People

Occam's Razor

"Entities are not to be multiplied without necessity" - Simpler explanations are more likely to be true than complex ones.

Heraclitus of Ephesus

"everything is in a state of flux" (535 - 475 B.C.) He was a Pre-Socratic Greek philosopher from Ephesus. He is sometimes mentioned in connection with the Ephesian School of philosophy, although he was really the only prominent member of that school (which, along with the Milesian School, is often considered part of the Ionian School). Some consider him, along with Parmenides, the most significant of the Pre-Socratic philosophers. His idea of a universe in constant change but with an underlying order or reason (which he called Logos) forms the essential foundation of the European worldview. Many subsequent philosophers, from Plato to Aristotle, from the Stoics to the Church Fathers, from Georg Hegel to Alfred North Whitehead, have claimed to have been influenced by his ideas.

Rene Descartes

(1596 - 1650) a French philosopher, mathematician, scientist and writer of the Age of Reason. He has been called the "Father of Modern Philosophy", and much of subsequent Western philosophy can be seen as a response to his writings. He is responsible for one of the best-known quotations in philosophy: "Cogito, ergo sum." He was a pioneer and major figure in 17th Century Continental Rationalism later advocated by Baruch Spinoza and Gottfried Leibniz, and opposed by the British Empiricist school of thought of Hobbes, Locke, Berkeley and Hume. He represents a major break with the Aristotelianism and Scholasticism of the Medieval period. His contribution to mathematics was also of the first order, as the inventor of the Cartesian coordinate system and the founder of analytic geometry.

John Locke

(1632 - 1704) An English philosopher of the Age of Reason and early Age of Enlightenment. His ideas had enormous influence on the development of Epistemology and Political Philosophy, and he is widely regarded as one of the most influential early Enlightenment thinkers. He is usually considered the first of the British Empiricists, the movement which included George Berkeley and David Hume, and which provided the main opposition to the 17th Century Continental Rationalists. He argued that all of our ideas are ultimately derived from experience, and the knowledge of which we are capable is therefore severely limited in its scope and certainty. His Philosophy of Mind is often cited as the origin for modern conceptions of identity and "the self". He also postulated, contrary to Cartesian and Christian philosophy, that the mind was a "tabula rasa" (or "blank slate") and that people are born without innate ideas. Along with Thomas Hobbes and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, he was also one of the originators of Contractarianism (or Social Contract Theory), which formed the theoretical groundwork of democracy, republicanism and modern Liberalism and Libertarianism. He is sometimes referred to as the "Philosopher of Freedom", and his political views influenced both the American and French Revolutions.

Baruch Spinoza

(1634-1677) Followed up Descartes philosophical thought. Considered to be among the most impressive ethical philosophers of all time. Educated as a Jew, but found it difficult to remain Orthodox. His family fled to Holland to escape the Spanish inquisition. Holds that in a state of nature there is no right or wrong, for wrong consists in disobeying the law. Thought, like Hobbes, that the Church should be completely subordinate to the state. Wrote Ethics, which has three parts 1. metaphysical, 2. psychological, and 3. ethical. Maintains that there is only infinite substance: God or Nature. God has infinite attributes, including thought and extension. Individual souls are merely aspects of the divine being. Finite things are defined by their boundaries, i.e. what they are not. He was evidently a pantheist. No such thing as free will or chance, everything is ruled by logical necessity. Concerned with showing how it is possible to live nobly even when recognizing limits of human power.

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz

(1646-1716) One of the supreme intellects of all time. Wrote Monadology and the Principles of Nature and of Grace. Held that extension cannot be an attribute of a substnace because extension involves plurality and can therefore only belong to an aggregate of substances. Infinite number of substances: each is called a "monad." No two monads can ever have causal relation with each other. Bertrand Russell called him "the best example of a philosopher who uses logic as a key to metaphysics." Whatever is complex must be composed of simple parts; what is simple cannot be extended; everything is composed of parts having no extension.

George Berkeley

(1685-1753) Denied the existence of matter. Irishman, became fellow at Trinity College in Dublin at the age of twenty-two. Wrote The Dialogues of Hylas and Philonous attempting to prove that all reality is mental.

