primum mobile

primum mobile (plural primum mobiles or prima mobilia)

primum mobiles (plural)
prima mobilia (plural)

From Middle English primum mobile (“outermost celestial sphere causing other spheres to move”), borrowed from Medieval Latin prīmum mōbile (literally “first mover”), a calque of Arabic مُحَرِّك أَوَّل (muḥarrik ʔawwal, “first mover”), which is itself a calque of Ancient Greek τὸ πρῶτον κινῆσαν (tò prôton kinêsan, “prime mover”).

ref

From Petrus Apianus, Gemma Frisius (1539) Petri Apiani cosmographia, per Gemmam Phrysium, apud Louanienses medicum ac mathematicum insignem, restituta: additis de adem re ipsius Gemmae Phry. libellis, ut sequens pagina docet, Antwerp: In pingui gallina Arnoldo Berckma[n]no [Arnold Birckmann], →OCLC.

calque

مُحَرِّك أَوَّل

der

τὸ πρῶτον κινῆσαν

Have we got among our primum mobiles the force of such elastic vapours as be generated for the purpose out of nonelastic substances, and are not incondensible? A good magazine of vitr[iolic] acid and powder'd marble would not only save the expence of air in feeding fire, but generate heat.

1779 January 20–22, Jeremy Bentham, “302: To Samuel Bentham: 20–22 January 1779 (Aet 30)”, in Timothy L[auro] S[quire] Sprigge, editor, The Correspondence of Jeremy Bentham (The Collected Works of Jeremy Bentham), volumes 2 (1777–80), London: UCL Press, published 2017, →DOI, →ISBN, pages 219–220:

[M]otion is transferred and modified; by none of them produced:—in all of them motion finds a channel; in none of them [...] a source. [...] [W]hat are the several sources of motion, and what are the corresponding prime movers, or primum mobiles?

1815, [Jeremy Bentham], “Table 1. I.—Notes to the Advantages.”, in Chrestomathia: Being a Collection of Papers, Explanatory of the Design of an Institution, Proposed to be Set on Foot, under the Name of the Chrestomathic Day School, or Chrestomathic School, […], London: Printed for Messrs. Payne and Foss, […], and J. Ridgway, […]; by J. M‘Creery, […], →OCLC, pages 24–25:

The Universal Goddess, the World Mother, is among the oldest, "longest-winded," of the great supporting divinities known to the myths of the world. [...] For just because she is the Great Mother, so was she there before anything else. She is the primum mobile, the first beginning, the material matrix out of which all came forth.

1956, Heinrich Zimmer, “On the Siprā Shore”, in Joseph Campbell, editor, The King and the Corpse: Tales of the Soul’s Conquest of Evil (Bollingen Series; XI), 2nd edition, Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, published 1993 (10th printing), →ISBN, part II (Four Episodes from the Romance of the Goddess), page 311:

(chiefly philosophy, theology) The prime mover or first cause (“an initial cause from which all other causes and effects follow”).

起因

prime mover or first cause — see also prime mover


blik

Let us call that in which we differ from this lunatic, our respective bliks. He has an insane blik about dons; we have a sane one. It is important to realize that we have a sane one, not no blik at all; for there must be two sides to any argument — if he has a wrong blik, then those who are right about dons must have a right one.

1950, R. M. Hare, Theology and Falsification:

(philosophy) An unfalsifiable belief underpinning a worldview.


interstitium

From Latin interstitium, from inter (“between”) + sistō (“to stand, place”).

(philosophy) A state between systems or spaces.


love-hate

The adjective is a calque of German Liebe-Hass (now more commonly Hassliebe (“love-hate relationship”)), from Liebe (“love; relationship of love”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *lewbʰ- (“to love”)) + Hass (“hate; hatred”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *keh₂d- (“anger; hatred”)).
The verb is derived from the adjective.

The krogan have had a love-hate relationship with varren for millennia, alternately fighting them for territory and embracing them as treasured companions.

2008, BioWare, Mass Effect, Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: Varren Codex entry:

I loathe reviews in which a critic claims to have love-hate feelings about a work of art. It’s a way of having no opinion at all. But I love and hate “Taipei.”

2013 June 4, Dwight Garner, “A Literary Mind, Under the Spell of Drugs and a MacBook”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

Still, the movie [Ralph Breaks the Internet] manages to locate some gentle satire in our culture's love-hate relationship with the internet. At one point, Ralph must attain a certain level of viral popularity, assisted by the BuzzFeed-esque content guru Yesss (Taraji P. Henson), and the movie is savvy about how accidental spikes in fame can turn into cynical algorithm manipulation.

2018 November 14, Jesse Hassenger, “Disney Goes Viral with an Ambitious, Overstuffed Wreck-It Ralph Sequel”, in The A.V. Club, archived from the original on 2019-11-21:

(originally psychoanalysis) Of a relationship: involving feelings of both love and hate, often simultaneously.


love-hate

en-verb

love-hate (third-person singular simple present love-hates, present participle love-hating, simple past and past participle love-hated)

love-hates (present singular third-person)
love-hating (participle present)
love-hated (participle past)
love-hated (past)

[…]Eric got to act out his resentment while also hating himself, really love-hating himself, and he got to do it while masquerading as a warrior for the less fortunate!

2022, Jordan Castro, The Novelist, Catapult, →ISBN:

(transitive) To feel both love and hate (for someone or something), often simultaneously.

détestaimer

to feel both love and hate (for someone or something), often simultaneously


suchness

en-noun

suchness (usually uncountable, plural suchnesses)

From English dialect, from Middle English swichnesse (“the quality or nature of a thing”), from Old English swilċnes (“quality”), equivalent to such + -ness. Reinforced also as a calque of Sanskrit तथाता (tathātā).

inh

ca. 1928, Hans Driesch, "Philosophy of Nature", in, 1928, Edward Leroy Schaub, ed., Philosophy Today: Essays on Recent Developments in the Field of Philosophy, page 431,
The same relation may prevail between the suchness of willing in men and the realization of that willing.

1955, J. D. Salinger, "Franny", in, 1961, Franny and Zooey, 1991 LB Books edition, page 22,
Without any apparent regard for the suchness of her environment, she sat down.

Rather than give an answer, you have to section the tangerine and invite the questioner to have a taste. Doing this, you allow him or her to enter the suchness of the tangerine without any verbal or conceptual description.

1988, Thich Nhat Hanh, The Sun My Heart: From Mindfulness to Insight Contemplation, Parallax Press, →ISBN, page 94:

(philosophy, chiefly Buddhism) Existence per se.


Stasi

From German Stasi, abbreviation of Ministerium für Staatssicherheit (“Ministry for State Security”).

abbrev

German Democratic Republic
German Democratic Republic

(historical) The Ministry for State Security, secret police and intelligence organization of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany).


misotheism

Borrowed from Ancient Greek μισόθεος (misótheos, “hating the gods”), from μίσος (mísos, “hatred”) + θεός (theós, “god”). The Greek compound is found in Aeschylus (Agamemnon 1090; compare dystheism). The English word appears as a nonce-coinage, used by T. De Quincey in 1846.


analytics

Borrowed from Ancient Greek ἀναλυτικά (analutiká, “science of analysis”).

bor+

The principles governing any of various forms of analysis.

تَحْلِيلَات

application of computer technology, operational research, and statistics to solve problems

Discovery, interpretation, and communication of meaningful patterns in data.


love potion

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-love potion.wav

One love potion was composed of the powdered navel string of a new-born baby boy.

1936, Rollo Ahmed, The Black Art, London: Long, page 82:

I took my troubles down to Madame Ruth
 You know that gypsy with the gold-capped tooth
 She's got a pad down on Thirty-Fourth and Vine
 Sellin' little bottles of Love Potion Number Nine.

1959, Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller (lyrics and music), “Love Potion No. 9”, performed by The Clovers:

A drink supposed to have the magic power to make the drinker fall in love with a specified person.


well-formed formula

en-noun

well-formed formula (plural well-formed formulas or well-formed formulae)

well-formed formulas (plural)
well-formed formulae (plural)

This program works correctly on all well-formed formulas but it blows up on illegal input.

(logic) A statement that is expressed in a valid, syntactically correct, manner.


Rayne

A surname transferred from the given name, variant of Raine.

A city in Acadia Parish, Louisiana, United States

A township in Indiana County, Pennsylvania, United States.

A village and civil parish in Braintree district, Essex, England (OS grid ref TL7222).


Rayne

(fandom slang) The romantic pairing of the characters River Tam and Jayne Cobb from the television series Firefly.


glottogenetic

The two layers of speech are also called — if one looks at speech from a glottogenetic point of view — 'impositions'.

1977, C.H.M. Versteegh, Greek Elements in Arabic Linguistic Thinking, →ISBN, page 166:

Even though evolutionary continuity implies the existence of an interface between the archaeolinguistic and glottogenetic stages, this interface has to be very differently structured from the ones between the other stages.

1994, I. Hegedüs, "Principles for palaeolinguistic reconstruction," in Archaeology and Language (edited by Roger M Blench and Matthew Spriggs, page 70

Modern interpreters have often branded the very notion of impositio as a sign of intellectualism (as if names could be invented 'on paper'!) or glottogenetic naïveté.

2004, Lia Formigari, A History of Language Philosophies, →ISBN, page 67:

(philosophy) Of or pertaining to the origin of speech.


pred

pred (countable and uncountable, plural preds)

(uncountable, medicine) Abbreviation of prednisone.

(uncountable, medicine) Abbreviation of prednisolone.

(chiefly programming) Abbreviation of predecessor.


arche

arche (countable and uncountable, plural archai)

From Ancient Greek ἀρχή (arkhḗ, literally “beginning, origin”).

bor

In more modern times both the moving and the matter moved appear more complex and malleable, and less drawn from the realm of everyday experience. The substance may be dark matter and quarks rather than water or air, and the arche may be gravity or string harmonics.

2012, Lydia Pyne, Stephen J. Pyne, chapter 3, in The Last Lost World, Penguin, →ISBN:

(philosophy, often italicized) The first principle of existing things in pre-Socratic philosophy, initially assumed to be of water.


noumenal

We may here distinguish between two kinds of reality, phenomenal or relative, and noumenal or absolute.

1878, James Sully, “The Question of Visual Perception in Germany”, in Mind, volume 3, number 10, page 193:

When Kant says that it is impossible to know anything about, or apply any categories to, the noumenal realm, he would seem to be doing just what cannot be done.

2003, Jay Garfield, Graham Priest, “Nāgārjuna and the Limits of Thought”, in Philosophy East and West, volume 53, number 1, page 3:

(philosophy, especially Kantianism) Of or pertaining to the noumenon or the realm of things as they are in themselves.


ectypal

What would you have! do I not acknowledge a twofold state of things, the one ectypal or natural, the other archetypal and eternal? The former was created in time; the latter existed from everlasting in the mind of God.

1713, George Berkeley, Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous:

(philosophy) Corresponding to external reality.


oughtness

en-noun

oughtness (countable and uncountable, plural oughtnesses)

Every attempt to derive oughtness from rightness must, as we have shown, either end in an illogical system or destroy the possibility of a separate science of Ethics at all.

