Utopianism

By Sargent, Lyman Tower

Utopianism is the general label for a number of different ways of dreaming or thinking about, describing or attempting to create a better society. Utopianism is derived from ...

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 ...

Bloch, Ernst Simon (1885–1977)

By Geoghegan, Vincent

Bloch was one of the most innovative Marxist philosophers of the twentieth century. His metaphysical and ontological concerns, combined with a self-conscious utopianism, distanced him from much mainstream ...

Hessen, Sergei Iosifovich (1887–1950)

By Walicki, Andrzej

Sergei Hessen, a disciple of Rickert, has been described as ’the most brilliant and philosophically gifted’ representative of Neo-Kantian transcendentalism in Russia on the eve of the Revolution. ...

Hope

By Stratton-Lake, Philip

In Christian theology ‘hope’ has a central role as one of the three theological virtues. As theology has gradually become separated from moral theory, the inclusion of ‘hope’ ...

Cosmopolitanism

By Held, David; Maffettone, Pietro

Cosmopolitanism, in the broadest sense, is a way of thinking about the human condition. It portrays humanity as a universal fellowship. The unity to which cosmopolitans refer can ...

Moscow Psychological Society

By Poole, Randall A.

The Moscow Psychological Society, a learned society founded in 1885 at Moscow University, was the first and main centre of the remarkable philosophical achievements of the Russian Silver ...

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 ...

Bogdanov, Aleksandr Aleksandrovich (1873–1928)

By Joravsky, David

Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Bogdanov, né Malinovskii, was a Russian thinker who helped Lenin create the Bolshevik or Communist Party, broke with Lenin over a mixture of philosophical and political ...

Rabelais, François (c.1483–1553)

By Duval, Edwin M.

Rabelais, a French humanist and comic writer of the Renaissance, is best known for his chronicles of Gargantua and Pantagruel, in which coarse popular humour, fine Lucianic irony ...

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 ...

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 ...

Liberation philosophy

By Cerutti-Guldberg, Horacio

Philosophy of liberation emerged in Argentina early in the 1970s with the explicit intention of proposing a liberating alternative to the diagnosis of structural dependence offered by the ...

Berlin, Isaiah (1909–97)

By Williams, Bernard

Berlin said that he decided about 1945 to give up philosophy, in which he had worked up to that time, in favour of the history of ideas. Some ...

Trubetskoi, Sergei Nikolaevich (1862–1905)

By Poole, Randall A.

Prince Sergei N. Trubetskoi came from one of the most enlightened and distinguished noble families in Russia. By 1890 he had emerged as one of the country’s major ...

Critical theory

By Geuss, Raymond

The term ‘critical theory’ designates the approach to the study of society developed between 1930 and 1970 by the so-called ‘Frankfurt School’. A group of theorists associated with ...

Critical theory

The term ‘critical theory’ designates the approach to the study of society developed between 1930 and 1970 by the so-called ‘Frankfurt School’. A group of theorists associated with ...

Dostoevskii, Fëdor Mikhailovich (1821–81)

By Morson, Gary Saul

Dostoevskii, regarded as one of the world’s greatest novelists, is especially well known for his mastery of philosophical or ideological fiction. In his works, characters espouse intriguing ideas ...

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’ ...

Signposts Movement

By Kelly, Aileen

The symposium Signposts (Vekhi, sometimes translated Landmarks), published in 1909, was a succès de scandale which provoked a long debate of extraordinary intensity and scope on ...

Slavophilism

By Walicki, Andrzej

In the Slav countries outside Russia the term ’Slavophilism’ is a generic name for all advocates of the ’Slav idea’, irrespective of their philosophical views and political commitments. ...

Renaissance philosophy

By Ashworth, E.J.

The term ‘Renaissance’ means rebirth, and was originally used to designate a rebirth of the arts and literature that began in mid-fourteenth century Italy (see Humanism, Renaissance). Here ...

Architecture, aesthetics of

By Haldane, John J.

The philosophy of architecture is a branch of philosophical aesthetics concerned with various issues arising from the theory and practice of building design. The oldest writings on architecture ...

Communism

By Sargent, Lyman Tower

Communism is the belief that society should be organized without private property, all productive property being held communally, publicly or in common. A communist system is one based ...

Global justice, recent work on

By Caney, Simon

Until recently the prevailing view among many political philosophers was that global justice required that states honour each other’s independence, keep their treaties, and comply with the rules ...