Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental
problems, such as those connected with
reality,
existence,
knowledge,
values,
reason,
mind, and
language.
[1][2] Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on
rational argument.
[3] The word "philosophy" comes from the Greek φιλοσοφία (
philosophia), which literally means "love of wisdom".
[4][5][6]
Areas of inquiry
The main areas of study in philosophy today include metaphysics, epistemology, logic, ethics, and aesthetics.
[7][8]
Epistemology
Main article:
Epistemology
Epistemology is concerned with the nature and scope of knowledge,
[9] such as the relationships between
truth,
belief, and
theories of justification.
Skepticism is the position which questions the possibility of completely justifying any truth. The
regress argument, a fundamental problem in epistemology, occurs when, in order to completely prove any statement P, its justification itself needs to be supported by another justification. This chain can do three possible options, all of which are unsatisfactory according to the
Münchhausen Trilemma. One option is
infinitism, where this chain of justification can go on forever. Another option is
foundationalism, where the chain of justifications eventually relies on
basic beliefs or
axioms that are left unproven. The last option, such as in
coherentism, is making the chain
circular so that a statement is included in its own chain of justification.
Rationalism is the emphasis on reasoning as a source of knowledge.
Empiricism is the emphasis on observational evidence via sensory experience over other evidence as the source of knowledge. Rationalism claims that every possible object of knowledge can be deduced from coherent premises without observation. Empiricism claims that at least some knowledge is only a matter of observation. For this, Empiricism often cites the concept of
tabula rasa, where individuals are not born with
mental content and that knowledge builds from experience or perception.
Epistemological solipsism is the idea that the existence of the world outside the mind is an unresolvable question.
Parmenides (fl. 500 BC) 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). This is known as the
third man argument.
Plato (427–347 BC) combined rationalism with a form of
realism. The philosopher's work is to consider being, and the essence (
ousia) 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. 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.
- 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). 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).
[10] 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.
Logic
Logic is the study of the principles of correct
reasoning.
Arguments use either deductive reasoning or inductive reasoning.
Deductive reasoning is when, given certain statements (called
premises), other statements (called conclusions) are
unavoidably implied.
Rules of inferences from premises include the most popular method,
modus ponens, where given “A” and “If A then B”, then “B” must be concluded. A common convention for a deductive argument is the
syllogism. An argument is termed
valid if its conclusion does indeed follow from its premises, whether the premises are true or not, while an argument is
sound if its conclusion follows from premises that are true.
Propositional logic uses premises that are
propositions, which are
declarations that are either true or false, while
predicate logic uses more complex premises called
formulae that contain
variables. These can be assigned values or can be
quantified as to when they apply with the
universal quantifier (always apply) or the
existential quantifier (applies at least once).
Inductive reasoning makes conclusions or generalizations based on
probabilistic reasoning. For example, if “90% of humans are right-handed” and “Joes is human” then “Joes is probably right-handed”. Fields in logic include
mathematical logic (formal symbolic logic) and
philosophical logic.
Metaphysics
Main article:
Metaphysics
Metaphysics is the study of the most general features of
reality, such as
existence,
time, the relationship between
mind and
body,
objects and their
properties, wholes and their parts, events, processes, and
causation. Traditional branches of metaphysics include
cosmology, the study of the
world in its entirety, and
ontology, the study of
being.
Within metaphysics itself there are a wide range of differing philosophical
theories.
Idealism, for example, is the belief that reality is mentally constructed or otherwise immaterial while
realism holds that reality, or at least some part of it, exists independently of the mind.
Subjective idealism describes objects as no more than collections or "bundles" of sense data in the perceiver. The 18th century philosopher
George Berkeley contended that existence is fundamentally tied to perception with the phrase
Esse est aut percipi aut percipere or "To be is to be perceived or to perceive".
[11]
In addition to the aforementioned views, however, there is also an ontological
dichotomy within metaphysics between the concepts of particulars and universals as well.
Particulars are those objects that are said to exist in space and time, as opposed to
abstract objects, such as numbers.
Universals are properties held by multiple particulars, such as redness or a gender. The type of
existence, if any, of universals and abstract objects is an issue of serious
debate within metaphysical philosophy.
Realism is the philosophical position that universals do in fact exist, while
nominalism is the negation, or denial of universals, abstract objects, or both.
[12] Conceptualism holds that universals exist, but only within the mind's perception.
[13]
The question of whether or not
existence is a
predicate has been discussed since the Early Modern period.
Essence is the set of attributes that make an object what it fundamentally is and without which it loses its
identity. Essence is contrasted with
accident: a property that the substance has
contingently, without which the substance can still retain its identity.
Moral and political philosophy
Ethics or "moral philosophy", is concerned primarily with the question of the best way to live, and secondarily, concerning the question of whether this question can be answered. The main branches of ethics are
meta-ethics,
normative ethics, and
applied ethics. Meta-ethics concerns the nature of ethical thought, such as the origins of the words good and bad, and origins of other comparative words of various ethical systems, whether there are absolute ethical truths, and how such truths could be known. Normative ethics are more concerned with the questions of how one ought to act, and what the right course of action is. This is where most ethical theories are generated. Lastly, applied ethics go beyond theory and step into real world ethical practice, such as questions of whether or not abortion is correct. Ethics is also associated with the idea of
morality, and the two are often interchangeable.
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).
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". 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. Kant believed that the incorporation of consequences into moral deliberation was a deep mistake, since it denies 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. An important 20th-century deontologist,
W.D. Ross, argued for weaker forms of duties called
prima facie duties.
More recent works have emphasized the role of character in ethics, a movement known as the
aretaic turn (that is, the
turn towards virtues). One strain of this movement followed the work of
Bernard Williams. Williams noted that rigid forms of 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.
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. 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. Virtue ethics in general has since gained many adherents, and has been defended by such philosophers as
Philippa Foot,
Alasdair MacIntyre, and
Rosalind Hursthouse.
Political philosophy is the study of
government and the relationship of individuals (or families and clans) to communities including the
state. It includes questions about justice, law, property, and the rights and obligations of the citizen. Politics and ethics are traditionally inter-linked subjects, as both discuss the question of what is good and how people should live. From ancient times, and well beyond them, the roots of justification for political authority were inescapably tied to outlooks on human nature. In
The Republic,
Plato presented the argument 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. 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.e. social animals), and governments are set up 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. 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. 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. This can only be done by the establishment of a
sovereign, in which (or whom) is vested complete control over the community, and is able to inspire awe and terror in its subjects.
[14]
Many in the Enlightenment were unsatisfied with existing doctrines in political philosophy, which seemed to marginalize or neglect the possibility of a
democratic state.
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. 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.
[15]
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. Nevertheless, many political philosophers, especially
moral realists, still make use of some essential human nature as a basis for their arguments.
Marxism is derived from the work of
Karl Marx and
Friedrich Engels. Their idea that capitalism is based on exploitation of workers and causes alienation of people from their human nature, the
historical materialism, their view of
social classes, etc., have influenced many fields of study, such as sociology, economics, and politics. Marxism inspired the Marxist school of
communism, which brought a huge impact on the history of the 20th century.
Aesthetics
Aesthetics deals with
beauty,
art, enjoyment, sensory-emotional values, perception, and matters of taste and sentiment.
Specialized branches
Many academic disciplines have also generated philosophical inquiry. These include
history,
logic, and
mathematics.
Etymology
The introduction of the terms "philosopher" and "philosophy" has been ascribed to the Greek thinker
Pythagoras.
