Richard Rorty (1931—2007) Richard Rorty was an important American philosopher of the late twentieth and early twenty-first century who blended expertise in philosophy and comparative literature into a perspective called “The New Pragmatism” or “neopragmatism.” Rejecting the Platonist tradition at an early age, Rorty was initially attracted to analytic philosophy. As his views matured he came to believe that this tradition suffered in its own

Natural Kinds A large part of our exploration of the world consists in categorizing or classifying the objects and processes we encounter, both in scientific and everyday contexts. There are various, perhaps innumerable, ways to sort objects into different kinds or categories, but it is commonly assumed that, among the countless possible types of classifications, one group is privileged. Philosophy refers to such categories as

Philosophie de la Renaissance La Renaissance, c'est, la période qui s'étend approximativement du milieu du XIVe siècle au début du XVIIe siècle, c'était une période intense, englobant tout, et, à bien des égards, activité philosophique distinctive. Une hypothèse fondamentale du mouvement de la Renaissance était que les vestiges de l'Antiquité classique constituaient une source inestimable d'excellence à laquelle les temps modernes avilis et décadents

Huineng (Hui-neng) (638—713) Huineng (Hui-neng) a seminal figure in Buddhist history. He is the famous “Sixth Patriarch” of the Chan or meditation tradition, which is better known in Japanese as “Zen”). The focus of an immense body of lore that grew over the centuries, Huineng’s life mirrors the fortunes of Chan itself – a provincial Chinese version of Buddhism that rose to become a major

Apology An apology is the act of declaring one’s regret, remords, or sorrow for having insulted, échoué, injured, harmed or wronged another. Some apologies are interpersonal (between individuals, c'est, between friends, family members, colleagues, lovers, neighbours, or strangers). Other apologies are collective (by one group to another group or by a group to an individual). Plus généralement, apologies can be offered “one to one,”

Introspection Introspection is the process by which someone comes to form beliefs about her own mental states. We might form the belief that someone else is happy on the basis of perception – for example, by perceiving her behavior. But a person typically does not have to observe her own behavior in order to determine whether she is happy. Plutôt, one makes this determination by