User:Wantzu

This 58 may be too long to read and navigate comfortably. Consider splitting content into sub-articles, condensing it, or adding subheadings. Please discuss this issue on the article's talk page. (March 2009)

This user page may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. No cleanup reason has been specified. Please help improve this user page if you can; the talk page may contain suggestions.

NYOGTSOG is a STUPID PHILOSOPHER concerned with the questions of what is the best way to live (ethics), what sorts of things ultimately exist and what are their essential natures (metaphysics), what is to count as genuine knowledge (epistemology), and what are the correct principles of reasoning (logic). ^[1]

The word itself is derived from the Ancient Greek φιλοσοφία (philosophía), compounded from φίλος (phílos: friend, or lover) and σοφία (sophía: wisdom). ^{[2] [3]}

Though no definition of philosophy is uncontroversial, it is generally agreed to be a method, rather than a set of claims, propositions or theories. Its investigations are, unlike those of religion or superstition, wedded to reason, making no unexamined assumptions, no leaps based purely on analogy, revelation, or authority. Of course, different philosophers have had differing ideas about the nature of that reason. There is also disagreement about the subject matter of philosophy. Some think that philosophy examines the process of inquiry itself. Others, that there are essentially philosophical propositions which it is the task of philosophy to prove. ^[4]

Although the word "philosophy" originates in the Western tradition, many figures in the history of other cultures have addressed similar topics in similar ways. ^[5] The philosophers of the Far East are discussed in Eastern philosophy, while the philosophers of North Africa and the Near East, because of their strong interactions with Europe, are usually considered part of Western Philosophy.

Western Philosophy

Main branches of philosophy

To give an exhaustive list of the main divisions of philosophy is difficult, because there have been different, equally acceptable divisions at different times, and the divisions are often relative to the philosophical concerns of a particular period. They also overlap considerably. Nevertheless, Metaphysics, Epistemology, Logic, Moral Philosophy, and perhaps Politics (which Aristotle saw as part of Ethics) are considered to be the main branches. Most other areas are mixtures or versions of those. For example, the philosophy of various subjects (such as science, history, religion, mind, art) turns out to fall into the main divisions.

Metaphysics originates with Aristotle, though he did not use that term. He calls it 'first philosophy' (or sometimes just 'wisdom') and says it is the subject which deals with 'first causes and the principles of things'. It is the highest science of all, because it is the most general, and its truths explain the truths of all other sciences. ^[6]The modern meaning of the term is any enquiry dealing with the ultimate nature of what exists. Within metaphysics, ontology is the enquiry into the meaning of existence itself, sometimes seeking to specify what general types of things exist (though sometimes the term is taken to be equivalent to metaphysics itself). The philosophy of mind, since it ultimately concerns the question of whether mind or consciousness exists, and what it is, is part of metaphysics.

Epistemology is concerned with the nature and scope of knowledge, and whether knowledge is possible at all. Its central concern is the challenge posed by skepticism, that all our beliefs and thoughts may be somehow illusory or mistaken (such as if our waking life were really a dream).

Ethics or 'moral philosophy', is concerned with questions of how agents should or ought to act. For example, Plato's early dialogues search for definitions of virtues like temperance, justice, courage, piety. Metaethics, the study of whether value judgments can be objective at all, is generally distinguished from particular ethical systems (for example, Aristotelian, Kantian, or utilitarian) which attempt to prescribe principles of good behaviour.

Logic now means mathematical logic. Traditionally, it meant what is now called philosophical logic, which has come to include most of those topics traditionally treated by logic in general. It is concerned with characterising notions like inference, rational thought, truth, and contents of thoughts, in the most fundamental ways possible, sometimes trying to model them using modern formal logic.

Definitions of philosophy

What should, and what should not, be counted as philosophy – and who counts as a philosopher – has been heavily debated in the Western tradition. Historically, philosophy has been associated with certain subjects (mentioned above). Still, the search continues for a pattern which unites the disparate philosophical activities and interests of those who study those subjects. A handful of candidate explanations can nevertheless be assembled. ^[7] Several philosophers or philosophical directions have had ideas about what philosophy is and what it should not be.

