epistemological turn

epistemological turn (plural epistemological turns)

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

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

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

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

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

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


linguistic turn

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

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

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

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

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

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


Tritonian

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

(Greek mythology) Of or pertaining to the classical Greek god Triton.


counterexample

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


analytic philosophy

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


continental philosophy

en-noun

continental philosophy (usually uncountable, plural continental philosophies)

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


Lavinia

Latin Lavinia, of obscure meaning. Lavinium was a town in ancient Latium.

(Roman mythology) The daughter of Latinus and wife of Aeneas.


critical rationalism

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


instrumental rationality

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


acracy

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


just-so story

/ˌd͡ʒʌstˈsəʊ ˌstɔːɹi/

PIE word
 *swé
From just so (“(almost) exactly or precisely like something”, adjective) + story, referring to the series of short stories called Just So Stories (collected in book form in 1902) by the English writer Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) which described how various animals acquired their distinctive characteristics, such as how the leopard got its spots. According to Kipling, the stories were so titled because they were intended to put his daughter Josephine (“Effie”) to sleep, “and you were not allowed to alter those by one single little word. They had to be told just so; or Effie would wake up and put back the missing sentence.”

Sociobiological explanations of human behaviour encounter two special difficulties, suggesting that a Darwinian model may be generally inapplicable in this case. […] Secondly, the standard foundation of Darwinian just-so stories does not apply to humans. That foundation is the implication: if adaptive, then genetic—for the inference of adaptation is usually the only basis of a selective story, and Darwinism is a theory of genetic change and variation in populations.

1978 November 16, Stephen Jay Gould, “Sociobiology: The Art of Storytelling”, in Bernard Dixon, editor, New Scientist, volume 80, number 1129, London: IPC Magazines, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 532:

(social sciences, especially anthropology, philosophy, chiefly derogatory) An untestable explanation for something, such as a form of behaviour, a biological trait, or a cultural practice.


predicate logic

predicate logic (plural predicate logics)

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


monadic predicate logic

monadic predicate logic (plural monadic predicate logics)

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


first-order logic

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

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

منطق الرتبَة الأولى

formal deductive system expanded from propositional logic


FOL

first-order logic
first-order logic#English

(logic) Initialism of first-order logic.


propositional logic

propositional logic (plural propositional logics)

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


intensional logic

intensional logic (plural intensional logics)

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


logical atomism

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


infinite regress

infinite regress (plural infinite regresses)

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


mereology

mereology (countable and uncountable, plural mereologies)

/ˌmɪəɹiˈɒləd͡ʒi/

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

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

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

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

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

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

mereologie

logic: theory dealing with parts in relation to wholes


Inanna

As popular with the mythmakers as Enki, or even more so, was his granddaughter Inanna, city goddess or^([sic]) Uruk and one of the most complex figures in the Mesopotamian pantheon.

1996, Cecil Roth, Encyclopaedia Judaica: Ur-Z, Encyclopaedia Judaica, page 1505p:

During the second half of the third and early part of the second millennia B.C.E., the Sumerian goddess Inanna was worshiped in seven cities of southern Mesopotamia (among them Zabala, Agade, and Kish), but principally in her temple Eana at Uruk.

1999, Serinity Young, Encyclopedia of Women and World Religion: A-K, Macmillan, page 466:

Even at this period, Inanna appears in various manifestations, each of which seems to possess a separate cult, temples with cultic functionaries, and the right to receive offerings.

2002, The SSEA Journal, Volume 29, Society for the Study of Egyptian Antiquities, page 17:

(mythology, Mesopotamian mythology) A Sumerian goddess of sexual love, fertility, and warfare, known by the Akkadians as Ishtar and later identified with Astarte, Aphrodite, and Venus.


panarchy

panarchy (countable and uncountable, plural panarchies)

From pan- + -archy. Coined independently in many different contexts.

If everyone all at once wanted to know who won the Stanley Cup in 1968 they could have the information simultaneously; cyberspace as the site of Unamuno's panarchy, where each one is king.

2001, David Trend, Reading Digital Culture, →ISBN, page 148:

(anarchism, rare) Rule by all; a system of governance in which each person has absolute power.


tengu

(Japanese mythology, Shinto, mythology) A mythical Japanese creature, typically birdlike and having a long nose.


birthtime

From Middle English burthtyme, berth-tyme, burth-tyme, birde time, birþe time, burþtime, equivalent to birth + time.

(astrology) The exact time when someone was born; the time of birth.


phenomenological reduction

phenomenological reduction (plural phenomenological reductions)

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

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

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


dialectical materialism

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

lang

Weil die idealistische Verkehrtheit in ihren letzten berühmten Ausläufern, namentlich durch Kant, Fichte, Schelling und Hegel grunddeutsch war, so ist auch das Erzeugnis derselben, der dialektische Materialismus, ein vornehmlich deutsches Produkt.

1887, Joseph Dietzgen, Streifzüge eines Sozialisten in das Gebiet der Erkenntnistheorie, page 21; English translation from Max Beer & Theodor Rothstein, transl., edited by Eugene Dietzgen & Joseph Dietzgen Jr., Excursions of a Socialist into the Domain of Epistemology (Some of the Philosophical Essays by Joseph Dietzgen), 1906, page 293:

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

弁証法的唯物論

べんしょうほうてきゆいぶつろん


falsidical

en-adj

falsidical (comparative more falsidical, superlative most falsidical)

more falsidical (comparative)
most falsidical (superlative)

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


moral code

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

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

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


omg

(chiefly Internet, slang) Alternative form of OMG:


informal fallacy

en-noun

informal fallacy (plural informal fallacies)

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


formal fallacy

formal fallacy (plural formal fallacies)

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


mathematical logic

mathematical logic (usually uncountable, plural mathematical logics)

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


formal logic

formal logic (countable and uncountable, plural formal logics)


formal system

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

formeel systeem

combination of formal language and inference rules


logical calculus

logical calculus (plural logical calculi)


implexion

implexion (countable and uncountable, plural implexions)

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


Chimera

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

Apulia
Chimera (mythology)
Chimera of Arezzo
Etruscan civilization
Louvre
Mount Chimaera
Strabo

As the mythological beast, a variant case form of chimera, q.v. As an ancient mountain, directly from Latin mons Chimaera (“Mount Chimera”), from Ancient Greek Χίμαιρα (Khímaira), attested in Strabo.

Chimaera (alternative)
chimera (alternative)
chimaera (alternative)

CHIMERA, a fabulous monſter...

1771, Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1st ed., Vol. II, p. 184

(Greek mythology) A supposed fire-breathing monster in Lycia with the head of a lion, body of a goat, and tail of a dragon or snake, killed by the hero Bellerophon.

քիմեր

Greek myth: monster killed by Bellerophon


Rousseauian

en-adj

Rousseauian (comparative more Rousseauian, superlative most Rousseauian)

more Rousseauian (comparative)
most Rousseauian (superlative)
Rousseauan (alternative)
Rousseauean (alternative)
Rousseauvian (alternative)

/ɹuːˈsəʊɪən/

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

rousseaunià

of or relating to the philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau


kosha

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

bor+

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


metaphysic

Bring sweet philosophy along,
In metaphysic dreams.

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


metaphysic

en-noun

metaphysic (countable and uncountable, plural metaphysics)

metaphysics (plural)
metaphysick (alternative)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A Neoplatonic metaphysic is the flip side of mysticism.

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

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

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

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

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


Kore

Learned borrowing from Ancient Greek κόρη (kórē, “girl, maiden”).

lbor

(Greek mythology) The birth name of Persephone/Proserpina, the queen of the Underworld/Hades, and goddess of the seasons and of vegetation. She is the daughter of Zeus and Demeter; and the wife of Hades.


Hypnos

Borrowed from Ancient Greek Ὕπνος (Húpnos, literally “Sleep”).

bor

(Greek mythology) The god and personification of sleep. The son of Nyx and Erebus, twin brother of Thanatos, husband of Pasithea, and the father of the Oneiroi. His Roman counterpart is Somnus.


propositional calculus

en-noun

propositional calculus (countable and uncountable, plural propositional calculi)


strict implication

strict implication (plural strict implications)

material implication
material implication

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


material implication

material implication (countable and uncountable, plural material implications)

material conditional
material conditional#English


summum bonum

Learned borrowing from Latin summum bonum.

lbor

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

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

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


moral philosophy

en-noun

moral philosophy (countable and uncountable, plural moral philosophies)

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

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


necessary condition

necessary condition (plural necessary conditions)

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


sufficient condition

sufficient condition (plural sufficient conditions)

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


modal logic

modal logic (countable and uncountable, plural modal logics)

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


deontic logic

deontic logic (countable and uncountable, plural deontic logics)

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

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


evolutionary ethics

evolutionary biology
evolutionary biology

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


ethical system

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

1913, “Altruism”, in Catholic Encyclopedia:

(ethics) A particular set of consistent ethical principles.


comparative ethics

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


business ethics

business ethics (countable and uncountable, plural business ethics)

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


medical ethics

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


environmental ethics

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


sublation

sublation (countable and uncountable, plural sublations)

(philosophy) In Hegelian philosophy, the standard translation of the word "Aufhebung," where a tension between contradictory opposites is resolved by the addition of a new term which pushes the old opposition into its relation.


monome

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

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


contactee

He believes the contactees (those who claim to have actual contact with beings from outer space) are actually creating a new theology.

