DEMOCRITUS PLEASURE, HAPPINESS AND CHEERFULNESS Democritus of Abdera (second half of the 4th century BC) is known today primarily for his theory of atoms, which resembles to some extent modern scientific theories. In fact, he wrote many books about a variety of topics, including ethics, natural science, mathematics, music, and technical works. Only fragments of these works have survived, many of them quotations by Aristotle (who lived about two generations later). The following are Democritus’s main fragments on the topic of...
LIST OF PHILOSOPHERS
SOPHIE DE CONDORCET (1764-1822) THEMES ON THIS PAGE: 1. CAUSES OF SYMPATHY 2. FRIENDSHIP 3. THE PLEASURES OF MORALITY Sophie de Condorcet (1764-1822), born Marie-Louise-Sophie de Grouchy, was a French writer, translator, and hostess of an intellectual salon in Paris, where she was well-connected with important thinkers of the day. Her husband was the Marquis Nicolas de Condorcet, a mathematician and philosopher, and the couple shared many political and intellectual interests. During the “Reign of Terror” he was arrested and was found dead...
RENÉ DESCARTES (1596-1650) I am a thing which thinks René Descartes (1596-1650), an important French philosopher, mathematician, and scientist, is considered the father of modern philosophy. Under his influence, philosophy became centered on epistemology (the study of knowledge) for three centuries. The question “What do I really know?” became a starting point for many philosophies after him. Especially influential were his idea that knowledge of the self is the foundation of all other knowledge, the search for the foundation of knowledge...
John DeweyTHEMES ON THIS PAGE: 1. EXPERIENCE 2. PLAYFULNESS VERSUS WORK 3. MORAL WISDOM 4. VIRTUES John Dewey was an American thinker known for his “pragmatist” approach to philosophy in general, and especially to philosophy of education. He grew up in Vermont, USA, and later received his doctorate at John Hopkins University (Baltimore, Maryland). He taught philosophy at the University of Michigan, University of Chicago, Columbia University, and elsewhere. He published hundreds of articles and dozens of books on a variety...
JOHN SULLIVAN DWIGHT Music and unity John Sullivan Dwight (1813-1893) was an American thinker, an influential music critic, and a member of the American Transcendentalist movement of the 19th century (which also included Emerson and Thoreau). As a young man he studied at Harvard and was ordained a Unitarian minister, but quickly decided to leave the ministry. He joined the Transcendentalist community at Brook Farm, and later became a music critic. In 1950 Dwight started his own journal of music, which...
ROMANTIC LOVESEX TOPIC: ROMANTIC LOVE SIMONE DE BEAUVOIR Woman’s way of loving Simone de Beauvoir (1908-1986) was a French existentialist philosopher, writer, and political activist, and was one of the first women to study at the Sorbonne. During her studies she met Jean-Paul Sartre, and the two became life-long friends, intellectual companions, as well as lovers who maintained an open erotic relationship, sometimes in trio with a third woman. She wrote many novels and essays, and was also involved in...
TULLIA d'ARAGONA The impossible desire to merge with the beloved Tullia d'Aragona (1510–1556) was an Italian poet and philosopher. Like her mother, she was a courtesan (a court lady, companion of powerful persons), and was lucky to be born during a limited period of time when courtesans were given relative economic and social freedom. (Later in her life, Italian society became more conservative.) As a child, she was educated in the classical humanities by a Cardinal who was probably her...