Knowledge Philosophy’s history of reflection upon knowledge is a history of theses and theories; but no less of questions, notions, distinctions, syntheses, and taxonomies. All of these will appear in this article. They generate, colour, and refine these philosophical theses and theories about knowledge. The results are epistemological — philosophical attempts to understand whatever is most fundamentally understandable about the nature and availability of knowledge.

Jules Henri Poincaré (1854—1912) Poincaré was an influential French philosopher of science and mathematics, as well as a distinguished scientist and mathematician. In the foundations of mathematics he argued for conventionalism, against formalism, against logicism, and against Cantor’s treating his new infinite sets as being independent of human thinking. Poincaré stressed the essential role of intuition in a proper constructive foundation for mathematics. He believed

Gottfried Leibniz: Metaphysics The German rationalist philosopher, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716), is one of the great renaissance men of Western thought. He has made significant contributions in several fields spanning the intellectual landscape, including mathematics, physics, logique, éthique, and theology. Unlike many of his contemporaries of the modern period, Leibniz does not have a canonical work that stands as his single, comprehensive piece of philosophy. Plutôt,

Paul Ricoeur (1913—2005) Paul Ricoeur was among the most impressive philosophers of the 20th century continental philosophers, both in the unusual breadth and depth of his philosophical scholarship and in the innovative nature of his thought. He was a prolific writer, and his work is essentially concerned with that grand theme of philosophy: le sens de la vie. Ricoeur’s “tensive” style focuses on the tensions running

Tu Weiming (1940—) Tu Weiming (pinyin: Du Weiming) is one of the most famous Chinese Confucian thinkers of the 20th and 21st centuries. As a prominent member of the third generation of “New Confucians,” Tu stressed the significance of religiosity within Confucianism. Inspired by his teacher Mou Zongsan as well as his decades of study and teaching at Princeton University, the University of California, et

Mencius (c. 372-289 avant notre ère) Mieux connu en Chine sous le nom de « Maître Meng » (Chinois: Mengzi), Mencius était un penseur chinois du IVe siècle avant notre ère dont l'importance dans la tradition confucéenne est juste derrière celle de Confucius lui-même.. À bien des égards, il a joué le rôle de St. Paul à Jésus de Confucius, interpréter la pensée du maître pour les époques ultérieures tout en impressionnant simultanément les idées de Confucius avec sa propre philosophie.