HUMANITIES - Philosophy
Harriet Taylor Mill
A women's rights advocate and a philosopher herself, she wrote a number of essays on women's rights, including several on domestic violence, which culminated to her writing The Enfranchisement of Women, published in 1851. Although correspondence between her and John Stuart Mill started while she was married with her first husband, they eventually got married 2 years after being widowed. Name this philosopher who influenced J.S. Mill who dedicated On Liberty to her which was published a year after her death.
Wu Xing
Also known as the Five Elements, this is a fivefold conceptual scheme that many traditional Chinese fields used to explain a wide array of phenomena, from cosmic cycles to the interaction between internal organs, and from the succession of political regimes to the properties of medicinal drugs. The "Five Phases" are Wood (mù), Fire (huǒ), Earth (tǔ), Metal (jīn), and Water (shuǐ).
Nihilism
An approach to philosophy that holds that human life is meaningless and that all religions, laws, moral codes, and political systems are thoroughly empty and false.
Jacques Derrida
He was a French philosopher, born in Algeria. He is best known for developing a form of semiotic analysis known as deconstruction, which he discussed in numerous texts. He is one of the major figures associated with post-structuralism and postmodern philosophy.
Junzi
It is a Chinese philosophical term often translated as "gentleman" or "superior person" and employed by both the Duke of Wen in the I-ching and Confucius in his works to describe the ideal man. Second only to the sheng, or sage, according to Zhu Xi, "He has many characteristics. He can live with poverty; He does more and speaks less. He is loyal, obedient and knowledgeable. He disciplines himself. Among these, Ren is the core of becoming one."
Ren
It is the Confucian virtue denoting the good feeling a virtuous human experiences when being altruistic. It is exemplified by a normal adult's protective feelings for children. It is considered the outward expression of Confucian ideals.
Yi
Literally "justice, righteousness; meaning," is an important concept in Confucianism. It involves a moral disposition to do good, and also the intuition and sensibility to do so competently. It represents moral acumen which goes beyond simple rule following, and involves a balanced understanding of a situation, and the "creative insights" necessary to apply virtues "with no loss of sight of the total good.
Yoga
The Hindu school, associated with the school of Samkhya as the practical method for achieving the understanding of the self. It is the discipline or yoke necessary for the pure subject to recognize itself, and separate itself from the empirical reality with which it is confused. It includes moral restraints, and spiritual imperatives, as well as asanas designed to withdraw consciousness from the senses, focus the mind, and ultimately achieve meditation in which the self is completely and transparently understood (samadhi).
Christian Wolff
The principal follower and interpreter of Leibniz. He was primarily a mathematician, but renowned as a systematic philosopher, supposing that all the necessary tenets of metaphysics are derivable from the principle of sufficient reason and the principle of identity (Leibniz's law). In his most important work, Philosophia Prima sive Ontologia ('First Philosophy or Ontology'), he gave a systematic ontology along scholastic lines, fusing elements from the systems of Leibniz and Descartes.
Axis mundi // Navel of the world
This image is mostly viewed as feminine, as it relates to the center of the earth (perhaps like an umbilical providing nourishment). It may have the form of a natural object (a mountain, a tree, a vine, a stalk, a column of smoke or fire) or a product of human manufacture (a staff, a tower, a ladder, a staircase, a maypole, a cross, a steeple, a rope, a totem pole, a pillar, a spire). Its proximity to heaven may carry implications that are chiefly religious (pagoda, temple mount, minaret, church) or secular (obelisk, lighthouse, rocket, skyscraper) and appears in religious and secular contexts. What do you call this place, in which in certain beliefs and philosophies, is the world center, or the connection between Heaven and Earth?
thing-in-itself
This is a notion in the philosophy of Immanuel Kant. It is defined as "an object as it would appear to us if we did not have to approach it under the conditions of space and time".
Misanthropy
What do you call the general hatred, distrust or contempt of the human species or human nature?
Mencius
Also known by his birth name Meng Ke or Meng Ko, he was an itinerant Chinese philosopher and sage, and one of the principal interpreters of Confucianism. Supposedly, he was a pupil of Confucius' grandson, Zisi. He asserted the innate goodness of the individual, believing that it was society's influence - its lack of a positive cultivating influence - that caused bad moral character. Name this Chinese philosopher who is the most famous Confucian after Confucius himself.
David Hume
An eighteenth-century Scottish philosopher known for his skepticism. He maintained that all knowledge was based on either the impressions of the senses or the logical relations of ideas.
