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Philosophy (from , )
is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about
existence
Existence is the ability of an entity to interact with reality. In philosophy, it refers to the ontological property of being.
Etymology
The term ''existence'' comes from Old French ''existence'', from Medieval Latin ''existentia/exsistentia' ...
,
reason
Reason is the capacity of consciously applying logic by drawing conclusions from new or existing information, with the aim of seeking the truth. It is closely associated with such characteristically human activities as philosophy, science, ...
,
knowledge
Knowledge can be defined as Descriptive knowledge, awareness of facts or as Procedural knowledge, practical skills, and may also refer to Knowledge by acquaintance, familiarity with objects or situations. Knowledge of facts, also called pro ...
,
values
In ethics and social sciences, value denotes the degree of importance of something or action, with the aim of determining which actions are best to do or what way is best to live (normative ethics in ethics), or to describe the significance of di ...
,
mind, and
language
Language is a structured system of communication. The structure of a language is its grammar and the free components are its vocabulary. Languages are the primary means by which humans communicate, and may be conveyed through a variety of ...
. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some sources claim the term was coined by
Pythagoras
Pythagoras of Samos ( grc, Πυθαγόρας ὁ Σάμιος, Pythagóras ho Sámios, Pythagoras the Samian, or simply ; in Ionian Greek; ) was an ancient Ionian Greek philosopher and the eponymous founder of Pythagoreanism. His politi ...
( BCE), although this theory is disputed by some.
Philosophical methods include
questioning,
critical discussion,
rational argument, and systematic presentation.
[ in .]
Historically, ''philosophy'' encompassed all bodies of knowledge and a practitioner was known as a ''
philosopher''.
["The English word "philosophy" is first attested to , meaning "knowledge, body of knowledge."
] "
natural philosophy
Natural philosophy or philosophy of nature (from Latin ''philosophia naturalis'') is the philosophical study of physics, that is, nature and the physical universe. It was dominant before the development of modern science.
From the ancient wo ...
," which began as a discipline in ancient India and Ancient Greece, encompasses
astronomy
Astronomy () is a natural science that studies celestial objects and phenomena. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and evolution. Objects of interest include planets, moons, stars, nebulae, g ...
,
medicine
Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care pr ...
, and
physics
Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which r ...
. For example,
Newton's 1687 ''
Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy
Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...
'' later became classified as a book of physics. In the 19th century, the growth of modern
research universities
A research university or a research-intensive university is a university that is committed to research as a central part of its mission. They are the most important sites at which knowledge production occurs, along with "intergenerational kn ...
led academic philosophy and other disciplines to
professionalize and specialize. Since then, various areas of investigation that were traditionally part of philosophy have become separate academic disciplines, and namely the
social sciences
Social science is one of the branches of science, devoted to the study of societies and the relationships among individuals within those societies. The term was formerly used to refer to the field of sociology, the original "science of so ...
such as
psychology
Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries between ...
,
sociology
Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of empirical investigation an ...
,
linguistics
Linguistics is the science, scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure ...
, and
economics
Economics () is the social science that studies the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services.
Economics focuses on the behaviour and interactions of economic agents and how economies work. Microeconomics analyzes ...
.
Today, major subfields of academic philosophy include
metaphysics
Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that studies the fundamental nature of reality, the first principles of being, identity and change, space and time, causality, necessity, and possibility. It includes questions about the nature of conscio ...
, which is concerned with the fundamental nature of
existence
Existence is the ability of an entity to interact with reality. In philosophy, it refers to the ontological property of being.
Etymology
The term ''existence'' comes from Old French ''existence'', from Medieval Latin ''existentia/exsistentia' ...
and
reality
Reality is the sum or aggregate of all that is real or existent within a system, as opposed to that which is only imaginary. The term is also used to refer to the ontological status of things, indicating their existence. In physical terms, r ...
;
epistemology
Epistemology (; ), or the theory of knowledge, is the branch of philosophy concerned with knowledge. Epistemology is considered a major subfield of philosophy, along with other major subfields such as ethics, logic, and metaphysics.
Epis ...
, which studies the nature of
knowledge
Knowledge can be defined as Descriptive knowledge, awareness of facts or as Procedural knowledge, practical skills, and may also refer to Knowledge by acquaintance, familiarity with objects or situations. Knowledge of facts, also called pro ...
and
belief
A belief is an attitude that something is the case, or that some proposition is true. In epistemology, philosophers use the term "belief" to refer to attitudes about the world which can be either true or false. To believe something is to take ...
;
ethics
Ethics or moral philosophy is a branch of philosophy that "involves systematizing, defending, and recommending concepts of right and wrong behavior".''Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' The field of ethics, along with aesthetics, concer ...
, which is concerned with
moral value; and
logic
Logic is the study of correct reasoning. It includes both formal and informal logic. Formal logic is the science of deductively valid inferences or of logical truths. It is a formal science investigating how conclusions follow from premise ...
, which studies the
rules of inference
In the philosophy of logic, a rule of inference, inference rule or transformation rule is a logical form consisting of a function which takes premises, analyzes their syntax, and returns a conclusion (or conclusions). For example, the rule of ...
that allow one to derive
conclusions from
true
True most commonly refers to truth, the state of being in congruence with fact or reality.
True may also refer to:
Places
* True, West Virginia, an unincorporated community in the United States
* True, Wisconsin, a town in the United States
* ...
premises
Premises are land and buildings together considered as a property. This usage arose from property owners finding the word in their title deeds, where it originally correctly meant "the aforementioned; what this document is about", from Latin ''pr ...
. Other notable subfields include
philosophy of religion
Philosophy of religion is "the philosophical examination of the central themes and concepts involved in religious traditions". Philosophical discussions on such topics date from ancient times, and appear in the earliest known texts concerning ph ...
,
philosophy of science
Philosophy of science is a branch of philosophy concerned with the foundations, methods, and implications of science. The central questions of this study concern what qualifies as science, the reliability of scientific theories, and the ult ...
,
political philosophy
Political philosophy or political theory is the philosophical study of government, addressing questions about the nature, scope, and legitimacy of public agents and institutions and the relationships between them. Its topics include politics, ...
,
aesthetics
Aesthetics, or esthetics, is a branch of philosophy that deals with the nature of beauty and taste, as well as the philosophy of art (its own area of philosophy that comes out of aesthetics). It examines aesthetic values, often expressed t ...
,
philosophy of language
In analytic philosophy, philosophy of language investigates the nature of language and the relations between language, language users, and the world. Investigations may include inquiry into the nature of meaning, intentionality, reference, ...
, and
philosophy of mind
Philosophy of mind is a branch of philosophy that studies the ontology and nature of the mind and its relationship with the body. The mind–body problem is a paradigmatic issue in philosophy of mind, although a number of other issues are add ...
.
Definitions
There is wide agreement that philosophy (from the
ancient Greek
Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic p ...
, phílos: "love"; and , sophía: "wisdom") is characterized by various general features: it is a form of
rational
Rationality is the quality of being guided by or based on reasons. In this regard, a person acts rationally if they have a good reason for what they do or a belief is rational if it is based on strong evidence. This quality can apply to an abi ...
inquiry, it aims to be systematic, and it tends to critically reflect on its own methods and presuppositions.
But approaches that go beyond such vague characterizations to give a more interesting or profound definition are usually controversial.
Often, they are only accepted by theorists belonging to a certain
philosophical movement
A philosophical movement refers to the phenomenon defined by a group of philosophers who share an origin or style of thought. Their ideas may develop substantially from a process of learning and communication within the group, rather than from out ...
and are revisionistic in that many presumed parts of philosophy would not deserve the title "philosophy" if they were true.
Before the modern age, the term was used in a very wide sense, which included the individual
science
Science is a systematic endeavor that Scientific method, builds and organizes knowledge in the form of Testability, testable explanations and predictions about the universe.
Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earli ...
s, like
physics
Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which r ...
or
mathematics, as its sub-disciplines, but the contemporary usage is more narrow.
Some approaches argue that there is a set of essential features shared by all parts of philosophy while others see only weaker family resemblances or contend that it is merely an empty blanket term.
Some definitions characterize philosophy in relation to its method, like pure reasoning. Others focus more on its topic, for example, as the study of the biggest patterns of the world as a whole or as the attempt to answer the big questions.
Both approaches have the problem that they are usually either too wide, by including non-philosophical disciplines, or too narrow, by excluding some philosophical sub-disciplines.
Many definitions of philosophy emphasize its intimate relation to science.
In this sense, philosophy is sometimes understood as a proper science in its own right. Some
naturalist approaches, for example, see philosophy as an empirical yet very abstract science that is concerned with very wide-ranging empirical patterns instead of particular observations.
Some
phenomenologists
Phenomenology may refer to:
Art
* Phenomenology (architecture), based on the experience of building materials and their sensory properties
Philosophy
* Phenomenology (philosophy), a branch of philosophy which studies subjective experiences and a ...
, on the other hand, characterize philosophy as the science of
essence
Essence ( la, essentia) is a polysemic term, used in philosophy and theology as a designation for the property or set of properties that make an entity or substance what it fundamentally is, and which it has by necessity, and without which it ...
s.
Science-based definitions usually face the problem of explaining why philosophy in its long history has not made the type of
progress as seen in other sciences.
This problem is avoided by seeing philosophy as an immature or provisional science whose subdisciplines cease to be philosophy once they have fully developed.
In this sense, philosophy is the midwife of the sciences.
Other definitions focus more on the contrast between science and philosophy. A common theme among many such definitions is that philosophy is concerned with
meaning,
understanding
Understanding is a psychological process related to an abstract or physical object, such as a person, situation, or message whereby one is able to use concepts to model that object.
Understanding is a relation between the knower and an object ...
, or the clarification of language.
According to one view, philosophy is
conceptual analysis
Philosophical analysis is any of various techniques, typically used by philosophers in the analytic tradition, in order to "break down" (i.e. analyze) philosophical issues. Arguably the most prominent of these techniques is the analysis of concep ...
, which involves finding the
necessary and sufficient conditions
In logic and mathematics, necessity and sufficiency are terms used to describe a conditional or implicational relationship between two statements. For example, in the conditional statement: "If then ", is necessary for , because the truth of ...
for the application of concepts.
Another defines philosophy as a linguistic therapy that aims at dispelling misunderstandings to which humans are susceptible due to the confusing structure of
natural language.