1886, William Mitchell, “Moral Obligation”, in Mind, volume 11, number 41, page 40:

Oughtness, may I suggest, consists in the power which a greater good has over a lesser good in compelling our choices.

1958, Archie J. Bahm, “Aesthetic Experience and Moral Experience”, in The Journal of Philosophy, volume 55, number 20, page 840:

Combining the reality of politics with a sense of "oughtness" creates a sense of duty to the collective.

2002, Roberta L. Coles, “Manifest Destiny Adapted for 1990s' War Discourse”, in Sociology of Religion, volume 63, number 4, page 415:

(chiefly philosophy) In ethics, the quality which makes an action dutiful or morally obligatory.


position paper

He headed the China-watching Consulate General, and in 1963 drafted a position paper for President Kennedy that recommended rapprochement with China.

1972 February 28, “The Supporting Cast in Peking”, in Time, retrieved 2016-10-30:

The first chapter is a position paper on explanation in the social sciences, a plea for "mechanisms" as opposed to law-like principles.

2001, Robert C. Solomon, “Review of Alchemies of the Mind: Rationality and the Emotions by Jon Elster”, in The Philosophical Review, volume 110, number 1, page 104:

They oversee groups that are churning out position papers on counterterrorism, cybersecurity, democracy and human rights, and global development.

2016 August 26, Mark Landler, “Clinton and Trump Campaigns Are Buzzing About the Race . . . for the Cabinet”, in New York Times, retrieved 2016-10-30:

(philosophy, government) An essay or report which expresses a position, conclusion, or recommendation concerning a contested issue or undecided question and which usually contains arguments or reasons in support of this position.

kannanotto

essay or report which expresses a position on a contested issue


factive

(epistemology, of a knowing agent) Which does not know any falsities: which knows only truths.


animalist

The animalist’s claim that all persons must be animals, if true, will have to be a posteriori truth.

2002, Brian Garrett, Personal Identity and Self-Consciousness, Routledge, →ISBN, page 21:

The hard question for the animalist is whether bodily continuity is necessary for the survival of the animal and, if so, what kind of bodily continuity.

2011, Shaun Gallagher, The Oxford Handbook of the Self, Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 145:

(philosophy) One who believes in the dominance of man's animal nature in behavior.


infinitate

en-verb

infinitate (third-person singular simple present infinitates, present participle infinitating, simple past and past participle infinitated)

infinitates (present singular third-person)
infinitating (participle present)
infinitated (participle past)
infinitated (past)

(logic, transitive) To transform a term, concept, or similar idea into its opposite by adding a negative prefix


moral minimum

en-noun

moral minimum (plural moral minimums or moral minima)

moral minimums (plural)
moral minima (plural)

John Stuart Mill . . . was not long in proving that the moral minimum of wages was a myth.

1887, Franklin H. Giddings, “The Natural Rate of Wages”, in Political Science Quarterly, volume 2, number 4, page 625:

These moral minima are found in the many criminal laws.

1942, Richard C. Fuller, “Morals and the Criminal Law”, in Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology (1931-1951), volume 32, number 6, page 628:

Walzer speculates that a comparison of the moral codes found in various societies might produce "a set of standards to which all societies can be held—negative injunctions, most likely, rules against murder, deceit, torture, oppression, and tyranny." These standards would constitute "the moral minimum."

2001, Charles R. Beitz, “Human Rights as a Common Concern”, in American Political Science Review, volume 95, number 2, page 272:

(ethics) A standard or principle upheld as indispensable for moral conduct, whether within a particular context or in general.

First, consider the moral minimum, do no harm.

2005, Patricia Illingworth, Trusting Medicine: The Moral Costs of Managed Care, Routledge, →ISBN, page 100:

(ethics) The specific rule that one should do no intentional harm, often considered the bare minimum required for ethical behavior.


nondeterminism

nondeterminism (countable and uncountable, plural nondeterminisms)

(philosophy) The opposite of determinism: the doctrine that there are factors other than the state and immutable laws of the universe involved in the unfolding of events, such as free will.


minor premise

The minor premise in John Stuart Mill's famous syllogism is 'Socrates is a man'.

(logic) The second premise in a categorical syllogism, whose subject is the minor term and whose predicate is the middle term.


apodictic

en-adj

apodictic (comparative more apodictic, superlative most apodictic)

more apodictic (comparative)
most apodictic (superlative)

From the Latin apodīcticus (“proving clearly”, “demonstrative”), from the Ancient Greek ἀποδεικτικός (apodeiktikós, “affording proof”, “demonstrative”), from ἀποδείκνυμι (apodeíknumi, “I demonstrate”). In turn, from ἀπο- (apo-, “separate, without”), and δεικτικός (deiktikós, “capable of proof”).

uder

ἀποδεικτικός

(Biblical studies, theology) Absolute and without explanation, as in a command from God like "Thou shalt not kill!"


deontologist

(ethics) A philosopher or other thinker who advocates or employs a deontological approach to ethics.


transcendental idealism

en-noun

transcendental idealism (countable and uncountable, plural transcendental idealisms)

transcendental realism
transcendental realism

(philosophy) A school of philosophy first proposed by Immanuel Kant. It can be juxtaposed with transcendental realism in that it views things in terms of how they appear to the actor rather than how they actually are.


transcendental realism

transcendental realism (countable and uncountable, plural transcendental realisms)

transcendental idealism
transcendental idealism

(philosophy) A school of philosophy that can be juxtaposed with transcendental idealism in that it views things in terms of how they actually are rather than how they appear to the actor.


supposition theory

(philosophy) Theory in medieval Europe to explain then-modern events from an Aristotelian context.


categorical imperative

categorical imperative (plural categorical imperatives)

(ethics) A fundamental ethical principle intended as a guide for determining whether any contemplated action is morally right, based on the concept that an action is good or bad in and of itself regardless of what the actor's aims or preferences are.


phronesis

From Ancient Greek φρόνησις (phrónēsis, “practical wisdom”), from φρονέω (phronéō, “to think”), from φρήν (phrḗn, “mind”).

uder

(philosophy) The virtue of "practical wisdom" as posited by Aristotle.


ethic of reciprocity

en-noun

ethic of reciprocity (plural ethics of reciprocity)

(ethics) The golden rule used by philosophers.


NOT

(mathematics, logic) A unary operation on logical values that changes true to false, and false to true.


structurality

structurality (countable and uncountable, plural structuralities)

(philosophy, theology) The qualities or types of the structure or structures an object possesses.

(mathematics, logic) A property satisfied by structural translations from sequents into equations or from equations into sequents.


normative ethics

normative ethics (usually uncountable, plural normative ethics)

(ethics) A branch of ethics concerned with classifying actions as right and wrong, attempting to develop a set of rules governing human conduct, or a set of norms for action.


descriptive ethics

(ethics) The study of people's beliefs about morality, in contrast to normative ethics and metaethics.


value judgment

(philosophy) A judgment of the rightness or wrongness of something, based on a particular set of values or on a particular value system.


pansexual

From pan- + -sexual. First attested in 1926 (with pansexualism attested since 1917), as a descriptor of the psychological theory that all human activity is based on sexuality. Used to describe a sexual orientation since at least the 1970s.

We like to attend pansexual group sex parties, which means that attendees may identify as gay or lesbian or bisexual or hetero or transgendered, but are generally comfortable and happy to play side-by-side with people whose desires may be entirely different than their own.

1998, Dossie Easton, Catherine A. Liszt, The Ethical Slut, →ISBN, page 262:

Welcoming people of all sexual orientations.


contraposition

contraposition (countable and uncountable, plural contrapositions)

(countable, logic) The statement of the form "if not Q then not P", given the statement "if P then Q".


akousma

From Ancient Greek ἄκουσμα (ákousma, “oral instruction”).

bor

One of the akousmata says that number is the wisest thing, and Pythagoreans may have sworn by Pythagoras as “the one who gave the tetraktys” […], the first four numbers whose total is ten, which was the perfect number for early Pythagoreans.

1999, AA Long, editor, The Cambridge Companion to Early Greek Philosophy, Cambridge, page 74:

It seemed that each British mystical order claiming Pythagorean descent had its own ideas about those taboos and bits of free advice known as akousmata, and Madame Eskimoff's favorite happened to be number twenty-four as listed by Iamblichus—never look into a mirror when there's a lamp next to you.

2006, Thomas Pynchon, Against the Day, Vintage, published 2007, page 261:

(philosophy) A rule or precept, especially one of the list of rules laid down by Pythagoras.


meme pool

Just as genes propagate themselves in the gene pool by leaping from body to body via sperms or eggs, so memes propagate themselves in the meme pool by leaping from brain to brain via a process which, in the broad sense, can be called imitation.

1976, Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene:

(philosophy) The set of all memes present in a given human population, in an analogy to gene pool.

meemipooli

philosophy: set of all memes in a given population


dubok

Borrowed from Russian дубо́к (dubók), from дуб (dub, “oak tree”).

And then there are the duboks. Every Red Army intelligence agent abroad is assigned the task of finding duboks in the city where he is stationed. A dubok is a hiding place for anything that may be exchanged in espionage work […]

1947, Hearst's International Combined with Cosmopolitan:

Meantime, in addition to the active agents, scores of others wait expectantly, always on the alert; scores of yavkas operate; scores of duboks are maintained; exchange of personnel goes on constantly.

1955, David J. Dallin, Soviet Espionage, page 509:

[…] was unable to remember the spy's cover name but he did not attach much importance to this, since, as he pointed out, cover names, like duboks, were changed from time to time.

1981, H. Montgomery Hyde, The Atom Bomb Spies, page 91:

His couriers should communicate with him through duboks – hiding places where messages could be left or collected, also called 'dead letterboxes' […]

2011, Chapman Pincher, Treachery: Betrayals, Blunders and Cover-Ups:


Dorian

en-adj

Dorian (comparative more Dorian, superlative most Dorian)

more Dorian (comparative)
most Dorian (superlative)

Constructed like the French Doriens. From the Latin root of Dōres + -ian. Compare Ancient Greek Δωριεύς (Dōrieús, “of Doris”).

cog

while the [Dorian] love of males for males in Greece obtained moralisation, and reached the high position of a recognised social function, the [Lesbian] love of female for female remained undeveloped and unhonoured

1883, John Addington Symonds, chapter 19, in A Problem in Greek Ethics:

All the Spartan kings and generals grew up under the institution of Dorian love. Epameinondas and Alexander were notable lovers; and the names of their comrades are recorded.

1890, John Addington Symonds in A. Strahan, The Contemporary Review, page 416:

And the evidence from Symonds's Memoirs seems to suggest that 'Ionian' implied pederastic relations, as attested in ancient Athens, whereas 'Dorian' involved two virile men.

2011, Daniel Orrells, Classical Culture and Modern Masculinity, page 159:

Dorian love, on the other hand, was a love between two virile equals, and so exceptional and unique.

2012, Daniel Orrells, “Greek love, orientalism and race: intersections in Classical reception”, in The Cambridge Classical Journal, Cambridge University Press:

Gay may not be ideal, and it has acquired negative connotations in recent years. I'd much prefer the beautiful word, Dorian, which can be both noun and adjective.

