Schools of philosophy: The Idealists

Idealists believe that the external, material world is produced by the mind or ideas and that it cannot exist separately. Reality therefore begins inside the head, not out in the street. Plato: Plato thought that everything in the material world owes its existence to a perfect, external, and unchanging idea from which it is modelled. […]

Schools of Philosophy: Greek Schools After Socrates

 After Socrates’ death, three new schools of thought were founded in Athens. All of them were influenced by Socrates’ search for what is Good. The Cynics: Started by Antisthenes, a disciple of Socrates, the Cynics became widely known through the antics of Diogenes, Antisthenes’ pupil. Diogenes preached that the only path to happiness was living […]

Schools of Philosophy: The Pre-Socratic Philosophers

The pre-Socratics (The Early Greeks) were the first philosophers in the West. They are classed as the school that started Western philosophy off on its 2,500-year-old-history. The ancient Greeks believed in a family of gods, who lived in palaces at the top of Mount Olympus, the highest mountain in Greece. The whole universe and its […]

The Father of Western Philosophy

Socrates was a familiar figure in Athens. Shabbily dressed and always barefoot, even in winter, he spent his days discussing everything under the sun with all and sundry. He was soon regarded as the wisest man in Athens, even though the city was full of philosophers who charged money for teaching. This flattery did not […]

Philosophy Today (20th Century)

Philosophy today began with a shift away from “I” as the Key to understanding reality. Instead, thinkers started probing into human “structures”. Language, science, and society itself all came under scrutiny. One of the most important changes in philosophy today ids the emphasis put on words and how they reflect the world.

Spinoza: The ethics of God

Introduction He goes by the name of “Benedict de Spinoza“, using the Latin equivalent of the given name (“Baruch”, meaning “Blessed”) that he discarded in his youth following his excommunication by the Amsterdam Jewish community of his birth. Little concerned with wealth, fame, or the transitory pleasures that drives others, Spinoza is motivated by the […]

Spinoza: The level of Knowledge

Spinoza distinguishes between three levels of knowledge and describes how we can move from the lowest to the highest. We begin with the things most familiar to us, and says Spinoza, “the more we understand individual things the more we understand God.” By refining our knowledge of things, we can move from (1) imagination, to […]

Religion and Spirituality

Growth of interest in spirituality: Traditionally, spirituality has always been viewed within the framework of a specific religious group. Thus, there have been multiple spiritualities associated with various saints in Roman Catholicism, as well as different spiritual paths to be found within the context of particular interpretations of Buddhism, Islam, and Judaism. In this sense, […]

Religion and Growing Feminism

Growing feminism and sensitivity to women’s issues: Feminism has become a significant issue within the religious world.This concern has been expressed in a wide variety of different forms. Theologically, it has challenged understandings of God, human persons and the world of nature that some argue were implicitly rooted in male perspectives. Politically, it has striven […]

“Greening” of Religion!

 “Greening” of Religion: This involves growing consciousness among religious groups and individuals of the importance of environment concerns. Such consciousness frequently has been a part of the mainstream in many Asian religions but even though individuals like St. Francis of Assisi in the Christian tradition held perspectives that emphasised the relations between humans and nature, […]

An odd philosopher couple whose love affair lasted 50 years!

 Sartre and de Beauvoir met as university students at the Sorbonne in Paris. Famous the world over as the odd couple, they never married or shared a common property. De Beauvior refused to live the conventional female role. They lived in hotels and ate in cafés. But they did share a common philosophy. Their particular […]

Two philosophers in one body!

Ludwig Wittgenstein‘s  burning ambition was to bring an end to philosophy, and he considered that he had done so – twice. He was brilliant, charming, arrogant, rude, witty, brave, and frequently suicidal. Equally as confusing as his philosophy. in fact he seemed to be two different philosophers, the older one disowning the work of the […]

A philosopher who wasn’t a stuffed shirt with the ladies!

Hegel was not a modest man. He claimed that he understood all of the philosophy and history. Like Spinoza, he thought that god and the universe were inseparable. it is difficult to describe Hegel’s philosophy simply, because it isn’t simple. It is a huge, all-embracing system that moves through history like a giant snowball, gathering […]

Karl Marx: Private Property and “Estranged, Alienated Labour”

Estranged, Alienated Labour: We have started out from the premises of political economy. We have accepted its language and its laws. We presupposed private property; the separation of labour, capital, and land, and likewise of wages, profit, and capital; the division of labour; competition; the conception of exchange value, etc.

