Download or read book The Ancient Worlds Most Influential Philosophers written by Charles River Editors and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2016-08-30 with total page 158 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: *Includes pictures Many people argue that Confucius is the most influential person of all time, and if having a significant effect on the greatest number of people is the criterion, he may very well be. China is one of the largest and oldest civilizations on earth, and Confucius has been influential there from almost the beginning: the first Chinese dynasty was founded around 1600 BCE and Confucius lived from 551-479 BCE. There is little evidence that he thought of himself as a harbinger of any kind, but shortly after his death, writings, sayings, and theories based on his life and ideas spread throughout China and even took hold of the imperial court of one of the most powerful and important dynasties, the Han (206 BCE-220 CE). It was during the Han Dynasty that Confucianism became closely tied to state affairs. None of Socrates' works survived antiquity, so most of what is known about him came from the writings of his followers, most notably Plato. What is known about Socrates is that he seemed to make a career out of philosophy, and Plato was intent on following in his footsteps. Yet for all of the influence of Socrates' life on his followers, it was Socrates' death around 399 B.C. that truly shaped them. Plato was so embittered by Socrates' trial in Athens that he completely soured on Athenian democracy, and Aristotle would later criticize politicians who relied on rhetoric; when Aristotle's own life was threatened, he fled Greece and allegedly remarked, "I will not allow the Athenians to sin twice against philosophy." Since Socrates wrote nothing down, or at least nothing that survived antiquity, there has been a wealth of scholarship ever since attempting to determine the person to whom the philosophical positions of the various (and genuine) Socratic dialogues of Plato's should be attributed. Even though Aristotle insisted that Socrates only cared about ethics and held no metaphysical theory of the kind that Plato propounded, the attempt to read the ugly but wise Socrates via the Platonic dialogues continued up to the 20th century. About a decade after Socrates' death, Plato returned to Athens and founded his famous Platonic Academy around 387 B.C., which he oversaw for 40 years until his death. One of Plato's philosophical beliefs was that writing down teachings was less valuable than passing them down orally, and several of Plato's writings are responses to previous writings of his, so Plato's personally held beliefs are hard to discern. However, Plato educated several subsequent philosophers, chief among them Aristotle, and his writings eventually formed the backbone of Western philosophy. Aristotle's influence on Western philosophical thought is marked by an extensive list of crucial issues that both signaled the way forward but at the same time boggled philosophers' minds throughout the centuries. Aristotle's reflections on Being, as well as his rigorous Logic, were his most important philosophical legacy, but he was also an intellectual in the broadest sense of the word. His interests went beyond metaphysical questions and into practical life and practical knowledge, from ethics to politics, rhetoric and the sciences, all of which left a profound impact on Western political thought and ethics. Naturally, this has also made him one of the foundations of knowledge and philosophical thought that subsequent philosophers relied on when forming and refining their own philosophies. Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 B.C.) was one of the most famous Romans in his day, and posterity has been even kinder to him. Cicero was a legend in his own time for his oratory abilities, which he used to persuade fellow Senators and denounce enemies like Catiline and Mark Antony, but he was also one of Rome's most prodigious writers and political philosophers. Alongside Pericles, Cicero was one of antiquity's greatest politicians, and he has remained one of the most influential statesmen.
Download or read book The 100 Most Influential Philosophers of All Time written by Brian Duignan Senior Editor, Religion and Philosophy and published by The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc. This book was released on 2009-12-20 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Presents an introduction to the world's most influential philosophers, with a brief summary of their lives and teachings, from the early philosophers of the Greek era up to the major philosophers of the twentieth century.
Download or read book 100 Philosophers written by Peter J. King and published by Chartwell Books. This book was released on 2013-04-05 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What is the nature of good and evil? What is the meaning of existence and who are we really? For thousands of years philosophers have struggled with questions such as these, weighing every thought against virtually every rational alternative. Here, presented for non-academic readers, is an easy-to-understand survey of ideas put forth by 100 important philosophers, from the pre-Socratics of ancient Greece to the analytic philosophers of the present day. Each thinker is summarized in a single illustrated page, or in many instances, in an illustrated two-page spread. Each entry includes the philosopher's birth and death dates, titles of major works, major influences, a capsule biographical sketch, and a brief summary of his or her most important ideas. The glossary will help readers quickly navigate and organize their learning. In addition to philosophers in our own Western tradition, readers will find Chinese sages, including Confucius and Lao-tzu, the Indian Buddhist philosopher Ngrjuna, and thinkers representing other cultures.
