zetetic

From Ancient Greek ζητητικός (zētētikós, “inquisitive, keen”), from ζητέω (zētéō, “I seek”).

uder

zetetical (alternative)
zetetick (alternative obsolete)

1865, Samuel Birley Rowbotham, Zetetic Astronomy, 2022 facsimile reprint, Salzwasser Verlag, page 6,
Hence, in every zetetic process, the conclusion arrived at is essentially a quotient, which, if the details be correct, must, of necessity, be true beyond the reach or power of contradiction.

This^([the assumption that the earth is an extended plain]) is the great central zetetic assumption on which the whole theory is based.

1887, A. Wilford Hall, editor, Scientific Arena: The Organ of the Substantial Philosophy, Volume 1, Hall & Co., page 42:

The zetetic approach or, as Kant translates it, the searching approach, becomes the element by means of which the discourse develops, the medium in which philosophical thinking occurs.

1994, Willi Goetschel, Constituting Critique, page 74:

(philosophy) Proceeding by inquiry or investigation.


adicity

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-adicity.wav

From -adic (taken from monadic/dyadic/triadic [function/operator]) + -ity, or alternatively from -ad (taken from monad/duad/triad) + -icity. Compare Latinate equivalent arity, based on -ary.

1997, Robert W. Burch, 13: Peirce's Reduction Thesis, Nathan Houser, Don D. Roberts, James Van Evra (editor), Studies in the Logic of Charles Sanders Peirce, Indiana University Press, page 233,
Equivalently, it says that all relations of adicity greater than 3 may be reduced to relations of adicities 1, 2, and/or 3. The negative component of the Thesis says, first, that relations of adicity 2 may not in general be constructed from (reduced to) relations exclusively of adicity 1; and, second, that relations of adicity 3 and greater may not in general be constructed from (equivalently: reduced to) relations exclusively of adicities 1 and/or 2.

What can be predicted is that the adicity of any syntactic predicate is the same: since its adicity is a grammatical and not a thematic fact, semantic differences between predicates cannot affect their grammatical structure.

2004, Susan Rothstein, Predicates and Their Subjects, Springer, page 47:

2007, Helier J. Robinson, Relation Philosophy of Mathematics, Science, and Mind, Sharebooks Publishing, 2nd Edition, page 68,
We have seen that every relation, without exception, necessarily has a term set, and the necessary properties of simplicity and an adicity: relations without these are impossible, merely nominal.

(logic, mathematics, computer science) The number of arguments or operands a function or operation takes. For a relation, the number of domains in the corresponding Cartesian product.


heuretic

(logic) The branch of logic concerned with discovery or invention


Aborigines

Learned borrowing from Latin aborīginēs, which see for more.

(Roman mythology) The earliest inhabitants of central Italy, from whom the Latins were said to have descended.

aborígines

the earliest inhabitants of central Italy


schematism

en-noun

schematism (countable and uncountable, plural schematisms)

(astrology) The combination of the heavenly bodies.


vivarta

(philosophy, Indian mysticism) A turning or whirling.

(philosophy, Indian mysticism) The cyclonic process of manifestation by which the one becomes the many. It is an essentially Vedantic concept of cosmogonic as well as psychologico-philosophical implications.


Pandarus

(Greek mythology) An archer on the side of Troy in the Trojan War who precipitated the war by breaking a truce.


decidable

en-adj

decidable (comparative more decidable, superlative most decidable)

more decidable (comparative)
most decidable (superlative)

intuitionistic logic
intuitionistic logic

(logic) in intuitionistic logic, a proposition P is decidable in a given theory if it can be proven from the theory that "either P or not P", i.e. in symbols: P∨¬P.


Aquarian

(astrology) Of or pertaining to the astrological sign of Aquarius.

aquariano

of or pertaining to the astrological sign of Aquarius


Aquarian

(astrology) A person born under the astrological sign of Aquarius.


deflationary

(philosophy, logic) Belonging or relating to a family of theories claiming that assertions that predicate truth of a statement do not attribute a property called truth to such a statement.


determinable

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

It is certainly not a Moorean fact that there could have been other determinables or combinations of determinables than those that there actually are.

2007 September 5, David Denby, “Generating possibilities”, in Philosophical Studies, volume 141, number 2, →DOI:

(philosophy) An attribute of something that is susceptible of determination into various states


phenomenologically

There is no question that, phenomenologically considered, the experience of perceiving and the experience of having a hallucination are sufficiently similar that, on the strength of what proves to be a hallucination, one may sincerely claim to have (veridically) perceived something.

1969, Joseph Margolis, “Existential Import and Perceptual Judgments”, in The Journal of Philosophy, volume 66, number 13, page 404:

(philosophy) In a manner characteristic of phenomenology or of phenomenological philosophy.

fenomenologicamente

in a manner characteristic of phenomenology


predesignate

From pre- + designate. Adjective coined by Sir William Hamilton.

(logic, of a proposition) Having its quantity indicated by a verbal sign, as with "all", "none", etc.


proception

(philosophy) according to the philosophy of Justus Buchler, the process of the development of a person's experience by the interaction of behaviour and the environment.


prizing

(philosophy) The act or state of prizing something, valuing it highly.


perfectibility

en-noun

perfectibility (countable and uncountable, plural perfectibilities)


Hermione

From the Ancient Greek Ἑρμῐόνη (Hermĭónē). Not related to German Hermine.

(Greek mythology) Daughter of Helen and Menelaus, wife of Orestes.


Laverna

(Roman mythology) A goddess of thieves and impostors.


unlesss

Attributed to John Horton Conway. From unless, by analogy with the formation of iff from if.

1990, James Glimm, The Legacy of John Von Neumann, American Mathematical Society, →ISBN, page 279,
Partial Order: G ≥ H unlesss (unless and only unless) H ≥ some Gᴿ or some Hᴸ ≥ G.

A subset S is called absorbing if to each x#92;inX there is a real number #92;epsilon#61;#92;epsilon#95;xgt;0 such that #92;lambdax#92;inS for all #92;lambda with 0lt;#92;left#124;#92;lambda#92;right#124;#92;le#92;epsilon. Trivially the set X is absorbing; on the other hand #92;#123;0#92;#125; can never be absorbing (unlesss X#61;#92;#123;0#92;#125;).

1999, V. K. Balachandran, Topological Algebras, North-Holland, published 2000, →ISBN, pages 78–79:

2004, William Fraser, Susan Hirshberg, and David Wolfe, "The Structure of the Distributive Lattice of Games Born by Day n", in Integers: Electronic Journal of Combinatorial Number Theory 5(2) (2005), page 2,
G ≥ H unlesss H ≥ Gᴿ or Hᴸ ≥ G for some Gᴿ ∈ Gᴿ or some Hᴸ ∈ Hᴸ. ¶ (Analogous to “iff”, the term “unlesss” means “unless and only unless”.)


precisely unless

(mathematics, logic) implies a negative and is implied by a negative; i.e. B implies not-A and not-B implies A


mythopoet

(mythology) a writer of mythic poetry; a mythopoeic writer.


mythopoetical

en-adj

mythopoetical (comparative more mythopoetical, superlative most mythopoetical)

more mythopoetical (comparative)
most mythopoetical (superlative)

(mythology) Pertaining to the creation of myths; pertaining to mythopoiesis.


mythopoiesis

en-noun

mythopoiesis (usually uncountable, plural mythopoieses)

mythopoieses (plural)
mythopoesis (alternative)


contrapositive

(logic) The inverse of the converse of a given logical implication.

kontrapositio

the inverse of the converse of a given proposition


positing

Formulated in this fashion, the phenomenological datum evokes the distinction made earlier between those intendings and positings in which the ego is involved and those in which the ego is not engaged.

