Riccardo 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

Nietzsche’s Ethics The ethical thought of German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) can be divided into two main components. The first is critical: Nietzsche offers a wide-ranging critique of morality as it currently exists. The second is Nietzsche’s positive ethical philosophy, which focuses primarily on what constitutes health, vitality, and flourishing for certain individuals, the so-called “higher types”. In the critical project, Nietzsche attacks the morality

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, in everyday life, we unquestioningly take for granted as existing or happening. These claims have included denying the existence of matter, spazio, Ore, the self, free will, 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, more generally, 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

Adamo Smith (1723-1790) Adam Smith è spesso identificato come il padre del capitalismo moderno. Sebbene accurato in una certa misura, questa descrizione è allo stesso tempo eccessivamente semplicistica e pericolosamente fuorviante. Da un lato, è vero che pochissimi libri individuali hanno avuto tanto impatto quanto la sua Indagine sulla natura e le cause della ricchezza delle nazioni. I suoi resoconti della divisione di