[16] The ascription is said to be based on a passage in a lost work of Herakleides Pontikos, a disciple of
Aristotle. It is considered to be part of the widespread body of legends of Pythagoras of this time. "Philosopher" was understood as a word which contrasted with "
sophist" (from
sophoi). Traveling sophists or "wise men" were important in
Classical Greece, often earning money as teachers, whereas philosophers are "lovers of wisdom" and not professionals.
History
Many societies have considered philosophical questions and built philosophical traditions based upon each other's works.
Eastern philosophy is organized by the chronological periods of each region. Historians of western philosophy usually divide the subject into three or more periods, the most important being
ancient philosophy,
medieval philosophy, and
modern philosophy.
[17]
Ancient philosophy
Egypt and Babylon
There are authors who date the philosophical maxims of Ptahhotep before the 25th century. For instance, Pulitzer Prize winning historian Will Durant dates these writings as early as 2880 BCE within
The Story of Civilization: Our Oriental History. Durant claims that Ptahhotep could be considered the very first philosopher in virtue of having the earliest and surviving fragments of moral philosophy (i.e., "The Maxims of Ptah-Hotep").
[18][19] Ptahhotep's grandson, Ptahhotep Tshefi, is traditionally credited with being the author of the collection of wise sayings known as
The Maxims of Ptahhotep,
[20] whose opening lines attribute authorship to the vizier Ptahhotep:
Instruction of the Mayor of the city, the Vizier Ptahhotep, under the Majesty of King Isesi.
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,
dialogues,
epic poetry,
folklore,
hymns,
lyrics,
prose, and
proverbs. The
reasoning and
rationality of the Babylonians developed beyond
empirical observation.
[21] The Babylonian text
Dialog of Pessimism contains similarities to the
agnostic thought of the
sophists, the
Heraclitean doctrine of contrasts, and the dialogues of
Plato, as well as a precursor to the
maieutic Socratic method of
Socrates and Plato.
[22] The
Milesian philosopher
Thales is also traditionally said to have studied philosophy in Mesopotamia.
Ancient Chinese
Confucius, illustrated in
Myths & Legends of China, 1922, by E.T.C. Werner.
Philosophy has had a tremendous effect on
Chinese civilization, and throughout
East Asia. The majority of Chinese philosophy originates in the
Spring and Autumn and
Warring States era, during a period known as the "
Hundred Schools of Thought",
[23] which was characterized by significant intellectual and cultural developments.
[23] It was during this era that the major philosophies of China,
Confucianism,
Mohism,
Legalism, and
Taoism, arose, along with philosophies that later fell into obscurity, like
Agriculturalism,
Chinese Naturalism, and the
Logicians. Of the many philosophical schools of China, only Confucianism and Taoism existed after the
Qin Dynasty suppressed any Chinese philosophy that was opposed to Legalism.
Confucianism is
humanistic,
[24] philosophy that believes that human beings are teachable, improvable and perfectible through personal and communal endeavour especially including self-cultivation and self-creation. Confucianism focuses on the cultivation of virtue and maintenance of ethics, the most basic of which are
ren,
yi, and
li.
[25] Ren is an obligation of
altruism and humaneness for other individuals within a community,
yi is the upholding of righteousness and the moral disposition to do good, and
li is a system of norms and propriety that determines how a person should properly act within a community.
[25]
Taoism focuses on establishing harmony with the
Tao, which is origin of and the totality of everything that exists. The word "Tao" (or "Dao", depending on the
romanization scheme) is usually translated as "way", "path" or "principle". Taoist propriety and ethics emphasize the
Three Jewels of the Tao:
compassion,
moderation, and
humility, while Taoist thought generally focuses on
nature, the relationship between humanity and the cosmos (
天人相应);
health and
longevity; and
wu wei, action through inaction. Harmony with the
Universe, or the origin of it through the Tao, is the intended result of many Taoist rules and practices.
Ancient Graeco-Roman
Ancient Graeco-Roman philosophy is a period of Western philosophy, starting in the 6th century [c. 585] BC to the 6th century AD. It is usually divided into three periods: the
pre-Socratic period, the period of
Plato and
Aristotle, and the post-Aristotelian (or
Hellenistic) period. A fourth period that is sometimes added includes the
Neoplatonic and
Christian philosophers of
Late Antiquity. The most important of the ancient philosophers (in terms of subsequent influence) are Plato and Aristotle.
[26] Plato specifically, is credited as the founder of Western philosophy. The philosopher
Alfred North Whitehead said of Plato: "The safest general characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato. I do not mean the systematic scheme of thought which scholars have doubtfully extracted from his writings. I allude to the wealth of general ideas scattered through them."
[27]
The main subjects of ancient philosophy are: understanding the fundamental causes and principles of the
universe; explaining it in an economical 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 that cannot be perceived by the senses, such as
numbers,
elements,
universals, and
gods. Socrates is said to have been the initiator of more focused study upon the human things including the analysis of patterns of
reasoning and argument and 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.
[26]
In this period the crucial features of the Western
philosophical method were established: a critical approach to received or established views, and the appeal to reason and argumentation. This includes Socrate's
dialectic method of inquiry, known as the
Socratic method or method of "elenchus", which he largely applied to the examination of key moral concepts such as the Good and
Justice. To solve a problem, it would be broken down into a series of questions, the answers to which gradually distill the answer a person would seek. The influence of this approach is most strongly felt today in the use of the
scientific method, in which
hypothesis is the first stage.
Ancient Indian
The term Indian philosophy (Sanskrit:
Darshanas), refers to any of several schools of
philosophical thought that originated in the
Indian subcontinent, including
Hindu philosophy,
Buddhist philosophy, and
Jain philosophy. Having the same or rather intertwined origins, all of these philosophies have a common underlying themes of
Dharma and
Karma, and similarly attempt to explain the attainment of emancipation. They have been formalized and promulgated chiefly between 1000 BC to a few centuries AD.
India's philosophical tradition dates back to the composition of the
Upanisads[28] in the
later Vedic period (c. 1000-500 BCE). Subsequent schools (
Skt:
Darshanas) of Indian philosophy were identified as orthodox (
Skt:
astika) or non-orthodox (Skt:
nastika) depending on whether they regarded the
Vedas as an infallible source of knowledge.
[29] By some classifications, there are six schools of orthodox
Hindu philosophy and three heterodox schools. The orthodox are
Nyaya,
Vaisesika,
Samkhya,
Yoga,
Purva mimamsa and
Vedanta. The Heterodox are
Jain,
Buddhist and materialist (
Cārvāka). Other classifications also include
Pashupata,
Saiva,
Raseśvara and
Pāṇini Darśana with the other orthodox schools.
[30]
Competition and integration between the various schools was intense during their formative years, especially between 500 BC to 200 AD. Some like the
Jain,
Buddhist,
Shaiva and
Vedanta schools survived, while others like
Samkhya and
Ajivika did not, either being assimilated or going extinct. The
Sanskrit term for "philosopher" is
dārśanika, one who is familiar with the systems of philosophy, or
darśanas.
[31]
In the history of the
Indian subcontinent, following the establishment of a
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. These schools have come to be synonymous with the greater religion of
Hinduism, which was a development of the early
Vedic religion.
Ancient Persian
Persian philosophy can be traced back as far as Old Iranian philosophical traditions and thoughts, with their ancient
Indo-Iranian roots. These were considerably influenced by
Zarathustra's teachings. 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. 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. 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.
Illuminationism and the
transcendent theosophy are regarded as two of the main philosophical traditions of that era in Persia. Zoroastrianism has been identified as one of the key early events in the development of philosophy.
