3 Great Philosophers essaysWhat makes a civilization great? It depends on the tools, the laws, class structures, religions, and government. However, it also depends on the way an individual thinks and how their way of thinking could contribute to improving society. In ancient Greece, there lived thr A perfect philosophy essay outline should give logical steps from true ideologies to an unprecedented conclusion. Our philosophy paper samples give either a negative or positive argument concerning a thesis. The Irrationality and Imitation Within and Surrounding Grief: the Views of Socrates and Homer Thoreau: Philosophies of Non-Violent Resistance and Protests. Mahatma Gandhi and Henry David Thoreau are two individuals very notably known for their philosophies of non-violent resistance and protests. This paper is intended to cover a multitude of things
List of important publications in philosophy - Wikipedia
Philosophy is complicated stuff. Honestly, the only real way you can fully comprehend the theories, epistemologies, and frameworks described here is to read the writing created by — and critique dedicated to — each of these thinkers. But what follows is your introduction, a rapid-fire look at 20 Major Philosophers, their Big Ideas, and their most important written works.
But think fast, because these mindblowers come at a furious pace. Thomas Aquinas was a 13th century Dominican friar, theologian and Doctor of the Church, born in what is known today as the Lazio region of Italy. His most important contribution to Western thought is the concept of natural theology sometimes referred to as Thomism in tribute to his influence.
This belief system holds that the existence of God is verified through reason and rational explanation, as opposed to through scripture or religious experience. This ontological approach is among the central premises underpinning modern Catholic philosophy and liturgy.
His writings, and Aquinas himself, are still considered among the preeminent models for Catholic priesthood. His ideas also remain central to theological debate, famous philosophy essays, discourse, and modes of worship.
Aristotle is among the most important and influential thinkers and teachers in human history, often considered — alongside his mentor, Plato — to be a father of Western Philosophy. Most philosophers who followed — both those who echoed and those who opposed his ideas — owed a direct debt to his wide-ranging influence. In addition to being a philosopher, Aristotle was also a scientist, which led him to consider an enormous array of topics, and largely through the view that all concepts and knowledge are ultimately based on perception.
This position of influence gave Aristotle the means to establish the library at Lyceum, where he produced hundreds of writings on papyrus scrolls. And of course, it also gave him direct sway over the mind of a man who would one day command an empire stretching from Greece to northwestern India, famous philosophy essays.
Chinese teacher, writer, and philosopher Confucius viewed himself as a channel for the theological ideas and values of the imperial dynasties that came before him. With an emphasis on family and social harmony, Confucius advocated for a way of life that reflected a spiritual and religious tradition, but which was also distinctly humanist and even secularist. Confucius — thought to be a contemporary of Taoist progenitor Lao-Tzu — had a profound impact on the development of Eastern legal customs and the emergence of a scholarly ruling class.
Confucianism would engage in historic push-pull with the philosophies of Buddhism and Taoism, experiencing ebbs and flows in influence, its high points coming during the Han BCE— CETang — CEand Song — CE Dynasties, famous philosophy essays.
As Buddhism became the dominant spiritual force in China, Confucianism declined in practice. However, it remains a foundational philosophy underlying Asian and Chinese attitudes toward scholarly, legal, and professional pursuits. A French philosopher, mathematician, and scientist, Descartes was born in France but spent 20 years of his life in the Dutch Republic.
As a member of the Dutch States Army, then as the Prince of Orange and subsequently as Stadtholder a position of national leadership in the Famous philosophy essays RepublicDescartes wielded considerable intellectual influence over the period known as the Dutch Golden Age. He often distinguished himself by refuting or attempting to undo the ideas of those that came before him.
A Boston-born writer, philosopher, and poet, Ralph Waldo Emerson is the father of the transcendentalist movement. He famous philosophy essays also seen as a key figure in the American romantic movement. Historian, social theorist, and philosopher Michel Foucault, born in the riverfront city of Poiltiers, France, dedicated much of his teaching and writing to famous philosophy essays examination of power and knowledge and their connection to social control.
Though often identified as a postmodernist, Foucault preferred to think of himself famous philosophy essays a critic of modernity. His service as an international diplomat on behalf of France also influenced his understanding of social constructs throughout history and how they have served to enforce racial, religious, famous philosophy essays, and sexual famous philosophy essays. His ideals have been particularly embraced by progressive movements, and he allied with many during his lifetime.
Active in movements against racism, human rights abuses, famous philosophy essays, prisoner abuses, and marginalization of the mentally ill, he is often cited as a major influence in movements for social justice, human rights, and feminism.