One more approach holds that the main task of philosophy is to articulate the pre-ontological understanding of the world, which acts as a
condition of possibility
In philosophy, condition of possibility (german: Bedingungen der Möglichkeit) is a concept made popular by the German philosopher Immanuel Kant, and is an important part of his philosophy.
A condition of possibility is a necessary framework fo ...
of
experience
Experience refers to conscious events in general, more specifically to perceptions, or to the practical knowledge and familiarity that is produced by these conscious processes. Understood as a conscious event in the widest sense, experience involv ...
.
Many other definitions of philosophy do not clearly fall into any of the aforementioned categories. An early approach already found in
ancient Greek
Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic p ...
and
Roman philosophy is that philosophy is the spiritual practice of developing one's
reasoning ability.
This practice is an expression of the philosopher's love of wisdom and has the aim of improving one's
well-being
Well-being, or wellbeing, also known as wellness, prudential value or quality of life, refers to what is intrinsically valuable relative ''to'' someone. So the well-being of a person is what is ultimately good ''for'' this person, what is in th ...
by leading a reflective life.
A closely related approach identifies the development and articulation of
worldviews
A worldview or world-view or ''Weltanschauung'' is the fundamental cognitive orientation of an individual or society encompassing the whole of the individual's or society's knowledge, culture, and point of view. A worldview can include natural ...
as the principal task of philosophy, i.e. to express how things on the grand scale hang together and which practical stance we should take towards them.
Another definition characterizes philosophy as ''
thinking
In their most common sense, the terms thought and thinking refer to conscious cognitive processes that can happen independently of sensory stimulation. Their most paradigmatic forms are judging, reasoning, concept formation, problem solving, an ...
about thinking'' in order to emphasize its reflective nature.
Historical overview
In one general sense, philosophy is associated with
wisdom
Wisdom, sapience, or sagacity is the ability to contemplate and act using knowledge, experience, understanding, common sense and insight. Wisdom is associated with attributes such as unbiased judgment, compassion, experiential self-knowle ...
, intellectual culture, and a search for knowledge. In this sense, all cultures and literate societies ask philosophical questions, such as "how are we to live" and "what is the nature of reality". A broad and impartial conception of philosophy, then, finds a reasoned inquiry into such matters as
reality
Reality is the sum or aggregate of all that is real or existent within a system, as opposed to that which is only imaginary. The term is also used to refer to the ontological status of things, indicating their existence. In physical terms, r ...
,
morality
Morality () is the differentiation of intentions, decisions and actions between those that are distinguished as proper (right) and those that are improper (wrong). Morality can be a body of standards or principles derived from a code of co ...
, and life in all world civilizations.
Western philosophy
Western philosophy
Western philosophy encompasses the philosophical thought and work of the Western world. Historically, the term refers to the philosophical thinking of Western culture, beginning with the ancient Greek philosophy of the pre-Socratics. The word ' ...
is the philosophical tradition of the
Western world
The Western world, also known as the West, primarily refers to the various nations and states in the regions of Europe, North America, and Oceania. , dating back to
pre-Socratic
Pre-Socratic philosophy, also known as early Greek philosophy, is ancient Greek philosophy before Socrates. Pre-Socratic philosophers were mostly interested in cosmology, the beginning and the substance of the universe, but the inquiries of thes ...
thinkers who were active in 6th-century
Greece
Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders ...
(BCE), such as
Thales
Thales of Miletus ( ; grc-gre, Θαλῆς; ) was a Greek mathematician, astronomer, statesman, and pre-Socratic philosopher from Miletus in Ionia, Asia Minor. He was one of the Seven Sages of Greece. Many, most notably Aristotle, regarded ...
( BCE) and
Pythagoras
Pythagoras of Samos ( grc, Πυθαγόρας ὁ Σάμιος, Pythagóras ho Sámios, Pythagoras the Samian, or simply ; in Ionian Greek; ) was an ancient Ionian Greek philosopher and the eponymous founder of Pythagoreanism. His politi ...
( BCE) who practiced a 'love of wisdom' ()
and were also termed 'students of nature' ().
Western philosophy
Western philosophy encompasses the philosophical thought and work of the Western world. Historically, the term refers to the philosophical thinking of Western culture, beginning with the ancient Greek philosophy of the pre-Socratics. The word ' ...
can be divided into three eras:
#
Ancient
Ancient history is a time period from the beginning of writing and recorded human history to as far as late antiquity. The span of recorded history is roughly 5,000 years, beginning with the Sumerian cuneiform script. Ancient history cov ...
(
Greco-Roman).
#
Medieval philosophy
Medieval philosophy is the philosophy that existed through the Middle Ages, the period roughly extending from the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century until after the Renaissance in the 13th and 14th centuries. Medieval philosophy, ...
(referring to Christian European thought).
#
Modern philosophy
Modern philosophy is philosophy developed in the modern era and associated with modernity. It is not a specific doctrine or school (and thus should not be confused with ''Modernism''), although there are certain assumptions common to much of i ...
(beginning in the 17th century).
Ancient era
While our knowledge of the ancient era begins with
Thales
Thales of Miletus ( ; grc-gre, Θαλῆς; ) was a Greek mathematician, astronomer, statesman, and pre-Socratic philosopher from Miletus in Ionia, Asia Minor. He was one of the Seven Sages of Greece. Many, most notably Aristotle, regarded ...
in the 6th century BCE, little is known about the philosophers who came before
Socrates
Socrates (; ; –399 BC) was a Greek philosopher from Athens who is credited as the founder of Western philosophy and among the first moral philosophers of the ethical tradition of thought. An enigmatic figure, Socrates authored no te ...
(commonly known as
the pre-Socratics). The ancient era was dominated by
Greek philosophical schools. Most notable among the schools influenced by Socrates' teachings were
Plato
Plato ( ; grc-gre, Πλάτων ; 428/427 or 424/423 – 348/347 BC) was a Greek philosopher born in Athens during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. He founded the Platonist school of thought and the Academy, the first institution ...
, who founded the
Platonic Academy
The Academy (Ancient Greek: Ἀκαδημία) was founded by Plato in c. 387 BC in Athens. Aristotle studied there for twenty years (367–347 BC) before founding his own school, the Lyceum. The Academy persisted throughout the Hellenistic p ...
, and his student
Aristotle
Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatetic school of ph ...
, who founded the
Peripatetic school
The Peripatetic school was a school of philosophy in Ancient Greece. Its teachings derived from its founder, Aristotle (384–322 BC), and ''peripatetic'' is an adjective ascribed to his followers.
The school dates from around 335 BC when Aristo ...
. Other ancient philosophical traditions influenced by Socrates included
Cynicism
Cynic or Cynicism may refer to:
Modes of thought
* Cynicism (philosophy), a school of ancient Greek philosophy
* Cynicism (contemporary), modern use of the word for distrust of others' motives
Books
* ''The Cynic'', James Gordon Stuart Grant 1 ...
,
Cyrenaicism,
Stoicism, and
Academic Skepticism
Academic skepticism refers to the skeptical period of ancient Platonism dating from around 266 BCE, when Arcesilaus became scholarch of the Platonic Academy, until around 90 BCE, when Antiochus of Ascalon rejected skepticism, although indi ...
. Two other traditions were influenced by Socrates' contemporary,
Democritus
Democritus (; el, Δημόκριτος, ''Dēmókritos'', meaning "chosen of the people"; – ) was an Ancient Greek pre-Socratic philosopher from Abdera, primarily remembered today for his formulation of an atomic theory of the universe. No ...
:
Pyrrhonism and
Epicureanism. Important topics covered by the Greeks included
metaphysics
Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that studies the fundamental nature of reality, the first principles of being, identity and change, space and time, causality, necessity, and possibility. It includes questions about the nature of conscio ...
(with competing theories such as
atomism
Atomism (from Greek , ''atomon'', i.e. "uncuttable, indivisible") is a natural philosophy proposing that the physical universe is composed of fundamental indivisible components known as atoms.
References to the concept of atomism and its atoms ...
and
monism
Monism attributes oneness or singleness (Greek: μόνος) to a concept e.g., existence. Various kinds of monism can be distinguished:
* Priority monism states that all existing things go back to a source that is distinct from them; e.g., i ...
),
cosmology
Cosmology () is a branch of physics and metaphysics dealing with the nature of the universe. The term ''cosmology'' was first used in English in 1656 in Thomas Blount's ''Glossographia'', and in 1731 taken up in Latin by German philosopher ...
, the nature of the well-lived life (''
eudaimonia''), the
possibility of knowledge, and the nature of reason (
logos
''Logos'' (, ; grc, λόγος, lógos, lit=word, discourse, or reason) is a term used in Western philosophy, psychology and rhetoric and refers to the appeal to reason that relies on logic or reason, inductive and deductive reasoning. Ari ...
). With the rise of the
Roman empire
The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post- Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Mediter ...
, Greek philosophy was increasingly discussed in
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
by
Romans
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
*Rome, the capital city of Italy
* Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
*Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...
such as
Cicero
Marcus Tullius Cicero ( ; ; 3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, and academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises that led to the esta ...
and
Seneca
Seneca may refer to:
People and language
* Seneca (name), a list of people with either the given name or surname
* Seneca people, one of the six Iroquois tribes of North America
** Seneca language, the language of the Seneca people
Places Extrat ...
(see
Roman philosophy).
Medieval era
Medieval philosophy
Medieval philosophy is the philosophy that existed through the Middle Ages, the period roughly extending from the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century until after the Renaissance in the 13th and 14th centuries. Medieval philosophy, ...
(5th–16th centuries) took place during the period following the fall of the
Western Roman Empire
The Western Roman Empire comprised the western provinces of the Roman Empire at any time during which they were administered by a separate independent Imperial court; in particular, this term is used in historiography to describe the period ...
and was dominated by the rise of
Christianity
Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...
; it hence reflects
Judeo-Christian theological concerns while also retaining a continuity with Greco-Roman thought. Problems such as the existence and nature of
God
In monotheistic thought, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. Swinburne, R.G. "God" in Honderich, Ted. (ed)''The Oxford Companion to Philosophy'', Oxford University Press, 1995. God is typically ...
, the nature of
faith
Faith, derived from Latin ''fides'' and Old French ''feid'', is confidence or trust in a person, thing, or In the context of religion, one can define faith as " belief in God or in the doctrines or teachings of religion".
