Semantics (EARLY 20TH CENTURY)

Numerous contributors from both disciplines. The study of meaning in natural language. ‘Meaning’ is an elusive concept which modern linguists tackle by dispersing into other fundamental ideas such as IMPLICATURE, MEANING-NN, sense and reference, VALUE. Also see: theories of meaning, LEXICAL SEMANTICS, STRUCTURAL SEMANTICS, truth-conditional semantics Source: J Lyons, Semantics (Cambridge, 1977) Linguistics Main article: Semantics (linguistics) In linguistics,

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Semantic atomism

Theory that the meaning of a phrase or sentence can be analyzed into, and can be constructed out of, the meanings of its constitute words. These meanings can be accounted for independently, and function as atoms of meaning. Similarly, the theory will analyze the meaning of complex sentences in terms of the meanings of

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Theory of relevant alternatives

Theory used in defending fallibilism against the charge that it leads to skepticism. Where P and Q are propositions, P counts for this purpose as an alternative to Q if it is inconsistent with Q, and counts as a relevant alternative if to know that Q we must also know that not-P. Variant formulations exist, but the

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Relativism

Strictly, any doctrine that something exists, has a property, or obtains, relative to something else. Two forms of relativism have been common, cognitive and moral; both of them are different from subjectivism, though some versions are also subjectivist. Cognitive relativism may say that all beliefs are true, or true for their holders (the view Plato attributes to Protagoras in

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Altruism

In popular speech, a willingness to sacrifice one’s own interests for those of others. It is this sense that is relevant to discussions of, for example, the evolutionary origins and role of altruism in animals. Philosophically, altruism is rather a view about what one ought to do, and contrasts with egoism and universalism. It is a form

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Anthroposophy (19TH-20TH CENTURIES)

The teachings of the German occult philosopher Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925), derived from an ancient Greek phrase meaning ‘wisdom about man’. Steiner held that the development of man’s spiritual awareness was of paramount importance. He attempted to treat the investigation of spirituality as a ‘scientific’ study, and based much of his research upon his central contention that

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Antinomianism (19TH-20TH CENTURIES)

View of certain Christians that the duties of a Christian are not to be circumscribed by obedience to a moral law or set of laws. More widely, the view that justification is by faith rather than by obedience to such laws. More widely still, any view that seeks to justify the actions of certain

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Anti-realism

A view, primarily associated with the Oxford logician Michael AE Dummett (1925- ), which insists that we can only understand a statement if we understand under what circumstances someone who asserted it would say something true, and that we can only understand this if we could manifest our understanding, at least in principle, by asserting it

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Apriorism

Apart from its popular meaning of dogmatism, apriorism is an alternative – though less common – term for rationalism in its philosophical senses; that is the views that there are a priori concepts, or substantive a priori truths, or both. English Alternative forms a priorism Etymology From a priori +‎ -ism, after French apriorisme. Noun apriorism (countable and uncountable, plural apriorisms) (philosophy) The idea that some knowledge

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Aristotle’s four causes

Theory derived from the work of Greek philosopher Aristotle (384-322 BC). ‘Cause’ is a misleading, but traditional, translation of a word meaning ‘factor responsible’, or perhaps ‘explanatory factor’. The ‘four causes’ provide answers to four questions one might ask about something, for example, a man: ‘What is it made from?’ ‘Flesh and so on’ (material cause);

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Associationism

A doctrine developed primarily by the Scottish philosopher David Hume (1711-1776) and the English psychologist David Hartley (1705-1757). (Psychology and philosophy of mind were not then distinguished, but Hartley offered a physiological basis for what in Hume was a purely mentalistic doctrine.) Ideas, regarded rather as sensations or as mental images, were associated in the mind according to

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Attitude theories

In effect another name for speech act theories; though, strictly speaking, attitude theories analyze the meaning of certain words or sentences in terms of the expression of attitudes rather than the performing of various other acts that one can perform by speaking, such as prescribing or denying. The name therefore applies to emotivism more happily than to,

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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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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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