Philosophy (φιλοσοφία, 'love of wisdom', in
Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like
existence,
reason,
knowledge,
value,
mind, and
language. It is a rational and critical inquiry that reflects on its own methods and assumptions.
Historically, many of the individual
sciences, such as
physics and
psychology, formed part of philosophy. However, they are considered separate academic disciplines in the modern sense of the term. Influential traditions in the
history of philosophy include
Western,
Arabic–Persian,
Indian, and
Chinese philosophy. Western philosophy originated in
Ancient Greece and covers a wide area of philosophical subfields. A central topic in Arabic–Persian philosophy is the relation between reason and
revelation. Indian philosophy combines the
spiritual problem of how to reach
enlightenment with the exploration of the nature of reality and the ways of arriving at knowledge. Chinese philosophy focuses principally on practical issues in relation to right social conduct, government, and
self-cultivation.
In 1858
Charles Darwin and
Alfred Russel Wallace published a new evolutionary theory, explained in detail in Darwin's On the Origin of Species (1859). Darwin's theory, originally called descent with modification is known contemporarily as Darwinism or Darwinian theory. Unlike Lamarck, Darwin proposed
common descent and a branching
tree of life, meaning that two very different species could share a common ancestor. Darwin based his theory on the idea of
natural selection: it synthesized a broad range of evidence from
animal husbandry,
biogeography,
geology,
morphology, and
embryology. Debate over Darwin's work led to the rapid acceptance of the general concept of evolution, but the specific mechanism he proposed, natural selection, was not widely accepted until it was revived by developments in
biology that occurred during the 1920s through the 1940s. Before that time most
biologists regarded other factors as responsible for evolution.
Alternatives to natural selection suggested during "
the eclipse of Darwinism" (c. 1880 to 1920) included
inheritance of acquired characteristics (
neo-Lamarckism), an innate drive for change (
orthogenesis), and sudden large
mutations (
saltationism).
Mendelian genetics, a series of 19th-century experiments with
pea plant variations rediscovered in 1900, was integrated with natural selection by
Ronald Fisher,
J. B. S. Haldane, and
Sewall Wright during the 1910s to 1930s, and resulted in the founding of the new discipline of
population genetics. During the 1930s and 1940s population genetics became integrated with other biological fields, resulting in a widely applicable theory of evolution that encompassed much of biology—the
modern synthesis. (Full article...)
In his early life, Maximus was a civil servant, and an aide to the
Byzantine EmperorHeraclius. He gave up this life in the political sphere to enter the monastic life. Maximus had studied diverse schools of philosophy, and certainly what was common for his time, the Platonic dialogues, the works of Aristotle, and numerous later Platonic commentators on Aristotle and Plato, like
Plotinus,
Porphyry,
Iamblichus, and
Proclus. When one of his friends began espousing the
Christological position known as
Monothelitism, Maximus was drawn into the controversy, in which he supported an interpretation of the
Chalcedonian formula on the basis of which it was asserted that
Jesus had both a human and a divine
will. Maximus is
venerated in both the
Catholic and
Eastern Orthodox Churches. He was eventually persecuted for his Christological positions; following a trial, his tongue and right hand were mutilated. (Full article...)
Wollstonecraft's
philosophical and
gothic novel revolves around the story of
a woman imprisoned in an insane asylum by her husband. It focuses on the societal rather than the individual "wrongs of woman" and criticizes what Wollstonecraft viewed as the
patriarchal institution of marriage in eighteenth-century Britain and the legal system that protected it. However, the heroine's inability to relinquish her romantic fantasies also reveals women's collusion in their oppression through false and damaging
sentimentalism. The novel pioneered the celebration of
female sexuality and cross-class identification between women. Such themes, coupled with the publication of Godwin's scandalous Memoirs of Wollstonecraft's life, made the novel unpopular at the time it was published. (Full article...)
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The Augustinian theodicy, named for the 4th- and 5th-century theologian and philosopher
Augustine of Hippo, is a type of
Christiantheodicy that developed in response to the
evidential problem of evil. As such, it attempts to explain the probability of an
omnipotent (all-powerful) and
omnibenevolent (all-loving)
God amid evidence of evil in the world. A number of variations of this kind of theodicy have been proposed throughout history; their similarities were first described by the 20th-century philosopher
John Hick, who classified them as "Augustinian". They typically assert that God is perfectly (ideally)
good, that he created the world
out of nothing, and that evil is the result of humanity's
original sin. The entry of evil into the world is generally explained as consequence of original sin and its continued presence due to humans' misuse of
free will and
concupiscence. God's goodness and benevolence, according to the Augustinian theodicy, remain perfect and without responsibility for evil or suffering.