[32]
5th–16th centuries
Europe
Medieval
Medieval philosophy is the philosophy of
Western Europe and the
Middle East during the
Middle Ages, roughly extending from the Christianization of the
Roman Empire until the Renaissance.
[33] 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 the then widespread sacred doctrines of
Abrahamic religion (
Islam,
Judaism, and
Christianity) with
secular learning.
The history of western European medieval philosophy is traditionally divided into two main periods: the period in the
Latin West following the
Early Middle Ages until the 12th century, when the works of
Aristotle and
Plato were preserved and cultivated; and the "golden age"
[citation needed] of the 12th, 13th and 14th centuries in the Latin West, which witnessed the culmination of the recovery of ancient philosophy, and significant developments in the field of
philosophy of religion,
logic and
metaphysics.
The medieval era was disparagingly treated by the Renaissance humanists, who saw it as a barbaric "middle" period between the classical age of Greek and Roman culture, and the "rebirth" or
renaissance of classical culture. Yet this period of nearly a thousand years was the longest period of philosophical development in Europe, and possibly the richest.
Jorge Gracia has argued that "in intensity, sophistication, and achievement, the philosophical flowering in the thirteenth century could be rightly said to rival the golden age of Greek philosophy in the fourth century B.C."
[34]
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.
Philosophers from the Middle Ages include the Christian philosophers
Augustine of Hippo,
Boethius,
Anselm,
Gilbert of Poitiers,
Peter Abelard,
Roger Bacon,
Bonaventure,
Thomas Aquinas,
Duns Scotus,
William of Ockham and
Jean Buridan; the Jewish philosophers
Maimonides and
Gersonides; and the
Muslim philosophers
Alkindus,
Alfarabi,
Alhazen,
Avicenna,
Algazel,
Avempace,
Abubacer,
Ibn Khaldūn, and
Averroes. The medieval tradition of
Scholasticism continued to flourish as late as the 17th century, in figures such as
Francisco Suarez and
John of St. Thomas.
Aquinas, father of
Thomism, was immensely influential in Catholic Europe, placed a great emphasis on reason and argumentation, and was one of the first to use the new translation of Aristotle's metaphysical and epistemological writing. His work was a significant departure from the
Neoplatonic and Augustinian thinking that had dominated much of early Scholasticism.
Renaissance
The Renaissance ("rebirth") was a period of transition between the Middle Ages and modern thought,
[35] in which the recovery of classical texts helped shift philosophical interests away from technical studies in logic, metaphysics, and theology towards eclectic inquiries into morality, philology, and mysticism.
[36][37] The study of the classics and the humane arts generally, such as history and literature, enjoyed a scholarly interest hitherto unknown in Christendom, a tendency referred to as
humanism.
[38][39] Displacing the medieval interest in metaphysics and logic, the humanists followed
Petrarch in making man and his virtues the focus of philosophy.
[40][41]
The study of classical philosophy also developed in two new ways. On the one hand, the study of Aristotle was changed through the influence of
Averroism. The disagreements between these Averroist Aristotelians, and more orthodox catholic Aristotelians such as
Albertus Magnus and
Thomas Aquinas eventually contributed to the development of a "humanist Aristotelianism" developed in the Renaissance, as exemplified in the thought of
Pietro Pomponazzi and
Giacomo Zabarella. Secondly, as an alternative to Aristotle, the study of
Plato and the
Neoplatonists became common. This was assisted by the rediscovery of works which had not been well known previously in Western Europe. Notable Renaissance Platonists include
Nicholas of Cusa, and later
Marsilio Ficino and
Giovanni Pico della Mirandola.
[41]
The Renaissance also renewed interest in anti-Aristotelian theories of nature considered as an organic, living whole comprehensible independently of theology, as in the work of
Nicholas of Cusa,
Nicholas Copernicus,
Giordano Bruno,
Telesius, and
Tommaso Campanella.
[42] Such movements in natural philosophy dovetailed with a revival of interest in occultism, magic,
hermeticism, and
astrology, which were thought to yield hidden ways of knowing and mastering nature (e.g., in Marsilio Ficino and Giovanni Pico della Mirandola).
[43]
These new movements in philosophy developed contemporaneously with larger religious and political transformations in Europe: the
Reformation and the decline of
feudalism. Though the theologians of the Protestant Reformation showed little direct interest in philosophy, their destruction of the traditional foundations of theological and intellectual authority harmonized with a revival of
fideism and skepticism in thinkers such as
Erasmus,
Montaigne, and
Francisco Sanches.
[44][45][46] Meanwhile, the gradual centralization of political power in nation-states was echoed by the emergence of secular political philosophies, as in the works of
Niccolò Machiavelli (often described as the first modern political thinker, or a key turning point towards modern political thinking
[47]),
Thomas More,
Erasmus,
Justus Lipsius,
Jean Bodin, and
Hugo Grotius.
[48][49]
East Asia
Mid-Imperial Chinese philosophy is primarily defined by the development of
Neo-Confucianism. During the
Tang Dynasty,
Buddhism from
Nepal also became a prominent philosophical and religious discipline. (It should be noted that philosophy and religion were clearly distinguished in the West, whilst these concepts were more continuous in the East due to, for example, the philosophical concepts of Buddhism.)
Neo-Confucianism is a philosophical movement that advocated a more rationalist and secular form of
Confucianism by rejecting superstitious and mystical elements of
Daoism and
Buddhism that had influenced Confucianism during and after the Han Dynasty.
[50] Although the Neo-Confucianists were critical of Daoism and Buddhism,
[51] the two did have an influence on the philosophy, and the Neo-Confucianists borrowed terms and concepts from both. However, unlike the Buddhists and Daoists, who saw
metaphysics as a catalyst for spiritual development, religious enlightenment, and immortality, the Neo-Confucianists used metaphysics as a guide for developing a rationalist
ethical philosophy.
[52]
Neo-Confucianism has its origins in the
Tang Dynasty; the Confucianist scholars
Han Yu and
Li Ao are seen as forbears of the Neo-Confucianists of the Song Dynasty.
[51] The Song Dynasty philosopher
Zhou Dunyi is seen as the first true "pioneer" of Neo-Confucianism, using Daoist metaphysics as a framework for his ethical philosophy.
[52]
Elsewhere in East Asia,
Japanese Philosophy began to develop as indigenous
Shinto beliefs fused with
Buddhism,
Confucianism and other schools of
Chinese philosophy and
Indian philosophy. Similar to Japan, in
Korean philosophy the emotional content of
Shamanism was integrated into the
Neo-Confucianism imported from China.
India
The period between 5th and 9th century CE was the most brilliant epoch in the development of Indian philosophy as Hindu and Buddhist philosophies flourished side by side.
[53] Of these various schools of thought the non-dualistic
Advaita Vedanta emerged as the most influential
[54] and most dominant school of philosophy.
[55] The major philosophers of this school were
Gaudapada,
Adi Shankara and
Vidyaranya.
Advaita Vedanta rejects theism and dualism by insisting that “
Brahman [ultimate reality] is without parts or attributes…one without a second.” Since, Brahman has no properties, contains no internal diversity and is identical with the whole reality it cannot be understood as God.
[56] Brahman though being indescribable is at best described as Satchidananda (merging "Sat" + "Chit" + "Ananda", i.e., Existence, Consciousness and Bliss) by Shankara. Advaita ushered a new era in Indian philosophy and as a result, many new schools of thought arose in the medieval period. Some of them were
Visishtadvaita (qualified monism),
Dvaita (dualism),
Dvaitadvaita (dualism-nondualism),
Suddhadvaita (pure non-dualism),
Achintya Bheda Abheda and
Pratyabhijña (the recognitive school).
