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Supervene
In philosophy, supervenience refers to a relation between sets of properties or sets of facts. X is said to ''supervene'' on Y if and only if some difference in Y is necessary for any difference in X to be possible. Examples of supervenience, in which case the truth values of some propositions cannot vary unless the truth values of some other propositions vary, include: * Whether there is a table in the living room supervenes on the positions of molecules in the living room. * The truth value of (A) supervenes on the truth value of its negation, (¬A), and vice versa. Supervenience is of interest to philosophers because it differs from other nearby relations, for example ''entailment''. Some philosophers believe it possible for some A to supervene on some B without being entailed by B. In such cases it may seem puzzling why A should supervene on B and equivalently why changes in A should require changes in B. Two important applications of supervenience involve cases like this. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Physicalism
In philosophy, physicalism is the view that "everything is physical", that there is "nothing over and above" the physical, or that everything supervenience, supervenes on the physical. It is opposed to idealism, according to which the world arises from the mind. Physicalism is a form of ontological monism—a "one Substance theory, substance" view of the nature of reality, unlike "two-substance" (mind–body dualism) or "many-substance" (Pluralism (philosophy), pluralism) views. Both the definition of "physical" and the meaning of physicalism have been debated. Physicalism is closely related to materialism, and has evolved from materialism with advancements in the physical sciences in explaining observed phenomena. The terms "physicalism" and "materialism" are often used interchangeably, but can be distinguished on the basis that physics describes more than just matter. Physicalism encompasses matter, but also energy, physical laws, space, time, structure, physical processes, infor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Non-physical Entity
In ontology and the philosophy of mind, a non-physical entity is an object that exists outside physical reality. The philosophical schools of idealism and dualism assert that such entities exist, while physicalism asserts that they do not. Positing the existence of non-physical entities leads to further questions concerning their inherent nature and their relation to physical entities. Abstract concepts Philosophers generally do agree on the existence of abstract objects. The mind can conceive of objects that clearly have no physical counterpart. Such objects include concepts such as numbers, mathematical sets and functions, and philosophical relations and properties. If such objects are indeed entities, they are entities that exist only in the mind itself, not within space and time. For an example, an abstract property such as redness has no presence in space-time. To make a distinction between metaphysics and epistemology, such objects, if they are to be considered entities, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Problem Of Mental Causation
The problem of mental causation is a conceptual issue in the philosophy of mind. That problem, in short, is how to account for the common sense idea that intentional thoughts or intentional mental states are causes of intentional actions. The problem divides into several distinct sub-problems, including the problem of causal exclusion, the problem of anomalism, and the problem of externalism. However, the sub-problem which has attracted most attention in the philosophical literature is arguably the exclusion problem. Description The basic problem of mental causation is an intuitive one: on the face of it, it seems that mental events cause physical events (and vice versa), but how can mental events have any causal effect on physical events? Suppose that a person, John, orders dessert after dinner. It seems that at least one cause for such a physical, behavioral event is that John desired to have dessert and believed that by ordering dessert he would be able to soon have dessert. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Levels Of Existence
Level or levels may refer to: Engineering *Level (optical instrument), a device used to measure true horizontal or relative heights *Spirit level or bubble level, an instrument designed to indicate whether a surface is horizontal or vertical *Canal pound or level * Regrading or levelling, the process of raising and/or lowering the levels of land *Storey or level, a vertical unit of a building or a mine *Level (coordinate), vertical position *Horizontal plane parallel Gaming *Level (video games), a stage of the game * Level (role-playing games), a measurement of character development Music *Level (music), similar to but more general and basic than a chord * "Level" (The Raconteurs song) * ''Levels'' (album), an album by AKA * "Levels" (Avicii song) * "Levels" (Bilal song) * "Levels" (Nick Jonas song) * "Levels" (Meek Mill song) * "Levels" (NorthSideBenji song), featuring Houdini * "Levels" (Sidhu Moose Wala song) Places * Level Mountain, a volcano in northern British Columbia, C ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
David Kellogg Lewis
David (; , "beloved one") was a king of ancient Israel and Judah and the third king of the United Monarchy, according to the Hebrew Bible and Old Testament. The Tel Dan stele, an Aramaic-inscribed stone erected by a king of Aram-Damascus in the late 9th/early 8th centuries BCE to commemorate a victory over two enemy kings, contains the phrase (), which is translated as " House of David" by most scholars. The Mesha Stele, erected by King Mesha of Moab in the 9th century BCE, may also refer to the "House of David", although this is disputed. According to Jewish works such as the '' Seder Olam Rabbah'', '' Seder Olam Zutta'', and ''Sefer ha-Qabbalah'' (all written over a thousand years later), David ascended the throne as the king of Judah in 885 BCE. Apart from this, all that is known of David comes from biblical literature, the historicity of which has been extensively challenged,Writing and Rewriting the Story of Solomon in Ancient Israel; by Isaac Kalimi; page 32; ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Agent