2012, F. Kersten, Phenomenological Method: Theory and Practice (page 53)

(philosophy) The process by which one posits.


self-contradiction

self-contradiction (countable and uncountable, plural self-contradictions)

(logic) A statement that contains a contradiction, or a premise from which one could be derived.


self-criticism

self-criticism (usually uncountable, plural self-criticisms)

[ˌsɛlfˈkɹɪɾəˌsɪzəm]

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-self-criticism.wav

to commit self-criticism

... commit self - criticism and allow other people to criticize him . If we do all these things , then there is hope and there is a future for Marxism . The most important thing is consistency . If you make a promise you must keep it[…]

1991, Edward A. Gargan, China's Fate: A People's Turbulent Struggle with Reform and Repression, 1980-1990, Doubleday Books:

This is starting to resemble (in a much lower-stakes field, it cannot be said often enough) some Union of Soviet Cinematographers self-criticism sessions for artists whose work was considered “bourgeois formalism” or whatever made Stalin’s colon clench that week.

2003 August 16, vjmorton, “Not-so-brave heart”, in Rightwing Film Geek:

(communism, Juche) A practice of confessing and criticizing one's real or imagined transgressions in public settings, especially in East Asia.


Mazandaran

Borrowed from Persian مازندران (mâzandarân, literally “the gate or the valley of the giants”).

bor

(Iranian mythology) A land mentioned in Shahnameh and Avesta.


dromology

< French dromologie < Ancient Greek δρόμος (drómos, “race, running, racetrack, course, path”) + λόγος (lógos, “account, explanation, narrative”); term coined by the French philosopher Paul Virilio to discuss the importance of speed in warfare and communication. Equivalent to dromo- + -logy.

der

1989, Patrick Camiller (tr.), Paul Virilio (auth.), War and Cinema: The Logistics of Perception, Verso, 0-86091-928-5, page 35,
Everything in this sunlit world is dedicated to speed. Even the tomb contains the instruments of dromology (sophisticated vehicles, chariots, vessels), and sovereign Death is represented holding a symbolic whip and bit tightly to his chest.

(philosophy) The science or logic of speed.


essent

Coined by Ralph Manheim in his 1959 English translation of Martin Heidegger’s Einführung in die Metaphysik to render German Seiendes (as distinct from Sein), on the basis of essens, a faux-Latin present participle of sum.

Why are there essents rather than nothing? That is the question. Clearly it is no ordinary question. “Why are there essents, why is there anything at all, rather than nothing?”—obviously this is the first of all questions, though not in a chronological sense.

1959, Martin Heidegger, translated by Ralph Manheim, An Introduction to Metaphysics, page 1:

As against this, the non-conceptual creative word, instead of enabling us to grasp and lay hold of what is already there before us, instead of serving merely as a means to describing what is present, calls into being. It is evocative of Being; it invokes that presence (Anwesenheit), i.e., Being, within which (in the light of which) anything can appear before us as an essent.

1992, Jarava Lal Mehta, edited by William J. Jackson, J.L. Mehta on Heidegger, Hermeneutics and Indian Tradition, page 51:

The essent can be things at our disposal; things at hand such as tools, or vehicles. The land, the sea, the mountains, rivers, woods are also essents. Trees, birds, insects, grasses and stones are essents.

2007, Marko Zlomislić, Jacques Derrida’s Aporetic Ethics, page 116:

(philosophy) that which is; an entity, a being, an existent


unexperienceable

It is at the cost of making the absolute unknowable, of reducing it to the status of the unexperienceable external world of the dualistic realist.

1912 January 18, W. P. Montague, “The New Realism and the Old”, in The Journal of Philosophy, Psychology and Scientific Methods, volume 9, number 2, page 45:

It is beyond logic, an inconceivable but not unexperienceable unity of opposites.

2000 Jan, Kevin Schilbrack, “Metaphysics in Dōgen”, in Philosophy East and West, volume 50, number 1, p. 53 n61:

(chiefly philosophy) Incapable of being experienced.


nominalize

en-verb

nominalize (third-person singular simple present nominalizes, present participle nominalizing, simple past and past participle nominalized)

tlb

(American spelling, Oxford British English)

nominalizes (present singular third-person)
nominalizing (participle present)
nominalized (participle past)
nominalized (past)
nominalise (alternative)


Dione

en-proper noun

Dione (countable and uncountable, plural Diones)

From Latin Diōnē (“of Jupiter”), from Ancient Greek Διώνη (Diṓnē, “of Zeus”).

(Greek mythology) Mother of Aphrodite, and possibly the same as the goddess Rhea.


acrasia

en-noun

acrasia (countable and uncountable, plural acrasias)

What I think this depicts is a relationship between the reasons we have to act and the action we do. This problem of acrasia suggests that sometimes we have those reasons. We think smoking is bad for health so the action we would expect is that we would refrain from smoking. Instead, we smoke.

1972 summer, Arthur Cody, “Weakness of the Will”, in Synergist: A Publication of the Office of Academic Affairs, volume 5, number 2, Chicago, Ill.: Northeastern Illinois University, →OCLC, page 115:

So when the badness of a poor doctor or actor is said to be 'similar by analogy' to badness proper[…], and this is used to shed light on the 'similarity' between acrasia proper and the acrasias in respect of anger, honour, and gain[…], the thought must be that a bad doctor stands to doctoring more or less as a bad man stands to action, while a choleric acratic stands to anger more or less as an acratic proper stands to bodily pleasure.

1989, A[nthony] W[illiam] Price, “Aristotle on the Varieties of Friendship”, in Love and Friendship in Plato and Aristotle, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Clarendon Press, →ISBN, page 144:

Augustine's original interpretation of our human condition is that we struggle and fail to do what we want to do and know that we ought to do – the classical problem of weakness of will or acrasia. […] We recognize acrasia in ourselves […] it is an acrasia which is tied to specific weaknesses: the man who yearns for vodka, and who tries and fails to limit his vodka-intake, may have no serious difficulty in avoiding over-eating.

1994, John M[ichael] Rist, “Soul, Body and Personal Identity”, in Augustine: Ancient Thought Baptized, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, published 2000, →ISBN, page 137:

I earlier […] introduced a notion of ‘hard acrasia’, that is, of a conscious failure to live up to what I judge to be best in what I desire most, choose, and do. We need to distinguish this from ‘soft acrasia’: in cases of soft acrasia, the agent’s perception is dimmed and his judgement deflected, so that he acts in a way that he would not have chosen in a cool hour, with judgement and perception unimpaired, and yet not with conscious contrariety to an occurrent choice, in cases of hard acrasia, his perception is clear, his judgement unequivocal—and yet, out of weakness, he acts otherwise.

1995, A[nthony] W[illiam] Price, “Plato”, in Mental Conflict (Issues in Ancient Philosophy), London; New York, N.Y.: Routledge, →ISBN, page 92:

Socrates undertakes to press this indictment against that explanation of acrasia which he takes to be by far the most common of all: that men who know the better will do the worse because they are "overcome" or "defeated" by desire for pleasures.