Religious people ofte ...
and reason, metaphysics, and the
problem of evil
The problem of evil is the question of how to reconcile the existence of evil and suffering with an omnipotent, omnibenevolent, and omniscient God.The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy,The Problem of Evil, Michael TooleyThe Internet Encycl ...
were discussed in this period. Some key medieval thinkers include
St. Augustine,
Thomas Aquinas
Thomas Aquinas, OP (; it, Tommaso d'Aquino, lit=Thomas of Aquino; 1225 – 7 March 1274) was an Italian Dominican friar and priest who was an influential philosopher, theologian and jurist in the tradition of scholasticism; he is known wit ...
,
Boethius
Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius, commonly known as Boethius (; Latin: ''Boetius''; 480 – 524 AD), was a Roman senator, consul, ''magister officiorum'', historian, and philosopher of the Early Middle Ages. He was a central figure in the tr ...
,
Anselm and
Roger Bacon. Philosophy for these thinkers was viewed as an aid to
theology
Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...
(), and hence they sought to align their philosophy with their interpretation of sacred scripture. This period saw the development of
scholasticism, a text critical method developed in
medieval universities
A medieval university was a corporation organized during the Middle Ages for the purposes of higher education. The first Western European institutions generally considered to be universities were established in present-day Italy (including the ...
based on close reading and disputation on key texts. The
Renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history
The history of Europe is traditionally divided into four time periods: prehistoric Europe (prior to about 800 BC), classical antiquity (800 BC to AD ...
period saw increasing focus on classic Greco-Roman thought and on a robust
humanism
Humanism is a philosophy, philosophical stance that emphasizes the individual and social potential and Agency (philosophy), agency of Human, human beings. It considers human beings the starting point for serious moral and philosophical in ...
.
Modern era
Early modern philosophy
Early modern philosophy (also classical modern philosophy)Richard Schacht, ''Classical Modern Philosophers: Descartes to Kant'', Routledge, 2013, p. 1: "Seven men have come to stand out from all of their counterparts in what has come to be known ...
in the Western world begins with thinkers such as
Thomas Hobbes
Thomas Hobbes ( ; 5/15 April 1588 – 4/14 December 1679) was an English philosopher, considered to be one of the founders of modern political philosophy. Hobbes is best known for his 1651 book ''Leviathan'', in which he expounds an influ ...
and
René Descartes
René Descartes ( or ; ; Latinized: Renatus Cartesius; 31 March 1596 – 11 February 1650) was a French philosopher, scientist, and mathematician, widely considered a seminal figure in the emergence of modern philosophy and science. Ma ...
(1596–1650).
Following the rise of natural science,
modern philosophy
Modern philosophy is philosophy developed in the modern era and associated with modernity. It is not a specific doctrine or school (and thus should not be confused with ''Modernism''), although there are certain assumptions common to much of i ...
was concerned with developing a secular and rational foundation for knowledge and moved away from traditional structures of authority such as religion, scholastic thought and the Church. Major modern philosophers include
Spinoza
Baruch (de) Spinoza (born Bento de Espinosa; later as an author and a correspondent ''Benedictus de Spinoza'', anglicized to ''Benedict de Spinoza''; 24 November 1632 – 21 February 1677) was a Dutch philosopher of Portuguese-Jewish origin, ...
,
Leibniz
Gottfried Wilhelm (von) Leibniz . ( – 14 November 1716) was a German polymath active as a mathematician, philosopher, scientist and diplomat. He is one of the most prominent figures in both the history of philosophy and the history of ma ...
,
Locke,
Berkeley
Berkeley most often refers to:
*Berkeley, California, a city in the United States
**University of California, Berkeley, a public university in Berkeley, California
* George Berkeley (1685–1753), Anglo-Irish philosopher
Berkeley may also refer ...
,
Hume, and
Kant
Immanuel Kant (, , ; 22 April 1724 – 12 February 1804) was a German philosopher and one of the central Enlightenment thinkers. Born in Königsberg, Kant's comprehensive and systematic works in epistemology, metaphysics, ethics, and aest ...
.
19th-century philosophy (sometimes called
late modern philosophy
Western philosophy encompasses the philosophical thought and work of the Western world. Historically, the term refers to the philosophical thinking of Western culture, beginning with the ancient Greek philosophy of the pre-Socratics. The word ...
) was influenced by the wider 18th-century movement termed "
the Enlightenment
The Age of Enlightenment or the Enlightenment; german: Aufklärung, "Enlightenment"; it, L'Illuminismo, "Enlightenment"; pl, Oświecenie, "Enlightenment"; pt, Iluminismo, "Enlightenment"; es, La Ilustración, "Enlightenment" was an intel ...
", and includes figures such as
Hegel, a key figure in
German idealism
German idealism was a philosophical movement that emerged in Germany in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. It developed out of the work of Immanuel Kant in the 1780s and 1790s, and was closely linked both with Romanticism and the revolutionary ...
;
Kierkegaard, who developed the foundations for
existentialism
Existentialism ( ) is a form of philosophical inquiry that explores the problem of human existence and centers on human thinking, feeling, and acting. Existentialist thinkers frequently explore issues related to the meaning, purpose, and valu ...
;
Thomas Carlyle
Thomas Carlyle (4 December 17955 February 1881) was a Scottish essayist, historian and philosopher. A leading writer of the Victorian era, he exerted a profound influence on 19th-century art, literature and philosophy.
Born in Ecclefechan, Dum ...
, representative of the
great man theory;
Nietzsche
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (; or ; 15 October 1844 – 25 August 1900) was a German philosopher, prose poet, cultural critic, philologist, and composer whose work has exerted a profound influence on contemporary philosophy. He began his car ...
, a famed anti-Christian;
John Stuart Mill, who promoted
utilitarianism
In ethical philosophy, utilitarianism is a family of normative ethical theories that prescribe actions that maximize happiness and well-being for all affected individuals.
Although different varieties of utilitarianism admit different chara ...
;
Karl Marx
Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...
, who developed the foundations for
communism
Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a ...
; and the American
William James
William James (January 11, 1842 – August 26, 1910) was an American philosopher, historian, and psychologist, and the first educator to offer a psychology course in the United States.
James is considered to be a leading thinker of the lat ...
. The 20th century saw the split between
analytic philosophy and
continental philosophy, as well as philosophical trends such as
phenomenology
Phenomenology may refer to:
Art
* Phenomenology (architecture), based on the experience of building materials and their sensory properties
Philosophy
* Phenomenology (philosophy), a branch of philosophy which studies subjective experiences and a ...
,
existentialism
Existentialism ( ) is a form of philosophical inquiry that explores the problem of human existence and centers on human thinking, feeling, and acting. Existentialist thinkers frequently explore issues related to the meaning, purpose, and valu ...
,
logical positivism,
pragmatism
Pragmatism is a philosophical tradition that considers words and thought as tools and instruments for prediction, problem solving, and action, and rejects the idea that the function of thought is to describe, represent, or mirror reality. ...
and the
linguistic turn
The linguistic turn was a major development in Western philosophy during the early 20th century, the most important characteristic of which is the focusing of philosophy and the other humanities primarily on the relations between language, langua ...
(see
Contemporary philosophy).
Middle Eastern philosophy
Pre-Islamic philosophy
The regions of the
Fertile Crescent
The Fertile Crescent ( ar, الهلال الخصيب) is a crescent-shaped region in the Middle East, spanning modern-day Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Palestine and Jordan, together with the northern region of Kuwait, southeastern region of ...
,
Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
and
Arabia
The Arabian Peninsula, (; ar, شِبْهُ الْجَزِيرَةِ الْعَرَبِيَّة, , "Arabian Peninsula" or , , "Island of the Arabs") or Arabia, is a peninsula of Western Asia, situated northeast of Africa on the Arabian Plat ...
are home to the earliest known philosophical wisdom literature.
According to the
assyriologist
Assyriology (from Greek , ''Assyriā''; and , ''-logia'') is the archaeological, anthropological, and linguistic study of Assyria and the rest of ancient Mesopotamia (a region that encompassed what is now modern Iraq, northeastern Syria, southea ...
Marc Van de Mieroop
Marc Van de Mieroop (b. 22 October 1956) is a noted Belgians, Belgian Assyriology, Assyriologist and Egyptology, Egyptologist who has been full professor of Ancient Near Eastern history at Columbia University since 1996.
Biography
Born in Bel ...
,
Babylonian philosophy was a highly developed system of thought with a unique approach to knowledge and a focus on writing,
lexicography
Lexicography is the study of lexicons, and is divided into two separate academic disciplines. It is the art of compiling dictionaries.
* Practical lexicography is the art or craft of compiling, writing and editing dictionaries.
* Theoreti ...
, divination, and law. It was also a
bilingual intellectual culture, based on
Sumerian and
Akkadian Akkadian or Accadian may refer to:
* Akkadians, inhabitants of the Akkadian Empire
* Akkadian language, an extinct Eastern Semitic language
* Akkadian literature, literature in this language
* Akkadian cuneiform
Cuneiform is a logo- syllabi ...
.
Early
Wisdom literature
Wisdom literature is a genre of literature common in the ancient Near East. It consists of statements by sages and the wise that offer teachings about divinity and virtue. Although this genre uses techniques of traditional oral storytelling, it w ...
from the Fertile Crescent was a genre that sought to instruct people on ethical action, practical living, and virtue through stories and proverbs. In
Ancient Egypt, these texts were known as ''
sebayt Sebayt (Egyptian '' sbꜣyt'', Coptic ⲥⲃⲱ "instruction, teaching") is the ancient Egyptian term for a genre of pharaonic literature. ''sbꜣyt'' literally means "teachings" or "instructions" and refers to formally written ethical teachings f ...
'' ('teachings'), and they are central to our understandings of
Ancient Egyptian philosophy. The most well known of these texts is ''
The Maxims of Ptahhotep
''The Maxims of Ptahhotep'' or ''Instruction of Ptahhotep'' is an ancient Egyptian literary composition composed by the Vizier Ptahhotep around 2375–2350 BC, during the rule of King Djedkare Isesi of the Fifth Dynasty. The text was discovered ...
