WESTERN 
PHILOSOPHICAL 
SCHOOLS AND DOCTRINES

2 ANCIENT AND MEDIEVAL SCHOOLS

• 2.1 Aristotelianism
  • 2.1.1 THE HELLENISTIC AGE AND NEOPLATONISM
  • 2.1.2 ARISTOTELIANISM IN ARABIC PHILOSOPHY
  • 2.1.3 ARISTOTELIANISM IN JEWISH PHILOSOPHY
  • 2.1.4 THE CHRISTIAN EAST
  • 2.1.5 THE CHRISTIAN WEST
  • 2.1.6 CONCLUSION
• 2.2 Atomism
  • 2.2.1 THE BASIC NATURE OF ATOMISM
  • 2.2.2 VARIOUS SENSES OF ATOMISM
    • 2.2.2.1 Two basic types of Atomism.
      • 2.2.2.1.1 Philosophical Atomism.
      • 2.2.2.1.2 Modern atomic theory.
    • 2.2.2.2 Extensions to other fields.
  • 2.2.3 DIVERSE PHILOSOPHICAL CHARACTERIZATIONS OF ATOMISM
    • 2.2.3.1 The intrinsic nature of the atoms.
      • 2.2.3.1.1 Atoms as lumpish corpuscles.
      • 2.2.3.1.2 Atoms as sheer extension.
      • 2.2.3.1.3 Atoms as centres of force: dynamic particles.
      • 2.2.3.1.4 Atoms as psychophysical monads.
    • 2.2.3.2 The immutability of atoms.
    • 2.2.3.3 Other differences.
      • 2.2.3.3.1 Number of atoms.
      • 2.2.3.3.2 The existence of the void.
      • 2.2.3.3.3 Atoms in external aggregation versus in internal relationship.
  • 2.2.4 HISTORY AND MAJOR REPRESENTATIVES OF THE VARIOUS ATOMISMS
    • 2.2.4.1 Philosophical Atomism.
      • 2.2.4.1.1 Ancient Greek Atomism.
      • 2.2.4.1.2 The elachista of the early Aristotelian commentators.
      • 2.2.4.1.3 The minima naturalia of the Averroists.
    • 2.2.4.2 Modern scientific Atomism: early pioneering work.
      • 2.2.4.2.1 The 17th century.
      • 2.2.4.2.2 Founding of modern Atomism.
    • 2.2.4.3 Recent and contemporary scientific Atomism.
    • 2.2.4.4 Atomism in the thought of India.
  • 2.2.5 FOUNDATIONAL ISSUES POSED BY ATOMISM
    • 2.2.5.1 Atomism as a metaphysical system.
    • 2.2.5.2 Ancient Greek Atomism versus contemporary scientific Atomism.
    • 2.2.5.3 Evaluation of Atomism.
• 2.3 Eleaticism
  • 2.3.1 THE ELEATIC SCHOOL VIS-À-VIS RIVAL MOVEMENTS
  • 2.3.2 THE RIGOROUS ONTOLOGISM OF PARMENIDES AND MELISSUS
    • 2.3.2.1 Logical and linguistic approach.
    • 2.3.2.2 Monistic theory of Being.
  • 2.3.3 THE PARADOXES OF ZENO
  • 2.3.4 THE DECLINE OF ELEATICISM
• 2.4 Epicureanism
  • 2.4.1 THE NATURE OF EPICUREANISM
  • 2.4.2 HISTORY OF EPICUREANISM
    • 2.4.2.1 Epicurus' own life and teachings.
      • 2.4.2.1.1 His works.
      • 2.4.2.1.2 Doctrine of Epicurus.
    • 2.4.2.2 The Epicurean school.
    • 2.4.2.3 Epicureanism and egoism in modern philosophy.
    • 2.4.2.4 Epicureanism in contemporary philosophy.
  • 2.4.3 CRITICISM AND EVALUATION
• 2.5 Platonism
  • 2.5.1 ARISTOTLE'S ACCOUNT OF PLATONISM