2015, John Lauritsen, “Down With LGBTQ!”, in Gay Liberation, Utrecht University:

Wilde’s choice for his main protagonist’s name a “veiled reference to ‘Dorian’ or ‘Greek’ love”.

2015, Lotte Campman, chapter 1, in Greek Love and Love for All Things Greek: Gay Subtext and Greek Intertext in Works by Oscar Wilde, page 9:

"Dorian love" between two masculine adult men should now be seen as a model for modern democratic, socialist politics.

2022, Sarah Olsen & Mario Telò, chapter 1, in Queer Euripides: Re-Readings in Greek Tragedy, page 31:

(of a man) Homosexual, gay; preferring exclusively men as romantic or sexual partners; male counterpart of lesbian.


Dorian

A male given name from Ancient Greek, famously used by Oscar Wilde in his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891).


set theoretically

(mathematics) In a manner which uses set theory

but see w sposób używający teorii mnogości


bioethicist

From bioethics + -ist, analogous to ethicist.


psychomancy

Divination involving communication with spirits; necromancy.


polyamorist

This lack of interest in multi-party marriage among polyamorists is particularly interesting given the fact that, as mentioned above, there is often a legal marriage between at least two of the partners in a polyfidelitous group.

2005, Kelsi Brown Corkran, “Exclusion and Expression in Marriage”, in The Georgetown Journal of Gender and the Law, volume 6, number 1, page 61:

An advocate or practitioner of polyamory.


rhetorical induction

(logic) reasoning from specific examples to general laws


tropology

en-noun

tropology (countable and uncountable, plural tropologies)

From Late Latin tropologia, from Late Greek τροπολογία (tropología), equivalent to trope + -ology.

Where the syntax of propositions is broken, we see a very general principle of tropology that grants a priori that things like texts are replacements of things like authors.

1993, Miguel Tamen, Manners of Interpretation: The Ends of Argument in Literary Studies, page 58:

He must distinguish the historical information from the allegory, divide the allegory from the tropology, and separate the tropology from the anagogy.

2009, Geoffrey Grossus, The Life of Blessed Bernard of Tiron, page 58:

A similar story can be told for White's tropology. Tropology also is something that “the mind brings” to (past) reality and that is not part of the past itself.

2009, Frank Ankersmit, “2: White's "New Neo-Kantianism": Aesthetics, Ethics and Politics”, in Frank Ankersmit, Ewa Domanska, Hans Kellner, editors, Re-Figuring Hayden White, page 37:

(theology, philosophy) The interpretation of scripture or other work in order to educe moral or figurative meaning; a treatise of such interpretation.


pansexuality

pansexuality (usually uncountable, plural pansexualities)

They know nothing of flower power or meditation, pansexuality, or mind expansion.

1976 June 7, Nik Cohn, “Inside the Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night”, in New York Magazine:

A sexual orientation characterized by the potential for aesthetic attraction, romantic love and/or sexual desire for people regardless of their gender or sex.


bottomless pit

1769, The Bible, King James Version, Oxford Standard Text, Revelation, 9:11,
And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon.


-mancer

I’ve always thought it was a shame us Cullenmancers missed out on a romance tarot with how beautiful all their designs are.

As a Solasmancer I don't expect more, but I'd hope somehow Solas' experience with the Inquisition has an impact on him going forward.

I agreed with some and disagreed with others, so I'm putting it out there for my fellow Galemancers: what's Gale's [zodiac] sign?

2023 December 22, Theia-Euryphaessa, Reddit:

(fandom slang) A suffix attached to a video game character's name to create a word for a player who romances that character in the game.


fuzzy set

(fuzzy set theory, fuzzy logic) A set whose elements have degrees of membership, instead of only full and empty membership.

fuzzy set theory; fuzzy logic; fuzzy set theory; fuzzy logic


fuzzy logic

fuzzy logic (countable and uncountable, plural fuzzy logics)

(mathematics) A form of reasoning, derived from fuzzy set theory, whereby a truth value need not be exactly zero (false) or one (true), but rather can be zero, one, or any value in between.


gynophilia

Alternative form of gynephilia (“love of women”)


physicotheology

physicotheology (countable and uncountable, plural physicotheologies)

What else can be concluded, but that all was made with magnificent Design, and that all the whole Structure is the Work of some intelligent Being; some Artist, of Power and Skill equivalent to such a Work?

1713, William Derham, Physico-Theology, or, A Demonstration of the Being and Attributes of God, from His Works of Creation, 5th ed. (1720), London, book I, p. 36

We have been rather severe in the foregoing observations on Dr. Büchner's work, because it belongs to a school of physico-theology, which, whether on the affirmative or negative side, we hold to be equally opposed to the true interests of science.

1865, “Büchner's Force and Matter”, in Anthropological Review, volume 3, number 8, page 28:

Indeed, Creation, like a number of passages in The Seasons, furnishes excellent examples of physicotheology, helpfully defined by Harry Solomon as "the use of the scientific examination of nature to establish and raise admiration for the existence and providence of God."

1989, Thomas B. Gilmore, “Implicit Criticism of Thomson's 'Seasons' in Johnson's 'Dictionary'”, in Modern Philology, volume 86, number 3, page 269:

Some claim that Kant's discussion amounts to a refutation of physicotheology and thus does not result in an argument from design.

2002, “Abstracts of Colloquium Papers: 'On Kant's Only Possible Argument in Support of a Demonstration of the Existence of God' by Martin Schönfeld”, in Proceedings and Addresses of the American Philosophical Association, volume 75, number 3, page 127:

(philosophy, theology, dated) The view that evidence and sound arguments for God's existence can be derived from a study of the natural world; a study of the natural world intended to provide such evidence.


colligation

colligation (countable and uncountable, plural colligations)

From Latin colligātiō. By surface analysis, colligate + -ion.

Induction is a term applied to describe the process of a true Colligation of Facts by means of an exact and appropriate Conception.

1840, William Whewell, “Aphorisms Concerning Science”, in The Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences, Founded upon Their History. […], volume I, London: John W[illiam] Parker, […]; Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: J. and J. J. Deighton, →OCLC, paragraph XIII, page xxxix:

the colligation of facts

1843, John Stuart Mill, A System of Logic, Ratiocinative and Inductive, being a Connected View of the Principles of Evidence, and the Methods of Scientific Investigation. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: John W[illiam] Parker, […], →OCLC:

In order to have knowledge of the physical world, we use our ideas and concepts as the "thread" on which we string the facts about the world, the "pearls." We do this by a process Whewell called colligation.

2011, Laura J. Snyder, The Philosophical Breakfast Club Broadway Books, page 252 (in a discussion of William Whewell's Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences, Founded upon Their History (1840))

(logic) The formulation of a general hypothesis which seeks to connect two or more facts.


welfarism

(philosophy) An axiology or ethical theory in which value is determined by the well-being (e.g., happiness) of people or other sentient beings.


performative utterance

performative utterance (plural performative utterances)

Coined by British philosopher J. L. Austin (1911–1960).

coin

(philosophy, linguistics) A sentence or other linguistic expression which, when expressed in an appropriate context, actually does or accomplishes something.

énoncé performatif

An expression which, when expressed in an appropriate context, actually does or accomplishes something


EE

(academic philosophy) Initialism of Eudemian Ethics.


disconfirmation

en-noun

disconfirmation (countable and uncountable, plural disconfirmations)

diskonfirmaatio

a confirmation that something is not true

Once we move our search to the region of the mind, we find that access to the facts becomes much more difficult; as a result, disconfirmation is largely out of reach and metaphor begins to flourish.

1990, Donald P. Spence, “Theories of the Mind: Science or Literature?”, in Poetics Today, volume 11, number 2, page 331:

(chiefly philosophy, uncountable) Introduction of evidence which conclusively establishes that a belief or hypothesis is not true or which diminishes the acceptability of a belief or hypothesis.


epiphenomenalism

epiphenomenalism (countable and uncountable, plural epiphenomenalisms)

The textbook account of epiphenomenalism goes something like this. Although our thoughts, desires, and other mental states seem to affect what happens in the world, by bringing about changes in our behavior or subsequent mental states, this is only an appearance, cast off by the real physical sequence of cause and effect that underlies our mental life.

1997, Victor Caston, “Epiphenomenalisms, Ancient and Modern”, in The Philosophical Review, volume 106, number 3, page 310:

(philosophy, psychology, uncountable) The doctrine that mental states and processes are simply incidental effects of physiological events in the brain or nervous system and cannot themselves cause any effects in the material world.

The theory of emergent evolution has been largely developed as a corrective of mechanistic theories with their attendant psycho-physical dualisms and epiphenomenalisms.

1926, Stephen C. Pepper, “Emergence”, in The Journal of Philosophy, volume 23, number 9, page 241:

(philosophy, psychology, countable) Such a doctrine, as advanced by a particular thinker or school of thought.


complementarity

complementarity (countable and uncountable, plural complementarities)

For complementarity, there are entailments both from affirmative sentences to the corresponding negative sentences (which is what ordinary antonymy allows) and from negative sentences to the corresponding affirmative sentences. [...] That light is on entails That light is not off. That light is not on entails That light is off.

2005, Andrew John Merrison, Aileen Bloomer, Patrick Griffiths, Christopher J. Hall, Introducing Language in Use, London: Routledge, →ISBN, page 112:

(linguistics, philosophy, semantics) A semantic relationship between two words wherein negative use of one entails the affirmative of the other with no gradability; the relation of binary antonyms.


love song

A song about love; a song that expresses amorous feelings.


natural law

natural law (countable and uncountable, plural natural laws)

Thus, for example, it is a natural law, that he who has been the author of any damage ought to repair it.

1850 [1689], Jean Domat, translated by William Strahan, edited by Luther S. Cushing, The Civil Law in Its Natural Order, 2nd edition, volume 1, page 65:

For Maritain, natural law is not a written law; it is immanent in nature.

1999, William Sweet, “Maritain, Jacques (1882–1973)”, in The Philosophy of Law: An Encyclopedia, →ISBN, page 534:

The content of the natural law is the substantive account of ways of living that bring humanity to its natural good. In this broad sense, the natural law is much broader than law understood as a specific human institution.

2010, Roger A. Shiner, “Law and Its Normativity”, in Dennis Patterson, editor, A Companion to Philosophy of Law and Legal Theory, 2nd edition, →ISBN, page 424:

(law, philosophy) The set of universal legal or moral principles said to be discernible from nature by reason alone; one of these principles.

One of the reasons why it is sometimes felt that natural law is a predominantly rationalistic philosophy is because it has been associated with the concepts of the state of nature and of the original contract.

1970, Mark H. Waddicor, Montesquieu and the Philosophy of Natural Law, page 40:

Another component of natural law is the view that some specific moral norms follow from these principles in such a way that it is easy for people to see their truth, even though it is possible, because of cultural distortion or personal immorality, that people be ignorant of them.

