Philosophy Atlas
Claims this atlas currently marks as unsettled or as tested and found false. A debated fact is one scholars hold competing positions on; a debunked one has been checked against the record and found not to hold. Both are kept in view rather than quietly smoothed over, with the reasoning that put each one where it stands.
180 statements.
A History of Western Philosophy, NotesRead alongside more recent scholarship rather than as a sole authority.
A History of Western Philosophy, Sources
Standing
Concerns Notes
Currently States Read alongside more recent scholarship rather than as a sole authority.
Valued as a readable narrative but scholars regard several of its judgments, especially on Nietzsche and on the Scholastics, as idiosyncratic rather than representative of mainstream historiography.
Source A History of Western Philosophy, Bertrand Russell
Academic Skepticism, Start Year-266
Academic Skepticism, Schools of Philosophy
Standing
Concerns Start Year
Currently States -266
dated to Arcesilaus becoming head of the Academy; the exact year is not precisely attested.
Source Academic Skepticism (Wikipedia)
Academic Skepticism, End Year-90
Academic Skepticism, Schools of Philosophy
Standing
Concerns End Year
Currently States -90
marks Antiochus of Ascalon's break from skepticism; treated as the end of the Academy's skeptical phase though dating conventions vary.
Source Academic Skepticism (Wikipedia)
Adi Shankara, Birth Year788
Adi Shankara, Philosophers
Standing
Concerns Birth Year
Currently States 788
Scholarly dating of Shankara is genuinely contested: early scholars placed him at 788 to 820 CE, Hajime Nakamura argued for 700 to 750 CE, and Karl Potter suggests the late seventh to early eighth century based on his contemporary Mandanamisra's dating. 788 CE, the traditional dating, is carried here as the commonly cited value.
Source Sankara (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
Adi Shankara, Death Year820
Adi Shankara, Philosophers
Standing
Concerns Death Year
Currently States 820
Follows the traditional 788 to 820 CE dating; hagiographies claim he died at thirty two, but these accounts were composed centuries after his death and are not considered reliable history. See the birth-year note for the wider scholarly range.
Source Sankara (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
Advaita Vedanta, Start Year800
Advaita Vedanta, Schools of Philosophy
Standing
Concerns Start Year
Currently States 800
Adi Shankara's traditional dates are given variously as circa 700 to 750 CE by some scholars and 788 to 820 CE by others; 800 marks the general eighth-century CE consensus for when the tradition crystallized around his teaching, not a settled single year.
Source Advaita Vedanta (Wikipedia)
Advaita Vedanta, Founded Date0800-01-01
Advaita Vedanta, Schools of Philosophy
Standing
Concerns Founded Date
Currently States 0800-01-01
Approximates Adi Shankara's traditional dating to the 8th century CE, the figure credited with systematizing Advaita Vedanta; the same source states this dating plainly rather than pinning an exact year, consistent with this entity's own start-year fact of 800 (also debated).
Source Advaita Vedanta (Wikipedia)
Aesthetics, Key DebateIntentionalism versus anti-intentionalism: whether the artist's intended meaning fixes the correct interpretation of a work, as intentionalists hold, or whether a work's meaning is independent of, and can exceed, what its maker intended, a dispute sharpened by W.K. Wimsatt and Monroe Beardsley's naming of the intentional fallacy.
Aesthetics, Branches of Philosophy
Standing
Concerns Key Debate
Currently States Intentionalism versus anti-intentionalism: whether the artist's intended meaning fixes the correct interpretation of a work, as intentionalists hold, or whether a work's meaning is independent of, and can exceed, what its maker intended, a dispute sharpened by W.K. Wimsatt and Monroe Beardsley's naming of the intentional fallacy.
W.K. Wimsatt and Monroe Beardsley's essay naming the intentional fallacy did not end the dispute; intentionalist critics continue to defend the author's intended meaning as interpretively decisive.