Augustine of Hippo was the first to develop the theodicy. He rejected the idea that evil exists in itself, instead regarding it as a corruption of goodness, caused by humanity's abuse of free will. Augustine believed in the existence of a physical
Hell as a punishment for sin, but argued that those who choose to accept the
salvation of
Jesus Christ will go to
Heaven. In the 13th century,
Thomas Aquinas – influenced by Augustine – proposed a similar theodicy based on the view that God is goodness and that there can be no evil in him. He believed that the existence of goodness allows evil to exist, through the fault of humans. Augustine also influenced
John Calvin, who supported Augustine's view that evil is the result of free will and argued that sin corrupts humans, requiring God's
grace to give moral guidance. (Full article...)
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Political Animals and Animal Politics is a 2014
edited collection published by
Palgrave Macmillan and edited by the
greenpolitical theoristsMarcel Wissenburg and
David Schlosberg. The work addresses the emergence of academic
animal ethics informed by
political philosophy as opposed to
moral philosophy. It was the first edited collection to be published on the topic, and the first book-length attempt to explore the breadth and boundaries of the literature. As well as a substantial introduction by the editors, it features ten sole-authored chapters split over three parts, respectively concerning
institutional change for animals, the relationship between animal ethics and
ecologism, and real-world laws made for the benefit of animals. The book's contributors were Wissenburg, Schlosberg, Manuel Arias-Maldonado, Chad Flanders, Christie Smith, Clemens Driessen, Simon Otjes, Kurtis Boyer, Per-Anders Svärd, and Mihnea Tanasescu. The focus of their individual chapters varies, but recurring features include discussions of
human exceptionalism, exploration of ways that animal issues are or could be present in political discourse, and reflections on the relationship between theory and practice in politics.
Wollstonecraft attacked not only hereditary privilege, but also the rhetoric that Burke used to defend it. Most of Burke's detractors deplored what they viewed as his theatrical pity for
Marie Antoinette, but Wollstonecraft was unique in her love of Burke's gendered language. By saying the sublime and the beautiful, terms first established by Burke himself in A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful (1756), she kept his rhetoric as well as his argument. In her first unabashedly feminist critique, which Wollstonecraft scholar
Claudia Johnson describes as unsurpassed in its argumentative force, Wollstonecraft indicts Burke's justification of an equal society founded on the passivity of women. (Full article...)
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Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of
belief in the existence of
deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there are no deities. Atheism is contrasted with
theism, which in its most general form is the belief that
at least one deity exists.
Historically, evidence of atheistic viewpoints can be traced back to classical antiquity and early Indian philosophy. In the Western world, atheism declined as Christianity gained prominence. The 16th century and the
Age of Enlightenment marked the resurgence of atheistic thought in Europe. Atheism achieved a significant position in the 20th century with legislation protecting
freedom of thought. According to 2003 estimates, there are at least
500 million atheists in the world.[needs update] (Full article...)
A member of marginalized religious groups throughout his life and a proponent of what was called "rational Dissent," Priestley advocated
religious toleration and equal rights for
Dissenters. He argued for extensive civil rights in works such as the important Essay on the First Principles of Government, believing that individuals could bring about progress and eventually the
Millennium; he was the foremost British expounder of
providentialism. Priestley also made significant contributions to education, publishing, among other things, The Rudiments of English Grammar, a seminal work on
English grammar. In his most lasting contributions to education, he argued for the benefits of a
liberal arts education and of the value of the study of
modern history. In his metaphysical works, Priestley "attempt[ed] to combine theism, materialism, and determinism," a project that has been called "audacious and original." (Full article...)
