Philosophy
is the study of the general and fundamental nature of reality,
existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind and language The Ancient
Greek word ...
Philosophy
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Philosophy is the study of the general and fundamental nature of
reality,
existence,
knowledge,
values,
reason,
mind and
language.
[1][2][3] The
Ancient Greek word
φιλοσοφία (
philosophia) was probably coined by
Pythagoras[4] and literally means "love of wisdom" or "friend of wisdom."
[5][6][7][8][9] Philosophy has been divided into many sub-fields. It has been divided chronologically (e.g.,
ancient and
modern); by topic (the major topics being
epistemology,
logic,
metaphysics,
ethics, and
aesthetics); and by style (e.g.,
analytic philosophy).
As a method, philosophy is often distinguished from other ways of
addressing such problems by its questioning, critical, generally
systematic approach and its reliance on
rational argument.
[10] As a noun, the term "philosophy" can refer to any body of knowledge.
[11] Historically, these bodies of knowledge were commonly divided into
natural philosophy,
moral philosophy, and
metaphysical philosophy.
[9]
In casual speech, the term can refer to any of "the most basic beliefs,
concepts, and attitudes of an individual or group," (e.g., "Dr. Smith's
philosophy of parenting").
[12]
Philosophy has also been defined as "what you end up doing if you keep on asking questions about the basis of previous answers"
[13]
Areas of inquiry
Philosophy has been divided into many sub-fields. In modern
universities, these sub-fields are distinguished either by chronology or
topic or style.
- Chronological divisions include ancient, medieval, modern, and contemporary.[14]
- Topical divisions include epistemology, logic, metaphysics, ethics, and aesthetics.[15][16]
- Divisions of style include analytic, continental, and social/political philosophy, among others.
Some of the major areas of study are considered individually below.
Epistemology
Main article:
Epistemology
Epistemology is concerned with the nature and scope of knowledge,
[17] such as the relationships between
truth,
belief,
perception 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, 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).
[18]
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 inference 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 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 “Joe is human”
then “Joe 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".
[19]
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.
[20] Conceptualism holds that universals exist, but only within the mind's perception.
[21]
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.
Ethics 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 promulgating
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.
[22]
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.
[23]
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. It is a branch of philosophy dealing with the nature of
art,
beauty, and
taste, with the creation and appreciation of beauty.
[24][25] It is more scientifically defined as the study of
sensory or sensori-emotional values, sometimes called
judgments of
sentiment and taste.
[26] More broadly, scholars in the field define aesthetics as "critical reflection on art, culture and
nature."
[27][28]
More specific aesthetic theory, often with practical implications,
relating to a particular branch of the arts is divided into areas of
aesthetics such as art theory,
literary theory,
film theory and
music theory.
An example from art theory is aesthetic theory as a set of principles
underlying the work of a particular artist or artistic movement: such as
the
Cubist aesthetic.
[29]
Specialized branches
- Philosophy of history refers to the theoretical aspect of history.
- Philosophy of language explores the nature, the origins, and the use of language.
- Philosophy of law (often called jurisprudence) explores the varying theories explaining the nature and the interpretations of law.
- Philosophy of mind explores the nature of the mind, and its relationship to the body, and is typified by disputes between dualism and materialism. In recent years there has been increasing similarity between this branch of philosophy and cognitive science.
- Philosophy of religion
explores questions that often arise in connection with one or several
religions, including the soul, the afterlife, God, religious
experiences, analysis of religious vocabulary and texts, and the
relationship of religion and science.
- Philosophy of science explores the foundations, methods, history, implications, and purpose of science.
- Feminist philosophy explores questions surrounding gender, sexuality, and the body including the nature of feminism itself as a social and philosophical movement.
- Philosophy of film
analyzes films and filmmakers for their philosophical content and style
explores film (images, cinema, etc.) as a medium for philosophical
reflection and expression.
- Metaphilosophy explores the aims of philosophy, its boundaries, and its methods.
Many academic disciplines have also generated philosophical inquiry. These include
history,
logic, and
mathematics.
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.
[30]
Ancient philosophy
In
Western philosophy, the spread of
Christianity through the
Roman Empire marked the ending of
Hellenistic philosophy and ushered in the beginnings of
Medieval philosophy, whereas in
Eastern philosophy, the
spread of Islam through the
Arab Empire marked the end of
Old Iranian philosophy and ushered in the beginnings of
early Islamic philosophy.
Genuinely philosophical thought, depending upon original individual
insights, arose in many cultures roughly contemporaneously.
Karl Jaspers
termed the intense period of philosophical development beginning around
the 7th century and concluding around the 3rd century BCE an
Axial Age in human thought.
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").
[31][32]
Ptahhotep's grandson, Ptahhotep Tshefi, is traditionally credited with
being the author of the collection of wise sayings known as
The Maxims of Ptahhotep,
[33] 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.
[34] 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.
[35] 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",
[36] which was characterized by significant intellectual and cultural developments.
[36] 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,
[37]
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.
[38] 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.
[38]
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 Ancient Classical Greek 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.
[39] 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."
