Nelson Goodman

American philosopher, born in Somerville, Massachusetts. Received his Ph.D. degree from Harvard in 1941. He taught at Tufts (1945-46), the University of Pennsylvania (1946–64), and Brandeis University (1964–67) before becoming professor of philosophy at Harvard (1967). A proponent of nominalism, he has worked with theories of inductive logic and helped to identify strategic problems in

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Neo-Platonism

Movement initiated by Plotinus (AD 205-70) and carried forward by various philosophers of the next three centuries, having repercussions in the Renaissance especially among the Cambridge Platonists of the 17th century and, later, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831). Neo-Platonism claimed to interpret Plato (c.427-c.347 BC), and to reconcile Aristotle (384-322 BC) with Plato, though modern scholars dispute its success in

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Neo-Pythagoreanism

A revival in the 1st century BC and the next century or two of various features traditionally associated with the followers of Pythagoras (fl.6th century BC); see Pythagoreanism. Though of some minor importance as an influence on neo-Platonism, the movement largely occupied itself with arithmetic and arithmology (attributing metaphysical and mystical properties to numbers), developing material from Plato (c.427-c.347 BC)

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Neutral monism

Theory associated primarily with William James(1842-1910), who named it, and Bertrand Russell(1872-1970); though it has affinities to the views of Ernst Mach (1838-1916), Henri Bergson (1859-1941) and others. Neutral monism says that mind and matter can both be reduced to a single type of thing, sometimes called ‘neutral stuff’. This took the form of sensations or experiences, which constituted minds

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New Atlantis

by Francis Bacon (1927) We sailed from Peru, where we had continued by the space of one whole year, for China and Japan, by the South Sea, taking with us victuals for twelve months; and had good winds from the east, though soft and weak, for five months’ space and more. But then the

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Nicholas Copernicus

Ideas – Motion is relative. – The earth is not at the center of the universe. – The sun, the planets, and the stars do not revolve around the earth; rather, the earth is one of the planets, and it revolves around the sun, as do the other planets. – The apparent loops that

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Nicod’s criterion

A criterion offered by French philosopher Jean Nicod (1893-1924) for when one proposition confirms another. A hypothesis of the form ‘All A are B’ is confirmed by objects that are A and B, and discontinued by objects that are A and not B, objects that are not A being irrelevant. An advantage of this last clause

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Nicolas Malebranche

Ideas – We see all things in God. – The world of intelligible extension exists only in God is coeternal with God. – To be is to be conceived. – All that we are aware of are ideas and feelings. – We have no direct or indirect knowledge of an external physical world. –

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Niels Bohr

Ideas – The electrons that surround the nucleus of an atom can only occupy certain dscrete states – those states being defined by Planck’s constant, h. ‘In-between’ states are not permissible. – The configuration of electrons in an atom is the primary factor that determines the chemical properties of an element. – Quantum mechanical

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Nihilism

Term invented or popularized by Russian novelist Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev (1818-1883) in his novel Fathers and Sons (1861) for the rejection of all traditional values. Literally meaning ‘nothingism’, the term can be applied to views saying that all knowledge is impossible, that all alleged metaphysical truths or values are illusory, or that ethical values

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Nominalism

Any view which analyzes a given subject-matter in terms of words or language, derived from the Latin ‘nomen’ meaning ‘name’, ‘term’ or ‘word’. A nominalist view of universals (see Platonism) says they are neither substantive realities (realism) nor mental concepts (conceptualism). Rather, they are simply words which we apply to a group of objects; the

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Non-cognitivism

Theory that there is no such thing as knowledge of truths in a certain sphere because there are no such truths to be known. The sphere normally intended by the term is ethics, and non-cognitivists adopt a speech act theory when analyzing what appear to be moral or value statements, emotivism and prescriptivism are forms of non-cognitivism, while descriptivism is a form

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No-ownership theory of the mind

Theory that states of consciousness exist in their own right and are not owned by some substantive entity such as a mind, a person, or even a body (or brain). The theory fits with a bundle theory of the self. Source: P F Strawson, Individuals (1959), ch. 3; critical Ownership is the state or fact of exclusive

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Objective idealism

Associated with Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel(1770-1831) and his followers, notably in England Francis Herbert Bradley (1846-1924). Also see: coherence-theory-of-truth.php. This is a form of idealism whereby reality, though mental or spiritual, does not depend on the human mind in particular but comprises a single spiritual entity: the absolute (hence the name ‘absolute idealism’ also given to this view). Reality is

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Objectivism

Any theory saying of a given subject-matter that it contains objects existing independently of human beliefs or attitudes, or that there are similarly independent truths in the area, or that there are methods of studying the area and arriving at truths within it which are not arbitrary and do not depend on the approach

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Objectivism (2)

Ayn Rand named her philosophy “Objectivism” and described it as a philosophy for living on earth. Objectivism is an integrated system of thought that defines the abstract principles by which a man must think and act if he is to live the life proper to man. Ayn Rand first portrayed her philosophy in the form

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Occasionalism

The idea is attributed to Louis de la Forge (1632-1666) in his Treatise on the Spirit of Man (1665), but the chief occasionalist was Nicolas Malebranche(1638-1715). Also see: psychophysical-parallelism.php and pre-established harmony. Occasionalism says that there is only one true cause, God, who causes what seem to be effects to appear on the occasions when what

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Of the Jealousy of Trade

by David Hume Having endeavoured to remove one species of ill-founded jealousy, which is so prevalent among commercial nations, it may not be amiss to mention another, which seems equally groundless. Nothing is more usual, among states which have made some advances in commerce, than to look on the progress of their neighbours with

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One over many principle

Principle which expresses the motivation underlying Plato’s theory of forms and similar doctrines. Where there are a number of objects of the same kind, or sharing a single property, it seems that there must be a single something which is this kind or property, and which therefore gets treated as an abstract non-material substance. Strictly, the

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Ontology

Generally, either the study of being, or a particular theory of what there is (as in ‘Smith’s ontology contains classes but not propositions’, meaning that Smith believes there are such things as classes but not such things as propositions). More specifically, part of the logical system underpinning the mereology of Polish logician Stanislaw Lesniewski (1886-1939). The

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