“Windows To Spirituality”
Psychological Mindedness Psychological mindedness refers to a person’s capacity for self-examination, self-reflection, introspection and personal insight. It includes an ability to recognize meanings that underlie overt words and actions, to appreciate emotional nuance and complexity, to recognize the links between past and present, and insight into one’s own and others’ motives and intentions. Psychologically...
Speech Speech is human vocal communication using language. Each language uses phonetic combinations of vowel and consonant sounds that form the sound of its words (that is, all English words sound different from all French words, even if they are the same word, e.g., “role” or “hotel”), and using those words in...
What Is Kalam? Ilm al-Kalam (عِلْم الكَلام, literally “science of discourse”), usually foreshortened to Kalam and sometimes called “Islamic scholastic theology”, is the study of Islamic doctrine (‘aqa’id). It was born out of the need to establish and defend the tenets of Islamic faith against doubters and detractors. A scholar of Kalam is referred to as...
Who Is Baruch Spinoza? Baruch Spinoza (Benedito de Espinosa, Benedict de Spinoza; 24 November 1632 – 21 February 1677) was a Dutch philosopher of Portuguese Sephardi origin. One of the early thinkers of the Enlightenment and modern biblical criticism, including modern conceptions of the self and the universe, he came to be considered one...
What Is Scholasticism? Scholasticism was a medieval school of philosophy that employed a critical method of philosophical analysis presupposed upon a Latin Christian theistic paradigm which dominated teaching in the medieval universities in Europe from about 1100 to 1700. It originated within the Christian monastic schools that were the basis of the earliest European universities. The rise of scholasticism was...
Just War Theory Just war theory (jus bellum justum) is a doctrine, also referred to as a tradition, of military ethics studied by military leaders, theologians, ethicists and policy makers. The purpose of the doctrine is to ensure war is morally justifiable through a series of criteria, all of which must...
Who Is Augustine Of Hippo? Augustine of Hippo (13 November 354 – 28 August 430 AD) was a Roman African, early Christian theologian and Neoplatonic philosopher from Numidia whose writings influenced the development of the Western Church and Western philosophy, and indirectly all of Western Christianity. He was the bishop of...
Who Is Niccolò Machiavelli? Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli (3 May 1469 – 21 June 1527) was an Italian diplomat, politician, historian, philosopher, writer, playwright and poet of the Renaissance period. He has often been called the father of modern political philosophy and political science. For many years he served as a...
Islamic Attitudes Towards Science This article covers Islamic attitudes towards science. Muslim scholars have developed a spectrum of viewpoints on science within the context of Islam. The Quran and Islam allow for much interpretation when it comes to science. Scientists of medieval Muslim civilization (e.g. Ibn al-Haytham) contributed to the new...
Christianity And Science This article covers the relationship between Christianity and science. Most sources of knowledge available to early Christians were connected to pagan worldviews. There were various opinions on how Christianity should regard pagan learning, which included its ideas about nature. For instance, among early Christian teachers, Tertullian (c....
Relationship Between Religion And Science Various aspects of the relationship between religion and science have been cited by modern historians of science and religion, philosophers, theologians, scientists, and others from various geographical regions and cultures. Even though the ancient and medieval worlds did not have conceptions resembling the modern understandings of “science”...
Problem Of Religious Language The problem of religious language considers whether it is possible to talk about God meaningfully if the traditional conceptions of God as being incorporeal, infinite, and timeless, are accepted. Because these traditional conceptions of God make it difficult to describe God, religious language has the potential to be meaningless. Theories...
Who Is Muhammad Iqbal? Sir Muhammad Iqbal (محمد اِقبال; 9 November 1877 – 21 April 1938), widely known as Allama Iqbal, was a poet, philosopher and politician, as well as an academic, barrister and scholar in British India who is widely regarded as having inspired the Pakistan Movement. He is called the “Spiritual Father of Pakistan.” He...
Women In Philosophy Women have engaged in philosophy throughout the field’s history. While there were women philosophers since ancient times, and a relatively small number were accepted as philosophers during the ancient, medieval, modern and contemporary eras, particularly during the 20th and 21st century, almost no woman philosophers have entered...
Philosophy Of Religion Philosophy of religion is “the philosophical examination of the central themes and concepts involved in religious traditions.” These sorts of philosophical discussion are ancient, and can be found in the earliest known manuscripts concerning philosophy. The field is related to many other branches of philosophy, including metaphysics,...
Philosophy Of Science Philosophy of science is a sub-field of philosophy concerned with the foundations, methods, and implications of science. The central questions of this study concern what qualifies as science, the reliability of scientific theories, and the ultimate purpose of science. This discipline overlaps with metaphysics, ontology, and epistemology, for example, when it explores the relationship between...
What Is Logic? Logic, originally meaning “the word” or “what is spoken“, but coming to mean “thought” or “reason“, is a subject concerned with the most general laws of truth, and is now generally held to consist of the systematic study of the form of valid inference. A valid inference is one where there is...
What Is Metaphilosophy? Metaphilosophy (or philosophy of philosophy) is “the investigation of the nature of philosophy”. Its subject matter includes the aims of philosophy, the boundaries of philosophy, and its methods. Thus, while philosophy characteristically inquires into the nature of being, the reality of objects, the possibility of knowledge, the nature...
What Is Political Philosophy? Political philosophy, also known as political theory, is the study of topics such as politics, liberty, justice, property, rights, law, and the enforcement of laws by authority: what they are, if they are needed and why, what makes a government legitimate, what rights and freedoms it should...
Criteria Of Truth In epistemology, criteria of truth (or tests of truth) are standards and rules used to judge the accuracy of statements and claims. They are tools of verification. Understanding a philosophy’s criteria of truth is fundamental to a clear evaluation of that philosophy. This necessity is driven by the varying, and conflicting, claims...
