Philosophy Concepts
Explore nearly 400 concepts across philosophers. Select any concept to view details.
Absolute Spirit
G.W.F. Hegel
Absurd Faith
Søren Kierkegaard
Active vs. Reactive Forces
Friedrich Nietzsche
Actor-Network Theory (ANT)
Bruno Latour, John Law
Aesthetic Distance
Edward Bullough
Aesthetic Redemption
Arthur Schopenhauer
Aestheticism
Oscar Wilde, Immanuel Kant, John Stuart Mill
Affect Theory
Spinoza, Deleuze, Brian Massumi
Akrasia (Weakness of Will)
Plato, Aristotle, Socrates
Allegory of the Cave
Plato
Amor Fati
Friedrich Nietzsche
Anarchism
Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, Mikhail Bakunin
Anarcho-Primitivism
John Zerzan
Animal Rights Theory
Tom Regan, Peter Singer
Anthropic Principle
Brandon Carter
Anthropocentrism
Various Philosophers
Anthropological Holism
Franz Boas, Clifford Geertz
Anti-Natalism
David Benatar
Antirealism
Michael Dummett, Bas van Fraassen
Anxiety (Angst)
Søren Kierkegaard
Apollonian vs. Dionysian
Friedrich Nietzsche
Apophatic Theology
Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite
Aporia
Plato
Argument from Illusion
Various Philosophers
Argument from Moral Disagreement
G.E. Moore, Roderick Chisholm, John Mackie, W.D. Ross, Alasdair MacIntyre, John Rawls, Thomas Nagel
Ascetic Denial of the Will
Arthur Schopenhauer
Ascetic Ideal
Friedrich Nietzsche
Asch Conformity Experiments
Solomon Asch
Aufhebung Sublation
G.W.F. Hegel
Authenticity
Jean-Paul Sartre, Martin Heidegger
Authenticity Heideggerian
Martin Heidegger
Bad Faith (Mauvaise Foi)
Jean-Paul Sartre
Bandwagon Effect
Various Philosophers
Becoming Woman
Simone de Beauvoir
Being-in-the-World
Martin Heidegger
Being-toward-Death
Martin Heidegger
Biological Naturalism
John Searle
Boltzmann Brains
Ludwig Boltzmann, Max Tegmark
Brain in a Vat
Hilary Putnam, René Descartes
Buridan's Ass
Jean Buridan
Butterfly Effect
Edward Lorenz
Camus' Revolt
Albert Camus
Care Sorge
Martin Heidegger
Cartesian Theater
Daniel Dennett, René Descartes
Categorical Imperative
Immanuel Kant
Categorical vs. Hypothetical Imperatives
Immanuel Kant, John Stuart Mill
Category Mistake
Gilbert Ryle
Causal Determinism
Democritus, John Stuart Mill
Chiasm
Maurice Merleau-Ponty
Chinese Room Argument
John Searle
Closure Principle
Fred Dretske, John Stuart Mill
Cogito, Ergo Sum (I Think, Therefore I Am)
René Descartes
Coherentism
Laurence BonJour, John Stuart Mill
Collective Intentionality
John Searle, Margaret Gilbert
Compassion as Basis of Morality
Arthur Schopenhauer
Compatibilism
David Hume, Daniel Dennett
Conformity Bias
Various Philosophers
Constructivism (Moral)
John Rawls, Immanuel Kant, John Stuart Mill
Copernican Principle
Nicolaus Copernicus
Correspondence Theory of Truth
Aristotle, John Stuart Mill
Cosmopolitanism
Diogenes of Sinope, Immanuel Kant
Counterfactuals
David Lewis, Other philosophers
Critique of Metaphysics
Friedrich Nietzsche
Critique of Truth
Friedrich Nietzsche
Cultural Relativism
Franz Boas, John Stuart Mill
Cunning of Reason
G.W.F. Hegel
Dasein
Martin Heidegger
De Dicto vs. De Re Distinction
Ancient roots, developed in medieval and modern logic
Death of God
Friedrich Nietzsche
Death of the Author
Roland Barthes
Deconstruction