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A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: with Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects (1792), written by British philosopher and women's rights advocate
Mary Wollstonecraft (1759–1797), is one of the earliest works of
feminist philosophy. In it, Wollstonecraft responds to those educational and political theorists of the eighteenth century who did not believe women should receive a rational education. She argues that women ought to have an education commensurate with their position in society, claiming that women are essential to the nation because they educate its children and because they could be "companions" to their husbands, rather than mere wives. Instead of viewing women as ornaments to society or property to be traded in marriage, Wollstonecraft maintains that they are human beings deserving of the same fundamental rights as men.
Wollstonecraft was prompted to write the Rights of Woman after reading
Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord's 1791 report to the French
National Assembly, which stated that women should only receive domestic education. From her reaction to this specific event, she launched a broad attack against double standards, indicting men for encouraging women to indulge in excessive emotion. Wollstonecraft hurried to complete the work in direct response to ongoing events; she intended to write a more thoughtful second volume but died before completing it. (Full article...)
Why Marx Was Right is a 2011
non-fiction book by the British academic
Terry Eagleton about the 19th-century philosopher
Karl Marx and the schools of thought, collectively known as
Marxism, that arose from his work. Written for
laypeople, Why Marx Was Right outlines ten objections to Marxism that they may hold and aims to refute each one in turn. These include arguments that Marxism is irrelevant owing to changing
social classes in the modern world, that it is
deterministic and
utopian, and that Marxists oppose all
reforms and believe in an
authoritarian state.
In his counterarguments, Eagleton explains how
class struggle is central to Marxism, and that history is seen as a progression of
modes of production, like
feudalism and
capitalism, involving the materials, technology and social relations required to produce goods and services within the society. Under a capitalist economy, the working class, known as the
proletariat, are those lacking significant autonomy over their
labour conditions, and have no control over the means of production. Eagleton describes how
revolutions could lead to a new mode of production—
socialism—in which the working class have control, and an eventual
communist society could
make the state obsolete. He explores the failures of the
Soviet Union and other Marxist–Leninist countries. (Full article...)
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Intelligent design (ID) is a
pseudoscientific argument for the
existence of God, presented by its proponents as "an evidence-based
scientific theory about life's origins". Proponents claim that "certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not an undirected process such as
natural selection." ID is a form of
creationism that lacks empirical support and offers no testable or tenable hypotheses, and is therefore not science. The leading proponents of ID are associated with the
Discovery Institute, a Christian, politically conservative
think tank based in the United States.
Mary Wollstonecraft (/ˈwʊlstənkræft/, also
UK: /-krɑːft/; 27 April 1759 – 10 September 1797) was a British writer, philosopher, and advocate of
women's rights. Until the late 20th century, Wollstonecraft's life, which encompassed several unconventional personal relationships at the time, received more attention than her writing. Today Wollstonecraft is regarded as one of the founding
feminist philosophers, and feminists often cite both her life and her works as important influences.
During her brief career she wrote novels, treatises, a
travel narrative, a history of the
French Revolution, a
conduct book, and a children's book. Wollstonecraft is best known for A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), in which she argues that women are not naturally inferior to men but appear to be only because they lack education. She suggests that both men and women should be treated as rational beings and imagines a
social order founded on reason. (Full article...)
Bohr developed the
Bohr model of the
atom, in which he proposed that energy levels of
electrons are discrete and that the electrons revolve in stable orbits around the
atomic nucleus but can jump from one energy level (or orbit) to another. Although the Bohr model has been supplanted by other models, its underlying principles remain valid. He conceived the principle of
complementarity: that items could be separately analysed in terms of contradictory properties, like behaving as a
wave or a stream of particles. The notion of complementarity dominated Bohr's thinking in both science and philosophy. (Full article...)
... that the book Working from Within details how
W. V. Quine only began to use the term "
naturalism" years after he had already developed the key tenets of the philosophy?
... that ancient Greek philosopher
Xenophon thought the alopekis was part dog, part fox?
... that Chinese physician Yu Yan described theories like yinyang and the
five phases as "simply all lies, absolutely not factual, and completely groundless"?
... that philosopher George Pitcher adopted a stray dog and her puppy that he took everywhere, including on a trip to France aboard the Queen Elizabeth 2?
Selected philosopher of the week
Michel Foucault (October 15, 1926 – June 25, 1984) was a
French philosopher who held a chair at the
Collège de France, which he gave the title The History of Systems of Thought. His writings have had an enormous impact on other scholarly work: Foucault's influence extends across the
humanities and
social sciences, and across many applied and
professional areas of study.