Protagoras
An expert in rhetorics and subjects connected to virtue and political life, often regarded as the first sophist. He is known primarily for three claims: (1) that man is the measure of all things, often interpreted as a sort of moral relativism, (2) that he could make the "worse (or weaker) argument appear the better (or stronger)" (see Sophism), and (3) that one could not tell if the gods existed or not (later expounded to Agnosticism).
Geist
Analogous terms for this word in other languages are pneuma in Ancient Greek, spiritus in Latin, esprit in French and prana in Sanskrit. English-language translators of the term from the German language face some difficulty in rendering the term, and often disagree as to the best translation in a given context, whether it is used in the same context as mind, spirit, or ghost. Name the central concept in Hegel's The Phenomenology of Spirit.
Xiaoren
As opposed to the "lord's son," this Chinese philosophical term is for a person who does not grasp the value of virtues and seeks only immediate gains. The petty person is egotistic and does not consider the consequences of his action in the overall scheme of things. Examples of such individuals can range from those who continually indulge in sensual and emotional pleasures all day to the politician who is interested merely in power and fame; neither sincerely aims for the long-term benefit of others.
Ghost in the machine
By what phrase did British philosopher Gilbert Ryle's described René Descartes' mind-body dualism? The phrase was introduced in Ryle's book The Concept of Mind (1949) to highlight the perceived absurdity of dualist systems like Descartes' where mental activity carries on in parallel to physical action, but where their means of interaction are unknown or, at best, speculative.
Han Feizi
Chinese philosopher and one of the formulators of legalism. He emphasized the need for the authority ofthe ruler and the power of the state to be asserted and strengthened in order to establish an orderly, peaceful society. His belief in the need for strict laws, regulations, and punishments had an important influence on the Qin state and on subsequent Chinese political thought.
John Venn
English logician and probability theorist. Born in Hull, he was educated at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, where he became a Fellow in 1857, and President in 1903. His work The Logic of Chance (1867) is an early exploration of the frequency theory of probability. His Symbolic Logic (1881) was hugely influential as the first successful formulation of the algebraic approach to logic pioneered by the mathematician Boole.
qualia
In philosophy and certain models of psychology, what do you call individual instances of subjective, conscious experience? Examples of these include the pain of a headache, the taste of wine, and the perceived redness of an evening sky.
Phronesis
It is a Greek word for a type of wisdom or intelligence, specifically the virtue of practical thought, which is a common topic of discussion in philosophy. In Aristotelian ethics, for example in the Nicomachean Ethics, it is distinguished from other words for wisdom and intellectual virtues - such as episteme and techne. Because of its practical character, when it is not simply translated by words meaning wisdom or intelligence, it is often translated as "practical wisdom", and sometimes (more traditionally) as "prudence", from Latin prudentia.
Consequentialism
It is the class of normative ethic theories holding that consequences of one's conduct are the ultimate basis of any judgment about the rightness or wrongness of that conduct.
Solipsism
This is the belief that all reality is just one's own imagining of reality, and that one's self is the only thing that exists.
Amor fati
A Latin phrase that may be translated as "love of fate" or "love of one's fate", it is used to describe an attitude in which one sees everything that happens in one's life, including suffering and loss, as good or, at the very least, necessary, in that they are among the facts of one's life and existence, so they are always necessarily there whether one likes them or not. Moreover, it is characterized by an acceptance of the events or situations that occur in one's life.
John Locke
A seventeenth-century English philosopher. He argued against the belief that human beings are born with certain ideas already in their minds. He claimed that, on the contrary, the mind is a tabula rasa (blank slate) until experience begins to "write" on it. In his political writings, he attacked the doctrine of the divine right of kings and argued that governments depend on the consent of the governed. Name this political philosopher whose influence is especially apparent in the Declaration of Independence.
syllogism
According to Aristotle, this is the cornerstone of deductive reasoning. It includes a major premis, a minor premise, and a conclusion which follows from the two.
John Bordley Rawls
An American moral and political philosopher, he held proffesorships and fellowships at Harvard University and Christ Church, Oxford. He received both the Schock Prize for Logic and Philosphy and the National Humanities Medal in 1999, the latter of which was presented to him by Bill Clinton. He was recognized for helping a whole generation of learned Americans to revive their faith in democracy itself. His magnum opus, A Theory of Justice, was said at the time of its publication to be the "most important work in moral philosophy since the end of World War II and is nor regarded as one of the primary texts in political philosophy. He is widely considered the most important political philosopher of the 20th century.
tabula rasa
From the Latin for 'blank slate', what is the term in philosophy for the idea that individuals are born without built-in mental content and that therefore all knowledge comes from experience or perception?