Jacques Derrida, John Stuart Mill
Deep Ecology
Arne Næss
Deleuzian Rhizome
Gilles Deleuze, Félix Guattari
Deontic Logic
Ernst Mally, Georg Henrik von Wright
Despair as Sickness Unto Death
Søren Kierkegaard
Despair of the Finite and Infinite
Søren Kierkegaard
Determinism vs Free Will
Various Philosophers
Dialectical Materialism
Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels
Dialectical Method
G.W.F. Hegel
Difference Principle
John Rawls, Other philosophers
Dionysian Pessimism
Friedrich Nietzsche
Direct Realism
Thomas Reid, John Stuart Mill
Disjunctivism
John McDowell, Paul Snowdon
Dispositionalism
C. B. Martin, Stephen Mumford
Distributive Justice
Aristotle, John Rawls
Divine Command Theory
William of Ockham, Socrates, Plato
Double Consciousness
W. E. B. Du Bois
Double Effect Principle
Thomas Aquinas, John Stuart Mill
Dualism vs Monism
Various Philosophers
Dunning–Kruger Effect
David Dunning, Justin Kruger
Egoism vs. Altruism
Thomas Hobbes, David Hume, Peter Singer
Embodied Cognition
Francisco Varela, Eleanor Rosch
Embodiment
Maurice Merleau-Ponty
Enactivism
Francisco Varela, Evan Thompson
Epiphenomenalism
Thomas Huxley, Frank Jackson
Epistemic Circularity
Alvin Plantinga, Peter Klein
Epistemic Closure
Fred Dretske, Robert Nozick
Epistemic Closure Principle
Fred Dretske, Robert Nozick (critics), Various Philosophers
Epistemic Contextualism
David Lewis, Stewart Cohen, Various Philosophers
Epistemic Humility
Various Philosophers
Epistemic Injustice
Miranda Fricker
Epistemic Relativism
Paul Feyerabend, Ancient Philosophers
Epistemic Virtue
Ernest Sosa, Linda Zagzebski
Epistemic Virtues
Aristotle, Contemporary Virtue Epistemologists
Equipmental Totality (Ready-to-Hand)
Martin Heidegger
Error Theory
J. L. Mackie
Essentialism
Aristotle, Various Philosophers
Eternal Recurrence
Friedrich Nietzsche
Eternal Return (Nietzschean)
Friedrich Nietzsche
Eternalism
J. M. E. McTaggart, Friedrich Nietzsche, Albert Einstein
Eternalism vs. Presentism
Friedrich Nietzsche, Albert Einstein
Ethics of Ambiguity
Simone de Beauvoir
Euthyphro Dilemma
Socrates, Plato
Evil Demon Hypothesis
René Descartes, Friedrich Nietzsche
Evolutionary Argument Against Naturalism
Alvin Plantinga
Exile
Albert Camus
Existence Precedes Essence
Jean-Paul Sartre
Existential Angst
Various Philosophers, Søren Kierkegaard, Jean-Paul Sartre, Martin Heidegger
Existential Guilt
Martin Heidegger
Existential Therapy
Rollo May, Viktor Frankl, Irvin Yalom
Experience Machine
Robert Nozick, John Stuart Mill
Explanatory Gap
Joseph Levine
Expressivism
A. J. Ayer, G. E. Moore, R. M. Hare
Extended Evolutionary Synthesis
Varioius philosophers
Extended Mind Hypothesis
Andy Clark, David Chalmers
False Consensus Effect
Ross, Greene
Falsificationism
Karl Popper, Immanuel Kant
Family Resemblance
Ludwig Wittgenstein
Fermi Paradox
Enrico Fermi, Carl Sagan, SETI
Forgetfulness of Being
Martin Heidegger
Forms of Life
Ludwig Wittgenstein
Foundationalism
René Descartes, G. E. Moore, Roderick Chisholm, John Mackie, W.D. Ross, Alasdair MacIntyre, John Rawls, Thomas Nagel
Frankfurt Cases
Harry Frankfurt
Free Rider Problem
John Rawls, John Locke, John Stuart Mill
Freedom and Responsibility