Atheism, in a broad sense, is the rejection of
belief in the
existence of deities. In a narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there are no
deities. Most inclusively, atheism is simply the absence of belief that any deities exist. Atheism is contrasted with
theism, which in its most general form is the belief that at least one deity exists.
The term atheism originated from the Greek ἄθεος (atheos), meaning "without gods", which was applied with a negative connotation to those thought to reject the
gods worshipped by the larger society. With the spread of
freethought,
skeptical inquiry, and subsequent increase in
criticism of religion, application of the term narrowed in scope. The first individuals to identify themselves as "atheist" appeared in the 18th century. Today, about 2.3% of the world's population describes itself as atheist, while a further 11.9% is described as
nonreligious.Between 64% and 65% of Japanese describe themselves as atheists,
agnostics, or non-believers, and 48% in Russia. The percentage of such persons in European Union member states ranges as low as single digits in Italy and some other countries, and up to 85% in Sweden.
These are
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Roman copy of a Hellenistic bust of Chrysippus (
British Museum)
Chrysippus of Soli (/kraɪˈsɪpəs,krɪ-/;
Greek: Χρύσιππος ὁ Σολεύς, Chrysippos ho Soleus;
c. 279 –
c. 206 BC) was a
GreekStoicphilosopher. He was a native of
Soli, Cilicia, but moved to
Athens as a young man, where he became a pupil of the Stoic philosopher
Cleanthes. When Cleanthes died, around 230 BC, Chrysippus became the third head of the Stoic school. A prolific writer, Chrysippus expanded the fundamental doctrines of Cleanthes' mentor
Zeno of Citium, the founder and first head of the school, which earned him the title of the Second Founder of Stoicism.
Chrysippus excelled in
logic, the
theory of knowledge,
ethics, and
physics. He created an original system of
propositional logic in order to better understand the workings of the universe and role of humanity within it. He adhered to a
fatalistic view of
fate, but nevertheless sought a role for personal
agency in thought and action. Ethics, he thought, depended on understanding the nature of the universe, and he taught a therapy of
extirpating the
unruly passions which depress and crush the soul. He initiated the success of Stoicism as one of the most influential philosophical movements for centuries in the
Greek and
Roman world. The linguistic orientation of Chrysippus' work made it difficult for its students even within the Stoic school. (Full article...)
Many of the central problems concerned with the philosophy of science lack contemporary consensus, including whether science can infer
truth about unobservable entities and
whether inductive reasoning can be justified as yielding definite scientific knowledge. Philosophers of science also consider philosophical problems within particular sciences (such as
biology,
physics and social sciences such as
economics and
psychology). Some philosophers of science also use contemporary results in science to reach conclusions about philosophy itself. (Full article...)
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Consciousness, at its simplest, is
awareness of internal and
external existence. However, its nature has led to millennia of analyses, explanations and debate by
philosophers, theologians, and scientists. Opinions differ about what exactly needs to be studied or even considered consciousness. In some explanations, it is synonymous with the
mind, and at other times, an aspect of mind. In the past, it was one's "inner life", the world of
introspection, of private
thought,
imagination and
volition. Today, it often includes any kind of
cognition,
experience,
feeling or
perception. It may be awareness,
awareness of awareness, or
self-awareness either continuously changing or not. The disparate range of research, notions and speculations raises a curiosity about whether the right questions are being asked.
Aurobindo studied for the
Indian Civil Service at
King's College, in Cambridge, England. After returning to India he took up various civil service works under the Maharaja of the
princely state of
Baroda and became increasingly involved in nationalist politics in the
Indian National Congress and the nascent revolutionary movement in Bengal with the
Anushilan Samiti. He was arrested in the aftermath of a number of bombings linked to his organization in a public trial where he faced charges of treason for
Alipore Conspiracy. However, Sri Aurobindo could only be convicted and imprisoned for writing articles against British colonial rule in India. He was released when no evidence could be provided, following the murder of a prosecution witness, Narendranath Goswami, during the trial. During his stay in the jail, he had mystical and spiritual experiences, after which he moved to
Pondicherry, leaving politics for spiritual work. (Full article...)
