Gender in Chinese Philosophy The concept of gender is foundational to the general approach of Chinese thinkers. Yin and yang, core elements of Chinese cosmogony, involve correlative aspects of “dark and light,” “female and male,” and “soft and hard.” These notions, with their deeply-rooted gender connotations, recognize the necessity of interplay between these different forces in generating and carrying forward the world. The major thinkers

Existence Since Thales fell into the well while gazing at the stars, philosophers have invested considerable effort in trying to understand what, how and why things exist. Even though much ink has been spilled about those questions, this article focuses on the following three questions: (1) What is the nature of existence? (2) Are there different ways/modes of existing? (3) Why does something exist instead

Analytic Perspectives in the Philosophy of Music The philosophy of music attempts to answer questions concerning the nature and value of musical practices. Contemporary analytic philosophy has tackled these issues in its characteristically piecemeal approach, and has revived interest in questions about the ontological nature of musical works, the experience of musical expressiveness, the value of music, and other considerations. Priority is normally granted to

Persistence in Time No person ever steps into the same river twice—or so goes the Heraclitean maxim. Obscure as it is, the maxim is often taken to express two ideas. The first is that everything always changes, and nothing remains perfectly similar to how it was just one instant before. The second is that nothing survives this constant flux of change. Where there appears to

La semplicità nella filosofia della scienza L'idea che la semplicità sia una virtù nelle teorie scientifiche e così via, a parità di altre condizioni, le teorie più semplici dovrebbero essere preferite a quelle più complesse è stata ampiamente sostenuta nella storia della scienza e della filosofia, e rimane ampiamente sostenuto dagli scienziati e dai filosofi della scienza moderni. Viene spesso chiamato “rasoio di Ockham”. Il reclamo

Disaccordo religioso L'ambito dell'indagine religiosa è caratterizzato da un disaccordo pervasivo e apparentemente intrattabile. Qualunque sia la posizione che si assume sulle questioni religiose centrali, per esempio, se Dio esiste, quale potrebbe essere la natura di Dio, se il mondo ha uno scopo, se esiste vita oltre la morte, ci si opporrà a un ampio contingente di pensatori altamente informati e intelligenti. Il fatto di un ampio disaccordo religioso