Philosophy

This collection contains canonical philosophic texts and links to scholarly philosophic organizations. The English Server has other collections in addition, however, in critical theory, history, and in eighteenth century studies, which also address philosophical interests and concerns; feel free to examine those as well, if interested.

Philosophy is currently inviting people to participate in the development of the collection. If you are interested in working with the Philosophy Collection, please contact the Collection Editor. We are looking for people to help with any of the following projects:

* Out-of-copyright canonical text collection

* Out-of-copyright critical article collection

* Original critical article contribution

* .txt to XHTML text conversion

Giovanni Pico Della Mirandola

Count Giovanni Pico Della Mirandola (February 24, 1463 -November 17, 1494) was an Italian Renaissance philosopher. He is famed for the events of 1486, when at the age of 23, he proposed to defend 900 theses on religion, philosophy, natural philosophy and magic against all comers, for which he wrote the famous Oration on the Dignity of Man which has been called the "Manifesto of the Renaissance", and a key text of Renaissance humanism.

Giovanni was born at Mirandola, near Modena, the youngest son of Gian Francesco I, Lord of the Mirandola and Count of Concordia (1415-1467), by his wife Giulia, daughter of Feltrino Boiardo, Count di Scandiano. The Mirandola was a small province in the region of Emilia-Romagna near Ferrara, but the Pico dynasty ruled it as independent sovereigns rather than as noble vassals, gradually aggrandizing power in northern Italy. The Pico della Mirandola were closely related to the Sforza, Gonzaga and Este dynasties, and Giovanni's siblings wed the scions of the hereditary rulers of Corsica, Ferrara, Bologna and Forlì.

Toulouse

Toulouse (pronounced /tu'lus/ in English, Fr-Toulouse.ogg (help•info) in standard French, and Fr-Toulouse-Accent.ogg (help•info) in the local French accent) (Occitan: Tolosa, pronounced ) is a city in southwest France on the banks of the River Garonne, half-way between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. With 1,133,000 inhabitants in 2008, the Toulouse metropolitan area is the fourth-largest in France.

Toulouse is one of the centres of the European aerospace industry, with the headquarters of Airbus, Galileo positioning system, the SPOT satellite system, and CNES's Toulouse Space Centre (CST), the largest space center in Europe. Thales Alenia Space, Europe's largest satellite manufacturer, and EADS Astrium Satellites, EADS's satellite system subsidiary, also have a significant presence in Toulouse. Its world renowned university is one of the oldest in Europe (founded in 1229) and, with more than 120,000 students, is the second largest university campus of France after Paris and in front of Lyon.

Western philosophy

Western philosophy is a term that refers to philosophical thinking in the Western or Occidental world, as distinct from Eastern or Oriental philosophies and the varieties of indigenous philosophies. Historically, the term was recently invented to refer to the philosophical thinking of Western civilization, beginning with Greek philosophy in ancient Greece, and eventually covering a large area of the globe, including North America and Australia. There is some debate of whether to include areas such as Northern Africa, some parts of the Middle East, Russia, and so on. The word philosophy itself originated in ancient Greece: philosophic , literally, "the love of wisdom" (philein = "to love" + sophia = wisdom, in the sense of knowledge).

In contemporary terms, Western Philosophy refers to the two main traditions of contemporary philosophy: Analytic philosophy and Continental philosophy. Within these broad branches there are now numerous sub-disciplines of philosophy. At the broadest level there is the division between Analytic and Continental Philosophy. For Continental Philosophy subdividing philosophy between "experts" is problematic for the very nature of the unifying task of philosophy itself; however, for most of Analytic Philosophy further divisions simplify the task for philosophers in each area.