The very open-minded nature of philosophy makes many people skeptical when it comes to limiting the concept of philosophy to something tangible. Accordingly, metaphilosophical

Some theorists adopt the stance that any given philosophy is merely a reflection of the way that a person is socially embedded in a certain culture. To put it in Hegel's terms, "Philosophy is that which grasps its own era in thought." ^[8]

Many contemporary philosophers have argued that the scientific method should be followed as closely as the subject-matter allows. It is a commonplace view that once a branch of philosophy fully starts following the norms of science (i.e., use of the scientific method), it is no longer termed "philosophy", but "science". ^{[citation needed]} Other views emphasize that philosophy is continuous with all areas of intellectual inquiry, including science. ^[4]

Disparaging terms have been created in order to provide examples of non-philosophers and non-philosophy. "Pseudophilosophy" is used to describe those activities which are not associated with a sensible kind of inquiry, and "philosophaster" is a term used to describe those who engage in pseudophilosophy.

History of Western philosophy

The history of philosophy is often divided into three periods: Ancient philosophy, Medieval philosophy, and Modern philosophy.

Greco-Roman philosophy

{{Expert|date=March 2009}}
Ancient Greek philosophy may be divided into the

Medieval philosophy

Medieval philosophy is the philosophy of Western Europe and the Middle East in the era now known as

Modern philosophy is said to begin with

Medieval philosophy had been concerned primarily with argument from authority, and the analysis of ancient texts using Aristotelian logic. The Renaissance saw an outpouring of new ideas that questioned authority. Roger Bacon (1214–1294?) was one of the first writers to advocate putting authority to the test of experiment and reason. Niccolò Machiavelli (1469–1527) challenged conventional ideas about morality. Francis Bacon (1561–1626) wrote in favor of the methods of science in philosophical discovery.

Later modern philosophy (1800-present)

In the last two hundred years, philosophy increasingly became an activity practiced within the modern research university, and accordingly, became more specialized and more distinct from the natural sciences. Much philosophy in this period concerned itself with explaining the relation between the theories of the natural sciences and the ideas of the humanities or common sense: this is one way of understanding the work of Immanuel Kant, for example, and, to the extent that subsequent philosophy has been influenced by Kant, this is an overarching theme throughout recent philosophy, whether "analytic" or "Continental".

Philosophical doctrines

Realism and nominalism

'Realism' sometimes means the position opposed to the eighteenth-century Idealism, namely that some things have real existence outside the mind. Classically, however, Realism is the doctrine that abstract entities corresponding to universal terms like 'man' have a real existence. It is opposed to nominalism, the view that abstract or universal terms are words only, or denote mental states such as ideas, beliefs, or intentions. The latter position, famously held by William of Ockham, is called 'conceptualism'.

Rationalism and empiricism

Rationalism is any view emphasizing the role or importance of human reason. Extreme rationalism tries to base all knowledge on reason alone. Rationalism typically starts from premisses that cannot coherently be denied, then proceeds by logical steps to deduce every object of possible knowledge.

The first rationalist is generally held to be Parmenides (fl. 480 BC), who argued that it is impossible to doubt that thinking actually occurs. But thinking must have an object, therefore something really exists. Parmenides deduced that what really exists must have certain properties – for example, that it cannot come into existence or cease to exist, that it is a coherent whole, that it remains the same eternally (in fact, exists altogether outside time). Zeno (born c. 489 BC) was a disciple of Parmenides, who argued that motion is impossible, and implies a contradiction.

Plato (427-347) was also influenced by Parmenides, but combined rationalism with a form of Realism. The philosopher's work is to consider being, and the essence of things. But the characteristic of essences is that they are universal. The nature of a man, a triangle, a tree, applies to all men, all triangles, all trees. Plato argued that these essences are mind-independent 'Forms', that humans (but particularly philosophers) can come to know by reason, and by ignoring the distractions of sense-perception.

Modern rationalism begins with

Descartes tried to address the last problem by reason. He began with a principle that he thought could not coherently be denied: I think, therefore I exist. From this principle, Descartes he went on to construct a complete system of knowledge (which involves proving the existence of God, using a version of the

Rationalism is typically contrasted with Empiricism, the view that bases our knowledge on the five senses. John Locke, the first of the British empiricists, propounded the classic empiricist view in An Essay Concerning Human Understanding in 1689, developing a form of naturalism and empiricism on roughly scientific principles.