David Hume

(1711 - 1776) A Scottish philosopher, economist and historian of the Age of Enlightenment. He was an important figure in the Scottish Enlightenment and, along with John Locke and Bishop George Berkeley, one of the three main figureheads of the influential British Empiricism movement. He was a fierce opponent of the Rationalism of Descartes, Leibniz and Spinoza, as well as an atheist and a skeptic. He has come to be considered as one of the most important British philosophers of all time, and he was a huge influence on later philosophers, from Immanuel Kant and Arthur Schopenhauer to the Logical Positivists and Analytic Philosophers of the 20th Century. In later life, however, he largely turned away from philosophy in favor of economics and his other great love, history, and it was only then that he achieved recognition in his own lifetime. Argued that there is no idea without an antecedent impression.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

(1712-1778) French writer and Enlightenment philosopher who wrote a book called, The Social Contract, where he stated that people were basically good, and that society, and its unequal distribution of wealth, were the cause of most problems. Rousseau believed that government should be run according to the will of the majority, which he called the General Will. He claimed that the General Will would always act in the best interest of the people. Self love emerged as people moved into cities, and caused people to lose sight of what they want. Society corrupts good-natured children. Father of the Romantic movement.

Immanuel Kant

(1724 - 1804) A German philosopher of the Age of Enlightenment. He is regarded as one of the most important thinkers of modern Europe, and his influence on Western thought is immeasurable. He was the starting point and inspiration for the German Idealism movement in the late 18th and early 19th Centuries, and more specifically for the Kantianism which grew up around him in his own lifetime. His works, especially those on Epistemology, Metaphysics and Ethics, such as his masterworks the "Critique of Pure Reason" and the "Critique of Practical Reason", achieved a complete paradigm shift and moved philosophy beyond the debate between the Rationalists and Empiricists which had dominated the Age of Reason and the early Age of Enlightenment, and indeed to combine those two apparently contradictory doctrines.

Napoleon Bonaparte

(1769-1821) a French military leader and emperor who conquered much of Europe in the early 19th century. Born on the island of Corsica, he rapidly rose through the ranks of the military during the French Revolution (1789-1799). After seizing political power in France in a 1799 coup d'état, he crowned himself emperor in 1804. Shrewd, ambitious and a skilled military strategist, he successfully waged war against various coalitions of European nations and expanded his empire. However, after a disastrous French invasion of Russia in 1812, he abdicated the throne two years later and was exiled to the island of Elba. In 1815, he briefly returned to power in his Hundred Days campaign. After a crushing defeat at the Battle of Waterloo, he abdicated once again and was exiled to the remote island of Saint Helena, where he died at 51.

Georg Hegel

(1770 - 1831) A German philosopher of the early Modern period. He was a leading figure in the German Idealism movement in the early 19th Century, although his ideas went far beyond earlier Kantianism, and he founded his own school of Hegelianism. He has been called the "Aristotle of modern times", and he used his system of dialectics to explain the whole of the history of philosophy, science, art, politics and religion. Despite charges of obscurantism and "pseudo-philosophy", he is often considered the summit of early 19th Century German thought. Influenced Marxism. Purpose of life is in realizing our relation to the Absolute (The Great Pumpkin).

Lord Byron

(1788-1824) a British poet, peer, politician, and leading figure in the Romantic movement. Categorized by Bertrand Russell as an "aristocratic rebel." He felt out of place in aristocratic society. Dramatized himself as a melancholy Romantic Hero whose manner of life was wickedness.

John Stuart Mill

(1806-1873) British philosopher who published On Liberty (1859), advocating individual rights against government intrusion, and The Subjection of Women (1869), on the cause of women's rights. He defends radical empiricism in logic and mathematics, suggesting that basic principles of logic and mathematics are generalizations from experience rather than known a priori. On Liberty puts forward the "harm principle" that "the only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others." Believes that pleasure is the only purely good thing in the world. Advocate of Utilitarianism.

