Absolute, the

By Sprigge, T.L.S.

The expression ‘the Absolute’ stands for that (supposed) unconditioned reality which is either the spiritual ground of all being or the whole of things considered as a spiritual ...

McTaggart, John McTaggart Ellis (1866–1925)

By Baldwin, Thomas

McTaggart was one of the last of the ‘British Idealists’, the group of British philosophers, such as B. Bosanquet and F.H. Bradley, who took their inspiration from Hegel. ...

Absolutism

By Pagden, Anthony

The term ‘absolutism’ describes a form of government in which the authority of the ruler is subject to no theoretical or legal constraints. In the language of Roman ...

Monism

By O’Conaill, Donnchadh

The basic idea of monism is that reality is, fundamentally, one. This contrasts with any view on which reality is, fundamentally, many, or with any view on which ...

Mysticism, nature of

By Payne, Steven

Mysticism continues to elude easy definition, and its nature and significance remain the subject of intense debate. The terms ‘mystic’, ‘mystical’ and ‘mysticism’ have been used in an ...

Bradley, Francis Herbert (1846–1924)

By Candlish, Stewart

Bradley was the most famous and philosophically the most influential of the British Idealists, who had a marked impact on British philosophy in the later nineteenth and earlier ...

Tragedy

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Brahman

By Phillips, Stephen H.

The Sanskrit word brahman (neuter) emerged in late Vedic literature and Upaniṣads (900–300 bc) as the name (never pluralized) of the divine reality pervading the universe, ...

Bhartṛhari (c. 5th century)

By Bronkhorst, Johannes

Bhartṛhari is the Indian philosopher of grammar par excellence. Drawing on practically all the schools of thought of his time – religious, philosophical, linguistic and ritual – ...

Blaga, Lucian (1895–1961)

By Flonta, Mircea
Translated by Jones, M.

Poet, playwright, essayist and philosopher, Blaga was the most interesting and original Romanian thinker of the first half of the twentieth century. His philosophical ideal was a system ...

Necessary truth and convention

By Sidelle, Alan

Necessary truths have always seemed problematic, particularly to empiricists and other naturalistically-minded philosophers. Our knowledge here is a priori - grounded in appeals to what we can imagine ...

Schelling, Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von (1775–1854)

By Bowie, Andrew

Like the other German Idealists, Schelling began his philosophical career by acknowledging the fundamental importance of Kant’s grounding of knowledge in the synthesizing activity of the subject, while ...

Schelling, Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von (1775–1854)

Like the other German Idealists, Schelling began his philosophical career by acknowledging the importance of Kant’s grounding of knowledge in the synthesising activity of the subject, while questioning ...

Theosophy

By Wakoff, Michael B.

Etymologically, ‘theosophy’ means wisdom concerning God or divine things, from the Greek ‘theos’ (God) and ‘sophia’ (wisdom). Seventeenth-century philosophers and speculative mystics used ‘theosophy’ to refer to a ...

Montesquieu, Charles Louis de Secondat (1689–1755)

By Hulliung, Mark

Montesquieu, one of the greatest figures of the Enlightenment, was famous in his own century both in France and in foreign lands, from Russia to the American colonies. ...

Epistemic relativism

Broadly speaking, relativism is the view that, at least in some domains, everything or every truth is relative to some standards so that, when two or more people ...

Shinran (1173–1263)

By Unno, Taitetsu

Shinran lived in thirteenth-century Japan, an age of socio-political turmoil, when the old order represented by imperial rule, aristocratic culture and monastic Buddhism was in the process of ...

Tragedy

By Feagin, Susan L.

Tragedy is primarily a type of drama, though non-dramatic poetry (‘lyric tragedy’) and some novels (for example, Moby Dick) have laid claim to the description. As a genre, ...

Tragedy

Tragedy began in ancient Greece as a type of drama and has become an important part of the literary and critical tradition in Europe and the United States. ...

Nishida Kitarō (1870–1945)

By Maraldo, John C.

Considered Japan’s first original modern philosopher, Nishida not only transmitted Western philosophical problems to his contemporaries but also used Buddhist philosophy and his own methods to subvert the ...

Bacon, Roger (c.1214–92/4)

By Sinkler, Georgette

Associated with both the University of Paris and Oxford University, Roger Bacon was one of the first in the Latin West to lecture and comment on Aristotle’s writings ...

Conscientious objection in healthcare

By Clarke, Steve

When healthcare professionals ask for a conscientious objection to be accommodated, they are requesting an exemption from a work role they object to, on moral or religious grounds. ...

Idealism

By Sprigge, T.L.S.

Idealism is now usually understood in philosophy as the view that mind is the most basic reality and that the physical world exists only as an appearance to ...

Contractarianism

By Freeman, Samuel

The idea that political relations originate in contract or agreement has been applied in several ways. In Plato’s Republic Glaucon suggests that justice is but a pact among ...

Dewey, John (1859–1952)

By Gouinlock, James

The philosophy of John Dewey is original and comprehensive. His extensive writings contend systematically with problems in metaphysics, epistemology, logic, aesthetics, ethics, social and political philosophy, philosophy and ...