Definition of Dialectic

The pre-Socratic philosopher Zeno of Elea was presumably the first who applied a form of dialectic by developing a series of paradoxes to demonstrate that certain ideas, like motion, change, space and time are impossible.

Socrates used a method known as elenchus (ἔλεγχος), or the Socratic method, which involved asking a series of questions to expose contradictions in the interlocutor's beliefs, leading them to a clearer understanding.

Plato expanded on this, using dialectic as a method of philosophical inquiry to uncover the forms or ...

Synnoesis is a term I coined from Greek σύν (syn = with, together with, participating in) and νόησις (noesis = intelligence, understanding, mind, processes of thought). It represents the principle of sociality, of ethical and moral values regulating cooperative societies and communities. It also defines the structure of social organizations and the interaction within social institutions.

In my philosophy of Hyponoetics, I state that reality is not just given but is being continually shaped and created by us. The question now is: how do we – as conscious minds - shape the reality we...

The symbol of the circle has been used throughout the history of philosophy as a universal metaphor for the notions of totality, wholeness, original perfection, the infinite, eternity, God, etc. In the following, I present some of the circle metaphors applied by philosophers, writers and artists.

Mythology

The ouroboros or uroboros (snake eating its own tail) is an ancient symbol for the eternal cycle of life, death and rebirth.

C. J....

In this blog, I will elaborate on the similarities between my philosophy of Hyponoetics and the Indian philosophy of Jainism.

Hyponoetics is a philosophy based on the assumption that the ultimate reality, or the universe as a whole, manifests itself in a number of different aspects, the two most known to us human beings are mind and matter. The underlying reality is not a determinate system of physical and/or mental entities but may be considered as pure potentiality out of which the entities of our world, including consciousness and self, are manifested or objectified. Because reality is p...

The Swiss writer Peter Bichsel (born 1935) wrote a short story with the title 'Ein Tisch ist ein Tisch' (A table is a table) about language and meaning. It is about an old man who feels tired and suffers from the fact that his day passes always in the same way. Frustrated with his situation that nothing ever changes, he invents his own language by re-naming the objects in his room, for example, instead of calling the bed 'bed', he calls it 'picture' and so on with all the other things. As time goes on, h...

It is not well known that Schopenhauer proposed an explanation of psychic phenomena, such as clairvoyance, ESP and telepathy, based on his metaphysics of will. His open-mindedness and intention to embrace not only scientific and physical phenomena of the world but also address mental phenomena that do not fit into academic science but have a long history in human experience since the dawn of humankind, are remarkable.

Today, there is overwhelming scientific evidence that certain psychic phenomena are real and are not inconsistent with modern science, especially quantum physics. I will discuss Scho...

Leibniz uses the term 'perception' in a technical sense and defines it as follows:

The transitory state which enfolds and represents a multiplicity in a unity, or in the simple substance, is exactly what one calls perception. One must distinguish this from apperception and from consciousness...
[Monadology, sec. 14]

So it is well to make a distinction between perception, which is the inner state of the monad representing external things, and apperception, which ...

Millions of people believe that God exists. Although they picture and describe this God in many different ways, we assume that there is only one God, one reality. Some religions, such as Hinduism, propose a world of "Gods". However, these manifestations of God are only aspects of the one God. I think it is safe to claim that God is the ultimate and unitary reality. Everything that exists is created and sustained by this reality.

Philosophers and scientists as well postulate a fundamental and unitary reality from which everything that exists originates. They name it differently, though, such as <...

Spinoza postulated three different kinds of knowledge in his Ethica:

Ex omnibus supra dictis clare apparet nos multa percipere et notiones universales formare I° ex singularibus nobis per sensus mutilate, confuse et sine ordine ad intellectum repræsentatis (vide corollarium propositionis 29 hujus) et ideo tales perceptiones cognitionem ab experientia vaga vocare consuevi. II° ex signis exempli gratia ex eo quod auditis aut lectis quibusdam verbis rerum recordemur et earum quasdam ideas formemus similes iis per quas res imaginamur (vide scholium propositionis 18 huju...

Since the ancient Greek philosophers (esp. Plato and Aristotle), the question what a universal is, whether it exists ontologically or only epistemologically, and what its relation is to particulars, has occupied the mind of philosophers. Below, I summarize the main theories.

Platonism

In Plato, the universal as an abstract entity has its own independent spiritual being. The ideas are the actual being and constitute the reason for being and knowledge for the material single things. For Plato true knowledge is only possible of something immutable. The things perceptible by the s...