Comparative mythology: Information from Answers.com

To study comparative mythology is to study myth as a philological, religious, psychological, or philosophical phenomenon, usually by way by way of explicit or implicit comparisons of mythologies or cultural expressions of myth. Jaan Puhvel, Georges Dumézil, J. P. Mallory, and others have made use of the comparative method primarily in the context of Indo-European language, archeology, religion, and anthropology. Mircea Eliade, Carl Jung, and Joseph Campbell are among the best known of mythologists who approach myth comparatively. For them the emphasis falls on the concept of archetypes—the universal psychic tendencies that result in such ubiquitous themes in world mythology as the ex nihilo creation, the descent to the underworld, the concept of deity, and the hero quest. At the level of the archetypes, revealed by comparison, myths may be said to be the dreams of humanity, products of what Jung called the “collective unconscious.” At the very least, the archetypal images become the basis for a kind of universal symbolic language through which we become exposed to new understandings.

It might be said that for the comparatist, the truth of a story such as the resurrection of Jesus becomes evident only when it is compared with other stories of resurrection, such as those of Osiris or Persephone, and in that comparison one is freed from the restrictions of the merely local or the merely sectarian. According to this view, the real importance of the resurrection myth, whether or not it is based in some historical fact, lies in resurrection and not in the individuals who are resurrected. Myths and symbols suggest truths to the intellect and the emotions but are not in themselves truth. The point is that when we discover through comparison that resurrection and virgin birth, for instance, are not the private property of Christians or that covenants with God are not peculiar to Jews, we are faced with something that transcends the literal interpretations of so many so-called fundamentalists and are freed to appreciate a human truth that is larger than our particular cultural truth. Instead of focusing on the historicity and literal truth of all aspects of Jesus' life, for instance, we can finally consider the reality of resurrection and virgin birth. As Zen masters often say, “The first step of Zen is to kill the Buddha.”

Without direction, the comparative approach is one that occurs to the strict “believer,” if at all, usually in the context of a confrontation with a significant modern dilemma. The dilemma in question is particularly acute for a religion that stresses its exclusivity, that preaches the literal and historical rather than the symbolic truth of its myths, that presents itself as the only earthly embodiment of eternal truth, as the “way.” The dilemma grows out of the conflict between the scientific-rationalist training that is the basis for our everyday experience of the world and the mythic and ritualistic experience that is central to any given religious tradition. From a very early age the individual learns the importance of being rational. Yet the very essence of myth and ritual is antirational. Life in our temples and rituals, in the physical and psychological space we designate as temporarily or permanently holy, is radically different from life in the “real” world. In ritual or liturgical space we deal with the mystery behind life and we act uncharacteristically— we sing what we could speak, we wear costumes, we assume unusual postures, we imitate the actions of mythic ancestors—and we celebrate events that are clearly impossible according to the laws of reason. At some level the young believer is aware of the discrepancy, and the discrepancy must inevitably be disturbing, especially if no vehicle is provided for the assimilation of the myth and ritual into the world of rational experience. The student learns that 1 and 1 always equal 2, that an object in a vacuum always accelerates at a particular speed, that reproduction depends on a particular coincidence of events, and that death is the negation of a particular life, but when that same student enters the religious space of his or her tradition and is told that Yahweh spoke to Moses from a burning bush, that Mary became pregnant with Jesus without “knowing” a man, or that spirits are alive and well in trees, the student's psyche has to adjust in some way to this contradictory set of messages or risk a kind of social schizophrenia.

One way to adjust is simply to deny the validity of the religious beliefs or at least to de-mythologize and de-ritualize them. Ritual postures and actions can be eschewed as unnecessary absurdities and the wisdom of prophets and culture heroes can take precedence over any supposedly miraculous events of the distant past or ancient claims to godhead. Most religions include “reformist” wings that represent this point of view. Another approach is to accept the sacred stories literally, with or without the assistance of complex ritual, and to become what is called a fundamentalist. The phenomenon of fundamentalism has always been with us.