Friedrich Nietzsche

(1844 - 1900) He was a 19th Century German philosopher and philologist. He is considered an important forerunner of the Existentialism movement (although he does not fall neatly into any particular school), and his work has generated an extensive secondary literature within both the Continental Philosophy and Analytic Philosophy traditions of the 20th Century. He challenged the foundations of Christianity and traditional morality, famously asserting that "God is dead", leading to (generally justified) charges of Atheism, Moral Skepticism, Relativism and Nihilism. His original notions of the "will to power" as mankind's main motivating principle, of the "Übermensch" as the goal of humanity, and of "eternal return" as a means of evaluating one's life, have all generated much debate and argument among scholars.

Gotlob Frege

(1848-1925) a German philosopher, logician, and mathematician. He is understood by many to be the father of analytic philosophy, concentrating on the philosophy of language and mathematics. Largely ignored during his lifetime. Greatly influenced Russell and Wittgenstein.

Edmund Husserl

(1859 - 1938) a Moravian-German philosopher and mathematician best known as the father of the 20th Century Phenomenology movement. dHis work broke with the dominant Positivism of his day, giving weight to subjective experience as the source of all of our knowledge of objective phenomena. Along with Georg Hegel and his own student Martin Heidegger, he was a major influence on the whole of 20th Century Continental Philosophy.

Ludwig Wittgenstein

(1889 - 1951) An Austrian philosopher and logician. Both his early and later work have been major influences in the development of Analytic Philosophy and Philosophy of Language. The Logical Positivists of the Vienna Circle in particular were greatly influenced by his "Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus." The ideas in his later "Philosophical Investigations" ushered in the era of Ordinary Language Philosophy and brought language to the forefront of modern philosophy. His significance has been primarily in the areas of Logic, Metaphysics, Epistemology, the Philosophy of Mind, the Philosophy of Language and the Philosophy of Mathematics.

Martin Heidegger

(1889 - 1976) was a 20th Century German philosopher. He was one of the most original and important philosophers of the 20th Century, but also one of the most controversial. His best known book, "Being and Time", although notoriously difficult, is generally considered to be one of the most important philosophical works of the 20th Century. His outspoken early support for the Fascist Nazi regime in Germany has to some extent obscured and tainted his significance, but his work has exercised a deep influence on philosophy, theology and the humanities, and was key to the development of Phenomenology, Existentialism, Deconstructionism, Post-Modernism, and Continental Philosophy in general.

John Wisdom

(1904-1993) Claims that the essential feature of religious belief is a certain "attitude" that the religious person has toward his or her surroundings; came up with parable of the invisible gardener thought exercise.

Jean-Paul Sartre

(1905-1980) a French philosopher, writer and political activist, and one of the central figures in 20th Century French philosophy. He is best known as the main figurehead of the Existentialism movement. Along with his French contemporaries Albert Camus (1913 - 1960) and Simone de Beauvoir (1908 - 1986), he helped popularize the movement through his novels and plays as well as through his more academic works. As a young man, he also made significant contributions to Phenomenology. He was a confirmed Atheist and a committed Communist and Marxist, and took a prominent role in many leftist political causes throughout his adult life.

Hannah Arendt

(1906-1975) Born in Hanover, Germany, was a public intellectual, refugee, and observer of European and American politics She was a political scientist who wrote extensively on evil; argued that the English language has an assortment of terms that describe violence but aren't carefully distinguished or analyzed. She is especially known for her interpretation of the events that led to the rise of totalitarianism in the twentieth century.

Maurice Merleau-Ponty

(1908-1961) a French phenomenological philosopher, strongly influenced by Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger. The constitution of meaning in human experience was his main interest and he wrote on perception, art, and politics. At the core of his philosophy is a sustained argument for the foundational role perception plays in understanding the world as well as engaging with the world. Like the other major phenomenologists, he expressed his philosophical insights in writings on art, literature, linguistics, and politics. He was the only major phenomenologist of the first half of the twentieth century to engage extensively with the sciences and especially with descriptive psychology.

