Buddhist philosophy is the elaboration and explanation of the delivered teachings of the Buddha as found in

the Tripitaka andAgama. Its main concern is with explicating the dharmas constituting reality. A recurrent theme is the reification of
concepts, and the subsequent return to the Buddhist Middle Way.[1][2]

Early Buddhism avoided speculative thought on metaphysics, phenomenology, ethics, and epistemology,[3] but was based instead
onempirical evidence gained by the sense organs (ayatana).[4]

Nevertheless, Buddhist scholars have addressed ontological and metaphysical issues subsequently. Particular points of Buddhist
philosophy have often been the subject of disputes between different schools of Buddhism. These elaborations and disputes gave
rise to various schools in early Buddhism of Abhidhamma, and to the Mahayana traditions and schools of
the prajnaparamita,Madhyamaka, buddha-nature and Yogacara.
Basic teachings
Certain basic teachings appear in many places throughout the early texts, so most scholars conclude that the Buddha must at least
have taught these teachings:[9]

Three marks of existence

Five aggregates

Dependent arising

Karma and rebirth

The four noble truths

The Noble Eightfold Path

Nirvana

Confucianism, also known as Ruism,[1][2] is an ethical and philosophical system, also described as a religion,[note
1]

developed from the teachings of the Chinese philosopher Confucius (551479 BCE). Confucianism originated as an

"ethical-sociopolitical teaching" during the Spring and Autumn Period, but later
developed metaphysical and cosmological elements in the Han Dynasty.[5] Following the official abandonment
of Legalism in China after the Qin Dynasty, Confucianism became the official state ideology of the Han. Nonetheless, from
the Han period onwards, most Chinese emperors have used a mix of Legalism and Confucianism as their ruling doctrine.
The disintegration of the Han in the second century CE opened the way for the soteriological doctrines
of Buddhism andTaoism to dominate intellectual life at that time.

A Confucian revival began during the Tang dynasty. In the late Tang, Confucianism developed aspects on the model of
Buddhism and Taoism and was reformulated as Neo-Confucianism. This reinvigorated form was adopted as the basis of

the imperial exams and the core philosophy of the scholar official class in the Song dynasty. The abolition of the
examination system in 1905 marked the end of official Confucianism. The New Culture intellectuals of the early twentieth
century blamed Confucianism for China's weaknesses. They searched for new doctrines to replace Confucian teachings;
some of these new ideologies include the "Three Principles of the People" with the establishment of the Republic of
China, and then Maoism under the People's Republic of China. In the late twentieth century, some people credited
Confucianism with the rise of the East Asian economy and it enjoyed a rise in popularity both in China and abroad.

The core of Confucianism is humanistic,[6] or, according to the Herbert Fingarette's concept of "the secular as sacred", a
religion that deconstructs the sacred-profane dichotomy regarding the secular real of human action as a manifestation of
the sacred.[7]Confucianism focuses on the practical order that is given by a this-worldly awareness of the Tian (the
impersonal absolute principle)[8]and a proper respect of the gods (shen),[9] with particular emphasis on the importance of
the family and social harmony, rather than on an otherworldly soteriology.[10] Confucian liturgy (that is called r, or
sometimes zhngtng, meaning "orthoprax" ritual style) led by Confucian priests or ritual masters ( lshng) to
worship the gods in public and ancestral Chinese temples, is preferred in special occasions over Taoist or popular ritual.[11]

The this-worldly concern of Confucianism rests on the belief that human beings are fundamentally good, and teachable,
improvable, and perfectible through personal and communal endeavor especially self-cultivation and self-creation.
Confucian thought focuses on the cultivation of virtue and maintenance of ethics. Some of the basic Confucian ethical
concepts and practices include rn, y, and l, and zh. Ren ("humaneness") is the essence of the human being which
manifests as compassion, it is the virtue-form of Heaven.[12] Yiis the upholding of righteousness and the moral disposition
to do good. Li is a system of ritual norms and propriety that determines how a person should properly act in everyday life
according to the law of Heaven. Zhi is the ability to see what is right and fair, or the converse, in the behaviors exhibited
by others. Confucianism holds one in contempt, either passively or actively, for failure to uphold the cardinal moral values
of ren and yi.

