Bayesianism

Belief that the use of induction in science can be rationally justified by appeal to Bayes’s Theorem (Thomas Bayes, 1702-1761)). This says that the probability of one proposition, given another, equals the probability of the second, given the first, multiplied by the prior probability of the first (that is the probability it already has,

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Benedetto Croce

Ideas – A work of art is an intuition, an image expressive of and unified by feelings. – Art is lyrical in that it is expressive of life and feeling; it has aesthetic universally that stems from its origin in intuition. – Art is independent of all other expressions of human reason. – Philosophy

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Reductionism

Also called reductivism. The reducing of certain kinds of entities, or of theories, or even of whole sciences, to other, more basic, ones; entities that are reduced may be replaced (‘Father Christmas is really Daddy’) or simply explained (‘Water is really H2O’). Phenomenalism, for instance, reduces material objects, or sentences about them, to experiences, or

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Reductionism (19TH CENTURY)

Also called mechanism, or mechanistic philosophy. Associated with Carl Ludwig (1816-1895), Hermann von Helmholtz (1821-1894), Ernst von Briicke (1819-1892) and Emil du Bois-Reymond (1818-1896). The theory that life can be understood entirely in terms of the laws of physics and chemistry. Modern bioscience approaches biology from this perspective. Compare with: vitalism Types of reductionismedit There

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Axiom of reducibility

Axiom introduced by English philosopher and mathematician Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) in connection with the ramified theory of types. It says that any higher-order property or proposition can be reduced to an equivalent first-order one. The ramified theory caused difficulties for defining real numbers (using Dedekind sections) and for the process known as mathematical induction (roughly: if a property belongs

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Real self

Theory of people’s wants and wills found in idealism. People have a real self or ‘real will’ which is what they would want if they reflected in a fully rational way on their interests. It will frequently differ from their expressed will, or what they say and believe that they want. Some other person or institution,

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Realism

Often associated with the work of Scottish philosopher Thomas Reid (1710-1796), and German philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724-1804). Usually used in either of two ways: (1) the view that abstract concepts have a real existence and can be studied empirically; (2) the doctrine that the physical world has a reality separate from that of the mind. Over the reality

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Rationalism

Any theory emphasizing reason or intuition (usually in contrast to the senses, or, in ethics, to feelings and emotions), whether as the basis for acquiring knowledge, or as the basis for justifying moral judgments. In these uses it contrasts with empiricism, and has similar varieties. The a priori is to rationalism what the a posteriori

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Range theories of probability (19TH CENTURY)

Developed by French mathematician Laplace (1749-1827) Certain theories analyzing probability in terms of ranges of alternatives. William Calvert Kneale (1906-1990) introduces such a theory to deal with paradoxes that face the classical theory of probability when the relevant range of alternatives is infinite, and his theory consists basically of an extension to the classical theory to

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Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ideas – The natural world is coursed through with the immanent flow of a deity – a ‘world-soul’ – both in and above the world. – The divine spirit can be approached in the immediacies if experiential existence. – The principle of immanence reveals that there is a democracy of spiritual possibility, that personal

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Ralph Cudworth

Ideas – There is an ancient wisdom (prisca theology), known to all peoples. – We can have only limited knowledge of God. – All people, even atheists, have an idea of God. – The political explanation of religion is not adequate to explain Christianity. – A survey of religious knowledge, pagan and Judeo-Christian, shows

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Ralph Barton Perry (1876-1957)

American realist philosopher, born in Poultney, Vermont. He got hos BA from Princeton (1896) and Ph.D. from Harvard (1899). He taught at Harvard from 1902, becoming professor of philosophy in 1913 and professor emeritus in 1946. He revised (1925) Alfred Weber’s History of Philosophy. Editor of the works of William James, he won the 1936

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Radical interpretation

A notion similar to that of Willard Van Orman Quine (1908-2000) (indeterminacy of translation), thought of primarily in connection with Donald Davidson (1930-2003) and his truth-conditional theory of meaning (see convention t). To construct axioms suitable for deriving a theory of meaning for an alien language, we must interpret the utterances of its speakers. It is here that we

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Radical empiricism

Name given by American William James (1842-1910) to his own pragmatist philosophy. Also see: neutral monism Source: W James, Essays in Radical Empiricism (1912) Radical empiricism Radical empiricism is a postulate, a statement of fact, and a conclusion, says James in The Meaning of Truth. The postulate is that “the only things that shall be debatable among philosophers

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Pythagoreanism

Ideas held over the next two centuries by followers of Pythagoras of Samos (6th century BC). Pythagoras is said to have founded a semi-religious brotherhood which developed doctrines about reincarnation and purification. He is also credited with noticing that simple harmonies (octave, fifth and so on) are associated with simple arithmetical ratios. He or his followers (who

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Pythagoras of Samos

Pythagoras was born on the island of Samos, Greece in 569 BC. He was a Greek religious leader and a philosopher who made developments in astronomy, mathematics, and music theories. He moved to Croton (a city in southern Italy) and started a religious and philosophical school there. He had many followers called the Pythagoreans.

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Pyrrhonism

An extreme form of skepticism, associated with Pyrrho of Elis (c.365-275 BC) and developed by his followers, notably Aenesidemus (1st century BC) and Sextus Empiricus (2nd century AD). Pyrrhonism’s distinguishing feature lay in its application of scepticism to itself: not only could we not know anything, but we could not even know that we could

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Ptolemy

Major Ideas – The position of the celestial bodies can be determined with the help of a kinematic model: These bodies move on eccentric and epicyclic circles with uniform velocities, even though their velocities are not uniform when viewed from the earth; these circles lie inside the sphere of the fixed stars; carefully made

Psychophysical parallelism

Doctrine that mental and physical events are of entirely different kinds, so that while mental events can cause other mental events and physical events can cause other physical events they cannot cause each other but occur in parallel series. If I touch a hot stove, feel a pain, withdraw my hand, and decide to

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Psychologism

The habit of treating philosophical or theoretical problems as though they were psychological ones, to be solved by methods such as introspection. Properly speaking it is only a theory when engaged in deliberately rather than, as more often, unconsciously or through confusion, though the distinction is not sharp. Psychologism is common in the early

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