Metaphysics

Dimidium facti qui coepit habet: sapere aude
Horatius, Epistularum liber primus, Epistle II.

audiens sapiens sapientior erit et intellegens gubernacula possidebit.
Vulgata, Proverbs 1:5

Philosophies traditionally start with a metaphysics: a theory of the essence of things, of the fundamental principles that organize the universe. Metaphysics ("meta ta phusika": "after the physics") is supposed to answer the question "What is the nature of reality?" Metaphysics is divided into three, main categories or divisions. They include ontology, cosmology, and psychology.
The word ontology comes from the Greek word "ontolos;" which is a participle of the Greek verb "eimi." It means "being" or "existence" and deals with the nature of one’s being or existence.
Cosmology is the subdivision of metaphysics that deals with the nature of nature. The term "cosmology" comes from the Greek word "kosmos." It means "order" and generally refers to the world and the universe.
The third subdivision of metaphysics is psychology. Psychology is also a word that comes from the Greek language. It refers to the nature of the psyche or soul.

Philosophy

This section gives an overview of philosophy and philosophers over the ages (oriented towards Western Philosophy). Throughout European philosophy and religion both Plato and Aristotle (who was a student of Plato) left their mark. Plato suggested that man was born with knowledge, Aristotle argued that knowledge comes from experience. The "via Platonicorum" begins and proceeds "ex rationibus intelligibilibus", and thus thinks in terms of the inherent independence of the separate substances, while the "via Aristotelica" proceeds "ex rebus sensibilibus". The essence of those two philosophical traditions have occupied the western intellectual tradition for the past 2500 years. Rationalism – knowledge is a priori (comes before experience) and Empiricism – knowledge is a posteriori (comes after experience).

*The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
*Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
*Publications in Philosophy
*Philosophy at Large
*Philosophical Research Society
*Centre for Philosophy and phenomenological studies
*The Internet Classics Archive
*Directory of Classic Literature - Greek
*The History Guide
*Eastern Philosophy
*Eastern Philosophy
*African Philosophy Resources

*Ontology
*Cosmology
*Philosophy of mind - mind/body problem - Monism vs. Dualism
*Guide to the Philosophy of Mind
*Philosophy of Mind
*Dualism
*Neutral monism
*Epiphenomenalism

Classical Philosophy

Egyptian Philosophy

Ancient Egyptian metaphysics influenced Greek philosophy in the Presocratic period of Greek philosophy.

*Ancient Egyptian Metaphysics
*The Wisdom of the Egyptians
*The Ptah-Hotep and the Ke'gemni

Greco-Roman Philosophy

philosophia esti omoiosis theo kata to dynaton anthropos.
Plato, Theaetetus

European Classical Philosophy studies the philosophical activities and enquiries of the Greco-Roman thinkers. In classical philosophy, there were three ordering principles: "arche", which is the source of all things (first principle of the world), "logos" (Gr. λογοσ), which is the underlying order that is hidden beneath appearances, "harmonia" which is exemplified by numerical ratios in mathematics.
In Ancient Greek philosophy, "first principles" are arkhai and the faculty used to perceive them is sometimes referred to in Aristotle and Plato as "nous" which was close in meaning to "awareness" and therefore "consciousness". Logos has multivocal meanings in ancient Greek: word, reason, rational order, etc. If logos is meant as reason, the incarnate logos expresses the rational structure of human existence based on the principle of light. If logos is regarded as the word, the incarnate logos is the symbolic system that constitutes spirit. Hence, incarnate logos is the structural word of life combining both of the above meanings. "Harmonia" is the interaction of two or more parts to create a whole which transcends the properties of its elements (e.g. Triadic Principle).
Plato was one of the leading Greek philosophers. Platonism was a basic understanding of the operation of the cosmos, which saw the material world in a dualistic fashion; separated from a transcended God, but communicated with by the logos (thought, wisdom, creativity). Platonism thought of the spirit world as good and the physical world as evil.

With the conquests of Megas Alexandros - (356 BC-323 BC) and with the foundation of the Hellenistic empires (by 270 BC), the Antigonid dynasty, the Seleucid dynasty, the Attalid dynasty and the Ptolemaic dynasty, Greek culture spread from Greece to the Indus and Oriental cultural influences spread to the borders of the Nile in Africa.

Ancient Greek Philosophy is usually divided into four time-periods:

*Greek Philosophy
*Ancient Greek Philosophy
*Early Greek Philosophy
*Ellopos
*Hellenistic civilization
*Roman Philosophy
*The Latin Library
*Epicurus & Epicurean Philosophy
*Stoicism
*Ancient Scepticism
*Scepticism
*Cosmos of the Ancients
*The Seven Sages of Greece
*Classic Rhetoric & Persuasion
*Encyclopaedia Romana
*The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers - Diogenes Laertius

