Questions tagged [terminology]
The study of terms and their use.
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What's the right term in logic for this phenomenon?
The statement "My mother is my parent" is always true, however, the opposite statement "My parent is my mother" is not always true because my father is also my parent.
What's the ...
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Is there a term for this strong form of actualism?
Actualism is the view that the actual world is the only possible world. But I was told that even most actualists believe in true counterfactuals, like, "It might have been the case that Adolf ...
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What is the difference between world and universe?
I encounter the terms "world" and "universe" in various types of philosophy. I haven't paid close attention, but it seems "world" is used more phenomenologically and ...
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A clarification of nonexistence
This is similar to a question I asked long ago, but there was a misinterpretation. People often say that, for instance, unicorns don't exist, but isn't it more correct to say that there are no ...
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On Kant's use of "überhaupt" [in general] and "allgemein" [general]
What's the difference between 'überhaupt' and 'allgemein'?
I'm still not fully in the grasp of what Kant exactly mean when he uses 'überhaupt' and 'allgemein'. In German, these are completely ...
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Do the set of "Concepts" contain itself?
So I gather that a set containing itself is not allowed. Yet it seems like a set of all concepts (Concepts) should contain an element denoting the idea of "concept". Is it that there is a ...
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What is the meaning of "Y is a function of X"?
Based on my life experience I assume that with "daily life language", when people say "Y is a function of X", the meaning could be:
Y is a potential mode, given X
Y is a practical ...
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What motivated Whitehead to choose "Cogredience"?
I'm not a native english speaker, so I was not familiar with the term "cogredience" when I first saw it in Concept of Nature. frankly, it seems like its a word Whitehead used in a different ...
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What is "Can't make X? Don't criticize it." fallacy called?
What is the name of the fallacy that attempts to invalidate a criticism of an instance of doing an activity because one providing the criticism is not very proficient in said activity (or not doing it ...
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What is the difference between a condition and a criterion?
One can argue that a criterion is any condition phrased in a question manner:
Does the applicant have a BSc in computer science?
Although, most criterions I ever came across were not phrased as a ...
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Is there a word used for abstract space constructs?
Abstract space constructs like not actual space, but an abstract set of data organized in a space-like structure, like a 2 dimensional array or 3 dimensional array, where let's say x represents "...
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What do you call philosophical statements that you can prove mathematically or by other means?
What do you call philosophical statements that you can prove mathematically or by other means? I thought theorem was a word for it, but it doesn't seem the case, so do we just use assertions as a ...
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What's the meaning of "Intermediate Generalizations"?
The phrase is from John Stuart Mill's Utilitarianism.
The context is:
"The corollaries from the principle of utility, like the precepts of every practical art, admit of indefinite improvement, ...
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Integritas definitio: Can you define anything completely and independently? [closed]
I think:
None is void of relations. Not even those that don’t seem
to be at all. The existing and the non-existing--all have
superfluous relations, if not many at least one. This
absolute one relation ...
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What's the difference between "cause" and "allow"?
Let's say person A picks up a pencil and drops it and person B catches it.
I think most people would agree that person A dropping the pencil allowed person B to catch it, but did not cause person B to ...
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Is there a word specific for "philosophy of philosophy" aside "metaphilosophy"?
I am pretty sure the word "metaphilosophy" is the only word for "philosophy of philosophy", but I wasn't quite sure it was the only word. Is there any other word that could be used ...
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An sich and Für sich (in itself and for itself)
For use in annotating the work of an Italian poet, I wish to explain a reference to An sich and für sich: What would be a brief, straightforward, and yet accurate definition of these concepts in Hegel'...
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Is there a word that describes what's outside the physical world?
If some people thinks that something outside the physical world can have an impact upon it, then what do people call the thing outside the physical world? Is there a common word or what are some of ...
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What is a "demon"?
The term demon appears in several thought experiments: Maxwell's demon, Laplace's demon, Descartes' demon, maybe others.
What is this term supposed to mean?
For example, I understand the term oracle: ...
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Are there multiple definitions of validity?
I have recently started learning the basics of propositional logic. According to http://intrologic.stanford.edu/chapters/chapter_03.html, a sentence is valid if and only if it is satisfied by every ...
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Is there a concept that refers to phenomena that are caused or seemingly caused by something outside the physical realm?
Is there a concept that refers to phenomena that are caused or seemingly caused by something outside the physical realm? I am referring to phenomena that seems to have been shown to be caused by ...
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Can you create two things that are exactly the same?
Is it possible to create two objects that are the same on the molecular level?
By two objects, I mean two different objects that have the same label.
For example, can you create two different breads ...
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Difference between *testability* and *falsifiability*?
Are these two terms exact synonyms? Or is there some subtle difference between the two?
For example, David Deutsch (2011) writes:
Testability is now generally accepted as the defining characteristic ...
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Difference between *concept* and *knowledge*?
The SEP entry "Rationalism vs Empiricism" distinguishes between the terms concept and knowledge.
Is there some standard distinction between these two terms that's commonly used by most philosophers? (...
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Modal Logics Isomorphisms
What does it mean to say that the different branches of modal logic (temporal, epistemic, etc.) are isomorphic? I looked for the answer on The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, but couldn't find ...
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Does aleatoric uncertainty exist?