1966 May 11, “Harvard Astronomers Claim UFO's Are Based on Illusion and Religion”, in Harvard Crimson:

The “contactees” or “saucerians” surfaced in 1952 in southern California. They presented themselves as selected by superior beings from other planets for a special assignment—save the world.

2001, David A. Clary, Before and After Roswell, page 63:

(ufology, dated) A person who has been contacted by alien beings from outer space.


propositional variable

propositional variable (plural propositional variables)

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

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


Nanna

Uncertain, probably from Old Norse Nanna, with Norse levelling of -nþ- to -nn- from Proto-Germanic *nanþ- (“brave, daring”), related to *ninþaną (“to dare”); or possibly from an Old Norse baby talk word for "mother," as in nanna, nanny.

onomatopoeic

baby talk

(Norse mythology) A goddess, the wife of Balder.


fallacy fallacy

en-noun

fallacy fallacy (plural fallacy fallacies)

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

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


affirming the consequent

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

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


retrospective determinism

retrospective determinism (usually uncountable, plural retrospective determinisms)

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


accentus

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


proof by example

proof by example (plural proofs by example)

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


right to choose

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

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

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

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


Izanagi

Borrowed from Japanese 伊邪那岐 (いざなぎ, Izanagi).

(Japanese mythology, Shinto) A Japanese creator god; he is Izanami's elder brother and spouse, and the father of Amaterasu, Tsukuyomi, Susanoo and Kagutsuchi.


Izanami

Borrowed from Japanese 伊邪那美 (いざなみ, Izanami).

(Japanese mythology, Shinto) A Japanese creator goddess who is also (along with the Shinigami and Enma) a goddess of death and the underworld; she is Izanagi's younger sister and spouse, and the mother of Amaterasu, Tsukuyomi, Susanoo and Kagutsuchi.


Amaterasu

/ɑːmətɛɹˈɑːsuː/

Borrowed from Japanese 天照 (Amaterasu), from 天 (ama, “sky, the heavens”) + 照らす (terasu, “to illuminate something”).

(Japanese mythology, Shinto) The Japanese sun goddess, and most important Shinto deity; she is the daughter of Izanagi and Izanami and the sister of Susanoo, Tsukuyomi, Ōyamatsumi, and Kagutsuchi.


philosophy of science

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

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

filosofia de la ciència

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


right to life

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

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

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

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

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

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


existential crisis

existential crisis (plural existential crises)

The existential crisis is, however, a crisis of our existence, our whole being. When we do find ourselves at that crossroad, everything we have and everything we are is on the scales.

1963, “The Existential Crisis In Intensive Psychotherapy”, in Psychotherapy:

(existentialism) A state of panic or feeling of intense psychological discomfort about questions of existence.


sophistic

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

lbor

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


Machiavellianism

en-noun

Machiavellianism (countable and uncountable, plural Machiavellianisms)

Machiavellianisms (plural)
Machiavelianism (alternative)
Machiavellism (alternative)

"Machiavellianism is a radical type of political realism that is applied to both domestic and international affairs."

2010, W. Julian Korab-Karpowicz, Political Realism in International Relations:

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

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

(philosophy, politics) The political philosophy of Machiavelli, especially the realist doctrine which emphasizes the maintenance of the state above ethical concerns.


Makemake

(mythology) The creator deity in the mythology of Easter Island.


decidability

decidability (countable and uncountable, plural decidabilities)

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


Euamerion

From Ancient Greek Εὐαμερίων (Euameríōn), from εὐ- (eu-) + ἁμἐρα (hamera) + -ίων (-íōn).

af

(Greek mythology) Alternative name for Telesphoros


term logic

en-noun

term logic (countable and uncountable, plural term logics)

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


subnector

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


hylomorphism

hylomorphism (countable and uncountable, plural hylomorphisms)

Hylomorphism (computer science)
hylomorphism

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


Mentor

en-proper noun

Mentor (countable and uncountable, plural Mentors)

From Ancient Greek Μέντωρ (Méntōr, “Mentor”).

(Greek mythology) Odysseus's trusted counselor. He was assigned the responsibility of raising Odysseus's son Telemachus while Odysseus was away fighting in Troy.


qualityness

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


Sexet

(Egyptian mythology) Egyptian goddess of malevolent fire, sister of Bast, the bringer of ill-fortune


heptangle

(occult) A seven-pointed star with the construction lines retained.


cazimi

(astrology) The position of the center of the sun in the sky.


methodic

en-adj

methodic (comparative more methodic, superlative most methodic)

more methodic (comparative)
most methodic (superlative)

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

der

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


Svartálfar

(Norse mythology) a race of black or dark elves that populate Svartálfaheimr, one of the nine realms


metaevolution

en-noun

metaevolution (usually uncountable, plural metaevolutions)

metaevolutions (plural)
meta-evolution (alternative)

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

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

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

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

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

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


Snake

en-proper noun

Snake (countable and uncountable, plural Snakes)

en:Snake (disambiguation)
en:Snake (zodiac)
en:Snake River

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

(astrology, timekeeping) The sixth of the 12-year cycle of animals which appear in the Chinese zodiac related to the Chinese calendar.


Leander

From Ancient Greek Λέανδρος (Léandros), from λέων (léōn, “lion”) + ἀνήρ (anḗr, “man”).

Leander, he would have lived many a fair year, though Hero had turned nun, if it had not been for a hot midsummer night.

(Greek mythology) The lover of Hero who swam every night across the Hellespont to meet her, and finally was drowned.


practical reason

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


transcendental ego

en-noun

transcendental ego (plural transcendental egos)

transcendental egos (plural)
transcendental Ego (alternative)
Transcendental Ego (alternative)

If, however, the self be taken to mean, not an object existing among other objects, but the subject logically implied in all knowledge, the "Transcendental Ego" which we never can know as an object, and which therefore we never can "get behind," that may be allowed to be the ultimate reality.

1892, David G. Ritchie, “What is Reality?”, in The Philosophical Review, volume 1, number 3, page 280:

On the basis of such a theory, it becomes legitimate to assert that every human being "contains" a transcendental Ego.

1957, Aron Gurwitsch, “The Last Work of Edmund Husserl”, in Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, volume 17, number 3, page 386:

The absolute goal of all phenomenological inquiry is pure consciousness as it manifests itself in the transcendental ego, the source of all intentional acts.

2001, Joseph A. Young, “Phenomenology and Textual Power in Richard Wright's 'The Man Who Lived Underground'”, in MELUS, volume 26, number 4, page 82:

(philosophy, phenomenology, Kantianism) The conscious self which is the unifying subject of a person's experiences and which cannot itself be experienced as an object, understood by Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) as knowable only by inference, and understood by Edmund Husserl (1859-1938) as pure consciousness.


sesquiquadrate

From sesqui- (“one and a half”) + quadrate (“right-angled”).

prefix

(astrology) Of or noting the aspect or position of any two celestial bodies separated by 135°.


empirical ego

When he debates, Shall I commit this crime? choose that profession? accept that office, or marry this fortune?—his choice really lies between one of several equally possible future Selves. What his entire empirical Ego shall become, is fixed by the conduct of this moment.

1879, William James, “Are We Automata?”, in Mind, volume 4, number 13, page 13:

The empirical ego is an object in the world, and, insofar as it is experienced and known, it must be subject to worldly causality.

1977, David Carr, “Kant, Husserl, and the Nonempirical Ego”, in The Journal of Philosophy, volume 74, number 11, page 688:

(philosophy, phenomenology) In the thought of Immanuel Kant and Edmund Husserl, the self of each person, understood as the locus of personality and capable of being known as an object by means of reflective awareness, in contrast with the transcendental ego which is always an experiencing subject.


fire sign

(astrology) Any of the three star signs Aries, Leo and Sagittarius.


air sign

(astrology) Any of the three star signs Aquarius, Gemini and Libra.


earth sign

(astrology) Any of the three star signs Capricorn, Taurus and Virgo.


water sign

(astrology) Any of the three star signs Cancer, Pisces and Scorpio.


sempiternally

(philosophy) in an everlasting manner, as to have an infinite temporal duration; as opposed to eternally or timelessly, as to exist outside time


Procrustes

Borrowed from Ancient Greek Προκρούστης (Prokroústēs).

bor+

(Greek mythology) A celebrated legendary highwayman of Attica, who tied his victims upon an iron bed, and, as the case required, either stretched or cut off their legs to adapt them to its length.


silver rule

Confucius (551-479 BC) squarely faces the issue and gives us the first specific statement of the rule in its negative form, sometimes referred to as the "Silver Rule."

1934, J. O. Hertzler, “On Golden Rules”, in International Journal of Ethics, volume 44, number 4, page 421:

(ethics) The principle that one should not treat other people in the manner in which one would not want to be treated by them.