Source Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Al-Farabi, Birth Year872
Al-Farabi, Philosophers
Standing
Concerns Birth Year
Currently States 872
Sources place his birth in a narrow range, roughly 870 to 872; no exact date is settled.
Analytic Philosophy, Start Year1900
Analytic Philosophy, Schools of Philosophy
Standing
Concerns Start Year
Currently States 1900
Candidate starting dates range from Frege's Begriffsschrift (1879) through Moore and Russell's break from British Idealism (about 1898 to 1903) to Wittgenstein's Tractatus (1921); 1900 marks the turn-of-the-century period the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy names, not one settled founding moment.
Source Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Analytic Philosophy, Founded Date1900-01-01
Anarchism, Start Year1840
Anarchism, Schools of Philosophy
Standing
Concerns Start Year
Currently States 1840
1840 marks Pierre-Joseph Proudhon's What Is Property?, in which he became the first person known to call himself an anarchist. William Godwin's 1793 Enquiry Concerning Political Justice is commonly cited as an earlier systematic precursor that did not use the label, and anarchist sentiment has ancient roots older than either; no single founding year commands full agreement.
Source Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (Wikipedia)
Anarchism, Founded Date1840-01-01
Anarchism, Schools of Philosophy
Standing
Concerns Founded Date
Currently States 1840-01-01
1840 marks Pierre-Joseph Proudhon's What Is Property?, in which he became the first person known to call himself an anarchist; William Godwin's 1793 Enquiry Concerning Political Justice is an earlier systematic precursor that did not use the label, and anarchist sentiment has older roots, so no single founding year commands full agreement (matches this entity's own start-year note).
Source Anarchism (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
Anton Wilhelm Amo, Birth Year1703
Anton Wilhelm Amo, Philosophers
Standing
Concerns Birth Year
Currently States 1703
Sources give an approximate, not exact, birth year.
Source Anton Wilhelm Amo (Wikipedia)
Anton Wilhelm Amo, Death Year1759
Anton Wilhelm Amo, Philosophers
Standing
Concerns Death Year
Currently States 1759
Exact death date not established; scholarship gives an approximate year and place.
Source Anton Wilhelm Amo (Wikipedia)
Anton Wilhelm Amo, Death PlaceShama, Gold Coast (present-day Ghana)
Anton Wilhelm Amo, Philosophers
Standing
Concerns Death Place
Currently States Shama, Gold Coast (present-day Ghana)
Probable rather than confirmed location.
Source Anton Wilhelm Amo (Wikipedia)
Ash'arism, Start Year912
Ash'arism, Schools of Philosophy
Standing
Concerns Start Year
Currently States 912
al-Ash'ari's public break from Mu'tazilism and founding of the school is traditionally dated to the early tenth century, with sources disagreeing on the exact year.
Source Abu al-Hasan al-Ash'ari (Wikipedia)
Ash'arism, Founded Date0912-01-01
Ash'arism, Schools of Philosophy
Standing
Concerns Founded Date
Currently States 0912-01-01
Al-Ash'ari's public break from Mu'tazilism and founding of his own school is traditionally dated to the early tenth century CE, in his fortieth year per the traditional biographical account; sources disagree on the exact year, matching this entity's own start-year note.
Source Ash'arism (Wikipedia)
Badarayana, Birth Year-100
Badarayana, Philosophers
Standing
Concerns Birth Year
Currently States -100
The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy's Sankara entry places Badarayana around the first century BCE. Specialist studies of the Brahma Sutras' composition and redaction (see the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy's Advaita Vedanta entry, and the wider text-critical literature on the Brahma Sutras) have proposed dates spanning several centuries BCE to several centuries CE; the traditional Hindu account identifies Badarayana with the sage Vyasa, placing him in a legendary rather than documentable timeframe. No death date is transmitted by any source, traditional or scholarly.
Source Sankara (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
Carneades, Birth Year-214
Carneades, Philosophers
Standing
Concerns Birth Year
Currently States -214
Ancient sources give 214/213 BC; exact year uncertain.
Source Carneades (Wikipedia)