*Pneumatology
*Nous
*Arche
*Logos - Wikipedia
*Logos
*Harmonia

*Pherecydes of Syros - pentemychos, "immortality of the soul" (6th C. BC)
*Life of Pherecydes - Diogenes Laertius
*Thales of Miletus - (ca. 620 BC-546 BC)
*Thales of Miletus - (ca. 620 BC-546 BC)
*Pythagoras - (c.580-500 B.C.)
*The Complete Pythagoras
*Heraclitus - (c. 6th Century B.C.)
*Heraclitus on the Logos - by Gordon L. Ziniewicz
*Parmenides of Elea - (early 5th century BC) "Monism"
*Empedocles - (ca. 495-435 BC) "four material elements" & "two opposing forces"
*Love and Strive - Empedocles
*Protagoras - (c. 490-c. 420 BCE)
*Socrates - (c.469-399 B.C.)
*Socrates - (c.469-399 B.C.)
*The Socratic Method
*Plato - (c.427-347 B.C.)
*Plato and his dialogues - Plato
*Timaeus - Plato
*Timaeus - Plato
*Aristotle - (384-322 B.C.)
*Complete works of Aristotle - Aristotle
*Metaphysics - Aristotle
*Aristotle and Aristotelianism - Aristotle
*Pyrrho of Elis - (c360 BC-c270 BC)
*Epicurus - (341-270 B.C.)
*Epicurean paradox
*Zeno of Citium - (333 BC-264 BC)
*Marcus Tullius Cicero - (c. 106-43 BC)
*Epictetus - (c.55-c.135)
*Discourses - Epictetus
*Enchiridion - Epictetus
*Marcus Aurelius (121-180 AD)
*The Meditations - Marcus Aurelius (167 AD)
*Hypathia of Alexandria - (c. 370 - 415)
*The Life and Death of Hypathia of Alexandria
*Simplicius of Cilicia -(490-560)
*Johannes Philoponus - (ca 490-ca 570)
*Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius - (480–524 or 525)
*Consolatio Philosophiae - Boethius

*The Mysterious Fate of the Great Library of Alexandria
*The end of the Academy - Justinian (529)
*The end of Antiquity

Medieval Philosophy

The Middle Ages of Western Europe are commonly dated from the 5th century division of the Western Roman Empire and the barbarian invasions until the 16th century Western Schism and the dispersal of Europeans worldwide in the start of the European overseas exploration. The most important contributions to philosophy were made by Islamic and Byzantine scholars.

*Resources for Medieval Studies
*On-line Reference Book for Medieval Studies
*Muslim Scientists and Scholars
*Byzantium
*Byzantine and Medieval Studies Sites

*Abu Hamid al-Ghazali - (505-1111 AD)
*Thabit Ibn Qurra - (836-901)
*Abu Bakr Muhammad Ibn Zakariya al-Razi - (865-925)
*Abu Bakr Muhammad Ibn Zakariya al-Razi - (865-925)
*Abu Al-Nasr Al-Farabi - Abu Nasr (c.870-950)
*Avicenna - Ibn Sina (980-1037)
*Averroes - Ibn Rushd (1126-1198)
*Solomon Ibn Gabirol - Avicebron (1021-1058)
*Ibn Khaldun - (1332-1395)
*Kitab al 'Ibar, The Muqaddimah - Ibn Khaldun

*Michael Psellos - (1017-1078)
*Chronographia - Psellos
*Anna Comnena - (1083-1135)
*The Alexiad - Anna Comnena
*Theodoros Metochites - (1270-1332)
*George Gemistos Plethon - (1355-1452)
*Georgios Kourtesios Scholarios - (ca. 1400–ca. 1473)

*Scholasticism - (1100-1500)
*Anselm of Canterbury - (1033-1109)
*Albertus Magnus or Albert the Great - (1193-1280)
*Thomas Aquinas - (1224-1274)
*John Duns Scotus - (1265/66-1308)

Renaissance Philosophy

The Renaissance was an historical age that followed the Middle Ages and preceded the Reformation. The Italian Renaissance of the 15th century represented a reconnection of the west with classical antiquity, the absorption of knowledge from Arabic Culture, the focus on the importance of living well in the present (e.g. Renaissance humanism), and an explosion of the dissemination of knowledge brought on by printing. After 1500 the Renaissance spread to northern Europe, where it became closely linked to the Protestant Reformation.
The Neoplatonists of the Renaissance sought to combine Platonism with the other major philosophies of antiquity and various theologies such as Hermeticism. Cardinal Bessarion, Nicholas Cusanus, Marsilio Ficino, and Pico della Mirandola can be considered to be the leading Italian Renaissance Neoplatonists. The Oratio de hominis dignitate (1486) by Pico della Mirandola (1463-1494) can be considered to be the central Manifesto of the Renaissance and emphasized the human freedom and capacity to know and to dominate reality as a whole. The pursuit of man towards its destiny begins with moral self-discipline, passes through the familiar world of images and fields of knowledge, and strives toward its goal which defies representation.

In 1438 George Gemistus Plethon with his lectures on Plato inspired Cosimo Medici to found an academy, and in 1462 the Florentine Academy was established when Marsilio Ficino received the villa of Careggi and its possessions and the Academy would exist until 1522.

O Asclepi, magnum miraculum est homo, animal adorandum atque honorandum
Hermes Trismegistus - Asclepius

*Renaissance
*Byzantines in Renaissance Italy
*Philosophia perennis
*History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom
*Dante Alighieri - (1265-1321)
*Dante Alighieri - (1265-1321)
*Works by Dante Alighieri - Dante
*Nicholas Cusanus
*George Gemistos Plethon - (1355-1452)
*George of Trebizond - (1395-1484)
*Johannes Cardinal Bessarion - (1403-1472)
*Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana
*Leone Battista Alberti - (1404-1472)
*Hypnerotomachia Poliphili - Leon Battista Alberti
*Marsilio Ficino - (1433-1499)
*De Sole - Marsilio Ficino
*Platonica Theologia de immortalitate animorum - Marsilio Ficino
*Johann Reuchlin - (1455-1522)
*Giovanni Pico della Mirandola - (1463-1493)
*Oratio de hominis dignitate (Oration On the Dignity Of Man) - della Mirandola
*Pico Project
*Desiderius Erasmus - (1466-1536)
*The Praise of Folly - Erasmus
*Erasmus Centre
*Thomas More - (1478-1535)
*Utopia - Thomas More
*Justus Lipsius - (1547-1606)
*Hugo Grotius - (1583-1645)
*Hugo Grotius - (1583-1645)
*De Jure Belli ac Pacis - Hugo Grotius

Enlightenment Philosophy

Enlightenment is man's emergence from his self-incurred immaturity. Immaturity is the inability to use one's own understanding without the guidance of another.
This immaturity is self-incurred if its cause is not lack of understanding, but lack of resolution and courage to use it without the guidance of another. The motto of enlightenment is therefore: Sapere aude! Have courage to use your own understanding!
Immanuel Kant, Beantwortung der Frage: was ist Aufklärung ?, Königsberg, Berlinische Monatsschrift, 30th September, 1784.

