Branches of Philosophy

Ethics

Also Known As Moral Philosophy
Ethics

The branch of philosophy concerned with how one ought to live and act, and with what makes an action right or a life good. Three broad families of answer have dominated the Western tradition: virtue ethics, associated with Aristotle, which asks what character traits make a person excellent and treats right action as what a virtuous person would do; deontological ethics, associated with Kant, which grounds rightness in duty and in principles that could be willed as universal law regardless of consequences; and consequentialism, most fully developed as utilitarianism by Bentham and Mill, which judges an action by the balance of good and harm it produces. Ethics also covers metaethical questions about whether moral claims can be true at all, and applied questions about specific practical dilemmas, but the founding question, how should one live, is Socrates' own, asked in nearly every dialogue Plato wrote.

Facts
Disputed
Key Debate
Consequentialism versus deontology, sharpened by the trolley problem: whether the rightness of an action is fixed entirely by its consequences, as consequentialists hold, or by duties and rules that can forbid an act even when it produces the best outcome, as deontologists hold, with trolley cases used to test the two views against shared intuitions. 1
The trolley problem and its variants have been used since Philippa Foot and Judith Jarvis Thomson to sharpen, without settling, the older dispute between consequentialist and deontological ethics.
Key Debate
Whether morality is discovered or made: the Socratic tradition treats the good as an objective target reason can pursue through examined dialogue, while Nietzsche treats inherited morality as a historically contingent human invention, open to revaluation rather than discovery. 2
A third position denies both horns: J.L. Mackie's error theory holds that ordinary moral discourse commits speakers to objective values and objective prescriptions, but that no such objective moral facts exist at all, so moral claims are not so much discovered, made, or revalued as systematically false; see the attached dissent.
Central Question
How should one live, and what makes an action right or a character good? 1
Key Debate
The is-ought problem: David Hume observed that moral writers slide, unnoticed, from statements of what is the case to statements of what ought to be the case, a transition he found could not be validly made from facts alone, since the distinction of vice and virtue is not perceived by reason or founded merely on the relations of objects; whether any such gap between fact and value can be bridged remains a live question in metaethics. 1
Ethics
Filter Results1 entry
FAQs

What is the is-ought problem, and why does it matter for ethics?

David Hume pointed out that moral writers often slide from statements about what is the case to statements about what ought to be the case without justifying the move, and whether that gap between fact and value can ever be closed is still debated.

David Hume observed that moral writers slide, often unnoticed, from statements of what is the case to statements of what ought to be the case, a transition he argued could not be validly made from facts alone, since the distinction between vice and virtue is not perceived by reason or founded merely on the relations between objects. Whether any such gap between fact and value can be bridged remains a live question in metaethics, and it is one of the reasons some philosophers doubt that ethical conclusions can ever be derived from purely factual premises.
Connections

Associated With

Source Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Source Bioethics (Wikipedia)
Source Environmental Philosophy (Wikipedia)
Source Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Source Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Source Philosophy of Sport (Wikipedia)
Socrates, Philosophers
Source Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Includes

Source Wikipedia: Peter Railton
Source Peter Singer (Wikipedia)
Source Philippa Foot (Wikipedia)
Source Pierre Charron (Wikipedia)
Source Pietro Pomponazzi, Wikipedia
Source Protagoras (Wikipedia)
Source Pythagoras (Wikipedia)
Source Wikipedia: R. M. Hare
Source Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Ralph Waldo Emerson
Source Wikipedia: Rhina Toruño Haensly
Source Richard Cumberland (Wikipedia)
Source Richard Joyce (philosopher) (Wikipedia)
Source Richard Price (Wikipedia)
Source Robyn Bluhm (Wikipedia)
Source Rudolf Christoph Eucken (Wikipedia)
Source Wikipedia: Samantha Brennan
Source Samantha Vice (Wikipedia)
Source Samuel Clarke (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
Source Wikipedia: Samuel Ramos
Source Samuel von Pufendorf (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
Self-Reliance, Works
Source Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Seneca, Philosophers
Source Shantideva - Wikipedia
Source Sharon Street (Wikipedia)
Source Wikipedia: Simon Blackburn
Source Wikipedia: Simon Hailwood
Source Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Socrates, Philosophers
Source Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Source Sŏng Hon (Wikipedia)
Source Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Source Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Thomas Hill Green
Source T. M. Scanlon (Wikipedia)
Source Wikipedia: Tadeusz Kotarbinski
The Analects, Works
Source Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Source Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Source Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Source Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Source Trolley Problem (Wikipedia)
Source Theophrastus (Wikipedia)
Source Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Source Tullia d'Aragona (Wikipedia)
Source Ubuntu Philosophy (Wikipedia)
Source Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Source Utility Monster (Wikipedia)
Source Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Source Walda Heywat, Wikipedia
Source Watsuji Tetsuro (Wikipedia)
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Sources
1. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Stanford University, Center for the Study of Language and Information
  • s.v. Ethics
  • entry: Socrates
  • s.v. Doing vs. Allowing Harm
  • entry: Hume's Moral Philosophy, Section 5 Is and Ought
    Attention to this transition would 'subvert all the vulgar systems of morality, and let us see, that the distinction of vice and virtue is not founded merely on the relations of objects, nor is perceiv'd by reason.'
