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Society - Philosophy - Reference

Locke, John - Article on the life and work of the influential philosopher.
Lombard, Peter - French scholastic theologian of the 12th century, influenced by Abelard.
Lotze, Rudolf Hermann - 19th century German philosopher who criticised the pantheism of Hegel.
Lucretius - Roman poet and advocate of Epicurean philosophy.
Machiavelli, Nicolo - Renaissance philosopher who remains controversial for his practical solutions to problems of how to retain political authority.
Malebranche, Nicholas - 17th century Cartesian philosopher. Author of The Search After Truth (1674-1675).
Menippus - Third century BCE Greek philosopher and satirist.
Mill, John Stuart - 19th leader and prophet of utilitarianism, heir to the Hume-Bentham line, and influential force in modern political theory. Author of On Liberty (1859), and Utilitarianism (1863).
Monism - Originally described idealists and materialists. Now the term is used for all philosophers who have a unifying theory. Those who are not monists are either dualist or pluralist.
Moral Dilemmas - Situation where only two courses of action are available, each requiring a morally impermissible action.
Moral Luck - Andrew Latus, St. Francis Xavier University, summarizes the discussion between Thomas Nagel and Bernard Williams on the question: Can luck ever make a moral difference?
Moral Rationalism - Plato was one who thought that the use of reason was essential in moral judgements. Hume criticised this view.
Moral Realism - The view that moral principles have an objective foundation.
Moral Relativism - Argument against moral absolutism, suggesting that moral standards are grounded only in social custom.
Moral Skepticism - The theory, supported by J.L. Mackie in Ethics: Inventing Right and Wrong, that belief in objective moral principles cannot be justified.
Morality and Religion - Brief article describing the influence of religion on moral philosophy.
Natural Law - Standards that govern human behavior objectively derived from the nature of human beings.
Natural Theology - Used in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries to describe knowledge of God drawn from nature.
Naturalistic Fallacy - Moore's theory that "goodness" is an individual property which cannot be explained in terms of anything more basic.
Neoplatonism - The revival of Greek philosophy in 3rd century BCE, led by Plotinus and his disciple, Porphyry. Influenced by both Pythagoras and Plato.
Noncognitivism - In Ethical theory noncognitivism is the theory that moral utterances are neither true nor false statements about the world.
Objectivity - The view that the truth of a thing is independent from the observing subject.
Ockham, William of - Detailed biography of the 14th century Franciscan.
Ordinary Language - Ordinary language philosophy examines the way common language is used.
Origen - Father of the early Church, born around 182.
Solipsism - The doctrine of the solipsist is that existence means my existence and that of my mental states.
Paine, Thomas - 18th century British political writer.
Paley, William - 18th century British theologian.
Parmenides - Greek philosopher and poet.
Perception - Way of obtaining details of our world, through the senses. Philosophers question the reliability of this information and its importance.
Peripatetics - Brief history of the Peripatetic doctrines.
Personhood, Moral - Article on the discussion over which beings are members of the moral community.
Phenomenon - Brief introduction to the philosophers who have dealt with this.
Plotinus - 3rd century CE founder of Neo-Platonism.
Pluralism - Theory that reality consists of a multiplicity of fundamentally distinct entities.
Poincaré, Jules Henri - 19th century French philosopher of science.
Prima Facie Duties - Moral obligations which are binding only until a stronger one emerges.
Prodicus - 5th century BCE sophist, possibly a mentor of Socrates
Protagoras - Early Greek sophist.
Pufendorf, Samuel von - 17th century Lutheran clergyman.
Pyrrho - 4th century BCE founder of the Greek school of skepticism.
Pythagoras - The 6th century BCE philosopher.
Rationalism, Continental - 17th century philosophical movement. Rival to British Empiricism.
Reichenbach, Hans - Leading German philosopher of science, and logical positivist.
Renaissance - Brief article on the transition between middle ages and modernity.
Rights - Advantages of status, discussed by John Locke.
Roman Philosophy - Short introduction to Roman philosophy from the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Rousseau, Jean Jacques - 18th century French author of the Social Contract, influential during the French Revolution.
Rule Utilitarianism - Utilitarianism when applied to a behavioral code or rule. A rule is right if its consequences are more favorable than unfavorable.
Shaftesbury, Earl of - Patron of John Locke
Shpet, Gustav - Leading proponent of Russian transcendental phenomenology.
Skepticism, Ancient Greek - A description of skepticism in Ancient Greece, led by Pyrrho.
Skepticism, Contemporary - Introduction to the current discussion of skepticism.
Skepticism, Modern - Review of the modern era in skepticism.
Social Contract - View that morality is based on social agreements that serve the interests of those who make the agreement.
Solovyov, Vladimir - 19th century Russian philosopher.
Sophists - Teachers of philosophy in Ancient Greece, including Protagoras, Gorgias, Prodicus and Hippias.
Spinoza, Benedict - 17th century pantheist, critic of Descartes.
Stephen, Leslie - 19th century British academic.
Stilpo - 4th century BCE member of the Megarean school.
Stirling, James Hutchison - 19th century British Idealist, Hegelian academic.
Stoicism - Description of the system of ethics, popular in Ancient Greece, which has physics as its foundation.
Subjectivity - Statements which depend on the person making the statement.
Sublime - Aesthetic value with the suggestion of transcendent vastness or greatness.
Suicide - Discussion of the applied ethical issue of suicide.
Supererogation - An action which goes beyond what is morally required.
Symposium - Drinking-parties in Ancient Greece where the guests reclined on couches, and were crowned with garlands of flowers.
Synderesis - Scholastic philosophy describes this as the principle in moral consciousness which directs an agent to good.
Taste - Critical discernment of objects of aesthetic experience.
Temperance - Moderation, advocated by much of Ancient Greek and Scholastic philosophy.
Thales - Detailed biographical essay on the Ancient Greek philosopher.
Theophrastus - Philosopher of the Peripatetic school, successor to Aristotle at the Lyceum.