1992, Joseph Boyle, “Natural Law and the Ethics of Traditions”, in Robert P. George, editor, Natural Law Theory: Contemporary Essays, →ISBN, page 11:

Buckle […] argues that Grotius and Pufendorf understood Natural Law as a science of morals grounded in human nature.

2007, W. Duncan Reekie, Spiritual Capital, Natural Law and the Secular Market Place, →ISBN, page 21:

(law, philosophy) A theory describing or positing such principles.


clean as a whistle

en-adj

(as) clean as a whistle (not comparable)

(simile) Completely innocent; beyond moral reproach.


amatorial

amatorial (comparative more amatorial, superlative most amatorial)

more amatorial (comparative)
most amatorial (superlative)

Hi Steve, I have these amatorial feelings for you. Please may I lay with you?


common knowledge

(logic, game theory) A special kind of knowledge for a group of agents, such that when all the agents in a group G know p, they all know that they know p, they all know that they all know that they know p, and so on ad infinitum.


true love

en-noun

true love (countable and uncountable, plural true loves)

From Middle English trewe love, from Old English trēow-lufu.

the course of true love never did run smooth

Some believe that true love doesn’t exist.

And as all true love is reciprocal, so also is true love lasting and indestructible; or, to “speak as a man,” even because it is the very inmost life of humanity, it is, therefore, true unto death.

1847, Friedrich von Schlegel, translated by A. J. W. Morrison, The Philosophy of Life, and Philosophy of Language: In a Course of Lectures, page 38:

The leader of the world's 1 billion Catholics has tried to answer the age-old question of philosophers, playwrights and poets — the meaning of love — and concluded that erotic desire without self-sacrifice and spiritual devotion cannot be true love.

2006 January 26, Linda Morris, “Pope dedicates message to meaning of true love”, in The Age, Melbourne:

(by later reinterpretation) Love that is in some sense purer or more unique than ordinary love.

(uncountable) The form of romantic affection that is considered pure and wholly positive, not just based on feelings of lust and sex.


civilist

From Medieval Latin civilista, from Latin cīvīlis (“civil (law)”), on the pattern of Medieval Latin canonista (“canonist”), from Latin canōn (“rule”).

(obsolete, theology) One who rejects the moral authority of Christ but who nevertheless adheres to a moral code in line with “civil righteousness” and “good citizenship”.


aretaic

en-adj

aretaic (comparative more aretaic, superlative most aretaic)

more aretaic (comparative)
most aretaic (superlative)

From Ancient Greek ἀρετή (aretḗ, “virtue or excellence”).

der

(ethics) Of or pertaining to virtue or excellence.

aretaico

of or pertaining to virtue or excellence


disjunct

(logic) One of multiple propositions, any of which, if true, confirm the validity of another proposition (a disjunction).


lolcat

(Internet, neologism) An image macro of, usually, a kitten or a cat with a humorous caption.

lolcat

image macro of a kitten or cat with a humurous caption


wuv

en-verb

wuv (third-person singular simple present wuvz or wuvs, present participle wuving, simple past and past participle wuvd or wuved)

wuvz (present singular third-person)
wuvs (present singular third-person)
wuving (participle present)
wuvd (participle past)
wuvd (past)
wuved (participle past)
wuved (past)

From a humorous mispronunciation of love, mimicking the speech of a young child.

(childish or humorous) Alternative form of love


l-word

(euphemistic, humorous) Any word beginning with l that is not normally taboo but is considered (often humorously) to be so in the given context.


Thales

A pre-Socratic Greek philosopher from Miletus in Asia Minor.


BFF

Put a pub crawl together with your BFFs, do sake bombs while you wail your heart out at a karaoke bar, play some sloshball with your friends in the park.

2013, Melissa Bolton-Klinger, Jayan Kalathil, Generation Change:

best friend forever
best friend forever#English

(informal) Initialism of best friend forever.


Heraclitus

From Latin Hēraclītus, from Ancient Greek Ἡράκλειτος (Hērákleitos).

An Ancient Greek male given name from Ancient Greek, notably borne by Heraclitus of Ephesus, a pre-Socratic Ionian philosopher


omnisentience

Similar difficulties arise concerning the genesis of consciousness for the individual […] To escape these perplexities, the notion of omnisentience or panpsychism has often been put forward.

1974, Richard Spilsbury, Providence Lost: A Critique of Darwinism, page 65:

(religion, philosophy) The presence of sensory awareness in all things, or the doctrine that sensory awareness is universal.


antitheist

An active opponent of the belief in the existence of a god or gods.

Antitheist

an active opponent of the belief in the existence of a god or gods


EN

The initials of either the Latin Ēthica Nicomachēa or the Ancient Greek Ἠθικὰ (Ēthikà) Νικομάχεια (Nikomákheia).

(philosophy) The Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle's best-known work on ethics.


ambisexuality

en-noun

ambisexuality (countable and uncountable, plural ambisexualities)

(uncountable) The state of being ambisexual.


Mohism

From Moh, former transliteration of the first syllable of Mozi, Chinese philosopher (c. 470-391 BC), Chinese 墨子 (Mòzǐ).

(Chinese philosophy) The doctrines of Mozi and his followers, especially the concept of universal love.


antitheistic

en-adj

antitheistic (comparative more antitheistic, superlative most antitheistic)

more antitheistic (comparative)
most antitheistic (superlative)

Of, pertaining to or espousing antitheism.

antiteísta

of, pertaining to or espousing antitheism


dogmatics

(theology) The systematic study of dogmata.


Judeophilia

/d͡ʒuːˌdiːəʊˈfɪlɪə/

A strong interest in the country, culture, or people of Jews.


Russophilia

/ˌɹʌsəˈfɪli.ə/

Russophilia was directly weakened by military base agreements with the US.

2015, Boris Popivanov, Changing Images of the Left in Bulgaria, page 126:

A strong interest in or admiration of Russia, Russian culture, or the Russian people.

親俄派

a strong interest in the country, culture, or people of Russia


animalism

en-noun

animalism (countable and uncountable, plural animalisms)

Animalism understands the human person and the human animal to be identical. The major appeal of animalism is that it avoids the spatially coincident thinkers discussed earlier.

2014, Neil A. Manson, Robert W. Barnard, The Bloomsbury Companion to Metaphysics, Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN, page 237:

(philosophy, ontology) The doctrine that humans are merely animals, and lack any spirituality.


Sinophilia

A strong interest in the country, culture, or people of China.


metapsychology

metapsychology (countable and uncountable, plural metapsychologies)

(philosophy) The study of how human experience forms, filters perception and shapes identity.


anti-intellectualism

(philosophy) A position that opposes intellectualism.


t-norm

(fuzzy logic) A mathematical function T: [0, 1] × [0, 1] → [0, 1] that is commutative, associative, monotonic, and the number 1 acts as identity element, that is T(a, 1) = a.


rivalship

From rival + ship (“a fictional romantic relationship between two characters”).

compound

it took me longer to ship drarry bc when i first read HP i was young and pure and didnt care about ships but now im rivalship trash so

2015 October 16, kat (@saItkath), Twitter:

where are my femslash rivalships/hateships i want girls who wanna DUEL before they smooch

2017 December 20, in the netherdeep (@NatRoze), Twitter:

I dont like kylo ren bc hes a bitch. Also r*ylo sucks because fuck rivalships she deserves better. Dont @ me

2019 March 6, may (@myosotiskills), Twitter:

(fandom slang) A ship involving characters with an adversarial relationship.


dialectician

From French dialecticien (“one skillful in dialectic”), from Latin dialecticus (“dialectic”) + French -ien (“-ian”) from Latin -ianus (“-ian”). Equivalent to dialectic + -ian.

der

/ˌdʌɪəlɛkˈtɪʃn/

/ˌdaɪəlɛkˈtɪʃən/

(chiefly historical) Someone skilled in dialectics: someone able to arrive at logical conclusions through reasoned argument.

dialectical idealism
dialectical idealism

(Hegelianism) Someone skilled in dialectical idealism: someone able to arrive at historical conclusions through consideration of contradictions.

dialectical materialism
dialectical materialism

(Marxism) Someone skilled in dialectical materialism: someone able to arrive at socio-political conclusions through consideration of class differences.


NOT operator

(mathematics, logic) An operation on logical values that changes true to false, and false to true.


domain of discourse

en-noun

domain of discourse (plural domains of discourse)

(logic) In predicate logic, an indication of the relevant set of entities that are being dealt with by quantifiers.


false analogy

(logic) An informal fallacy applying to inductive arguments, in which the similarity in one respect of two concepts, objects, or events is taken as sufficient to establish that they are similar in another respect in which they actually are dissimilar.


applied ethics

(ethics) The branch of ethics that examines moral questions of right and wrong arising in specific areas of practical concern, as, for example, in medicine or business.


interpellate

en-verb

interpellate (third-person singular simple present interpellates, present participle interpellating, simple past and past participle interpellated)

interpellates (present singular third-person)
interpellating (participle present)
interpellated (participle past)
interpellated (past)

[…] a Master of Ceremonies' words "Ladies and gentlemen" […] interpellates those being addressed as an audience, and one that is differentiated by gender.

1996, “The Cambridge History of American Literature”, in Sacvan Bercovitch, editor, Poetry and criticism, 1940-1995, volume 8, page 408:

[…] the question may be whether the individual should let herself be interpellated as a feminist, a Christian or a worker. Perhaps all of these possibilities seem attractive, but they point in different directions […]

2002, Marianne Jørgensen, Louise J. Phillips, Discourse Analysis As Theory and Method, page 41:

[…] whereas the Palestinian subjects are interpellated as: the martyr... a young Palestinian... a Palestinian teenager.

2009, Samia Bazzi, Arab News and Conflict: A Multidisciplinary Discourse Study:

(philosophy) To address (a person) in a way that presupposes a particular identification of them; to give (a person) an identity (which may or may not be accurate).

interpellieren

address in a way that presupposes a particular identification


differentia

/dɪfəˈɹɛnʃɪə/

From Latin differentia. Doublet of difference.

That character, it seems to me, should be regarded as the practically important differentia of religion for our purpose; and just what it is can easily be brought out by comparing the mind of an abstractly conceived Christian with that of a moralist similarly conceived.

1902, William James, “Lecture II: Circumscription of the Topic”, in The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature […] , New York, N.Y.; London: Longmans, Green, and Co. […], →OCLC, page 45:

If genera are different and co-ordinate, their differentiae are themselves different in kind. Take as an instance the genus ‘animal’ and the genus ‘knowledge’. ‘With feet’, ‘two-footed’, ‘winged’, ‘aquatic’, are differentiae of ‘animal’; the species of knowledge are not distinguished by the same differentiae.

1928, E. M. Edghill, Categories, translation of original by Aristotle:

In the case of a word like “surfboard,” the differentiae seem pretty clear. How is this board different from all other boards?

2017, Kory Stamper, Word By Word, Vintage, published 2018, page 116:

(logic, semantics, taxonomy) A distinguishing feature which marks a species off from other members of the same genus.


