Conservapedia - User contributions [en]

Talk:Infinite regression

2018-11-01T13:38:35Z

Logician: /* Problems with copy/pasting work */

Recently someone raised a controversy concerning [[Francis H. Crick]]'s refusal to admit the existence of [[God]] and His role in [[creation]].

For everyone's information, Crick absolutely ''did'' reject special creation out-of-hand. He once wrote to [[Winston Churchill]] that a brothel would be just as appropriate as a chapel in a college at [[Oxford University]].

But when he realized how much information [[DNA]] had within it, he knew he couldn't support the notion of [[abiogenesis]]. So he invented his theory of directed [[panspermia]] to explain how life came to be on [[earth]].

Crick's pointed, deliberate, ''and explicit'' refusal to acknowledge the existence of [[God]] is a key context for Crick's line of reasoning. That is also the key context for my criticism of Crick's reasoning, and of infinite regression in general: that it seeks to obfuscate the [[God|First Cause]] of {{Bible quote|heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is.|book=Exodus|chap=20|verses=11|version=KJV}}--[[User:TerryH|TerryH]] 09:47, 8 March 2007 (EST)

:No one is contesting that Crick didn't believe a supernatural being created life on earth. [[User:Nematocyte|Nematocyte]] 10:47, 8 March 2007 (EST)

== Concluded or postulated ==

Hmmm--"postulated" that life was created outside. I'm not sure that that's correct. A postulate is an ''a priori'' assumption. A conclusion is a deduced statement. Crick ''deduced'' [[exogenesis]]. Now if he ''poatulated'' anything, then it was that supernatural means and agencies do not exist.--[[User:TerryH|TerryH]] 11:17, 8 March 2007 (EST)

:Quite right, language corrected. [[User:Nematocyte|Nematocyte]] 11:21, 8 March 2007 (EST)

== Problems with copy/pasting work ==

This is my own work from another wiki. I can post a paper I wrote on this and cite another paper in which this argument comes from if you all would like – on second thought, I'll cite them anyway. [[User:Logician|Logician]] ([[User talk:Logician|talk]]) 09:30, 1 November 2018 (EDT)
:Oh also. Tamer's formulation of Aristotle's argument ''G'' occurs on page 2356, but it isn't formalised. I did the work to formalise and prove it. [[User:Logician|Logician]] ([[User talk:Logician|talk]]) 09:38, 1 November 2018 (EDT)

Infinite regression

2018-11-01T13:32:17Z

Logician: /* Why it's logically fallacious */

An '''infinite regression''' is a proposed chain of event causation of infinite length.

This raises the question of what set the original chain in motion – in short, what was the "first cause." Whether all things must have a "first cause" or not is a subject of [[Debate:Is a first cause of a process necessary, always possible, or sometimes impossible?|debate]].

==Why it's logically fallacious==
{{cquote|Neither can there be a separated infinite number: for number, or what has number, is countable, and so, if it is possible
to count what is countable, it would be possible to traverse the infinite.|||[[Aristotle]]}}
Aristotle posits an argument that shows an infinite regress to result in a contradiction. Formed using predicate logic, the [[proof]] reads like this:<ref>Nawar, Tamer. “Aristotelian Finitism,” Synthese 192, no. 8 (July 2015): 2345-2346.</ref>

#Nx⊃Cx
#Cx⊃Tx
#∴Nx⊃Tx (1, 2 hypothetical syllogism)
#Ix⊃~Tx
#| ∃x(Nx·Ix)
#| Na·Ia
#| Na (6, simplification)
#| Ta (3, 7 ''[[modus ponens]]'')
#| Ia (6, simplification)
#| ~Ta (4 , 9 ''modus ponens'')
#| Ta·~Ta (8, 10 conjunction)
#[[Quod erat demonstrandum|QED]] ∃x(Nx·Ix) results in a contradiction
#∴There does not exist a number that is infinite

Let's define the terms. Nx⊃Cx reads "if x is a number, then x is countable." Cx⊃Tx reads "if x is countable, then x is traversable." Ix⊃~Tx reads "if x is infinite, then x is not traversable." ∃x(Nx·Ix) reads "there exists an x such that x is a number and x is infinite," and is a supposition for the sake of argument. Now, 'countable' and 'traversable' need to be defined. Aristotle regarded numbers as made up of composite parts. If Aristotle had thought of the number [[42]], he would have thought that it was composed of 42 individual parts. This is what he means by 'countable'. 'Traversing' is the act of counting. So, if a number is countable, then counting the individual parts and finally reaching the number is traversing, which means the number is traversable. Aristotle says that if a number is truly infinite, it can't be traversed because the end of the number can't ever be reached. Given the definitions of the terms and the logical validity of the argument, Aristotle concludes that there exist no infinite numbers.

== An example ==
Many [[scientist]]s, observing the remarkable complexity of life (and especially of [[DNA]], the [[molecule]] that holds the complete instruction set for life), doubt strenuously that life could have originated on the earth out of non-life—a process called [[abiogenesis]]. [[Francis H. Crick]], the co-discoverer of [[DNA]], recognized this early and also is alleged to have recognized other conditions that abiogenesis would have required, that in all [[probability]] did not exist on earth. Crick did not believe that life was created by supernatural means, and therefore deduced that since life did ''not'' originate on earth, it was ''deposited'' on earth from outside.

How, then, did this happen? Most proponents of his outside-seeding of life, called [[panspermia]], suggest that the [[comet]]s contain the seeds of life within their tails, and the earth acquired these seeds by passing through a comet's tail. Dr. Crick and his colleague [[Leslie H. Orgel]] assumed something far more radical: that an advanced [[civilization]] built and launched a brace of intergalactic [[ballistic missile]]s, each laden with bacteria and blue-green algae, in all directions from their homeworld. One such missile crash-landed on earth, and all life on earth is the by-product of the payload of that missile.

But this prompts two questions:

#Where did life originate, that it would then infiltrate multiple cometary tails?
#Did yet ''another'' advanced civilization fire the missile that provided the seed of life from which the ''most recent launch authority'' had its own origins?

Unless an eventual origin of life is proposed (on another planet or in space), then for each step, the observer must ''regress'' one age into the past. The problem is that he never stops regressing. ''An infinite regression cannot have an identifiable first cause.''

== Another Example: Who created the creator? ==

Another example of infinite regression is when one asserts that life must have been created, thus requiring a more complex creator. However, for this logic to hold, the creator is a life form which requires another life form to create it. This logic chain continues and causes an infinite regression.

One method to stop this infinite regression is to assume that life does not need a creator. This argument is often used against the ideas of [[creationism]] and [[intelligent design]].<ref>[[Richard Dawkins]]. 2006. [[The God Delusion]].</ref>

Another method is to assume that the Creator is the [[First Cause]] and is the only Entity that is Past-Eternal (and Future-Eternal).

== Classical illustrations of infinite regression ==
The oldest practical illustration of the concept of infinite regression requires the experimenter to erect two mirrors facing one another, and then to stand between them. He will see his own image looking back at him, and then the back of his own head, and then his face, and so on, an infinite number of times.

A more modern experiment requires a [[television]] camera and receiver. If one sends the signal from the camera to the receiver, and then ''aims the camera at the receiver,'' the receiver will show a picture of itself, holding a picture of itself, holding a picture of itself, holding a picture of itself, and so on to infinity.

== See also ==
* [[Logical fallacy]]

== References ==

<references/>

[[Category:Philosophy]]

Talk:Infinite regression

2018-11-01T13:30:52Z

Logician: /* Problems with copy/pasting work */ new section

Infinite regression

2018-11-01T13:29:21Z

Logician: Copy and pasted my own work from another wiki

An '''infinite regression''' is a proposed chain of event causation of infinite length.

This raises the question of what set the original chain in motion – in short, what was the "first cause." Whether all things must have a "first cause" or not is a subject of [[Debate:Is a first cause of a process necessary, always possible, or sometimes impossible?|debate]].

==Why it's logically fallacious==
{{cquote|Neither can there be a separated infinite number: for number, or what has number, is countable, and so, if it is possible
to count what is countable, it would be possible to traverse the infinite.|||[[Aristotle]]}}
Aristotle posits an argument that shows an infinite regress to result in a contradiction. Formed using predicate logic, the [[proof]] reads like this:

#Nx⊃Cx
#Cx⊃Tx
#∴Nx⊃Tx (1, 2 hypothetical syllogism)
#Ix⊃~Tx
#| ∃x(Nx·Ix)
#| Na·Ia
#| Na (6, simplification)
#| Ta (3, 7 ''[[modus ponens]]'')
#| Ia (6, simplification)
#| ~Ta (4 , 9 ''modus ponens'')
#| Ta·~Ta (8, 10 conjunction)
#[[Quod erat demonstrandum|QED]] ∃x(Nx·Ix) results in a contradiction
#∴There does not exist a number that is infinite

Let's define the terms. Nx⊃Cx reads "if x is a number, then x is countable." Cx⊃Tx reads "if x is countable, then x is traversable." Ix⊃~Tx reads "if x is infinite, then x is not traversable." ∃x(Nx·Ix) reads "there exists an x such that x is a number and x is infinite," and is a supposition for the sake of argument. Now, 'countable' and 'traversable' need to be defined. Aristotle regarded numbers as made up of composite parts. If Aristotle had thought of the number [[42]], he would have thought that it was composed of 42 individual parts. This is what he means by 'countable'. 'Traversing' is the act of counting. So, if a number is countable, then counting the individual parts and finally reaching the number is traversing, which means the number is traversable. Aristotle says that if a number is truly infinite, it can't be traversed because the end of the number can't ever be reached. Given the definitions of the terms and the logical validity of the argument, Aristotle concludes that there exist no infinite numbers.

== An example ==
Many [[scientist]]s, observing the remarkable complexity of life (and especially of [[DNA]], the [[molecule]] that holds the complete instruction set for life), doubt strenuously that life could have originated on the earth out of non-life—a process called [[abiogenesis]]. [[Francis H. Crick]], the co-discoverer of [[DNA]], recognized this early and also is alleged to have recognized other conditions that abiogenesis would have required, that in all [[probability]] did not exist on earth. Crick did not believe that life was created by supernatural means, and therefore deduced that since life did ''not'' originate on earth, it was ''deposited'' on earth from outside.

How, then, did this happen? Most proponents of his outside-seeding of life, called [[panspermia]], suggest that the [[comet]]s contain the seeds of life within their tails, and the earth acquired these seeds by passing through a comet's tail. Dr. Crick and his colleague [[Leslie H. Orgel]] assumed something far more radical: that an advanced [[civilization]] built and launched a brace of intergalactic [[ballistic missile]]s, each laden with bacteria and blue-green algae, in all directions from their homeworld. One such missile crash-landed on earth, and all life on earth is the by-product of the payload of that missile.

But this prompts two questions:

#Where did life originate, that it would then infiltrate multiple cometary tails?
#Did yet ''another'' advanced civilization fire the missile that provided the seed of life from which the ''most recent launch authority'' had its own origins?

Unless an eventual origin of life is proposed (on another planet or in space), then for each step, the observer must ''regress'' one age into the past. The problem is that he never stops regressing. ''An infinite regression cannot have an identifiable first cause.''

== Another Example: Who created the creator? ==

Another example of infinite regression is when one asserts that life must have been created, thus requiring a more complex creator. However, for this logic to hold, the creator is a life form which requires another life form to create it. This logic chain continues and causes an infinite regression.

One method to stop this infinite regression is to assume that life does not need a creator. This argument is often used against the ideas of [[creationism]] and [[intelligent design]].<ref>[[Richard Dawkins]]. 2006. [[The God Delusion]].</ref>

Another method is to assume that the Creator is the [[First Cause]] and is the only Entity that is Past-Eternal (and Future-Eternal).

== Classical illustrations of infinite regression ==
The oldest practical illustration of the concept of infinite regression requires the experimenter to erect two mirrors facing one another, and then to stand between them. He will see his own image looking back at him, and then the back of his own head, and then his face, and so on, an infinite number of times.

A more modern experiment requires a [[television]] camera and receiver. If one sends the signal from the camera to the receiver, and then ''aims the camera at the receiver,'' the receiver will show a picture of itself, holding a picture of itself, holding a picture of itself, holding a picture of itself, and so on to infinity.

== See also ==
* [[Logical fallacy]]

== References ==

<references/>

[[Category:Philosophy]]

Philosophy

2018-10-02T00:02:25Z

Logician: /* Modern era */ this section is a bloodbath. No one touch this until I find the time to just.. commit it all to the flames as Hume would have us do and rewrite it entirely.

[[Image:Aristotle.gif|thumb|Aristotle]]
'''Philosophy''' (literally 'love of wisdom', from Greek φιλοσοφία (philosophía) &ndash from φίλος (phílos) friend lover; and σοφία (sophía) wisdom) is an academic discipline concerned with the most fundamental and general concepts and principles involved in thought, action, and reality. Philosophy progresses according to various methods of rational inquiry.

Philosophy is accurately described as both the first science and the "Queen of the Sciences". Until the late 19th century, what is now called "science" was subsumed under [[natural philosophy]].

Philosophy in the West has its origins in Ancient Greece, ca. 600 B.C. After the fall of the Roman Empire, much of Greek philosophy was lost to the West, preserved only in the Arab world until the time of the Crusades and the Moorish conquest of Spain. Contact with Arab philosophers (especially al-Ghazali, who developed a version of the [[Cosmological argument]] and wrote more than 70 books, [[ibn Rushd]], and [[ibn Sina]]) greatly influenced philosophical tradition in Europe, beginning the "Scholastic period", which ended with [[Descartes]] and the beginning of the [[Enlightenment]]. The late 18th and early 19th centuries saw a major split between British Empiricism and Continental Rationalism. This divide can be traced back to the late 17th century but culminated in a schism between rationalists like Descartes and Spinoza and empiricists like Berkeley, Locke, and Hume. This divide was rectified by the work of Immanuel Kant, a German philosopher famous for his treatise ''Critique of Pure Reason''. With the divide healed, 20th century philosophy would spark a movement called [[modernism]]. Modernism would give birth to analytical philosophy and would culminate in [[logical positivism]] and [[verificationism]] before slowly dying out and giving way to [[postmodernism]].

== Branches of Philosophy ==
[[File:Rubens. The Four Philosophers.jpg|thumb|[[Rubens]]. The Four Philosophers.]]
The main branches of philosophy are [[Metaphysics]], which is (broadly speaking) the study of what-is; [[Logic]], the rules of reasoning; [[Epistemology]], the study of knowledge; and [[Axiology]], the study of values. Notable sub-branches include:

*'''[[Philosophy of Language]]''': the study of language and its effects on humanity
*'''[[Philosophy of Religion]]''': the study of religions, what defines a religion, and the tenets of religions
*'''[[Philosophy of Mind]]''': the study of how the mind and the body relate to each other
*'''[[Ethics]]''': the analysis of the nature of [[morality]] and morals, how and why we determine right from wrong.
*'''[[Political Philosophy]]''': the analysis of the nature of the human public sphere, which one may consider the ethics of the way society is arranged.
*'''[[Philosophy of Science]]''': the analysis of scientific concepts and methodology, which concerns itself mostly with the foundations of [[science]], and interdisciplinary areas.
*'''[[Aesthetics]]''': the analysis of the nature and experience of [[art]] and beauty.
{{Clear}}

== History of Philosophy ==

Conventionally the History of Western Philosophy is divided into four eras: Ancient, Medieval, Enlightenment, and Contemporary.

The Ancient era starts with the [[Presocratic Philosophy|Presocratic]] philosophers and goes until the fall of the Roman empire; The Medieval goes until the end of the [[Middle Ages]]; The Modern up to the 20th century, and The Contemporary up to present.

[[Frederick Copleston]], S.J. (1907 - 1994) was a [[Jesuit]] scholar who wrote the highly respected 9 volume ''A History of Philosophy''.

=== Greek Philosophy ===
''See also: [[Plato]] and [[Aristotle]]''
[[Image:Parmenides book.jpg|240px|right]]
Philosophy in the West begins with [[Thales]] of Miletus, who was the first astronomer in recorded history to accurately predict a solar eclipse. The Milesian School founded by Thales included [[Anaxagoras]], [[Anaximander]], and [[Anaximenes]]. It was [[Pythagoras]] (ca. 582 - 504 BC) who first brought Philosophy into connection with practical life; he also gave Philosophy its name "the love of wisdom". Closely related to Milesianis is the work of [[Heraclitus]] of Ephesus. Around the time of Heraclitus, [[Parmenides]] of Elea, with his pupil [[Zeno]], raised some serious objections to the project of Milesian philosophy. These objections laid the groundwork for [[Socrates]] and his pupil [[Plato]], and [[Aristotle]], as well as the Atomists, [[Democritus]] and [[Leucippus]]. After the Greek philosophical golden age other systems appeared during the Hellenistic period, like [[Cynicism]], [[Stoicism]], [[Epicureanism]] and [[Skepticism]]. At the closing period of Greek philosophy [[Neoplatonism]] was founded by [[Plotinus|Plotinus of Lycopolis]]. Parmenides' thoughts influenced Plato and through him, all of Western philosophy.<ref>[http://www.prospect-magazine.co.uk/article_details.php?id=9972 Parmenides] by Raymond Tallis. Quote, "While Plato's dialogues are among the supreme philosophical works of the western tradition, it was Parmenides who established the implicit framework of their debates."</ref>

[[Saint Augustine]] (354-430 A.D.), drawing greatly on the ideas of Plato, has been of momentous importance in the development of Christian thought.