Simone de Beauvoir
Functionalism
Hilary Putnam, John Searle, David Chalmers, Jaegwon Kim, Thomas Nagel, David Lewis, John Mackie, G. E. Moore, Roderick Chisholm, John Rawls, Thomas Nagel
Gaia Hypothesis
James Lovelock, Carl Sagan
Game Theory in Ethics
John von Neumann, John Nash
Gavagai Problem
Willard Van Orman Quine
Genealogy (Philosophical Method)
Friedrich Nietzsche, Michel Foucault
Genealogy of Morals
Friedrich Nietzsche
Gettier Problem
Edmund Gettier, John Locke, John Stuart Mill, Immanuel Kant
Golden Mean
Aristotle, John Locke, John Stuart Mill, Immanuel Kant
Great Politics
Friedrich Nietzsche
Grounding Problem
Contemporary Analytic Metaphysics
Groupthink
Irving Janis
Hard Problem of Consciousness
David Chalmers, John Locke, John Stuart Mill, Immanuel Kant
Hedonism
Epicurus, John Stuart Mill
Hegelian Dialectic
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, John Searle, David Chalmers, Jaegwon Kim, Thomas Nagel
Herd Mentality
Gustave Le Bon
Hermeneutic Circle
Friedrich Schleiermacher, Hans-Georg Gadamer
Hermeneutics
Hans-Georg Gadamer, Hermann von Humboldt
History of Being
Martin Heidegger
Hume's Guillotine
David Hume
Hyperobjects
Timothy Morton
Ideal Observer Theory
Roderick Firth, John Searle
Idealism
George Berkeley, Hegel
Identity of Indiscernibles
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
Illusion of Transparency
Thomas Gilovich, Kenneth Savitsky
Illusionism (Consciousness)
Keith Frankish, David Chalmers
Immanent Critique
Karl Marx, The Frankfurt School
Incompleteness Theorems
Kurt Gödel, David Hilbert
Indirect Communication
Søren Kierkegaard
Indirect Realism
John Locke, Various Philosophers
Indispensability Argument
Willard Van Orman Quine, Hilary Putnam
Individuation
Aristotle (classical), Carl Jung (psychological use)
Infinite Jest
David Foster Wallace, Various Philosophers
Infinite Jest Problem
various philosophers
Infinite Monkey Theorem
Émile Borel
Infinite Regress of Justification
Various philosophers
Infinite Regress Problem
Immanuel Kant, Bertrand Russell, G.E. Moore, David Hume, John Locke
Informational Social Influence
Herbert Kelman
Instrumental Convergence
Nick Bostrom, Various Philosophers
Instrumentalism
John Dewey
Intentional Stance
Daniel Dennett
Intentionality
Franz Brentano
Internalism vs. Externalism
William Alston
Is–Ought Problem
David Hume, John Locke, John Stuart Mill, Immanuel Kant
Just War Theory
Thomas Aquinas
Kingdom of Ends
Immanuel Kant
Knight of Faith
Søren Kierkegaard
Knowledge by Acquaintance
Bertrand Russell
Language Games
Ludwig Wittgenstein
Last Man
Friedrich Nietzsche
Leap of Faith
Søren Kierkegaard
Liar Paradox
Epimenides, Bertrand Russell, Kurt Gödel
Liberalism
John Locke
Libertarian Free Will
Roderick Chisholm, John Stuart Mill
Lived Body
Maurice Merleau-Ponty
Logic as Metaphysics
G.W.F. Hegel
Logical Atomism
Bertrand Russell, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Gottlob Frege, John Stuart Mill, David Hume
Logical Pluralism
JC Beall, Greg Restall
Logical Positivism
Vienna Circle, A.J. Ayer, Rudolf Carnap, David Hume
Lottery Fallacy
John Stuart Mill, Immanuel Kant, Bertrand Russell, G.E. Moore, David Hume, John Locke
Lottery Paradox
