Study Guide To The Stanford Encyclopedia Of Philosophy

Study Guide to The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

I have been interested in self-studying philosophy for a long time, and I am now taking it up as my minor in college. I have compiled this systematic guide to philosophy for my own benefit, however, it may prove beneficial to others as well.

Obviously, I am talking about Western philosophy, and not Eastern philosophy, which is a subject all of its own (and a very interesting one at that).

The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy is an excellent source of philosophical articles that are both thorough, and accessible. However, I have not been able to find any systematic index of articles from the SEP which make reading through it chronologically possible. Therefore, I have written an outline of important thinkers beginning with the pre-socratics, and I am linking them to respective entries in the SEP.

This guide is a work in progress, and currently has the major disadvantage of not categorizing various philosophers into specific schools of thought. I may try to work these in at a later time, but for now I am focusing on chronology rather than fitting them into categories. The SEP should do that by itself.

The Pre-Socratics

Thales of Miletus

Anaximenes

Heraclitus

Anaximander

Parmenides

Zeno of Elea

Empedocles

Democritus

Pythagoras

Diogenes

Classical Philosophy

(These three thinkers are extremely important, and intimately connected to one another)

Socrates

Plato

Aristotle

Ancient Non-Socratic Schools of Philosophy

Sophism

Protagoras

Gorgias

Skepticism

Pyrrho

Epicureanism

Epicurus

Hedonism

Aristippus of Cyrene

Democritus (although a pre-socratic, he is often associated with this school)

Stoicism

Zeno of Citium (NOT to be confused with Zeno of Elea, a pre-socratic)

Epictetus

Marcus Aurelius (although he came significantly later)

Neoplatonism

Plotinus

St. Augustine (although he came much later, he is a very important and influential figure)

Medieval Philosophy

Scholasticism

St. Anselm

St. Thomas Aquinas

Peter Abelard

Albertus Magnus (Albert the Great)

John Duns Scotus

William of Ockham

Renaissance Philosophers

Roger Bacon (Okay, technically, Bacon was a Franciscan Friar in the 14th century, so he doesn’t belong here. But he definitely doesn’t belong with the Scholastics, so he goes here.)

Erasmus

Machiavelli

Thomas More

Francis Bacon

Islamic Philosophers (no SEP links :( )

Avicenna

Averröes

Jewish Philosopher(s)

Maimonides

Early Modern Philosophy (it isn’t medieval, but it also isn’t modern)

Two competing schools of thought, and those who did not strictly belong to either school.

Rationalism

René Descartes

Baruch Spinoza

Gottfried Leibniz

Nicolas Malebranche

Empiricism

John Locke

Bishop George Berkeley

David Hume

Non-Aligned (Not strictly empiricist or rationalist)

Thomas Hobbes

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Blaise Pascal

Voltaire

Adam Smith

Edmund Burke

Immanuel Kant (signaled the shift from early modern to 19th century philosophy)

19th Century Philosophy

German Idealism

Johann Fichte

Arthur Schopenhauer 

Georg Hegel

Marxism

Karl Marx (of course he gets his own category)

British Empiricism

Jeremy Bentham

John Stuart Mill

American Philosophy

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Henry David Thoreau

C.S Peirce

William James

John Dewey

European Philosophers

Auguste Comte

Søren Kierkegaard

Nietzsche

20th Century Philosophy

Characterized once again by two large and competing traditions.

Analytical Philosophers

Gottlob Frege

Bertrand Russell

Alfred North Whitehead

A.J Ayer

Ludwig Wittgenstein

W.V.O Quine

G.E. Moore

Continental Philosophers

Edmund Husserl

Martin Heidegger

Jean-Paul Sartre

Michel Foucault

Jacques Derrida

I LOVE Excel! I took an Excel class during University and I’ve never stopped using or learning about it since. During my summer internship, I would literally use Excel functions and macros for hours every single day. Even if you don’t want to be an Excel fanatic, learning a few basic functions will make your life easier (and even impress a few managers along the way!).

I’ve outlined below some of the most useful Excel functions to learn. Some of these functions are very basic but can make a huge difference. These functions save time, automate procedures, and make your life easier! And if you need some help on how to learn them, I’ve listed some helpful resources to get you started. With all of us social distancing at home, now is as good of a time as any to add a skill to your resume. 