Aristotle on: “Friendship, Love, Well-wishing, and Unanimity”

Friendship: Friendship is a kind of virtue, or implies virtue, and it is also most necessary for living. Nobody would choose to live without friends even if he had all the other good things. Aristotle takes up the subject of what is lovable. He returns to his three “objects of choice”: goodness, usefulness, and pleasure, […]

Stoics’ APATHEIA

Apatheia is a state of mind in Stoic philosophy in which one is free from emotional disturbance; the freedom from all passions. Apatheia is the root for the word “apathy” (i.e., indifference), but the ancient meaning of apatheia is closer to equanimity than indifference. To some extent, the Stoic term “apatheia” is misleading, even in […]

Aristotelian ethics versus Stoicism

  Agreements between the Two Views:  (1) The goal of ethical philosophy is practical: the improvement of human lives, the promotion of happiness (the blessed or supremely good life). (2) hat happiness is also the ultimate end (goal) of human life.(3) That happiness is the most complete end. (4) That happiness is self-sufficient. To say […]

Epicurus’ ATARAXIA

Epicurus is considered a major figure in the history of science as well as philosophy. In ethics he is famous for propounding the theory of hedonism, which holds that pleasure is the only intrinsic value. However, his view of pleasure is far from the stereotypical one. For Epicurus, the most pleasant life is one where we […]

Epicurus on “Death”

Epicurus claims that there are two self-imposed beliefs that do the most to make our lives unhappy or full of pain. They are first, the belief that we will be punished by the gods for our bad actions, and second, that death is something to be feared. Both of these beliefs produce fear and anxiety, […]

Epicurus: “Types of Pleasure”

For Epicurus, pleasure is tied closely to satisfying one’s desires. He distinguishes between two different types of pleasure: ‘moving’ pleasures and ‘static’ pleasures. ‘Moving’ pleasures occur when one is in the process of satisfying a desire, e.g., eating a hamburger when one is hungry. These pleasures involve an active titillation of the senses, and these […]

Epicurus on “Virtue” and “Justice”

The virtues: Epicurus’ hedonism was widely denounced in the ancient world as undermining traditional morality. Epicurus, however, insists that courage, moderation, and the other virtues are needed in order to attain happiness. However, the virtues for Epicurus are all purely instrumental goods–that is, they are valuable solely for the sake of the happiness that they […]

Epicurus: “Types of Desire”

Because of the close connection of pleasure with desire-satisfaction, Epicurus devotes a considerable part of his ethics to analysing different kinds of desires. If pleasure results from getting what you want (desire-satisfaction) and pain from not getting what you want (desire-frustration), then there are two strategies you can pursue with respect to any given desire:

Philosophy, the handmaiden of theology?!!

In the Middle Ages, especially  in the works of the Scholastic writers, arises the problem of the relationship between theology and philosophy. An attempt was usually made to resolve this problem by resorting to the idea of subordination and recalling the old phrase “Philosophy, the Handmaiden of Theology,” from this viewpoint, philosophy is an auxiliary, […]

Quotes from the book: “The Game”, by: Neil Strauss

If you keep doing what you have always done, you will keep getting what you have always gotten. Our social skills determine the course of our lives-our careers, our friends, our family, our children, our happiness- that’s a big area to neglect. This game is not an easy one. You will be forced to confront […]

Quotes from the book: “Tell to Win”, by: Peter Guber

A message everybody should take to heart: “Behind every success there is a good story lurking.”You never get a second chance to make a first impression. Heroes do not quit, so the only true failure is the failure to get up, and it proves to me that compelling heroes and purposeful stories lurk in every […]

The gossip facet of my life.

There are hundreds and hundreds of hard and soft media daily, writing thousands and thousands articles and stories gossiping celebrities in any field that really you cannot even imagine it. Even most of so called serious materials while they become scrutinized, are full of exaggerations and somehow busy making or promoting some celebrities. Celebrity gossip […]

Christianity and Medieval Philosophy, Summarized from the book: “History of Philosophy”, by: Julian Marias

CHRISTIANITY 1. Christianity and Philosophy Christianity marks the most profound division in the history of philosophy; it separates the two great phases of Western thought. However, it would be wrong to think of Christianity as a philosophy; it is something quite different—a religion.  Nor can one speak precisely of “Christian philosophy,” if the adjective “Christian” […]

Clocks can tell you nothing about the real nature of “time.”

