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Ancient Philosophy
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Adi Shankara
Adi Shankara (, Sanskrit: , IAST: , pronounced ) (788 CE - 821 CE?), also known as ' and ', was an Indian philosopher who consolidated the doctrine of Advaita Vedanta, a sub-school of Vedanta. His teachings are based on the unity of the soul and Brahman, in other words non-dual Brahman, in which Brahman is viewed as without attributes. He hailed from Kalady of present day Kerala.
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Agrippa the Sceptic
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Alcmaeon of Croton
Alcmaeon (Gr. , Alkmaiōn, gen.: Ἀλκμαίωνος; 5th century BC) of Croton (in Magna Græcia) was one of the most eminent natural philosophers and medical theorists of antiquity. His father's name was Peirithus (Peirithos). He is said by some to have been a pupil of Pythagoras, and he may have been born around 510 BC. Although he wrote mostly on medical topics there is some suggestion that he was not a physician but a philosopher of science; he also indulged in astrology and meteorology. Nothing more is known of the events of his life.
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Anaxagoras
Anaxagoras (, "lord of the assembly"; c. 500 BC – 428 BC) was a Pre-Socratic Greek philosopher. Born in Clazomenae in Asia Minor, Anaxagoras was the first philosopher to bring philosophy from Ionia to Athens. He attempted to give a scientific account of eclipses, meteors, rainbows, and the sun, which he described as a fiery mass larger than the Peloponnese. He was accused of contravening the established religion and was forced to flee to Lampsacus.
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Anaximander
Anaximander (Ancient Greek: , Anaximandros) (c. 610 BC–c. 546 BC) was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher who lived in Miletus, a city of Ionia; Milet in modern Turkey. He belonged to the Milesian school and learned the teachings of his master Thales. He succeeded Thales and became the second master of that school where he counted Anaximenes and Pythagoras amongst his pupils.
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Antiphon (person)
Antiphon the Sophist lived in Athens probably in the last two decades of the 5th century BC. There is an ongoing controversy over whether he is one and the same with Antiphon () of the Athenian deme Rhamnus in Attica (480–411 BC), the earliest of the ten Attic orators. For the purposes of this article, they will be treated as distinct persons.
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Antisthenes
Antisthenes (; c. 445-c. 365 BCE) was a Greek philosopher and a pupil of Socrates. Antisthenes first learned rhetoric under Gorgias before becoming an ardent disciple of Socrates. He adopted and developed the ethical side of Socrates' teachings, advocating an ascetic life lived in accordance with virtue. Later writers regarded him as the founder of Cynic philosophy.
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Apelles of Kos
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Archimedes
Archimedes of Syracuse (Greek: ; c. 287 BC – c. 212 BC) was a Greek mathematician, physicist, engineer, inventor, and astronomer. Although few details of his life are known, he is regarded as one of the leading scientists in classical antiquity. Among his advances in physics are the foundations of hydrostatics, statics and an explanation of the principle of the lever. He is credited with designing innovative machines, including siege engines and the screw pump that bears his name. Modern experiments have tested claims that Archimedes designed machines capable of lifting attacking ships out of the water and setting ships on fire using an array of mirrors.
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Archytas
Archytas (; 428–347 BC) was an Ancient Greek philosopher, mathematician, astronomer, statesman, and strategist. He was a scientist of the Pythagorean school and famous for being the reputed founder of mathematical mechanics, as well as a good friend of Plato.
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Aristippus
Aristippus () of Cyrene, (c. 435-c. 356 BCE), was the founder of the Cyrenaic school of Philosophy. He was a pupil of Socrates, but adopted a very different philosophical outlook, teaching that the goal of life was to seek pleasure by adapting circumstances to oneself and by maintaining proper control over both adversity and prosperity. Among his pupils was his daughter Arete.
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Aristotle
Aristotle (, Aristotélēs) (384 BC – 322 BC) was a Greek philosopher, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. His writings cover many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology. Together with Plato and Socrates (Plato's teacher), Aristotle is one of the most important founding figures in Western philosophy. Aristotle's writings were the first to create a comprehensive system of Western philosophy, encompassing morality and aesthetics, logic and science, politics and metaphysics.
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Asanga
Asaṅga (also called Āryāsaṅga), (c. 300-370 CE), was a major exponent of the Yogācāra tradition in India, also called Vijñānavāda. Traditionally, he and his half-brother Vasubandhu are regarded as the founders of this school. The two half-brothers were also major exponents of Abhidharma teachings, which were highly technical and sophisticated hermeneutics as well.
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Augustine of Hippo
: For other uses, see Augustine, Augustinus and Saint Augustine.
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Azar Kayvan
Āzar Kayvān (b. between 1529 and 1533; d. between 1609 and 1618), was a Zoroastrian high priest of Istakhr and native of Fars who emigrated to the Gujarat in Mughal India during the reign of the Emperor Akbar and became the founder of a Zoroastrian school of ishraqiyyun or Illuminationists. Exhibiting features of a Zoroastrianized Sufi order, this school became known as the Sepassian.
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Bodhidharma
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Buddha
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Buddhism
Buddhism (Pali/Sanskrit: बौद्ध धर्म Buddha Dharma) is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha (Pāli/Sanskrit "the awakened one"). The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th centuries BCE. He is recognized by adherents as an awakened teacher who shared his insights to help sentient beings end suffering (or dukkha), achieve nirvana, and escape what is seen as a cycle of suffering and rebirth.
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Buddhist
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Burzoe
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Carneades
Carneades (, "of Carnea"; 214/3-129/8 BC) was an Academic skeptic born in Cyrene and the first of the philosophers to pronounce the failure of metaphysicians who endeavored to discover rational meanings in religious beliefs. By the time of 159 BC he had started to refute all previous dogmatic doctrines, especially Stoicism, and even the Epicureans whom previous skeptics had spared. As head of the Academy, he was one of three philosophers sent to Rome in 155 BC where his lectures on the uncertainty of justice caused consternation among the leading politicians. He left no writings and many of his opinions are known only via his successor Clitomachus. He seems to have doubted the ability, not just of the senses but of reason too, in acquiring truth. His skepticism was, however, moderated by the belief that we can, nevertheless, ascertain probabilities of truth, to enable us to live and act correctly.
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China
China is seen variously as an ancient civilization extending over a large area in East Asia, a nation and/or a multinational entity.
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Chrysippus
Chrysippus of Soli (Ancient Greek: , ; c. 279–c. 206 BC) was a Greek Stoic philosopher. He was a native of Soli, Cilicia, but moved to Athens as a young man, where he became a pupil of Cleanthes in the Stoic school. When Cleanthes died, around 230 BC, Chrysippus became the third head of the school. A prolific writer, Chrysippus expanded the fundamental doctrines of Zeno of Citium, the founder of the school, which earned him the title of Second Founder of Stoicism.
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Cicero
Marcus Tullius Cicero (; Classical Latin: ; January 3, 106 BC – December 7, 43 BC; sometimes anglicized as "Tully"), was a Roman philosopher, statesman, lawyer, political theorist, and Roman constitutionalist. He came from a wealthy municipal family of the equestrian order, and is widely considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists.
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Confucius
Confucius (, or ), literally "Master Kong", (traditionally September 28, 551 BC – 479 BC) was a Chinese thinker and social philosopher of the Spring and Autumn Period.
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Critias
Critias (Greek Kritias, 460-403 BC), born in Athens, son of Callaeschrus, was an uncle of Plato, and a leading member of the Thirty Tyrants, and one of the most violent. He was an associate of Socrates, a fact that did not endear Socrates to the Athenian public. He was noted in his day for his tragedies, elegies and prose works. Some, like Sextus Empiricus, believe that Critias authored the Sisyphus fragment; others, however, attribute it to Euripides.
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Cyrus the Great
Cyrus the Great (Old Persian:
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Democritus
Democritus (, "chosen of the people") (ca. 460 BC – ca. 370 BC) was an Ancient Greek philosopher born in Abdera, Thrace, Greece. He was an influential pre-Socratic philosopher and pupil of Leucippus, who formulated an atomic theory for the cosmos.
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Deng Xi
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Diogenes of Sinope
Diogenes of Sinope ( Diogenes ho Sinopeus), was a Greek philosopher and one of the founders of Cynic philosophy. Also known as Diogenes the Cynic, he was born in Sinope (modern-day Sinop, Turkey) in 412 or 404 BCE
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Empedocles
Empedocles (; ca. 490–430 BC) was a Greek pre-Socratic philosopher and a citizen of Agrigentum, a Greek city in Sicily. Empedocles' philosophy is best known for being the originator of the cosmogenic theory of the four Classical elements. He also proposed powers called Love and Strife which would act as forces to bring about the mixture and separation of the elements. These physical speculations were part of a history of the universe which also dealt with the origin and development of life. Influenced by the Pythagoreans, he supported the doctrine of reincarnation. Empedocles is generally considered the last Greek philosopher to record his ideas in verse. Some of his work still survives today, more so than in the case of any other Presocratic philosopher. Empedocles' death was mythologized by ancient writers, and has been the subject of a number of literary treatments.
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Epictetus
Epictetus (Greek: ; AD 55–AD 135) was a Greek Stoic philosopher. He was born a slave at Hierapolis, Phrygia (present day Pamukkale, Turkey), and lived in Rome until banishment when he went to Nicopolis in northwestern Greece where he lived the rest of his life. His teachings were noted down and published by his pupil Arrian in his Discourses. Philosophy, he taught, is a way of life and not just a theoretical discipline. To Epictetus, all external events are determined by fate, and are thus beyond our control, but we can accept whatever happens calmly and dispassionately. Individuals, however, are responsible for their own actions, which they can examine and control through rigorous self-discipline. Suffering arises from trying to control what is uncontrollable, or from neglecting what is within our power. As part of the universal city that is the universe, human beings have a duty to care for all fellow humans. The person who followed these precepts would achieve happiness.
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Epicurus
Epicurus (, "ally, comrade"; Samos, 341 BCE – Athens, 270 BCE) was an ancient Greek philosopher and the founder of the school of philosophy called Epicureanism.
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Euclid of Megara
Euclid of Megara (also Euclides, Eucleides, ; c. 435-c. 365 BCE) was a Greek Socratic philosopher who founded the Megarian school of philosophy. He was a pupil of Socrates in the late 5th century BCE, and was present at his death. He held the supreme good to be one, eternal and unchangeable, and denied the existence of anything contrary to the good. Editors and translators in the Middle Ages often confused him with Euclid of Alexandria when discussing the latter's Elements.
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Friedrich Nietzsche
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (; in English , ) (October 15, 1844 August 25, 1900) was a 19th-century German philosopher and classical philologist. He wrote critical texts on religion, morality, contemporary culture, philosophy and science, displaying a fondness for metaphor, irony and aphorism.
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Gautama Buddha
Siddhārtha Gautama (Sanskrit: ; Pali: Siddhattha Gotama) was a spiritual teacher from ancient India who founded Buddhism. In most Buddhist traditions, he is regarded as the Supreme Buddha (P. sammāsambuddha, S. samyaksaṃbuddha) of our age, "Buddha" meaning "awakened one" or "the enlightened one." The time of his birth and death are uncertain: most early 20th-century historians dated his lifetime as c. 563 BCE to 483 BCE,
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Gore Vidal
Eugene Luther Gore Vidal (; born October 3, 1925) is an American author, playwright, essayist, screenwriter, and political activist. Early in his career he wrote The City and the Pillar (1948), which outraged mainstream critics as one of the first major American novels to feature unambiguous homosexuality. He subsequently emerged as one of America's most important literary figures due to the enormous quantity and quality of work produced over the course of his career, including novels, essays, plays, and short stories covering a wide variety of topics and eras. He also ran for political office twice and served as a longtime political critic.
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Gorgias
Gorgias (, ca. 485-c.380 BCE) "the Nihilist", Greek sophist, pre-socratic philosopher and rhetorician, was a native of Leontini in Sicily. Along with Protagoras, he forms the first generation of Sophists. Several doxographers report that he was a pupil of Empedocles, although he would only have been a few years younger. "Like other Sophists he was an itinerant, practicing in various cities and giving public exhibitions of his skill at the great pan-Hellenic centers of Olympia and Delphi, and charged fees for his instruction and performances. A special feature of his displays was to invite miscellaneous questions from the audience and give impromptu replies."
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Guo Xiang
Guo Xiang (; d. 312 C.E.), is credited with the first and most important revision of the text known as the Zhuangzi which, along with the Laozi, forms the textual and philosophical basis of the Daoist school of thought. He was also a scholar of xuanxue.
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Haribhadra
Haribhadra Suri (c.700-c.770, or 459-529, traditional) was a Svetambara mendicant Jain leader and author.
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Heraclitus
Heraclitus of Ephesus (Ancient Greek: — ; c. 535–c. 475 BCE) was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher, a native of the Greek city Ephesus, Ionia, on the coast of Asia Minor. He was of distinguished parentage. Little is known about his early life and education, but he regarded himself as self-taught and a pioneer of wisdom. From the lonely life he led, and still more from the riddling nature of his philosophy and his contempt for humankind in general, he was called "The Obscure," and the "Weeping Philosopher."
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Hippias
Hippias of Elis (; late 5th century BCE) was a Greek Sophist, and a contemporary of Socrates. With an assurance characteristic of the later sophists, he claimed to be regarded as an authority on all subjects, and lectured on poetry, grammar, history, politics, mathematics, and much else. Most of our knowledge of him is derived from Plato, who characterizes him as vain and arrogant.
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John Philoponus
John Philoponus (lang-el|; AD. 490–AD. 570), also known as John the Grammarian or John of Alexandria, was a Christian and Aristotelian commentator and the author of a considerable number of philosophical treatises and theological works. A rigorous, sometimes polemical writer and an original thinker who was controversial in his own time, John Philoponus broke from the Aristotelian-Neoplatonic tradition, questioning methodology and eventually leading to empiricism in the natural sciences.
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Khosrau I
Khosrau I (also called Xusro I, Khosnow I, Chusro I, Khusro I, Husraw I or Khosrow I, Chosroes I in classical sources, most commonly known in Persian as Anushirvan, Persian: انوشيروان meaning the immortal soul), also known as Anushiravan the Just (انوشیروان عادل , Anushiravān-e-ādel or انوشيروان دادگر, Anushiravān-e-dādgar) (Born c. 501, ruled 531–579), was the favourite son and successor of Kavadh I (488–531), twentieth Sassanid Emperor (Great King) of Persia, and the most famous and celebrated of the Sassanid Emperors.
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Kundakunda
Kundakunda (also Kundkund) is a celebrated Jain Acharya, Jain scholar monk, 2nd century CE, composer of spiritual classics such as: Samayasara, Niyamasara, Pancastikayasara, Pravacanasara, Atthapahuda and Barasanuvekkha. He occupies the highest place in the tradition of the Jain acharyas.
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Laozi
Laozi (; also Lao Tse, Lao Tu, Lao-Tzu, Lao-Tsu, Laotze, Lao Zi, Laocius, and other variations) was a mystic philosopher of ancient China, and best known as the author of the Tao Te Ching. His association with the Tao Te Ching has led him to be traditionally considered the founder of Taoism (also spelled "Daoism"). He is also revered as a deity in most religious forms of the Taoist religion, which often refers to Laozi as Taishang Laojun, or "One of the Three Pure Ones". Laozi literally means "old master", and is generally considered honorific.
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Leucippus
Leucippus or Leukippos (Greek: , first half of 5th century BC) was one of the earliest Greeks to develop the theory of atomism — the idea that everything is composed entirely of various imperishable, indivisible elements called atoms — which was elaborated in far greater detail by his pupil and successor, Democritus. Another possible earlier candidate for atomism is Moschus of Sidon, from the Trojan War era(13th or 12th century BCE)
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Li Kui (legalist)
Li Kui (, fl. 4th century BC) was an ancient Chinese government minister and court advisor to Marquis Wen of Wei (魏文侯, r. 403 BC-387 BC) in the state of Wei. In 407 BC, he wrote the Book of Law (Fajing, 法经), which was the basis for the codified laws of the Qin and Han dynasties. It had a deep influence on state ministers of Qin such as Shang Yang, who formulated the dogma and basis of the harsh Chinese philosophy of Legalism. Along with his contemporary Ximen Bao, he was given oversight in construction of canal and irrigation projects in the State of Wei.
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Li Si
Li Si () (ca. 280 BC – September or October 208 BC) was the influential Prime Minister (or Chancellor) of the feudal state and later of the dynasty of Qin, between 246 BC and 208 BC. A famous Legalist, he was also a notable calligrapher. Li Si served under two rulers: Qin Shi Huang, king of Qin and later First Emperor of China—and his son, Qin Er Shi. A powerful minister, he was central to the state's policies, including those on military conquest, draconian centralization of state control, standardization of weights, measures and the written script, and persecution of Confucianism and opponents of Legalism. His methods of administration of China is seen by some as being an early form of totalitarianism.