Middle East
In early Islamic thought, which refers to philosophy during the "
Islamic Golden Age", traditionally dated between the 8th and 12th centuries, two main currents may be distinguished. The first is
Kalam, that mainly dealt with
Islamic theological questions. These include the
Mu'tazili and
Ash'ari. The other is
Falsafa, that was founded on interpretations of
Aristotelianism and
Neoplatonism. There were attempts by later philosopher-theologians at harmonizing both trends, notably by
Ibn Sina (Avicenna) who founded the school of
Avicennism,
Ibn Rushd (Averroës) who founded the school of
Averroism, and others such as
Ibn al-Haytham (Alhacen) and
Abū Rayhān al-Bīrūnī.
17th–21st centuries
Early modern philosophy
Chronologically, the early modern era of Western philosophy is usually identified with the 17th and 18th centuries, with the 18th century often being referred to as the
Enlightenment.
[57] Modern philosophy is distinguished from its predecessors by its increasing independence from traditional authorities such as the Church, academia, and Aristotelianism;
[58][59] a new focus on the foundations of knowledge and metaphysical system-building;
[60][61] and the emergence of modern physics out of natural philosophy.
[62] Other central topics of philosophy in this period include the nature of the mind and its relation to the body, the implications of the new natural sciences for traditional theological topics such as free will and God, and the emergence of a secular basis for moral and political philosophy.
[63] These trends first distinctively coalesce in
Francis Bacon's call for a new, empirical program for expanding knowledge, and soon found massively influential form in the mechanical physics and rationalist metaphysics of
Rene Descartes.
[64] Thomas Hobbes was the first to apply this methodology systematically to
political philosophy and is the originator of modern political philosophy, including the modern theory of a "
social contract".
[65][66] The academic canon of early modern philosophy generally includes
Descartes,
Spinoza,
Leibniz,
Locke,
Berkeley,
Hume, and
Kant,
[67][68][69] though influential contributions to philosophy were made by many thinkers in this period, such as
Galileo Galilei,
Pierre Gassendi,
Blaise Pascal,
Nicolas Malebranche,
Isaac Newton,
Christian Wolff,
Montesquieu,
Pierre Bayle,
Thomas Reid,
Jean d'Alembert, and
Adam Smith.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau was a seminal figure in initiating reaction against the Enlightenment. The approximate end of the early modern period is most often identified with
Immanuel Kant's systematic attempt to limit metaphysics, justify scientific knowledge, and reconcile both of these with morality and freedom.
[70][71][72]
19th-century philosophy
Later modern philosophy is usually considered to begin after the philosophy of
Immanuel Kant at the beginning of the 19th century.
[73] German philosophy exercised broad influence in this century, owing in part to the dominance of the German university system.
[74] German idealists, such as
Johann Gottlieb Fichte,
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, and
Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling, transformed the work of Kant by maintaining that the world is constituted by a rational or mind-like process, and as such is entirely knowable.
[75] Arthur Schopenhauer's identification of this world-constituting process as an irrational
will to live influenced later 19th- and early 20th-century thinking, such as the work of
Friedrich Nietzsche and
Sigmund Freud.
After Hegel's death in 1831, 19th-century philosophy largely turned against idealism in favor of varieties of philosophical
naturalism, such as the
positivism of
Auguste Comte, the empiricism of
John Stuart Mill, and the materialism of
Karl Marx. Logic began a period of its most significant advances since the inception of the discipline, as increasing mathematical precision opened entire fields of inference to formalization in the work of
George Boole and
Gottlob Frege.
[76] Other philosophers who initiated lines of thought that would continue to shape philosophy into the 20th century include
20th-century philosophy
Within the last century, philosophy has increasingly become a professional discipline practiced within universities, like other academic disciplines. Accordingly, it has become less general and more specialized. In the view of one prominent recent historian: "Philosophy has become a highly organized discipline, done by specialists primarily for other specialists. The number of philosophers has exploded, the volume of publication has swelled, and the subfields of serious philosophical investigation have multiplied. Not only is the broad field of philosophy today far too vast to be embraced by one mind, something similar is true even of many highly specialized subfields."
[77]
In the English-speaking world,
analytic philosophy became the dominant school for much of the 20th century. In the first half of the century, it was a cohesive school, shaped strongly by
logical positivism, united by the notion that philosophical problems could and should be solved by attention to
logic and
language. The pioneering work of
Bertrand Russell was a model for the early development of analytic philosophy, moving from a rejection of the idealism dominant in late 19th century British philosophy to an neo-Humean empiricism, strengthened by the conceptual resources of modern mathematical logic.
[12][78][79] In the latter half of the 20th century,
analytic philosophy diffused into a wide variety of disparate philosophical views, only loosely united by historical lines of influence and a self-identified commitment to clarity and rigor. The post-war transformation of the analytic program led in two broad directions: on one hand, an interest in ordinary language as a way of avoiding or redescribing traditional philosophical problems, and on the other, a more thoroughgoing
naturalism that sought to dissolve the puzzles of modern philosophy via the results of the natural sciences (such as cognitive psychology and evolutionary biology). The shift in the work of
Ludwig Wittgenstein, from a view congruent with logical positivism to a therapeutic dissolution of traditional philosophy as a linguistic misunderstanding of normal forms of life, was the most influential version of the first direction in analytic philosophy.
[80][81] The later work of Russell and the philosophy of
W.V.O. Quine are influential exemplars of the naturalist approach dominant in the second half of the 20th century.
[82][83][84][85] But the diversity of analytic philosophy from the 1970s onward defies easy generalization: the naturalism of Quine and his epigoni was in some precincts superseded by a "new metaphysics" of
possible worlds, as in the influential work of
David Lewis.
[86][87] Recently, the
experimental philosophy movement has sought to reappraise philosophical problems through social science research techniques.
On continental Europe, no single school or temperament enjoyed dominance. The flight of the logical positivists from central Europe during the 1930s and 1940s, however, diminished philosophical interest in natural science, and an emphasis on the humanities, broadly construed, figures prominently in what is usually called "
continental philosophy". 20th century movements such as
phenomenology,
existentialism, modern
hermeneutics,
critical theory,
structuralism, and
poststructuralism are included within this loose category. The founder of phenomenology,
Edmund Husserl, sought to study consciousness as experienced from a first-person perspective,
[88][89] while
Martin Heidegger drew on the ideas of Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, and Husserl to propose an unconventional
existential approach to
ontology.
[90][91]
In the Arab-speaking world
Arab nationalist philosophy became the dominant school of thought, involving philosophers such as
Michel Aflaq,
Zaki al-Arsuzi,
Salah al-Din al-Bitar of
ba'athism and
Sati' al-Husri. These people disregarded much of Marx's research, and were mostly concerned with the individual's spirituality which would, in the fight against imperialism and oppression, lead to a united
Arab Nation.
Major traditions
German idealism
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. 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. 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.
[92] 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. 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.
The most notable work of this
German idealism was
G. W. F. Hegel's
Phenomenology of Spirit, of 1807. Hegel admitted his ideas were not 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". Philosophers influenced by Hegel 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.
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 that does not depend on personal insight (revelation) or reference to some metaphysical realm. The truth of a statement should be judged by the effect it has on our actions, and truth should be seen as what the whole of scientific enquiry ultimately agrees on.
