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Topic Review

Musical Contagion

Music can contaminate us. Sometimes, listeners perceive music as expressing some emotion (say, sadness), and this elicits the same emotion in them (they feel sad). What is musical contagion? Resesarchers presents the main theories of musical contagion that crystallize around the challenge to the leading theory of emotions as experiences of values. How and why does music contaminate us? Does musical contagion elicit garden variety emotions, such as sadness, joy, and anxiety? Does music contaminate us by simply moving us? Which role does imagination play in our affective responses to music? Is musical arousal elicited by automatic mimicry? What does musical contagion teach us about emotions? Musical contagion addresses fundamental theoretical and practical issues.

3.1K
10 Mar 2023

Biography

Murray Bookchin

Murray Bookchin (January 14, 1921 – July 30, 2006)[1] was an United States social theorist, author, orator, historian, and political philosopher. A pioneer in the ecology movement,[2] Bookchin formulated and developed the theory of social ecology and urban planning, within anarchist, libertarian socialist, and ecological thought. He was the author of two dozen books covering topics in politics

3.1K
30 Dec 2022

Topic Review

Mechanism is the belief that natural wholes (principally living things) are similar to complicated machines or artifacts, composed of parts lacking any intrinsic relationship to each other. The doctrine of mechanism in philosophy comes in two different flavors. They are both doctrines of metaphysics, but they are different in scope and ambitions: the first is a global doctrine about nature; the second is a local doctrine about humans and their minds, which is hotly contested. For clarity, we might distinguish these two doctrines as universal mechanism and anthropic mechanism.

3.1K
11 Oct 2022

Biography

Uma Narayan (born 16 April 1958) is an Indian feminist scholar, and a Professor of Philosophy at Vassar College. She is the author of Dislocating Cultures: Identities, Traditions and Third World Feminism in which Narayan disputes feminism as a solely Western notion and intrusion, while challenging assumptions that India n feminism is based on Western models. In particular, a notion of homogen

3.0K
30 Dec 2022

Biography

Michel de Montaigne

Michel Eyquem de Montaigne (/mɒnˈteɪn/ mon-TAYN;[1] French: [miʃɛl ekɛm də mɔ̃tɛɲ]; 28 February 1533 – 13 September 1592[2]), also known as Lord of Montaigne, was one of the most significant philosophers of the French Renaissance. He is known for popularizing the essay as a literary genre. His work is noted for its merging of casual anecdotes[3] and autobiography with intellectual

3.0K
05 Dec 2022

Topic Review

Hobbes's Moral and Political Philosophy

Thomas Hobbes’s moral and political philosophy is constructed around the basic premise of social and political order, explaining how humans should live in peace under a sovereign power so as to avoid conflict within the ‘state of nature’. Hobbes’s moral philosophy and political philosophy are significantly intertwined; his moral thought is based around ideas of human nature, which determine the interactions that make up his political philosophy. Hobbes’s moral philosophy therefore provides justification for, and informs, the theories of sovereignty and the state of nature that underpin his political philosophy. In utilising methods of deductive reasoning and motion science, Hobbes examines human emotion, reason and knowledge to construct his ideas of human nature (moral philosophy). This methodology critically influences his politics, determining the interactions of conflict (in the state of nature) which necessitate the creation of a politically authoritative State to ensure the maintenance of peace and cooperation. This method is used and developed in works such as The Elements of Law (1640), De Cive (1642), Leviathan (1651) and Behemoth (1681).

3.0K
30 Sep 2022

Biography

Saint Sava (Serbian: Свети Сава / Sveti Sava, pronounced [sʋɛ̂ːtiː sǎːʋa], 1174 – 14 January 1236), known as The Enlightener, was a Serbian prince and Orthodox monk, the first Archbishop of the autocephalous Serbian Church, the founder of Serbian law, and a diplomat. Sava, born as Rastko (Serbian Cyrillic: Растко), was the youngest son of Serbian Grand Prince Stefan Nem

2.9K
16 Nov 2022

Biography

Martin Lings (24 January 1909 – 12 May 2005), also known as Abū Bakr Sirāj ad-Dīn, was an England writer, scholar, and philosopher. A student of the Swiss metaphysician Frithjof Schuon[1] and an authority on the work of William Shakespeare, he is best known as the author of Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources, first published in 1983 and still in print. Lings was born in Bur

2.9K
09 Dec 2022

Biography

Alain Finkielkraut

Alain Finkielkraut (born 30 June 1949) is a French philosopher and public intellectual. He has written books and essays on a wide range of topics, many on the ideas of tradition and identitary nonviolence, including Jewish identity and antisemitism, French colonialism, the mission of the French education system in immigrant assimilation, and the Yugoslav Wars. He joined the Department of French

2.9K
22 Nov 2022

Biography

Alfredo Pimentel Co 许培堆 (born November 30, 1949) is the foremost Sinologist and one of the most sought-after lecturers in the Philippines.[1][2][3]He was the founding president of the Philosophy Circle of the Philippines and is currently the President of the Philippine Academy of Philosophical Research, chairman of the Commission on Higher Education's Technical Committee on Philosophy, and