1995, Gregory Vlastos, “Socrates on Acrasia”, in Daniel W. Graham, editor, Studies in Greek Philosophy, volumes II (Socrates, Plato, and Their Tradition), Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, →ISBN, part 1 (Socrates), page 50:

(philosophy) Alternative spelling of akrasia (“(uncountable) lack of physical or (especially) mental strength; poor willpower; also, the tendency to act contrary to one's better judgment; (countable) an instance of this”)


akrasia

akrasia (countable and uncountable, plural akrasias)

Learned borrowing from Ancient Greek ᾰ̓κρᾰσῐ́ᾱ (ăkrăsĭ́ā), a variant of ᾰ̓κρᾰ́τειᾰ (ăkrắteiă, “lack of power, debility, impotence; lack of self-control, incontinence; self-indulgence”), from ἀκρατής (akratḗs, “having no authority, powerless; unable to exercise self-control, incontinent”) + -ῐ́ᾱ (-ĭ́ā, suffix forming feminine abstract nouns). Ἀκρατής (Akratḗs) is derived from ᾰ̓- (ă-, prefix forming terms having a sense opposite to the stems or words to which it is attached) + κρᾰ́τος (krắtos, “might, strength; dominion, power”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kret- (“insight, intelligence; strength”)) + -ής (-ḗs, suffix forming third-declension adjectives). Doublet of acratia.

der

His [Homer's] Olympian gods live by passion and propensity rather than by principle; their besetting sin is a fault of inclination to what they like, not of absolute malignity; it belongs to the akrasia, not the absolute kakia of Aristotle.

1887 June, W[illiam] E[wart] Gladstone, “The Great Olympian Sedition”, in The Contemporary Review, volume LI, London: Isbister and Company […], →ISSN, →OCLC, page 762:

The Atasthalié of Homer seems to hold to his Atè a relation resembling that between the kakia and the akrasia of Aristotle: the one indicating innate mischief, the other only inadequate means of defence against evil when it solicits from without.

1890, W[illiam] E[wart] Gladstone, “Section IV: Rudiments of Ethics”, in Landmarks of Homeric Study […], London; New York, N.Y.: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC, subsection IV, page 91:

If there are six severally necessary and jointly sufficient conditions of full-blooded akrasia, then perhaps the way to classify the varieties of akrasia and non-akrasia is by means of the statistical array generated by considering the permutations of the six conditions of akrasia. […] Examining this array may make it clear which types of akrasia logically cannot occur; what the range of possible partial akrasias is; and what kinds of cases are not akrasias at all.

1995, T[imothy] D[avid] J[ohn] Chappell, “The Varieties of Akrasia”, in Aristotle and Augustine on Freedom: Two Theories of Freedom, Voluntary Action and Akrasia, London: Palgrave Macmillan, published 1998, →DOI, →ISBN, part I (Aristotle), page 98:

The paradigm case of akrasia is the person who seems to know that a certain type of food is healthy but is none the less led by desire to eat a more pleasurable food instead. This is an act of akrasia, rather than immoderation, because the agent appears to know better. But his desires are somehow able to prevail over his reason, and he acts as if he were immoderate. Aristotle proposes a variety of explanations for akrasia[…]; on my reading, his implication in all is that, despite appearances, the akratic lacks practical wisdom.

1999, Edward Halper, “The Unity of the Virtues in Aristotle”, in David Sedley, editor, Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy, volume XVII, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 130:

The structure of the brain exerts constraints on what is easy or difficult to compute—resulting not only in the limits of specific cognitive abilities but in the bounded nature of everyday rationality and our propensity for certain types of systematic biases, errors, and akrasias.

2012, Laurence J. Kirmayer, Ian Gold, “Re-socializing Psychiatry: Critical Neuroscience and the Limits of Reductionism”, in Suparna Choudhury, Jan Slaby, editors, Critical Neuroscience: A Handbook of the Social and Cultural Contexts of Neuroscience, Chichester, West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell, →ISBN, part V (Beyond Neural Correlates: Ecological Approaches to Psychiatry), page 316:

The concept of akrasia comes from a debate in ancient philosophy about whether it is possible to act against what you know to be good. […] It's important to take a nuanced view of akrasia and separate it from will power, said Reinout Wiers, a psychologist at the University of Amsterdam and the author of a book on akrasia and addiction. […] [Annemarie] Kalis added that changing your environment might be a better way to resist akrasia than trying to improve your willpower. These changes are called commitment devices: they don't allow you to change your mind.

2024 March 21, Shayla Love, “Why do we do things that are bad for us? The ancient philosophers had an answer”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2024-03-29:

(philosophy, uncountable) Lack of physical or (especially) mental strength; poor willpower; also, the tendency to act contrary to one's better judgment; (countable) an instance of this.

akrasia

lack of physical or (especially) mental strength; poor willpower; tendency to act contrary to one’s better judgment; instance of this


major premise

(logic) In a categorical syllogism, the premise whose terms are the syllogism's major term and middle term.

pääpremissi

premise whose terms are the major term and middle term


star sign

(astrology) Any of the twelve astrological signs.


astrological sign

en-noun

astrological sign (plural astrological signs)

(astrology) Any of twelve signs, corresponding to constellations, that are used as the basis of astrology

sterreteken

sign that is used as the basis of astrology


indiscernible

(chiefly philosophy) Something which is incapable of being discerned.


meaning of life

The meaning of life here on earth might be defined as consisting in this: To unfold your self, to work what thing you have the faculty for. It is a necessity for the human being, the first law of our existence.

1840 May 22, Thomas Carlyle, “Lecture VI. The Hero as King. Cromwell, Napoleon: Modern Revolutionism.”, in On Heroes, Hero-Worship and The Heroic in History, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1840, →OCLC, page 207:

I asked myself if this were the meaning of life—to be a work-beast? I knew of no horse in the city of Oakland that worked the hours I worked.

1913 August, Jack London, chapter VII, in John Barleycorn, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC, page 63:

But he was no nearer to the meaning of life than he had been before. Why the world was there and what men had come into existence for at all was as inexplicable as ever.

1915, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, chapter LIII, in Of Human Bondage, New York, N.Y.: George H[enry] Doran Company, →OCLC, page 274:

(philosophy, religion) A hypothetical answer to all of life's ultimate questions; the purpose or raison d'être of human life.

مَعْنَى اَلْحَيَاة

hypothetical answer to life’s ultimate questions


Kantianism

transcendental idealism
transcendental idealism

(philosophy) The philosophical system of Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) and his followers; also called transcendental idealism.


Kantian

en-adj

Kantian (comparative more Kantian, superlative most Kantian)

more Kantian (comparative)
most Kantian (superlative)
Kantean (alternative)

Gurwitsch's notion of the perceptual noema as a completely idealized phenomenon is more Kantian than Husserlian.

1964 Sep, James M. Edie, “Transcendental Phenomenology and Existentialism”, in Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, volume 25, number 1, page 59:

Thus Django becomes the carrier of the “public use of one's reason”—the Kantian road to enlightenment given to him by the German “Forty-Eighter” dentist–turned-bounty hunter Dr. “King” Schultz, and represents the fictive, allohistorical beginning of the battle against slavery and racism in the United States.

2014 July 31, Oliver C. Speck, editor, Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained: The Continuation of Metacinema, Bloomsbury, →ISBN, page 25:

It aimed to pacify intra-European relations through exchange and economic cooperation. The framework was therefore Kantian: it was based on the principle of peace through exchange.

2023 September 30, Patrick Wintour, quoting Zaki Laïdi, “‘No turning back’: how the Ukraine war has profoundly changed the EU”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

(philosophy) Of, pertaining to, or resembling the philosophical views of Immanuel Kant (1724-1804).

kantià

of, pertaining to, or resembling the philosophical views of Immanuel Kant


Kantian

(philosophy) A person who subscribes to philosophical views associated with Immanuel Kant.


eternal recurrence

The concept dates from ancient times and was popularized by the philosopher Nietzsche (1844-1900).

(cosmology, religion, philosophy) The belief or theory that all the events in cosmic history repeat in an endless cycle.


eternal return

(cosmology, religion, philosophy) Eternal recurrence.


Liber

(Roman mythology) A god of viticulture and wine, as well as male fertility and freedom.


