Nikolai Berdyaev
Berdyaev's grave, Clamart (France). Nikolai Alexandrovich Berdyaev (/bərˈdjɑːjɛf, -jɛv/;[1] Russian: Никола́й Алекса́ндрович Бердя́ев; March 18 [O.S. March 6] 1874 – March 24, 1948) was a Russian political and also Christian religious philosopher who emphasized the existential spiritual significance of human freedom and the human person. Alternate historical spellings of his name in English include "Berdiaev" and "Berdiaeff", and of his given name as "Nicolas" and "Nicholas". Biography[edit] Nikolai Berdyaev was born at Obukhiv,[2] Kiev Governorate in 1874, in an aristocratic military family.[3] His father, Alexander Mikhailovich Berdyaev, came from a long line of Kiev and Kharkiv nobility.
Stoicism
School of Hellenistic Greek philosophy Stoicism is a school of Hellenistic philosophy which was founded by Zeno of Citium, in Athens, in the early 3rd century BC. Stoicism is a philosophy of personal ethics informed by its system of logic and its views on the natural world. According to its teachings, as social beings, the path to eudaimonia (happiness) for humans is found in accepting the moment as it presents itself, by not allowing oneself to be controlled by the desire for pleasure or fear of pain, by using one's mind to understand the world and to do one's part in nature's plan, and by working together and treating others fairly and justly. Stoicism flourished throughout the Roman and Greek world until the 3rd century AD, and among its adherents was Emperor Marcus Aurelius.
Alfred Korzybski
Alfred Habdank Skarbek Korzybski ([kɔˈʐɨpski]; July 3, 1879 – March 1, 1950) was a Polish-American independent scholar who developed a field called general semantics, which he viewed as both distinct from, and more encompassing than, the field of semantics. He argued that human knowledge of the world is limited both by the human nervous system and the languages humans have developed, and thus no one can have direct access to reality, given that the most we can know is that which is filtered through the brain's responses to reality. His best known dictum is "The map is not the territory". Early life and career[edit]
Teleological argument
The teleological or physico-theological argument, also known as the argument from design, or intelligent design argument is an argument for the existence of God or, more generally, for an intelligent creator based on perceived evidence of deliberate design in the natural world.[1][2][3] The earliest recorded versions of this argument are associated with Socrates in ancient Greece, although it has been argued that he was taking up an older argument.[4][5] Plato, his student, and Aristotle, Plato's student, developed complex approaches to the proposal that the cosmos has an intelligent cause, but it was the Stoics who, under their influence, "developed the battery of creationist arguments broadly known under the label 'The Argument from Design'".[6] From its beginning, there have been numerous criticisms of the different versions of the teleological argument, and responses to its challenge to the claims against non-teleological natural science. History[edit] Classical philosophy[edit]
Victor Kandinsky
Victor Khrisanfovich Kandinsky (Russian: Виктор Хрисанфович Кандинский) (April 6, 1849, Byankino, Nerchinsky District, Siberia – July 3, 1889, Saint Petersburg) was a Russian psychiatrist, and was 2nd cousin to famed artist Wassily Kandinsky.[1] He was born in Siberia into a large family of extremely wealthy businessmen.[2] Victor Kandinsky was one of the famous figures in Russian psychiatry and most notable for his contributions to the understanding of hallucinations.[3] Biography[edit] He graduated from Moscow Imperial University Medical School in 1872 and started to work as a general practitioner in one of the hospitals in Moscow.[4] In 1878 he married his medical nurse Elizaveta Karlovna Freimut (Russian: Елизавета Карловна Фреймут).[4] In October 1878, Victor again entered a psychiatric hospital. So they sent him to A.
Atomism
Atomism (from Greek ἄτομον, atomon, i.e. "uncuttable, indivisible")[1][2][3] is a natural philosophy that developed in several ancient traditions. The particles of chemical matter for which chemists and other natural philosophers of the early 19th century found experimental evidence were thought to be indivisible, and therefore were given by John Dalton the name "atom", long used by the atomist philosophy. Although the connection to historical atomism is at best tenuous, elementary particles have become a modern analog of philosophical atoms. Reductionism[edit] Indian Buddhists, such as Dharmakirti and others, also developed distinctive theories of atomism, for example, involving momentary (instantaneous) atoms, that flash in and out of existence (kalapas).
Thomas Carlyle
Scottish historian, satirical writer, essayist, philosopher and teacher Thomas Carlyle (4 December 1795 – 5 February 1881) was a Scottish historian, satirical writer, essayist, translator, philosopher, mathematician, and teacher.[1] Considered one of the most important social commentators of his time, he presented many lectures during his lifetime with certain acclaim in the Victorian era. One of those conferences resulted in his famous work On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and The Heroic in History where he argued that the key role in history lies in the actions of the "Great Man", claiming that "the history of the world is but the biography of great men".[2]
Cicero
1st-century BC Roman lawyer, orator, philosopher and statesman Marcus Tullius Cicero[n 1] ( SISS-ə-roh, Classical Latin: [ˈmaːrkʊs ˈtʊllɪ.ʊs ˈkɪkɛroː]; 3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC)[2] was a Roman statesman, orator, lawyer and philosopher, who served as consul in the year 63 BC. He came from a wealthy municipal family of the Roman equestrian order, and is considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists.[3][4] His influence on the Latin language was immense: it has been said that subsequent prose was either a reaction against or a return to his style, not only in Latin but in European languages up to the 19th century.[5][6] Cicero introduced the Romans to the chief schools of Greek philosophy[citation needed]and created a Latin philosophical vocabulary (with neologisms such as evidentia,[7] humanitas, qualitas, quantitas, and essentia),[8] distinguishing himself as a translator and philosopher. Personal life[edit]
Anachronism
Chronological inconsistency An anachronism (from the Greek ἀνά ana, "against" and χρόνος khronos, "time") is a chronological inconsistency in some arrangement, especially a juxtaposition of persons, events, objects, or customs from different periods. The most common type of anachronism is an object misplaced in time, but it may be a verbal expression, a technology, a philosophical idea, a musical style, a material, a plant or animal, a custom, or anything else associated with a particular period that is placed outside its proper temporal domain. An anachronism may be either intentional or unintentional.
World view
Worldview remains a confused and confusing concept in English, used very differently by linguists and sociologists. It is for this reason that James W. Underhill suggests five subcategories: world-perceiving, world-conceiving, cultural mindset, personal world, and perspective.[3][4][5]