  • Includes: Aristotle
  • Includes: Immanuel Kant
  • Includes: David Hume
  • Includes: Simone de Beauvoir
  • Includes: Jeremy Bentham
  • Includes: Utilitarianism
  • Includes: Existentialism
  • Includes: The Nicomachean Ethics
  • Includes: The Categorical Imperative
  • Includes: Socrates
  • Includes: Friedrich Nietzsche
  • Includes: Thus Spoke Zarathustra
  • Associated With: Aristotle, entry: Aristotle's Ethics
  • Associated With: Immanuel Kant, entry: Kant's Moral Philosophy
  • Associated With: Jeremy Bentham, entry: Consequentialism
  • Includes: Cynicism
  • Includes: Diogenes of Sinope
  • Includes: The Analects
  • Includes: Self-Reliance
  • Includes: The Conduct of Life
  • Includes: Mohism, entry: Mohism, Introduction
    They were the first in the tradition to engage, like Socrates in ancient Greece, in an explicit, reflective search for objective moral standards and to give step-by-step, tightly reasoned arguments for their views.
  • Includes: Virtue Ethics, entry: Virtue Ethics, Introduction
    Virtue ethics is currently one of three major approaches in normative ethics.
  • Includes: Deontology, entry: Deontological Ethics, Introduction
    In contemporary moral philosophy, deontology is one of those kinds of normative theories regarding which choices are morally required, forbidden, or permitted.
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2. Moral Anti-Realism (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophySection 3.2
Quote, Section 3.2
John Mackie...argues that when we participate in moral discourse we commit ourselves to the existence of objective values and objective prescriptions, but there are no such things.
View the Source
Ethics (Wikipedia)
WikipediaIntroduction
Quote, Introduction
Ethics is the philosophical study of moral phenomena. Also called moral philosophy, it investigates normative questions about what people ought to do or which behavior is morally right.
View the Source
Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
  • Includes: Confucius
  • Includes: Zeno of Citium
  • Includes: Stoicism
  • Includes: Confucianism
View the Source
Jean-Paul Sartre (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
  • Includes: Jean-Paul Sartre
  • Includes: Bad Faith
View the Source
Albert Camus (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyIncludes: Albert CamusView the Source
Trolley Problem (Wikipedia)
WikipediaIncludes: The Trolley Problem, Introduction
Quote, Includes: The Trolley Problem, Introduction
The series usually begins with a scenario in which a runaway trolley (tram) or train is on course to collide with and kill a number of people.
View the Source
Environmental Philosophy (Wikipedia)
WikipediaAssociated With: Environmental Philosophy, Lead section
Quote, Associated With: Environmental Philosophy, Lead section
Environmental philosophy includes environmental ethics, environmental aesthetics, ecofeminism, environmental hermeneutics, and environmental theology.
View the Source
Philosophy of Sport (Wikipedia)
WikipediaAssociated With: Philosophy of Sport, Lead section
Quote, Associated With: Philosophy of Sport, Lead section
These issues cover many areas, but fall primarily into five philosophical categories: metaphysics, ethics and moral philosophy, philosophy of law, political philosophy and aesthetics.
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Bioethics (Wikipedia)
WikipediaAssociated With: Bioethics, Lead section
Quote, Associated With: Bioethics, Lead section
Bioethics is both a field of study and professional practice, interested in ethical issues related to health
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Is-Ought Problem (Wikipedia)
Wikipedia
  • Includes: Is-Ought Problem, Lead section
    It was first articulated by the 18th-century Scottish philosopher David Hume, who saw a significant difference between descriptive statements (about what is) and prescriptive statements (about what ought to be).
  • Includes: Is-Ought Problem, Lead
    The is-ought problem is the question of whether moral statements about what ought to be can be inferred from objective statements about what is.
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Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Thomas Hill Green
Includes: T. H. Green, Lead, ethics
Quote, Includes: T. H. Green, Lead, ethics
In ethics, Green embraced a form of perfectionism that identifies the human good with self-realization
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Rudolf Christoph Eucken (Wikipedia)
Includes: Rudolf Christoph Eucken, Ethical activism
Quote, Includes: Rudolf Christoph Eucken, Ethical activism
This practical idealism Eucken described by the term "ethical activism"
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Max Scheler (Wikipedia)
Includes: Max Scheler, Lead, fields of work
Quote, Includes: Max Scheler, Lead, fields of work
known for his work in phenomenology, ethics, and philosophical anthropology
View the Source
Otto Weininger (Wikipedia)
Includes: Otto Weininger, Sex and Character, masculinity and femininity
Quote, Includes: Otto Weininger, Sex and Character, masculinity and femininity
By contrast, the duty of the male, or the masculine aspect of personality, is to strive to become a genius and to forgo sexuality for an abstract love of the absolute, God, which he finds within himself.