Pandion

(Greek mythology) The name of two kings of Athens (Pandion I and Pandion II).


comparate

(logic) One of two things being compared.


two wrongs don't make a right

"But when it comes to taking what belongs to another—well, a thief is a thief. . . . After all, two wrongs don't make a right, do they?"

1915, William MacLeod Raine, chapter 15, in The Highgrader:

"Late in the fight, Roger told me Zab was going to do something dirty, and he did it," Mayweather said after the fight. "I didn't return it, because two wrongs don't make a right."

2006 April 9, Clifton Brown, “Boxing: Mayweather Is Crowned, but not without a Fight”, in New York Times, retrieved 2009-06-17:

I have no doubt that while the industry loses a great deal of revenue owing to fraudulent travel, it probably more than makes up for it by allowing journey planners to charge too much for journeys - and two wrongs don't make a right.

2023 May 31, Barry Doe, “A potential downside of ticket reform needs consideration”, in RAIL, number 984, page 58:

(ethics) A wrongful action is not a morally appropriate way to correct or cancel a previous wrongful action.

冤冤相報永無完了 /冤冤相报永无完了

a wrongful action is not a morally appropriate way to correct or cancel a previous wrongful action

az egyik fél vétsége nem teszi a másik vétségét semmissé

an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind


perfectionism

en-noun

perfectionism (countable and uncountable, plural perfectionisms)

(philosophy) A belief that spiritual perfection may be achieved during life, or that it should be striven for.


alethic

en-adj

alethic (comparative more alethic, superlative most alethic)

more alethic (comparative)
most alethic (superlative)

From Ancient Greek ἀλήθεια (alḗtheia, “truth”) + -ic.

der

The modal operators □ and ◊ stand for alethic necessity and possibility.

2003, Nicholas Asher, Alex Lascarides, Logics of Conversation, page 46:

(logic) Of or pertaining to the various modalities of truth, such as the possibility or impossibility of something being true.

alethisch

logic: pertaining to the modalities of truth


simpliciter

From the Latin simpliciter (“simply”, “plainly”), from simplex (“simple”).

The charge was reduced from aggravated assault to assault simpliciter.

Paragraph 68, Public Prosecutor v CJH ([2022] SGHC 303)
Leaving aside this report, I make the general observation firstly that the CA has pointed out in PP v UI [2008] 4 SLR(R) 500 […] that rape simpliciter "is already ‘an inherently odious and reprehensible act’… that exacts ‘irretrievable physical, emotional and psychological scars on [the] victim’”[…]

(philosophy, law, originally chiefly Scots law, Canadian law) Simply, absolutely; without any qualification or condition.


mind-body

(philosophy) Describing the physical action of the mind on the body, especially the mode in which a thought can cause an action.


forward reasoning

artificial intelligence
artificial intelligence

(philosophy, logic) In artificial intelligence, modus ponens.


mechanistic

en-adj

mechanistic (comparative more mechanistic, superlative most mechanistic)

more mechanistic (comparative)
most mechanistic (superlative)

Such ateleological explanation is what is meant by mechanistic explanation in the broad sense.

1908, William McDougall, An Introduction to Social Psychology, section 449:

(philosophy) Having a physical or biological cause.


pronoia

en-noun

pronoia (countable and uncountable, plural pronoiae or pronoiai or pronoias)

pronoiae (plural)
pronoiai (plural)
pronoias (plural)

Borrowed from Ancient Greek πρόνοιᾰ (prónoiă, “foreknowledge, foresight; providence; form of land grant”), from πρόνοος (prónoos, “careful, prudent”) + -ῐᾰ (-ĭă, suffix forming nouns). πρόνοος is derived from προ- (pro-, prefix indicating a coming forth) + νόος (nóos, “the mind; act of the mind”). The English word is cognate with Latin pronoea (“providence”).
The plural form pronoiae is probably a modification of Latin pronoeae, while pronoiai is from Ancient Greek πρόνοιαι (prónoiai).

der

Now Providence (which the Greekes call Pronoia) is an intellectuall knowledge, both fore-ſeeing, caring for, and ordering all things, and doth not onely behold all paſt, all present, and all to come, but is the cauſe of their ſo being, which Preſcience (ſimply taken) is not: and therefore Providence by the Philoſophers (ſaith S. Auguſtine) is divided into Memory, Knowledge, and Care: […]

1614, Walter Raleigh, “Of the Creation, and Preservation of the World”, in The Historie of the World. In Five Bookes. […], London: Printed for Walter Bvrre, →OCLC, § XIII (Of Providence), page 15:

[page 320] 'And make no provision for the flesh.' [Romans 13:14] 'Provision.' [footnote: Προνοια.] The word implies a forecasting of the mind; and the prohibition therefore is against all deliberation or devising of means or expedients for the gratification of our lusts. […] [page 321] He is a confirmed and advanced learner in the school of wickedness, who can thus in his cooler moments bestow care and calculation on such an enterprise, and in short make a study of the likeliest methods for securing to himself te enjoyment of unhallowed pleasures; and this is the pronoia, the unholy providence, if it may be so termed, on which our text lays its interdict. But it is not against all pronoia, all respect to things future, even though the futurities of this life, that the Bible warns us.

1836–1842, Thomas Chalmers, “Lecture XCIV: Romans, xiii, 11–14”, in Lectures on the Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Romans (The Works of Thomas Chalmers; 25), volume IV, Glasgow: William Collins, […]; London: Hamilton, Adams, & Co., →OCLC, pages 320–321:

The development of the Roman State, therefore, a world-process whose magnitude is truly wonderful, was not brought about as though a drifting mass of elements, by some outward force or inherent affinity became consolidated to revolve at random without any end or aim in that divine pronoia under which the ages move.

1869 January, E. E. Higbee, “Art IV.—The Christian Conception of History.”, in T. G. Apple, editor, The Mercersburg Review; an Organ for Christological, Historical and Positive Theology, volume XVI, Philadelphia, Pa.: Reformed Church Publication Board, […], →OCLC, page 101:

The earlier history of the concept of providence is to be seen in the emergence, from Diogenes to Aristotle, of a notion of an intelligent purpose (telos, q.v.) operating in the universe. In all of these thinker it is clearly associated with the intelligent God whose features begin to appear in the later Plato (see Laws 899 where the denial of pronoia is reckoned blasphemy) and in Aristotle. For the Stoics the immanent Logos governs all by nous and pronoia (D.L. vii, 138; SVF i, 176).

1967, F[rancis] E[dward] Peters, “prónoia: forethought, providence”, in Greek Philosophical Terms: A Historical Lexicon, New York, N.Y.: New York University Press, →OCLC, paragraph 1, page 164:

(philosophy, theology) Divine providence, foreknowledge, foresight.

πρόνοια

divine providence, foreknowledge, foresight — see also foreknowledge, providence


immediacy

en-noun

immediacy (countable and uncountable, plural immediacies)

(philosophy) Immediate awareness or apprehension.

neamh-mheánacht

philosophy: immediate awareness or apprehension


affordance

From afford + -ance; coined in 1977 by psychologist James J. Gibson, and adopted in 1988 by Donald Norman in the context of human-machine interaction.

So an affordance cannot be measured as we measure in physics.

1979, James Gibson, The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception, Theory of Affordances (section 8):

(psychology, philosophy, robotics) Anything that is provided or furnished by an environment to an organism dwelling within it.


material conditional

material conditional (plural material conditionals)

'A ⊃ B' represents a material conditional.

(logic) A type of conditional statement used in formal logic and defined as true whenever its antecedent is false or its consequent is true, and false when its antecedent is true and its consequent is false.


alienans

From Latin aliēnāns, present active participle of aliēnō (“make something another's”), from aliēnus (“another's, foreign”).