Download or read book The Philosophers of the Ancient World written by Trevor Curnow and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2006-06-22 with total page 315 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This fascinating book contains information on over 2,300 ancient Western philosophers, from Abammon to Zoticus. Covering the period from the seventh century BC to the seventh century AD, it brings together the extremely well-known and the thoroughly obscure. Those already familiar with ancient philosophy will find it an invaluable and handy work of reference with a breadth of coverage that far exceeds any other single-volume work on the subject. Those new to the subject will find it a useful introduction. The ideas of the major thinkers are summarised and an historical overview of ancient philosophy allows them to be placed in their proper context. The book also provides useful background reading for anyone interested in the ancient world who wants to find out more about its intellectual life. A minimum of philosophical jargon ensures its accessibility to a wide audience. As in ancient histories of philosophy, there is also a modest amount of gossip.
Download or read book One Hundred Philosophers written by Peter J. King and published by . This book was released on 2004 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How many times have you written an email at work, read it back and found that it didn't make as much sense as you'd hoped? or worse, someone else has told you that they can't follow it. The Pyramid Principle shows you how to communicate your ideas clearly and succinctly. It explains how to: think creatively, reason lucidly, and express ideas with clarity; define complex problems and establish the objectives of any document; assess your ideas and recognize their relative importance; structure your reasoning into a coherent and transparent argument; and, analyze your argument to confirm its effectiveness.
Download or read book Epistemic Injustice written by Miranda Fricker and published by Clarendon Press. This book was released on 2007-07-05 with total page 198 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this exploration of new territory between ethics and epistemology, Miranda Fricker argues that there is a distinctively epistemic type of injustice, in which someone is wronged specifically in their capacity as a knower. Justice is one of the oldest and most central themes in philosophy, but in order to reveal the ethical dimension of our epistemic practices the focus must shift to injustice. Fricker adjusts the philosophical lens so that we see through to the negative space that is epistemic injustice. The book explores two different types of epistemic injustice, each driven by a form of prejudice, and from this exploration comes a positive account of two corrective ethical-intellectual virtues. The characterization of these phenomena casts light on many issues, such as social power, prejudice, virtue, and the genealogy of knowledge, and it proposes a virtue epistemological account of testimony. In this ground-breaking book, the entanglements of reason and social power are traced in a new way, to reveal the different forms of epistemic injustice and their place in the broad pattern of social injustice.
Download or read book Philosophy in the Ancient World written by James A. Arieti and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2005 with total page 420 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Philosophy in the Ancient World: An Introduction--an intellectual history of the ancient world from the eighth century B.C.E. to the fifth century C.E., from Homer to Boethius--describes and evaluates ancient thought in its cultural setting, showing how it affected and was affected by that setting. The greatest philosophers (Parmenides, Plato, Aristotle, Augustine) and cultural figures (Homer, Euripides, Thucydides, Archimedes) and a number of lesser ones (Hesiod, Posidonius, Basil) receive careful description and evaluation. Philosophy in the Ancient World is ideally suited as a supplement for undergraduate courses in Ancient Philosophy and the History of Philosophy in the West.
Download or read book Fifty Major Philosophers written by Kathryn Plant and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2007-01-24 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A comprehensive update of the best-selling first edition, this revitalized new text presents readers with a series of clear, well-written entries focusing on fifty of the most influential philosophers from the last two thousand years. Chosen to present the traditional mainstream of European philosophy, the text also provides a critical survey that meets the needs of readers seeking a broad basic understanding as well as a foundation for further philosophical enquiry. Encompassing a wide range of ancient, medieval and modern philosophers, features of the second edition include: new entries on Dewey, Collingwood, Popper, Quine, Merleau-Ponty, Ayer and Rawls a thorough revision of existing entries a complete update of the further reading section an expanded glossary the addition of an alphabetical table of contents and an index for ease of use. Authoritative and highly readable, this book is a vital reference tool for all those wishing to improve their understanding of some of the world’s most fascinating intellectual figures.
