Questions tagged [history-of-philosophy]
The history of philosophy is the study of philosophical ideas and concepts through time. Issues specifically related to history of philosophy might include (but are not limited to): How can changes in philosophy be accounted for historically? What drives the development of thought in its historical context? To what degree can philosophical texts from prior historical eras be understood even today?
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Marx' contribution to philosophy [closed]
Has Marx made important contributions to philosophy? What are these?
I would like to specify that I mean philosophy as understood today, or for the purposes of this community - rather than political ...
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Is reason under challenge? [closed]
I find the resurgence in the new century of pseudoscience, religious extremism, and irrationalism disturbing. Reason was pre-eminent throughout the previous two centuries. Is reason being seriously ...
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Is necessary existence a property?
If existence is not a property then doesn't it follow that necessary existence is also not a property? If it is then why?
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I cannot find 20th-Century Philosophy: The Speculative Tradition, by Peter Koestenbaum. Where should I look for it?
The paperback series Readings in the History of Philosophy is an 8 volume series about Western philosophy, from the Presocratics to the twentieth century. The Volumes and their Editors are:
Greek ...
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What are some ground breaking results achieved by philosophers from Asia, and why they are ground breaking? [closed]
A general question from today asked for ground breaking results in philosophy.
The answers were not unexpected for everyone, who has been trained at a department of philosophy in Europe, North-America ...
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What are some ground breaking results in philosophy? [closed]
Science has given many concrete results and we all agree upon its utility as in the form of technology. There are some gray areas in science on which we do not agree. Similarly for history , geography ...
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If something is massless like light does it exist?
I'm asking: If something is massless does it exis? Because in Einstein's equation E=mc2 Einstein said and I quote: If something doesn't have mass like light it would move at the speed of light.
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Memory vs. Repetition in Deleuze
In the introduction of Difference and Repetition, Deleuze seems to contrast repetition with memory. How does this really cash out? Does this mean Deleuze is making the claim that memory is a kind of ...
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Do geographical directions have philosophical implications?
Is it true that the geographical directions express different philosophies on the whole ? And if yes , then in which ways ?
For example West is different from East at least philosophically. East lays ...
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Do some philosophers-of-mathematics give priorities to different epistemologies of math, rather than (over)committing to one epistemology?
Take Kant and Gödel, for example. Kant was neither just an intuitionist nor just a formalist, nor even absolutely a non-realist (the forms of space and time are, after all, empirically real and ...
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Physics and the question of context or environment
This is a reality check type of question. I am interested in whether it's a valid distinction and whether it's been considered by others.
It occured to me the other day that the issue of 'context' or '...
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What are the origins of the A,E,I,O notation for the four types of categorical proposition? [duplicate]
The labels A, E, I, and O are traditionally given to the four types of categorical proposition.
Each is one of the first two vowels in the Latin words affirmo (I affirm) or nego (I deny), a usage that ...
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consistent textbooks on history of philosophy
In my country there are several philosophy olympiads for school students and if you win one of them, you get the opportunity to enroll in any university in the country at the Faculty of Philosophy. ...
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Has Scientism drastically declined as a worldview in the last 100 years?
I have recently had fellow posters here question my understating that scientism is on the decline. I also have recently seen several members here assert themselves to be advocates of scientism, so I ...
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Did Hobbes start social contract theory?
There seems to be an implicit assumption in Western philosophy that social contract theorizing begun -- or only begun in earnest -- with Hobbes. As an example, this Stanford Encyclopedia entry assumes ...
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Are there similar theory to Nikolay Bugaev's idea of "emergent morality"?
I need someone's insight to put into perspective the thoughts of an author I discovered only recently. Although this author's idea seems very intuitive - the kind of idea you might have as a child or ...
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How did Aristotle discover his logic?
Supposedly Euclid employed analysis (conclusions→principles) and not synthesis (principles→conclusions) when he devised his definitions/postulates/axioms in his Elements.
How did Aristotle discover ...