John Duns // Duns Scotus
Generally considered to be one of the three most important philosopher-theologians of the High Middle Ages, he has had considerable influence on both Catholic and secular thought. He is best known are the "univocity of being," that existence is the most abstract concept we have, applicable to everything that exists; the formal distinction, a way of distinguishing between different aspects of the same thing; and the idea of haecceity, the property supposed to be in each individual thing that makes it an individual. Name this philosopher who developed a complex argument for the existence of God, and argued for the Immaculate Conception of Mary and known as the Subtle Doctor.
Jeremy Bentham
He became a leading theorist in Anglo-American philosophy of law, and a political radical whose ideas influenced the development of welfarism. He advocated individual and economic freedom, the separation of church and state, freedom of expression, equal rights for women, the right to divorce, and the decriminalising of homosexual acts. He called for the abolition of slavery, the abolition of the death penalty, and the abolition of physical punishment, including that of children. Name this English philosopher, jurist, and social reformer, defined the philosophy attributed to him as "it is the greatest happiness of the greatest number that is the measure of right and wrong", who founded modern utilitarianism.
Theophrastus
He came to Athens at a young age and initially studied in Plato's school. After Plato's death, he attached himself to Aristotle. Aristotle bequeathed to him his writings and designated him as his successor at the Lyceum. He presided over the Peripatetic school for thirty-six years, during which time the school flourished greatly. He is often considered the "father of botany" for his works on plants. After his death, the Athenians honoured him with a public funeral. Name this Greek native of Eresos in Lesbos, was the successor to Aristotle in the Peripatetic school.
Arthur Schopenhauer
He is best known for his 1818 work The World as Will and Representation, in which he characterizes the phenomenal world, and consequently all human action, as the product of a blind, insatiable, and malignant metaphysical will. He was among the first thinkers in Western philosophy to share and affirm significant tenets of Eastern philosophy having initially arrived at similar conclusions as the result of his own philosophical work. His writing on aesthetics, morality, and psychology would exert important influence on thinkers and artists throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. Name this German philosopher developed an atheistic metaphysical and ethical system that has been described as an exemplary manifestation of philosophical pessimism, rejecting the contemporaneous post-Kantian philosophies of German idealism.
Glaucon
He is primarily known as a major conversant with Socrates in the Republic, and the interlocutor during the Allegory of the Cave. He is also referenced briefly in the beginnings of two dialogues of Plato, the Parmenides and Symposium. Son of Ariston, and a philosopher in his own right, what is the name of Aristotle's older brother?
Zisi // Kongji
He is the only grandson of Confucius. He is traditionally accredited with transmitting Confucian teaching to Mencius and writing the Doctrine of the Mean. Where his grandfather began to distinguish between true and supposed knowledge, he proceeded upon meditations on the relativity in human knowledge of the universe. He attempted to analyze as many types of action as possible, and believed that wise people who are conscious of their moral and intellectual duties can copy the reality of the universe into themselves. Name this Chinese philosopher who is revered as one of the Four Sages of Confucianism.
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
He occupies a prominent place in the history of mathematics and the history of philosophy. Recognized by Russell to have developed calculus independently from Isaac Newton. It was only in the 20th century that his Law of Continuity and Transcendental Law of Homogeneity found mathematical implementation (by means of non-standard analysis). In philosophy, he is most noted for his optimism, i.e. his conclusion that our Universe is, in a restricted sense, the best possible one that God could have created. Name this German polymath and philosopher, one of the three great 17th-century advocates of rationalism along with Descartes and Spinoza.
Bertrand Russell
He was a British philosopher, logician, mathematician, historian, writer, social critic and political activist. At various points in his life he considered himself a liberal, a socialist, and a pacifist, but he also admitted that he had never been any of these in any profound sense. He is considered one of the founders of analytic philosophy along with his predecessor Gottlob Frege, colleague G. E. Moore, and his protégé Ludwig Wittgenstein. He is widely held to be one of the 20th century's premier logicians. With A. N. Whitehead he wrote Principia Mathematica, an attempt to create a logical basis for mathematics. His work has had a considerable influence on logic, mathematics, set theory, linguistics, artificial intelligence, cognitive science, computer science (see type theory and type system), and philosophy, especially the philosophy of language, epistemology, and metaphysics.