=== Medieval era ===
In the West, until the twelfth century, little was known of Plato and Aristotle, except a few dialogues and some treatises on logic. [[Anselm of Canterbury|St. Anselm]] (1O33-1109) made a first attempt at systematizing [[Scholasticism|Scholastic philosophy]]. Some decades later, the Arabic and Byzantine thinkers entered into relation with Western culture, and affecting a philosophical revival; Al-Ghazali, founder of the Ash'ari school of [[Atomism]], entered [[Europe]] through ibn Rushd; translations of the ancient authors were made and the philosophical works of [[ibn Sina]] and ibn Rushd became better known. In the thirteenth century important philosophers like [Maimonides]], Alexander of Hales (ca. 1185 - 1245), St. Bonaventure, [[Albertus Magnus]], [[Roger Bacon]], and [[St. Thomas Aquinas]] made significant contributions to thought and in the following century William of Occam, Eckhart,[[Nicholas of Cusa]], [[Thomas More]] and Grotius made further contributions to philosophy during the scholastic period (cf: [[Ibidem]] Catholic Encyclopedia).

Classifications of Philosophy in this period are mostly akin to the Platonic division into [[logic]], [[ethics]], and [[physics]].

=== The Enlightenment Era ===
[[Image:JohnStuartMill.jpg|thumb|[[John Stuart Mill]]]]
The main figures from this era are: [[Thomas Hobbes]], [[Rene Descartes ]], [[Gottfried Leibniz]], [[David Hume]], [[Immanuel Kant]], [[Arthur Schopenhauer]], [[Auguste Comte]], [[John Stuart Mill]], [[Herbert Spencer]], [[Karl Marx]] and [[Friedrich Nietzsche]].

Dividing philosophy, Kant distinguishes [[metaphysics]], [[moral]] philosophy, [[religion]], and [[anthropology]] as the main four branches.

The most widely accepted scheme, that which still governs the division of the branches of philosophy is due to [[Christian Wolff]] (1679-1755):

This scheme is as follows:

1. Logic.
2. Speculative Philosophy.
* Ontology, or General Metaphysics.
* Special Metaphysics.
: o Theodicy (the study of God).
: o Cosmology (the study of the World).
: o Psychology (the study of Man).

3. Practical Philosophy.
* Ethics
* Politics
* Economics

(cf: [[Ibidem]])

:::::: ''All the interests of my reason, speculative as well as practical, combine in the three following questions:''

:::::::::''1. What can I know? 2. What ought I to do? 3. What may I hope?'' Immanuel Kant.

=== The Twentieth Century ===

This century has offered a wide diversity of orientations. The best known are the French school of [[Existentialism]], the German study of linked [[Phenomenology]], the [[Positivism|Positivists]] of the Vienna Circle, and the post-Positivist Analytic movement.

==== Existentialists ====

The earliest [[existentialism|existentialist]] was the Christian philosopher [[Søren Kierkegaard]]. Other prominent existentialists include [[Henri Bergson]] (1859 – 1941), winner of the 1927 Nobel Prize in Literature, [[Karl Jaspers]], and the noted philosopher, playwright, and novelist [[Jean-Paul Sartre]] (1905 – 1980).

==== [[Phenomenology]] and [[Hermeneutics]] ====

Edmund Husserl (1859 – 1938) founder of phenomenology, [[Martin Heidegger]] (1889 – 1976), and Hans-Georg Gadamer (1900-2002) are the core writers here.

==== Logical Positivists ====

The [[Vienna Circle]] philosophers, most notably Moritz Schlick, Rudolf Carnap, Herbert Feigl, the famous mathematician [[Kurt Godel]], and Otto Neurath established a rigorous tradition called "Logical Empiricism", but usually referred to as [[logical positivism]]. This tradition, a stricter development of [[Auguste Comte]]'s positivism, is no longer an active research program, unlike [[Existentialism]] and Phenomenology.

Often thought of as a logical positivist [[Karl Popper]] was in fact a fierce critic.

==== Structuralism ====

Structuralism is a theory that uses culturally interconnected signs to reconstruct systems of relationships rather than studying isolated, material things in themselves, with proponents such as Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure (1857 – 1913), Russian linguist Roman Jakobson (1896 – 1982), French anthropologist [[Claude Lévi-Strauss]] (1908 – 2009 ), French literary critic [[Roland Barthes]] (1915 – 1980), and French philosopher and historian Michel Foucault (1926 – 1984). Foucault, who is often classified as a post-structuralist, is renowned for historical studies that reveal the sometimes morally disturbing power relations inherent in social practices.<ref>[http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/structuralism Structuralism]</ref>

==== Others ====

The Frankfurt School, a group of researchers associated with the Institut für Sozialforschung (Institute of Social Research), founded in 1923 as an autonomous division of the University of Frankfurt; members were Max Horkheimer, [[Theodor Adorno|Theodor Wiesengrund Adorno]], his friend Walter Benjamin (1892 – 1940), a German essayist and critic known for his synthesis of eccentric Marxist theory and Jewish messianism and [[Herbert Marcuse]] (1898 – 1979).<ref>[http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Philosophhy Philosophy]</ref> [[Jürgen Habermas]] (1929-), a critic of [[Positivism]] is the most famous German professor of the tradition of critical theory.

[[British]] philosophers from the beginning of the 20. Century are: George Edward Moore (1873 – 1958), [[Bertrand Russell]] (1872 – 1970), philosopher, [[mathematician]], and social reformer, and the Austrian [[Ludwig Wittgenstein]] (1889 – 1951), who taught in Cambridge.

==== Surge of theistic philosophers in latter part of 20th century ====

In the latter half of the 20th century, [[theism]] made revolutionary advances within philosophy in terms of its influence within Anglo-American philosophy.<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qfbvr0ngsnA Debate - Michael Payton vs William Lane Craig - Does God Exist - 2009]</ref> The majority of philosophers of religion, or those who have extensively studied the issue of the [[Arguments for the existence of God|existence of God]], are [[theism|theists]] - about 70 percent.<ref>[http://www.strangenotions.com/atheist-scientists/ Does it matter that many scientists are atheists?]</ref>
[[File:Alister McGrath.jpg|right|thumb|175px|[[Alister McGrath]] ]]
In 2001, the atheist and philosopher Quentin Smith declared:
{{cquote|[[Naturalism|Naturalists]] [atheists] passively watched as realist versions of theism … began to sweep through the philosophical community, until today perhaps one-quarter or one-third of philosophy professors are theists, with most being orthodox Christians…. God is not 'dead' in academia; he returned to life in the 1960's and is now alive and well in his last academic stronghold, philosophy departments."<ref>[http://www.reasonablefaith.org/theistic-critiques-of-atheism Theistic critiques of atheism] by [[William Lane Craig]]</ref>}}
In 2004, Professor [[Alister McGrath]], professor of historical theology at Wycliffe Hall, [[Oxford University]] declared, "The golden age of [[atheism]] is over."<ref>http://www.sbcbaptistpress.org/bpnews.asp?ID=18837</ref> McGrath is an [[ex-atheists|ex-atheiest]].

=== American Philosophy ===
{{main|American Enlightenment}}

Some scholars have said that American philosophers’ focus on the interconnections of theory and practice, on experience and community, but different concerns and themes have waxed or waned at different times. Through the middle of the 20th century, at least, American philosophers were actively engaged in shaping and reflecting the development of American culture.<ref>[http://www.iep.utm.edu/a/american.htm American Philosophy]</ref>

==== Transcendentalism ====
{{main|Transcendentalism}}

Founded by [[Ralph Waldo Emerson]] (1803 - 1882) who became the most widely known man of letters in America in the 19th century. Transcendentalism, ''of which Emerson was the leading figure, resembled British [[Romanticism]] in its precept that a fundamental continuity exists between man, nature, and God, or the divine... Matter and spirit are not opposed.'' <ref>[http://www.iep.utm.edu/e/emerson.htm Ralph Waldo Emerson]</ref>

==== Pragmatism ====
Main figures are: [[Charles Peirce]] (1839-1914), [[William James]] (1842-1910), [[John Dewey]] (1859-1952), and [[Richard Rorty]] (1931-2007).

==== Philosophy of Religion ====

The best-known American philosopher of religion is without a doubt [[Alvin Plantinga]] (1932- ) at the [[University of Notre Dame]]; also well-known are John Hick (1922- ), who, though born in England, did much of his work at Claremont University in southern California, and professor William Alston (1921- ) working at [[Syracuse University]].

==== Analytic Philosophers ====
[[Image:John Rawls.jpg|thumb|Harvard philosopher John Rawls.]]
America has produced a great many philosophers in the Analytic tradition. A brief list of notables:

* W.V.O. Quine
* Donald Davidson
* Saul Kripke
* John Searle
* Paul Grice
* Richard Montague
* Hilary Putnam
* Nelson Goodman
* Kit Fine
* Ted Sider
* Robert Stalnaker
* [[Daniel Dennett]]

Especially well known to non-philosophers is [[John Rawls]] (1921 - 2002) (political and moral philosophy) author of ''A Theory of Justice'' (1971), ''Political Liberalism'' (1993), ''The Law of Peoples'' (1999), and ''Justice as Fairness: A Restatement'' (2001).

== Eastern Philosophy ==
[[Eastern Philosophy]] comprises mainly the thought of: [[Zoroastrianism]], [[Buddhism]], [[Hinduism]], [[Confucianism]], [[Taoism]], [[Islamism]] and [[Jainism]]. Some scholars include [[Ayurveda]], Babylonian philosophy and [[Korean]] philosophy.

== See also ==
* [[Greek Philosophy]]
* [[Greek philosophers]]
* [[Indian philosophy|Indian Philosophy]]
* [[:Category:Indian Philosophers|Indian Philosophers]]
* [[Agnosticism]]
* [[Empiricism]]
* [[Atheism and belief]]

== External links ==
* [http://www.friesian.com/history.htm History of Philosophy]
* [http://www.erraticimpact.com/history_index.htm History of Philosophy - Resources]
* [http://www.questia.com/read/100673611 A History of American Philosophy] Book by Herbert W. Schneider.
* [http://www.molloy.edu/sophia/sophia_texts.htm Edited versions of important texts in philosophy.]

== References ==
<references/>

[[Category:Philosophy]]
[[Category:Philosophical Systems‏‎]]

Philosophy

2018-10-02T00:00:40Z

Logician: /* History of Philosophy */ 'modern' isn't really a distinction. Modern would be more akin to 'contemporary' than it to 'Enlightenment'.

[[Image:Aristotle.gif|thumb|Aristotle]]
'''Philosophy''' (literally 'love of wisdom', from Greek φιλοσοφία (philosophía) &ndash from φίλος (phílos) friend lover; and σοφία (sophía) wisdom) is an academic discipline concerned with the most fundamental and general concepts and principles involved in thought, action, and reality. Philosophy progresses according to various methods of rational inquiry.

Philosophy is accurately described as both the first science and the "Queen of the Sciences". Until the late 19th century, what is now called "science" was subsumed under [[natural philosophy]].

Philosophy in the West has its origins in Ancient Greece, ca. 600 B.C. After the fall of the Roman Empire, much of Greek philosophy was lost to the West, preserved only in the Arab world until the time of the Crusades and the Moorish conquest of Spain. Contact with Arab philosophers (especially al-Ghazali, who developed a version of the [[Cosmological argument]] and wrote more than 70 books, [[ibn Rushd]], and [[ibn Sina]]) greatly influenced philosophical tradition in Europe, beginning the "Scholastic period", which ended with [[Descartes]] and the beginning of the [[Enlightenment]]. The late 18th and early 19th centuries saw a major split between British Empiricism and Continental Rationalism. This divide can be traced back to the late 17th century but culminated in a schism between rationalists like Descartes and Spinoza and empiricists like Berkeley, Locke, and Hume. This divide was rectified by the work of Immanuel Kant, a German philosopher famous for his treatise ''Critique of Pure Reason''. With the divide healed, 20th century philosophy would spark a movement called [[modernism]]. Modernism would give birth to analytical philosophy and would culminate in [[logical positivism]] and [[verificationism]] before slowly dying out and giving way to [[postmodernism]].

== Branches of Philosophy ==
[[File:Rubens. The Four Philosophers.jpg|thumb|[[Rubens]]. The Four Philosophers.]]
The main branches of philosophy are [[Metaphysics]], which is (broadly speaking) the study of what-is; [[Logic]], the rules of reasoning; [[Epistemology]], the study of knowledge; and [[Axiology]], the study of values. Notable sub-branches include:

*'''[[Philosophy of Language]]''': the study of language and its effects on humanity
*'''[[Philosophy of Religion]]''': the study of religions, what defines a religion, and the tenets of religions
*'''[[Philosophy of Mind]]''': the study of how the mind and the body relate to each other
*'''[[Ethics]]''': the analysis of the nature of [[morality]] and morals, how and why we determine right from wrong.
*'''[[Political Philosophy]]''': the analysis of the nature of the human public sphere, which one may consider the ethics of the way society is arranged.
*'''[[Philosophy of Science]]''': the analysis of scientific concepts and methodology, which concerns itself mostly with the foundations of [[science]], and interdisciplinary areas.
*'''[[Aesthetics]]''': the analysis of the nature and experience of [[art]] and beauty.
{{Clear}}

== History of Philosophy ==

Conventionally the History of Western Philosophy is divided into four eras: Ancient, Medieval, Enlightenment, and Contemporary.

The Ancient era starts with the [[Presocratic Philosophy|Presocratic]] philosophers and goes until the fall of the Roman empire; The Medieval goes until the end of the [[Middle Ages]]; The Modern up to the 20th century, and The Contemporary up to present.

[[Frederick Copleston]], S.J. (1907 - 1994) was a [[Jesuit]] scholar who wrote the highly respected 9 volume ''A History of Philosophy''.

=== Greek Philosophy ===
''See also: [[Plato]] and [[Aristotle]]''
[[Image:Parmenides book.jpg|240px|right]]
Philosophy in the West begins with [[Thales]] of Miletus, who was the first astronomer in recorded history to accurately predict a solar eclipse. The Milesian School founded by Thales included [[Anaxagoras]], [[Anaximander]], and [[Anaximenes]]. It was [[Pythagoras]] (ca. 582 - 504 BC) who first brought Philosophy into connection with practical life; he also gave Philosophy its name "the love of wisdom". Closely related to Milesianis is the work of [[Heraclitus]] of Ephesus. Around the time of Heraclitus, [[Parmenides]] of Elea, with his pupil [[Zeno]], raised some serious objections to the project of Milesian philosophy. These objections laid the groundwork for [[Socrates]] and his pupil [[Plato]], and [[Aristotle]], as well as the Atomists, [[Democritus]] and [[Leucippus]]. After the Greek philosophical golden age other systems appeared during the Hellenistic period, like [[Cynicism]], [[Stoicism]], [[Epicureanism]] and [[Skepticism]]. At the closing period of Greek philosophy [[Neoplatonism]] was founded by [[Plotinus|Plotinus of Lycopolis]]. Parmenides' thoughts influenced Plato and through him, all of Western philosophy.<ref>[http://www.prospect-magazine.co.uk/article_details.php?id=9972 Parmenides] by Raymond Tallis. Quote, "While Plato's dialogues are among the supreme philosophical works of the western tradition, it was Parmenides who established the implicit framework of their debates."</ref>

[[Saint Augustine]] (354-430 A.D.), drawing greatly on the ideas of Plato, has been of momentous importance in the development of Christian thought.

=== Medieval era ===
In the West, until the twelfth century, little was known of Plato and Aristotle, except a few dialogues and some treatises on logic. [[Anselm of Canterbury|St. Anselm]] (1O33-1109) made a first attempt at systematizing [[Scholasticism|Scholastic philosophy]]. Some decades later, the Arabic and Byzantine thinkers entered into relation with Western culture, and affecting a philosophical revival; Al-Ghazali, founder of the Ash'ari school of [[Atomism]], entered [[Europe]] through ibn Rushd; translations of the ancient authors were made and the philosophical works of [[ibn Sina]] and ibn Rushd became better known. In the thirteenth century important philosophers like [Maimonides]], Alexander of Hales (ca. 1185 - 1245), St. Bonaventure, [[Albertus Magnus]], [[Roger Bacon]], and [[St. Thomas Aquinas]] made significant contributions to thought and in the following century William of Occam, Eckhart,[[Nicholas of Cusa]], [[Thomas More]] and Grotius made further contributions to philosophy during the scholastic period (cf: [[Ibidem]] Catholic Encyclopedia).

Classifications of Philosophy in this period are mostly akin to the Platonic division into [[logic]], [[ethics]], and [[physics]].

=== Modern era ===
[[Image:JohnStuartMill.jpg|thumb|[[John Stuart Mill]]]]
The main figures from this era are: [[Thomas Hobbes]], [[Rene Descartes ]], [[Gottfried Leibniz]], [[David Hume]], [[Immanuel Kant]], [[Arthur Schopenhauer]], [[Auguste Comte]], [[John Stuart Mill]], [[Herbert Spencer]], [[Karl Marx]] and [[Friedrich Nietzsche]].

Dividing Philosophy Kant, distinguishes [[metaphysics]], [[moral]] philosophy, [[religion]], and [[anthropology]].