The newspaper never called him "the murderer", always "the alleged murderer", but the alienans adjective didn't help very much: the word "murderer" is all people saw.

Because a "decoy duck" is not a duck, "decoy" is an alienans adjective.

(rhetoric, philosophy, of a grammatical modifier, especially an adjective) Negating, denying, modifying, or casting doubt on the applicability of its modificand.


alienans

(rhetoric, philosophy) An alienans adjective.


hellhound

hellhounds (plural)
hell hound (alternative)
hell-hound (alternative)

From Middle English helle hound; equivalent to hell + hound.

From forth the kennell of thy wombe hath crept / A Hell-hound that doth hunt vs all to death:

c. 1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Richard the Third: […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iii], page 195, column 2:

Barricading serves not: fly fast, ye Bodyguards; rabid Insurrection, like the hellhound Chase, uproaring at your heels!

1837, Thomas Carlyle, chapter X, in The French Revolution: A History […], volume I (The Bastille), London: Chapman and Hall, →OCLC, book VII (The Insurrection of Women):

(mythology) A demonic dog of hell, typically of unnatural size, strength or speed, with black fur, glowing eyes, and ghostly or phantom characteristics.


self-determination

(ethics, law) The ability or human right to make one's own decisions without interference from others

самоопределяне

ability or right to make one's own decisions without interference from others


modus tollens

From Latin modus tollendō tollēns (“the mode where the denying denies”), from modus (“mode”) and forms of tollō (“I take away”).

der

1. If P, then Q.

2. Not Q.

3. Therefore, not P.

(philosophy, logic) A valid form of argument in which the consequent of a conditional proposition is denied, thus implying the denial of the antecedent. Modus tollens has this form:

Modus tollens

a valid form of argument in which the consequent of a condition proposition is denied


individuation

en-noun

individuation (countable and uncountable, plural individuations)

individuation
principle of individuation

(philosophy) The distinction of the individual from the general or universal.


creäture

(archaic, chiefly literary and philosophy) Alternative spelling of creature


intellectualism

intellectualism (countable and uncountable, plural intellectualisms)

(philosophy) The doctrine that knowledge is derived from pure reason.


unsayably

en-adv

unsayably (comparative more unsayably, superlative most unsayably)

more unsayably (comparative)
most unsayably (superlative)

The aim of TLP is not get us to recognize something that is unsayably true of reality, but rather to cure us of any attempt to represent to ourselves something about reality that cannot be said.

1999, Marie McGinn, “Between Metaphysics and Nonsense: Elucidation in Wittgenstein's Tractatus”, in The Philosophical Quarterly, volume 49, number 197, page 493:

It is only because we can embrace imperatives that cohere with a force beyond being and beyond the world that we can, exceptionally, act as absolutely and "unsayably" free.

2003, Peter Halward, “The one or the other: French philosophy today”, in Angelaki, volume 8, number 2, page 13:

(philosophy, rare) In a manner which is inexpressible or is not describable.


Xanatos

(Greek mythology) Alternative spelling of Thanatos


ontological argument

en-noun

ontological argument (plural ontological arguments)

(philosophy, theology) A type of argument which maintains that the existence of God can be deduced from an analysis of the concept of God.


just in case

The negation of a disjunction is true just in case both disjuncts are false.


teleological argument

teleological argument (plural teleological arguments)

(philosophy, theology) A type of argument for the existence of God, stating that orderliness of nature is evidence of design, therefore also of a designer.


first cause

first causes (plural)
First Cause (alternative)

(theology, philosophy, sometimes capitalized) An initial cause from which all other causes and effects follow.


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


atomism

en-noun

atomism (countable and uncountable, plural atomisms)

(philosophy) The ancient Greek theory that all matter is composed of very small indestructible and indivisible particles.

(philosophy) The doctrine that society arises from individuals and that larger structures are unimportant.


samsara

samsara (countable and uncountable, plural samsaras)

samsaras (plural)
saṃsāra (alternative transliteration)

Until we are released from the law of karma and reach moksha or deliverance, we will be in samsara or the time process.

1957, S. Radhakrishnan, C. A. Moore, editors, A Sourcebook in Indian Philosophy, Princeton Univ. Press, page 38:

(philosophy, religion) In Jainism, Hinduism, Buddhism, and some other eastern religions, the ongoing cycle of birth, death, and rebirth endured by human beings and all other mortal beings, and from which release is obtained by achieving the highest enlightenment.


speciesism

Coined by British animal rights advocate Richard D. Ryder in 1970 from species + -ism.

coinage

species-ism (alternative)
speciesm (alternative)
specism (alternative)

Such is the breathtaking speciesism of our Christian-inspired attitudes, the abortion of a single human zygote (most of them are destined to be spontaneously aborted anyway) can arouse more moral solicitude and righteous indignation than the vivisection of any number of intelligent adult chimpanzees

1996 [1986], Richard Dawkins, The Blind Watchmaker, New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., →ISBN:

This human chauvinism is one form of a general type of discrimination known as speciesism. What is speciesism? Think of racism. The term “speciesism” has been strategically used by animal rights activists from the 1970s onward precisely […]

2013, John Huss, Planet of the Apes and Philosophy: Great Apes Think Alike, Open Court, →ISBN, page 84:

Sometimes speciesism is also used to describe a positive rather than a negative attitude as when dolphins are alleged to have rescued humans from danger while ignoring other species in peril.

2017, Richard D. Ryder, Speciesism, Painism and Happiness: A Morality for the Twenty-First Century, Andrews UK Limited, →ISBN:

(philosophy, ethics) An ethical stance that assigns different worth or rights to beings on the basis of their species membership, such as assigning greater rights to human beings than to other animals.


adjunctive

(logic) The property of two operations x and y, such that ax(ayb) = a, and ay(axb) = a.


libertarianism

en-noun

libertarianism (countable and uncountable, plural libertarianisms)

/lɪbəˈtɛːɹɪənɪz(ə)m/

Nevertheless, advocates of individual freedom not only continue to exist, but are increasing in number. Refugees from the Old Right, the Old Left and the New Left, they are organizing independently under the New Right banner of libertarianism.

1971 January 10, Stan Lehr, Louis Rossetto, “The New Right Credo–Libertarianism”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

The peculiar brand of libertarianism in vogue within technology circles means a minority of members—a couple of outspoken misogynists—can disproportionately affect the behavior and mood of the group under the cover of free speech.

2014, Astra Taylor, chapter 4, in The People's Platform: Taking Back Power and Culture in the Digital Age, Henry Holt and Company, →ISBN:

Isaacson reports that Musk’s fractured relationship with Jenna, who is trans, partly led to Musk’s rightward turn toward libertarianism and questioning what he considers the “woke-mind-virus, which is fundamentally antiscience, antimerit, and antihuman.”

2023 September 12, Paul Glader, “Four takeaways from Walter Isaacson’s biography of Elon Musk”, in CNN:

(economics, philosophy, politics) A political philosophy maintaining that all persons are the absolute owners of their own lives, and should be free to do whatever they wish with their persons or property, provided they allow others that same liberty.

(philosophy) The doctrine of free will, as opposed to necessitarianism.


Discordia

(Roman mythology) The goddess of discord, confusion, and strife.


civil society

civil society (countable and uncountable, plural civil societies)

From the archaic sense of civil, “peaceful and well-ordered”. Later senses of civil society reflect 19th-century Hegelian influence, as well as the earlier argument that tyrannical governments exist in the state of nature in relation to their subjects.

The only Way whereby any one divests himself of his natural Liberty, and puts on the Bonds of civil Society, is by agreeing with other Men to join and unite into a Community, for their comfortable, safe, and peaceable living one amongst another, in a secure Enjoyment of their Properties, and a greater Security against any that are not of it.

