19 recent turned up (20 or fewer displayed):
- Eastern Philosophy
Eastern Philosophy is
a diverse body of approaches to life and philosophizing, particularly
centered on understanding the process of the
Universe and the endless
"becoming". ...
- Middle Eastern Philosophy
''Middle East Region, (Middle
East)
Middle
Eastern Philosophy is largely guided
by the Abrahamic Religions, ancient theologies, comprising
full world-views and their philosophical and historical
interpretations and philosophizing up to the present
day.
See: Islamic Philosophy, Christian
Philosophy and Jewish Philosophy.
Overview:
In the
study of comparative
religion, Abrahamic religions
are any of those religions deriving from
a common ancient Semitic
tradition and traced by their adherents to Abraham ("Father/Leader
of many"), a patriarch
whose life is narrated in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament, and as a prophet in the
Qur'an. This forms a large
group of related, largely monotheistic
religions, generally held to include Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and the Bah?'? Faith, and
comprises about half of the world's religious
adherents.
According to the Jewish
tradition, Abraham was the first
person to reject idolatry, hence ...
- Western Philosophy
Western Philosophy is
a line of related philosophical
thinking, beginning in Ancient Greece, and including the
predominant philosophical thinking of Europe and its former colonies up to the present
day. The concept of philosophy
itself originated in the West, derived from
the ancient Greek word philosophia;
literally, "the love of wisdom" (philein =
"to love" + sophia = wisdom, in the sense of
theoretical or cosmic insight). However, many
non-Western Religions have adopted
the term philosophy in reference to
cosmic intellectual discourse analogous to
Western Philosophy. See Eastern
Philosophy.
Western Philosophy has had
a tremendous influence on, and has been
greatly influenced by, Western Religion, Science,
and Politics. Indeed, the
central concepts of these fields can be
thought of as elements or branches of Western
Philosophy. To the Ancient Greeks, these
fields were often one and the same. Thus, in
the West, Philosophy is an expansive and
ambiguous concept. Today, however, what
generally distinguishes Philosophy from other
Western disciplines is the notion that
Philosophy is a "deeper" and more rational,
fundamental, and universal form of thought
than other disciplines.
Origins:
The
introduction of the terms "philosopher" and
"philosophy" has been ascribed to the Greek
thinker Pythagoras (see Diogenes
Laertius: "De vita et moribus
philosophorum", I, 12; Cicero:
"Tusculanae Disputationes", V, 8-9). ...
- African Philosophy
African Philosophy is a disputed
term used in different ways by different philosophers. ...
- Islamic Philosophy
Islamic Philosophy
is a part of the Islamic studies, and is a
longstanding attempt to create harmony
between faith, reason or Philosophy, and the
religious teachings of Islam. A
Muslim engaged in this field is called a
Muslim philosopher.
The
attempt to fuse Religion and Philosophy is
difficult because there are no clear
preconditions. On the other hand, classical
religious believers have a set of religious
principles that they hold to be fact. Indeed,
due to these divergent goals and views, some
hold that one cannot simultaneously be a
philosopher and a true adherent of Islam, which is believed to
be a revealed religion by
its adherents. In this view, all attempts at
synthesis ultimately fail.
However, others
believe that a synthesis between Islam and Philosophy is
possible. One way to find a synthesis is to
use philosophical arguments to prove that
one's preset religious principles are true.
This is a common technique found in the
writings of many religious traditions,
including Judaism, Christianity and Islam, but this is not
generally accepted as Philosophy-proper by
philosophers. Another way to find a synthesis
is to abstain from holding as true any
religious principles of one's faith at all,
unless one independently comes to those
conclusions from a philosophical analysis.
However, this is not generally accepted as
being faithful to one's religion by adherents
of that religion. A third, rarer and more
difficult path is to apply analytical
philosophy to one's own religion. In this
case a religious person would also be a
philosopher, by asking questions such as:
*What is the nature of God How do we
know that God exists?
*What is the nature of
revelation ...
- Ancient Philosophy
Ancient Western
Philosophy:
The key figure in
transforming early Greek philosophy into
a unified and continuous project - the one
still being pursued today - is Socrates, who studied
under several Sophists and then spent much of
his life, we are told, engaging everyone in
Athens in discussion trying to determine
whether anyone had a very good idea what they
were talking about, especially when they
talked about important matters like justice,
beauty and truth. ...