Still another answer to the problem is the comparative approach. To make this comparative leap out of religious or mythic exclusivity is not to deny the validity of one's own sacred stories, but rather to see their universality as truthful metaphors and to relate them to our current level of knowledge and experience. This kind of ecumenism does not require the giving up of the rituals or the sacred space of one's culture or religion. It is surely unrealistic, in any case, to attempt to create a world religion, as one does not worship archetypes but cultural embodiments of archetypes. In fact, the universal language of myth and archetype requires the elements of particular cultural experience in order to be realized, just as dreams require the local experience of individuals. Sectarian myths and rituals, as identifying cultural actions, are important for the establishment of cultural identity and a state of awe without which there is little chance for the knowledge contained in the mythic sphere to affect our lives. In ritual that “works,” the barriers of rationalism are at least momentarily broken down, allowing the emotional experience of the reality and truth of divine incarnation, godly covenants, or death and rebirth embodied in but by no means restricted to our own cultural myths.

The fact that Christian ritual celebrates the incarnation of the Unknown in Jesus, while Hindu ritual celebrates it very differently but apparently at least as effectively in Shiva, Vishnu, or Devi, is a mystery that becomes acceptable and just according to what might be called “God logic” as opposed to human logic. More important is the fact that all cultures are joined in their many different ways in the great “religious” and mythological process of examining the Unknown. Together we are participating in the defining human act of making creation conscious of itself, the act that differentiates us from other species and is perhaps our reason for being. To put it another way, if the emergence myth defines and energizes the Hopi as Hopi, the very existence of myth and ritual defines us all as a species.

Various myths

Mythology
Armenian · Celtic Christian · Chinese Egyptian · Greek Hindu · Islamic Japanese · Jewish Maya · Mesopotamian Norse · Roman Slavic
See also
Religion and mythology Comparative religion Symbolism · Theology
List of mythologies
v d e

Comparative mythology is the comparison of myths from different cultures in an attempt to identify shared themes and characteristics.^[1] Comparative mythology has served a variety of academic purposes. For example, scholars have used the relationships between different myths to trace the development of religions and cultures, to propose common origins for myths from different cultures, and to support various psychological theories.

Comparativists versus particularists

The anthropologist C. Scott Littleton defines comparative mythology as "the systematic comparison of myths and mythic themes drawn from a wide variety of cultures".^[1] By comparing different cultures' mythologies, scholars try to identify underlying similarities and/or to reconstruct a "protomythology" from which those mythologies developed.^[1] To an extent, all theories about mythology follow a comparative approach: as the scholar of religion Robert Segal notes, "by definition, all theorists [of myth] seek similarities among myths".^[2] However, scholars of mythology can be roughly divided into particularists, who emphasize the differences between myths, and comparativists, who emphasize the similarities. Particularists tend to "maintain that the similarities deciphered by comparativists are vague and superficial".^[3]

Comparative approaches to mythology held great popularity among eighteenth- and nineteenth-century scholars. Many of these scholars believed that all myths showed signs of having evolved from a single myth or mythical theme.^[4] For example, the nineteenth-century philologist Friedrich Max Müller led a school of thought which interpreted nearly all myths as poetic descriptions of the sun's behavior. According to this theory, these poetic descriptions had become distorted over time into seemingly diverse stories about gods and heroes.^[4] However, modern-day scholars lean more toward particularism, feeling suspicious of broad statements about myths.^[5] One exception to this trend is Joseph Campbell's theory of the "monomyth", which is discussed below.

Approaches to comparative mythology

Comparative mythologists come from various fields, including folklore, anthropology, history, linguistics, and religious studies, and they have used a variety of methods to compare myths. These are some important approaches to comparative mythology.

Linguistic

Some scholars look at the linguistic relationships between the myths of different cultures—for example, the similarities between the names of gods in different cultures. One particularly successful example of this approach is the study of Indo-European mythology. Scholars have found striking similarities between the mythological and religious terms used in different cultures of Europe and India. For example, the Greek sky-god Zeus Pater, the Roman sky-god Jupiter, and the Indian (Vedic) sky-god Dyauṣ Pitṛ have similar names.