The application of geometric (Euclidic) or deductive reasoning to moral philosophy by Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677) in his Ethica More Geometrico Demonstrata marked the dawn of enlightenment.
Immanuel Kant attempted to synthesize the Continental_rationalism of Descartes-Spinoza-Leibniz and the British Empiricism of Locke-Berkeley-Hume into one so called Critical Philosophy of his own by being inspired by both, eliminating the faults of both thoughts and critically unifying the strengths of these opposing philosophical thoughts.

Zwei Dinge erfüllen das Gemüt mit immer neuer und zunehmender Bewunderung und Ehrfurcht,
je öfter und anhaltender sich das Nachdenken damit beschäftigt:
Der bestirnte Himmel über mir, und das moralische Gesetz in mir.
Immanuel Kant - Kritik der praktischen Vernuft, Beschluß

*Enlightenment
*Haskalah
*European Enlightenment - Richard Hooker
*The Enlightenment: Nine Theses
*Catholic Enlightenment
*Twilight for the Enlightenment? - Donald Kennedy (2005)
*Early Modern Texts
*The Age of Reason

*Francis Bacon - (1561-1626)
*The New Atlantis - Francis Bacon
*René Descartes - (1596-1650)
*Blaise Pascal - (1623-1645)
*Pensées - Blaise Pascal (1660)
*Baruch Spinoza - (1632-1677)
*Ethica More Geometrico Demonstrata - Spinoza
*A Dedication to Spinoza's Insights - "Deus sive Natura"
*Tractatus Theologico-Politicus - Spinoza (1670)
*Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716)
*Philosophia Perennis - Leibniz
*Pierre Bayle - (1647-1706)
*Jean Meslier - (1664-1729)
*Superstition in all ages - Jean Meslier (1729)
*Le Testament de Jean Meslier - Jean Meslier (1729)
*Giovanni Battista Vico - (1668-1744)
*George Berkeley - (1685-1783) "esse est percipi"
*Voltaire (1694-1778)
*Voltaire - integral
*Pierre Louis Moreau de Maupertuis -(1698-1759)
*Julien Offray de La Mettrie - (1709-1751)
*David Hume - (1711–1776)
*David Hume - (1711-1776)
*A Treatise of Human Nature - David Hume
*An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding - David Hume
*An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals - David Hume
*Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion - David Hume
*Jean-Jacques Rousseau - (1712-1778)
*Du Contrat social ou Principe du droit politique - Rousseau (1762)
*Denis Diderot - (1713-1784)
*L'Encyclopédie, ou Dictionnaire Raisonné des Sciences, des Arts et des Métiers
*Étienne Bonnot de Condillac - (1714-1780)
*Baron d'Holbach - (1723-1789)
*Immanuel Kant - (1724-1804)
*Immanuel Kant - (1724-1804)
*Beantwortung der Frage: was ist Aufklärung ? - Immanuel Kant
*Immanuel Kant - Complete works
*Kritik der reinen Vernunft - Immanuel Kant - (1781, 1. Auflage)
*Prolegomena zu einer jeden künftigen Metaphysik die als Wissenschaft wird auftreten können - Immanuel Kant - (1783)
*Kritik der reinen Vernunft - Immanuel Kant - (1787, 2. Auflage)
*Kritik der praktischen Vernunft - Immanuel Kant - (1788)
*Kritik der Urteilskraft - Immanuel Kant - (1790)
*Gotthold Ephraim Lessing - (1729-1781)
*Nathan der Weise - G.E. Lessing
*Edward Gibbon - (1737-1794)
*The History Of The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire - Edward Gibbon
*Thomas Paine - (1737-1809)
*The Age of Reason - Thomas Paine
*Thomas Paine National Historical Association

Modern Philosophy

European Continental philosophy and Anglo-American philosophy both evolved in several ways. Continental philosophy is generally agreed to include phenomenology, existentialism, hermeneutics, structuralism, post-structuralism, post-modernism, post-modernism, deconstruction, French feminism, and critical theory, such as that of the Frankfurt School, the works of Friedrich Nietzsche and Søren Kierkegaard, and most branches of Marxism and Marxist philosophy.
Analytic philosophy is the dominant academic philosophical movement in English-speaking countries and in the Nordic countries. The main founders of analytic philosophy were the Cambridge philosophers G.E. Moore and Bertrand Russell.