.'' Theology and cosmology were central concerns in Egyptian thought. Perhaps the earliest form of a
monotheistic theology
Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...
also emerged in Egypt, with the rise of the
Amarna theology (or Atenism) of
Akhenaten
Akhenaten (pronounced ), also spelled Echnaton, Akhenaton, ( egy, ꜣḫ-n-jtn ''ʾŪḫə-nə-yātəy'', , meaning "Effective for the Aten"), was an ancient Egyptian pharaoh reigning or 1351–1334 BC, the tenth ruler of the Eighteenth D ...
(14th century BCE), which held that the solar creation deity
Aten
Aten also Aton, Atonu, or Itn ( egy, jtn, ''reconstructed'' ) was the focus of Atenism, the religious system established in ancient Egypt by the Eighteenth Dynasty pharaoh Akhenaten. The Aten was the disc of the sun and originally an aspect o ...
was the only god. This has been described as a "monotheistic revolution" by
egyptologist
Egyptology (from ''Egypt'' and Greek , '' -logia''; ar, علم المصريات) is the study of ancient Egyptian history, language, literature, religion, architecture and art from the 5th millennium BC until the end of its native religiou ...
Jan Assmann
Jan Assmann (born Johann Christoph Assmann; born 7 July 1938) is a German Egyptologist.
Life and works
Assmann studied Egyptology and classical archaeology in Munich, Heidelberg, Paris, and Göttingen. In 1966–67, he was a fellow of the German ...
, though it also drew on previous developments in Egyptian thought, particularly the "New Solar Theology" based around
Amun-Ra
Amun (; also ''Amon'', ''Ammon'', ''Amen''; egy, jmn, reconstructed as ( Old Egyptian and early Middle Egyptian) → (later Middle Egyptian) → ( Late Egyptian), cop, Ⲁⲙⲟⲩⲛ, Amoun) romanized: ʾmn) was a major ancient Egypt ...
.
These theological developments also influenced the post-Amarna
Ramesside
The New Kingdom, also referred to as the Egyptian Empire, is the period in ancient Egyptian history between the sixteenth century BC and the eleventh century BC, covering the Eighteenth, Nineteenth, and Twentieth dynasties of Egypt. Radioca ...
theology, which retained a focus on a single creative solar deity (though without outright rejection of other gods, which are now seen as manifestations of the main solar deity). This period also saw the development of the concept of the
''ba'' (soul) and its relation to god.
Jewish philosophy and
Christian philosophy
Christian philosophy includes all philosophy carried out by Christians, or in relation to the religion of Christianity.
Christian philosophy emerged with the aim of reconciling science and faith, starting from natural rational explanations w ...
are religious-philosophical traditions that developed both in the Middle East and in Europe, which both share certain early Judaic texts (mainly the
Tanakh
The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;["Tanach"](_blank)
'' Geonim
''Geonim'' ( he, גאונים; ; also transliterated Gaonim, singular Gaon) were the presidents of the two great Babylonian Talmudic Academies of Sura and Pumbedita, in the Abbasid Caliphate, and were the generally accepted spiritual leaders of ...
of the
Talmudic Academies in Babylonia and
Maimonides
Musa ibn Maimon (1138–1204), commonly known as Maimonides (); la, Moses Maimonides and also referred to by the acronym Rambam ( he, רמב״ם), was a Sephardic Jewish philosopher who became one of the most prolific and influential Tora ...
engaged with Greek and Islamic philosophy. Later Jewish philosophy came under strong Western intellectual influences and includes the works of
Moses Mendelssohn
Moses Mendelssohn (6 September 1729 – 4 January 1786) was a German-Jewish philosopher and theologian. His writings and ideas on Jews and the Jewish religion and identity were a central element in the development of the ''Haskalah'', or ' ...
who ushered in the
Haskalah
The ''Haskalah'', often termed Jewish Enlightenment ( he, השכלה; literally, "wisdom", "erudition" or "education"), was an intellectual movement among the Jews of Central and Eastern Europe, with a certain influence on those in Western Euro ...
(the Jewish Enlightenment),
Jewish existentialism, and
Reform Judaism
Reform Judaism, also known as Liberal Judaism or Progressive Judaism, is a major Jewish denomination that emphasizes the evolving nature of Judaism, the superiority of its ethical aspects to its ceremonial ones, and belief in a continuous sear ...
.
The various traditions of
Gnosticism
Gnosticism (from grc, γνωστικός, gnōstikós, , 'having knowledge') is a collection of religious ideas and systems which coalesced in the late 1st century AD among Jewish and early Christian sects. These various groups emphasized pe ...
, which were influenced by both Greek and Abrahamic currents, originated around the first century and emphasized spiritual knowledge (''
gnosis
Gnosis is the common Greek noun for knowledge ( γνῶσις, ''gnōsis'', f.). The term was used among various Hellenistic religions and philosophies in the Greco-Roman world. It is best known for its implication within Gnosticism, where it ...
'').
Pre-Islamic
Iranian philosophy
Iranian philosophy ( Persian: فلسفه ایرانی) or Persian philosophy can be traced back as far as to Old Iranian philosophical traditions and thoughts which originated in ancient Indo-Iranian roots and were considerably influenced by Zar ...
begins with the work of
Zoroaster
Zoroaster,; fa, زرتشت, Zartosht, label= Modern Persian; ku, زەردەشت, Zerdeşt also known as Zarathustra,, . Also known as Zarathushtra Spitama, or Ashu Zarathushtra is regarded as the spiritual founder of Zoroastrianism. He is ...
, one of the first promoters of
monotheism
Monotheism is the belief that there is only one deity, an all-supreme being that is universally referred to as God. Cross, F.L.; Livingstone, E.A., eds. (1974). "Monotheism". The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (2 ed.). Oxford: Oxfo ...
and of the
dualism between good and evil. This dualistic cosmogony influenced later Iranian developments such as
Manichaeism
Manichaeism (;
in New Persian ; ) is a former major religionR. van den Broek, Wouter J. Hanegraaff ''Gnosis and Hermeticism from Antiquity to Modern Times''SUNY Press, 1998 p. 37 founded in the 3rd century AD by the Parthian Empire, Parthian ...
,
Mazdakism, and
Zurvanism
Zurvanism is a fatalistic religious movement of Zoroastrianism in which the divinity Zurvan is a first principle (primordial creator deity) who engendered equal-but-opposite twins, Ahura Mazda and Angra Mainyu. Zurvanism is also known as "Zu ...
.
Islamic philosophy
Islamic philosophy
Islamic philosophy is philosophy that emerges from the Islamic tradition. Two terms traditionally used in the Islamic world are sometimes translated as philosophy—falsafa (literally: "philosophy"), which refers to philosophy as well as logic, ...
is the philosophical work originating in the
Islamic tradition and is mostly done in
Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...
. It draws from the religion of Islam as well as from Greco-Roman philosophy. After the
Muslim conquests
The early Muslim conquests or early Islamic conquests ( ar, الْفُتُوحَاتُ الإسْلَامِيَّة, ), also referred to as the Arab conquests, were initiated in the 7th century by Muhammad, the main Islamic prophet. He estab ...
, the
translation movement (mid-eighth to the late tenth century) resulted in the works of Greek philosophy becoming available in Arabic.
Early Islamic philosophy developed the Greek philosophical traditions in new innovative directions. This intellectual work inaugurated what is known as the
Islamic Golden Age
The Islamic Golden Age was a period of cultural, economic, and scientific flourishing in the history of Islam, traditionally dated from the 8th century to the 14th century. This period is traditionally understood to have begun during the reign ...
. The two main currents of early Islamic thought are
Kalam
''ʿIlm al-Kalām'' ( ar, عِلْم الكَلام, literally "science of discourse"), usually foreshortened to ''Kalām'' and sometimes called "Islamic scholastic theology" or "speculative theology", is the philosophical study of Islamic doc ...
, which focuses on
Islamic theology
Schools of Islamic theology are various Islamic schools and branches in different schools of thought regarding '' ʿaqīdah'' (creed). The main schools of Islamic Theology include the Qadariyah, Falasifa, Jahmiyya, Murji'ah, Muʿtazila, Batin ...
, and Falsafa, which was based on Aristotelianism and Neoplatonism. The work of Aristotle was very influential among philosophers such as Al-Kindi (9th century), Avicenna (980 – June 1037), and Averroes (12th century). Others such as Al-Ghazali were highly critical of the methods of the Islamic Aristotelians and saw their metaphysical ideas as heretical. Islamic thinkers like Ibn al-Haytham and Al-Biruni also developed a scientific method, experimental medicine, a theory of optics, and a legal philosophy. Ibn Khaldun was an influential thinker in philosophy of history.
Islamic thought also deeply influenced European intellectual developments, especially through the commentaries of Averroes on Aristotle. The Mongol invasions of the Levant, Mongol invasions and the Siege of Baghdad (1258), destruction of Baghdad in 1258 are often seen as marking the end of the Golden Age. Several schools of Islamic philosophy continued to flourish after the Golden Age, however, and include currents such as Illuminationist philosophy, Sufi philosophy, and Transcendent theosophy.
The 19th- and 20th-century Arab world saw the ''Nahda'' movement (literally meaning 'The Awakening'; also known as the 'Arab Renaissance'), which had a considerable influence on contemporary Islamic philosophy.
Eastern philosophy
Indian philosophy
![Raja_Ravi_Varma_-_Sankaracharya](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e3/Raja_Ravi_Varma_-_Sankaracharya.jpg)
Indian philosophy ( sa, , lit=point of view', 'perspective) refers to the diverse philosophical traditions that emerged since the ancient times on the Indian subcontinent. Indian philosophy chiefly considers epistemology, theories of consciousness and theories of mind, and the physical properties of reality. Indian philosophical traditions share various key concepts and ideas, which are defined in different ways and accepted or rejected by the different traditions. These include concepts such as Dharma, ''dhárma'', ''karma'', ''Pramana, pramāṇa,'' ''duḥkha, saṃsāra'' and ''Moksha, mokṣa.''
Some of the earliest surviving Indian philosophical texts are the Upanishads of the Vedic period#Later Vedic period (c. 1000 – c. 600 BCE), later Vedic period (1000–500 BCE), which are considered to preserve the ideas of Historical Vedic religion, Brahmanism. Indian philosophical traditions are commonly grouped according to their relationship to the Vedas and the ideas contained in them. Jainism and Buddhism originated at the end of the Vedic period, while the various traditions grouped under Hinduism mostly emerged after the Vedic period as independent traditions. Hindus generally classify Indian philosophical traditions as either orthodox (Āstika and nāstika, ''āstika'') or heterodox (''nāstika'') depending on whether they accept the authority of the Vedas and the theories of ''brahman'' and Ātman (Hinduism), ''ātman'' found therein.
