Biosophy

Biosophy, meaning wisdom of life or worldly wisdom, is a term probably first used by Ignaz Paul Vitalis Troxler, a Swiss philosopher, in 1806. It was later used by other philosophers like

Related Topics:
Worldly wisdom - Ignaz Paul Vitalis Troxler

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Peter Wessel Zapffe (1899-1990), who used biology as the foundation of his philosophy. Zapffe first set out his ideas in Den sidste Messias (en. The Last Messiah) (1933); later a more systematic defence was given in his philosophical treatise Om det tragiske (en. On the tragic) (1941).

Related Topics:
Peter Wessel Zapffe - Biology - Philosophy - Den sidste Messias - The Last Messiah - Om det tragiske - On the tragic

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Zapffe's arguments have been understood in relation to philosophical pessimism and existentialism; he is also sometimes regarded as a nihilist.

Related Topics:
Philosophical pessimism - Existentialism - Nihilist

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The Biosophy Program was presented on the Internet by Anna Öhman & Svenolov Lindgren in January 1998 http://www.geocities.com/biosophy/. They noted that "the term biosophy was previously used by Zapffe (1941) in a literary context for the analysis of human social life based on philosophy of existence and biological facts. Such a narrow circumscription of biosophy is in our opinion no obstacle to widen the definition to encompass all systematic thinking on biological issues."

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The Biosophy Program was intended to circumscribe and systemize biological studies in a philosophical framework to support teaching at courses on philosophy and courses on biology. The biosophical thinking is defined by Öhman & Lindgren in five philosophical fields and discriminated from Næss? ecosophy.

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