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Kant's commentary on the faculty of judgment: did he anticipate things like incompleteness/halting/truth-undefinability?
First, to cite the (Meiklejohn) version of the argument:
If understanding in general be defined as the faculty of laws or rules, the faculty of judgement may be termed the faculty of subsumption ...
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What are some problems or counterpoints to Oneness or Non-Dualism
I have a pretty decent understanding of what its proponents think, but I can’t seem to find anything criticizing the view as more places link back to pro-oneness sources. So in to get both sides of ...
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Why did Descartes claim that animals have no souls if they have the pituitary?
As far as I understand it, Descartes claimed that the pituitary is the "antenna" through which the brain and the soul communicate, and he also claimed only human beings have souls. So, how ...
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Where to learn about Gorgias' theory on truth and language?
The IEP writes in the article about Gorgias:
In recent years, however, modernists and post-structuralists have found great value in the philosophy of Gorgias, especially his theories on truth and ...
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What logics/philosophies deny the law of excluded middle (LEM)?
What logics/philosophies deny LEM, the law of excluded middle (tertium non datur)?
This law is expressed as Philosophical Axiom 4.2:
Tertium non datur (Non est medium inter esse et non esse. ‑ ...
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The disdain for sophism in Plato's dialogues vs. the real sophists
As we all know, sophism is regarded as the immoral, malformed twin of philosophy in Plato's dialogues. Socrates sees a fundamental distinction here:
However, as I put it, cookery is flattery ...
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What were Bertrand Russell's later views on quantum mechanics?
Russell touched on QM a bit in The Analysis of Matter, which was the same year as the Fifth Solvay Conference. I am sure he must have thought very deeply about the implications of the quantum theory, ...
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What is the origin of the account of Socrates learning to play the flute in prison?
I have long been familiar with a story about Socrates—that, while awaiting execution, he chose to use his time by learning to play a tune on the flute. An example of this in an article about a ...
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If Hegel was so hard to read, how did he become so popular?
I find that it is a popular/fashionable opinion that Hegel is a difficult to read writer. See eg. If this is the case, then how did his writings become mainstream/gain popularity at all?
It's quite ...
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Why did Pythagoras prohibit eating beans?
The legend says the Pythagoreans never ate beans because they contained the spirits of dead people. My maths teacher told me this was known because a bean and an embryo are about the same size and ...
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Was H.G. Wells unduly optimistic?
I am reading "The Outline of History" by H.G. Wells.
The Outline of History by H.G. Wells, originally published in 1920, Revised by R. Postgate, republished in 1961 by Garden City Books.
I ...
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Who first came up with heterophenomenology, and when?
Dan Dennett, in his article "Who’s On First?
Heterophenomenology Explained" (https://ase.tufts.edu/cogstud/dennett/papers/JCSarticle.pdf) says:
"In short, heterophenomenology is nothing ...
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What are the intellectual roots of U.S. happiness and Western Continental Europe suffering?
Question:
It seems to me happiness is very valued in the U.S. society (and maybe other Western English-speaking countries such as Australia, but I am not sure).
On the other hand, Western Continental ...
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What is the relationship (if any) between Great-Britain classical liberalism and the Renaissance?
What is the relationship (if any) between Great-Britain classical liberalism and the Renaissance?
By Great-Britain classical liberalism I am referring to authors such as Adam Smith, John Locke, David ...
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Did Aristotle used the term *contradiction* or the term *contradictory* in his discussions of *reductio ad impossibile*?
Did Aristotle used the term contradiction or the term contradictory in his discussions of reductio ad impossibile?
Two translators who disagree:
For all those which come to a conclusion through an ...
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Is there any historical evidence for Marx being a Satanist? [closed]
I recently read a controversial book by Richard Wurmbrand called "Was Karl Marx a Satanist?", and I found it very thought provoking.
There are many historical facts that indicate that Marx ...
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Why the sudden change of Nicolas of Cusa's political thought?