The schools which align themselves with the thought of the Upanishads, the so-called "orthodox" or "Hinduism, Hindu" traditions, are often classified into six ''Hindu philosophy, darśanas'' or philosophies:Samkhya, Sānkhya, Yoga (philosophy), Yoga, Nyaya, Nyāya, Vaisheshika, Mīmāṃsā, Mimāmsā and Vedanta, Vedānta.
The doctrines of the Vedas and Upanishads were interpreted differently by these six schools of Hindu philosophy, with varying degrees of overlap. They represent a "collection of philosophical views that share a textual connection", according to Chadha (2015). They also reflect a tolerance for a diversity of philosophical interpretations within Hinduism while sharing the same foundation.
Hindu philosophers of the six orthodox schools developed systems of epistemology (''pramana'') and investigated topics such as metaphysics, ethics, psychology (''guṇa''), hermeneutics, and soteriology within the framework of the Vedic knowledge, while presenting a diverse collection of interpretations.
The commonly named six orthodox schools were the competing philosophical traditions of what has been called the "Hindu synthesis" of History of Hinduism, classical Hinduism.
There are also other schools of thought which are often seen as "Hindu", though not necessarily orthodox (since they may accept different scriptures as normative, such as the Tantras (Hinduism), Shaiva Agamas and Tantras), these include different schools of Shaivism, Shavism such as Pashupata Shaivism, Pashupata, Shaiva Siddhanta, Kashmir Shaivism, non-dual tantric Shavism (i.e. Trika, Kaula, etc.).
![Medieval Jain temple Anekantavada doctrine artwork](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ed/Medieval_Jain_temple_Anekantavada_doctrine_artwork.jpg)
The "Hindu" and "Orthodox" traditions are often contrasted with the "unorthodox" traditions (''nāstika,'' literally "those who reject"), though this is a label that is not used by the "unorthodox" schools themselves. These traditions reject the Vedas as authoritative and often reject major concepts and ideas that are widely accepted by the orthodox schools (such as ''Ātman'', ''Brahman'', and Ishvara, ''Īśvara'').
These unorthodox schools include Jainism (accepts ''ātman'' but rejects ''Īśvara,'' Vedas and ''Brahman''), Buddhism (rejects all orthodox concepts except rebirth and karma), Charvaka, Cārvāka (materialists who reject even rebirth and karma) and Ājīvika (known for their doctrine of fate).
<
Jain philosophy is one of the only two surviving "unorthodox" traditions (along with Buddhism). It generally accepts the concept of a permanent soul (''jiva'') as one of the five ''Āstika and nāstika, astikayas'' (eternal, infinite categories that make up the substance of existence). The other four being Dharma, ''dhárma'', ''adharma'', ''Akasha, ākāśa'' ('space'), and ''pudgala'' ('matter'). Jain thought holds that all existence is cyclic, eternal and uncreated.
Some of the most important elements of Jain philosophy are the Karma in Jainism, Jain theory of karma, the doctrine of nonviolence (Ahimsa in Jainism, ahiṃsā) and the theory of "many-sidedness" or Anekantavada, Anēkāntavāda. The ''Tattvartha Sutra'' is the earliest known, most comprehensive and authoritative compilation of Jain philosophy.
Major European Quantum Physicists, including Erwin Schrödinger, Werner Heisenberg, Albert Einstein, & Niels Bohr credit the Vedas with giving them the ideas for their experiments.
Buddhist philosophy
Buddhist philosophy begins with the thought of Gautama Buddha (Floruit, fl. between 6th and 4th century BCE) and is preserved in the early Buddhist texts. It originated in the Indian region of Magadha and later spread to the rest of the Indian subcontinent, East Asia, Tibet, Central Asia, and Southeast Asia. In these regions, Buddhist thought developed into different philosophical traditions which used various languages (like Classical Tibetan, Tibetan, Classical Chinese, Chinese and Pali). As such, Buddhist philosophy is a Transculturalism, trans-cultural and international phenomenon.
The dominant Buddhist philosophical traditions in East Asian Buddhism, East Asian nations are mainly based on Indian Mahayana Buddhism. The Theravāda Abhidhamma, philosophy of the Theravada school is dominant in Southeast Asian countries like Sri Lanka, Burma and Thailand.
Because Avidyā (Buddhism), ignorance to the true nature of things is considered one of the roots of suffering (''dukkha''), Buddhist philosophy is concerned with epistemology, metaphysics, ethics and psychology. Buddhist philosophical texts must also be understood within the context of Buddhist meditation, meditative practices which are supposed to bring about certain cognitive shifts. Key innovative concepts include the Four Noble Truths as an analysis of ''dukkha'', Impermanence, ''anicca'' (impermanence), and ''anatta'' (non-self).
After the death of the Buddha, various groups began to systematize his main teachings, eventually developing comprehensive philosophical systems termed ''Abhidharma''. Following the Abhidharma schools, Indian Mahayana philosophers such as Nagarjuna and Vasubandhu developed the theories of ''śūnyatā'' ('emptiness of all phenomena') and Yogachara#Vijñapti-mātra, ''vijñapti-matra'' ('appearance only'), a form of phenomenology or transcendental idealism. The Dignāga school of ''Pramana, pramāṇa'' ('means of knowledge') promoted a sophisticated form of Buddhist logico-epistemology, Buddhist epistemology.
There were numerous schools, sub-schools, and traditions of Buddhist philosophy in ancient and medieval India. According to Oxford professor of Buddhist philosophy Jan Westerhoff, the major Indian schools from 300 BCE to 1000 CE were: the Mahāsāṃghika tradition (now extinct), the Sthavira nikāya, Sthavira schools (such as Sarvastivada, Sarvāstivāda, Vibhajyavāda and Pudgalavada, Pudgalavāda) and the Mahayana schools. Many of these traditions were also studied in other regions, like Central Asia and China, having been brought there by Buddhist missionaries.
After the disappearance of Buddhism from India, some of these philosophical traditions continued to develop in the Tibetan Buddhist, East Asian Buddhist and Theravada Buddhist traditions.
East Asian philosophy
East Asian philosophical thought began in History of China#Ancient China, Ancient China, and Chinese philosophy begins during the Western Zhou Dynasty and the following periods after its fall when the "Hundred Schools of Thought" flourished (6th century to 221 BCE).
This period was characterized by significant intellectual and cultural developments and saw the rise of the major philosophical schools of China such as Confucianism (also known as Ruism), Legalism (Chinese philosophy), Legalism, and Daoism, Taoism as well as numerous other less influential schools like Mohism and School of Naturalists, Naturalism. These philosophical traditions developed metaphysical, political and ethical theories such Tao, Yin and yang, Ren (Confucianism), Ren and Li (Confucianism), Li.
These schools of thought further developed during the Han dynasty, Han (206 BCE – 220 CE) and Tang dynasty, Tang (618–907 CE) eras, forming new philosophical movements like ''Xuanxue'' (also called ''Neo-Taoism''), and Neo-Confucianism. Neo-Confucianism was a syncretic philosophy, which incorporated the ideas of different Chinese philosophical traditions, including Buddhism and Taoism. Neo-Confucianism came to dominate the education system during the Song dynasty (960–1297), and its ideas served as the philosophical basis of the imperial exams for the Scholar-officials, scholar official class. Some of the most important Neo-Confucian thinkers are the Tang scholars Han Yu and Li Ao (philosopher), Li Ao as well as the Song thinkers Zhou Dunyi (1017–1073) and Zhu Xi (1130–1200). Zhu Xi compiled the Confucian canon, which consists of the Four Books (the ''Great Learning'', the ''Doctrine of the Mean'', the ''Analects'' of Confucius, and the ''Mencius (book), Mencius''). The Ming scholar Wang Yangming (1472–1529) is a later but important philosopher of this tradition as well.
Buddhism began arriving in China during the Han Dynasty, through a Silk Road transmission of Buddhism, gradual Silk road transmission, and through native influences developed distinct Chinese forms (such as Chan/Zen) which spread throughout the East Asian cultural sphere.
Chinese culture was highly influential on the traditions of other East Asian states, and its philosophy directly influenced Korean philosophy, Vietnamese philosophy and Japanese philosophy. During later Chinese dynasties like the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644), as well as in the Korean Joseon dynasty (1392–1897), a resurgent Neo-Confucianism led by thinkers such as Wang Yangming (1472–1529) became the dominant school of thought and was promoted by the imperial state. In Japan, the Tokugawa shogunate (1603–1867) was also strongly influenced by Confucian philosophy. Confucianism continues to influence the ideas and worldview of the nations of the East Asian cultural sphere, Chinese cultural sphere today.
In the Modern era, Chinese thinkers incorporated ideas from Western philosophy. Chinese Marxist philosophy developed under the influence of Mao Zedong, while a Chinese pragmatism developed under Hu Shih. The old traditional philosophies also began to reassert themselves in the 20th century. For example, New Confucianism, led by figures such as Xiong Shili, has become quite influential. Likewise, Humanistic Buddhism is a recent modernist Buddhist movement.
Modern Japanese thought meanwhile developed under strong Western influences such as the study of Western Sciences (Rangaku) and the modernist Meirokusha intellectual society, which drew from European enlightenment thought and promoted liberal reforms as well as Western philosophies like Liberalism and Utilitarianism. Another trend in modern Japanese philosophy was the "National Studies" (Kokugaku) tradition. This intellectual trend sought to study and promote ancient Japanese thought and culture. Kokugaku thinkers such as Motoori Norinaga sought to return to a pure Japanese tradition which they called Shinto that they saw as untainted by foreign elements.
During the 20th century, the Kyoto School, an influential and unique Japanese philosophical school, developed from Western
phenomenology
Phenomenology may refer to:
Art
* Phenomenology (architecture), based on the experience of building materials and their sensory properties
Philosophy
* Phenomenology (philosophy), a branch of philosophy which studies subjective experiences and a ...
and Medieval Japanese Buddhist philosophy such as that of Dogen.
