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 marked Debated.
Vaisheshika, Start Year-200
Vaisheshika, Schools of Philosophy
Standing
Concerns Start Year
Currently States -200
Kanada's dates are not independently attested; the Vaisheshika Sutra is generally placed sometime between the sixth and second centuries BCE.
Source Vaisheshika (Wikipedia)
Vaisheshika, Founded Date0350-01-01
Vaisheshika, Schools of Philosophy
Standing
Concerns Founded Date
Currently States 0350-01-01
The DATE column cannot hold the -200 BCE start-year already on record for Kanada's Vaisheshika Sutra. This instead dates Prasastapada's Padarthadharmasamgraha, the next major systematic work Wikipedia names after the founding sutra; 350 approximates 'c. 4th century'.
Source Vaisheshika (Wikipedia)
Value Theory, Key DebateValue monism versus value pluralism: whether value is reducible to a single master value, such as pleasure or preference satisfaction, or is irreducibly plural, with goods such as friendship, knowledge and beauty each mattering in their own right and not fully substitutable for one another, a dispute sharpened by Isaiah Berlin's defense of pluralism.
Value Theory, Branches of Philosophy
Standing
Concerns Key Debate
Currently States Value monism versus value pluralism: whether value is reducible to a single master value, such as pleasure or preference satisfaction, or is irreducibly plural, with goods such as friendship, knowledge and beauty each mattering in their own right and not fully substitutable for one another, a dispute sharpened by Isaiah Berlin's defense of pluralism.
Isaiah Berlin's value pluralism, developed against monist utilitarian and Kantian systems alike, remains the reference point for this dispute.
Source Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Vasubandhu, BirthplaceGandhara (per Xuanzang) or Central India (per Buton Rinchen Drup); sources disagree
Vasubandhu, Philosophers
Standing
Concerns Birthplace
Currently States Gandhara (per Xuanzang) or Central India (per Buton Rinchen Drup); sources disagree
Traditional biographical sources give conflicting locations.
Source Vasubandhu (Wikipedia)
Vedanta, Start Year-100
Vedanta, Schools of Philosophy
Standing
Concerns Start Year
Currently States -100
Scholars date the Brahma Sutras, which first systematized Vedanta as a school, anywhere from roughly the second century BCE to the early centuries CE; -100 marks the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy's own circa first century BCE estimate for Badarayana, not a settled consensus.
Source Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Virtue Ethics, Start Year-350
Virtue Ethics, Schools of Philosophy
Standing
Concerns Start Year
Currently States -350
The Stanford Encyclopedia names both Plato and Aristotle as the tradition Western founding figures and Confucius and Mencius as founders of the distinct Eastern tradition, so no single year commands consensus; -350 marks the conventional dating of Aristotle own systematic treatment in the Nicomachean Ethics.
Source Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Virtue Ethics, Founded Date1958-01-01
Virtue Ethics, Schools of Philosophy
Standing
Concerns Founded Date
Currently States 1958-01-01
The DATE column cannot hold the -350 BCE start-year already on record for Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics. This instead dates the SEP-documented 20th-century revival of virtue ethics as a named field after Elizabeth Anscombe's 1958 essay, the same later-milestone convention this atlas already uses for BCE-founded schools (see charvaka).
Source Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Xunzi, Birth Year-310
Xunzi, Philosophers
Standing
Concerns Birth Year
Currently States -310
The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy dates his birth to circa 310 BCE; exact dates are unknown and disputed among scholars, including disagreement over whether he first traveled to the state of Qi at age fifteen or fifty.
Source Xunzi (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
Xunzi, Death Year-235
Xunzi, Philosophers
Standing
Concerns Death Year
Currently States -235
Ancient sources establish only that Xunzi died sometime after 238 BCE; no exact year is transmitted. 235 BCE is the commonly cited scholarly approximation.
Source Xunzi (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
Yin-Yang School, Start Year-300
Yin-Yang School, Schools of Philosophy
Standing
Concerns Start Year
Currently States -300
dated to Zou Yan's activity in the third century BCE; his exact birth and death years are not independently attested.
Source Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Yin-Yang School, End Year-100
Yin-Yang School, Schools of Philosophy
Standing
Concerns End Year
Currently States -100
marks the broad absorption of Yin-Yang cosmology into Han-dynasty syncretic thought rather than a precise date.
Yin-Yang School, Start Year-770
Yin-Yang School, Schools of Philosophy
Standing
Concerns Start Year
Currently States -770
The Internet Encyclopedia reports that the 2nd-century BCE historian Sima Tan placed the yinyang school across the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, considerably earlier than the -300 value already on record for Zou Yan's own era. Kept alongside rather than replacing the existing value.
Source Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Yoga, Start Year200
Yoga, Schools of Philosophy
Standing
Concerns Start Year
Currently States 200
the Yoga Sutras' composition is dated variously from the second century BCE to the fourth century CE by different scholars; the practices it systematizes are considerably older.
Source Yoga Sutras of Patanjali (Wikipedia)
Yoga, Founded Date0200-01-01
Yoga, Schools of Philosophy
Standing
Concerns Founded Date
Currently States 0200-01-01
the Yoga Sutras' composition is dated variously from the second century BCE to the fourth century CE by different scholars; the practices it systematizes are considerably older.
Source Yoga Sutras of Patanjali (Wikipedia)
Yogacara, Start Year350
Yogacara, Schools of Philosophy
Standing
Concerns Start Year
Currently States 350
Asanga and Vasubandhu's exact dates are disputed among scholars, with estimates ranging across the fourth and early fifth centuries CE.
Source Yogācāra (Wikipedia)
Yogacara, Founded Date0350-01-01
Yogacara, Schools of Philosophy
Standing
Concerns Founded Date
Currently States 0350-01-01
Asanga and Vasubandhu's exact dates are disputed among scholars, with estimates ranging across the fourth and early fifth centuries CE.
Source Yogācāra (Wikipedia)
Zeno of Citium, Birth Year-334
Zeno of Citium, Philosophers
Standing
Concerns Birth Year
Currently States -334
Ancient sources disagree on Zeno's exact birth year; 334 BCE is the commonly cited approximation, reconstructed from Diogenes Laertius' account of his age at death and the dates of his arrival in Athens.
Source Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Zeno of Citium, Death Year-262
Zeno of Citium, Philosophers
Standing
Concerns Death Year
Currently States -262
Ancient sources place Zeno's death between roughly 262 and 261 BCE; the exact year is not independently attested.
Source Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Zhuangzi, Birth Year-369
Zhuangzi, Philosophers
Standing
Concerns Birth Year
Currently States -369
Traditional dates (roughly 369 to 286 BCE) rest on later biographical accounts rather than contemporary records; scholars treat the precise years as approximate.
Zhuangzi, Death Year-286
Zhuangzi, Philosophers
Standing
Concerns Death Year
Currently States -286
See the birth-year note: known only from later, partly legendary accounts.