Theism

The religious belief that God is the creator of and supreme authority in the universe. In most major religions God is a beneficent being (or beings) with a particular sympathy for mankind, which owes him an allegiance of obedience and worship. Philosophical objections to the idea include: the conflict inherent between an omnipotent God

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Teleology

In general, belief in or appeal to explanation in terms of ends or purposes. As an ethical doctrine teleology claims that our duties are specifiable in terms of the production of some value. Teleology is perhaps rather wider than consequentialism as it includes such views as that an act is our duty if doing it will

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Tacit knowledge

Primarily an idea developed by the Hungarian social philosopher Michael Polanyi (1891-1976). Starting from such facts as our ability to recognize faces without knowing how we do so, and to be trained in a psychological laboratory to respond to certain perceived stimuli without knowing just what it is we are responding to, Polanyi claims

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Principle of sufficient reason

Principle that there must be a sufficient reason – causal or otherwise – for why whatever exists or occurs does so, and does so in the place, time and manner that it does. The principle goes back to at least the early 5th century BC – being used by Parmenides (see Eleaticism) in his Fragment 8, lines

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Subjectivist theories of probability

Theories which analyze probability in terms of beliefs or attitudes rather than anything in the world itself. For one theory, associated mainly with Bruno De Finetti (1906-1985), the degree of probability of something is the degree of the speaker’s belief, measured by his betting behavior, but subject to the constraint that his bets must

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Subjectivism

Any theory treating a given subject matter as dependent on human beliefs and attitudes, whether those of an individual, a social group, or humanity generally. A subjectivist theory of ethics, for example, might analyze an utterance like ‘Abortion is wrong’ as meaning that the speaker, or his society, or people in general, disapproves of

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Subjective idealism

Form of idealism represented primarily by George Berkeley (1685-1753), though his own name for it was immaterialism. Berkeley distinguished minds or spirits (including both God and finite spirits like us), which are active, from ideas which are their contents and are passive. To be is to perceive, in the case of spirits, or to be perceived, in the case of

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Stoicism

Philosophy named from the Stoa, or portico, in Athens where its adherents gathered. It was founded by Zeno of Citium (c.336-c.264 BC) – different from Zeno the Elea – but considerably developed by his successors, notably: Chrysippus (c.280-c.206 BC), Posidonius (C.135-C.51 BC), Seneca ‘the Younger’ (c.4 BC-AD 65), Epictetus (C. AD 50-138). The emperor Marcus Aurelius

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Speech act theory (1930S-1960S)

Also ‘illocutionary act theory’. Originally formulated by the British philosopher John Langshaw Austin (1911-1960), and developed by the American JOHN ROGERS SEARLE (1932- ), it is a branch of PRAGMATICS. When saying something, one is simultaneously doing something. An ‘utterance act’ is performed in voicing words and sentences; a ‘propositional act’ is carried out by referring

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Specious present

An idea to deal with the problem that we can apparently only be aware of what is present, and what is present must be momentary (otherwise it would include the future or past and not be all present), yet anything real must exist for at least some time: so how can we be aware

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Theory of species (18TH CENTURY)

(Also referred to as the biological species concept, the isolation species concept, the species concept, and the species taxa.) Most often associated with Ernst Mayr (1904- ), an evolutionary biologist at Harvard University (but many other biologists have theorized on the subject before and since). This is the idea that animals and plants can

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Speciesism (1970S)

A term attributed to British psychologist Richard Ryder, author of Victims of Science (1975), it was popularized by Australian philosopher Peter Singer in Animal Liberation (1975). Speciesism is the doctrine that certain species are innately superior to others; and is used especially to describe the exploitation of lower species by humans. Also see: chain of

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Theory of speciation (C.400 BC)

Also called the natural state model of species, this was based on the ideas of Greek philosopher Aristotle (384-322 BC), and applied by Swedish botanist Carolus Linnaeus (1707-1778) and others in their search for the perfect ‘type specimen’ for each species. It is the concept that all members of a species share a common natural state

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Theory of speciation (18TH CENTURY)

Also called geographic speciation, this theory is most often associated with Ernst Mayr (1904- ), an evolutionary biologist at Harvard University (although many other biologists have theorized on the subject). It asserts that new species arise among sexually reproducing organisms because geographic isolation enables a small subgroup to diverge genetically from the larger, established

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Solipsism

Literally, ‘only-oneselfism’. An extreme form of skepticism, saying that nothing exists beyond oneself and one’s immediate experiences. Seldom held deliberately, it is more likely to be fallen into by those who find themselves in the egocentric predicament, perhaps through holding solipsism as a methodological theory; that in enquiring into a certain area it is best, or inevitable,

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Skepticism

Literally, the habit of being given to enquiry. The skeptic does not take things for granted. He may deny the existence of God, other minds than his own, a world of material objects behind what is immediately given to our senses, anything other than himself and his experiences (also see: solipsism), even his own mind

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Situationism

Ethical doctrine that our moral duty cannot be rigorously subjected to general rules, but must take account of each situation as it arises. Unlike anti-nomianism it does not reject such rules altogether, but insists on flexibility in applying them. Unlike casuistry it does not insist on breaching rules only if some other rule can be found

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Sense and reference (1892)

Distinction between Sinn and Bedeutung made by the German mathematician Gottlob Frege (1848-1925). The meaning of an expression (sense) is a property of language, and is not to be equated with the object or concept the expression may be used to refer to: ‘the morning star’ and ‘the evening star’ have different meanings (‘senses’) but both

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Sensationalism

Also called sensationism, it is associated with Ernst Mach (1838-1916) and various other empiricists of the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries. Either the theory that only sensations exist in what appears to be the material world, everything else being constructed by the methods of phenomenalism; or the theory that all our knowledge must start with sensations,

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Truth conditional semantics (1967)

A variant of the correspondence theory, and akin to the redundancy theory. It was developed by the Polish logician Alfred Tarski (1902-1983), and applied to language by British philosopher Donald Davidson. (Also see: MONTAGUE GRAMMAR.) Semantic theory for sentences rather than words (also see: LEXICAL SEMANTICS). We know the meaning of a sentence if we know the

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