During this era, religious ideas played a mixed role in the struggles that preoccupied secular philosophy. Bishop Berkeley's famous idealist refutation of Isaac Newton is a case of an Enlightenment philosopher who drew substantially from religious ideas. Other influential religious thinkers of the time include Blaise Pascal, Joseph Butler, and Jonathan Edwards. Other major writers, such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Edmund Burke, took a slightly different path. The restricted interests of many of the philosophers of the time foreshadow the separation and specialization of different areas of philosophy that would occur in the twentieth century.

Skepticism

Skepticism is a philosophical attitude that questions the possibility of obtaining any sort of knowledge. It was first articulated by Pyrrho, who believed that everything could be doubted except appearances. Sextus Empiricus (1st century A.D.) describes skepticism as an "ability to place in antithesis, in any manner whatever, appearances and judgements, and thus... to come first of all to a suspension of judgement and then to mental tranquility." ^[14] Skepticism so conceived is not merely the use of doubt, but is the use of doubt for a particular end: a calmness of the soul, or ataraxia. Skepticism poses itself as a challenge to dogmatism, or those who think they have found the truth.^[15]

Sextus noted that the reliability of perception may be questioned, because it is idiosyncratic to the perceiver. The appearance of individual things changes depending on whether or not they are in a group: for example, the shavings of a goat's horn are white when taken alone, yet the horn intact is black. A pencil, when viewed lengthwise, looks like a stick; but when examined at the tip, it looks merely like a circle.

Skepticism was revived in the early modern period by Michel de Montaigne and Blaise Pascal. Its most extreme exponent, however, was David Hume. Hume argued that there are only two kinds of reasoning, namely probable and demonstrative (cf Hume's fork). Neither of these two forms of reasoning can lead us to belief in the continued existence of an external world. Demonstrative reasoning cannot do this, because demonstration alone cannot establish the uniformity of nature (as captured by scientific laws and principles, for example). Reason alone cannot establish that the future will resemble the past. We have certain beliefs about the world (that the sun will rise tomorrow, for example), but these beliefs are the product of habit and custom, and do not depend on reason. But probable reasoning, which aims to take us from the observed to the unobserved, cannot do this either, for it also depends on the uniformity of nature, and cannot be proved without circularity by any appeal to uniformity. Hume concludes that there is no solution to the skeptical argument except, in effect, to ignore it. ^[16]

Many philosophers have questioned such skeptical arguments. The question of whether or not we can achieve knowledge, i.e., knowledge of the external world, is based on how high a standard we ask for justification. If we set a high standard, then nothing less than indubitability and infallibility could possibly yield any knowledge. If our standard is too low, then we admit follies and illusions into our body of "knowledge". Still, even if these matters were resolved, in every case, we would have to justify our standard for justification, leading to infinite regress (known as regress skepticism). ^[17]

Idealism

Idealism is the doctrine that reality is entirely limited to our own minds. Although it depends on Descartes' view that what is in the mind is known prior to what is known through the senses, Idealism proper begins with George Berkeley. Berkeley argued ^[18] that there is no intrinsic distinction between mental states, such as feeling pain, and ideas of sense. There is nothing to distinguish, for example, between the intense heat of a hot fire, and the pain it causes us. The being of what we perceive consists in its being perceived (its 'esse' is 'percipi'), and the opinion 'strangely prevailing upon men' that houses, mountains and rivers have an independent existence of anyone perceiving them, is false.

Forms of Idealism were prevalent in philosophy from the eighteenth century to the early twentieth century. Transcendental Idealism, advocated by

Much of twentieth century philosophy, including both Continental phenomenology and the Anglo-American analytic school, involve a rejection of Idealism, and the Cartesian assumptions that underlie it.