  • 2.5.2 THE ACADEMY AFTER PLATO: THE RISE OF NEOPLATONISM
  • 2.5.3 INFLUENCE OF PLATONISM ON CHRISTIAN THOUGHT
• 2.6 Pythagoreanism
  • 2.6.1 GENERAL FEATURES OF PYTHAGOREANISM
  • 2.6.2 MAJOR CONCERNS AND TEACHINGS
    • 2.6.2.1 Religion and ethics.
    • 2.6.2.2 Metaphysics and number theory.
      • 2.6.2.2.1 The harmony of the cosmos.
      • 2.6.2.2.2 The doctrine of opposites.
    • 2.6.2.3 Mathematics and science.
      • 2.6.2.3.1 Arithmetic.
      • 2.6.2.3.2 Geometry.
      • 2.6.2.3.3 Music.
      • 2.6.2.3.4 Astronomy.
  • 2.6.3 HISTORY OF PYTHAGOREANISM
    • 2.6.3.1 Early Pythagoreanism.
      • 2.6.3.1.1 Background.
      • 2.6.3.1.2 Pythagorean communities.
      • 2.6.3.1.3 Two Pythagorean sects.
    • 2.6.3.2 4th-century Pythagoreanism.
    • 2.6.3.3 The Hellenistic Age.
    • 2.6.3.4 Neo-Pythagoreanism.
    • 2.6.3.5 Medieval and modern trends.
  • 2.6.4 EVALUATION
• 2.7 Realism
  • 2.7.1 NATURE AND SCOPE OF REALISM
    • 2.7.1.1 Realism and the problem of knowledge.
    • 2.7.1.2 Philosophical senses of Realism.
      • 2.7.1.2.1 Basic kinds of Realism.
      • 2.7.1.2.2 Distinctions among the Realisms.
  • 2.7.2 HISTORY OF WESTERN REALISM
    • 2.7.2.1 Ancient Realism.
    • 2.7.2.2 Medieval Realism.
    • 2.7.2.3 Modern Realism.
    • 2.7.2.4 20th-century Realism.
  • 2.7.3 MAJOR ISSUES AND EVALUATION OF REALISM
• 2.8 Scholasticism
  • 2.8.1 NATURE AND SIGNIFICANCE
  • 2.8.2 HISTORY AND ISSUES
    • 2.8.2.1 Roots of Scholasticism.
    • 2.8.2.2 Early Scholastic period.
    • 2.8.2.3 Maturity of Scholasticism.
    • 2.8.2.4 Late Scholastic period.
  • 2.8.3 ENDURING FEATURES
• 2.9 Skepticism
  • 2.9.1 VARIOUS SENSES AND APPLICATIONS
  • 2.9.2 ANCIENT SKEPTICISM
  • 2.9.3 MEDIEVAL SKEPTICISM
  • 2.9.4 MODERN SKEPTICISM
    • 2.9.4.1 In the Reformation.
    • 2.9.4.2 In the 17th century.
    • 2.9.4.3 In the 18th century.
    • 2.9.4.4 In recent and contemporary philosophy.
  • 2.9.5 CRITICISM AND EVALUATION
• 2.10 Sophists
  • 2.10.1 HISTORY OF THE NAME
  • 2.10.2 THE 5TH-CENTURY SOPHISTS
  • 2.10.3 NATURE OF SOPHISTIC THOUGHT
  • 2.10.4 WRITINGS
  • 2.10.5 PARTICULAR DOCTRINES
    • 2.10.5.1 Theoretical issues.
    • 2.10.5.2 Humanistic issues.
  • 2.10.6 THE SECOND SOPHISTIC MOVEMENT
• 2.11 Stoicism
  • 2.11.1 NATURE AND SCOPE OF STOICISM
  • 2.11.2 ANCIENT STOICISM
    • 2.11.2.1 Early Greek Stoicism.
    • 2.11.2.2 Later Roman Stoicism.
    • 2.11.2.3 Stoic elements in Pauline and patristic thought.
  • 2.11.3 STOICISM IN MEDIEVAL AND MODERN PHILOSOPHY
    • 2.11.3.1 Stoic undercurrents in medieval thought.
    • 2.11.3.2 Renascence of Stoicism in modern times.

