Philosophy

A • abduction (Igor Douven) • Abelard [Abailard], Peter (Peter King and Andrew Arlig) • Abhidharma (Noa Ronkin) • abilities (John Maier) • Abner of Burgos (Shalom Sadik) • Abrabanel, Judah (Aaron Hughes) • abstract objects (José L. Falguera, Concha Martínez-Vidal, and Gideon Rosen) • accidental properties — see • action (Juan S. Piñeros Glasscock and Sergio Tenenbaum) • joint — see • logic of — see • action-based theories of perception (Robert Briscoe and Rick Grush) • action at a distance — see • actualism — see • actualism and possibilism in ethics (Travis Timmerman and Yishai Cohen) • adaptationism (Steven Hecht Orzack and Patrick Forber) • Addams, Jane (Maurice Hamington) • Adorno, Theodor W. (Lambert Zuidervaart) • advance directives (Agnieszka Jaworska) • Aegidius Romanus — see • Aenesidemus — see • aesthetic, concept of the (James Shelley) • aesthetic experience (Antonia Peacocke) • aesthetics • 19th Century Romantic (Keren Gorodeisky) • aesthetic judgment (Nick Zangwill) • Beardsley — see • British, in the 18th century (James Shelley) • and cognitive science (Jon Robson and Gregory Currie) • Collingwood — see • Croce — see • cultural appropriation — see • definition of art — see • Dewey — see • environmental (Allen Carlson) • existentialist (Jean-Philippe Deranty) • feminist — see • French, in the 18th century (Jennifer Tsien and Jacques Morizot) • Gadamer — see • German, in the 18th century (Paul Guyer) • Goodman — see • Hegel — see • Heidegger — see • Hume — see ...

The word Philosophy comes from the philo (love) and sophia (wisdom) and so is literally defined as “the love of wisdom”. More broadly understood, it is the study of the most basic and profound matters of human existence. Philosophical schools frequently develop in response to some perceived failure of The topic of exactly when and where philosophy first began to develop is still debated, but the simplest answer is that it would have begun – at any place in the distant past – the first time someone asked why they were born, what their purpose was, and how they were supposed to understand their lives. The term philosophy may apply to a formalized secular or religious system of thought, a personal construct, or a communal understanding of proper attitude and conduct, but in each case, the purpose of the system is to answer such questions. When religion fails to fully answer a people's questions or address their needs, the people turn to philosophy. A philosophical system may develop independently but usually is a response to religion; when religion fails to fully answer a people's questions or address their needs, the people turn to philosophy. People's existential questions traditionally have been answered by the development of religious systems which assured them of the existence of supernatural entities (gods, divine spirits, one's departed ancestors) who created them, cared for them, and watched over them. These belief structures, institutionalized as part of a Although i...

Many major historical figures in philosophy have provided an answer to the question of what, if anything, makes life meaningful, although they typically have not put it in these terms (with such talk having arisen only in the past 250 years or so, on which seeLandau 1997). Consider, for instance, Aristotle on the human function, Aquinas on the beatific vision, and Kant on the highest good. Relatedly, think about Koheleth, the presumed author of the Biblical book Ecclesiastes, describing life as “futility” and akin to “the pursuit of wind,” Nietzsche on nihilism, as well as Schopenhauer when he remarks that whenever we reach a goal we have longed for we discover “how vain and empty it is.” While these concepts have some bearing on happiness and virtue (and their opposites), they are straightforwardly construed (roughly) as accounts of which highly rankedpurposesa person ought to realize that would make her life significant (if any would). Despite the venerable pedigree, it is only since the 1980s or so that a distinct field of the meaning of life has been established in Anglo-American-Australasian philosophy, on which this survey focuses, and it is only in the past 20 years that debate with real depth and intricacy has appeared. Two decades ago analytic reflection on life’s meaning was described as a “backwater” compared to that on well-being or good character, and it was possible to cite nearly all the literature in a given critical discussion of the field (Metz 2002). Nei...

There's plenty of blame to go around: poor regulation, eight years of a failed Republican economic philosophy, Wall Street-friendly Democrats who helped stymie reform, misguided bipartisan efforts to promote home ownership, Wall Street greed, corrupt CEOs, a botched rescue effort, painfully fallible central bankers. — Daniel Gross, Newsweek, 9 Mar. 2009 Recent Examples on the Web Our clients come first and those who don't share this philosophy don't last long. — Joseph Powell, The Enquirer, 7 June 2023 Ilana graduated from Vassar College with a degree in philosophy, and her work has also been featured in Bustle, Elite Daily, The List, and more. — Ilana Frost, Peoplemag, 6 June 2023 Teaching students to recognize logical fallacies and unpersuasive or manipulative reasoning is the main goal of courses in logic and critical thinking, as well as philosophy more generally. — Troy Jollimore, Washington Post, 5 June 2023 That philosophy sort of came across in a lot of things. — Josh Peter, USA TODAY, 4 June 2023 After introducing a minimalist and modern philosophy in recent years that has quickly spread to the rest of the lineup, the all-new CX-90 is the latest and most refined version of the Mazda aesthetic. — Mara Balagtas Mcilwrath, Car and Driver, 1 June 2023 Political philosophies do not exist in the abstract. — Dan Mclaughlin, National Review, 27 May 2023 Shift in philanthropic philosophy Since the extraction of its oil wealth blossomed in the 1960s and ’70s, Saudi Arabia h...

2 Critical Thinking, Research, Reading, and Writing • Introduction • 2.1 The Brain Is an Inference Machine • 2.2 Overcoming Cognitive Biases and Engaging in Critical Reflection • 2.3 Developing Good Habits of Mind • 2.4 Gathering Information, Evaluating Sources, and Understanding Evidence • 2.5 Reading Philosophy • 2.6 Writing Philosophy Papers • Summary • Key Terms • References • Review Questions • Further Reading • 12 Contemporary Philosophies and Social Theories • Introduction • 12.1 Enlightenment Social Theory • 12.2 The Marxist Solution • 12.3 Continental Philosophy’s Challenge to Enlightenment Theories • 12.4 The Frankfurt School • 12.5 Postmodernism • Summary • Key Terms • References • Review Questions • Index Learning Objectives By the end of this section, you will be able to: • Identify sages (early philosophers) across historical traditions. • Explain the connection between ancient philosophy and the origin of the sciences. • Describe philosophy as a discipline that makes coherent sense of a whole. • Summarize the broad and diverse origins of philosophy. It is difficult to define philosophy. In fact, to do so is itself a philosophical activity, since philosophers are attempting to gain the broadest and most fundamental conception of the world as it exists. The world includes nature, consciousness, morality, beauty, and social organizations. So the content available for philosophy is both broad and deep. Because of its very nature, philosophy considers a range o...

Branches of philosophy [ ] The branches of philosophy and their sub-branches that are used in contemporary philosophy are as follows. Aesthetics [ ] • Epistemology [ ] • • • Ethics [ ] • • • • • • • • • • Logic [ ] Also regarded as the separate • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Metaphysics [ ] • • • • Philosophy of mind [ ] • • Philosophy of science [ ] • • • • • • • • • • • • • Other [ ] • • • • • • • • • Philosophic traditions by region [ ] Regional variations of philosophy. Africana philosophy [ ] • 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." • 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, ...