Pragmatism

In the late nineteenth century, the American philosophers

Setting out to revise his views on the foundation of mathematics, and influenced by the philosopher and psychologist Franz Brentano, under whom he had studied in Vienna, Edmund Husserl began to lay the foundations for an ambitious account not just of the kinds of experiences which underly and make possible mathematical judgments, but of the structure of conscious experience in general

Although they didn't use the term, the nineteenth century philosophers

Certainly he influenced Jean-Paul Sartre who, along with Albert Camus and Simone de Beauvoir, became perhaps the best-known proponents of existentialism, exploring it not only in theoretical works such as his magnum opus Being and Nothingness, but also in plays and novels. Sartre, Camus, and de Beauvoir all represented an avowedly atheistic branch of existentialism, which is now more closely associated with their ideas of nausea, contingency, bad faith and the Absurd than with Kierkegaard's spiritual angst. Nevertheless, the focus on the individual human being, responsible before the universe for the authenticity of his or her existence, is common to all these thinkers.

The analytic tradition

Analytic philosophy developed as a critique of

From ancient times, and well beyond them, the roots of justification for political authority were inescapably tied to outlooks on human nature. In The Republic,

Later, Niccolò Machiavelli, rejected Aristotle's (and Thomas Aquinas') view as unrealistic. The ideal sovereign is not the embodiment of the moral virtues; rather the sovereign does what's successful and necessary rather than what's morally praiseworthy. Thomas Hobbes also contested many elements of Aristotle's views. For Hobbes, human nature is essentially anti-social: people are essentially egoistic, and this egoism makes life difficult in the natural state of things. Moreover, Hobbes argued, though people may have natural inequalities, these are trivial, since no particular talents or virtues that a person may have will make them safe from harm inflicted by others. For these reasons, Hobbes concluded that the state arises from common agreement to raise the community out of the state of nature. This can only be done by the establishment of a sovereign, which (or who) is vested with complete control over the community, and is able to inspire awe and terror in its subjects.^[31]

Many in the Enlightenment were unsatisfied with existing doctrines in political philosophy, which seemed to marginalize or neglect the possibility of a democratic state. One attempt to overturn these doctrines was that of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who responded to Hobbes by claiming that a human is by nature a kind of "noble savage", and that society and social contracts corrupt this nature. In his Second Treatise on Government John Locke agreed with Hobbes that the nation-state was an efficient tool for raising humanity out of a deplorable state, but argued that the sovereign may become an abominable institution compared to the relatively benign unmodulated state of nature. ^[32]

Following the doctrine of the

One debate that has dominated the attention of ethicists in the history of the modern era has been between consequentialism (the idea that the consequences of a particular action form the basis for any valid moral judgement about that action) and deontology (that decisions should be made solely or primarily by considering one's duties and the rights of others).

Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill are famous for propagating utilitarianism, which is the idea that the fundamental moral rule is to strive toward the "greatest happiness for the greatest number". However, in promoting this idea they also necessarily promoted the broader doctrine of consequentialism: that is to say, the idea that the morally right thing to do in any situation is determined by the consequences of the actions under consideration.

In contrast to consequentialism,

More recent works have emphasized the role of character in ethics, a movement known as the

A modern example is the political movement Neoconservatism which began as a philosophical tradition at the University of Chicago centered around Leo Strauss and his unique interpretations of the work of Plato. This intellectual movement went on to shape most of the politics of the George W. Bush presidency, demonstrating that seemingly "ivory tower" movements have real world consequences.

In the field of the

Other important applications can be found in epistemology, which aid in understanding the notions of what knowledge, evidence, and justified belief are. The philosophy of science discusses the underpinnings of the scientific method and has affected the nature of scientific investigation and argumentation. Deep ecology and animal rights examine the place of humans in the moral configuration of reality as a whole. Aesthetics can help to interpret discussions of art.

In general, the various "philosophies of..." strive to provide workers in their respective fields with a deeper understanding of the theoretical or conceptual underpinnings of their fields.

Often philosophy is seen as an investigation into an area not sufficiently well understood to be its own branch of knowledge. What were once philosophical pursuits have evolved into the modern day fields such as psychology, sociology, linguistics, and economics (among others).

Eastern philosophy

Many societies have considered philosophical questions and built philosophical traditions based upon each other's works. Eastern and Middle Eastern philosophical traditions have influenced Western philosophers. Russian (which to many people still counts as Western), Jewish, Islamic and recently Latin American philosophical traditions have contributed to, or been influenced by, Western philosophy, yet each has retained a distinctive identity.