Megaera

From Ancient Greek Μέγαιρα (Mégaira, “the jealous one”), from μεγαίρω (megaírō, “to grudge, envy”).

bor

(Greek mythology) One of the Furies, Erinyes in Greek mythology, the cause of jealousy and envy, who punishes people who commit crimes, especially marital infidelity.


tulpa

en-noun

tulpa (plural tulpa or tulpas or (often in sense 2) tulpae)

tulpa (plural)
tulpas (plural)
tulpae (often plural)

From Tibetan སྤྲུལ་པ (sprul pa, “emanation, magical creation”), equivalent to a calque of Sanskrit निर्मित (nirmita, “build”) or निर्माण (nirmāṇa, “build”).

bor

When the year was up, the tulpa began growing. It lost its fear of its master and began taking on new forms of its own. It ceased to run errands ....

1966, Nikos Kazantzakis, England: A Travel Journal, page 110:

(Buddhism, mysticism) A magical creature that attains corporeal reality, having been originally merely imaginary.

トゥルパ

magical creature that attains corporeal reality, having been imaginary


Stymphalides

From Latin Stymphālides, from Ancient Greek Στυμφαλίδες ὄρνιθες (Stumphalídes órnithes, “birds of Stymphalus”).

der

Στυμφαλίδες ὄρνιθες

(Greek mythology) In Greek mythology, a flock of metallic man-eating birds that haunted Lake Stymphalis in Arkadia. They were slain by Herakles as part of his sixth Labour, who took advantage of their sensitive sense of hearing.


occurrent

en-adj

occurrent (comparative more occurrent, superlative most occurrent)

more occurrent (comparative)
most occurrent (superlative)

Borrowed from Middle French occurrent and its source, Latin occurrēns.

I hold the occurrent belief that I'm writing this sentence

One could imagine, for example, that an occurrent belief (e.g. that I'm allergic to apples) would trigger a dispositional desire (not to get an allergic crisis).

2020 November 13, B. Brodaric, F. Neuhaus, Formal Ontology in Information Systems: Proceedings of the 11th International Conference (FOIS 2020), IOS Press, →ISBN, page 147:

In such a case, my belief that the person I will meet is named Robert Barchi is clearly occurrent.

2016, Douglas N. Husak, Ignorance of Law: A Philosophical Inquiry, Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 196:

(philosophy, ethics) Pertaining to occurrence; having to do with an occurrence.


occurrent

the only comfort (saith Jovius) he had to ease his melancholy thoughts, was to hear news, and to listen after those ordinary occurrents, which were brought him cum primis, by letters or otherwise, out of the remotest parts of Europe.

1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition II, section 2, member 4:

(now chiefly philosophy) An event, something that occurs.


nominalism

en-noun

nominalism (countable and uncountable, plural nominalisms)

From French nominalisme. By surface analysis, nominal + -ism.

Blumenberg's thesis, which has since been reiterated by a number of philosophers and historians, is that nominalism, as it became widespread in Protestant theology, led to the Enlightenment, disenchantment, and the scientific revolution.

2021, Meghan O'Gieblyn, chapter 11, in God, Human, Animal, Machine […] , →ISBN:

(philosophy) A doctrine that universals do not have an existence except as names for classes of concrete objects.


obligatum

(logic) That which is, or must be, granted.


negatum

(logic) The proposition that is to be negated.

Something that is negated.
The proposition that is to be negated.


necessitude

In Popperian terms, it demonstrates the necessitude of public debate.

1981, Graham Dawson, “Justified True Belief Is Knowledge”, in The Philosophical Quarterly, volume 31, number 125, page 328:


necessitation

necessitation (countable and uncountable, plural necessitations)

Moral obligation is not necessitation. The moral law commands but does not coerce us.

1894, J. G. Schurman, “The Consciousness of Moral Obligation”, in The Philosophical Review, volume 3, number 6, page 641:

The voluntary actions of men are now seen to claim an equal freedom from the necessitation of natural causes.

1896, J. Clark Murray, “The Idealism of Spinoza”, in The Philosophical Review, volume 5, number 5, page 485:

Determinism is an example: it alleges that all the seeming irregularities and spontaneities in the world are haunted by an omnipresent system of strict necessitation.

1957, J. W. N. Watkins, “Between Analytic and Empirical”, in Philosophy, volume 32, number 121, page 114:

In virtue of their contents, psychological states stand in logical relations like incompatibility, material implication, and conceptual necessitation.

2001, Eric Marcus, “Mental Causation: Unnaturalized but Not Unnatural”, in Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, volume 63, number 1, page 79:

(chiefly philosophy) Necessity, understood as a logical or other philosophical principle, or as a law or force of nature.


logological

/ˌlɒɡ.əʊˈlɒd͡ʒ.ɪk.əl/

(theology, philosophy, rare) Of or pertaining to the doctrine of logos.

logologinen

theology: of or pertaining to the doctrine of logos


supervenient

en-adj

supervenient (comparative more supervenient, superlative most supervenient)

more supervenient (comparative)
most supervenient (superlative)

From Latin supervenient-, stem of superveniens, present participle of supervenio (“to come to or in addition to, to overtake”).

If mental properties are supervenient on physical properties, people with identical bodies will also have identical minds.

(logic, philosophy, of a set of properties) In a relationship with another set such that membership in the other set implies membership in the present set


emanant

emanant (comparative more emanant, superlative most emanant)

more emanant (comparative)
most emanant (superlative)

He had an emanant volition.

(philosophy, of a mental act) Passing forth into a physical act, or making itself apparent by an effect. Compare immanent.


transeunt

transeunt (comparative more transeunt, superlative most transeunt)

more transeunt (comparative)
most transeunt (superlative)

Circa 1625; from Latin trānseunt-, transiens (“passing beyond”), present participle of trānseō (“to go over, cross”), from trans (“across, on the far side, beyond”) + eō (“to go, walk, march”). See transient.

(philosophy, of a mental act) Emanant; producing an effect outside of the mind. (Compare immanent.)

(philosophy) Passing out or operating beyond itself; transitive; opposed to immanent.


Piscean

(astrology) Of, or pertaining to, the Pisces star sign.


Capricornian

(astrology) Of, or pertaining to, the Capricorn star sign.


Sagittarian

/ˌsædʒəˈtɛɹi.ən/

(astrology) Of, or pertaining to, the Sagittarius star sign.


Sagittarian

/ˌsædʒəˈtɛɹi.ən/

(astrology) Someone with the Sagittarius star sign.


Libran

(astrology) Of, or pertaining to, the Libra star sign.


Virgoan

(astrology) Of, or pertaining to, the Virgo star sign.


Cancerian

From Cancer + -ian; from Latin Cancriana, from Cancer + -iana.

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


Cancerian

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


Geminian

/d͡ʒɛmɪˈnaɪən/

(astrology) Of, or pertaining to, the Gemini star sign


Taurean

(astrology) Of, or pertaining to, the star sign Taurus.


Leonian

(astrology) Of, or pertaining to, the Leo star sign.


possibilistic

possibilistic (comparative more possibilistic, superlative most possibilistic)

more possibilistic (comparative)
most possibilistic (superlative)

(philosophy) Of or pertaining to the philosophy of possibilism.


physicalism

en-noun

physicalism (countable and uncountable, plural physicalisms)

(philosophy) A philosophical position holding that everything which exists is no more extensive than its physical properties; that is, that there are no kinds of things other than physical things, which all are of logically procedural nature, based on fundamental laws at their deepest level of causality.


quietism

quietism (countable and uncountable, plural quietisms)

(philosophy) The view that the proper role of philosophy is a broadly therapeutic or remedial one.


quintile

(astrology) An aspect of planets that are distant from each other by one fifth of a zodiac (72°)


Aeolus

From the Latin Aeolus, from the Ancient Greek Αἴολος (Aíolos, “moving, swift”).

der

Eolus (alternative)
Æolus (alternative obsolete)

(Greek mythology) The name of a number of characters in Greek mythology, including the founder of the Aeolian race, and a god with power over wind.


Freyr

Learned borrowing from Old Norse Freyr, from Proto-Germanic *frawjô (“lord”). Compare Freya, from the feminine counterpart.

(Norse mythology) A Vanir god associated with kingship and virility in the North Germanic corpus, in which he rides the shining boar Gullinbursti and wields an antler as a weapon. He is sometimes referred to as Yngvi-Freyr.


veridicality

en-noun

veridicality (countable and uncountable, plural veridicalities)

Coordinate term: realisticness

Symbol structures can, and commonly do, serve as internal representations (e.g. "mental images") of the environments to which the symbol system is seeking to adapt. They allow it to model that environment with greater or less veridicality and in greater or less detail, and consequently to reason about it.

1996, Herbert A. Simon, The Sciences of the Artificial, 3rd edition:

(psychology, philosophy) The degree to which something, such as a knowledge structure, is veridical; the degree to which an experience, perception, or interpretation accurately represents reality.


werefox

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

Lycanthropy also was common, in early times at least, and belief in werewolves and werefoxes existed among all tribe.

1936, Rollo Ahmed, The Black Art, London: Long, page 183:

(fantasy, mythology) A person who transforms into a fox or foxlike form.

weervos

shapeshifter assuming the shape of a fox


moral system

There exists no moral system under which there do not arise unequivocal cases of conflicting obligation.

(philosophy) A consistent set of moral axioms or principles.


moral futurism

Hegelian moral positivism, according to Popper, holds that whatever historically is is right, whereas Marxist moral futurism holds that whatever inevitably will be in history is, for that very reason, right.