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Lucretius
Titus Lucretius Carus (ca. 99 BC – ca. 55 BC) was a Roman poet and philosopher. His only known work is the epic philosophical poem on Epicureanism De rerum natura, translated into English as On the Nature of Things or "On the Nature of the Universe".
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Lycophron
Lycophron was a Hellenistic Greek tragic poet, grammarian, and commentator on comedy, to whom the poem Alexandra is attributed (perhaps falsely).
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Marcus Aurelius
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (26 April 121 – 17 March 180) was Roman Emperor from 161 to 180. He ruled with Lucius Verus as co-emperor from 161 until Verus' death in 169. He was the last of the "Five Good Emperors", and is also considered one of the most important Stoic philosophers.
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Mazdak
Mazdak (in Persian مزدک) (died c. 524 or 528) was a proto-socialist Persian reformer and religious activist who gained influence under the reign of the Sassanian Shahanshah Kavadh I. He claimed to be a prophet of God, and instituted communal possessions and social welfare programs.
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Melissus of Samos
Melissus of Samos (5th century BCE) was the third and last member of the ancient school of Eleatic philosophy, whose other members included Zeno and Parmenides. Little is known about his life except that he was the commander of the Samian fleet shortly before the Peloponnesian War. Melissus’ contribution to philosophy was a treatise of systematic arguments supporting Eleatic philosophy. Although he followed Parmenides in his general views and the framework of Eleaticism, he made original contributions and innovations to philosophy. Like Parmenides, he argued that reality is ungenerated, indestructible, indivisible, changeless, and motionless. In addition, he sought to show that reality is wholly unlimited, and infinitely extended in all directions; and since existence is unlimited, it must also be one.
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Mencius
:For the book with the same name, see Mencius (book).
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Menippus
Menippus (; 3rd century BCE) of Gadara, was a Cynic and satirist. His works, which are all lost, were an important influence on Varro and Lucian. The Menippean satire genre is named after him.
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Metrodorus of Chios
Metrodorus of Chios (4th century BC) was a Greek Presocratic philosopher, belonging to the school of Democritus, and an important forerunner of Epicurus.
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Mozi
Mozi (, Lat. as Micius, ca. 470 BCE–ca. 391 BCE), original name Mo Di (墨翟), was a Chinese philosopher during the Hundred Schools of Thought period (early Warring States Period). Born in Tengzhou, Shandong Province, China, he founded the school of Mohism and argued strongly against Confucianism and Daoism. During the Warring States Period, Mohism was actively developed and practiced in many states, but fell out of favour when the legalist Qin Dynasty came to power. During that period many Mohist classics were ruined when Qin Shihuang carried out the burning of books and burying of scholars. The importance of Mohism further declined when Confucianism became the dominant school of thought during the Han Dynasty, disappearing by the middle of the Western Han Dynasty. The Thousand Character Classic records Mozi's story that he felt sad when he saw white silk was dyed, which embodied his thought of austerity (simplicity, chastity).
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Nagarjuna
Acharya Nāgārjuna (Devanagri:नागार्जुन, Telugu: నాగార్జున, Tibetan: ཀླུ་སྒྲུབ་ klu sgrub, Chinese: 龍樹) (ca. 150–250 CE) was an Indian philosopher who founded the Madhyamaka school of Mahāyāna Buddhism .
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Parmenides
Parmenides of Elea (Greek: ; fl. early 5th century BCE) was an ancient Greek philosopher born in Elea, a Greek city on the southern coast of Italy. He was the founder of the Eleatic school of philosophy. The single known work of Parmenides is a poem which has survived only in fragmentary form. In this poem, Parmenides describes two views of reality. In The Way of Truth (a part of the poem), he explains how reality is one, change is impossible, and existence is timeless, uniform, and unchanging. In The Way of Opinion, he explains the world of appearances, which is false and deceitful. These thoughts strongly influenced Plato, and through him, the whole of Western philosophy.
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Patañjali
Patañjali (, ; fl. 150 BCE or 2nd c. BCE) is the compiler of the Yoga Sutras, an important collection of aphorisms on Yoga practice. From the tenth century CE onwards, the legend grew that the same Patañjali was also the author of the Mahābhāṣya, a commentary on Kātyāyana's vārttikas (short comments) on Pāṇini's Aṣṭādhyāyī as well as on an unspecified work of medicine (āyurveda). Patanjali Hailed From Gonda District of Uttar Pradesh. .
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Paul of Tarsus
Paul of Tarsus, also called Paul the Apostle, the Apostle Paul, and Saint Paul, (; Latin: Paulus or Paullus; Šaʾul HaTarsi (Saul of Tarsus) (c. 5 - c. 67 ), was a Jew who referred to himself as the "Apostle to the Gentiles". According to the Acts of the Apostles, his conversion to faith in Jesus took place in a profound life-changing experience on the road to Damascus. Together with Simon Peter and James the Just, he is considered among the most notable of early Christian leaders."The Canon Debate," McDonald & Sanders editors, 2002, chapter 32, page 577, by James D. G. Dunn: "James the brother of Jesus and Paul, the two other most prominent leading figures [beside Peter] in first-century Christianity" He was also a Roman citizen—a fact that afforded him a privileged legal status with respect to laws, property, and governance.
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Paul the Persian
Paul the Persian was a sixth century Nestorian philosopher from Dershahr, Persia.
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Pherecydes of Syros
:''See also Pherecydes of Leros
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Philo of Alexandria
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Philo of Larissa
Philo (or Philon, ; 154/3–84/3 BC) of Larissa, was a Greek philosopher. He was a pupil of Clitomachus, whom he succeeded as head of the Academy. During the Mithradatic wars which would see the destruction of the Academy, he travelled to Rome where Cicero heard him lecture. None of his writings survive. He was an Academic sceptic, like Clitomachus and Carneades before him, but he offered a more moderate view of scepticism than that of his teachers, permitting provisional beliefs without certainty.
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Plato
:For other uses, see Plato (disambiguation) and Platon (disambiguation).
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Plotinus
Plotinus (Greek: ) (ca. AD 204/5–270) was a major philosopher of the ancient world who is widely considered the founder of Neoplatonism (along with his teacher Ammonius Saccas). Neoplatonism was an influential philosophy in Late Antiquity. Much of our biographical information about Plotinus comes from Porphyry's preface to his edition of Plotinus' Enneads. His metaphysical writings have inspired centuries of Pagan, Christian, Jewish, Islamic and Gnostic metaphysicians and mystics.
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Plutarch
Plutarch, born Plutarchos (Greek: Πλούταρχος) then, on his becoming a Roman citizen, Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus (Μέστριος Πλούταρχος), c. 46 – 120 AD, was a Greek historian, biographer, essayist, and Middle Platonist known primarily for his Parallel Lives and Moralia. He was born to a prominent family in Chaeronea, Boeotia, a town about twenty miles east of Delphi.
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Posidonius
Posidonius (Greek: Ποσειδώνιος / Poseidonios, meaning "of Poseidon") "of Apameia" (ὁ Ἀπαμεύς) or "of Rhodes" (ὁ Ῥόδιος) (ca. 135 BCE - 51 BCE), was a Greek Stoic philosopher, politician, astronomer, geographer, historian and teacher native to Apamea, Syria. He was acclaimed as the greatest polymath of his age. None of his vast body of work can be read in its entirety today, as it exists only in fragments.
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Proclus
Proclus Lycaeus (8 February 412 – 17 April 485 AD), called "The Successor" or "Diadochos" (Greek Próklos ho Diádokhos), was a Greek Neoplatonist philosopher, one of the last major Classical philosophers (see Damascius). He set forth one of the most elaborate and fully developed systems of Neoplatonism. He stands near the end of the classical development of philosophy, and was very influential on Western medieval philosophy (Greek and Latin) as well as Islamic thought.
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Prodicus
Prodicus of Ceos (, Pródikos; c. 465-c. 395 BC) was a Greek philosopher, and part of the first generation of Sophists. He came to Athens as ambassador from Ceos, and became known as a speaker and a teacher. Plato treats him with greater respect than the other sophists, and in several of the Platonic dialogues Socrates appears as the friend of Prodicus. Prodicus made linguistics and ethics prominent in his curriculum. The content of one of his speeches is still known, and concerns a fable detailing the education of Heracles by Virtue. He also interpreted religion through the framework of naturalism.
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Protagoras
Protagoras (Greek: ) (ca. 490– 420 BC) was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher and is numbered as one of the sophists by Plato. In his dialogue Protagoras, Plato credits him with having invented the role of the professional sophist or teacher of virtue. He is also believed to have created a major controversy during ancient times through his statement that man is the measure of all things. This idea was very revolutionary for the time and contrasting to other philosophical doctrines that claimed the universe was based on something objective, outside the human influence.
http://wn.com/Protagoras -
Pyrrho
Pyrrho (ca. 360 BC - ca. 270 BC), a Greek philosopher of classical antiquity, is credited as being the first Skeptic philosopher, and the inspiration for the school known as Pyrrhonism founded by Aenesidemus in the 1st century BC.
http://wn.com/Pyrrho -
Pythagoras
Pythagoras of Samos (, O Pythagoras o Samios, "Pythagoras the Samian", or simply ; c. 570-c. 495 BC) was an Ionian Greek philosopher and founder of the religious movement called Pythagoreanism. Most of our information about Pythagoras was written down centuries after he lived, thus very little reliable information is known about him. He was born on the island of Samos, and may have travelled widely in his youth, visiting Egypt and other places seeking knowledge. Around 530 BC, he moved to Croton, a Greek colony in southern Italy, and there set up a religious sect. His followers pursued the religious rites and practices developed by Pythagoras, and studied his philosophical theories. The society took an active role in the politics of Croton, but this eventually led to their downfall. The Pythagorean meeting-places were burned, and Pythagoras was forced to flee the city. He is said to have ended his days in Metapontum.
http://wn.com/Pythagoras -
Sadr al-Din Shirazi
http://wn.com/Sadr_al-Din_Shirazi -
Seneca the Younger
Lucius Annaeus Seneca (often known simply as Seneca, or Seneca the Younger) (c. 3 BC – 65 AD) was a Roman Stoic philosopher, statesman, dramatist, and in one work humorist, of the Silver Age of Latin literature. He was tutor and later advisor to emperor Nero. He was later forced to commit suicide for complicity in the Pisonian conspiracy to assassinate this last of the Julio-Claudian emperors; however, he may have been innocent. His father was Seneca the Elder and his older brother was Gallio.
http://wn.com/Seneca_the_Younger -
Shang Yang
Shang Yang (, 390 BC-338 BC) was an important statesman of the State of Qin during the Warring States Period of Chinese history. Born Wei Yang () in the State of Wei, with the support of Duke Xiao of Qin Yang enacted numerous reforms in Qin. These were in accordance with his legalist philosophy as recorded in The Book of Lord Shang and assisted Qin in its change from a peripheral state to that of a militarily powerful and strongly centralized kingdom. He changed the administration of the state through an emphasis on meritocracy and devolvement of power from the nobility.
http://wn.com/Shang_Yang -
sinosphere
http://wn.com/sinosphere -
Socrates
Socrates (Greek: , , Sōkrátēs; c. 469 BC–399 BC, in English ) was a Classical Greek Athenian philosopher. Credited as one of the founders of Western philosophy, he is an enigmatic figure known chiefly through the accounts of later classical writers, especially the writings of his students Plato and Xenophon, and the plays of his contemporary Aristophanes. Many would claim that Plato's dialogues are the most comprehensive accounts of Socrates to survive from antiquity.
http://wn.com/Socrates -
Stilpo
Stilpo (or Stilpon, ; c. 360-c. 280 BC) was a Greek philosopher of the Megarian school. He was a contemporary of Theophrastus, Diodorus Cronus, and Crates of Thebes. None of his writings survive, he was interested in logic and dialectic, and he argued that the universal is fundamentally separated from the individual and concrete. His ethical teachings approached that of the Cynics and Stoics. His most important pupil was Zeno of Citium, the founder of Stoicism.
http://wn.com/Stilpo -
Su Qin
Su Qin (380-284 BCE), was an influential political strategist during the Warring States Period of Chinese history (476-220 BCE). He was born in Chengxuan Village, Luoyang in present day Henan Province. According to legend Su Qin was a disciple of Gui Guzi, the founder of the School of Diplomacy. One theory of this school, Vertical Alliance, promoted an alliance of the other Chinese states against the state of Qin. The opposing theory, "Horizontal Alliance" () supported an alliance with the State of Qin.After finishing his studies with Gui Guzi, Su Qin travelled for several years and on his return lamented that "My wife doesn't recognize me as her husband, my sister-in-law doesn't recognize me as her brother-in-law, and my parents don't recognize me as their son!". All these misfortunes he blamed on the state of Qin and he thereafter shut himself in his room to study. Often sleepy from long hours of study, if Su Qin felt himself falling asleep he would stab himself in the thigh with a sharp instrument. This practice gave rise to part of a Chinese idiom or "chengyu" which means "to study assiduously and tirelessly". At his most brilliant Su Qin persuaded the leaders of the six kingdoms of Qi, Chu, Yan, Han, Zhao and Wei to unite against the Qin state through the use of his splendid rhetoric and thereafter wore robes decorated with the insignia of the six states. The allies of the Vertical Alliance advanced on the State of Qin but were easily defeated due to internal discord between the former enemies.
http://wn.com/Su_Qin -
Sunzi
http://wn.com/Sunzi -
Thales
Thales of Miletus (; , Thalēs; 624 BC – c. 546 BC) was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher from Miletus in Asia Minor, and one of the Seven Sages of Greece. Many, most notably Aristotle, regard him as the first philosopher in the Greek tradition. According to Bertrand Russell, "Western philosophy begins with Thales." Thales attempted to explain natural phenomena without reference to mythology and was tremendously influential in this respect. Almost all of the other pre-Socratic philosophers follow him in attempting to provide an explanation of ultimate substance, change, and the existence of the world—without reference to mythology. Those philosophers were also influential, and eventually Thales' rejection of mythological explanations became an essential idea for the scientific revolution. He was also the first to define general principles and set forth hypotheses, and as a result has been dubbed the "Father of Science".
http://wn.com/Thales -
Theophrastus
Theophrastus (Greek: ; c. 371 – c. 287 BC), a Greek native of Eresos in Lesbos, was the successor of Aristotle in the Peripatetic school. He came to Athens at a young age, and initially studied in Plato's school. After Plato's death he attached himself to Aristotle. Aristotle bequeathed to Theophrastus his writings, and designated him as his successor at the Lyceum. Theophrastus presided over the Peripatetic school for thirty-six years, during which time, the school flourished greatly. After his death, the Athenians honoured him with a public funeral. His successor as head of the school was Strato of Lampsacus.
http://wn.com/Theophrastus -
Thrasymachus
Thrasymachus (Θρασύμαχος) (ca. 459-400 BCE) was a sophist of Ancient Greece best known as a character in Plato's Republic.
http://wn.com/Thrasymachus -
Timon (philosopher)
http://wn.com/Timon_(philosopher) -
Tiruvalluvar
Thiruvalluvar () is a celebrated Tamil poet who wrote the Thirukkural, a work on ethics in Tamil literature. He is also known by other names like Theiva Pulavar, Valluvar and Poyyamozhi Pulavar.
http://wn.com/Tiruvalluvar -
Tung-shan
Liang-chieh of Tung-shan (807–869), often referred to simply as Tung-Shan or Dongshan Liangjie (Ch. 洞山良价), was a Ch'an (Zen) master of 9th century China. Along with his pupil Ts'ao-shan Pen-chi, he is best known for founding the Ts'ao-tung, or later Soto, school of Ch'an which is prominent worldwide today. However, his contributions also include extensive expansion and analysis of Buddhist doctrine, such as the poetic Verses of the Five Ranks, as well as stimulation of Buddhist popularity during an era of vulnerability for the religion.
http://wn.com/Tung-shan -
Vasubandhu
Vasubandhu (, fl. 4th c.) was, according to Mahayana Buddhist tradition, an Indian Buddhist scholar-monk, and along with his half-brother Asanga, one of the main founders of the Indian Yogācāra school. However, some scholars consider Vasubandhu to be two distinct people. Vasubandhu is one of the most influential figures in the entire history of Buddhism. In the Jodo Shinshu branch of Buddhism, he is considered the Second Patriarch. In Zen, he is 21st Patriarch.