Simone de Beauvoir

(1908-1986) a French writer, intellectual, existentialist philosopher, political activist, feminist and social theorist. Though she did not consider herself a philosopher, she had a significant influence on both feminist existentialism and feminist theory. She wrote novels, essays, biographies, autobiography and monographs on philosophy, politics and social issues. She was known for her 1949 treatise The Second Sex, a detailed analysis of women's oppression and a foundational tract of contemporary feminism. She was also known for her lifelong relationship with French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre.

Roland Barthes

(1915-1980) a French literary theorist, philosopher, linguist, critic, and semiotician. His ideas explored a diverse range of fields and he influenced the development of many schools of theory, including structuralism, semiotics, social theory, design theory, anthropology, and post-structuralism. Wrote Camera Lucida and The Death of the Author.

John Rawls

(1921 - 2002) Arguably the most important political philosopher of the twentieth century. His first book, A Theory of Justice (1971), revitalized the social-contract tradition, using it to articulate and defend a detailed vision of egalitarian liberalism. Takes the basic structure of society as his subject matter and utilitarianism as his principal opponent. Advocated for Original Position and Veil of Ignorance. Largely attempted to avoid metaphysical dilemmas.

Michel Foucault

(1926-1984) a French philosopher, historian of ideas, social theorist, and literary critic. His theories primarily address the relationship between power and knowledge, and how they are used as a form of social control through societal institutions. Though often cited as a post-structuralist and postmodernist, he rejected these labels, preferring to present his thought as a critical history of modernity. Wrote Discipline and Punishment.

John Searle

(1932-Present) an American philosopher. Professor at Berkeley. Widely noted for his contributions to the philosophy of language, philosophy of mind, and social philosophy. His notable concepts include the "Chinese room" argument against "strong" artificial intelligence.

Susan Sontag

(1933-2004) an American writer, filmmaker, philosopher, teacher, and political activist. She mostly wrote essays, but also published novels; she published her first major work, the essay "Notes on 'Camp'", in 1964. Her best-known works include On Photography, Against Interpretation, Styles of Radical Will, The Way We Live Now, Illness as Metaphor, Regarding the Pain of Others, The Volcano Lover, and In America. "What we decidedly do not need know is further to assimilate art into thought or (worse yet) art into culture."

Robert Nozick

(1938-2002) Born in Brooklyn, New York. Best known for his book Anarchy, State, Utopia. Many viewed this books as a response to Rawls' Theory of Justice. Best known for his contributions to political philosophy. He accepted the idea that individuals own themselves and have a right to private property.

Plotinus

(203-270) Roman philosopher (born in Egypt) who was the leading representative of Neoplatonism

Byzantine Empire

(330-1453) The eastern half of the Roman Empire, which survived after the fall of the Western Empire at the end of the 5th century C.E. Its capital was Constantinople, named after the Emperor Constantine.

Saint Ambrose

(340 - 397) One of four great doctors of the Catholic Church. Bishop of Milan, a great preacher whose words finally persuaded Augustine to convert to Christianity; Roman noble and governor of Milan known for his administrative and legal skills

Epicurus

(341-270 BC) Greek philosopher who believed that the world is a random combination of atoms and that pleasure is the highest good

Saint Jerome

(347 - 420) One of the four great doctors of the Catholic Church. Translated the Bible into Latin from Hebrew and Greek: "The Vulgate"

Saint Augustine of Hippo

(354 - 430) One of four great doctors of Catholic Church. Born in North Africa, returned to Hippo as a bishop. Adulthood believed in Manichaeanism. Fathered a child out of wed-lock. Read the New Testament. Wrote a Spiritual Biography called the Confessions. Saint Monica is his mother. Saw a child telling him to read the New Testament while visiting St. Ambrose. Wrote The City of God. Combatted Pelagius.

Pelagius

(360-420) British monk who debated with Augustine over the nature of the human will. Taught that human nature is essentially good, that humans can avoid sinning, and that humans can freely choose to obey God's commands. He was condemned as a heretic by the Council of Carthage in 418. Name means "man of the sea" in Greece.