  　

3 MODERN SCHOOLS

• 3.1 Analytic and Linguistic philosophy
  • 3.1.1 GENERAL VIEWPOINT OF ANALYTIC PHILOSOPHY
    • 3.1.1.1 Nature, role, and method of analysis.
      • 3.1.1.1.1 Status of philosophy in the Empiricist tradition.
      • 3.1.1.1.2 Conceptual, linguistic, and scientific analysis.
      • 3.1.1.1.3 Therapeutic function of analysis.
    • 3.1.1.2 Formal versus ordinary language.
      • 3.1.1.2.1 Development of mathematical logic.
      • 3.1.1.2.2 Divergence of ordinary language from formal logic.
      • 3.1.1.2.3 Interpretations of the relation of logic to language.
  • 3.1.2 EARLY HISTORY OF ANALYTIC PHILOSOPHY
    • 3.1.2.1 Reaction against Idealism.
    • 3.1.2.2 Founding fathers: Moore and Russell.
      • 3.1.2.2.1 G.E. Moore.
      • 3.1.2.2.2 Bertrand Russell.
    • 3.1.2.3 Logical atomism: Russell and the early Wittgenstein.
    • 3.1.2.4 Logical Positivism: Carnap and Schlick.
  • 3.1.3 LATER HISTORY OF THE MOVEMENT
    • 3.1.3.1 "Philosophical Investigations": the later Wittgenstein.
      • 3.1.3.1.1 Language and following rules.
      • 3.1.3.1.2 Relation between mental and physical events.
    • 3.1.3.2 Recent trends in England.
      • 3.1.3.2.1 Wittgensteinians.
      • 3.1.3.2.2 Oxford philosophers.
    • 3.1.3.3 Recent trends in the United States.
    • 3.1.3.4 Analytic philosophy today.
• 3.2 Empiricism
  • 3.2.1 VARIOUS MEANINGS OF EMPIRICISM
    • 3.2.1.1 Broader senses.
    • 3.2.1.2 Stricter senses.
      • 3.2.1.2.1 Fundamental distinctions.
      • 3.2.1.2.2 Degrees of Empiricism.
  • 3.2.2 HISTORY OF EMPIRICISM
    • 3.2.2.1 In ancient philosophy.
    • 3.2.2.2 In medieval philosophy.
    • 3.2.2.3 In modern philosophy.
    • 3.2.2.4 In contemporary philosophy.
  • 3.2.3 CRITICISM AND EVALUATION
• 3.3 Existentialism
  • 3.3.1 NATURE OF EXISTENTIALIST THOUGHT AND MANNER
  • 3.3.2 HISTORICAL SURVEY OF EXISTENTIALISM
    • 3.3.2.1 Precursors of Existentialism.
    • 3.3.2.2 The immediate background and founding fathers.
    • 3.3.2.3 Emergence as a movement.
  • 3.3.3 METHODOLOGICAL ISSUES IN EXISTENTIALISM
  • 3.3.4 SUBSTANTIVE ISSUES IN EXISTENTIALISM
    • 3.3.4.1 Fundamental concepts and contrasts.
      • 3.3.4.1.1 Ontic structure of human existence.
      • 3.3.4.1.2 Manner and style of human existence.
    • 3.3.4.2 Problems of Existentialist philosophy.
      • 3.3.4.2.1 Man and human relationships.
      • 3.3.4.2.2 The human situation in the world.
      • 3.3.4.2.3 Significance of Being and transcendence.
    • 3.3.4.3 Problems of Existentialist theology.
  • 3.3.5 SOCIAL AND HISTORICAL PROJECTIONS OF EXISTENTIALISM
• 3.4 Idealism
  • 3.4.1 APPROACHES TO UNDERSTANDING IDEALISM
    • 3.4.1.1 Basic doctrines and principles.
      • 3.4.1.1.1 The union of individuality and universality.
      • 3.4.1.1.2 The contrast between contemporaneity and eternity.
      • 3.4.1.1.3 The doctrine of internal relations and the coherence theory of truth.
      • 3.4.1.1.4 The dialectical method.
      • 3.4.1.1.5 The centrality of mind in knowledge and being.
      • 3.4.1.1.6 The transmutation of evil into good.
    • 3.4.1.2 Basic questions and answers.
      • 3.4.1.2.1 Ultimate reality.
      • 3.4.1.2.2 The given.
      • 3.4.1.2.3 Change.
    • 3.4.1.3 Basic arguments.
      • 3.4.1.3.1 The esse est percipi (to be is to be perceived) argument of Berkeley.
      • 3.4.1.3.2 The reciprocity argument.
      • 3.4.1.3.3 The mystical argument.
      • 3.4.1.3.4 The ontological argument.
  • 3.4.2 TYPES OF PHILOSOPHICAL IDEALISM
    • 3.4.2.1 Types classed by culture.
      • 3.4.2.1.1 Western types.
      • 3.4.2.1.2 Eastern types.