- Hindu Philosophy
Hindu Philosophy (one
of the main divisions of Indian Philosophy) is
traditionally seen through the prism of six
different systems that are listed here. The
characteristic of this Philosophy is to
consider being (consciousness)
together with the other issues.
Nyaya:
The Nyaya school
of philosophical speculation is based on a
text called the Nyaya Sutra. It was written by
Gautama, also known as Akshapada, (not to
be confused with Gautama, the founder of Buddhism), ...
- Indian Philosophy
The term Indian
Philosophy may refer to any of
several traditions of philosophical thought,
including:
* Hindu Philosophy
* Buddhist
Philosophy
* Jain Philosophy
...
- Buddhist Philosophy
The teachings of Gautama Buddha (6th century BC -
5th century BC), because of its non-theistic
nature, have been described as more of a Philosophy than a Religion. However,
adherents of Buddhism contest that
even these two categories lack in defining
Buddhist teaching. For them, Buddhism
presents itself as way to attain
understanding and direct insight into the
true nature of existence, and not mere
speculation nor a theoretical basis of a
branch of knowledge.
The early history of
Buddhist thought in India can better be
characterized as a shift from primarily moral and religious
teachings concerned with the attainment of enlightenment to a more
comprehensive system of thought, in the midst
of which philosophical schools and systems
gradually came into existence.
This
process is wound up with internal dynamics of
the Buddhist religion as well as with more
general developments in ancient Indian
intellectual environs. ...
- Chinese Philosophy
Chinese Philosophy
has a history of several thousand years. Its
origins are often traced back to the Yi Jing (commonly spelled "I Ching"), an ancient compendium
of divination, which
introduced some of the most fundamental terms
of Chinese Philosophy. Its age can only be
estimated, but it certainly draws from an
oracular tradition that goes back to Neolithic
times.
Early Shang thought was based upon a
cyclic notion of time, corresponding to the
seasons. This notion, which remained relevant
throughout Chinese history, represents a
fundamental distinction from Western
Philosophy, in which the dominant view of
time is a linear progression. During the
Shang, fate could be manipulated by
the great deity Shang
Di (ch. ??; pinyin
shang4di4), most frequently
translated as "Lord on High". Ancestor worship was also
present, as was human and animal
sacrifice.
When the Shang were overthrown
by the Zhou, a new
political, religious and philosophical
concept was introduced called the "mandate of
heaven". This mandate was said to be
taken when rulers became unworthy of their
position, and provided a shrewd justification
for Zhou rule. During this period,
archaeological evidence points to an increase
in literacy and a partial shift away from the
faith placed Shang Di, with ancestor worship
becoming commonplace and a more worldly
orientation coming to the fore.
In around
500 BC, after the Zhou state weakend
and China moved in to the Spring and
Autumn Period, the classic period of
Chinese philosophy began (it is an
interesting fact that this date nearly
coincides with the emergence of the first
Greek philosophers). This is known as the Hundred
Schools of Thought. Of the many schools
founded at this time and during the
subsequent Warring States Period (the
so-called ?? (bai3 jia1; "100
schools"), the four most influential ones
were Confucianism, Taoism, Mohism and
Legalism.
Mohist schools, such as the Logicians, were largely
quashed during the short Qin
Dynasty, where Legalism was the official
philosophy. Legalism remained influential
until the emperors of the Han
Dynasty adopted Daoism and later
Confucianism as official doctrine. These
latter two became the determining forces of
Chinese thought until the 20th century, with
the introduction Buddhist philosophy
negotiated largely through perceived
similarities with Daoism.
The respective
influences of Daoism and Confucianism are
often described this way: "Chinese are
Confucianist during the day, while they are
Daoists at night". Moreover, many Chinese mandarins were
government officials in the daily life
and poets (or painters) in their
spare time.
When the Communist
Party took over power, previous schools
of thought, excepting notably Legalism, were
denounced as backward, but their influence on
Chinese thought remains.
Although the
individual philosophical schools differ
considerably, they nevertheless share a
common subset of concepts derived from the Yi
Jing: The tai ji (Great
Heavenly Axis) forms a unity, from which
two antagonistic concepts, yin and
yang originate. The
word yin originally referred to a
hillside facing away from the sun.
Philosophically, it stands the gloomy,
passive, female concept, whereas
yang (the hillside facing the sun)
stands for the bright, active, male concept.
Both concepts, though antagonistic, are also
complementary and the present domination of
one implies the future rise of the other, as
moon's phases (this is the meaning of the
well-known yin-yang figures).
