The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.
– Socrates
Major Philosophy Schools Quick Overview
🏛️ 1. Classical (Ancient Greece & Rome)
Platonism: Reality of ideal forms; the material world is imperfect.
Aristotelianism: Focus on logic, ethics, and the “golden mean.”
Stoicism: Virtue through reason, accept fate calmly.
Epicureanism: Seek pleasure (wisely) and avoid pain.
🧠 2. Medieval (Faith + Reason)
Scholasticism: Harmonize philosophy and theology (e.g., Aquinas).
Augustinianism: Emphasized divine illumination and original sin.
🕯️ 3. Modern (17th–19th Century)
Rationalism: Knowledge comes from reason (Descartes, Spinoza).
Empiricism: Knowledge comes from experience (Locke, Hume).
Existentialism: We define ourselves by choice (Kierkegaard, Sartre).
Idealism: Reality shaped by mind (Kant, Hegel).
🔥 4. Contemporary (20th–21st Century)
Phenomenology: Study of lived experience (Husserl, Heidegger).
Analytic Philosophy: Language and logic as tools (Russell, Wittgenstein).
Pragmatism: Truth is what works in practice (James, Dewey).
Postmodernism: Skepticism of “grand truths” (Foucault, Derrida).