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Jean-Marie Guyau (Wikipedia)
Includes: Jean-Marie Guyau, Philosophy
Quote, Includes: Jean-Marie Guyau, Philosophy
Guyau's works primarily analyze and respond to modern philosophy, especially moral philosophy
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Samuel von Pufendorf (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
Includes: Samuel von Pufendorf, Lead, branch
Quote, Includes: Samuel von Pufendorf, Lead, branch
Pufendorf is known as a voluntarist in ethics
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Elisabeth, Princess of Bohemia (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
Includes: Elisabeth of the Palatinate, Lead, branch
Quote, Includes: Elisabeth of the Palatinate, Lead, branch
on the nature of virtue and the greatest good
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Catharine Trotter Cockburn (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
Includes: Catharine Trotter Cockburn, Lead, branch
Quote, Includes: Catharine Trotter Cockburn, Lead, branch
Although primarily concerned with moral issues
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Francis Hutcheson (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
Includes: Francis Hutcheson, Lead, branch
Quote, Includes: Francis Hutcheson, Lead, branch
an advocate of moral sentimentalism
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Lord Shaftesbury (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
Includes: Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury, Lead, branch
Quote, Includes: Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury, Lead, branch
He was at the forefront of developing the idea of a moral sense
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Christian Wolff (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
Includes: Christian Wolff, Lead, branch
Quote, Includes: Christian Wolff, Lead, branch
logic, metaphysics, ethics, political philosophy, and aesthetics
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Bernard Mandeville (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
Includes: Bernard Mandeville, Lead, branch
Quote, Includes: Bernard Mandeville, Lead, branch
major contributions to the history of moral and social philosophy
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Samuel Clarke (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
Includes: Samuel Clarke, Lead, branch
Quote, Includes: Samuel Clarke, Lead, branch
only Shaftesbury rivals him in ethics
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1001 Philosophers: Gabrielle Suchon (1001 Philosophers)
Includes: Gabrielle Suchon, Biography, branch
Quote, Includes: Gabrielle Suchon, Biography, branch
Her Treatise on Morality and Politics, published in 1693
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Itō Jinsai (Wikipedia)
Includes: Itō Jinsai, Lead
Quote, Includes: Itō Jinsai, Lead
Jinsai is widely known for his outspoken affirmation of the validity of human emotions
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Yamazaki Ansai (Wikipedia)
Includes: Yamazaki Ansai, Life, early years
Quote, Includes: Yamazaki Ansai, Life, early years
which later became the basis of Ansai's moral philosophy/teachings
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Kaibara Ekken (Wikipedia)
Includes: Kaibara Ekken, Lead, work
Quote, Includes: Kaibara Ekken, Lead, work
Kaibara was known for his manuals of behavior
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Jakob Thomasius (Wikipedia)
Includes: Jakob Thomasius, Work
Quote, Includes: Jakob Thomasius, Work
where Thomasius was professor of Rhetoric and Moral Philosophy
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Claude Adrien Helvétius (Wikipedia)
Includes: Claude Adrien Helvétius, Lead and Life
Quote, Includes: Claude Adrien Helvétius, Lead and Life
the only real motive is self-interest, therefore there is no good and evil, only competitive pleasures
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Dugald Stewart (Wikipedia)
Includes: Dugald Stewart, Lead and Life
Quote, Includes: Dugald Stewart, Lead and Life
delivering an original course of lectures on morals
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Richard Price (Wikipedia)
Includes: Richard Price, Lead and Life
Quote, Includes: Richard Price, Lead and Life
contains Price's theory of ethics
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Adam Ferguson (Wikipedia)
Includes: Adam Ferguson, Lead and Life
Quote, Includes: Adam Ferguson, Lead and Life
in 1764 transferred to the chair of "pneumatics" (mental philosophy) and moral philosophy
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Christian August Crusius (Wikipedia)
Includes: Christian August Crusius, Lead and Life
Quote, Includes: Christian August Crusius, Lead and Life
He attacked it mainly on the grounds of the moral evils that must flow from any system of determinism, and attempted to vindicate the freedom of the will.
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Pierre Charron (Wikipedia)
Includes: Pierre Charron, Lead, ethics
Quote, Includes: Pierre Charron, Lead, ethics
He is remembered for his controversial form of skepticism and his separation of ethics from religion as an independent philosophical discipline.
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Li Zhi (philosopher) (Wikipedia)
Includes: Li Zhi (philosopher), Philosophy, Neo-Confucianism
Quote, Includes: Li Zhi (philosopher), Philosophy, Neo-Confucianism
Li Zhi's philosophy was based upon Neo-Confucianism, though he was a staunch critic of the then-orthodox Cheng-Zhu School
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Otto Mencke (Wikipedia)
Includes: Otto Mencke, Work
Quote, Includes: Otto Mencke, Work
He was a professor of moral philosophy at the University of Leipzig
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Juan Caramuel y Lobkowitz (Wikipedia)
Includes: Juan Caramuel y Lobkowitz, Works
Quote, Includes: Juan Caramuel y Lobkowitz, Works
He was a leading exponent of probabilism and his permissive moral opinions were criticized in Pascal's Provincial Letters
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Diogenes of Babylon (1001 Philosophers)
Includes: Diogenes of Babylon, Lead, writings
Quote, Includes: Diogenes of Babylon, Lead, writings
His writings on logic, rhetoric, music, and ethics, preserved only in fragments and citations, helped to fix the orthodox Stoic doctrine for the next century and to introduce Stoicism to Roman intellectual life.
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Heloise (1001 Philosophers)
Includes: Heloise, Lead, her letters
Quote, Includes: Heloise, Lead, her letters
Her surviving Latin letters to her former lover and husband, the philosopher and theologian Peter Abelard, are masterpieces of Latin epistolary prose and develop a distinctive ethics of intention, friendship, and the relation of love to virtue.
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Sŏng Hon (Wikipedia)
Includes: Sŏng Hon, Lead
Quote, Includes: Sŏng Hon, Lead
He was a Neo-Confucianist scholar
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Hai Rui (Wikipedia)
Includes: Hai Rui, Biography
Quote, Includes: Hai Rui, Biography
He gained a reputation for his uncompromising adherence to upright morality
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Giason Denores (Wikipedia)
Includes: Giason Denores, Biography
Quote, Includes: Giason Denores, Biography
offered the Chair of Moral Philosophy at Padua
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Dai Zhen (Wikipedia)
Includes: Dai Zhen, Lead, human desire
Quote, Includes: Dai Zhen, Lead, human desire
Dai argued that human desire was a good and integral part of the human experience
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Christian Garve (Wikipedia)
Includes: Christian Garve, Life, writings
Quote, Includes: Christian Garve, Life, writings
He composed psychological, moral and economic texts and reviews
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Richard Cumberland (Wikipedia)
Includes: Richard Cumberland, Lead
Quote, Includes: Richard Cumberland, Lead
propounding utilitarianism and opposing the egoistic ethics of Thomas Hobbes
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Madeleine de Souvré, marquise de Sablé (Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
Includes: Madeleine de Souvré, marquise de Sablé, Opening summary, moral philosophy
Quote, Includes: Madeleine de Souvré, marquise de Sablé, Opening summary, moral philosophy
These ancillary roles have obscured her original contributions to moral philosophy in her writings.