See also:
Chinese Classic
Texts, Eastern Philosophy, Chinese History,
Religion in
China
Some content
adapted from the Wikinfo
article "Chinese_philosophy" under the GNU
Free Documentation License. ...
- Hellenistic Philosophy
Please contribute to this
page
Often overlooked, the time after
the great ancient philosophers was rich
with philosophical activity, rediscovery of
ancient writing, and challenges to
tradition.
Hellenistic Philosophers:
*Cicero
*Zeno of Citium
*Epictetus
*Epicurus
*Lucretius
*Empedocles
*The
Neo-Platonists:
**Ammonius Saccas
**Plotinus
**Porphyry
**Proclus
**Iamblichus
*Marcus
Aurelius
Schools of Thought in Hellenistic
Period:
*Christianity
*Cynicism
*Epicureanism
*Hedonism
*Eclecticism
*Neo-Platonism
*Skepticism
*Stoicism
The spread
of Christian
Philosophy through the Roman world slowly
brought an end to the characteristic Greek
and Helinistic philosophy, ushering in the
beginnings of what is generally called Medieval
Philosophy, or sometimes called
philosophy in the Dark
Ages of Europe.
Some content adapted from the Wikinfo article "Hellenistic_philosophy" under
the GNU
Free Documentation License. ...
- Renaissance Philosophy
The Renaissance as a
movement and Philosophy is
described as the reaching back for classical
models in Medieval Europe, the search
for naturalism over stylism in Art, the
reemergence of Mathematics as
intimately related to philosophy. The
triggers generally held to be important are
the expansion of trade with China and India, the Printing Press, and the revival of
learning. Greek was studied again in Italy in
the mid 14th century, and in 1462 a "Platonic
Academy" was founded in Florence by Cosimo de
Medici.
The word now used for one of the
most important threads of the Renaissance is
"Humanism", an increasing
focus on the temporal and personal over
merely seeing this world as a gateway to the
Christian afterlife. Pico della Mirandola
(1463-1494) wrote Oratio de Hominis
Dignitate or Discourse on the
Dignity of Man in 1486. Sometimes called
"the manifesto of the Renaissance", it
invokes Plato and Aristotle to argue for a
conception of human worth rooted, which,
while rooted in faith, spreads to a belief in
the importance of the human ability to
encompass all knowledge.
History:
In his book The
Civilization of the Renaissance in
Italy, Jacob Burckhardt argued that,
beginning in the 14th century a
transformation in outlook and ideas began in
Italy which would later cover all of Europe.
The period is now generally thought to begin
around 1450, with several figures, notably Dante Alighieri,
Petrarch and Giovanni
Boccaccio being seen as being part of the
Renaissance, despite being much
earlier.
As with all periods, there is a
wide drift of dates, reasons for
catagorization and boundaries. In particular
the Renaissance, more than later periods, is
thought to roll through Europe. The
"Renaissance" in England is often thought to
include Shakespeare and Marlowe, for example,
at a time when Italy is thought to have
passed through Mannerism and to the Baroque.
As importantly the 16th century is split (see
lumpers/splitters) differently. Some historians see the
Reformation and Counter-Reformation as being
separated and more important for Philosophy,
while others see the entire era as one
sweeping period.
Renaissance Philosophers:
* Leon Battista
Alberti
* Francis Bacon
* Giordano Bruno
* John
Calvin
* John Capreolus
* Nicolai
Copernicus
* Nicholas of Cusa
* Erasmus
* Marsilio Ficino
* Galileo Galilei
* William
Gilbert
* Francesco
Guicciardini
* William Harvey
* Thomas Hobbes
* Johannes
Kepler
* Martin Luther
* Niccolo Machiavelli
* Michel de
Montaigne
* Thomas More
* Isaac Newton
* Pietro Pomponazzi
* Francis Suarez
*
Andreas
Vesalius
* Ulrich Zwingli
Some content adapted from the Wikinfo article "Renaissance_philosophy" under
the GNU
Free Documentation License. ...
- Modern Philosophy
Modern philosophy is
Philosophy done during
the "modern" era of Europe and
North America. ...
- Medieval Philosophy
The Philosophy of the era
now known as the Middle Ages (the period
roughly extending from the fall of the Roman Empire to the
Renaissance) is a
widely varied period in the history of philosophical thought.