This suggests that the Greeks, Romans, and Indians originated from a common ancestral culture, and that the names Zeus, Jupiter, and Dyaus evolved from an older name, *Dyēus ph₂ter, which referred to the sky-god, or to get a perfect English cognate, a day-father, in a Proto-Indo-European religion.^[6]

Structural

Some scholars look for underlying structures shared by different myths. The folklorist Vladimir Propp proposed that many Russian fairy tales have a common plot structure, in which certain events happen in a predictable order.^[7] In contrast, the anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss examined the structure of myths in terms of the abstract relationships between its elements, rather than their order in the plot. In particular, Lévi-Strauss believed that the elements of a myth could be organized into binary oppositions (raw vs. cooked, nature vs. culture, etc.). He thought that myth's purpose was to "mediate" these oppositions, thereby resolving basic tensions or contradictions found in human life or culture.^[8]

Psychological

Some scholars propose that myths from different cultures reveal the same, or similar, psychological forces at work in those cultures. Some Freudian thinkers have identified stories similar to the Greek story of Oedipus in many different cultures. They argue that these stories reflect the different expressions of the Oedipus complex in those cultures.^[9] Likewise, Jungians have identified images, themes, and patterns that appear in the myths of many different cultures. They believe that these similarities result from archetypes present in the unconscious levels of every person's mind.^[10]

Some mythological parallels

Comparative mythology has uncovered a number of parallels between the myths of different cultures, including some very widespread recurring themes and plot elements. Here are some examples.

The Flood

Main article: Flood myth

Cultures around the world tell stories about a great flood.^[11] In many cases, the flood leaves only one survivor or group of survivors. For example, both the Hebrew Bible and the Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh tell of a global flood that wiped out humanity and of a man who saved the Earth's species by taking them aboard a boat.^[12] Similar stories of a single flood survivor appear in Hindu mythology,^[13] Aztec mythology,^[14] in the Greek myth of Deucalion as well as in the Quran.

The creative sacrifice

Many cultures have stories about divine figures whose death creates an essential part of reality.^[15]^[16] These myths seem especially common among cultures that grow crops, particularly tubers.^[17] One such myth from New Guinea tells of a miraculously-conceived girl named Hainuwele, whose murdered corpse sprouts into the people's staple food crops.^[18] The Chinese myth of Pangu,^[19] the Vedic myth of Purusha,^[20] and the Norse myth of Ymir all tell of a cosmic giant who is killed to create the world.^[15] Similar is the Christian myth of Christ, whose death refashions the world.

The dying god

Main article: Life-death-rebirth deity

Many myths feature a god who dies and often returns to life.^[21] Such myths are particularly common in Near Eastern mythologies.^[22] The anthropologist Sir James Frazer compared these "dying god" myths in his multi-volume work The Golden Bough. The Egyptian god Osiris and the Mesopotamian god Tammuz are examples of the "dying god", while the Greek myths of Adonis (though a mortal) has often been compared to Osiris and the myth of Dionysos also features death and rebirth.^[23] Some scholars have noted similarities between polytheistic stories of "dying gods" and the Christian story of Jesus of Nazareth.^[24] Awareness of these similarities goes back to the early Christian era, when the church father Justin Martyr discussed them.^[25]

The structure of hero stories

A number of scholars have suggested that hero stories from various cultures have the same underlying structure. Otto Rank, who began his career as a follower of Sigmund Freud, argued that the stories of heroes' births have a common Oedipal structure.^[26] Other scholars, including Lord Raglan and, more recently, Joseph Campbell, have also suggested that hero stories share a common structure.^[27] Some comparative mythologists look for similarities only among hero stories within a specific geographical or ethnic range. For example, the Austrian scholar Johann Georg van Hahn tried to identify a common structure underlying "Aryan" hero stories.^[28] Others, such as Campbell, propose theories about hero stories in general. According to Campbell's "monomyth" theory, hero stories from around the world share a common plot structure.^[29] Because of its extremely comparative nature, the monomyth theory is currently out of favor with the mainstream study of mythology.^[5]

Axis mundi

Main article: Axis mundi

Many mythologies mention a place that sits at the center of the world and acts as a point of contact between different levels of the universe.^[30] This "axis mundi" is often marked by a sacred tree or other mythical object. For example, many myths describe a great tree or pillar joining heaven, earth, and the underworld.^[31] Vedic India, ancient China, and the ancient Germans all had myths featuring a "Cosmic Tree" whose branches reach heaven and whose roots reach hell.^[32]