The differences between traditions are often based on their favored historical philosophers, and varying stress on ideas, procedural styles, or written language. The subject matter and dialogues of each can be studied using methods derived from the others, and there are significant commonalities and exchanges between them.

and the intellectual give and take between these societies and Europe.)

Persian philosophy

Transcendent Philosophy

are regarded as two of the main philosophical traditions of that era in Persia.

Indian philosophy

Main article: Indian philosophy

Further information: Hindu philosophy, Buddhist philosophy, and Jainism

In the history of the

Vedic culture, the development of philosophical and religious thought over a period of two millennia gave rise to what came to be called the six schools of aastika, or orthodox, Indian philosophy or Hindu philosophy. These schools have come to be synonymous with the greater religion of Hinduism, which was a development of the early Vedic Religion

.

Hindu philosophy constitutes an integral part of the culture of

Dharmic philosophies which were influential throughout the Far East. The great diversity in thought and practice of Hinduism is nurtured by its liberal universalism

.

Chinese philosophy

Main article: Chinese philosophy

Philosophy has had a tremendous effect on

India also became a prominent philosophical and religious discipline. (It should be noted that Eastern thought, unlike Western philosophy, did not express a clear distinction between philosophy and religion.) Like Western philosophy, Chinese philosophy

covers a broad and complex range of thought, possessing a multitude of schools that address every branch and subject area of philosophy.

See also:

Li, I Ching

Related Topics:

Asian Values

African philosophy

Main article: African philosophy

Other philosophical traditions, such as

Umar Tall of Senegal

; both were prolific Islamic scholars.

This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (March 2009)

References

1. ^ Quinton, Anthony; ed. Ted Honderich (1996). "Philosophy". The Oxford Companion to Philosophy.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
2. ISBN 1428613102
3. ^ The definition of philosophy is: "1.orig., love of, or the search for, wisdom or knowledge 2.theory or logical analysis of the principles underlying conduct, thought, knowledge, and the nature of the universe." Webster's New World Dictionary (Second College ed.).
4. ^ ^{a b} Blackburn, Simon (1994). "Philosophy", The Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
5. ^ Cua, Anthony S. "Emergence of the history of Chinese philosophy", Comparative Approaches to Chinese Philosophy.
6. ^ Metaphysics book alpha minor
7. ^ Ducasse, Curt (1941). Philosophy as a Science.
8. ^ Hegel, G.W.F. Elements of the Philosophy of Rights. Cambridge University Press. 1991 (1821).
9. ^ Plato. Theaetetus.
10. ^ Berkeley, George. Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge. 2005 (1710). (Introduction, §1)
11. ^ Nietzsche, Friedrich. Beyond Good and Evil. (Part One: On the Prejudices of Philosophers, §5)
12. ^ Bacon, Francis. The Enlargement of Science. (1. 2, ch. 3)
13. ^ Richardson, R.C. (January 1982). "The `Scandal' of Cartesian Interactionism". Mind. 91 (361): pp. 20-37. {{cite journal}}: |pages= has extra text (help)
14. ^ Sextus Empiricus, PH (= Outlines of Pyrrhonism) I.8.
15. ^ Sextus Empiricus, PH (= Outlines of Pyrrhonism) I.19-20.
16. ^ "And though a Pyrrhonian [i.e. a skeptic] may throw himself or others into a momentary amazement and confusion by his profound reasonings; the first and most trivial event in life will put to flight all his doubts and scruples, and leave him the same, in every point of action and speculation, with the philosophers of every other sect, or with those who never concerned themselves in any philosophical researches. When he awakes from his dream, he will be the first to join in the laugh against himself, and to confess, that all his objections are mere amusement" (An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, 1777, XII, Part 2, p.128)
17. ^ Stephen Cade Hetherington (1996). Knowledge Puzzles.
18. ^ First Dialogue
19. ISBN 0-87975-596-2
20. ^ Rorty, Richard (1982). The Consequences of Pragmatism. Minnesota: Minnesota University Press, p xvi.
21. ^ Putnam, Hilary (1995). Pragmatism: An Open Question. Oxford: Blackwell, especially pp 8-12.
22. ^ Pratt, J.B. (1909). What is Pragmatism?. New York: Macmillan, p 89.
23. ^ Woodruff Smith, David (2007). Husserl. Routledge.
24. ^ Woodruff Smith, David (2007). Husserl. Routledge.
25. ISBN 0-06-063763-3
26. ISBN 0-253-20967-6
27. ISBN 0805210946
28. ISBN 0-14-044449-1
29. ISBN 0-691-02081-7
30. ^ In The Letter on Humanism, Heidegger explicitly rejected Sartrean existentialism.
31. ^ Hobbes, Thomas (1985). Leviathan. Penguin Classics.
32. ISBN 0-393-96451-5

