https://iep.utm.edu An encyclopedia of philosophy articles written by professional philosophers. Mon, 03 Mar 2025 20:03:07 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.7.2 https://iep.utm.edu/spinoza-religion/ <![CDATA[IEP Author]]> Sat, 22 Feb 2025 05:29:45 +0000 <![CDATA[17th Century European]]> <![CDATA[Philosophers]]> <![CDATA[Philosophy of Religion]]> https://iep.utm.edu/?p=40551 <![CDATA[Benedict de Spinoza: Philosophy of Religion Philosophers generally count Spinoza (1632-1677), along with Descartes (1596-1650) and Leibniz (1646-1716), as one of the great rationalists of the 17th century, but he was also a keen student of religion whose analysis has shaped our modern outlook.  For those at home in secular liberal democracies, much seems familiar … Continue reading Benedict de Spinoza: Religion →]]> https://iep.utm.edu/epistemic-injustice/ <![CDATA[IEP Author]]> Thu, 06 Feb 2025 04:49:36 +0000 <![CDATA[Ethics]]> https://iep.utm.edu/?p=40429 <![CDATA[Epistemic Injustice The term “epistemic injustice” refers to the existence of a distinctive type of injustice in which a wrong is done to someone specifically in their capacity as a knower. Philosophers working at the intersection of epistemology and ethics under the general umbrella of virtue ethics have recognized that individuals are not given adequate … Continue reading Epistemic Injustice →]]> https://iep.utm.edu/postmodernism/ <![CDATA[IEP Author]]> Tue, 04 Feb 2025 01:49:15 +0000 <![CDATA[Continental Philosophy]]> https://iep.utm.edu/?p=40383 <![CDATA[Postmodernism Postmodernism is a style of doing philosophy that is often distinguished from the analytic style. The Postmodern era is the time period when postmodernism was popular, especially in Europe. Many scholars struggle to provide a definition that characterizes postmodernism. The fact that it lacks a unique identifying name but is called “post”—meaning that it … Continue reading Postmodernism →]]> https://iep.utm.edu/m-quantum-gravity/ <![CDATA[IEP Author]]> Fri, 06 Dec 2024 19:34:38 +0000 <![CDATA[Metaphysics]]> <![CDATA[Philosophy of Science]]> https://iep.utm.edu/?p=40048 <![CDATA[Metaphysics of Quantum Gravity The metaphysics of quantum gravity explores metaphysical issues related to research programs in theoretical physics clustered under the term quantum gravity. These research programs aim at the formulation of a theory that reconciles the theory of general relativity with quantum theory. The goal is not necessarily to come up with a … Continue reading Metaphysics of Quantum Gravity →]]> https://iep.utm.edu/being/ <![CDATA[IEP Author]]> Thu, 05 Dec 2024 21:32:06 +0000 <![CDATA[Metaphysics]]> https://iep.utm.edu/?p=40035 <![CDATA[Being From virtually the beginning of the Western tradition, philosophers have at least sporadically recognized that being is the primordial issue in philosophy. It is such because every theoretical sentence is implicitly or explicitly governed by a theoretical operator including a conjugated form of the verb “to be,” hence, everything we think or talk about … Continue reading Being →]]> https://iep.utm.edu/brentano/ <![CDATA[IEP Author]]> Mon, 11 Nov 2024 03:54:26 +0000 <![CDATA[19th Century European]]> https://iep.utm.edu/?p=39876 <![CDATA[Franz Brentano (1838-1917) Franz Brentano was a major philosopher of the second half of the 19th century who had a strong impact on the development of early phenomenology and analytic philosophy of mind. Brentano’s influence on students such as Karl Stumpf and Edmund Husserl was extensive, but Sigmund Freud was also much inspired by Brentano’s … Continue reading Franz Brentano →]]> https://iep.utm.edu/definition-of-art/ <![CDATA[IEP Author]]> Wed, 16 Oct 2024 16:37:38 +0000 <![CDATA[Aesthetics]]> https://iep.utm.edu/?p=39698 <![CDATA[The Definition of Art A definition of art attempts to spell out what the word “art” means. In everyday life, we sometimes debate whether something qualifies as art: Can video games be considered artworks? Should my 6-year-old painting belong to the same category as Wallis’ Hold House Port Mear Square Island (see picture)? Is the … Continue reading Definition of Art →]]> https://iep.utm.edu/al-ghazali/ <![CDATA[IEP Author]]> Mon, 30 Sep 2024 06:20:58 +0000 <![CDATA[Islamic Philosophy]]> <![CDATA[Philosophers]]> https://iep.utm.edu/?p=39596 <![CDATA[Al-Ghazālī (c. 1056–1111) Al-Ghazālī did not regard himself as a philosopher, given that during his period in Islamic intellectual history, philosophy was associated with the Aristotelian tradition promulgated primarily by Avicenna (Ibn Sina), and, for al-Ghazālī, Avicenna was undoubtedly considered to be an unbeliever whose philosophical views (such as his commitment to the eternity of … Continue reading Al-Ghazālī →]]> https://iep.utm.edu/gewirth/ <![CDATA[IEP Author]]> Tue, 10 Sep 2024 05:05:17 +0000 <![CDATA[Ethics]]> https://iep.utm.edu/?p=39328 <![CDATA[Alan Gewirth (1912-2004) Alan Gewirth was an American philosopher, famous for his argument that universal human rights can be rationally justified as the outcome of claims necessarily made by rational agents. According to this argument, first outlined in Reason and Morality (1978), all agents necessarily want to be successful in their actions, and since freedom … Continue reading Gewirth, Alan →]]> https://iep.utm.edu/hazlitt/ <![CDATA[IEP Author]]> Fri, 23 Aug 2024 23:57:44 +0000 <![CDATA[19th Century European]]> https://iep.utm.edu/?p=39123 <![CDATA[William Hazlitt (1778 – 1830) William Hazlitt is best known as a brilliant essayist and critic. His essays include criticism of art, poetry, fiction, and drama. He wrote social and political commentary, portraits of major writers and political figures of his age, and a biography of his great hero, Napoleon. He had intended to follow … Continue reading William Hazlitt →]]>