Theosophy - Detailed article on the religious, philosophic, and scientific theory of one eternal, immutable, principle, being the root of all manifestation.
Time - Long article about questions of time discussed throughout the history of philosophy.
Timon - 3rd century BCE disciple of Pyrrho.
Totem - A term, derived from Native American, used in philosophy to describe one of a class of objects which a community regards with respect.
Tragedy - A term used in aesthetics to describe a situation where elements of pain and pleasure exist simultaneously.
Universals - The traditional problem of universals is whether and how they are independent of human perception.
Vienna Circle - Organised the development of logical postivism in the 1920s. Included Carnap, Feigl, Frank, Gödel, Hahn, Kraft, Neurath, Waismann. Popper and Wittgenstein also had association with the Vienna Circle.
Virtue Theory - View that morality is the development of or virtues.
Voluntarism - Theory that God or the ultimate nature of reality is conceived as some form of will.
Warburton, William - 18th century Church of England bishop, and critic of the Deists.
Wittgenstein, Ludwig - Detailed essay on the life and work of the 20th century philosopher.
Xenophanes - Eleatic school, powerful 6th century BCE critic of polytheism.
Xenophon - Pupil of Socrates, who contributed to the record of his life.
Zeno of Elea - 5th century BCE Eleatic philosopher.
Hume, David - Enormously influential 18th century Scottish philosopher. Author of Treatise of Human Nature (1739-1740).
Aristippus - Description of the life and teachings of the philosopher Aristippus, founder of the Cyrenaic school of philosophy.
Cyrenaics - Description of the Cyrenaic school of philosophy, which flourished from the 5th-3rd centuries BCE. The Cyrenaics were skeptics and hedonists.
Animals and Ethics - Consideration of moral status of non-human animals.
Russell's Paradox - Examines self-referential linguistics used to describe properties and sets.
Truth - Philosophical theories on the nature of truth, by Bradley Dowden and Norman Swartz.
PhiloSophos - Includes philosophy papers, university distance learning programs and college correspondence courses, and a philosophy dictionary.
Think: Philosophy - Philosophy resource for beginners. Contains philosophers, schools of thought, and topics.
Larry Hauser's Mostly Modern Philosophical Glossary - Glossary of philosophical terms focusing on modern philosophy.
Meta-Encyclopedia of Philosophy - A list of philophical terms and names linked to the major encyclopedias and dictionaries of philosophy on the internet.
Dictionary of Sorts - Philosophical terms mostly from ethics and epistemology, edited by Robert Berman.
Philosophy Dictionaries and Encyclopedias - Collection of links to philosophy reference sources.
Sophia Project - On-line resource for philosophy students sponsored by the Molloy College Department of Philosophy.
Wikipedia: Philosophy - The entrance page to all articles in the philosophy section of the free encyclopedia.
Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy - Online edition. Free access to sample contents, full access by subscription.
The Ism Book - A dictionary of philosophies from Peter Saint-André, editor of the Monadnock Review.
Church-Turing Thesis - Jack Copeland of the University of Canterbury, New Zealand outlines this frequently misunderstood thesis.
Bosanquet, Bernard - William Sweet of St. Francis Xavier University introduces the absolute idealist.
Bradley, F. H. - By Stewart Candlish of the University of Western Australia.
Logical Constructions - Bernard Linsky, University of Alberta.
Category Theory - Jean-Pierre Marquis of the University of Montreal introduces the general mathematical theory of structures and systems of structures.
Cognitive Science - The study of mind and intelligence. By Paul Thagard of the University of Waterloo.
Color - Metaphysical and epistemological accounts of color. By Barry Maund of the University of Western Australia.
Connectionism - Movement in cognitive science which hopes to explain human intellectual abilities using artificial neural networks. By James W. Garson of the University of Houston.
Donald Davidson - Jeff Malpas of the University of Tamania.
Dialetheism - Dialeth(e)ism is the view that there are true contradictions. By Graham Priest of the University of Queensland.
Existence - By Barry Miller.
Paul Feyerabend - Biographical and expository essay by John Preston of Reading University.
Gottlob Frege - Edward N. Zalta of the Metaphysics Research Lab.
Game Theory - Von Neumann and Morgensterns mathematical theory of bargaining, introduced by Don Ross University of Cape Town.
Hegel, G. W. F. - Paul Redding of the University of Sydney.
Holes - Short article by Roberto Casati of the École Polytechnique and Achille C. Varzi of Columbia.
Søren Kierkegaard - Essay about Kierkegaard's life, work, and philosophy by William McDonald.
The Identity of Indiscernibles - Peter Forrest introduces the principle of analytic ontology formulated by Leibniz, stating that no two distinct substances exactly resemble each other.
The Language of Thought Hypothesis - By Murat Aydede, surveying the arguments for and against the proposition that thoughts are expressed in a mental language.
Liberalism - Gerald F. Gaus outlines the general philosophical theory of liberalism.
Arthur Prior - Detailed biographical article by B. Jack Copeland of the University of Canterbury.
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy - Online philosophy reference work, articles are authored and updated by experts in the field. Edited by Edward Zalta.
Maritain, Jacques - By William Sweet of St. Francis Xavier University.
Miracles - Exploring Hume's argument and the religious significance. By Michael P. Levine of the University of Western Australia.
Mental Imagery - By Nigel Thomas of Leeds University.
Friedrich Nietzsche - Robert Wicks, University of Auckland.
Multiple Realizability - John Bickle discusses the contention that a given mental kind (property, state, event) is realized by distinct physical kinds.
Ontological Arguments - Ontological arguments are arguments, for the conclusion that God exists, from premisses which are supposed to derive from some source other than observation of the world. From the Stanford Encyclopedia, by Graham Oppy.
Original Position - The original position is a hypothetical situation in which rational calculators, acting as agents or trustees for the interests of concrete individuals, are pictured as choosing those principles of social relations under which their principals would do best. From the Stanford Encyclopedia, by Fred D'Agostino.
Pantheism - Definition of Pantheism by Michael P. Levine of the University of Western Australia.
