Philosophical Issues
Are you ready to delve into the myriad possible answers to such complex questions as What makes an action virtuous? or What is the nature of consciousness? Do you embrace weighty topics such as the relative merits of empiricism and rationalism? An inquisitive spirit is all but a prerequisite for many of the topics listed here, which deal with the different approaches to and ideas about the big questions of life.
Philosophical Issues Encyclopedia Articles
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humanism
Humanism, system of education and mode of inquiry that originated in northern Italy during the 13th and 14th centuries and later spread through continental Europe and England. The term is alternatively...
Daoism
Daoism, indigenous religio-philosophical tradition that has shaped Chinese life for more than 2,000 years. In the broadest sense, a Daoist attitude toward life can be seen in the accepting and yielding,...
epistemology
Epistemology, the philosophical study of the nature, origin, and limits of human knowledge. The term is derived from the Greek epistēmē (“knowledge”) and logos (“reason”), and accordingly the field is...
Indian philosophy
Indian philosophy, the systems of thought and reflection that were developed by the civilizations of the Indian subcontinent. They include both orthodox (astika) systems, namely, the Nyaya, Vaisheshika,...
ethics
Ethics, the discipline concerned with what is morally good and bad and morally right and wrong. The term is also applied to any system or theory of moral values or principles. (Read Britannica’s biography...
formal logic
Formal logic, the abstract study of propositions, statements, or assertively used sentences and of deductive arguments. The discipline abstracts from the content of these elements the structures or logical...
applied logic
Applied logic, the study of the practical art of right reasoning. This study takes different forms depending on the type of reasoning involved and on what the criteria of right reasoning are taken to be....
philosophy of physics
Philosophy of physics, philosophical speculation about the concepts, methods, and theories of the physical sciences, especially physics. The philosophy of physics is less an academic discipline—though...
philosophy of mind
Philosophy of mind, reflection on the nature of mental phenomena and especially on the relation of the mind to the body and to the rest of the physical world. Philosophy is often concerned with the most...
political philosophy
Political philosophy, branch of philosophy that is concerned, at the most abstract level, with the concepts and arguments involved in political opinion. The meaning of the term political is itself one...
Confucianism
Confucianism, the way of life propagated by Confucius in the 6th–5th century bce and followed by the Chinese people for more than two millennia. Although transformed over time, it is still the substance...
Buddhism
Buddhism, religion and philosophy that developed from the teachings of the Buddha (Sanskrit: “Awakened One”), a teacher who lived in northern India between the mid-6th and mid-4th centuries bce (before...
aesthetics
Aesthetics, the philosophical study of beauty and taste. It is closely related to the philosophy of art, which is concerned with the nature of art and the concepts in terms of which individual works of...
Western philosophy
Western philosophy, history of Western philosophy from its development among the ancient Greeks of Classical antiquity to the present. This article has three basic purposes: (1) to provide an overview...
metaphysics
Metaphysics, branch of philosophy whose topics in antiquity and the Middle Ages were the first causes of things and the nature of being. In postmedieval philosophy, however, many other topics came to be...
history of logic
History of logic, the history of the discipline from its origins among the ancient Greeks to the present time. There was a medieval tradition according to which the Greek philosopher Parmenides (5th century...
philosophy of science
Philosophy of science, the study, from a philosophical perspective, of the elements of scientific inquiry. This article discusses metaphysical, epistemological, and ethical issues related to the practice...
philosophy of art
Philosophy of art, the study of the nature of art, including concepts such as interpretation, representation and expression, and form. It is closely related to aesthetics, the philosophical study of beauty...
analytic philosophy
Analytic philosophy, a loosely related set of approaches to philosophical problems, dominant in Anglo-American philosophy from the early 20th century, that emphasizes the study of language and the logical...
philosophy of biology
Philosophy of biology, philosophical speculation about the concepts, methods, and theories of the biological sciences. The sharp increase in understanding of biological processes that has occurred since...