Principle of charity

Principle named by Neil L. Wilson – in Review of Metaphysics (1958-59), page 532 – that when interpreting another speaker, especially of an unknown language, we should make those assumptions about his intelligence, knowledge, sense of relevance and so on, that will make most of what he says come out true. Also see: principle of

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Charles Sanders Peirce

Ideas – What we expect from our forms of inference is that they give us true conclusions from true premises – if not all the time, then at least most of the time. – Beliefs are established habits of action. – Consider all the possible effects that might conceivably have practical bearings, we conceive

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Marcus Tullius Cicero

Marcus Tullius Cicero, an orator and statesman of Rome, was born on January 3, 106 BC. His life coincided with the decline and fall of the Roman Republic, and he was an important actor in many of the significant political events of his time, and his writings are now a valuable source of information

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Confirmation principle

Alternative name for a weak version of the verifiability principle, whereby in order to be meaningful a statement must, if not a tautology, be confirmable or disconfirmable by observation. Origins Although verificationist principles of a general sort—grounding scientific theory in some verifiable experience—are found retrospectively even with the American pragmatist C.S. Peirce and with the French conventionalist Pierre Duhem[2] who fostered instrumentalism,[3] the vigorous

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William of Ockham

Ideas – Nominalism rejects the view that there are universals (essences) in things; it emphasizes the experienced world of contingent beings. – The name used for a thing does not capture the essence of the thing, but is simply a conventional sign used to refer to the thing. – Logic seeks to organize and

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Nativism

Any view claiming that something is innate, such as ideas or perceptual faculties. Also see: innate ideas Arguments presented for immigration restriction Main article: Opposition to immigration According to Joel S. Fetzer, opposition to immigration commonly arises in many countries because of issues of national, cultural, and religious identity. The phenomenon has been studied especially in Australia, Canada, New Zealand,

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Methodological theories (1943)

The term ‘methodological’ is prefixed to terms – such as behaviorism, holism, individualism, skepticism and solipsism – to indicate that the doctrine in question is being taken to prescribe a certain method rather than to make a substantive claim about reality. This is irrespective of whether or not the prescription is based on such a substantive claim (in the case of holism and individualism it

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Universalizability

A complex and controversial notion which has been used both to distinguish the moral from the non-moral and to distinguish the moral from the immoral – two jobs which tend to get in each other’s way. ‘What if everyone did that?’ is often a relevant question in moral contexts; but ‘did what exactly?’. The

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Connectionism

A theory of the mind with many versions. They have in common that they set up models which employ simple interactions between the nodes in a computer network in such a way that sets of these interactions occur at the same time (or ‘in parallel’, hence ‘parallel processing’). This uses the information processing in

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Consistent empiricism

Name given by the German philosopher Moritz Schlick (1882-1936), a member of the Vienna circle, to his own version of logical positivism. Source: M Schlick, ‘Meaning and Verification’, Philosophical Review (1936), 343 Overview Bas van Fraassen is nearly solely responsible for the initial development of constructive empiricism; its historically most important presentation appears in his The Scientific Image (1980). Constructive empiricism

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Correspondence or relational theories of meaning

Theories which analyze the meaning of words in terms of things they stand for in some sense, be these objects of various kinds (also see: naming theories of meaning) or ideas and so on. For such a theory concerning sentences, also see: ideational theories of meaning, picture theory of meaning History Correspondence theory is a traditional model

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Descriptive theory of names

Theory that proper names, or some of them, and words for natural kinds, like ‘tiger’ or ‘water’, have meaning by specifying a description that the object or stuff concerned must satisfy for the name to apply to it. For example ‘tiger’ means ‘fierce animal with stripes…’, ‘water’ means ‘colorless tasteless liquid suitable for drinking

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Axiomatic theories (1939)

Axiomatic theories relating to consumer behavior and rationality, and are an essential part of consumer demand theory and indifference curve analysis. The axioms of rationality are: – completeness (the ability to order every available combination of goods according to preference); – transitivity (relationship between different combination preferences); and – selection (the consumer will aim for the

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Bioeconomics (1970S)

Developed by American economist Gary Becker (1930- ), bioeconomics term refers to an area of economics in which sociobiology is applied to explain human behavior in a capitalist economic system. Becker asserted that the combined assumptions of maximizing behavior, market equilibrium and stable preferences were at the heart of the economic approach. Seeing the economic approach

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Bounded rationality (1980S)

Developed by American behaviorist Herbert Simon (1916-2001), bounded rationality is an analysis of decision-making which accepts that there are cognitive limits to an individual’s knowledge and capacity to act rationally. Also see: uncertainty, bernouilli’s hypothesis SOURCE: R M CYERT AND J G MARCH, A BEHAVIORAL THEORY OF THE FIRM (ENGLEWOOD CLIFFS, N.J., 1975) H A SIMON, MODELS OF

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Chapter 1: Method Pursued in This Work

If I were asked to answer the following question: What is slavery? and I should answer in one word, It is murder, my meaning would be understood at once. No extended argument would be required to show that the power to take from a man his thought, his will, his personality, is a power

Chapter 2: Property Considered as a Natural Right

Definitions The Roman law defined property as the right to use and abuse one’s own within the limits of the law – jus utendi et abutendi re suâ, guatenus juris ratio patitur. A justification of the word abuse has been attempted, on the ground that it signifies, not senseless and immoral abuse, but only

Chapter 3: Labor as the Efficient Cause of the Domain of Property

Nearly all the modern writers on jurisprudence, taking their cue from the economists, have abandoned the theory of first occupancy as a too dangerous one, and have adopted that which regards property as born of labor. In this they are deluded; they reason in a circle. To labor it is necessary to occupy, says

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Chapter 4: Property is Impossible

The last resort of proprietors, – the overwhelming argument whose invincible potency reassures them, – is that, in their opinion, equality of conditions is impossible. “Equality of conditions is a chimera,” they cry with a knowing air; “distribute wealth equally today – tomorrow this equality will have vanished.” To this hackneyed objection, which they

Chapter 5: Psychological Exposition of the Idea of Justice and Injustice

Psychological Exposition of the Idea of Justice and Injustice, and a Determination of the Principle of Government and of Right Property is impossible; equality does not exist. We hate the former, and yet wish to possess it; the latter rules all our thoughts, yet we know not how to reach it. Who will explain