    • 3.4.2.2 Types classed by branches of philosophy.
  • 3.4.3 CRITICISM AND APPRAISAL
• 3.5 Materialism
  • 3.5.1 TYPES OF MATERIALIST THEORY
    • 3.5.1.1 Types distinguished by departures from the paradigm.
    • 3.5.1.2 Type distinguished by its view of history.
    • 3.5.1.3 Types distinguished by their account of mind.
  • 3.5.2 HISTORY OF MATERIALISM
    • 3.5.2.1 Greek and Roman Materialism.
    • 3.5.2.2 Modern Materialism.
    • 3.5.2.3 Contemporary Materialism.
      • 3.5.2.3.1 Translation central-state theories.
      • 3.5.2.3.2 Disappearance central-state theories.
    • 3.5.2.4 Eastern Materialism.
  • 3.5.3 SUBSTANTIVE ISSUES IN MATERIALISM
    • 3.5.3.1 Reductionism, consciousness, and brain.
    • 3.5.3.2 Logic, intentionality, and psychical research.
• 3.6 Phenomenology
  • 3.6.1 CHARACTERISTICS OF PHENOMENOLOGY
    • 3.6.1.1 Essential features and variations.
    • 3.6.1.2 Contrasts with related movements.
  • 3.6.2 ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF HUSSERL'S PHENOMENOLOGY
    • 3.6.2.1 Basic principles.
    • 3.6.2.2 Basic method.
    • 3.6.2.3 Basic concepts.
  • 3.6.3 LATER DEVELOPMENTS
    • 3.6.3.1 Phenomenology of essences.
    • 3.6.3.2 Heidegger's hermeneutic Phenomenology.
    • 3.6.3.3 Other developments.
  • 3.6.4 DISSEMINATION OF PHENOMENOLOGY
    • 3.6.4.1 Phenomenology in various countries.
      • 3.6.4.1.1 In France.
      • 3.6.4.1.2 In Germany.
      • 3.6.4.1.3 In other European countries.
      • 3.6.4.1.4 In the United States.
    • 3.6.4.2 Phenomenology in other disciplines.
  • 3.6.5 CONCLUSION
• 3.7 Positivism and Logical Empiricism
  • 3.7.1 THE SOCIAL POSITIVISM OF COMTE AND MILL
  • 3.7.2 THE CRITICAL POSITIVISM OF MACH AND AVENARIUS
  • 3.7.3 LOGICAL POSITIVISM AND LOGICAL EMPIRICISM
    • 3.7.3.1 The earlier Positivism of Viennese heritage.
      • 3.7.3.1.1 Language and the clarification of meaning.
      • 3.7.3.1.2 The verifiability criterion of meaning and its offshoots.
      • 3.7.3.1.3 Other issues.
    • 3.7.3.2 The later Positivism of Logical Empiricism.
      • 3.7.3.2.1 The status of the formal and a priori.
      • 3.7.3.2.2 Developments in Linguistic Analysis and their offshoots.
  • 3.7.4 CURRENT CRITICISMS AND CONTROVERSIES
• 3.8 Pragmatism
  • 3.8.1 MAJOR THESES OF PHILOSOPHIC PRAGMATISM
  • 3.8.2 HISTORY OF PRAGMATISM
    • 3.8.2.1 Antecedents in modern philosophy.
    • 3.8.2.2 The Metaphysical Club.
    • 3.8.2.3 The classical Pragmatists.
    • 3.8.2.4 Other American Pragmatists.
    • 3.8.2.5 Pragmatism in Europe.
    • 3.8.2.6 Later tendencies.
  • 3.8.3 EVALUATION OF PRAGMATISM
• 3.9 Rationalism
  • 3.9.1 TYPES AND EXPRESSIONS OF RATIONALISM
  • 3.9.2 HISTORY OF RATIONALISM
    • 3.9.2.1 Epistemological Rationalism in ancient philosophies.
    • 3.9.2.2 Epistemological Rationalism in modern philosophies.
    • 3.9.2.3 Ethical Rationalism.
    • 3.9.2.4 Religious Rationalism.
      • 3.9.2.4.1 Expansion of religious Rationalism.
      • 3.9.2.4.2 Four waves of religious Rationalism.
  • 3.9.3 STATUS OF RATIONALISM
    • 3.9.3.1 Religious.
    • 3.9.3.2 Ethical.
    • 3.9.3.3 Metaphysical.
    • 3.9.3.4 Challenges to epistemological Rationalism.
• 3.10 Utilitarianism
  • 3.10.1 THE NATURE OF UTILITARIANISM
    • 3.10.1.1 Basic concepts.
    • 3.10.1.2 Methodologies.
    • 3.10.1.3 Criticisms.
  • 3.10.2 HISTORICAL SURVEY
    • 3.10.2.1 Antecedents of Utilitarianism among the ancients.
    • 3.10.2.2 Growth of classical English Utilitarianism.
    • 3.10.2.3 Late 19th- and 20th-century Utilitarianism.
  • 3.10.3 EFFECTS OF UTILITARIANISM IN OTHER FIELDS
  • 3.10.4 SUMMARY AND EVALUATION

