The Great Books of the Western Canon, organized by Mortimer J. Adler in the Syntopicon, span 102 enduring ideas—ranging from Truth, Beauty, and Justice to Democracy, Love, and God. These categories trace the intellectual tradition of the West, connecting philosophy, literature, history, science, and theology. Together, they map the recurring questions and principles shaping human thought across centuries.
Defining the One and the Many The philosophical problem of the One and Many stands as a foundational question in Metaphysics, probing the very nature of existence. At its core, it asks how unity and multiplicity can coexist, how individual things relate to universal concepts, and whether reality is fundamentally...
The Enduring Enigma: Unpacking the Metaphysical Status of Universal Ideas Have you ever stopped to ponder the nature of "redness" itself, or "humanity," or "justice"? Not a specific red apple, or a particular human being, or a single act of justice, but the idea...
The Infinite Echo: Exploring the Hypothesis of Multiple Worlds The Hypothesis of multiple worlds, often colloquially referred to as the "multiverse," is one of the most profound and mind-bending concepts to emerge from the intersection of modern Astronomy and theoretical physics. Far from being a mere flight of...
Unpacking Reality: The Enduring Power of the Matter-Form Distinction Have you ever stopped to truly ponder what makes a physical object what it is? We see things change constantly – a tree grows, a clay pot is shaped, a person ages. Yet, through all these transformations, there’s an underlying sense...
The Limitless Nature of Infinity: A Philosophical Journey The concept of infinity stands as one of humanity's most profound and perplexing ideas. Far from being a mere numerical placeholder for "very large," infinity represents a fundamental challenge to our understanding of existence, space, time, and even...
The Mind-Body Problem in Modern Science: A Contemporary Inquiry The enduring enigma of how our subjective experiences – thoughts, feelings, perceptions – arise from the physical matter of our brains and bodies remains one of philosophy's most profound and persistent questions. This is the essence of the Mind-Body Problem, a...
Causality in Physics and Metaphysics: A planksip Exploration Causality, the intricate relationship between causes and effects, stands as a bedrock concept for understanding the universe, yet its interpretation diverges significantly across the disciplines of physics and metaphysics. While physics often seeks to describe how events are connected through observable laws...
The Enduring Enigma: Exploring the Concept of the Soul in Ancient Philosophy The concept of the soul stands as one of the most persistent and profound inquiries in the history of philosophy. From the earliest pre-Socratic thinkers to the towering figures of Plato and Aristotle, ancient philosophers grappled with its...
