40 résultats pour "for"

• Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Adverbs

  Adverbs Adverbs are so named from their role in modifying verbs and other non-nominal expressions. For example, in ‘John ran slowly', the adverb ‘slowly' modifies ‘ran' by characterizing the manner of John's running. The debate on the semantic contribution of adverbs centres on two approaches. On the first approach, adverbs are understood as predicate operators: for example, in ‘John ran slowly', ‘ran' would be taken to be a predicate and ‘slowly' an operator affecting its meaning. Working this...

• Encyclopedia of Philosophy: THE THEORY OF IDEAS of PLATO

  THE THEORY OF IDEAS of PLATO Plato's theory arises as follows. Socrates, Simmias, and Cebes are all called ‘men'; they have it in common that they are all men. Now when we say ‘Simmias is a man' does the word ‘man' stand for something in the way that the word ‘Simmias' stands for the individual man Simmias? If so, what? Is it the same thing as the word ‘man' stands for in the sentence ‘Cebes is a man'? Plato's answer is yes: in each case in which such an expression occurs it stands for the same...

• Encyclopedia of Philosophy: THE CRito of Plato

  THE CRito of Plato The Crito is a much easier dialogue to read. Socrates is now in prison, waiting for the execution of his sentence. A number of his friends, led by Crito, have devised a plan for him to escape and flee to Thessaly. The plan had a good chance of success, but Socrates would have no part in it. Life was only worth striving for if it was a good life; and life purchased by disobedience to the laws was not a life worth living. Even if he has been wronged, he should not render evil fo...

• Art, abstract

  Art, abstract The use of the term 'abstract' as a category of visual art dates from the second decade of the twentieth century, when painters and sculptors had turned away from verisimilitude and launched such modes of abstraction as Cubism, Orphism, Futurism, Rayonism and Suprematism. Two subcategories may be distinguished: first, varieties of figurative representation that strongly schematize, and second, completely nonfigurative or nonobjective modes of design (in the widest sense of that ter...

• al-Sabzawari, al-Hajj Mulla Hadi

  al-Sabzawari, al-Hajj Mulla Hadi (1797/8-1873) Al-Sabzawari was the most influential nineteenth-century Iranian philosopher. His reputation rests in part on his Sharh al-manzuma, a commentary on his own Ghurar alfara'id (The Blazes of the Gems), a didactic poem (manzuma) encapsulating in a systematic fashion an exposition of the existentialist philosophy of Mulla Sadra. He was also the most sought-after teacher of philosophy in his day, and many students travelled to Sabzavar to be taught by him...

• Berkeley, George

  Berkeley, George George Berkeley, who was born in Ireland and who eventually became Bishop of Cloyne, is best known for three works that he published while still very young: An Essay towards a New Theory of Vision (1709), Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous (1713), and in particular for A Treatise concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge (1710). In thePrinciples he argues for the striking claim that there is no external, material world; that houses, trees and the like are simply coll...

• Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Alexander of Aphrodisias

  Alexander of Aphrodisias (fl. c. AD 200) The Peripatetic philosopher Alexander was known to posterity as the commentator on Aristotle, until Averroes took over this title. His commentaries eclipsed most of those of his predecessors, which now survive only in scattered quotations. Used by Plotinus, Alexander's commentaries were the basis for subsequent work on Aristotle by Neoplatonist commentators, and even though some themselves survive only in quotations by these later writers, Alexander's int...

• Aquinas, Thomas

  Aquinas, Thomas (1224/6-74) Aquinas lived an active, demanding academic and ecclesiastical life that ended while he was still in his forties. He nonetheless produced many works, varying in length from a few pages to a few volumes. Because his writings grew out of his activities as a teacher in the Dominican order and a member of the theology faculty of the University of Paris, most are concerned with what he and his contemporaries thought of as theology. However, much of academic theology in the...

• Artistic expression

  Artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) tries to make computer systems (of various kinds) do what minds can do: interpreting a photograph as depicting a face; offering medical diagnoses; using and translating language; learning to do better next time. AI has two main aims. One is technological: to build useful tools, which can help humans in activities of various kinds, or perform the activities for them. The other is psychological: to help us understand human (and animal) minds, or...

• Cattaneo, Carlo

  Cattaneo, Carlo (1801-69) The figurehead of the Italian democratic movement prior to the unification of Italy, Carlo Cattaneo developed a theory of federalism as a practice of self-government, envisaging a United States of Italy. He identified the bourgeoisie as the most dynamic force in contemporary history and regarded scientific culture as the engine of progress. Often dubbed the first Italian positivist, he perceived empirical philosophy as a kind of synthesis of all the sciences, but also s...

