In the 1900's, philosophy went in two directions.
One is based on the development of logic, mathematics, and science;
the other, on an increasing concern about humanity.
    The following three turned there attention to the philosophy of science.

• Bertrand Arthur William Russell Third Earl Russell 1872-1970, a British philosopher, mathematician, social critic, and writer who had profound influence on the development of symbolic logic, logical positivism, and the set theory of mathematics.    His written works include Principia Mathematica (1910-1913), written with Alfred North Whitehead, and A History of Western Philosophy (1945).    He won the 1950 Nobel Prize for literature.
• Alfred North Whitehead 1861-1947, another British mathematician and philosopher also a founder of mathematical logic, he wrote Principia Mathematica (1910-1913) with Bertrand Russell.
• F.S.C. Northrop 1893-?, an American philosopher.
  
      The following three rejected traditional philosophic discussions about the nature of reality.    They concentrated on analyzing the language that philosophy uses in speaking about the world.
• George Edward Moore 1873-1958, a British philosopher whose theories, presented in Principia Ethica (1903) and other works, influenced 20th-century epistemology and linguistic analysis.
• Gilbert Ryle 1900-1976, a British philosopher who regarded the linguistic misrepresentation of mental concepts as the root of philosophical problems and challenged Cartesian dualism in The Concept of Mind (1949).
• Ludwig Wittgenstein 1889-1951, was an Austrian-born British philosopher noted for his analyses of language and meaning.    Among his writings are Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (1921) and Philosophical Investigations (1953).
  
      Most philosophic works were based upon a concern for humanity.    The philosophy of pragmatism, developed by the following three in the United States.
      Pragmatism a movement consisting of varying but associated theories, and distinguished by the doctrine that the meaning of an idea or a proposition lies in its observable practical consequences.    A practical, matter-of-fact way of approaching or assessing situations or of solving problems.
• Charles Sanders Peirce 1839-1914, an American philosopher, mathematician, and scientist who cofounded pragmatism and made numerous contributions to logic.
• William James 1842-1910, an American psychologist and philosopher.    A founder of pragmatism and the psychological movement of functionalism, he developed an approach to intellectual issues that greatly influenced American thought.    His works include The Will to Believe (1897) and The Varieties of Religious Experience (1902).
• John Dewey 1859-1952, an American philosopher and educator who was a leading exponent of philosophical pragmatism and rejected traditional methods of teaching by rote in favor of a broad-based system of practical experience.    This man rejected God and the idea that man has a soul.    His educational theories have led to what is termed "progressive education" (A set of reformist educational philosophies and methods that emphasize individual instruction, informality in the classroom, and the use of group discussions and laboratories as instructional techniques).
  
      Other philosophers have been concerned with psychology and the human condition.    Such existentialists as the following four, who attempted to discuss the universe in terms of human emotions.
• Jean Paul Sartre 1905-1980, a French writer and philosopher.    A leading existentialist, he wrote literary works, such as the autobiographical novel Nausea (1938) and the play No Exit (1944), and philosophical volumes that include Being and Nothingness (1943).    Sartre declined the 1957 Nobel Prize for literature.
• Albert Camus 1913-1960, a French writer and philosopher whose works, such as The Stranger (1942) and The Plague (1947), concern the absurdity of the human condition.    He won the 1957 Nobel Prize for literature.
• Karl Theodor Jaspers 1883-1969, a German psychiatrist and philosopher.    A founder of modern existentialism, he was concerned with human reactions to extreme situations.    His works include Man and the Modern World (1931) and The Future of Mankind (1957).
• Martin Heidegger 1889-1976, a German philosopher who maintained that authentic human existence belongs only to those who react with angst to the inherent emptiness of life.    His works, including Being and Time (1927), greatly influenced Sartre and other existentialists.
  
      All these philosophies have turned away from the traditional philosophic approach to such fields as metaphysics (understand reality), ethics, aesthetics, and axiology (study of values).
      They are concerned with how we can survive in, and adjust to, our changing world.
• Deism is a theory about the nature and existence of God.    It asserts that God exists, and that He created the world, but that He has no present relation to the world.    Deists make this assertion to harmonize science and free will with the existence of such a being as God.    The proof of existence comes from the order and harmony that exists in the universe.    The belief, based solely on reason, in a God who created the universe and then abandoned it, assuming no control over life, exerting no influence on natural phenomena, and giving no supernatural revelation.
• Theism is belief in the existence of a god or gods, especially belief in a personal God as creator and ruler of the world, who works through and in the world.
  