Some say 20th-century philosophy began with Edmund Husserl. He invented a new way of looking at the world. He called it “phenomenology”, meaning “how things appear”. Husserl wanted to find a foolproof method of meaning reality. Descartes‘ idea of doubting everything was a big ingredient of his philosophy. Like Descartes, he believed that consciousness is […]

Nietzsche and the Persian

When Nietzsche was a boy he was called “the little pastor”. His father was a Lutheran preacher. He expected to be a clergyman like his father, but at university he began to question his upbringing. He became a professor at the age of 24. He decided that Christianity robbed people of the will to excel. […]

Many avocations but not a vocation!!

 Dear friends, Hello and Respect, There are times when my capacity overflows,  and I have no choice but to relate my problem with you- my patient listeners and dear friends – my audience, and my interlocutors.  At these sort of occasions,  as if I am a frog which needed to come to the water surface to croak […]

Stoicism’s influence on Christianity

Since the Renaissance Stoic ethics and some aspects of the stoic view of nature have attracted those who have found it impossible either to accept Christianity or to lapse into complete atheism. The Stoic sage’s sense of duty, his concern for others, his constancy, his independence of external conditions, and his freedom from irrational impulses […]

Interesting Facts about Chinese Art and Thought

Briefness, Disconnectedness, and Suggestiveness When one begins to read Chinese philosophical works, the first impression one gets is perhaps the briefness and disconnectedness of the sayings and writings of their authors. Open the Confucian Analects and you will see that each paragraph consists of only a few words, and there is hardly any connection between […]

To you, what is “Reality”?

See what Immanuel Kant says about it. Immanuel Kant was a man of habit, living his life to a precise routine. Townsfolk used to set their watches by his afternoon walk, as he followed the same route at the same time every day. One day he stayed in to read a book and people were […]

Do you believe in the existence of “Soul”?

See what are the ideas of a couple of the most well-known Greek philosophers about it. Aristotle distinguished between three types of soul in order to indicate the three different ways a body can be organized. He called these the vegetative, sensitive, and rational souls. They represent various capacities of a body for activity, the […]

“Mermaid = Fish + Woman”

The Scottish thinker David Hume wanted to bring philosophy to its senses. He scoffed at so-called human reason. Like John Locke, Hume believed that people knew of the world began with the senses. He set out to discover whether there was any real proof  of those things that people took for granted. Hume’s questioning of […]

A great man who stayed true to his principles

Spinoza was a Dutch Jew of Spanish descent, whose parents had come to Amsterdam to escape persecution from  the Catholic Church due to the plight of the Jews in 16th-century Spain. Yews were forced to become Catholics or flee the country. Spinoza as a youth, studied the Jewish philosophers , but the most abiding influence […]

“I am cautious therefore I am!!”

Descartes turned philosophy on its head and started again. First, he had to find out what he knew for certain. he did this by doubting everything. Could he believe what he saw with his eyes, when big things looked small in the distance? How did he know that he really existed? May be he was dreaming. […]

“To take away the cause is to take away the effect”

Thomas Aquinas was the son of an Italian nobleman. He was educated in a monastery, like many children during Middle Ages. This 13th century friar said that faith and reason were often two paths to the same end.  He combined the philosophy of Aristotle with the Christian religion. He argued that without God there would be […]

Stoicism: Go with the flow!

  Stoics believed that they were part of a divine plan and that whatever happened was meant to be. Stoics got their name because Zeno taught from a porch (stoa in Greek). To the stoics, a good life meant a virtuous one. They refused to be ruled by their feelings, because emotions just got in the way […]

Epicureanism: Don’t worry! Be happy!

 ATOMISM & HEDONISM Epicureans thought human existence was just a random groupings of atoms that fell apart after death. Their motto was “don’t worry, be happy”. Epicurus tries to construct a system of simple, coherence, and plausible principles. he is a hedonist who regards the fear of death as the most dangerous source of fear, […]

An interesting “Puzzle”

One Friday a professor announced to her class that on one of their five meeting days during the next week, she would administer to them a surprise quiz. The class would not know which of the five days it would take place until the morning in which it was actually to be given. One of her […]