Philosophy 101: The Great Thinkers & Their Ideas

Aristotle develops logic, syllogism, and laws of thought, then explores metaphysics as the first philosophy, explains four causes, and links virtue and happiness to the golden mean and government.

Thomas Aquinas embraced a life of service and, after studying Aristotle, joined the Dominican Order. He taught that reason and faith coexist and that all knowledge comes from God.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau's life stories, from early hardship in Geneva to becoming a central Enlightenment figure, frame his ideas on freedom, morality, and the state of nature that influenced revolutions.

Compare act and rule utilitarianism, explain morality based on outcomes and happiness, and examine criticisms, including torturing an innocent person to prevent a war and uncertain consequences.

Empiricism holds knowledge comes from sensory experience, shaping epistemology. Rationalism claims reason and innate ideas underlie knowledge; Locke rejects innate knowledge, and later forms like logical positivism dismiss unverifiable beliefs.

Explore Descartes' quest for self-evident truths by linking thoughts, perceptions, and imagination to knowledge of God, the ontological argument, and Cartesian dualism of mind and body.

Explore Sartre's existential view that humans are beings for themselves who define themselves through actions, confront fixed essences, embrace radical freedom with personal responsibility, and reject universal ethical rules.

Explore Schopenhauer's pessimism, where reality is a representation shaped by the mind, the will drives endless suffering, and art, especially music, offers temporary relief through compassion.

Survey orthodox and heterodox Indian philosophy, from Samkhya dualism and Yoga to Nyaya, Vaisheshika, Purva mamasa, and Vedanta, with Upanishadic meditation and Gandhi's ahimsa.

Korean philosophy blends native shamanism with Chinese-influenced Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism, shaping ethics, law, and social hierarchy, while Shintoism rises under Japanese rule and Western ideas like Marxism grow.

Explore hedonism as a framework that prioritizes pleasure and the avoidance of pain in well-being. Trace its history from Aristippus to utilitarianism and examine ethical implications.

Explore hard determinism, which asserts universal causation and no free will, and examine objections from choice, drive resistance, and moral responsibility.

Realism holds universals exist independently of mind and language, such as redness shared by a red apple and red cherry. It presents extreme realism and Plato's theory of forms.