See also: Yggdrasil, Omphalos, and Mount Meru

Titanomachy

Many cultures have a creation myth in which a group of younger, more civilized gods conquer and/or struggle against a group of older gods who represent the forces of chaos. In the Greek myth of the Titanomachy, the Olympian gods defeat the Titans, an older and more primitive divine race, and establish cosmic order.^[33]^[34] In Hindu mythology, the devas (gods) battle the asuras (demons).^[34] And the Celtic gods of life and light struggle against the Fomorians, ancient gods of death and darkness.^[34]

This myth of the gods conquering demons - and order conquering chaos - is especially common in Indo-European mythologies. Some scholars suggest that the myth reflects the ancient Indo-Europeans' conquest of native peoples during their expansion over Europe and India.^[35]^[36]

However, non-Indo-European cultures also have such myths. For example, many Near Eastern mythologies include a "combat myth" in which a good god battles an evil or chaotic demon.^[37] An example is the Babylonian Enuma Elish.^[38]

See also: Titanomachy, Theomachy, and Theogony

The deus otiosus

Many cultures believe in a celestial Supreme Being who has cut off contact with humanity. Historian Mircea Eliade calls this Supreme Being a deus otiosus (an "idle god"),^[39] although this term is also used more broadly, to refer to any god who doesn't interact regularly with humans. In many myths, the Supreme Being withdraws into the heavens after the creation of the world.^[40] Baluba mythology features such a story, in which the supreme God withdraws from the earth, leaving man to search for him.^[41] Similarly, the mythology of the Hereros tells of a Sky God who has abandoned mankind to lesser divinities.^[42] In the mythologies of highly complex cultures, the Supreme Being tends to disappear completely, replaced by a strongly polytheistic belief system.^[43]

Founding myths

Main article: Founding myth

Many cultures have myths describing the origin of their customs, rituals, and identity. In fact, ancient and traditional societies have often justified their customs by claiming that their gods or mythical heroes established those customs.^[44]^[45] For example, according to the myths of the Australian Karadjeri, the mythical Bagadjimbiri brothers established all of the Karadjeri's customs, including the position in which they stand while urinating.^[46]

References

^ ^a ^b ^c Littleton, p. 32
^ Segal, "The Romantic Appeal of Joseph Campbell"
^ Segal, Theorizing About Myth, p. 148
^ ^a ^b Leonard
^ ^a ^b Northup, p. 8
^ Watkins 47–48
^ Propp, passim
^ Lévi-Strauss, p. 224
^ Johnson and Price-Williams, passim
^ Graves, p. 251
^ Segal, untitled, p. 88
^ Woolley, p. 52
^ Dimmitt and van Buitenen, pp. 71–74
^ Urton, p. 36
^ ^a ^b Eliade, Cosmos and History, p. 20
^ Eliade, Myth and Reality, pp. 99–100
^ Eliade, Myth and Reality, p. 100
^ Eliade, Myth and Reality, pp. 104–5
^ Railsback, passim
^ Rig Veda 10:90
^ Frankfort, passim; Tortchinov, passim
^ Campbell, The Masks of God, p. 44
^ Frankfort, p. 141
^ Robertson, passim
^ Justin Martyr: "Having heard it proclaimed through the prophets that the Christ was to come [...] [the demons] put forward many to be called sons of Jupiter, under the impression that they would be able to produce in men the idea that the things which were said with regard to Christ were mere marvellous tales, like the things which were said by the poets."
^ Taylor, p. 117
^ Taylor, p. 118–19
^ Segal, Hero Myths, p. 12
^ Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, passim
^ Eliade, Images and Symbols, p. 40
^ Eliade, Shamanism, p. 259–260
^ Eliade, Images and Symbols, p. 44
^ Hesiod, especially pp. 64–87
^ ^a ^b ^c Squire, p. 47
^ Campbell, The Masks of God, pp. 21–22
^ Squire, pp. 69–70
^ McGinn, p. 23
^ McGinn, pp. 23–24
^ Eliade, Myth and Reality, p. 93
^ Eliade, Myth and Reality, p. 93–98
^ Leslau, passim
^ Eliade, Myth and Reality, p. 94
^ Eliade, Myths, Dreams and Mysteries, p. 138
^ Eliade, Cosmos and History, pp. 21–34
^ Eliade, Myth and Reality, pp. 6–8
^ Eliade, Myth and Reality, p. 8