[93] 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 Charles S. Peirce first conceived it. Peirce's
maxim of pragmatism is as follows: "Consider what effects, which might conceivably have practical bearings, we conceive the object of our conception to have. Then, our conception of these effects is the whole of our conceptions of the object."
[94] Like
postmodern neo-pragmatist
Richard Rorty, many are convinced that pragmatism asserts that the truth of beliefs does not consist in their correspondence with reality, but in their usefulness and efficacy.
[95]
The late 19th-century
American philosophers Charles Sanders Peirce and
William James were its co-founders, and it was later developed by
John Dewey as
instrumentalism. Since the usefulness of any belief at any time might be contingent on circumstance, Peirce and James conceptualised final truth as something only established by the future, final settlement of all opinion.
[96] 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.
[97] Thinkers in the pragmatist tradition have included John Dewey,
George Santayana,
W. V. O. Quine and
C. I. Lewis. Pragmatism has more recently been taken in new directions by Richard Rorty,
John Lachs,
Donald Davidson,
Susan Haack, and
Hilary Putnam.
Phenomenology
Edmund Husserl's
phenomenology was an ambitious attempt to lay the foundations for an account of the structure of conscious experience in general.
[98] 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.
[99]
In the first part of his two-volume work, the
Logical Investigations (1901), he launched an extended attack on
psychologism. 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.
[98]
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. Later, he attempted to reconcile his transcendental standpoint with an acknowledgement of the intersubjective
life-world in which real individual subjects interact. 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. Indeed, through the work of Heidegger and Sartre, Husserl's focus on subjective experience influenced aspects of
existentialism.
Existentialism
Main article:
Existentialism
Existentialism is a term applied to the work of a number of late 19th- and 20th-century philosophers who, despite profound doctrinal differences,
[100][101] shared the belief that philosophical thinking begins with the human subject—not merely the thinking subject, but the acting, feeling, living human individual.
[102] In existentialism, the individual's starting point is characterized by what has been called "the existential attitude", or a sense of disorientation and confusion in the face of an apparently meaningless or absurd world.
[103] Many existentialists have also regarded traditional systematic or academic philosophy, in both style and content, as too abstract and remote from concrete human experience.
[104][105]
Although they did not use the term, the 19th-century philosophers
Søren Kierkegaard and
Friedrich Nietzsche are widely regarded as the fathers of existentialism. Their influence, however, has extended beyond existentialist thought.
[106][107][108]
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.
[109][110]
Although Kierkegaard and Nietzsche were among his influences, the extent to which the German philosopher
Martin Heidegger should be considered an existentialist is debatable. 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. However, in
The Letter on Humanism, Heidegger explicitly rejected the existentialism of
Jean-Paul Sartre.
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. Sartre, along with
Simone de Beauvoir, 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. 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 clarify systems of signs through analyzing the
discourses they both limit and make possible. 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 analyze 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, while the distinction between the signifier and signified was treated as crystalline by structuralists, poststructuralists asserted that every attempt to grasp the signified results in more signifiers, so meaning is always in a state of being deferred, making an ultimate interpretation impossible.
Structuralism came to dominate continental philosophy throughout the 1960s and early 1970s, encompassing thinkers as diverse as
Claude Lévi-Strauss,
Roland Barthes and
Jacques Lacan. Post-structuralism came to predominate over the 1970s onwards, including thinkers such as
Michel Foucault,
Jacques Derrida,
Gilles Deleuze and even
Roland Barthes; it incorporated a critique of structuralism's limitations.
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. 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.
Michael Dummett in his
Origins of Analytical Philosophy makes the case for counting
Gottlob Frege's
The Foundations of Arithmetic as the first analytic work, on the grounds that in that book Frege took the linguistic turn, analyzing philosophical problems through language.
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. Russell's classic works
The Principles of Mathematics,
[111] On Denoting and
Principia Mathematica with
Alfred North Whitehead, aside from greatly promoting the use of mathematical logic in philosophy, set the ground for much of the research program in the early stages of the analytic tradition, emphasizing such problems as: the reference of proper names, whether 'existence' is a property, the nature of propositions, the analysis of definite descriptions, the discussions on the foundations of mathematics; as well as exploring issues of ontological 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. Russell and Moore's philosophy, in the beginning of the 20th century, developed as a critique of
Hegel and his British 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. Some schools in the group include
logical positivism, and
ordinary language both markedly influenced by Russell and Wittgenstein's development of
Logical Atomism the former positively and the latter negatively.
In 1921,
Ludwig Wittgenstein, who studied under Russell at Cambridge, published his
Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, which gave a rigidly "logical" account of linguistic and philosophical issues. 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 reversed a number of the positions he set out in the
Tractatus, in for example his second major work,
Philosophical Investigations (1953).
Investigations was influential in the development of "ordinary language philosophy," which was promoted by
Gilbert Ryle,
J.L. Austin, and a few others. 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. 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 thin relation to experience. Some sentences that refer directly to experience might be 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. 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. Dummett, among others, argued that truth conditions should be dispensed within 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 his
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. 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 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. Some influential figures in contemporary analytic philosophy are: Timothy Williamson,
David Lewis,
John Searle,
Thomas Nagel,
Hilary Putnam,
Michael Dummett,
Peter van Inwagen and
Saul Kripke. Analytic philosophy has sometimes been 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. Analytic philosophers have also shown depth in their investigations of aesthetics, with
Roger Scruton,
Nelson Goodman,
Arthur Danto and others developing the subject to its current shape.
Applied philosophy
The ideas conceived by a society have profound repercussions on what actions the society performs. The applied study of philosophy yields applications such as those in
ethics—
applied ethics in particular—and
political philosophy. The political and economic philosophies of
Confucius,
Sun Zi,
Chanakya,
Ibn Khaldun,
Ibn Rushd,
Ibn Taimiyyah,
Niccolò Machiavelli,
Gottfried Leibniz,
John Locke,
Jean-Jacques Rousseau,
Adam Smith,
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.
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. Descendants of this movement include the current efforts in
philosophy for children, which are part of
philosophy education.
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. Logic has become crucially important in
mathematics,
linguistics,
psychology,
computer science, and
computer engineering.
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). The
philosophy of science discusses the underpinnings of the
scientific method and has affected the nature of scientific investigation and argumentation. As such, philosophy has fundamental implications for science as a whole. For example, the strictly empirical approach of Skinner's behaviorism 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.
Aesthetics can help to interpret discussions of
music,
literature, the
plastic arts, and the whole artistic dimension of life. 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.
See also
References
- ^ Jenny Teichmann and Katherine C. Evans, Philosophy: A Beginner's Guide (Blackwell Publishing, 1999), p. 1: "Philosophy is a study of problems which are ultimate, abstract and very general. These problems are concerned with the nature of existence, knowledge, morality, reason and human purpose."
- ^ A.C. Grayling, Philosophy 1: A Guide through the Subject (Oxford University Press, 1998), p. 1: "The aim of philosophical inquiry is to gain insight into questions about knowledge, truth, reason, reality, meaning, mind, and value."
- ^ Anthony Quinton, in T. Honderich (ed.), The Oxford Companion to Philosophy (Oxford University Press, 1995), p. 666: "Philosophy is rationally critical thinking, of a more or less systematic kind about the general nature of the world (metaphysics or theory of existence), the justification of belief (epistemology or theory of knowledge), and the conduct of life (ethics or theory of value). Each of the three elements in this list has a non-philosophical counterpart, from which it is distinguished by its explicitly rational and critical way of proceeding and by its systematic nature. Everyone has some general conception of the nature of the world in which they live and of their place in it. Metaphysics replaces the unargued assumptions embodied in such a conception with a rational and organized body of beliefs about the world as a whole. Everyone has occasion to doubt and question beliefs, their own or those of others, with more or less success and without any theory of what they are doing. Epistemology seeks by argument to make explicit the rules of correct belief formation. Everyone governs their conduct by directing it to desired or valued ends. Ethics, or moral philosophy, in its most inclusive sense, seeks to articulate, in rationally systematic form, the rules or principles involved."
