Conservatism

By O’Hear, Anthony

Conservatism is an approach to human affairs which mistrusts both a priori reasoning and revolution, preferring to put its trust in experience and in the gradual improvement of ...

Law, limits of

By Smith, G.W.

Questions concerning the proper limits of law are of particular interest to thinkers in the Western political tradition of individualism. In this tradition the law is regarded primarily ...

Mannheim, Karl (1893–1947)

By Longhurst, Brian

The sociologist Karl Mannheim moved from an initial concern with philosophical issues concerning cultural change, via the development of an original approach to the sociology of knowledge, to ...

Coleridge, Samuel Taylor (1772–1834)

By Milnes, Timothy

In addition to being one of the finest poets of the Romantic generation, Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834) was a philosopher, theologian, and literary theorist whose work exerted a ...

Logical form

By Menzel, Christopher

Consider the following argument: All men are mortal; Socrates is a man; therefore, Socrates is mortal. Intuitively, what makes this a valid argument has nothing to do with ...

French Revolution, philosophical background and influence of

By Millhorn, Jim

The French Revolution is clearly defined as a benchmark event of the modern era. It remains the revolution by which all others are measured. Any discussion of political ...

Conventionalism

By Horwich, Paul

How is it known that every number has a successor, that straight lines can intersect each other no more than once, that causes precede their events, and that ...

Sidgwick, Henry (1838–1900)

Henry Sidgwick was a Cambridge philosopher, parapsychologist, political economist, and educational reformer, whose works in ethical and political philosophy, especially The Methods of Ethics (1874), brought classical ...

Islamic philosophy, modern

By Morewedge, Parviz; Leaman, Oliver

There are a number of major trends in modern Islamic philosophy. First, there is the challenge of the West to traditional Islamic philosophical and cultural principles and the ...

Political philosophy, nature of

By Plant, Raymond

Political philosophy developed as a central aspect of philosophy generally in the world of ancient Greece, and the writings of Plato and Aristotle made a basic and still ...

Hegelianism, Russian

By Walicki, Andrzej

In Russian intellectual history the so-called ‘remarkable decade’ of 1838–48 (P.V. Annenkov’s expression) could be characterized as a truly ‘philosophical epoch’. Speculative philosophy was seen by then as ...

Leibowitz, Yeshayahu (1903–94)

By Hartman, D.

Unlike the major intellectual currents that shaped religious thought in the modern world, Leibowitz’s thought is deeply anchored in the Israeli context. Both as philosopher and activist, Leibowitz ...

Modernism

By Ross, Stephen

The term modernism denotes an explosion of aesthetic innovation in Europe, Britain, Ireland and America from roughly 1880 to 1950. It embraces a hugely diverse group of works ...

Strawson, Peter Frederick (1919–2006)

By Snowdon, Paul F.

Strawson taught at the University of Oxford from 1947, becoming Waynflete Professor of Metaphysical Philosophy in 1968, and retiring in 1987. A sequence of influential books and articles ...

Burke, Edmund (1729–97)

By Hampsher-Monk, Iain

Edmund Burke’s philosophical importance lies in two fields, aesthetics and political theory. His early work on aesthetics, the Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the ...

Chaadaev, Pëtr Iakovlevich (1794–1856)

By Walicki, Andrzej

Pëtr Chaadaev was the first Russian thinker for whom his own country became a philosophical problem. His works initiated the powerful Russian tradition of reflecting on Russia’s whence ...

Croce, Benedetto (1866–1952)

By Bellamy, Richard

The leading Italian philosopher of his day, Croce presented his philosophy as a humanist alternative to the consolations of religion. A Hegelian idealist, he argued that all human ...

Sidgwick, Henry (1838–1900)

By Schultz, Bart

Henry Sidgwick was a Cambridge philosopher, psychic researcher and educational reformer, whose works in practical philosophy, especially The Methods of Ethics (1874), brought classical utilitarianism to its peak ...

Gehlen, Arnold (1904–76)

By Turner, B.S.

Gehlen, a Professor of Sociology, is now widely recognized as the founder of ‘philosophical anthropology’. He has had a significant impact on both social philosophy and sociology. Concerned ...

Political philosophy

By Miller, David

Political philosophy can be defined as philosophical reflection on how best to arrange our collective life - our political institutions and our social practices, such as our economic ...

Quine, Willard Van Orman (1908–2000)

By Orenstein, Alex

Quine is the foremost representative of naturalism in the second half of the twentieth century. His naturalism consists of an insistence upon a close connection or alliance between ...

Green political philosophy

By Ball, Terence

All the major political philosophies have been born of crisis. Green political philosophy is no exception to this general rule. It has emerged from that interconnected series of ...

Green political philosophy

All the major political philosophies have been born of crisis. Green political philosophy is no exception to this general rule. It has emerged from that interconnected series of ...

A priori knowledge and justification, recent work on

By Bonjour, Laurence

The recent discussion of the a priori has involved some controversies about the concept of a priori justification or warrant, but has focused mainly on the central issue ...

Althusser, Louis Pierre (1918–90)

By Callinicos, Alex

Louis Althusser was the most influential philosopher to emerge in the revival of Marxist theory occasioned by the radical movements of the 1960s. His influence is, on the ...