Agent may refer to: Espionage, investigation, and law *, spies or intelligence officers * Law of agency, laws involving a person authorized to act on behalf of another ** Agent of record, a person with a contractual agreement with an insurance policy owner ** Election agent, a person responsible for the conduct of a political campaign ** Free agent, a sports player who is eligible to sign with any club or franchise ** Literary agent, an agent who represents writers and their written works ** Modeling agency, a person or a corporation which represents fashion models ** Press agent, a professional publicist ** Foreign agent, a person who carries out the interests of a foreign country ** Political agent (other) ** Patent attorney, an attorney who represents clients in patent matters ** Real estate agent, an intermediary between sellers and buyers of real estate ** Registered agent, in the US, receives service of process for a party in a legal action ** Shipping age ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Value Theory
Value theory, also called ''axiology'', studies the nature, sources, and types of Value (ethics and social sciences), values. It is a branch of philosophy and an interdisciplinary field closely associated with social sciences such as economics, sociology, anthropology, and psychology. Value is the worth of something, usually understood as covering both positive and negative degrees corresponding to the terms ''good'' and ''bad''. Values influence many human endeavors related to emotion, decision-making, and Action (philosophy), action. Value theorists distinguish various types of values, like the contrast between Instrumental and intrinsic value, intrinsic and instrumental value. An entity has Intrinsic value (ethics), intrinsic value if it is good in itself, independent of external factors. An entity has instrumental value if it is useful as a means leading to other good things. Other classifications focus on the type of benefit, including economic, moral, political, aesthetic, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
On The Plurality Of Worlds
''On the Plurality of Worlds'' (1986) is a book by the philosopher David Lewis that defends the thesis of modal realism. "The thesis states that the world we are part of is but one of a plurality of worlds," as he writes in the preface, "and that we who inhabit this world are only a few out of all the inhabitants of all the worlds." It is not to be confused with cosmic pluralism. Content The book is divided into four chapters. Chapter 1: A Philosopher's Paradise Chapter 1 begins with an exposition of modal realism. Lewis proposes that possible worlds, including ours, are real concrete things that are isolated from each other. "There are no spatiotemporal relations at all between things that belong to different worlds," and adds, "Nor does anything that happens at one world cause anything to happen at another." He recommends a plurality of worlds because hypothesizing it is "serviceable," the familiar analysis of necessity as truth at all possible worlds being "only the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fact
A fact is a truth, true data, datum about one or more aspects of a circumstance. Standard reference works are often used to Fact-checking, check facts. Science, Scientific facts are verified by repeatable careful observation or measurement by experiments or other means. For example, "This sentence contains words." accurately describes a linguistic fact, and "The Sun is a star" accurately describes an astronomical fact. Further, "Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States" and "Abraham Lincoln was assassinated" both accurately describe history, historical facts. Generally speaking, facts are independent of belief and of knowledge and opinion. Facts are different from inferences, theories, values, and Object (philosophy), objects. Etymology and usage The word ''fact'' derives from the Latin ''factum''. It was first used in English with the same meaning: "a thing done or performed"a meaning now obsolete outside the law."Fact" (1a). Oxford English Dictionary_2d_ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Predicate (logic)
In logic, a predicate is a symbol that represents a property or a relation. For instance, in the first-order formula P(a), the symbol P is a predicate that applies to the individual constant a. Similarly, in the formula R(a,b), the symbol R is a predicate that applies to the individual constants a and b. According to Gottlob Frege, the meaning of a predicate is exactly a function from the domain of objects to the truth values "true" and "false". In the semantics of logic, predicates are interpreted as relations. For instance, in a standard semantics for first-order logic, the formula R(a,b) would be true on an interpretation if the entities denoted by a and b stand in the relation denoted by R. Since predicates are non-logical symbols, they can denote different relations depending on the interpretation given to them. While first-order logic only includes predicates that apply to individual objects, other logics may allow predicates that apply to collections of objects defin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Modal Logic
Modal logic is a kind of logic used to represent statements about Modality (natural language), necessity and possibility. In philosophy and related fields it is used as a tool for understanding concepts such as knowledge, obligation, and causality, causation. For instance, in epistemic modal logic, the well-formed_formula, formula \Box P can be used to represent the statement that P is known. In deontic modal logic, that same formula can represent that P is a moral obligation. Modal logic considers the inferences that modal statements give rise to. For instance, most epistemic modal logics treat the formula \Box P \rightarrow P as a Tautology_(logic), tautology, representing the principle that only true statements can count as knowledge. However, this formula is not a tautology in deontic modal logic, since what ought to be true can be false. Modal logics are formal systems that include unary operation, unary operators such as \Diamond and \Box, representing possibility and necessi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Indiscernible
In mathematical logic, indiscernibles are objects that cannot be distinguished by any property or relation defined by a formula. Usually only first-order formulas are considered. Examples If ''a'', ''b'', and ''c'' are distinct and is a set of indiscernibles, then, for example, for each binary formula \beta , we must have : \beta (a, b) \land \beta (b, a) \land \beta (a, c) \land \beta (c, a) \land \beta (b, c) \land \beta (c, b) \lor : \lnot \beta (a, b) \land \lnot \beta (b, a) \land \lnot \beta(a, c) \land \lnot \beta (c, a) \land \lnot \beta (b, c) \land \lnot \beta (c, b) \,. Historically, the identity of indiscernibles was one of the laws of thought of Gottfried Leibniz Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (or Leibnitz; – 14 November 1716) was a German polymath active as a mathematician, philosopher, scientist and diplomat who is credited, alongside Isaac Newton, Sir Isaac Newton, with the creation of calculus in ad .... Generalizations In some contexts one conside ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