Henri Lefebvre
He was a French Marxist philosopher and sociologist, best known for pioneering the critique of everyday life, for introducing the concepts of the right to the city and the production of social space, and for his work on dialectics, alienation, and criticism of Stalinism, existentialism, and structuralism. In his prolific career, he wrote more than sixty books and three hundred articles. One of his most important contributions to social thought is the idea of the "critique of everyday life," which he pioneered in the 1930s. He defined everyday life dialectically as the intersection of "illusion and truth, power and helplessness; the intersection of the sector man controls and the sector he does not control", and is where the perpetually transformative conflict occurs between diverse, specific rhythms: the body's polyrhythmic bundles of natural rhythms, physiological (natural) rhythms, and social rhythms. The everyday was in short, the space in which all life occurred, and between which all fragmented activities took place and he considered it residual.
David Hume
He was a Scottish philosopher, historian, economist, and essayist, who is best known today for his highly influential system of radical philosophical empiricism, skepticism, and naturalism. Beginning with his A Treatise of Human Nature (1739), he strove to create a total naturalistic science of man that examined the psychological basis of human nature. He has proved extremely influential on subsequent Western thought, especially on utilitarianism, logical positivism, William James, Immanuel Kant, the philosophy of science, early analytic philosophy, cognitive science, theology and other movements and thinkers.
Zhu Xi
He was a Song dynasty Confucian scholar who was the leading figure of the School of Principle and the most influential rationalist Neo-Confucian in China. His contributions to Chinese philosophy including his assigning special significance to the Analects, the Mencius, the Great Learning, and the Doctrine of the Mean (the Four Books), his emphasis on the investigation of things (gewu), and the synthesis of all fundamental Confucian concepts, formed the basis of Chinese bureaucracy and government for over 700 years. He has been called the second most influential thinker in Chinese history, after Confucius himself.
Protagoras
He was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher and is numbered as one of the sophists by Plato. In the dialogue named after him, Plato credits him with having invented the role of the professional sophist. He also is believed to have created a major controversy during ancient times through his statement that, "Man is the measure of all things", interpreted by Plato to mean that there is no absolute truth, but that which individuals deem to be the truth. Although there is reason to question the extent of the interpretation of his arguments that has followed, that concept of individual relativity was revolutionary for the time, and contrasted with other philosophical doctrines that claimed the universe was based on something objective, outside of human influence or perceptions.
Zeno of Elea
He was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher of Magna Graecia and a member of the Eleatic School founded by Parmenides. Aristotle called him the inventor of the dialectic. And, he is best known for his paradoxes, which Bertrand Russell has described as "immeasurably subtle and profound".
Charles Sanders Peirce
He was an American philosopher, logician, mathematician, and scientist who is sometimes known as "the father of pragmatism". He was educated as a chemist and employed as a scientist for 30 years. Today he is appreciated largely for his contributions to logic, mathematics, philosophy, scientific methodology, and semiotics, and for his founding of pragmatism.
Michel de Montaigne
He was one of the most significant philosophers of the French Renaissance, known for popularizing the essay as a literary genre. His work is noted for its merging of casual anecdotes and autobiography with serious intellectual insight; his massive volume Essais (translated literally as "Attempts" or "Trials") contains some of the most influential essays ever written.
Zhu Xi
His contributions to Chinese philosophy including his assigning special significance to the Analects, the Mencius, the Great Learning, and the Doctrine of the Mean (the Four Books), his emphasis on the investigation of things (gewu), and the synthesis of all fundamental Confucian concepts, formed the basis of Chinese bureaucracy and government for over 700 years. Name this Song dynasty Confucian scholar, the leading figure of the School of Principle, and considered as the second most influential thinker in Chinese history, after Confucius himself.
Han Feizi
His writings were very influential on the future first emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang. Name this influential political philosopher of the Warring States period who is often considered to be the greatest representative of Chinese Legalism and known for a collection of essays attributed to him by his followers with the text named after him.
Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus
IT is the only book-length philosophical work published by the Austrian philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein in his lifetime. The project had a broad aim - to identify the relationship between language and reality and to define the limits of science - and is recognized as a significant philosophical work of the twentieth century. Wittgenstein wrote the notes for this book while he was a soldier during World War I and completed it when a prisoner of war at Como and later Cassino in August 1918. It employs a notoriously austere and succinct literary style. The work contains almost no arguments as such, but rather consists of declarative statements that are meant to be self-evident.
