Friday, 23. February 2007
Internet Encyclopedias of Philosophy

Three of my all-time favorite philosophers:

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The philosopher Socrates remains, as he was in his lifetime, an enigma, an inscrutable individual who, despite having written nothing, is considered one of the handful of philosophers who forever changed how philosophy itself was to be conceived.

All our information about him is second-hand and most of it vigorously disputed, but his trial and death at the hands of the Athenian democracy is nevertheless the founding myth of the academic discipline of philosophy, and his influence has been felt far beyond philosophy itself, and in every age.

Socrates (469–399 B.C.E.)


Plato is one of the world's best known and most widely read and studied philosophers. Known as the student of Socrates and the teacher of Aristotle, he wrote in the middle of the fourth century B.C.E.

His earliest works are regarded as the most reliable of the ancient sources on Socrates. His later works, including his most famous work, the Republic, blend ethics, political philosophy, moral psychology, epistemology, and metaphysics into an interconnected and systematic philosophy.

Plato (c. 427-347 B.C.E)

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Aristotle was born at Stagirus, a Greek colony and seaport on the coast of Thrace. His father Nichomachus was court physician to King Amyntas of Macedonia, and from this began Aristotle's long association with the Macedonian Court, which considerably influenced his life. While he was still a boy his father died. At age 17 his guardian, Proxenus, sent him to Athens, the intellectual center of the world, to complete his education. He joined the Academy and studied under Plato, attending his lectures for a period of twenty years.

Aristotle (384-322 B.C.E)


The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
and
The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
While of high quality, the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy (IEP) is in general more accessible and introductory than the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (SEP). With interaction both are great.
Category: Lexica & Overviews | Philosophy & Metaphysic |


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