Cyril of Alexandria

(376 - 444) was the Patriarch of Alexandria. He was enthroned when the city was at the height of its influence and power within the Roman Empire. Wrote extensively and was a leading protagonist in the Christological controversies of the late-4th and 5th centuries. He was a central figure in the Council of Ephesus in 431, which led to the deposition of Nestorius as Patriarch of Constantinople; opposed nestorianism

Aristotle

(384-322 BCE) A Greek Philosopher, taught Alexander the Great, started a famous school, studied with Plato. Arguably contributed more to Western thought than any individual ever has.

Nestorius

(386-450) Archbishop of Constantinople who called for the council of Ephesus because he believed Jesus was two persons: divine and human; started Nestorian branch; said Mary was only mother of man Jesus, not divine Jesus.

Plato

(430-347 BCE) Was a disciple of Socrates whose cornerstone of thought was his theory of Forms, in which there was another world of perfection. Teacher of Aristotle.

Democritus

(460-370 BCE) A Greek philosopher who theorized that all matter could be reduced to particles that could not be divided, which he described as "atomos." Sometimes known as the "Laughing Philosopher", was a Pre-Socratic Greek philosopher from Thrace in northern Greece. Along with his teacher, Leucippus, he was the founder of the Greek philosophical school of Atomism and developed a Materialist account of the natural world.

Socrates

(470-399 BCE) An Athenian philosopher who thought that human beings could lead honest lives and that honor was far more important than wealth, fame, or other superficial attributes. Never wrote and taught Plato.

Boethius

(480-525) A Roman scholar who devoted himself to the study of Plato and Aristotle and is most famous for his Neoplatonic text "The Consolation of Philosophy." He prepared a translation of Aristotelian logical texts known as the "Organon".

Saint Benedict

(480-547) Italian monk who founded the Benedictine order in about 540; At age 20 he fled from the luxuries of Rome to live in a cave in solitude for three years; Founded the Benedictine Rule which limited the amount of austerities monks may impose upon themselves

Emperor Justinian

(482-565) Leader of the Byzantine Empire that helped in its revival of Romans glory and fame. Closed "pagan" schools of philosophy in Athens

Zeno of Elea

(490-430 BC) Zeno of Elea was a student of Parmenides, who founded the Eleatic school in a Greek colony of the Italian peninsula. He is most famous today for "Zeno's paradoxes," the best-known of which involve an arrow in flight and a race between Achilles and a tortoise. Zeno's paradoxes purport to show that physical movement is impossible, since any attempt to travel a distance must be preceded by moving half that distance, which must be preceded by moving half of half that distance, and so on.

Anaxagoras

(500 - 428 B.C.) an early Pre-Socratic Greek philosopher from Ionia, although he was one of the first philosophers to move to Athens as a base. He is sometimes considered to be part of the poorly-defined school of Pluralism, and some of his ideas also influenced the later development of Atomism. Many of his ideas in the physical sciences were quite revolutionary in their day, and quite insightful in retrospect.

Gregory the Great

(509-604) One of the four great doctors of the Catholic Church; first Pope to assume the title "Servant of the Servants of God"; introduced the Gregorian Chant; reformed liturgy; secured the position of the papacy; advanced missionary activity in Europe

Parmenides of Elea

(515 - 450 B.C.) Being is one. All of nature is static and unchanging. He was an early Pre-Socratic Greek philosopher and founder and chief representative of the Eleatic School of ancient Greek philosophy. He is one of the most significant and influential (as well as the most difficult and obscure) of the Pre-Socratic philosophers, and he is sometimes referred to as the father of Metaphysics. He particularly influenced Plato. His greatest contribution to philosophy was his method of reasoned proof for assertions. In denying the reality (or even the possibility) of change as part of his Monist philosophy, he presented a turning point in the history of Western Philosophy, and sparked a philosophical challenge that determined the course of enquiries of subsequent philosophers such as Empedocles, Anaxagoras and Democritus, and an intellectual revolution that still echoes today.

Sun Tzu

(544-496 BC) A Chinese general, military strategist, writer, and philosopher who lived in the Eastern Zhou period of ancient China. Traditionally credited as the author of The Art of War, a widely influential work of military strategy that has affected both Western and East Asian philosophy and military thinking.