Pragmatism is a late 19th Century and early 20th Century school of philosophy which considers practical consequences orreal
effects to be vital components of both meaning and truth. At its simplest, something is true only insofar as it works. However,
Pragmatism is not a single philosophy, and is more a style or way of doing philosophy.
In general terms, Pragmatism asserts that any theory that proves itself more successful in predicting and controlling our world than
its rivals can be considered to be nearer the truth. It argues that the meaning of any concept can be equated with the conceivable
operational or practical consequences of whatever the concept portrays. Like Positivism, it asserts that thescientific method is
generally best suited to theoretical inquiry, although Pragmatism also accepts that the settlement of doubt can also be achieved
by tenacity and persistence, the authority of a source of ready-made beliefs or other methods. For more details, see the section on
the doctrine of Pragmatism.
The school's founder, the American philosopher Charles Sanders Peirce, first stated the Pragmatic Maxim in the late 19th Century
(and re-stated it in many different ways over the years) as a maxim of logic and as a reaction to metaphysical theories. The
Pragmatic Maxim is actually a family of principles, not all equivalent (at least on the surface), and there are numerous
subtle variations with implications which reach into almost every corner of philosophical thought.
The school of Pragmatism reached its peak in the early 20th Century philosophies of William James and John Dewey.
The term"pragmatism" was first used in print by James, who credited Peirce with coining the term during the early 1870s.
After the first wave of Pragmatism, the movement split and gave rise to three main sub-schools, in addition to other more
independent, non-aligned thinkers:

Neo-Classical Pragmatism inherits most of the tenets of the classical Pragmatists, and its adherents includes Sidney
Hook (1902 - 1989) and Susan Haack (1945 - ).

Neo-Pragmatism (sometimes called Linguistic Pragmatism) is a type of Pragmatism, although it differs in its philosophical
methodology or conceptual formation from classical Pragmatism, and its adherents include C. I. Lewis(1883 1964), Richard Rorty (1931 - 2007), W. V. O. Quine, Donald Davidson (1917 - 2003)and Hilary Putnam (1926 - ).

French Pragmatism is a specifically French off-shoot of the movement, and includes Bruno Latour (1947 - ), Michel
Crozier (1922 - ), Luc Boltanski (1940 - ) and Laurent Thvenot (1948

Major theses of philosophic pragmatism

During the first quarter of the 20th century, pragmatism was the most influential philosophy in the United States, exerting an impact
on the study of law, education, political and social theory, art, and religion. Six fundamental theses of this philosophy can be
distinguished. It is, however, unlikely that any one thinker would have subscribed to them all, and even on points of agreement,
varying interpretations mark the thought and temper of the major pragmatists. The six theses are:
1.
2.
3.
4.

5.
6.

Responsive to idealism and evolutionary theory, pragmatists emphasized the plastic nature of reality and the
practical function of knowledge as an instrument for adapting to reality and controlling it.
Pragmatism was a continuation of critical empiricism in emphasizing the priority of actual experience over fixed principles
and a priori (nonexperiential) reasoning in critical investigation.
The pragmatic meaning of an idea, belief, or proposition is said to reside in the distinct class of specific experimental or
practical consequences that result from the use, application, or entertainment of the notion
While most philosophers have defined truth in terms of a beliefs coherence within a pattern of other beliefs or as the
correspondence between a propositionand an actual state of affairs, pragmatism, in contrast, generally held that truth,
likemeaning, is to be found in the process of verification.
In keeping with their understanding of meaning and truth, pragmatists interpreted ideas as instruments and plans of
action.
In methodology, pragmatism was a broad philosophical attitude toward the formation of concepts, hypotheses, and
theories and their justification.
Hindu philosophy refers to a group of philosophies that emerged in ancient India. The mainstream Hindu philosophy
includes six systems (saddarsana) Samkhya, Yoga, Nyaya, Vaisheshika, Mms and Vednta.[1] These are also
called the stika, "orthodox" Indian philosophical traditions and are those that accept the Vedas as authoritative, important
source of knowledge.[2][note 1] Ancient and medieval India was also the source of philosophies that share philosophical
concepts but rejected the Vedas, and these have been called Nastika (heterodox or non-orthodox) Indian philosophies.[1]
[2]

