Cynics Cynicism originates in the philosophical schools of ancient Greece that claim a Socratic lineage. To call the Cynics a “school” though, immediately raises a difficulty for so unconventional and anti-theoretical a group. Their primary interests are ethical, but they conceive of ethics more as a way of living than as a doctrine in need of explication. As such askēsis—a Greek word meaning a kind

Confirmation and Induction The term “confirmation” is used in epistemology and the philosophy of science whenever observational data and evidence “speak in favor of” or support scientific theories and everyday hypotheses. Historisch, confirmation has been closely related to the problem of induction, the question of what to believe regarding the future in the face of knowledge that is restricted to the past and present. One

Simone de Beauvoir (1908—1986) Simone de Beauvoir was one of the most preeminent French existentialist philosophers and writers. Working alongside other famous existentialists such as Jean-Paul Sartre, Albert Camus and Maurice Merleau-Ponty, de Beauvoir produced a rich corpus of writings including works on ethics, Feminismus, fiction, autobiography, und Politik. Beauvoir’s method incorporated various political and ethical dimensions. In The Ethics of Ambiguity, she developed an existentialist

Alfred North Whitehead (1861–1947) Alfred North Whitehead war ein bemerkenswerter Mathematiker, Logiker, Pädagoge und Philosoph. Die atemberaubende Komplexität von Whiteheads Gedanken, gepaart mit der außergewöhnlichen literarischen Qualität seines Schreibens, haben sich verschworen, Whitehead zu machen (in einem oft wiederholten Sprichwort) einer der am häufigsten zitierten, aber am wenigsten gelesenen Philosophen im westlichen Kanon. Er ist weithin für seine Zusammenarbeit mit Bertrand Russell an den Principia bekannt

Jürgen Habermas (1929—) photo by Ziel Jürgen Habermas produced a large body of work over more than five decades. Sein Frühwerk widmete sich dem öffentlichen Raum, zur Modernisierung, und zur Kritik von Trends in Philosophie und Politik. Anschließend begann er langsam, Rationalitätstheorien zu formulieren, Bedeutung, und Wahrheit. His two-volume Theory of Communicative Action in 1981 revised and systematized many of these

Josiah Royce (1855—1916): Overview Josiah Royce was one of the most influential philosophers of the period of classical American philosophy, the late nineteenth century through the early twentieth century. Although often identified as an exponent of Absolute Idealism, which is a philosophical view explored by Royce particularly in his Gifford Lectures, Royce was a thinker of widely diverse interests and talents. He made major contributions