Ancient and Medieval Philosophy

 

Confucius

Born:551 B.C.

Died:479 B.C.

Major philosophies : Three Doctrines of Confucius, His Utopia, Confucianism

 

• Confucian Classics - Confucian texts with each character hyperlinked to its definition and etymology. Note this site is in Chinese.

 

• Confucius: His Life and Teachings - This site includes information about the Buddha. Find here the Temples of Confucius, his life and his goals, comparisons of philosophers in Confucius' dynasty, and the text of the Analects, Mencius, and other classics of Confucianism.

 

• Confucius.org - You will find the text of The Lun Yu here. It is the main component of the Confucius classics known as the Four Books. Collectively they offer glimpses into the aspirations, insights, character, conduct, wit and even the humor of Confucius.

 

Plato

Born:428 B.C.

Died:347 B.C.

Major Philosophies: The nature of love, The nature of virtue, Philosophy of religion

 

• Dialogues of Plato - Online text of his Dialogues.

 

Aristotle

Born:384 B.C.

Died:322 B.C.

Major Philosophies: Aristotle's Four Causes, Theory of Syllogism, Golden Mean

 

• Aristotle: from the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy - Provides insight into Aristotle's life, writings, logic, metaphysics, philosophy of Nature, The Soul and Psychology, ethics, politics and art.

 

• Aristotle's Rhetoric - Online version of Aristotle's Rhetoric . Also includes the Bekker Index to assist classical scholars more familiar with this referencing system from the definitive Greek text.
• Athenian Constitution - Full text.

 

• What is a syllogism? - Explanation from the Encyclopedia Britannica.

 

St. Augustine of Hippo

Born:354 A.D.

Died:430 A.D.

Major Philosophies: Early Christianity

 

• Augustine of Hippo - A well organized site that provides an Introduction: Augustine's Life and Works Texts, and translations, commentaries, research materials and essays, Internet seminar Images of Augustine, Augustine and Augustinians today.

 

• Confessions - The Confessions full text with notes.

 

St. Thomas Aquinas

Born:1225 A.D.

Died:1274 A.D.

Major Philosophies: Synthesis between faith and reason, Natural Theological truths

 

• St. Thomas Aquinas and Medieval Philosophy - Full text of the book.

 

• Summa Theologica - Thomas Aquinas' best-known work is the Summa Thelogica. As the title indicates, the Summa is a "summing up" of all that can be known about Christian theology. You will find the full text here with links to explanations about passages from this work.

 

Early Modern Philosophy

 

Sir Francis Bacon

Born:1561

Died:1626

Major Philosophies: Empiricism

 

• The Poems of Sir Francis Bacon - This site contains full text of Guiltless Heart, Life of Man, Help Lord, and Sing a New Song.

 

• Sir Francis Bacon's New Advancement of Learning - Explore the evidence that Bacon wrote Shakespeare, and his impact on the Tudor Dynasty. Also contains a search engine for anything related to Francis Bacon.

 

Rene Descartes

Born:1596 A.D.

Died:1650 A.D.

Major Philosophies: Cartesianism

 

 

• Rene Descartes - From the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Contains biographical information and full text of his Meditations.

 

• Rene Descartes and the Legacy of Mind Body Dualism - Maintained by Bryn Mawr College, this site is an examination of his work with notes and references.

 

Benedict Spinoza

Born:1632 A.D.

Died:1677 A.D.

Major Philosophies: Dues Sive Natura, Reality through geometry

 

• Spinoza from the Philosophy Pages - Links to many of his writings and relationship to other philosophical works and ideas.

 

Berkeley

Born:1685 A.D.

Died:1753 A.D.

Major Philosophies: Subjective idealism, Solipsism-the world is my perception

 

• Essays and Lectures on the Philosophies of Berkeley - This easy to navigate site includes his life, essays on lectures devoted to him, and electronic texts.

 

• Other Berkeley Resources - Good site for full text e-texts.

 

• The Works of Berkeley - All full text. A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge, Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous The Analyst, A Defense of Free-Thinking in Mathematics, Reasons for not replying to Mr. Walton's Full Answer, and The Querist.

 

François-Marie Arouet de Voltaire

Born:1694

Died:1778

Major Philosophies: Treatise on Toleration

 

• Candide

 

• Micromegas

 

• Plato's Dream

 

• A Treatise on Toleration

 

Recent Modern Philosophy

 

Kant

Born:1724 A.D.

Died:1804 A.D.