The most widely accepted scheme, that which still governs the division of the branches of philosophy is due to [[Christian Wolff]] (1679-1755):

This scheme is as follows:

1. Logic.
2. Speculative Philosophy.
* Ontology, or General Metaphysics.
* Special Metaphysics.
: o Theodicy (the study of God).
: o Cosmology (the study of the World).
: o Psychology (the study of Man).

3. Practical Philosophy.
* Ethics
* Politics
* Economics

(cf: [[Ibidem]])

:::::: ''All the interests of my reason, speculative as well as practical, combine in the three following questions:''

:::::::::''1. What can I know? 2. What ought I to do? 3. What may I hope?'' Immanuel Kant.

=== The Twentieth Century ===

This century has offered a wide diversity of orientations. The best known are the French school of [[Existentialism]], the German study of linked [[Phenomenology]], the [[Positivism|Positivists]] of the Vienna Circle, and the post-Positivist Analytic movement.

==== Existentialists ====

The earliest [[existentialism|existentialist]] was the Christian philosopher [[Søren Kierkegaard]]. Other prominent existentialists include [[Henri Bergson]] (1859 – 1941), winner of the 1927 Nobel Prize in Literature, [[Karl Jaspers]], and the noted philosopher, playwright, and novelist [[Jean-Paul Sartre]] (1905 – 1980).

==== [[Phenomenology]] and [[Hermeneutics]] ====

Edmund Husserl (1859 – 1938) founder of phenomenology, [[Martin Heidegger]] (1889 – 1976), and Hans-Georg Gadamer (1900-2002) are the core writers here.

==== Logical Positivists ====

The [[Vienna Circle]] philosophers, most notably Moritz Schlick, Rudolf Carnap, Herbert Feigl, the famous mathematician [[Kurt Godel]], and Otto Neurath established a rigorous tradition called "Logical Empiricism", but usually referred to as [[logical positivism]]. This tradition, a stricter development of [[Auguste Comte]]'s positivism, is no longer an active research program, unlike [[Existentialism]] and Phenomenology.

Often thought of as a logical positivist [[Karl Popper]] was in fact a fierce critic.

==== Structuralism ====

Structuralism is a theory that uses culturally interconnected signs to reconstruct systems of relationships rather than studying isolated, material things in themselves, with proponents such as Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure (1857 – 1913), Russian linguist Roman Jakobson (1896 – 1982), French anthropologist [[Claude Lévi-Strauss]] (1908 – 2009 ), French literary critic [[Roland Barthes]] (1915 – 1980), and French philosopher and historian Michel Foucault (1926 – 1984). Foucault, who is often classified as a post-structuralist, is renowned for historical studies that reveal the sometimes morally disturbing power relations inherent in social practices.<ref>[http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/structuralism Structuralism]</ref>

==== Others ====

The Frankfurt School, a group of researchers associated with the Institut für Sozialforschung (Institute of Social Research), founded in 1923 as an autonomous division of the University of Frankfurt; members were Max Horkheimer, [[Theodor Adorno|Theodor Wiesengrund Adorno]], his friend Walter Benjamin (1892 – 1940), a German essayist and critic known for his synthesis of eccentric Marxist theory and Jewish messianism and [[Herbert Marcuse]] (1898 – 1979).<ref>[http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Philosophhy Philosophy]</ref> [[Jürgen Habermas]] (1929-), a critic of [[Positivism]] is the most famous German professor of the tradition of critical theory.

[[British]] philosophers from the beginning of the 20. Century are: George Edward Moore (1873 – 1958), [[Bertrand Russell]] (1872 – 1970), philosopher, [[mathematician]], and social reformer, and the Austrian [[Ludwig Wittgenstein]] (1889 – 1951), who taught in Cambridge.

==== Surge of theistic philosophers in latter part of 20th century ====

In the latter half of the 20th century, [[theism]] made revolutionary advances within philosophy in terms of its influence within Anglo-American philosophy.<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qfbvr0ngsnA Debate - Michael Payton vs William Lane Craig - Does God Exist - 2009]</ref> The majority of philosophers of religion, or those who have extensively studied the issue of the [[Arguments for the existence of God|existence of God]], are [[theism|theists]] - about 70 percent.<ref>[http://www.strangenotions.com/atheist-scientists/ Does it matter that many scientists are atheists?]</ref>
[[File:Alister McGrath.jpg|right|thumb|175px|[[Alister McGrath]] ]]
In 2001, the atheist and philosopher Quentin Smith declared:
{{cquote|[[Naturalism|Naturalists]] [atheists] passively watched as realist versions of theism … began to sweep through the philosophical community, until today perhaps one-quarter or one-third of philosophy professors are theists, with most being orthodox Christians…. God is not 'dead' in academia; he returned to life in the 1960's and is now alive and well in his last academic stronghold, philosophy departments."<ref>[http://www.reasonablefaith.org/theistic-critiques-of-atheism Theistic critiques of atheism] by [[William Lane Craig]]</ref>}}
In 2004, Professor [[Alister McGrath]], professor of historical theology at Wycliffe Hall, [[Oxford University]] declared, "The golden age of [[atheism]] is over."<ref>http://www.sbcbaptistpress.org/bpnews.asp?ID=18837</ref> McGrath is an [[ex-atheists|ex-atheiest]].

=== American Philosophy ===
{{main|American Enlightenment}}

Some scholars have said that American philosophers’ focus on the interconnections of theory and practice, on experience and community, but different concerns and themes have waxed or waned at different times. Through the middle of the 20th century, at least, American philosophers were actively engaged in shaping and reflecting the development of American culture.<ref>[http://www.iep.utm.edu/a/american.htm American Philosophy]</ref>

==== Transcendentalism ====
{{main|Transcendentalism}}

Founded by [[Ralph Waldo Emerson]] (1803 - 1882) who became the most widely known man of letters in America in the 19th century. Transcendentalism, ''of which Emerson was the leading figure, resembled British [[Romanticism]] in its precept that a fundamental continuity exists between man, nature, and God, or the divine... Matter and spirit are not opposed.'' <ref>[http://www.iep.utm.edu/e/emerson.htm Ralph Waldo Emerson]</ref>

==== Pragmatism ====
Main figures are: [[Charles Peirce]] (1839-1914), [[William James]] (1842-1910), [[John Dewey]] (1859-1952), and [[Richard Rorty]] (1931-2007).

==== Philosophy of Religion ====

The best-known American philosopher of religion is without a doubt [[Alvin Plantinga]] (1932- ) at the [[University of Notre Dame]]; also well-known are John Hick (1922- ), who, though born in England, did much of his work at Claremont University in southern California, and professor William Alston (1921- ) working at [[Syracuse University]].

==== Analytic Philosophers ====
[[Image:John Rawls.jpg|thumb|Harvard philosopher John Rawls.]]
America has produced a great many philosophers in the Analytic tradition. A brief list of notables:

* W.V.O. Quine
* Donald Davidson
* Saul Kripke
* John Searle
* Paul Grice
* Richard Montague
* Hilary Putnam
* Nelson Goodman
* Kit Fine
* Ted Sider
* Robert Stalnaker
* [[Daniel Dennett]]

Especially well known to non-philosophers is [[John Rawls]] (1921 - 2002) (political and moral philosophy) author of ''A Theory of Justice'' (1971), ''Political Liberalism'' (1993), ''The Law of Peoples'' (1999), and ''Justice as Fairness: A Restatement'' (2001).

== Eastern Philosophy ==
[[Eastern Philosophy]] comprises mainly the thought of: [[Zoroastrianism]], [[Buddhism]], [[Hinduism]], [[Confucianism]], [[Taoism]], [[Islamism]] and [[Jainism]]. Some scholars include [[Ayurveda]], Babylonian philosophy and [[Korean]] philosophy.

== See also ==
* [[Greek Philosophy]]
* [[Greek philosophers]]
* [[Indian philosophy|Indian Philosophy]]
* [[:Category:Indian Philosophers|Indian Philosophers]]
* [[Agnosticism]]
* [[Empiricism]]
* [[Atheism and belief]]

== External links ==
* [http://www.friesian.com/history.htm History of Philosophy]
* [http://www.erraticimpact.com/history_index.htm History of Philosophy - Resources]
* [http://www.questia.com/read/100673611 A History of American Philosophy] Book by Herbert W. Schneider.
* [http://www.molloy.edu/sophia/sophia_texts.htm Edited versions of important texts in philosophy.]

== References ==
<references/>

[[Category:Philosophy]]
[[Category:Philosophical Systems‏‎]]

Philosophy

2018-10-01T23:59:26Z

Logician: /* Medieval era */

[[Image:Aristotle.gif|thumb|Aristotle]]
'''Philosophy''' (literally 'love of wisdom', from Greek φιλοσοφία (philosophía) &ndash from φίλος (phílos) friend lover; and σοφία (sophía) wisdom) is an academic discipline concerned with the most fundamental and general concepts and principles involved in thought, action, and reality. Philosophy progresses according to various methods of rational inquiry.

Philosophy is accurately described as both the first science and the "Queen of the Sciences". Until the late 19th century, what is now called "science" was subsumed under [[natural philosophy]].

Philosophy in the West has its origins in Ancient Greece, ca. 600 B.C. After the fall of the Roman Empire, much of Greek philosophy was lost to the West, preserved only in the Arab world until the time of the Crusades and the Moorish conquest of Spain. Contact with Arab philosophers (especially al-Ghazali, who developed a version of the [[Cosmological argument]] and wrote more than 70 books, [[ibn Rushd]], and [[ibn Sina]]) greatly influenced philosophical tradition in Europe, beginning the "Scholastic period", which ended with [[Descartes]] and the beginning of the [[Enlightenment]]. The late 18th and early 19th centuries saw a major split between British Empiricism and Continental Rationalism. This divide can be traced back to the late 17th century but culminated in a schism between rationalists like Descartes and Spinoza and empiricists like Berkeley, Locke, and Hume. This divide was rectified by the work of Immanuel Kant, a German philosopher famous for his treatise ''Critique of Pure Reason''. With the divide healed, 20th century philosophy would spark a movement called [[modernism]]. Modernism would give birth to analytical philosophy and would culminate in [[logical positivism]] and [[verificationism]] before slowly dying out and giving way to [[postmodernism]].

== Branches of Philosophy ==
[[File:Rubens. The Four Philosophers.jpg|thumb|[[Rubens]]. The Four Philosophers.]]
The main branches of philosophy are [[Metaphysics]], which is (broadly speaking) the study of what-is; [[Logic]], the rules of reasoning; [[Epistemology]], the study of knowledge; and [[Axiology]], the study of values. Notable sub-branches include:

*'''[[Philosophy of Language]]''': the study of language and its effects on humanity
*'''[[Philosophy of Religion]]''': the study of religions, what defines a religion, and the tenets of religions
*'''[[Philosophy of Mind]]''': the study of how the mind and the body relate to each other
*'''[[Ethics]]''': the analysis of the nature of [[morality]] and morals, how and why we determine right from wrong.
*'''[[Political Philosophy]]''': the analysis of the nature of the human public sphere, which one may consider the ethics of the way society is arranged.
*'''[[Philosophy of Science]]''': the analysis of scientific concepts and methodology, which concerns itself mostly with the foundations of [[science]], and interdisciplinary areas.
*'''[[Aesthetics]]''': the analysis of the nature and experience of [[art]] and beauty.
{{Clear}}

== History of Philosophy ==

Conventionally the History of Western Philosophy is divided into four eras: Ancient, Medieval, Modern and Contemporary.

The Ancient era starts with the [[Presocratic Philosophy|Presocratic]] philosophers and goes until the fall of the Roman empire; The Medieval goes until the end of the [[Middle Ages]]; The Modern up to the 20th century, and The Contemporary up to present.

[[Frederick Copleston]], S.J. (1907 - 1994) was a [[Jesuit]] scholar who wrote the highly respected 9 volume ''A History of Philosophy''.

=== Greek Philosophy ===
''See also: [[Plato]] and [[Aristotle]]''
[[Image:Parmenides book.jpg|240px|right]]
Philosophy in the West begins with [[Thales]] of Miletus, who was the first astronomer in recorded history to accurately predict a solar eclipse. The Milesian School founded by Thales included [[Anaxagoras]], [[Anaximander]], and [[Anaximenes]]. It was [[Pythagoras]] (ca. 582 - 504 BC) who first brought Philosophy into connection with practical life; he also gave Philosophy its name "the love of wisdom". Closely related to Milesianis is the work of [[Heraclitus]] of Ephesus. Around the time of Heraclitus, [[Parmenides]] of Elea, with his pupil [[Zeno]], raised some serious objections to the project of Milesian philosophy. These objections laid the groundwork for [[Socrates]] and his pupil [[Plato]], and [[Aristotle]], as well as the Atomists, [[Democritus]] and [[Leucippus]]. After the Greek philosophical golden age other systems appeared during the Hellenistic period, like [[Cynicism]], [[Stoicism]], [[Epicureanism]] and [[Skepticism]]. At the closing period of Greek philosophy [[Neoplatonism]] was founded by [[Plotinus|Plotinus of Lycopolis]]. Parmenides' thoughts influenced Plato and through him, all of Western philosophy.<ref>[http://www.prospect-magazine.co.uk/article_details.php?id=9972 Parmenides] by Raymond Tallis. Quote, "While Plato's dialogues are among the supreme philosophical works of the western tradition, it was Parmenides who established the implicit framework of their debates."</ref>

[[Saint Augustine]] (354-430 A.D.), drawing greatly on the ideas of Plato, has been of momentous importance in the development of Christian thought.

=== Medieval era ===
In the West, until the twelfth century, little was known of Plato and Aristotle, except a few dialogues and some treatises on logic. [[Anselm of Canterbury|St. Anselm]] (1O33-1109) made a first attempt at systematizing [[Scholasticism|Scholastic philosophy]]. Some decades later, the Arabic and Byzantine thinkers entered into relation with Western culture, and affecting a philosophical revival; Al-Ghazali, founder of the Ash'ari school of [[Atomism]], entered [[Europe]] through ibn Rushd; translations of the ancient authors were made and the philosophical works of [[ibn Sina]] and ibn Rushd became better known. In the thirteenth century important philosophers like [Maimonides]], Alexander of Hales (ca. 1185 - 1245), St. Bonaventure, [[Albertus Magnus]], [[Roger Bacon]], and [[St. Thomas Aquinas]] made significant contributions to thought and in the following century William of Occam, Eckhart,[[Nicholas of Cusa]], [[Thomas More]] and Grotius made further contributions to philosophy during the scholastic period (cf: [[Ibidem]] Catholic Encyclopedia).

Classifications of Philosophy in this period are mostly akin to the Platonic division into [[logic]], [[ethics]], and [[physics]].

=== Modern era ===
[[Image:JohnStuartMill.jpg|thumb|[[John Stuart Mill]]]]
The main figures from this era are: [[Thomas Hobbes]], [[Rene Descartes ]], [[Gottfried Leibniz]], [[David Hume]], [[Immanuel Kant]], [[Arthur Schopenhauer]], [[Auguste Comte]], [[John Stuart Mill]], [[Herbert Spencer]], [[Karl Marx]] and [[Friedrich Nietzsche]].

Dividing Philosophy Kant, distinguishes [[metaphysics]], [[moral]] philosophy, [[religion]], and [[anthropology]].

The most widely accepted scheme, that which still governs the division of the branches of philosophy is due to [[Christian Wolff]] (1679-1755):

This scheme is as follows:

1. Logic.
2. Speculative Philosophy.
* Ontology, or General Metaphysics.
* Special Metaphysics.
: o Theodicy (the study of God).
: o Cosmology (the study of the World).
: o Psychology (the study of Man).

3. Practical Philosophy.
* Ethics
* Politics
* Economics

(cf: [[Ibidem]])

:::::: ''All the interests of my reason, speculative as well as practical, combine in the three following questions:''

:::::::::''1. What can I know? 2. What ought I to do? 3. What may I hope?'' Immanuel Kant.

=== The Twentieth Century ===

This century has offered a wide diversity of orientations. The best known are the French school of [[Existentialism]], the German study of linked [[Phenomenology]], the [[Positivism|Positivists]] of the Vienna Circle, and the post-Positivist Analytic movement.

==== Existentialists ====

The earliest [[existentialism|existentialist]] was the Christian philosopher [[Søren Kierkegaard]]. Other prominent existentialists include [[Henri Bergson]] (1859 – 1941), winner of the 1927 Nobel Prize in Literature, [[Karl Jaspers]], and the noted philosopher, playwright, and novelist [[Jean-Paul Sartre]] (1905 – 1980).

==== [[Phenomenology]] and [[Hermeneutics]] ====

Edmund Husserl (1859 – 1938) founder of phenomenology, [[Martin Heidegger]] (1889 – 1976), and Hans-Georg Gadamer (1900-2002) are the core writers here.

==== Logical Positivists ====

The [[Vienna Circle]] philosophers, most notably Moritz Schlick, Rudolf Carnap, Herbert Feigl, the famous mathematician [[Kurt Godel]], and Otto Neurath established a rigorous tradition called "Logical Empiricism", but usually referred to as [[logical positivism]]. This tradition, a stricter development of [[Auguste Comte]]'s positivism, is no longer an active research program, unlike [[Existentialism]] and Phenomenology.

Often thought of as a logical positivist [[Karl Popper]] was in fact a fierce critic.