It would be catastrophic to become a nation of technically competent people
who have lost the ability to think critically, to examine themselves,
and to respect the humanity and diversity of others.
-Martha Nussbaum, Cultivating Humanity: A Classical Defense of Reform in Liberal Education-

*Modern Philosophy after Immanuel Kant
*Johann Gottlieb Fichte - (1762 - 1814) "Wissenschaftslehre"
*Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel - (1770-1831)
*Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von Schelling - (1775-1854)
*Arthur Schopenhauer - (1788-1860)
*Arthur Schopenhauer - (1788-1860)
*Arthur Schopenhauer - philosophy
*Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung - Schopenhauer
*Søren Kierkegaard - (1813-1855)
*Ernest Renan - (1823-1892)
*Friedrich Nietzsche - (1844-1900)
*Also sprach Zarathustra - Friedrich Nietzsche
*Die fröhliche Wissenschaft - Friedrich Nietzsche
*Emile Zola - (1840-1902)
*J'accuse - Emile Zola
*Charles S. Peirce - (1839-1914)
*William James - (1842-1910)
*Varieties of Religious Experience, a Study in Human Nature - William James
*Gottlob Frege - (1848-1925)
*Henri Bergson - (1859-1941)
*John Dewey - (1859-1952)
*Edmund Husserl - (1859-1938)
*Nishida Kitaro - (1870-1945)
*Bertrand Russell - (1872-1970)
*The Problems of Philosophy - Bertrand Russell (1912)
*George Edward Moore - (1873-1958)
*Ayn Rand - (1905-1982)
*Nelson Goodman - (1906-1998)
*Simone de Beauvoir - (1908-1986)
*Willard Van Orman Quine - (1908-2000)
*Moritz Schlick - (1882-1936)
*Rudolf Carnap - (1891-1970)
*Institut Wiener Kreis - Moritz Schlick
*Jean-Paul Sartre - (1905-1980)
*Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951)
*Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus - Ludwig Wittgenstein
*Hannah Arendt (1906-1975)
*Jacques Derrida - (1930-2004)
*Jacques Derrida - bibliography

*Continental Rationalism
*Stoicism
*Pragmatism
*Analytic philosophy
*Continental philosophy

Philosophy of Science

The philosophy of science is the branch of philosophy that studies the philosophical assumptions, foundations, and implications of science, including the formal sciences, natural sciences, and social sciences. In this respect, the philosophy of science is closely related to epistemology (the study of knowledge) and the philosophy of language.
Science is not just gathering of facts and observations: "Le savant doit ordonner; on fait la Science avec des faits comme une maison avec des pierres; mais une accumulation de faits n'est pas plus une science qu'un tas de pierres n'est une maison" (Henri Poincaré, 1854-1912).

The publication of the "Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica" (1687, The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy) by Isaac Newton marked the dawn of modern science. The structure of Newtonian physics – scientific knowledge organized as a series of mathematical laws – (mathematical philosophy) became the model for all sciences. Newton expressed the mathematical relationships of measurable quantities, but did not attempt to explain the nature of things such as the nature of gravity (Hypothesi non fingo).
In the beginning Newtonianism (empiricism combined with mathematics) had to compete with both Cartesianism (rationalism), and the Baconian tradition of fact gathering and suspicion of Euclidean or geometric reasoning or "mathematical magic".

Numero pondere et mensura Deus omnia condidit.
Isaac Newton

That the state of knowledge is not prosperous nor greatly advancing;
and that a way must be opened for the human understanding entirely different from any hitherto known,
and other helps provided, in order that the mind may exercise over the nature of things the authority which properly belongs to it.
Instauratio Magna - Francis Bacon

A little learning is a dangerous thing;
Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring;
There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain,
And drinking largely sobers us again.
Essay on Criticism - Alexander Pope

*Philosophy of Science
*History and Philosophy of Science
*Ancient Greek Scientists
*Concepts
*Epistemology - the study of knowledge and justified belief
*What is Epistemology?
*An introduction to Epistemology
*Rationalism versus Empiricism
*Rationalism
*Empiricism
*Galilean Library
*Chimie du temps qui passe
*Prisca Sapientia - Ancient Wisdom
*Scholarly Societies

*A timeline of mathematics and theoretical physics
*Lebombo Bone - Africa (35,000 BC)
*Ishango Bone - Africa (23,000 BC)
*Moscow and Rhind Mathematical Papyri - Egypt

*Abu Ali al-Hasan Ibn al-Haitham or Alhazen - (965-1040)
*Abu Musa Jabir ibn Hayyan or Geber - (c.721-c.815)
*Aristotle - (384-322 BC)
*Aristotle's Logic - Organon
*Francis Bacon - (1561-1626)
*Novum Organon - Francis Bacon
*Roger Bacon - (1214-1294)
*Pierre Teilhard de Chardin - "Omega Point" & "Noosphere" (1881-1955)
*Nicolaus Copernicus - (1473-1543)
*De Revolutionibus - Copernicus (1543 C.E.)
*Charles Robert Darwin - (1809-1882)
*Complete works of Charles Robert Darwin - Darwin
*The Origin of Species - Darwin (Ed. 1859)
*René Descartes - (1596-1650)
*Meditationes de prima philosophia, in qua Dei existentia et animae immortalitas demonstrantur - Descartes (1641)
*Discours de la méthode - René Descartes
*Euclid of Alexandria - (about 265 BC)
*Euclid's Elements in Greek - Euclid
*Euclid's Elements - Euclid
*Nicolas Fatio de Duillier - (1664-1753)
*The Cause of Gravity - Nicolas Fatio
*Paul Feyerabend - (1924-1994)
*Galileo Galilei - (1564-1642)
*Discorsi e dimostrazioni matematiche, intorno à due nuove scienze - Galilei
*Dialogo sopra i due massimi sistemi del mondo - Galilei
* Letter to The Grand Duchess Christina - Galilei (1615)
*The Trial of Galileo Galilei - Pope Urban VIII
*Vincenzo Galilei - father of Galileo (ca. 1525-1591)
*Nelson Goodman - (1906-1998)
*Johannes Kepler - (1571-1630)
*The Music of the Spheres - Johannes Kepler
*Thomas Kuhn - (1922-1996)
*Imre Lakatos - (1922-1974)
*Gottfried Leibniz - (1646-1716)
*Nicolas Malebranche - (1638-1715)
*John Stuart Mill - (1806-1873)
*Isaac Newton - (1643-1727)
*De motu corporum in gyrum - Isaac newton (1684)
*Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica - Isaac Newton
*Theology, Prophecy, Science and Religion - Isaac Newton
*The Newton Project - Isaac Newton
*The Online Newton Project - Isaac Newton
*William of Ockham - (1288-1348)
*Occam's Razor
*Theophrastus Philippus Aureolus Bombastus von Hohenheim or Paracelsus - (1493/94-1541)
*Paracelsus Project - Paracelsus
*Plato - (429-347 B.C.E.)
*Jules Henri Poincaré - (1854-1912)
*Science and Hypothesis - Poincaré (1905)
*Karl Popper - (1902-1994)
*Bertrand Arthur William Russell - (1872-1970)
*The Principles of Mathematics - Russell
*Willard Van Orman Quine - (1908-2000)
*Two Dogmas of Empiricism - Van Orman Quine
*Giovanni Battista Vico - (1668-1744)
*Scienza Nuova - Giovanni Battista Vico (1744)
*Leopold von Ranke - (1795-1886) - founder of "scientific" history
*Alfred North Whitehead - (1861-1947)