• Buddha

  Buddha (6th-5th century B C ) The title of Buddha is usually given to the historical founder of the Buddhist religion, Siddhārtha Gautama, although it has been applied to other historical figures, Buddhist and non-Buddhist, and to many who may be mythological. The religion which he founded was enormously successful and for a long period was probably the most widespread world religion. It is sometimes argued that it is not so much a religion as a kind of philosophy. Indeed, Buddhism bears close c...

• Art criticism

  Art criticism To criticize a work of art is to make a judgment of its overall merit or demerit and to support that judgment by reference to features it possesses. This activity is of great antiquity; we find Aristotle, for example, relating the excellence of Sophocles' Oedipus Rex to the excellence of its plot construction. Criticism became a topic in philosophy because reflection on the kinds of things said by critics generated various perplexities and in some cases encouraged a general sceptic...

• vocabulary for geography

  GEO VOC ● CENTRIPETAL MOVEMENT: involve the migration of people into towns and cities. Inward Movement (Centripetal) Rural to urban migration, gentrification, re-urbanization, urban renewal Outward Movement (Centrifugal) Suburbanization, urban sprawl, counter-urbanization Urban Processes can be seen as inward and outward movements ● CENTRIFUGAL MOVEMENT: also known as Decentralization, the outward movements of a population from the center of a city towards its edge or periphery, resultin...

• Feyisa Lilesa A struggle for peace and freedom

  Feyisa Lilesa A struggle for peace and freedom Feyisa Lilesa was born in 1990 in Ethiopia and is a specialist of distance running, especially of marathon. He has run over 10 marathons in his carrier but his best was in Chicago where he did the best time of his carrier. In Rotterdam, he set the fastest time for a 20 years old athlete. Out of his records, Lilesa has a really good record: he has finished first twice: in 2013 in Poland and in 2016 in Tokyo. Altogether, he has been on the po...

• Asmus, Valentin Ferdinandovich

  Asmus, Valentin Ferdinandovich (1894-1975) One of the most accomplished thinkers in the Soviet Marxist tradition, Asmus wrote extensively in many areas of philosophy, and was widely regarded as the Soviet Union's principal Kant scholar. Early in his career, he became associated with the influential school of 'dialecticians' led by A.M. Deborin and produced a number of significant writings in the history of philosophy. When Deborin and his followers were condemned as 'Menshevizing idealists' in 1...

• Alighieri, Dante

  Alighieri, Dante (1265-1321) 'radical Aristotelians', such as Boethius of Dacia and Aubry of Reims (see Averroism). These Parisian masters claimed that philosophy is autonomous and should not be subordinated to any other discipline, in particular not to theology, because it provides humans with all the knowledge required for obtaining happiness. Since humans are essentially rational animals, they fully realize their capacities if they dedicate themselves to the most rational activity, philosophy...

• Applied ethics

  Applied ethics Applied ethics is marked out from ethics in general by its special focus on issues of practical concern. It therefore includes medical ethics, environmental ethics, and evaluation of the social implications of scientific and technological change, as well as matters of policy in such areas as health care, business or journalism. It is also concerned with professional codes and responsibilities in such areas. Typical of the issues discussed are abortion, euthanasia, personal relatio...

• Aristotle (384-322 BC)

  Aristotle (384-322 BC) Aristotle of Stagira is one of the two most important philosophers of the ancient world, and one of the four or five most important of any time or place. He was not an Athenian, but he spent most of his life as a student and teacher of philosophy in Athens. For twenty years he was a member of Plato's Academy; later he set up his own philosophical school, the Lyceum. During his lifetime he published philosophical dialogues, of which only fragments now survive. The 'Aristote...

• Ash'ariyya and Mu'tazila

  Ash'ariyya and Mu'tazila The Mu'tazila - literally 'those who withdraw themselves' - movement was founded by Wasil bin 'Ata' in the second century AH (eighth century AD). Its members were united in their conviction that it was necessary to give a rationally coherent account of Islamic beliefs. In addition to having an atomistic view of the universe, they generally held to five theological principles, of which the two most important were the unity of God and divine justice. The former led them to...

• al-Razi, Fakhr al-Din

  al-Razi, Fakhr al-Din (1149-1209) Imam Fakhr al-Din al-Razi was one of the outstanding figures in Islamic theology. Living in the second half of the sixth century AH (twelfth century AD), he also wrote on history, grammar, rhetoric, literature, law, the natural sciences and philosophy, and composed one of the major works of Qur'anic exegesis, the only remarkable gap in his output being politics. He travelled widely in the eastern lands of Islam, often engaging in heated polemical confrontations....

