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Quantifier Variance
The term quantifier variance refers to claims that there is no uniquely best ontological language with which to describe the world. The term "quantifier variance" rests upon the philosophical term 'quantifier', more precisely existential quantifier. A 'quantifier' is an expression like "there exists at least one 'such-and-such'". ''Quantifier variance'' then is the thesis that the meaning of quantifiers is ambiguous. This thesis can be used to explain how some disputes in ontology are only due to a failure of the disagreeing parties to agree on the meaning of the quantifiers used. According to Eli Hirsch, it is an outgrowth of '' Urmson's dictum'': Quantifiers The word ''quantifier'' in the introduction refers to a variable used in a domain of discourse, a collection of objects under discussion. In daily life, the domain of discourse could be 'apples', or 'persons', or even everything. In a more technical arena, the domain of discourse could be 'integers', say. The quantifier va ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Existential Quantifier
Existentialism is a family of philosophy, philosophical views and inquiry that explore the human individual's struggle to lead an Authenticity (philosophy), authentic life despite the apparent Absurdity#The Absurd, absurdity or incomprehensibility of existence. In examining meaning of life, meaning, purpose, and value (ethics), value, existentialist thought often includes concepts such as existential crisis, existential crises, Angst#Existentialist angst, angst, courage, and freedom. Existentialism is associated with several 19th- and 20th-century European philosophers who shared an emphasis on the human subject, despite often profound differences in thought. Among the 19th-century figures now associated with existentialism are philosophers Søren Kierkegaard and Friedrich Nietzsche, as well as novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky, all of whom critiqued rationalism and concerned themselves with the problem of meaning (philosophy), meaning. The word ''existentialism'', however, was not coin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Antirealism
In analytic philosophy, anti-realism is the position that the truth of a statement rests on its demonstrability through internal logic mechanisms, such as the context principle or intuitionistic logic, in direct opposition to the realist notion that the truth of a statement rests on its correspondence to an external, independent reality. In anti-realism, this external reality is hypothetical and is not assumed. There are many varieties of anti-realism, such as metaphysical, mathematical, semantic, scientific, moral and epistemic. The term was first articulated by British philosopher Michael Dummett in an argument against a form of realism Dummett saw as 'colorless reductionism'. Anti-realism in its most general sense can be understood as being in contrast to a ''generic realism'', which holds that distinctive objects of a subject-matter exist and have properties independent of one's beliefs and conceptual schemes. The ways in which anti-realism rejects these types of claims ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Concepts In Metaphysics
A concept is an abstract idea that serves as a foundation for more concrete principles, thoughts, and beliefs. Concepts play an important role in all aspects of cognition. As such, concepts are studied within such disciplines as linguistics, psychology, and philosophy, and these disciplines are interested in the logical and psychological structure of concepts, and how they are put together to form thoughts and sentences. The study of concepts has served as an important flagship of an emerging interdisciplinary approach, cognitive science. In contemporary philosophy, three understandings of a concept prevail: * mental representations, such that a concept is an entity that exists in the mind (a mental object) * abilities peculiar to cognitive agents (mental states) * Fregean senses, abstract objects rather than a mental object or a mental state Concepts are classified into a hierarchy, higher levels of which are termed "superordinate" and lower levels termed "subordinate". Add ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Theodore Sider
Theodore "Ted" Sider is an American philosopher specializing in metaphysics and philosophy of language. He is Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at Rutgers University. Family Sider is the son of theologian Ronald Sider. He is the partner of Jill North, who is also hired by Rutgers' philosophy faculty. Education and career Since earning his Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 1993, Sider has taught at the University of Rochester, Syracuse University, New York University, Cornell University, and Rutgers University from 2002 to 2007 and, again, since 2015. Sider has published three books and some four dozen papers. He has also edited a textbook in metaphysics with John Hawthorne and Dean Zimmerman. Sider was the recipient of the 2003 APA Book Prize for his book, ''Four-Dimensionalism: An Ontology of Persistence and Time''. He gave the John Locke Lectures at Oxford University The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxfor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Logic Symbols
In logic, a set of symbols is commonly used to express logical representation. The following table lists many common symbols, together with their name, how they should be read out loud, and the related field of mathematics. Additionally, the subsequent columns contains an informal explanation, a short example, the Unicode location, the name for use in HTML documents, and the LaTeX symbol. Basic logic symbols Advanced or rarely used logical symbols The following symbols are either advanced and context-sensitive or very rarely used: See also * Glossary of logic * Józef Maria Bocheński * List of notation used in Principia Mathematica * List of mathematical symbols * Logic alphabet, a suggested set of logical symbols * * Logical connective * Mathematical operators and symbols in Unicode * Non-logical symbol * Polish notation * Truth function * Truth table * Wikipedia:WikiProject Logic/Standards for notation References Further reading * Józef Maria Bocheński (195 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Absolute Generality