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Fujiwara Seika (Wikipedia)
Includes: Fujiwara Seika, Lead, Neo-Confucian
Quote, Includes: Fujiwara Seika, Lead, Neo-Confucian
was a Japanese Neo-Confucian philosopher and writer during the Edo period
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Tullia d'Aragona (Wikipedia)
Includes: Tullia d'Aragona, Works, Dialogues on the Infinity of Love
Quote, Includes: Tullia d'Aragona, Works, Dialogues on the Infinity of Love
cast a female rather than a male as the main commentator/ knowledge holder on the ethics of love
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He Xinyin (Wikipedia)
Includes: He Xinyin, Philosophy, friendship and self-improvement
Quote, Includes: He Xinyin, Philosophy, friendship and self-improvement
self-improvement should begin in friendship, expand in service to the sovereign, and culminate in the cultivation of human nature
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Gao Panlong (Wikipedia)
Includes: Gao Panlong, Philosophy, moral effort
Quote, Includes: Gao Panlong, Philosophy, moral effort
Gao's goal was to reestablish moral effort (gongfu) as a means of self-improvement
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George Turnbull (theologian) (Wikipedia)
Includes: George Turnbull, Lead, moral philosophy
Quote, Includes: George Turnbull, Lead, moral philosophy
Aside from his published writings on moral philosophy
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John Gay (philosopher) (Wikipedia)
Includes: John Gay, Philosophy, virtue
Quote, Includes: John Gay, Philosophy, virtue
Gay's philosophical works argued that virtue was conforming to a rule of life which promotes the happiness of others.
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Juan Azor (Wikipedia)
Includes: Juan Azor, Works, moral theology
Quote, Includes: Juan Azor, Works, moral theology
He is best known for his work on moral theology
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Critolaus (Wikipedia)
Includes: Critolaus, Lead
Quote, Includes: Critolaus, Lead
He was interested in rhetoric and ethics, and considered pleasure to be an evil.
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John Dewey (Wikipedia)
Includes: John Dewey, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: John Dewey, Infobox: main_interests
Philosophy of education, epistemology, journalism, ethics, aesthetics, political philosophy, metaphysics
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Wikipedia: Mozi
WikipediaIncludes: Mozi, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: Mozi, Infobox: main_interests
Ethics, social and political philosophy, logic, epistemology
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Judith Butler (Wikipedia)
WikipediaIncludes: Judith Butler, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: Judith Butler, Infobox: main_interests
Feminist theory, political philosophy, ethics, psychoanalysis, phenomenology (philosophy), phenomenology, discourse, embodied cognition, embodiment, sexuality, gender studies, Jewish philosophy
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Michel de Montaigne (Wikipedia)
WikipediaIncludes: Michel de Montaigne, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: Michel de Montaigne, Infobox: main_interests
Christianity, classical studies, ethics, human nature, pedagogy, philosophy of science, poetry, political history, sociability, virtue
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Peter Singer (Wikipedia)
WikipediaIncludes: Peter Singer, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: Peter Singer, Infobox: main_interests
Applied ethics, Bioethics
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Lucretius (Wikipedia)
WikipediaIncludes: Lucretius, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: Lucretius, Infobox: main_interests
Ethics, metaphysics, natural philosophy, atomic theory
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George Santayana (Wikipedia)
WikipediaIncludes: George Santayana, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: George Santayana, Infobox: main_interests
Moral philosophy, political philosophy, epistemology, metaphysics, philosophy of religion
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Cornel West (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationIncludes: Cornel West, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: Cornel West, Infobox: main_interests
Political philosophy, philosophy of religion, ethics, race (classification of human beings), race, caste, democracy, liberation theology
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Martha Nussbaum (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationIncludes: Martha Nussbaum, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: Martha Nussbaum, Infobox: main_interests
Political philosophy, ethics, feminism, liberal theory
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Alasdair MacIntyre (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationIncludes: Alasdair MacIntyre, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: Alasdair MacIntyre, Infobox: main_interests
Ethics, metaethics, history of ethics, social philosophy, political philosophy
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Protagoras (Wikipedia)
WikipediaIncludes: Protagoras, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: Protagoras, Infobox: main_interests
Language, semantics, rhetoric, agnosticism, ethics
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Josiah Royce (Wikipedia)
WikipediaIncludes: Josiah Royce, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: Josiah Royce, Infobox: main_interests
Ethics, philosophy of religion, metaphysics
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Elizabeth Anscombe (Wikipedia)
Wikipedia
  • Includes: Elizabeth Anscombe, Lead
    She wrote on the philosophy of mind, philosophy of action, philosophical logic, philosophy of language, and ethics.
  • Includes: G.E.M. Anscombe, Lead
    She wrote on the philosophy of mind, philosophy of action, philosophical logic, philosophy of language, and ethics.
