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Definition
Social Contract
The social contract is an idea in philosophy that at some real or hypothetical point in the past, humans left the state of nature to join together and form societies by mutually agreeing which rights they would enjoy and how they would be...
Definition
State of Nature
The state of nature is an idea which became especially popular with certain philosophers during the Enlightenment, notably Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679), John Locke (1632-1704), and Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778). It refers to a state of existence...
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Skadi & Njord
Artist's depiction of the Norse goddess Skadi and her husband, the god Njord, on their way to Njord's home of Nóatún. Although Skadi enjoys the mountains where she hunts and skis and Njord likes his dark, damp cave by the water, they try...
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Apollo with the Hours
Apollo with the Hours, oil on canvas by Georg Friedrich Kersting (1785–1847), c. 1822.
Güstrow City Museum.
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George I of Great Britain by Lafontaine
A 1720s painting of George I of Great Britain (r. 1714-1727) by Georg Wilhelm Lafontaine. (Royal Collection, UK)
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Yggdrasil
The World Tree Yggdrasil from Norse Mythology, as envisioned and depicted by Friedrich Wilhelm Heine in 1886.
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Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Portrait
A c. 1700 portrait of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716), the German polymath. Painted by Johann Friedrich Wentzel (1670–1729).
Article
Discovery of Troy
In his epic poems, the Iliad and the Odyssey, the Greek poet Homer (c. 750 BCE) told the story of the Trojan War, a ten-year siege of the city of Troy by an alliance of Greek city-states. Troy was also known by its Latinised name of Ilium...
Article
A Praise Poem of Shulgi
A Praise Poem of Shulgi (c. 2020-2000 BCE) is an ancient Sumerian document celebrating the famous run of 200 miles (321.8 km) in one day made by the king Shulgi of Ur (r. 2029-1982 BCE) to distinguish his reign by officiating at the religious...
Article
Gorgias' On Nature (On the Non-Existent)
Gorgias of Leontini (l. c. 427 BCE) was a famous Greek Sophist who claimed that nothing exists and, even if it does, its nature cannot be understood and, even if it could be, one is not able to communicate that understanding to another person...