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Francisco Suárez - Principle of Individuation
Suárez momentously scrutinized what it means to exist within his work, Disputationes Metaphysicae -- this influenced theology to be further developed.
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René Descartes - Dualism
Descartes wished to determine what he could be certain of, and in order to do this, he first doubted all of his notions. During this process, he discovered that he could doubt that he had a body, but he could not doubt that he had a mind. This musing gave him the idea that the mind and body were different things. -
Thomas Hobbes - Leviathan
Hobbes' work deals with the structure and workings of a utopian government: it argues for a social contract society ruled by a ruler exhibiting absolute power. In order to prevent wars, including civil wars, a strong and unalloyed government is necessary.
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John Locke - Social Contract
Locke posited that governments are created through the consent of people to be ruled by the majority. The only right people give up in order to enter into civil society and its benefits is the right to punish other people for violating rights.
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John Locke - Tabla Rasa (Blank Slate Theory)
In Locke's Essay Concerning Human Understanding, he theorized that human minds were blank slates which lacks rules for processing data; data is added and rules for processing said data are formed merely through an individual's sensory experiences. One is free to determine their own disposition, consequently.
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Isaac Newton - Rules of Reasoning in Philosophy
Newton offers -- within the third edition of his book, Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy -- a way for handling unknown phenomena in nature and searching for ways to explain them.
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David Hume - The Self
Hume favored the bundle theory of identity: the mind is simply a bundle of perceptions, and the self is fundamentally a group of experiences linked together.
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David Hume - Reasoning and Morality
Within his work, An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals, Hume deduced that reasoning cannot be related to morality, contrary to philosophers as archaic as Aristotle.
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Jeremy Bentham - Orthodox Utilitarianism
Utilitarianism is at the heart of consequentialist ethics. Bentham's utilitarianism held that the ideal action is the action which produces the most utility -- utility is defined as happiness, or pleasure. Utilitarianism aims to promote the greatest amount of good for the greatest amount of people.
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Immanuel Kant - Theory of Perception
While some philosophers believed that understanding the physical world had its foundations in experience, Kant believed that understanding is found in both experience and a priori concepts -- a priori knowledge is independent from experience.
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Immanuel Kant - Deontology
Kant created his ethical theory while believing that intentions of actions matter more than consequences. In deontological ethics, it is believed that one should follow a set of rules when making ethical decisions, instead of simply analyzing the potential consequences of one's actions. It is basically the complete opposite of utilitarianism.
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Karl Marx - The Communist Manifesto
This work formed the basis for Communist movements all over the place. It argued that capitalist societies would eventually collapse, and that they would be replaced with communist societies instead. The goal of communism is to create a society where everyone shares the benefits of labor and classes don't exist -- ideally, everyone would be equal.
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John Stuart Mill - On Liberty
This book applied Mill's concept of utilitarianism to society and governance; Mill suggested standards for the relationship between a state's authority and the liberty of its citizens. Democratic systems may lead to a tyrannical system backed by the majority, or mob rule. The importance of individuality is emphasized, as it may be a prerequisite for lofty pleasures.
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Gottlob Frege - Analytic Philosophy
Frege was one of the founders of analytic philosophy, and his work on logic brought about a linguistic turn in philosophy. Analytic philosophy is a peculiar way of approaching philosophical problems; it holds that the study of language is important when it comes to solving logic problems.
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Georg Cantor - Set Theory
Set theory was the substratum of mathematics and logic. It is a way to examine collections of objects and apply math to them. Regarding numbers, for example, the number seven is the same as the set of all groups of seven things.
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Friedrich Nietzsche - "God is Dead"
Nietzsche used this phrase to posit his idea that the Enlightenment had nullified the potential existence of God. This belief may cause some to turn to nihilism, as it may seem that, without God existing, one's actions simply don't matter -- however, Nietzsche wasn't a nihilist.
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Bertrand Russell - Russell's Paradox
Russell's paradox basically shattered the foundations of logic when it was published. It presented the question: "Does the set of all sets which do not contain themselves contain itself? If it does, then it doesn't. If it doesn't, then it does." -
Ludwig Wittgenstein - Picture Theory of Language
Wittgenstein claimed there is a gap between what can be expressed in language and what can only be expressed in non-verbal ways; language is limited, and some things cannot be expressed with words.
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Philipa Foot - The Trolley Problem
Not necessarily a theory, but an esteemed thought experiment: the trolley problem is an ethical thought experiment where an unstoppable trolley is moving towards a group of five innocent people, but it can be diverted to only hit one innocent person instead. Would it be right to save the group at the expense of the individual?
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John Rawls - Veil of Ignorance
Rawls' asserted that the best way to ascertain which ideas for a society are truly impartial, people must choose their principles behind a "veil of ignorance", meaning that they wouldn't know which social class they personally belonged to.