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Watsuji Tetsuro (Wikipedia)
WikipediaIncludes: Watsuji Tetsuro, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: Watsuji Tetsuro, Infobox: main_interests
Aesthetics, ethics, culture, religion
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Enrique Dussel (Wikipedia)
WikipediaIncludes: Enrique Dussel, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: Enrique Dussel, Infobox: main_interests
Philosophy of liberation, ethics, political economy, theology, history
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Philippa Foot (Wikipedia)
WikipediaIncludes: Philippa Foot, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: Philippa Foot, Infobox: main_interests
Ethics, aesthetics
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Derek Parfit (Wikipedia)
WikipediaIncludes: Derek Parfit, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: Derek Parfit, Infobox: main_interests
Ethics, personal identity, rationality, philosophy of mind
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Judith Jarvis Thomson (Wikipedia)
WikipediaIncludes: Judith Jarvis Thomson, Lead
Quote, Includes: Judith Jarvis Thomson, Lead
Judith Jarvis Thomson (October 4, 1929, November 20, 2020) was an American philosopher who studied and worked on ethics and metaphysics.
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J.L. Austin (Wikipedia)
WikipediaIncludes: J.L. Austin, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: J.L. Austin, Infobox: main_interests
Philosophy of language, philosophy of mind, ethics, philosophy of perception
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Paul Ricoeur (Wikipedia)
WikipediaIncludes: Paul Ricoeur, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: Paul Ricoeur, Infobox: main_interests
Phenomenology Hermeneutics Philosophy of action Moral philosophy Political philosophy Philosophy of language Personal identity Narrative identity Historiography Literary criticism Ancient philosophy
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Emmanuel Levinas (Wikipedia)
WikipediaIncludes: Emmanuel Levinas, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: Emmanuel Levinas, Infobox: main_interests
EthicsmetaphysicsontologyTalmudtheology
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Michael Sandel (Wikipedia)
WikipediaIncludes: Michael Sandel, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: Michael Sandel, Infobox: main_interests
Political philosophy, jurisprudence, ethics
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David Lewis (philosopher) (Wikipedia)
WikipediaIncludes: David Lewis, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: David Lewis, Infobox: main_interests
LogicPhilosophy of languageMetaphysics EpistemologyEthics
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T. M. Scanlon (Wikipedia)
WikipediaIncludes: T.M. Scanlon, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: T.M. Scanlon, Infobox: main_interests
Ethics, political philosophy
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Christine Korsgaard (Wikipedia)
WikipediaIncludes: Christine Korsgaard, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: Christine Korsgaard, Infobox: main_interests
Moral philosophyKantianism
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Axel Honneth (Wikipedia)
WikipediaIncludes: Axel Honneth, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: Axel Honneth, Infobox: main_interests
Political philosophy, Social philosophy, Moral philosophy, Critical theory, Recognition (sociology), Recognition
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Nel Noddings (Wikipedia)
WikipediaIncludes: Nel Noddings, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: Nel Noddings, Infobox: main_interests
Philosophy of education, ethics
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Pythagoras (Wikipedia)
Wikipedia (Wikimedia Foundation)Includes: Pythagoras, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: Pythagoras, Infobox: main_interests
Ethics, Mathematics, Metaphysics, Music theory, Mysticism, Politics, Religion
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Kaṇāda (Wikipedia)
Includes: Kanada, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: Kanada, Infobox: main_interests
:Metaphysics :Ethics :Physics
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Isaiah Berlin (Wikipedia)
WikipediaIncludes: Isaiah Berlin, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: Isaiah Berlin, Infobox: main_interests
Political philosophy, philosophy of history, history of ideas, ethics, Marxism, modern history, Russian history, Russian literature, Romanticism
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Al-Kindi (Wikipedia)
WikipediaIncludes: Al-Kindi, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: Al-Kindi, Infobox: main_interests
Philosophy, Islamic theology (kalam), logic, ethics, mathematics, cryptography, physics, chemistry, psychology, pharmacology, medicine, metaphysics, cosmology, astrology, music theory
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Cicero (Wikipedia)
WikipediaIncludes: Cicero, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: Cicero, Infobox: main_interests
Political philosophy, Politics, Philosophy of law, law, rhetoric, theology, ethics, epistemology
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Donna Haraway (Wikipedia)
WikipediaIncludes: Donna Haraway, Lead
Quote, Includes: Donna Haraway, Lead
Her work criticizes anthropocentrism, emphasizes the self-organizing powers of nonhuman processes, and explores dissonant relations between those processes and cultural practices, rethinking sources of ethics.