Pythagoras of Samos

(570 - 490 B.C.) an early Greek Pre-Socratic philosopher and mathematician from the Greek island of Samos. He was the founder of the influential philosophical and religious movement or cult called Pythagoreanism, and he was probably the first man to actually call himself a philosopher (or lover of wisdom). He and his followers allegedly exercised an important influence on the work of Plato. As a mathematician, he is known as the "father of numbers" or as the first pure mathematician, and is best known for his Pythagorean Theorem on the relation between the sides of a right triangle, the concept of square numbers and square roots, and the discovery of the golden ratio. Unfortunately, little is known for sure about him, none of his original writings have survived.

Anaximenes

(585 - 525 B.C.) an early Pre-Socratic philosopher from the Greek city of Miletus in Ionia (modern-day Turkey). He was a key figure in the Milesian School, a friend and pupil of Anaximander and he continued the Milesians' philosophical inquiries into the "archê" or first principle of the universe (which he deemed to be air), and sought to give a quasi-scientific explanation of the world. In the physical sciences, he was the first Greek to distinguish clearly between planets and stars, and he used his principles to account for various natural phenomena, such as thunder and lightning, rainbows, earthquakes, etc.

Leucippus

(5th century BCE) Father of atomists along with Democritus (who he taught). Proposed that all matter was made of small units called atoms

Anaximander

(610 - 546 B.C.) an early Pre-Socratic philosopher from the Greek city of Miletus in Ionia (modern-day Turkey). He was a key figure in the Milesian School, as a student of Thales and teacher of Anaximenes and Pythagoras. He was an early proponent of science, and is sometimes considered to be the first true scientist, and to have conducted the earliest recorded scientific experiment. He is often considered the founder of astronomy, and he tried to observe and explain different aspects of the universe and its origins, and to describe the mechanics of celestial bodies in relation to the Earth. He made important contributions to cosmology, physics, geometry, meteorology and geography as well as to Metaphysics. Claimed the only substance which could explain all the opposites he saw around him, is what he called "apeiron" ("the infinite"), an endless, unlimited primordial mass, subject to neither old age nor decay, that perpetually yielded fresh materials from which everything we perceive is derived.

Thales of Miletus

(624 - 546 B.C.) an early Pre-Socratic philosopher, mathematician and astronomer from the Greek city of Miletus in Ionia (modern-day Turkey). He was one of the so-called Seven Sages of Greece, and many regard him as the first philosopher in the Western tradition. He was the founder of the Milesian School of natural philosophy, and the teacher of Anaximander. He was perhaps the first subscriber to Materialist and Naturalism in trying to define the substance or substances of which all material objects were composed, which he identified as water.

Charlemagne

(742-814) King of the Franks (r. 768-814); emperor (r. 800-814). Through a series of military conquests he established the Carolingian Empire, which encompassed all of Gaul and parts of Germany and Italy. Illiterate, though started an intellectual revival. Also known as Charles the Great.

Al-Kindi

(801 - 873) The first to write philosophy in Arabic, and the only philosopher who notes himself as an Arab. Translated parts of Plotinus's writing into Arabic.

Zeno of Citium

(c. 334 - 262 B.C.) He was a Greek philosopher of the Hellenistic period, active in Athens from about 300 B.C. He is considered the founder of the Stoicism school of philosophy (which became the dominant philosophy of the Hellenistic and Roman periods, and an influence on early Christianity). However, his philosophy was more of a middle way between the Cynics' complete rejection of society and the later Stoics' obsession with duty.

John the Scot

(probably 815-877) Most astonishing person of the ninth century: Irishman, Neoplatonist, Pelgian, pantheist, and Greek scholar. Believed in Free Will: contended that reason and revelation are both sources of truth. Most famous work is On the Division of Nature which maintains that universals are anterior to particulars. Pope Honorius III ordered all copies of the book to be burned in 1225, but the decree evidently failed.

human plurality

For Hannah Arendt, this concept describes an existential condition of human life: we are equal insofar as we are human beings but distinct because no human being is like any other. Our distinctness provides us with a perspective that cannot be fully understood by anyone else, yet our equality means that, as a presupposition of communication, we assume the capacity for speech and reason in each other.