- ^ "Philosophia, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, ''A Greek-English Lexicon'', at Perseus". Perseus.tufts.edu. http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3D%23111487. Retrieved 2010-08-22.
- ^ "Online Etymology Dictionary". Etymonline.com. http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=philosophy&searchmode=none. Retrieved 2010-08-22.
- ^ 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 ed.).
- ^ "Undergraduate Program | Department of Philosophy | NYU". Philosophy.fas.nyu.edu. http://philosophy.fas.nyu.edu/page/undergrad. Retrieved 2012-08-17.
- ^ "Aesthetics- definition". Merriam-Webster Dictionary. http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/aesthetics. Retrieved 2010-12-14.
- ^ G & C. Merriam Co. (1913). Noah Porter. ed. Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913 ed.). G & C. Merriam Co.. p. 501. http://machaut.uchicago.edu/?resource=Webster%27s&word=epistemology&use1913=on. Retrieved 2012-05-13. "E*pis`te*mol"o*gy (?), n. [Gr. knowledge + -logy.] The theory or science of the method or grounds of knowledge."
- ^ Descartes, René (1644). The Principles of Philosophy (IX).
- ^ "Idealism". philosophybasics.com. http://www.philosophybasics.com/branch_idealism.html. Retrieved 2011-12-20.
- ^ a b Rodriguez-Pereyra, Gonzalo (2008). "Nominalism in Metaphysics", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Edward N. Zalta (ed.). (link)
"The word 'Nominalism', as used by contemporary philosophers in the Anglo-American tradition, is ambiguous. In one sense, its most traditional sense deriving from the Middle Ages, it implies the rejection of universals. In another, more modern but equally entrenched sense, it implies the rejection of abstract objects"
- ^ Strawson, P. F. "Conceptualism." Universals, concepts and qualities: new essays on the meaning of predicates. Ashgate Publishing, 2006.
- ^ Hobbes, Thomas (1985). Leviathan. Penguin Classics.
- ^ Sigmund, Paul E. (2005). The Selected Political Writings of John Locke. Norton. ISBN 0-393-96451-5.
- ^ See Diogenes Laertius: "Lives of Eminent Philosophers", I, 12; Cicero: "Tusculanae disputationes", V, 8–9
- ^ For example, the multi-author Oxford History of Western Philosophy breaks the subject into eight volumes: ancient, medieval, Renaissance, two volumes covering the period 1600–1750, two volumes covering 1750–1945, and one volume on analytic philosophy since 1945. Anthony Kenny's New History of Western Philosophy is divided in four volumes: ancient, medieval, early modern (1500–1830), and later modern (1830 to the present). The more technical Cambridge History of Philosophy divides the topic into nine periods: Greek philosophy to Aristotle, Hellenistic philosophy, later Greek and early medieval, later medieval, Renaissance, three volumes for the 17th–19th centuries, and a final volume on 1870–1945.
- ^ "The Maxims of Good Discourse". Africanholocaust.net. http://www.africanholocaust.net/articles/ptahhotep.html. Retrieved 2012-08-17.
- ^ M. Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature, p.61
- ^ Grimal, p.79
- ^ 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].
- ^ a b Ebrey, Patricia (2010). The Cambridge Illustrated History of China. Cambridge University Press. p. 42.
- ^ Juergensmeyer, Mark (2005). Religion in global civil society. Oxford University Press. p. 70. ISBN 978-0-19-518835-6. "...humanist philosophies such as Confucianism, which do not share a belief in divine law and do not exalt faithfulness to a higher law as a manifestation of divine will"
- ^ a b Craig 1998, p. 536.
- ^ a b Oxford Companion to Philosophy
- ^ Process and Reality p. 39
- ^ p 22, The Principal Upanisads, Harper Collins, 1994
- ^ Oxford Dictionary of World Religions, p. 259
- ^ Cowell, E.B.; Gough, A.E. (1882). Sarva-Darsana Sangraha of Madhava Acharya: Review of Different Systems of Hindu Philosophy. New Delhi: Indian Books Centre/Sri Satguru Publications. p. xii. ISBN 81-7030-875-5.
- ^ Apte, p. 497.
- ^ Blackburn, Simon (1994). The Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- ^ Frederick Copleston, A History of Philosophy, Volume II: From Augustine to Scotus (Burns & Oates, 1950), p. 1, dates medieval philosophy proper from the Carolingian Renaissance in the eighth century to the end of the fourteenth century, though he includes Augustine and the Patristic fathers as precursors. Desmond Henry, in Paul Edwards (ed.), The Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Macmillan, 1967), vol. 5, pp. 252–257, starts with Augustine and ends with Nicholas of Oresme in the late fourteenth century. David Luscombe, Medieval Thought (Oxford University Press, 1997), dates medieval philosophy from the conversion of Constantine in 312 to the Protestant Reformation in the 1520s. Christopher Hughes, in A.C. Grayling (ed.), Philosophy 2: Further through the Subject (Oxford University Press, 1998), covers philosophers from Augustine to Ockham. Jorge J.E. Gracia, in Nicholas Bunnin and E.P. Tsui-James (eds.), The Blackwell Companion to Philosophy, 2nd ed. (Blackwell, 2003), p. 620, identifies medieval philosophy as running from Augustine to John of St. Thomas in the seventeenth century. Anthony Kenny, A New History of Western Philosophy, Volume II: Medieval Philosophy (Oxford University Press, 2005), begins with Augustine and ends with the Lateran Council of 1512.
- ^ Gracia, p. 1
- ^ Charles Schmitt and Quentin Skinner (eds.), The Cambridge History of Renaissance Philosophy (Cambridge University Press, 1988), p. 5, loosely define the period as extending "from the age of Ockham to the revisionary work of Bacon, Descartes and their contemporaries."
- ^ Frederick Copleston, A History of Philosophy, Volume III: From Ockham to Suarez (The Newman Press, 1953) p. 18: "When one looks at Renaissance philosophy ... one is faced at first sight with a rather bewildering assortment of philosophies."
- ^ Brian Copenhaver and Charles Schmitt, Renaissance Philosophy (Oxford University Press, 1992), p. 4: "one may identify the hallmark of Renaissance philosophy as an accelerated and enlarged interest, stimulated by newly available texts, in primary sources of Greek and Roman thought that were previously unknown or partially known or little read."
- ^ Jorge J.E. Gracia in Nicholas Bunnin and E.P. Tsui-James (eds.), The Blackwell Companion to Philosophy, 2nd ed. (Blackwell, 2002), p. 621: "the humanists ... restored man to the centre of attention and channeled their efforts to the recovery and transmission of classical learning, particularly in the philosophy of Plato."
- ^ Copleston, ibid.: "The bulk of Renaissance thinkers, scholars and scientists were, of course, Christians ... but none the less the classical revival ... helped to bring to the fore a conception of autonomous man or an idea of the development of the human personality, which, though generally Christian, was more 'naturalistic' and less ascetic than the mediaeval conception."