Political Philosophy

Political philosophy is the study of the fundamental questions about the state, government, politics, property, law and the enforcement of a legal code by authority. Political philosophy deals with the question what ought to be the relationship of an individual to society? It has its beginnings in ethics and in questions such as what kind of life is the good life for human beings.

The end of law is, not to abolish or restrain, but to preserve and enlarge freedom.
John Locke (1690) - Essay concerning Human Understanding

We hold these truths to be self-evident,
that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with inherent and inalienable rights;
that among these, are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness ...
- The U.S. Declaration of Independence as originally written by Thomas Jefferson, 1776.

*Forms of governement
*Form of government
*Types of government
*The Avalon Project at Yale Law School - Documents in Law, History and Diplomacy
*Political Philosophy
*Political Philosophy - links
*Medieval Political Philosophy
*Medieaval Political Theory
*Ancien Régime
*War
*Just war theory
*Failed state

*Dudodecim Tabularum Leges - (449 BC)
*The Laws of the Twelve Tables - (449 BC)
*The Athenian Constitution - (350 BC)
*Magna Carta Libertatum - 1215
*Hugo Grotius - (1583-1645)
*De Jure Belli ac Pacis - Hugo Grotius
*Peace of Westphalia or Treaties of Münster and Osnabrück - 1648
*Habeas Corpus Act - 1679

*Universal Declaration of Human Rights - UN
*Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms - EU
*Déclaration des droits de l'homme et du citoyen - F
*Déclaration des droits de l'enfant 20 novembre 1959 - F

*Plato
*The Republic - Plato
*Aristocracy
*Dante Alighieri (1265-1321)
*Convivio - Dante
*Monarchia - Dante
*Niccolò Machiavelli (1469-1527)
*Il Principe - Niccolò Machiavelli
*Discorsi sopra la prima Deca di Tito Livio - Niccolò Machiavelli
*Thomas Hobbes - (1588-1679)
*The Leviathan - Thomas Hobbes (1660)
*Benjamin Franklin - (1706-1790)
*Benjamin Franklin - tercenary
*George Washington - (1732-1799)
*Farewell Address of George Washington - 1796
*Thomas Paine - (1737-1809)
*Common Sense - Thomas Paine (1776)
*The Rights of Man - Thomas Paine (1776)
*Thomas Jefferson - (1743-1826)
*Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom - Thomas Jefferson (1779)
*John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946)

*The Jacobin Club
*The Jacobin Club
*Carbonari

*History of Democracy
*History of democracy
*Words of Freedom
*What is Democracy ?
*Founding Fathers of the United States
*Online Library of Liberty
*The National Endowment for Democracy - NED
*Core Documents of U.S. Democracy
*The Federalist Papers - USA
*History of the Separation of Church and State in America - USA
*The Constitution Society
*United States Constitution - USA
*Bill Of Rights - USA
*Civnet Website
*OpenDemocracy

*History of the European Union - The European Citizenship
*History of the European Union
*History of the European Union - Chronology
*Treaty of Rome - 25 March 1957
*Jean Monnet
*Association Jean Monnet
*Robert Schuman
*Robert Schuman Declaration - 9 May 1950
*Fondation Robert Schuman

Liberalism

Liberalism is an ideology, philosophy, and political tradition which holds liberty as the primary political value. Political liberalism stresses the social contract, under which citizens make the laws and agree to abide by those laws. It is based on the belief that individuals know best what is best for them. Political liberalism enfranchises all adult citizens regardless of sex, race, or economic status. Political liberalism emphasizes the rule of law and supports liberal democracy.
By definition, "a liberal is a man who believes in liberty" (Maurice Cranston). The Fundamental Liberal Principle holds that restrictions on liberty must be justified.

....if by a liberal they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people - their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights, their civil liberties....
if that is what they mean by a liberal then I am proud to be a liberal.
USA President John F. Kennedy - Acceptance of the New York Liberal Party nomination (14 September 1960)

The fundamental sense of freedom is freedom from chains, from imprisonment,
from enslavement by others. The rest is extension of this sense, or else metaphor.
-Isaiah Berlin-

Individual rights are not subject to a public vote; a majority has no right to vote away the rights of a minority;
the political function of rights is precisely to protect minorities from oppression by majorities
(and the smallest minority on earth is the individual).
-Ayn Rand-

*Contributions to Liberal Theory
*Liberalism
*Liberalism
*The Reason Foundation
*Liberales.be
*Social Contract

