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Imagination is more important than knowledge... Albert Einstein (1879 - 1955)
This page is not intended to give any authorized references, but it is those things which attracted me. Moreover I can suggest some interesting or useful URLs for you. I was basically passionate with free thinking, trying to answer problems from just logics. In fact my reading habit is very poor, so my platform for thinking may be too small. I ’m just trying to improve it.
To Know about various ISMs , Try the following “ Ism Book ” http://www.saint-andre.com/ismbook/ism_main.html
A virtual Library of useful URLs of Philosophy and Psychology http://www.aresearchguide.com/virtual.html
For Indian Philosophy ,I find the following URL is some more good http://www.geocities.com/neovedanta/index.html
Materialism (Principle and Tradition in metaphysics) — Materialism is the idea that the only thing that really exists in the world is matter in its various states and movements (commonly atoms or other physical particles). Thus materialism is the opposite of idealism. Materialism considers any talk of, say, the soul to be complete nonsense and a throwback to the bad old days of spiritualism and vitalism (i.e., idealism) in philosophy. Note that because matter can be completely known by means of physical laws and mathematical description (see reductionism), materialism tends to be used to lend heavy support to determinism.
Idealism (Principle and Tradition in metaphysics) — In metaphysics, idealism is a term used to describe the sort of theory which claims that something "ideal" or non-physical is the primary reality. In this sense, Plato and Leibniz and Hegel are probably the most significant of the idealists (Leibniz is perhaps the most consistent, since he said that all physical things are actually made up of little bundles of consciousness he called "monads", an idea that is a kind of "panpsychism"). Obviously, spiritualism is similar to idealism, but spiritualism tends to be used to refer more to religious, supernatural conceptions of reality, rather than to philosophical theories like those of Plato or Hegel. Plato can be considered the "Founding Father" of idealism in Western philosophy, since he claimed that what is fundamentally real are ideas, of which physical objects are pale imitations. The opposite of idealism is materialism. Just as materialism in metaphysics is often linked with subjectivism in epistemology, idealism is often linked with intrinsicism in epistemology (though epistemological intrinsicism is sometimes also called, confusingly, idealism, since intrinsicism holds that we literally perceive universals or ideas). In popular usage, "idealism" is more of an ethical term, characterizing people who have a strong code of values or a great deal of integrity, though sometimes to an excessive degree (often contrasted with those who are merely or healthily "pragmatic"). Communism (Doctrine and Movement in politics) — Communism, philosophically speaking, is the political theory that the individual's actions should benefit the community or the state rather than the individual himself. It is the most radical kind of political collectivism, and depends on an equally radical collectivism or altruism in ethics. In practice, communism has always been a form of authoritarianism or of totalitarianism. When referring to actual political systems, communism is sometimes called Marxism-Leninism because of communism's link with the revolutionary doctrines of Marxism and with countries inspired by the examples of Lenin's revolution in Russia (and Mao's in China). Georg Wilhelm Friedrich HegelAlong with J. G. Fichte and F. W. J. von Schelling, Hegel (1770-1831) belongs to the period of “German idealism” in the decades following Kant. The most systematic of the post-Kantian idealists, Hegel attempted, throughout his published writings as well as in his lectures, to elaborate a comprehensive and systematic ontology from a “logical” starting point. He is perhaps most well-known for his teleological account of history, an account which was later taken over by Marx and “inverted” into a materialist theory of an historical development culminating in communism. For most of the twentieth century, the “logical” side of Hegel's thought had been largely forgotten, but his political and social philosophy continued to find interest and support. However, since the 1970s, a degree of more general philosophical interest in Hegel's systematic thought has also been revived Marxism (Theory, Tradition, and Movement in philosophy, especially in politics) — Marxism is a term used to talk about those thinkers who consider themselves to be followers of Karl Marx (1818-1883). However, Marx himself said that he was not a Marxist! Marxists in philosophy don't tend to have much to say on ethical questions (they inherited Hegel's disinterest in the individual), but when they do they usually admonish people for not being "radical" or "class conscious" enough (according to a Marxist catchphrase, "the personal is the political"). While Marxism follows Hegelianism in holding that individuals don't really exist separate from the group, for Marxists the relevant group is one's economic class. The Marxists inherited from Hegel the dialectical understanding of history, but theirs takes the form of dialectical materialism as opposed to Hegel's idealism. Many Marxists claim that their philosophy is a form of humanism (and this understanding seems to have influenced the warm reception Marxism initially received in many parts of the world, e.g. in China), but Marxist-Leninist political systems have proved to be forms of totalitarianism and therefore quite the opposite of humanism. |