Plutocracy

Society ruled by the wealthy

metempsychosis

supposed after existence, or passing of the psyche (soul) at death into another body, either human or animal; transmigration of souls

Egalitarianism

the belief that all people should have equal political, economic, social, and civil rights

empiricism

the doctrine that all knowledge is derived from sense experience

aesthetics

the study of the felt quality of perceptions of the senses

holism

the theory that parts of a whole are in intimate interconnection, such that they cannot exist independently of the whole, or cannot be understood without reference to the whole, which is thus regarded as greater than the sum of its parts

Bourgeoisie

Marx's term for capitalists, those who own the means of production

Proletariat

Marx's term for the exploited class, the mass of workers who do not own the means of production

Means of Production

Marx's term for the tools, factories, land, and investment capital used to produce wealth, NOT including labor

Just War Theory

set of principles outlining conditions when the use of violence would be acceptable: Just cause, right intentionality, proportionality, probability of success, last resort, proper authority

Emperor Irene

( 752- 803) Byzantine ruler and saint of the Greek Orthodox Church who was instrumental in restoring the use of icons in the Eastern Roman Empire. The wife of the Byzantine emperor Leo IV, she became, on her husband's death in September 780, guardian of their 10-year-old son, Constantine VI, and co-emperor with him. Later in that year she crushed what seems to have been a plot by the Iconoclasts. Irene favoured the restoration of the use of icons, which had been prohibited in 730. Refused to call herself "empress."

Saint Anselm

(1033 - 1109) Held the office of archbishop of Canterbury from 1093 to 1109. Developed the ontological argument. Proof by Contradiction supposing that if a supremely great being existed only in our minds, then it would not be supremely great because we can imagine one that is supremely great, but also exists in the real world.

Albertus Magnus

(1200-1280) Dominican Archbishop and philosopher, known as a teacher to St. Thomas Aquinas. The leading Aristotelian among philosophers of his time.

Marcus Aurelius

(121-180) Last of the "Five Good Emperors", Wrote "Meditations" personal reflections of his beliefs, End of the Pax Romana; practitioner of stoicicism

Roger Bacon

(1214-1294) English scientist and Franciscan monk who stressed the importance of experimentation. Criticized many of those around him, and was sentenced to prison for fourteen years. Influenced Columbus with writings on geography.

Saint Thomas Aquinas

(1225-1274) Regarded as the greatest of the scholastic philosophers. Concerned with reconciling Aristotle with the Catholic Church, proving Aristotle to be the basis for Catholic Philosophy. Attempted to prove the existence of god through reason. Man's ultimate happiness exists in the contemplation of God, ultimate happiness comes in next life. Three ways of knowing God: by reason, by revelation, and by intuition.

Dante

(1265-1321) Italian poet and Renaissance writer. His greatest work is The Divine Comedy. As a thinker, he was a bit behind the times. Regards emperor and pope as independent and both divinely appointed. His work exhibits the thoughts of a layman in that time.

William of Okham

(1285-1347) An English Franciscan friar and scholastic philosopher and theologian, who is believed to have been born in Ockham, a small village in Surrey. He is considered to be one of the major figures of medieval thought and was at the centre of the major intellectual and political controversies of the 14th century. He is commonly known for Occam's razor, the methodological principle that bears his name, and also produced significant works on logic, physics, and theology.

Erasmus

(1466-1536) Born at Rotterdam. Dutch Humanist and friend of Sir Thomas More. Despised the scholastic philosophy. Aimed at ecclesiastical reform whenever possible. Before Martin Luther's revolt, he was a leader of thought.

Niccolo Machiavelli

(1469-1527) an Italian diplomat, politician, historian, philosopher, humanist, writer, playwright and poet of the Renaissance period. He has often been called the father of modern political science.For many years he was a senior official in the Florentine Republic, with responsibilities in diplomatic and military affairs. He also wrote comedies, carnival songs, and poetry. His personal correspondence is renowned by Italian scholars. He wrote his most well-known work The Prince in 1513, having been exiled from city affairs.