Erebus

Nay, were he Deul, as he is no man,
Yet in reuenge of faire Zenocrate,
UUhome he detayneth in deſpight of vs,
This arme ſhould ſend him downe to Erebus,
To ſhroud his ſhame in darkneſſe of the night.

c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire, London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act IIII, scene i:

(Greek mythology) The dark and gloomy cavern between the earth and Hades; the underworld.


gay

en-adj

gay (comparative gayer, superlative gayest)

gayer (comparative)
gayest (superlative)

→ Cantonese: 基 (gei¹)

→ Mandarin: 基 (jī)

→ Catalan: gai

→ Esperanto: geja

→ French: gay

→ German: gay

→ Greek: γκέι (gkéi)

→ Irish: aerach (calque)

→ Italian: gay

→ Japanese: ゲイ (gei)

→ Mandarin: gay (gèi)

→ Portuguese: gay

→ Romanian: gay

→ Spanish: gay

→ Telugu: గే (gē)

→ Thai: เกย์ (gee)

→ Turkish: gey

Brill Publishers
Gertrude Stein
gay (term)

From Middle English gay, from Old French gai (“joyful, laughing, merry”), usually thought to be a borrowing of Old Occitan gai (“impetuous, lively”), from Gothic *𐌲𐌰𐌷𐌴𐌹𐍃 (*gaheis, “impetuous”), merging with earlier Old French jai ("merry"; see jay), from Frankish *gāhi; both from Proto-Germanic *ganhuz, *ganhwaz (“sudden”). This is possibly derived from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰengʰ- (“to stride, step”), from *ǵʰēy- (“to go”), but Kroonen rejects this derivation and treats the Germanic word as having no known etymology.
cognates and sense derivation
Cognate with Dutch gauw (“fast, quickly”), Westphalian Low German gau, gai (“fast, quick”), German jäh (“abrupt, sudden”).
Anatoly Liberman, following Frank Chance and Harri Meier, believes Old French gai was instead a native development from Latin vagus (“wandering, inconstant, flighty”), with *[w] > [g] as in French gaine.
The sense of homosexual (first recorded no later than 1937 by Cary Grant in the film Bringing Up Baby, and possibly earlier in 1922 in the poem "Miss Furr and Miss Skeene" by Gertrude Stein) was shortened from earlier gay cat ("homosexual boy") in underworld and prison slang, itself first attested about 1935, but used earlier for a young tramp or hobo attached to an older one.
Pejorative usage is probably due to hostility towards homosexuality.
The sense of ‘upright’, used in reference to a dog’s tail, probably derives from the ‘happy’ sense of the word.

gay

homosexual — see also homosexual, lesbian

verwijfd

behaving in a way associated with females

Coordinate term: LGBTQ

(colloquial) Not heterosexual, or not cisgender: homosexual, bisexual, asexual, transgender, etc.

[…] the pirates, who are obviously totally gay for each other […]

2014 December 6, Ej Dickson, “The 7 worst things about NBC's "Peter Pan Live!"”, in Salon.com:

Being gay for Brad, even a teensy bit, is at the very least being able to imagine the potential for queerness. In a sense, like the recent popular and critical furor over men who are gay-for-pay, being gay for Brad is what Jeffrey Escoffier defines as "situational homosexuality," or other forms of man-on-man behavior […] In other words, rather than worry over whether or not men who are queer for Brad can easily be labeled as straight or gay, […]

2014, Christopher Schaberg, Robert Bennett, Deconstructing Brad Pitt, Bloomsbury Publishing USA, →ISBN, page 211:

[…] it’s now pretty popular among progressives to paint the US and Russian presidents as being gay for each other.

2017 May 2, German Lopez, “Stephen Colbert tried to insult Donald Trump. He made a homophobic comment instead.”, in Vox:

(slang, with for) Homosexually in love with someone.

Homosexual:
Homosexually in love with someone.


duppy

Jamaica, circa 18th century. From Bube dupe (“ghost”) (compare Akan adɔpe).

(Jamaica, games) A drawn game of noughts and crosses (in Jamaica tii-taa-tuo).


consequentialism

en-noun

consequentialism (countable and uncountable, plural consequentialisms)

From consequential + -ism, coined by British analytic philosopher G. E. M. Anscombe in 1958.

coinage

(ethics) The ethical study of morals, duties and rights with an approach that focuses consequences of a particular action or cause.

(ethics) The belief that consequences form the basis for any valid moral judgment about an action. Thus, from a consequentialist standpoint, a morally right action is one that produces a good outcome, or consequence.


chicken-or-egg question

en-noun

chicken-or-egg question (plural chicken-or-egg questions)

(logic, philosophy) A supposed paradox concerning whether chickens or chicken eggs existed first.


supernature

supernature (countable and uncountable, plural supernatures)

/ˈsuːpəˌneɪt͡ʃə/

/ˌsuːpəˈneɪt͡ʃə/

It is the most commont and grossest blunders of scientific diminutives, to imagine that all in nature is of nature. There are more excellent natures. We ascend the height of argument by means of supernatures. These supernatures are, so to speak, natural manifestations or degrees of the supernatural.

1881, Joseph William Reynolds, The Mystery of Miracles, page 365:

These peripheral ghosts earn large amounts of money in the streets, and the money they make is a convertible currency in the sense that it enables a contest of power with other higher social classes in supernature.

2008, Heonik Kwon, Ghosts of War in Vietnam, →ISBN, pages 151–152:

(theology, philosophy) A supernatural realm beyond or apart from the physical world.


epistemological turn

epistemological turn (plural epistemological turns)

The core of Kant's "epistemological turn" is the claim that the distinction between epistemic and ontological categories is an illusion.

1967, Wilfrid Sellars, “Some Remarks on Kant's Theory of Experience”, in The Journal of Philosophy, volume 64, number 20, page 634:

1980, Robert Greene, "Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature" (review of Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature by Richard Rorty), MLN, vol. 95, no. 5, p. 1387,
He spends several of the book's eight chapters giving an account of "the epistemological turn" of modern philosophy, dealing primarily with the thought of Descartes, Locke, and Kant.

On standard accounts, Descartes's epistemological turn—a sea change in the history of philosophy—is marked by an inside-out approach to philosophical inquiry, an approach owed to the priority of thought.

2004, Lex Newman, “Rocking the Foundations of Cartesian Knowledge”, in The Philosophical Review, volume 113, number 1, page 102:

(philosophy) In the history of Western philosophy, the shift in philosophical attention from the classical and medieval focus on themes of metaphysics to a primary focus on themes and issues relating to human knowledge, usually considered to have occurred during the period from Descartes (1596-1650) through Kant (1724-1804).


linguistic turn

Popularized by Richard Rorty in The Linguistic Turn (1967).

Philosophy during the first half of the century has taken the linguistic turn. Words are used either philosophically or commonsensically. Philosophical uses are literally unintelligible. The task is to explicate them by talking commonsensically about them. This is the fundamental idea of the turn.

1961, Gustav Bergmann, “Physics and Ontology”, in Philosophy of Science, volume 28, number 1, page 2:

The so-called linguistic turn. . . involved moving away from foundationalist assumptions of the primacy of logic and towards a more subtle recognition of the varied nature of language and of its deep influence, its pervasive implications across the range of human practices.

2004, Paul Standish, “Europe, Continental Philosophy and the Philosophy of Education”, in Comparative Education, volume 40, number 4, page 490:

(philosophy) The shift which occurred in philosophical attention, during the 20th century and within a number of philosophical schools of thought, from traditional themes of metaphysics and epistemology to a focus on the structure and usage of language and the relation of language to human understanding of those traditional themes.


continental philosophy

continental philosophy (usually uncountable, plural continental philosophies)

(philosophy) Any of various philosophical traditions strongly influenced by certain 19th and 20th century philosophers from mainland Europe, such as Hegel.


analytic philosophy

(philosophy) An analytical tradition focused on identifying and addressing philosophical problems through structured understanding of logical and language analysis techniques, originating in the early 20th century in Britain and Europe and later gaining prominence in the United States.


counterexample

(logic) An example that counters a general rule; an exception to a general rule; a specific instance of the falsity of (and falsifiability of) any proposed universal applicability of a rule or statement.


child pornography

Pornographic material depicting minors; sexually explicit (or suggestive) images of children.


isagogic

en-adj

isagogic (comparative more isagogic, superlative most isagogic)

more isagogic (comparative)
most isagogic (superlative)


critical rationalism

(philosophy) The proposition that scientific theories, and any other claims to knowledge, can and should be rationally criticized, and, if they have empirical content, can and should be subjected to tests which may falsify them.


instrumental rationality

(philosophy) A specific form of rationality focusing on the most efficient or cost-effective means to achieve a specific end, but not in itself reflecting on the value of that end.


acracy

(politics, philosophy) In political philosophy, the negation of rule by "regency", or hierarchical "government". The absence of a "ruling class". A society with the absence of imposition or coercion; one of voluntary order.


critical theory

Calque of German kritische Theorie, first defined by Max Horkheimer in his 1937 essay “Traditional and Critical Theory”.

I define critical theory as something broader than Critical Theory in the Frankfurt School usage but not unrelated to it. I use the term to designate the traditions of dialectical and self-reflective thought initiated during the historical moment of Kant and Hegel.

2000, Carl Howard Freedman, Critical Theory and Science Fiction, Wesleyan University Press, →ISBN, page xvi:

[…]; if you do not know, or care to know, much about critical theory, the writings of Butler are academic in the unflattering sense of that term. But in their world, they are, if not royalty, lords of the realm.

2018 September 23, Eliot A. Cohen, “The Crisis of the American Elites”, in The Atlantic:

The examination and critique of society and literature, drawing from knowledge across social science and the humanities; (in particular) the original ideas developed by the Frankfurt School.


memetic algorithm

en-noun

memetic algorithm (plural memetic algorithms)

An algorithm for the evolution of genotypes, which includes a selected, non-genetic component.


memetic

en-adj

memetic (comparative more memetic, superlative most memetic)

more memetic (comparative)
most memetic (superlative)

From meme + -etic, by analogy with gene → genetic.

The term internets[…]is an example of memetic usage that functions as a high profile in-joke.

2012, Michele Zappavigna, Discourse of Twitter and Social Media:

But let’s not assume that all of the innuendo and debate is a product of the Russian info-war, or that the Kremlin is a grandmaster of the memetic chessboard.

2015 July 7, Mark Galeotti, “'The west is too paranoid about Russia's information war'”, in The Guardian:

Within different communities, groups, or dyads, the same memetic media could be deployed as a long-standing community in-joke, dadaist absurdity, or even as fighting words (or images, as the case may be).

2018, Whitney Phillips, Ryan M. Milner, The Ambivalent Internet […] , John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, page 122:

Gamergate, “the Fappening” (or Celebgate), and the subsequent Comicsgate are examples of campaigns that deployed active memetic warfare in racialized and gendered ways to attack and drive away a constructed enemy.

2021, Lisa Nakamura, Hanah Stiverson, Kyle Lindsey, Racist Zoombombing, Routledge, →ISBN:

Of, being, containing, or pertaining to memes; pertaining to replication of concepts.

memeettinen

pertaining to memes, replication of concepts


monadic predicate logic

en-noun

monadic predicate logic (plural monadic predicate logics)

(logic) The fragment of predicate logic in which all predicate letters are monadic (that is, they take only one argument), and there are no function letters.