Pascal's wager - An argument due to Blaise Pascal for believing, or for at least taking steps to believe, in God. From the Stanford Encyclopedia, by Alan Hájek.
Karl Popper - By Stephen Thornton from the University of Limerick.
Principia Mathematica - Entry by A.D. Irvine discussing Russell and Whitehead's treatise.
Prisoner's Dilemma - By Steven T. Kuhn of Georgetown University.
Private Language - By Stewart Candlish from the University of Western Australia.
Qualia - Qualia are introspectively accessible, phenomenal aspects of our mental lives. By Michael Tye.
Russell, Bertrand - By A. D. Irvine.
Russell's Paradox - By A. D. Irvine.
Wilfrid Sellars - By Jay F. Rosenberg.
Sorites Paradox - By Dominic Hyde.
Square of Opposition - By Terence Parsons.
Stoicism - Stoicism was one of the new philosophical movements of the Hellenistic period. By Dirk Baltzly.
Thought Experiments - By James Robert Brown, University of Toronto.
Tropes - An article describing tropes by John Bacon.
Turing Machine - Article on Turing Machines from the Stanford Encyclopedia.
Vagueness - By Roy Sorensen.
Alfred North Whitehead - By A. D. Irvine.
Thomas Aquinas - Biographical and expository essay, by Ralph McInerny.
Artifact - By Risto Hilpinen of the University of Miami.
Aristotle's Political Theory - By Fred D. Miller, Jr of Bowling Green State University.
Medieval Theories of Conscience - The ability to act on the determinations of conscience is tied to the development of the moral virtues, which in turn refines the functions of conscience. By Doug Langston of the University of South Florida.
Causal Processes - Bertrand Russell, Wesley Salmon, and conserved quantities. By Phil Dowe of the University of Tasmania.
Probabilistic Causation - "Probabilistic Causation" designates a group of philosophical theories that aim to characterize the relationship between cause and effect using the tools of probability theory. A primary motivation for the development of such theories is the desire for a theory of causation that does not presuppose physical determinism.
Animal Consciousness - By Colin Allen of Texas A & M, addressing the qualitative or phenomenological nature of experience.
Cosmology and Theology - Deals with the cosmological argument. By John Leslie of the University of Guelph.
Descartes' Epistemology - By Lex Newman of the University of Nebraska, Lincoln.
Mental Representation - According to the Representational Theory of Mind, psychological states are to be understood as relations between agents and mental representations. By David Pitt, CUNY.
Saint Augustine - By Michael Mendelson of Lehigh University.
Aristotle's Logic - Survey of Aristotle's logical work, focus on the "Organon," syllogistic, and dialectic. From the Stanford Encyclopedia, by Robin Smith.
Modal Logic - Originally the study of deductive behavior of the expressions `it is necessary that' and `it is possible that', now also includes logics for belief, tense, the deontic (moral) expressions. By James W. Garson, University of Houston.
Foundationalist Theories of Epistemic Justification - Survey of theories according to which knowledge and justified belief rest ultimately on a foundation of noninferential knowledge or justified belief. By Richard Fumerton of the University of Iowa.
Time Travel and Modern Physics - Survey of philosophical woories about inconsistencies inherent in the idea of time travel in the context of modern physics. From the Stanford Encyclopedia, by Tim Maudlin.
Propositional Attitude Reports - Explores semantic accounts of propositional attitude reports, and some of the theories developed to deal with Frege's puzzle. From the Stanford Encyclopedia, by Thomas J. McKay.
Identity and Individuality in Quantum Theory - Assesses the metaphysical implications of quantum theory by considering the impact of the theory on our understanding of objects as individuals with well defined identity conditions. By Steven French of Leeds University.
War - Article on the ethics of war and peace, the Just War theory, and pacificsm. From the Stanford Encyclopedia, by Brian D. Orend.
Infinitary Logic - Infinitary Logic is a branch of formal logic where finitary formulae are replaced by potentially infinitary mathematical entities. By John L. Bell.
William Godwin - Article on the life and work of the founder of philosophical anarchism. From the Stanford Encyclopedia, by Mark Philp.
The Identity Theory of Mind - Evaluates the theory that holds that states and processes of the mind are identical to states and processes of the brain. By J. J. C. Smart of Monash.
Aristotle's Psychology - Recounts the principal and distinctive claims of Aristotle's psychological writings, especially "De Anima." By Christopher Shields of the University of Colorado.
Temporal Logic - The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry on the subject, with a detailed description, application areas and a bibliography.
Medieval Theories of Analogy - By E. Jennifer Ashworth of the University of Waterloo.
Divine Illumination - Augustine's doctrine described by Robert Pasnau of the University of Colorado.
Peter John Olivi - Life and work of one of the most original and interesting philosophers of the later Middle Ages. From the Stanford Encyclopedia, by Robert Pasnau.
Logical Form - Introduction to logical form, surface and deep meaning. By Paul M. Pietroski, University of Maryland.
Measurement in Quantum Theory - Study of the details and some of the implications of the measurement problem. By Henry Krips of the University of Pittsburgh.
Medieval Theories of Practical Reason - From the Stanford Encyclopedia, by Anthony Celano.
Properties - Entry in the Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy by Chris Swoyer. Principally concerned with existence and identity conditions.
Intuitionistic Logic - The principles L. E. J. Brouwer used in developing his intuitionistic mathematics. By Joan R. Moschovakis, UCLA.
Richard the Sophister - Richardus Sophista was an English philosopher/logician who studied at Oxford most likely sometime during the second quarter of the thirteenth century. From the Stanford Encyclopedia, by Paul Streveler.
Nineteenth Century Geometry - By Roberto Torretti, Universidad de Chile.
Holism and Nonseparability in Physics - Comprehensive article by Richard Healey of the University of Arizona.
Epiphenomenalism - Discusses the view that mental events are caused by physical events in the brain, but have no effects upon any physical events. From the Stanford Encyclopedia, by William S. Robinson.