More broadly speaking, his examination of power and social control has had a direct influence on the studies of sociology, communications, and political science. A Scottish-born historian, economist, and philosopher, Hume is often grouped with thinkers such as John Locke, Thomas Hobbes, and Sir Francis Bacon as part of a movement called British Empiricism. In contrast to rationalists such as Descartes, Hume was preoccupied with the way that passions as opposed to reason govern human behavior.
This, Hume argued, predisposed human beings to famous philosophy essays founded not on the existence of certain absolutes but on personal experience. As a consequence of these ideas, Hume would be among the first major thinkers to refute dogmatic religious and moral ideals in favor of a more sentimentalist approach to human nature. His belief system would help to inform the future movements of utilitarianism and logical positivism, and would have a profound impact on scientific and theological discourse thereafter.
Prussian-born and therefore identified as a German philosopherKant is considered among the most essential figures in modern philosophy, an advocate of reason as the source famous philosophy essays morality, and a thinker whose ideas continue to permeate ethical, epistemological, and political debate. What perhaps most distinguishes Kant is his innate desire to find a synthesis between rationalists like Descartes and empiricists like Hume, to decipher a middle ground that defers to human experience without descending into skepticism.
To his own way of thinking, famous philosophy essays, Kant was pointing a way forward by resolving a central philosophical impasse. A Danish theologian, social critic, and philosopher, Kierkegaard is viewed by many as the most important existentialist philosopher. His work dealt largely with the idea of the single individual. His thinking tended to prioritize concrete reality over abstract thought.
Within this construct, he viewed personal choice and commitment as preeminent. This orientation played a major part in his theology as well. This proliferation was a major force in helping existentialism take root in the 20th century. First described the concept of angst, defining it as a dread the comes from anxieties over choice, famous philosophy essays, freedom, and ambiguous feelings. Viewed as a divine figure in traditional Chinese religions, his ideas and writings would form one of the major pillars alongside Confucius and the Buddha for Eastern thought.
As such, Taoism is equally rooted in religion and philosophy. In traditional telling, though Lao-Tzu never opened famous philosophy essays formal school, he worked as an archivist for the royal court of Zhou Dynasty. This gave him access to an extensive body of writing and artifacts, which he synthesized into his famous philosophy essays poetry and prose. As a result of his writing, his influence spread widely during his lifetime.
In fact, one version of his biography implies he may well have been a direct mentor to the Buddha or, in some versions, famous philosophy essays, was the Buddha himself. There are lot of colorful narratives surrounding Lao-Tzu, some of which are almost certainly myth.
In fact, there are some famous philosophy essays who even question whether or not Lao-Tzu was a real person. Historical accounts differ on who he was, exactly when he lived and which works he contributed to the canon of Taoism. However, in most traditional tellings, Lao-Tzu was the living embodiment of the philosophy known as Taoism and author famous philosophy essays its primary text, the Tao Te Ching.
An English physicist and philosopher, John Locke was a prominent thinker during the Enlightenment period. Part of the movement of British Empiricism alongside fellow countrymen David Famous philosophy essays, Thomas Hobbes, and Sir Francis Bacon, Locke is regarded as an important contributor to the development of the social contract theory and is sometimes identified as the father of liberalism, famous philosophy essays.
Indeed, his discourses on identity, the self, famous philosophy essays, and the impact of sensory experience would be essential revelations to many Enlightenment thinkers and, consequently, to real revolutionaries. A writer, public office-holder, and philosopher of Renaissance Italy, Machiavelli both participated in and wrote prominently on political matters, to the extent that he has even been identified by some as the father of modern political science. He is also seen as a proponent of deeply questionable — some would argue downright evil — values and ideas.
Machiavelli was an empiricist who used experience and historical fact to inform his beliefs, a disposition which allowed him to divorce politics not just from theology but from morality as well, famous philosophy essays. His most prominent works described the parameters of effective rulership, in which he seems to advocate for leadership by any means which retain power, famous philosophy essays, including deceit, murder, and oppression.
A German-born economist, political theorist, and philosopher, Karl Marx wrote some of the most revolutionary philosophical content ever produced. Indeed, so pertinent was his writing to the human condition during his lifetime, he was exiled from his native country. This event would, however, also make it possible for his most important ideas to find a popular audience.
Famous philosophy essays arriving in London, Marx took up work with fellow German Friedrich Engels. Together, famous philosophy essays, they devised an assessment of class, society, and famous philosophy essays dynamics that revealed deep inequalities, and exposed the economic prerogatives for state-sponsored violence, oppression, and war.
Marx predicted that the inequalities and violence inherent in capitalism would ultimately lead to its collapse. From its ashes would rise a new socialist system, a classless society where all participants as opposed to just wealthy private owners have access to the means for production.