Xiao // filial piety
In Confucian philosophy, this is a virtue of respect for one's father, elders, and ancestors. In more general terms, this means to be good to one's parents; to take care of one's parents; to engage in good conduct not just towards parents but also outside the home so as to bring a good name to one's parents and ancestors; to perform the duties of one's job well so as to obtain the material means to support parents as well as carry out sacrifices to the ancestors; not be rebellious; show love, respect and support; display courtesy; ensure male heirs, uphold fraternity among brothers; wisely advise one's parents, including dissuading them from moral unrighteousness; display sorrow for their sickness and death; and carry out sacrifices after their death.
Edmund Husserl
In his early work, he elaborated critiques of historicism and of psychologism in logic based on analyses of intentionality. In his mature work, he sought to develop a systematic foundational science based on the so-called phenomenological reduction. Arguing that transcendental consciousness sets the limits of all possible knowledge, he re-defined phenomenology as a transcendental-idealist philosophy. His thoughts profoundly influenced the landscape of twentieth-century philosophy and he remains a notable figure in contemporary philosophy and beyond. Name this German philosopher who established the school of phenomenology.
Aufheben
In philosophy, this term is used by Hegel to explain what happens when a thesis and antithesis interact, and in this sense is translated mainly as "sublate". Name this German word with several seemingly contradictory meanings, including "to lift up", "to abolish", "cancel" or "suspend?"
Quiddity
In scholastic philosophy, it was another term for the essence of an object, literally its "whatness," or "what it is." The term derives from a Latin word, which was used by the medieval scholastics as a literal translation of the equivalent term in Aristotle's Greek to ti ên einai (τὸ τί ἦν εἶναι)[2] or "the what it was to be [a given thing]."
Wu wei
In the Tao Te Ching, Lao Tzu explains that beings (or phenomena) that are wholly in harmony with the Tao behave in a completely natural, uncontrived way. The goal of spiritual practice for the human being is, according to Lao Tzu, the attainment of this purely natural way of behaving, as when the planets revolve around the sun. The planets effortlessly do this revolving without any sort of control, force, or attempt to revolve themselves, instead engaging in effortless and spontaneous movement. What do you call this important concept in Taoism that literally means non-action or non-doing?
Auguste Comte
Influenced by the utopian socialist Henri Saint-Simon, he developed the positive philosophy in an attempt to remedy the social malaise of the French Revolution, calling for a new social doctrine based on the sciences. Comte was a major influence on 19th-century thought, influencing the work of social thinkers such as Karl Marx, John Stuart Mill, and George Eliot. His concept of sociologie and social evolutionism set the tone for early social theorists and anthropologists such as Harriet Martineau and Herbert Spencer, evolving into modern academic sociology presented by Émile Durkheim as practical and objective social research. Name this French philosopher, founder of the discipline of sociology and of the doctrine of positivism, regarded as the first philosopher of science in the modern sense of the term.
The Second Sex
It is a 1949 book by the French existentialist Simone de Beauvoir. One of her best-known books, it deals with the treatment of women throughout history and is often regarded as a major work of feminist philosophy and the starting point of second-wave feminism. Name this book that claims men have historically posited women as the essential Other, therefore denying their full humanity.
Great Man Theory
It is a 19th-century idea according to which history can be largely explained by the impact of "great men", or heroes; highly influential individuals who, due to either their personal charisma, intelligence, wisdom, or political skill utilized their power in a way that had a decisive historical impact. Name this theory which was popularized in the 1840s by Scottish writer Thomas Carlyle in his book On Heroes, Hero-Worship and the Heroic in History.
Simran
It is a Punjabi word derived from the Sanskrit word, "Smarana" meaning the act of remembrance, which leads to the realization of what may be the highest aspect and purpose in one's life.
Li
It is a classical Chinese word which is commonly used in Chinese philosophy, particularly within Confucianism. It does not encompass a definitive object but rather a somewhat abstract idea and, as such, is translated in a number of different ways. It originally meant "a religious sacrifice but has come to mean ceremony, ritual, decorum, rules of propriety, good form, good custom, etc., and has even been equated with Natural Law." This embodies the entire spectrum of interaction with humans, nature, and even material objects. Confucius includes in his discussions of this in such diverse topics as learning, tea drinking, titles, mourning, and governance.
