Revolution

By Schouls, Peter A.

There have been revolutions in politics, science, philosophy and most other spheres of human life. This entry discusses revolution mainly through concepts pertaining especially to the political realm. ...

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 ...

Czech Republic, philosophy in

By Zumr, Josef
Translated by Burša, G.R.F.

The foundation of the University of Prague in 1348 contributed significantly to establishing Bohemia as a centre of philosophical thought. The main philosophers and theologians from the University ...

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 ...

Mind, philosophy of

By Jackson, Frank; Rey, Georges

‘Philosophy of mind’, and ‘philosophy of psychology’ are two terms for the same general area of philosophical inquiry: the nature of mental phenomena and their connection with behaviour ...

East Asian philosophy

By Ames, Roger T.

Sinitic civilization, which includes the Chinese-influenced cultures of Japan and Korea, established an early lead over the rest of the world in the development of its material culture ...

Russian philosophy

By Kelly, Aileen

Russian thought is best approached without fixed preconceptions about the nature and proper boundaries of philosophy. Conditions of extreme political oppression and economic backwardness are not conducive to ...

Geology, philosophy of

By Laudan, Rachel

In the mid-1960s, geology underwent a conceptual revolution. Prior to that time, most geologists believed that the continents and oceans were fixed and permanent, the basic features of ...

Russian Religious-Philosophical Renaissance

By Rosenthal, Bernice Glatzer

The Russian Religious-Philosophical Renaissance was created by lay intellectuals who found rationalism, positivism and Marxism inadequate as explanations of the world or guides to life. They were deeply ...

Paine, Thomas (1737–1809)

By Kuklick, Bruce

Thomas Paine, born in Norfolk, England, spent his early years as an undistinguished artisan and later excise officer. In 1774 he emigrated to America and settled in Philadelphia ...

Tkachëv, Pëtr Nikitich (1844–86)

By Walicki, Andrzej

Pëtr Tkachëv, the leading theorist of the ‘Jacobin’ current within Russian revolutionary populism, was a belated disciple of Gracchus (Francois Noël) Babeuf and a forerunner of Vladimir Lenin. ...

Luxemburg, Rosa (1871–1919)

By Tudor, H.

Rosa Luxemburg, of Polish-Jewish origins, was for most of her life a prominent activist and theorist on the radical left of the German Social Democratic Party. She defended ...

Maistre, Joseph de (1753–1821)

By Lebrun, Richard A.

Count Joseph de Maistre was a major theorist of the Counter-Enlightenment, whose writings inspired generations of French Catholic royalists and stimulated thinkers diverse as Saint- Simon, Auguste Comte ...

Marxism, Chinese

By Munro, Donald J.

Chinese Marxism is a mixture of elements from Confucianism, German Marxism, Soviet Leninism and China’s own guerrilla experience. Because Mao Zedong (1893–1976) was in power longer than any ...

Plekhanov, Georgii Valentinovich (1857–1918)

By White, James D.

Known as ’the Father of Russian Marxism’, Plekhanov was the chief popularizer and interpreter of Marxism in Russia in the 1880s. His interest in the philosophical aspects of ...

Kautsky, Karl Johann (1854–1938)

By Tudor, H.

Karl Johann Kautsky became the leading German socialist theoretician at the time of the Second International and the authoritative exponent of ’orthodox Marxism’. He was a close associate ...

Russian Idea, the

By Walicki, Andrzej

‘The Russian Idea’ is a term used by Russian thinkers to define specific features of Russian culture, the spiritual make-up of the Russian nation, the meaning of Russian ...

Bakunin, Mikhail Aleksandrovich (1814–76)

By Kelly, Aileen

Bakunin was the leading proponent in the second half of the nineteenth century of a variety of anarchism rooted in a Romantic cult of primitive spontaneity, and one ...

Anarchism

By Crowder, George

Anarchism is the view that a society without the state, or government, is both possible and desirable. Although there have been intimations of the anarchist outlook throughout history, ...

Fanon, Frantz (1925–61)

By Appiah, K. Anthony

Fanon’s views (and often various misinterpretations of them) on the nature of colonialism, racism and the role of violence in Third-World revolutions were enormously influential. The main themes ...

Lukács, Georg (1885–1971)

By Callinicos, Alex

Lukács’ Geschichte und Klassenbewusstsein (History and Class Consciousness) (1923) is, for both its intrinsic merits and its enormous influence, the most important work of Marxist philosophy to have ...

Romanticism, German

Because Romanticism has many meanings which vary according to time and place, it is best to examine the movement in a specific culture and period. Of all the ...

Sieyes, Emmanuel Joseph (1748–1836)

By Kelly, Duncan

The Abbé Sieyes is best known for his 1789 pamphlet What is the Third Estate?, which set the constitutional agenda for the new French National Assembly. His rhetorical ...

Incommensurability

By Shapere, Dudley

When one scientific theory or tradition is replaced by another in a scientific revolution, the concepts involved often change in fundamental ways. For example, among other differences, in ...

Feuerbach, Ludwig Andreas (1804–72)

By Sass, Hans-Martin

Ludwig Feuerbach, one of the critical Young Hegelian intellectuals of the nineteenth century, has become famous for his radical critique of religious belief. In Das Wesen des Christentums ...