Doubt

By Williams, Michael

Doubt is often defined as a state of indecision or hesitancy with respect to accepting or rejecting a given proposition. Thus, doubt is opposed to belief. But doubt ...

Nineteenth-century philosophy

By Stern, Robert

In the first part of the nineteenth century, the reigning philosophical outlook was idealist in one form or another, as the attempt was made to complete the intellectual ...

Hindu philosophy

By Clear, Edeltraud Harzer

Hindu philosophy is the longest surviving philosophical tradition in India. We can recognize several historical stages. The earliest, from around 700 bc, was the proto-philosophical period, when ...

Certainty

By Klein, Peter D.

‘Certainty’ is not a univocal term. It is predicated of people, and it is predicated of propositions. When certainty is predicated of a person, as in ‘Sally is ...

Vico, Giambattista (1668–1744)

By Pompa, Leon

Vico lived in a period in which the successes of the natural sciences were frequently attributed to the Cartesian method of a priori demonstration. His own first interest, ...

Scepticism

By Schönbaumsfeld, Genia

Radical scepticism is the contention that little or no knowledge of one’s ‘external’ surroundings might be possible. Most modern forms of scepticism have their roots in René Descartes’ ...

Social epistemology

By Schmitt, Frederick F.

Social epistemology is the conceptual and normative study of the relevance to knowledge of social relations, interests and institutions. It is thus to be distinguished from the sociology ...

Descartes, René (1596–1650)

By Garber, Daniel

René Descartes, often called the father of modern philosophy, attempted to break with the philosophical traditions of his day and start philosophy anew. Rejecting the Aristotelian philosophy of ...

Knowledge, Indian views of

By Phillips, Stephen H.

Classical Indian epistemology centres on a complex of terms for knowledge, knower and the known or knowable, including pramāṇa, ‘means to knowledge’ or ‘source of knowledge’. Views ...

Wittgenstein, Ludwig Josef Johann (1889–1951)

By Heal, Jane

Ludwig Wittgenstein was born in Vienna on 26 April 1889 and died in Cambridge on 29 April 1951. He spent his childhood and youth in Austria and Germany, ...

Peirce, Charles Sanders (1839–1914)

By Hookway, Christopher

Peirce was an American philosopher, probably best known as the founder of pragmatism and for his influence upon later pragmatists such as William James and John Dewey. Personal ...

Antiphon (late 5th century BC)

By Hobbs, Angela

Antiphon was a Greek Sophist. His most famous work, On Truth, partially survives in two substantial papyrus fragments, plus a number of purported quotations. It sets up a ...

Rational beliefs

By Cherniak, Christopher

To the extent that a belief is rational, it ought to be held, other things being equal; irrational beliefs should not be held. From traditional epistemological perspectives, the ...

Rationalism

By Markie, Peter J.

Rationalism is the view that reason, as opposed to, say, sense experience, divine revelation or reliance on institutional authority, plays a dominant role in our attempt to gain ...

Bonaventure (c.1217–74)

By Kent, Bonnie

Bonaventure (John of Fidanza) developed a synthesis of philosophy and theology in which Neoplatonic doctrines are transformed by a Christian framework. Though often remembered for his denunciations of ...

Feminist political philosophy

By Mendus, Susan

In all its forms, feminism asserts that social and political structures in society discriminate against women. Feminist political philosophy aims to show how traditional political philosophy is implicated ...

Theological virtues

By Mann, William E.

The three theological virtues of faith, hope and love, referred to frequently by the apostle Paul in his letters, play an indispensable role in Christian theorizing about a ...

Thomasius (Thomas), Christian (1655–1728)

By Haakonssen, Knud

Christian Thomasius’ stature as the ‘founder’ of the German Enlightenment has been the source of much debate. His many essays dealing with issues in moral enlightenment and law ...

Wittgenstein, Ludwig Josef Johann (1889–1951)

Ludwig Wittgenstein was born in Vienna on 26 April 1889 and died in Cambridge on 29 April 1951. He spent his childhood and youth in Austria and Germany, ...

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 ...

Moral knowledge

By Sayre-McCord, Geoffrey

One possesses moral knowledge when, but only when, one’s moral opinions are true and held justifiably. Whether anyone actually has moral knowledge is open to serious doubt, both ...

Butler, Joseph (1692–1752)

By Frey, R.G.

Joseph Butler the moral philosopher is in that long line of eighteenth-century thinkers who sought to answer Thomas Hobbes on human nature and moral motivation. Following the Third ...

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 ...

Sense perception, Indian views of

By Phillips, Stephen H.

Sense perception is considered in classical Indian thought in the context of epistemological issues – in particular, perception as a source of knowledge – and of psychological and ...

Duns Scotus, John (c.1266–1308)

By Dumont, Stephen D.

Duns Scotus was one of the most important thinkers of the entire scholastic period. Of Scottish origin, he was a member of the Franciscan order and undertook theological ...