2001, Robert C. Tucker, Philosophy & Myth in Karl Marx:

Any revolutionary moral futurism that advocates sacrificing the revolutionary generation so as to enable future generations to enter a Promised Land should be discarded on the basis of my desert-generation test.

2009, Avishai Margalit, On Compromise and Rotten Compromises:

(philosophy, rare) The moral stance of accepting that moral system that is probably going to be dominant in the future.


metaphilosophy

metaphilosophy (countable and uncountable, plural metaphilosophies)

(philosophy) The study of the subject matter, methods, and aims of philosophy.


conceptual analysis

conceptual analysis (plural conceptual analyses)

(philosophy) The analysis of concepts, including, for a given concept, the search for its definition.


context-sensitive

Right-click anywhere in the document window, and a context-sensitive menu appears.

(computing, philosophy) Sensitive to context; exhibiting different behaviour depending on a task or situation.

kontekstiherkkä

sensitive to context; exhibiting different behaviour depending on a task or situation


ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny

Reportedly coined by zoologist Ernst Haeckel (1834-1919).

With reference to seedling stages the statement that ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny must be made with great reserve.

1905, J. A. Harris, "The Importance of Investigations of Seedling Stages," Science, New Series, vol. 22, no. 554, p. 186

Haeckel maintained that ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny, and this idea was incorporated by Lombroso into his parallelism between the criminal and the child.

1961, M. E. Wolfgang, “Pioneers in Criminology: Cesare Lombroso (1835-1909)”, in The Journal of Criminal Law, Criminology, and Police Science, volume 52, number 4, page 367:

For even if we accept that "ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny," those responsible for the drafting of ancient legal documents were not children, and are hardly to be endowed with some form of infantile mentality.

2002, B. S. Jackson, “Models in Legal History: The Case of Biblical Law”, in Journal of Law and Religion, volume 18, number 1, page 11:

(biology, social sciences, art, philosophy) The physical, cultural, moral, or intellectual development of each individual passes through stages similar to the developmental stages of that individual's species, society, or civilization. Not taken literally since the late 19th century.


I think, therefore I am

Calque of French je pense, donc je suis or perhaps of Latin cōgitō, ergō sum. First written in French by René Descartes, a 17th century French philosopher, in Discourse on the Method (1637) as je pense donc je suis, which he later expressed in Latin in Principles of Philosophy (1644).

I think; therefore, I am (alternative)
I think; therefore I am (alternative)
I think therefore I am (alternative)

(philosophy) I am able to think, therefore I exist. A philosophical proof of existence based on the fact that someone capable of any form of thought necessarily exists.

French language
I think, therefore I am
René Descartes

bi sedgiǰu bayig-a učir-ača orusiǰu bayin-a

ᠪᠢ ᠰᠡᠳᠭᠢᠵᠤ ᠪᠠᠶᠢᠭᠠ ᠤᠴᠢᠷ ᠠᠴᠠ ᠣᠷᠤᠰᠢᠵᠤ ᠪᠠᠶᠢᠨᠠ


moonchild

moonchildren (plural)
moon-child (alternative)
moon child (alternative)

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

From moon + child, because the ruling planet of Cancer is the Moon. The term is used to avoid the negative connotations of the word cancer.

The punk icon and bottle-blond beauty is a moonchild who, like most Cancer women, has a "heart of glass."

2007, Holiday Mathis, Rock Your Stars: Your Astrological Guide to Getting It All:


paraconsistent

Coined in 1976 by the Peruvian philosopher Francisco Miró Quesada, from para- + consistent.

(logic) Dealing with contradictions in a discriminating way, in order to avoid acceptance of one from entailing acceptance of all contradictions.


valkyrie

valkyries (plural)
Valkyria (alternative)
Valkyrie (alternative)
Walkyrie (alternative)

Borrowed from Old Norse valkyrja sg (“chooser of the slain”), plural valkyrjur pl, from Proto-Germanic *walakuzjǭ. Cognate to Old English wælcyrġe. First attested in English as a proper noun (Valkyries) in the 1770s; attested as a common noun (valkyries) since the 1880s.

bor

Wagner's “Der Ring des Nibelungen” (1853) famously features valkyries.

(Norse mythology) Any of the female attendants of Odin, figures said to guide fallen warriors from the battlefield to Valhalla.

walkure

any of the female attendants, or handmaidens of Odin


emotivism

en-noun

emotivism (countable and uncountable, plural emotivisms)

Another important meta-ethical theory is known as emotivism or non-cognitivism. Emotivists ... claim that all ethical statements are literally meaningless.

1999, Nigel Warburton, Philosophy: The Basics:

(ethics) The meta-ethical stance that ethical judgments, such as those containing the words "should" and "ought to", are primarily expressions of one's own attitude and imperatives meant to change the attitudes and actions of another.


sea monster

sea monsters (plural)
sea-monster (alternative)
seamonster (alternative)

(mythology) A large and aggressive creature living in or under the sea that attacks ships.


indexical

en-adj

indexical (comparative more indexical, superlative most indexical)

more indexical (comparative)
most indexical (superlative)

In order that they might represent the worlds of experience and imagination, such symbols have to be put together with ‘indexical’ signs, as Peirce termed them, such as articles (the, some), demonstratives (this, those), tense-inflections (walk-s, walk-ed), moods (may/might walk, shall/should walk) etc.

2012, Michael Silverstein, “The [] walked down the street”, in London Review of Books, volume 34, number 21:

(linguistics, philosophy) Having or imparting a meaning, or signifying a referent, that changes according to context.


indexical

So even with indexicals, there is a Sinn for every meaning.

2007 August 15, Wayne A. Davis, “Replies to Green, Szabó, Jeshion, and Siebel”, in Philosophical Studies, volume 137, number 3, →DOI:

(linguistics, philosophy) An indexical term.


hippocamp

(Greek mythology) A mythological creature, a cross between a horse and a fish.


Lanka

(mythology, Hinduism) The island city of Ravana in the ancient Indian epic Ramayana.


equiprobable

The random number generator is designed to generate random numbers with an equiprobable law of distribution with the limits +1 to -1.

1964, I. A. Turyev et al., A Laboratory computer for joint operation with a simulator:

(mathematics, logic) Having equal probability, such as any number from 1 to 6 being the equiprobable outcome of the fair toss of fair dice.


conceptualism

en-noun

conceptualism (countable and uncountable, plural conceptualisms)

We have thus returned, then, to that conceptualism of the middle age, which, concentrating truth within the human intelligence, makes the nature of things a phantom of intelligence projecting itself everywhere out of itself[…]

1853, Victor Cousin, Lectures on the True, the Beautiful, and the Good:

(philosophy) A theory, intermediate between realism and nominalism, that the mind has the power of forming for itself general conceptions of individual or single objects; the doctrine that universals have an existence in the mind apart from any concrete embodiment.


conceptualist

I have taken no notice of an intermediate sect called Conceptualists ; whose distinguishing tenet is said to have been , that the mind has a power of forming general conceptions

1792, Dugald Stewart, Elements of the Philosophy of the Human Mind:

(philosophy) One who maintains the theory of conceptualism.


antirealism

antirealism (countable and uncountable, plural antirealisms)

(philosophy) Any position involving denial of the objective reality of certain entities, or denial that certain general statements are objectively either true or false.

antirealismi

any position involving denial of the objective reality of certain entities


proprium

(So you can use a proprium to pick out a species—for example, you could say: “a human is a risible mortal animal”—but, in that case, you aren’t picking out the species by its true definition.)

Abraham Stone, Humanities 116: Philosophical Perspectives on the Humanities, people.ucsc.eduhttps://people.ucsc.edu/~abestone/courses/uchicago/readings2.pdf

(philosophy) A property that applies to all members of a species and only to them, serving to distinguish the species from other species within the same genus, yet is not part of the true definition or the essence of the species.


use-mention distinction

use-mention distinction (usually uncountable, plural use-mention distinctions)

Thus, they purport to expand the domain of our judgments beyond all bounds of experience through concepts to which no corresponding object at all can be given in experience. For convenience, we ignore use-mention distinctions here and elsewhere.

2014, Thomas D. Sullivan, Russell Pannier -, Modern Challenges to Past Philosophy: Arguments and Responses, →ISBN:

(linguistics, philosophy) The distinction between the use of a word for its meaning (as in "Cheese is derived from milk") and the mention of a word as a lexical unit (as in " Cheese is derived from a word in Old English"); an instance of this distinction.


esthesis

esthesis (countable and uncountable, plural estheses)

estheses (plural)
aesthesis (alternative)
æsthesis (alternative)

From the Ancient Greek αἴσθησις (aísthēsis, “perception”).

der

(philosophy, psychology) Elemental awareness of sensory stimulation.


lampad

(Greek mythology) nymph of the Underworld


Sessrúmnir

(Norse mythology) Freyja's hall in the Fólkvangr, her room for half of the those slain on the battlefield.


arrow of time

arrows of time (plural)
time's arrow (alternative)

(philosophy) The subjective feeling of movement from past to future.


culture of death

en-noun

culture of death (plural cultures of death)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-culture of death.wav

(philosophy, politics) In contemporary political and philosophical discourse, a culture asserted to be inconsistent with the concept of a "culture of life", such as cultures that support contraception and abortion, euthanasia, capital punishment, human cloning, self-absorption, apathy or poverty.