I am wondering whether the distinction into epistemic and aleatoric uncertainty really makes sense. The way I have understood it (and Wikipedia seems to define it) the distinction is:
epistemic ...
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First person, present indicative of "To believe falsely"
There is a Wittgenstein quote I've been thinking about ever since going through AI to Zombies:
If there were a verb meaning 'to believe falsely', it would not have any significant first person, ...
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Is "always" omitted in mathematics?
Consider the statement: "For two numbers a,b their product is positive". For this statement to be true it must be true for every a,b right? So is the above statement equivalent to: "For two numbers a,...
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How Does One Define a Keyboard?
Suppose we have 3 keyboards and we take out all the switches. Would we call these objects still "keyboards"? Someone could argue that these objects don't have switches so they can't be called "...
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Absolutism vs. Objectivism vs. Subjectivism vs. Relativism, in an ethical or epistemological context
I don't understand the bolded sentences from this Reddit post by user 'GFYsexyfatman' in 2015.
So as the article suggests, let's think of them as two independent
dichotomies: one between ...
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Have philosophers identified what may cause something to be unknowable?
Have philosophers identified what may cause something to be unknowable? If such reasons have been identified, what are they called? If there's no exhaustive lists, what are the different causes or ...
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What do you call the idea that each universes have wholly different natural laws?
What do you call the idea that each universes have wholly different natural laws? Instead of, let's say, all universes sharing some common laws, I am talking about the idea that all universes have ...
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Getting what you are trying to avoid, by trying to avoid it
Sometimes you want to avoid something, but by attempting to avoid that, precisely that which you tried to avoid happens.
A typical example could be: a girl is pregnant, but don't want to draw ...
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Reference request for an argument that atheism is a natural consequence if we do not treat the world as special
Let us assume "miracles" do not happen.
Proponents of the existence of God would argue that it's somehow a necessity for God to exist, because they think the world had to have been created. But it's ...
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What is the name of the philosophical position that states that lack of free will is compatible with moral responsibility?
Is there a name for the philosophical position that states that moral responsibility is compatible with the lack of free will?
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What terminology is neutral in meta-ethics?
Meta-ethics concerns whether at least some ethical judgments are what one might call facts. In particular, a cognitivist who subscribes to realism, rather than the error theory or something similar, ...
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Metaphysicist or Metaphysician?
As a physicist who takes an interest in metaphysics, I was shocked to learn that practitioners of metaphysics call themselves metaphysicians. Why not metaphysicists?
My first thought was that unlike ...
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Analogy of Set and Subset and Contracts in abstracto and Marriage in concreto/in particular
I had a talk with a professor of family law and we are frequently told that there are general ordinances for contracts in general and particular ordinances for marriage.
I am problematised by the ...
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Why is Moore's law called a law, is there a more accurate description of what it is? [closed]
Read through the whole article on Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moore%27s_law), but I can't find anything about why it was called a law when it is described as a prediction or an ...
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Word for something that if you take it away it ceases to mean that thing [closed]
For the life of me I cannot think of the term that refers to an aspect of something, that if taken away, ceases to be that thing. A debatable and flawed example would be the idea that without my brain/...
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What does "theory of mind" mean in the context of this paper?
In my mind - pun intended - a/the theory of mind refers to some proposed solution to the mind body problem, e.g. Cartesian Dualism is a theory of mind, Functionalism is a theory of mind, etc...
This ...
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What to read on how the philosophical understanding of the nature of philosophical topics, and being on- and off-topic, has evolved?
My focus is to study the topic of topic itself and topicality, that is how a message, a question either a discussion can be on- or off-topic.
Which philosophers have been discussing this and what are ...
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What is an enumerative definition?
W. Kent Wilson in his book argues for developing an enumerative definition of concepts. An enumerative definition formulates its meaning by enumerating the objects or phenomena that fall under the ...
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What did Gödel mean by "positive property" in his ontological argument?
In his ontological proof, Gödel states (Axiom 1)
If a property is positive, then its negation is not positive.
What does he meant by this term? I have come across authors who replace this notion ...
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What is different between causation and causality [closed]
What is different between causation and causality?
And, if there is any difference, do most philosophers recognize it or is it just common among UCL or Cambridge scholars?
Thank you for your answer ...
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What is the fallacy in which a person adheres to an original idea, even after it has been proven wrong?
What is the fallacy in which a person adheres to an original idea, even after it has been proven wrong?
In other words, it is the inverse of hindsight bias. In hindsight bias, the person imagines ...
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What distinguishes a Hypocrite from Demagogue? [closed]
What distinguishes a Hypocrite (Hypocrisy) from Demagogue? Both are speaking out lies and are socially considered "evil" persons, correct. Thus, for me they sound similiar. Or are there precise ...
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Can we define the act of defining?
Defining concepts used in an argument is the most important step of that argument as it determines our question and makes it objective.
However, what is the definition of this act of definition? Can ...
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Is it true that an argument cannot be both inductive and cogent?
I have been asked a question in class where we would need to pick out the false statement from a given set of options. The problem is that I am not really sure why my answer was wrong?
Here is the ...
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What is the word for 'regarding the structure of a theory'?
I want to analyse some thermodynamical theories, i.e. theories that are concerned with temperature, heat, pressure, volume, states, systems etc. etc.
These theories obviously differ in many ways. ...
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