Philosophical Terms: A Comprehensive Dictionary
**Absolute**
That which does not need anything or anyone even to be conceived not to exist. Properly applies to God.
**Abstraction**
Mental meeting of what is common to many individual beings to form a universal concept.
**Academy**
Plato’s philosophical school.
**Accident**
What may be modified or deleted in a substance without changing its nature.
**Act**
From Aristotle, this means that now is the result of what was previously in power.
**Admiration**
Admiration is considered, by both Plato (Theaetetus,
Read MoreRationalism vs. Empiricism: 17th-18th Century Thought
The Modern Age (17th – 18th Centuries)
The 17th century saw the Renaissance, and the 18th century, the Enlightenment. What happened in the 15th to 16th centuries changed the way people thought, due to a scientific revolution. This involved a shift from Aristotelian physics, which had prevailed since the 4th century BC, to the emergence of modern physics.
The transition from a geocentric to a heliocentric model was difficult for the church and the scientific community to accept. Why, if God created
Read MoreAtlantic Expansion and the Reformation: Impact on Europe
**8. Introduction**
**8.1. The Fracture of the Christian *Res Publica* and Atlantic Expansion**
These facts are linked to the traditional division of history into ages.
1. Importance: Reforms represent a break with incalculable consequences for a Christianity that saw itself as a universal order. The discovery of America is another event of extraordinary importance, as is the Atlantic expansion in general. This represents a break with the global geography of Europe.
2. To what extent does it break continuity?
Read MoreJosé Ortega y Gasset: Philosophy, Historical Context, and the Concept of God
Historical Context of Ortega y Gasset’s Philosophy
José Ortega y Gasset’s philosophy emerged during a critical period in Spain’s recent history. This era encompassed the Bourbon Restoration, under King Alfonso XII (1874-1923), the dictatorship of General Primo de Rivera from 1923, the formal alternation between conservative and liberal parties, the proclamation of the Second Republic on April 14, 1931, the fall of the Republic, the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), and the early years of General Franco’
Read MoreDescartes’ Method: A Philosophical and Mathematical Approach
1. Statement of Method
1.1 Precautions Before
But as a man who has to walk alone in the dark, I resolved to move as slowly and use as much restraint in all, which, in exchange for moving forward a bit, I would keep at least from a very bad trip and fall. And even I did not start completely rid of any of the opinions that may slip once in my beliefs, without having been introduced by reason, even after spending some time devoted to project work that was undertaken, looking for the real method to the
Read MoreDescartes vs. Hume: A Philosophical Comparison
Let’s compare Descartes to Hume and later the rationalist authors. Hume was an empiricist. Empiricism, like rationalism, focuses on knowledge, sharing a concern for the epistemological and how we know (the reason for rationalism and empiricism of sensitive data), as well as materials that are factual knowledge. The main representatives of empiricism were Locke, Berkeley, and Hume in the English Enlightenment. The main representatives of rationalism were Descartes, Leibniz, Spinoza, and Malebranche.
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