2.9K
22 Nov 2022

Biography

Zera Yacob (/ˈzɪərə jæˈkoʊb/; Ge'ez: ዘርአ ፡ ያዕቆብ zar'ā yāʿiqōb "Seed of Jacob," modern Zer'a Yā'iqōb; also spelled Zärˀä Yaˁqob, Zar'a Ya'aqob, or Zar'a Ya'eqob; 31 August 1599 – 1692) was a seventeenth-century Ethiopian philosopher from the city Aksum. His 1667 treatise, developed around 1630 and known in the original Ge'ez language as the Hatata (Inquiry), has

2.9K
15 Nov 2022

Topic Review

A subject is a being who has a unique consciousness and/or unique personal experiences, or an entity that has a relationship with another entity that exists outside itself (called an "object"). A subject is an observer and an object is a thing observed. This concept is especially important in Continental philosophy, where 'the subject' is a central term in debates over the nature of the self. The nature of the subject is also central in debates over the nature of subjective experience within the Anglo-American tradition of analytical philosophy. The sharp distinction between subject and object corresponds to the distinction, in the philosophy of René Descartes, between thought and extension. Descartes believed that thought (subjectivity) was the essence of the mind, and that extension (the occupation of space) was the essence of matter.

2.8K
18 Nov 2022

Biography

George Edward Moore OM FBA (4 November 1873 – 24 October 1958), usually cited as G. E. Moore, was an English philosopher. He was, with Bertrand Russell, Ludwig Wittgenstein, and (before them) Gottlob Frege, one of the founders of the analytic tradition in philosophy. Along with Russell, he led the turn away from idealism in British philosophy, and became well known for his advocacy of common s

2.6K
22 Nov 2022

Biography

Karl Theodor Jaspers (/ˈjæspərz/; German: [ˈkaɐ̯l ˈjaspɐs];[1][2] 23 February 1883 – 26 February 1969) was a German-Swiss psychiatrist and philosopher who had a strong influence on modern theology, psychiatry, and philosophy. After being trained in and practicing psychiatry, Jaspers turned to philosophical inquiry and attempted to discover an innovative philosophical system. He was oft

2.5K
15 Nov 2022

Biography

Peter Christian Vardy (born July 1945)[1] is a British theologian. The author or co-author of 18 books about religion and ethics, Vardy was vice-principal of Heythrop College, a Jesuit college in London, from 1999 to 2011.[2] He is known for the religious-studies conferences he runs in the UK for schools.[3][4] Vardy was born to Mark Vardy[1] and Christa Lund Vardy; his mother was Danish.[5]

2.4K
30 Dec 2022

Topic Review

Guṇa (Sanskrit: गुण) is a concept in Hinduism and Sikhism, which can be translated as "quality, peculiarity, attribute, property". The concept is originally notable as a feature of Samkhya philosophy. The gunas are now a key concept in nearly all schools of Hindu philosophy. There are three gunas, according to this worldview, that have always been and continue to be present in all things and beings in the world. These three gunas are called: sattva (goodness, constructive, harmonious), rajas (passion, active, confused), and tamas (darkness, destructive, chaotic). All of these three gunas are present in everyone and everything, it is the proportion that is different, according to Hindu worldview. The interplay of these gunas defines the character of someone or something, of nature and determines the progress of life. In some contexts, it may mean "a subdivision, species, kind, quality", or an operational principle or tendency of something or someone. In human behavior studies, Guna means personality, innate nature and psychological attributes of an individual. Like all Sanskrit technical terms, guṇa can be difficult to summarize in a single word. Its original and common meaning is a thread, implying the original materials that weave together to make up reality. The usual, but approximate translation in common usage is "quality".

2.3K
02 Dec 2022

Topic Review

Ubuntu in Post-Apartheid South Africa

Ubuntu has been defined as a moral quality of human beings, as a philosophy or an ethic, as African humanism, and as a worldview.

2.3K
17 Feb 2024

Biography

Vilém Flusser (May 12, 1920 – November 27, 1991) was a Czech-born philosopher, writer and journalist. He lived for a long period in São Paulo (where he became a Brazilian citizen) and later in France, and his works are written in many different languages. His early work was marked by discussion of the thought of Martin Heidegger, and by the influence of existentialism and phenomenology. Ph

2.3K
15 Dec 2022

Topic Review

Self-help or self-improvement is a self-guided improvement. Self-help often utilizes publicly available information or support groups, on the Internet as well as in person, where people in similar situations join together. From early examples in self-driven legal practice and home-spun advice, the connotations of the word have spread and often apply particularly to education, business, psychology and psychotherapy, commonly distributed through the popular genre of self-help books. According to the APA Dictionary of Psychology, potential benefits of self-help groups that professionals may not be able to provide include friendship, emotional support, experiential knowledge, identity, meaningful roles, and a sense of belonging. Groups associated with health conditions may consist of patients and caregivers. As well as featuring long-time members sharing experiences, these health groups can become support groups and clearing-houses for educational material. Those who help themselves by learning and identifying about health problems can be said to exemplify self-help, while self-help groups can be seen more as peer-to-peer support.

2.3K
29 Sep 2022

Biography

Douglas Harding

Douglas Edison Harding (12 February 1909 – 11 January 2007) was an English philosophical writer, mystic, spiritual teacher and author of a number of books, including On Having No Head, Zen and the Rediscovery of the Obvious. He was born in Lowestoft in the county of Suffolk and raised in the Exclusive Plymouth Brethren, a Christian sect, from which he apostatised at the age of 21. In 1943,

2.2K
16 Dec 2022

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