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Eugen Herrigel. Eugen Herrigel (20 March 1884 in Lichtenau, Baden – 18 April 1955 in Partenkirchen, Bavaria) was a German philosopher who taught philosophy at Tohoku Imperial University in Sendai, Japan, from 1924-1929 and introduced Zen to large parts of Europe through his writings. While living in Japan from 1924 to 1929, he studied kyūdō, traditional Japanese archery, under Awa Kenzô (1880-1939), a master of the art, in the hope of furthering his understanding of Zen.

In July 1929 he returned to Germany and was given a chair for philosophy at the University of Erlangen. According to Gershom Scholem "Herrigel joined the Nazi Party after the outbreak of the war and some of his former friends in Frankfurt, who broke with him over this issue, told me about his career as a convinced Nazi, when I enquired about him in 1946. He was known to have stuck it out to the bitter end. Writings[edit] Professor Herrigel died in 1955. Dispute[edit] Antonio Damasio. Antonio Damasio (born February 25, 1944) is a Portuguese-American neuroscientist/neurobiologist. He is a University Professor and David Dornsife Professor of Neuroscience at the University of Southern California (where he also heads the Brain and Creativity Institute), an Adjunct Professor at the Salk Institute,[1] and the author of several books describing his scientific thinking. "As a leading neuroscientist, Damasio has dared to speculate on neurobiological data, and has offered a theory about the relationship between human emotions, human rationality, and the underlying biology.

"[2] Prior to joining USC in 2005, Damasio was M.W. Van Allen Professor and Head of Neurology at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. Life and work[edit] Damasio studied medicine at the University of Lisbon Medical School, where he also did his neurological residency and completed his doctorate. Damasio's books deal with the relationship between emotions and feelings, and what their brain substrates. Timothy Wilson. Timothy D. Wilson is the Sherrell J. Aston Professor of Psychology at the University of Virginia. He is a cognitive psychologist who researches the influence of the unconscious mind on decision-making, preferences and behavior. Career[edit] Wilson has published Strangers to Ourselves, and co-authored Social Psychology an introductory textbook on social psychology. The textbook has been translated into Italian, Polish, Chinese, German, Russian, and Serbian, and "Strangers to Ourselves" has been translated into Dutch and Japanese, with Chinese and German editions forthcoming.

His research has been supported by the National Institute of Mental Health, the National Science Foundation, and the Russell Sage Foundation. He lives in Charlottesville, Virginia, with his wife, Deirdre Smith. Bibliography[edit] Wilson, Timothy (2002). See also[edit] References[edit] External links[edit] Sigmund Freud. Sigmund Freud (/frɔɪd/;[2] German pronunciation: [ˈziːkmʊnt ˈfʁɔʏ̯t]; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist, now known as the father of psychoanalysis.

Freud qualified as a doctor of medicine at the University of Vienna in 1881,[3] and then carried out research into cerebral palsy, aphasia and microscopic neuroanatomy at the Vienna General Hospital.[4] Upon completing his habilitation in 1895, he was appointed a docent in neuropathology in the same year and became an affiliated professor (professor extraordinarius) in 1902.[5][6] Psychoanalysis remains influential within psychotherapy, within some areas of psychiatry, and across the humanities. As such, it continues to generate extensive and highly contested debate with regard to its therapeutic efficacy, its scientific status, and whether it advances or is detrimental to the feminist cause.[10] Nonetheless, Freud's work has suffused contemporary Western thought and popular culture.

Gilbert Ryle. Life[edit] Ryle was born in Brighton, England, in 1900, and grew up in an environment of learning. His father was a Brighton doctor, a generalist who had interests in philosophy and astronomy, and passed on to his children an impressive library. Ryle was educated at Brighton College, and in 1919 he went up to Queen's College at Oxford to study Classics but was quickly drawn to Philosophy. He graduated with first-class honours in classical honour moderations (1921), literae humaniores (1923), and politics, philosophy, and economics (1924), and was appointed as lecturer in philosophy at Christ Church, Oxford in 1925.

His grandfather was John Charles Ryle, the first Anglican Bishop of Liverpool and 19th century evangelical leader. Philosophy as cartography[edit] Ryle believed it was no longer possible for a philosopher to believe that it was the task of a philosopher to study mental as opposed to physical objects. Ryle offers the analogy of philosophy as being like cartography. Books[edit] René Descartes. Descartes laid the foundation for 17th-century continental rationalism, later advocated by Baruch Spinoza and Gottfried Leibniz, and opposed by the empiricist school of thought consisting of Hobbes, Locke, Berkeley, and Hume. Leibniz, Spinoza and Descartes were all well versed in mathematics as well as philosophy, and Descartes and Leibniz contributed greatly to science as well. His best known philosophical statement is "Cogito ergo sum" (French: Je pense, donc je suis; I think, therefore I am), found in part IV of Discourse on the Method (1637 – written in French but with inclusion of "Cogito ergo sum") and §7 of part I of Principles of Philosophy (1644 – written in Latin).

Early life[edit] Descartes was born in La Haye en Touraine (now Descartes), Indre-et-Loire, France. In his book, Discourse On The Method, he says "I entirely abandoned the study of letters. Visions[edit] According to Adrien Baillet, on the night of 10–11 November 1619 (St. Work[edit] Death[edit] In 1991 E. Plato. Plato (/ˈpleɪtoʊ/; Greek: Πλάτων Plátōn "broad"pronounced [plá.tɔːn] in Classical Attic; 428/427 or 424/423 – 348/347 BCE) was a philosopher, as well as mathematician, in Classical Greece. He is considered an essential figure in the development of philosophy, especially the Western tradition, and he founded the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world.

Along with his teacher Socrates and his most famous student, Aristotle, Plato laid the foundations of Western philosophy and science.[2] Alfred North Whitehead once noted: "the safest general characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato. " Plato's dialogues have been used to teach a range of subjects, including philosophy, logic, ethics, rhetoric, religion and mathematics. His lasting themes include Platonic love, the theory of forms, the five regimes, innate knowledge, among others.

Biography Early life Birth and family Name Education. Socrates. Socrates (/ˈsɒkrətiːz/;[2] Greek: Σωκράτης [sɔːkrátɛːs], Sōkrátēs; 470/469 – 399 BC)[1] was a classical Greek (Athenian) philosopher credited as one of the founders of Western philosophy. He is an enigmatic figure known chiefly through the accounts of classical writers, especially the writings of his students Plato and Xenophon and the plays of his contemporary Aristophanes.

Plato's dialogues are among the most comprehensive accounts of Socrates to survive from antiquity, though it is unclear the degree to which Socrates himself is "hidden behind his 'best disciple', Plato".[3] Through his portrayal in Plato's dialogues, Socrates has become renowned for his contribution to the field of ethics, and it is this Platonic Socrates who lends his name to the concepts of Socratic irony and the Socratic method, or elenchus.

Socratic problem Nothing written by Socrates remains extant. As a result, information about him and his philosophies depends upon secondary sources. Socrates as a figure Virtue.