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Henry Sidgwick (Wikipedia)
WikipediaIncludes: Henry Sidgwick, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: Henry Sidgwick, Infobox: main_interests
Economics, ethics, political philosophy
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Carneades (Wikipedia)
WikipediaIncludes: Carneades, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: Carneades, Infobox: main_interests
Epistemology, ethics
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Gabriel Marcel (Wikipedia)
WikipediaIncludes: Gabriel Marcel, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: Gabriel Marcel, Infobox: main_interests
Ontology, subjectivity, ethics
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Theophrastus (Wikipedia)
Includes: Theophrastus, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: Theophrastus, Infobox: main_interests
Ethics, grammar, history, logic, metaphysics, natural history, physics, botany
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Antisthenes (Wikipedia)
WikipediaIncludes: Antisthenes, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: Antisthenes, Infobox: main_interests
Asceticism, ethics, language, literature, logic
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Frank Cameron Jackson, Wikipedia
Includes: Frank Jackson, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: Frank Jackson, Infobox: main_interests
Philosophy of mind, epistemology, metaphysics, meta-ethics
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Pietro Pomponazzi, Wikipedia
Includes: Pietro Pomponazzi, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: Pietro Pomponazzi, Infobox: main_interests
Philosophy of mind, Natural philosophy, Ethics, Aristotelianism
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Wikipedia: J. L. Mackie
Includes: J.L. Mackie, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: J.L. Mackie, Infobox: main_interests
Metaphysics, philosophy of language, ethics, philosophy of religion
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Wikipedia: Allan Gibbard
Includes: Allan Gibbard, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: Allan Gibbard, Infobox: main_interests
Meta-ethics, social choice theory
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Wikipedia: Simon Blackburn
Includes: Simon Blackburn, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: Simon Blackburn, Infobox: main_interests
Ethics, truth theory, philosophy of language
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Wikipedia: R. M. Hare
Includes: R.M. Hare, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: R.M. Hare, Infobox: main_interests
Moral philosophy, political philosophy
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Wikipedia: Peter Railton
Includes: Peter Railton, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: Peter Railton, Infobox: main_interests
Ethics, philosophy of science
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Kocc Barma Fall (Wikipedia)
WikipediaIncludes: Kocc Barma Fall, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: Kocc Barma Fall, Infobox: main_interests
ethics, politics and society
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Walda Heywat, Wikipedia
Includes: Walda Heywat, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: Walda Heywat, Infobox: main_interests
Reason, ethics, religion
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Zera Yacob (Wikipedia)
WikipediaIncludes: Zera Yacob, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: Zera Yacob, Infobox: main_interests
Reason, ethics, religious tolerance
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Wikipedia: Samuel Ramos
Includes: Samuel Ramos, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: Samuel Ramos, Infobox: main_interests
IdentityMetaphysics EpistemologyEthics
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Wikipedia: Zerahiah the Greek
Includes: Zerahiah the Greek, Lead
Quote, Includes: Zerahiah the Greek, Lead
Rabbi Zerachiah the Greek (in Hebrew, Zerachiah ha-Yavani or ha-Yewani; sometimes known by the acronymistic nickname "Ra'Za'H") was a Greek-Jewish ethicist who resided in the Byzantine Empire in the thirteenth or fourteenth century.
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Wikipedia: Tadeusz Kotarbinski
Includes: Tadeusz Kotarbinski, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: Tadeusz Kotarbinski, Infobox: main_interests
Ontology, formal logic, ethics, praxeology
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Wikipedia: Miskawayh
Includes: Miskawayh, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: Miskawayh, Infobox: main_interests
History, Theology, medicine, ethics and philosophy
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John McDowell (Wikipedia)
WikipediaIncludes: John McDowell, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: John McDowell, Infobox: main_interests
Metaphysics, epistemology, logic, philosophy of language, philosophy of perception, philosophy of mathematics, philosophy of mind, ethics, meta-ethics
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Wikipedia: Mikhail Bakhtin
Includes: Mikhail Bakhtin, Lead
Quote, Includes: Mikhail Bakhtin, Lead
Mikhail Mikhailovich Bakhtin (; Russian: Михаи́л Миха́йлович Бахти́н, IPA: [mʲɪxɐˈil mʲɪˈxajləvʲɪdʑ bɐxˈtʲin]; 16 November [O.S. 4 November] 1895-7 March 1975) was a Russian philosopher and literary critic who worked on the philosophy of language, ethics, and literary theory.
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Gianni Vattimo - Wikipedia
Includes: Gianni Vattimo, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: Gianni Vattimo, Infobox: main_interests
Ethics Political philosophy
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Avital Ronell, Wikipedia
Includes: Avital Ronell, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: Avital Ronell, Infobox: main_interests
Addiction, deficiency, dictation, disappearance of authority, disease, drugs, excessive force, ethics, legal subjects, rumor, stupidity, technology, telephony, tests, trauma, war
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Antonio Escohotado, Wikipedia
Includes: Antonio Escohotado, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: Antonio Escohotado, Infobox: main_interests
Liberalism, metaphysics, culture, ethics, freedom, history of communism, sociology, drugs, politics, dialectic, Marxism, fractal, drug liberalization, history of commerce, political philosophy, history of slavery, law
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Jesús Padilla Gálvez, Wikipedia
Includes: Jesús Padilla Gálvez, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: Jesús Padilla Gálvez, Infobox: main_interests
Logic, ontology, epistemology, philosophy of language, philosophy of mathematics, philosophy of science, ethics.
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Etienne Vermeersch, Wikipedia
Includes: Etienne Vermeersch, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: Etienne Vermeersch, Infobox: main_interests
Philosophy of science, History of philosophy, History of Christianity, Bioethics, Environmental philosophy, Moral philosophy, cultural criticism
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John Anderson (philosopher) (Wikipedia)
Includes: John Anderson, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: John Anderson, Infobox: main_interests
Political philosophy, ethics, philosophy of sexuality, philosophy of religion
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Wikipedia: Nick Zangwill
WikipediaIncludes: Nick Zangwill, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: Nick Zangwill, Infobox: main_interests
Aesthetics, metaphysics, epistemology, philosophy of mind, philosophy of logic, meta-ethics
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Wikipedia: John Corvino
WikipediaIncludes: John Corvino, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: John Corvino, Infobox: main_interests
Ethics, applied ethics, LGBT studies, early modern philosophy, David Hume
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Wikipedia: H. J. McCloskey
WikipediaIncludes: H. J. McCloskey, Lead
Quote, Includes: H. J. McCloskey, Lead
Henry John McCloskey (1925-2000) was an Australian moral philosopher and writer.
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Wikipedia: Adriaan Theodoor Peperzak
WikipediaIncludes: Adriaan Theodoor Peperzak, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: Adriaan Theodoor Peperzak, Infobox: main_interests
Ethics, Christian philosophy, philosophy of Hegel and Emmanuel Levinas
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Wikipedia: Neera K. Badhwar
WikipediaIncludes: Neera K. Badhwar, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: Neera K. Badhwar, Infobox: main_interests
Ethics, political philosophy
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Samantha Vice (Wikipedia)
Includes: Samantha Vice, Lead
Quote, Includes: Samantha Vice, Lead
Her areas of specialisation are ethics and social philosophy, and she is especially well known for her work on the existential and moral philosophy of race.