- ^ Charles B. Schmitt and Quentin Skinner (eds.), The Cambridge History of Renaissance Philosophy, pp. 61 and 63: "From Petrarch the early humanists learnt their conviction that the revival of humanae literae was only the first step in a greater intellectual renewal" [...] "the very conception of philosophy was changing because its chief object was now man—man was at centre of every inquiry".
- ^ a b Cassirer; Kristeller; Randall, eds. (1948). "Introduction". The Renaissance Philosophy of Man. University of Chicago Press.
- ^ Copenhaver and Schmitt, Renaissance Philosophy, pp. 285–328.
- ^ Pico Della Mirandola, Conclusiones philosophicae, cabalisticae et theologicae; Giordano Bruno, De Magia
- ^ Richard Popkin, The History of Scepticism from Savonarola to Bayle (Oxford University Press, 2003).
- ^ Copleston, pp. 228–229.
- ^ Kenny, A New History of Western Philosophy, vol. 3 (Oxford University Press, 2006), p. 8: "The Lutheran Reformation [...] gave new impetus to the sceptical trend."
- ^ "Machiavelli appears as the first modern political thinker" Williams, Garrath. "Hobbes: Moral and Political Philosophy". Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. http://www.iep.utm.edu/hobmoral/. . "Machiavelli ought not really to be classified as either purely an "ancient" or a "modern," but instead deserves to be located in the interstices between the two." Nederman, Cary. "Niccolò Machiavelli". Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/machiavelli/.
- ^ Copenhaver and Schmitt, Renaissance Philosophy, pp. 274–284.
- ^ Schmitt and Skinner, The Cambridge History of Renaissance Philosophy, pp. 430–452.
- ^ Blocker, H. Gene; Starling, Christopher L. (2001). Japanese Philosophy. SUNY Press. p. 64.
- ^ a b Huang 1999, p. 5.
- ^ a b Chan 2002, p. 460.
- ^ Sharma, Peri Sarveswara (1980). Anthology of Kumārilabhaṭṭa's Works. Delhi, Motilal Banarsidass. p. 5.
- ^ "Consciousness in Advaita Vedānta ," By William M. Indich, Motilal Banarsidass Publishers, 1995, ISBN 81-208-1251-4.
- ^ "Gandhi And Mahayana Buddhism". Class.uidaho.edu. http://www.class.uidaho.edu/ngier/GB.htm. Retrieved 2011-06-10.
- ^ Wainwright, William, "Concepts of God", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2010 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.)
- ^ Donald Rutherford, The Cambridge Companion to Early Modern Philosophy (Cambridge University Press, 2006), p. xiii, defines its subject thus: "what has come to be known as "early modern philosophy"—roughly, philosophy spanning the period between the end of the sixteenth century and the end of the eighteenth century, or, in terms of figures, Montaigne through Kant." Steven Nadler, A Companion to Early Modern Philosophy (Blackwell, 2002), p. 1, likewise identifies its subject as "the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries". Anthony Kenny, The Oxford History of Western Philosophy (Clarendon: Oxford University Press, 1994), p. 107, introduces "early modern philosophy" as "the writings of the classical philosophers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in Europe".
- ^ Steven Nadler, A Companion to Early Modern Philosophy, pp. 1–2: "By the seventeenth century [...] it had become more common to find original philosophical minds working outside the strictures of the university—i.e., ecclesiastic—framework. [...] by the end of the eighteenth century, [philosophy] was a secular enterprise."
- ^ Anthony Kenny, A New History of Western Philosophy, vol. 3 (Oxford University Press, 2006), p. xii: "To someone approaching the early modern period of philosophy from an ancient and medieval background the most striking feature of the age is the absence of Aristotle from the philosophic scene."
- ^ Donald Rutherford, The Cambridge Companion to Early Modern Philosophy (Cambridge University Press, 2006), p. 1: "epistemology assumes a new significance in the early modern period as philosophers strive to define the conditions and limits of human knowledge."
- ^ Kenny, A New History of Western Philosophy, vol. 3, p. 211: "The period between Descartes and Hegel was the great age of metaphysical system-building."
- ^ Kenny, A New History of Western Philosophy, vol. 3, pp. 179–180: "the seventeenth century saw the gradual separation of the old discipline of natural philosophy into the science of physics [...] [b]y the nineteenth century physics was a fully mature empirical science, operating independently of philosophy."
- ^ Kenny, A New History of Western Philosophy, vol. 3, pp. 212–331.
- ^ Nadler, A Companion to Early Modern Philosophy, pp. 2–3: "Why should the early modern period in philosophy begin with Descartes and Bacon, for example, rather than with Erasmus and Montaigne? [...] Suffice it to say that at the beginning of the seventeenth century, and especially with Bacon and Descartes, certain questions and concerns come to the fore—a variety of issues that motivated the inquiries and debates that would characterize much philosophical thinking for the next two centuries."
- ^ "Hobbes: Moral and Political Philosophy". Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. http://www.iep.utm.edu/hobmoral/. : "Hobbes is the founding father of modern political philosophy. Directly or indirectly, he has set the terms of debate about the fundamentals of political life right into our own times."
- ^ "Contractarianismtitle=Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy". http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/contractarianism/. : "Contractarianism [...] stems from the Hobbesian line of social contract thought"
- ^ Rutherford, The Cambridge Companion to Early Modern Philosophy, p. 1: "Most often this [period] has been associated with the achievements of a handful of great thinkers: the so-called 'rationalists' (Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz) and 'empiricists' (Locke, Berkeley, Hume), whose inquiries culminate in Kant's 'Critical philosophy.' These canonical figures have been celebrated for the depth and rigor of their treatments of perennial philosophical questions..."
- ^ Nadler, A Companion to Early Modern Philosophy, p. 2: "The study of early modern philosophy demands that we pay attention to a wide variety of questions and an expansive pantheon of thinkers: the traditional canonical figures (Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz, Locke, Berkeley, and Hume), to be sure, but also a large 'supporting cast'..."
- ^ Bruce Kuklick, "Seven Thinkers and How They Grew: Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz; Locke, Berkeley, Hume; Kant" in Rorty, Schneewind, and Skinner (eds.), Philosophy in History (Cambridge University Press, 1984), p. 125: "Literary, philosophical, and historical studies often rely on a notion of what is canonical. In American philosophy scholars go from Jonathan Edwards to John Dewey; in American literature from James Fenimore Cooper to F. Scott Fitzgerald; in political theory from Plato to Hobbes and Locke [...] The texts or authors who fill in the blanks from A to Z in these, and other intellectual traditions, constitute the canon, and there is an accompanying narrative that links text to text or author to author, a 'history of' American literature, economic thought, and so on. The most conventional of such histories are embodied in university courses and the textbooks that accompany them. This essay examines one such course, the History of Modern Philosophy, and the texts that helped to create it. If a philosopher in the United States were asked why the seven people in my title comprise Modern Philosophy, the initial response would be: they were the best, and there are historical and philosophical connections among them."
- ^ Rutherford, The Cambridge Companion to Early Modern Philosophy, p. 1.
- ^ Kenny, A New History of Western Philosophy, vol. 3, p. xiii.
- ^ Nadler, A Companion to Early Modern Philosophy, p. 3.
- ^ Shand, John (ed.) Central Works of Philosophy, Vol.3 The Nineteenth Century (McGill-Queens, 2005)
- ^ Thomas Baldwin (ed.), The Cambridge History of Philosophy 1870–1945 (Cambridge University Press, 2003), p. 4: "by the 1870s Germany contained much of the best universities in the world. [...] There were certainly more professors of philosophy in Germany in 1870 than anywhere else in the world, and perhaps more even than everywhere else put together."