Fatalism
It is a philosophical doctrine that stresses the subjugation of all events or actions to fate. It generally refers to the view that we are powerless to do anything other than what we actually do. Included in this is that humans have no power to influence the future, or their own actions. It has an attitude of resignation in the face of some future event or events which are thought to be inevitable.
Occam's Razor or Ockham's Principle
It is a principle of parsimony, economy, or succinctness used in problem-solving. It states that among competing hypotheses, the one with the fewest assumptions should be selected. Other, more complicated solutions may ultimately prove correct, but—in the absence of certainty—the fewer assumptions that are made, the better.
Legal Positivism
It is a school of thought of philosophy of law and jurisprudence, largely developed by eighteenth and nineteenth-century legal thinkers such as Jeremy Bentham and John Austin. However, the most prominent figure in the history of this is H. L. A. Hart, whose work The Concept of Law caused a fundamental re-thinking of the main doctrine and its relationship with the other principal theories of law. In more recent years the central claims of this have come under attack from Ronald Dworkin. Its central claim is "In any legal system, whether a given norm is legally valid, and hence whether it forms part of the law of that system, depends on its sources, not its merits."
Hedonism
It is a school of thought that argues that pleasure and happiness are the primary or most important intrinsic goods and the proper aim of human life. A practitioner of this school of thought strives to maximize net pleasure, but when having finally gained that pleasure, either through intrinsic or extrinsic goods, happiness remains stationary
Ship of Theseus // Theseus paradox
It is a thought experiment that raises the question of whether an object that has had all of its components replaced remains fundamentally the same object. The paradox is most notably recorded by Plutarch from the late first century. Plutarch asked whether a ship that had been restored by replacing every single wooden part remained the same ship. Name this paradox that had been discussed by more ancient philosophers such as Heraclitus, Socrates, and Plato prior to Plutarch's writings; and more recently by Thomas Hobbes and John Locke.
pneuma
It is an ancient Greek word for "breath", and in a religious context for "spirit" or "soul". It has various technical meanings for medical writers and philosophers of classical antiquity, particularly in regard to physiology, and is also used in Greek translations of the Hebrew Bible and in the Greek New Testament. In classical philosophy, it is distinguishable from psyche (ψυχή), which originally meant "breath of life", but is regularly translated as "spirit" or most often "soul".
Discourse on Method
It is one of the most influential works in the history of modern philosophy, and important to the development of natural sciences. In this work, Descartes tackles the problem of skepticism, which had previously been studied by Sextus Empiricus, Al-Ghazali and Michel de Montaigne. Descartes modified it to account for a truth he found to be incontrovertible. Descartes started his line of reasoning by doubting everything, so as to assess the world from a fresh perspective, clear of any preconceived notions. Name philosophical and autobiographical treatise published by René Descartes in 1637, best known as the source of the famous quotation "Je pense, donc je suis" ("I think, therefore I am", "I'm thinking, so I exist").
Panpsychism
It is one of the oldest philosophical theories, and has been ascribed to philosophers like Thales, Parmenides, Plato, Averroes, Spinoza, Leibniz and William James. It can also be seen in ancient philosophies such as Stoicism, Taoism, Vedanta and Mahayana Buddhism. During the 19th century, it was the default theory in philosophy of mind, but it saw a decline during the middle years of the 20th century with the rise of logical positivism. In philosophy, what is the view that consciousness, mind or soul (psyche) is a universal and primordial feature of all things?
Allegory of the cave
It is presented by the Greek philosopher Plato in his work the Republic to compare "the effect of education (παιδεία) and the lack of it on our nature". It is written as a dialogue between Plato's brother Glaucon and his mentor Socrates, narrated by the latter. Plato has Socrates describe a gathering of people who have lived chained to the wall of a cave all of their lives, facing a blank wall. The people watch shadows projected on the wall from things passing in front of a fire behind them, and they begin to give names to these shadows. The shadows are as close as the prisoners get to viewing reality. He then explains how the philosopher is like a prisoner who is freed from the cave and comes to understand that the shadows on the wall do not make up reality at all, for he can perceive the true form of reality rather than the mere shadows seen by the prisoners.