The Hole Argument - The hole argument is an attempt to illustrate how spacetime substantivalism causes errors in a large class of spacetime theories. By John D. Norton of the University of Pittsburgh.
Medieval Theories of Modality - By Simo Knuuttila of the University of Helsinki.
Philip the Chancellor - Life and work of this 13th-century philosopher, theologian, and lyric poet. From the Stanford Encyclopedia, by Colleen McCluskey.
Saint Anselm - By Thomas Williams, University of Iowa.
Many-Valued Logic - Survey article on multiple-valued logics, by Siegfried Gottwaldof of Leipzig University.
Actualism - The thesis that there are no merely possible entities; by Christopher Menzel.
Behaviorism - By George Graham of University of Alabama at Birmingham.
Teleological Notions in Biology - By Colin Allen of Texas A & M.
Frege's Logic, Theorem, and Foundations for Arithmetic - By Edward N. Zalta of Stanford University.
Contractarianism - By Ann E. Cudd, University of Kansas.
Representational Theories of Consciousness - By William Lycan, University of North Carolina.
Voluntary Euthanasia - By Robert Young, La Trobe University.
Virtue Epistemology - By John Greco of Fordham.
Feminist Ethics - By Rosemarie Tong, Davidson College.
Feminist Perspectives on the Self - By Diana Meyers of the University of Connecticut.
Folk Psychology as Mental Simulation - By Robert M. Gordon, University of Missouri.
Folk Psychology as a Theory - By Ian Ravenscroft, the Flinders University of South Australia.
Distributive Justice - By Julian Lamont, University of Queensland.
Public Justification - By Fred D'Agostino, University of New England, Australia.
Leibniz's Philosophy of Mind - By Mark Kulstad and Laurence Carlin.
Leibniz on the Problem of Evil - By Michael J. Murray, Franklin & Marshall College.
Relevance Logic - By Edwin D. Mares, Victoria University of Wellington.
Paraconsistent Logic - By Graham Priest and Koji Tanaka.
Informal Logic - By Leo Groarke, Wilfrid Laurier University.
Substructural Logics - By Greg Restall of Macquarie University.
Indispensability Arguments in the Philosophy of Mathematics - By Mark Colyvan, University of Tasmania.
Constructive Mathematics - By Douglas Bridges from Waikato University.
Inconsistent Mathematics - By Chris Mortensen, University of Adelaide.
The Philosophy of Neuroscience - By John Bickle and Peter Mandik.
The St. Petersburg Paradox - By Robert M. Martin, Dalhousie University.
Peirce's Logic - By Eric M. Hammer of Stanford.
Experiments in Physics - By Allan Franklin, University of Colorado.
Reichenbach's Common Cause Principle - By Frank Arntzenius of Rutgers.
Singular Propositions - Propositions about a particular object or individual in virtue of having the object or individual as a constituent of the proposition. By G. W. Fitch.
Structured Propositions - To say that propositions are structured is to say that they are complex entities, entities having parts or constituents. By Jeffrey C. King.
Everett's Relative-State Formulation of Quantum Mechanics - Describes Everett's attempt to solve the measurement problem by dropping the collapse dynamics from the standard von Neumann-Dirac theory of quantum mechanics. By Jeffrey A. Barrett.
Historicist Theories of Rationality - By Carl Matheson of the University of Manitoba.
The Epistemology of Religion - By Peter Forrest.
Ancient Skepticism - Two movements in ancient philosophy, Pyrrhonism, and Academic Skepticism. By Leo Groarke.
Contemporary Approaches to the Social Contract - By Fred D'Agostino.
Conventionality of Simultaneity - By Allen I. Janis, University of Pittsburgh.
Supertasks - Introduced by Jon Pérez Laraudogoitia from the University of the Basque Country.
Coherence Theory of Truth - The truth of any (true) proposition consists in its coherence with some specified set of propositions. By James O. Young.
Deflationary Theory of Truth - According to the deflationary theory of truth, to assert that a statement is true is just to assert the statement itself. By Daniel Stoljar.
Identity Theory of Truth - When a truth-bearer is true, there is a truth-maker with which it is identical and the truth of the former consists in its identity with the latter. By Stewart Candlish.
Revision Theory of Truth - Theory developed to analyze paradoxes that appear to show that common-sense beliefs about truth are inconsistent. By Eric M. Hammer.
John Locke - Influential 17th century British political philosopher.
Personal Identity - How does a person stay the same person over time? By Eric T. Olson.
Egalitarianism - The view that people should get the same or be treated the same; by Richard Arneson.
William of Ockham - Occam (1287-1347) was one of the most important philosophers of the Middle Ages. By Paul Vincent Spade.
Timon of Phlius - Timon (c. 320-230 BC) was the younger contemporary and leading disciple of Pyrrho; by Richard Bett.
Homosexuality - Philosophical issues in homosexuality and queer theory; by Brent Pickett.
Pyrrho - The life and work of the founder of Pyrrhonism; by Richard Bett.
Identity Politics - History of the political activity and theorizing founded in the shared experiences of injustice of members of certain social groups; by Cressida Heyes.
Naturalism in Legal Philosophy - Discusses naturalistic theses in the philosophy of law; by Brian Leiter.
Set Theory - Survey of the mathematical theory of the infinite; by Thomas Jech.
Realism - Survey of realism and anti-realism in various forms; by Alexander Miller.
The Mathematics of Boolean Algebra - Survey of the algebra of two-valued logic; by J. Donald Monk.
Species - Philosophical theories on what makes a species; by Marc Ereshefsky.
Confucius - The life and work of the Chinese philosopher and educatory; by Jeffrey Riegel.
Theological Voluntarism - Survey of divine command theory; by Mark Murphy.
Immutability - The doctrine that God cannot undergo real change; by Brian Leftow.
Johann Georg Hamann - Life and work of this German Enlightenment philosopher; by Gwen Griffith-Dickson.
Max Stirner - Life and work of German philosopher of egoism; by David Leopold.
