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:
        - "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:
        - "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:
        - concept: "Four Noble Truths"
          description: "Life is suffering (dukkha); cause is craving; cessation is possible; path leads to cessation"
        - concept: "Eightfold Path"
          description: "Right view, intention, speech, action, livelihood, effort, mindfulness, concentration"
        - concept: "Anatta (No-Self)"
          description: "No permanent, unchanging self; self is a collection of aggregates (skandhas)"
        - concept: "Dependent Origination"
          description: "All phenomena arise in dependence on conditions; nothing exists independently"
      schools:
        - "Theravada (early teachings, Pali Canon)"
        - "Mahayana (bodhisattva ideal, emptiness/sunyata)"
        - "Zen (direct insight, meditation, koans)"
    - name: "Confucianism"
      period: "6th century BCE - present"
      key_thinkers:
        - "Confucius (Analects: ren/benevolence, li/ritual propriety)"
        - "Mencius (human nature is inherently good)"
        - "Xunzi (human nature is inherently selfish; requires cultivation)"
      core_virtues:
        - virtue: "Ren (仁)"
          description: "Benevolence, humaneness, empathy for others"
        - virtue: "Li (禮)"
          description: "Ritual propriety, proper conduct in social relationships"
        - virtue: "Xiao (孝)"
          description: "Filial piety; respect for parents and ancestors"
        - virtue: "Yi (義)"
          description: "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:
        - "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:
        - "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:
        - "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:
        - "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.'"