FOL

first-order logic
first-order logic#English

(logic) Initialism of first-order logic.


first-order logic

first-order logic (countable and uncountable, plural first-order logics)

(logic) A formal deductive system extended from propositional logic with the possibility to quantify over individuals of the domain of discourse.

منطق الرتبَة الأولى

formal deductive system expanded from propositional logic


propositional logic

propositional logic (plural propositional logics)

(logic) A formal deductive system in which formulae representing propositions can be formed by combining atomic propositions using logical connectives.


predicate logic

predicate logic (plural predicate logics)

(logic) The generic term for symbolic formal systems like first-order logic, second-order logic, many-sorted logic or infinitary logic.


infinite regress

infinite regress (plural infinite regresses)

(logic) A regress into an infinite sequence of propositions in an attempt to found the truth of the proposition Pᵢ on the truth of the proposition Pᵢ₊₁.


logical atomism

(philosophy) The doctrine that the world consists of ultimate logical "facts" (or "atoms") that cannot be broken down any further.


intensional logic

intensional logic (plural intensional logics)

(logic) A formal deductive system able to represent the distinction between intension and extension of a term.


SIGINT

SIGINT (countable and uncountable, plural SIGINTs)

signals intelligence
signals intelligence#English

(espionage, uncountable) Initialism of signals intelligence.


HUMINT

human intelligence
human intelligence#English


sheep-dip

en-verb

sheep-dip (third-person singular simple present sheep-dips, present participle sheep-dipping, simple past and past participle sheep-dipped)

sheep-dips (present singular third-person)
sheep-dipping (participle present)
sheep-dipped (participle past)
sheep-dipped (past)

(US, espionage, transitive) To formally, and usually temporarily, transfer military equipment or personnel to nonmilitary ownership for the purpose of its employment in covert action with involves less of a risk of triggering an armed conflict.


mereology

en-noun

mereology (countable and uncountable, plural mereologies)

/ˌmɪəɹiˈɒləd͡ʒi/

Coined by Stanisław Leśniewski in 1927, from Ancient Greek μέρος (méros, “part”) + -logy (“study, discussion, science”).

2001, Lech Polkowski, Spatial Reasoning via Rough Sets, Wojciech Ziarko, Yiyu Yao (editors), Rough Sets and Current Trends in Computing: 2nd International Conference RSCTC 2000, Revised Papers, Springer, LNAI 2005, page 479,
In [13] a new paradigm for approximate reasoning, rough mereology, has been introduced. Rough mereology is based on the notion of a part to a degree and thus falls in the province of part–based mereologies.

2007, Achille C. Varzi, Antony Galton (second reader), Chapter 15: Spatial Reasoning and Ontology: Parts, Wholes, and Locations, Marco Aiello, Ian Pratt-Hartmann, Johan van Benthem (editors), Handbook of Spatial Logics, Springer, page 947,
Let us begin with mereology. This is often defined as the theory of the part-whole relation, but such a definition is misleading. It suggests that mereology has something to say about both parts and wholes, which is not true. As we shall see in Sec. 2, the notion of a whole goes beyond the conceptual resources of mereology and calls for topological concepts and principles of various sorts. By itself, mereology is best understood as the theory of the parthood relation, regardless of whether the second term of the relation may be said to qualify as a whole entity.

In 1926 Tarski drew Leśniewski's attention to the similarity existing between his mereology and Whitehead's theory of events.[…]In the United States, mereology is known as the “calculus of individuals” — a designation that is etymologically somewhat paradoxical, since the objects of mereology are anything but indivisible individua.

2012, Guido Küng, Ontology and the Logistic Analysis of Language: An Enquiry into the Contemporary Views on Universals, Revised edition, Springer, page 107:

(logic) The discipline which deals with the relationship of parts with their respective wholes.

mereologie

logic: theory dealing with parts in relation to wholes


love interest

Many people are involved in relationships in which they do not know how their love interest feels about them. […] They may also fear knowing the truth, which may be that their love interest isn't truly interested enough in them to make a commitment to the relationship.

2012, Barbara R. Cohl, “What Unhappy Couples Can Teach Us”, in Success for Modern Day Relationships: Working with Dating, Engaged, and Married Couples, Lanham, Md., Plymouth, Devon: Jason Aronson, →ISBN, page 82:

Items from the "Love Styles" scale (Grote & Frieze, 1994) and the Hatfield and Rapson "Passionate Love" scale (Hatfield & Sprecher, 1986) were used to assess the type of love felt for the other person. One love style measured was eros, or passionate love (Lee, 1976). […] Items were: "I was physically attracted to my love interest"; "I felt we had the right physical chemistry between us"; "Just seeing my love interest excited me"; "I felt that I knew and really understood my love interest"; […]

2015, H. Colleen Sinclair, Irene Hanson Frieze, “Initial Courtship Behavior and Stalking: How Should We Draw the Line?”, in Roland D. Maiuro, editor, Perspectives on Stalking: Victims, Perpetrators, and Cyberstalking, New York, N.Y.: Springer Publishing Company, →ISBN, page 61:

Naturally, Fallout also plays to [Tom] Cruise’s waning appeal as a romantic leading man, supplying him with no less than three potential love interests.

2018 July 25, A. A. Dowd, “Fallout may be the Most Breathlessly Intense Mission: Impossible Adventure Yet”, in The A.V. Club, archived from the original on 2018-07-31:

(film, literature) One who is of interest as a (potential) partner in love.

vlam

one of interest as a (potential) partner in love

They part mutually enchanted; he with her bouquet; she with his honeyed words hoarded in the cells of her excited soul. Their acquaintance is speedily matured, till it becomes evident to all spectators that a love interest has fairly begun.

1858 October, Grace Thalmon, “Choice of a Husband”, in D[avis] W[asgatt] Clark, editor, The Ladies’ Repository: A Monthly Periodical, Devoted to Literature and Religion, volume XVIII, number 37, Cincinnati, Oh.: L. Swormstedt and A. Poe [et al.], →OCLC, page 598, column 2:

Some of the greatest and most widely-appreciated literary achievements have been wholly or mainly independent of love-interest or love-inspiration. Religious fervour, zeal for liberty, admiration of abstract virtue, philanthropy, desire to search the heart of man, and contemplation of the beauties and splendours of the outward world,—all these prove to be motives as capable of firing and exalting the imagination as the more directly personal stimulus of love.

1875 July, “the London Hermit” [pseudonym], “Essays and Sketches. On Love in Fiction.”, in Dublin University Magazine. A Literary and Political Journal, volume LXXXVI, number DXI, Dublin: George Herbert, […], London: Hurst & Blackett, Melbourne, Vic.: George Robertson, →OCLC, page 113, column 1:

"The Hand of Peril" is subtitled by its author, Mr. Arthur Stringer, "a novel of adventure," whereas I should label it a six-cylinder detective story. […] Incidentally, the ligament that holds these six morsels together is, of course, a "love-interest" between the detective and the chief criminal's putative daughter and assistant.

1915 September, Henry Brinsley, “Latest News from the Literary Trenches”, in Frank Crowninshield, editor, Vanity Fair, volume 5, number 1, New York, N.Y.: Vanity Fair Publishing Company, →OCLC, page 94, column 1:

The love interest is supplied by the Colonel's grandson and the daughter of the inventor of a horseless wagon.

1926 December, [Arthur Hornblow, Sr.], “Mr. Hornblow Goes to the Play”, in F. E. Allardt, editor, Theatre Magazine: For the Lovers of the Stage and the Screen, volume XLIV, number 309, New York, N.Y.: Theatre Magazine Company, →OCLC, page 72, column 2:

(film, literature) A romantic plot or subplot in a film or book.


galge

Borrowed from Japanese ギャルゲー (gyarugē), a shortening of ギャルゲーム (gyaru gēmu), a wasei-eigo derived from English gal + game.

(video games) A video game centered around interactions with attractive anime-style girls.


phenomenological reduction

phenomenological reduction (plural phenomenological reductions)

The phenomenological reduction may be considered as a methodological device resorted to for the sake of arriving at radical and radically justified philosophical knowledge.

1955, Aron Gurwitsch, “The Phenomenological and the Psychological Approach to Consciousness”, in Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, volume 15, number 3, page 306:

(philosophy) In the phenomenology of Edmund Husserl (1859-1938) and his followers, a philosophical procedure intended to reveal the objects of consciousness as pure phenomena independently of any considerations of the existence of those objects and without the influence of inferential knowledge.


dialectical materialism

Calque of German dialektischer Materialismus, coined by Joseph Dietzgen in Streifzüge eines Sozialisten in das Gebiet der Erkenntnißtheorie [1887].

lang

Because the idealist perversity in its last representatives, namely Kant, Fichte, Schelling and Hegel, was thoroughly German, its issue, dialectical materialism, is also a pre-eminently German product.

1906 [1887], Joseph Dietzgen, “Streifzüge eines Sozialisten in das Gebiet der Erkenntnißtheorie [Excursions of a Socialist into the Domain of Epistemology]”, in Max Beer & Theodor Rothstein, transl., edited by Eugene Dietzgen & Joseph Dietzgen Jr., Some of the Philosophical Essays by Joseph Dietzgen:

(philosophy) The concept of reality in which material things are in the constant process of change brought about by the tension between conflicting or interacting forces, elements, or ideas.

弁証法的唯物論

べんしょうほうてきゆいぶつろん


falsidical

en-adj

falsidical (comparative more falsidical, superlative most falsidical)

more falsidical (comparative)
most falsidical (superlative)

From Latin falsidicus (“speaking falsehood”), from falsi- (“false”) + dicus (“speaker”).


thing-in-itself

Literal translation of the German Ding an sich.

(from Kantian philosophy on) A thing as it is independent of any conceptualization or perception by the human mind, postulated by practical reason but existing in a condition which is in principle unknowable and unexperienceable.

شَيْء فِي ذَاتِهِ

thing as it is independent of any conceptualization — see also noumenon


moral code

When the moral code that requires service to the public good decays, the legitimacy of the state collapses.