Consciousness and Intentionality - Discussion of the connection between phenomenal consciousness and intentionality; by Charles Siewert.
Globalization - Social theory and philosophy issues in globalization; by William Scheuerman.
Moral Skepticism - Survey of forms of scepticism about moral knowledge; Walter Sinnott-Armstrong.
Scientific Realism - The thesis that science discovers truths about a theory-independent reality; by Richard Boyd.
Environmental Ethics - Branch of ethics dealing with the moral relationship of humans to the environment; by Andrew Brennan and Yeuk-Sze Lo.
Alan M. Turing - Life and work of philosopher and mathematician Alan Mathison Turing; by Andrew Hodges.
Personal Autonomy - Survey of philosophical theories about what it is to govern oneself; by Sarah Buss.
Nicolas Malebranche - Life and work of French Cartesian philosopher; by Tad Schmaltz.
Death - Discussion of philosophical issues about death; by Steven Luper.
The Biological Notion of Self and Non-self - History and discussion of the notion of the immune self; by Alfred Tauber.
Omnipotence - The theistic thesis that God has maximal power; by Joshua Hoffman and Gary Rosenkrantz.
Cosmology: Methodological Debates 1932-48 - Discusses philosophical views about cosmology in the 1930s and 1940s; by George Gale.
Doing vs. Allowing Harm - Views on the moral difference between doing harm and allowing harm; by Frances Howard-Snyder.
Desert - Moral issues of desert (punishment, success) and justice; by Owen McLeod.
Privacy - Survey of philosophical views about privacy; by Judith DeCew.
Modal Fictionalism - Survey of the view that claims of necessity and possibility are to be construed as fictional claims; by Daniel Nolan.
Philosophy and Christian Theology - Discussion of philosophical implications of Christian theological views; by Michael Murray.
John Buridan - Life and work of late Medieval philosopher; by Jack Zupko.
The Correspondence Theory of Truth - The thesis that propositions are made true in virtue of corresponding to facts; by Marian David.
Thomas of Erfurt - Life and work of medieval philosopher and member of the Modists; by Jack Zupko.
The Epsilon Calculus - Discussion of David Hilbert's development of this type of logical formalism with emphasis on proof-theoretic methods; by Jeremy Avigad and Richard Zach.
The Copenhagen Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics - First interpretation of quantum mechanics due to Nields Bohr; by Jan Faye.
Aristotle's Rhetoric - Discussion of one of Aristotle's major works; by Christof Rapp.
Philosophy for Children - Discusses introduction of philosophy into the school curriculum; by Michael Pritchard.
Zeno's Paradoxes - Discusses the paradoxes of Zeno of Elea, e.g., Achilles and the Tortoise; by Nick Huggett.
Determinates vs. Determinables - A distinction introduced by W. E. Johnson to apply, e.g., to red and colored; by David H. Sanford.
Events - Survey of philosophical views on the character and status of events; by Roberto Casati and Achille Varzi.
Relative Identity - The view that there are objects which are the same F yet not the same G; by Harry Deutsch.
The Definition of Morality - Discussion of various descriptive and normative definitions of the term; Bernard Gert.
Friedrich Daniel Schleiermacher - Life and work of the 18th century German philosopher; by Michael Forster.
Moral Dilemmas - Discusses cases of conflicting moral requirements; by Terrance McConnell.
Descartes' Modal Metaphysics - Interpretations of René Descartes' ontology of necessities and possibilities; by David Cunning.
Social Dimensions of Scientific Knowledge - Discussess the impact of social relations and values on scientific research; by Helen Longino.
Mally's Deontic Logic - Discussion of Ernst Mally's logic of obligation; by Gert-Jan Lokhorst.
Finitism in Geometry - Approaches to geometry that do not presuppose an infinity of points; by Jean-Paul van Bendegem.
Process Philosophy - View that puts processes at the center of metaphysics; by Nicholas Rescher.
Space and Time: Inertial Frames - Frames of reference relative to which motion and rest are measured; by Robert DiSalle.
Impartiality - Survey of views on moral impartiality; by Troy Jollimore.
The Many-Worlds Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics - Interpretation of quantum mechanics due to Hugh Everett according to which many universes exist in parallel at the same space and time; by Lev Vaidman.
Action - Theories about intentional action and agency; by George Wilson.
Lord Shaftesbury [Anthony Ashley Cooper, Third Earl of Shaftesbury] - Life and work of 18th century English philosopher; by Michael Gill.
Harriet Taylor Mill - Life and work of 19th century English philosopher and proponent of women's rights; by Dale E. Miller.
18th Century German Philosophy Prior to Kant - Survey of work of, among others, Christian Thomasius and Christian Wolff; by Brigitte Sassen.
Justice as a Virtue - Survey of justice as a virtue from Plato to Rawls; by Michael Slote.
Bruno Bauer - Life and work of 19th century German philosopher; by Douglas Moggach.
Collapse Theories - Survey of the dynamical reduction program; by Giancarlo Ghirardi.
Cosmopolitanism - The view that all human beings belong to a single community; by Pauline Kleingeld and Eric Brown.
Hobbes's Moral and Political Philosophy - Survey of work of Thomas Hobbes; by Sharon A. Lloyd.
George Santayana - Life and work of early 20th century Spanish-born American philosopher; by Herman Saatkamp.
Medieval Theories of Properties of Terms - The theories of proprietates terminorum was the basis of medieval semantic theory; by Stephen Read.
Relational Quantum Mechanics - An interpretation of quantum theory which discards the notions of absolute state of a system, absolute value of its physical quantities, or absolute event; by Federico Laudisa and Carlo Rovelli.
Quantum Logic and Quantum Probability - How quantum mechanics can be regarded as a non-classical probabilistic calculus; by Alexander Wilce.
Formal Learning Theory - Discusses mathematical approaches to normative epistemology; by Oliver Schulte.
Scottish Philosophy in the Nineteenth Century - Survey of the work of William Hamilton, James Frederick Ferrier, and Alexander Bain; by Gordon Graham.