1689, John Locke, Two Treatises of Government; republished as The Works of John Locke Esq., volume 2, 1727, page 185:

Rousseau, however, thought that civil society as such […] is characterized by a fundamental self-contradiction and that it is precisely the state of nature which is free from self-contradiction; man in the state of nature is happy because he is radically independent, whereas man in civil society is unhappy because he is radically dependent.

1953, Leo Strauss, Natural Right and History, page 282:

Man’s decision to leave the state of nature is a natural decision. […] Civil society is, in effect, nature rendered reasonable.

1989, Gary B. Herbert, Thomas Hobbes: The Unity of Scientific and Moral Wisdom, →ISBN, page 12:

(philosophy) Organized, internally peaceful human society; civilization.

kelompok masyarakat

organized and peaceful society — see also civilization


daimonic

From daimon + -ic; from Latin demon (“spirit”), originally from Ancient Greek δαίμων (daímōn, “a god, goddess, divine power, genius, guardian spirit”). Doublet of demonic.

der

(psychology, spirituality, mythology, literature) The journey and transition from innocence to experience; part of the process of individuation.

(mythology, literature) The place where light and dark meet.


first mover

The chiefeſt God firſt moouer of that Spheare,
Enchac’d with thouſands euer ſhining lamps,
Will ſooner burne the glorious frame of Heauen,
Then ſhould it ſo conſpire my ouerthrow.

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 ii:

(philosophy) The initial agent that is the cause of all things; the 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.


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.


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.


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.


aegipan

aegipans (plural)
aegipanes (plural)
oegipan (alternative)

From Latin Aegipān, from Hellenistic Ancient Greek Αἰγίπαν (Aigípan), from αἴξ (aíx, “goat”) + Πάν (Pán, “Pan”).

there were passages in Pomponius Mela, about the old African Satyrs and Oegipans, over which Usher would sit dreaming for hours.

1839, Edgar Allan Poe, The Fall of the House of Usher:

"No," Shin said, "I don't think that folk who were warned that you were arriving on an ogre would be terrified to learn that an aegipan was part of the group also. Though I'm flattered that you'd consider such a possibility."

2007, David Drake, The Mirror of Worlds:

(Greek mythology) A goat-like creature resembling a satyr, sometimes portrayed as having a fish's tail.


Helle

(Greek mythology) A daughter of king Athamas, who, together with her brother Phrixus, fled from their stepmother Ino to Colchis on a golden ram. On their way, she fell from its back and was drowned in the strait called, after her, Hellespont.


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:

Nor can the elements of the phenomenal world derive any complexity from the interaction of the noumenal elements which they represent with the complex structure of the precipients.

1880, Frederick W. Frankland, “On the Doctrine of Mind-Stuff”, in Transactions and Proceedings of the New Zealand Institute, page 214:

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.


capriped

capripeds (plural)
capripede (alternative)

And into the hall twirled six capripeds, footing it lightly as the music swept ever faster, and a one-footer that leaped hither and thither about and about, as the flea hoppeth, till the Witches grew hoarse with singing and shouting and hounding of him on.

1922, E[ric] R[ücker] Eddison, The Worm Ouroboros, London: Jonathan Cape, page 35:

(mythology) A goat-footed person; a satyr.


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


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.


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


quadrate

quadrates (plural)
quadrat (alternative obsolete)

From Middle English quadrat, quadrate, from Latin quadrātum. Doublet of quadrat; compare also quadrant (“square or quadrangle”).

(astrology) An aspect of the heavenly bodies in which they are distant from each other 90°, or the quarter of a circle; quartile.


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)

nondeterminisms (plural)
non-determinism (alternative)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-nondeterminism.wav

(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

minor premises (plural)
minor (alternative)

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.


Nestor

From Ancient Greek Νέστωρ (Néstōr), possibly from νέομαι (néomai, “to return safely”), νόστος (nóstos, “homecoming”).

(Greek mythology) An old and wise king in Homer's Iliad.


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.


deontologist

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


transcendental idealism

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.


ethic of reciprocity

ethic of reciprocity (plural ethics of reciprocity)

(ethics) The golden rule used by philosophers.


transcendental realism

transcendental realism (countable and uncountable, plural transcendental realisms)

(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.


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.


NOT

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


structurality

en-noun

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.


descriptive ethics

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


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.


value judgment

value judgments (plural)
value judgement (alternative)

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


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


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

(mythology) Of or relating to the oceanid Doris in Greek mythology.


Tū

(mythology) Shortened form of Tū-mata-uenga, Māori for 'Tū of the angry face', one of the great gods of Māori mythology, and the origin of war.


Imum Coeli

From Latin imum coeli (“bottom of the sky”).

Appropriately, perhaps, it would also be here that they would make the fatal discovery which would bring them, inexorable as the Zodiac's wheel, to their Imum Cœli. . . .

2006, Thomas Pynchon, Against the Day, Vintage, published 2007, page 457:

(astrology) The point where the ecliptic crosses the northern meridian, said to represent the deep subconscious.


Elysian

Museum of Fine Arts of Lyon
Sebastiaen Vrancx

From Latin Elysium (from Ancient Greek Ἠλύσιον (Ēlúsion, “Elysium; one of the Elysian Fields”)) + -an (adjective-forming suffix).

der

(Greek mythology) Elysium (“the home of the blessed after death”).


shifter

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

(mythology, science fiction, fantasy) A shape-shifter; a person or other being capable of changing their physical form, especially a lycanthrope.


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.


rhetorical induction

(logic) reasoning from specific examples to general laws


Marxism-Leninism

Meanwhile, “Mao Zedong Thought”, which originated in the 1930s, continues rhetorically to be recognised as one of the party’s guiding principles, an extension of Marxism-Leninism tweaked for China.

2012 November 6, John Ruwitch, Benjamin Kang Lim, Ben Blanchard, Adam Jourdan, “As China enters new era, how much of Mao will stay?”, in Raju Gopalakrishnan, editor, Reuters, archived from the original on 2023-07-18, World News:

People's Republic of China
People's Republic of China

(politics, communism) A communist ideological stream that emerged as the mainstream tendency amongst the Communist parties in the 1920s as it was adopted as the ideological foundation of the Communist International during Stalin's era, and was later adopted by the People's Republic of China, Cuba, Vietnam, and several other nations.

マルクス・レーニン主義

マルクス・レーニンしゅぎ


Pontus

From Latin Pontus, from Ancient Greek Πόντος (Póntos, “Black Sea, Pontus”), from πόντος (póntos, “sea”), from Mycenaean Greek 𐀡𐀵 (po-to). Doublet of pons.

der

(Greek mythology) A sea god, particularly of the Black Sea.


celestial object

en-noun

celestial object (plural celestial objects)

It is only 100 feet across but it now has the honor of being the solar system's fastest-spinning celestial object.

1999 July 22, “Asteroid Is Called Fastest-Spinning Solar System Object”, in space.com, retrieved 2009-01-09:

A symbol for each desired celestial object, such as for each planet, the sun, and the moon are included along with a method for detachably attaching each of the symbols to the zodiac chart.

2000, John Raymond Winks Jr., "Natal zodiac chart," US Patent 6,015,295, abstract

(astronomy, astrology) Synonym of celestial body.


Lares

Lares pl (normally plural, singular Lar)

Lar (singular)
lares (alternative)
Lars (alternative)
Lares (alternative)

From Latin Lares, plural form of lār, from Etruscan [Term?].

Coordinate term: lemures

(Roman mythology) The household deities watching over one's family and tutelary deities watching over some public places.