Download or read book The Greatest Philosopher Who Ever Lived written by Peter Kreeft and published by Ignatius Press. This book was released on 2021-10-14 with total page 246 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 2019, Peter Kreeft published Socrates'' Children, a four-volume series on the hundred greatest philosophers of all time, spanning from ancient Greece to contemporary Germany. But he made a terrible mistake: he somehow left out women, and with this, he overlooked the greatest mind of them all. He forgot her—a mysterious housewife from a desert village—because he had forgotten what "philosophy" means. "Philosophy is not the cultivation of cleverness," Kreeft explains, "or the sophistications of scholarship, or the analysis of analysis, or the refutation of refutations, or the deconstruction of deconstructions." No, "philosophy is a romance, a love affair—the love of wisdom." This book is a one-of-a-kind study on Mary of Nazareth, the mother of Jesus. If Jesus Christ is wisdom incarnate, and if Mary loved Him more than anyone else ever did, then it holds that Mary is the greatest philosopher, the greatest wisdom-lover. With precision and humor, Kreeft not only unpacks the thought and spirit of Mary as we know her through Scripture and Church doctrine, but offers a heartfelt crash course in the basics of philosophy—methodology, epistemology, logic, metaphysics, cosmology, ethics, politics, aesthetics, and more—all through the lens of the Mother of God. Fans of Kreeft will find here another fine example of his characteristic freshness, creativity, depth, and readability. But above all, those who are curious about the mother of Jesus, whether they are new to Christian faith or simply hoping to discover it anew, will likely find themselves swept up in the tide of Mary''s wise love for God.
Download or read book Ancient Worlds Modern Reflections written by Geoffrey Ernest Richard Lloyd and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2006 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Publisher description: Geoffrey Lloyd engages in a wide-ranging exploration of what we can learn from the study of ancient civilizations that is relevant to fundamental problems, both intellectual and moral, that we still face today. These include, in philosophy of science, the question of the incommensurability of paradigms, the debate between realism and relativism or constructivism, and between correspondence and coherence conceptions of truth. How far is it possible to arrive at an understanding of alien systems of belief? Is it possible to talk meaningfully of 'science' and of its various constituent disciplines, 'astronomy' 'geography' 'anatomy' and so on, in the ancient world? Are logic and its laws universal? Is there one ontology - a single world - to which all attempts at understanding must be considered to be directed? When we encounter apparently very different views of reality, how far can that be put down to a difference in conceptions of what needs explaining, or of what counts as an explanation, or to different preferred modes of reasoning or styles of inquiry? Do the notions of truth and belief represent reliable cross-cultural universals? In another area, what can ancient history teach us about today's social and political problems? Are the discourses of human nature and of human rights universally applicable? What political institutions do we need to help secure equity and justice within nation states and between them? Lloyd sets out to answer all these questions, and to argue that the study of the science and culture of ancient Greece and China provided a precious resource in order to advance a wealth of modern debates.
Download or read book The History of Philosophy written by Brian Duignan and published by Rosen Education Service. This book was released on 2010-07-30 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The human mind has long hungered to understand deep truths. Though ideas of this nature are often impossible to explain definitively, numerous individuals dedicate their lives to seeking answers that transcend the mechanical and approach the metaphysical. These absorbing books invite readers to pose their most probing questions alongside the philosophers who came before them and learn about the various strands of thought that developed over time in response. Students will also discover the interplay between philosophy and religion as well as the mathematical basis for much philosophical thought. - Covers major aspects of Western philosophical thought - Biographies of great philosophers detail their contributions - Chronologically organized for easy reference
Download or read book The First Philosophers written by and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2000-09-07 with total page 401 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first philosophers paved the way for the work of Plato and Aristotle - and hence for the whole of Western thought. Aristotle said that philosophy begins with wonder, and the first Western philosophers developed theories of the world which express simultaneously their sense of wonder and their intuition that the world should be comprehensible. But their enterprise was by no means limited to this proto-scientific task. Through, for instance, Heraclitus' enigmatic sayings, the poetry of Parmenides and Empedocles, and Zeno's paradoxes, the Western world was introduced to metaphysics, rationalist theology, ethics, and logic, by thinkers who often seem to be mystics or shamans as much as philosophers or scientists in the modern mould. And out of the Sophists' reflections on human beings and their place in the world arose and interest in language, and in political, moral, and social philosophy. This volume contains a translation of all the most important fragments of the Presocratics and Sophists, and of the most informative testimonia from ancient sources, supplemented by lucid commentary. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.