Henry Kyburg
Master Morality
Friedrich Nietzsche
Master vs. Slave Morality
Friedrich Nietzsche
Master-Slave Dialectic
G.W.F. Hegel
Mereological Nihilism
Contemporary Metaphysical View
Mereological Paradox
Various philosophers
Meta-Ethics
Various Philosophers
Metaphysical Realism
Plato, Hilary Putnam
Mind-Body Problem
René Descartes, John Locke, John Stuart Mill, Immanuel Kant
Modal Realism
David Lewis
Moore’s Paradox
George Edward Moore, John Locke, John Stuart Mill, Immanuel Kant
Moral Constructivism
Christine Korsgaard, John Rawls
Moral Dumbfounding
Jonathan Haidt
Moral Encroachment
Rima Basu, Mark Schroeder
Moral Error Theory
J.L. Mackie
Moral Functionalism
Richard Boyd, Nicholas Sturgeon (modern moral naturalists), John Stuart Mill, Immanuel Kant, John Rawls, Thomas Nagel, G.E. Moore, Roderick Chisholm, John Mackie, W.D. Ross, Alasdair MacIntyre, John Rawls, Thomas Nagel
Moral Luck
Thomas Nagel, Bernard Williams
Moral Particularism
Jonathan Dancy, various philosophers
Moral Realism
Plato, Derek Parfit
Moral Relativism
John Locke, John Stuart Mill, Immanuel Kant
Moral Sentimentalism
David Hume, various philosophers
Moral Test Theory
Various Philosophers
Münchhausen Trilemma
Hans Albert
Music as the Purest Art
Arthur Schopenhauer
Myth of Sisyphus
Albert Camus
Naïve Realism
Various Philosophers
Narrative Identity
Paul Ricoeur
Naturalistic Fallacy
G.E. Moore, John Locke, John Stuart Mill, Immanuel Kant
Negative Dialectics
Theodor W. Adorno
Negative Theology
Pseudo-Dionysius, Meister Eckhart
Negative Utilitarianism
Karl Popper
Neo-Platonism
Plotinus
Nihilism
Friedrich Nietzsche, John Locke, John Stuart Mill, Immanuel Kant
No Free Lunch Theorem
David Wolpert, William Macready
No True Scotsman Fallacy
Antony Flew, John Locke, John Stuart Mill, Immanuel Kant
Noncognitivism
A.J. Ayer, Charles Stevenson
Normative Social Influence
Herbert Kelman
Nothingness Le Néant
Jean-Paul Sartre
Nozick’s Experience Machine (Variation on Hedonism)
Robert Nozick
Occam’s Razor
William of Ockham, Various Philosophers
Ontological Argument
Anselm of Canterbury, René Descartes, Gottfried Leibniz, Immanuel Kant, Bertrand Russell
Ontological Difference
Martin Heidegger
Ontological Relativity
Willard Van Orman Quine
Ontological Shock
Immanuel Kant, Bertrand Russell, David Hume, René Descartes, Gottfried Leibniz, Anselm of Canterbury
Open Question Argument
G. E. Moore, Various Philosophers
Overcoming (Selbstüberwindung)
Friedrich Nietzsche
Panpsychism
Various Philosophers
Paraconsistent Logic
Stanislaw Jaśkowski, Newton da Costa
Paradox of Analysis
G. E. Moore, Various philosophers
Paradox of Choice
Barry Schwartz, Various Philosophers
Paradox of Fiction
Kendall Walton
Paradox of Omnipotence
Thomas Aquinas, C.S. Lewis
Paradox of the Heap
René Descartes, John Locke, John Stuart Mill, Immanuel Kant
Paradox of Tolerance
Karl Popper
Paradox of Tragedy
Aristotle, modern analytic aesthetics
Parfit's Teletransporter Problem
Derek Parfit, Various Philosophers
Parmenidean Monism
Parmenides, various philosophers
Pascal's Wager
Blaise Pascal, Various Philosophers
Performative Contradiction
Jürgen Habermas, Various Philosophers
Performative Utterances
J. L. Austin