      The past few generations have been educated and conditioned to think in terms that are contrary to biblical principles and truths without even being aware of it.    Analytical reasoning pushed us to throw out anything in conflict with our philosophies.    The classical philosophy was based upon the process of antithesis, of cause and effect.    If something is true then a non-something cannot also be true.    Then came the philosophy that one fact or idea (thesis) working against another fact (antithesis) would produce a new fact (synthesis).    Thus everything became relative, there were no absolutes, only terms of relativity, which is based upon changeableness.    This philosophy of relative thinking soon permeated the higher educational systems of Europe and America, and resulted in the rejections of the absolutes of God, truths, and morals even to today.
      Some philosophic terms of interest to persons who do not know thy self.
  
• Metaphysics is the name given to research about the eternal, universal nature of things.    The natural scientist deals with the kind of fundamental and basic properties that make up matter.    The metaphysician (philosopher who deals with the metaphysics) studies the basic kinds of things and properties that make up the entire cosmos (universe).    Metaphysics the branch of philosophy that examines the nature of reality, including the relationship between mind and matter, substance and attribute, fact and value.    A priori speculation upon questions that are unanswerable to scientific observation, analysis, or experiment.
      Traditionally, metaphysics is divided into two branches.
      These are ontology and cosmology.
  
• Ontology is the branch of metaphysics that deals with the ultimate nature of being or things.    Whether it is one or many, or of what kind.
• Cosmology the study of the physical universe considered as a totality of phenomena in time and space.    The astrophysical study of the history, structure, and constituent dynamics of the universe and a specific theory or model of this structure and these dynamics.    It tries to seek to discover whether things are arranged in some hierarchy, and if they are where its apex is and how things ascend to various levels.
  
      2 Corinthians 4:6 "For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.;    4:18 While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal."    A person may realize that often things are not what they appear to be.    Thus questions arise as to whether the things that we know are what they appear to be or whether they are manifestations (appearances) of something quite different.    Would the world appear different if we had other types of experiences beyond our five senses?    Thus qualitative and quantitative ontology tries to classify these types of realities or ultimate substances.
      Some doctrines of metaphysics include:
• Idealism which is the act or practice of envisioning things in an ideal form.    In philosophy it is the theory that the object of external perception, in itself or as perceived, consists of ideas.    Most religions are based on idealistic ontologies.
• Absolute idealism asserts that there is only one universal spirit, of which all things are manifestations.    Absolute in philosophy is something regarded as the ultimate basis of all thought and being.    Something regarded as independent of and unrelated to anything else.
• Supernaturalism is the quality of being supernatural.    Belief in a supernatural agency that intervenes in the course of natural laws.
• Naturalism is the philosophical system of thought holding that all phenomena can be explained in terms of natural causes and laws without attributing moral, spiritual, or supernatural significance to them.    In theology it is the doctrine that all religious truths are derived from nature and natural causes and not from revelation.
• Materialism in philosophy is the theory that physical matter is the only reality and that everything, including thought, feeling, mind, and will, can be explained in terms of matter and physical phenomena.    The theory or doctrine that physical well-being and worldly possessions constitute the greatest good and highest value in life.    Marxism is rooted in materialistic ontology.
• Dialectical materialism is the Marxian interpretation of reality that views matter as the sole subject of change and all change as the product of a constant conflict between opposites arising from the internal contradictions inherent in all events, ideas, and movements.
• Monism in philosophy is a view in metaphysics that reality is a unified whole and that all existing things can be ascribed to or described by a single concept or system.    The doctrine that mind and matter are formed, or reducible to, the same ultimate substance or principle of being.
• Dualism the philosophical view that the world consists of or is explicable as two fundamental entities, such as mind and matter.    In Psychology it is the view that the mind and body function separately, without interchange.    In theology it is the concept that the world is ruled by the antagonistic forces of good and evil.    The concept that human beings have two basic natures, the physical and the spiritual.
• Pluralism is a condition of society in which numerous distinct ethnic, religious, or cultural groups coexist within one nation.    In Philosophy it is the doctrine that reality is composed of many ultimate substances.    The belief that no single explanatory system or view of reality can account for all the phenomena of life.