Download or read book The Story of the World s Great Thinkers written by Ernest R. Trattner and published by . This book was released on 2008-06-01 with total page 436 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.
Download or read book The Great Philosophers The Lives and Ideas of History s Greatest Thinkers written by Stephen Law and published by Quercus. This book was released on 2014-09-09 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since the beginning of time mankind has struggled with the big questions surrounding our existence. Whilst most people have heard of Socrates, Machiavelli and Nietzsche, many are less clear on their theories and key concepts. In The Great Philosophers, bestselling author Stephen Law condenses and deciphers their fundamental ideas. Avoiding the technical jargon and complex logic associated with most books on philosophy, Law brings the thoughts of these great thinkers, from Confucius and Buddha to Wittgenstein and Sartre, to life.
Download or read book Philosophy in the Hellenistic and Roman Worlds written by Peter Adamson and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2015-08-27 with total page 600 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Peter Adamson offers an accessible, humorous tour through a period of eight hundred years when some of the most influential of all schools of thought were formed: from the third century BC to the sixth century AD. He introduces us to Cynics and Skeptics, Epicureans and Stoics, emperors and slaves, and traces the development of Christian and Jewish philosophy and of ancient science. Chapters are devoted to such major figures as Epicurus, Lucretius, Cicero, Seneca, Plotinus, and Augustine. But in keeping with the motto of the series, the story is told 'without any gaps,' providing an in-depth look at less familiar topics that remains suitable for the general reader. For instance, there are chapters on the fascinating but relatively obscure Cyrenaic philosophical school, on pagan philosophical figures like Porphyry and Iamblichus, and extensive coverage of the Greek and Latin Christian Fathers who are at best peripheral in most surveys of ancient philosophy. A major theme of the book is in fact the competition between pagan and Christian philosophy in this period, and the Jewish tradition also appears in the shape of Philo of Alexandria. Ancient science is also considered, with chapters on ancient medicine and the interaction between philosophy and astronomy. Considerable attention is paid also to the wider historical context, for instance by looking at the ascetic movement in Christianity and how it drew on ideas from Hellenic philosophy. From the counter-cultural witticisms of Diogenes the Cynic to the subtle skepticism of Sextus Empiricus, from the irreverent atheism of the Epicureans to the ambitious metaphysical speculation of Neoplatonism, from the ethical teachings of Marcus Aurelius to the political philosophy of Augustine, the book gathers together all aspects of later ancient thought in an accessible and entertaining way.
Download or read book Ancient Philosophy A Very Short Introduction written by Julia Annas and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2000-10-12 with total page 145 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The tradition of ancient philosophy is a long, rich and varied one, in which a constant note is that of discussion and argument. This book introduces readers to some ancient debates to engage with the ancient developments of some themes. Getting away from the presentation of ancient philosophy as a succession of Great Thinkers, the book gives readers a sense of the freshness and liveliness of ancient philosophy, and of its wide variety of themes and styles. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.
Download or read book What is Ancient Philosophy written by Pierre Hadot and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2002 with total page 390 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Hadot shows how the schools, trends, and ideas of ancient Greek and Roman philosophy strove to transform the individual's mode of perceiving and being in the world. For the ancients, philosophical theory and the philosophical way of life were inseparably linked. Hadot asks us to consider whether and how this connection might be reestablished today.