Major Philosophies: Categorical Imperative, Critical Philosophy, Analytic/Synthetic Judgement

 

 

• Glossary of Kant's Technical Terms - Glossary lists Kant's most important technical terms, together with a simple definition of each. It was originally written as a study aide to help make the intricate web of Kant's terminology comprehensible to students who had little or no familiarity with Kant's writings.

 

• Kant on the Web - An organized and comprehensive listing of resources on Kant. Includes Kant's writings and e-texts.

 

Bentham and Mill

Bentham Born: 1748 Died: 1832

Mill Born: 1806 Died: 1873

Major Philosophies: Utilitarianism

 

• The Bentham Project - This site is maintained by the University College London. It contains the Journal of Bemtham Studies, biographical information, a link to the International Society for Utilitarian Studies and more.

 

• The British Utilitarians - Maintained by Carnegie Mellon University, this site gives an overview of British Utilitarianism and includes excerpts from Bentham and Mill's philosophies.

 

• John Stuart Mill : Life and Writings - A site devoted to Mill's life and writings, early writings, his System of Logic, and his thoughts on Utilitarianism. Social and Political writings, political economy and Essays on Religion are also included here.

 

Hegel

Born: 1770 A.D.

Died: 1831 A.D.

Major Philosophies: Science of Logic, Philosophy of Right

 

• Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel - Entry from the Stanford Enyclopedia of Philosophy.

 

• German Idealism - Describes a movement where thought was given precedence over sensation. Examines how Hegel fit into this school of thought.

 

• Hegel - A comprehensive site that contains biographical material, discussions, and analysis of his works. Full text is available here for his writings.

 

• Hegel's Science of Philosophy - GWFHegel.Org is a non-profit dedicated website for the purpose of achieving the following ambitious but realistic aims: To help professionals and the public in the world-at-large to better understand and appreciate the philosophy of G.W.F. Hegel. To present the fact that Hegel has developed the Scientific method of Philosophy based on self-developing thought through which the various concepts of philosophy are generated as a systematic whole.

 

Schopenhauer

Born:1788 A.D.

Died:1860 A.D.

Major Philosophies: Principle of Sufficient Reason, The World as Will and Idea, Pessimism

 

• Schopenhauer - Stanford encyclopedia

 

• Biography of Schopenhauer - A brief biography of Schopenhauer.

 

Soren Kierkegaard

Born: 1813 A.D.

Died: 1855 A.D.

Major Philosophies: Existentialism, Subjective Truth, Freedom of Choice

 

• Existentialism: An Introduction - A good beginning site for those studying Existentialism. Find here basic Existentialist thought, famous names within this philosophical school, definitions, existential ethics, shared values, religion & faith The Individual Divisions in Thought, metaphysicians and politicians.

 

• Kierkegaard's Life, Religion, and Politics - A Stanford University site that provides links to Kierkegaard’s life, his rhetoric, aesthetics, his ethics, Kierkegaard’s religion and Kierkegaard’s politics.

 

Nietzsche

Born: 1844 A.D.

Died: 1900 A.D.

Major Philosophies: Man should become the overman

 

• Nietzsche's Writings, Life, and Influences - From the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, includes life and information on his early writings, middle-period writings, later-period writings, final writings of 1888, examines Nietzsche's unpublished notebooks and Nietzsche's influence upon 20th century thought.

 

Heidegger

Born: 1889

Died: 1976

Major Philosophies: Existential Phenomenology and Existentialism

 

• The Basic Problems of Phenomenology - An excerpt from Heidegger's basic problems of phenomenology, where he elaborates on them, and proceeds to some extent toward their solution.

 

• Existence and Being - Excerpt from his essay.

 

Ludwig Wittgenstein

Born: 1889

Died: 1951

 

• Island of Freedom - Provides a good introduction to Wittgenstein and offers links to his works.

 

• Wittgenstein Archives - Working toward making the complete writings of Wittgenstein available in the form of electronic facsimile and transcriptions. Many of the texts are in German.

 

Jean Paul Sartre

Born:1905 A.D.

Died:1980 A.D.

Major Philosophies: Existentialism

 

• Sartre -- biography

 

• Existentialism : An Introduction - A good beginning site for those studying Existentialism. Find here basic Existentialist thought, famous names within this philosophical school, definitions, existential ethics, shared values, religion & faith The Individual Divisions in Thought, metaphysicians and politicians.

 

Contemporary Philosophy

 

• Contemporary Philosophy, Critical Theory and Postmodern Thought - An excellent source for contemporary philosophers.