- ^ Beiser, Frederick C. The Cambridge Companion to Hegel, (Cambridge, 1993).
- ^ Baldwin (ed.), The Cambridge History of Philosophy 1870–1945, p. 119: "within a hundred years of the first stirrings in the early nineteenth century [logic] had undergone the most fundamental transformation and substantial advance in its history."
- ^ Scott Soames, Philosophical Analysis in the Twentieth Century, vol. 2, p. 463.
- ^ Paul Edwards (ed.), Encyclopedia of Philosophy, vol. 7 (Macmillan, 1967), p. 239: "Russell has exercised an influence on the course of Anglo-American philosophy in the twentieth century second to that of no other individual."
- ^ Thomas Baldwin (ed.), The Cambridge History of Philosophy 1870–1945 (Cambridge University Press, 2003), p. 376: "[...] the three greatest European philosophers of the twentieth century—Heidegger, Russell, and Wittgenstein."
- ^ Avrum Stroll, Twentieth-Century Analytic Philosophy (Columbia University Press, 2000), p. 252: "More than any other analytic philosopher, [Wittgenstein] has changed the thinking of a whole generation."
- ^ "Wittgenstein, Ludwig" in the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy: "Ludwig Wittgenstein is one of the most influential philosophers of the twentieth century, and regarded by some as the most important since Immanuel Kant."
- ^ Thomas Baldwin, Contemporary Philosophy (Oxford University Press, 2001), p. 90: "[Quine] has been, without question, the most influential American philosopher of the second half of the twentieth century."
- ^ Peter Hylton, "Quine", in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: "Quine's work has been extremely influential and has done much to shape the course of philosophy in the second-half of the twentieth century and into the twenty-first."
- ^ Andrew Bailey, First Philosophy: Knowledge and Reality (Broadview Press, 2004), p. 274: "Willard Van Orman Quine (1908–2000) was uncontroversially one of the most important philosophers of the twentieth century."
- ^ Anthony Kenny, Philosophy in the Modern World (Oxford University Press, 2007), p. 64: "After Wittgenstein's death many people regarded W.V.O. Quine (1908–2000) as the doyen of Anglophone philosophy."
- ^ Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy [1]: "David Lewis (1941–2001) was one of the most important philosophers of the 20th Century. He made significant contributions to philosophy of language, philosophy of mathematics, philosophy of science, decision theory, epistemology, meta-ethics and aesthetics. In most of these fields he is essential reading; in many of them he is among the most important figures of recent decades. And this list leaves out his two most significant contributions."
- ^ John Perry, Michael Bratman, John Martin Fischer (eds.), Introduction to Philosophy: Classical and Contemporary Readings, 4th ed. (Oxford University Press, 2006), p. 302: "David Lewis (1941–2001) was one of the most important philosophers of the twentieth century."
- ^ "Edmund Husserl", in The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: "Edmund Husserl was the principal founder of phenomenology—and thus one of the most influential philosophers of the 20th century."
- ^ "Husserl, Edmund", in the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy: "he is arguably one of the most important and influential philosophers of the twentieth century."
- ^ Raymond Geuss, in Thomas Baldwin (ed.), The Cambridge History of Philosophy 1870–1945 (Cambridge University Press, 2003), p. 497: "Heidegger is by a wide margin the single most influential philosopher of the twentieth century."
- ^ "Heidegger, Martin", in the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy: "Martin Heidegger is widely acknowledged to be one of the most original and important philosophers of the 20th century".
- ^ 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.
- ^ Peirce on p. 293 of "How to Make Our Ideas Clear", Popular Science Monthly, v. 12, pp. 286–302. Reprinted widely, including Collected Papers of Charles Sanders Peirce (CP) v. 5, paragraphs 388–410.
- ^ Rorty, Richard (1982). The Consequences of Pragmatism. Minnesota: Minnesota University Press. p. xvi.
- ^ Putnam, Hilary (1995). Pragmatism: An Open Question. Oxford: Blackwell. pp. 8–12.
- ^ Pratt, J. B. (1909). What is Pragmatism?. New York: Macmillan. p. 89.
- ^ a b Woodruff Smith, David (2007). Husserl. Routledge.
- ^ Dreyfus, Hubert (2006). A Companion to Phenomenology and Existentialism. Blackwell.
- ^ John Macquarrie, Existentialism, New York (1972), pages 18–21.
- ^ Oxford Companion to Philosophy, ed. Ted Honderich, New York (1995), page 259.
- ^ John Macquarrie, Existentialism, New York (1972), pages 14–15.
- ^ Robert C. Solomon, Existentialism (McGraw-Hill, 1974, pages 1–2)
- ^ Ernst Breisach, Introduction to Modern Existentialism, New York (1962), page 5
- ^ Walter Kaufmann, Existentialism: From Dostoevesky to Sartre, New York (1956) page 12
- ^ Matustik, Martin J. (1995). Kierkegaard in Post/Modernity. Indiana University Press. ISBN 0-253-20967-6.
- ^ Solomon, Robert (2001). What Nietzsche Really Said. Schocken. ISBN 0-8052-1094-6.
- ^ 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"). The Jewish philosophers Martin Buber and Lev Shestov have also been associated with existentialism.
- ^ 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.
- ^ Russell, Bertrand (1999-02-22). "''The Principles of Mathematics'' (1903)". Fair-use.org. http://fair-use.org/bertrand-russell/the-principles-of-mathematics. Retrieved 2010-08-22.
Further reading
Introductions
- Appiah, Kwame Anthony. 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 0-671-73916-6, ISBN 978-0-671-73916-4
- 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
- Philosophy Now magazine
- Russell, Bertrand. The Problems of Philosophy. ISBN 0-19-511552-X
- Sinclair, Alistair J. What is Philosophy? An Introduction, 2008, ISBN 978-1-903765-94-4
- Sober, Elliott. (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
- Think: philosophy for everyone Lively and accessible articles written by philosophers pre-eminent in their fields, for a broad audience. Free articles are available online.
- Gerald Rochelle [2] Doing Philosophy, 2012, ISBN 978-1-780460-0
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. '3'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. 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 Donn Welton (1999). The Essential Husserl: Basic Writings in Transcendental Phenomenology, Indiana University Press. ISBN 0-253-21273-1
- Cottingham, John. Western Philosophy: An Anthology. 2nd ed. Malden, MA: Blackwell Pub., 2008. Print. Blackwell Philosophy Anthologies.
Reference works
- A Sourcebook of Chinese Philosophy by Chan, Wing-tsit.
- Essentials of Neo-Confucianism: Eight Major Philosophers of the Song and Ming Periods by Huang, Siu-chi
- 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.) edited by Paul Edwards; in 1996, a ninth supplemental volume appeared that updated the classic 1967 encyclopedia.
- International Directory of Philosophy and Philosophers. Charlottesville, Philosophy Documentation Center.
- Directory of American Philosophers. Charlottesville, Philosophy Documentation Center.
- 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.) by W. T. Jones
- History of Italian Philosophy (2 vols.) by Eugenio Garin. Translated from Italian and Edited by Giorgio Pinton. Introduction by Leon Pompa.
- 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
- Instructions for Practical Living and Other Neo-Confucian Writings by Wang Yang-ming by Chan, Wing-tsit
- 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.
- Hoffman, Eric, Ed. (1997) Guidebook for Publishing Philosophy. Charlottesville, Philosophy Documentation Center.
- Popkin, R.H. (1999). The Columbia History of Western Philosophy. New York, Columbia University Press.
External links
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