Meinong’s jungle

The Austrian philosopher Alexius von Meinong(1853-1920) thought that since we can apparently refer to things that do not exist (the golden mountain, the prime number between eight and ten, and so on) such things must have some sort of being. This he called ‘sosein’, or ‘being so’. Meinong’s jungle is a nickname for the repository

3 Comments

Meliorism

Doctrine that the universe is becoming progressively and inevitably better. This may be for religious reasons involving the working out of some grand design, or for reasons connected with late 18th-century optimism concerning inevitable progress and the perfectibility of man, inspired by scientific and technological progress and revolutionary political ideas. In theology it can

1 Comments

Mereology

Literally, ‘theory of parts’. Term introduced by the Polish logician Stanislaw Lesniewski (1886-1939) to cover a theory which used the whole/part relation as a substitute for the class-membership relation to deal with the structure of classes in ways that would avoid various difficulties connected with the vicious CIRCLE PRINCIPLE and the theory of types. (The

2 Comments

Metalanguage (1943)

Standard distinction, applied to linguistics by Danish linguist Louis Hjelmslev (1899-1965). Also discussed by Roman Jakobson (1896-1982). Language about language: metalanguage is a system of notation, descriptive terms, and so on, for an ‘object language’. Metalanguage may be related to natural language – terms like ‘passive’, ‘auxiliary’ -or an abstract notation as in symbolic

1 Comments

Modal realism

Term used for the theory, going back to Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716), of ‘possible worlds’; used to analyze necessity and possibility and similar notions, which are known as modal notions. The actual world is regarded as merely one among an infinite set of logically possible worlds, some nearer to the actual world and some more remote.

1 Comments

Monism

Any view claiming to find unity in a certain sphere where it might not have been expected. The main forms of monism have been: a strong form, claiming that there is only one object (Eleaticism, Baruch de Spinoza (1632-1677), Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831)); and a weaker form, claiming that there is only one kind of object, and

5 Comments

Moral sense theories

Theories postulating a special moral sense which either enables us to perceive special moral qualities of virtue and vice in action (which thereupon affect us favorably or unfavorably), or else simply arouses feelings of approval or disapproval in us on contemplating the ordinary qualities of actions (it is not always clear which alternative is

2 Comments

Mysticism

A type of religious attitude (appearing in many guises and within many religions from antiquity onwards) emphasizing various practices – ascetic, contemplative, or other – for obtaining knowledge of and unification with God or spiritual reality by means not open to reason and not relying on dogma. Mystics claim to achieve this knowledge or

1 Comments

Naive realism

Theory that we see the world as common sense supposes we do; that is, directly and without recourse to special intermediate ‘sensations’, ‘sense-data’, ‘images’ and so on which some other views involve {see also REPRESENTATIONALISM). We need not, however, always be free from error, any more than common sense thinks we are. Properly speaking,

4 Comments

Naming theories of meaning

Also called denotative or referential theories. Theories which equate the meaning of a word with an object it stands for (like the ‘fido’-fido theory), or else with the word’s relation to such an object. Proper names form the primary class, but general words can stand for abstract objects (‘dog’ for doghood, ‘red’ for the color

2 Comments

Naturalism

Any view holding that things in general, or things in some sphere under investigation, are all of one kind (as opposed to being of radically different kinds), and are amenable to study by scientific methods, without appeal to supernatural intervention or special kinds of intuition. In art or literature, any of a variety of

6 Comments

Naturalized epistemology

A notion introduced explicitly by Willard Van Orman Quine (1908-2000) though with roots going back to David Hume (1711-1776). The idea is that since it is impossible to achieve a satisfactory justification for our claims to knowledge we should cease to look for one, and construct a scientific account -in purely ‘natural’ terms and without reference to justification

4 Comments

Necessitarianism

Term occasionally used for the view that everything that happens is necessitated. The view that every event has a cause is the same, unless causation is distinguished from necessitation. Also see: determinism Source: R R K Sorabji, Necessity, Cause and Blame (1980), chapter 2 Necessitarianism is a metaphysical principle that denies all mere possibility; there is exactly one

1 Comments

Performative (or speech act) theory of negation

Theory that analyzes negation in terms of a special kind of linguistic activity, negating or denying; so that to say, for example, ‘It’s not raining’ may indeed be (as anyone would agree in straightforward cases) to deny that it is raining, but is also to utter a sentence which gets its meaning from that

4 Comments

Negative utilitarianism

Version of utilitarianism which replaces the maximization of good by the minimization of evil. Supporters of the theory, who include Karl Raimund Popper (1902-1994), say that by aiming at removing evils rather than achieving positive goods we shall avoid the disadvantages of utopianism usually incurred by those who try to plan for a perfect world. To take an extreme example,

2 Comments

Neo-Platonism

Movement initiated by Plotinus (AD 205-70) and carried forward by various philosophers of the next three centuries, having repercussions in the Renaissance especially among the Cambridge Platonists of the 17th century and, later, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831). Neo-Platonism claimed to interpret Plato (c.427-c.347 BC), and to reconcile Aristotle (384-322 BC) with Plato, though modern scholars dispute its success in

2 Comments

Neo-Pythagoreanism

A revival in the 1st century BC and the next century or two of various features traditionally associated with the followers of Pythagoras (fl.6th century BC); see Pythagoreanism. Though of some minor importance as an influence on neo-Platonism, the movement largely occupied itself with arithmetic and arithmology (attributing metaphysical and mystical properties to numbers), developing material from Plato (c.427-c.347 BC)

4 Comments

Neutral monism

Theory associated primarily with William James(1842-1910), who named it, and Bertrand Russell(1872-1970); though it has affinities to the views of Ernst Mach (1838-1916), Henri Bergson (1859-1941) and others. Neutral monism says that mind and matter can both be reduced to a single type of thing, sometimes called ‘neutral stuff’. This took the form of sensations or experiences, which constituted minds

2 Comments

Nicod’s criterion

A criterion offered by French philosopher Jean Nicod (1893-1924) for when one proposition confirms another. A hypothesis of the form ‘All A are B’ is confirmed by objects that are A and B, and discontinued by objects that are A and not B, objects that are not A being irrelevant. An advantage of this last clause

1 Comments

Nihilism

Term invented or popularized by Russian novelist Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev (1818-1883) in his novel Fathers and Sons (1861) for the rejection of all traditional values. Literally meaning ‘nothingism’, the term can be applied to views saying that all knowledge is impossible, that all alleged metaphysical truths or values are illusory, or that ethical values

6 Comments