Excel Functions to Know:

SUM: returns sum of cells selected

SUMPRODUCT: multiplies ranges or arrays together and returns the sum of product

IF: return one value for a TRUE result and another for a FALSE result

SUMIF: returns the sum of cells if the cell meets a single condition

AVERAGEIF: computes the average of the numbers in a range that meets a certain criteria

VLOOKUP: lookup and retrieve data from a specific column in a table can be exact or approximate match

LEFT: returns a given number of characters from the left side of text string

RIGHT: returns a given number of characters from the right side of text string

CONCATENATE: joins the text of cells together and returns the joined text in one cell

LENGTH: returns the given number of characters in a text

Resources:

Excel Jet: Very useful as a type of Excel dictionary to look up syntax and specific formulas you don’t know

Excel Easy: almost like on online textbook for Excel (great resource for those who have no knowledge of Excel at all!)

Udemy: paid excel course with lots of videos, assignments, and downloadable resources

Coursera: self-paced learning option, quizzes and assignments, and a course certificate

Excel Youtube Course by Technology for Teachers and Students

Datacamp (7/12/20 edit thanks anon for the suggestion!)

Prologue to my Excel series

I’ll also be posting Excel tips, tricks, function explanations, and some basic Excel tutorials so if you’d like to see more appear on your dash in the future, follow my blog and look for my Excel series.

Here is the second part of the art history masterpost (part 1 here)

Venetian and Northern Renaissance (1430–1550)

general (x) (x) (x) (x) (x) (x) (x)

know your history (x) (x) (x) (x) (x)

artists recommendations

Bellini (x) (x) (x)  

Titian (x) (x) (x) (x)

Dürer (x) (x) (x) (x)

Pieter Bruegel the Elder (x) (x) (x)

Bosch, The Garden of Earthly Delights (x) (x) (x)

Jan Van Eyck, Arnolfini Portrait (x) (x) (x)

Vermeer (x) (x) (x) (x)

Canaletto  (x) (x) (x)

book recs (x) (x) (x)

video recs (x) (x) (x)

Baroque (1600–1750)

general (x) (x) (x) (x)

know your history (x) (x)

artists recommendations

Rubens (x) (x) (x)

Rembrandt  (x) (x) (x)

Caravaggio  (x) (x)

book recs (x) (x)

video recs (x)

Neoclassical (1750–1850)

general (x) (x) (x)

know your history (x) (x)

artists recs

David (x) (x) (x)

Ingres (x) (x) (x)

Greuze (x) (x) (x)

book recs (x) (x)

video recs (x)

Romanticism (1780–1850)

general (x) (x) (x) (x)

know your history (x) (x)

artists recommendations

Friedrich (x) (x)

Gericaux (x) (x)

Delacroix (x) (x)

Turner (x) (x) (x)

book recs  (x)

video recs (x)

Realism (1848–1900)

general (x) (x) (x)

know your history (x) (x) (x)

artists recs

Corot (x) (x)

Courbet  (x) (x)

Millet (x) (x)

Daumier (x) (x)

book recs (x) (x)

video recs (x)

Impressionism (1865–1885)

general (x) (x) (x)

know your history (x) (x) (x)

artists recs

Monet (x) (x)

Manet (x) (x)

Cassat (x) (x)

Degas (x) (x)

book recs (x) (x)

video recs (x)

Post-Impressionism (1885–1910)

general (x) (x) (x) (x) (x)

know your history (x) (x) (x)

artists recs

Van Gogh (x) (x) (x) (x)

Gauguin (x) (x) (x)

Cézanne (x) (x) (x)

book recs (x) (x)

video recs (x)

Fauvism and Expressionism (1900–1935)

general (x) (x) (x) (x) (x)

know your history (x) (x) (x) (x)

artists recs

Matisse (x) (x) (x)

Kirchner (x) (x)

Kandinsky (x) (x)

book recommendations (x)

video recs (x) (x)

Cubism, Futurism, Constructivism

general (x) (x) (x) (x) (x) (x)

know your history (x) (x) (x) (x)

artists recs

Picasso (x) (x)

Braque (x) (x)