• Anaximander

  Anaximander (c.610-after 546 BC) The Greek philosopher Anaximander of Miletus followed Thales in his philosophical and scientific interests. He wrote a book, of which one fragment survives, and is the first Presocratic philosopher about whom we have enough information to reconstruct his theories in any detail. He was principally concerned with the origin, structure and workings of the world, and attempted to account for them consistently, through a small number of principles and mechanisms. Like...

• Areté

  Aretē A pivotal term of ancient Greek ethics, aretē is conventionally translated 'virtue', but is more properly 'goodness' - the quality of being a good human being. Philosophy came, largely through Plato, to recognize four cardinal aretai: wisdom (phronēsis), moderation (sōphrosynē), courage (andreia) and justice (dikaiosynē). Others, considered either coordinate with these or their sub-species, included piety, liberality and magnanimity. The term generated many controversies. For example, is a...

• Brentano, Franz Clemens

  Brentano, Franz Clemens (1838-1917) Brentano was a philosopher and psychologist who taught at the Universities of Würzburg and Vienna. He made significant contributions to almost every branch of philosophy, notably psychology and philosophy of mind, ontology, ethics and the philosophy of language. He also published several books on the history of philosophy, especially Aristotle, and contended that philosophy proceeds in cycles of advance and decline. He is best known for reintroducing the schol...

• Chisholm, Roderick Milton

  Chisholm, Roderick Milton (1916-) Chisholm is an important analytic philosopher of the second half of the twentieth century. His work in epistemology, metaphysics and ethics is characterized by scrupulous attention to detail, the use of a few basic, undefined or primitive terms, and extraordinary clarity. One of the first Anglo-American philosophers to make fruitful use of Brentano and Meinong, Chisholm translated many of Brentano's philosophical writings. As one of the great teachers, Chisholm...

• Belief

  Belief We believe that there is coffee over there; we believe the special theory of relativity; we believe the Vice-Chancellor; and some of us believe in God. But plausibly what is fundamental is believing that something is the case - believing a proposition, as it is usually put. To believe a theory is to believe the propositions that make up the theory, to believe a person is to believe some proposition advanced by them; and to believe in God is to believe the proposition that God exists. Thus...

• Aristotelianism, medieval

  Aristotelianism, medieval Although there are many possible definitions, 'medieval Aristotelianism' is here taken to mean explicit receptions of Aristotle's texts or teachings by Latin-speaking writers from about AD 500 to about AD 1450. This roundabout, material definition avoids several common mistakes. First, it does not assert that there was a unified Aristotelian doctrine across the centuries. There was no such unity, and much of the engagement with Aristotle during the Middle Ages took the...

• Camus, Albert

  Camus, Albert (1913-60) Albert Camus was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1957 for having 'illuminated the problems of the human conscience in our times'. By mythologizing the experiences of a secular age struggling with an increasingly contested religious tradition, he dramatized the human effort to 'live and create without the aid of eternal values which, temporarily perhaps, are absent or distorted in contemporary Europe'(1943). Thus the challenge posed by 'the absurd' with which he is so univ...

• SEQUENCE 2 ACCESS TO KNOWLEDGE THEME KNOWLEDGE/CREATION/INNOVATION AXIS/FOCUS PRODUCING & SHARING KNOWLEDGE POSSIBLE ISSUES

  SEQUENCE 2 ACCESS TO KNOWLEDGE THEME KNOWLEDGE/CREATION/INNOVATION AXIS/FOCUS PRODUCING & SHARING KNOWLEDGE POSSIBLE ISSUES DO YOUNG PEOPLE AROUND THE WORLD HAVE EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES IN THEIR STUDYING EXPERIENCE? ARE ALL STUDENTS EQUAL ABOUT SHARING KNOWLEDGE? WHAT ROLE DOES GENDER INEQUALITY PLAY IN EDUCATION? WARM UP ACTIVITY QUIZ ON EDUCATION IN INDIA, SOUTH AFRICA AND NIGERIA OR BRAINSTORMING? ACTIVITY 1 FILL IN THE GRID WITH YOUR FINDINGS INDIA SOUITH AFRICA NIGERIA...

• Animals and ethics

  Animals and ethics Does morality require that we respect the lives and interests of nonhuman animals? The traditional doctrine was that animals were made for human use, and so we may dispose of them as we please. It has been argued, however, that this is a mere ‘speciesist' prejudice and that animals should be given more or less the same moral consideration as humans. If this is right, we may be morally required to be vegetarians; and it may turn out that laboratory research using animals, and m...

• Antiochus

  Antiochus (c.130-68 BC) For most of his career the Greek philosopher Antiochus of Ascalon, a pupil of Philo of Larissa, was an orthodox ‘sceptical' Academic. He then changed his philosophy: some called him a Stoic, but he himself claimed to be returning to the Old Academy of Plato and his immediate successors. He took a generous view of his new home, urging that the Peripatetics and the Stoics were not new schools of thought but mere modifications of Platonism, and the philosophical position whi...