http://wn.com/Vasubandhu -
Vyasa
Vyasa (Devanagari: व्यास, vyāsa) is a central and revered figure in the majority of Hindu traditions. Vyasa is conflated'by Vaishnavas with Badarayana, the author of the Vedanta Sutras. He is also sometimes called Veda Vyasa (वेद व्यास, veda vyāsa), (the one who compiled the Vedas) or Krishna Dvaipayana (referring to his complexion and birthplace). He is considered to be the scribe of both the Vedas, and the supplementary texts such as the Puranas. A number of Vaishnava traditions regard him as an avatar of Vishnu. Vyasa is also considered to be one of the seven Chiranjivins (long lived, or immortals), who are still in existence according to general Hindu belief.
http://wn.com/Vyasa -
Wang Bi
Wang Bi (226–249), courtesy name Fu Si (辅嗣), was a Chinese neotaoist philosopher.
http://wn.com/Wang_Bi -
Xenophanes
:For the skipper butterfly genus, see Xenophanes (butterfly).
http://wn.com/Xenophanes -
Yajnavalkya
:For the Dharmaśāstra text traditionally attributed to Yājñavalkya, see Yājñavalkya Smṛti.
http://wn.com/Yajnavalkya -
Yasovijaya
Yaśovijaya (also known as Yashovijayji with honorifics like Mahopadhyaya or Upadhyaya or Gani), a seventeenth century (1624 – 1688) Jain philosopher-monk was one of India’s greatest philosopher and logician. He was a thinker, prolific writer and commentator who had a strong and lasting influence on Jainism. He was a disciple of Muni Nayavijaya in the lineage of famous Jain monk Hiravijaya (belonging to the Tapa Gachchha tradition of Svetambara Jains) who influenced Emperor Akbar to give up meat eating.
http://wn.com/Yasovijaya -
Yue Yi
Yue Yi (Traditional Chinese: , Simplified Chinese: ) was an officer of the State of Yan during the Warring State period, also known as Lord Guojun. He was the son of the prime minister of the small nation of Zhongshan, but when Zhongshan was destroyed by Zhao's King Wuling, he was forced to wander from country to country. His talents were recognized by Yan's King Zhao, and he was made a minister. He served with great skill and helped forge the alliance with the nations of Zhao, Wei, Chu, Han and Qin against the threat posed by Qi. He led the allied armies and crushed the Qi forces. The cruel King of Qi was driven away, and, except for two cities, the entire territory of Qi was brought under control. Soon thereafter, King Zhao suddenly died. Due to the scheming of Tian Dan of Qi, King Hui was suspected of involvement in the death and was exiled to Zhao. He left the service of King Zhao on amicable terms but continued to spend time there, and became an important figure in both Zhao and Yan.
http://wn.com/Yue_Yi -
Yunmen Wenyan
Yúnmén Wényǎn (862 or 864-949 CE), (雲門文偃; ; he is also variously known in English as "Unmon", "Ummon Daishi", "Ummon Zenji"), was a major Chinese Zen master in Tang-era China. He founded one of the five major schools of Chan (Chinese Zen), the "Yunmen school", after succeeding his famous master, Xuefeng Yicun (or Hsueh-feng I-ts'un; [http://www.quangduc.com/tudien/AnhViet/Hr.htm]; another famous disciple of Yicun would be Fa-yen Wen-i (885-958)) (822-908), for whom he had served as a head monk. When founding his school, he taught at the Yunmen monastery of Shaozhou, from which he received his name. The Yunmen school flourished into the early Song Dynasty, with particular influence on the upper classes, and eventually culminating in the compilation and writing of the Blue Cliff Record. The school would eventually be absorbed by the Rinzai school later in the Song. The lineage still lives on to this day through Chan Master Hsu Yun (1840-195?). He rebuilt the Yun men temple and the 6th patriarchs temple Nan-hua Si. The ancestors seal shines again through Master Hsu Yun, Fo Yuan, and Master Ming Zhao Shakya, who have disciples in America and abroad.
http://wn.com/Yunmen_Wenyan -
Zarathustra
http://wn.com/Zarathustra -
Zeno of Citium
Zeno of Citium (, Zēnōn ho Kitieŭs; 334 BC - 262 BC) was a Greek philosopher from Citium (), Cyprus. Zeno was the founder of the Stoic school of philosophy, which he taught in Athens from about 300 BC. Based on the moral ideas of the Cynics, Stoicism laid great emphasis on goodness and peace of mind gained from living a life of virtue in accordance with nature. It proved very successful, and flourished as the dominant philosophy from the Hellenistic period through to the Roman era.
http://wn.com/Zeno_of_Citium -
Zeno of Elea
Zeno of Elea (, ) (ca. 490 BC? – ca. 430 BC?) was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher of southern Italy and a member of the Eleatic School founded by Parmenides. Aristotle called him the inventor of the dialectic. He is best known for his paradoxes, which Bertrand Russell has described as "immeasurably subtle and profound".
http://wn.com/Zeno_of_Elea -
Zhang Daoling
Zhang Ling (; 34 - 156), style name Fuhan (), was an Eastern Han Dynasty Taoist hermit who founded the Way of the Celestial Masters sect of Taoism, which is also known as the Way of the Five Pecks of Rice.
http://wn.com/Zhang_Daoling -
Zhang Jue
http://wn.com/Zhang_Jue -
Zou Yan
Zou Yan (; 305 BC - 240 BC) was the representative thinker of the Yin and Yang (or School of Naturalists) during the Hundred Schools of Thought era in Chinese philosophy. Zou Yan was a noted scholar of the Jixia Academy in the state of Qi. Joseph Needham, a British sinologist, describes Zou as "The real founder of all Chinese scientific thought." His teachings combined and systematized two current theories during the Warring States Period: Yin-Yang and the Five Elements/Phases (wood, fire, earth, metal, and water).
http://wn.com/Zou_Yan
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Achaemenid Empire
The Achaemenid Empire () (ca. 550–330 BCE), also known as the Persian Empire, was the successor state of the Median Empire, ruling over significant portions of what would become Greater Iran. The Persian and the Median Empire taken together are also known as the Medo-Persian Empire, which encompassed the combined territories of several earlier empires.
http://wn.com/Achaemenid_Empire -
China
China is seen variously as an ancient civilization extending over a large area in East Asia, a nation and/or a multinational entity.
http://wn.com/China -
Han Dynasty
The Han Dynasty (; ; 206 BCE – 220 CE) was the second imperial dynasty of China, preceded by the Qin Dynasty (221–206 BCE) and succeeded by the Three Kingdoms (220–265 CE). It was founded by the peasant rebel leader Liu Bang, known posthumously as Emperor Gaozu of Han. It was briefly interrupted by the Xin Dynasty (9–23 CE) of the former regent Wang Mang. This interregnum separates the Han into two periods: the Western Han (206 BCE – 9 CE) and Eastern Han (25–220 CE). Spanning over four centuries, the period of the Han Dynasty is considered a golden age in Chinese history. To this day, China's majority ethnic group refers to itself as the "Han people".
http://wn.com/Han_Dynasty -
Japan
Japan (日本 Nihon or Nippon), officially the State of Japan ( or Nihon-koku), is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south. The characters that make up Japan's name mean "sun-origin" (because it lies to the east of nearby countries), which is why Japan is sometimes referred to as the "Land of the Rising Sun".
http://wn.com/Japan -
Korea
Korea ( Hanguk or Joseon – South and North Korea, respectively (cf. etymology)) is a territory of East Asia that was formerly unified under one state, but now divided into two separate states and a region in northeastern Asia. Located on the Korean Peninsula, it is bordered by China to the northwest, Russia to the northeast, and is separated from Japan to the east by the Korea Strait and the Sea of Japan (East Sea).
http://wn.com/Korea -
Vietnam
Vietnam ( ; , ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (, ), is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by People's Republic of China (PRC) to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea, referred to as East Sea (), to the east. With a population of over 86 million, Vietnam is the 13th most populous country in the world.
http://wn.com/Vietnam
- Achaemenid Empire
- acharya
- Adi Shankara
- Advaita Vedanta
- Aenesidemus
- Agrippa the Sceptic
- Alcmaeon of Croton
- Ammonius Saccas
- Anacharsis
- Anaxagoras
- Anaximander
- Anekantavada
- Antiochus of Ascalon
- Antiphon (person)
- Antisthenes
- Apelles of Kos
- Arcesilaus
- Archimedes
- Archytas
- Aristippus
- Aristotle
- Arthashastra
- Asanga
- Ashtadhyayi
- Atomism
- Augustine of Hippo
- Avesta
- Azar Kayvan
- Bhartrihari
- Bodhidharma
- Book of Han
- Buddha
- Buddhism
- Buddhist
- Buddhist philosophy
- Bukhtishu
- Burzoe
- Caliphate
- Callicles
- Carneades
- Chan Buddhism
- Chanakya
- Chandas shastra
- Chen Tuan
- China
- Chinese philosophy
- Christian philosophy
- Christianity
- Chrysippus
- Cicero
- Cleanthes
- communalism
- compassion
- Confucianism
- Confucius
- Creation (novel)
- Critias
- Cynic
- Cyrus cylinder
- Cyrus the Great
- Cārvāka
- Damascius
- Daosheng
- definition
- Democritus
- Deng Xi
- Denkard
- dialectician
- Dignāga
- Diogenes of Sinope
- diplomacy
- Dong Zhongshu
- Dualism
- Eastern philosophy
- Eclecticism
- egalitarianism
- Eleatic School
- Empedocles
- empiricism
- Epictetus
- Epicureanism
- Epicurus
- Euclid of Megara
- feng liu
- Friedrich Nietzsche
- Gathas
- Gautama Buddha
- Ge Hong
- Gongsun Long
- Gongsun Longzi
- Gore Vidal
- Gorgias
- Gotama
- government
- Guiguzi
- Guo Xiang
- Han Dynasty
- Han Fei
- Haribhadra
- health
- Hedonism
- Hemacandra
- Heraclitus
- Hinayana
- Hindu philosophy
- Hippias
- Hui Shi
- human rights
- humility
- Illuminationism
- Indian logic
- Indian philosophy
- intellectual
- Iranian history
- Iranian philosophy
- Jaimini
- Jain
- Jain philosophy
- Jainism
- Jamasp
- Japan
- Jewish philosophy
- John Philoponus
- Kanada
- Kapila
- Khosrau I
- Korea
- Kundakunda
- Laozi
- Leucippus
- Li Kui (legalist)
- Li Si
- Li Yiji
- Linji
- logic
- longevity
- Lucretius
- Lycophron
- Lü Buwei
- Lüshi Chunqiu
- Madhyamaka
- Mahayana Buddhism
- Mahāyāna Buddhism
- Mani (prophet)
- Marcus Aurelius
- Mazdak
- Medieval philosophy
- Melissus of Samos
- Mencius
- Menippus
- Metrodorus of Chios
- Milesian School
- Mimamsa
- Mir Damad
- moderation
- Mohism
- Mozi
- Musonius Rufus
- Nagarjuna
- nature
- Neo-Platonism
- Neotaoism
- neti neti
- Nyaya
- Nyaya Sutras
- nāstika
- Ostanes
- Pahlavi literature
- Pancastikayasara
- Parmenides
- Patañjali
- Paul of Tarsus
- Paul the Persian
- Pherecydes of Syros
- Philo of Alexandria
- Philo of Larissa
- Philolaus
- philosophy of war
- Pingala
- Plato
- Plotinus
- Pluralist School
- Plutarch
- Posidonius
- Pravacanasara
- Proclus
- Prodicus
- Protagoras
- Purva Mimamsa Sutras
- Pyrrho
- Pythagoras
- Pythagoreanism
- Pāṇini
- Qin Dynasty
- Raja Yoga
- rajas
- Rigveda
- Roman Empire
- Sadr al-Din Shirazi
- Samayasara
- Samkhya
- sattva
- School of Athens
- School of Diplomacy
- School of Isfahan
- School of Names
- Seneca the Younger
- Sengzhao
- Sextus Empiricus
- Shang Yang
- Shen Buhai
- Shen Dao
- Shen Nong
- Siddhasen Diwakar
- Sikhism
- sinosphere
- Skepticism
- social consciousness
- Socrates
- Sophism
- sophists
- Speusippus
- spread of Islam
- Spring and Autumn
- Sramana
- Sthanakvasi
- Stilpo
- Stoicism
- Su Qin
- Sui Dynasty
- Sun Bin
- Sunzi
- Syntipas
- tamas (philosophy)
- Tamil language
- Tang Dynasty
- Taoism
- Tattvartha Sutra
- Terapanthi
- Thales
- The School of Athens
- Themistius
- Theophrastus
- Thirukkural
- Thrasymachus
- Timon (philosopher)
- Tiruvalluvar
- Tung-shan
- Umasvati
- Universe
- Upanishads
- utopian
- Vaisheshika
- Vasubandhu
- Vedanta
- Vedas
- Vietnam
- Vyasa
- Wang Bi
- war
- Warring States
- Western literature
- Western philosophy
- wu wei
- Xenocrates
- Xenophanes
- Xiang Xiu
- Xuanxue
- Xun Zi
- Yajnavalkya
- Yasovijaya
- yin-yang
- Yoga
- Yoga Sutra
- Yogacara
- Yue Yi
- Yunmen Wenyan
- Zarathustra
- Zen
- Zeno of Citium
- Zeno of Elea
- Zhang Daoling
- Zhang Jue
- Zhang Yi
- Zhuangzi
- Zoroastrianism
- Zou Yan
- Zurvanism
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Ancient Philosophy
International Catholic University video clip from a lecture by Prof. Ralph McInerny on Greek philosophy before Socrates.
http://wn.com/Ancient_Philosophy
![Darzamat [ Ancient Philosophy ]](http://web.archive.org./web/20120129133211im_/http://i.ytimg.com/vi/I437e7xP6Bc/0.jpg "Darzamat [ Ancient Philosophy ]")
Darzamat [ Ancient Philosophy ]
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 5:36
- Published: 24 Aug 2010
- Uploaded: 18 Dec 2011
- Author: KondorMetal
Album: In the Opium of the Black Veil.-
http://wn.com/Darzamat_ _Ancient_Philosophy_
Darzamat - Ancient Philosophy
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 5:41
- Published: 18 Sep 2008
- Uploaded: 25 Jan 2012
- Author: LordOvNegation
Darzamat In The Opium Of Black Veil EP, 1999 Fourth track of the album.
http://wn.com/Darzamat__Ancient_Philosophy
Dr. Pierre Grimes, The Sacred Myths of Plato, The Republic (1) (ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY LECTURES)
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 9:31
- Published: 09 Jan 2010
- Uploaded: 29 Nov 2011
- Author: YouLectures
YouLectures - for the 'INFORMATION' 'MAKING' the 'NEWS' This series has been uploaded following a request and information received that it was not easily available. If you are aware of a title on any subject which is not generally available, or can't be found on YouTube - Please contact us and we'll see if we can locate and then upload it. YouLectures
http://wn.com/Dr_Pierre_Grimes,_The_Sacred_Myths_of_Plato,_The_Republic_1_ANCIENT_PHILOSOPHY_LECTURES
Ancient Greek Philosophers - Thales of Miletus
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 2:54
- Published: 27 Jul 2010
- Uploaded: 27 Dec 2011
- Author: Historyisthekey
Episode 1 in the Ancient Greek Philosophers Series. It is about the first recorded philosopher in Greece called Thales. For the very reason that he is the first known philosopher, he is of vital importance. This video describes his discoveries, philosophical beliefs and everything known about him. Examination of the belief that water is the essence of life and everything will come later in a video regarding the Milesian school of thought. (PS I'm afraid I pronunciate Thales wrong in the video. should be pronounciated 'Thalis')
http://wn.com/Ancient_Greek_Philosophers__Thales_of_Miletus
Ancient Egyptian Philosophy
Excerpt from Sacred Wisdom / Sacred Aesthetic a lecture by Jabari Osaze. The lecture focuses on esoteric keys to understanding Kemetic (Ancient Egyptian) symbolism and philosophy.
http://wn.com/Ancient_Egyptian_Philosophy
Thomas McEvilley on Ancient Greek and Indian philosophy
Thomas McEvilley speaks about Ancient Greek and Indian philosophy, and their co-mingling in his book: 'The Shape of Ancient Thought'. For a longer, more detailed doc on this subject, click: video.google.com
http://wn.com/Thomas_McEvilley_on_Ancient_Greek_and_Indian_philosophy
2) The Milesian School - The Ancient Greek Philosophical Schools
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 8:04
- Published: 26 Dec 2011
- Uploaded: 05 Jan 2012
- Author: HistoryCollaborative
The Milesian school was where ancient Greek philosophy began. For this reason alone it would be worthy of study and rememberance, but that would be to neglect the other contributions it has made to history and, as a result, the modern day. The primary philosophers of this school (Thales, Anaximander & Anaximenes) advanced astronomy dramatically and theorised on what constituted all things - one of the main functions of the scientific field of physics. These doctrines were the building blocks on which future philosophical schools built, including the atomist school.
