Western Philosophy PSEM: Factor Node Index
This factor-node index accompanies the Western Philosophy PSEM workflow, where philosopher names become dimensions, concepts become manifest nodes, and HellixMap opens the resulting semantic structure for exploration. The index gathers the philosopher factors that organize the map, grouped by historical period and summarized by each node’s short characterization, child-link count, and representative concepts or arguments.
The page shows Western philosophy as a modeled conceptual field rather than a conventional narrative sequence. Each philosopher appears as a factor node whose attached child nodes expose the density, vocabulary, and thematic reach of that thinker within the PSEM.
Antiquity
4 factor nodes; 67 child concept links.
| Factor Node | Tagline | Child Links | Representative Child Nodes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Socrates | Critical questioning towards knowledge | 12 | Maieutics; Socratic irony; Daimon (Divine sign); Aretê (Virtue-Knowledge) |
| Plato | Metaphysical architecture of reality | 16 | Concept of Maieutics; Concept of Dialectics; Concept of Anamnesis (Reminiscence); Concept of Philosophical Eros |
| Aristotle | Complete and coherent philosophical architecture | 26 | Substance (Ousia); Hylomorphism (Matter and Form); Act and Power (Energeia and Dunamis); Theory of the Four Causes |
| Plotinus | Spiritual architecture of ascension | 13 | The One: First and Transcendent Principle; The Intellect (Nous); The Soul (Psyche); The Emanation (Procession) |
Socratic Circle
4 factor nodes; 49 child concept links.
| Factor Node | Tagline | Child Links | Representative Child Nodes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Diogenes of Sinope | Wisdom through radical destitution | 11 | Philosophical cynicism; Practice of asceticism (Askēsis); Achievement of self-sufficiency (Autarkeia); Behavior of anaideia (Impudence) |
| Euclid of Megara | Logical monism and eristic dialectics | 12 | Good is one and unchanging; The One as the principle of all reality; Being as the only existence; Non-Being as the nonexistence of evil and multiplicity |
| Antisthenes | Wisdom through natural asceticism | 14 | Arete (Virtue as knowledge and practice); Autarkeia (The self-sufficiency of the wise); Askēsis (Ascetic Training); Ponos (Toil and Trouble as Goods) |
| Xenophon | Wisdom applied to government | 12 | Kalokagathia: The ideal of the ‘beautiful and good’ man; Eukrateia: Self-control; Oikonomia: The art of household management; Hegemony: The Art of Command and Leadership |
Hellenistic
8 factor nodes; 118 child concept links.
| Factor Node | Tagline | Child Links | Representative Child Nodes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cleanthes | Unified vision of the divine cosmos | 13 | Pneuma (Divine Breath); Logos (Universal Reason); Tonos (Tension); Ekpyrosis (Cosmic Conflagration) |
| Chrysippus | Integrated total philosophical architecture | 16 | Lekton (the Expressible); Pneuma (Vital and organizing Breath); Logos Spermatikos (Seminal Reason); Oikeiôsis (Appropriation process) |
| Pyrrho of Elis | Quest for tranquility through suspension | 15 | Suspension of judgment (Epochē); State of imperturbability (Ataraxia); Non-assertion about the nature of things (Aphasia); Incomprehensibility of true nature (Acatalepsy) |
| Zeno of Citium | Rational wisdom and serene acceptance | 18 | Logos: Principle of Universal Reason; Physis: Nature as the Norm; Pneuma: The vital and active breath; Apatheia: The absence of irrational passions |
| Epicurus | Materialistic and hedonistic wisdom | 21 | Atom as the fundamental constituent of reality; Clinamen as the spontaneous deviation of the atom; Ataraxia as absence of disturbance of the soul; Aponia as the absence of bodily pain |
| Philo of Larissa | Probable and plausible knowledge | 11 | Moderate academic skepticism; Rejection of Akatalepsia; Pithanon (The Probable) as a guide; Perceptive Enargeia (The Evidence) |
| Aristippus of Cyrene | Philosophy of instant gratification | 12 | Cyrenaic Hedonism; Pleasure in motion (Kinesis); Phronesis (Practical Wisdom); Subjectivism of sensations (Pathè) |
| Carneades | Probabilism versus dogmatic certainty | 12 | Academic Skepticism; Suspension of Judgment (Epoché); Probabilism (Pithanon); Acatalepsy (Incomprehensibility) |
Roman & Late Antique
7 factor nodes; 106 child concept links.
