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Philosophy is a field of study that includes diverse subfields such as aesthetics, epistemology, ethics, logic, and metaphysics, in which people ask questions such as whether God exists, what is the nature of reality, whether knowledge is possible, and what makes actions right or wrong. The fundamental method of philosophy is the use of reasoning to evaluate arguments concerning these questions. However, the exact scope and methodology of philosophy is not rigid. What counts as philosophy is itself debated, and it varies across philosophical traditions.

The term philosophy comes from the Greek word "Φιλοσοφία" (philo-sophia), which means "love of wisdom" or less commonly "friend of wisdom". Many ancient Greek philosophers made the distinction between the desire for wisdom, as opposed to the desire for material things, vices, and the satisfaction of bodily desires. The definition of wisdom for many ancient Greeks would have been about virtue and the desire for knowledge and not false opinions. However, the term is notoriously difficult to define today (see definition of philosophy) because of the diverse range of ideas that have been labeled as philosophy. The Penguin Dictionary of Philosophy defines it as the study of "the most fundamental and general concepts and principles involved in thought, action, and reality". The Penguin Encyclopedia says that philosophy differs from science in that philosophy's questions cannot be answered empirically, and from religion in that philosophy allows no place for faith or revelation. However, these points are called into question by the Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy, which states: "the late 20th-century... prefers to see philosophical reflection as continuous with the best practice of any field of intellectual enquiry." Indeed, many of the speculations of early philosophers in the field of natural philosophy eventually formed the basis for modern scientific explanations on a variety of subjects.

Informally, a "philosophy" may refer to a general world view or to a specific ethic or belief.

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There is only one thing a philosopher can be relied upon to do, and that is to contradict other philosophers. - William James
hollybirch (Martha Hawley-Bertsc) Mon, 04 Jan 2010 15:16:55 -0000
There is only one thing a philosopher can be relied upon to do, and that is to contradict other philosophers. - William James
evanescent : /ev-uh-NES-int/adj : passing very quickly; transitory, ephemeral "The evanescent nature of time has plagued philosophers from
ElatedLola (Lola Winkler) Mon, 04 Jan 2010 14:49:07 -0000
evanescent : /ev-uh-NES-int/adj : passing very quickly; transitory, ephemeral "The evanescent nature of time has plagued philosophers from
There is only one thing a
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Bach, Kent - Professor of Philosophy at San Francisco State University. A good resource on pragmatics in the philosophy of language.

Floyd, Juliet - Boston University - philosophy of language, philosophy of mathematics, Wittgenstein.

Forbes, Graeme - Celia Scott Weatherhead Distinguished Professor at Tulane University. This homepage looks to become a promising resource.

Gauker, Christopher - Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Cincinnati who completed a PhD under Wilfred Sellars.

Graff, Delia - Assistant Professor at Cornell University.

Hauser, Larry - Philosopher of mind and language, especially concerned with issues in cognitive science. Extensive online resources provided.
Meta Description: [ Philosophy Resources, Etc. Philosophy resources (e-texts, etc.) and links to facilitate philosophical research on the internet. Specializing in philosophy of mind and cognitive science ]

Hertzberg, Lars - Professor of Philosophy at Åbo Akademi University, Finland. Interested especially in the later Wittgenstein.

Hintikka, Jaakko - Professor of Philosophy, Boston University. Pioneer of game-theoretical semantics in logic, branching quantifiers, and a prominent critic of the thesis that formalisation means formalisation in (Fregean) first-order logic.

Luntley, Michael - Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at Warwick. Interested in ontology, philosophy of mind, philosophy of language, and especially in semantic realism.
Meta Description: [ Department of Philosophy ]

404 Millikan, Ruth - Professor of Philosophy at the University of Connecticut.

404 Penco, Carlo - Associate Professor, University of Genova.

Peregrin, Jaroslav - Professor in Logic and Philosophy of Language at the Academy of Sciences, Prague.

Perry, John - Co-founder of Situation Semantics. Excellent resource.

Smith, Barry - Professor of Philosophy and of Cognitive Science, Buffalo University. Extensive resource covering his wide-ranging interests, with a focus on conceptual ontologies.

500 Teng, Norman Y. - Research Fellow, Academia Sinica, Taiwan.

Tennant, Neil - Professor of Philosophy, Ohio State University.

Viana, Amadeu - Online papers, contact details.

404 Voltolini, Alberto - University of Piemonte Orientale, Vercelli - Broad and narrow content, Wittgenstein, holism, privacy and rule-following.

Wright, Crispin - University of St. Andrews - Crispin Wright has sustained a deep research effort in the relationship between the Theory of Language and Metaphysics.

Zalta, Edward - Professor of Philosophy at Stanford University, founder of the Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy, and associate of the CSLI.

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