• 4 Bibliography
  • 4.1 Atomism:
  • 4.2 Eleaticism:
  • 4.3 Epicureanism:
  • 4.4 Pythagoreanism:
  • 4.5 Realism:
  • 4.6 Scholasticism:
  • 4.7 Skepticism:
  • 4.8 Sophists:
  • 4.9 Stoicism:
  • 4.10 Analytic and Linguistic philosophy:
  • 4.11 Empiricism:
  • 4.12 Existentialism:
  • 4.13 Idealism:
  • 4.14 Materialism:
  • 4.15 Phenomenology:
  • 4.16 Positivism and Logical Empiricism:
  • 4.17 Pragmatism:
  • 4.18 Rationalism:
  • 4.19 Utilitarianism:

1 Introduction

It is the purpose of this article to examine in detail major schools of Western philosophy, ancient, medieval, and modern. Several of the ancient schools presented here developed around the philosophical systems of eponymous "founders." In the cases of Platonism and Aristotelianism, the treatments herein exclude the doctrines of Plato and Aristotle themselves, focussing rather on the survival and metamorphosis of these doctrines in subsequent thought; the original Platonic and Aristotelian systems are treated in full, along with the lives of the respective philosophers, in the Macropædia articles PLATONISM and ARISTOTELIANISM . While the philosophy of Thomas Aquinas is treated briefly below in the context of medieval Scholasticism, full treatment appears with the biography of Aquinas in the article THOMISM . The central systems of the major modern philosophers are likewise treated in conjunction with Macropædia biographies (namely, CARTESIANISM ; HEGELIANISM ; KANTIANISM ; MARXISM ), and the discussion of their philosophies is, therefore, excluded from the present section on modern schools of thought.

It should be noted that several of the schools and doctrines here classified as ancient underwent revivals or reformulations in later periods (e.g., Platonism, Skepticism); further, it could be argued that no philosophical school regarded as modern is without its precedent in the ancient tradition. The present material, therefore, is drawn together to facilitate comparing and contrasting what might be called the careers of these ideas. For chronological, narrative treatment of the development of Western philosophy, see the Macropædia article PHILOSOPHY, THE HISTORY OF WESTERN . (Ed.)