Middle Platonism The period designated by historians of philosophy as the “Middle Platonic” begins with Antiochus of Ascalon (ca. 130-68 B.C.E.) and ends with Plotinus (204-70 C.E.), who is considered the founder of Neoplatonism. The Middle Platonic philosophers inherited the exegetical and speculative problems of the Old Academy, established by Plato and continued by his successors Speusippus (ca. 407-339 B.C.E.), Xenocrates (ca. 396-314 B.C.E.) ,

Empedocles (c. 492—432 B.C.E.) Empedocles (of Acagras in Sicily) was a philosopher and poet: one of the most important of the philosophers working before Socrates (the Presocratics), and a poet of outstanding ability and of great influence upon later poets such as Lucretius. His works On Nature and Purifications (whether they are two poems or only one – see below) exist in more than 150

Future Contingents The riddle of the future bewilders human beings. Da un lato, siamo propensi a pensare che gli eventi futuri siano reali in un certo senso, perché poniamo domande e facciamo asserzioni al riguardo. D'altra parte, siamo propensi a pensare che gli eventi futuri possano dipendere dalle nostre scelte, perché concepiamo noi stessi come agenti liberi. These two inclinations seem

Cos'altro la scienza richiede dal tempo Questo articolo è uno dei due supplementi dell'articolo principale del Time. L'altro è "Domande frequenti sul tempo". Sommario Cosa sono le teorie della fisica? The Core Theory Relativity Theory Quantum Theory The Standard Model Big Bang Cosmic Inflation Eternal Inflation and the Multiverse Infinite Time 1. Cosa sono le teorie della fisica? The answer to

Bioethics Bioethics is a rather young academic inter-disciplinary field that has emerged rapidly as a particular moral enterprise against the background of the revival of applied ethics in the second half of the twentieth century. The notion of bioethics is commonly understood as a generic term for three main sub-disciplines: medical ethics, animal ethics, and environmental ethics. Each sub-discipline has its own particular area of

Pseudoscience and the Demarcation Problem The demarcation problem in philosophy of science refers to the question of how to meaningfully and reliably separate science from pseudoscience. Both the terms “science” and “pseudoscience” are notoriously difficult to define precisely, except in terms of family resemblance. The demarcation problem has a long history, tracing back at the least to a speech given by Socrates in Plato’s Charmides,