http://wn.com/2_The_Milesian_School__The_Ancient_Greek_Philosophical_Schools
Ancient Philosophy with Anderson Brown (Part 2/4)
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 14:47
- Published: 18 Oct 2010
- Uploaded: 29 Oct 2010
- Author: PhilosophyUPRM
FILO3158
http://wn.com/Ancient_Philosophy_with_Anderson_Brown_Part_2/4
Zoroastrianism (Mazdayasna) - An Amazingly Ancient, Yet Advanced Religion and Philosophy
Mazdayasna-"the praise of Wisdom", known as Zoroastrianism in the West, is the world's first Monotheistic religion. Founded by the Prophet Zarathushtra in the Late Bronze Age about 3750 years ago, Zoroastrianism is not only one of the most ancient religions, it is also one of the most advanced philosophies known to mankind. Learn more at www.Zarathushtra.org
http://wn.com/Zoroastrianism_Mazdayasna__An_Amazingly_Ancient,_Yet_Advanced_Religion_and_Philosophy
Behind The Curtain - Ancient Knowledge, Black Holes, Life After Death
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 12:46
- Published: 25 Jun 2011
- Uploaded: 24 Jan 2012
- Author: projectmoses69
What we call "Ultimate Truth" - that is, the defining knowledge of the inner workings of the universe I'm afraid, is nothing new. Ancient philosophy has devirginized the unifield field theory thousands of years ago and we are just now beginning to catch up. How our ancestors were able to figure out these universal secrets before combustion still remains a mystery but the facts are clear, there is more to our human history than we ever imagined.
http://wn.com/Behind_The_Curtain__Ancient_Knowledge,_Black_Holes,_Life_After_Death
Socrates - Encyclopedia channel
Ancient Greek philosopher Socrates was born in Athens in the year 469 BC, into the family of the sculptor Sophroniscus and Phaenarete. Socrates became the new philosophy founder and the teacher of the many of great philosophers. There is a sample of our production worldwide distributed.Having an exchange stock we are looking for archive and video materials (tv quality) for our use in our own historical video-project about prominent people of the past and famous canvases. (For more information please visit: www.enc-tv.com)
http://wn.com/Socrates__Encyclopedia_channel
Demons and Gods from the ancient world Full DOCUMENTARY
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 81:48
- Published: 15 Apr 2011
- Uploaded: 26 Jan 2012
- Author: WOLVOMAN80
wolvoman80.webs.com follow on facebook wolvoman80 onwww.facebook.com Demons and Gods from the ancient world Full DOCUMENTARY Vampires Pazuzu exorcism Hell 7 princes Jesus 7 lucky gods sumerian demons ghosts ancient aliens history channel bbc cnn discovery documentary 2011 demon ghost ufo alien scary movie loads more demon reptilian ancient gods and djinn documentary link at top of descriptionTo watch FREE DOCUMENTARIES ( Not available on youtube ) follow the link below wolvoman80.webs.com BRAND NEW FOR 2012 Signs of the Illuminati? EXTENDED VERSION FOLLOW LINK www.videobb.com The return of the Gods? www.videobb.com DOWNLOAD LINKS The Ancient world of Demons, Reptilians, Gods and the djinn www.videoweed.es The Truth about the lies.wmv... www.videoweed.es Right Honourable Gentlemen David Cameron Nick Clegg. www.videoweed.es illuminati a myth volume 1... www.videoweed.es Signs of the ILLUMINATI... www.videoweed.es the return of the gods. www.videoweed.es Hypocrisy, and Lies of the New World Order Full... www.videoweed.es
http://wn.com/Demons_and_Gods_from_the_ancient_world_Full_DOCUMENTARY
Stoicism: Grateful Indifference
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 8:57
- Published: 03 Aug 2009
- Uploaded: 25 Jan 2012
- Author: Professoranton
MUST READ: www.amazon.com This talk addresses stoicism as a kind of grateful indifference. cf. www.amazon.com and also. www.amazon.com
http://wn.com/Stoicism_Grateful_Indifference
A Stoicism Primer
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 7:51
- Published: 02 Aug 2009
- Uploaded: 20 Jan 2012
- Author: Professoranton
www.amazon.com This is a short discussion of Epictetus which then has a brief fragment of the Hymn to Zeus by Cleanthes presented in two forms. Cf. www.amazon.com A fragment from "Hymn to Zeus" Chaos to thee is order in thine eyes the unlovely is lovely who dids't harmonize things evil with things good that there should be, one Word through all things, Everlastingly ---Cleanthes
http://wn.com/A_Stoicism_Primer
Musica Universalis by Mike Oldfield
Musica universalis (lit. universal music, or music of the spheres) is an ancient philosophical concept that regards proportions in the movements of celestial bodies — the Sun, Moon, and planets — as a form of musica (the Medieval Latin name for music). This 'music' is not literally audible, but simply a harmonic and/or mathematical concept. The Greek mathematician and astronomer Pythagoras is frequently credited with originating the concept, which stemmed from his semi-mystical, semi-mathematical philosophy and its associated system of numerology of Pythagoreanism. According to Johannes Kepler, the connection between geometry (and sacred geometry), cosmology, astrology, harmonics, and music is through musica universalis. Source: wikipedia
http://wn.com/Musica_Universalis_by_Mike_Oldfield
Plato - Encyclopedia channel
The school founded by this antique philosopher, became a prototype of modern higher education. Contemporaries named him «the divine teacher»: in his works it was spoken about an ideal society structure and immortality of soul. Ancient Greek thinker Plato said, that «time is a moving similarity of eternity».
http://wn.com/Plato__Encyclopedia_channel
Cradles of Civilization - Ancient Greece
www.tmwmedia.com Considered by many to be the birthplace of Western thought, ancient Greece was home to many of the world's great minds. The complex and intriguing philosophies of Aristotle, Socrates, Plato and Pythagoras are analyzed in a simple, yet comprehensive fashion suitable for both student and scholar. With stunning graphics set against the beautiful backdrops of the Acropolis in Athens and the Oracle at Delphi, this video traces the evolution of these influential thinkers.
http://wn.com/Cradles_of_Civilization__Ancient_Greece
Manly Hall - 1 - Ancient Days, Nature of the Godhead
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 104:41
- Published: 20 Jul 2011
- Uploaded: 22 Jan 2012
- Author: MPHarchive
Manly Palmer Hall was a Canadian-born author and mystic. He is perhaps most famous for his work The Secret Teachings of All Ages: An Encyclopedic Outline of Masonic, Hermetic, Qabbalistic and Rosicrucian Symbolical Philosophy, which is widely regarded as his magnum opus, and which he published at the age of 27. He has been widely recognized as a leading scholar in the fields of religion, mythology, mysticism, and the occult. In 1934, Hall founded the Philosophical Research Society (PRS) in Los Angeles, California, dedicating it to an idealistic approach to the solution of human problems. The PRS claims to be non-sectarian and entirely free from educational, political, or ecclesiastical control, and the Society's programs stress the need for the integration of philosophy, religion, and science into one system of instruction. The PRS Library, a public facility devoted to source materials in obscure fields, has many rare and scarce items now impossible to obtain elsewhere. In 1973 (47 years after writing The Secret Teachings of All Ages), Hall was recognized as a 33º Mason (the highest honor conferred by the Supreme Council of the Scottish Rite), at a ceremony held at PRS on December 8th, despite never being initiated into the physical craft. In his over 70-year career, Hall delivered approximately 8000 lectures in the United States and abroad, authored over 150 books and essays, and wrote countless magazine articles. www.manlyphall.org www.prs.org
http://wn.com/Manly_Hall__1__Ancient_Days,_Nature_of_the_Godhead
James Collins: What Matters to Me and Why, Part I
James Collins, assistant professor of classics and undergraduate adviser for USC's classics program, discussed the topic "What Matters to Me and Why" on Dec. 1, 2010. What is important to someone who looks at philosophy as a lifestyle? James Collins came to USC as a lecturer in the college in 2008. Currently he is assistant professor of classics and undergraduate adviser for the classics program. As a graduate student at Stanford University, he conducted research on ancient philosophy, intellectual and social history, and performance theory, with an emphasis on the cultural and discursive practices of philosophical disciplines in ancient Greek and Roman culture. His dissertation examined the development of philosophical schools and the rhetoric that philosophers use to advertise their respective discourses and lifestyles. Prof. Collins' current research develops the notion of philosophy as a political and social pursuit among other competing and similarly commodified lifestyles. This project aims to determine the pragmatics of a "marketplace of ideas" (ie, the economy, cohesion, identity and mobility of intellectual communities) in the larger marketplace of a variety of political and social landscapes. While completing his Ph.D. at Stanford, Collins also co-founded the interdisciplinary Philosophical Stages program, which develops strategies for introducing people of all ages and walks of life to philosophy as an active, live discipline through dramatic and rhetorical <b>...</b>
http://wn.com/James_Collins_What_Matters_to_Me_and_Why,_Part_I
Rudra- Twilight of Duality
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 4:35
- Published: 20 May 2008
- Uploaded: 21 Jan 2012
- Author: satanicluju
No this band is not religious. If they were why would i love them. Here is an excerpt from an interview: We are very much inspired by the Advaita philosophy as taught by the Vedas, one of the oldest known mystical texts. Our songs present this ancient philosophy as revealed by the Vedic literature in the Sanskrit language. This is the relation to the OM and the Sanskrit strewn all over our albums and our WebPages. I would not call us followers of the Vedic Religion per se. Please bear with me as I wish to digress here for a moment�.. Personally I abhor the word 'religion'. If anyone were to look at what religions have done & doing to the world, any sane person would be ashamed to call oneself religious. Religion has been the cause of violence and bloodshed all over the world in the past 1500 years. From the theological standpoint, a follower of religion is expected to believe in some Creator God or a Supreme Being sitting up in the skies and also the promise of a paradise. These concepts happen to be the conventional traits of any religion. I find these beliefs completely foolish, repulsive and childish. Hence, I prefer to use the term Spiritual Philosophy, which would mean a school of thought that transcends phenomenon without having to speculate or believe in any concept or theory. For this reason we are very wary of calling ourselves followers of any religion. And from this philosophical perspective alone proceeds the song-writing of Rudra. Our lyrics are basically <b>...</b>
http://wn.com/Rudra_Twilight_of_Duality
Opening your Root Chakra (Video #2)
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 9:02
- Published: 23 Feb 2011
- Uploaded: 24 Jan 2012
- Author: DawnMarieFerrara
I introduce you to your Root Chakra and show you how to open it up with imagery and guided meditation. (New Videos Post every Wednesday)
http://wn.com/Opening_your_Root_Chakra_Video_#2
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Creative Commons![Leonardos Philaras (c. 1595–1673) was a Greek scholar born in Athens in 1595,[19] he was an early supporter of Greek liberation, he spent much of his career in persuading Western European intellectuals to support Greek Independence.[20]](http://web.archive.org./web/20120129133211im_/http://cdn5.wn.com/pd/87/11/2ddf7b3554167c2e0eecd568e3c3_small.jpg "Leonardos Philaras (c. 1595–1673) was a Greek scholar born in Athens in 1595,[19] he was an early supporter of Greek liberation, he spent much of his career in persuading Western European intellectuals to support Greek Independence.[20]")
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![Leonardos Philaras (c. 1595–1673) was a Greek scholar born in Athens in 1595,[19] he was an early supporter of Greek liberation, he spent much of his career in persuading Western European intellectuals to support Greek Independence.[20]](http://web.archive.org./web/20120129133211/http://cdn9.wn.com/pd/87/11/2ddf7b3554167c2e0eecd568e3c3_medium.jpg "Leonardos Philaras (c. 1595–1673) was a Greek scholar born in Athens in 1595,[19] he was an early supporter of Greek liberation, he spent much of his career in persuading Western European intellectuals to support Greek Independence.[20]")
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Ancient philosophies of left and right
10 Jan 2012
The Examiner
I have always been enamored with philosophy and I have often attempted, sometimes successfully, to bring in philosophies which support my arguments. This is important to me. I can often see direct lines going from modern political debates to as far back as Plato and...
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Jezebel
Demi Moore was scheduled to attend a screening of her new film, Bunraku, at the Chateau Marmont in Los Angeles on Tuesday, but did not show up. Could it have had something to do with the rumor that her marriage is dissolving? Or the rumor that her husband had sex with some blonde chick on the eve of...
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size: 4.3Kb
The Guardian
Keith Cooper is granted exclusive access to a group of academics, lawyers and carers as they wrangle over how to grant patients autonomy Steven Neary with his father, Mark. Hillingdon was criticised for the way it treated this autistic young man, raising important questions about autonomy....
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Meet the super tutors: hired to teach five-year-olds Ancient Greek, Chinese and philosophy
10 Jun 2011
The Daily Mail
Extra homework: Gwyneth Paltrow and son Moses Personal trainers, motivational coaches, housekeepers, hairdressers, stylists and butlers used to be the fashion-conscious celebrity’s status symbols of choice. But these days, if a pop star or actor hasn’t acquired a super-tutor, fluent in...
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size: 13.5Kb
The Hindu
Special Correspondent Cancer specialist delivers the first oration in memory of Dr. S. Krishnamurthi...
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The Examiner
The first methodical scientists were the pre-Socratic philosophers (know also as the natural philosophers) who began to inquire about the nature of the cosmos and natural phenomenon. Their methodology was to create a cogent system of understanding as to why things happened and how they progressed....
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The Independent
Even Jonny Wilkinson must be tempted to kick the cat at the moment, but a couple of things seem likely to hold him back. Most pertinent, perhaps, is the question whether his other leg could bear the weight, following the latest, excruciating chapter in his injury saga. But he might also hesitate...
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China Daily
More than 1,000 years ago, Confucianism began its spread across the East Asian region before serving as an influential force in Europe during the 18th century. Today, the vast collection of "Confucian" thoughts comprising thousands of Confucian titles will be compiled in the first-ever comprehensive...
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Corporate tycoons started seeking possible business tactics hidden behind the concepts of yin and yang during their first university lecture on traditional Chinese culture over the weekend. Up to 40 entrepreneurs signed up to be enlightened at Peking University, shelling out 24,000 yuan (US$2,959)...
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This page lists some links to ancient philosophy. In Western philosophy, the spread of Christianity through the Roman Empire marked the ending of Hellenistic philosophy and ushered in the beginnings of Medieval philosophy, whereas in Eastern philosophy, the spread of Islam through the Arab Empire marked the end of Old Iranian philosophy and ushered in the beginnings of early Islamic philosophy.
Legalism, which maintained that human nature was incorrigibly selfish; accordingly, the only way to preserve the social order was to impose discipline from above, and to see to a strict enforcement of laws. The Legalists exalted the state above all, seeking its prosperity and martial prowess over the welfare of the common people.
Taoism, a philosophy which emphasizes the Three Jewels of the Tao: compassion, moderation, and humility, while Taoist thought generally focuses on nature, the relationship between humanity and the cosmos; health and longevity; and wu wei (action through inaction). Harmony with the Universe, or the source thereof (Tao), is the intended result of many Taoist rules and practices.
Mohism, which advocated the idea of universal love: Mozi believed that "everyone is equal before heaven", and that people should seek to imitate heaven by engaging in the practice of collective love. His epistemology can be regarded as primitive materialist empiricism; he believed that human cognition ought to be based on one's perceptions – one's sensory experiences, such as sight and hearing – instead of imagination or internal logic, elements founded on the human capacity for abstraction. Mozi advocated frugality, condemning the Confucian emphasis on ritual and music, which he denounced as extravagant.
Naturalism, the School of Naturalists or the Yin-yang school, which synthesized the concepts of yin-yang and the Five Elements; Zou Yan is considered the founder of this school.
Agrarianism, or the School of Agrarianism, which advocated peasant utopian communalism and egalitarianism. The Agrarians believed that Chinese society should be modeled around that of the early sage king Shen Nong, a folk hero which was portrayed in Chinese literature as "working in the fields, along with everyone else, and consulting with everyone else when any decision had to be reached."
The Logicians or the School of Names, which focused on definition and logic. It is said to have parallels with that of the Ancient Greek sophists or dialecticians. The most notable Logician was Gongsun Longzi.
The School of Diplomacy or School of Vertical and Horizontal [Alliances], which focused on practical matters instead of any moral principle, so it stressed political and diplomatic tactics, and debate and lobbying skill. Scholars from this school were good orators, debaters and tacticians.