Sources

Campbell, Joseph
- The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1972.
- The Masks of God: Occidental Mythology. NY: Penguin Compass, 1991.
Dimmitt, Cornelia, and J. van Buitenen, eds. and trans. Classical Hindu Mythology. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1978.
Eliade, Mircea
- Cosmos and History: The Myth of the Eternal Return. NY: Harper & Row, 1959.
- Images and Symbols. Trans. Philip Mairet. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1991.
- Myth and Reality. Trans. Willard Trask. NY: Harper & Row, 1963.
- Myths, Dreams and Mysteries. Trans. Philip Mairet. NY: Harper & Row, 1967.
- Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy. Princeton University Press: Princeton, 2004.
Frankfort, Henri. "The Dying God". Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 21.3-4(1958): 141-51.
Graves, Robert. "Jungian Mythology". The Hudson Review 5.2(1952): 245-57.
Hesiod. Works and Days and Theogony. Trans. Stanley Lombardo. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, 1993.
Johnson, Allen, and Douglass Price-Williams. Oedipus Ubiquitous: The Family Complex in World Literature. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1996.
Justin Martyr. The First Apology. Trans. Marcus Dods and George Reith. Church Fathers. New Advent. 23 June 2008 newadvent.org
Leonard, Scott. "The History of Mythology: Part I". Youngstown State University. 22 June 2008 as.ysu.edu
Leslau, Charlotte and Wolf Leslau. "The Creation of the World A Myth of Uganda". Copyediting-L. 2008. Indiana University. 21 June 2008 copyediting-1.info
Lévi-Strauss, Claude. Structural Anthropology. Trans. Claire Jacobson. New York: Basic Books, 1963.
Littleton, C. The New Comparative Mythology: An Anthropological Assessment of the Theories of Georges Dumezil. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1973.
McGinn, Bernard. Antichrist: Two Thousand Years of the Human Fascination with Evil. NY: HarperCollins, 1994.
Northup, Lesley. "Myth-Placed Priorities: Religion and the Study of Myth". Religious Studies Review 32.1(2006): 5-10.
Propp, Vladimir. The Morphology of the Folktale.Trans. Laurence Scott. Texas: University of Texas Press, 1968.
Railsback, Bruce. "Pan Gu and Nü Wa". Creation Stories from around the World. July 2000. University of Georgia. 21 June 2008 gly.uga.edu
Robertson, John. Pagan Christs. London: Watts & Co., 1911.
Segal, Robert A.
- Hero Myths: A Reader. Blackwell Publishing, 2000.
- Theorizing About Myth. Massachusetts: University of Massachusetts Press, 1999.
- "The Romantic Appeal of Joseph Campbell". Religion Online. 22 June 2008 religion-online.org
- Untitled book review. History of Religions 32.1(1992): 88-90.
Taylor, Archer. "The Biographical Pattern in Traditional Narrative". Journal of the Folklore Institute 1.1-2(1964): 114-29.
Tortchinov, Evgueni. "Cybele, Attis, and the Mysteries of the 'Suffering Gods': A Transpersonalistic Interpretation". The International Journal of Transpersonal Studies 17.2(1998): 149-59.
Urton, Gary. Inca Myths: The Legendary Past. Texas: University of Texas Press, 1999.
Watkins, Calvert. "Indo-European and Indo-Europeans". The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language. 4th ed. 2000. Bartleby.com. 21 June 2008 bartleby.com
Woolley, Leonard. "The Flood". The South African Archaeological Bulletin 8.30(1953): 52-54.

