What is Philosophy?

Philosophy (from Greek φιλοσοφία, philosophia, literally “love of wisdom”) is the study of general and fundamental questions about existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. The term was probably coined by Pythagoras (c. 570 – 495 BCE). Philosophical methods include questioning, critical

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The Nature and Scope of Philosophy

Philosophy literally means ‘love of wisdom’. It is an attempt to arrive at a rational conception of the reality as a whole. It enquires into the nature of the universe in which we live, the nature of the human soul, and its destiny, and the nature of God or the Absolute, and their relation to one another. Philosophy consists of three parts: Epistemology; Ontology and Metaphysics, and

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Abandonment (existentialism)

Concept central to atheistic existentialism. According to such existentialists as Jean-Paul Sartre, God does not exist and life therefore has no intrinsic purpose or meaning. Man has been ‘abandoned’ in the universe and must create his own morality and code of values without the assistance of any divine being. Abandonment, in philosophy, refers to the

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Human nature

Theory of human individual and social character. There is a ‘natural’ human character as there is a natural shape to a particular plant or a natural form to a particular animal. This human nature is prior to the particularities of any time or place. Also see: dialectic, dialectical materialism Source: David Miller et al., eds, The

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Legitimacy (20TH CENTURY)

The view that systems of government either are or ought to be justified, and not simply based on coercion. There are two versions of the theory of legitimacy, one deriving from political philosophy, the other from history and political science. The first seeks for principles which would oblige people to obey government, and then

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Utopianism

Label usually applied in a hostile sense to those who advocate – or are wildly optimistic in thinking they can achieve – a state of affairs perfect in some or all respects. One charge is that the excessive and unrealistic pursuit of some good can lead to gross neglect of other goods and even

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Absolute

19th century idealists from Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831) to Francis Herbert Bradley (1846-1924) – unlike the earlier 18th century idealist George Berkeley (1685-1753) – were heavily influenced by Immanuel Kant (1724-1804). Kant insisted that there are limits to what we can, in principle, know about reality, and that we necessarily look at the world in certain ways only; for example in terms of substance

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Activism (20TH CENTURY)

Theory of the German-American psychoanalyst Erich Fromm (1900-1980). Rarely used in psychology, this is the doctrine that any relationship between thought and reality is characterized by continuous activity on the part of the mind rather than passive sensory receptivity. Source: A J Chapman and D M Jones, eds, Models of Man (Leicester, 1980) Definitions of activism

Analytic / synthetic (1783)

Distinction first formulated by the German philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724-1804), adopted as a fundamental principle in linguistic semantics. An analytic or necessary truth (‘sentence’ in linguistics) is true by virtue of its meaning: ‘All bachelors are unmarried men’. A synthetic or contingent truth is true by virtue of empirical fact: ‘Grass is green’ is not necessarily true,

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Animism

A term variously used, in particular for the view that apparently inanimate parts of the universe (rivers, mountains, stars, and so on, as well as plants) are in fact animated and activated by souls or spirits; for example, Naiads (springs), Dryads (oak-trees) and so on. Usually the term is applied to primitive beliefs of

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Anomalous monism

View associated especially with the American philosopher Donald Davidson (1920-2003), saying that mental events are identical with certain physical events (hence the monism), but that there are no laws which are purely mental, or which connect mental events with physical ones (hence the ‘anomalous’; that there are no strict deterministic laws for predicting or explaining mental events

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Anthropomorphism (1858)

A term first used in biology by the encyclopaedist George Henry Lewes (1817-1878) in Seaside Studies, this is the interpretation of animal behaviors in terms of human motivation; for example, the notion that a mother dog cares for her puppies because she loves them. Difficult or impossible to prove or disprove, anthropomorphism is viewed dubiously by

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Anthroposophy (19TH-20TH CENTURIES)

The teachings of the German occult philosopher Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925), derived from an ancient Greek phrase meaning ‘wisdom about man’. Steiner held that the development of man’s spiritual awareness was of paramount importance. He attempted to treat the investigation of spirituality as a ‘scientific’ study, and based much of his research upon his central contention that

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Antisthenes

Antisthenes, an Athenian philosopher, was born in Athens about 440 BCE. of a Phrygian or Thracian mother, and thus was only a half citizen. In his youth he was engaged in military exploits, and acquired fame by the valor which he displayed in the battle of Tanagra. His first studies were under the direction

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Atheism

The contention that there is no God and that religious faith in such an entity is a consequence of man’s imagination or gullibility. It has been argued that virtually everyone is an atheist as few people profess to believe in all the gods or other divine personalities devised by man. More conventionally, the atheist

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Principle of atomic uniformity

Principle used by the English economist John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946) in trying to justify induction. It said that, if induction is to work, a complex change must be resolvable into a set of component changes each of which is separately attributable to some distinct feature of the preceding state of affairs. A principle is a proposition or value

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Atomism

As a physical theory atomism was invented by Leucippus and Democritus in the 5th century BC, developed by Epicurus a century or so later, and revived in the 17th century. In it matter consisted of tiny indivisible, indestructible and unchanging bits of solid stuff, differing in shape and size, and jostling each other in the void to constitute the material

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Behaviorism (1913)

Also referred to as the stimulus-response model, this term was coined by the American psychologist John Broadus Watson (1878-1958) in his paper, ‘Psychology as the Behaviorist Sees It’. It is a theory of animal and human behavior holding that actions can be explained entirely as responses to stimuli; and asserting that observable and measurable

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Buridan’s ass (14TH CENTURY)

A theoretical illustration of the dilemma posed by the need to make a decision between two equally attractive proposals. The concept itself dates from much earlier times, being discussed first by Aristotle (384-322 BC). In Buridan’s example, an ass faces starvation when it is unable to choose between two equally appetizing piles of hay. History[edit] The

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