The Miscellaneous School, which integrated teachings from different schools; for instance, Lü Buwei found scholars from different schools to write a book called Lüshi Chunqiu cooperatively. This school tried to integrate the merits of various schools and avoid their perceived flaws.
The School of "Minor-talks", which was not a unique school of thought, but a philosophy constructed of all the thoughts which were discussed by and originated from normal people on the street.
Another group is the School of the Military that studied strategy and the philosophy of war; Sunzi and Sun Bin were influential leaders. However, this school was not one of the "Ten Schools" defined by Hanshu.
Taoism
*Laozi
*Zhuangzi
*Zhang Daoling
*Zhang Jue
*Ge Hong
*Chen Tuan
Confucianism
*Confucius
*Mencius
*Xun Zi
Legalism
*Li Si
*Li Kui
*Han Fei
*Shang Yang
*Shen Buhai
*Shen Dao
Mohism
*Mozi
*Song Xing
**Logicians
***Deng Xi
***Hui Shi
***Gongsun Long
Agrarianism
*Xu Xing
Naturalism
*Zou Yan
Neotaoism
*Wang Bi
*Guo Xiang
*Xiang Xiu
School of Diplomacy
*Guiguzi
*Su Qin
*Zhang Yi
*Yue Yi
*Li Yiji
School of the Military
*Sunzi
*Sun Bin
Zen
*Linji
*Tung-shan
*Yunmen Wenyan
Milesian School
:Thales (624 BC–ca. 546 BC)
:Anaximander (610-546 BC)
:Anaximenes of Miletus (c. 585-c. 525 BC)
Pythagoreans
:Pythagoras (582-496 BC)
:Philolaus (470-380 BC)
:Alcmaeon of Croton
:Archytas (428-347 BC)
Heraclitus (535-475 BC)
Eleatic School
:Xenophanes (570-470 BC)
:Parmenides (510-440 BC)
:Zeno of Elea (490-430 BC)
:Melissus of Samos (c 470 BC–unknown)
Pluralists
:Empedocles (490-430 BC)
:Anaxagoras (500-428 BC)
Atomists
:Leucippus (first half of 5th century BC)
:Democritus (460-370 BC)
:Metrodorus of Chios (4th century BC)
Pherecydes of Syros (6th century BC)
Sophists
:Protagoras (490-420 BC)
:Gorgias (487-376 BC)
:Antiphon (480-411 BC)
:Prodicus (465/450-after 399 BC)
:Hippias (middle of the 5th century BC)
:Thrasymachus (459-400 BC)
:Callicles
:Critias
:Lycophron
Diogenes of Apollonia (c. 460 BC-unknown)
Socrates (469-399 BC)
Euclid of Megara (450-380 BC)
Antisthenes (445-360 BC)
Aristippus (435-356 BC)
Plato (428-347 BC)
Speusippus (407-339 BC)
Diogenes of Sinope (400-325 BC)
Xenocrates (396-314 BC)
Aristotle (384-322 BC)
Stilpo (380-300 BC)
Theophrastus (370-288 BC)
Pyrrho (365-275 BC)
Epicurus (341-270 BC), see: Epicureanism
Metrodorus of Lampsacus (the younger) (331–278 BC)
Zeno of Citium (333-263 BC)
Cleanthes (331-232 BC)
Timon (320-230 BC)
Arcesilaus (316-232 BC)
Menippus (3rd century BC)
Archimedes (c. 287-212 BC)
Chrysippus (280-207 BC)
Carneades (214-129 BC)
Clitomachus (187-109 BC)
Metrodorus of Stratonicea (late 2nd century BC)
Philo of Larissa (160-80 BC)
Posidonius (135-51 BC)
Antiochus of Ascalon (130-68 BC)
Aenesidemus (1st century BC)
Philo of Alexandria (30 BC–45 AD)
Agrippa (1st century AD)
Cynicism
Hedonism
Eclecticism
Neo-Platonism
Skepticism
Stoicism
Sophism
Vedas
Upanishads
Hindu philosophy
What is the ontological nature of consciousness?
How is cognition itself experienced?
Is mind (''chit'') intentional or not?
Does cognition have its own structure?
Nyaya
Vaisheshika
Samkhya
Yoga
Mimamsa (Purva Mimamsa)
Vedanta (Uttara Mimamsa)
Hindu philosophy
Buddhist philosophy
Jain philosophy
Sikh philosophy
Cārvāka (atheist) philosophy
Buddha, ''Buddhist philosophy''
Asanga (c. 300), exponent of the Yogacara
Bhartrihari (c 450–510 AD), early figure in Indic linguistic theory
Bodhidharma (c. 440–528 AD), founder of the Zen school of Buddhism
Chanakya (c.350 - c.275 BC), author of Arthashastra, professor (acharya) of political science at the Takshashila University
Dignāga (c. 500), one of the founders of Buddhist school of Indian logic.
Gautama Buddha (563 BC - 483 BC), founder of Buddhist school of thought
Gotama (c. 2nd–3rd century AD), wrote the Nyaya Sutras, considered to be the foundation of the Nyaya school.
Haribhadra (8th Century CE), a Jaina thinker, author and great proponent of anekāntavāda and classical yoga, as a soteriological system of meditation in Jaina context. His works include and Yogabindu.
Hemacandra (1089–1172 CE) - a Jaina thinker, author, historian, grammarian and logician. His works include Yogaśāstra and Trishashthishalakapurushacharitra.
Jaimini, author of Purva Mimamsa Sutras
Kanada (c. 600 BC), founded the philosophical school of Vaisheshika, gave theory of atomism
Kapila (c. 500 BC), proponent of the Samkhya system of philosophy
Kundakunda (2nd Century CE), exponent of Jain mysticism and Jain nayas dealing with the nature of the soul and its contamination by matter, author of Pañcāstikāyasāra (Essence of the Five Existents), the Pravacanasāra (Essence of the Scripture) and the Samayasāra (Essence of the Doctrine)
Lonkā (15th century CE) – His opposition to idol worship and rituals eventually led to establishment of non-iconic sects of Sthanakvasi and Terapanthi.
Nagarjuna (c. 150 - 250 AD), the founder of the Madhyamaka (Middle Path) school of Mahāyāna Buddhism.
Pāṇini (520–460 BC), grammarian, author of Ashtadhyayi
Patañjali (between 200 BC and 400 AD), developed the philosophy of Raja Yoga in his Yoga Sutras.
Pingala (c. 500 BC), author of the ''Chandas shastra''
Adi Shankara (788-820 AD), the first philosopher to consolidate the doctrine of Advaita Vedanta, a sub-school of Vedanta
Siddhasena Divākara (5th Century CE), Jain logician and author of important works in Sanskrit and Prakrit, such as, Nyāyāvatāra (on Logic) and Sanmatisūtra (dealing with the seven Jaina standpoints, knowledge and the objects of knowledge)
Syntipas (c. 100 BC), author of ''The Story of the Seven Wise Masters''.
Tiruvalluvar (between 100 BC and 300 AD), author of Thirukkural, one of the greatest ethical works in Tamil language
Umāsvāti or Umasvami (2nd Century CE), author of first Jain work in Sanskrit, Tattvārthasūtra, expounding the Jain philosophy in a most systematized form acceptable to all sects of Jainism.
Vasubandhu (c. 300 AD), one of the main founders of the Indian Yogacara school.
Vyasa (c. 3000 BC), author of several important works in Hindu philosophy
Yajnavalkya (Prehistoric), linked to philosophical teachings of the Brhadaranyaka Upanishad, and the apophatic teaching of 'neti neti' etc.
Yaśovijaya Gaṇi (1624–88 CE) – Jain logician and considered last intellectual giant to contribute to Jaina philosophy.
Zoroastrianism
*Zarathustra
*Jamasp
*Ostanes
*Mardan-Farrux Ohrmazddadan
*Adurfarnbag Farroxzadan
*Adurbad Emedan
*Azar Kayvan
*''Avesta''
*''Gathas''
Mazdakism
*Mazdak
*Mazdak the Elder
Manichaeism
*Mani
Zurvanism
*Aesthetic Zurvanism
*Materialist Zurvanism
*Fatalistic Zurvanism
Other ancient philosophers
*Anacharsis
Political Philosophy
*Tansar
University of Gundishapur
* Borzouye
* Bakhtshooa Gondishapuri
Emperor Khosrau's philosophical discourses
*Paul the Persian
Pahlavi literature
Persian Illuminationism
*Suhrawardi
School of Isfahan
*Mir Damad
Transcendent Philosophy
*Sadr Shirazi
Thus Spoke Zarathustra by the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche
Creation by the American thinker Gore Vidal
Cicero (106-43 BC)
Lucretius (94-55 BC)
Seneca (4 BC–65 AD)
Paul of Tarsus (c. 6BC-c. 67AD)
Musonius Rufus (30 AD–100 AD)
Plutarch (45-120 AD)
Epictetus (55-135 AD)
Marcus Aurelius (121-180 AD)
Clement of Alexandria (150-215 AD)
Alcinous (philosopher) (2nd century AD)
Sextus Empiricus (3rd century AD)
Alexander of Aphrodisias (3rd century AD)
Ammonius Saccas (3rd century AD)
Plotinus (205-270 AD)
Porphyry (232-304 AD)
Iamblichus (242-327 AD)
Themistius (317-388 AD)
Augustine of Hippo (354-430 AD)
Proclus (411-485 AD)
Philoponus of Alexandria (490-570 AD)
Damascius (462-540 AD)
Boethius (472-524 AD)
Simplicius of Cilicia (490-560 AD)
Internet sources
Ancient Chinese philosophy
Chinese philosophy is the dominant philosophical thought in China and other countries within the sinosphere, including Japan, Korea, and Vietnam.
Schools of thought
Hundred Schools of Thought
The Hundred Schools of Thought were philosophers and schools that flourished from 770 to 221 BC, an era of great cultural and intellectual expansion in China. Even though this period - known in its earlier part as the Spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period - in its latter part was fraught with chaos and bloody battles, it is also known as the Golden Age of Chinese philosophy because a broad range of thoughts and ideas were developed and discussed freely. The thoughts and ideas discussed and refined during this period have profoundly influenced lifestyles and social consciousness up to the present day in East Asian countries. The intellectual society of this era was characterized by itinerant scholars, who were often employed by various state rulers as advisers on the methods of government, war, and diplomacy. This period ended with the rise of the Qin Dynasty and the subsequent purge of dissent. The Book of Han lists ten major schools, they are: Confucianism, which teaches that human beings are teachable, improvable and perfectible through personal and communal endeavour especially including self-cultivation and self-creation. A main idea of Confucianism is the cultivation of virtue and the development of moral perfection. Confucianism holds that one should give up one's life, if necessary, either passively or actively, for the sake of upholding the cardinal moral values of ''ren'' and ''yi''.
Early Imperial China
The founder of the Qin Dynasty, who implemented Legalism as the official philosophy, quashed Mohist and Confucianist schools. Legalism remained influential until the emperors of the Han Dynasty adopted Daoism and later Confucianism as official doctrine. These latter two became the determining forces of Chinese thought until the introduction of Buddhism.Confucianism was particularly strong during the Han Dynasty, whose greatest thinker was Dong Zhongshu, who integrated Confucianism with the thoughts of the Zhongshu School and the theory of the Five Elements. He also was a promoter of the New Text school, which considered Confucius as a divine figure and a spiritual ruler of China, who foresaw and started the evolution of the world towards the Universal Peace. In contrast, there was an Old Text school that advocated the use of Confucian works written in ancient language (from this comes the denomination ''Old Text'') that were so much more reliable. In particular, they refuted the assumption of Confucius as a godlike figure and considered him as the greatest sage, but simply a human and mortal
The 3rd and 4th centuries saw the rise of the ''Xuanxue'' (mysterious learning), also called ''Neo-Taoism''. The most important philosophers of this movement were Wang Bi, Xiang Xiu and Guo Xiang. The main question of this school was whether Being came before Not-Being (in Chinese, ''ming'' and ''wuming''). A peculiar feature of these Taoist thinkers, like the Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove, was the concept of ''feng liu'' (lit. wind and flow), a sort of romantic spirit which encouraged following the natural and instinctive impulse.
Buddhism arrived in China around the 1st century AD, but it was not until the Northern and Southern, Sui and Tang Dynasties that it gained considerable influence and acknowledgement. At the beginning, it was considered a sort of Taoist sect, and there was even a theory about Laozi, founder of Taoism, who went to India and taught his philosophy to Buddha. Mahayana Buddhism was far more successful in China than its rival Hinayana, and both Indian schools and local Chinese sects arose from the 5th century. Two chiefly important monk philosophers were Sengzhao and Daosheng. But probably the most influential and original of these schools was the Chan sect, which had an even stronger impact in Japan as the Zen sect.
Philosophers
Ancient Greek philosophy
Philosophers
Presocratic philosophers
Classical Greek philosophers
Hellenistic philosophy
Hellenistic schools of thought
Ancient Indian philosophy
The ancient Indian philosophy is a fusion of two ancient traditions : Sramana tradition and Vedic tradition.
Vedic philosophy
Indian philosophy begins with the ''Vedas'' where questions related to laws of nature, the origin of the universe and the place of man in it are asked. In the famous Rigvedic ''Hymn of Creation'' the poet says:"Whence all creation had its origin, he, whether he fashioned it or whether he did not, he, who surveys it all from highest heaven, he knows--or maybe even he does not know."
In the Vedic view, creation is ascribed to the self-consciousness of the primeval being (''Purusha''). This leads to the inquiry into ''the one being'' that underlies the diversity of empirical phenomena and the origin of all things. Cosmic order is termed ''rta'' and causal law by ''karma''. Nature (''prakriti'') is taken to have three qualities (''sattva'', ''rajas'', and ''tamas'').
Sramana Philosophy
Jainism and Buddhism are continuation of the Sramana school of thought. The Sramanas cultivated a pessimistic worldview of the samsara as full of suffering and advocated renunciation and austerities. They laid stress on philosophical concepts like Ahimsa, Karma, Jnana, Samsara and Moksa.
Classical Indian philosophy
In classical times, these inquiries were systematized in six schools of philosophy. Some of the questions asked were:
The Six schools of Indian philosophy are:
Other traditions of Indian philosophy include:
Buddhism
Cārvāka
Cārvāka (Sanskrit: चार्वाक), also known as Lokāyata, is a system of Hindu philosophy that assumes various forms of philosophical skepticism and religious indifference.It is named after its founder, Cārvāka, author of the Bārhaspatya-sūtras. In overviews of Hindu philosophy, Cārvāka is classified as a "faithless" (nāstika) system, the same classification as is given to Buddhism and Jainism.It is characterized as a materialistic and atheistic school of thought. While this branch of Indian philosophy is not considered to be part of the six orthodox schools of Hindu philosophy, it is noteworthy as evidence of a materialistic movement within Hinduism. The Cārvāka school of philosophy had a variety of atheistic, materialistic, and naturalistic beliefs. The Carvaka believed there was no afterlife, no life after death''Springing forth from these elements itself solid knowledge is destroyed when they are destroyed— after death no intelligence remains''.
Naturalism The Carvaka believed in a form of naturalism, that is that all things happen by nature, and come from nature (not from any deity or Supreme Being).
''Fire is hot, water cold, refreshingly cool is the breeze of morning; By whom came this variety? They were born of their own nature''.
Sensual indulgence
Unlike many of the Indian philosophies of the time, the Carvaka believed there was nothing wrong with sensual indulgence, and that it was the only enjoyment to be pursued.''That the pleasure arising to man from contact with sensible objects, is to be relinquished because accompanied by pain— such is the reasoning of fools. The kernels of the paddy, rich with finest white grains, What man, seeking his own true interest, would fling them away because of a covering of husk and dust? While life remains, let a man live happily, let him feed on butter though he runs in debt; When once the body becomes ashes, how can it ever return again?''
Religion is invented by man
The Carvaka believed that religion was invented and made up by men, having no divine authority.''The three authors of the Vedas were buffoons, knaves, and demons. All the well-known formulae of the pandits, jarphari, turphari, etc. and all the obscene rites for the queen commanded in Aswamedha, these were invented by buffoons, and so all the various kinds of presents to the priests, while the eating of flesh was similarly commanded by night-prowling demons''.
Ancient Indian philosophers
Ancient Iranian philosophy
See also: ''Dualism, Dualism (philosophy of mind)''While there are ancient relations between the Indian Vedas and the Iranian Avesta, the two main families of the Indo-Iranian philosophical traditions were characterized by fundamental differences in their implications for the human being's position in society and their view on the role of man in the universe. The first charter of human rights by Cyrus the Great as understood in the Cyrus cylinder is often seen as a reflection of the questions and thoughts expressed by Zarathustra and developed in Zoroastrian schools of thought of the Achaemenid Era of Iranian history.
