Philosophy: Approaching Knowledge and Wisdom

Featured Philosopher: October 2009 

Updated monthly...Read about great philosophers and their philosophies. Suggestions on who you would like to be featured next month are welcome!

Samuel Lewis - Sufi Sam

As an environmentalist Sam was a soil scientist and horticulturist and was concerned with feeding the world's hungry. His hope was to improve the quality and quantity of food production planet-wide by promoting organic gardening, seed exchange, sea w...

Featured Lens: October 2009 

Updated monthly...Try something new, already! If its not new to you, then freshen up. Suggested lenses or topics welcome!

The Pythagorean School

Pythagoras was a Greek philosopher and mathematician. HE was famous for formulating the Pythagorean Theorem, but its principles were known earlier. As a philosopher, Pythagoras taught that number was the essence of all things. He mystically associat...

Other Great Lenses 

William James - mystic, psychologist, philosopher

Influential in the young sciences of psychology, educational psychology, psychology of religious experience and mysticism, and the philosophy of pragmatism. He was the brother of novelist Henry James and of diarist Alice James. Without ignoring Jame...

Julia Kristeva - art and language

Julia Kristeva could be described as philosopher, literary critic, psychoanalyst, feminist, as well as a novelist. Her concepts cover a vast array of ideas nevertheless always with clarity and cohesion. For me Kristeva has been one of the very influ...

For the Love of Wisdom

One question that really bothers me is, "Oh, a degree in Philosophy! So what are you going to do with that?" Not only do I hate responding. It's usually something like I don't know or Teach...I guess. But I mainly hate the assumption behind the quest...

Cynicism

Cynicism was a doctrine founded during the second half of the 4th century BC. Although Diogenes is generally regarded as the founder, there has been some debate as to whether it may not have been Antisthenes, a pupil of Socrates. According to Aristot...

Philosophy

Philosophy is an incredible aspect of the world. While in many ways it really gets mankind no where (and perhaps creates boundaries and causes wars), it is truly something that needs to be explored by all people of all cultures. In and of itself the...

Manifesting Desire 2: The Law Of Attraction And The Mind

As human, we have so many wants in life, material or non-material. And every moment of our lives, we silently or verbally wish to have those wants. Since our childhood, how many times do you think you have wished or prayed for anything that you wante...

Philosophy and Emotion

I began really studying philosophy at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. My first philosophy class there was Philosophy of Emotions. I was hooked, and to date it is still my favorite category of philosophical study. What are emotions? How are we aff...

Satanism: A Frequently Misunderstood Philosophy

Satanism is a philosophy of the world that is so frequently misinterpreted, sometimes out of neglect of understanding and other times blatantly out of hate. Many individuals feel that Satanism equals to the worship of Satan as a deity. For most peopl...

Who is that? 

Philosopher Bio Lenses

René Descartes

Rene Descartes (1596-1650) was a French philosopher, mathematician and one of the pioneers of the science of optics. In mathematics, he invented Cartesian co-ordinates and analytical geometry. In philosophy Descartes was a rationalist. He rejected...

Baruch Spinoza

Baruch Spinoza (1632-77) was a Dutch philosopher of Portuguese Jewish origin. Also known as Benedict Spinoza and influenced by the philosopher Rene Descartes, he developed a pantheistic philosophy in which all of existence is embraced by the infinit...

Gottfried Leibniz

Gottfried Leibniz (1646-1716) was a German philosopher and mathematician. His books on philosophy included Monadology and Principles of Nature and Grace. Leibniz discovered the principles of infinitesimal calculus independently of Sir Isaac Newton.

John Locke

John Locke (1632-1704) was an important English philosopher. His great works included An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, Two Treatises of Government, and A Letter Concerning Toleration.

George Berkeley

George Berkeley (1685-1753) was a great Irish philosopher and bishop. He maintained that the existence of the perceived world is dependent on the act of the perceiver ("to be is to be perceived"). He also maintained that reality consists of ideas in...

Ancient and Hellenistic Philosophers 

The Ionian School

Greek philosophy may be divided between those men who sought an explanation of the world in physical terms and those who stressed the importance of nonmaterial forms or ideas. The first important school of Greek philosophy, the Ionian or Milesian, wa...

The Heraclitean School

Heraclitus was a Greek philosopher who was active about 500 BC. He said that everything is made of fire. This makes him sound like the other early Greek philosophers, who looked for one material they thought must be common to all that exists. But Her...

Stoicism

With the death of Alexander the Great (323 BC) Greek culture decayed and there was little original philosophical thinking; speculation was mainly restricted to the sphere of ethics. The Stoic school, founded by Zeno of Citium in Athens about 310 BC,...

Epicureanism

In 306 BC Epicurus founded a philosophical school in Athens. Because his followers met in a garden of his home they became known as "philosophers of the garden". Epicurus adopted the atomistic physics of Democritus but made several important changes....