Galaxia

(mythology) In new age mythology, the mother goddess corresponding to Gaia, but on a higher, galactic, level


physicotheology

physicotheology (countable and uncountable, plural physicotheologies)

physicotheologies (plural)
physico-theology (alternative)

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.


cusper

And if you were borm on those tricky days which fall between two signs — like 23 December, or 21 May — then you are called a ‘cusper’, a person born on the cusp of two signs, and said to partake a little bit of both.

1989, Liz Greene, Astrology for Lovers, Red Wheel Weiser, →ISBN:

(astrology) A person born on a day at a junction of star signs.


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.


Sif

From Old Norse, from sif (“kindred, kinswoman”), from Proto-Germanic *sibjō; see also Old English sibb (“kinship”) (whence Middle English sib (“having kinship; kinsmen”), whence English sib, sibling), German Sippe (“tribe”).

cog

As already stated, Thor was, according to the Edda, married to Sibil, that is to say, the Sibylla, and the Edda adds that this Sibil is called Sif in the North. In the Teutonic mythology Thor's wife is the goddess Sif.

1889, Viktor Rydberg, Teutonic Mythology, page 60:

For some contemporary Heathens, Lammas is sacred to Sif and Thunor (see Our Troth online Chapter LIII). In Snorri's Skaldskaparmal (see Faulkes 1998 [1987]: 96), Loki cropped Sif’s (presumably blonde or flaxen) hair, seemingly out of spite, a cropping which compares to the harvesting of corn.[…]Sif’s golden hair is a contemporary kenning for the cornfield as it is caressed by the breeze and makes gentle waves.

2005, Nathan J. Johnson, Robert J. Wallis, Galdrbok: Practical Heathen Runecraft, Shamanism and Magic, page 309:

(Norse mythology) A golden-haired goddess associated with earth, mother of Ullr and wife of Thor.


welfarism

More precisely, Kaplow and Shavell (2001) have shown that the Pareto principle does not hold when the planner departs from welfarism, i.e., when the [social welfare function] does not only include the agents’ utility.

2025, François Le Grand, Xavier Ragot, Diego Rodrigues, “The Welfare of Nations: Social Preferences and the Macroeconomy”, in CEPR Discussion Papers, number 19847, page 13:

(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

en-noun

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.


RW

The Five of Swords in the RW deck shows a man in possession of three swords while lay behind him on the ground.

2002, Valerie Sim, Tarot Outside the Box, page 9:

Why is the RW deck always recommended to beginners? Is there a special cause to this?

It is evident when you glance through the RW deck that the three colors dominate.

2022, Beryl McClain, Tarot: How to Read Tarot Cards for Yourself or Others, unnumbered page:

(tarot) Initialism of Rider-Waite; a tarot deck first published in 1909 by William Rider & Son, featuring illustrations based on the ideas of occultist A. E. Waite (which were created by artist Pamela Colman Smith).


aition

From Ancient Greek αἴτιον (aítion, “cause”).

This helps us to understand why Greek initiatory rituals are so often accompanied by an explanatory story—technically, the aition—in which the god appears twice, as the adversary of the people and as their protector. These aitia typically follow a three-part scenario […]

2020, David M. Halperin et al., editors, Before Sexuality, Princeton University Press, →ISBN, page 123:

(Greek mythology) An origin story or myth in Ancient Greece.


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.


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.

wave-particle duality
wave-particle duality#English

(philosophy of science) The idea that physical phenomena may have (mutually contradictory) properties that cannot be observed simultaneously (e.g. wave-particle duality).


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.


Mahabharata

/mə.ɦɑːˈbʱɑː.ɾə.t̪ə/

Transliteration of Sanskrit महाभारत (mahābhārata).

translit

Maha-Bharata (alternative)
Maha-bharata (alternative)
maha-bharata (alternative)
Maha Bharata (alternative)
Maha bharata (alternative)
maha bharata (alternative)
Mahābhārata (alternative)
mahābhārata (alternative)
Mahā-Bhārata (alternative)
Mahā-bhārata (alternative)
mahā-bhārata (alternative)
Mahā Bhārata (alternative)
Mahā bhārata (alternative)
mahā bhārata (alternative)

(Hinduism, mythology) An ancient Sanskrit epic concerning some text of the Bhagavad Gita, including elaborations on theology and morality.


natural law

en-noun

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.


Middle Earth

From Middle English middelerthe, myddyl erthe; an alteration of earlier middel-erde, middelerd; in turn an alteration of earlier middenerd; from Old English middaneard (“Middle Earth”), variant of middanġeard (“Earth, the world”, literally “the middle yard, enclosure, or realm”) mis- or reinterpreting its meaning, from Proto-Germanic *midjagardaz, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *médʰyos (“middle”) and *gʰórdʰos (“enclosure”). Cognate with Norwegian & English Midgard (q.v.) and Danish, Norwegian, & Swedish Midgård.

middle earth (alternative)
middle-earth (alternative)
Middle-earth (alternative)
Middle-Earth (alternative)

(chiefly Norse mythology) synonym for Midgard, the world of traditional Germanic cosmology, conceived as a realm between heaven (Asgard) and hell (Niflheim).


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.


Vidar

From Old Norse Víðarr, from víðr (“wide”) + herr (“army”).


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

Holonym: disjunction

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


clarifier

/ˈklɛɹəfaɪɚ/

[…] if any card in the spread puzzles you, you can pull another card from the deck as a clarifier.

2004, Barbara Moore, What Tarot Can Do for You: Your Future in the Cards, Llewellyn Worldwide, →ISBN, page 20:

(cartomancy) An additional card used to enhance or explain the primary cards in a spread.


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.


Yggdrasil

Borrowed from Old Norse Yggdrasill; commonly accepted as being composed Yggr (“terrible”) + drasill (“steed”), where “steed” refers to a hanging tree or possibly from *dʰer- (“to hold, support”).

Yet it is not easy to pluck out the heart of its mystery; and the descriptions of certain ancient representatives of Yggdrasil do not lessen the difficulty.

1863, The London Quarterly Review, volumes 113-114, page 117:

With nostrils and legs akimbo, she towered over him like some human Yggdrasill, blotting out the sun.

1963, Spike Milligan, chapter 1, in Puckoon, page 1:

1996, Carolyne Larrington (editor and translator), The Seeress's Prophecy, The Poetic Edda, page 6,
I know that an ash-tree stands called Yggdrasill,
a high tree, soaked with shining loam;
from there come the dews which fall in the valley,
ever green, it stands over the well of fate.

In Norse mythology, for example, the World Tree, or Yggdrasil, connected the nine existences that straddled the worlds of gods and men with its mighty roots. Yggdrasil was reputedly a gigantic ash tree (and was the central feature of Norse cosmology), around the base of which the serpent Níôhöggr had twisted its body.

2007, Bob Curran, Ian Daniels, Walking with the Green Man: Father of the Forest, Spirit of Nature, page 66:

“Yggdrasil!” Gudbjartur's voice was filled with awe. “It is Yggdrasil, the world-tree!” He looked at Halfdan, his eyes wide. “The Sacred Grove is here in this land!”

2007, J. A. Hunsinger, The Settlers: An Axe of Iron Novel, page 333:

(Norse mythology) An immense ash tree that is central in Norse cosmology, believed to connect the nine worlds.


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.


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.


Pandora

Borrowed from Ancient Greek Πανδώρᾱ (Pandṓrā, “all gifts”).

bor

(Greek mythology) The first woman on earth, who had been given a box by the gods and instructed not to open it, but who disobeyed the instructions out of curiosity, releasing all manner of evils into the world.