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1799 portrait of Novalis
Georg Philipp Friedrich Freiherr von Hardenberg (2 May 1772 – 25 March 1801), pen name Novalis (German pronunciation:[noˈvaːlɪs]), was a
German aristocrat and
polymath, who was a poet, novelist, philosopher and
mystic. He is regarded as an influential figure of
Jena Romanticism.
Novalis was born into a minor aristocratic family in
Electoral Saxony. He was the second of eleven children; his early household observed a strict
Pietist faith. He studied law at the
University of Jena, the
University of Leipzig, and the
University of Wittenberg. While at Jena, he published his first poem and befriended the playwright and fellow poet
Friedrich Schiller. In Leipzig, he then met
Friedrich Schlegel, becoming lifelong friends. Novalis completed his law degree in 1794 at the age of 22. He then worked as a legal assistant in
Tennstedt immediately after graduating. There, he met
Sophie von Kühn. The following year Novalis and Sophie became secretly engaged. Sophie became severely ill soon after the engagement and died just after her 15th birthday. Sophie's early death had a life-long impact on Novalis and his writing. (Full article...)
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Crime and Punishment (
pre-reform Russian: Преступленіе и наказаніе; post-reform Russian: Преступление и наказание,
romanized: Prestupleniye i nakazaniye, IPA:[prʲɪstʊˈplʲenʲɪjeɪnəkɐˈzanʲɪje]) is a
novel by the Russian author
Fyodor Dostoevsky. It was first published in the literary journal The Russian Messenger in twelve monthly installments during 1866. It was later published in a single volume. It is the second of Dostoevsky's full-length novels following his return from ten years of
exile in Siberia. Crime and Punishment is considered the first great novel of his mature period of writing and is often cited as one of the greatest works of
world literature.
Crime and Punishment follows the mental anguish and moral dilemmas of
Rodion Raskolnikov, an impoverished ex-student in
Saint Petersburg who plans to kill an unscrupulous pawnbroker, an old woman who stores money and valuable objects in her flat. He theorises that with the money he could liberate himself from poverty and go on to perform great deeds, and seeks to convince himself that certain crimes are justifiable if they are committed in order to remove obstacles to the higher goals of 'extraordinary' men. Once the deed is done, however, he finds himself wracked with confusion, paranoia, and disgust. His theoretical justifications lose all their power as he struggles with guilt and horror and is confronted with both internal and external consequences of his deed. (Full article...)
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Taoism (/ˈdaʊ.ɪzəm/ⓘ, /ˈtaʊ.ɪzəm/ⓘ) or Daoism is a diverse tradition indigenous to China, variously characterized as both a philosophy and a religion. Taoism emphasizes living in harmony with the
Tao—generally understood as being the impersonal, enigmatic process of transformation
ultimately underlying reality. The concept originates in the
Chinese word 道 (
pinyin: dào;
Wade–Giles: tao4), which has numerous related meanings: possible English translations include 'way', 'road', and 'technique'. Taoist thought has informed the development of various practices within the Taoist tradition and beyond, including forms of
meditation,
astrology,
qigong,
feng shui, and
internal alchemy. A common goal of Taoist practice is
self-cultivation resulting in a deeper appreciation of the Tao, and thus a more harmonious existence. There are different formulations of Taoist ethics, but there is generally emphasis on virtues such as effortless action,
naturalness or spontaneity, simplicity, and the
three treasures of compassion, frugality, and humility. Many Taoist terms lack simple definitions and have been translated in several different ways.
The core of Taoist thought crystallized during the early
Warring States period,
c. the 4th and 5th centuries BCE, during which the epigrammatic Tao Te Ching and the anecdotal Zhuangzi—widely regarded as the fundamental texts of Taoist philosophy—were largely composed. They form the core of a body of Taoist writings accrued over the following centuries, which was assembled by monks into the Daozang canon starting in the 5th century CE. Early Taoism drew upon various influences, including the
Shang and
Zhou state religions,
Naturalism,
Mohism,
Confucianism, various
Legalist theories, as well as the Book of Changes and Spring and Autumn Annals. Taoism is one of the most important ideologies in Chinese thought, second only to Confucianism. Although almost completely different from Confucianism, it is not always contradictory. Later, when
Buddhism was
introduced to China, the two systems began influencing one another, with long-running discourses shared between Taoists and Buddhists; the distinct
Mahayana tradition of
Zen that emerged during the
Tang dynasty incorporates many ideas from Taoism. (Full article...)