African philosophy
![Zera_Yacob](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a8/Zera_Yacob.jpg)
African philosophy is philosophy produced by African people, philosophy that presents African worldviews, ideas and themes, or philosophy that uses distinct African philosophical methods. Modern African thought has been occupied with Ethnophilosophy, that is, defining the very meaning of African philosophy and its unique characteristics and what it means to be African people, African.
During the 17th century, Ethiopian philosophy developed a robust literary tradition as exemplified by Zera Yacob (philosopher), Zera Yacob. Another early African philosopher was Anton Wilhelm Amo (–1759) who became a respected philosopher in Germany. Distinct African philosophical ideas include Ujamaa, the Bantu peoples in South Africa, Bantu idea of Bantu Philosophy, 'Force', Négritude, Pan-Africanism and Ubuntu (philosophy), Ubuntu. Contemporary African thought has also seen the development of Professional philosophy and of Africana philosophy, the philosophical literature of the African diaspora which includes currents such as black existentialism by African-Americans. Some modern African thinkers have been influenced by Marxism, African-American literature, Critical theory, Critical race theory, Postcolonialism and African feminism, Feminism.
Indigenous American philosophy
![Tlamatini_observe_stars_-_Codex_Mendoza](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c9/Tlamatini_observe_stars_-_Codex_Mendoza.jpg)
Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Indigenous-American philosophical thought consists of a wide variety of beliefs and traditions among different American cultures. Among some of Native Americans in the United States, U.S. Native American communities, there is a belief in a metaphysical principle called the 'Great Spirit' (Siouan languages, Siouan: ''Wakan Tanka, wakȟáŋ tȟáŋka''; Algonquian languages, Algonquian: Gitche Manitou, ''gitche manitou''). Another widely shared concept was that of ''orenda'' ('spiritual power'). According to Whiteley (1998), for the Native Americans, "mind is critically informed by transcendental experience (dreams, visions and so on) as well as by reason."
The practices to access these transcendental experiences are termed ''shamanism''. Another feature of the indigenous American worldviews was their extension of ethics to non-human animals and plants.
In Mesoamerica, Aztec philosophy, Nahua philosophy was an intellectual tradition developed by individuals called ''tlamatini'' ('those who know something') and its ideas are preserved in various Aztec codices and fragmentary texts. Some of these philosophers are known by name, such as Nezahualcoyotl (tlatoani), Nezahualcoyotl, Aquiauhtzin, Xayacamach, Tochihuitzin coyolchiuhqui and Cuauhtencoztli.
These authors were also poets and some of their work has survived in the original Nahuatl.
Aztec philosophers developed theories of metaphysics, epistemology, values, and aesthetics. Aztec ethics was focused on seeking ''tlamatiliztli'' ('knowledge', 'wisdom') which was based on moderation and balance in all actions as in the Nahuas, Nahua proverb "the middle good is necessary".
The Nahua worldview posited the concept of an ultimate universal energy or force called ''Ōmeteōtl'' ('Dual Cosmic Energy') which sought a way to live in balance with a constantly changing, "slippery" world. The theory of ''Teotl'' can be seen as a form of Pantheism.
According to James Maffie, Nahua metaphysics posited that teotl is "a single, vital, dynamic, vivifying, eternally self-generating and self-conceiving as well as self-regenerating and self-reconceiving sacred energy or force".
This force was seen as the all-encompassing life force of the universe and as the universe itself.
![Pachacuteckoricancha](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/68/Pachacuteckoricancha.jpg)
The Inca civilization also had an elite class of philosopher-scholars termed the ''amawtakuna'' or ''amautas'' who were important in the Inca education system as teachers of philosophy, theology, astronomy, poetry, law, music, morality and history.
Young Inca nobles were educated in these disciplines at the state college of Yacha-huasi in Cusco, Cuzco, where they also learned the art of the quipu.
Incan philosophy (as well as the broader category of Andean thought) held that the universe is animated by a single dynamic life force (sometimes termed ''camaquen'' or ''camac'', as well as ''upani'' and ''amaya'').
This singular force also arises as a set of dual complementary yet opposite forces.
These "complementary opposites" are called yanantin and Yanantin#Masintin, masintin. They are expressed as various polarities or dualities (such as male–female, dark–light, life and death, above and below) which interdependently contribute to the harmonious whole that is the universe through the process of reciprocity and mutual exchange called ''ayni''.
The Inca worldview also included the belief in a Creator deity, creator God (Viracocha) and reincarnation.
Branches of philosophy
Philosophical questions can be grouped into various branches. These groupings allow philosophers to focus on a set of similar topics and interact with other thinkers who are interested in the same questions.
These divisions are neither exhaustive nor mutually exclusive. (A philosopher might specialize in Kantian epistemology, or Platonism, Platonic aesthetics, or modern political philosophy). Furthermore, these philosophical inquiries sometimes overlap with each other and with other inquiries such as science, religion or mathematics.
Aesthetics
Aesthetics is the "critical reflection on art, culture and nature". It addresses the nature of art, beauty and Taste (sociology), taste, enjoyment, emotional values, perception and the creation and appreciation of beauty. It is more precisely defined as the study of Senses, sensory or sensori-emotional values, sometimes called judgments of Feeling, sentiment and taste. Its major divisions are art theory, literary theory, film theory and music theory. An example from art theory is to discern the set of principles underlying the work of a particular artist or artistic movement such as the Cubist aesthetic.
Ethics
![JohnStuartMill](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/75/JohnStuartMill.jpg)
Ethics, also known as moral philosophy, studies what constitutes good and bad Action (philosophy), conduct, right and wrong values (philosophy), values, and good and evil. Its primary investigations include exploring how to live a good life and identifying standards of
morality
Morality () is the differentiation of intentions, decisions and actions between those that are distinguished as proper (right) and those that are improper (wrong). Morality can be a body of standards or principles derived from a code of co ...
. It also includes investigating whether there ''is'' a best way to live or a universal moral standard, and if so, how we come to learn about it. The main branches of ethics are normative ethics, meta-ethics and applied ethics.
The three main views in ethics about what constitute moral actions are:
* Consequentialism, which judges actions based on their consequences.
One such view is
utilitarianism
In ethical philosophy, utilitarianism is a family of normative ethical theories that prescribe actions that maximize happiness and well-being for all affected individuals.
Although different varieties of utilitarianism admit different chara ...
, which judges actions based on the net happiness (or pleasure) and/or lack of suffering (or pain) that they produce.
* Deontology, which judges actions based on whether they are in accordance with one's moral duty.
In the standard form defended by Immanuel Kant, deontology is concerned with whether a choice respects the moral agency of other people, regardless of its consequences.
* Virtue ethics, which judges actions based on the moral character of the agent who performs them and whether they conform to what an ideally virtuous agent would do.
Epistemology
![Dignaga](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/99/Dignaga.jpg)
Epistemology is the branch of philosophy that studies
knowledge
Knowledge can be defined as Descriptive knowledge, awareness of facts or as Procedural knowledge, practical skills, and may also refer to Knowledge by acquaintance, familiarity with objects or situations. Knowledge of facts, also called pro ...
.
Epistemologists examine putative sources of knowledge, including Perception, perceptual experience,
reason
Reason is the capacity of consciously applying logic by drawing conclusions from new or existing information, with the aim of seeking the truth. It is closely associated with such characteristically human activities as philosophy, science, ...
, memory, and Testimony#Philosophy, testimony. They also investigate questions about the nature of truth,
belief
A belief is an attitude that something is the case, or that some proposition is true. In epistemology, philosophers use the term "belief" to refer to attitudes about the world which can be either true or false. To believe something is to take ...
, Justification (epistemology), justification, and Reason, rationality.
Philosophical skepticism, which raises doubts about some or all claims to knowledge, has been a topic of interest throughout the history of philosophy. It arose early in Pre-Socratic philosophy and became formalized with Pyrrho, the founder of the Pyrrhonism, earliest Western school of philosophical skepticism. It features prominently in the works of modern philosophers
René Descartes
René Descartes ( or ; ; Latinized: Renatus Cartesius; 31 March 1596 – 11 February 1650) was a French philosopher, scientist, and mathematician, widely considered a seminal figure in the emergence of modern philosophy and science. Ma ...
and David Hume and has remained a central topic in contemporary epistemological debates.
One of the most notable epistemological debates is between empiricism and rationalism.
Empiricism places emphasis on observational evidence via sensory experience as the source of knowledge.
Empiricism is associated with a posteriori knowledge, which is obtained through experience (such as Philosophy of science, scientific knowledge).
Rationalism places emphasis on reason as a source of knowledge.
Rationalism is associated with a priori knowledge, which is independent of experience (such as
logic
Logic is the study of correct reasoning. It includes both formal and informal logic. Formal logic is the science of deductively valid inferences or of logical truths. It is a formal science investigating how conclusions follow from premise ...
and
mathematics).
One central debate in contemporary epistemology is about the conditions required for a
belief
A belief is an attitude that something is the case, or that some proposition is true. In epistemology, philosophers use the term "belief" to refer to attitudes about the world which can be either true or false. To believe something is to take ...
to constitute knowledge, which might include truth and Justification (epistemology), justification. This debate was largely the result of attempts to solve the Gettier problem.
Another common subject of contemporary debates is the Regress argument, regress problem, which occurs when trying to offer proof or justification for any belief, statement, or proposition. The problem is that whatever the source of justification may be, that source must either be without justification (in which case it must be treated as an arbitrary Foundationalism, foundation for belief), or it must have some further justification (in which case justification must either be the result of circular reasoning, as in coherentism, or the result of an infinite regress, as in infinitism).
Metaphysics
![Aristotle, Metaphysics, Incunabulum](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bb/Aristotle%2C_Metaphysics%2C_Incunabulum.jpg)
Metaphysics is the study of the most general features of
reality
Reality is the sum or aggregate of all that is real or existent within a system, as opposed to that which is only imaginary. The term is also used to refer to the ontological status of things, indicating their existence. In physical terms, r ...
, such as
existence
Existence is the ability of an entity to interact with reality. In philosophy, it refers to the ontological property of being.
Etymology
The term ''existence'' comes from Old French ''existence'', from Medieval Latin ''existentia/exsistentia' ...
, time, Object (philosophy), objects and their Property (philosophy), properties, wholes and their parts, events, processes and Causality, causation and the relationship between mind and Human body, body. Metaphysics includes
cosmology
Cosmology () is a branch of physics and metaphysics dealing with the nature of the universe. The term ''cosmology'' was first used in English in 1656 in Thomas Blount's ''Glossographia'', and in 1731 taken up in Latin by German philosopher ...
