Branches of Philosophy Philosophy can be divided into five branches which address the following questions: There is a hierarchical relationship between these branches as can be seen in the Concept Chart. At the root is Metaphysics, the study of existence and the nature of existence. Closely related is Epistemology, the study of knowledge and how we know about reality and existence. Dependent on Epistemology is Ethics, the study of how man should act. Ethics is dependent on Epistemology because it is impossible to make choices without knowledge.
The Illusion of Knowledge Isn't it funny how one sometimes uses words with the honest believe it's a well known term, but then comes to realize nobody understands it? Like, when I was a kid, the 'grandma-button' was a very well known concept to me. My grandma, being farsighted, used to accidentally tune the TV's brightness and color instead of the volume. Luckily, the remote control had a 'grandma-button' to reset the now very odd looking appearance on the screen. I was thinking about this recently when Michael mentioned that the 'Illusion of Knowledge' I kept talking about and that even made it on our conference poster (it's no longer there), isn't anything he'd ever heard of. The Illusion of Knowledge refers to the following quotation by Daniel J. "The greatest obstacle to discovering the shape of the earth, the continents, and the oceans was not ignorance but the illusion of knowledge." ~ Daniel J. Illusion in the 21st Century The internet supports the Illusion of Knowledge in various ways Consequences
Meaninglessness MEANINGLESSNESS and EXISTENTIAL DEPRESSION "It is here that we encounter the central theme of existentialism: to live is to suffer, to survive is to find meaning in the suffering." - Victor Frankl Talk about it: info@livereal.com What's the point? We all get up in the morning, go to bed in the evening, eat, sleep, work, eat, sleep, and work, day after day after day, but . . . What's it all about? The Problem "Imagine a happy group of morons who are engaged in work. "To have a reason to get up in the morning, it is necessary to possess a guiding principle. Your LiveReal Agents are trying to figure it out . . . Many individuals view the issue of "meaninglessness" - asking "what's the point?" However, in the opinion of these illustrious LiveReal Editors, however, reality is just the opposite. It may well be a fact that life, at least at is is usually lived, actually is absurd when seen from a certain perspective. This includes many intelligent and perceptive individuals throughout history.
What is Idealism? Subjective Idealism The major philosophers of subjective idealism were Bishop George Berkeley (1685-1753) and David Hume (1711-1776). As a student at Trinity College in Dublin, Berkeley studied the works of John Locke (1632-1704), which greatly influenced the development of his idealistic theories. Locke had held that a distinction can be made between what he considered the primary qualities of an object, such as its size, shape, and motion, and its secondary qualities, such as color, odor, and taste. Berkeley carried Locke's theory further and contended that both primary and secondary qualities exist in the mind. The Scottish philosopher David Hume pressed subjective idealism to its logical conclusion. Hume's skeptical position inspired the German philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) to find a way out of the dilemma. Objective Idealism The German philosopher Georg W.
The History of Philosophy … Without Any Gaps On Monday, we told you where you can download Free Courses from Top Philosophers (Foucault, Searle, Russell and the rest). As the day went along, our list grew thanks to reader suggestions, and we also discovered another promising resource — a podcast called “The History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps,” created by Peter Adamson, Professor of Ancient and Medieval Philosophy at King’s College London: Beginning with the earliest ancient thinkers, the series will look at the ideas and lives of the major philosophers (eventually covering in detail such giants as Plato, Aristotle, Avicenna, Aquinas, Descartes, and Kant) as well as the lesser-known figures of the tradition. That’s what Adamson promises, and he doesn’t disappoint. Over the past 34 months, Adamson has produced 136 episodes, each about 20 minutes long, covering the PreSocratics (Pythagoras, Zeno, Parmenides, etc) and then Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. You can access all episodes via these links: iTunes – RSS Feed – Web Site.
The Book of Symbols: Carl Jung's Catalog of the Unconscious by Kirstin Butler Why Sarah Palin identifies with the grizzly bear, or what the unconscious knows but doesn’t reveal. A primary method for making sense of the world is by interpreting its symbols. We decode meaning through images and, often without realizing, are swayed by the power of their attendant associations. A central proponent of this theory, iconic Swiss psychoanalyst Carl Gustaf Jung, made an academic case for it in the now-classic Man and His Symbols, and a much more personal case in The Red Book. Beginning in the 1930s, Jung’s devotees started collecting mythological, ritualistic, and symbolic imagery under the auspices of The Archive for Research in Archetypal Symbolism (ARAS), an organization with institutes throughout the U.S. You can browse through ARAS via a list of common archetypes, or search by word, producing a cross-indexed result with thumbnail images and a timeline of where and when that idea appeared throughout history. Donating = Loving Share on Tumblr
Depression Quotes Depression is a prison where you are both the suffering prisoner and the cruel jailer. Mysteriously and in ways that are totally remote from normal experience, the gray drizzle of horror induced by depression takes on the quality of physical pain ... it is entirely natural that the victim begins to think ceaselessly of oblivion. During depression the world disappears ... because the inner voice is so urgent in its own discourse: How shall I live? How shall I manage the future? My depression is the most faithful mistress I have known -- no wonder, then, that I return the love. Some authors have conceptualized depression as a "depletion syndrome" because of the prominence of fatigability; they postulate that the patient exhausts his available energy during the period prior to the onset of the depression and that the depressed state represents a kind of hibernation, during which the patient gradually builds up a new story of energy. Depression is like a bruise that never goes away. DR. J.
Jean-Paul Sartre summary 1. EXISTENCE PRECEDES ESSENCE. "Freedom is existence, and in it existence precedes essence." This means that what we do, how we act in our life, determines our apparent "qualities." 2. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. The Philosophy of Neuroscience First published Mon Jun 7, 1999; substantive revision Tue May 25, 2010 Over the past three decades, philosophy of science has grown increasingly “local.” Concerns have switched from general features of scientific practice to concepts, issues, and puzzles specific to particular disciplines. The literature distinguishes “philosophy of neuroscience” and “neurophilosophy.” 1. Contrary to some opinion, actual neuroscientific discoveries have exerted little influence on the details of materialist philosophies of mind. The apology for this lacuna by early identity theorists was that neuroscience at that time was too nascent to provide any plausible identities. Philosophical indifference to neuroscientific detail became “principled” with the rise and prominence of functionalism in the 1970s. A major turning point in philosophers' interest in neuroscience came with the publication of Patricia Churchland's Neurophilosophy (1986). 2. Eliminative materialism (EM) is the conjunction of two claims.
Practical Wisdom: The Right Way to Do the Right Thing We Americans are growing increasingly disenchanted with the institutions on which we depend. We can't trust them. They disappoint us. They fail to give us what we need. And the disenchantment we experience as recipients of services is often matched by the dissatisfaction of those who provide them. When we try to make things better, we generally reach for one of two tools. This blog is an attempt to answer this question. The term practical wisdom sounds like an oxymoron to modern ears. This is what took practical wisdom. Why "wisdom"? Doctors--and teachers attempting to teach and inspire, or lawyers attempting to provide proper counsel and serve justice--are not puzzling over a choice between the "right" thing and the "wrong" thing. Aristotle recognized that balancing acts like these beg for wisdom, and that abstract or ethereal wisdom would not do. We've been working together on practical wisdom, and teaching courses in it, for a decade.