api: YAML JSON TOON Database
version: 1.0.0
format: toon
category:
  id: 409
  slug: philosophy
  name: Philosophy
  description: "Major philosophical traditions, schools of thought, key thinkers, and fundamental questions."
  icon: box
  created_at: 1783090350
  dataset_count: 6
  topic:
    overview: "Philosophy reference data gives names and definitions for the questions philosophers have argued about for millennia: what we can know (epistemology), what exists (metaphysics), how we should act (ethics), how to reason well (logic and the fallacies that violate it), and who said what across the major traditions from ancient Greece, China and India to modern Europe. Definitions here are accepted, but positions are not: for nearly every concept there are competing views, and a short entry can only state the standard meaning. The useful habit is to attribute a position to a person or school instead of presenting it as the answer."
    key_ideas[7]{term,meaning}:
      Argument,A set of premises offered in support of a conclusion. It is valid if the conclusion follows from the premises and sound if it is valid and the premises are true.
      Epistemology,"The study of knowledge: what it is, how we get it and what justifies belief."
      Metaphysics,"The study of what exists and its nature: being, time, causation, identity and the relation between mind and matter."
      Normative vs descriptive,A normative claim says what should be; a descriptive claim says what is. Ethics is mainly normative.
      "Consequentialism, deontology, virtue ethics","Three major approaches: judge actions by outcomes, by duties and rules, or by the character they express."
      Rationalism and empiricism,Rationalists give reason a central role in knowledge; empiricists ground knowledge in sensory experience.
      Thought experiment,"A hypothetical scenario used to test a concept or principle, such as the trolley problem."
    pitfalls[4]: Presenting one school's view as the answer. Name the philosopher or tradition behind a claim.,"Calling any disagreement a fallacy. Fallacies are specific errors of reasoning, not a label for positions one dislikes.","Compressing a philosopher's thought into a slogan. 'I think, therefore I am' is a step in an argument, not a summary of Descartes.","Treating Western philosophy as the only tradition; the datasets cover Greek, Chinese, Indian and Islamic thought where noted."
    agent_tips[3]: "Give the standard definition, then the main competing positions with their proponents.","When asked 'what is the answer to a philosophical question', explain the options and the strongest objections to each.","Use the fallacy list to name an error in an argument, quote the part of the argument that commits it, and avoid labeling a person."
    start_with[2]: logical-fallacies,major-philosophers
datasets[6]{id,slug,title,description,tags,view_count,created_at,entry_count,summary}:
  2788,epistemology-terms,Epistemology Terms,Key terms in the theory of knowledge.,"philosophy,epistemology,knowledge",51,1793403093,17,"The core vocabulary of the theory of knowledge: knowledge, belief, justification, skepticism, empiricism and rationalism, plus a priori and a posteriori knowledge, foundationalism, coherentism, the Gettier problem, reliabilism, fallibilism and the main theories of truth."
  2789,ethics-moral-philosophy,Ethics and Moral Philosophy,"Normative ethical theories: utilitarianism, deontology, virtue ethics, social contract theory, and applied ethics dilemmas (trolley problem, privacy, bioethics).","philosophy,ethics,moral-philosophy,utilitarianism,deontology,virtue-ethics,trolley-problem,applied-ethics",48,1778695229,5,"The major theories of moral philosophy: utilitarianism, deontology, virtue ethics and social contract theory, with the trolley problem as a thought experiment. Each entry gives founders, the core principle, strengths, criticisms and variants."
  2839,logical-fallacies,Logical Fallacies,Common errors in reasoning.,"philosophy,logic,fallacies",41,1793403093,20,"A reference list of common logical fallacies, from ad hominem and straw man to false dilemma and circular reasoning, plus red herring, appeal to emotion, bandwagon, post hoc reasoning, hasty generalization, equivocation, tu quoque, no true Scotsman, appeal to nature, the genetic fallacy and more. Each entry names the error and describes the move."
  2843,major-philosophers,Major Philosophers,Influential philosophers and their primary contributions.,"philosophy,philosophers,history",48,1793403093,27,"Major philosophers across traditions with a one-line description of their best-known contribution, from Socrates, Plato and Aristotle through Descartes, Kant, Nietzsche and Mill to Confucius, Aquinas, Hume, Hegel, Marx, Wittgenstein, Beauvoir and Rawls."
  2848,metaphysics-concepts,Metaphysics Concepts,Fundamental concepts in metaphysics.,"philosophy,metaphysics,ontology",45,1793403093,16,"Fundamental concepts about what exists and how it is structured: ontology, causality, free will, determinism, identity and possible worlds, plus substance, universals, time, the mind-body problem, essence, personal identity, materialism, idealism and emergence."
  2872,philosophical-traditions,Philosophical Traditions and Schools of Thought,"Major philosophical traditions: ancient Greek philosophy, Eastern philosophy (Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism), Enlightenment rationalism and empiricism, and existentialism.","philosophy,greek,eastern,buddhism,confucianism,existentialism,rationalism,empiricism,ethics,metaphysics",41,1778695229,6,"Major philosophical traditions with their period, key thinkers, central questions and legacy: ancient Greek philosophy, Buddhist philosophy, Confucianism, rationalism, empiricism and existentialism."