, the study of the world in its entirety and ontology, the study of being, along with the philosophy of space and time.
A major point of debate is between Philosophical realism, realism, which holds that there are entities that exist independently of their mental perception, and idealism, which holds that reality is mentally constructed or otherwise immaterial. Metaphysics deals with the topic of Personal identity, identity. Essence is the set of attributes that make an object what it fundamentally is and without which it loses its identity, while Accident (philosophy), accident is a property that the object has, without which the object can still retain its identity. Particulars are objects that are said to exist in space and time, as opposed to abstract objects, such as numbers, and universals, which 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 debate.
Logic
Logic is the study of reasoning and argument.
Deductive reasoning is when, given certain premises, conclusions are Logical consequence, unavoidably implied. Rules of inference are used to infer conclusions such as, modus ponens, where given "A” and "If A then B", then "B” must be concluded.
Because sound reasoning is an essential element of all sciences, social sciences and humanities disciplines, logic became a formal science. Sub-fields include mathematical logic, philosophical logic, modal logic, computational logic and non-classical logics. A major question in the philosophy of mathematics is whether mathematical entities are objective and discovered, called mathematical realism, or invented, called mathematical antirealism.
Mind and language
Philosophy of language explores the nature, origins, and use of language. Philosophy of mind explores the nature of the mind and its relationship to the body, as typified by disputes between materialism and Dualism (philosophy of mind), dualism. In recent years, this branch has become related to cognitive science.
Philosophy of science
The
philosophy of science
Philosophy of science is a branch of philosophy concerned with the foundations, methods, and implications of science. The central questions of this study concern what qualifies as science, the reliability of scientific theories, and the ult ...
explores the foundations, methods, history, implications and purpose of science. Many of its subdivisions correspond to specific branches of science. For example, philosophy of biology deals specifically with the metaphysical, epistemological and ethical issues in the biomedical and life sciences.
Political philosophy
![Thomas Hobbes (portrait)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d8/Thomas_Hobbes_%28portrait%29.jpg)
Political philosophy is the study of government and the relationship of individuals (or families and clans) to communities including the State (polity), state. It includes questions about justice, law, property and the rights and obligations of the citizen. Political philosophy, ethics, and aesthetics are traditionally linked subjects, under the general heading of value theory as they involve a normative or evaluative aspect.
Philosophy of religion
Philosophy of religion deals with questions that involve religion and religious ideas from a philosophically neutral perspective (as opposed to
theology
Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...
which begins from religious convictions). Traditionally, religious questions were not seen as a separate field from philosophy proper, and the idea of a separate field only arose in the 19th century.
Issues include the existence of God, the relationship between reason and
faith
Faith, derived from Latin ''fides'' and Old French ''feid'', is confidence or trust in a person, thing, or In the context of religion, one can define faith as " belief in God or in the doctrines or teachings of religion".
Religious people ofte ...
, questions of religious epistemology, the relationship between religion and science, how to interpret religious experiences, questions about the possibility of an afterlife, the problem of religious language and the existence of souls and responses to religious pluralism and diversity.
Metaphilosophy
Metaphilosophy explores the aims, boundaries and methods of philosophy. It is debated as to whether metaphilosophy is a subject that comes prior to philosophy or whether it is inherently part of philosophy.
Other subdivisions
In section thirteen of his Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers, ''Lives and Opinions of the Eminent Philosophers'', the oldest surviving history of philosophy (3rd century), Diogenes Laërtius presents a three-part division of ancient Greek philosophical inquiry:
* Science, Natural philosophy (i.e. physics, from ) was the study of the constitution and processes of transformation in the physical world.
* Ethics, Moral philosophy (i.e. ethics, from ) was the study of goodness, right and wrong, justice and virtue.
* Metaphysics, Metaphysical philosophy (i.e. logic, from ) was the study of
existence
Existence is the ability of an entity to interact with reality. In philosophy, it refers to the ontological property of being.
Etymology
The term ''existence'' comes from Old French ''existence'', from Medieval Latin ''existentia/exsistentia' ...
, causation,
God
In monotheistic thought, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. Swinburne, R.G. "God" in Honderich, Ted. (ed)''The Oxford Companion to Philosophy'', Oxford University Press, 1995. God is typically ...
,
logic
Logic is the study of correct reasoning. It includes both formal and informal logic. Formal logic is the science of deductively valid inferences or of logical truths. It is a formal science investigating how conclusions follow from premise ...
, Universal (metaphysics), forms, and other abstract objects. ()
In ''Against the Logicians'' the Pyrrhonism, Pyrrhonist philosopher Sextus Empiricus detailed the variety of ways in which the ancient Greek philosophers had divided philosophy, noting that this three-part division was agreed to by Plato, Aristotle, Xenocrates, and the Stoics. The Academic skepticism, Academic Skeptic philosopher
Cicero
Marcus Tullius Cicero ( ; ; 3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, and academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises that led to the esta ...
also followed this three-part division.
This division is not obsolete, but has changed: ''natural philosophy'' has split into the various natural sciences, especially physics,
astronomy
Astronomy () is a natural science that studies celestial objects and phenomena. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and evolution. Objects of interest include planets, moons, stars, nebulae, g ...
, chemistry, biology, and
cosmology
Cosmology () is a branch of physics and metaphysics dealing with the nature of the universe. The term ''cosmology'' was first used in English in 1656 in Thomas Blount's ''Glossographia'', and in 1731 taken up in Latin by German philosopher ...
; ''moral philosophy'' has birthed the social sciences, while still including value theory (e.g. ethics,
aesthetics
Aesthetics, or esthetics, is a branch of philosophy that deals with the nature of beauty and taste, as well as the philosophy of art (its own area of philosophy that comes out of aesthetics). It examines aesthetic values, often expressed t ...
,
political philosophy
Political philosophy or political theory is the philosophical study of government, addressing questions about the nature, scope, and legitimacy of public agents and institutions and the relationships between them. Its topics include politics, ...
, etc.); and ''metaphysical philosophy'' has given way to formal sciences such as logic,
mathematics and
philosophy of science
Philosophy of science is a branch of philosophy concerned with the foundations, methods, and implications of science. The central questions of this study concern what qualifies as science, the reliability of scientific theories, and the ult ...
, while still including epistemology, cosmology, etc. For example,
Newton's ''
Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy
Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...
'' (1687), since classified as a book of physics, uses the term ''
natural philosophy
Natural philosophy or philosophy of nature (from Latin ''philosophia naturalis'') is the philosophical study of physics, that is, nature and the physical universe. It was dominant before the development of modern science.
From the ancient wo ...
'' as it was understood at the time, encompassing disciplines such as astronomy,
medicine
Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care pr ...
and
physics
Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which r ...
that later became associated with Science, the sciences.
Methods of philosophy
Methods of philosophy are ways of conducting philosophical inquiry. They include techniques for arriving at philosophical knowledge and justifying philosophical claims as well as principles used for choosing between competing theories.
A great variety of methods has been employed throughout the history of philosophy. Many of them differ significantly from the methods used in the natural sciences in that they do not use experimental data obtained through measuring equipment.
The choice of one's method usually has important implications both for how philosophical theories are constructed and for the arguments cited for or against them.
This choice is often guided by epistemological considerations about what constitutes philosophical evidence, how much support it offers, and how to acquire it.
Various disagreements on the level of philosophical theories have their source in methodological disagreements and the discovery of new methods has often had important consequences both for how philosophers conduct their research and for what claims they defend.
Some philosophers engage in most of their theorizing using one particular method while others employ a wider range of methods based on which one fits the specific problem investigated best.
Methodological skepticism is a prominent method of philosophy. It aims to arrive at absolutely certain first principles by using systematic doubt to determine which principles of philosophy are indubitable. The geometrical method tries to build a comprehensive philosophical system based on a small set of such axioms. It does so with the help of deductive reasoning to expand the certainty of its axioms to the system as a whole. Phenomenology (philosophy), Phenomenologists seek certain knowledge about the realm of appearances. They do so by suspending their judgments about the external world in order to focus on how things appear independent of their underlying reality, a technique known as epoché.
Conceptual analysis is a well-known method in
analytic philosophy. It aims to clarify the meaning of concepts by analyzing them into their fundamental constituents.
Another method often employed in analytic philosophy is based on common sense. It starts with commonly accepted
belief
A belief is an attitude that something is the case, or that some proposition is true. In epistemology, philosophers use the term "belief" to refer to attitudes about the world which can be either true or false. To believe something is to take ...
s and tries to draw interesting conclusions from them, which it often employs in a negative sense to criticize philosophical theories that are too far removed from how the average person sees the issue.
It is very similar to how ordinary language philosophy tackles philosophical questions by investigating how Natural language, ordinary language is used.
Various methods in philosophy give particular importance to intuitions, i.e. non-inferential impressions about the correctness of specific claims or general principles.
For example, they play an important role in thought experiments, which employ counterfactual thinking to evaluate the possible consequences of an imagined situation. These anticipated consequences can then be used to confirm or refute philosophical theories.
The method of reflective equilibrium also employs intuitions. It seeks to form a Coherentism, coherent position on a certain issue by examining all the relevant beliefs and intuitions, some of which often have to be deemphasized or reformulated in order to arrive at a coherent perspective.
Pragmatists stress the significance of concrete practical consequences for assessing whether a philosophical theory is true or false.
Experimental philosophy is of rather recent origin. Its methods differ from most other methods of philosophy in that it tries to answer philosophical questions by gathering empirical data in ways similar to social psychology and the cognitive sciences.
Philosophical progress
Many philosophical debates that began in ancient times are still debated today. British philosopher Colin McGinn claims that no philosophical progress has occurred during that interval. Australian philosopher David Chalmers, by contrast, sees progress in philosophy similar to that in science. Meanwhile, Talbot Brewer, professor of philosophy at University of Virginia, argues that "progress" is the wrong standard by which to judge philosophical activity.
Applied and professional philosophy
![Martin Luther King Jr NYWTS](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/84/Martin_Luther_King_Jr_NYWTS.jpg)
Some of those who study philosophy become professional philosophers, typically by working as professors who teach, research and write in academic institutions. However, most students of academic philosophy later contribute to law, journalism, religion, sciences, politics, business, or various arts.