Performativity
Judith Butler
Perspectivism
Friedrich Nietzsche
Pessimism
Arthur Schopenhauer
Phenomenal Conservatism
Michael Huemer
Phenomenal Intentionality
Galen Strawson, Terry Horgan
Phenomenology
Edmund Husserl, Martin Heidegger, Jean-Paul Sartre, Maurice Merleau-Ponty
Phenomenology of Perception
Maurice Merleau-Ponty
Phenomenology of Spirit
G.W.F. Hegel
Philosopher of the Future
Friedrich Nietzsche
Philosophical Behaviorism
Gilbert Ryle
Philosophy of Right
G.W.F. Hegel
Philosophy with a Hammer
Friedrich Nietzsche
Phronesis (Practical Wisdom)
Aristotle
Pluralism
Isaiah Berlin
Pluralistic Ignorance
Floyd H. Allport
Polylogism
Karl Marx, Ludwig von Mises
Possible Worlds Semantics
Saul Kripke, David Lewis
Practical Reason
Aristotle, Immanuel Kant
Pragmatism
Charles Sanders Peirce, William James, John Dewey
Principle of Alternate Possibilities
Harry Frankfurt, Various Philosophers
Principle of Charity
Donald Davidson, W. V. O. Quine
Principle of Double Effect
Thomas Aquinas, John Stuart Mill
Principle of Indifference
Jacob Bernoulli, Various Philosophers
Principle of Sufficient Reason
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
Prisoner’s Dilemma
Merrill Flood, Melvin Dresher
Private Language Argument
Ludwig Wittgenstein
Privation Theory of Evil
Augustine of Hippo, Thomas Aquinas
Problem of Dirty Hands
Michael Walzer (modern formulation), John Rawls, John Locke, John Stuart Mill, Immanuel Kant
Problem of Evil
Various Philosophers
Problem of Induction
David Hume, Various Philosophers
Problem of Miracles
David Hume, Immanuel Kant, Bertrand Russell, G.E. Moore, David Hume, John Locke
Problem of the Criterion
Roderick Chisholm, Immanuel Kant, Bertrand Russell, G.E. Moore, David Hume, John Locke
Qualia
Frank Jackson
Quantum Superposition
Erwin Schrödinger, Various Contributors in Quantum Mechanics
Quiet Revolution in Philosophy
Thomas Kuhn, Various Philosophers
Quietism
Ludwig Wittgenstein, Taoism, Buddhism
Radical Freedom
Jean-Paul Sartre
Radical Interpretation
Donald Davidson, various philosophers
Raven Paradox
Carl Hempel, Bertrand Russell, G.E. Moore, David Hume, John Locke
Rawls' Difference Principle
John Rawls
Reductio ad Absurdum
Zeno, Aristotle
Reflexive Modernization
Ulrich Beck, Anthony Giddens
Reism
Tadeusz Kotarbiński
Relativism
Protagoras, G.E. Moore, Roderick Chisholm, John Mackie, W.D. Ross, Alasdair MacIntyre, John Rawls, Thomas Nagel
Religious Paradox
Søren Kierkegaard
Resignation
Arthur Schopenhauer
Ressentiment
Friedrich Nietzsche
Revolt
Albert Camus
Rule of Recognition
H. L. A. Hart, Various Philosophers
Rule Utilitarianism
John Stuart Mill, Various philosophers
Russell’s Paradox
Bertrand Russell, Ludwig Wittgenstein
Scandal of Induction
David Hume, Karl Popper
Schopenhauer on Women
Arthur Schopenhauer
Schopenhauer’s Influence on Nietzsche
Arthur Schopenhauer, Friedrich Nietzsche
Scientific Realism
Hilary Putnam, Various philosophers
Second Sex
Simone de Beauvoir
Self-Referential Paradox
Ancient roots, Kurt Gödel
Self-Referential Paradoxes
Ancient Roots, Developed in Analytic Philosophy
Semantic Externalism
Hilary Putnam
Semiotics
Ferdinand de Saussure, Charles Sanders Peirce
Ship of Theseus
Ancient Greek