*John Locke (1632-1704)
*Jean-Jacques Rousseau - (1712-1778)
*The Social Contract - Jean-Jacques Rousseau
*Charles de Secondat, baron de Montesquieu (1689-1755)
*De l'esprit des lois - Montesquieu (1758)
*Adam Smith - (1723-1790)
*Jeremy Bentham - (1748-1832)
*Frédéric Bastiat - (1801–1850)
*Frédéric Bastiat - (1801-1850)
*La Loi - Frédéric Bastiat
*John Stuart Mill (1806-1873)
*Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859)
*Democracy in America - Alexis de Tocqueville
*Robert Green Ingersoll - (1833-1899)
*Friedrich Hayek (1899-1992)
*Isaiah Berlin (1909-1997)
*Isaiah Berlin - Virtual library
*Ludwig von Mises - Institute
*John Rawls (1921-2002)

*Capitalism
*Capitalism

Socialism

Socialism is a political philosophy advocating a system in which the economic means of production are owned and controlled collectively by the people. This control may be either direct, exercised through popular collectives such as workers' councils, or it may be indirect, exercised through a State. In the latter case, the issue of who controls the state is crucial. A primary concern of socialism (and, according to some, its defining feature) is social equality and an equitable distribution of wealth that would serve the interests of society as a whole.

*Socialism
*Socialist International
*World Socialist Webpage
*Claude Henri de Rouvroy, Comte de Saint-Simon - (1760-1825)
*Robert Owen - (1771-1858)
*Charles Fourier - (1772-1832)

Communism is a political ideology that seeks to establish a future classless, stateless social organization based upon common ownership of the means of production. It can be classified as a branch of the broader socialist movement.

*Communism
*Marxism
*Marxism
*Karl Marx - (1818-1883)
*Communist Manifesto
*Friederich Engels - (1820-1895)
*Karl Marx/Friedrich Engels - Werke
*Vladimir Ilyich Lenin - (1870-1924)
*Leon Trotski - (1879-1940)
*Bolsheviks
*Mensheviks
*Karl Liebknecht - (1871-1919)
*Rosa Luxemburg - (1871-1919)
*On the Spartacus Programme - Rosa Luxemburg (1918)

Religion and politics - Religiously inspired political philosophy

The relation between politics and religion is a complex one. The term theocracy is commonly used to describe a form of government in which a religion or faith plays the dominant role. Properly speaking, it refers to a form of government in which the organs of the religious sphere replace or dominate the organs of the political sphere.

*Religion and politics
*Theocracy
*Kingdom of God
*Separation of church and state
*Harmony of Church and State
*State religion
*Holy War

Christianity and Politics

The relationship between Christianity and politics is a historically complex subject, and both left- and rightwing politicians draw their inspiration from christianity. Christian Democracy is a heterogeneous political ideology. However, there is general agreement on certain issues. Broadly speaking, Christian democracy is conservative in regard to moral or cultural issues, but with a strong social conscience (which might seem characteristic of left-wing politics) that especially affects economic policy.

Deo duce, ferro comitante.
Motto of the Caulfield and Charlemont family

consurrexit autem Satan contra Israhel et incitavit David ut numeraret Israhel
Vulgata, 1 Chronicle, 21:1

dicunt ei Caesaris tunc ait illis reddite ergo quae sunt Caesaris Caesari et quae sunt Dei Deo
Vulgata, Matthew, 22:21

... regnum meum non est de mundo hoc si ex hoc mundo esset regnum meum ministri mei
decertarent ut non traderer Iudaeis nunc autem meum regnum non est hinc
Vulgata, John, 18:36

omnis anima potestatibus sublimioribus subdita sit non est enim potestas nisi a Deo quae autem sunt a Deo ordinatae sunt
itaque qui resistit potestati Dei ordinationi resistit qui autem resistunt ipsi sibi damnationem adquirunt
Vulgata, The Epistle of St. Paul the Apostle to the Romans, 13:1-2

*Kingdom of God
*The Present and Future Kingdom of God

*Christianity and politics
*Christian politics
*Christian Reconstructionism
*Cuius regio, eius religio
*Religious Wars - France, England
*Just War Doctrine - Catechism of the Catholic Church
*Safeguarding peace - Catechism of the Catholic Church
*Council of Clermont - bellum sacrum (1095)
*Speech at Council of Clermont - Pope Urban II
*De Gesta Francorum et aliorum Hierosolimitanorum - (1100)
*Dei gesta per Francos - Guibert of Nogent (1107)
*Medieaval Crusades
*Thirty Years' War - (1618-1648)

*Religion and capital punishment
*Papal States
*Dictatus Papae - Gregory VII (1090)
*Dictatus Papae - Gregory VII (1090)
*Unam Sanctam - Pope Boniface VIII (1302)
*Henry VIII - (1491-1547)
*The King's Great Matter
*Elizabeth's Supremacy Act - 1559
*Separation of church and state - USA
*Kulturkampf - Germany
*Separation of church and state - France 1905
*The Third Republic - France (1870-1914)
*Ralliement

*Augustinus of Hippo - (354-430)
*Civitas Dei - City of God - Augustinus
*Bellum Iustum - Augustinus
*Marsilius of Padua or Marsilio da Padova - (1270-1342)
*Defensor Pacis - da Padova (1324)
*Defensor Pacis, Conclusions - da Padova (1324)
*William of Ockham - (c. 1285–1347)
*Giles of Rome - (?-1316)
*Paweł Włodkowic - (ca. 1370-1435)
*Tractatus de potestate papae et de potestate papae et imperatoris respectu infidelium
*Armand Jean du Plessis de Richelieu, Cardinal-Duc de Richelieu - (1585-1642)
*Jules Mazarin, Cardinal - (1602-1661)
*Jacques-Benigne Bossuet - (1627-1704)
*Politics Drawn from the Very Words of Holy Scripture - Bossuet
*Joseph de Maistre - (1753-1821)
*Letters on the Spanish Inquisition - Joseph de Maistre
*Félicité Robert de Lamennais - (1782-1854)
*Ernst Troeltsch - (1865-1923)
*Ernest Seillière - (1866-1955)
*Carl Schmitt - (1888-1985)

