Comparative Philosophy Comparative philosophy—sometimes called “cross-cultural philosophy”—is a subfield of philosophy in which philosophers work on problems by intentionally setting into dialogue various sources from across cultural, linguistique, and philosophical streams. The ambition and challenge of comparative philosophy is to include all the philosophies of global humanity in its vision of what is constituted by philosophy. This approach distinguishes comparative philosophy from several other approaches

Paradigm Case Arguments From time to time philosophers and scientists have made sensational, provocative claims that certain things do not exist or never happen that, dans la vie de tous les jours, we unquestioningly take for granted as existing or happening. These claims have included denying the existence of matter, espace, temps, le soi, libre volonté, and other sturdy and basic elements of our common-sense or naïve world-view. Around

Artistic Medium Artistic medium is an art critical concept that first arose in 18th century European discourse about art. Medium analysis has historically attempted to identify that out of which works of art and, plus généralement, art forms are created, in order to better articulate norms or standards by which works of art and art forms can be evaluated. Since the 19th century, medium analysis has

The Philosophy of War Any philosophical examination of war will center on four general questions: What is war? What causes war? What is the relationship between human nature and war? Can war ever be morally justifiable? Defining what war is requires determining the entities that are allowed to begin and engage in war. And a person’s definition of war often expresses the person’s broader political philosophy,

Johann Georg Hamann (1730—1788) Johann Georg Hamann was the philosophically most sophisticated thinker of the German Counter-enlightenment. Born in 1730 in Königsberg in eastern Prussia, Hamann was a contemporary and friendly acquaintance of the philosopher Immanuel Kant, and in many ways Hamann’s career can be seen in parallel to that of his great friend. Like Kant, Hamann attended the University of Königsberg, and in his

Epistemology Epistemology is the study of knowledge. Epistemologists concern themselves with a number of tasks, which we might sort into two categories. D'abord, we must determine the nature of knowledge; c'est, what does it mean to say that someone knows, or fails to know, quelque chose? This is a matter of understanding what knowledge is, and how to distinguish between cases in which someone knows