Salomon Maimon - Life and work of contemporary and critic of Kant; by Peter Thielke and Yitzhak Melamed.
Robert Boyle - Life and work of 17th century Irish philosopher and physicist; by J. J. McIntosh, University of Calgary.
Feminist Epistemology and Philosophy of Science - By Elizabeth Anderson.
Incompatibilist (Nondeterministic) Theories of Free Will - By Randolph Clarke.
The Experience and Perception of Time - By Robin Le Poidevin.
Thomas Reid - Life and work of 18th century Scottish philosopher; by Gideon Yaffe.
Williams James - Life and work of 19th century American philosopher; by Russell Goodman.
The Medieval Problem of Universals - By Gyula Klima.
The Kochen-Specker Theorem - By Carsten Held.
Classical Logic - Introduction to classical logic, including completeness and Löwenheim-Skolem theorems; by Stewart Shapiro.
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Aristotle's Metaphysics - Aristotle's notions of category and substance; by S. Marc Cohen.
Feminist History of Philosophy - Survey of feminist writing on the philosophical canon; by Charlotte Witt.
Brentanos Theory of Judgement - Discussion of Franz Brentano's foundation for logic and epistemology; by Johannes Brandl.
Quantum Mechanics - Survey by Jenann Ismael.
The Modern History of Computing - Historical survey from Babbage onward; by B. Jack Copeland.
William Whewell - Life and work of 19th century British philosopher; by Laura J. Snyder.
Intertheory Relations in Physics - Discussion of theory reduction in science; by Robert Batterman.
Legal Punishment - Justifications of legal punishment; by Antony Duff.
Disjunction - Theory and history of the binary connective 'or'; by Ray Jennings.
Moral Responsibility - Historical survey of the concept of moral responsibility; by Andrew Eshleman.
Curry's Paradox - Discussion of a semantic paradox due to Haskell B. Curry; by J. C. Beall.
Counterfactual Theories of Causation - Discussion of analysis of causal statements in terms of counterfactual conditionals; by Peter Menzies.
Constitutionalism - Philosophical survey of the idea that government should be limited in its powers by law; by Wil Waluchow.
Evolutionary Epistemology - Survey of naturalistic epistemology which emphasizes importance of natural selection; by Michael Bradie and William Harms
Semantic Challenges to Realism - Realism and the representation problem; by Drew Khlentzos.
Dante Alighieri - Life and work of 13th century Italian poet and philosopher; by Winthrop Wetherbee.
Albert of Saxony - Life and work of 14th century German logician and philosopher; by Joël Biard.
Benjamin Peirce - Life and work of 19th century mathematician and philosopher of mathematics; by Ivor Grattan-Guinness and Alison Walsh.
Richard Rorty - Life and work of 20th century American philosopher; by Bjørn Ramberg.
The Analysis of Knowledge - Survey of analyses of the concept of knowledge, including justified true belief and the Gettier problem; by Matthias Steup.
Physicalism - Discussion of the thesis that everything is physical; by Daniel Stoljar.
John Austin - Life and work of 19th century British legal philosopher and founder of legal positivism; by Brian Bix.
David Hume - Life and work of 18th century Scottish philosopher; by William Edward Morris.
Social Epistemology - Survey of views on the social dimension of knowledge; by Alvin Goldman.
Robert Desgabets - Life and work of 17th century Cartesian philosopher; by Patricia Easton.
Francis of Marchia - Life and work of 14th century French theologian; by Christopher Schabel.
Equality - Survey of social and political equality; by Stefan Gosepath.
The Unity of Consciousness - History and philosophical accounts of unity of consciousness; by Andrew Brook.
Higher-order Theories of Consciousness - Theories which explain conscious states by their relations to higher-order representations of them; by Peter Carruthers.
Integrity - Discussion of integrity as a virtue term; by Damian Cox, Marguerite La Caze, and Michael Levine.
René Descartes' Life and Works - Life and work of 17th century French philosopher; by Kurt Smith.
Philosophy of Statistical Mechanics - By Lawrence Sklar.
Peter of Spain (Petrus Hispanus) - Life and work of 13th century logician and author of the Tractatus; by Joke Spruyt.
Aristotle's Ethics - Discussion of Aristotle's ethical views; by Richard Kraut.
Panpsychism - The doctrine that mind is a fundamental feature of the world which exists throughout the universe; by William Seager.
On The Nature of Law - Survey of theories on the conditions of legal validity including natural law theories and legal positivism; by Andrei Marmor.
Interpretation and Coherence in Legal Reasoning - Survey of theories on legal reasoning; by Julie Dickson.
Medieval Theories of Relations - Survey of medieval views concerning the nature and ontological status of relations; by Jeffrey Brower.
John Duns Scotus - In-depth article on the life, work, and thought of John Duns Scotus. By Thomas Williams.
Moral Particularism - The claim that there are no defensible moral principles; by Jonathan Dancy.
Descartes' Ontological Argument - Discussion of René Descartes ontological proof of the existence of God; by Lawrence Nolan.
Charles Sanders Peirce - Life and work of 19th centuruy American logician and philosopher; by Robert Burch.
Scottish Philosophy in the Eighteenth Century - Survey of Scottish Enlightenment philosophers, including Francis Hutcheson, Henry Home (Lord Kames), and George Campbell; by lexander Broadie.
Baruch Spinoza - Life and work of 17th century Dutch Rationalist philosopher; by Steven Nadler.
Naturalized Epistemology - The view that epistemology is of one piece with natural science; by Richard Feldman.
Truthlikeness - Discussion of notion of verisimilitude, closeness to truth; by Graham Oddie.
Being and Becoming in Modern Physics - Discusses implications of general relativity for the philosophy of time; by Steven Savitt.
Epistemological Problems of Perception - Discussion of how sense experience justifies or warrants beliefs about the physical world; by Lawrence BonJour.
Bayesian Epistemology - Epistemological movement based on Bayesian confirmation and decision theory; by William Talbott.
