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.
Liberation Philosophy, Founded Date1971-01-01
Liberation Philosophy, Schools of Philosophy
Standing
Concerns Founded Date
Currently States 1971-01-01
the movement's key early texts and the philosophical congresses associated with its emergence are usually dated to the early 1970s; different founding events are cited by different scholars.
Source Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Logic, Key DebateLogical pluralism versus logical monism: whether classical logic is the single correct account of valid inference, or whether distinct logics, classical, intuitionistic, relevance and paraconsistent among them, can each be correct for different subject matters or purposes.
Logic, Branches of Philosophy
Standing
Concerns Key Debate
Currently States Logical pluralism versus logical monism: whether classical logic is the single correct account of valid inference, or whether distinct logics, classical, intuitionistic, relevance and paraconsistent among them, can each be correct for different subject matters or purposes.
JC Beall and Greg Restall's defense of logical pluralism reopened a question earlier logicians treated as closed in favor of classical logic alone.
Source Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Madhva, Birth Year1238
Madhva, Philosophers
Standing
Concerns Birth Year
Currently States 1238
The Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy itself marks these dates with a question mark (1238?-1317?); exact years are uncertain.
Source Madhva (Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
Madhva, Death Year1317
Madhva, Philosophers
Standing
Concerns Death Year
Currently States 1317
Uncertain, as with the birth year; see the birth-year note.
Source Madhva (Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
Madhyamaka, Start Year150
Madhyamaka, Schools of Philosophy
Standing
Concerns Start Year
Currently States 150
Nagarjuna's traditional dates are disputed, with modern scholarship placing him variously in the second or third century CE.
Source Madhyamaka (Wikipedia)
Madhyamaka, Founded Date0150-01-01
Madhyamaka, Schools of Philosophy
Standing
Concerns Founded Date
Currently States 0150-01-01
Nagarjuna's traditional dates are disputed, with modern scholarship placing him variously in the second or third century CE.
Source Madhyamaka (Wikipedia)
Maimonides, Birth Year1135
Maimonides, Philosophers
Standing
Concerns Birth Year
Currently States 1135
Sources give 1135 or 1138 for the birth year (Passover Eve); 1135 is used here as the traditionally cited year.
Source Maimonides (Wikipedia)
Marcus Aurelius, Death PlaceOn the Danube frontier, at Vindobona (modern Vienna) or Sirmium; ancient accounts differ on the precise location.
Marcus Aurelius, Philosophers
Standing
Concerns Death Place
Currently States On the Danube frontier, at Vindobona (modern Vienna) or Sirmium; ancient accounts differ on the precise location.
Source Marcus Aurelius (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
Mencius, Birth Year-372
Mencius, Philosophers
Standing
Concerns Birth Year
Currently States -372
Ancient sources give no exact birth date; the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy places Mencius only broadly in the fourth century BCE, a century after Confucius's death. 372 BCE is the commonly cited scholarly approximation; other reconstructions place his birth as late as 385 BCE.
Source Mencius (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
Mencius, Death Year-289
Mencius, Philosophers
Standing
Concerns Death Year
Currently States -289
No exact death date survives; 289 BCE is the commonly cited scholarly approximation, reconstructed from his recorded travels and the political chronology of the Warring States period.
Source Mencius (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
Metaphysics, Key DebateWhat most fundamentally exists: a plurality of individual substances bearing properties, as Aristotle held; a single infinite substance under two attributes, as Spinoza argued; or whether the very category of a self-standing thing dissolves on inspection, as Nagarjuna's doctrine of emptiness and the Dao's own namelessness both suggest, from unrelated traditions arriving at a similar dissolution.
Metaphysics, Branches of Philosophy
Standing
Concerns Key Debate
Currently States What most fundamentally exists: a plurality of individual substances bearing properties, as Aristotle held; a single infinite substance under two attributes, as Spinoza argued; or whether the very category of a self-standing thing dissolves on inspection, as Nagarjuna's doctrine of emptiness and the Dao's own namelessness both suggest, from unrelated traditions arriving at a similar dissolution.
