Collins Dictionary of Philosophy. New York, Harper Perennial.
- Bunnin, N. et al. , Ed. (1996) The Blackwell Companion to Philosophy. Blackwell Companions to Philosophy. Oxford, Blackwell Publishers Ltd.
- Popkin, R. H. (1999). The Columbia History of Western Philosophy. New York, Columbia University Press.
See also
External links
- Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
- The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
- Philosophy Timeline
- Philosophy Forums
- Philosophy Magazines and Journals
- Philosophy at the Open Directory Project
The Open Directory Project ( ODP) also known as dmoz (from directory
Dictionary
philosophy
-noun
- (uncountable) An academic discipline that is often divided into five major branches: logic; metaphysics; epistemology; ethics; and aesthetics.
- (countable) A comprehensive system of belief.
- (countable) A view or outlook regarding fundamental principles underlying some domain.
- (countable) A general principle (usually moral).
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