Further reading

Introductions

• ISBN 0-19-513458-3
• Blumenau, Ralph. Philosophy and Living.
  ISBN 0-907845-33-9
• Craig, Edward. Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction.
  ISBN 0-19-285421-6
• Curley, Edwin, A Spinoza Reader, Princeton, 1994,
  ISBN 0-691-00067-0
• Harrison-Barbet, Anthony. Mastering Philosophy.
  ISBN 0-333-69343-4
• Higgins, Kathleen M. and Solomon, Robert C. A Short History of Philosophy.
  ISBN 0-19-510196-0
• Russell, Bertrand. The Problems of Philosophy.
  ISBN 0-19-511552-X
• Sober, E. (2001). Core Questions in Philosophy: A Text with Readings. Upper Saddle River, Prentice Hall.
  ISBN 0-13-189869-8
• Solomon, Robert C. Big Questions: A Short Introduction to Philosophy.
  ISBN 0-534-16708-X
• Warburton, Nigel. Philosophy: The Basics.
  ISBN 0-415-14694-1
• What Philosophy Is.
• Philosophy Now.
• The Philosophy Manuscripts.
• Syllabus for General Philosophy I, an introductory philosophy course currently offered by the Academe of Philosophical Studies at the University of No Where. Check back often for lectures, essays, articles, and other updates.

Topical introductions

• Copleston, Frederick. Philosophy in Russia: From Herzen to Lenin and Berdyaev.
  ISBN 0-268-01569-4
• Critchley, Simon. Continental Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction.
  ISBN 0-19-285359-7
• Hamilton, Sue. Indian Philosophy: a Very Short Introduction.
  ISBN 0-19-285374-0
• Harwood, Sterling, ed., Business as Ethical and Business as Usual (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Co., 2000); www.sterlingharwood.com
• Imbo, Samuel Oluoch. An Introduction to African Philosophy.
  ISBN 0-8476-8841-0
• Knight, Kelvin. Aristotelian Philosophy: Ethics and Politics from Aristotle to MacIntyre.
  ISBN 0-7456-1977-0
• Kupperman, Joel J. Classic Asian Philosophy: A Guide to the Essential Texts.
  ISBN 0-19-513335-8
• Leaman, Oliver. A Brief Introduction to Islamic Philosophy.
  ISBN 0-7456-1960-6
• Lee, Joe and Powell, Jim. Eastern Philosophy For Beginners.
  ISBN 0-86316-282-7
• Nagel, Thomas. What Does It All Mean? A Very Short Introduction to Philosophy.
  ISBN 0-19-505292-7
• Scruton, Roger. A Short History of Modern Philosophy.
  ISBN 0-415-26763-3
• Smart, Ninian. World Philosophies.
  ISBN 0-415-22852-2
• Tarnas, Richard. The Passion of the Western Mind: Understanding the Ideas That Have Shaped Our World View.
  ISBN 0-345-36809-6
• The Branches of Philosophy
• A Glossary of Terms