*Ultramontanism - Catholic Encyclopedia
*Ultramontanism - Wikipedia
*Caesaropapism
*Christian Democracy
*Christian Democracy
*Christian Socialism
*Graves De Communi Re On Christian Democracy - Pope Leo XIII (1901)
*Rerum Novarum - Pope Leo XIII (1891)
*Theocracy Watch

*Holy Roman Empire or sacrum Romanum imperium - (962-1806)
*Die Goldene Bulle - Karl IV (1356)
*Holy Roman Empire and Papacy
*Investiture Controversy - (1000 - 1122)
*Conflict of Investitures - (1000 - 1122)
*Documents Relating to the War of the Investitures - Yale University
*The Owl, The Cat, And The Investiture Controversy
*The Concordat of Worms - (1122)

Judaism and Politics

*Kingdom of God
*Zionism
*Zionism
*Zealots

*Kitab al Khazari - Judah Hallevi
*Khazars
*Khazaria

Islam and Politics

*Political philosophy in classical Islam
*Islamic politics
*Islamic political philosophy
*Sharia
*Jihad
*Islamic republic
*Islamic democracy

Hinduism and Politics

*Hindu politics
*Hindu nationalism
*Hindutva

Buddhism and Politics

*Buddhism and Politics
*Buddhist republic - Kalmikia

Shinto and Politics

*Imperial cult - Japan
*Emperor of Japan - Shinto

Fascism and Nazism

Fascism (IPA; in Italian, fascismo), capitalized, was the authoritarian political movement which ruled Italy from 1922 to 1943 under the leadership of Benito Mussolini. Similar political movements, including Nazism, spread across Europe between World War I and World War II.

*Fascism - Mussolini
*Fascism
*Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini - (1883-1945)
*Gabriele d'Annunzio - (1863-1938)
*National Socialism - Nazism
*Adolf Hitler - (1889-1945)
*Mein Kampf - Adolf Hitler
*The program of the NSDAP - 1920
*Beliefs of the Nazis
*Franquism
*Francisco Franco - (1892-1975)

*Anti-Semitism
*Holocaust
*Jew Watch - Keeping a Close Watch on Jewish Communities & Organizations Worldwide
*The Protocols of the Elders of Zion
*Racial Nationalist Library

Ethics

In simple terms, morality is the right or wrong (or otherwise) of an action, a way of life or a decision, while ethics is the study of such standards as we use or propose to judge such things. Ethics (from Greek meaning "custom") is the branch of axiology, one of the four major branches of philosophy, which attempts to understand the nature of morality; to distinguish that which is right from that which is wrong. The field of ethics is usually broken down into three different ways of thinking about ethics: descriptive, normative and analytic (metaethics). The Western tradition of ethics is sometimes called moral philosophy.

Every art and every inquiry, and similarly every action and pursuit,
is thought to aim at some good; and for this reason
the good has rightly been declared to be that at which all things aim.
Aristotle - Nicomachean Ethics, Book 1, Chapter 1 -

*Ethics.org
*Morals, Ethics, and Metaethics
*Moral Philosophy
*Ethics - Introduction
*Ethics - Wikipedia
*Ethics
*Metaethics
*Normative ethics
*Normative Ethical Principles and Theories: A Brief Overview
*Descriptive ethics
*Applied ethics
*Applied ethics - resources

*Ancient Ethical Theory
*Nicomachean Ethics - Aristotle
*The Golden Verses of Pythagoras
*The Natural Law Tradition in Ethics
*Ethica More Geometrico Demonstrata - Baruch Spinoza
*Josephson Institute of Ethics

*Secular ethics
*Cognitivism
*Moral Cognitivism vs. Non-Cognitivism
*Naturalistic Ethics
*Ethics in religion

Humanism

Humanism is a broad category of active ethical philosophies that affirm the dignity and worth of all people, based on our ability to determine what is right using the qualities innate to humanity, particularly rationality. Humanism is a democratic and ethical lifestance which affirms that human beings have the right and responsibility to give meaning and shape to their own lives. It stands for the building of a more humane society through an ethics based on human and other natural values in a spirit of reason and free inquiry through human capabilities. The roots of Humanism can be traced back to the Hellenic and Roman philosophical tradition, which constitute the foundations of Western philosophy and political thinking.

The Western concept of humanism has its roots in "Paideia" in ancient Greece. In ancient Greece Paideia meant the global change that an individual had to go through to became a citizen of the polis, a political man. The goal of paideia (Greek) was humanitas (Latin), to make ourselves into human beings. To become a citizen, a training and learning process in all aspects of knowledge (liberal arts) was required. Paideia reinforced ideals such as wisdom and the power of reason (logos) to discover and understand nature in an autonomous and scientific way and to participate in public life. Another goal of education was to cultivate one's "daimonion", the part of oneself that was more than human, and resembled most closely God himself.

Renaissance Humanism

The founder of Renaissance humanism was Petrarch (1304-74), an Italian poet and man of letters who attempted to apply the values and lessons of antiquity to questions of Christian faith and morals in his own day. By the late 14th century, the term studia humanitatis ("humanistic studies") had come to mean a well-defined cycle of education, including the study of grammar, rhetoric, history, poetry, and moral philosophy, based on Latin authors and classical texts. Key in ensuring the permanence of humanism after Petrarch's initial success was the Florentine chancellor Coluccio Salutati (1331-1406), who wrote many learned treatises and kept up a massive correspondence with his literary contemporaries. Salutati, together with his younger follower Leonardo Bruni (1369-1444), used the studia humanitatis as the basis for a life of active service to state and society. Bruni in particular created a new definition of Florence's republican traditions, and defended the city in panegyrics and letters.