[40]
It was said in Roman Ancient history that
Pythagoras was the first man to call himself a philosopher, or lover of wisdom,
[41] and Pythagorean ideas exercised a marked influence on Plato, and through him, all of
Western philosophy. Plato and Aristotle, the first
Classical Greek philosophers, did refer critically to other simple "wise men", which were called in Greek "
sophists,"
and which were common before Pythagoras' time. From their critique it
appears that a distinction was then established in their own Classical
period between the more elevated and pure "lovers of wisdom" (the true
Philosophers), and these other earlier and more common traveling
teachers, who often also earned money from their craft.
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.
[39]
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 Socrates'
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[42] 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 or not they regarded the
Vedas as an infallible source of knowledge.
[43] 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.
[44]
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.
[45]
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.
[46]
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.
[47] 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."
[48]
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,
[49]
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.
[50][51]
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.
[52][53] Displacing the medieval interest in metaphysics and logic, the humanists followed
Petrarch in making man and his virtues the focus of philosophy.
[54][55]
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.
[55]
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.
[56] 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).
[57]
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.
[58][59][60]
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
[61]),
Thomas More,
Erasmus,
Justus Lipsius,
Jean Bodin, and
Hugo Grotius.
[62][63]
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.
[64] Although the Neo-Confucianists were critical of Daoism and Buddhism,
[65]
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.
[66]
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.
[65] 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.
[66]
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.
Vietnamese philosophy was also influenced heavily by Confucianism in this period.
[citation needed]
India
The period between 5th and 9th centuries CE was the most brilliant
epoch in the development of Indian philosophy as Hindu and Buddhist
philosophies flourished side by side.
[67] Of these various schools of thought the non-dualistic
Advaita Vedanta emerged as the most influential
[68] and most dominant school of philosophy.
[69] 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.
[70]
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.
Mesoamerica
Aztec philosophy was the school of philosophy developed by the
Aztec Empire. The Aztecs had a well-developed school of philosophy, perhaps the most developed in the
Americas and in many ways comparable to
Greek philosophy, even amassing more texts than the ancient Greeks.
[71] Aztec philosophy focused on
dualism,
monism, and
aesthetics, and Aztec philosophers attempted to answer the main Aztec philosophical question of how to gain stability and balance in an
ephemeral world.
Aztec philosophy saw the concept of
Ometeotl
as a unity that underlies the universe. Ometeotl forms, shapes, and is
all things. Even things in opposition—light and dark, life and
death—were seen as expressions of the same unity, Ometeotl. The belief
in a unity with dualistic expressions compares with similar
dialectical monist ideas in both Western and Eastern philosophies.
[72] Aztec priests had a
panentheistic view of religion but the popular
Aztec religion maintained
polytheism.
Priests saw the different gods as aspects of the singular and
transcendent unity of teotl but the masses were allowed to practice
polytheism without understanding the true, unified nature of the Aztec
gods.
[72]
Africa
Ethiopian philosophy is the philosophical corpus of the territories of present-day
Ethiopia and
Eritrea. Besides via oral tradition, it was preserved early on in written form through
Ge'ez manuscripts. This philosophy occupies a unique position within
African philosophy.
The character of Ethiopian philosophy is determined by the particular
conditions of evolution of the Ethiopian culture. Thus, Ethiopian
philosophy arises from the confluence of
Greek and
Patristic
philosophy with traditional Ethiopian modes of thought. Because of the
early isolation from its sources of Abrahamic spirituality –
Byzantium and
Alexandria – Ethiopia received some of its philosophical heritage through Arabic versions.
The sapiential literature developed under these circumstances is the
result of a twofold effort of creative assimilation: on one side, of a
tuning of
Orthodoxy
to traditional modes of thought (never eradicated), and vice versa,
and, on the other side, of absorption of Greek pagan and early Patristic
thought into this developing Ethiopian-Christian synthesis. As a
consequence, the moral reflection of religious inspiration is prevalent,
and the use of narrative,
parable,
apothegm
and rich imagery is preferred to the use of abstract argument. This
sapiential literature consists in translations and adaptations of some
Greek texts, namely of the
Physiolog (cca. 5th century A.D.),
The Life and Maxims of Skendes (11th century A.D.) and
The Book of the Wise Philosophers (1510/22).
In the 17th century, the religious beliefs of Ethiopians were challenged by King
Suseynos'
adoption of Catholicism, and by a subsequent presence of Jesuit
missionaries. The attempt to forcefully impose Catholicism upon his
constituents during Suseynos' reign inspired further development of
Ethiopian philosophy during the 17th century.
Zera Yacob (1599–1692) is the most important exponent of this renaissance. His treatise
Hatata (1667) is a work often included in the narrow canon of universal philosophy.
17th–20th 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.
[73]
Modern philosophy is distinguished from its predecessors by its
increasing independence from traditional authorities such as the Church,
academia, and Aristotelianism;
[74][75] a new focus on the foundations of knowledge and metaphysical system-building;
[76][77] and the emergence of modern physics out of natural philosophy.
[78]
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.
[79] 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
René Descartes.
[80]
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".