Schools of thought
Philosophy and the Empire
Literature
Continuation in Iranian philosophy
In Western literature and culture
In addition to many remarkable reflections in Ancient and Medieval European literature, such as those related to Zoroastrian and Manichaean ideas and challenges, in recent Western literature Iranian philosophy appears and is treated in various ways. Two eminent examples are:
Early Roman and Christian philosophy
See also: ''Jewish philosophy'', ''Christian philosophy''
Philosophers during Roman times
References
External links
Category:History of philosophy Category:Philosophy by era
ar:فلسفة قديمة az:Antik fəlsəfə bn:প্রাচীন দর্শন bg:Антична философия ca:Filosofia antiga cs:Starověká filosofie de:Philosophie der Antike es:Historia de la filosofía occidental fa:فلسفه دوران باستان fr:Philosophie antique ko:고대 철학 hy:Դասական փիլիսոփայություն hr:Antička filozofija is:Fornaldarheimspeki it:Filosofia antica nl:Antieke filosofie no:Antikkens filosofi pl:Filozofia starożytna pt:Filosofia antiga ro:Filosofia antică greco-romană ru:Античная философия scn:Filusufìa antica sk:Staroveká filozofia sr:Античка филозофија sh:Antička filozofija fi:Antiikin filosofia sv:Antikens filosofi tr:Antik Çağ felsefesi uk:Антична філософія zh:古代哲学This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
| Coordinates | 30°19′10″N81°39′36″N |
|---|---|
| color | #B0C4DE |
| name | Thales of Miletus (Θαλῆς ὁ Μιλήσιος) |
| birth date | ca. 624–625 BC |
| death date | ca. 547–546 BC |
| school tradition | Ionian, Milesian school, Naturalism |
| main interests | Ethics, Metaphysics, Mathematics, Astronomy |
| influences | Babylonian astronomy & Ancient Egyptian mathematics and religion |
| influenced | Pythagoras, Anaximander, Anaximenes |
| notable ideas | Water is the physis, Thales' theorem, intercept theorem }} |
Thales of Miletus (; , ''Thalēs''; 624 BC – c. 546 BC) was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher from Miletus in Asia Minor, and one of the Seven Sages of Greece. Many, most notably Aristotle, regard him as the first philosopher in the Greek tradition. According to Bertrand Russell, "Western philosophy begins with Thales." Thales attempted to explain natural phenomena without reference to mythology and was tremendously influential in this respect. Almost all of the other pre-Socratic philosophers follow him in attempting to provide an explanation of ultimate substance, change, and the existence of the world—without reference to mythology. Those philosophers were also influential, and eventually Thales' rejection of mythological explanations became an essential idea for the scientific revolution. He was also the first to define general principles and set forth hypotheses, and as a result has been dubbed the "Father of Science", though it is argued that Democritus is actually more deserving of this title.
In mathematics, Thales used geometry to solve problems such as calculating the height of pyramids and the distance of ships from the shore. He is credited with the first use of deductive reasoning applied to geometry, by deriving four corollaries to Thales' Theorem. As a result, he has been hailed as the first true mathematician and is the first known individual to whom a mathematical discovery has been attributed. Also, Thales was the first person known to have studied electricity.
Life
Thales was born in the city of Miletus around the mid 620s BC. Miletus was an ancient Greek Ionian city on the western coast of Asia Minor (in what is today the Aydin Province of Turkey), near the mouth of the Maeander River.
Background
The dates of Thales' life are not known precisely. The time of his life is roughly established by a few dateable events mentioned in the sources and an estimate of his length of life. According to Herodotus, Thales once predicted a solar eclipse which has been determined by modern methods to have been on May 28, 585 BC. Diogenes Laërtius quotes the chronicle of Apollodorus as saying that Thales died at 78 in the 58th Olympiad (548–545), and Sosicrates as reporting that he was 90 at his death.Diogenes Laertius states that ("according to Herodotus and Douris and Democritus") Thales' parents were Examyes and Cleobuline, both Phoenician nobles. Giving another opinion, he ultimately connects Thales' family line back to Phoenician prince Cadmus. Diogenes also reports two other stories, one that he married and had a son, Cybisthus or Cybisthon, or adopted his nephew of the same name. The second is that he never married, telling his mother as a young man that it was too early to marry, and as an older man that it was too late. A much earlier source - Plutarch - tells the following story: Solon who visited Thales asked him the reason which kept him single. Thales answered that he did not like the idea of having to worry about children. Nevertheless, several years later Thales, anxious for family, adopted his nephew Cybisthus.
Thales involved himself in many activities, taking the role of an innovator. Some say that he left no writings, others that he wrote "On the Solstice" and "On the Equinox". Neither has survived. Diogenes Laërtius quotes letters of Thales to Pherecydes and Solon, offering to review the book of the former on religion, and offering to keep company with the latter on his sojourn from Athens. Thales identifies the Milesians as Athenians.
Business
Several anecdotes suggest that Thales was not solely a thinker; he was involved in business and politics. One story recounts that he bought all the olive presses in Miletus after predicting the weather and a good harvest for a particular year. Another version of this same story states that he bought options for the use of the presses not to become wealthy, but merely to demonstrate to his fellow Milesians that he could use his intelligence to enrich himself. This can be considered the first known example of options trading.
Politics
Thales’ political life had mainly to do with the involvement of the Ionians in the defense of Anatolia against the growing power of the Persians, who were then new to the region. A king had come to power in neighboring Lydia, Croesus, who was somewhat too aggressive for the size of his army. He had conquered most of the states of coastal Anatolia, including the cities of the Ionians. The story is told in Herodotus.The Lydians were at war with the Medes, a remnant of the first wave of Persians in the region, over the issue of refuge the Lydians had given to some Scythian soldiers of fortune inimical to the Medes. The war endured for five years, but in the sixth an eclipse of the Sun (mentioned above) spontaneously halted a battle in progress (the Battle of Halys). It seems that Thales had predicted this solar eclipse. The Seven Sages were most likely already in existence, as Croesus was also heavily influenced by Solon of Athens, another sage. Whether Thales was present at the battle is not known, nor are the exact terms of the prediction, but based on it the Lydians and Medes made peace immediately, swearing a blood oath.
The Medes were dependencies of the Persians under Cyrus. Croesus now sided with the Medes against the Persians and marched in the direction of Iran (with far fewer men than he needed). He was stopped by the river Halys, then unbridged. This time he had Thales with him, perhaps by invitation. Whatever his status, the king gave the problem to him, and he got the army across by digging a diversion upstream so as to reduce the flow, making it possible to ford the river. The channels ran around both sides of the camp.
The two armies engaged at Pteria in Cappadocia. As the battle was indecisive but paralyzing to both sides, Croesus marched home, dismissed his mercenaries and sent emissaries to his dependents and allies to ask them to dispatch fresh troops to Sardis. The issue became more pressing when the Persian army showed up at Sardis. Diogenes Laertius tells us that Thales gained fame as a counsellor when he advised the Milesians not to engage in a symmachia, a “fighting together”, with the Lydians. This has sometimes been interpreted as an alliance, but a ruler does not ally with his subjects.
Croesus was defeated before the city of Sardis by Cyrus, who subsequently spared Miletus because it had taken no action. Cyrus was so impressed by Croesus’ wisdom and his connection with the sages that he spared him and took his advice on various matters.
The Ionians were now free. Herodotus says that Thales advised them to form an Ionian state; that is, a bouleuterion (“deliberative body”) to be located at Teos in the center of Ionia. The Ionian cities should be demoi, or “districts”. Miletus, however, received favorable terms from Cyrus. The others remained in an Ionian League of 12 cities (excluding Miletus now), and were subjugated by the Persians.
Sagacity
Diogenes Laertius tells us that the Seven Sages were created in the archonship of Damasius at Athens about 582 BC and that Thales was the first sage. The same story, however, asserts that Thales emigrated to Miletus. There is also a report that he did not become a student of nature until after his political career. Much as we would like to have a date on the seven sages, we must reject these stories and the tempting date if we are to believe that Thales was a native of Miletus, predicted the eclipse, and was with Croesus in the campaign against Cyrus.Thales had instruction from Egyptian priests, we are told. It was fairly certain that he came from a wealthy and established family, and the wealthy customarily educated their children. Moreover, the ordinary citizen, unless he was a seafaring man or a merchant, could not afford the grand tour in Egypt, and in any case did not consort with noble lawmakers such as Solon.
He did participate in some games, most likely Panhellenic, at which he won a bowl twice. He dedicated it to Apollo at Delphi. As he was not known to have been athletic, his event was probably declamation, and it may have been victory in some specific phase of this event that led to his being designated sage.
Theories
The Greeks often invoked idiosyncratic explanations of natural phenomena by reference to the will of anthropomorphic gods and heroes. Thales, however, aimed to explain natural phenomena via a rational explanation that referenced natural processes themselves. For example, Thales attempted to explain earthquakes by hypothesizing that the Earth floats on water, and that earthquakes occur when the Earth is rocked by waves, rather than assuming that earthquakes were the result of supernatural processes. Thales was a Hylozoist (those who think matter is alive). It is unclear whether the interpretation that he treated matter as being alive might have been mistaken for his thinking the properties of nature arise directly from material processes, more consistent with modern ideas of how properties arise as emergent characteristics of complex systems involved in the processes of evolution and developmental change.Thales, according to Aristotle, asked what was the nature (Greek ''Arche'') of the object so that it would behave in its characteristic way. Physis (φύσις) comes from phyein (φύειν), "to grow", related to our word "be". ''(G)natura'' is the way a thing is "born", again with the stamp of what it is in itself.
Aristotle characterizes most of the philosophers "at first" () as thinking that the "principles in the form of matter were the only principles of all things", where "principle" is arche, "matter" is hyle ("wood" or "matter", "material") and "form" is eidos.
''Arche'' is translated as "principle", but the two words do not have precisely the same meaning. A principle of something is merely prior (related to pro-) to it either chronologically or logically. An arche (from , "to rule") dominates an object in some way. If the arche is taken to be an origin, then specific causality is implied; that is, B is supposed to be characteristically B just because it comes from A, which dominates it.
The archai that Aristotle had in mind in his well-known passage on the first Greek scientists are not necessarily chronologically prior to their objects, but are constituents of it. For example, in pluralism objects are composed of earth, air, fire and water, but those elements do not disappear with the production of the object. They remain as archai within it, as do the atoms of the atomists.
What Aristotle is really saying is that the first philosophers were trying to define the substance(s) of which all material objects are composed. As a matter of fact, that is exactly what modern scientists are attempting to accomplish in nuclear physics, which is a second reason why Thales is described as the first western scientist.
Water as a first principle
Thales' most famous belief was his cosmological thesis, which held that the world started from water. Aristotle considered this belief roughly equivalent to the later ideas of Anaximenes, who held that everything in the world was composed of air.The best explanation of Thales' view is the following passage from Aristotle's ''Metaphysics''. The passage contains words from the theory of matter and form that were adopted by science with quite different meanings. :"That from which is everything that exists and from which it first becomes and into which it is rendered at last, its substance remaining under it, but transforming in qualities, that they say is the element and principle of things that are."
And again:
:"For it is necessary that there be some nature (φύσις), either one or more than one, from which become the other things of the object being saved... Thales the founder of this type of philosophy says that it is water."
Aristotle's depiction of the problem of change and the definition of substance is clear. If an object changes, is it the same or different? In either case how can there be a change from one to the other? The answer is that the substance "is saved", but acquires or loses different qualities (πάθη, the things you "experience").
A deeper dip into the waters of the theory of matter and form is properly reserved to other articles. The question for this article is, how far does Aristotle reflect Thales? He was probably not far off, and Thales was probably an incipient matter-and-formist.
The essentially non-philosophic Diogenes Laertius states that Thales taught as follows:
: "Water constituted (, 'stood under') the principle of all things."
Heraclitus Homericus states that Thales drew his conclusion from seeing moist substance turn into air, slime and earth. It seems likely that Thales viewed the Earth as solidifying from the water on which it floated and which surrounded Ocean.
Beliefs in divinity
Thales applied his method to objects that changed to become other objects, such as water into earth (he thought). But what about the changing itself? Thales did address the topic, approaching it through lodestone and amber, which, when electrified by rubbing together, also attracts. A concern for magnetism and electrification never left science, being a major part of it today. Even the subatomic particle of electric current is derived from the Greek word ήλεκτρον (ēlektron), which means "amber".How was the power to move other things without the movers changing to be explained? Thales saw a commonality with the powers of living things to act. The lodestone and the amber must be alive, and if that were so, there could be no difference between the living and the dead. When asked why he didn’t die if there was no difference, he replied “because there is no difference.”
Aristotle defined the soul as the principle of life, that which imbues the matter and makes it live, giving it the animation, or power to act. The idea did not originate with him, as the Greeks in general believed in the distinction between mind and matter, which was ultimately to lead to a distinction not only between body and soul but also between matter and energy.
If things were alive, they must have souls. This belief was no innovation, as the ordinary ancient populations of the Mediterranean did believe that natural actions were caused by divinities. Accordingly, the sources say that Thales believed that "all things were full of gods.". In their zeal to make him the first in everything some said he was the first to hold the belief, which must have been widely known to be false.
However, Thales was looking for something more general, a universal substance of mind. That also was in the polytheism of the times. Zeus was the very personification of supreme mind, dominating all the subordinate manifestations. From Thales on, however, philosophers had a tendency to depersonify or objectify mind, as though it were the substance of animation per se and not actually a god like the other gods. The end result was a total removal of mind from substance, opening the door to a non-divine principle of action. This tradition persisted until Einstein, whose cosmology is quite a different one and does not distinguish between matter and energy.
Classical thought, however, had proceeded only a little way along that path. Instead of referring to the person, Zeus, they talked about the great mind:
: "Thales", says Cicero, "assures that ''water'' is the principle of all things; and that God is that Mind which shaped and created all things from water."
The universal mind appears as a Roman belief in Virgil as well:
: ''"In the beginning, SPIRIT within (spiritus intus) strengthens Heaven and Earth'','' : ''The watery fields, and the lucid globe of Luna, and then --'' : ''Titan stars; and mind (mens) infused through the limbs'' : ''Agitates the whole mass, and mixes itself with GREAT MATTER (magno corpore)"''
Geometry
Thales was known for his innovative use of geometry. His understanding was theoretical as well as practical. For example, he said:: Megiston topos: hapanta gar chorei (Μέγιστον τόπος· άπαντα γαρ χωρεί) : ”Space is the greatest thing, as it contains all things”
Topos is in Newtonian-style space, since the verb, chorei, has the connotation of yielding before things, or spreading out to make room for them, which is extension. Within this extension, things have a position. Points, lines, planes and solids related by distances and angles follow from this presumption.
Thales understood similar triangles and right triangles, and what is more, used that knowledge in practical ways. The story is told in DL (loc. cit.) that he measured the height of the pyramids by their shadows at the moment when his own shadow was equal to his height. A right triangle with two equal legs is a 45-degree right triangle, all of which are similar. The length of the pyramid’s shadow measured from the center of the pyramid at that moment must have been equal to its height.
This story indicates that he was familiar with the Egyptian seked, or seqed - the ratio of the run to the rise of a slope (cotangent). The seked is at the base of problems 56, 57, 58, 59 and 60 of the Rhind papyrus - an ancient Egyptian mathematics document.
In present day trigonometry, cotangents require the same units for run and rise (base and perpendicular), but the papyrus uses cubits for rise and palms for run, resulting in different (but still characteristic) numbers. Since there were 7 palms in a cubit, the seked was 7 times the cotangent.
To use an example often quoted in modern reference works, suppose the base of a pyramid is 140 cubits and the angle of rise 5.25 seked. The Egyptians expressed their fractions as the sum of fractions, but the decimals are sufficient for the example. What is the rise in cubits? The run is 70 cubits, 490 palms. X, the rise, is 490 divided by 5.25 or 93 cubits. These figures sufficed for the Egyptians and Thales. We would go on to calculate the cotangent as 70 divided by 93 to get 3/4 or .75 and looking that up in a table of cotangents find that the angle of rise is a few minutes over 53 degrees.
Whether the ability to use the seked, which preceded Thales by about 1000 years, means that he was the first to define trigonometry is a matter of opinion. More practically Thales used the same method to measure the distances of ships at sea, said Eudemus as reported by Proclus (“in Euclidem”). According to Kirk & Raven (reference cited below), all you need for this feat is three straight sticks pinned at one end and knowledge of your altitude. One stick goes vertically into the ground. A second is made level. With the third you sight the ship and calculate the seked from the height of the stick and its distance from the point of insertion to the line of sight.