სიკვდილის კულტურა

in contemporary political and philosophical discourse, a culture that is deemed to be inconsistent with the concept of a "culture of life"


addressivity

Evidently, in certain languages some of these meanings may be expressed by special affixes (without a causative meaning), as, for example, the meanings of commitativity (cf. 6.3), addressivity (cf. 6.5) and mutuality (cf. 6.6) in Kabardian.

1970, V.P. Nedyalkov, “On the Typology of the Polysemy of Verbal Affixes”, in Theoretical Problems of Typology and the Northern Eurasian Languages, →ISBN, page 97:

(linguistics, philosophy) The quality of being addressive, of engaging in communication for the sake of one's interlocutor


horary

From Medieval Latin hōrārius, from Latin hōra (“hour”).

But every kind of personal problem could be dealt with as an horary question.

1971, Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic, Folio Society, published 2012, page 276:

This aspect of astrology impinged on medicine too, since an horary question could be a request for diagnosis, in which case the doctor might answer it by inspecting not just the arrangement of the heavens but also a sample of the patient's urine, bearing in mind when it was passed or when it was brought to him.

2006, Philip Ball, The Devil's Doctor, Arrow, published 2007, page 295:

(astrology, of a question) Whose answer can be worked out by drawing up a horoscope of the exact time the question was asked.


patupaiarehe

(mythology) One of a legendary fair-skinned fairy race said to have inhabited Polynesia before the arrival of human beings.


aphroditic

en-adj

aphroditic (comparative more aphroditic, superlative most aphroditic)

more aphroditic (comparative)
most aphroditic (superlative)

(Greek mythology) Of or pertaining to Aphrodite


Vahagn

Borrowed from Armenian Վահագն (Vahagn). Doublet of Verethragna.

(Armenian mythology) Ancient Armenian god of war, fire and courage. A dragonslayer. Lover of Astghik.


shieldmaiden

shieldmaidens (plural)
shield-maiden (alternative)
shield maiden (alternative)

From shield + maiden. Calque from Old Norse skjaldmær (“shieldmaiden”).

The shield-maiden (skölde-mö) was dedicated to Odin, and forbidden to wed; her love brought calamity.

1845 [1832–1836], Erik Gustaf Geijer, translated by J. H. Turner, The History of the Swedes, London: Whittaker and Co., Ave Maria Lane, translation of Svenska folkets historia (in Swedish), page 33:

The Anglosaxon belief in the Shieldmaidens comes to us indeed in a darkened form, yet we can hardly doubt that it survived.

1849, John Mitchell Kemble, The Saxons in England:

Störkud rushed through the ranks with a drawn sword and killed one after another; he cut down Hjört; whereupon Visma, shieldmaiden, who carried the standard of Harald, met him.

1890, Paul Belloni Du Chaillu, The Viking Age: The Early History, Manners, and Customs of the Ancestors of the English-speaking Nations, volume 2:

There goes a lord who tamed a wild shieldmaiden of the North!

1955, J. R. R. Tolkien, The Return of the King, →ISBN, page 262:

(Norse mythology) A female virgin who had chosen to fight as a warrior in battle.

skjoldmø

Norse female virgin who had chosen to fight in battle


forgottenness

Abandonment of being is the ground of the forgottenness of being.

1938, Parvis Evad, Kenneth Maly, “Echo”, in Contributions to Philosophy: From Enowning, translation of original by Martin Heidegger, published 1999, →ISBN, page 80:

(philosophy) The quality or state of being forgotten


postcolonial

a postcolonial theory of esthetics

There can be no doubt that Derrida's contribution to postcolonialism is not as clearly politicized as that of Fanon, Sartre or Gandhi, but it is nevertheless crucial in its careful consideration of the contrasting ethics and politics that might inform postcolonial thought.

2014, Jane Hiddleston, Understanding Postcolonialism, Routledge, →ISBN, page 112:

(philosophy) Of or pertaining to postcolonialism.


instrumentalisation

en-noun

instrumentalisation (countable and uncountable, plural instrumentalisations)

instrumentalisations (plural)
instrumentalization (alternative)

(philosophy) The treatment of an idea as an instrument that functions as a guide to action.


barghest

barghests (plural)
bahgeeast (alternative)
bargas (alternative)
bargast (alternative)
bargeist (alternative)
bargest (alternative)
barghaist (alternative)
barghast (alternative)
bargheist (alternative)
barghist (alternative)
bargiss (alternative)
barguest (alternative)
bargus (alternative)
bargust (alternative)
bohghost (alternative)

The etymology of this word is disputed; it is perhaps from Old English burh-ghest (“town-ghost”), or from German Berg-geist (“mountain spirit”) or Bär-geist (“bear-spirit”).

In English folklore, a barghest is a monstrous dog with huge claws and teeth. This creature is said to roam around Yorkshire, and anyone who sees the dog will die soon after. There are barghests reported in Tennessee. On the grounds of Rotherwood Mansion in Kingsport, a monstrous black dog is said to roam, howling mournfully. Locally, he's called "Hound of Hell." Again, anyone who sees this creature is certain to suffer imminent death.

1999, Charles Edwin Price, Mysterious Knoxville: Ghost Stories, Monster Tales, and Bizarre Incidents from the “Gateway to the Smokies”, Johnson City, Tenn.: The Overmountain Press, →ISBN, page 58:

"Folklore often portrays barghests as guardians who lead lost travelers home," I said, not answering his question in the least, or mentioning that more often barghests were considered portents of death.

2012, Kalayna Price, chapter 20, in Grave Memory: An Alex Craft Novel, New York, N.Y.: Roc Books, New American Library, →ISBN:

(mythology, British) A legendary monstrous black dog, said to possess large teeth and claws, and (sometimes) to be capable of changing form.

Yet another possibility is that the headless man is a barghest, sometimes referred to and spelled as 'barguest', 'bahrgeist' or 'boguest'. These are creatures primarily associated with the north of England – Northumberland, Durham, Yorkshire and Lancashire. They assume at will the form of a headless man, a headless lady, a white cat, a rabbit, or dog, or a black dog. The barghest is a fiend that is attached to a particular place, more often than not an isolated piece of land, a wooded area, cloughs or wasteland. The barghest is known as a portent of disaster or death for those who see it; it is also said that death may not visit the person who sees the barghest but could kill a family member instead.

2016, Alexander L. Kaufman, “‘And Many Oþer Diuerse Tokens …’: Portents and Wonders in ‘Warkworth’s’ Chronicle”, in Jaclyn Rajsic, Erik Kooper, Dominique Hoche, editors, The Prose Brut and Other Late Medieval Chronicles: Books Have Their Histories. Essays in Honour of Lister M. Matheson, Woodbridge, Suffolk: York Medieval Press in association with The Boydell Press and the Centre for Medieval Studies, University of York, →ISBN, page 61:

(mythology, British) Any ghost, wraith, hobgoblin, elf, or spirit.


compatibilism

(philosophy) The doctrine that free will and determinism are compatible ideas.

Kompatibilismus

the doctrine of compatibility between determinism and free will


probabilist

(theology, philosophy) A follower of probabilism.


universe of discourse

universe of discourse (plural universes of discourse)

(logic) The set of all entities over which quantifiers—including "for all" and "there exists"—range.


Rousseauesque

en-adj

Rousseauesque (comparative more Rousseauesque, superlative most Rousseauesque)

more Rousseauesque (comparative)
most Rousseauesque (superlative)


Wigner's friend

Named after Hungarian-American physicist Eugene Wigner, who described the experiment in an article published in 1961.

2001, David Lewis, How Many Lives Has Schrödinger's Cat?, Lecture, republished in 2004, Frank Jackson, Graham Priest (editors), Lewisian Themes: The Philosophy of David K. Lewis, page 13,
There is no collapse until Wigner comes along, yet because different branches of the previous superposition have acted differently to bring about different branches of Wigner's friend, each branch of Wigner's friend is under the illusion of seeing a sharp state, and thus under an illusion of collapse.

2009, Henry Stapp, Wigner's Friend, Daniel Greenberger, Klaus Hentsche, Compendium of Quantum Physics: Concepts, Experiments, History and Philosophy, Springer, page 857,
The second step is to treat Wigner's friend as an unobserved inanimate measuring device that has two states: either it registers the photon, χ₁ or it does not χ₂.

In 1962 Eugene Wigner elaborated on the knowledge issue with his Wigner's Friend paradox, an expansion of the Schrödinger's Cat problem [11]. Wigner replaced the cat with a “friend”, i.e., an intelligent observer and at the same time replaced the hydrocyanic acid mechanism with a less lethal piece of apparatus, e.g., a light bulb that is switched on when a count is recorded.

2016, John G. Cramer, The Quantum Handshake: Entanglement, Nonlocality and Transactions, Springer, page 82:

(physics, philosophy) The hypothetical observer in a thought experiment in which Wigner, absent when his friend observes the state of a particle (in some versions, Schrödinger's cat) as it collapses from quantum superposition, concludes that both the particle and his friend remain in quantum superposition until Wigner himself learns the result of the observation.


antipeople

antipeople (comparative more antipeople, superlative most antipeople)

more antipeople (comparative)
most antipeople (superlative)

"They said that I had contacted foreign media and called me anti-China, antipeople and antiparty."

