Academy

By Barnes, Jonathan

The Academy was a public gymnasium in northwest Athens. Plato taught there, and the Academy remained the centre of Platonic philosophizing until the first century bc. Hence ...

Art, abstract

Article Summary ...

Ancient philosophy

By Sedley, David

The philosophy of the Greco-Roman world from the sixth century bc to the sixth century ad laid the foundations for all subsequent Western philosophy. Its greatest ...

Antiochus (c.130–68 BC)

By Barnes, Jonathan

For most of his career the Greek philosopher Antiochus of Ascalon, a pupil of Philo of Larissa, was an orthodox ‘sceptical’ Academic. He then changed his philosophy: some ...

Xenocrates (396–314 BC)

By Dillon, John

The Greek philosopher Xenocrates was the third head of the Platonic Academy. Like his predecessor Speusippus, he further developed Plato’s philosophy, but along more orthodox lines. Indeed, Xenocrates ...

Platonism, Early and Middle

By Dillon, John

Platonism is the body of doctrine developed in the school founded by Plato, both before and (especially) after his death in 347 bc. The first phase, usually ...

Philo of Larissa (c.159–c.83 BC)

By Barnes, Jonathan

Philo, head of the Academy from 110 to 88 bc, likened philosophy to medicine. No doubt he was a conscientious therapist himself; but we know little enough ...

Plato (427–347 BC)

By Schofield, Malcolm

Plato was an Athenian Greek of aristocratic family, active as a philosopher in the first half of the fourth century bc. He was a devoted follower of ...

Plato (427–347 BC)

Plato was an Athenian Greek of aristocratic family, active as a philosopher in the first half of the fourth century bc. He was a devoted follower of ...

Lomonosov, Mikhail Vasil’evich (1711–65)

By Jones, Gareth

Endowed with scientific and literary genius, Lomonosov was a product and proponent of Russia’s eighteenth-century Westernization. He was trained under Christian Wolff, the philosophic luminary of German pietism, ...

Augustine (AD 354–430)

By Matthews, Gareth B.

Augustine was the first of the great Christian philosophers. For well over eight centuries following his death, in fact until the ascendancy of Thomas Aquinas at the end ...

Fontenelle, Bernard de (1657–1757)

By Schonfeld, Martin

Despite his considerable historical importance and vast output of literary, critical and philosophical works, Fontenelle did not make original contributions to philosophy. He popularized a modern view of ...

Carneades (214–129 BC)

By Barnes, Jonathan

The Greek philosopher Carneades was head of the Academy from 167 to 137 bc. Born in North Africa he migrated to Athens, where he studied logic with ...

Brazil, philosophy in

By Sturm, Fred Gillette

It is possible to distinguish between European philosophy in Brazil and Brazilian philosophy. The former refers to Brazilians who participate in discussions of issues occurring in the European ...

Medieval philosophy, Russian

By Farrimond, Claire

The term ‘philosophy’ is itself highly problematic in the context of medieval Russia. Even in its most literal sense of love of learning, it was regarded with ambivalence, ...

Burge, Tyler (1946–)

By Gerken, Mikkel; Dunlop, Katherine

Tyler Burge is an American philosopher whose body of work spans several areas of theoretical philosophy in the analytic tradition. While Burge has made important contributions to the ...

Crusius, Christian August (1715–75)

By Seidler, Michael J.

Crusius was a pivotal figure in the middle period of the German Enlightenment, linking Pufendorf and Thomasius with Kant. Though sometimes wrongly characterized (for example, by Hegel) as ...

Florenskii, Pavel Aleksandrovich (1882–1937)

By Slesinski, Robert

A figure of genius in the history of twentieth-century Russian religious philosophy, Florenskii did much to influence the directions of subsequent Russian thought, both within the Soviet Union ...

Tetens, Johann Nicolaus (1736–1807)

By Zoller, Gunter

Tetens was a German philosopher, mathematician and physicist, with a second career as a Danish government official, who was active in Northern Germany and Denmark during the second ...

Speusippus (c.410–339 BC)

By Dillon, John

The Greek philosopher Speusippus was the second head of the Platonic Academy. Succeeding his uncle Plato on the latter’s death, he developed his thought in interesting directions. He ...

Arcesilaus (c.316–c.240 BC)

By Barnes, Jonathan

Arcesilaus of Pitane came to Athens as a young man, and was seduced by Platonic philosophy. Around 265 he became head of the Academy. He turned the school ...

Vernadskii, Vladimir Ivanovich (1863–1945)

By Poole, Randall A.

Vladimir Vernadskii was an earth scientist with broad scientific and philosophical interests. He made important contributions to mineralogy and crystallography, distinguished himself as one of the founders of ...

Aristotle (384–322 BC)

By Irwin, T.H.

Aristotle of Stagira is one of the two most important philosophers of the ancient world, and one of the four or five most important of any time or ...

D’Alembert, Jean Le Rond (1717–83)

By Johnson, Paul F.

Mathematician, scientist and man of letters, Jean D’Alembert is a central figure of the French Enlightenment. As a young man he made significant contributions to the refinement of ...

Islamic philosophy: transmission into Western Europe

By Burnett, Charles

The Arabs took on the mantle of late antique philosophy and passed it on to both Latin scholars and Jewish scholars in Western Europe in the Middle Ages. ...