| Factor Node | Tagline | Child Links | Representative Child Nodes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Marcus Aurelius | Ancient wisdom and acceptance | 11 | Hegemonikon (Guiding Principle); Sympatheia (Universal Interconnection); Praemeditatio Malorum (Premeditation of Evils); The duty to serve the common good |
| Epictetus | Inner mastery and daily serenity | 18 | Dichotomy of control; Prohairesis (Free will); Representations (Phantasiai); Apatheia (Absence of passions) |
| Porphyry | Logic, metaphysics and spirituality unified | 13 | Porphyry Tree (Hierarchical Classification); The Five Predicables (Quinque Voces); Emanation (Neoplatonism); The One (Supreme Principle) |
| Proclus | Hierarchical system of divine emanation | 15 | The One as the first principle; The Henads as Divine Intermediaries; The triadic structure (Monè-Proodos-Epistrophè); The Participation (Methexis) |
| Seneca | Rational wisdom and inner serenity | 16 | Virtue (Virtus); Reason (Ratio); Fortune (Fortuna); Premeditation of Evils (Praemeditatio Malorum) |
| Cicero | Ethical and Civic Synthesis | 19 | Humanitas (Culture and Moral Virtue); Honestum (Moral Good); Summum Bonum (The Supreme Good); Res Publica (The Public Thing) |
| Boethius | Divine harmony and human freedom | 14 | Fortune (Fortuna); The Supreme Good (Summum Bonum); Providence (Providentia); Fate (Fatum) |
Medieval & Islamic
12 factor nodes; 164 child concept links.
| Factor Node | Tagline | Child Links | Representative Child Nodes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Al-Farabi | Metaphysical and political synthesis | 17 | The Necessary Being (Wajib al-wujud); The Possible Being (Mumkin al-wujud); Distinction between Essence and Existence; The Active Intellect |
| Avicenna (Ibn Sina) | Integrated Metaphysical and Epistemological Architecture | 13 | Distinction Between Essence and Existence; To Be Necessary (Wajib al-wujud); The Flying Man Argument; Theory of the Soul (Nafs) |
| John Scotus Eriugena | Neoplatonic synthesis and Christianity | 19 | Nature: The Total Reality; First division of Nature: The uncreated Creator; Theophany; Procession and Return |
| Averroes (Ibn Rushd) | Universal reconciliation of knowledge | 12 | Harmony between faith and reason; Unit of Truth; Eternity of the world; Unity of the intellect |
| Al-Ghazali | Faith-reason reconciliation through mystical experience | 15 | Tawhid: Affirmation of Divine Oneness; Yaqin: Attainment of Certainty; Ma’rifa: Direct Mystical Knowledge; Qalb: Activation of the Spiritual Heart |
| Thomas Aquinas | Aristotelian-Christian unified philosophical system | 15 | Act and Power Duality; Hylomorphism; Analogy of Being; Natural Law |
| Maimonides | Theological rationalism and intellectual improvement | 14 | Incorporeal and One God; Negative Theology (Via Negativa); Creation ex nihilo; Prophecy as Intellectual Perfection |
| Roger Bacon | Scientific reform through unified experience | 13 | Experimental Science (Scientia Experimentalis); Four Causes of Error (Offendicula); Moral Philosophy as the Supreme Science; Optics as a Model Science |
| John Buridan | Rigorous logic and moral freedom | 6 | Nominalism (or Terminism); Theory of Consequences; Analysis of Fallacies; Theory of Impetus |
| Duns Scotus | Metaphysical architecture of individuality | 14 | Univocity of being; Haecceity (Thisness); Formal distinction on the part of the thing; Voluntarism |
| William of Ockham | Empiricist and individualist break | 13 | Affirmed nominalism; Principle of parsimony (Occam’s razor); Theory of supposition (Suppositio); Divine voluntarism |
| Meister Eckhart | Transcendent union through radical detachment | 13 | Deity (Gottheit): Unknowable Foundation of God; Ground of the Soul (Grund der Seele); Detachment (Abgeschiedenheit); The Birth of God in the Soul (Gottesgeburt) |
Renaissance
9 factor nodes; 111 child concept links.