Nicolas of Cusa wrote De Concordantia Catholica in 1433/34, and it contained pretty revolutionary political ideas:
Going beyond tradition and canon law, he argues on the basis of people’s natural ...
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History of creatio ex Nihilo
In the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, it is claimed that
Before Philo there was no explicit theory of creation ex nihilo ever postulated in Jewish or Greek traditions.
Is this correct? Were ...
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Definitive refutation of JL Austin? [closed]
Within the history of 20th c. philosophy, who gave the most definitive arguments against JL Austin's thought, and his linguistic theory of speech acts in particular? I'm also interested in any ...
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What is there to philosophy these days, other than intellectual self-gratification?
Preliminary notes
I understand that the title of my question has a provocative note. However it also stems from a genuine question.
I come from the standpoint of being a radical agnostic and ...
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Academic consensus on Thales being hylozoist or panpsychist (or alternatives)
For researchers on history of philosophy, taking into account, for example, the typical beliefs in societies predating Thales', which interpretation, if any, is more generally accepted in academia of
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Did Nietzsche cite anywhere in his writings Plato's Gorgias regarding Callicles?
Nietzsche's theory has many similarities with Callicles thought in Plato's Gorgias (Nietzsche and Callicles on Happiness, Pleasure, and Power). However, he did not explicitely mention Callicles in his ...
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Is Religion Necessary for Communism? [closed]
For example, Karl Marx wasn't anti religion, but he was irreligious, as such a fan of Communism I wondered how this is, as the ideas of communism fall in line with the teachings of Jesus.
I'm just ...
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Advancements in formal logic in the 21st century?
I've recently learned a lot about the history of formal logic, from Frege and Pierce in the late 19th century, to Russell, Hilbert, and Quine (et al)'s development of 1st-order logic, to advances with ...
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The Third Man argument in the history of Platonism
Plato lived from 428-7 BCE to 348-7 BCE, but Platonism surpassed him for hundreds or thousands of years. Neoplatonism was the dominant philosophical school of late antiquity and exerted strong ...
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How and where do I learn philosophy?
I am very new to philosophy, in what ways can I gain deeper knowledge about the subject itself and explore all the branches and truly understand what philosophy exactly is?
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Why does Hestia stay at home in Plato's Phaedrus?
In Plato's Phaedrus we find a description of the divine procession to the realm beyond heaven.
Zeus, the mighty lord, holding the reins of a winged chariot, leads the way in heaven, ordering all and ...
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What does it mean to say, "Philosophy really started in 1884"?
I am looking into my old notes from a lecture I attended on Frege's Grundlagen, where the professor at some point jokingly said that philosophy started in 1884, with the publication of Grundlagen. I ...
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Gnosis vs. Episteme - Is there a change over time periods in Ancient Greek Philosophy?
"Episteme" is the word of choice in Plato, generally (although there are a few instances of "Gnosis" here and there)
By contrast, "Gnosis" is far more frequent among ...
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Philosophy of storytelling from non-western cultures
In the west, most of our thoughts on storytelling seem to originate and be influenced by Aristotle's Poetics, in one form or another.
However, it seems that in other cultures storytelling is often ...
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How many 'idols' did Francis Bacon identify?
The majority of references to Francis Bacon's 'idols' refer to 4 distinct ones but some sources have otherwise. There is a supposed 5th, that is 'idols of the schools'. Which is correct? Did Bacon ...
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If moral nihilism doesn't imply right or wrong, why is the common response filled with vitriol along the lines of "you must think murder is okay"? [closed]
If nothing is right or wrong, then murder would be neither right or wrong. If you're a moral nihilist, "morality" ultimately just becomes a set of wants and a matter of preference for the ...
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Philosophy and stand-up comedy
Stand-up comedians - such as Doug Stanhope, Bill Hicks, George Carlin, Sarah Silverman, Ricky Gervais, Amy Schumer and Bill Burr - frequently work in a philosophical realm, in that they reflect upon ...
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