Sir Thomas More

(1478-1535) Englishman, lawyer, politician, Chancellor for Henry VIII. Wrote Utopia which presented a revolutionary view of society, in which the problems of society were caused by greed. Executed by Henry VIII for not compromising his religious beliefs.

Martin Luther

(1483-1546) a German monk who became one of the most famous critics of the Roman Catholic Church. In 1517, he wrote 95 theses, or statements of belief attacking the church practices.

Francis Bacon

(1561-1626) Importance as the founder of the modern inductive method and the pioneer in the attempt at logical systemization of scientific procedure. His philosophy was to give mankind mastery over the forces of nature my means of scientific discoveries and inventions.

Sir Robert Filmer

(1588 - 1653) Wrote about patriarchs. Kings were trying to make themselves seem like God-given rulers. Showed why subjects should give allegiance to the King. Said Kings were like fathers and the state was like family.

Thomas Hobbes

(1588 - 1679) An English empiricist of the Age of Reason. His famous 1651 book "Leviathan" and his social contract theory, developed during the tumultuous times around the English Civil War, established the foundation for most of Western Political Philosophy. Discussed a social contract: a number of people come together and agree to choose a sovereign which shall exercise power over them in exchange for them stopping the war/conflict that is the natural status quo. Argument for men submitting to limitations on personal freedom. Claims that the ruler is not bound by any contract, so there is no right to rebellion. Prefers monarchy, but arguments applicable to other forms of government.

Sophists

A specific kind of teacher in ancient Greece, in the fifth and fourth centuries BC. Many of these specialized in using the tools of philosophy and rhetoric, though others taught subjects such as music, athletics, and mathematics. In general, they claimed to teach arete ("excellence" or "virtue", applied to various subject areas), predominantly to young statesmen and nobility. There are not many writings from and about them. Their early practice of charging money, often employed by rich people, for education and providing wisdom only to those who could pay resulted in the condemnations made by Socrates through Plato in his Dialogue.

Social Contract Theory

A voluntary agreement between the government and the governed. The beginning of politic society depends upon the consent of the individuals to join into and make one society.

The Goths

An array of Germanic peoples, pushed further westward by the Huns. They in turn migrated west into Rome, upsetting the rough balance of power that existed between Rome and these people.

Veil of Ignorance

An imagined device by John Rawls where the people choosing the basic structure of society ('deliberators') have morally arbitrary features hidden from them: since they have no knowledge of these features, any decision they make can't be biased in their own favour.

Epicureans

Ancient group of followers of the Greek philosopher Epicurus, who maintained that the gods were removed from the concerns of human life and so were not to be feared or placated. Happiness came in establishing a peaceful harmony with other like-minded people and enjoying the simple pleasures of daily existence: the concept that the absence of pain and fear constitutes the greatest pleasure, and its advocacy of a simple life, make it very different from "hedonism"

Atomists

Group that believed man is part of the universe. The elements making up man are the same elements making up the whole universe. (Thales, Heraclitus, Empedocles)

Stoics

Hellenistic group of philosophers; emphasized inner moral independence cultivated by strict discipline of the body and personal bravery

Logical Monism

The doctrine that the world as a whole is a single substance, none of whose parts are logically capable of existing alone.

Teleology

The explanation of phenomena by the purpose they serve rather than by postulated causes.

Continental Philosophy

The philosophical traditions of continental Europe; includes phenomenology, existentialism, hermeneutics, deconstruction, and critical theory

Analytic Philosophy

The predominant twentieth-century philosophical tradition in English-speaking countries; this type of philosophy philosophy has its roots in British empiricism and holds that analysis is the proper method of philosophy,

Original Position

hypothetical situation employed by Rawls to compare competing principles of social justice by asking which would be chosen by rational individuals were they to be situated behind a veil of ignorance that deprives them of knowledge of their fortunes in the social and natural lottery, as well as of their conception of well-being.

a posteriori

relating to or denoting reasoning or knowledge that proceeds from observations or experiences to the deduction of probable causes

a priori

relating to or denoting reasoning or knowledge that proceeds from theoretical deduction rather than from observation or experience.