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Wikipedia: Simon Hailwood
WikipediaIncludes: Simon Hailwood, Lead
Quote, Includes: Simon Hailwood, Lead
Simon Hailwood is a British philosopher whose research concerns moral philosophy, political philosophy, environmental philosophy, environmental ethics, political realism, and pragmatism.
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Joseph Agbakoba (Wikipedia)
Includes: Joseph Agbakoba, Lead
Quote, Includes: Joseph Agbakoba, Lead
He is best known for his work around development philosophy and ethics for Africa, and his association with reasonabilism, Afro-constructivism, transcolonial theory, and Africanity as creative self-manifestive identity, among other concepts in contemporary African thought.
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Hans-Martin Sass (Wikipedia)
Includes: Hans-Martin Sass, Lead
Quote, Includes: Hans-Martin Sass, Lead
Hans-Martin Sass (4 December 1935, February 6, 2023) was a bioethicist.
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Didier Kaphagawani (Wikipedia)
Includes: Didier Kaphagawani, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: Didier Kaphagawani, Infobox: main_interests
Epistemology, Metaphysics, Ethics
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Wikipedia: Christopher Cordner
WikipediaIncludes: Christopher Cordner, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: Christopher Cordner, Infobox: main_interests
ethics
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Wikipedia: Eva Dadlez
WikipediaIncludes: Eva Dadlez, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: Eva Dadlez, Infobox: main_interests
aesthetics, ethics, philosophy of fiction
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Robyn Bluhm (Wikipedia)
Includes: Robyn Bluhm, Lead
Quote, Includes: Robyn Bluhm, Lead
Robyn Bluhm (born 1969), is associate professor at the Department of Philosophy and Lyman Briggs College, Michigan State University, as well as a member of The NeuroGenderings Network, a group which promotes "neurofeminism". She is the current joint editor of the IJFAB: International Journal of Feminist Approaches to Bioethics
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Mpho Tshivhase (Wikipedia)
Includes: Mpho Tshivhase, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: Mpho Tshivhase, Infobox: main_interests
African philosophy, applied ethics, philosophy of psychology
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Willie Esterhuyse (Wikipedia)
Includes: Willie Esterhuyse, Lead
Quote, Includes: Willie Esterhuyse, Lead
Willem Petrus "Willie" Esterhuyse, OLS (born 19 August 1936) is an emeritus professor of philosophy and business ethics at the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa, a columnist and critic of apartheid.
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Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Ralph Waldo Emerson
Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyIncludes: Ralph Waldo Emerson, Abstract
Quote, Includes: Ralph Waldo Emerson, Abstract
Emerson developed a metaphysics of process, an epistemology of moods, and an “existentialist” ethics of self-improvement.
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Wikipedia: Henry David Thoreau
WikipediaIncludes: Henry David Thoreau, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: Henry David Thoreau, Infobox: main_interests
Ethics, poetry, religion, politics, biology, philosophy, history
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Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Iris Murdoch
Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyIncludes: Iris Murdoch, Abstract
Quote, Includes: Iris Murdoch, Abstract
Iris Murdoch (1919-1999) was a prominent British philosopher of the second half of the 20 th century, best known for her moral philosophy.
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Gaudapada (Wikipedia)
WikipediaIncludes: Gaudapada, Page categories: ConsequentialistsView the Source
Bernard Williams (Wikipedia)
WikipediaIncludes: Bernard Williams, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: Bernard Williams, Infobox: main_interests
Ethics
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Nasir al-Din al-Tusi (Wikipedia)
WikipediaIncludes: Nasir al-Din al-Tusi, Page categories: Iranian ethicistsView the Source
Albertus Magnus (Wikipedia)
WikipediaIncludes: Albertus Magnus, Page categories: Natural law ethicistsView the Source
Shantideva - Wikipedia
Includes: Shantideva, Page categories: ConsequentialistsView the Source
Henry Odera Oruka (Wikipedia)
WikipediaIncludes: Henry Odera Oruka, Page categories: Kenyan ethicistsView the Source
Motsamai Molefe (Wikipedia)
WikipediaIncludes: Motsamai Molefe, Lead
Quote, Includes: Motsamai Molefe, Lead
Motsamai Molefe is a South African philosopher, one of the thinkers to have popularised African philosophy, and specifically Applied Ethics in context of Ubuntu philosophy.
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Wikipedia: Jose Ferrater Mora
Includes: Jose Ferrater Mora, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: Jose Ferrater Mora, Infobox: main_interests
Applied ethics, animal ethics, metaphysics
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bell hooks (Wikipedia)
WikipediaIncludes: bell hooks, Page categories: American ethicistsView the Source
Wikipedia: Samantha Brennan
WikipediaIncludes: Samantha Brennan, Page categories: Canadian ethicistsView the Source
Wikipedia: Per Bauhn
WikipediaIncludes: Per Bauhn, Lead
Quote, Includes: Per Bauhn, Lead
His main research interests include ethics and political philosophy, but also aesthetics.
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Wikipedia: David Rodin
WikipediaIncludes: David Rodin, Page categories: New Zealand ethicistsView the Source
Wikipedia: Henry David Aiken
WikipediaIncludes: Henry David Aiken, Page categories: American ethicistsView the Source
Wikipedia: Jean-Godefroy Bidima
WikipediaIncludes: Jean-Godefroy Bidima, Lead
Quote, Includes: Jean-Godefroy Bidima, Lead
His fields of interest are cited as " Continental philosophy, literatures and arts of the Francophone world, African philosophies, juridical anthropology and medical ethics".
