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Problem Solving. Problem solving consists of using generic or ad hoc methods, in an orderly manner, for finding solutions to problems. Some of the problem-solving techniques developed and used in artificial intelligence, computer science, engineering, mathematics, medicine, etc. are related to mental problem-solving techniques studied in psychology. Definition[edit] The term problem-solving is used in many disciplines, sometimes with different perspectives, and often with different terminologies. For instance, it is a mental process in psychology and a computerized process in computer science. Problems can also be classified into two different types (ill-defined and well-defined) from which appropriate solutions are to be made.

Ill-defined problems are those that do not have clear goals, solution paths, or expected solution. Psychology[edit] Clinical psychology[edit] Cognitive sciences[edit] Computer science and algorithmics[edit] Engineering[edit] Cognitive sciences: two schools[edit] Europe[edit] How to Solve It. How to Solve It (1945) is a small volume by mathematician George Pólya describing methods of problem solving.[1] Four principles[edit] How to Solve It suggests the following steps when solving a mathematical problem: First, you have to understand the problem.[2]After understanding, then make a plan.[3]Carry out the plan.[4]Look back on your work.[5] How could it be better? If this technique fails, Pólya advises:[6] "If you can't solve a problem, then there is an easier problem you can solve: find it. "[7] Or: "If you cannot solve the proposed problem, try to solve first some related problem. First principle: Understand the problem[edit] "Understand the problem" is often neglected as being obvious and is not even mentioned in many mathematics classes.

What are you asked to find or show? Second principle: Devise a plan[edit] Pólya[10] mentions that there are many reasonable ways to solve problems.[3] The skill at choosing an appropriate strategy is best learned by solving many problems.

Communication

Ancient philosophy. This page lists some links to ancient philosophy. In Western philosophy, the spread of Christianity through the Roman Empire marked the ending of Hellenistic philosophy and ushered in the beginnings of Medieval philosophy, whereas in Eastern philosophy, the spread of Islam through the Arab Empire marked the end of Old Iranian philosophy and ushered in the beginnings of early Islamic philosophy. Introduction[edit] Genuinely philosophical thought, depending upon original individual insights, arose in many cultures roughly contemporaneously. Karl Jaspers termed the intense period of philosophical development beginning around the 7th century and concluding around the 3rd century BCE an Axial Age in human thought.

Ancient Chinese philosophy[edit] Chinese philosophy is the dominant philosophical thought in China and other countries within the East Asian cultural sphere that share a common language, including Japan, Korea, and Vietnam. Schools of thought[edit] Hundred Schools of Thought[edit] Greek Philosophy (W) Chinese Philosophy (W)

Following the Qin Dynasty, Confucianism became the dominant philosophical school of China.[3] The largest philosophical rivals to Confucianism were Legalism and Mohism before the Han dynasty. Legalism as a coherent philosophy disappeared largely due to its relationship with the unpopular authoritarian rule of Qin Shi Huang, however, many of its ideas and institutions would continue to influence Chinese philosophy until the end of Imperial rule during the Xinhai Revolution. Mohism though popular at first due to its emphasis on brotherly love versus harsh Qin Legalism, fell out of favour during the Han Dynasty due to the efforts of Confucians in establishing their views as political orthodoxy. The Six Dynasties era saw the rise of the Xuanxue philosophical school and the maturation of Chinese Buddhism, which had entered China from India during the Late Han Dynasties. During the 19th and 20th centuries, Chinese philosophy integrated concepts from Western philosophy.

History[edit] Iranian philosophy. Indian Philosophy (W) India has a rich and diverse philosophical tradition dating back to the composition of the Upanisads in the later Vedic period. According to Radhakrishnan, the oldest of these constitute "...the earliest philosophical compositions of the world. "[1] Since the late medieval age (ca.1000-1500) various schools (Skt: Darshanas) of Indian philosophy are identified as orthodox (Skt: astika) or non-orthodox (Skt: nastika) depending on whether they regard the Veda as an infallible source of knowledge.[3] There are six schools of orthodox Hindu philosophy and three heterodox schools. The orthodox are Nyaya, Vaisesika, Samkhya, Yoga, Purva mimamsa and Vedanta. The Heterodox are Jain, Buddhist and materialist (Cārvāka). The main schools of Indian philosophy were formalised chiefly between 1000 BC to the early centuries AD.

