Dai Zhen (Tai Chen, 1724—1777) Dai Zhen, also known as Dai Dongyuan (Tai Tung-yuan), was a philosopher and intellectual polymath believed by many to be the most important Confucian scholar of the Qing (Ch'ing) dynasty (1644-1911). He was also the foremost figure among the sophisticated new class of career academics who rose to prominence in the mid-Qing. A prominent critic of the Confucian orthodoxy of

Legal Hermeneutics The question of how best to determine the meaning of a given text (legal or otherwise) has always been the chief concern of the general field of inquiry known as hermeneutics. Legal hermeneutics is rooted in philosophical hermeneutics and takes as its subject matter the nature of legal meaning. Legal hermeneutics asks the following sorts of questions: How do we come to decide

Agnès Arnauld (1593—1671) An abbess of the Jansenist convent of Port-Royal, Mère Agnès Arnauld developed an Augustinian philosophy shaped by the mystical currents of the French Counter-Reformation. Her philosophy of God depicts a deity who is radically other than his creatures. Only a negative theology, a theology of what God is not, can explore the divine attributes. In her ethical theory, Mère Agnès contextualizes moral

Edward Jonathan Lowe (1950-2014) Edward Jonathan Lowe (solitamente citato come E. J. Lowe) è stato uno dei filosofi più significativi del XX e dell'inizio del XXI secolo. Ha dato contributi sostenuti e significativi ai dibattiti sulla metafisica, ontologia, filosofia della mente, filosofia del linguaggio, logica filosofica, e filosofia della religione, oltre a contribuire con un importante lavoro accademico nella prima filosofia moderna (in particolare su Locke).

Pensiero dell'Illuminismo americano Sebbene non vi sia consenso sull'esatto arco di tempo che corrisponde all'Illuminismo americano, si può dire con certezza che ebbe luogo durante il XVIII secolo tra i pensatori del Nord America britannico e dei primi Stati Uniti e fu ispirato dalle idee dell'Illuminismo britannico e francese. Basato sulla metafora di portare luce nell'oscurità

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