Critical realism

Name introduced by American philosopher Roy Wood Sellars (1880-1973) in Critical Realism (1916) for his attempt to mediate between direct realism and idealism by saying that the objects of perception are neither objects themselves nor ideas arid so on in the mind but sets of properties of these objects. Source: D Drake et al., eds, Essays in Critical

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Cynicism

Philosophy of the movement started by Diogenes of Sinope (4th century BC) and possibly influenced by Antisthenes, a contemporary and disciple of Socrates (469-399 BC). The movement lasted intermittently for some 800 years or more, flourishing mainly in its first two centuries and again under the early Roman Empire (first two centuries AD). The Cynics were akin to and

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Dante Alighieri

Ideas – Love is the movement of the spirit and the primordial energy of the universe. – The energy of love is manifested in three actions. – In romantic love, the psyche moves toward the object of its erotic affections. – In philosophical love, the psyche contemplates the world of nature through the exercise

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David Hartley

David Hartley was an English philosopher and founder of the Associationist school of psychology. He was educated at Bradford grammar school and Jesus College, Cambridge, of which society he became a fellow in 1727. Originally intended for the Church, he was deterred from taking orders by certain scruples as to signing the Thirty-nine Articles,

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David Hume

Ideas – All our ideas are derived originally from sense impressions. – Since our beliefs are based not on reason but imagination, they cannot be rationally justified. – We cannot establish the existence of an external, physical world. – Causation must be explained subjectively rather than objectively. – There are no minds distinct from

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Deduction theorem

Let ‘P’ and ‘Q’ stand for (simple or compound) propositions. The deduction theorem says that: if Q can be logically inferred from P, then ‘If P then Q’ can be proved as a theorem in the logical system in question. This gives a method for dispensing with rules of inference in favor of axioms

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Deductivism

Name sometimes applied to the claim, especially associated with Austrian philosopher Karl Raimund Popper (1902-1994), that since induction is logically invalid, science should dispense with it in favor of deduction. Also see: inductivism, falsificationism, hypothetico-deductive method, Vienna circle Source: L Carrol; What the Tortoise Said to

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De facto and de jure theories of meaning

A distinction associated with use theories of meaning. De facto theories give the meaning of a word in terms of how it is actually used; de jure theories give it in terms of how it should be used, or of rules for its use, claiming that actual usage may be incorrect. Source: L J Cohen,

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Degrees of truth

There are two main sources of the idea that truth has degrees. One is objective idealism, as explained under coherence theory of truth. The other arises because many predicates are essentially vague. When does a heap of sand become large? It seems plausible that a 100-grain heap is not large, and that a heap which

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Deism (18TH CENTURY)

The doctrine that belief in a passive creator-God is entirely consistent with reason, without recourse to established religion or the supernatural. In its 18th-century heyday, deism was particularly associated with such philosophical writers as Francois Marie Arouet de Voltaire (1694-1778) and Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) (although similar thoughts had been expressed by other thinkers in earlier centuries). In

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Democritus

Democritus was born at Abdera. His father was from a noble family and of great wealth, and contributed largely towards the entertainment of the army of Xerxes on his return to Asia. As a reward for this service the Persian monarch gave and other Abderites presents and left among them several Magi. Democritus, according

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Denotation and connotation (1843)

Distinction drawn by the English philosopher John Stuart Mill (1806-1873). A word denotes the class of entities to which it may be used to refer; it connotes the qualities usually associated with those entities. See also the non-equivalent distinction sense and reference. Source: J Lyons, Semantics (Cambridge, 1977) ch. 7 Connotation Jump to navigationJump to search For

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Deontology

Strictly, the study of duty, but in practice a particular view that duty is the primary moral notion, and that at least some of our duties (for example, keeping promises) do not depend on any value that may result from fulfilling them. Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) is probably the most famous deontologist. Also see: categorical imperative. Consequentialists

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Theory of descriptions

Theory invented by English philosopher and mathematician Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) in 1905 to show how denoting phrases like ‘the present king of France’ could still have meaning though there is nothing for them to denote. Russell claimed that the grammatical form of ‘The present king of France is bald’ is misleading as to its logical form,

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Descriptivism

Any theory claiming that certain utterances have meaning by describing (or purporting to describe) some aspect of reality rather than in various other ways (for example, prescriptivism and emotivism). In practice the term is confined to ethical utterances. ‘Lying is wrong’ and ‘You ought not to lie’ both purport to state moral facts, though descriptivism leaves it

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Desiderius Erasmus

Ideas – Perfectability is intrinsic in human beings. – Intrinsic perfectability implies the power of self-determination and moral achievement. – The examplar of moral achievement is Jesus Christ, whose life of humility, patience, and love is open for all Christians to imitate. – Interior piety, scriptural exegesis, and study of classical and patristic writings

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Determinism

The general course of events is determined by structures deemed to be fundamental. These may be the economic system, the system of religious belief, the state of technology, and so on. Determinism is normally attributed to thinkers in a critical spirit, rather than claimed by them to describe their own views. Not the same

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Dialectic

A term with various meanings for different philosophers, notably Plato, Aristotle, the Stoics, Immanuel Kant, Friedrich Hegel, and Karl Marx. For the ancients, dialectic was largely a matter of philosophical method. As embodying a theory about reality the term belongs primarily to Hegel, who thought that both reality itself and our thought about it (which were ultimately the same thing)

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Dialetheism

A name for the view that the law of contradiction can on occasion and within certain limits be violated without irrationality; ‘…the view that some contradictions are true, or that some things are both true and false’. Also see: paraconsistency Source: G Priest, ‘Contradiction, Belief and Rationality’, Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society (1985-86) p.99 Motivations

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Dimitri Ivanovich Mendeleev

Ideas – Elements placed according to the value of their atomic weights present a clear periodicity of properties. Biography The youngest, of at least, fourteen children, Dimitri Ivanovitch Mendeleev was born at Tobolsk, Siberia, on 7th February, 1834. His father, Ivan, was the director of the local gymnasium, and his mother, Marya, came from

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