==== Structuralism ====

Structuralism is a theory that uses culturally interconnected signs to reconstruct systems of relationships rather than studying isolated, material things in themselves, with proponents such as Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure (1857 – 1913), Russian linguist Roman Jakobson (1896 – 1982), French anthropologist [[Claude Lévi-Strauss]] (1908 – 2009 ), French literary critic [[Roland Barthes]] (1915 – 1980), and French philosopher and historian Michel Foucault (1926 – 1984). Foucault, who is often classified as a post-structuralist, is renowned for historical studies that reveal the sometimes morally disturbing power relations inherent in social practices.<ref>[http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/structuralism Structuralism]</ref>

==== Others ====

The Frankfurt School, a group of researchers associated with the Institut für Sozialforschung (Institute of Social Research), founded in 1923 as an autonomous division of the University of Frankfurt; members were Max Horkheimer, [[Theodor Adorno|Theodor Wiesengrund Adorno]], his friend Walter Benjamin (1892 – 1940), a German essayist and critic known for his synthesis of eccentric Marxist theory and Jewish messianism and [[Herbert Marcuse]] (1898 – 1979).<ref>[http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Philosophhy Philosophy]</ref> [[Jürgen Habermas]] (1929-), a critic of [[Positivism]] is the most famous German professor of the tradition of critical theory.

[[British]] philosophers from the beginning of the 20. Century are: George Edward Moore (1873 – 1958), [[Bertrand Russell]] (1872 – 1970), philosopher, [[mathematician]], and social reformer, and the Austrian [[Ludwig Wittgenstein]] (1889 – 1951), who taught in Cambridge.

==== Surge of theistic philosophers in latter part of 20th century ====

In the latter half of the 20th century, [[theism]] made revolutionary advances within philosophy in terms of its influence within Anglo-American philosophy.<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qfbvr0ngsnA Debate - Michael Payton vs William Lane Craig - Does God Exist - 2009]</ref> The majority of philosophers of religion, or those who have extensively studied the issue of the [[Arguments for the existence of God|existence of God]], are [[theism|theists]] - about 70 percent.<ref>[http://www.strangenotions.com/atheist-scientists/ Does it matter that many scientists are atheists?]</ref>
[[File:Alister McGrath.jpg|right|thumb|175px|[[Alister McGrath]] ]]
In 2001, the atheist and philosopher Quentin Smith declared:
{{cquote|[[Naturalism|Naturalists]] [atheists] passively watched as realist versions of theism … began to sweep through the philosophical community, until today perhaps one-quarter or one-third of philosophy professors are theists, with most being orthodox Christians…. God is not 'dead' in academia; he returned to life in the 1960's and is now alive and well in his last academic stronghold, philosophy departments."<ref>[http://www.reasonablefaith.org/theistic-critiques-of-atheism Theistic critiques of atheism] by [[William Lane Craig]]</ref>}}
In 2004, Professor [[Alister McGrath]], professor of historical theology at Wycliffe Hall, [[Oxford University]] declared, "The golden age of [[atheism]] is over."<ref>http://www.sbcbaptistpress.org/bpnews.asp?ID=18837</ref> McGrath is an [[ex-atheists|ex-atheiest]].

=== American Philosophy ===
{{main|American Enlightenment}}

Some scholars have said that American philosophers’ focus on the interconnections of theory and practice, on experience and community, but different concerns and themes have waxed or waned at different times. Through the middle of the 20th century, at least, American philosophers were actively engaged in shaping and reflecting the development of American culture.<ref>[http://www.iep.utm.edu/a/american.htm American Philosophy]</ref>

==== Transcendentalism ====
{{main|Transcendentalism}}

Founded by [[Ralph Waldo Emerson]] (1803 - 1882) who became the most widely known man of letters in America in the 19th century. Transcendentalism, ''of which Emerson was the leading figure, resembled British [[Romanticism]] in its precept that a fundamental continuity exists between man, nature, and God, or the divine... Matter and spirit are not opposed.'' <ref>[http://www.iep.utm.edu/e/emerson.htm Ralph Waldo Emerson]</ref>

==== Pragmatism ====
Main figures are: [[Charles Peirce]] (1839-1914), [[William James]] (1842-1910), [[John Dewey]] (1859-1952), and [[Richard Rorty]] (1931-2007).

==== Philosophy of Religion ====

The best-known American philosopher of religion is without a doubt [[Alvin Plantinga]] (1932- ) at the [[University of Notre Dame]]; also well-known are John Hick (1922- ), who, though born in England, did much of his work at Claremont University in southern California, and professor William Alston (1921- ) working at [[Syracuse University]].

==== Analytic Philosophers ====
[[Image:John Rawls.jpg|thumb|Harvard philosopher John Rawls.]]
America has produced a great many philosophers in the Analytic tradition. A brief list of notables:

* W.V.O. Quine
* Donald Davidson
* Saul Kripke
* John Searle
* Paul Grice
* Richard Montague
* Hilary Putnam
* Nelson Goodman
* Kit Fine
* Ted Sider
* Robert Stalnaker
* [[Daniel Dennett]]

Especially well known to non-philosophers is [[John Rawls]] (1921 - 2002) (political and moral philosophy) author of ''A Theory of Justice'' (1971), ''Political Liberalism'' (1993), ''The Law of Peoples'' (1999), and ''Justice as Fairness: A Restatement'' (2001).

== Eastern Philosophy ==
[[Eastern Philosophy]] comprises mainly the thought of: [[Zoroastrianism]], [[Buddhism]], [[Hinduism]], [[Confucianism]], [[Taoism]], [[Islamism]] and [[Jainism]]. Some scholars include [[Ayurveda]], Babylonian philosophy and [[Korean]] philosophy.

== See also ==
* [[Greek Philosophy]]
* [[Greek philosophers]]
* [[Indian philosophy|Indian Philosophy]]
* [[:Category:Indian Philosophers|Indian Philosophers]]
* [[Agnosticism]]
* [[Empiricism]]
* [[Atheism and belief]]

== External links ==
* [http://www.friesian.com/history.htm History of Philosophy]
* [http://www.erraticimpact.com/history_index.htm History of Philosophy - Resources]
* [http://www.questia.com/read/100673611 A History of American Philosophy] Book by Herbert W. Schneider.
* [http://www.molloy.edu/sophia/sophia_texts.htm Edited versions of important texts in philosophy.]

== References ==
<references/>

[[Category:Philosophy]]
[[Category:Philosophical Systems‏‎]]

Philosophy

2018-10-01T23:57:05Z

Logician: /* History of Philosophy */ I removed a chunk at the bottom that talked about Plato and Aristotles. That short, short chunk cannot do justice to either of their ideas and so it really isn't helpful to leave it in.

[[Image:Aristotle.gif|thumb|Aristotle]]
'''Philosophy''' (literally 'love of wisdom', from Greek φιλοσοφία (philosophía) &ndash from φίλος (phílos) friend lover; and σοφία (sophía) wisdom) is an academic discipline concerned with the most fundamental and general concepts and principles involved in thought, action, and reality. Philosophy progresses according to various methods of rational inquiry.

Philosophy is accurately described as both the first science and the "Queen of the Sciences". Until the late 19th century, what is now called "science" was subsumed under [[natural philosophy]].

Philosophy in the West has its origins in Ancient Greece, ca. 600 B.C. After the fall of the Roman Empire, much of Greek philosophy was lost to the West, preserved only in the Arab world until the time of the Crusades and the Moorish conquest of Spain. Contact with Arab philosophers (especially al-Ghazali, who developed a version of the [[Cosmological argument]] and wrote more than 70 books, [[ibn Rushd]], and [[ibn Sina]]) greatly influenced philosophical tradition in Europe, beginning the "Scholastic period", which ended with [[Descartes]] and the beginning of the [[Enlightenment]]. The late 18th and early 19th centuries saw a major split between British Empiricism and Continental Rationalism. This divide can be traced back to the late 17th century but culminated in a schism between rationalists like Descartes and Spinoza and empiricists like Berkeley, Locke, and Hume. This divide was rectified by the work of Immanuel Kant, a German philosopher famous for his treatise ''Critique of Pure Reason''. With the divide healed, 20th century philosophy would spark a movement called [[modernism]]. Modernism would give birth to analytical philosophy and would culminate in [[logical positivism]] and [[verificationism]] before slowly dying out and giving way to [[postmodernism]].

== Branches of Philosophy ==
[[File:Rubens. The Four Philosophers.jpg|thumb|[[Rubens]]. The Four Philosophers.]]
The main branches of philosophy are [[Metaphysics]], which is (broadly speaking) the study of what-is; [[Logic]], the rules of reasoning; [[Epistemology]], the study of knowledge; and [[Axiology]], the study of values. Notable sub-branches include:

*'''[[Philosophy of Language]]''': the study of language and its effects on humanity
*'''[[Philosophy of Religion]]''': the study of religions, what defines a religion, and the tenets of religions
*'''[[Philosophy of Mind]]''': the study of how the mind and the body relate to each other
*'''[[Ethics]]''': the analysis of the nature of [[morality]] and morals, how and why we determine right from wrong.
*'''[[Political Philosophy]]''': the analysis of the nature of the human public sphere, which one may consider the ethics of the way society is arranged.
*'''[[Philosophy of Science]]''': the analysis of scientific concepts and methodology, which concerns itself mostly with the foundations of [[science]], and interdisciplinary areas.
*'''[[Aesthetics]]''': the analysis of the nature and experience of [[art]] and beauty.
{{Clear}}

== History of Philosophy ==

Conventionally the History of Western Philosophy is divided into four eras: Ancient, Medieval, Modern and Contemporary.

The Ancient era starts with the [[Presocratic Philosophy|Presocratic]] philosophers and goes until the fall of the Roman empire; The Medieval goes until the end of the [[Middle Ages]]; The Modern up to the 20th century, and The Contemporary up to present.

[[Frederick Copleston]], S.J. (1907 - 1994) was a [[Jesuit]] scholar who wrote the highly respected 9 volume ''A History of Philosophy''.

=== Greek Philosophy ===
''See also: [[Plato]] and [[Aristotle]]''
[[Image:Parmenides book.jpg|240px|right]]
Philosophy in the West begins with [[Thales]] of Miletus, who was the first astronomer in recorded history to accurately predict a solar eclipse. The Milesian School founded by Thales included [[Anaxagoras]], [[Anaximander]], and [[Anaximenes]]. It was [[Pythagoras]] (ca. 582 - 504 BC) who first brought Philosophy into connection with practical life; he also gave Philosophy its name "the love of wisdom". Closely related to Milesianis is the work of [[Heraclitus]] of Ephesus. Around the time of Heraclitus, [[Parmenides]] of Elea, with his pupil [[Zeno]], raised some serious objections to the project of Milesian philosophy. These objections laid the groundwork for [[Socrates]] and his pupil [[Plato]], and [[Aristotle]], as well as the Atomists, [[Democritus]] and [[Leucippus]]. After the Greek philosophical golden age other systems appeared during the Hellenistic period, like [[Cynicism]], [[Stoicism]], [[Epicureanism]] and [[Skepticism]]. At the closing period of Greek philosophy [[Neoplatonism]] was founded by [[Plotinus|Plotinus of Lycopolis]]. Parmenides' thoughts influenced Plato and through him, all of Western philosophy.<ref>[http://www.prospect-magazine.co.uk/article_details.php?id=9972 Parmenides] by Raymond Tallis. Quote, "While Plato's dialogues are among the supreme philosophical works of the western tradition, it was Parmenides who established the implicit framework of their debates."</ref>

[[Saint Augustine]] (354-430 A.D.), drawing greatly on the ideas of Plato, has been of momentous importance in the development of Christian thought.

=== Medieval era ===
In the West, until the twelfth century, little was known of Plato and Aristotle, except a few dialogues and some treatises on logic. [[Anselm of Canterbury|St. Anselm]] (1O33-1109) made a first attempt at systematizing [[Scholasticism|Scholastic philosophy]]. Some decades later, the Arabic and Byzantine thinkers entered into relation with Western culture, and affecting a philosophical revival; Al-Ghazali, founder of the Ash'ari school of [[Atomism]], entered [[Europe]] through ibn Rushd; translations of the ancient authors were made and the philosophical works of [[ibn Sina]] and ibn Rushd became better known. In the thirteenth century important names appeared like: [[Maimonides]], Alexander of Hales (ca. 1185 - 1245), St. Bonaventure, [[Albertus Magnus]], [[Roger Bacon]], [[St. Thomas Aquinas]], and in the following century: William of Occam, Eckhart and [[Nicholas of Cusa]], and later, [[Thomas More]] and Grotius. (cf: [[Ibidem]] Catholic Encyclopedia.)

Classifications of Philosophy in this period are mostly akin to the Platonic division into [[logic]], [[ethics]], and [[physics]].

=== Modern era ===
[[Image:JohnStuartMill.jpg|thumb|[[John Stuart Mill]]]]
The main figures from this era are: [[Thomas Hobbes]], [[Rene Descartes ]], [[Gottfried Leibniz]], [[David Hume]], [[Immanuel Kant]], [[Arthur Schopenhauer]], [[Auguste Comte]], [[John Stuart Mill]], [[Herbert Spencer]], [[Karl Marx]] and [[Friedrich Nietzsche]].

Dividing Philosophy Kant, distinguishes [[metaphysics]], [[moral]] philosophy, [[religion]], and [[anthropology]].

The most widely accepted scheme, that which still governs the division of the branches of philosophy is due to [[Christian Wolff]] (1679-1755):

This scheme is as follows:

1. Logic.
2. Speculative Philosophy.
* Ontology, or General Metaphysics.
* Special Metaphysics.
: o Theodicy (the study of God).
: o Cosmology (the study of the World).
: o Psychology (the study of Man).

3. Practical Philosophy.
* Ethics
* Politics
* Economics

(cf: [[Ibidem]])

:::::: ''All the interests of my reason, speculative as well as practical, combine in the three following questions:''

:::::::::''1. What can I know? 2. What ought I to do? 3. What may I hope?'' Immanuel Kant.

=== The Twentieth Century ===

This century has offered a wide diversity of orientations. The best known are the French school of [[Existentialism]], the German study of linked [[Phenomenology]], the [[Positivism|Positivists]] of the Vienna Circle, and the post-Positivist Analytic movement.

==== Existentialists ====

The earliest [[existentialism|existentialist]] was the Christian philosopher [[Søren Kierkegaard]]. Other prominent existentialists include [[Henri Bergson]] (1859 – 1941), winner of the 1927 Nobel Prize in Literature, [[Karl Jaspers]], and the noted philosopher, playwright, and novelist [[Jean-Paul Sartre]] (1905 – 1980).

==== [[Phenomenology]] and [[Hermeneutics]] ====

Edmund Husserl (1859 – 1938) founder of phenomenology, [[Martin Heidegger]] (1889 – 1976), and Hans-Georg Gadamer (1900-2002) are the core writers here.

==== Logical Positivists ====

The [[Vienna Circle]] philosophers, most notably Moritz Schlick, Rudolf Carnap, Herbert Feigl, the famous mathematician [[Kurt Godel]], and Otto Neurath established a rigorous tradition called "Logical Empiricism", but usually referred to as [[logical positivism]]. This tradition, a stricter development of [[Auguste Comte]]'s positivism, is no longer an active research program, unlike [[Existentialism]] and Phenomenology.

Often thought of as a logical positivist [[Karl Popper]] was in fact a fierce critic.

==== Structuralism ====

Structuralism is a theory that uses culturally interconnected signs to reconstruct systems of relationships rather than studying isolated, material things in themselves, with proponents such as Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure (1857 – 1913), Russian linguist Roman Jakobson (1896 – 1982), French anthropologist [[Claude Lévi-Strauss]] (1908 – 2009 ), French literary critic [[Roland Barthes]] (1915 – 1980), and French philosopher and historian Michel Foucault (1926 – 1984). Foucault, who is often classified as a post-structuralist, is renowned for historical studies that reveal the sometimes morally disturbing power relations inherent in social practices.<ref>[http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/structuralism Structuralism]</ref>

==== Others ====

The Frankfurt School, a group of researchers associated with the Institut für Sozialforschung (Institute of Social Research), founded in 1923 as an autonomous division of the University of Frankfurt; members were Max Horkheimer, [[Theodor Adorno|Theodor Wiesengrund Adorno]], his friend Walter Benjamin (1892 – 1940), a German essayist and critic known for his synthesis of eccentric Marxist theory and Jewish messianism and [[Herbert Marcuse]] (1898 – 1979).<ref>[http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Philosophhy Philosophy]</ref> [[Jürgen Habermas]] (1929-), a critic of [[Positivism]] is the most famous German professor of the tradition of critical theory.

[[British]] philosophers from the beginning of the 20. Century are: George Edward Moore (1873 – 1958), [[Bertrand Russell]] (1872 – 1970), philosopher, [[mathematician]], and social reformer, and the Austrian [[Ludwig Wittgenstein]] (1889 – 1951), who taught in Cambridge.