Epistemology
It is the branch of philosophy concerned with the nature and scope of knowledge and is also referred to as "theory of knowledge". It questions what knowledge is and how it can be acquired, and the extent to which knowledge pertinent to any given subject or entity can be acquired. Much of the debate in this field has focused on the philosophical analysis of the nature of knowledge and how it relates to connected notions such as truth, belief, and justification. The term was introduced by the Scottish philosopher James Frederick Ferrier.
Indeterminism
It is the concept that events are not caused by prior events or can cause future events. It is highly relevant to the philosophical problem of free will, particularly in the form of metaphysical libertarianism.
solipsism
It is the philosophical idea that only one's own mind is sure to exist. As an epistemological position, it holds that knowledge of anything outside one's own mind is unsure; the external world and other minds cannot be known and might not exist outside the mind. As a metaphysical position, it goes further to the conclusion that the world and other minds do not exist.
Altruism
It is the principle or practice of concern for the welfare of others. It is a traditional virtue in many cultures and a core aspect of various religious traditions and secular worldviews, though the concept of "others" toward whom concern should be directed can vary among cultures and religions. It is the opposite of selfishness. The word was coined by the French philosopher Auguste Comte in French for an antonym of egoism.
transcendentalism
It was a philosophical movement that developed in the late 1820s and 1830s in the eastern region of the United States. The movement was a reaction to or protest against the general state of intellectualism and spirituality. It was rooted in English and German Romanticism, the Biblical criticism of Herder and Schleiermacher, the skepticism of Hume, and the philosophy of Immanuel Kant and of German Idealism. It was also influenced by Indian religions, especially the Upanishads. Name this movement whose core belief was in the inherent goodness of both people and nature.
Empiricism
John Locke, George Berkeley and David Hume are the primary exponents of which theory that states that knowledge comes only or primarily from sensory experience, a theory expressed in the 18th century's Enlightenment?
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
Known as the Protestant Aquinas, Maurice Merleau-Ponty wrote that "All the great philosophical ideas of the past century—the philosophies of Marx and Nietzsche, phenomenology, German existentialism, and psychoanalysis—had their beginnings in him." Name this German philosopher and an important figure of German idealism who originated the terms thesis, antithesis, and synthesis.
Volksgeist
Literally meaning "spirit of the people", it is a German loanword originally coined by Hegel in 1801, this term refers to the unique "spirit" possessed collectively by each people or nation. The idea is often attributed to the philosopher Johann Gottfried Herder even though he never actually used the word
Empedocles
Name this Greek pre-Socratic philosopher best known for originating the cosmogenic theory of the four classical elements. He also proposed forces he called Love and Strife which would mix as well as separate the elements. These physical speculations were part of a history of the universe which also dealt with the origin and development of life.
Übermensch
Nietzsche's ethical vision. This transcends the boundaries of classes, creeds, and nationalities; he overcomes human nature itself, and maintains a lordly superiority to the normal shackles and conventions of social life. Although Nietszche connects the character with Aristotelian virtue, the vision is essentially Romantic when Aristotle's is not. The idea of a transfiguring freedom finds more pessimistic echoes in the existentialist doctrine that existence precedes essence.
John Wyclif
Scholastic philosopher and reformer. His central preoccupation was the problem of universals. He accepts an out-and-out realism, arguing the Platonic and Augustine position of universalia ante rem, universals are prior to the particular in logic and time. They form the way in which God understands creatures; a singular thing partakes of a universal as a kind of projection of the mind of God. It follows that it is incapable of annihilation. His views were condemned at the Council of Constance.
Hannah Arendt
She was a German-born American political theorist. Though often described as a philosopher, she rejected that label on the grounds that philosophy is concerned with "man in the singular" and instead described herself as a political theorist because her work centers on the fact that "men, not Man, live on the earth and inhabit the world." An assimilated Jew, she escaped Europe during the Holocaust and became an American citizen. Her works deal with the nature of power, and the subjects of politics, direct democracy, authority, and totalitarianism.
Dualism
The theory that mind and matter are two distinct things. Its most famous defender is Descartes, who argues that as a subject of conscious thought and experience, he cannot consist simply of spatially extended matter. His essential nature must be non-material, even if in fact he (his soul) is intimately connected with his body.
Hugo Grotius [or Hugo de Groot]
This Dutch jurist was attacked at the start of Rousseau's The Social Contract. He inspired the field of international law with his On the Law of War and Peace and Mare Liberum.
Ibn Sina (or Avicenna, Pur Sinna)
This author of The Book of Healing and The Canon of Medicine worked to reconcile Aristotelianism and Neoplatonism and the existence-essence distinction within Islamic philosophy.
