Philosophy Schools and Traditions

An overview of ancient and modern skepticism.

Consequentialism is perhaps the most developed view of ethics, according to which the ethical worth of an action is proportional to its consequences. In particular, consequentialism holds that among all the possible courses of action, an agent should pursue the one that, overall, brings about the greatest amount of good – or, in jargon, the one...

Enlightenment, or the Age of the Enlightened, was an intellectual movement most fertile between the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in central Europe (France and Germany most distinctly) as well as in Russia and North America. The movement converged around the (at times unconditional) belief in the light of reason, regarded as the best gift...

Rationalism is the philosophical stance according to which reason is the ultimate source of human knowledge. It rivals empiricism according to which the senses suffice in justifying knowledge. In a form or another, rationalism features in most philosophical tradition; in the Western one, it boasts a long and distinguished list of followers,...

Empiricism is the philosophical stance according to which the senses are the ultimate source of human knowledge. It rivals rationalism according to which reason is the ultimate source of knowledge. In a form or another, empiricism features in most philosophical tradition. In Western philosophy, empiricism boasts a long and distinguished list of...

Platonism is one of the oldest and most distinguished philosophical traditions, with several ramifications in different historical periods and cultural terrains.

Aristotelianism is, along with Platonism, among the oldest and most influential philosophical schools in Western philosophy.

Centered in the achievement of virtue as independence from passions, Stoicism is one of the most sought after philosophical traditions in Western philosophy, finding strong affinities also with several religious creeds.

Despite being associated with a not so sparking fame, Epicureanism is one of the most distinguished philosophical schools in the Western traditions and, probably, one of the most cherished philosophies to date.