Positivism

According to Wikipedia, positivism is a philosophy which holds that the only authentic knowledge is that based on actual sense experience. Such knowledge can come only from affirmation of theories through strict scientific method.

Positivism. [O]. Available:
http://www.wikipedia.org/positivism
Accessed on 2009-02-04

Enlightenment

Enlightenment is a movement that started in England during the 17th Century, and was further developed in France and Germany in the 18th Century. The period of its predominant practise is known as the Age of Reason. This was so because the movement encouraged the individual to use reason, which contrasted the superstitious, irrationality and imposed religious beliefs associated with the Middle Ages. Immanuel Kant described it as being the “emergence of man from his self-imposed infancy”. This “infancy” was seen as the inability to use one’s own reason without the aid or another. An inability caused by one’s lack of courage to step out and think for his or herself.

Immanuel Kant

Enlightenment. [O]. Available:

http://www.english.upenn.edu/~mgamer/Etexts/kant.html

Accessed on 2009-02-04



Roger Jones

The Enlightenment. [O]. Available:

http://www.philosopher.org.uk/

Accessed on 2009-02-20



T.W Adorno and M. Horocheimer, Dialect of Enlightenment. tr. J. Cumming (New York 1972)

Materialism

According to an article on Wikipedia, materialism is a philosophy that holds that the only thing that can be truly proven to exist is physical matter. It states that all things are composed of material and all phenomena are the result of material interactions; therefore, matter is the only substance.

Materialism. [O]. Available:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Materialism
Accessed on 2009-02-04

Humanism

Humanism places emphasis on man and his power, status, importance, achievements, interests and authority. The movement arose in the 5th Century B.C when the Sophists and the Socrates “called down philosophy from heaven to earth” by introducing social, political and moral questions. When linked to the Renaissance, humanism is denoted as a move away from God to man as the centre as the centre of interest. Despite this, humanism is not regarded as atheist as it acknowledges God as creator and supreme authority however it states that His activity is less immediate. This led to the notion that the universe was governed by generals laws, laid down by God. Humanism also encouraged a belief in man’s ability to learn more about the universe by his own efforts, and eventually gain more and more control over it.

Humanism. [O]. Available:
http://www.novelguide.com/a/discover/
Accessed on 2009-02-04

A. Rabil Jr. (ed), Renaissance Humanism (Philadelphia 1988)