In philosophical logic Understood in a narrow sense, philosophical logic is the area of logic that studies the application of logical methods to philosophical problems, often in the form of extended logical systems like modal logic. Some theorists conceive philosophic ..., metaphysics, and the philosophy of language, the problem of absolute generality is the problem of referring to absolutely everything. Historically, philosophers have assumed that some of their statements are absolutely general, referring to truly everything. In recent years, logicians working in the logic of Quantifier (logic), quantification and logical paradox, paradox have challenged this view, arguing that it is impossible for the logical quantifiers to range over an absolutely unrestricted domain. Philosophers who deny the possibility of absolutely unrestricted quantification (often called ''generality relativists'') argue that attempting to speak absolutely generally generates paradoxes such as Russell's ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Internal–external Distinction
The internal–external distinction is a distinction used in philosophy to divide an ontology into two parts: an internal part concerning observation related to philosophy, and an external part concerning question related to philosophy. Linguistic framework Rudolf Carnap introduced the idea of a 'linguistic framework' or a 'form of language' that uses a precise specification of the definitions of and the relations between ontological entities. The discussion of a proposition within a framework can take on a logical or an empirical (that is, factual) aspect. The logical aspect concerns whether the proposition respects the definitions and rules set up in the framework. The empirical aspect concerns the application of the framework in some or another practical situation. The utility of a linguistic framework constitutes issues that Carnap calls 'external' or 'pragmatic'. The distinction between 'internal' and 'external' arguments is not as obvious as it might appear. For examp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mereology
Mereology (; from Greek μέρος 'part' (root: μερε-, ''mere-'') and the suffix ''-logy'', 'study, discussion, science') is the philosophical study of part-whole relationships, also called ''parthood relationships''. As a branch of metaphysics, mereology examines the connections between parts and their wholes, exploring how components interact within a system. This theory has roots in ancient philosophy, with significant contributions from Plato, Aristotle, and later, medieval and Renaissance thinkers like Thomas Aquinas and John Duns Scotus. Mereology was formally axiomatized in the 20th century by Polish logician Stanisław Leśniewski, who introduced it as part of a comprehensive framework for logic and mathematics, and coined the word "mereology". Mereological ideas were influential in early , and formal mereology has continued to be used by a minority in works on the . Different axiomatizations of mereology have been applied in , used in to analyze "mass terms", use ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Metaphilosophy
Metaphilosophy, sometimes called the philosophy of philosophy, is "the investigation of the nature of philosophy". Its subject matter includes the aims of philosophy, the boundaries of philosophy, and its methods. Thus, while philosophy characteristically inquires into the nature of being, the reality of objects, the possibility of knowledge, the nature of truth, and so on, metaphilosophy is the self-reflective inquiry into the nature, aims, and methods of the activity that makes these kinds of inquiries, by asking what ''is'' philosophy itself, what sorts of questions it should ask, how it might pose and answer them, and what it can achieve in doing so. It is considered by some to be a subject prior and preparatory to philosophy,See for example, while others see it as inherently a part of philosophy, or automatically a part of philosophy while others adopt some combination of these views. The interest in metaphilosophy led to the establishment of the journal '' Metaphilosophy'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ordinary Language Philosophy
Ordinary language philosophy (OLP) is a philosophical methodology that sees traditional philosophical problems as rooted in misunderstandings philosophers develop by distorting or forgetting how words are ordinarily used to convey meaning in non-philosophical contexts. "Such 'philosophical' uses of language, on this view, create the very philosophical problems they are employed to solve." This approach typically involves eschewing philosophical "theories" in favor of close attention to the details of the use of everyday "ordinary" language. Its earliest forms are associated with the later work of Ludwig Wittgenstein and a number of mid-20th century philosophers who can be split into two main groups, neither of which could be described as an organized "school". In its earlier stages, contemporaries of Wittgenstein at Cambridge University such as Norman Malcolm, Alice Ambrose, Friedrich Waismann, Oets Kolk Bouwsma and Morris Lazerowitz started to develop ideas recognisable as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Meta-ontology
Metaontology or meta-ontology is the study of the field of inquiry known as ontology. The goal of meta-ontology is to clarify what ontology is about and how to interpret the meaning (philosophy), meaning of ontological claims. Different meta-ontological theories disagree on what the goal of ontology is and whether a given issue or theory lies within the scope of ontology. There is no universal agreement whether meta-ontology is a separate field of inquiry besides ontology or whether it is just one branch of ontology. Meta-ontological realists hold that there are objective answers to the basic questions of ontology. According to the Quinean approach, the goal of ontology is to determine what exists and what doesn't exist. The neo-Aristotelianism (philosophy), neo-Aristotelian approach asserts that the goal of ontology is to determine which entity, entities are fundamental and how the non-fundamental entities depend on them. Meta-ontological anti-realists, on the other hand, deny tha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