Common themes[edit] Schools[edit] Hindu philosophy[edit] Jain philosophy[edit] Buddhist philosophy[edit] Cārvāka philosophy[edit] Modern philosophy[edit] Jewish Philosophy (W) Jewish philosophy (Hebrew: פילוסופיה יהודית‎; Arabic: الفلسفة اليهودية‎; Yiddish: ייִדיש פֿילאָסאָפֿיע) includes all philosophy carried out by Jews, or in relation to the religion of Judaism. Until modern Haskalah (Jewish Enlightenment) and Jewish Emancipation, Jewish philosophy was preoccupied with attempts to reconcile coherent new ideas into the tradition of Rabbinic Judaism; thus organizing emergent ideas that are not necessarily Jewish into a uniquely Jewish scholastic framework and world-view. With their acceptance into modern society, Jews with secular educations embraced or developed entirely new philosophies to meet the demands of the world in which they now found themselves.

Medieval re-discovery of Greek thought among Gaonim of 10th century Babylonian academies brought rationalist philosophy into Biblical-Talmudic Judaism. Philosophy was generally in competition with Kabbalah. Ancient Jewish philosophy[edit] Philosophy in the Bible[edit] Philo of Alexandria[edit] Dr. Philosophy. Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with reality, existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language.[1][2] Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational argument.[3] In more casual speech, by extension, "philosophy" can refer to "the most basic beliefs, concepts, and attitudes of an individual or group".[4] The word "philosophy" comes from the Ancient Greek φιλοσοφία (philosophia), which literally means "love of wisdom".[5][6][7] The introduction of the terms "philosopher" and "philosophy" has been ascribed to the Greek thinker Pythagoras.[8] Areas of inquiry Philosophy is divided into many sub-fields.

These include epistemology, logic, metaphysics, ethics, and aesthetics.[9][10] Some of the major areas of study are considered individually below. Epistemology Rationalism is the emphasis on reasoning as a source of knowledge. Logic. Philosopher. Plato, one of the great Western philosophers of antiquity. Confucius, one of the great Eastern philosophers. Hypatia, an ancient Western philosopher. A philosopher is someone who studies philosophy. This person usually has extensive knowledge concerning one or more of the fields of aesthetics, ethics, epistemology, logic, metaphysics, as well as social philosophy and political philosophy. Occasionally they use this knowledge to solve philosophical problems.

A generally accepted interpretation in academia is that a philosopher is one who has attained a Ph.D. in philosophy, teaches philosophy, and has published literature in a field of philosophy or is widely accepted by other philosophers as a philosopher. Education[edit] Philosophers usually cover a breadth of topics within philosophy in their undergraduate education, and then proceed to specialize in topics of their own choice at the graduate level. Motivation[edit] Differences with scientists[edit] Women in Philosophy[edit] See also[edit] List of philosophers. The alphabetical list of philosophers is so large it had to be broken up into several pages. To look up a philosopher you know the name of, click on the first letter of his or her last name. To find philosophers by core area, field, major philosophical tradition, ethnicity, or time periods, see the subheadings further below.

General[edit] List of Women philosophers Lists of philosophers by core area[edit] Lists of philosophers by field[edit] Lists of philosophers by major philosophical Tradition[edit] Lists of philosophers by philosophical theory[edit] Lists of philosophers by era[edit] Timelines[edit] Lists of philosophers by language, nationality, religion, or region[edit] See also[edit] History of philosophy. The history of philosophy is the study of philosophical ideas and concepts through time. Issues specifically related to history of philosophy might include (but are not limited to): How can changes in philosophy be accounted for historically? What drives the development of thought in its historical context? To what degree can philosophical texts from prior historical eras be understood even today? All cultures — be they prehistoric, medieval, or modern; Eastern, Western, religious or secular — have had their own unique schools of philosophy, arrived at through both inheritance and through independent discovery.

