Telos

By Brennan, Tad

Telos is the ancient Greek term for an end, fulfilment, completion, goal or aim; it is the source of the modern word ‘teleology’. In Greek philosophy the term ...

Lorenzen, Paul (1915–95)

By Roberts, Julian

Paul Lorenzen, German philosopher of mathematics and sciences, programmatically set about implementing mathematical constructivism in wider philosophical contexts. Trained as a mathematician, he spent the greater part of ...

Normativity

By Darwall, Stephen

Something is said by philosophers to have ‘normativity’ when it entails that some action, attitude or mental state of some other kind is justified, an action one ought ...

Functional explanation

By Manning, Richard N.

Explanations appealing to the functions of items are common in everyday discourse and in science: we say that the heart pumps blood because that is its function, and ...

Plutarch of Chaeronea (c. AD 45–c.120)

By Dillon, John

The Greek biographer and philosopher Plutarch of Chaeronea is the greatest Greek literary figure of the first century ad. He is properly called Plutarch of Chaeronea, to ...

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 ...

Foot, Philippa (1920–2010)

By Lillehammer, Hallvard

Philippa Foot was a British moral philosopher based primarily at Oxford University, where she was a Fellow of Somerville College from 1950; and at University of California, Los ...

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 ...

Agricultural ethics

By Comstock, Gary L.

Agricultural ethics is the study of moral issues raised by farming. These include: human interference with the course of nature; the effects of certain agricultural practices on present ...

Stein, Edith (1891–1942)

By Borden Sharkey, Sarah

Edith Stein was among the first women to earn a doctorate in philosophy in Germany, defending her dissertation in 1916. She worked as Edmund Husserl’s assistant and was ...

Stoicism

Stoicism is the Greek philosophical system founded by Zeno of Citium c.300 bc and developed by him and his successors into the most influential philosophy of ...

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 ...

Environmental ethics

By Brennan, Andrew

Theories of ethics try to answer the question, ‘How ought we to live?’. An environmental ethic refers to our natural surroundings in giving the answer. It may claim ...

Posidonius (c.135–c.50 BC)

By Algra, Keimpe A.

Posidonius of Apamea (Syria) was a Stoic philosopher and student of Panaetius. He taught in Rhodes. He combined a passion for detailed empirical research with a general commitment ...

Stoicism

By Sedley, David

Stoicism is the Greek philosophical system founded by Zeno of Citium c.300 bc and developed by him and his successors into the most influential philosophy of ...

The Bildung tradition

By Herdt, Jennifer A.

Bildung was a central concept in the ethical and aesthetic thought of many late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth century German thinkers associated with Weimar classicism, romanticism, and idealism, notably Johann ...

Goodness, perfect

By Zagzebski, Linda

The concept of perfect goodness had a central place in ancient Greek and medieval philosophy, and is still frequently discussed in contemporary natural theology. Medieval philosophers adopted the ...

Tragedy

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Political philosophy, history of

By Hampsher-Monk, Iain

The history of political philosophy attempts to yield a connected account of past speculation on the character of human association at its most inclusive level. ‘History’ or ‘philosophy’ ...

Communicative rationality

By Dews, Peter

The concept of ‘communicative rationality’ is primarily associated with the work of the philosopher and social theorist Jürgen Habermas. According to Habermas, communication through language necessarily involves the ...

Buddhist philosophy, Chinese

By Lusthaus, Dan

When Buddhism first entered China from India and Central Asia two thousand years ago, Chinese favourably disposed towards it tended to view it as a part or companion ...

Epicureanism

Epicureanism is one of the three dominant philosophies of the Hellenistic age. The school was founded by Epicurus (341–271 bc) (see Prolēpsis). Only small samples and indirect ...

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. ...

Ecological philosophy

By Mathews, Freya

In the early 1970s a small number of academic philosophers in the English-speaking world began to turn their attention to questions concerning the natural environment. Environmental philosophy initially ...

Life, meaning of

Focusing on recent Anglo-American (analytic) philosophical books devoted to the question of what, if anything, would make life meaningful, it is standard to draw a distinction between the ...