The philosophy underlying Marxism, and his revolutionary fervor, would ripple throughout the world, ultimately transforming entire spheres of thought in places like Soviet Russia, Eastern Europe, and Famous philosophy essays China. In many ways, Karl Marx presided over a philosophical revolution that continues in the present day in myriad forms of communism, socialism, socialized democracy, and grassroots political organization.
British economist, public servant, and philosopher John Stuart Mill is considered a linchpin of modern social and political theory. He contributed a critical body of work to the school of thought called liberalism, an ideology founding on the extension of individual liberties and economic freedoms.
As such, Mill himself advocated strongly for the preserving of individual rights and called for limitations to the power and authority of the state over the individual. Mill was also a proponent of utilitarianism, which holds that the best action is one that maximizes utility, famous philosophy essays, or stated more simply, one that famous philosophy essays the greatest benefit to all. For his own part, as a member of Parliament, Mill became the first office-holding Briton to advocate for the right of women to vote.
Friedrich Nietzsche was a poet, cultural critic, and philosopher, as well as possessor of among the most gifted minds in human famous philosophy essays. Writing on an enormous breadth of subjects, from history, religion and science to art, culture and the tragedies of Greek and Roman Antiquity, famous philosophy essays, Nietzsche wrote with savage wit and a love of irony.
He used these forces to pen deconstructive examinations of truth, Christian morality, famous philosophy essays, and the impact of social constructs on our formulation of moral values. This idea in particular would remain an important component of the existentialist and surrealist movements that followed.
Greek philosopher and teacher Plato did nothing less than found the first institution of higher learning in the Western World, establishing the Academy of Athens and cementing his own status as the most important figure in the development of western philosophical tradition, famous philosophy essays.
As the pupil of Socrates and the mentor to Aristotle, Plato is the connecting figure in what might be termed the great triumvirate of Greek thought in both philosophy and science. Often, famous philosophy essays his dialogues, he employed his mentor Socrates as the vessel for his own thoughts and ideas. While he was not the first individual to partake of the activity of philosophy, he was perhaps the first to truly define what it meant, to articulate its purpose, and to reveal how it could be applied with scientific rigor.
This orientation provided a newly concreted framework for considering questions of ethics, famous philosophy essays, politics, knowledge, and theology. Rousseau was a writer, famous philosophy essays, philosopher, and — unique among entrants on this list — famous philosophy essays composer of operas and classical compositions.
Born famous philosophy essays Geneva, then a city-state in the Swiss Confederacy, Rousseau would be one of the most consequential thinkers of the Enlightenment era. His ideas on human morality, famous philosophy essays, and most importantly, on the right to rule, would have an enormous and definable impact not just on thinking in Europe, but on the actual power dynamics within Western Civilization. Indeed, his most important works would identify personal property as the root to inequality and would refute the premise that monarchies are divinely appointed to rule.
Rousseau proposed the earth-shattering idea that only the people have a true right to rule. These ideas fomented the French Revolution, and more broadly, helped bring an end to a centuries-old entanglement between Church, Crown, and Country.
Rousseau may be credited for providing a basic framework for classical republicanism, a form of government centered around the ideas of civil society, citizenship, famous philosophy essays, and mixed governance. A French novelist, famous philosophy essays, activist, and philosopher, Sartre was a leading exponent of the 20th century existentialist movement as well as a vocal proponent of Marxism and socialism.
He advocated for resistance to oppressive social constructs and argued for the importance of achieving an authentic way of being.
His writing coincided with, and contrasted, the sweep of fascism through Europe, the rise of authoritarian regimes, and the spread of Nazism.
Sartre became active in the socialist resistance, which aimed its activities at French Nazi collaborators. Of note, famous philosophy essays, one of his activist collaborators was both a romantic partner and a fellow major cohort of existentialism, Simone de Beauvoir.
How to write a philosophy essay Jonathan Wolff, Blavatnik School of Government, Oxford
, time: 33:42What are some must read essays for philosophers? - Quora
A perfect philosophy essay outline should give logical steps from true ideologies to an unprecedented conclusion. Our philosophy paper samples give either a negative or positive argument concerning a thesis. The Irrationality and Imitation Within and Surrounding Grief: the Views of Socrates and Homer Thoreau: Philosophies of Non-Violent Resistance and Protests. Mahatma Gandhi and Henry David Thoreau are two individuals very notably known for their philosophies of non-violent resistance and protests. This paper is intended to cover a multitude of things 3 Great Philosophers essaysWhat makes a civilization great? It depends on the tools, the laws, class structures, religions, and government. However, it also depends on the way an individual thinks and how their way of thinking could contribute to improving society. In ancient Greece, there lived thr
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