“Windows To Spirituality”
20th-century Philosophy The 20th-century philosophy saw the development of a number of new philosophical schools—including logical positivism, analytic philosophy, phenomenology, existentialism, and poststructuralism. In terms of the eras of philosophy, it is usually labelled as contemporary philosophy (succeeding modern philosophy, which runs roughly from the time of René Descartes until the late 19th...
What Is Epicureanism? Epicureanism is a system of philosophy based upon the teachings of the ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus, founded around 307 BC. Epicurus was an atomic materialist, following in the steps of Democritus. His materialism led him to a general attack on superstition and divine intervention. Following Aristippus—about whom...
What Is Occasionalism? Occasionalism is a philosophical theory about causation which says that created substances cannot be efficient causes of events. Instead, all events are taken to be caused directly by God. (A related theory, which has been called “occasional causation“, also denies a link of efficient causation between mundane events, but may differ as to the identity...
What Is Romanticism? Romanticism (also known as the Romantic era) was an artistic, literary, musical and intellectual movement that originated in Europe toward the end of the 18th century, and in most areas was at its peak in the approximate period from 1800 to 1850. Romanticism was characterized by its emphasis on...
What Is Unitarianism? Unitarianism (unitas “unity, oneness”, from unus “one”) is a Christian theological movement named for its belief that the God in Christianity is one person, as opposed to the Trinity (tri- from Latin tres “three”) which in many other branches of Christianity defines God as one being in three persons: the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Unitarian Christians, therefore, believe that Jesus was inspired by God in his moral teachings,...
What Is Neoplatonism? Neoplatonism is a term used to designate a strand of Platonic philosophy that emerged in the third century AD against the background of Hellenistic philosophy and religion. The term does not encapsulate a set of ideas as much as it encapsulates a chain of thinkers which began with Ammonius Saccas and...
What is Existence? Existence is the ability of an entity to interact with physical or mental reality. In philosophy, it refers to the ontological property of being. Etymology The word “existence” comes from the Latin word exsistere meaning “to appear”, “to arise”, “to become”, or “to be”, but literally, it means “to stand out” (ex- being...
What Is Thomism? Thomism is the philosophical school that arose as a legacy of the work and thought of Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274), philosopher, theologian, and Doctor of the Church. In philosophy, Aquinas’ disputed questions and commentaries on Aristotle are perhaps his most well-known works. In theology, his Summa Theologica is one...
Who Is Thomas Aquinas? Saint Thomas Aquinas OP (Tommaso d’Aquino, lit. “Thomas of Aquino”; 1225 – 7 March 1274) was an Italian Dominican friar, Catholic priest, and Doctor of the Church. He is an immensely influential philosopher, theologian, and jurist in the tradition of scholasticism, within which he is also known as the Doctor Angelicus and the Doctor Communis. The name Aquinas...
Omnipresence Omnipresence or ubiquity is the property of being present everywhere. The term omnipresence is most often used in a religious context as an attribute of a deity or supreme being, while the term ubiquity is generally used to describe something “existing or being everywhere at the same time, constantly encountered, widespread, common.”...
Veganism Veganism is the practice of abstaining from the use of animal products, particularly in diet, and an associated philosophy that rejects the commodity status of animals. A follower of the diet or the philosophy is known as a vegan. Distinctions may be made between several categories of veganism. Dietary vegans...
What Is Omega Point? The Omega Point is a spiritual belief and a scientific speculation that everything in the universe is fated to spiral towards a final point of divine unification. The term was coined by the French Jesuit Catholic priest Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881–1955). Teilhard argued that the Omega Point resembles the Christian Logos, namely Christ, who...
What is Mohism? Mohism or Moism (墨家; Mòjiā; literally: ‘School of Mo’) was an ancient Chinese philosophy of logic, rational thought and science developed by the academic scholars who studied under the ancient Chinese philosopher Mozi (c. 470 BC – c. 391 BC) and embodied in an eponymous book: the Mozi. It evolved at...
What Is Causality? Causality (also referred to as causation, or cause and effect) is what connects one process (the cause) with another process or state (the effect), where the first is partly responsible for the second, and the second is partly dependent on the first. In general, a process has many causes, which are said to be...
Logic In Islamic Philosophy This article covers Logic In Islamic Philosophy. Early Islamic law placed importance on formulating standards of argument, which gave rise to a “novel approach to logic” (منطق manṭiq “speech, eloquence”) in Kalam (Islamic scholasticism) However, with the rise of the Mu’tazili philosophers, who highly valued Aristotle’s Organon, this approach was...
What Is Self-efficacy? Self-efficacy is an individual’s belief in their innate ability to achieve goals. Albert Bandura defines it as a personal judgement of “how well one can execute courses of action required to deal with prospective situations”. Expectations of self-efficacy determine whether an individual will be able to exhibit coping behavior and...
Islam And Modern Western Philosophies What Is The Islamic Viewpoint of The Modern Western Philosophies of History? I wonder whether it is a skepticism to see a political purpose behind some philosophies produced in the West during the last few centuries. Whether they might label me as unscientific or a...
Mind–Body Dualism The Mind–body dualism, or mind–body duality, is a view in the philosophy of mind that mental phenomena are, in some respects, non-physical, or that the mind and body are distinct and separable. Thus, it encompasses a set of views about the relationship between mind and matter, and between subject and object, and is contrasted with other positions,...
Mind–body Problem The mind–body problem is a philosophical problem concerning the relationship between thought and consciousness in the human mind and the brain as part of the physical body. It is distinct from the question of how mind and body function chemically and physiologically since that question presupposes an interactionist...
Who Is Jean-Paul Sartre? Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre (21 June 1905 – 15 April 1980) was a French philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and literary critic. He was one of the key figures in the philosophy of existentialism and phenomenology, and one of the leading figures in 20th-century...