==== Surge of theistic philosophers in latter part of 20th century ====

In the latter half of the 20th century, [[theism]] made revolutionary advances within philosophy in terms of its influence within Anglo-American philosophy.<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qfbvr0ngsnA Debate - Michael Payton vs William Lane Craig - Does God Exist - 2009]</ref> The majority of philosophers of religion, or those who have extensively studied the issue of the [[Arguments for the existence of God|existence of God]], are [[theism|theists]] - about 70 percent.<ref>[http://www.strangenotions.com/atheist-scientists/ Does it matter that many scientists are atheists?]</ref>
[[File:Alister McGrath.jpg|right|thumb|175px|[[Alister McGrath]] ]]
In 2001, the atheist and philosopher Quentin Smith declared:
{{cquote|[[Naturalism|Naturalists]] [atheists] passively watched as realist versions of theism … began to sweep through the philosophical community, until today perhaps one-quarter or one-third of philosophy professors are theists, with most being orthodox Christians…. God is not 'dead' in academia; he returned to life in the 1960's and is now alive and well in his last academic stronghold, philosophy departments."<ref>[http://www.reasonablefaith.org/theistic-critiques-of-atheism Theistic critiques of atheism] by [[William Lane Craig]]</ref>}}
In 2004, Professor [[Alister McGrath]], professor of historical theology at Wycliffe Hall, [[Oxford University]] declared, "The golden age of [[atheism]] is over."<ref>http://www.sbcbaptistpress.org/bpnews.asp?ID=18837</ref> McGrath is an [[ex-atheists|ex-atheiest]].

=== American Philosophy ===
{{main|American Enlightenment}}

Some scholars have said that American philosophers’ focus on the interconnections of theory and practice, on experience and community, but different concerns and themes have waxed or waned at different times. Through the middle of the 20th century, at least, American philosophers were actively engaged in shaping and reflecting the development of American culture.<ref>[http://www.iep.utm.edu/a/american.htm American Philosophy]</ref>

==== Transcendentalism ====
{{main|Transcendentalism}}

Founded by [[Ralph Waldo Emerson]] (1803 - 1882) who became the most widely known man of letters in America in the 19th century. Transcendentalism, ''of which Emerson was the leading figure, resembled British [[Romanticism]] in its precept that a fundamental continuity exists between man, nature, and God, or the divine... Matter and spirit are not opposed.'' <ref>[http://www.iep.utm.edu/e/emerson.htm Ralph Waldo Emerson]</ref>

==== Pragmatism ====
Main figures are: [[Charles Peirce]] (1839-1914), [[William James]] (1842-1910), [[John Dewey]] (1859-1952), and [[Richard Rorty]] (1931-2007).

==== Philosophy of Religion ====

The best-known American philosopher of religion is without a doubt [[Alvin Plantinga]] (1932- ) at the [[University of Notre Dame]]; also well-known are John Hick (1922- ), who, though born in England, did much of his work at Claremont University in southern California, and professor William Alston (1921- ) working at [[Syracuse University]].

==== Analytic Philosophers ====
[[Image:John Rawls.jpg|thumb|Harvard philosopher John Rawls.]]
America has produced a great many philosophers in the Analytic tradition. A brief list of notables:

* W.V.O. Quine
* Donald Davidson
* Saul Kripke
* John Searle
* Paul Grice
* Richard Montague
* Hilary Putnam
* Nelson Goodman
* Kit Fine
* Ted Sider
* Robert Stalnaker
* [[Daniel Dennett]]

Especially well known to non-philosophers is [[John Rawls]] (1921 - 2002) (political and moral philosophy) author of ''A Theory of Justice'' (1971), ''Political Liberalism'' (1993), ''The Law of Peoples'' (1999), and ''Justice as Fairness: A Restatement'' (2001).

== Eastern Philosophy ==
[[Eastern Philosophy]] comprises mainly the thought of: [[Zoroastrianism]], [[Buddhism]], [[Hinduism]], [[Confucianism]], [[Taoism]], [[Islamism]] and [[Jainism]]. Some scholars include [[Ayurveda]], Babylonian philosophy and [[Korean]] philosophy.

== See also ==
* [[Greek Philosophy]]
* [[Greek philosophers]]
* [[Indian philosophy|Indian Philosophy]]
* [[:Category:Indian Philosophers|Indian Philosophers]]
* [[Agnosticism]]
* [[Empiricism]]
* [[Atheism and belief]]

== External links ==
* [http://www.friesian.com/history.htm History of Philosophy]
* [http://www.erraticimpact.com/history_index.htm History of Philosophy - Resources]
* [http://www.questia.com/read/100673611 A History of American Philosophy] Book by Herbert W. Schneider.
* [http://www.molloy.edu/sophia/sophia_texts.htm Edited versions of important texts in philosophy.]

== References ==
<references/>

[[Category:Philosophy]]
[[Category:Philosophical Systems‏‎]]

Philosophy

2018-10-01T23:48:48Z

Logician: /* Branches of Philosophy */

[[Image:Aristotle.gif|thumb|Aristotle]]
'''Philosophy''' (literally 'love of wisdom', from Greek φιλοσοφία (philosophía) &ndash from φίλος (phílos) friend lover; and σοφία (sophía) wisdom) is an academic discipline concerned with the most fundamental and general concepts and principles involved in thought, action, and reality. Philosophy progresses according to various methods of rational inquiry.

Philosophy is accurately described as both the first science and the "Queen of the Sciences". Until the late 19th century, what is now called "science" was subsumed under [[natural philosophy]].

Philosophy in the West has its origins in Ancient Greece, ca. 600 B.C. After the fall of the Roman Empire, much of Greek philosophy was lost to the West, preserved only in the Arab world until the time of the Crusades and the Moorish conquest of Spain. Contact with Arab philosophers (especially al-Ghazali, who developed a version of the [[Cosmological argument]] and wrote more than 70 books, [[ibn Rushd]], and [[ibn Sina]]) greatly influenced philosophical tradition in Europe, beginning the "Scholastic period", which ended with [[Descartes]] and the beginning of the [[Enlightenment]]. The late 18th and early 19th centuries saw a major split between British Empiricism and Continental Rationalism. This divide can be traced back to the late 17th century but culminated in a schism between rationalists like Descartes and Spinoza and empiricists like Berkeley, Locke, and Hume. This divide was rectified by the work of Immanuel Kant, a German philosopher famous for his treatise ''Critique of Pure Reason''. With the divide healed, 20th century philosophy would spark a movement called [[modernism]]. Modernism would give birth to analytical philosophy and would culminate in [[logical positivism]] and [[verificationism]] before slowly dying out and giving way to [[postmodernism]].

== Branches of Philosophy ==
[[File:Rubens. The Four Philosophers.jpg|thumb|[[Rubens]]. The Four Philosophers.]]
The main branches of philosophy are [[Metaphysics]], which is (broadly speaking) the study of what-is; [[Logic]], the rules of reasoning; [[Epistemology]], the study of knowledge; and [[Axiology]], the study of values. Notable sub-branches include:

*'''[[Philosophy of Language]]''': the study of language and its effects on humanity
*'''[[Philosophy of Religion]]''': the study of religions, what defines a religion, and the tenets of religions
*'''[[Philosophy of Mind]]''': the study of how the mind and the body relate to each other
*'''[[Ethics]]''': the analysis of the nature of [[morality]] and morals, how and why we determine right from wrong.
*'''[[Political Philosophy]]''': the analysis of the nature of the human public sphere, which one may consider the ethics of the way society is arranged.
*'''[[Philosophy of Science]]''': the analysis of scientific concepts and methodology, which concerns itself mostly with the foundations of [[science]], and interdisciplinary areas.
*'''[[Aesthetics]]''': the analysis of the nature and experience of [[art]] and beauty.
{{Clear}}

== History of Philosophy ==

Conventionally the History of Western Philosophy is divided into four eras: Ancient, Medieval, Modern and Contemporary.

The Ancient era starts with the [[Presocratic Philosophy|Presocratic]] philosophers and goes until the fall of the Roman empire; The Medieval goes until the end of the [[Middle Ages]]; The Modern up to the 20th century, and The Contemporary up to present.

[[Frederick Copleston]], S.J. (April 10, 1907 - February 3, 1994) was a [[Jesuit]] scholar who wrote the highly respected 9 volume History of Philosophy.

=== Greek Philosophy ===
[[Image:Parmenides book.jpg|240px|right]]
Philosophy in the West begins with [[Thales]] of Miletus, who was the first astronomer in recorded history to accurately predict a solar eclipse. The Milesian School founded by Thales included [[Anaxagoras]], [[Anaximander]], and [[Anaximenes]]. It was [[Pythagoras]] (ca. 582 - 504 BC) who first brought Philosophy into connection with practical life; he also gave Philosophy its name "the love of wisdom". Closely related to Milesianis is the work of [[Heraclitus]] of Ephesus. Around the time of Heraclitus, [[Parmenides]] of Elea, with his pupil [[Zeno]], raised some serious objections to the project of Milesian philosophy. These objections laid the groundwork for [[Socrates]] and his pupil [[Plato]], and [[Aristotle]], as well as the Atomists, [[Democritus]] and [[Leucippus]]. After the Greek philosophical golden age other systems appeared, like [[Cynicism]], [[Stoicism]], [[Epicureanism]] and [[Skepticism]]. At the closing period of Greek philosophy [[Neoplatonism]] was founded by [[Plotinus|Plotinus of Lycopolis]]. Parmenides' thoughts influenced Plato and through him, all western philosophy. ''While Plato's dialogues are among the supreme philosophical works of the western tradition, it was Parmenides who established the implicit framework of their debates.'' <ref>[http://www.prospect-magazine.co.uk/article_details.php?id=9972 Parmenides] by Raymond Tallis</ref>

[[Saint Augustine]] (354-430 A.D.), carrying some traces of Plato, has been of momentous importance in the development of Christian thought.

It was Plato, who made ''idea'' a technical term in philosophy, suggesting a world of abstract ideas [[idealism]]; Aristotle on the contrary, shows the real that dwells in the objects of sense; he thought that the natural world needed to be studied and observed for knowledge to be gained. His theory of act and potentiality, of form and ''matter'', is a new solution of the relations between the permanent and the changing; following the first attempts of the [[Presocratic Philosophy]] that conducted to [[Materialism]], ''Aristotle reproaches the Ionian philosophers in general with attempting to explain the evolution of the world without the Nous (intelligence); he regarded [[Protagoras]], who first introduced a spiritual principle, as a sober man among the inebriated.''
<ref>[http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12025c.htm Philosophy] Catholic Encyclopedia.</ref>

Since that age up to present days, ''idealism '' and ''materialism'' have been the two main tendencies in the field of philosophy.

=== Medieval era ===
In the West, until the twelfth century, little was known of Plato and Aristotle, except a few dialogues and some treatises on logic. [[Anselm of Canterbury|St. Anselm]] (1O33-1109) made a first attempt at systematizing [[Scholasticism|Scholastic philosophy]]. Some decades later, the Arabic and Byzantine thinkers entered into relation with Western culture, and affecting a philosophical revival; Al-Ghazali, founder of the Ash'ari school of [[Atomism]], entered [[Europe]] through ibn Rushd; translations of the ancient authors were made and the philosophical works of [[ibn Sina]] and ibn Rushd became better known. In the thirteenth century important names appeared like: [[Maimonides]], Alexander of Hales (ca. 1185 - 1245), St. Bonaventure, [[Albertus Magnus]], [[Roger Bacon]], [[St. Thomas Aquinas]], and in the following century: William of Occam, Eckhart and [[Nicholas of Cusa]], and later, [[Thomas More]] and Grotius. (cf: [[Ibidem]] Catholic Encyclopedia.)

Classifications of Philosophy in this period are mostly akin to the Platonic division into [[logic]], [[ethics]], and [[physics]].

=== Modern era ===
[[Image:JohnStuartMill.jpg|thumb|[[John Stuart Mill]]]]
The main figures from this era are: [[Thomas Hobbes]], [[Rene Descartes ]], [[Gottfried Leibniz]], [[David Hume]], [[Immanuel Kant]], [[Arthur Schopenhauer]], [[Auguste Comte]], [[John Stuart Mill]], [[Herbert Spencer]], [[Karl Marx]] and [[Friedrich Nietzsche]].

Dividing Philosophy Kant, distinguishes [[metaphysics]], [[moral]] philosophy, [[religion]], and [[anthropology]].

The most widely accepted scheme, that which still governs the division of the branches of philosophy is due to [[Christian Wolff]] (1679-1755):

This scheme is as follows:

1. Logic.
2. Speculative Philosophy.
* Ontology, or General Metaphysics.
* Special Metaphysics.
: o Theodicy (the study of God).
: o Cosmology (the study of the World).
: o Psychology (the study of Man).

3. Practical Philosophy.
* Ethics
* Politics
* Economics

(cf: [[Ibidem]])

:::::: ''All the interests of my reason, speculative as well as practical, combine in the three following questions:''

:::::::::''1. What can I know? 2. What ought I to do? 3. What may I hope?'' Immanuel Kant.

=== The Twentieth Century ===

This century has offered a wide diversity of orientations. The best known are the French school of [[Existentialism]], the German study of linked [[Phenomenology]], the [[Positivism|Positivists]] of the Vienna Circle, and the post-Positivist Analytic movement.

==== Existentialists ====

The earliest [[existentialism|existentialist]] was the Christian philosopher [[Søren Kierkegaard]]. Other prominent existentialists include [[Henri Bergson]] (1859 – 1941), winner of the 1927 Nobel Prize in Literature, [[Karl Jaspers]], and the noted philosopher, playwright, and novelist [[Jean-Paul Sartre]] (1905 – 1980).

==== [[Phenomenology]] and [[Hermeneutics]] ====

Edmund Husserl (1859 – 1938) founder of phenomenology, [[Martin Heidegger]] (1889 – 1976), and Hans-Georg Gadamer (1900-2002) are the core writers here.

==== Logical Positivists ====

The [[Vienna Circle]] philosophers, most notably Moritz Schlick, Rudolf Carnap, Herbert Feigl, the famous mathematician [[Kurt Godel]], and Otto Neurath established a rigorous tradition called "Logical Empiricism", but usually referred to as [[logical positivism]]. This tradition, a stricter development of [[Auguste Comte]]'s positivism, is no longer an active research program, unlike [[Existentialism]] and Phenomenology.

Often thought of as a logical positivist [[Karl Popper]] was in fact a fierce critic.

==== Structuralism ====

Structuralism is a theory that uses culturally interconnected signs to reconstruct systems of relationships rather than studying isolated, material things in themselves, with proponents such as Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure (1857 – 1913), Russian linguist Roman Jakobson (1896 – 1982), French anthropologist [[Claude Lévi-Strauss]] (1908 – 2009 ), French literary critic [[Roland Barthes]] (1915 – 1980), and French philosopher and historian Michel Foucault (1926 – 1984). Foucault, who is often classified as a post-structuralist, is renowned for historical studies that reveal the sometimes morally disturbing power relations inherent in social practices.<ref>[http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/structuralism Structuralism]</ref>

==== Others ====

The Frankfurt School, a group of researchers associated with the Institut für Sozialforschung (Institute of Social Research), founded in 1923 as an autonomous division of the University of Frankfurt; members were Max Horkheimer, [[Theodor Adorno|Theodor Wiesengrund Adorno]], his friend Walter Benjamin (1892 – 1940), a German essayist and critic known for his synthesis of eccentric Marxist theory and Jewish messianism and [[Herbert Marcuse]] (1898 – 1979).<ref>[http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Philosophhy Philosophy]</ref> [[Jürgen Habermas]] (1929-), a critic of [[Positivism]] is the most famous German professor of the tradition of critical theory.

[[British]] philosophers from the beginning of the 20. Century are: George Edward Moore (1873 – 1958), [[Bertrand Russell]] (1872 – 1970), philosopher, [[mathematician]], and social reformer, and the Austrian [[Ludwig Wittgenstein]] (1889 – 1951), who taught in Cambridge.

==== Surge of theistic philosophers in latter part of 20th century ====

In the latter half of the 20th century, [[theism]] made revolutionary advances within philosophy in terms of its influence within Anglo-American philosophy.<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qfbvr0ngsnA Debate - Michael Payton vs William Lane Craig - Does God Exist - 2009]</ref> The majority of philosophers of religion, or those who have extensively studied the issue of the [[Arguments for the existence of God|existence of God]], are [[theism|theists]] - about 70 percent.<ref>[http://www.strangenotions.com/atheist-scientists/ Does it matter that many scientists are atheists?]</ref>
[[File:Alister McGrath.jpg|right|thumb|175px|[[Alister McGrath]] ]]
In 2001, the atheist and philosopher Quentin Smith declared:
{{cquote|[[Naturalism|Naturalists]] [atheists] passively watched as realist versions of theism … began to sweep through the philosophical community, until today perhaps one-quarter or one-third of philosophy professors are theists, with most being orthodox Christians…. God is not 'dead' in academia; he returned to life in the 1960's and is now alive and well in his last academic stronghold, philosophy departments."<ref>[http://www.reasonablefaith.org/theistic-critiques-of-atheism Theistic critiques of atheism] by [[William Lane Craig]]</ref>}}
In 2004, Professor [[Alister McGrath]], professor of historical theology at Wycliffe Hall, [[Oxford University]] declared, "The golden age of [[atheism]] is over."<ref>http://www.sbcbaptistpress.org/bpnews.asp?ID=18837</ref> McGrath is an [[ex-atheists|ex-atheiest]].

=== American Philosophy ===
{{main|American Enlightenment}}

Some scholars have said that American philosophers’ focus on the interconnections of theory and practice, on experience and community, but different concerns and themes have waxed or waned at different times. Through the middle of the 20th century, at least, American philosophers were actively engaged in shaping and reflecting the development of American culture.<ref>[http://www.iep.utm.edu/a/american.htm American Philosophy]</ref>

==== Transcendentalism ====
{{main|Transcendentalism}}

Founded by [[Ralph Waldo Emerson]] (1803 - 1882) who became the most widely known man of letters in America in the 19th century. Transcendentalism, ''of which Emerson was the leading figure, resembled British [[Romanticism]] in its precept that a fundamental continuity exists between man, nature, and God, or the divine... Matter and spirit are not opposed.'' <ref>[http://www.iep.utm.edu/e/emerson.htm Ralph Waldo Emerson]</ref>

==== Pragmatism ====
Main figures are: [[Charles Peirce]] (1839-1914), [[William James]] (1842-1910), [[John Dewey]] (1859-1952), and [[Richard Rorty]] (1931-2007).