2009 January 9, Edward Wong, “Police in China Halt Parents Seeking Investigation Into School Collapses”, in New York Times:

(communism) Opposed to the interests of the people


phenomenal world

en-noun

phenomenal world (plural phenomenal worlds)

With intelligence springs up at a stroke the phenomenal world, the world as we know it.

1876, Robert Adamson, “Schopenhauer's Philosophy”, in Mind, volume 1, number 4, page 500:

He . . . suggests a new theory based on the radical assumption that light can convey information about the world and, hence, that the phenomenal world does not have to be constructed by the mind (or the brain) out of meaningless data.

1970, James Gibson, “The Information Available in Pictures”, in Leonardo, volume 4, number 1, page 27:

It is true that Wang does write about the power of tragedy to pierce the illusions of the phenomenal world and release us from the bondage of the "desires of life."

2004, Zong-qi Cai, “The Influence of Nietzsche in Wang Guowei's Essay ‘On the Dream of the Red Chamber’”, in Philosophy East and West, volume 54, number 2, page 172:

(philosophy) Especially in philosophical idealism, the world as it appears to human beings as a result of being structured by human understanding; the world as experienced, as opposed to the world of things-in-themselves.


compositionality

Coordinate term: (in pragmatics) contextuality

(especially logic, semantics, mathematics) The property of being compositional.


maximalist

en-adj

maximalist (comparative more maximalist, superlative most maximalist)

more maximalist (comparative)
most maximalist (superlative)
Maximalist (alternative)

From maximal + -ist, by analogy with minimalist.

His inclusion in the official delegation to Moscow caused surprise today and was seen as indicative of the Italian Communists' aversion to Maximalist currents in international communism.

1961 October 4, Paul Hofmann, “Communists in West Expected to Back Khrushchev Against Soviet and Chinese Left-Wing Extremists”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(historical, communism) Relating to far-left communism.


maximalist

maximalists (plural)
Maximalist (alternative)

After a firm opening and an hour of fairly well sustained strength the stock market once more suffered a wide break yesterday following the receipt of the news of the overthrow of Kerensky and the announced intention of the Maximalists to propose an immediate peace with Germany.

1917 November 9, “Russian News Brings About Another Collapse—Evidenceof Banking Support”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

Mr. Bernstein, who spent three months in Petrograd after the Revolution and had seen the Maximalists at work, said their aim was to bring about utter destruction not only of the freedom of the Jews, but also the freedom of all Russia.

1917 November 19, “Jews Against Bolsheviki”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(historical, communism, obsolete, capitalized) A Bolshevik.


verifiability principle

Coined by the philosopher Alfred Jules Ayer c. 1936.

It is generally agreed among most advocates of the Verifiability Principle that analytic and empirical statements exhaust the class of cognitively meaningful statements.

1962, Marvin Zimmerman, “The Status of the Verifiability Principle”, in Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, volume 22, number 3, page 334:

Carnap, for example, invoked the verifiability principle to argue that the problem of the external world was a 'pseudo-problem'—for neither the proposition 'there is an external world' nor its negation is verifiable in experience, so both are meaningless.

2001, Samir Okasha, “Verificationism, Realism and Scepticism”, in Erkenntnis, volume 55, number 3, page 376:

(philosophy) The principle, especially in 20th-century empiricism, that a statement has meaning if, and only if, either it can be verified by means of empirical observations or it is logically true by definition.


criterion of verifiability

verifiability principle
verifiability principle#English

(philosophy) Synonym of verifiability principle


nonbelief

en-noun

nonbelief (countable and uncountable, plural nonbeliefs)

But of course, heresy and nonbelief are hardly comparable crimes.

1988 January 15, Name withheld, “Movie Politics”, in Chicago Reader:

(religion, philosophy) Failure to believe; lack of belief.


argument form

argument forms (plural)
argument-form (alternative)

(logic) The result of replacing parts of an argument with letters, leaving only logic words such as "if" and "for all" unreplaced.


mechanist

The economic spirit of a people cannot be manipulated in as simple-minded a fashion as the Keynesian mechanists imagine.

2009 January 16, David Brooks, “An Economy of Faith and Trust”, in New York Times:

(philosophy) A person who takes a mechanical view; someone who subscribes to mechanism.


Elissa

Borrowed from Ancient Greek Ἔλῐσσᾰ (Élĭssă); probably from Phoenician 𐤀𐤋𐤀𐤎𐤕 (ʾlʾst /Elishat/), 𐤀𐤋𐤀𐤎 (ʾlʾs /Elisha/).

bor+

(Greek mythology) Dido, queen of Carthage.


relatum

From Latin relatum, neuter past participle of referre.

And with respect to secondary processes, whether a PDT becomes an ADT will vary according to both the ADTs a person has acquired through primary acquisition processes (for this determines which objects can be the relata in the relational properties) and according to the individual’s experiential and epistemic history with respect to disgust elicitors.

2003, Christopher Knapp, “De-moralizing Disgustingness”, in Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, LXVI, № 2, page 265:

For according to the externalist, the opposing view rests on the idea that “being conscious of” is a genuine relation, that is, a relation whose obtaining entails the existence of its relata.

2007 July 12, Harold Langsam, “Rationality, Justification, and the Internalism/Externalism Debate”, in Erkenntnis, volume 68, number 1, →DOI:

However we understand the defect, most divine determinists will likely wish to say that the relation of inconformity between act and law obtains (when it does obtain) merely in virtue of the intrinsic natures of the relata. In other words, the relation of inconformity follows merely upon the nonrelational characteristics of the relata.

2019, Peter Furlong, The Challenges of Divine Determinism: A Philosophical Analysis, page 94:

(logic, philosophy) A term that is related to the referent.


maenad

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

From Latin maenas (“bacchant”), from Ancient Greek μαινάς (mainás, “raving, frantic”), from Ancient Greek μαίνομαι (maínomai, “be furious”).

uder

Blanche Stroeve was in the cruel grip of appetite. Perhaps she hated Strickland still, but she hungered for him, and everything that had made up her life till then became of no account. She ceased to be a woman, complex, kind and petulant, considerate and thoughtless; she was a Maenad. She was desire.

1919, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, “chapter 30”, in The Moon and Sixpence, [New York, N.Y.]: Grosset & Dunlap Publishers […], →OCLC:

(Greek mythology) A female follower of Dionysus, associated with intense reveling.


concretum

There are quite familiar and truly outstanding liabilities—ontological, epistemological, and phenomenological—associated with saying that merely intentional objects are abstracta, or mental concreta, or non-existent non-mental concreta.

2008 August 5, Uriah Kriegel, “The dispensability of (merely) intentional objects”, in Philosophical Studies, volume 141, number 1, →DOI:

(philosophy) Something that is concrete, rather than abstract.


Aristotelianism

(philosophy) The philosophical system of Aristotle (384 BCE – 322 BCE) and his followers.


felicific

en-adj

felicific (comparative more felicific, superlative most felicific)

more felicific (comparative)
most felicific (superlative)

Has conduct worth in and for itself, or only as its consequences are felicific as regards the social welfare?

1895, John Grier Hibben, “Automatism in Morality”, in International Journal of Ethics, volume 5, number 4, page 467:

It is plain that for Jane Austen the settled habit of moral behavior was of far more importance than spontaneity of moral response, though that in turn was preferable to a calculated weighing of advantages, a point well illustrated when Elizabeth ironically advises Jane that if she is in doubt about whether she ought to accept Bingley she should decide the matter by striking a felicific balance.

1980, Philip Drew, “Jane Austen and Bishop Butler”, in Nineteenth-Century Fiction, volume 35, number 2, pages 141–142:

The Langham is proof of the felicific power of good architecture, the power to promote, both in its inhabitants and in passers-by, happiness.

2005 February 7, James Gardner, “Remembering a Great Institution”, in New York Sun, retrieved 2009-01-25:

(rare, chiefly philosophy) Of, pertaining to, or producing pleasure or happiness.


felicific calculus

Widely attributed to British philosopher Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832), but apparently used only by his successors.

Bentham's way of becoming the Newton of the moral world was to develop the "felicific calculus."

1918, Wesley C. Mitchell, “Bentham's Felicific Calculus”, in Political Science Quarterly, volume 33, number 2, page 164:

cost-benefit analysis
cost-benefit analysis

(historical, philosophy, economics) A quasi-mathematical technique proposed by 19th-century utilitarian ethical theorists for determining the net amount of happiness, pleasure, or utility resulting from an action, sometimes regarded as a precursor of cost-benefit analysis.


indiscernibility of identicals

One of the fundamental principles governing identity is that of substitutivity—or, as it might well be called, that of indiscernibility of identicals. It provides that, given a true statement of identity, one of its two terms may be substituted for the other in any true statement and the result will be true.

1943, Willard V. Quine, “Notes on Existence and Necessity”, in The Journal of Philosophy, volume 40, number 5, page 113:

For example, Levinson claims that a Stamitz symphony containing a "Manheim rocket"—a novel device in Stamitz's day—is an exciting musical work, but a work written today with the same sound structure would be funny rather than exciting. Since the Stamitz symphony and the (hypothetical) contemporary sound-identical work differ in properties, it follows from the indiscernibility of identicals that they are distinct musical works.