The seked is a measure of the angle. Knowledge of two angles (the seked and a right angle) and an enclosed leg (the altitude) allows you to determine by similar triangles the second leg, which is the distance. Thales probably had his own equipment rigged and recorded his own sekeds, but that is only a guess.
Thales’ Theorem is stated in another article. (Actually there are two theorems called Theorem of Thales, one having to do with a triangle inscribed in a circle and having the circle's diameter as one leg, the other theorem being also called the intercept theorem.) In addition Eudemus attributed to him the discovery that a circle is bisected by its diameter, that the base angles of an isosceles triangle are equal and that vertical angles are equal. It would be hard to imagine civilization without these theorems.
It is possible, of course, to question whether Thales really did discover these principles. On the other hand, it is not possible to answer such doubts definitively. The sources are all that we have, even though they sometimes contradict each other.
Interpretations
In the long sojourn of philosophy there has existed hardly a philosopher or historian of philosophy who did not mention Thales and try to characterize him in some way. He is generally recognized as having brought something new to human thought. Mathematics, astronomy and medicine already existed. Thales added something to these different collections of knowledge to produce a universality, which, as far as writing tells us, was not in tradition before, but resulted in a new field.Ever since, interested persons have been asking what that new something is. Answers fall into (at least) two categories, the theory and the method. Once an answer has been arrived at, the next logical step is to ask how Thales compares to other philosophers, which leads to his classification (rightly or wrongly).
Theory
The most natural epithets of Thales are "materialist" and "naturalist", which are based on ousia and physis. The Catholic Encyclopedia goes so far as to call him a physiologist, a person who studied physis, despite the fact that we already have physiologists. On the other hand, he would have qualified as an early physicist, as did Aristotle. They studied corpora, "bodies", the medieval descendants of substances.Most agree that Thales' stamp on thought is the unity of substance, hence Bertrand Russell:
: "The view that all matter is one is quite a reputable scientific hypothesis." : "...But it is still a handsome feat to have discovered that a substance remains the same in different states of aggregation."
Russell was only reflecting an established tradition; for example: Nietzsche, in his ''Philosophy in the Tragic Age of the Greeks'', wrote:
: "Greek philosophy seems to begin with an absurd notion, with the proposition that ''water'' is the primal origin and the womb of all things. Is it really necessary for us to take serious notice of this proposition? It is, and for three reasons. First, because it tells us something about the primal origin of all things; second, because it does so in language devoid of image or fable, and finally, because contained in it, if only embryonically, is the thought, 'all things are one.'"
This sort of materialism, however, should not be confused with deterministic materialism. Thales was only trying to explain the unity observed in the free play of the qualities. The arrival of uncertainty in the modern world made possible a return to Thales; for example, John Elof Boodin writes ("God and Creation"):
: "We cannot read the universe from the past..."
Boodin defines an "emergent" materialism, in which the objects of sense emerge uncertainly from the substrate. Thales is the innovator of this sort of materialism.
The Rise of Theoretical Inquiry
In the West, Thales represents a new kind of inquiring community as well. Edmund Husserl attempts to capture the new movement as follows. Philosophical man is a "new cultural configuration" based in stepping back from "pregiven tradition" and taking up a rational "inquiry into what is true in itself;" that is, an ideal of truth. It begins with isolated individuals such as Thales, but they are supported and cooperated with as time goes on. Finally the ideal transforms the norms of society, leaping across national borders.
Classification
The term "Pre-Socratic" derives ultimately from the philosopher Aristotle, who distinguished the early philosophers as concerning themselves with substance.Diogenes Laertius on the other hand took a strictly geographic and ethnic approach. Philosophers were either Ionian or Italian. He used "Ionian" in a broader sense, including also the Athenian academics, who were not Pre-Socratics. From a philosophic point of view, any grouping at all would have been just as effective. There is no basis for an Ionian or Italian unity. Some scholars, however, concede to Diogenes' scheme as far as referring to an "Ionian" school. There was no such school in any sense.
The most popular approach refers to a Milesian school, which is more justifiable socially and philosophically. They sought for the substance of phenomena and may have studied with each other. Some ancient writers qualify them as Milesioi, "of Miletus."
Influence on others
Thales had a profound influence on other Greek thinkers and therefore on Western history. Some believe Anaximander was a pupil of Thales. Early sources report that one of Anaximander's more famous pupils, Pythagoras, visited Thales as a young man, and that Thales advised him to travel to Egypt to further his philosophical and mathematical studies.
Many philosophers followed Thales' lead in searching for explanations in nature rather than in the supernatural; others returned to supernatural explanations, but couched them in the language of philosophy rather than of myth or of religion.
Looking specifically at Thales' influence during the pre-Socratic era, it is clear that he stood out as one of the first thinkers who thought more in the way of ''logos'' than ''mythos''. The difference between these two more profound ways of seeing the world is that ''mythos'' is concentrated around the stories of holy origin, while ''logos'' is concentrated around the argumentation. When the mythical man wants to explain the world the way he sees it, he explains it based on gods and powers. Mythical thought does not differentiate between things and persons and furthermore it does not differentiate between nature and culture. The way a ''logos'' thinker would present a world view is radically different from the way of the mythical thinker. In its concrete form, ''logos'' is a way of thinking not only about individualism, but also the abstract. Furthermore, it focuses on sensible and continuous argumentation. This lays the foundation of philosophy and its way of explaining the world in terms of abstract argumentation, and not in the way of gods and mythical stories.
Sources
Our sources on the Milesian philosophers (Thales, Anaximander, and Anaximenes) were either roughly contemporaneous (such as Herodotus) or lived within a few hundred years of his passing. Moreover, they were writing from a tradition that was well-known. Most modern dissension comes from trying to interpret what we know, in particular, distinguishing legend from fact.The main secondary source concerning the details of Thales' life and career is Diogenes Laertius, "''Lives of Eminent Philosophers''". This is primarily a biographical work, as the name indicates. Compared to Aristotle, Diogenes is not much of a philosopher. He is the one who, in the Prologue to that work, is responsible for the division of the early philosophers into "Ionian" and "Italian", but he places the Academics in the Ionian school and otherwise evidences considerable disarray and contradiction, especially in the long section on forerunners of the "Ionian School". Diogenes quotes two letters attributed to Thales, but Diogenes wrote some eight centuries after Thales' death and that his sources often contained "unreliable or even fabricated information", hence the concern for separating fact from legend in accounts of Thales.
Most philosophic analyses of the philosophy of Thales come from Aristotle, a professional philosopher, tutor of Alexander the Great, who wrote 200 years after Thales death. Aristotle, judging from his surviving books, does not seem to have access to any works by Thales, although he probably had access to works of other authors about Thales, such as Herodotus, Hecataeus, Plato etc., as well as others whose work is now extinct. It was Aristotle's express goal to present Thales work not because it was significant in itself, but as a prelude to his own work in natural philosophy. Geoffrey Kirk and John Raven, English compilers of the fragments of the Pre-Socratics, assert that Aristotle's "judgments are often distorted by his view of earlier philosophy as a stumbling progress toward the truth that Aristotle himself revealed in his physical doctrines." There was also an extensive oral tradition. Both the oral and the written were commonly read or known by all educated men in the region.
Aristotle's philosophy had a distinct stamp: it professed the theory of matter and form, which modern scholastics have dubbed hylomorphism. Though once very widespread, it was not generally adopted by rationalist and modern science, as it mainly is useful in metaphysical analyses, but does not lend itself to the detail that is of interest to modern science. It is not clear that the theory of matter and form existed as early as Thales, and if it did, whether Thales espoused it.
See also
Notes
References
(reprinted from the 4th edition, 1930; the first edition was published in 1892). An online presentation of the Third Edition can be found in the Online Books Library of the University of Pennsylvania.
Further reading
External links
Category:624 BC births Category:546 BC deaths Category:6th-century BC Greek people Category:6th-century BC philosophers Category:Ancient Greek mathematicians Category:Ancient Greek philosophers Category:Ancient Greek physicists Category:Ancient Milesians Category:Philosophers of ancient Ionia Category:Presocratic philosophers Category:Seven Sages of Greece
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This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
Thomas McEvilley (born 1939, Cincinnati, Ohio) is an American art critic, poet, novelist and scholar, who was a distinguisted lecturer in art history at Rice University and founder and former chair of the Department of Art Criticism and Writing at the School of Visual Arts in New York City.
Art of the Indo-Greeks
François Morellet
Jean Pigozzi
Marina Abramović
Late Modernism
Postmodern art
Systems art
Yves Klein
Title This
Indo-Greek Kingdom
Legacy of the Indo-Greeks
Plato of Bactria
Anekantavada
Azilises
Greco-Buddhism
Paulisa Siddhanta
Pranayama
Rishabha (Jain tirthankar)
Romaka Siddhanta
Spalahores
Spalirises
Theodorus (meridarch)
Zeionises
1964, ''Party Going'' (First Novel)
1987, ''North of Yesterday (a Menippean Satire)''
1991, ''Art and Discontent''
1992, ''Art and Otherness''
1993, ''Fusion: West African Artists at the Venice Biennale''
1993, ''The Exile’s Return: Toward a Redefinition of Painting for the Post-Modern Era''
1994, ''Der Erste Akt''
1999, ''Sculpture in the Age of Doubt''
2002, ''The Shape of Ancient Thought: Comparative Studies in Greek and Indian Philosophies''
2007, ''The Triumph of Anti-Art''
2008, ''Sappho''
2010, ''Art, Love, Friendship: Marina Abramovic and Ulay, Together & Apart''
2010, ''Yves the Provocateur: Yves Klein and Twentieth-Century Art''
Heads It’s Form, Tails It’s Not Content (TKTK)
On the Manner of Addressing Clouds (TKTK)
The Monochrome Icon
“I Am” Is a Vain Thought
Art History or Sacred History?
Doctor, Lawyer, Indian Chief: ‘Primitivism’ in Twentieth-Century Art at the Museum of Modern Art
The Selfhood of the Other
Another Alphabet: The Work of Marcel Broodthaers
History, Quality, Globalism
Penelope’s Night Work: Negative Thinking in Greek Philosophy
Arrivederci, Venice: The Third World Biennials
The Tomb of the Zombie
Paul McCarthy: Performance and Video Works: the Layering (2008)
Here Comes Everybody (1994)
James Lee Byars and the Atmosphere of Question
Thomas McEvilley. "Art and Cognition.". Slought Foundation Online Content. 11 December 2004.
Short biography from Mcpherson&co.;
Martínez Celaya Early Work 2006 Text by Thomas McEvilley
Thomas McEvilley on 'The Shape of Ancient Thought' Video by Michael Kasino for Thomas McEvilley
Biography
Thomas McEvilley studied Greek, Latin, Sanskrit, and classical philosophy in the classics programs of the University of Cincinnati where he received a B.A., and the University of Washington, where he received an M.A.. He then returned to Cincinnati, where he received a Ph.D. in classical philology. He also retained a strong interest in modern art, reinforced by the modern artists of his acquaintance.In 1969, McEvilley joined the faculty of Rice University, where he spent the better part of his teaching career. He has been a visiting professor at Yale University and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, among others. He taught numerous courses in Greek and Indian culture, history of religion and philosophy. In 2008 he retired from teaching after 41 years, and now lives in New York City and in upstate New York in the Catskills.
He has received numerous awards, including the Semple Prize at the University of Cincinnati, a National Endowment for the Arts Critics grant, a Fulbright fellowship in 1993, an NEA critic’s grant, and the Frank Jewett Mather Award (1993) for Distinction in Art Criticism from the College Art Association.
McEvilley has been a contributing editor of ''Artforum'' and editor in chief of ''Contemporanea''.
Work
McEvilley is an expert in the fields of Greek and Indian culture, history of religion and philosophy, and art. He has published several books and hundreds of scholarly monographs, articles, catalog essays, and reviews on early Greek and Indian poetry, philosophy, and religion as well as on contemporary art and culture.
Toward a Redefinition of Painting for the Post-Modern Era
In his 1993 book ''The Exile’s Return: Toward a Redefinition of Painting for the Post-Modern Era'', McEvilley made an important contribution to the late twentieth century "death of painting" debate. He stated that after two decades, painting revived around 1980. In its return from exile, painting has assumed a new theoretical basis in postmodern cultural theory, together with a new kind of self-awareness and interest in its own limitations. A number of contemporary artists such as Gerhard Richter and Glenn Brown demonstrate this new found self-reflexity and critical nature.
Heads it's Form, Tails it's not Content
In the article "Heads its Form, Tails it's not Content" McEvilley describes a theoretical framework for the formal project presented by post-war critics such as Clement Greenberg, Michael Fried, and Sheldon Nodelman.He argues that formalist ideas are rooted in Neoplatonism and as such deal with the problem of content by claiming that content is embedded within the form. However, the formalists desire a transcendentally free critique of art in the same way that Colin Rowe and Peter Eisenman explore the interiority of architecture.
Formalism is based on a linguistic model which Claude Lévi-Strauss argues is given content through the unconscious. In presenting formalism, one cannot ignore the content which accompanies the form.
Sculpture in the Age of Doubt
In the book ''Sculpture in the Age of Doubt'' (1999) McEvilley described the intellectual issues surrounding the postmodern movement in the course of 20th-century sculpture.
The Shape of Ancient Thought
In ''The Shape of Ancient Thought'' McEvilley explores the foundations of Western civilization. He argues that today’s Western world must be considered the product of both Greek and Indian thought, and Western philosophy and Eastern philosophies. He explores how trade, imperialism, and currents of migration allowed cultural philosophies to intermingle freely throughout India, Egypt, Greece, and the ancient Near East.This book spans thirty years of McEvilley's research, from 1970 to 2000.
See also
This section gives an overview of topics on which McEvilley has written. ; Art:;Greek history and philosophy:
;Indian philosophy:
Selected publications
;Books;Essays
;Monographs Thomas McEvilley wrote monographs on Yves Klein (1982), Pat Steir, Leon Golub (1993), Jannis Kounellis (1986), James Croak (1999), Dennis Oppenheim, Anselm Kiefer, Dove Bradshaw (2004).
References
External links
Category:1939 births Category:American poets Category:American non-fiction writers Category:American art critics Category:Living people Category:Rice University faculty Category:Frank Jewett Mather Award winners Category:University of Cincinnati alumni Category:University of Washington alumni
es:Thomas McEvilleyThis text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
| Coordinates | 30°19′10″N81°39′36″N |
|---|---|
| name | Mike Oldfield |
| landscape | yes |
| background | solo_singer |
| birth name | Michael Gordon Oldfield |
| birth date | May 15, 1953 |
| birth place | Reading, Berkshire, England |
| instrument | Guitar, keyboards, Percussion, vocals, Bass guitar, drums, piano, organ, glockenspiel, mandolin, banjo, tubular bells, Chapman stick |
| genre | Ambient, Celtic fusion, classical, Synthpop, experimental, minimalist, Honky-Tonk, Neoclassical, new age, Neofolk, pop, progressive rock, rock and roll, world |
| occupation | Musician, Songwriter, Producer, Game designer |
| years active | 1967–present |
| label | Virgin (1972–1991)Warner Bros. (1992–2003)Mercury (2005–present) |
| associated acts | Maggie Reilly, Kevin Ayers, Robert Wyatt, David Bedford, Anita Hegerland, Pekka Pohjola |
| website | www.mikeoldfieldofficial.com }} |
Biography
Oldfield's parents are Raymond Oldfield, a general practitioner, and his wife Maureen Liston, a nurse. His sister Sally and brother Terry are successful musicians in their own right and have appeared on several of his albums. Mike Oldfield was born in the Battle Hospital, Reading, Berkshire, and he attended St Joseph's Convent School, Highlands Junior School in Tilehurst, St Edward's Preparatory School, and Presentation College in Reading. When he was 13 he moved with his parents to Harold Wood in northeast London, where he attended Hornchurch Grammar School. He only stayed there long enough to take one GCE examination, in English, as he had already begun his music career.
Early career
Oldfield's career began fairly early, playing acoustic guitar in local folk clubs. At this time, he already had two fifteen-minute instrumental pieces in which he would "go through all sorts of moods", a precursor to his landmark 1970s compositions. In his early teens, Oldfield was involved in a 'beat group' playing Shadows-style music (he has often cited Hank Marvin as a major influence, and would later cover The Shadows' song "Wonderful Land"). In 1967 he and his sister Sally formed the folk duo The Sallyangie and were signed to Transatlantic Records after exposure in the local folk scene. An album, ''Children of the Sun'', was issued in 1968. After Sallyangie disbanded, he formed another duo with his brother Terry, called Barefoot, which took him back to rock music.In 1970 he joined The Whole World - backing group to vocalist Kevin Ayers, formerly of the Soft Machine - playing bass guitar and occasionally lead guitar. The band also included keyboardist and composer David Bedford, who quickly befriended Oldfield, and encouraged him in his composition of an early version of ''Tubular Bells''. Bedford would later arrange and conduct an orchestral version of that album. Oldfield is featured on two Ayers albums, ''Whatevershebringswesing'' and ''Shooting at the Moon''.