Beyond disagreement over what exists, some twentieth-century philosophers rejected metaphysical inquiry's legitimacy altogether. The Vienna Circle logical positivists held that metaphysical statements, being neither analytic and a priori nor empirical and synthetic, fail their verification principle and are therefore cognitively meaningless rather than merely false; see the attached dissent.
Source Vienna Circle (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
Metaphysics, Key DebateFree will versus determinism: libertarians defend genuine alternative possibilities incompatible with universal causal determination, hard determinists deny that any freedom worth wanting survives if determinism is true, and compatibilists hold that freedom and determinism are not in conflict once freedom is properly defined as acting on one's own desires and reasons.
Metaphysics, Branches of Philosophy
Standing
Concerns Key Debate
Currently States Free will versus determinism: libertarians defend genuine alternative possibilities incompatible with universal causal determination, hard determinists deny that any freedom worth wanting survives if determinism is true, and compatibilists hold that freedom and determinism are not in conflict once freedom is properly defined as acting on one's own desires and reasons.
Whether human choices are ever free in a sense incompatible with universal causal determination remains unsettled among philosophers who otherwise agree on the physics.
Source Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Michael Psellos, Death Year1078
Michael Psellos, Philosophers
Standing
Concerns Death Year
Currently States 1078
Most scholars place his death soon after 1078; some propose later dates, up to 1096.
Source Wikipedia: Michael Psellos
Mohism, Common NameUniversal Love
Mohism, Schools of Philosophy
Standing
Concerns Common Name
Currently States Universal Love
The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy's own entry cautions this popular rendering of jian ai overstates the doctrine's emotional content: jian carries the sense of including everyone within a whole, and ai here typically refers to a dispassionate concern for welfare rather than passionate attachment, so the entry judges inclusive care the better translation.
Source Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Mohism, End Year-221
Mohism, Schools of Philosophy
Standing
Concerns End Year
Currently States -221
No single year is given by either encyclopedia. Wikipedia states Mohism had almost disappeared as an independent school of thought in the wake of the cultural transformations of the Qin dynasty, after 221 BC, and SEP states the movement had vanished altogether by the middle of the Western Han (206 BCE-24 CE). -221, the Qin unification year, is used as the marker year the sources agree the decline began, not a precise end point.
Source Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Mulla Sadra, Death Year1636
Mulla Sadra, Philosophers
Standing
Concerns Death Year
Currently States 1636
Sources place his death between 1635 and 1640 CE (the Wikipedia infobox gives c. 1635/40); no single year is universally agreed, so 1636 is recorded as a commonly cited mid-range figure pending a firmer date.
Source Mulla Sadra (Wikipedia)
Mu'tazilism, Start Year730
Mu'tazilism, Schools of Philosophy
Standing
Concerns Start Year
Currently States 730
the school's founding is traditionally dated to Wasil ibn Ata's break from Hasan al-Basri's circle, but the exact year is not independently attested.
Source Mu'tazila (Wikipedia)
Mu'tazilism, End Year1250
Mu'tazilism, Schools of Philosophy
Standing
Concerns End Year
Currently States 1250
Mu'tazilism's dominance as a school of Sunni theology waned by the later Abbasid period; the date marks the broad decline associated with the Mongol conquest of Baghdad rather than a precise endpoint, and the tradition persisted longer within Shi'a theology.
Source Mu'tazila (Wikipedia)
Mu'tazilism, Founded Date0730-01-01
Mu'tazilism, Schools of Philosophy
Standing
Concerns Founded Date
Currently States 0730-01-01
Dated to Wasil ibn Ata's traditional break from Hasan al-Basri's teaching circle in Basra, placed in the early eighth century CE by Sunni sources; matches this entity's own start-year fact, though the exact day and year are not independently attested.
Source Mu'tazila (Wikipedia)
Nagarjuna, Birth Year150
Nagarjuna, Philosophers
Standing
Concerns Birth Year
Currently States 150
Scholarly estimates for Nagarjuna's life vary, roughly the second to third century CE; no precise date is established.