Automated Reasoning - Survey of automated deduction and theorem proving; by Frederic Portoraro.
Abstract Objects - Survey of attempts to draw the distinction between concrete and abstract objects; by Gideon Rosen.
Charles Hartshorne - Life and work of 20th Century metaphysician and philosopher of religion; by Dan Dombrowski.
Robert Holkot - Life and Work of Robert Holcot, 14th Century English philosopher and theologian; by Hester Gelber.
Robert Alyngton - Life and work of 14th Century British philosopher, follower of Wyclif and Burley; by Alessandro Conti.
William Penbygull - Life and work of 15th Century Oxford Realist philosopher; by Alessandro Conti.
Logic and games - Survey of game-theoretical approaches to logic; by Wilfrid Hodges.
The Problem of Evil - Does the world contain undesirable states of affairs that provide the basis for an argument that makes it unreasonable for anyone to believe in the existence of God?; by Michael Tooley.
Philosophy of Childhood - The philosophy of childhood takes up philosophically interesting questions about childhood, about conceptions people have of childhood and attitudes they have toward children; by Gareth Matthews.
Paul-Henri Thiry, Baron d'Holbach - Life and work of French Enlightenment philosoher; by Michael LeBuffe.
Libertarianism - Theory about the permissibility of non-consensual force violating property rights in external things and oneself; by Peter Vallentyne.
Fuzzy Logic - Survey of logical systems with a continuum of truth values; by Petr H«¡jek.
Qualia: The Knowledge Argument - Aims to establish that conscious experience involves non-physical properties. It is one of the most discussed arguments against physicalism; by Martine Nida-R«ämelin.
The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy - Free online encyclopedia. Edited by James Fieser, hosted by the University of Tennessee at Martin.
A Priori - Knowledge obtained independently of experience.
Abortion - The applied ethical issue of abortion involves a consideration of the reasons for or against terminating the life of a fetus.
Academy - Description of the philosophical institution founded by Plato, which advocated skepticism in succeeding generations.
Active Powers - The capacities of impulse and desire which lead to or determine human action, as described by 18th and 19th century Scottish common sense philosophy.
Aenesidemus - Biography of the 1st century philosopher who defended the ten tropes of skepticism.
Affection - In the history of ethics, the term referred to a subset of emotions less violent and less sensuous than "passions".
Anaxagoras - Greek philosopher born about 500 BCE, responsible for giving philosophy a home at Athens and the first philosopher to introduce a spiritual principle which gives matter life and form.
Anaxarchus - 4th century BCE philosopher of Abdera, from the school of Democritus.
Anaximander - Greek philosopher of Miletus, born 611 BCE who thought it unnecessary to fix upon air, water, or fire as the original and primary form of body.
Anaximenes - 5th century BCE Greek philosopher of Miletus who regarded 'air' as the primary form of body.
Anselm - 11th century English prelate who developed views of atonement and satisfaction which are still held by orthodox theologians.
Antisthenes - Athenian philosopher and founder of the Cynic sect who was born around 440 BCE.
Applied Ethics - The branch of ethics concerned with analysis of contemporary moral issues such as abortion, animal rights, and euthanasia.
Aquinas, Thomas - The life and work of the major figure in scholastic philosophy.
Aristotle - The life and work of the 4th century BCE Greek philosopher.
Artificial Intelligence - Describing the view that human cognitive mental states can be duplicated in computers.
Augustine - Extensive article on the life and work of the 4th century ecclesiastical author.
Bacon, Francis - 16th century philosopher and politician.
Bakhtin Circle - School of Russian thought centered on the work of Bakhtin which focused on questions of signification in artistic creation.
Beccaria, Cesare - 18th century aristocrat whose work 'On Crimes and Punishments (1764)' inspired reform in the Italian criminal justice system.
Behaviorism - Theory in philosophy of mind which maintains that talk of mental events should be translated into talk about observable behavior.
Belief - Brief definition from the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Bentham, Jeremy - Extensive article on the 18th century 'founder' of utilitarianism.
Berkeley, George - Influential 18th century Irish philosopher.
Berlin Circle - Group of academics who gathered round Hans Reichenbach in late 1920s and later joined up with the Vienna Circle.
Best Reasons Morality - Advocates a rational search for the best reasons for or against a course of action.
Bolingbroke, Henry St. John - 18th century Tory disciple of Locke.
Butler, Joseph - 18th century icon of a highly intellectualized theology.
Caird, Edward - Nineteenth century Scottish philosopher who was one of the key figures of the idealist movement that dominated British philosophy from 1870 until the mid 1920s.
Capital Punishment - The issue of capital punishment involves determining whether the execution of criminals is ever justified.
Carnap, Rudolf - Extensive article about his life and work, by Mauro Murzi.
Categorical Imperative - The criterion of moral obligation first presented by Kant.
Category - Used to describe fundamental divisions, was coined by Aristotle then explored by Kant, Hegel, Pierce, Whitehead, and Ryle.
Chinese Room Argument - John Searle's thought experiment is one of the best known counters to claims of artificial intelligence.
Chrysippus - Prolific stoic of Soli, and disciple of Cleanthes.
Cicero, Marcus Tullius - 1st century BCE Roman orator and philosopher of the New Academy.
Cleanthes - Stoic philosopher of Assus in Lydia, disciple of Zeno of Citium.
Consequentialism - Type of normative moral theory which maintains that an action is morally right if the consequences are more favorable than unfavorable.
Cudworth, Ralph - 17th century 'Cambridge Platonist' who fought for preservation of religious ideals, including divine illumination.
Cumberland, Richard - 17th century critic of Hobbes and the neo-Platonists.
Damon - 5th century BCE Pythagorean philosopher of Syracuse.
Davidson, Donald - Introduction to one of the most significant philosophers concerned with philosophy of mind and action of the 20th/21st century.
Deism, English - Explores the deism of Hobbes, Locke, Tindal, and the influence of Hume.
Deism, French - The deism of Voltaire and Rousseau.