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Wikipedia: Dirk Baltzly
WikipediaIncludes: Dirk Baltzly, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: Dirk Baltzly, Infobox: main_interests
virtue ethics
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Benjamin Hale (Wikipedia)
Includes: Benjamin Hale, Lead
Quote, Includes: Benjamin Hale, Lead
Benjamin S. Hale (born 1972) is an environmental philosopher and ethicist at the University of Colorado Boulder.
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Categorical Imperative (Wikipedia)
WikipediaIncludes: Categorical Imperative, Lead
Quote, Includes: Categorical Imperative, Lead
The categorical imperative (German: Kategorischer Imperativ) is the central philosophical concept in the deontological moral philosophy of Immanuel Kant.
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Divine command theory (Wikipedia)
WikipediaIncludes: Divine Command Theory, Lead
Quote, Includes: Divine Command Theory, Lead
Divine command theory (also known as theological voluntarism) is a meta-ethical theory which proposes that an action's status as morally good is equivalent to whether it is commanded by God.
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Argument from Marginal Cases (Wikipedia)
WikipediaIncludes: Argument from Marginal Cases, Lead
Quote, Includes: Argument from Marginal Cases, Lead
The argument from marginal cases (also known as the argument from species overlap) is a philosophical argument within animal rights theory regarding the moral status of non-human animals.
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Evolutionary debunking (Wikipedia)
Includes: Evolutionary Debunking Argument, Lead
Quote, Includes: Evolutionary Debunking Argument, Lead
that, because humans (like all organisms) have an evolutionary origin, the principles of ethics and morality that we have devised are invalid and cannot be considered objective knowledge.
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Utility Monster (Wikipedia)
WikipediaIncludes: Utility Monster, Lead
Quote, Includes: Utility Monster, Lead
The utility monster is a thought experiment in the study of ethics created by philosopher Robert Nozick in 1974 as a criticism of utilitarianism.
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Principle of double effect (Wikipedia)
Includes: Doctrine of Double Effect, Lead
Quote, Includes: Doctrine of Double Effect, Lead
The principle of double effect is a set of ethical criteria which Christian philosophers have advocated for evaluating the permissibility of acting when one's otherwise
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Yi I - Wikipedia
Includes: Yi I, Article text
Quote, Includes: Yi I, Article text
The Essentials of the Studies of the Sages (성학집요; 聖學輯要) - Fundamentals of Confucian ethics, self-cultivation and statecraft.
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Wikipedia: Rhina Toruño Haensly
WikipediaIncludes: Rhina Toruño Haensly, Article text
Quote, Includes: Rhina Toruño Haensly, Article text
below.) She taught courses in modern philosophy, existentialism, contemporary French philosophy, ethics, and social and political philosophy.
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Harry Frankfurt (Wikipedia)
Includes: Harry Frankfurt, Page categories: American ethicistsView the Source
Ngamen Kouassi Cyrille Dalex (Wikipedia)
Includes: Ngamen Kouassi Cyrille Dalex, Lead
Quote, Includes: Ngamen Kouassi Cyrille Dalex, Lead
Ngamen, a professor of philosophy, has specialty in Ethics, Social and Political Philosophy.
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Richard Joyce (philosopher) (Wikipedia)
Includes: Richard Joyce, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: Richard Joyce, Infobox: main_interests
Meta-ethics Moral psychology
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Sharon Street (Wikipedia)
Includes: Sharon Street, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: Sharon Street, Infobox: main_interests
Metaethics, normative ethics
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Ubuntu Philosophy (Wikipedia)
WikipediaIncludes: Ubuntu Philosophy, Overview
Quote, Includes: Ubuntu Philosophy, Overview
In South Africa, it has come to be used as a contested term for a kind of humanist philosophy, ethic, or ideology, also termed Ubuntuism propagated in the Africanisation (transition to majority rule) process of these countries during the 1980s and 1990s.
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Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Justus Lipsius
Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyIncludes: Justus Lipsius, Introduction, moral philosophy
Quote, Includes: Justus Lipsius, Introduction, moral philosophy
Lipsius’s lifelong project was to transform contemporary moral philosophy through a new reading of the Roman Stoic philosopher Seneca, while also revitalizing contemporary political practice by drawing on the insights provided by the Roman historian Tacitus.
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Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Cheng Yi
Internet Encyclopedia of PhilosophyIncludes: Cheng Yi, Opening summary, moral cultivation
Quote, Includes: Cheng Yi, Opening summary, moral cultivation
The way of moral cultivation for Cheng Yi is through composure and extension of knowledge which is a gradual way towards sagehood.
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Encyclopedia.com (Columbia Encyclopedia): Hagerstrom, Axel
Encyclopedia.com (Columbia Encyclopedia)Includes: Axel Hagerstrom, Late career, philosophy of morals
Quote, Includes: Axel Hagerstrom, Late career, philosophy of morals
Near the end of his career Hägerstrom's interest was in practical philosophy, particularly the philosophy of morals, religion, and law.
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Dissenting Readings (1 dissenting reading)
Key Debate

Ordinary moral discourse commits speakers to the existence of objective values and objective prescriptions, reasons for action that would bind regardless of any agent's desires, but no such objective moral facts exist. Such properties would be metaphysically queer, unlike anything else in a naturalistic world, and our capacity to know them would be equally mysterious. Moral judgments are therefore not correctly analyzed as either the Socratic discovery of an objective good or a Nietzschean invention open to revaluation; they are, on this error theory, systematically and uniformly false, even though speakers do not intend or realize this when they make them.

A dissenting reading, from an independent laneMoral Anti-Realism (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy), Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
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