==== Philosophy of Religion ====

The best-known American philosopher of religion is without a doubt [[Alvin Plantinga]] (1932- ) at the [[University of Notre Dame]]; also well-known are John Hick (1922- ), who, though born in England, did much of his work at Claremont University in southern California, and professor William Alston (1921- ) working at [[Syracuse University]].

==== Analytic Philosophers ====
[[Image:John Rawls.jpg|thumb|Harvard philosopher John Rawls.]]
America has produced a great many philosophers in the Analytic tradition. A brief list of notables:

* W.V.O. Quine
* Donald Davidson
* Saul Kripke
* John Searle
* Paul Grice
* Richard Montague
* Hilary Putnam
* Nelson Goodman
* Kit Fine
* Ted Sider
* Robert Stalnaker
* [[Daniel Dennett]]

Especially well known to non-philosophers is [[John Rawls]] (1921 - 2002) (political and moral philosophy) author of ''A Theory of Justice'' (1971), ''Political Liberalism'' (1993), ''The Law of Peoples'' (1999), and ''Justice as Fairness: A Restatement'' (2001).

== Eastern Philosophy ==
[[Eastern Philosophy]] comprises mainly the thought of: [[Zoroastrianism]], [[Buddhism]], [[Hinduism]], [[Confucianism]], [[Taoism]], [[Islamism]] and [[Jainism]]. Some scholars include [[Ayurveda]], Babylonian philosophy and [[Korean]] philosophy.

== See also ==
* [[Greek Philosophy]]
* [[Greek philosophers]]
* [[Indian philosophy|Indian Philosophy]]
* [[:Category:Indian Philosophers|Indian Philosophers]]
* [[Agnosticism]]
* [[Empiricism]]
* [[Atheism and belief]]

== External links ==
* [http://www.friesian.com/history.htm History of Philosophy]
* [http://www.erraticimpact.com/history_index.htm History of Philosophy - Resources]
* [http://www.questia.com/read/100673611 A History of American Philosophy] Book by Herbert W. Schneider.
* [http://www.molloy.edu/sophia/sophia_texts.htm Edited versions of important texts in philosophy.]

== References ==
<references/>

[[Category:Philosophy]]
[[Category:Philosophical Systems‏‎]]

Philosophy

2018-10-01T23:48:28Z

Logician:

[[Image:Aristotle.gif|thumb|Aristotle]]
'''Philosophy''' (literally 'love of wisdom', from Greek φιλοσοφία (philosophía) &ndash from φίλος (phílos) friend lover; and σοφία (sophía) wisdom) is an academic discipline concerned with the most fundamental and general concepts and principles involved in thought, action, and reality. Philosophy progresses according to various methods of rational inquiry.

Philosophy is accurately described as both the first science and the "Queen of the Sciences". Until the late 19th century, what is now called "science" was subsumed under [[natural philosophy]].

Philosophy in the West has its origins in Ancient Greece, ca. 600 B.C. After the fall of the Roman Empire, much of Greek philosophy was lost to the West, preserved only in the Arab world until the time of the Crusades and the Moorish conquest of Spain. Contact with Arab philosophers (especially al-Ghazali, who developed a version of the [[Cosmological argument]] and wrote more than 70 books, [[ibn Rushd]], and [[ibn Sina]]) greatly influenced philosophical tradition in Europe, beginning the "Scholastic period", which ended with [[Descartes]] and the beginning of the [[Enlightenment]]. The late 18th and early 19th centuries saw a major split between British Empiricism and Continental Rationalism. This divide can be traced back to the late 17th century but culminated in a schism between rationalists like Descartes and Spinoza and empiricists like Berkeley, Locke, and Hume. This divide was rectified by the work of Immanuel Kant, a German philosopher famous for his treatise ''Critique of Pure Reason''. With the divide healed, 20th century philosophy would spark a movement called [[modernism]]. Modernism would give birth to analytical philosophy and would culminate in [[logical positivism]] and [[verificationism]] before slowly dying out and giving way to [[postmodernism]].

== Branches of Philosophy ==
[[File:Rubens. The Four Philosophers.jpg|thumb|[[Rubens]]. The Four Philosophers.]]
The main branches of philosophy are [[Metaphysics]], which is (broadly speaking) the study of what-is; [[Logic]], the rules of reasoning; [[Epistemology]], the study of knowledge; and [[Axiology]], the study of values. Notable sub-branches include:

*'''[[Philosophy of language]]''': the study of language and its effects on humanity
*'''[[Philosophy of Religion]]''': the study of religions, what defines a religion, and the tenets of religions
*'''[[Philosophy of Mind]]''': the study of how the mind and the body relate to each other
*'''[[Ethics]]''': the analysis of the nature of [[morality]] and morals, how and why we determine right from wrong.
*'''[[Political Philosophy]]''': the analysis of the nature of the human public sphere, which one may consider the ethics of the way society is arranged.
*'''[[Philosophy of Science]]''': the analysis of scientific concepts and methodology, which concerns itself mostly with the foundations of [[science]], and interdisciplinary areas.
*'''[[Aesthetics]]''': the analysis of the nature and experience of [[art]] and beauty.
{{Clear}}

== History of Philosophy ==

Conventionally the History of Western Philosophy is divided into four eras: Ancient, Medieval, Modern and Contemporary.

The Ancient era starts with the [[Presocratic Philosophy|Presocratic]] philosophers and goes until the fall of the Roman empire; The Medieval goes until the end of the [[Middle Ages]]; The Modern up to the 20th century, and The Contemporary up to present.

[[Frederick Copleston]], S.J. (April 10, 1907 - February 3, 1994) was a [[Jesuit]] scholar who wrote the highly respected 9 volume History of Philosophy.

=== Greek Philosophy ===
[[Image:Parmenides book.jpg|240px|right]]
Philosophy in the West begins with [[Thales]] of Miletus, who was the first astronomer in recorded history to accurately predict a solar eclipse. The Milesian School founded by Thales included [[Anaxagoras]], [[Anaximander]], and [[Anaximenes]]. It was [[Pythagoras]] (ca. 582 - 504 BC) who first brought Philosophy into connection with practical life; he also gave Philosophy its name "the love of wisdom". Closely related to Milesianis is the work of [[Heraclitus]] of Ephesus. Around the time of Heraclitus, [[Parmenides]] of Elea, with his pupil [[Zeno]], raised some serious objections to the project of Milesian philosophy. These objections laid the groundwork for [[Socrates]] and his pupil [[Plato]], and [[Aristotle]], as well as the Atomists, [[Democritus]] and [[Leucippus]]. After the Greek philosophical golden age other systems appeared, like [[Cynicism]], [[Stoicism]], [[Epicureanism]] and [[Skepticism]]. At the closing period of Greek philosophy [[Neoplatonism]] was founded by [[Plotinus|Plotinus of Lycopolis]]. Parmenides' thoughts influenced Plato and through him, all western philosophy. ''While Plato's dialogues are among the supreme philosophical works of the western tradition, it was Parmenides who established the implicit framework of their debates.'' <ref>[http://www.prospect-magazine.co.uk/article_details.php?id=9972 Parmenides] by Raymond Tallis</ref>

[[Saint Augustine]] (354-430 A.D.), carrying some traces of Plato, has been of momentous importance in the development of Christian thought.

It was Plato, who made ''idea'' a technical term in philosophy, suggesting a world of abstract ideas [[idealism]]; Aristotle on the contrary, shows the real that dwells in the objects of sense; he thought that the natural world needed to be studied and observed for knowledge to be gained. His theory of act and potentiality, of form and ''matter'', is a new solution of the relations between the permanent and the changing; following the first attempts of the [[Presocratic Philosophy]] that conducted to [[Materialism]], ''Aristotle reproaches the Ionian philosophers in general with attempting to explain the evolution of the world without the Nous (intelligence); he regarded [[Protagoras]], who first introduced a spiritual principle, as a sober man among the inebriated.''
<ref>[http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12025c.htm Philosophy] Catholic Encyclopedia.</ref>

Since that age up to present days, ''idealism '' and ''materialism'' have been the two main tendencies in the field of philosophy.

=== Medieval era ===
In the West, until the twelfth century, little was known of Plato and Aristotle, except a few dialogues and some treatises on logic. [[Anselm of Canterbury|St. Anselm]] (1O33-1109) made a first attempt at systematizing [[Scholasticism|Scholastic philosophy]]. Some decades later, the Arabic and Byzantine thinkers entered into relation with Western culture, and affecting a philosophical revival; Al-Ghazali, founder of the Ash'ari school of [[Atomism]], entered [[Europe]] through ibn Rushd; translations of the ancient authors were made and the philosophical works of [[ibn Sina]] and ibn Rushd became better known. In the thirteenth century important names appeared like: [[Maimonides]], Alexander of Hales (ca. 1185 - 1245), St. Bonaventure, [[Albertus Magnus]], [[Roger Bacon]], [[St. Thomas Aquinas]], and in the following century: William of Occam, Eckhart and [[Nicholas of Cusa]], and later, [[Thomas More]] and Grotius. (cf: [[Ibidem]] Catholic Encyclopedia.)

Classifications of Philosophy in this period are mostly akin to the Platonic division into [[logic]], [[ethics]], and [[physics]].

=== Modern era ===
[[Image:JohnStuartMill.jpg|thumb|[[John Stuart Mill]]]]
The main figures from this era are: [[Thomas Hobbes]], [[Rene Descartes ]], [[Gottfried Leibniz]], [[David Hume]], [[Immanuel Kant]], [[Arthur Schopenhauer]], [[Auguste Comte]], [[John Stuart Mill]], [[Herbert Spencer]], [[Karl Marx]] and [[Friedrich Nietzsche]].

Dividing Philosophy Kant, distinguishes [[metaphysics]], [[moral]] philosophy, [[religion]], and [[anthropology]].

The most widely accepted scheme, that which still governs the division of the branches of philosophy is due to [[Christian Wolff]] (1679-1755):

This scheme is as follows:

1. Logic.
2. Speculative Philosophy.
* Ontology, or General Metaphysics.
* Special Metaphysics.
: o Theodicy (the study of God).
: o Cosmology (the study of the World).
: o Psychology (the study of Man).

3. Practical Philosophy.
* Ethics
* Politics
* Economics

(cf: [[Ibidem]])

:::::: ''All the interests of my reason, speculative as well as practical, combine in the three following questions:''

:::::::::''1. What can I know? 2. What ought I to do? 3. What may I hope?'' Immanuel Kant.

=== The Twentieth Century ===

This century has offered a wide diversity of orientations. The best known are the French school of [[Existentialism]], the German study of linked [[Phenomenology]], the [[Positivism|Positivists]] of the Vienna Circle, and the post-Positivist Analytic movement.

==== Existentialists ====

The earliest [[existentialism|existentialist]] was the Christian philosopher [[Søren Kierkegaard]]. Other prominent existentialists include [[Henri Bergson]] (1859 – 1941), winner of the 1927 Nobel Prize in Literature, [[Karl Jaspers]], and the noted philosopher, playwright, and novelist [[Jean-Paul Sartre]] (1905 – 1980).

==== [[Phenomenology]] and [[Hermeneutics]] ====

Edmund Husserl (1859 – 1938) founder of phenomenology, [[Martin Heidegger]] (1889 – 1976), and Hans-Georg Gadamer (1900-2002) are the core writers here.

==== Logical Positivists ====

The [[Vienna Circle]] philosophers, most notably Moritz Schlick, Rudolf Carnap, Herbert Feigl, the famous mathematician [[Kurt Godel]], and Otto Neurath established a rigorous tradition called "Logical Empiricism", but usually referred to as [[logical positivism]]. This tradition, a stricter development of [[Auguste Comte]]'s positivism, is no longer an active research program, unlike [[Existentialism]] and Phenomenology.

Often thought of as a logical positivist [[Karl Popper]] was in fact a fierce critic.

==== Structuralism ====

Structuralism is a theory that uses culturally interconnected signs to reconstruct systems of relationships rather than studying isolated, material things in themselves, with proponents such as Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure (1857 – 1913), Russian linguist Roman Jakobson (1896 – 1982), French anthropologist [[Claude Lévi-Strauss]] (1908 – 2009 ), French literary critic [[Roland Barthes]] (1915 – 1980), and French philosopher and historian Michel Foucault (1926 – 1984). Foucault, who is often classified as a post-structuralist, is renowned for historical studies that reveal the sometimes morally disturbing power relations inherent in social practices.<ref>[http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/structuralism Structuralism]</ref>

==== Others ====

The Frankfurt School, a group of researchers associated with the Institut für Sozialforschung (Institute of Social Research), founded in 1923 as an autonomous division of the University of Frankfurt; members were Max Horkheimer, [[Theodor Adorno|Theodor Wiesengrund Adorno]], his friend Walter Benjamin (1892 – 1940), a German essayist and critic known for his synthesis of eccentric Marxist theory and Jewish messianism and [[Herbert Marcuse]] (1898 – 1979).<ref>[http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Philosophhy Philosophy]</ref> [[Jürgen Habermas]] (1929-), a critic of [[Positivism]] is the most famous German professor of the tradition of critical theory.

[[British]] philosophers from the beginning of the 20. Century are: George Edward Moore (1873 – 1958), [[Bertrand Russell]] (1872 – 1970), philosopher, [[mathematician]], and social reformer, and the Austrian [[Ludwig Wittgenstein]] (1889 – 1951), who taught in Cambridge.

==== Surge of theistic philosophers in latter part of 20th century ====

In the latter half of the 20th century, [[theism]] made revolutionary advances within philosophy in terms of its influence within Anglo-American philosophy.<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qfbvr0ngsnA Debate - Michael Payton vs William Lane Craig - Does God Exist - 2009]</ref> The majority of philosophers of religion, or those who have extensively studied the issue of the [[Arguments for the existence of God|existence of God]], are [[theism|theists]] - about 70 percent.<ref>[http://www.strangenotions.com/atheist-scientists/ Does it matter that many scientists are atheists?]</ref>
[[File:Alister McGrath.jpg|right|thumb|175px|[[Alister McGrath]] ]]
In 2001, the atheist and philosopher Quentin Smith declared:
{{cquote|[[Naturalism|Naturalists]] [atheists] passively watched as realist versions of theism … began to sweep through the philosophical community, until today perhaps one-quarter or one-third of philosophy professors are theists, with most being orthodox Christians…. God is not 'dead' in academia; he returned to life in the 1960's and is now alive and well in his last academic stronghold, philosophy departments."<ref>[http://www.reasonablefaith.org/theistic-critiques-of-atheism Theistic critiques of atheism] by [[William Lane Craig]]</ref>}}
In 2004, Professor [[Alister McGrath]], professor of historical theology at Wycliffe Hall, [[Oxford University]] declared, "The golden age of [[atheism]] is over."<ref>http://www.sbcbaptistpress.org/bpnews.asp?ID=18837</ref> McGrath is an [[ex-atheists|ex-atheiest]].

=== American Philosophy ===
{{main|American Enlightenment}}

Some scholars have said that American philosophers’ focus on the interconnections of theory and practice, on experience and community, but different concerns and themes have waxed or waned at different times. Through the middle of the 20th century, at least, American philosophers were actively engaged in shaping and reflecting the development of American culture.<ref>[http://www.iep.utm.edu/a/american.htm American Philosophy]</ref>

==== Transcendentalism ====
{{main|Transcendentalism}}

Founded by [[Ralph Waldo Emerson]] (1803 - 1882) who became the most widely known man of letters in America in the 19th century. Transcendentalism, ''of which Emerson was the leading figure, resembled British [[Romanticism]] in its precept that a fundamental continuity exists between man, nature, and God, or the divine... Matter and spirit are not opposed.'' <ref>[http://www.iep.utm.edu/e/emerson.htm Ralph Waldo Emerson]</ref>

==== Pragmatism ====
Main figures are: [[Charles Peirce]] (1839-1914), [[William James]] (1842-1910), [[John Dewey]] (1859-1952), and [[Richard Rorty]] (1931-2007).

==== Philosophy of Religion ====

The best-known American philosopher of religion is without a doubt [[Alvin Plantinga]] (1932- ) at the [[University of Notre Dame]]; also well-known are John Hick (1922- ), who, though born in England, did much of his work at Claremont University in southern California, and professor William Alston (1921- ) working at [[Syracuse University]].

==== Analytic Philosophers ====
[[Image:John Rawls.jpg|thumb|Harvard philosopher John Rawls.]]
America has produced a great many philosophers in the Analytic tradition. A brief list of notables:

* W.V.O. Quine
* Donald Davidson
* Saul Kripke
* John Searle
* Paul Grice
* Richard Montague
* Hilary Putnam
* Nelson Goodman
* Kit Fine
* Ted Sider
* Robert Stalnaker
* [[Daniel Dennett]]

Especially well known to non-philosophers is [[John Rawls]] (1921 - 2002) (political and moral philosophy) author of ''A Theory of Justice'' (1971), ''Political Liberalism'' (1993), ''The Law of Peoples'' (1999), and ''Justice as Fairness: A Restatement'' (2001).