Simulation Hypothesis
Nick Bostrom
Situated Perception
Maurice Merleau-Ponty
Skepticism
Pyrrho of Elis, René Descartes, David Hume
Slave Morality
Friedrich Nietzsche
Social Constructionism
Peter L. Berger, Thomas Luckmann
Social Contract Theory
Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Socratic Irony
Socrates, Plato
Solipsism
René Descartes, George Berkeley
Sorites Paradox
Eubulides of Miletus, Bertrand Russell, Kurt Gödel
Speculative Realism
Quentin Meillassoux, Various philosophers
Spiral of Silence
Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann
Spirit as Substance and Subject
G.W.F. Hegel
Stages of Life’s Way
Søren Kierkegaard
Stoic Determinism
Chrysippus, Epictetus
Strong vs. Weak Emergence
David Chalmers (modern usage), various philosophers
Structural Injustice
Iris Marion Young
Structuralism
Claude Lévi-Strauss, Ferdinand de Saussure
Subjectivity as Truth
Søren Kierkegaard
Supererogation
Medieval Scholastics, J.O. Urmson
Supervenience
Donald Davidson, John Stuart Mill
Synthetic A Priori
Immanuel Kant
Tabula Rasa
John Locke
Tacit Knowledge
Michael Polanyi
Technological Determinism
Thorstein Veblen, Marshall McLuhan (developed further)
Teleological Suspension of the Ethical
Søren Kierkegaard
Terror Management Theory
Jeff Greenberg, Sheldon Solomon, Tom Pyszczynski
The Absurd
Albert Camus
The Look Le Regard
Jean-Paul Sartre
The Plague (La Peste) as Ethical Allegory
Albert Camus
The Principle of Humanity
Richard Norman
The Principle of Utility
Jeremy Bentham, John Stuart Mill
The They Das Man
Martin Heidegger
The Veil of Perception
Locke, Descartes, later Analytic debates
Theodicy
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
Theory-Ladenness of Observation
Thomas Kuhn, Norwood Hanson
Thesis of Determinism
Pierre-Simon Laplace, John Stuart Mill
Thick and Thin Ethical Concepts
Bernard Williams
Thing-in-Itself (Ding an sich)
Immanuel Kant
Thrownness Geworfenheit
Martin Heidegger
Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus
Ludwig Wittgenstein
Tragedy of the Commons
Garrett Hardin
Transcendence vs. Immanence
Simone de Beauvoir
Transcendental Arguments
Immanuel Kant, P.F. Strawson, Analytic philosophers
Transcendental Idealism
Immanuel Kant
Transvaluation of Values
Friedrich Nietzsche
Tribal Epistemology
David Roberts, Social Epistemology
Trolley Problem
Philippa Foot, Immanuel Kant, John Stuart Mill
Two-Level Utilitarianism
R. M. Hare
Übermensch (Overman / Superman)
Friedrich Nietzsche
Unconcealment Aletheia
Martin Heidegger
Utilitarian Calculus
Jeremy Bentham
Veil of Ignorance
John Rawls
Verificationism
A. J. Ayer, Vienna Circle
Virtue Epistemology
Ernest Sosa, Linda Zagzebski
Virtue Ethics
Aristotle
Wager Against Pascal
Various Philosophers
Weak Anthropic Principle
Brandon Carter
Will as Thing-in-Itself
Arthur Schopenhauer
Will to Nothingness
Friedrich Nietzsche
Will to Power
Friedrich Nietzsche
Will to Truth
Friedrich Nietzsche
Will-to-Live
Arthur Schopenhauer
Wittgenstein's Language Games
Ludwig Wittgenstein
World-Historical Individuals
G.W.F. Hegel
Worldhood
Martin Heidegger
Zen Paradoxes
Zen Buddhist Tradition
Zeno’s Paradoxes
Zeno of Elea
Zombie Argument
David Chalmers