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
This author of a refutation of Locke's Essay Concerning Human Understanding and a Discourse on Metaphysics used the principle of sufficient reason to address the problem of evil in his Theodicy. Name this German polymath who believed in immaterial windowless unities called monads, and wrote that God must have created the best possible world before co-discovering calculus.
Ataraxia
This is a Greek term used by Pyrrho and subsequently Epicurus for a lucid state of robust equanimity, characterized by ongoing freedom from distress and worry. The ancient Greek author Sextus Empiricus defined it as "an untroubled and tranquil condition of the soul." In non-philosophical usage, the term was used to describe the ideal mental state for soldiers entering battle.
alterity
This is also increasingly being used in media to express something other than the sameness of an imitative compared to the original. What is a philosophical and anthropological term meaning "otherness", strictly being in the sense of the other of two?
Paideia
This is an ancient Greek system of education designed to show young people how to become an ideal citizen, to strive toward nobility of character, excellence of spirit, usefulness to society, and to exercise the body properly. Most important, it instructs one in how to be the highest form of human possible.
Emanationism
This is an idea in the cosmology or cosmogony of certain religious or philosophical systems. This term came from the Latin emanare meaning "to flow from" or "to pour forth or out of", is the mode by which all things are derived from the first reality, or principle. All things are derived from the first reality or perfect God by steps of degradation to lesser degrees of the first reality or God, and at every step the emanating beings are less pure, less perfect, less divine.
John Locke
This philosopher attacked boarding schools for their overemphasis on corporal punishment and argued for private tutoring in Some Thoughts Concerning Education. He introduced the concept of an association of ideas in one work. In another work, he argued that Robert Filmer defied common sense by defending the divine rights of kings in addition to justifying William III and Mary II's role in the Glorious Revolution. Name this English philosopher who wrote An Essay Concerning Human Understanding and the more conservative Two Tracts on Government before moving to a more liberal position in his Two Treatises on Government.
Baruch Spinoza
This philosopher thought that what man called "spirit" was merely an aspect of matter and that God was the natural universe.
Søren Kierkegaard
This philosopher wrote that "purity of heart is to will one thing" and penned a paean to his mother tongue in Stages on Life's Way. This man admired Socrates as a "noble, simple wise man" in his Christian Discourse. This man argued that "subjectivity is truth" in the sequel to his earlier Philosophical Fragments, and in another work compares the ethical dilemmas facing Agamemnon and Abraham. Name this "father of existentialism" who wrote Either/Or and Fear and Trembling.
monad
This term refers in cosmogony (creation theories) to the first being, divinity, or the totality of all beings. The concept was reportedly conceived by the Pythagoreans and may refer variously to a single source acting alone and/or an indivisible origin. The concept was later adopted by other philosophers, such as Leibniz, who referred to this as an elementary particle.
pantheism
This term refers to the belief that the universe (or nature as the totality of everything) is identical with divinity, or that everything composes an all-encompassing, impersonal (i.e. Anthrophomorphic) God
Analects
What do you call the collection of sayings and ideas attributed to the Chinese philosopher Confucius and his contemporaries, traditionally believed to have been compiled and written by Confucius' followers?
Angst
What is the German word for 'anxiety' or 'dread' used by philosophers of Existentialism, to denote a state of anguish that we feel as we are confronted by the burgen of our freedom and the accompanying responsibility to impose values and meanings on an absurd universe?
Averroism
What was the name of the school of medieval philosophy based on the application of the works of 12th-century Andalusian Islamic philosopher Averroes, an important Muslim commentator on Aristotle, in 13th-century Latin Christian scholasticism which Thomas Aquinas argued with in one of his books?
heuristic
Where finding an optimal solution is impossible or impractical, this type of methods can be used to speed up the process of finding a satisfactory solution. Examples of this method include using a rule of thumb, an educated guess, an intuitive judgment, stereotyping, profiling, or common sense. What do you call any approach to problem solving, learning, or discovery that employs a practical method not guaranteed to be optimal or perfect, but sufficient for the immediate goals?
I Ching // Book of Changes
it is an ancient divination text and the oldest of the Chinese classics. Possessing a history of more than two and a half millennia of commentary and interpretation, this is an influential text read throughout the world, providing inspiration to the worlds of religion, psychoanalysis, business, literature, and art. Name this book which uses a type of divination called cleromancy.