== Eastern Philosophy ==
[[Eastern Philosophy]] comprises mainly the thought of: [[Zoroastrianism]], [[Buddhism]], [[Hinduism]], [[Confucianism]], [[Taoism]], [[Islamism]] and [[Jainism]]. Some scholars include [[Ayurveda]], Babylonian philosophy and [[Korean]] philosophy.

== See also ==
* [[Greek Philosophy]]
* [[Greek philosophers]]
* [[Indian philosophy|Indian Philosophy]]
* [[:Category:Indian Philosophers|Indian Philosophers]]
* [[Agnosticism]]
* [[Empiricism]]
* [[Atheism and belief]]

== External links ==
* [http://www.friesian.com/history.htm History of Philosophy]
* [http://www.erraticimpact.com/history_index.htm History of Philosophy - Resources]
* [http://www.questia.com/read/100673611 A History of American Philosophy] Book by Herbert W. Schneider.
* [http://www.molloy.edu/sophia/sophia_texts.htm Edited versions of important texts in philosophy.]

== References ==
<references/>

[[Category:Philosophy]]
[[Category:Philosophical Systems‏‎]]

Logic

2018-09-26T17:00:41Z

Logician: No one has responded to my talk page comment and this is not the place, so I'm removing this

'''Logic''' ([[Greek language|Greek]] ''λογίζω'' – I think, I reason; from ''λόγος'' – reason) refers the patterns in reasoning behind arguments. In [[philosophy]], logic is a sub-branch of [[epistemology]] that deals with and attempts to guide the faculty of human reason. It is often studied alongside [[mathematics]].

[[Aristotle]] was the first to formalize the practice of reasoning. In particular, Aristotle developed a formalization of the [[Syllogism|categorical syllogism]], the three laws of logic, and the Square of Opposition. While modus ponens and its complement modus tollens were known to the medieval philosophers, it is not clear when these central laws of deduction were first formalized.

The next easily identifiable major development in logic comes from Boole in 1847 with the creation of [[Boolean algebra]] and Boolean logic. In the 1870s, Peirce introduces a logic of quantifiers, followed by [[Gottlob Frege]]'s 1879 ''Begriffsschrift'', which contains the first complete formalization of the propositional calculus. Frege's work was developed in service of his logicist project, which was shown to be inconsistent by [[Bertrand Russell]] in 1903 with what is famously called [[Russell's paradox]]. In 1913 Russell and Whitehead published ''Principia Mathematica'', a landmark work that sought to define mathematics with first-order logic.

By the 1950s, with the work of many logicians including [[Hilbert]], Emile Post, Alfred Tarski and [[Kurt Godel]], most of the major results in first-order logic had been proved, and in the 1960s Saul Kripke added a completeness proof for modal logic.

Most logical systems are bivalent; that is, they admit only two truth-values, true or false. However, there is a fair amount of work done on trivalent systems of logic, specifically paraconsistent logic and relevance logic (a subset of paraconsistent logic). These logics were developed in response to the paradoxes that classical logic can create, namely, that anything can follow from a falsehood and the [[principle of explosion]].

Formal logic requires, since Frege, a distinction between the object language and the metalanguage. The metalanguage is ordinarily a natural language like English or German, while the object language is a symbolic language with an alphabet limited to variable meanings and a symbolic system for describing the relationships between the variables.

== Informal Logic ==
The art of [[rhetoric]] is sometimes called "informal logic", and the classic [[logical fallacies|fallacies]] are often described as "logical fallacies", though, strictly speaking, most of them are simply emotionally effective ways to build an invalid argument. Generally speaking, "informal logic" consists of "common sense" and a collection of other rather loose rules that people employ while making most decisions and even in debate. It is unstructured, and depends largely on one's view of "the reasonable". The thresholds of what is "reasonable" and what is not are inexact and subject to change with the receipt of sufficient contrary evidence – and again, what constitutes "sufficiency" in this context might vary from person to person.

== Deduction and Induction ==
Deductive logic is characterized by certainty: in a valid argument, when the premises are true, the conclusion '''must''' be true. Take a classic argument of deductive logic:

:'''P1:''' All men are mortal
:'''P2:''' Socrates is a man.
:'''C:''' Socrates is mortal.

The conclusion is "contained" in the premises. In this sense the conclusion can be said to "follow" from the premises. The conclusion, "Socrates is mortal", is also less informative than the premises, which imply not just that Socrates is mortal but that all men are also mortal. As a result, deductive logic is not thought to add to knowledge, merely to clarify it.

Inductive logic is ampliative, but is famously less certain. In a strong inductive argument, even when the premises are true, it is still possible for the conclusion to be false. An example of an inductive argument is:

:'''P1:''' The first student is wearing red
:'''P2:''' The second student is wearing red
:'''P(n):''' The ''n''th student is wearing red
:'''Conclusion:''' ''All'' students are wearing red

Given the amount of evidence, it is reasonable to inductively conclude that all students are wearing red; however, one's senses could fail or a student could be hiding who is wearing blue. Given this, the conclusion is never certainly true and can only be highly probably true. The event of moving from "''n'' examples are this way" to a universal statement that "''all'' examples are this way" is commonly known as the [[Problem of Induction|problem of induction]].

== Uses of logic in other disciplines ==
Logic is a necessary discipline in [[philosophy]], because it deals with how we study and interact with propositions. Logic and [[mathematics]] are also closely connected, and much of mathematics can be reduced to first-order logic, though Gödel's [[Incompleteness theorem|incompleteness theorem]] shows that not all of mathematics can be so reduced.

*In [[computer science]], logic dictates how a machine will follow a set of instructions, including how to test its "world," evaluate it, and act according to that evaluation, except that instead of establishing propositions, a computer following a program is usually choosing between and among different commands to execute.
*Logic is also used extensively in [[theology]], and especially the study of the [[Bible]]
*Logic, and especially formal logic, informs the discipline of [[critical thinking]] – which, by no coincidence, takes its name from the Greek word for a judge. Indeed, judges and juries in courts of [[law]] must apply logic to evaluate the arguments and evidence and arrive at their decisions.

== Propositional logic ==
Propositional logic is the study of logical propositions. It is sometimes called ''zeroth''-order logic because it does not deal with subjects or predicates but is specifically the study of the truth values of logical propositions and the logical connectives used to make compound propositions. [[Lewis Carroll]] wrote a book on it for young students.

== Recommended reading ==
* [[Aristotle]], "Organon"
* [[Gottlob Frege]], "Begriffsschrift" and "The Foundations of Arithmetic"
* [[Bertrand Russell]] and Albert N Whitehead, "Principia Mathematica"
* Bas van Fraassen and J C Beall, "Possibility and Paradox"
* Geoffrey Hunter, "Metalogic"
* Patrick Hurley, "A Concise Introduction to Logic, 12th Edition"

== See also ==
*[[Atheism and logic]]
*[[Specious reasoning]]

[[Category:Philosophy]]

User talk:Logician

2018-09-25T16:51:53Z

Logician:

{{welcome}}

== Your edits ==
Thanks for your edits.

The problem with [https://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Logic&curid=6906&diff=1450513&oldid=1449298 this one] is that you made numerous major/massive changes all in one edit. The diff is confusing. Rather than simply reverting it all, I am giving you the chance to clarify your edit. Also, what information, exactly, did you remove in that edit? It's unclear. In addition, please explain why you removed "refers to undeniable truth" in the first paragraph.

Regarding [https://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Principle_of_explosion&curid=100440&diff=1450514&oldid=1231441 this edit], you removed an example that laypeople can understand and replaced it with something most readers won't understand. I support including both -- for the laypeople and for the more knowledgeable people, but you replaced one with the other. I would re-add what you removed, but I'm giving you the chance to do that.

Thanks. --[[User:1990'sguy|1990'sguy]] ([[User talk:1990'sguy|talk]]) 18:52, 24 September 2018 (EDT)
:I cleaned up the article. I didn't remove content that was good, I just cleaned up the stuff that... wasn't (e.g. "institutional logic", which isn't even logic in the sense of this article). I removed "refers to undeniable truth" because that proposition is false. ''Deductive'' logic when the argument is valid and sound refers to undeniable truth. Logic as an academic field does not (certainly inductive and abductive arguments are not "undeniable truths"). I can create a page with all removed content if you so desire.

:With regards to the second article: I'll add explanations for the laypeople, but the example before with "Red is a colour" and "Obama is a competent president" was confusing and a terrible example of the principle of explosion. In addition to all of this, I'll try to keep edits shorter. [[User:Logician|Logician]] ([[User talk:Logician|talk]]) 19:00, 24 September 2018 (EDT)

::I'm not disputing that the content you removed was bad, but I want to know what exactly you removed without having to sort through that confusing diff. Also, do you think a layman could read the logic article and have a pretty good grasp of the topic? It's good when CP appeals to both groups at the same time.

::As for the [[Principle of explosion]], thanks for the layman explanation. I will check with others to see if it's understandable to them. --[[User:1990'sguy|1990'sguy]] ([[User talk:1990'sguy|talk]]) 00:09, 25 September 2018 (EDT)
:::[https://www.conservapedia.com/User_talk:Logician/Logic_Changes Here] is a list with comments as to why they were removed. [[User:Logician|Logician]] ([[User talk:Logician|talk]]) 12:51, 25 September 2018 (EDT)

User talk:Logician/Logic Changes

2018-09-25T16:50:49Z

Logician: Created page with "This is a list, in order, of the segments removed from Logic. #The most logical book ever written is the Bible, yet some people reject or avoid it because they disli..."

This is a list, in order, of the segments removed from [[Logic]].

#The most logical book ever written is the [[Bible]], yet some people reject or avoid it because they dislike being informed of the truth, and would prefer denying it.
:*While the Bible certainly isn't illogical, "not illogical" does not mean "most logical". Also, this isn't really the place for a statement like this.
#In intuitionist logic, "true" and "false" are replaced with "proven true", "proven contradictory", and "not proven". In relevance logic, "neither true nor false" and "both true and false" are added to the standard two truth values. There is some debate about the value of these systems in philosophical circles, and Timothy Williamson claims to have a proof that any non-bivalent logic can be converted into a bivalent logic.
:*If we're not going to talk about these at any length, there's not a real reason to list very specific examples. This section is something I'm gonna head back to and reword anyway though. In addition, there's nothing more than trivalent logics to my knowledge.
#The certainty, however, comes at a price.
:*I mean kind of, but that's a pointless statement. That's why I removed it.
#Before the discovery of Australia the premise was true someone following inductive logic would have reached the conclusion. Given the existence of black swans in Australia, however, that conclusion is false. [[David Hume]]'s 18th century critique of induction remains a very pressing problem for disciplines like [[science]] which are commonly held to rely on inductive reasoning.
:*Bad example of an inductive argument because you want to just show a strong, cogent argument for an example. It doesn't make sense to show how this kind of argument can fail without first showing how it can succeed.
#Another example of faulty logic would be when it comes to atheism. Atheists typically use many logical fallacies in an effort to convert people to their religion.
:*Not the place for this. That's an ad hominem attack. Also, there were some brilliant atheists who had good reasons (they thought) to believe that there was no God. Simply asserting that their logic is always faulty is an argument from authority and itself a fallacy.
#'''Premise:''' There is no empirical evidence for something. '''Conclusion:''' The object does not exist. This logical fallacy acts as if absence of evidence is evidence of absence. This can be proven to be a faulty supposition because before America was discovered by Europeans, one could say there are only four continents based upon the evidence. This would be treated as a fact despite it being proven false later on. Also, this premise ignores the fact that there are multiple types of knowledge. There is empirical knowledge and then there is knowledge one has through faith. An example would be the knowledge that a mother loves her son. This cannot be proven to be a lie, but people have faith that is it true.
:*This isn't wrong, just not the place for it. This is better placed in an article about the fallacy of negative evidence. Also the bit about the mom loving her son is a word salad that doesn't mean much. And this isn't the place to talk about faith.
#Logic is a necessary discipline in [[philosophy]], because it deals with how we study and interact with the world and with other people in it
:*No. Logic is the study of reasoning and sound reasoning. Logic is not the study of how we 'interact with the world and with other people in it'
#Every computer language includes its own version of the language of symbolic logic
:*No. This is just wrong.
#Which, due to its divine inspiration, is very logical.
:*Not arguing this, it's just not the place for it.
#Formal logic will usually serve to state what obedience to a given body of law requires; informal logic must usually serve a trier of fact charged with deciding whether a given person was in obedience or in violation. The latter principle holds primarily because plaintiff and defendant in a court of law quite often ''do not'' agree on matters of fact.
:*I'm undecided on your distinction between 'formal' and 'informal' logic. I've removed this anyway because it's confusing and pointless.

Principle of explosion

2018-09-24T23:16:30Z

Logician:

The '''principle of explosion''' is a logical principle which states that if we accept that a proposition to be true at the same time it is not true, then any other proposition, no matter the truth value, can be proven. In other words, from a contradiction, any imaginable conclusion can be reached.

==The Principle==
The principle comes from an argument containing a proposition and its negation. By way of simplification and addition, anything can be proved deductively.

:'''P1:''' A · ~A
:'''P2:''' A (1, simplification)
:'''P3:''' ~A (1, simplification)
:'''P4:''' A v B (2, addition)
:'''C:''' B, (3, 4 disjunctive syllogism)

In plain English, this means that we have proposition one (P1) as "A and not A". We can split these two variables apart because they're conjoined with the conjunctive "and", resulting in two new propositions that have the same strength and truth value as the old proposition "A and not A". These new propositions are (P2) "A" and (P3) "not A". We can add any proposition we like to the proposition "A", because by adding a proposition in a disjunctive, we're making our new proposition ''weaker'' than before. So P2 becomes P4 with addition, which now reads "Either A or B". Now that we have a disjunctive statement and a proposition (P3) that negates one of the alternates, we can prove that B. We'll then apply this to another example:

:'''P1:''' Ice is cold and ice is not cold
:'''P2:''' Ice is cold (1, simplification)
:'''P3:''' Ice is not cold (1, simplification)
:'''P4:''' Either ice is cold or my car is dry (2, addition)
:'''C:''' My car is dry (3, 4 disjunctive syllogism)

Clearly, ice cannot be cold and not cold at the same time. But, if we're to accept the premises as true for the sake of the argument, it follows that my car must be dry, because we added the proposition "my car must be dry" to the proposition "ice is cold" to form a disjunctive statement. We then denied one of the alternates (we said that it wasn't the case that ice is cold), so my car must be dry.

[[Category:Logic]]

Principle of explosion

2018-09-24T23:11:01Z

Logician:

The '''principle of explosion''' is a logical principle which states that if we accept that a certain statement is true at the same time it is not true, then any other statement, no matter the truth value, can be proven. In other words, from a contradiction, any imaginable conclusion can be reached.

==The Principle==
The principle comes from an argument containing a proposition and its negation. By way of simplification and addition, anything can be proved deductively.

:'''P1:''' A · ~A
:'''P2:''' A (1, simplification)
:'''P3:''' ~A (1, simplification)
:'''P4:''' A v B (2, addition)
:'''C:''' B, (3, 4 disjunctive syllogism)

In plain English, this means that we have proposition one (P1) as "A and not A". We can split these two variables apart because they're conjoined with the conjunctive "and", resulting in two new propositions that have the same strength and truth value as the old proposition "A and not A". These new propositions are (P2) "A" and (P3) "not A". We can add any proposition we like to the proposition "A", because by adding a proposition in a disjunctive, we're making our new proposition ''weaker'' than before. So P2 becomes P4 with addition, which now reads "Either A or B". Now that we have a disjunctive statement and a proposition (P3) that negates one of the alternates, we can prove that B.

[[Category:Logic]]

Principle of explosion

2018-09-24T23:10:13Z

Logician: /* The Principle */

User talk:Logician

2018-09-24T23:05:04Z

Logician:

User talk:Logician

2018-09-24T23:02:29Z

Logician: /* Your edits */

{{welcome}}

== Your edits ==
Thanks for your edits.

The problem with [https://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Logic&curid=6906&diff=1450513&oldid=1449298 this one] is that you made numerous major/massive changes all in one edit. The diff is confusing. Rather than simply reverting it all, I am giving you the chance to clarify your edit. Also, what information, exactly, did you remove in that edit? It's unclear. In addition, please explain why you removed "refers to undeniable truth" in the first paragraph.

Regarding [https://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Principle_of_explosion&curid=100440&diff=1450514&oldid=1231441 this edit], you removed an example that laypeople can understand and replaced it with something most readers won't understand. I support including both -- for the laypeople and for the more knowledgeable people, but you replaced one with the other. I would re-add what you removed, but I'm giving you the chance to do that.

Thanks. --[[User:1990'sguy|1990'sguy]] ([[User talk:1990'sguy|talk]]) 18:52, 24 September 2018 (EDT)
:I cleaned up the article. I didn't remove content that was good, I just cleaned up the stuff that... wasn't (e.g. "institutional logic", which isn't even logic in the sense of this article). I removed "refers to undeniable truth" because that proposition is false. ''Deductive'' logic when the argument is valid and sound refers to undeniable truth. Logic as an academic field does not (certainly inductive and abductive arguments are not "undeniable truths"). I can create a page with all removed content if you so desire.

:With regards to the second article: I'll add explanations for the laypeople, but the example before with "I'm wearing red shoes" I think it was and "Obama is a competent president" was confusing and a terrible example of the principle of explosion. In addition to all of this, I'll try to keep edits shorter. [[User:Logician|Logician]] ([[User talk:Logician|talk]]) 19:00, 24 September 2018 (EDT)

User talk:Logician

2018-09-24T23:00:11Z

Logician: /* Your edits */

{{welcome}}

== Your edits ==
Thanks for your edits.