Having recorded a demo version of ''Tubular Bells'', Oldfield attempted to persuade record labels to take the project on. In 1972 he met the young Richard Branson who was setting up his own record label, Virgin Records, and after playing the demo to engineers Tom Newman and Simon Heyworth, he began recording the 1973 version of the album.
Virgin years (1973–1991)
''Tubular Bells'' became Oldfield's most famous work. The instrumental composition was recorded in 1972 and launched on 25 May 1973 as the inaugural album of Richard Branson's Virgin Records label. The album was groundbreaking, as Oldfield played more than twenty different instruments in the multi-layered recording made in Branson's Manor studios, and its style moved through many diverse musical genres. Its 2,630,000 UK sales put it at No.34 on the list of the best selling albums in the UK. In the US, it received attention with the opening theme appearing in the soundtrack to ''The Exorcist''. The title track subsequently became a Top 10 hit single in the US as well and is today considered to be a forerunner of the New Age movement. In 1974, Oldfield played guitar on the critically acclaimed album ''Rock Bottom'' by Robert Wyatt. In the autumn of 1974, the follow-up LP, ''Hergest Ridge'', was No.1 in the UK for three weeks before being dethroned by ''Tubular Bells''. Although ''Hergest Ridge'' was released over a year after ''Tubular Bells'', it reached No.1 first. ''Tubular Bells'' spent 11 weeks (10 of them consecutive) at No.2 before its one week at the top. In 1979, Oldfield's music was used as the musical score for ''The Space Movie'', a Virgin movie that celebrated the 10th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission.Like ''Tubular Bells'', ''Hergest Ridge'' is a two-movement instrumental piece, this time evoking scenes from Oldfield's Herefordshire country retreat. It was followed in 1975 by the pioneering world music piece ''Ommadawn'', and 1978's ''Incantations'' which introduced more diverse choral performances from Sally Oldfield, Maddy Prior, and the Queen's College Girls Choir. In 1975 Oldfield recorded a version of the Christmas piece "In Dulci Jubilo" which charted at number four in the UK. Oldfield's 1976 rendition of "Portsmouth" remains his highest charting single on the UK Singles Chart, reaching number three.
In 1976 Oldfield and his sister Sally joined his friend and band member Pekka Pohjola to play on his album ''Mathematician's Air Display'', which was released in 1977. The album was recorded and edited at Oldfield's Througham Slad Manor in Gloucestershire by Oldfield and Paul Lindsay.
Around the time of ''Incantations'', Oldfield underwent a controversial self-assertiveness therapy course known as Exegesis. Possibly as a result, the formerly reclusive musician staged a major European tour to promote the album, chronicled in his live album ''Exposed'', much of which was recorded at the National Exhibition Centre near Birmingham, the first-ever concert there.
In 1975, Oldfield received a Grammy award for Best Instrumental Composition in "Tubular Bells – Theme from ''The Exorcist''". In 1979, he recorded a version of the signature tune of the popular British Children's Television programme, ''Blue Peter'', which was used by the show for 10 years.
The early 1980s saw Oldfield make a transition to mainstream pop music, beginning with the inclusion of shorter instrumental tracks and contemporary cover versions on ''Platinum'' and ''QE2'' (the latter named after the ocean liner). Soon afterwards he turned to songwriting, with a string of collaborations featuring various lead vocalists alongside his characteristic searing guitar solos. The best known of these is "Moonlight Shadow", his 1983 hit with Maggie Reilly. The most successful Oldfield composition on the US pop charts during this period was actually a cover version — Hall & Oates's remake of Oldfield's "Family Man" for their 1982 album ''H2O''. Released as the album's third single, it hit the Top 10 during the spring of 1983 and was a hugely popular MTV music video.
Oldfield later turned to film and video, writing the score for Roland Joffé's acclaimed film ''The Killing Fields'' and producing substantial video footage for his album ''Islands''. ''Islands'' continued what Oldfield had been doing on the past couple of albums, with an instrumental piece on one side and rock/pop singles on the other. Of these, "Islands", sung by Bonnie Tyler and "Magic Touch", with vocals by Max Bacon (in the U.S. version) and Glasgow vocalist Southside Jimmy (in other versions), were the major hits. In the U.S., the Virgin America airline promoted the song "Magic Touch" to a large extent, making it a success, reaching the top 10 on the Billboard album rock charts. During the 1980s, Oldfield's then-wife, Norwegian singer Anita Hegerland, contributed vocals to many songs including "Pictures in the Dark".
''Earth Moving'' was released in July 1989, and was a moderate success. The album was the first to exclusively feature rock/pop songs, several of which were released: "Innocent" and "Holy" in Europe, and "Hostage" in the USA for album rock stations. This was, however, a time of much friction with his record label. Virgin Records reportedly insisted that any future instrumental album should be billed as ''Tubular Bells 2''. Oldfield's rebellious response was ''Amarok'', an hour-long work featuring rapidly changing themes (supposedly devised to make cutting a single from the album impossible), unpredictable bursts of noise, and a very cleverly hidden Morse code insult directed at Richard Branson. Although regarded by many fans as his greatest work, it was not a commercial success. His parting shot from the Virgin label was ''Heaven's Open'', which continued the veiled attacks on Branson but was notable for being the first time Oldfield had contributed all the lead vocals himself. It was the only album he released under the name 'Michael Oldfield'.
Warner years (1992–2003)
The very first thing Oldfield did when arriving at his new label, Warner Bros., was to write and release ''Tubular Bells II'', the sequel to his first record on Virgin, as his final insult to his former label. It was premiered at a live concert at Edinburgh Castle. He then continued to embrace new musical styles, with ''The Songs of Distant Earth'' (based on Arthur C. Clarke's novel of the same name) exhibiting a softer "New Age" sound. In 1994 he also had an asteroid named after him, 5656 Oldfield.In 1995 Oldfield further continued to embrace new musical styles by producing a Celtic-themed album, ''Voyager''. In 1992 Oldfield met Luar na Lubre, a Galician Celtic-folk band (from A Coruña, Spain). The band's popularity grew after Oldfield covered their song "O son do ar" ("The sound of the air") on his ''Voyager'' album.
In 1998 he produced the third ''Tubular Bells'' album (also premiered at a concert, this time in Horse Guards Parade, London), drawing from the dance music scene at his then new home on the island of Ibiza. This album was still inspired by themes from ''Tubular Bells'', but differed in lacking a clear two-part layout.
During 1999 Oldfield released two albums. The first, ''Guitars'', used guitars as the source for all the sounds on the album, including percussion. The second, ''The Millennium Bell'', consisted of pastiches of a number of styles of music that represented various historical periods over the past millennium. The work was performed live in Berlin for the city's millennium celebrations in 1999–2000.
He added to his repertoire the MusicVR project, combining his music with a virtual reality-based computer game. His first work on this project is ''Tr3s Lunas'' launched in 2002, a virtual game where the player can interact with a world full of new music. This project appeared as a double CD, one with the music, and the other with the game.
In 2003 he released ''Tubular Bells 2003'', a re-recording of the original ''Tubular Bells'', on CD, and DVD-Audio. This was done to "fix" many "imperfections" in the original due to the recording technologies of the early 1970s and limitations in time that he could spend in the recording studio. It celebrated the 30th anniversary of ''Tubular Bells'', Oldfield's 50th birthday and his marriage to Fanny in the same year. At around the same time Virgin released an SACD version containing both the original stereo album and the 1975 quadraphonic mix by Phil Newell. In the 2003 version, the original voice of the 'Master of Ceremonies' (Viv Stanshall) was replaced by the voice of John Cleese, Stanshall having died in the interim.
Mercury years (since 2004)
On 12 April 2004 Oldfield launched his next virtual reality project, ''Maestro'', which contains music from the ''Tubular Bells 2003'' album and also some new chillout melodies. The games have since been made available free of charge on Tubular.net. A double album, ''Light + Shade'', was released on Mercury Records in 2005, with whom Mike had recently signed a three-album deal. The two discs contain music of contrasting moods, one relaxed (''Light'') and the other more edgy and moody (''Shade''). Oldfield headlined the German Night of the Proms tour, consisting of 18 concerts in December 2006.His autobiography ''Changeling'' was published in May 2007 by Virgin Books. In March 2008 Oldfield released his first classical album, ''Music of the Spheres''; Karl Jenkins assisted with the orchestration. In the first week of release the album topped the UK Classical chart and reached number 9 on the main UK Album Chart. A single, "Spheres", featuring a demo version of pieces from the album was released digitally. The album was nominated for a Classical Brit Award, the NS&I; Best Album of 2009.
In 2008 Oldfield contributed an exclusive song ("Song for Survival") to a charity album called ''Songs for Survival'', in support of the Survival International. Oldfield's daughter, Molly, played a large part in the project.
In 2008 when Oldfield's original 35-year deal with Virgin Records ended, the rights to ''Tubular Bells'' and his other Virgin releases were returned to him, and then they were transferred to Mercury Records. Mercury issued a press release on 15 April 2009, noting that Oldfield's Virgin albums would be re-released, starting 8 June 2009. These releases include special features from the archives. On 6 June 2009, an International Bell Ringing day took place, to promote the reissue of his first album, ''Tubular Bells''. The next two albums were reissued in June 2010 along with the launch of a new official web site. ''Incantations'' was reissued in July 2011.
In March 2010 ''Music Week'' reported that publishing company Stage Three Music (now a part of BMG) had acquired a 50% stake in the songs of Oldfield's entire recorded output in a seven-figure deal. In 2010 lyricist Don Black said in an interview with ''Music Week'' that he had been working with Oldfield. In early 2011 Mike Oldfield was in a studio with German producer Torsten Stenzel, collaborating on a chill-out track for a forthcoming album by Torsten Stenzel's York project.
Personal life
Oldfield and his siblings were raised Roman Catholic, the faith of their Irish mother. In the late 1970s, Oldfield briefly married Diana D'Aubigny (the sister of the Exegesis group leader), but this lasted just a few weeks.Mike Oldfield has seven children. In the early 1980s, he had three children with Sally Cooper (Molly, Dougal and Luke). In the late 1980s, he had two children (Greta and Noah) with Norwegian singer Anita Hegerland. In the 2000s, he married Fanny Vandekerckhove (born 1977), whom he met during his time in Ibiza; they have two sons together (Jake and Eugene).
Oldfield is a motorcycle fan and has five bikes. These include a BMW R1200GS, a Suzuki GSX-R750, a Suzuki GSX-R1000, and a Yamaha R1. He also says that some of his inspiration for composing comes from riding them. Throughout his life Oldfield has also had a passion for aircraft and building model aircraft. Since 1980 he has also been a licensed pilot and has flown fixed wing aircraft, the first of which was a Beechcraft Sierra and helicopters including the Agusta Bell 47G which featured on the sleeve of his cover version of the ABBA song "Arrival" as a parody of their album artwork. He is also interested in cars and has owned a Ferrari and a Bentley which was a gift from Richard Branson as an incentive for him to give his first live performance of ''Tubular Bells''. He has endorsed the Mercedes-Benz S-Class in the Mercedes UK magazine. Oldfield also considers himself to be a Trekkie (fan of the popular science fiction television series ''Star Trek''). He also noted in an interview in 2008 that he had two boats.
In November 2006, musician Noel Gallagher won a Spanish court case against Oldfield. Gallagher had bought an Ibiza villa for £2.5 million from Oldfield in 1999, but quickly discovered that part of the cliff-top property was falling into the sea. According to ''The Sun'', the resulting court case awarded Gallagher a six-figure sum in compensation. Suspicion abounds in the music industry that the law-suit was initiated because of embarrassment that Gallagher brought on himself by not having a proper survey done on the property before buying it. This included making an immediate and noisy complaint about someone's yacht tied up at the villa's jetty before it was pointed out that the yacht came with the villa and was, in fact, his.
In 2007 Oldfield caused a minor stir in the British press by criticizing Britain for being too controlling and protective, specifically concentrating on the smoking ban which England and Wales had introduced that year. Oldfield then moved from his Gloucestershire home to Palma de Mallorca, Spain. He has lived outside the UK in the past, including living in Los Angeles and Ibiza in the 1990s, and Switzerland in the mid-1980s, for tax reasons. He also currently has a home in Monaco. In 2009 he decided to move to the Bahamas, and put his home in Mallorca up for sale; the asking price was around €3.5 million, but has since been lowered, and as of August 2011 is still listed as available for sale by a major international real estate agency.
Instruments
Oldfield is a multi-instrumentalist; however he considers himself to be predominantly a guitarist.
Guitars
Over the years Oldfield has used a various selection of guitars, some of the most noted being:Oldfield used a modified Roland GP8 effects processor in conjunction with his PRS Artist to get many of his heavily overdriven guitar sounds from the ''Earth Moving'' album onwards. Oldfield has also been using Guitar synthesizers since the mid-1980s, using a 1980s Roland GR-300/G-808 type system, then a 1990s Roland GK2 equipped red PRS Custom 24 (sold in 2006) with a Roland VG8, and most recently a Line 6 Variax.
Oldfield has an unusual playing style, using both fingers and fingernails and several ways of creating vibrato: a "very fast side-to-side vibrato" or "violinist's vibrato". Oldfield has also stated that his playing style originates from his musical roots playing folk music and the bass guitar.
Recording
Oldfield has self-recorded and produced many of his albums, and played the majority of the instruments that feature on them, largely at his home studios. In the 1990s and 2000s he has been mainly using DAWs such as Apple Logic, Avid Pro Tools and Steinberg Nuendo as recording suites. For composing classical music Oldfield has been quoted as using the software notation program, Sibelius, combined with Apple Macintoshes. He also used the FL Studio DAW on his 2005 double album ''Light + Shade''. Among the mixing consoles Oldfield has owned are an AMS Neve Capricorn 33238, a Harrison Series X, and a Euphonix System 5-MC.
Keyboards
Over the years Oldfield has owned and used a vast number of synthesizers and other keyboard instruments. In the 1980s he composed the score for the film ''The Killing Fields'' on a Fairlight CMI. Some examples of keyboard and synthesized instruments which Oldfield has made use of includes Sequential Circuits Prophets (notably on ''Platinum''), Roland JV-1080/JV-2080 units (in the 1990s), a Korg M1 (as seen in the "Innocent" video), a Clavia Nord Lead, and Steinway pianos among an almost endless list of others. In recent years Oldfield has also made use of software synthesis, such as Native Instruments products, notably on his ''Light + Shade'' album.
Discography
Oldfield has had more than 30 charting albums and 25 charting singles on the British charts, and many more around the world.
Main albums
{| style="width:100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" |- valign="top" |style="width:50%"|
Quotation
''NME'' - April 1979
See also
Bibliography
References
External links
; Official sites MikeOldfieldOfficial.com – The official Mike Oldfield website
Category:1953 births Category:Living people Category:English songwriters Category:English guitarists Category:English multi-instrumentalists Category:English buskers Category:English New Age musicians Category:English composers Category:British people of Irish descent Category:People from Reading, Berkshire Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Virgin Records artists Category:Mercury Records artists Category:English Roman Catholics Category:Warner Bros. Records artists Category:FL Studio users Category:People educated at Presentation College, Reading Category:People educated at The Highlands School, Reading
af:Mike Oldfield ar:مايك أولدفيلد an:Mike Oldfield bg:Майк Олдфийлд ca:Mike Oldfield cs:Mike Oldfield da:Mike Oldfield de:Mike Oldfield es:Mike Oldfield eu:Mike Oldfield fa:مایک اولدفیلد fr:Mike Oldfield gl:Mike Oldfield id:Mike Oldfield it:Mike Oldfield he:מייק אולדפילד ka:მაიკ ოლდფილდი la:Michael Oldfield lv:Maiks Oldfīlds hu:Mike Oldfield mk:Мајк Олдфилд nl:Mike Oldfield ja:マイク・オールドフィールド no:Mike Oldfield nds:Mike Oldfield pl:Mike Oldfield pt:Mike Oldfield ro:Mike Oldfield ru:Олдфилд, Майк sk:Mike Oldfield sl:Mike Oldfield sr:Мајк Олдфилд fi:Mike Oldfield sv:Mike Oldfield th:ไมค์ โอลด์ฟิลด์ uk:Майк Олдфілд zh:麦克·欧菲尔德This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
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