Nastika Indian philosophies include Buddhism, Jainism, Carvakas, Ajivikas and others.[4]

Scholars have debated the relationship and differences within Astika philosophies and with Nastika philosophies, starting
with the writings of Indologists of the 18th and 19th centuries, which were themselves derived from limited availability of
Indian literature and medieval doxographies.[1] The various sibling traditions included in Hindu philosophies are diverse,
and they are united by shared history and concepts, same textual resources, similar ontological and soteriological focus,
and cosmology.[5][6] While Buddhism and Jainism are considered distinct philosophies and religions, some heterodox
traditions such as Carvakas are often considered as distinct schools within Hindu philosophy.[7][8][9]
Hindu philosophy also includes several sub-schools of theistic philosophies that integrate ideas from two or more of the
six orthodox philosophies, such as realism of Nyaya, naturalism of Vaisheshika, dualism of Samkhya, monism and
knowledge of Self (Atman) as essential to liberation of Advaita, self discipline of Yoga, asceticism and elements of theistic
ideas.[10][11][12] Examples of such schools include Pasupata, Saiva, Pratyabhija, Rasevara and Vaishnavas.[10][11] Some
sub-schools share Tantric ideas with those found in some Buddhist traditions.[13] The ideas of these sub-schools are found
in the Purana and Agama texts.[14][15][16]

Each school of Hindu philosophy has extensive epistemological literature called Pramana-sastras,[17][18] as well as theories
onmetaphysics, axiology and other topics.[19]
Hinduism comprises a large array of religious and philosophical movements primarily found in the Indian subcontinent.
Most of it is based on ideas that partially align with theVedas and thus includes the six orthodox schools of Indian
philosophy, known as the astika schools, or more generally as the six branches of Hindu
philosophy. Vedanta, Yoga,Bhakti, Tantra are major parts of Hinduism en generale. In addition, many aspects of Vedic
astrology, Ayurveda, Indian classical music and Bharatanatyam (South Indian classical dance) draw from Hindu
philosophical concepts and/or systems.
Nationalism is the doctrine that one's national culture and interests are superior to any other, and that nations should
actindependently (rather than collectively) to attain their goals. It holds that a nation, usually defined in terms
of language,ethnicity or culture, has the right to constitute an independent or autonomous political community based on a shared
historyand common destiny. It can also refer to the aspiration for national independence felt by people under foreign domination.
Nationalism seeks to order the world as a series of nation-states, each based on the geopolitical national homeland of its respective
nation, and holds that each nation has a moral entitlement to a sovereign state. It seeks to guarantee thecontinued existence of a
nation, to preserve its distinct identity, and to provide a territory where the national culture andethos are dominant. In turn, nationstates appeal to a national cultural-historical mythos to justify their existence, and to conferpolitical legitimacy.
Simplistically, Nationalism is the desire of a nation to self-determination. It is usually associated with patriotism (a positive and
supportive attitudes to a "fatherland"), but it can also lead to chauvinism (aggressive patriotism, or blind or biased devotionto any
group, attitude or cause), imperialism, racism and xenophobia, militarism, or ultimately to Fascism.
It is usually considered a relatively recent idea, based as it is on the concept of the nation-state which is a largely 19th
Centuryphenomenon and, until around 1800, very few people had more than local loyalties. National identity and unity were
originallyimposed from above by European states, in order to modernize the economy and society.sscrates
Philosophy
Socrates's contributions to philosophy were a new method of approaching knowledge, a conception of the soul as the seat both of
normal waking consciousness and of moral character, and a sense of the universe as purposively mind-ordered. His method,
calleddialectic, consisted in examining statements by pursuing their implications, on the assumption that if a statement were true it
could not lead to false consequences. The method may have been suggested by Zeno of Elea, but Socrates refined it and applied it
to ethical problems.
His doctrine of the soul led him to the belief that all virtues converge into one, which is the good, or knowledge of one's true self and
purposes through the course of a lifetime. Knowledge in turn depends on the nature or essence of things as they really are, for the
underlying forms of things are more real than their experienced exemplifications. This conception leads to a teleological view of the
world that all the forms participate in and lead to the highest form, the form of the good. Plato later elaborated this doctrine as
central to his own philosophy. Socrates's view is often described as holding virtue and knowledge to be identical, so that no man
knowingly does wrong. Since virtue is identical with knowledge, it can be taught, but not as a professional specialty as the Sophists
had pretended to teach it. However, Socrates himself gave no final answer to how virtue can be learned.
Reconstructivism is a philosophical theory holding that societies should continually reform themselves in order to establish more
perfect governments or social networks.[1] This ideology involves recombining or recontextualizing the ideas arrived at by the
philosophy of deconstruction, in which an existing system or medium is broken into its smallest meaningful elements and in which
these elements are used to build a new system or medium free from the strictures of the original.
Some thinkers have attempted to ascribe the term Reconstructivism to the post-postmodern art movement. In an essay by Chris
Sunami, (Art Essays: Reconstructivist Art) "reconstructivist art" is described as follows:
A reconstructivist art work builds upon prior, deconstructionist artworks and techniques, but adapts them to classic themes and
structures, with the goal of creating works of genuine emotion and significance. In this way, reconstructivism (when it works)
combines the vitality and originality of deconstructionism with the comforts, pleasures and rewards of classicism. The overall