However, one defining feature which
distinguishes this period, in the western
world, is the degree to which competing or
contradictory philosophical views and systems
were brought into dialogue with each other.
Logic and God:
Medieval
philosophy was greatly concerned with the
nature of God, and the application of Aristotle's logic and thought to every
area of life. If God exists at all, surely He
is the most important feature of the
universe, and therefore worthy of study. ...
- Gnosticism
Gnosticism is a blanket term for various
religions and sects most prominent in the
first few centuries A.D. Many elements of
second-century gnosticsm are pre-Christian.
The name of gnosticism comes from the Greek word for
knowledge, gnosis (??????),
referring to the idea that there is special,
hidden knowledge (esoteric knowledge) that
only a few may possess. ...
- Christian Philosophy
Christian Philosophy
is a two-millennia tradition of rational
thought as applied to the Christian tradition. No
survey article can do more than touch on the
most major figures and traditions, each of
which are covered in articles of their own.
Also there has been considerable interaction
with Jewish Philosophy and Islamic
Philosophy that continues into the modern
era, e.g. Modern
Islamic Philosophy explores many issues
in common with Modern
Catholic Philosophy.
Central Figures:
*Jesus
*St.
Paul
*Augustine of Hippo
*Aquinas and Francis
Bacon
The latter two are major figures
in Scholastic philosophy which
led to:
*Renaissance
Philosophy - emerging from
Scholasticism
*The Reformation, or Martin Luther and
Erasmus notably
*The The
Enlightenment, by authors who were part
of or reacting to Christian norms
More Modern
Christian Philosophy is effectively
indistinguishable from secular Philosophy in most
methodological respects, although some major
figures, e.g. Pope John Paul II, have taken
issue with some of these as unethical. ...
- Jewish Philosophy
Jewish Philosophy is
the conjunction between serious study of Philosophy and Jewish
Theology.
Early
Jewish Philosophy was heavilly influenced by
the Philosophy of Plato, Aristotle and Islamic
Philosophy. Many early medieval Jewish
philosophers (700s to 1000 CE) were
especially influenced by the Islamic
Motazilites; they denied all limiting
attributes of God and were champions of
God's unity and justice).
Over time
Aristotle came to be thought of as the
philosopher par excellence among Jewish
thinkers thinkers. This tendency toward
Aristotle was no less marked in the Islamic,
the Christian Byzantine and the
Latin-Christian schools of thought.
Karaite
Philosophy:
A schismatic break-off
from rabbinic Judaism, Karaism, developed its
own form of philosophy, a Karaite version of
the Islamic Kal?m. Early Karaites based their
philosophy on the Islamic Motazilite Kal?m; some later
Karaites, such as Aaron ben Elijah of
Nicomedia (fourteenth century), reverts, in
his Etz Hayyim (Hebrew,
"Tree of Life") to the views of Aristotle.
Avicebron, Solomon ibn
Gabirol:
The Jewish poet—philosopher
Solomon ibn Gabirol (died about 1070 CE) was
influenced by Plato. In
Gabirol's work Plato is the only philosopher
referred to by name. Characteristic of the
Philosophy of both is the conception of a
Middle Being between God and the world,
between species and individual. Aristotle had
already formulated the objection to the
Platonic theory of ideas, that it lacked an
intermediary or third being between God and
the universe, between form and matter. This
"third man," this link between incorporeal
substances (ideas) and idealess bodies
(matter), is, with Philo, the "Logos"; with
Gabirol it is the divine will. Philo gives
the problem an intellectual aspect; while
Gabirol conceives it as a matter of volition,
approximating thus to such modern thinkers as
Schopenhauer and Wundt.
Gabirol's
Philosophy made little impression on Judaism.
Among Jews he is esteemed as a poet; while
Christian Scholasticism, in the persons of
its two chief representatives, Albertus
Magnus and his pupil, Thomas Aquinas, defers
to him quite as frequently and
gratefully.
Jewish Mysticism, Kabbalah:
A separate
entry exists for Kabbalah. A fundamental
difference between the Kabbalists and ...
- Contemporary Philosophy
Near the turn of the 20th century, and
certainly thereafter, Philosophy literally
exploded in several challenging directions of
inquiry. ...
- The Presocratics
Pr?socratiques Vorsokratiker
The history of Philosophy in the west
begins with the Greeks, and particularly with a
group of philosophers commonly called the
"pre-Socratics", so named because they
appeared before Socrates brought dramatic
change to philosophy. ...
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