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A marble head of Socrates in the
Louvre (copy of bronze head by
Lysippus)
Socrates (/ˈsɒkrətiːz/;
Greek: Σωκράτης;
c. 470–399 BC) was a
Greek philosopher from
Athens who is credited as the founder of
Western philosophy and among the first
moral philosophers of the
ethical tradition of thought. An enigmatic figure, Socrates authored no texts and is known mainly through the posthumous accounts of
classical writers, particularly his students
Plato and
Xenophon. These accounts are written as
dialogues, in which Socrates and his interlocutors examine a subject in the style of question and answer; they gave rise to the
Socratic dialogue literary genre. Contradictory accounts of Socrates make a reconstruction of his philosophy nearly impossible, a situation known as the
Socratic problem. Socrates was a polarizing figure in Athenian society. In 399 BC, he was accused of
impiety and corrupting the youth. After
a trial that lasted a day, he was
sentenced to death. He spent his last day in prison, refusing offers to help him escape.
Plato's dialogues are among the most comprehensive accounts of Socrates to survive from antiquity. They demonstrate the Socratic approach to areas of philosophy including
epistemology and
ethics. The Platonic Socrates lends his name to the concept of the
Socratic method, and also to
Socratic irony. The Socratic method of questioning, or
elenchus, takes shape in dialogue using short questions and answers, epitomized by those Platonic texts in which Socrates and his interlocutors examine various aspects of an issue or an abstract meaning, usually relating to one of the virtues, and find themselves at an
impasse, completely unable to define what they thought they understood. Socrates is known for
proclaiming his total ignorance; he used to say that the only thing he was aware of was his ignorance, seeking to imply that the realization of our ignorance is the first step in philosophizing. (Full article...)
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The Terri Schiavo case was a series of court and legislative actions in the United States from 1998 to 2005, regarding the care of Theresa Marie Schiavo (née Schindler) (/ˈʃaɪvoʊ/; December 3, 1963 – March 31, 2005), a woman in an irreversible
persistent vegetative state. Schiavo's husband and legal guardian argued that Schiavo would not have wanted prolonged artificial life support without the prospect of recovery, and in 1998, he elected to remove her
feeding tube. Schiavo's parents disputed her husband's assertions and challenged Schiavo's medical diagnosis, arguing in favor of continuing artificial nutrition and hydration. The highly publicized and prolonged series of legal challenges presented by her parents, which ultimately involved state and federal politicians up to the level of
George W. Bush, the then
U.S. president, caused a seven-year (1998 to 2005) delay before Schiavo's feeding tube was ultimately removed.
On February 25, 1990, at age 26, Schiavo went into
cardiac arrest at her home in
St. Petersburg, Florida. She was "successfully" resuscitated, but had massive
brain damage due to
lack of oxygen to her brain and was left
comatose. After two and a half months without improvement, her diagnosis was changed to that of a persistent vegetative state. For the next two years, doctors attempted occupational therapy, speech therapy, physical therapy and other experimental therapy, hoping to return her to a state of awareness, without success. In 1998, Schiavo's husband Michael Schiavo petitioned the
Sixth Circuit Court of Florida to remove her feeding tube pursuant to Florida law. He was opposed by Terri's parents, Robert and Mary Schindler. The court determined that Schiavo would not have wished to continue life-prolonging measures, and on April 24, 2001, her feeding tube was removed for the first time, only to be reinserted several days later. On February 25, 2005, a Pinellas County judge again ordered the removal of Terri Schiavo's feeding tube. Several appeals and federal government intervention followed, which included Bush returning to Washington, D.C., to sign legislation moving the case to the federal courts. After appeals through the federal court system that upheld the original decision to remove the feeding tube, staff at the
Pinellas Park hospice facility disconnected the feeding tube on March 18, 2005, and Schiavo died on March 31, 2005. (Full article...)