2020 November 27, Charles Hugh Smith, Moral Decay Leads to Collapse:

(ethics) A written, formal, and consistent set of rules prescribing righteous behavior, accepted by a person or by a group of people.


logical calculus

en-noun

logical calculus (plural logical calculi)


formal system

(logic) The grouping of a formal language and a set of inference rules and/or axioms.

formeel systeem

combination of formal language and inference rules


formal fallacy

formal fallacy (plural formal fallacies)

(logic) A pattern of reasoning which is always wrong, due to a flaw in the structure of the argument.


mathematical logic

mathematical logic (usually uncountable, plural mathematical logics)

(logic) A subfield of logic and mathematics consisting of both the mathematical study of logic and the application of this study to other areas of mathematics, exemplified by questions on the expressive power of formal logics and the deductive power of formal proof systems.


formal logic

formal logic (countable and uncountable, plural formal logics)


informal fallacy

informal fallacy (plural informal fallacies)

(logic) A fallacy whose error cannot be represented by the symbols used in formal logic.


implexion

implexion (countable and uncountable, plural implexions)

(philosophy) A relation between incomplete and complete objects which seems to be very close to what is often called “instantiation”, i.e., a relation between universals and particulars. Incomplete objects are “implected” in complete ones.


rickroll

en-verb

rickroll (third-person singular simple present rickrolls, present participle rickrolling, simple past and past participle rickrolled)

rickrolls (present singular third-person)
rickrolling (participle present)
rickrolled (participle past)
rickrolled (past)

4chan
Grand Theft Auto IV
Never Gonna Give You Up
Rick Astley
YouTube

The verb is a blend of Rick + duckroll, combining the name of the British pop singer and songwriter Rick Astley (born 1966) with a reference to the duckroll prank on the website 4chan, in which users tricked into clicking on a hyperlink were led to an image of a duck on wheels. The word was coined by the American YouTuber Shawn Cotter (born 1987) who, under the handle “cotter548”, uploaded the music video of Astley’s song “Never Gonna Give You Up” (1987) to the online video-sharing service YouTube and then posted messages on 4chan on May 15, 2007 ostensibly with links to a trailer for the forthcoming game Grand Theft Auto IV. People who clicked on the links instead saw the Astley video with the caption “You just got Rickroll’d” scrolling across the screen. The noun is derived from the verb.

coinage

I try not to get rickrolled by sketchy YouTube links, but sometimes you let your guard down.

YouTube ‘Rickrolls’ Everyone [title] […] Let the Internet pranking begin! YouTube, capitalizing on the resurgence of a popular meme, has booby-trapped each of the “featured videos” on its homepage. Click on any of the showcased clips and you’ll be taken instead to a cheesy video of pop singer Rick Astley singing his late-’80s hit song, “Never Gonna Give You Up.”

2008 April 1, Jenna Wortham, “YouTube ‘Rickrolls’ Everyone”, in Wired, San Francisco, Calif.: Condé Nast Publications, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2020-08-07:

Once you start rickrolling people, and more importantly get a reputation for it, you're heading towards being the Zimbabwean dollar in the link economy: it doesn't matter how many you offer, people just aren't going to buy them.

2008 December 5, Charles Arthur, “Why rickrolling is bad for you”, in Alan Rusbridger, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2022-10-22:

Despite its name, there is one thing the Vote Leave campaign should not have left for so long: registering a domain name. The delay by the anti-EU organisation meant that up to 100,000 people who tried to access voteleave.com, co.uk or .net were rickrolled – redirected to a YouTube clip of Rick Astley's 1987 hit Never Gonna Give You Up. So far, so internet.

2016 April 20, Homa Khaleeli, “How Vote Leave got rickrolled”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2022-11-17:

You send a Web link to someone, promising something exciting or compelling ("Is this you!?")—but the link actually takes your victim to a YouTube video of Rick Astley's 1987 music video, "Never Gonna Give You Up." That's it. That's the joke. Ha! You've been Rickrolled!

2020, David Pogue, “The Internet Celebrity Culture [Internet Memes 101: A Guide to Online Wackiness]”, in Social Media Influencers: Apps, Algorithms and Celebrities (In the Headlines), New York, N.Y.: New York Times Educational Publishing in association with The Rosen Publishing Group, →ISBN, page 14:

(originally Internet slang) To mislead (someone) into following a seemingly innocuous hyperlink, or sometimes a QR code, that leads to a YouTube video of Rick Astley's song "Never Gonna Give You Up".

瑞克搖

to mislead (someone) into following a seemingly innocuous hyperlink, or sometimes a QR code, that leads to a YouTube video of Rick Astley’s song “Never Gonna Give You Up”; to surprise or trick (someone) into hearing this song; to cause (someone) to unexpectedly engage with this song through an indirect method


Rousseauian

en-adj

Rousseauian (comparative more Rousseauian, superlative most Rousseauian)

more Rousseauian (comparative)
most Rousseauian (superlative)

/ɹuːˈsəʊɪən/

(philosophy) Of or relating to the philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778).

rousseaunià

of or relating to the philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau


kosha

Borrowed from Sanskrit कोश (kóśa, “sheath, vessel, container, layer”).

bor+

(philosophy) Any of five sheaths that are thought to cover the Atman, or True Self, according to Vedantic philosophy.


plausible deniability

Originally CIA jargon from the 1950s, and popularized during the Watergate scandal (1970s).

Lieut. Col. Oliver L. North may have added a memorable phrase to the lexicon of political obfuscation at the Iran-contra hearings when he referred to his concern for "plausible deniability" as he carried out his covert activities.

1987 July 16, Meyer Rangell, “Letters: Deniable Plausibility?”, in New York Times, retrieved 2015-06-08:

Americans would stand out in the Laotian jungle, and Washington needed to retain plausible deniability. CIA officials demanded that Laotians on their payroll carry out the mission.

2001 June 24, Douglas C. Waller, “The Americans Left Behind”, in Time, retrieved 2015-06-08:

No longer is plausible deniability acceptable, either for boards or for management. Corporate and nonprofit boards alike are expected to know of problems that are brewing deep within their organizations.

2014 October 8, Davia Temin, “The Role Of Boards In Crisis”, in Forbes, retrieved 2015-06-08:

(politics, business, military, espionage) The organization of clandestine activity in such a way that knowledge of its existence may be denied by those in authority.


metaphysic

Bring sweet philosophy along,
In metaphysic dreams.

c. 1720, Jonathan Swift, "Ode on Science," lines 32-33


metaphysic

en-noun

metaphysic (countable and uncountable, plural metaphysics)

From Middle English methaphesik, methaphisik, methaphisique, metaphesyk, methafisik, metaphesyk, methephysyk, from Old French metafisique, methaphisique and Medieval Latin metaphysica, methephisica; equivalent to meta- + physic.

With reference to general Philosophy or Metaphysic proper, psychology may be viewed as a kind of common ground whereon thinkers of widely different schools may meet.

1876, Editor, "Prefatory Words," Mind, vol. 1, no. 1, p. 5

(philosophy, uncountable, archaic) The field of study of metaphysics.

The uncertain conclusions of an ill-conducted analogy, and a false metaphysic, were mixed with a few simple precepts derived from observation, which probably made the whole of the science of prognostication in its earliest and purest state.

1775, Samuel Horsley, “An Abridged State of the Weather at London in the Year 1774,”, in Philosophical Transactions (1683-1775), volume 65, page 182:

It should be pointed out to the prospective reader that he will not find here the systematic presentation of a metaphysic.

1954, Frederick C. Copleston, “Review of Metaphysical Journal by Gabriel Marcel”, in Philosophy, volume 29, number 109, page 170:

A Neoplatonic metaphysic is the flip side of mysticism.

2003, Christine Helmer, “Mysticism and Metaphysics”, in The Journal of Religion, volume 83, number 4, page 521:

(philosophy, countable) The metaphysical system of a particular philosopher or of a particular school of thought.

What we need as a metaphysic and what the logical realists are at least glimpsing, is the principle of contradiction.

1927, Charles M. Perry, “A Principle for Realism”, in The Journal of Philosophy, volume 24, number 20, page 537:

(philosophy, countable) A fundamental principle or key concept.


ILY

Alternative form: ily

(Internet slang, text messaging) Initialism of I love you.


Jahannam

Borrowed from Arabic جَهَنَّم (jahannam). Doublet of Gehenna and Gehinnom.

bor+

(Islam) Islamic concept of hell, where unfaithful Muslims not true to their religion will be punished, but will eventually be forgiven.


strict implication

en-noun

strict implication (plural strict implications)

material implication
material implication

(logic) A material implication that is acted upon by the necessity operator from modal logic.


propositional calculus

propositional calculus (countable and uncountable, plural propositional calculi)


material implication

material implication (plural material implications)

In the truth table in Figure 1, the first row corresponds to modus ponens, the last row corresponds to modus tollens, the second row could be taken to represent an invalid argument (where P→Q is the argument and P is a premise or conjunction of premises), and the third row helps ensure that an argument of the form P→Q,¬P⊢¬Q is invalid.

The following paradox (and also axiom) of material implication: P→(Q→P) could be taken to mean the monotonicity of entailment, that is, if 'P' is true then no other or new fact 'Q' should be able to arise which would imply the nullification of P's truth, i.e., it could not be the case, for any 'Q', that Q → ¬P.

(logic) An implication as defined in classical propositional logic, leading to the truth of paradoxes of material implication such as Q⊢P→Q, to be read as "any proposition whatsoever is a sufficient condition for a true proposition".


moral philosophy

moral philosophy (countable and uncountable, plural moral philosophies)

The maxims of common life were arranged in some methodical order, and connected together by a few common principles, in the same manner as they had attempted to arrange and connect the phenomena of nature. The science which pretends to investigate and explain those connecting principles, is what is properly called moral philosophy.

1776, Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations, page 769:


deontic logic

deontic logic (countable and uncountable, plural deontic logics)

(logic) The study of obligation, permission, and related concepts.

(logic) A formal system capturing the concepts of obligation and permission.


modal logic

modal logic (countable and uncountable, plural modal logics)

(logic) Any formal system that attempts to deal with modalities, such as possibility and necessity, but also obligation and permission.


necessary condition

necessary condition (plural necessary conditions)

(logic) A statement Q in relation to statement P such that P implies Q.


evolutionary ethics

evolutionary biology
evolutionary biology

(ethics) Ethics - the study of principles relating to right and wrong conduct - that is informed yet not uniquely determined by sociobiology - the application of the principles of evolutionary biology to the study of social behaviour in both humans and animals.


ethical system

The main defects of Comte's ethical system are those that are common to all forms of Eudaemonism: its norm of morality is relative and contingent; it possesses no principles by which the quality of its subject-matter, social happiness, may be defined; its imperative imposes no moral obligation.

1913, “Altruism”, in Catholic Encyclopedia:

(ethics) A particular set of consistent ethical principles.


sufficient condition

sufficient condition (plural sufficient conditions)

(logic) A statement P in relation to statement Q such that P implies Q.


summum bonum

Learned borrowing from Latin summum bonum.

lbor

In a word, euery man for hiw owne ends: our ſummum bonum is commodity, and the Goddeſſe we adore is Dea moneta, Queene Mony, to whom wee daily offer ſacrifice, which ſteeres our hearts, hands, affections, all: […]

1621, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], “Democritus Iunior to the Reader”, in The Anatomy of Melancholy, […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and Iames Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, page 33:

(philosophy) The greatest good; the ultimate importance; the singular end which human beings ought to pursue.


comparative ethics

(anthropology, sociology, ethics) A type of descriptive ethics, focused on studying the nature and origins of beliefs about morality held by people in diverse social or cultural groups.


environmental ethics

(ethics) The branch of ethics that examines questions of moral right and wrong relating to the management, protection, or endangerment of the natural environment.


medical ethics

(ethics) The branch of ethics that examines questions of moral right and wrong arising in the context of the practice of medicine.


business ethics

en-noun

business ethics (countable and uncountable, plural business ethics)

(ethics) The branch of ethics that examines questions of moral right and wrong arising in the context of business practice or theory.


sublation

sublation (countable and uncountable, plural sublations)

(philosophy) In Hegelian philosophy, the situation where a thesis and antithesis interact.


sweet hereafter

Lord, what thou doest noo, an' why,
We maunna seek to ken;
But sune the sweet hereafter comes,
An' thou wilt tell us then.