Anthologies

• Philosophic Classics: From Plato to Derrida (4th Edition) by Forrest E. Baird
• Classics of Philosophy (Vols. 1 & 2, 2nd edition) by Louis P. Pojman
• Classics of Philosophy: The 20th Century (Vol. 3) by Louis P. Pojman
• The English Philosophers from Bacon to Mill by Edwin Arthur Burtt
• European Philosophers from Descartes to Nietzsche by Monroe Beardsley
• Contemporary Analytic Philosophy: Core Readings by James Baillie
• Existentialism: Basic Writings (Second Edition) by Charles Guignon, Derk Pereboom
• The Phenomenology Reader by Dermot Moran, Timothy Mooney
• Medieval Islamic Philosophical Writings edited by Muhammad Ali Khalidi
• A Source Book in Indian Philosophy by Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, Charles A. Moore
• A Source Book in Chinese Philosophy by Wing-tsit Chan
• Kim, J. and Ernest Sosa, Ed. (1999). Metaphysics: An Anthology. Blackwell Philosophy Anthologies. Oxford, Blackwell Publishers Ltd.
• The Oxford Handbook of Free Will (2004) edited by Robert Kane
• Husserl, Edmund and Welton, Donn, The Essential Husserl: Basic Writings in Transcendental Phenomenology, Indiana University Press, 1999,
  ISBN 0-253-21273-1

Reference works

• The Oxford Companion to Philosophy edited by Ted Honderich
• The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy by Robert Audi
• The Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy (10 vols.) edited by Edward Craig, Luciano Floridi (also available online by subscription); or
• The Concise Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy edited by Edward Craig (an abridgement)
• Encyclopedia of Philosophy (8 vols.) edited by Paul Edwards; in 1996, a ninth supplemental volume appeared which updated the classic 1967 encyclopedia.
• Routledge History of Philosophy (10 vols.) edited by John Marenbon
• History of Philosophy (9 vols.) by Frederick Copleston
• A History of Western Philosophy (5 vols.) by W. T. Jones
• Encyclopaedia of Indian Philosophies (8 vols.), edited by Karl H. Potter et al (first 6 volumes out of print)
• Indian Philosophy (2 vols.) by Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan
• A History of Indian Philosophy (5 vols.) by Surendranath Dasgupta
• History of Chinese Philosophy (2 vols.) by Fung Yu-lan, Derk Bodde
• Encyclopedia of Chinese Philosophy edited by Antonio S. Cua
• Encyclopedia of Eastern Philosophy and Religion by Ingrid Fischer-Schreiber, Franz-Karl Ehrhard, Kurt Friedrichs
• Companion Encyclopedia of Asian Philosophy by Brian Carr, Indira Mahalingam
• A Concise Dictionary of Indian Philosophy: Sanskrit Terms Defined in English by John A. Grimes
• History of Islamic Philosophy edited by Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Oliver Leaman
• History of Jewish Philosophy edited by Daniel H. Frank, Oliver Leaman
• A History of Russian Philosophy: From the Tenth to the Twentieth Centuries by Valerii Aleksandrovich Kuvakin
• Ayer, A. J. et al. Ed. (1994) A Dictionary of Philosophical Quotations. Blackwell Reference Oxford. Oxford, Basil Blackwell Ltd.
• Blackburn, S., Ed. (1996)The Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy. Oxford, Oxford University Press.
• Mauter, T., Ed. The Penguin Dictionary of Philosophy. London, Penguin Books.
• Runes, D., ED. (1942). The Dictionary of Philosophy. New York, The Philosophical Library, Inc.
• Angeles, P. A., Ed. (1992). The Harper Collins Dictionary of Philosophy. New York, Harper Perennial.
• Bunnin, N. et. al.,Ed.(1996) The Blackwell Companion to Philosophy. Blackwell Companions to Philosophy. Oxford, Blackwell Publishers Ltd.
• Popkin, R. H. (1999). The Columbia History of Western Philosophy. New York, Columbia University Press.
• An historical time line.

Bibliographies

• American Philosophical Association
• Epistemology Research Guide
• Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy - Annotated Bibliography on Analysis
• Contemporary Philosophy of Mind: An Annotated Bibliography
• London Philosophy Study Guide

See also

External links

Wikibooks has a book on the topic of: Introduction to Philosophy

The Wikibook Wikiversity has a page on the topic of: School of Philosophy

• Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
• Philosophers' Cafe
• The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
• Philosophy Timeline
• Philosophy overview
• Wantzu at
  Curlie
• (in French) Articles of Philosophy in Sens Public
• Philosophy-Forums.com
• The Philosophy Wiki

Category:Abstraction Category:Belief Category:Philosophy Category:Philosophy articles needing attention