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The five precepts (
Sanskrit: pañcaśīla;
Pali: pañcasīla) or five rules of training (
Sanskrit: pañcaśikṣapada;
Pali: pañcasikkhapada) is the most important system of morality for
Buddhist lay people. They constitute the basic code of
ethics to be respected by lay followers of Buddhism. The precepts are commitments to abstain from killing
living beings, stealing, sexual misconduct, lying and intoxication. Within the Buddhist doctrine, they are meant to develop mind and character to make progress on the path to
enlightenment. They are sometimes referred to as the Śrāvakayāna precepts in the
Mahāyāna tradition, contrasting them with the
bodhisattva precepts. The five precepts form the basis of several parts of Buddhist doctrine, both lay and monastic. With regard to their fundamental role in Buddhist ethics, they have been compared with the
ten commandments in
Abrahamic religions or the
ethical codes of
Confucianism. The precepts have been connected with
utilitarianist,
deontological and
virtue approaches to ethics, though by 2017, such categorization by western terminology had mostly been abandoned by scholars. The precepts have been compared with human rights because of their universal nature, and some scholars argue they can complement the concept of human rights.
The five precepts were common to the religious milieu of 6th-century BCE India, but the Buddha's focus on
awareness through the fifth precept was unique. As shown in
Early Buddhist Texts, the precepts grew to be more important, and finally became a condition for membership of the Buddhist religion. When Buddhism spread to different places and people, the role of the precepts began to vary. In countries where Buddhism had to compete with other religions, such as China, the ritual of undertaking the five precepts developed into an initiation ceremony to become a Buddhist layperson. On the other hand, in countries with little competition from other religions, such as Thailand, the ceremony has had little relation to the rite of becoming Buddhist, as many people are presumed Buddhist from birth. (Full article...)
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The second circle of hell is depicted in
Dante Alighieri's 14th-century poem Inferno, the first part of the Divine Comedy. Inferno tells the story of Dante's journey through a vision of the
Christian hell ordered into nine circles corresponding to classifications of sin; the second circle represents the sin of lust, where the lustful are punished by being buffeted within an endless tempest.
The circle of lust introduces Dante's depiction of King
Minos, the judge of hell; this portrayal derives from the role of Minos in the
Greek underworld in the works of
Virgil and
Homer. Dante also depicts a number of historical and mythological figures within the second circle, although chief among these are
Francesca da Rimini and
Paolo Malatesta, murdered lovers whose story was well-known in Dante's time. Malatesta and da Rimini have since been the focus of academic interpretation and the inspiration for other works of art. (Full article...)
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Eureka (1848) is a lengthy
non-fiction work by American author
Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849) which he subtitled "A
Prose Poem", though it has also been subtitled "An
Essay on the Material and Spiritual Universe". Adapted from a lecture he had presented, Eureka describes Poe's intuitive conception of the nature of the
universe, with no antecedent scientific work done to reach his conclusions. He also discusses man's relationship with
God, whom he compares to an author. Eureka is dedicated to the German naturalist and explorer
Alexander von Humboldt (1769–1859).
Though Eureka is generally considered a literary work, some of Poe's ideas anticipate 20th-century scientific discoveries and theories. Analysis of Eureka's scientific content shows congruities with modern cosmology, stemming from Poe's assumption of an evolving Universe. (Full article...)
The celestial spheres, or celestial orbs, were the fundamental entities of the
cosmological models developed by
Plato,
Eudoxus,
Aristotle,
Ptolemy,
Copernicus, and others. In these celestial models, the
apparent motions of the
fixed stars and
planets are accounted for by treating them as embedded in rotating spheres made of an aetherial, transparent fifth element (
quintessence), like gems set in orbs. Since it was believed that the fixed stars did not change their positions relative to one another, it was argued that they must be on the surface of a single starry sphere.
In modern thought, the
orbits of the planets are viewed as the paths of those planets through mostly empty space. Ancient and medieval thinkers, however, considered the celestial orbs to be thick spheres of rarefied matter nested one within the other, each one in complete contact with the sphere above it and the sphere below. When scholars applied Ptolemy's
epicycles, they presumed that each planetary sphere was exactly thick enough to accommodate them. By combining this nested sphere model with astronomical observations, scholars calculated what became generally accepted values at the time for the distances to the Sun: about 4 million miles (6.4 million kilometres), to the other planets, and to the edge of the universe: about 73 million miles (117 million kilometres). The nested sphere model's distances to the Sun and planets differ significantly from modern measurements of the distances, and the
size of the universe is now known to be inconceivably large and continuously
expanding. (Full article...)