2004, Peter Alward, “The Spoken Work”, in The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, volume 62, number 4, page 335:

(philosophy) The principle that if two objects are absolutely identical then they must be indistinguishable from one another with respect to all of their properties.


principle of substitutivity

indiscernibility of identicals
indiscernibility of identicals#English

(philosophy) Synonym of indiscernibility of identicals


identity of indiscernibles

(philosophy) The principle that, if two objects are indistinguishable from one another with respect to all of their properties, then they are identical.


Leibniz's law

identity of indiscernibles
identity of indiscernibles

(philosophy) The identity of indiscernibles.


substitutivity

(philosophy) A logical relationship in which two terms can be mutually substituted without affecting the truth value of any propositions in which the terms occur, thereby establishing that the terms are identical.


apriorism

en-noun

apriorism (countable and uncountable, plural apriorisms)

apriorisms (plural)
a priorism (alternative)

From a priori + -ism, after French apriorisme.

The linguistic apriorism of Chomsky has stimulated some psychologists to search for nonlinguistic roots of language development.

1982, Dan I Slobin, in Eric Wanner & Lila Gleitman, Language Acquisition, p. 128

What was needed for modern science to take shape was a renunciation of their bookish a priorism, with its Aristotelian notion that all things can be deduced by logical, abstract argument from (ultimately arbitrary) first principles.

2006, Philip Ball, The Devil's Doctor, Arrow, published 2007, page 51:

(philosophy) The idea that some knowledge of the physical world can be derived logically from general principles.

apriorismo

the idea that some knowledge of the physical world can be derived logically


Electra

From Ancient Greek Ἠλέκτρα (Ēléktra), from ἤλεκτρον (ḗlektron, “amber”), related to ἠλέκτωρ (ēléktōr, “shining sun”).

(Greek mythology) Any of several mythical women, including a daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra, one of the Pleiades, and one of the daughters of Oceanus and Tethys.


Cartesian doubt

Cartesian doubt (countable and uncountable, plural Cartesian doubts)

(philosophy) The philosophical idea proposed by Descartes that the world outside the self is subject to uncertainty.


interdefinable

(logic, philosophy) Able to be defined in terms of each other.


supervenience

supervenience (usually uncountable, plural superveniences)

(philosophy) The state or quality of being supervenient, of being in a dependency relationship such that an object with the supervened properties must also have the supervening properties.


externalist

en-adj

externalist (comparative more externalist, superlative most externalist)

more externalist (comparative)
most externalist (superlative)

One possible way out would be to appeal to some suitable form of externalist epistemology— based e.g. on facts about reliable empirical connections between the creatures’ responsive dispositions and the content of their experiences—to try to explain just how the content of perceptual experiences informs these subjects’ intentional behaviour.

2008 August 30, Josefa Toribio, “State Versus Content: The Unfair Trial of Perceptual Nonconceptualism”, in Erkenntnis, volume 69, number 3, →DOI:

(epistemology) Contending that there are non-internal factors which can affect the justificatory status of a belief


dhampir

dhampirs (plural)
dhampire (alternative)
dhampyr (alternative rare)
damphyr (alternative rare)

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

(mythology, fiction, fantasy) A half-human, half-vampire hybrid.


barometz

barometzes (plural)
baromez (alternative)
borametz (alternative)

Friedrich Justin Bertuch
Sir Richard Clayton, 1st Baronet

Possibly a corruption of Russian баране́ц (baranéc, “species of club moss (genus Lycopodium)”, from бара́н (barán, “ram (male sheep)”) + -ец (-ec, diminutive suffix)).

refn

From D[emetrius] de La Croix (1791) Richardus Clayton [i.e., Sir Richard Clayton, 1st Baronet], transl., Connubia florum latino carmine demonstrata, Bath, Somerset: Ex. typographia S. Hazard, →OCLC.

From F[riedrich] J[ustin] Bertuch (1806) Bilderbuch für Kinder: enthaltend eine angenehme Sammlung von Thieren, Pflanzen, Blumen, Früchten, Mineralien, Trachten und allerhand andern unterrichtenden Gegenständen aus dem Reiche der Natur, der Künste und Wissenschaften, alle nach den besten Originalen gewählt, gestochen, und mit einer kurzen wissenschaftlichen, und den Verstandes-Kräften eines Kindes angemessenen Erklärung begleitet, Weimar: Im Verlage des Industrie-Comptoirs, →OCLC.

der

Much wonder is made of the Boramez, that ſtrange plant-animall or vegetable Lamb of Tartary, which Wolves delight to feed on, which hath the ſhape of a Lamb, affordeth a bloudy juice upon breaking, and liveth while the plants be conſumed about it; and yet if all this be no more then the ſhape of a Lamb in the flower or ſeed, upon the top of the ſtalk, as we meet with the formes of Bees, Flies and Dogs in ſome others, he hath ſeen nothing that ſhall much wonder at it.

1650, Thomas Browne, “Of Some Others”, in Pseudodoxia Epidemica: […], 2nd edition, London: […] A[braham] Miller, for Edw[ard] Dod and Nath[aniel] Ekins, […], →OCLC, 3rd book, page 152:

Cradled in ſnow and fann'd by arctic air / Shines, gentle Barometz! thy golden hair; / Rooted in earth each cloven hood deſcends, / And round and round her flexile neck ſhe bends; / Crops the grey coral moſs, and hoary thyme, / Or laps with roſy tongue the melting rime; [...]

1789, [Erasmus Darwin], The Botanic Garden; a Poem, in Two Parts. […], London: J[oseph] Johnson, […], published 1791, →OCLC, part II (The Loves of the Plants; 3rd edition), page 30, lines 283–288:

[...] I say to you what I should say if any little Barometzes should come under my care. It is more on the imaginary side than the matter of fact.

1919 February 15, The Garden: […], volume 83, London: Hudson and Kearns, →OCLC, page 69, column 3:

It seemed to be at least as good a vegetable lamb as Lepas was an unripe vegetable bird, and one version of the story itself is probably explained by it. That is the version in which the barometz grows out of the ground, being attached to its root system by its umbilical cord and capable of feeding only as far as that cord will reach—a perfect counterpart to the Jidra of the Talmud.

1948, Willy Ley, The Lungfish, the Dodo and the Unicorn: An Excursion in Romantic Zoology, 2nd edition, New York, N.Y.: Viking Press, →OCLC, page 82:

One has only to consult [Jorge Luis] Borges's own "Book of Imaginary Beings" to encounter chimeras, phoenixes, basilisks, barometzes (the last a kind of vegetable lamb) and the like.

1987 April 12, Cynthia Ozick, “The Library of Nonexistent Classics”, in The New York Times Book Review, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2017-11-05, page 12:

However, one night when I was hard at work in one of the powder mills outside the fortress, I was captured along with some others by a band of Tartars and carried off so deep into their territory that I not only saw borametz, the legendary sheep-shaped melon, growing, I ate it.

1999, Johann Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen, “On the Short and Diverting Road by which He Came Home to His Da”, in Mike Mitchell, transl., Simplicissimus, Sawtry, Cambridgeshire: Dedalus Books, published 2010, →ISBN:

(mythology) A purported zoophyte, half-animal and half-plant, said to grow in the form of a sheep.

植物羊

half-animal and half-plant said to grow in the form of a sheep — see also vegetable lamb


conventionalism

en-noun

conventionalism (usually uncountable, plural conventionalisms)

Skepticism arrives at conventionalism by way of the claims that the conditions on evidential support cannot be satisfied […] but that we must have beliefs in order to carry on.

2025 October 2, (Please provide the book title or journal name), volume 140, number 3, →DOI:

(uncountable, philosophy) The doctrine that logical or mathematical principles are simply the expression of conventions.


eliminativist

Option (ii) has two variants: (iia) conclude that the concepts conscious state and conscious creature fail to refer, adopting an eliminativist position; and (iib) claim that future, correct versions of the concepts will be vague.

2007 November 24, Michael V. Antony, “Are Our Concepts”, in Erkenntnis, volume 68, number 2, →DOI, →ISSN, pages 239–263:

(philosophy) Supporting eliminativism, the materialist position which holds that folk psychology presents a false view of the mind


eliminativist

(philosophy) A supporter of eliminativism.


foundationalism

A radical denial of foundationalism is offered by social constructivism (Ernest 1998 ), an approach that many researchers in mathematics education embrace.

2008 March 21, Bernd Buldt, Benedikt Löwe, Thomas Müller, “Towards a New Epistemology of Mathematics”, in Erkenntnis, volume 68, number 3, →DOI:

(epistemology) The doctrine that beliefs derive justification from certain basic beliefs

fundamentalismi

the doctrine that beliefs derive justification from certain basic beliefs


internalist

en-adj

internalist (comparative more internalist, superlative most internalist)

more internalist (comparative)
most internalist (superlative)

For one thing, many people regard rationality as an epistemically internalist notion, whereas reliability is a paradigmatic example of an epistemically externalist notion.

2008 December 6, Sanford C. Goldberg, “Reliabilism in philosophy”, in Philosophical Studies, volume 142, number 1, →DOI:

(philosophy) Holding that a particular mental phenomenon, such as motivation or justification, has an internal rather than external basis


internalist

Perhaps I will appear presumptuous and misguided in claiming to explain the debate between internalists and externalists, for some would insist that there are a variety of related debates that get discussed under the heading of internalism and externalism.