purpose of reconstructivism is to reawaken a sense of the Real in a world where everything has been demonstrated to be an
illusion.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712 - 1778) was a French philosopher and writer of theAge of Enlightenment.
His Political Philosophy, particularly his formulation of social contract theory (orContractarianism), strongly influenced the French
Revolution and the development of Liberal, Conservative and Socialist theory. A brilliant, undisciplined and unconventional thinker
throughout his colourful life, his views on Philosophy of Education and on religion were equally controversial but nevertheless
influential.
He is considered to have invented modern autobiography and his novel "Julie, ou la nouvelle Hlose" was one of the bestselling fictional works of the 18th Century (and was important to the development of Romanticism). He also made important
contributions to music, both as a theorist and as a composer.
Empiricism is the theory that the origin of all knowledge is sense experience. It emphasizes the role of experience andevidence,
especially sensory perception, in the formation of ideas, and argues that the only knowledge humans can have is a posteriori (i.e.
based on experience). Most empiricists also discount the notion of innate ideas or innatism (the idea that the mind is born with ideas
or knowledge and is not a "blank slate" at birth).
In order to build a more complex body of knowledge from these direct observations, induction or inductive
reasoning (makinggeneralizations based on individual instances) must be used. This kind of knowledge is therefore also known
as indirect empirical knowledge.
Empiricism is contrasted with Rationalism, the theory that the mind may apprehend some truths directly, without requiring the
medium of the senses.
The term "empiricism" has a dual etymology, stemming both from the Greek word for "experience" and from the more specific
classical Greek and Roman usage of "empiric", referring to a physician whose skill derives from practical experience as opposed to
instruction in theory (this was it's first usage).
The term "empirical" (rather than "empiricism") also refers to the method of observation and experiment used in the natural and
social sciences. It is a fundamental requirement of the scientific method that all hypotheses and theories must be tested
against observations of the natural world, rather than resting solely on a priori reasoning, intuition or revelation. Hence, science is
considered to be methodologically empirical in nature.
empiricism, in philosophy, the view that all concepts originate in experience, that all concepts are about or applicable to things that
can be experienced, or that all rationally acceptable beliefs or propositions are justifiable or knowable only through experience. This
broad definition accords with the derivation of the termempiricism from the ancient Greek word empeiria, experience.

For Plato, philosophy is a process of constant questioning, and questioning necessarily takes the form of dialogue. Near the end of
the Phaedrus, Socrates expresses his reservations about written texts, worrying that people will cease to think for themselves when
they have someone elses thoughts written out in front of them. Plato took it upon himself to write his thoughts down anyway, but he
was careful not to write them in such a way that we could easily assimilate his thoughts rather than thinking for ourselves. Many of
the dialogues reach no definite conclusions, and those that do generally approach those conclusions by casting doubts and
examining possible counterarguments. Plato cannot be there in person to share his thoughts with us, but he wants to ensure that we
think through them ourselves.