| Factor Node | Tagline | Child Links | Representative Child Nodes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thomas More | Humanistic vision of an ideal society | 10 | Utopia; Christian humanism; Common property; Distinction between temporal and spiritual power |
| Nicolas of Cusa | Mystical synthesis of paradoxes | 9 | Learned Ignorance; The Coincidence of Opposites (Coincidentia Oppositorum); The ‘Possest’ as the definition of God; The universe is devoid of a center |
| Erasmus of Rotterdam | Spiritual reform through scholarship | 10 | Free Will; Folly (Ambivalent Concept); Philology; Peace (Irenicism) |
| Giovanni Pico della Mirandola | Transcendent unification of wisdoms | 12 | Dignity of Man (Dignitas Hominis); Philosophical Syncretism; Natural Magic (Magia Naturalis); Christian Kabbalah |
| Niccolò Machiavelli | Pragmatism of sovereign power | 12 | Virtue (Political skill and boldness); Fortuna (Weight of circumstances and chance); Necessity (Reason of State); Political Realism |
| Giordano Bruno | Pantheistic vision of the infinite universe | 15 | Infinite and centerless universe; Plurality of Worlds; God as the World Soul (Anima Mundi); Substance Monism |
| Tommaso Campanella | Theocratic utopia and total reform | 13 | Sensism as the foundation of knowledge; Primalities (Power, Wisdom, Love) as attributes of Being; Universal Natural Religion; Community of property and persons |
| Michel de Montaigne | Skeptical wisdom and existential tolerance | 16 | Essays as a genre and method; The Self as an Object of Study; Skepticism (Pyrrhonism); Cultural relativism |
| Francis Bacon | Empirical refoundation of knowledge | 14 | Baconian Inductive Method; The Idols of the Mind (Idola Mentis); Idols of the Tribe; Idols of the Cave |
Early Modern
7 factor nodes; 106 child concept links.
| Factor Node | Tagline | Child Links | Representative Child Nodes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Malebranche | Theory of absolute ontological dependence | 11 | Vision in God; Occasionalism; God as the only efficient cause; Virtue as the love of Order |
| Galileo | Empirical foundations of modernity | 12 | Copernican heliocentrism defended; Applied experimental method; Mathematization of nature; Sketch of the principle of inertia |
| Thomas Hobbes | Contractual and security absolutism | 13 | State of nature as war of all against all; Leviathan as absolute sovereign; Social contract as a pact of submission; Sovereignty as absolute power |
| Baruch Spinoza | Rationalist monism and naturalist ethics | 17 | Substance: One and only (God or Nature); Attribute; Mode; Endeavor (Conatus) |
| René Descartes | Rational dualist metaphysical architecture | 17 | I think, therefore I am; Methodical and Hyperbolic Doubt; Thinking Substance (Res Cogitans); Res Extensa (Extended Substance) |
| Leibniz | Rational architecture of universal harmony | 17 | The Monad; The Individual Substance; Perception and Appetition; The Small Perceptions |
| Blaise Pascal | Paradoxes of human existence | 19 | The Bet; Entertainment (Divertissement); The Three Orders (Body, Mind, Charity); The Heart |
Enlightenment
10 factor nodes; 152 child concept links.