1885, Mary Lee Demarest, "The Pathway o' the Sea," in A Library of Religious Poetry by Philip Shaff and Arthur Gilman (eds.), Funk and Wagnalls, New York, page 885

Miss Lacy Stafford of Taylorville was struck by an Illinois Central train at the Sangamon street crossing at 3 o'clock and in the eyes of the spectators she was wafted directly into the sweet hereafter by lightning express.

1903, "Woman Roiled Into Ditch by Train," The Daily Review (Decatur, Illinois), 22 Mar.

Owing to his sugarcane habit, his stubby front teeth are all pretty much gone to the sweet hereafter.

2003, Barbara Kingsolver, The Poisonwood Bible, →ISBN, page 174:

(idiomatic) Heaven; paradise as enjoyed in the afterlife.


patrology

patrology (countable and uncountable, plural patrologies)

(theology) the study of the lives and works (especially the writings) of the Church Fathers.


naturalistic fallacy

naturalistic fallacy (plural naturalistic fallacies)

G. E. Moore
Principia Ethica
naturalistic fallacy

Introduced by British philosopher G. E. Moore in his 1903 book Principia Ethica.

No, we do not have to put moral reasoning in a special category and use transcendental premises, because the posing of the naturalistic fallacy is itself a fallacy. For if ought is not is, what is?

1998 April, Edward O. Wilson, “The Biological Basis of Morality”, in The Atlantic:

It is easy to fall prey to the naturalistic fallacy, which suggests that because the companies are successful, they must also be right.

2018, Shoshana Zuboff, chapter 11, in The Age of Surveillance Capitalism:

The fallacious belief that something is automatically good because it is natural or automatically bad because it is unnatural.

Yet a mistake of this simple kind has commonly been made about good. It may be true that all things which are good are also something else, just as it is true that all things which are yellow produce a certain kind of vibration in the light. And it is a fact, that Ethics aims at discovering what are those other properties belonging to all things which are good. But far too many philosophers have thought that when they named those other properties they were actually defining good; that these properties, in fact, were simply not other, but absolutely and entirely the same with goodness. This view I propose to call the naturalistic fallacy and of it I shall now endeavour to dispose.

Any attempt to define "good" verbally, instead of treating it as an undefined term, in terms of which other terms are defined.


monome

From mono- + -ome; compare binomial, polynomial.

(mathematics, logic, computing) An expression with a single term, such as a product of numeric variables (with no addition) or a conjunction of possibly negated Boolean variables (with no disjunction).


propositional variable

propositional variable (plural propositional variables)

A propositional variable is typically a letter (possibly with a subscripted number) whose truth value is contingent upon some interpretation or valuation.

(logic) A variable that can either be true or false.


apagogic

(rhetoric) Proving indirectly, by showing the impossibility or absurdity of the contrary.

apagogico

proving indirectly, by showing the impossibility, or absurdity of the contrary


negative proof

A fallacious judgment that, because a premise cannot be proven true, that premise must be false.


retrospective determinism

retrospective determinism (usually uncountable, plural retrospective determinisms)

(logic) A fallacy consisting in reasoning that because something happened, it was therefore bound to happen.


affirming the consequent

(logic) A formal fallacy, committed by reasoning in the form:

A formal fallacy, committed by reasoning in the form:
If P, then Q.
Q.
Therefore, P.


fallacy fallacy

fallacy fallacy (plural fallacy fallacies)

From the fact that assuming a conclusion is false because of a fallacy in the reasoning is itself a fallacy.

(logic) The formal fallacy of inferring that if an argument contains a fallacy, its conclusion must be false.


proof by example

proof by example (plural proofs by example)

(logic) A logical fallacy consisting of providing one or more examples as a proof of a more general statement.


accentus

(logic) Ambiguity arising when the meaning of a sentence is changed by placing an unusual prosodic stress, or when, in a written passage, it is left unclear which word the emphasis was supposed to fall on.


child porn

The police raid uncovered a large quantity of child porn on the teacher's laptop.

child pornography
child pornography#English


right to choose

Strict abortion laws have been attacked in the courts, on the grounds that they violate a woman's fundamental right to choose whether or not to bear children.

1969 November 12, “Significant Step Taken on Abortion”, in St. Petersburg Times (Washington Post Service), retrieved 2009-03-22, page 7D:

(public policy, law, ethics) The moral or legal entitlement of a pregnant woman to make the full and final decision either to give birth to her child or to abort the fetus.

(public policy, law, ethics) The entitlement of a person to make the decision to end their own life through euthanasia.


philosophy of science

philosophy of science (countable and uncountable, plural philosophies of science)

(philosophy, uncountable) The study of the assumptions, foundations, and implications of science, including such questions as what distinguishes science from non-science, what are the aims of science, or what is a successful scientific explanation of a phenomenon.

filosofia de la ciència

(philosophy, countable) A particular theory within the former.


right to life

(public policy, law, ethics) The right of a human being to the continuation of his or her life.

Texas Right to Life, a statewide, anti-abortion, anti-euthanasia organization, was organized last summer. Right to Life groups in Dallas and Houston have been active for some time.

1974-03, Martha Hume, "Abortions in Texas", Texas Monthly, page 65

That means women should have the right to be free about their own bodies. I believe a woman has a right to life. The opposition is an anti-freedom group, rather than, as they have very effectively called themselves, a right-to-life group.

1987-06, Dale Keiger, "The Quiet Minority", Cincinnati Magazine, page 68

(US, public policy, law, ethics) The moral or legal entitlement of an unborn child to be born, and not have its birth prevented through an abortion or other medical procedure.


sophistic

Learned borrowing from Latin sophisticus, itself a borrowing from Ancient Greek σοφιστικός (sophistikós); morphologically, from sophist + -ic.

lbor

But when we consider his wish to reconcile Philosophy and Rhetoric, it must be remembered that, if the new Sophistic differed in most of its essential features from the Sophistic of Plato’s contemporaries, it was Philosophy as conceived by Isocrates rather than Plato that Themistius had in mind.

1896, Wilmer Cave Wright, The Emperor Julian’s Relation to the New Sophistic and Neo-Platonism: With a Study of His Style, page 19:

Rather, to use Whitman’s phrase, Sophokles “thought through” a great deal more of the sophistic than their attacks on religion or their fascination with religion.

1995, Peter W. Rose, Sons of the Gods, Children of Earth: Ideology and Literary Form in Ancient Greece, →ISBN, page 272:

The luminaries of the ‘first sophistic’—Philostratus cites Gorgias, Critias, and others—treated, we are told, abstract philosophical themes.

2005, Tim Whitmarsh, The Second Sophistic, →ISBN, page 4:

(historical, philosophy) The sophists of antiquity, in general or of a specific period; their beliefs and method.


Machiavellianism

en-noun

Machiavellianism (countable and uncountable, plural Machiavellianisms)

Let us turn, finally, to the war itself, and ask ourselves if it can be understood as the victory of decency over Machiavellianism.

2001, Tim Spiekerman, Shakespeare's Political Realism: The English History Plays, SUNY Press, →ISBN, page 54:

(philosophy, politics) A political philosophy, based on the writings of Machiavelli, especially The Prince, that advocates the use of ruthlessness and duplicity in political dealings.


shark fin soup

shark fin soup (countable and uncountable, plural shark fin soups)

(cooking) A soup made from shark fins, common especially in Chinese culture, where it is served on special occasions and as a symbol of wealth and prestige.


decidability

decidability (countable and uncountable, plural decidabilities)

(logic, computer science) The state or condition of being decidable.


term logic

term logic (countable and uncountable, plural term logics)

(logic) An approach to logic that splits propositions into two terms—subject and predicate.


false dilemma

A situation in which two opposing options are presented as the only possibilities, when others are available.


subnector

(logic) a functor which takes as input one or more sentences and outputs a term.


hylomorphism

hylomorphism (countable and uncountable, plural hylomorphisms)

Hylomorphism (computer science)
hylomorphism

(philosophy) The doctrine that every physical substance is the sum of its component matter and the form taken by that matter.


qualityness

(rare, India, philosophy) The state or quality of being or having quality.


technophilia

technophilia (usually uncountable, plural technophilias)


methodic

en-adj

methodic (comparative more methodic, superlative most methodic)

more methodic (comparative)
most methodic (superlative)

From Ancient Greek μεθοδικός (methodikós, “going to work by rule, systematic, crafty”).

der

(philosophy) Chosen for the sake of its effect, rather than for its own sake; sometimes distinguished from real.


metaevolution

en-noun

metaevolution (usually uncountable, plural metaevolutions)

More recently, however, it has become increasingly realized that symbiosis is at the core of the evolution of evolutionary levels and mechanisms—of a metaevolution—in the microevolution of life.

1980, Erich Jantsch, “Ethics and Evolution”, in The North American Review, volume 265, number 3, page 16:

The notion of event is also associated with that of metaevolution in biology (the evolution of the evolutionary processes themselves).

2004, Elías Palti, “The ‘Return of the Subject’ as a Historico-Intellectual Problem”, in History and Theory, vol. 43, no. 1, p. 76, note 53:

2000, David Hunter Tow, The Future of Life: Meta-Evolution: A Unified Theory of Evolution:

(philosophy, biology) The evolution of the elements of evolutionary systems. Applying evolutionary concepts to non-living systems. Applying evolutionary concepts to individual learning and personal development. Examining the implications and past and future developments of evolution.


argumentum ad hominem

argumentum ad hominem (plural argumenta ad hominem or argumentums ad hominem)

argumenta ad hominem (plural)
argumentums ad hominem (plural)

“He is an ass on two legs, the like of which was never seen before; so go home with your logic you old heathen vagabond, and teach your grandmother to milk the ducks!” The legend which we draw on, and which, never having been in print, we quote from memory, states that this argumentum ad hominem drew down great applause from the saint's supporters, and loud cries of "order" from the ministerial side of the house.

1843 March 13, “St. Patrick's Day”, in The Illustrated London News, volume 2, number 46, page 185:

[T]hey prefer argumentum ad hominem, which is a hell of a way to conduct a discussion.

1976, Scott Beach (lyrics and music), “Religion & Politics”, in Dr. Demento’s Dementia Royale:

The Fat Clown Derek keeps saying that I am making an argumentum ad hominem against him[.]

2002 January 13, “Latin & Logic: Derek the Fat Clown knows neither”, in alt.animals.ethics.vegetarian (Usenet):

(rhetoric) A type of fallacious argument in which the attempt is made to refute a theory or belief by discrediting the person(s) who advocate that theory or belief; an ad hominem argument.


practical reason

(philosophy) The use of reason to decide how to act.


lylab

(slang) Acronym of love you like a brother (or like a bro).


logic diagram

A graphical representation of a program using formal logic.


likely story

He told me he couldn't come because his budgie had fallen ill. A likely story!

Used to suggest that someone's story or excuse is a lie.