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.


gobliness

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-gobliness.wav


Thor's hammer

Thor's hammers (plural)
Thor's Hammer (alternative)

(Norse mythology, Germanic paganism) Mjöllnir (Mjollnir), the distinctively T-shaped war-hammer of the Norse thunder god Thor, or a representation thereof, now used as a symbol by various pagan religious groups.


world-ash

Ash is a strongly runic tree by implication, the world-ash Yggdrasil being the tree from which Odin hung in order to obatin the runes.

1993, Bernard King, The elements of the Runes, Thorsons Element, →ISBN, page 95:

This eventuality would not be surprising if the world ash was, at the time, a small young tree.

1988, David A. White, The turning wheel: a study of contracts and oaths in Wagner's ring, page 108:

(Norse mythology and Germanic paganism) Yggdrasil.


anti-intellectualism

(philosophy) A position that opposes intellectualism.


continuant

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


metapsychology

metapsychology (countable and uncountable, plural metapsychologies)

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


Ha

(Egyptian mythology) A god of the deserts to the west of Egypt, associated with the underworld (duat) and pictured as a man wearing the symbol for desert hills on his head.


ouvrierism

(communism) The glorification of manual laborers, often in opposition to the leadership of labor or socialist movements.

ouvrierisme

(communism) the glorification of manual laborers


ouvrierist

(communism) Of, pertaining to, or supporting ouvrierism, the glorification of manual laborers.


Silvanus

From Latin Silvanus, a Latin cognomen, from silva (“forest”). The name Silas, from the early Christian apostle, was Latinised as Silvanus by Paul.


Argos

(Greek mythology) The dog of Odysseus in Homer's Odyssey.

(Greek mythology) Alternative form of Argus (“many-eyed servant of Hera”)


Laetitia

(Roman mythology) The goddess of gaiety.


Redbeard

Redbeard!

1989, Eldred Thorsson, A Book of Troth, Llewellyn Publications, →ISBN, page 146:

The radiant goddess, wise in womans wisdom, foresaw a future as secure as the oak pillars of redbeards hall, and knew true hearts gladness as the sacred vows were made.

1999, Thunder, issue 10, How Sif Got Her Golden Hair (Thorskegga Thorn)

(Norse mythology, sagas and Germanic paganism) The god Thor.


NOT operator

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


domain of discourse

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.


Rhean

en-adj

Rhean (comparative more Rhean, superlative most Rhean)

more Rhean (comparative)
most Rhean (superlative)

(mythology) Of or relating the Titan Rhea in Greek mythology.


Titanian

Titanean (alternative)
Titanic (alternative)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-Titanian.wav

As whom the fables name of monstrous size, / Titanian or earth-born, that warred on Jove, […]


Callistoan

(mythology) Of or relating to the nymph Callisto in Greek mythology.


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.


Europan

(mythology) Of or relating to the princess Europa in Greek mythology.


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


lagna

(astrology) In Vedic astrology, the degree of the sign that is rising on the eastern horizon at the time of a person's birth.


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.


Methone

From Latin Methōnē, from Ancient Greek Μεθώνη (Methṓnē). Doublet of Methoni and Modon.

(Greek mythology) One of the Alkyonides.


Eurydice

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-Eurydice.wav

From Latin Eurydicē, from Ancient Greek Εὐρυδίκη (Eurudíkē).

(Greek mythology) A nymph and the wife of Orpheus.

(Greek mythology) The name of various figures in Greek mythology.


Erebus

From Latin Erebus. Doublet of rajas.
[Alt: Mount Erebus]

(Greek mythology) One of the Greek primordial deities who was the personification of darkness and shadow, brother-husband of Nyx and son of Chaos.

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.


Euphrosyne

Translingual: Euphrosyne

From Ancient Greek Εὐφροσύνη (Euphrosúnē).

(Greek mythology) One of the three Charites and the goddess of joy.


Romulus

(Roman mythology) The legendary founder of Rome and the twin brother of Remus.


Remus

(Roman mythology) The legendary founder of Rome and the twin brother of Romulus.


Dioscuri

From Latin Dioscūrī, from Ancient Greek Διόσκουροι (Dióskouroi, “the youths of Zeus”).

der

Or, alas, might not one rather attribute it to Diana in the shape of Hunger? To some twin Dioscuri, OPPRESSION and REVENGE; so often seen in the battles of men?

1837, Thomas Carlyle, chapter III, in The French Revolution: A History […], volume I (The Bastille), London: Chapman and Hall, →OCLC, book IV (States-General):

Cæsar, either more ambitious or less confident in his services, raised a new and costly row of columns in front of the Capitol. He built a temple to the Dioscuri, and he charmed the populace with a show of gladiators unusually extensive.

1879, James Anthony Froude, chapter XI, in Cæsar: A Sketch, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., →OCLC, page 108:

(Greek mythology) The twin brothers Castor and Pollux together.


vegetable lamb

A shortened version of vegetable lamb of Tartary.

(mythology) A legendary plant believed to grow sheep from its branches.


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.


Minos

At length we arrived at the gate of Elysium. Here was a prodigious crowd of spirits waiting for admittance, some of whom were admitted, and some were rejected; for all were strictly examined by the porter, whom I soon discovered to be the celebrated judge Minos.

1749, Henry Fielding, “A Journey from this World to the Next”, in Thomas Roscoe, editor, The Works of Henry Fielding: Complete in One Volume, Henry G. Bohn, published 1851, page 602:

That the Cyclades were subject to Minos, is confirmed by numerous traces; and the general belief of the ancients was, that he founded colonies even in Lemnos and Thrace.

1856, Leonhard Schmitz, Connop Thirlwall, A History of Greece From the Earliest Times to the Destruction of Corinth, 4th edition, Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, page 37:

Whether or not Minos really existed and ruled at Knossos, the ruins on Kephala hill today are known by the name Evans gave them.

2003, Chris Scarre, Rebecca Stefoff, The Palace of Minos at Knossos, Oxford University Press, page 38:

(Greek mythology) The mythological first king of Crete, a son of Zeus by Europa, who imprisoned the Minotaur in a labyrinth and after death was made a judge of the dead in Hades; a putative corresponding historical person.

Dante Alighieri
Gustave Doré
Inferno (Dante)


Pelops

From Ancient Greek Πέλοψ (Pélops, “dark face, eye”).

uder

(Greek mythology) A Greek mythological figure, the son of Tantalus, and king of Pisa in the Peloponnesus.


chicken-or-egg question

en-noun

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

chicken-or-egg questions (plural)
chicken or egg question (alternative)
chicken-and-egg question (alternative)
chicken and egg question (alternative)
chicken-and-egg problem (alternative)
hen and egg question (alternative)
hen-and-egg question (alternative)
hen or egg question (alternative)
hen-or-egg question (alternative)
hen-and-egg problem (alternative)

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


Muspell

Borrowed from Old Norse Muspell. The ultimate origin is disputed, but one suggestion includes Latin mundus (“world”) + Proto-Germanic *spilþijaną (“to kill, ruin, murder”), thus meaning "destruction of the world." More at Muspilli.
Cognates include Old Saxon mūdspelli, Old High German muspilli. More at spill.

der

At the beginning of time there was Muspell, which was the realm of Fire.

2003, Kim Farnell, Reading the Runes, A Beginner's Guide, Zambezi Publishing, →ISBN, page 21:

Certainly the encounter between the cold of Niflheim and the fires of Muspel suggests the chemical reactions that led to the evolution of the planetary surface and its atmosphere.

2005, Diana Paxson, Taking Up the Runes, Weiser Books, →ISBN, page 323:

(Norse mythology and Germanic paganism) The primordial realm of fire which existed to the south of Ginnungagap.


supernature

en-noun

supernature (countable and uncountable, plural supernatures)

/ˈsuːpəˌneɪt͡ʃə/

/ˌsuːpəˈneɪt͡ʃə/

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

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.