| Factor Node | Tagline | Child Links | Representative Child Nodes |
|---|---|---|---|
| John Locke | Foundations of Modern Liberalism | 20 | Tabula Rasa (Blank Slate); Empiricism; Natural Rights; Property as a Natural Right |
| George Berkeley | Spiritual reality without matter | 12 | Immaterialism; To be is to be perceived (Esse est percipi); Spirit (Active ingredient); Idea (Passive object of perception) |
| Jean-Jacques Rousseau | Social contract and natural goodness | 17 | Self-love; Self-esteem; Perfectibility; General will |
| Denis Diderot | Reason, sensibility, and human progress | 21 | Encyclopedic Mind; Philosophical materialism; Determinism; Sensitivity as the foundation of consciousness |
| Montesquieu | Balance of powers and relativism | 11 | The Spirit of the Laws; Climate theory; Typology of Governments (Republic, Monarchy, Despotism); Political freedom |
| Voltaire | Militant and reformist rationalism | 12 | Religious tolerance; Deism (Belief in a ‘Grand Clockmaker’); Freedom of speech; Justice based on Natural Law |
| Adam Smith | Foundations of modern capitalism | 14 | Division of Labor; Invisible Hand; Free Market; Labor Theory of Value |
| David Hume | Critical philosophy of experience | 20 | Impression (Vivid Perception); Idea (Copy of an impression); Copy Principle; Habit or Custom |
| Condorcet | Democratic rationalization and universal emancipation | 11 | Indefinite perfectibility of the human species; Primacy of Reason; Application of social mathematics; Natural and civil equality |
| Condillac | Single-origin knowledge sensation | 14 | Sensation as the sole origin of knowledge; Animated statue; Analysis as a philosophical method; Language as a tool for analysis |
German Idealism
9 factor nodes; 116 child concept links.
| Factor Node | Tagline | Child Links | Representative Child Nodes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Emmanuel Kant | Transcendental architecture of knowledge | 16 | Phenomenon (world of appearances); Phenomenon (thing-in-itself); Synthetic a priori judgment; Categorical imperative |
| Mendelssohn | Rational synthesis of faith-modern citizenship | 12 | Haskalah (Jewish Enlightenment); Natural religion; Immortality of the soul; Aesthetics of sensations |
| Johann Gottlieb Fichte | Transcendental system of creative freedom | 13 | The Absolute Self (Das Ich); The Not-Self (Das Nicht-Ich); The Tathandlung (The Act-Deed); The Vocation of Man |
| Arthur Schopenhauer | Pessimistic metaphysics of the will-to-live | 12 | The Will to Live; The World as Representation; The Thing in Itself identified as the Will; The Platonic Idea |
| Jacques-Pierre Brissot | Liberal and universalist Republic | 12 | Abolitionism; Republicanism; Revolutionary universalism; Primacy of the law |
| Auguste Comte | Scientific Architecture of Social Progress | 11 | Positivism; Law of Three Stages; Sociology (or Social Physics); Hierarchical Classification of Sciences |
| Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel | Dialectic of the Absolute Spirit | 13 | Dialectical process (Thesis-Antithesis-Synthesis); Spirit (Geist) as the subject of reality; Struggle for recognition (Anerkennung); Movement of Aufhebung (Sublation) |
| Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling | Dynamic unit consciousness-nature revealed | 16 | Philosophy of Identity; Philosophy of Nature; The Absolute as Indifference; Intellectual Intuition |
| John Stuart Mill | Individual freedom and social progress | 11 | Qualitative Utilitarianism; Non-harm principle (Harm Principle); Individuality as an essential component of well-being; Inductive logic and empiricism |
19th Century
9 factor nodes; 137 child concept links.
| Factor Node | Tagline | Child Links | Representative Child Nodes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Karl Marx | Revolutionary transformation of society | 13 | Historical materialism; Class struggle; Alienation; Added value |
| Ludwig Feuerbach | Anthropological critique of the divine | 10 | Theological Projection; Religious Alienation; Generic Being (Gattungswesen); Sensualism (Sinnlichkeit) |
| Søren Kierkegaard | Passionate subjectivity and spiritual authenticity | 19 | Anxiety as the vertigo of freedom; Despair as the ‘sickness unto death’; The Leap of Faith; Subjectivity is the truth |
| Herbert Spencer | Naturalistic theory of social progress | 13 | Synthetic Philosophy; Law of Evolution; The Unknowable; Organic Analogy of Society |
| Henri Bergson | Creative dynamism versus rigid mechanism | 13 | Duration as real and lived time; Intuition as a Philosophical Method; The Élan vital as the creative impulse of life; Pure Memory as the Integral Preservation of the Past |
| Friedrich Nietzsche | Revolution of Western values | 16 | Concept of the Will to Power; Concept of the Superman (Übermensch); Concept of the Eternal Return; Concept of Amor Fati |
| Edmund Husserl | Foundations of Conscious Experience | 16 | Phenomenology; Epochē (Suspension of Judgment); Intentionality of consciousness; Noesis (Act of consciousness) |
| Emile Durkheim | Social cohesion and scientific method | 15 | Existence of a social fact; Mechanical solidarity; Organic solidarity; State of anomie |
| Max Weber | Rationalization and Western modernity | 22 | Social Action; Ideal type; Legitimate Domination (Herrschaft); Types of Domination (Legal-Rational, Traditional, Charismatic) |
20th Century
20 factor nodes; 293 child concept links.