2007 July 12, Harold Langsam, “Rationality, Justification, and the Internalism/Externalism Debate”, in Erkenntnis, volume 68, number 1, →DOI:


communitarianism

en-noun

communitarianism (countable and uncountable, plural communitarianisms)

[…] Tony Blair dallied with communitarianism in the mid-90s and was wont to quote the Quaker philosopher John Macmurray.

2009 February 9, Madeleine Bunting, “The maverick ideas of red Toryism could give Cameron a potent edge”, in The Guardian:

(ethics) The group of doctrines that oppose excessive individualism in favour of a more community-based approach

comunitarisme

doctrine opposing execessive individualism


poetics

Both significantly build on the poetics of death and dissolution that Black and Tan broached so powerfully[…].

1988 October 21, Jonathan Rosenbaum, “Bird Watching”, in Chicago Reader:

(philosophy, literature) The theory of poetry, or of literature in general.


indeterministic

For instance, suppose that one thinks that the world is indeterministic.

2007 November 21, Frank Arntzenius, “No Regrets, or: Edith Piaf Revamps Decision Theory”, in Erkenntnis, volume 68, number 2, →DOI:

(philosophy) Not deterministic; containing randomness


mereological

/ˌmɪəɹiəˈlɒd͡ʒɪkəl/

Join is a mereological relation which can be interpreted as union set-theoretically.

I think that theories like mereological nihilism are interesting in the way that epistemological skepticism is interesting, the main question for both being how do we avoid this?

2008 August 13, Jonathan Schaffer, “Truthmaker commitments”, in Philosophical Studies, volume 141, number 1, →DOI:

(philosophy, logic) Of or pertaining to mereology, a collection of axiomatic first-order theories dealing with parts and their respective wholes.


reliabilist

However, reliabilist accounts of a priori knowledge are paradigmatically naturalistic, and although they are psychologistic in the sense that they locate warrant within the psychological processes and methods that generate belief, if correct, they cannot be faulted for failing to establish the objectivity of their target beliefs: a belief is apriori-justified on a reliabilist account of justification just in case it is solely the result of a process that is, in fact, reliable and is indifferent to the particulars of experiential input.

2008 January 30, Lisa Warenski, “Naturalism, fallibilism, and the a priori”, in Philosophical Studies, volume 142, number 3, →DOI:

(philosophy) Of or pertaining to reliabilism


reliabilist

To be sure, most reliabilists don’t want to be too ambitious in what they include in their foundations.

2008 November 22, Richard Fumerton, “Luminous enough for a cognitive home”, in Philosophical Studies, volume 142, number 1, →DOI:

(philosophy) A person who supports the doctrine of reliabilism


reliabilism

reliabilism (countable and uncountable, plural reliabilisms)

He now rejects reliabilism in favor of a socio-historical conception of knowledge.

2008 November 28, Albert Casullo, “Analyzing a priori knowledge”, in Philosophical Studies, volume 142, number 1, →DOI:

(epistemology) Any of a group of related doctrines holding that knowledge or justified belief must be the result of a reliable process


sortal

An Essay Concerning Human Understanding
John Locke

From sort + -al. Coined by John Locke in 1690 in his An Essay Concerning Human Understanding.

But, it being evident that things are ranked under names into sorts or species, only as they agree to certain abstract ideas, to which we have annexed those names, the essence of each genus, or sort, comes to be nothing but that abstract idea which the general, or sortal (if I may have leave so to call it from sort, as I do general from genus), name stands for.

1690, John Locke, “Chapter III: Of General Terms”, in An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, Book III:

(philosophy) Of or pertaining to a sort, or kind.

The possession of sortal concepts is a prerequisite for philosophers like Wiggins or Lowe in determining the nature and extent of our referential capacities.

2008 January 8, John E. Sarnecki, “Sortals for Dummies”, in Erkenntnis, volume 69, number 2, →DOI:

(philosophy) Having the character of a sortal.


sortal

And central to this notion is the distinction, among semantic types of g-words, between sortals on the one hand and non-sortal general-character-specifiers on the other

1974, P.F. Strawson, Subject and Predicate in Logic and Grammar, →ISBN, page 135:

(philosophy) A type of universal that defines a particular sort of object

Sortals in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy


Jocasta

/d͡ʒəʊˈkæs.tə/

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

(Greek mythology) The mother and wife of Oedipus.


Baconian

en-adj

Baconian (comparative more Baconian, superlative most Baconian)

more Baconian (comparative)
most Baconian (superlative)

(philosophy) Of or pertaining to Francis Bacon (1561-1626), English statesman and polymath, or his writings.

baconovský

of or pertaining to Francis Bacon and his philosophical system


eliminativism

This ontology, however, leads to our second problem: the Overdetermination Argument (OA) for eliminativism.

2007 December 8, Patrick Toner, “Emergent substance”, in Philosophical Studies, volume 141, number 3, →DOI:

(philosophy) The materialist view that the majority of the mental states assumed by common sense like belief or sensation do not exist.


foundationalist

So the foundationalist holds that both experiences and beliefs can justify beliefs, whereas the coherentist holds that only beliefs can justify beliefs.

(philosophy) A supporter of foundationalism, the doctrine that beliefs derive justification from certain basic beliefs


contextualism

en-noun

contextualism (countable and uncountable, plural contextualisms)

If contextualism is true, then change ramifies through all the contextual connections.

2008 March 21, Brendan Larvor, “What can the Philosophy of Mathematics Learn from the History of Mathematics?”, in Erkenntnis, volume 68, number 3, →DOI:

(philosophy) Any of a group of doctrines that stress the importance of context


experimentalism

experimentalism (usually uncountable, plural experimentalisms)

Finally, I argued that moderate experimentalism and IAE can help resolve these different kinds of conflicts.

2007 August 8, S. Matthew Liao, “A defense of intuitions”, in Philosophical Studies, volume 140, number 2, →DOI:

(philosophy) An empirical or pragmatic approach which emphasizes the importance of experimentation


apriority

apriority (countable and uncountable, plural apriorities)

apriorities (plural)
aprioricity (alternative)

The apriority is, however, not to be merely as a result of the fixing of the meaning of the term, such as when I dub my cat ‘Cat’ and then claim to know a priori that my cat is called ‘Cat’.

2008 April 5, Ásta Sveinsdóttir, “Essentiality conferred”, in Philosophical Studies, volume 140, number 1, →DOI:

(philosophy) The quality or state of being known a priori

先驗性 /先验性

the quality or state of being known a priori


abstractum

Borrowed from Latin abstractum, neuter of abstractus (“drawn away”). Doublet of abstract.

There are quite familiar and truly outstanding liabilities—ontological, epistemological, and phenomenological—associated with saying that merely intentional objects are abstracta, or mental concreta, or non-existent non-mental concreta.

2008 August 5, Uriah Kriegel, “The dispensability of (merely) intentional objects”, in Philosophical Studies, volume 141, number 1, →DOI:

The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles

Oxford University Press
w:Oxford University Press

(philosophy, usually in the plural) Something which is abstract or exists abstractly.


biconditional

Although (MR) is discussed here as simply (CP ), in actuality (MR) is a biconditional of which one part is (CP ).

2008 January 3, Anand Vaidya, “Modal Rationalism and Modal Monism”, in Erkenntnis, volume 68, number 2, →DOI:

(logic) An "if and only if" conditional wherein the truth of each term depends on the truth of the other


disjunctivism

(philosophy) A school of thought that rejects the existence of sense data in certain cases, believing that a hallucination differs from a veridical experience in that the latter is the experience of an actual external entity.


hyperrealist

(philosophy) One who subscribes to the idea of hyperreality.


ontosophy

(philosophy) A comprehensive explanation for being (in contrast to merely a description of being, or a reason for being).


fictionalist

Rather than being aimed at those who deny the existence of mathematical objects, the argument’s target is those who deny the objectivity of mathematics—in Putnam’s opinion, intuitionists and fictionalists.

2007 September 28, David Liggins, “Quine, Putnam, and the ‘Quine–Putnam’ Indispensability Argument”, in Erkenntnis, volume 68, number 1, →DOI:

(philosophy) One who subscribes to fictionalism, the belief that certain concepts are simply convenient logical fictions


deconstructionist

en-adj

deconstructionist (comparative more deconstructionist, superlative most deconstructionist)

more deconstructionist (comparative)
most deconstructionist (superlative)
Deconstructionist (alternative)

“[…] He says it's going to be a deconstructionist reading of the play. That doesn't worry me, of course, because I've done deconstruction; but Mummy and Daddy may not like it.”

2004, Alan Hollinghurst, chapter 5, in The Line of Beauty […], London: Picador, →ISBN:

Another way of circumventing — or, at least, limiting — this deconstructionist chitchat is by a de-neutered effort of will or an impeccable professional background outside the political arena altogether.

2007 August 26, Daphne Merkin, “The Politics of Appearance”, in New York Times:

(chiefly philosophy) Characteristic of, related to, or supporting deconstructionism


deconstructionist

deconstructionists (plural)
Deconstructionist (alternative)

(philosophy) A proponent of deconstructionism