The problem with [https://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Logic&curid=6906&diff=1450513&oldid=1449298 this one] is that you made numerous major/massive changes all in one edit. The diff is confusing. Rather than simply reverting it all, I am giving you the chance to clarify your edit. Also, what information, exactly, did you remove in that edit? It's unclear. In addition, please explain why you removed "refers to undeniable truth" in the first paragraph.

Regarding [https://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Principle_of_explosion&curid=100440&diff=1450514&oldid=1231441 this edit], you removed an example that laypeople can understand and replaced it with something most readers won't understand. I support including both -- for the laypeople and for the more knowledgeable people, but you replaced one with the other. I would re-add what you removed, but I'm giving you the chance to do that.

Thanks. --[[User:1990'sguy|1990'sguy]] ([[User talk:1990'sguy|talk]]) 18:52, 24 September 2018 (EDT)
:I cleaned up the article. I didn't remove content that was good, I just cleaned up the stuff that... wasn't (e.g. "institutional logic", which isn't even logic in the sense of this article). I removed "refers to undeniable truth" because that proposition is false. ''Deductive'' logic when the argument is valid and sound refers to undeniable truth. Logic as an academic field does not (certainly inductive and abductive arguments are not "undeniable truths").

:With regards to the second article: I'll add explanations for the laypeople, but the example before with "I'm wearing red shoes" I think it was and "Obama is a competent president" was confusing and a terrible example of the principle of explosion. In addition to all of this, I'll try to keep edits shorter. [[User:Logician|Logician]] ([[User talk:Logician|talk]]) 19:00, 24 September 2018 (EDT)

Talk:Logic

2018-09-24T22:43:19Z

Logician: /* That segment about the Bible being the most logical book */ new section

"Come, let us reason together, saith the Lord." --[[User:Ed Poor|Ed Poor]] 16:31, 29 March 2007 (EDT)

== Logic and religion ==

I think there should be a section on logic and how it is used (or not) in a religious context, but I don't know how to start a passage on it--[[User:Falconcomeon|Falconcomeon]] 18:00, 30 July 2008 (EDT)

==[[Modern logic]]==

I know of only two kinds of logic:
* the propositional calculus (If A then B; but not B; hence not A)
* the syllogism (All men are mortal; Socrates is a men; hence Socrates is mortal)

We need to tighten up our terminology:
*[[formal logic]]
*[[classical logic]]
*[[symbolic logic]]
*[[propositional calculus]]

*[[syllogism]]

What does everything redirect to? --[[User:Ed Poor|Ed Poor]] [[User talk:Ed Poor|Talk]] 13:24, 8 December 2008 (EST)
:I'll tighten up the definitions. Don't worry. Also, your definition of 'propositional calculus' is actually a hypothetical syllogism. I'll redirect everything to its proper section. [[User:Logician|Logician]] ([[User talk:Logician|talk]]) 13:03, 24 September 2018 (EDT)

== Religion and Logic ==
I've got some beef with the notion that Theology relies heavily upon logic. While Aquinas and St. Anselm both use arguments to prove the existence of God, Aquinas is more focused upon what these arguments can do for his development of a theology centred upon the human person. The use of logic fades quickly as one enters the modern period, and is largely absent in the majority of protestant theologians in the twentieth century. It is largely replaced with a doctrine that is much more tenable to the position of a person of faith, namely an absolute faith in the radical existence and revelation of JC--a doctrine clearly present in HR Niebuhr, Barth, and Bonhoeffer to name a few.--[[User:Rcgallup|Rcgallup]] 00:56, 15 January 2010 (EST)
:Somebody's never heard of Alvin Plantiga. Request a name change to your real first name and last initial at [[User talk:Aschlafly]]. [[User:JacobB|JacobB]] 01:11, 15 January 2010 (EST)

== "Citation needed" ==

Looking at any text between two and either thousand years old requires a certain amount of understanding of the meanings and context of the time. Scholars often call this the use of the "grammatical historical method". Understanding context, language differences, etc. irons out all of these "inconsistencies". A lot of people have set out to study hard and prove the Bible wrong, and become believers as a result. Don't bash something before you understand it please. --[[User:DavidB4|David B]] ([[User talk:DavidB4|TALK]]) 16:43, 30 January 2017 (EST)
:It was most likely vandalism, and I blocked the user who added the faulty tag. --[[User:1990'sguy|1990'sguy]] ([[User talk:1990'sguy|talk]]) 16:53, 30 January 2017 (EST)

== That segment about the Bible being the most logical book ==

Can we remove this segment. It's not relevant to the topic. And while I completely agree that the Bible is the inspired Word of God, it is not 'the most logical book ever written'. While none of it is illogical, it isn't a logic textbook or anything that claims to be dealing with logic. 'Not illogical' does not mean 'most logical'. Also that bit about Trump is totally irrelevant. I'd remove it but I'm new so I don't want to get into an edit war or get banned by a SysOp. [[User:Logician|Logician]] ([[User talk:Logician|talk]]) 18:43, 24 September 2018 (EDT)

Principle of explosion

2018-09-24T22:08:12Z

Logician:

Logic

2018-09-24T21:56:04Z

Logician:

'''Logic''' ([[Greek language|Greek]] ''λογίζω'' – I think, I reason; from ''λόγος'' – reason) refers the patterns in reasoning behind arguments. In [[philosophy]], logic is a sub-branch of [[epistemology]] that deals with and attempts to guide the faculty of human reason. It is often studied alongside [[mathematics]].

[[Aristotle]] was the first to formalize the practice of reasoning. In particular, Aristotle developed a formalization of the [[Syllogism|categorical syllogism]], the three laws of logic, and the [[Square of Opposition]]. While [[modus ponens]] and its complement modus tollens were known to the medieval philosophers, it is not clear when these central laws of deduction were first formalized.

The next easily identifiable major development in logic comes from Boole in 1847 with the creation of [[Boolean algebra]] and Boolean logic. In the 1870s, Peirce introduces a logic of quantifiers, followed by [[Gottlob Frege]]'s 1879 ''Begriffsschrift'', which contains the first complete formalization of the propositional calculus. Frege's work was developed in service of his logicist project, which was shown to be inconsistent by [[Bertrand Russell]] in 1903 with what is famously called [[Russell's paradox]]. In 1913 Russell and Whitehead published ''Principia Mathematica'', a landmark work that sought to define mathematics with first-order logic.

By the 1950s, with the work of many logicians including [[Hilbert]], Emile Post, Alfred Tarski and [[Kurt Godel]], most of the major results in first-order logic had been proved, and in the 1960s Saul Kripke added a completeness proof for modal logic.

Most logical systems are bivalent; that is, they admit only two truth-values, true or false. However, there is a fair amount of work done on trivalent systems of logic, specifically paraconsistent logic and relevance logic (a subset of paraconsistent logic). These logics were developed in response to the paradoxes that classical logic can create, namely, that anything can follow from a falsehood and the [[principle of explosion]].

Formal logic requires, since Frege, a distinction between the object language and the metalanguage. The metalanguage is ordinarily a natural language like English or German, while the object language is a symbolic language with an alphabet limited to variable meanings and a symbolic system for describing the relationships between the variables.

== Informal Logic ==
The art of [[rhetoric]] is sometimes called "informal logic", and the classic [[logical fallacies|fallacies]] are often described as "logical fallacies", though, strictly speaking, most of them are simply emotionally effective ways to build an invalid argument. Generally speaking, "informal logic" consists of "common sense" and a collection of other rather loose rules that people employ while making most decisions and even in debate. It is unstructured, and depends largely on one's view of "the reasonable". The thresholds of what is "reasonable" and what is not are inexact and subject to change with the receipt of sufficient contrary evidence – and again, what constitutes "sufficiency" in this context might vary from person to person.

== Deduction and Induction ==
Deductive logic is characterized by certainty: in a valid argument, when the premises are true, the conclusion '''must''' be true. Take a classic argument of deductive logic:

:'''P1:''' All men are mortal
:'''P2:''' Socrates is a man.
:'''C:''' Socrates is mortal.

The conclusion is "contained" in the premises. In this sense the conclusion can be said to "follow" from the premises. The conclusion, "Socrates is mortal", is also less informative than the premises, which imply not just that Socrates is mortal but that all men are also mortal. As a result, deductive logic is not thought to add to knowledge, merely to clarify it.

Inductive logic is ampliative, but is famously less certain. In a strong inductive argument, even when the premises are true, it is still possible for the conclusion to be false. An example of an inductive argument is:

:'''P1:''' The first student is wearing red
:'''P2:''' The second student is wearing red
:'''P(n):''' The ''n''th student is wearing red
:'''Conclusion:''' ''All'' students are wearing red

Given the amount of evidence, it is reasonable to inductively conclude that all students are wearing red; however, one's senses could fail or a student could be hiding who is wearing blue. Given this, the conclusion is never certainly true and can only be highly probably true. The event of moving from "''n'' examples are this way" to a universal statement that "''all'' examples are this way" is commonly known as the [[Problem of Induction|problem of induction]].

== Uses of logic in other disciplines ==
Logic is a necessary discipline in [[philosophy]], because it deals with how we study and interact with propositions. Logic and [[mathematics]] are also closely connected, and much of mathematics can be reduced to first-order logic, though Gödel's [[Incompleteness theorem|incompleteness theorem]] shows that not all of mathematics can be so reduced.

*In [[computer science]], logic dictates how a machine will follow a set of instructions, including how to test its "world," evaluate it, and act according to that evaluation, except that instead of establishing propositions, a computer following a program is usually choosing between and among different commands to execute.
*Logic is also used extensively in [[theology]], and especially the study of the [[Bible]]
*Logic, and especially formal logic, informs the discipline of [[critical thinking]] – which, by no coincidence, takes its name from the Greek word for a judge. Indeed, judges and juries in courts of [[law]] must apply logic to evaluate the arguments and evidence and arrive at their decisions.

== Propositional logic ==
Propositional logic is the study of logical propositions. It is sometimes called ''zeroth''-order logic because it does not deal with subjects or predicates but is specifically the study of the truth values of logical propositions and the logical connectives used to make compound propositions. [[Lewis Carroll]] wrote a book on it for young students.

== Recommended reading ==
* [[Aristotle]], "Organon"
* [[Gottlob Frege]], "Begriffsschrift" and "The Foundations of Arithmetic"
* [[Bertrand Russell]] and Albert N Whitehead, "Principia Mathematica"
* Bas van Fraassen and J C Beall, "Possibility and Paradox"
* Geoffrey Hunter, "Metalogic"
* Patrick Hurley, "A Concise Introduction to Logic, 12th Edition"

== See also ==
*[[Atheism and logic]]
*[[Specious reasoning]]

[[Category:Philosophy]]

Talk:Logic

2018-09-24T17:03:26Z

Logician: /* Modern logic */

Logic

2018-09-20T14:37:57Z

Logician: I'm willing to bet money that no one here can even attempt to read what's in Principia Mathematica, so I've removed it

'''Logic''' ([[Greek language|Greek]] λογίζω I reckon, I count, from λόγος a word) refers to undeniable truth.

The most logical book ever written is the [[Bible]], yet some people reject or avoid it because they dislike being informed of the truth, and would prefer denying it.

In the study of [[philosophy]], logic is a branch that deals with and attempts to guide the faculty of human reason. It is often studied as part of [[mathematics]] or alongside of it.

[[Aristotle]] was the first to formalize the practice of reasoning. In particular, Aristotle developed a formalization of the [[syllogism]] and the Square of Opposition. While Modus ponens and its complement [[Modus tollens]] were known to the Medievals, it is not clear when these central laws of deduction were first formalized.

The next easily identifiable major development in logic comes from Boole in 1847 with the creation of [[Boolean algebra]]. In the 1870s, Peirce introduces a logic of quantifiers, followed by [[Gottlob Frege]]'s 1879 ''Begriffsschrift'', which contains the first complete formalization of the propositional calculus. Frege's work was developed in service of his logicist project, which was shown to be inconsistent by [[Bertrand Russell]] in 1903 with what is famously called [[Russell's paradox]].

By the 1950s, with the work of many logicians including [[Hilbert]], Emile Post, Alfred Tarski and [[Kurt Godel]], most of the major results in first-order logic had been proved, and in the 1960s Saul Kripke added a completeness proof for modal logic.

Most logical systems are bivalent; that is, they admit only two truth-values. However, there is a fair amount of work done on non-bivalent systems of logic, especially intuitionist logic and relevance logic. In intuitionist logic, "true" and "false" are replaced with "proven true", "proven contradictory", and "not proven". In relevance logic, "neither true nor false" and "both true and false" are added to the standard two truth values. There is some debate about the value of these systems in philosophical circles, and Timothy Williamson claims to have a proof that any non-bivalent logic can be converted into a bivalent logic.

Formal logic requires, since Frege, a distinction between the object language and the metalanguage. The metalanguage is ordinarily a natural language like English or German, while the object language is a symbolic language with a limited alphabet and syntax.

== Informal Logic ==

The art of [[rhetoric]] is sometimes called "informal logic", and the classic [[logical fallacies|fallacies]] are often described as "logical fallacies", though, strictly speaking, most of them are simply emotionally effective ways to build an invalid argument. Generally speaking, "informal logic" consists of "common sense" and a collection of other rather loose rules that people employ while making most decisions and even in debate. It is unstructured, and depends largely on one's view of "the reasonable". The thresholds of what is "reasonable" and what is not, are inexact and subject to change with the receipt of sufficient contrary evidence—and again, what constitutes "sufficiency" in this context might vary from person to person.

== Deduction and Induction ==

Deductive logic is characterized by certainty: in a valid argument, when the premises are true, the conclusion '''must''' be true. The certainty, however, comes at a price. Take a classic argument of deductive logic:

:'''Premises:''' All men are mortal, Socrates is a man.
:'''Conclusion:''' Socrates is mortal.

The conclusion is "contained" in the premises. In a sense the conclusion is "known" before it is elucidated. The conclusion, "Socrates is mortal" is also less informative than the premises which imply not just that Socrates is mortal but that a lot of other beings (anyone for whom the term "is a man" applies) are also mortal. As a result, deductive logic is not thought to add to knowledge, merely to clarify it.

Inductive logic is ampliative, but is famously less certain. In a good inductive argument, even when the premises are true, it is still possible for the conclusion to be false. A classic example of an inductive argument is:

:'''Premise:''' All the many swans observed have been white.
:'''Conclusion:''' All swans are white.

Before the discovery of Australia the premise was true someone following inductive logic would have reached the conclusion. Given the existence of black swans in Australia, however, that conclusion is false. [[David Hume]]'s 18th century critique of induction remains a very pressing problem for disciplines like [[science]] which are commonly held to rely on inductive reasoning.

Another example of faulty logic would be when it comes to atheism. Atheists typically use many logical fallacies in an effort to convert people to their religion.

:'''Premise:''' There is no empirical evidence for something.
:'''Conclusion:''' The object does not exist.

This logical fallacy acts as if absence of evidence is evidence of absence. This can be proven to be a faulty supposition because before America was discovered by Europeans, one could say there are only four continents based upon the evidence. This would be treated as a fact despite it being proven false later on. Also, this premise ignores the fact that there are multiple types of knowledge. There is empirical knowledge and then there is knowledge one has through faith. An example would be the knowledge that a mother loves her son. This cannot be proven to be a lie, but people have faith that is it true.

== Uses of logic in other disciplines ==
Logic is a necessary discipline in [[philosophy]], because it deals with how we study and interact with the world and with other people in it. Logic and [[mathematics]] are also closely connected, and much of mathematics can be reduced to first-order logic, though Goedel's [[Incompleteness theorem]] shows that not all of mathematics can be so reduced.

In [[computer science]], logic dictates how a machine will follow a set of instructions, including how to test its "world," evaluate it, and act according to that evaluation. Every computer language includes its own version of the language of symbolic logic, except that instead of establishing propositions, a computer following a program is usually choosing between and among different commands to execute.

Logic is also used extensively in [[theology]], and especially the study of the [[Bible]], which, due to its divine inspiration, is very logical.

Logic, and especially formal logic, inform the discipline of [[critical thinking]]—which, by no coincidence, takes its name from the Greek word for a judge. Indeed, judges and juries in courts of [[law]] must apply logic, both formal and informal, to arrive at their decisions. Formal logic will usually serve to state what obedience to a given body of law requires; informal logic must usually serve a trier of fact charged with deciding whether a given person was in obedience or in violation. The latter principle holds primarily because plaintiff and defendant in a court of law quite often ''do not'' agree on matters of fact.

== Propositional calculus ==
Propositional calculus is the study of logical propositions, that is, logical statements that might or might not be true under various interpretations. A good deal of the study concerns how to prove theorems in symbolic logic.
[[Lewis Carroll]] wrote a book on it for young students.

== Recommended reading ==

* Patrick Hurley, "A Concise Introduction to Logic, 12th Edition"
* [[Aristotle]], "Organon"
* [[Gottlob Frege]], "Begriffsschrift" and "The Foundations of Arithmetic"
* Bas van Fraassen and J C Beall, "Possibility and Paradox"
* Geoffrey Hunter, "Metalogic"

== See also ==

*[[Atheism and logic]]
*[[Specious reasoning]]

[[Category:Philosophy]]