Democritus - 4th century BCE philosopher of Abdera who expanded the atomic theory of Leucippus.
Demonax - Philosopher of the second century CE. who tried to revive the philosophy of the Cynic School.
Descartes, René - Early modern philosopher who rejected religious authority in the quest for scientific and philosophical knowledge.
Dewey, John - Leading light of the 20th century American school of thought known as pragmatism.
Diderot, Denis - The most prominent of the French Encyclopedists and one of the leaders of the Enlightenment.
Diogenes Laertius - 3rd century biographer of ancient Greek philosophers.
Diogenes of Apollonia - Pupil of Anaximenes and contemporary of Anaxagoras in the 6th cn. BCE.
Diogenes of Sinope - 4th cn. BCE cynic philosopher of Sinope.
Divine Command Theory - The view that moral actions are those which conform to God's will.
Dualism - Considers the world as two elemental categories which are incommensurable. Adherents include Descartes and the 20th century philosophers Gilbert Ryle and Richard Rorty.
Duties and Deontological Ethics - Deontological theories are based on moral obligation that an agent has towards another person.
Eastern Philosophy - Glossary of Terms compiled by James Fieser.
Eckhart, Meister - 13th century Dominican mystic who was almost forgotten until Franz von Baader revived his memory in the nineteenth century.
Eclecticism - Group of ancient philosophers who sought to reach by selection the highest degree of probability in the search for truth.
Egoism, Psychological and Ethical - Maintains that the individual self is the motivating moral force and the end of moral action.
Emanation - The theory that all derived or secondary things flow from the primary.
Empedocles - 5th century BCE philosopher who combined medical study with Orphic mysticism.
Empiricism, British - 18th century British philosophical movement which maintained that all knowledge comes from experience.
Encyclopedists - Group of French philosophers and men of letters who collaborated in the production of the famous Encyclopedie.
Environmental Ethics - Topic of applied ethics examining the moral basis of responsibility.
Epictetus - Eminent Stoic philosopher, born as a slave at Hieropolis in Phyrgia in 55 CE.
Epicurus - 4th century BCE materialist, empiricist, and hedonist. One of the major philosophers of the Hellenistic period.
Erasmus - 15th century Dutch humanist and theologian.
Moral Philosophy - Introduction to ethics, with links to other articles at the IEP.
Euclides - 4th century BCE native of Megara, and founder of the Megarian or Eristic sect.
Euthanasia - Contemporary applied ethical issue considering whether it is morally permissible for a third party to end the life of a terminally ill patient who is in intense pain.
Evolution - Introduces evolution through the ages, from the ancient Greeks, through Leibniz and Descartes to Darwin and Spencer.
Experience - Information obtained externally by means of the senses or internally through emotion.
External World - Brief introduction to the thoughts of Russell and Hobbes on objects outside an independent self.
Ferrier, James Frederick - The earliest absolute idealist in English philosophy.
Fichte, Immanuel Hermann - Aimed to secure a philosophical basis for the personality of God.
Fichte, Johann Gottlieb - One of the major figures in German philosophy in the period between Kant and Hegel.
Freud, Sigmund - Lenghty article on the father of psychoanalysis who is generally recognised as one of the most influential and authoritative thinkers of the twentieth century.
Functionalism - Theory in the philosophy of mind which holds that mental states are functional states.
Galileo - Italian physicist and astronomer, born 1564.
German Idealism - The German reaction to empiricism, including related theories of Kant, Fichte, Hegel and others.
God, Western Philosophical Concepts of - God, from Socrates to Nietzsche.
Gorgias - Greek sophist and rhetorician, known as "the Nihilist," born in 483 BCE.
Greek Philosophy - The philosophical currents of Ancient Greek philosophy are introduced, from the Presocratic philosophers through to Proclus.
Hamilton, William - 19th century exponent of the Scottish common-sense philosophy.
Hartmann, Karl Robert Eduard Von - 19th century German philosopher who attempted to combine the idea of Hegel with the will of Schopenhauer in 'spiritual monism.'
Hedonism - The view, first put forward by Epicurus, that our fundamental moral obligation is to maximize pleasure.
Hegelians, St. Louis - 19th century group of amateur American philosophers founded and led by William Torrey Harris.
Helvetius, Claude Adrien - One of the 18th century Encyclopedists who held the skeptical and materialistic views common to that school of philosophy.
Hempel, Carl Gustav - A leading member of logical positivism, the German philosopher died in 1997.
Heraclitus - 5th century BCE. Presocratic Greek philosopher.
Herbert of Cherbury, Edward - 17th century historian, poet (brother of George), and philosopher. Sought to determine the nature and standard of truth, and conditions of knowledge. Precursor of the philosophy of Common Sense.
Hippias - Hippias was a sophist, a contemporary of Socrates, and an enthusiast for universality.
Hobbes, Thomas - 17th century British philosopher. Author of Leviathan (1651).
Hodgson, Shadworth - Follower of Kant, founder of the Aristotelian Society.
Humanism - Brief article on Erasmus and the Italian humanist movement.
Positivism, Logical - Schlick, Carnap, Reichenbach, and others made up the Austrian school of philosophy in the 1920s, which has been influential in analysis of scientific thought.
Husserl, Edmund - Leader of the German phenomenological movement.
Huxley, Thomas Henry - 19th century zoologist and advocate of Darwinism.
Identity Theory - Form of monistic materialism which maintains that mental states and brain activities are identical.
Interventionism - Examines the nature and justifications of interfering with another polity or choices made by individuals.
Jacobi, Friedrich Heinrich - 18th century German philosopher, famous for effective criticism of Kant.
Just War Theory - Some of those who have attempted to justify war include Aquinas, Grotius, and Pufendorf.
Justification - A term used frequently in ethics and epistemology.
Positivism, Legal - Theory that law is manufactured according to certain social conventions.
Leucippus - 5th century BCE founder of atomism.
Libraries, Ancient Greek and Roman - Describing the public libraries of Ancient Greece, and the fashion for book-collecting in Rome.

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