The 14th-century humanists had relied mainly on Latin. In the early 15th century, however, classical Greek became a major study, providing scholars with a fuller, more accurate knowledge of ancient civilization. Included were many of the works of Plato, the Homeric epics, the Greek tragedies, and the narratives of Plutarch and Xenophon. Poggio Bracciolini (1380-1459), a chancellor of Florence and papal secretary, discovered important classical texts, studied Roman ruins and inscriptions, and created the study of classical archaeology. Poggio also criticized the corruption and hypocrisy of his age in biting satire and well-argued dialogues. Lorenzo Valla (c. 1407-57), one of the greatest classical scholars and text editors of his age, proved that the Donation of Constantine, a medieval document that supported papal claims to temporal authority, was a forgery.

The founding (c. 1450) of the Platonic Academy in Florence by Cosimo de'Medici signaled a shift in humanist values from political and social concerns to speculation about the nature of humankind and the cosmos. Scholars such as Marsilio Ficino and Giovanni Pico della Mirandola used their knowledge of Greek and Hebrew to reconcile Platonic teachings with Jewish mysticism, the Hermetic tradition, and Christian orthodoxy in the search for a Philosophia perennia (a philosophy that would be always true).

The work of Italian humanists soon spread north of the Alps, finding a receptive audience among English thinkers such as John Collet (c. 1467-1519), who applied the critical methods developed in Italy to the study of the Bible. Desiderius Erasmus of the Netherlands was the most influential of the Christian humanists. In his Colloquies and Praise of Folly (1509), Erasmus satirized the corruptions of his contemporaries, especially the clergy, in comparison with the teachings of the Bible, early Christianity, and the best of pagan thinkers. In his Adages (1500 and later editions), he showed the consistency of Christian teachings with ancient pagan wisdom. Erasmus devoted most of his energy and learning, however, to establishing sound editions of the sources of the Christian tradition, such as his Greek New Testament (1516) and translations of the Greek and Latin Fathers of the Church. Erasmus' friend Thomas More wrote yet another humanist critique of society--Utopia (1516), which attacked the corruptions of power, wealth, and social status. By the middle of the 16th century humanism had won wide acceptance as an educational system.

Ad fontes.
motto of Renaissance Humanism


Per me si va ne la città dolente,
Per me si va ne l'etterno dolore,
Per me si va tra la Perduta Gente.
Giustizia mosse il mio Alto Fattore;
Fecemi la Divina Podestate,
La Somma Sapïenza e'l Primo Amore.
Dinanzi a me non fuor cose create
Se non etterne, e io etterno duro
Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch'intrate
-Dante Alighieri (La Divina Commedia, Canto III.1--9)-

*Livius - articles on ancient history
*Protagoras - "Homo Mensura"
*Humanitas - Wikipedia
*Cicero - (106 BC-43 BC)
*Dante Alighieri - (1265-1321)
*Divina Commedia - Dante
*Cicero and Dante
*Francesco Petrarca - (1304-1374)
*Francesco Petrarca - (1304-1374)
*The Petrarchan Grotto
*Coluccio Salutati - (1331-1406)
*Leonardo Bruni - (1370-1444)
*History of the Florentine People - Leonardo Bruni
*Gian Francesco Poggio Bracciolini - (1380-1459)
*The Facetiae - Gian Francesco Poggio Bracciolini
*Lorenzo Valla - (1406-1457)
*John Collet - (1467-1519)
*Desiderius Erasmus - (1466-1536)
*Thomas More - (1478-1535)
*Philosophia perennis
*Vico's Orations on Paideia and Humanitas - Giambatista Vico
*The Golden Age of Freethought

Modern Humanism

In the 19th Century William T. Harris (1835?1909) advocated educational reform based on humanisms five windows of the soul. Two of the windows (or areas of inquiry), mathematics and geography, are committed to humanity's conquest and comprehension of nature. The other three, literature, grammar, and history, are connected to human life: literature speaking to literary works of art; grammar, to the study and the use of language; and history, to a multifaceted understanding of the institutions. Education based on this principle would allow democracy to flourish, as schools would bring the foundations of civilizing insight to the children of a nation.

*Humanism - Wikipedia
*Humanism
*Humanism
*What is Humanism?
*Humanism - Why, What, and What for, In 882 Words - (1996, 2004)
*Humanism and its Aspirations
*The History and Philosophy of Humanism - Steven D. Schafersman (1995)
*The 10 Points of Humanism: A Definition
*The Genesis of a Human Manifesto
*Humanist Manifesto I - (1933)
*Humanist Manifesto II - (1973)
*Amsterdam Declaration - (2002)

*Secular Humanism
*Religious Humanism
*Institute for Humanist Studies - IHS
*Council for Secular Humanism
*International Humanist and Ethical Union
*Open Society Institute (OSI) - OSI
*American Ethical Union
*American Humanist Association
*British Humanist Association
*Humanistischer Verband Deutschlands
*Mouvement Europe et Laïcité
*Laïcité
*Comité Laïcité République
*Fellowship of Reason
*The Secular Web
*Evolution
*ProChoice
*Holocaust History Project
*Shoah Foundation
*Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial

*Theism and Religious Humanism: The Chasm Narrows
*Stiftung Weltethos

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The author of this webpage is Peter and my homepage can be found here.
Private email: pvosta {at} cs {dot} com

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