For example, public figures who have degrees in philosophy include comedians Steve Martin and Ricky Gervais, filmmaker Terrence Malick, Pope John Paul II, Wikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger, technology entrepreneur Peter Thiel, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, ''Jeopardy!'' host Alex Trebek, and US vice presidential candidate Carly Fiorina. Curtis White (author), Curtis White has argued that philosophical tools are essential to humanities, sciences and social sciences.
Recent efforts to avail the general public to the work and relevance of philosophers include the million-dollar Berggruen Prize for Philosophy, Berggruen Prize, first awarded to Charles Taylor (philosopher), Charles Taylor in 2016. Some philosophers argue that this professionalization has negatively affected the discipline.
Women in philosophy
![Mary_Wollstonecraft_by_John_Opie_(c](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/36/Mary_Wollstonecraft_by_John_Opie_%28c._1797%29.jpg)
Although men have generally dominated philosophical discourse, women philosophers have engaged in the discipline throughout history. The list of female philosophers throughout history is vast.Ancient philosophy, Ancient examples include Hipparchia of Maroneia (active ) and Arete of Cyrene (active 5th–4th centuries BCE). Some women philosophers were accepted during the Medieval philosophy, medieval and Modern philosophy, modern eras, but none became part of the Western canon until the Contemporary philosophy, 20th and 21st century, when many suggest that G.E.M. Anscombe, Hannah Arendt, Bell hooks, Bell Hooks, Simone de Beauvoir, Simone Weil and Susanne Langer entered the canon.
In the early 1800s, some colleges and universities in the UK and the US began Mixed-sex education#Higher-education institutions, admitting women, producing more female academics. Nevertheless, U.S. Department of Education reports from the 1990s indicate that few women ended up in philosophy and that philosophy is one of the least gender-proportionate fields in the humanities, with women making up somewhere between 17% and 30% of philosophy faculty according to some studies.
["Salary, Promotion, and Tenure Status of Minority and Women Faculty in U.S. Colleges and Universities." National Center for Education Statistics, Statistical Analysis Report, March 2000; U.S. Department of Education, Office of Education Research and Improvement, Report # NCES 2000–173; 1993 National Study of Postsecondary Faculty (NSOPF:93). See also "Characteristics and Attitudes of Instructional Faculty and Staff in the Humanities." National Center For Education Statistics, E.D. Tabs, July 1997. U.S. Department of Education, Office of Education Research and Improvement, Report # NCES 97-973;1993 National Study of Postsecondary Faculty (NSOPF-93).]
Prominent 21st century philosophers include: Judith Butler, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Martha Nussbaum, Onora O'Neill, and Nancy Fraser.
See also
* List of important publications in philosophy
* List of years in philosophy
* List of philosophy journals
* List of philosophy awards
* List of unsolved problems in philosophy
* Lists of philosophers
* Social theory
* Systems theory
References
Notes
Citations
Bibliography
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Further reading
General introduction
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* Blumenau, Ralph. ''Philosophy and Living''.
* Edward Craig (philosopher), Craig, Edward. ''Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction''.
* Harrison-Barbet, Anthony, ''Mastering Philosophy''.
* Bertrand Russell, Russell, Bertrand.
The Problems of Philosophy'.
* Sinclair, Alistair J. ''What is Philosophy? An Introduction'', 2008,
* Elliott Sober, Sober, Elliott. (2001). ''Core Questions in Philosophy: A Text with Readings''. Upper Saddle River, Prentice Hall.
* Robert C. Solomon, Solomon, Robert C. ''Big Questions: A Short Introduction to Philosophy''.
* Nigel Warburton, Warburton, Nigel. ''Philosophy: The Basics''.
* Nagel, Thomas. ''What Does It All Mean? A Very Short Introduction to Philosophy''.
* ''Classics of Philosophy (Vols. 1, 2, & 3)'' by Louis P. Pojman
* Cottingham, John. Western Philosophy: An Anthology. 2nd ed. Malden, MA: Blackwell Pub., 2008. Print. Blackwell Philosophy Anthologies.
* Richard Tarnas, Tarnas, Richard. ''The Passion of the Western Mind: Understanding the Ideas That Have Shaped Our World View''.
Topical introductions
African
* Imbo, Samuel Oluoch. ''An Introduction to African Philosophy.''
Eastern
* ''A Source Book in Indian Philosophy'' by Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, Charles A. Moore
* Hamilton, Sue. ''Indian Philosophy: a Very Short Introduction''.
* Kupperman, Joel J. ''Classic Asian Philosophy: A Guide to the Essential Texts''.
* Lee, Joe and Powell, Jim. ''Eastern Philosophy For Beginners''.
* Smart, Ninian. ''World Philosophies''.
* Copleston, Frederick. ''Philosophy in Russia: From Herzen to Lenin and Berdyaev''.
Islamic
* ''Medieval Islamic Philosophical Writings'' edited by Muhammad Ali Khalidi
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Historical introductions
General
* First published in Russian as .
* Kathleen Higgins, Higgins, Kathleen M. and Robert C. Solomon, Solomon, Robert C. ''A Short History of Philosophy''.
* Will Durant, Durant, Will, ''Story of Philosophy: The Lives and Opinions of the World's Greatest Philosophers'', Pocket, 1991,
* First published in Russian as .
Ancient
* Knight, Kelvin. ''Aristotelian Philosophy: Ethics and Politics from Aristotle to MacIntyre''.
Medieval
* ''The Phenomenology Reader'' by Dermot Moran, Timothy Mooney
* Kim, J. and Ernest Sosa, Ed. (1999). ''Metaphysics: An Anthology''. Blackwell Philosophy Anthologies. Oxford, Blackwell Publishers Ltd.
*
Modern and contemporary
* ''The English Philosophers from Bacon to Mill'' by Edwin Arthur
* ''European Philosophers from Descartes to Nietzsche'' by Monroe Beardsley
* ''Existentialism: Basic Writings (Second Edition)'' by Charles Guignon, Derk Pereboom
* Curley, Edwin, ''A Spinoza Reader'', Princeton, 1994,
* Alan Bullock, Bullock, Alan, R.B. Woodings, and John Cumming, ''eds''. ''The Fontana Dictionary of Modern Thinkers'', in series, ''Fontana Original[s]''. Hammersmith, Eng.: Fontana Press, 1992 [1983]. xxv, 867 p.
* Roger Scruton, Scruton, Roger. ''A Short History of Modern Philosophy''.
* ''Contemporary Analytic Philosophy: Core Readings'' by James Baillie
* Kwame Anthony Appiah, Appiah, Kwame Anthony. ''Thinking it Through – An Introduction to Contemporary Philosophy'', 2003,
* Critchley, Simon. ''Continental Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction''.
Reference works
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* ''The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy'' by Robert Audi
* ''The Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' (10 vols.) edited by Edward Craig, Luciano Floridi (available online by subscription); or
* ''The Concise Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' edited by Edward Craig (an abridgement)
* ; in 1996, a ninth supplemental volume appeared that updated the classic 1967 encyclopedia.
* ''International Directory of Philosophy and Philosophers''. Charlottesville, Philosophy Documentation Center.
* ''Directory of American Philosophers''. Charlottesville, Philosophy Documentation Center.
* ''Routledge History of Philosophy'' (10 vols.) edited by John Marenbon
* ''History of Philosophy'' (9 vols.) by Frederick Copleston
* ''A History of Western Philosophy'' (5 vols.) by W.T. Jones (philosopher), W.T. Jones
* ''History of Italian Philosophy'' (2 vols.) by Eugenio Garin. Translated from Italian and Edited by Giorgio Pinton. Introduction by Leon Pompa.
* ''Encyclopaedia of Indian Philosophies'' (8 vols.), edited by Karl H. Potter et al. (first 6 volumes out of print)
* ''Indian Philosophy'' (2 vols.) by Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan
* ''A History of Indian Philosophy'' (5 vols.) by Surendranath Dasgupta
* ''History of Chinese Philosophy'' (2 vols.) by Fung Yu-lan, Derk Bodde
* ''Instructions for Practical Living and Other Neo-Confucian Writings by Wang Yang-ming'' by Chan, Wing-tsit
* ''Encyclopedia of Chinese Philosophy'' edited by Antonio S. Cua
* ''Encyclopedia of Eastern Philosophy and Religion'' by Ingrid Fischer-Schreiber, Franz-Karl Ehrhard, Kurt Friedrichs
* ''Companion Encyclopedia of Asian Philosophy'' by Brian Carr, Indira Mahalingam
* ''A Concise Dictionary of Indian Philosophy: Sanskrit Terms Defined in English'' by John A. Grimes
* ''History of Islamic Philosophy'' edited by Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Oliver Leaman
* ''History of Jewish Philosophy'' edited by Daniel H. Frank, Oliver Leaman
* ''A History of Russian Philosophy: From the Tenth to the Twentieth Centuries'' by Valerii Aleksandrovich Kuvakin
* Ayer, A.J. et al., Ed. (1994) ''A Dictionary of Philosophical Quotations''. Blackwell Reference Oxford. Oxford, Basil Blackwell Ltd.
* Blackburn, S., Ed. (1996)''The Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy''. Oxford, Oxford University Press.
* Mautner, T., Ed. ''The Penguin Dictionary of Philosophy''. London, Penguin Books.
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* Angeles, P.A., Ed. (1992). ''The HarperCollins Dictionary of Philosophy''. New York, Harper Perennial.
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* Hoffman, Eric, Ed. (1997) ''Guidebook for Publishing Philosophy''. Charlottesville, Philosophy Documentation Center.
* Popkin, R.H. (1999). ''The Columbia History of Western Philosophy''. New York, Columbia University Press.
* Bullock, Alan, and Oliver Stallybrass, ''jt. eds''. ''The Harper Dictionary of Modern Thought''. New York: Harper & Row, 1977. xix, 684 p. ''N.B''.: "First published in England under the title, ''The Fontana Dictionary of Modern Thought''."
* William L. Reese, Reese, W.L. ''Dictionary of Philosophy and Religion: Eastern and Western Thought''. Atlantic Highlands, N.J.: Humanities Press, 1980. iv, 644 p.
External links
''Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy''The ''Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy''Indiana Philosophy Ontology ProjectPhilPapers– a comprehensive directory of online philosophical articles and books by academic philosophers
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