Boccioni (x) (x)

Malevich (x) (x) (x) (x) 

video recs (x)

book recommendations (x)

Dada and Surrealism (1917–1950)

general (x) (x) (x) (x)

know your history (x) (x)

artists recs

Duchamp (x) (x)

Dali (x) (x)

Magritte (x) (x)

Kahlo (x) (x)

book recs (x)

video recs (x) (x)

Pop Art (1960s) and Postmodernism (1970s - now)

general (x) (x)

know your history (x) (x) (x)

artists recs

Warhol (x) (x)

Lichtenstein (x)

Richter (x)

Sherman (x)

Book recs (x) (x)

Video recs (x)

“I want to do further research, what websites do you recommend?”

identifythisart.com // artyfactory.com // ancient.eu // theartstory.org // artcyclopedia.com // wikiart.org // visual-arts-cork.com

“I’d rather follow a proper course than browse through loads of websites, where do I find that?”

khanacademy (this is honestly the best website ever) 

study.com

academicearth

gbaacademy 

“Where can I view or download works of art?”

Download thousands of works of art (now public domain) 

Modern art books online

British Library

Metmuseum collection 

“Which museums frequently release new material to learn from?”

Metmuseum essays : a personal favorite, short but super informative with subjects being either super general or super specific

Guggenheim publications : also a great source

British museum publications : a bit harder to browse through, but it gives great ideas to do your own research! 

That’s it for that long masterpost series, I hope it was helpful! 

Zoya

I loved this book. I also hated it. Tartt is clearly an extraordinary writer. Her ability to utilize the five senses to transport you to her world of dark academia is astounding. When she describes a simple field, the location almost becomes ethereal. Further, her ability to compose lengthy triades about the state of humanity leaves readers with much to consider about their life and current choices. If it were only for her writing, I would give this book five stars. However, the plot and characters were a difficult obstacle to overcome. She wrote the characters in a believable manner, thus the characters were believably painful to follow. Their moral compasses reside in a shallow ditch and the frivolous nature of their spending habits is infuriating. Additionally, the plot felt like a reach at times; the reactions and choices characters made required a bit more suspension of disbelief that I would've liked for this story. If half stars were available, I'd give The Secret History 3.5/5 stars. https://www.instagram.com/p/CCmSf4zFCZm/?igshid=bf05gvwph00f

Learning astronomy

Podcasts

astronomy cast  : hundreds of podcasts! Great for beginners and general facts, but keep in mind that those are from 2006, so some technical things may no longer be relevant

Videos 

crash course : amazing synthetic videos about astronomy, those are my personal favorites 

Websites

astronomy basics : all you need to know if you’re a great beginner!

Free online courses

probably the most complete one I’ve ever seen

khan academy astronomy courses are quality af

Books

list of books about what to see and how with a telescope

another list of books about astronomy in general 

telescope books

astrophotography

Stargazing

Sky maps

sky maps per month 

very good starwheels aka planispheres 

How to observe

basic skills

10 steps to begin

the perfect all-in-one stargazing guide: I can’t recommend this highly enough!!

Telescopes and things

telescopes

telescope reviews : aka what to chose for what you want to see

everything about telescopes : super useful when you start using one!!

Astrophotography

Starting

everything you need to know depending on what equipment you have!!

all you need version 2!

General

catching the light

hundreds of tips 

Apps and websites

For computers

stellarium

googlesky

astroplanner: plan your observation!

winstars: 3D planet/stargazing!

planetarium 

+ full list of softwares and websites

For mobiles

starwalk2 (android version): alright guys, this one is my absolute favorite at all times. Like, really. Have you ever wished you could point a device at the sky and know exactly what’s above you? And have a description of those things? Even in the middle of the day?? Well, now you can yaaay! :D 

Astronomy News

astronomy.com

universetoday

skyandtelescope

space.com aka my personal favorite

astronomynow

sci-news

++bonus !

All the random facts

here +other links:  x x x x

Backgrounds

hubble site gallery

ESA/Hubble gallery

HD wallpapers

NASA gallery

Even more resources

friendsoftheobservatory

NASA

European Space Agency

ISS Live

I really hoped it helped! Thank you very much for reading! Zoya

I AM IN LOVE