Philosophical+explanation
81Argument — This article is about the subject as it is studied in logic and philosophy. For other uses, see Argument (disambiguation). In philosophy and logic, an argument is an attempt to persuade someone of something, by giving reasons or evidence for… …
82atomism — atomist, n. atomistic, atomistical, adj. atomistically, adv. /at euh miz euhm/, n. 1. Also called atomic theory. Philos. the theory that minute, discrete, finite, and indivisible elements are the ultimate constituents of all matter. 2. Psychol. a …
83ancient Greek civilization — ▪ historical region, Eurasia Introduction the period following Mycenaean civilization, which ended in about 1200 BC, to the death of Alexander the Great, in 323 BC. It was a period of political, philosophical, artistic, and scientific… …
84Europe, history of — Introduction history of European peoples and cultures from prehistoric times to the present. Europe is a more ambiguous term than most geographic expressions. Its etymology is doubtful, as is the physical extent of the area it designates.… …
85Epicureanism — Stephen Everson It is tempting to portray Epicureanism as the most straightforward, perhaps even simplistic, of the major dogmatic philosophical schools of the Hellenistic age. Starting from an atomic physics, according to which ‘the totality of… …
86Descartes: methodology — Stephen Gaukroger INTRODUCTION The seventeenth century is often referred to as the century of the Scientific Revolution, a time of fundamental scientific change in which traditional theories were either replaced by new ones or radically… …
87Neo-Platonism — Eyjólfur K.Emilsson GENERAL INTRODUCTION Neo Platonism is usually defined as the philosophy of Plotinus, who lived in the third century AD, and his followers in the pagan Graeco Roman world in late antiquity. The most significant philosophers… …
88nature, philosophy of — Introduction the discipline that investigates substantive issues regarding the actual features of nature as a reality. The discussion here is divided into two parts: the philosophy of physics and the philosophy of biology. In this… …
89Hellenistic biological sciences — R.J.Kankinson The five centuries that separate Aristotle’s death in 322 BC from Galen’s ascendancy in Rome in the latter part of the second century AD were fertile ones for the biological sciences, in particular medicine. Nor is the period solely …
90Spinoza: metaphysics and knowledge — G.H.R.Parkinson The philosophical writings of Spinoza are notoriously obscure, and they have been interpreted in many ways. Some interpreters see Spinoza as (in the words of a contemporary)1 ‘the reformer of the new [sc. Cartesian] philosophy’.… …