The Pythagorean School

Pythagoras was a Greek philosopher and mathematician. HE was famous for formulating the Pythagorean Theorem, but its principles were known earlier. As a philosopher, Pythagoras taught that number was the essence of all things. He mystically associat...

Socratic Philosophy

Perhaps the greatest philosophical personality in history was Socrates. Unlike the Sophists, Socrates refused to accept payment for his teachings, maintaining that he had no positive knowledge to offer, except the awareness of the need for more knowl...

The Greek Philosopher Aristotle

Greek philosopher, born in Stagira a Greek colony on the peninsula of Chalcidice and student of the Greek philosopher Plato. His father Nichomachus was physician to Amyntas II, King of Macedonia, father of King Philip II. In is seventeenth year Aris...

The Eleatic School

Parmenides was a Greek philosopher, considered by many scholars as the greatest member of the Eleatic School. He is said to have visited Athens at the age of sixty-five, and on that occasion the philosopher Socrates, then a young man, heard him speak...

Platonic Philosophy

Plato was a more systematic and positive thinker than Socrates, but his writings, particularly the earlier dialogues, may be regarded as a continuation and elaboration of Socratic insights. Plato carried on Socrates' interest in moral questions and t...

Aristotelian Philosophy

Aristotle, the most illustrious pupil of Plato, ranks with his teacher among the most profound and influential thinkers of the Western world. After studying many years at Plato's Academy, Aristotle became the tutor of the Macedonian king Alexander II...

Even More Philosophy 

The Sophists

In philosophy "Sophists" is applied mainly to the traveling Greek teachers in the 5th century BC who wandered the country. They offered lessons in logic, ethics and rhetoric for a fee. Later they acquired a bad reputation, for their tendency to teach...

Best Books about karma and reincarnation

Learn about karma and reincarnation from the perspective of Buddhism, Theosophy and Hinduism. But also based on the science of past life memories of children and regression. I could not resist putting a video on VHS up as well. John Algeo explains t...

The Greek Philosopher Plato

One of the great Greek philosophers, Plato (427 - 347 BC) produced ideas which laid groundwork for much of subsequent Western philosophy. Plato was born into an important Athenian family. He was well educated and at the age of 20 became a pupil of S...

Zeno of Elea

Zeno, born in Elea, in southwestern Italy, in the 5th century BC was a Greek mathematician and philosopher of the Eleatic School. He became a favorite disciple of the philosopher Parmenides and accompanied him to Athens at the age of about forty. I...

Roland Barthes - pleasure of text

The pleasure, isn't it only a small enjoyment? Enjoyment, isn't it only extreme pleasure? The pleasure, isn't it only a weakened enjoyment, accepted - becoming through echelons of conciliations. The enjoyment, isn't it just brutal pleasure, immediate...

Martial Arts Philosophy

Philosophy means "love of wisdom". I can't think of any who couldn't benefit from having more wisdom. Certainly in the hands of a skilled martial artist one hopes that wisdom is a virtue that he or she possesses. Without wisdom, one can easily ventur...

BUDISMO PARA LOS QUE NO SON BUDISTAS capítulo I

Hace tiempo que estoy traduciendo escrituras budistas, una misión que llena mi vida de sentido. Me doy cuenta, sin embargo, de que los libros que traduzco son mayormente leídos por quienes ya son budistas. Me gustaría escribir unas cuantas páginas pa...

EDGAR CAYCE PSYCHIC/MYSTIC

Reincarnation, Karma, Atlantis, 2012 and Earth changes, Akashic Records, Chakras, Astrology, Life Purpose and many other topics of interest to today's Spiritual Seekers are addressed by Edgar Cayce. The sheer volume and documentation of the Edgar Cay...

www.godandeinstein.com open.your.eyes.

Inspired people of all faiths and nations, scientists, Indigos, artists, environmentalists, healers, musicians, light workers, we are many! Come together and share your experience and knowledge! There is much to know about this life, planet, space a...

CHI, QIGONG; MASTERING THE FORCE

CHI, QIGONG - Here we will cover what needs to be understood in order to manipulate the force known in China as "Qi" (pronounced as "chee"). First, we will attempt a scientific level of understanding of just what this force is. Some may opine that t...

Life and the written word

Words define us . . what we are, what we wish to be, and how we look at the world around us . . just like a Squidoo Lens! A few words make a bio; a few more make a brief-which could be article, a set of instructions, a research paper, a short story-t...

Samuel Lewis - Sufi Sam

As an environmentalist Sam was a soil scientist and horticulturist and was concerned with feeding the world's hungry. His hope was to improve the quality and quantity of food production planet-wide by promoting organic gardening, seed exchange, sea w...