Protagoras of Abdera

Major Ideas – Educated persons are skilled in the art of rhetoric, which enables them to articulate thought with clarty and superior argumentation. – What enables one to lead others can be taught. – No one is absolutely self-sufficient, for human survival depends on mutual cooperation in society – hence the importance of values,

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Propensity theory of probability

Theory mainly associated with Karl Raimund Popper (1902-1994), though it goes back to Charles Sanders Peirce (1839-1914). Popper introduces it to replace the frequency theory of probability in view of an objection he brings to that. Probabilities are propensities, not of objects under study but of the experimental arrangements which we keep constant during repeated experiments. Though not directly observable, Popper claims

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Process philosophy

Any of a variety of theories emphasizing that the basic reality in the universe is not objects or substances but processes. Objects are mere temporary bodies in the general flux, and are not sharply separated from one another; and real time is continuous and not an accretion of instantaneous moments. Process philosophy can be

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Probabilism

Name for various theories, including: first, the view that certainty is unattainable and that we should therefore seek and be satisfied with mere probabilities (a mild form of skepticism); secondly, the view that science can give positive probabilities to hypotheses and need not content itself with falsificationism. These two views can be thought of as approaching

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Private language argument (1953)

Debate initiated by the Austrian philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951) in his posthumous Philosophical Investigations. This debate concerns the question of whether there could possibly exist a private language; that is, a language which is ‘necessarily unteachable’ because the meanings of words known by an individual are based on private and undemonstrable experiences of their referents. Wittgenstein

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Prescriptivism

Like emotivism, which it grew naturally out of in the 1950s, a form of speech act theory which analyzes value judgments and especially moral judgments, this time in terms of prescriptions. When I tell you that lying is wrong I am telling you not to lie, though I am also committing myself not to lie, and to

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Preference utilitarianism

Version of utilitarianism which contrasts with both hedonistic utilitarianism and ideal utilitarianism by specifying the end to be pursued in terms neither of pleasure nor of other specific values, but in terms of maximizing the satisfaction of desires or preferences, whatever their objects. This answers at least some of the objections to the rival versions mentioned above, and some form

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Doctrine of pre-established harmony

Doctrine primarily associated with Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716) that there is no causation in the world but that each event arises when it does because it was pre-programmed to do so by God when the universe began. The doctrine is often illustrated by the image of the two clocks -attributed to Arnold Geulincx (1625-1669) – which keep perfect

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Pragmatism

Theory, originally developed by American scientist and philosopher Charles Sanders Peirce (1839-1914), that the meanings of concepts and propositions lay in their possible effects on our experiences and practices. He also originated the pragmatic theory of truth. Peirce was thinking mainly of scientific or intellectual concepts, and called his own view pragmaticism when his follower William James (1842-1910) broadened the

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Pragmatic (or pragmatist) theory of truth

American scientist and philosopher Charles Sanders Peirce (1839-1914) defined truth as ‘the opinion which is fated to be ultimately agreed to by all who investigate’ (see Buchler). His disciple William James (1842-1910) held that truth was indeed agreement with reality, but that what counted as ‘agreeing with reality’ was what worked, in the sense of ultimately satisfying us.

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Positivism

A movement in the general tradition of empiricism and pioneered specifically by the French writer Auguste Comte (1798-1857), though under the influence of the social reformer Claude Henri, Compte de Saint-Simon (1760-1825), whom he served as secretary. The main features of positivism were an insistence on a scientific approach to the human, as well as the natural, world;

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Plurality of causes

Principle saying that, though the same cause must have the same effect each time, the same effect need not have the same cause each time. (Of course the cause on one occasion may be complex and involve many contributory factors; but could these be replaced by different factors when the effect next occurs?) The

Plotinus

Ideas – The soul is more important and real than the body or any other material object. – In its pure state, the World-Soul is the same as the Intellect (or Mind). – The Intellect is a system of Platonic ideas that exists simultaneously in all individual souls. – Above the Intellect is the

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Principle of plenitude

Principle that if the universe is to be as perfect as possible it must be as full as possible, in the sense that it contains as many kinds of things as it possibly could contain. The world of nature must be as rich as possible. This is connected with the idea, used by St

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Plato’s theory of forms (or ideas)

Theory developed by Plato (c.427-c.347 BC) in his middle-period dialogues (especially Phaedo, Symposium, Republic) and criticized by himself in his Parmenides (see third man argument). The language of the theory occurs in his earlier dialogues, but its interpretation is disputed, as is his reaction in later dialogues to the Parmenides criticisms: did he modify the theory, abandon it, or treat the

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Platonism

Strictly, the philosophy of Plato (c.427-c.347 BC), but the word is often applied to any view which treats a given subject-matter as involving substantial, though abstract, entities (irrespective of Plato’s own view on the topic in question). Such subject-matters have included numbers, propositions, universals (roughly, things named by words ending in ‘-hood’, ‘-ness’, ‘-ty’). Platonism is thus

Plato

Ideas – The goal of intellectual inquiry is to discover the eternal immutable forms of ‘ideas’, which serve as the essence and ideal of all things; in this way a true philosopher seeks wisdom. – These eternal truths, already in the mind, can be recalled by the imaterial and immortal intellect; they cannot be

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Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

Ideas – Evolution, cosmogenesis, has a direction. – Evolution ascends toward a final point, or Omega, which exerts an attraction on the process although it stands outside of it. – Evolution has a within as well as a without, taking place on both the physical and psychic levels. – Tangential energy moves evolution on

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Pierre-Maurice Duhem

French physicist and philosopher and historian of science. After studying at the École Normale Supérieure he taught at Lille (1887–1893), Rennes (1893–1894), and Bordeaux (1894–1916). His extension and application of the thermodynamic potential to topics in chemistry ranks him among the founders of modern physical chemistry. His Traité d’énergétique générale (2 vol., 1911) aimed

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Pierre Gassendi

Ideas – Aristotelianism is useless as a philosophy or basis for science. – Skepticism, in a mitigated form, allows for a limited knowledge. – Epicurean atomism is the best hypothesis for explaining the natural world. – Epicureanism can be modified so that it is compatible with Christian beliefs. Biography Pierre Gassendi was a French