api: "YAML JSON TOON Database"
version: 1.0.0
format: json
dataset:
  id: 71
  slug: philosophical-traditions
  title: "Philosophical Traditions and Schools of Thought"
  description: "Major philosophical traditions: ancient Greek philosophy, Eastern philosophy (Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism), Enlightenment rationalism and empiricism, and existentialism."
  category: Philosophy
  category_slug: philosophy
  tags: "philosophy,greek,eastern,buddhism,confucianism,existentialism,rationalism,empiricism,ethics,metaphysics"
  view_count: 0
  created_at: 1778695229
  updated_at: 1778695229
data:
  traditions
    -
      name: "Ancient Greek Philosophy"
      period: "6th century BCE - 6th century CE"
      key_thinkers:
        [5]: "Socrates (Socratic method, ethics, 'know thyself')","Plato (Theory of Forms, philosopher-kings, The Republic)","Aristotle (logic, virtue ethics, metaphysics, empiricism)","Epicurus (hedonism as absence of pain, atomism)","Zeno (Stoicism: virtue as living in accordance with nature)"
      central_questions:
        [3]: "What is the nature of reality?","What is the good life?","What can we know?"
      legacy: "Foundation of Western philosophy; logic, ethics, metaphysics, political theory"
    -
      name: "Buddhist Philosophy"
      period: "5th century BCE - present"
      key_concepts
        [4]{concept,description}:
          "Four Noble Truths","Life is suffering (dukkha); cause is craving; cessation is possible; path leads to cessation"
          "Eightfold Path","Right view, intention, speech, action, livelihood, effort, mindfulness, concentration"
          "Anatta (No-Self)","No permanent, unchanging self; self is a collection of aggregates (skandhas)"
          "Dependent Origination","All phenomena arise in dependence on conditions; nothing exists independently"
      schools:
        [3]: "Theravada (early teachings, Pali Canon)","Mahayana (bodhisattva ideal, emptiness/sunyata)","Zen (direct insight, meditation, koans)"
    -
      name: Confucianism
      period: "6th century BCE - present"
      key_thinkers:
        [3]: "Confucius (Analects: ren/benevolence, li/ritual propriety)","Mencius (human nature is inherently good)","Xunzi (human nature is inherently selfish; requires cultivation)"
      core_virtues
        [4]{virtue,description}:
          "Ren (仁)","Benevolence, humaneness, empathy for others"
          "Li (禮)","Ritual propriety, proper conduct in social relationships"
          "Xiao (孝)","Filial piety; respect for parents and ancestors"
          "Yi (義)","Righteousness; doing what is morally right"
      social_structure: "Five relationships: ruler-subject, father-son, husband-wife, elder-younger brother, friend-friend"
    -
      name: "Rationalism (17th-18th century)"
      key_thinkers:
        [3]: "René Descartes (Cogito ergo sum; mind-body dualism; innate ideas)","Baruch Spinoza (monism; God = Nature; determinism)","Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (monads; pre-established harmony; best of all possible worlds)"
      core_belief: "Reason is the primary source of knowledge; certain truths are innate or deducible by pure reason"
      method: "Deductive reasoning from self-evident first principles (like mathematics)"
      famous_argument: "Descartes' method of doubt → 'I think, therefore I am' as indubitable foundation"
    -
      name: "Empiricism (17th-18th century)"
      key_thinkers:
        [3]: "John Locke (tabula rasa; all knowledge from experience)","George Berkeley (esse est percipi; to be is to be perceived)","David Hume (skepticism about causation, induction, and the self)"
      core_belief: "All knowledge originates in sensory experience; no innate ideas"
      method: "Inductive reasoning from observation and experiment"
      hume_skepticism: "Causation is not observable; we only see constant conjunction. Induction cannot be rationally justified. Self is just a 'bundle of perceptions'."
    -
      name: "Existentialism (19th-20th century)"
      key_thinkers:
        [5]: "Søren Kierkegaard (leap of faith; anxiety of freedom; subjective truth)","Friedrich Nietzsche (death of God; will to power; eternal recurrence; Übermensch)","Jean-Paul Sartre (existence precedes essence; radical freedom; bad faith)","Martin Heidegger (Being and Time; Dasein; being-toward-death)","Albert Camus (absurdism; revolt against meaninglessness)"
      core_themes:
        [5]: "Individual existence and freedom","Authenticity vs. bad faith","Anxiety and responsibility of choice","Meaning created by the individual, not given by God or nature","Confrontation with mortality and absurdity"
      famous_quote: "Sartre: 'Man is condemned to be free; because once thrown into the world, he is responsible for everything he does.'"