[81][82] The academic canon of early modern philosophy generally includes
Descartes,
Spinoza,
Leibniz,
Locke,
Berkeley,
Hume, and
Kant,
[83][84][85] 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.
[86][87][88]
19th-century philosophy
Later modern philosophy is usually considered to begin after the philosophy of
Immanuel Kant at the beginning of the 19th century.
[89] German philosophy exercised broad influence in this century, owing in part to the dominance of the German university system.
[90] 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.
[91] 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.
[92] 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."
[93]
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.
[20][94][95]
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.
[96][97] The later work of Russell and the philosophy of
Willard Van Orman Quine are influential exemplars of the naturalist approach dominant in the second half of the 20th century.
[98][99][100][101]
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.
[102][103] 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,
[104][105] while
Martin Heidegger drew on the ideas of Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, and Husserl to propose an unconventional
existential approach to
ontology.
[106][107]
In the
Arabic-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,
[citation needed] and were mostly concerned with the unity of the
Arab world.
[citation needed]
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.
[108] 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. 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 meaning or purport of a
statement should be judged by the effect its acceptance would have on
practice. Truth is that opinion which inquiry taken far enough would
ultimately reach.
[109]
For Charles Sanders Peirce these were principles of the inquirer's
self-regulation, implied by the idea and hope that inquiry is not
generally fruitless. The details of how these principles should be
interpreted have been subject to discussion since Peirce first conceived
them. 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 conception of
the object."
[110] 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.
[111]
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.
[112]
Critics have accused pragmatism falling victim to a simple fallacy:
because something that is true proves useful, that usefulness is the
basis for its truth.
[113] Thinkers in the pragmatist tradition have included John Dewey,
George Santayana, 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.
[114]
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.
[115]
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 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.
[114]
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. 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,
[116][117]
shared the belief that philosophical thinking begins with the human
subject—not merely the thinking subject, but the acting, feeling, living
human individual.
[118]
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.
[119]
Many existentialists have also regarded traditional systematic or
academic philosophy, in both style and content, as too abstract and
remote from concrete human experience.
[120][121]
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.
[122][123][124]
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.
[125][126]
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.
Thomism
Largely Aristotelian in its approach and content,
Thomism
is a philosophical tradition that follows the writings of Thomas
Aquinas. His work has been read, studied, and disputed since the 13th
century, especially by Roman Catholics. However, Aquinas has enjoyed a
revived interest since the late 19th century, among both atheists (like
Philippa Foot) and theists (like
Elizabeth Anscombe).
[127]
Thomist philosophers tend to be
rationalists in epistemology, as well as metaphysical
realists, and
virtue ethicists.
Human beings are rational animals whose good can be known by reason and
pursued by the will. With regard to the soul, Thomists (like Aristotle)
argue that soul or
psyche is real and immaterial but inseparable
from matter in organisms. Soul is the form of the body. Thomists accept
all four of Aristotle's causes as natural, including teleological or
final causes. In this way, though Aquinas argued that whatever is in the
intellect begins in the senses, natural teleology can be discerned with
the senses and abstracted from nature through induction.
[128]
Contemporary Thomism contains a diversity of philosophical styles, from Neo-Scholasticism to Existential Thomism.
[129] The so-called new
natural lawyers like
Germain Grisez and
Robert P. George
have applied Thomistic legal principles to contemporary ethical
debates, while cognitive neuroscientist Walter Freeman proposes that
Thomism is the philosophical system explaining cognition that is most
compatible with neurodynamics, in a 2008 article in the journal Mind and
Matter entitled "Nonlinear Brain Dynamics and Intention According to
Aquinas." So-called
Analytical Thomism of
John Haldane and others encourages dialogue between analytic philosophy and broadly Aristotelian philosophy of mind, psychology, and
hylomorphic metaphysics.
[130] Other modern or contemporary Thomists include
Eleonore Stump,
Alasdair MacIntyre, and
John Finnis.
The analytic tradition
Gottlob Frege (Emil Tesch)
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,
[131] 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 Quine was having a major influence, with the paper
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. As
Richard Weaver has argued, "ideas have consequences". The 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 Wilhelm Leibniz,
John Locke,
Jean-Jacques Rousseau,
Adam Smith,
Karl Marx,
John Stuart Mill,
Leo Tolstoy,
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. For
example, what were once philosophical pursuits have evolved into the
modern day fields such as
psychology,
sociology,
linguistics, and
economics.
See also
References
Philosophy portal
Confucius, illustrated in Myths & Legends of China, 1922, by E.T.C. Werner.Main article: Chinese philosophyPhilosophy 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",[36] which was characterized by significant intellectual and cultural developments.[36] 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.
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 Ancient Classical Greek 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.[39] 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."[40]
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.[47] 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.St. Thomas Aquinas
Largely Aristotelian in its approach and content, Thomism is a philosophical tradition that follows the writings of Thomas Aquinas. His work has been read, studied, and disputed since the 13th century, especially by Roman Catholics. However, Aquinas has enjoyed a revived interest since the late 19th century, among both atheists (like Philippa Foot) and theists (like Elizabeth Anscombe).[127]Alasdair MacIntyre
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.Gottlob Frege (Emil Tesch)
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