Selected bibliography

Arvidsson, Stefan, Aryan Idols. Indo-European Mythology as Science and Ideology. 2006. University of Chicago Press.
Clifton, Dan Salahuddin, The Myth Of The Western Magical Tradition. 1998. C&GCHE
Dickson, K. "Bibliography-in-Progress of Texts on Myths & Comparative Mythology". 11/12/09. Purdue University. 17 December 2009 web.ics.purdue.edu
Doniger, Wendy, The Implied Spider: Politics and Theology in Myth. 1998. New York: Columbia University Press [An introduction to comparative mythology]
Doniger, Wendy, Splitting the Difference: Gender and Myth in Ancient Greece and India (Jordan Lectures in Comparative Religion, 1996-1997: School of Oriental and African Studies University of London). 1999. Chicago: University of Chicago Press
Dumezil, Georges The Stakes of the Warrior. 1983. Berkeley: University of California Press
Dumezil, Georges The Plight of a Sorcerer. 1986. Berkeley: University of California Press
Dumezil, Georges Mitra-Varuna: An Essay on Two Indo-European Representations of Sovereignty. 1988. New York:Zone Books
Friedrich, Paul, The Meaning of Aphrodite. 1978. Chicago: University of Chicago Press
Friedrich, Paul, Proto-Indo-European Trees: The Arboreal System of a Prehistoric People. 1970. Chicago: University of Chicago Press
Jamison, Stephanie The Ravenous Hyenas and the Wounded Sun: Myth and Ritual in Ancient India . 1991. Ithaca: Cornell University Press
Jamison, Stephanie, Sacrificed Wife / Sacrificer's Wife: Women, Ritual and Hospitality in Ancient India. 1996. New York: Oxford University Press
Lévi-Strauss, Claude Myth and Meaning. 1995. New York: Schocken Books
Lévi-Strauss, Claude, The Raw and the Cooked (Mythologiques Volume One). 1990. Chicago: University of Chicago Press
Lévi-Strauss, Claude, From Honey to Ashes (Mythologiques Volume Two). 1973. New York: Harper and Row
Lévi-Strauss, Claude, The Origin of Table-Manners (Mythologiques Volume Three). 1978. New York: Harper and Row
Lévi-Strauss, Claude The Naked Man (Mythologiques Volume Four). 1990. Chicago: University of Chicago Press
Lincoln, Bruce Theorizing Myth: Narrative, Ideology, and Scholarship. 1999. University of Chicago Press.
Patton, Laurie; Doniger, Wendy (eds.), Myth and Method (Studies in Religion and Culture). 1996. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia
Puhvel, Jaan, Comparative Mythology. 1987. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press
White, David Gordon, Doniger, Wendy, Myths of the Dog-Man. 1991. Chicago: University of Chicago Press
Wise, R. Todd, A Neocomparative Examination of the Orpheus Myth As Found in the Native American and European Traditions, 1998. UMI.

Philosophy

Branches

Metaphysics Epistemology Logic Ethics Aesthetics

Philosophy of	Action Art Being Biology Business Chemistry Computer science Culture Dialogue Education Economics Engineering Environment Film Futility Geography Information Healthcare History Human nature Humor Language Law Literature Mathematics Mind Music Pain Philosophy Physics Politics Psychology Religion Hermeneutics Science Sexuality Social science Technology War

Schools of
thought

By historical era	Ancient Western Medieval Renaissance Modern Contemporary

Ancient	Chinese Agriculturalism Confucianism Legalism Logicians Mohism Chinese naturalism Neotaoism Taoism Yangism Zen Greek & Greco-Roman Aristotelianism Cynicism Epicureanism Neoplatonism Peripatetic Platonism Presocratic Pythagoreanism Sophism Stoicism Indian Buddhist Cārvāka Hindu Jain Persian Mazdakism Zoroastrianism Zurvanism

9th–16th centuries	Christian Europe Scholasticism Renaissance humanism Thomism East Asian Korean Confucianism Rigaku Neo-Confucianism Islamic Averroism Avicennism Persian Illuminationism Kalam Sufi Jewish Judeo-Islamic

17th–21st centuries	Absolute idealism Anarchism Australian realism Behaviorism Cartesianism Classical liberalism Deconstruction Dialectical materialism Epiphenomenalism Egoism Existentialism Feminist Functionalism Hegelianism Kantianism Kyoto school Legal positivism Logical positivism Marxism Mitogaku Modernism Neo-Kantianism New Confucianism New Philosophers Ordinary language Particularism Phenomenology Postmodernism Post-structuralism Pragmatism Reformed epistemology Structuralism Transcendentalism Utilitarianism more...

Positions

Certainty
Ethics
Free will
Metaphysics
- Atomism
- Dualism
- Monism
- Naturalism
Epistemology
Naturalism
Normativity
Ontology
- Action
- Event
- Process
Reality

By region

Lists

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

Donate to Wikimedia

Comparative mythology