• Asceticism

  Asceticism The term 'asceticism' is derived from the Greek word, askēsis, which referred originally to the sort of exercise, practice or training in which athletes engage. Asceticism may be characterized as a voluntary, sustained and systematic programme of self-discipline and self-denial in which immediate sensual gratifications are renounced in order to attain some valued spiritual or mental state. Ascetic practices are to be found in all the major religious traditions of the world, yet they h...

• Archytas

  Archytas (early to mid 4th century BC) Archytas of Tarentum (modern Taranto in southern Italy) was a contemporary and personal acquaintance of Plato, and the last of the famous Pythagoreans in antiquity. An ancient source (Proclus)chytas with those mathematicians 'who increased the number of theorems and progressed towards a more scientific arrangement of them' and ranks him among the predecessors of Euclid. His chief contribution in mathematics was to find a solution for the doubling of the cub...

• Kant's Moral Philosophy

  Just as the first Critique set out critically the synthetic a priori principles of theoretical reason, the Groundwork of the Metaphysic of Morals (1785) set out critically the synthetic a priori principles of practical reason. This is a brief and eloquent presentation of Kant's moral system. In morals, Kant's starting point is that the only thing which is good without qualification is a good will. Talents, character, self-control, and fortune can be used to bad ends; even happiness can be corrup...

• Benjamin, Walter

  Benjamin, Walter Walter Benjamin was one of the most influential twentieth-century philosophers of culture. His work combines formal analysis of art works with social theory to generate an approach which is historical, but is far more subtle than either materialism or conventional Geistesgeschichte (cultural and stylistic chronology). The ambiguous alignment of his work between Marxism and theology has made him a challenging and often controversial figure. 1 Life and works Benjamin was born into...

• Encyclopedia of Philosophy: THE SCHOOL OF PARMENIDES

  THE SCHOOL OF PARMENIDES The philosophical scene is very different when we turn to Parmenides, who was born in the closing years of the sixth century. Though probably a pupil of Xenophanes, Parmenides spent most of his life not in Ionia but in Italy, in a town called Elea, seventy miles or so south of Naples. He is said to have drawn up an excellent set of laws for his city; but we know nothing of his politics or political philosophy. He is the first philosopher whose writing has come down to us...

• Animal language and thought

  Animal language and thought The question of animal language and thought has been debated since ancient times. Some have held that humans are exceptional in these respects, others that humans and animals are continuous with respect to language and thought. The issue is important because our self-image as a species is at stake. Arguments for human exceptionalism can be classified as Cartesian, Wittgensteinian and behaviourist. What these arguments have in common is the view that language and thoug...

• al-Suhrawardi, Shihab al-Din Yahya

  al-Suhrawardi, Shihab al-Din Yahya (1154-91) Al-Suhrawardi, whose life spanned a period of less than forty years in the middle of the twelfth century AD, produced a series of highly assured works which established him as the founder of a new school of philosophy in the Muslim world, the school of Illuminationist philosophy (hikmat alishraq). Although arising out of the peripatetic philosophy developed by Ibn Sina, al-Suhrawardi's Illuminationist philosophy is critical of several of the positions...

• Anomalous monism

  Anomalous monism Anomalous monism, proposed by Donald Davidson in 1970, implies that all events are of one fundamental kind, namely physical. But it does not deny that there are mental events; rather, it implies that every mental event is some physical event or other. The idea is that someone's thinking at a certain time that the earth is round, for example, might be a certain pattern of neural firing in their brain at that time, an event which is both a thinking that the earth is round (a type...

• Encyclopedia of Philosophy: THE EUTHYPHRO OF PLATO

  THE EUTHYPHRO OF PLATO After the trial portrayed in the Apology, there was a delay before sentence of death was carried out. A sacred ship had set out on its annual ceremonial voyage to the i s l a n d o f D e l o s, a n d u n t i l i t r e t u r n e d t o A t h e n s t h e t a k i n g o f h u m an life was ta b o o . P l a t o h a s re pres ente d t h e s e d a y s b etween conde m n a t i o n a n d e x ecutio n i n a pair of unforgettable dialogues, the Crito and the Phaedo. No one knows how m...

• Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Bentham and James Mill

  Bentham and James Mill Jeremy Bentham was born in 1748 in London; his prosperous father, a lawyer who became wealthy from property rather than the law, planned out for his son a brilliant legal career. After an early education at Westminster and Oxford he was called to the Bar in 1769. However, instead of mastering the complexities, technicalities, precedents and mysteries of the law in order to carve out a successful career, Bentham's response to such chaos and absurdity was to challenge the wh...