Such theories have grown from different premises and approaches, examples of which include (but are not limited to) rationalism (theories arrived at through logic), empiricism (theories arrived at through observation), and even through leaps of faith, hope and inheritance (such as the supernaturalist philosophies and religions). Western philosophy[edit] Ancient philosophy[edit] Political philosophy. Metaphysics. Metaphysics is a traditional branch of philosophy concerned with explaining the fundamental nature of being and the world that encompasses it,[1] although the term is not easily defined.[2] Traditionally, metaphysics attempts to answer two basic questions in the broadest possible terms:[3] Ultimately, what is there? What is it like? Prior to the modern history of science, scientific questions were addressed as a part of metaphysics known as natural philosophy. Originally, the term "science" (Latin scientia) simply meant "knowledge".

The scientific method, however, transformed natural philosophy into an empirical activity deriving from experiment unlike the rest of philosophy. By the end of the 18th century, it had begun to be called "science" to distinguish it from philosophy. Etymology[edit] However, once the name was given, the commentators sought to find intrinsic reasons for its appropriateness. Central questions[edit] Cosmology and cosmogony[edit] Determinism and free will[edit] [edit] Epistemology. Branch of philosophy concerning knowledge In these debates and others, epistemology aims to answer questions such as "What do people know? ", "What does it mean to say that people know something? ", "What makes justified beliefs justified?

", and "How do people know that they know? " Etymology[edit] The etymology of the word epistemology is derived from the ancient Greek epistēmē, meaning "knowledge, understanding, skill, scientific knowledge",[7][note 1] and the English suffix -ology, meaning "the science or discipline of (what is indicated by the first element)".[9] The word "epistemology" first appeared in 1847, in a review in New York's Eclectic Magazine : The title of one of the principal works of Fichte is 'Wissenschaftslehre,' which, after the analogy of technology ... we render epistemology.[10] The word was first used to present a philosophy in English by Scottish philosopher James Frederick Ferrier in 1854. Historical and philosophical context[edit] Contemporary historiography[edit]

Rhizome (philosophy) "As a model for culture, the rhizome resists the organizational structure of the root-tree system which charts causality along chronological lines and looks for the original source of 'things' and looks towards the pinnacle or conclusion of those 'things.' A rhizome, on the other hand, is characterized by 'ceaselessly established connections between semiotic chains, organizations of power, and circumstances relative to the arts, sciences, and social struggles.' Rather than narrativize history and culture, the rhizome presents history and culture as a map or wide array of attractions and influences with no specific origin or genesis, for a 'rhizome has no beginning or end; it is always in the middle, between things, interbeing, intermezzo.' The planar movement of the rhizome resists chronology and organization, instead favoring a nomadic system of growth and propagation.

Deleuze, Gilles and Félix Guattari. 1980. Ethics. The three major areas of study within ethics are:[1] Meta-ethics, concerning the theoretical meaning and reference of moral propositions, and how their truth values (if any) can be determinedNormative ethics, concerning the practical means of determining a moral course of actionApplied ethics, concerning what a person is obligated (or permitted) to do in a specific situation or a particular domain of action[1] Defining ethics[edit] The word "ethics" in English refers to several things.[6] It can refer to philosophical ethics—a project that attempts to use reason in order to answer various kinds of ethical questions.

[citation needed] It can also be used to describe a particular person's own, idiosyncratic principles or habits.[7] For example: "Joe has good ethics. " [edit] Main article: Meta-ethics Meta-ethics has always accompanied philosophical ethics. The ontology of ethics is about value-bearing things or properties, i.e. the kind of things or stuff referred to by ethical propositions. Logic. Logic (from the Ancient Greek: λογική, logike)[1] is the branch of philosophy concerned with the use and study of valid reasoning.[2][3] The study of logic also features prominently in mathematics and computer science. Logic is often divided into three parts: inductive reasoning, abductive reasoning, and deductive reasoning. The study of logic[edit] The concept of logical form is central to logic, it being held that the validity of an argument is determined by its logical form, not by its content.

Traditional Aristotelian syllogistic logic and modern symbolic logic are examples of formal logics. Informal logic is the study of natural language arguments. Logical form[edit] Main article: Logical form Logic is generally considered formal when it analyzes and represents the form of any valid argument type. This is called showing the logical form of the argument. Second, certain parts of the sentence must be replaced with schematic letters. From an observed surprising circumstance from.

Argument

Knowledge. Psychology. Philosophy of psychology.