| Factor Node | Tagline | Child Links | Representative Child Nodes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Walter Benjamin | Critical revelation of time | 11 | Aura (Unique presence of the artwork); Dialectical Image; Shock Experience (Fragmentation of Modern Perception); The Flâneur (Observer of Urban Modernity) |
| Georg Simmel | Social dynamics and modern tensions | 18 | Forms of sociation; The Stranger; The Metropolis and Mental Life; The Dyad and the Triad |
| Ludwig Wittgenstein | Logical analysis and linguistic usage | 14 | Theory of the language image; Logical atomism; Distinction between Saying and Showing; Language games |
| Theodor W. Adorno | Resistance to totalizing domination | 11 | Cultural Industry; Negative Dialectics; Instrumental reason; Identifying thought |
| Sigmund Freud | Exploring the human unconscious | 16 | Existence of the unconscious; Psychic structure: Id, Ego, Superego; Oedipus complex; Drive Theory (Eros and Thanatos) |
| Max Horkheimer | Intellectual revolution against systemic oppression | 11 | Critical Theory; Dialectic of Enlightenment; Mastery of Nature; Critique of Capitalist Society |
| Karl Jaspers | Authentic elucidation of existence | 13 | The Encompassing (Das Umgreifende); Existence; Transcendence; Limit situations (Grenzsituationen) |
| Jean-Paul Sartre | Freedom, responsibility, and the human condition | 18 | The Being-in-itself; The Being-for-itself; The Being-for-Others; The Void |
| Martin Heidegger | Radical questioning of existence | 20 | Dasein (Being-there); Being-in-the-world; Being-toward-death; Care (Sorge) |
| Simone de Beauvoir | Freedom, situation and social construction | 13 | The woman defined as the absolute Other; Human freedom conditioned by the situation; Freedom as a project to be conquered; One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman |
| Maurice Merleau-Ponty | Philosophy of the lived body | 14 | The own body; Perception as pre-reflective engagement; The flesh of the world; Chiasmus / Interlacing |
| Michel Foucault | Critical analysis of social mechanisms | 15 | Archaeology of Knowledge; Genealogy of Power; Power-Knowledge; Biopower |
| Jacques Lacan | Linguistic refoundation of the unconscious | 19 | The Mirror Stage; The Unconscious Structured like a Language; The primacy of the Signifier; The Name-of-the-Father |
| Paul Ricoeur | Narrative understanding of human existence | 12 | Narrative identity; Hermeneutic arc; Living metaphor; Capable man |
| Claude Lévi-Strauss | Universal structures of the human mind | 12 | Underlying structure identified; Binary Oppositions; Mytheme as the constitutive unit of myth; Myth conceived as intellectual bricolage |
| Jacques Derrida | Radical questioning | 15 | Deconstruction; Difference (Différance); Logocentrism; Metaphysics of Presence |
| Emmanuel Levinas | Infinite responsibility towards others | 12 | Radical otherness of the Other; Epiphany of the Face; Opposition between the Same and the Other; Trace of the Infinite (Illeity) |
| Jürgen Habermas | Communicational refoundation of democracy | 13 | Public space as a sphere for opinion formation; Communicative action oriented towards mutual understanding; Lifeworld (Lebenswelt); System as a sphere of strategic action |
| Gilles Deleuze | Processual ontology and creative multiplicities | 17 | The Rhizome; The Body without Organs (BwO); The Desiring Machine; Deterritorialization |
| Felix Guattari | Molecular revolution and subversive creation | 19 | Schizoanalysis as a critique of psychoanalysis; Desiring machine as a system of productive connections; Body without Organs (BwO); Deterritorialization and Reterritorialization |