Image 15
Eliminative materialism (also called eliminativism) is a
materialist position in the
philosophy of mind. It is the idea that the majority of
mental states in
folk psychology do not exist. Some supporters of eliminativism argue that no coherent
neural basis will be found for many everyday psychological concepts such as
belief or
desire, since they are poorly defined. The argument is that psychological concepts of
behavior and
experience should be judged by how well they reduce to the biological level. Other versions
entail the nonexistence of conscious mental states such as
pain and
visual perceptions.
Eliminativism about a class of entities is the view that the class of entities does not exist. For example,
materialism tends to be eliminativist about the
soul; modern chemists are eliminativist about
phlogiston; modern biologists are eliminativist about élan vital; and modern physicists are eliminativist about
luminiferous ether. Eliminative materialism is the relatively new (1960s–70s) idea that certain classes of mental entities that common sense takes for granted, such as beliefs, desires, and the subjective sensation of pain, do not exist. The most common versions are eliminativism about
propositional attitudes, as expressed by
Paul and
Patricia Churchland, and eliminativism about
qualia (subjective interpretations about particular instances of subjective experience), as expressed by
Daniel Dennett,
Georges Rey, and
Jacy Reese Anthis. (Full article...)
Image 8The Buddhist
Nalanda university and monastery was a major center of learning in India from the 5th century CE to c. 1200. (from Eastern philosophy)
Image 24The philosopher
Pyrrho of
Elis, in an anecdote taken from
Sextus Empiricus' Outlines of Pyrrhonism
(upper)PIRRHO • HELIENSIS • PLISTARCHI • FILIVS translation (from Latin): Pyrrho • Greek • Son of Plistarchus
(middle)OPORTERE • SAPIENTEM HANC ILLIVS IMITARI SECVRITATEMtranslation (from Latin): It is right wisdom then that all imitate this security (Pyrrho pointing at a peaceful pig munching his food)
(lower)Whoever wants to apply the real wisdom, shall not mind
trepidation and misery
Image 2The center third of Education (1890), a stained glass window by
Louis Comfort Tiffany and Tiffany Studios, located in Linsly-Chittenden Hall at
Yale University. It depicts
Science (personified by Devotion, Labor, Truth, Research and Intuition) and
Religion (personified by Purity, Faith, Hope, Reverence and Inspiration) in harmony, presided over by the central personification of "Light·Love·Life".
Image 8Oscar Wilde reclining with Poems, by
Napoleon Sarony, in New York in 1882. Wilde often liked to appear idle, though in fact he worked hard; by the late 1880s he was a father, an editor, and a writer.
Philosophy ponders the most fundamental questions humankind has been able to ask. These are increasingly numerous and over time they have been arranged into the overlapping branches of the philosophy tree:
Aesthetics: What is art? What is beauty? Is there a standard of taste? Is art meaningful? If so, what does it mean? What is good art? Is art for the purpose of an end, or is "art for art's sake?" What connects us to art? How does art affect us? Is some art unethical? Can art corrupt or elevate societies?
Epistemology: What are the nature and limits of knowledge? What is more fundamental to human existence, knowing (epistemology) or being (ontology)? How do we come to know what we know? What are the limits and scope of knowledge? How can we know that there are other minds (if we can)? How can we know that there is an external world (if we can)? How can we prove our answers? What is a true statement?
Ethics: Is there a difference between ethically right and wrong actions (or values, or institutions)? If so, what is that difference? Which actions are right, and which wrong? Do divine commands make right acts right, or is their rightness based on something else? Are there standards of rightness that are absolute, or are all such standards relative to particular cultures? How should I live? What is happiness?
Logic: What makes a good argument? How can I think critically about complicated arguments? What makes for good thinking? When can I say that something just does not make sense? Where is the origin of logic?
Metaphysics: What sorts of things exist? What is the nature of those things? Do some things exist independently of our perception? What is the nature of space and time? What is the relationship of the mind to the body? What is it to be a person? What is it to be conscious? Do gods exist?
Political philosophy: Are political institutions and their exercise of power justified? What is justice? Is there a 'proper' role and scope of government? Is democracy the best form of governance? Is governance ethically justifiable? Should a state be allowed? Should a state be able to promote the norms and values of a certain moral or religious doctrine? Are states allowed to go to war? Do states have duties against inhabitants of other states?