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Truthmaker
Truthmaker theory is "the branch of metaphysics that explores the relationships between what is true and what exists". The basic intuition behind truthmaker theory is that truth depends on being. For example, a perceptual experience of a green tree may be said to be true because there actually is a green tree. But if there were no tree there, it would be false. So the experience by itself does not ensure its truth or falsehood, it depends on something else. Expressed more generally, truthmaker theory is the thesis that "the truth of truthbearers depends on the existence of truthmakers". A perceptual experience is the ''truthbearer'' in the example above. Various representational entities, like beliefs, thoughts or assertions can act as truthbearers. Truthmaker theorists are divided about what type of entity plays the role of ''truthmaker''; popular candidates include states of affairs and tropes. ''Truthmaker maximalism'' is the thesis that every truth has a truthmaker. An alterna ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Actualism
In analytic philosophy, actualism is the view that everything there ''is'' (i.e., everything that has ''being'', in the broadest sense) is actual. Another phrasing of the thesis is that the domain of unrestricted quantification ranges over all and only actual existents. The denial of actualism is possibilism, the thesis that there are some entities that are ''merely possible'': these entities have being but are not actual and, hence, enjoy a "less robust" sort of being than do actually existing things. An important, but significantly different notion of possibilism known as '' modal realism'' was developed by the philosopher David Lewis. On Lewis's account, the actual world is identified with the physical universe of which we are all a part. Other possible worlds exist in exactly the same sense as the actual world; they are simply spatio-temporally unrelated to our world, and to each other. Hence, for Lewis, "merely possible" entities—entities that exist in other possible wo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Metaphysics
Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that examines the basic structure of reality. It is traditionally seen as the study of mind-independent features of the world, but some theorists view it as an inquiry into the conceptual framework of human understanding. Some philosophers, including Aristotle, designate metaphysics as first philosophy to suggest that it is more fundamental than other forms of philosophical inquiry. Metaphysics encompasses a wide range of general and abstract topics. It investigates the nature of existence, the features all entities have in common, and their division into categories of being. An influential division is between particulars and universals. Particulars are individual unique entities, like a specific apple. Universals are general features that different particulars have in common, like the color . Modal metaphysics examines what it means for something to be possible or necessary. Metaphysicians also explore the concepts of space, time, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Being
Existence is the state of having being or reality in contrast to nonexistence and nonbeing. Existence is often contrasted with essence: the essence of an entity is its essential features or qualities, which can be understood even if one does not know whether the entity exists. Ontology is the philosophical discipline studying the nature and types of existence. Singular existence is the existence of individual entities while general existence refers to the existence of concepts or universals. Entities present in space and time have concrete existence in contrast to abstract entities, like numbers and sets. Other distinctions are between possible, contingent, and necessary existence and between physical and mental existence. The common view is that an entity either exists or not with nothing in between, but some philosophers say that there are degrees of existence, meaning that some entities exist to a higher degree than others. The orthodox position in ontology is t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Existence
Existence is the state of having being or reality in contrast to nonexistence and nonbeing. Existence is often contrasted with essence: the essence of an entity is its essential features or qualities, which can be understood even if one does not know whether the entity exists. Ontology is the philosophical discipline studying the nature and types of existence. Singular existence is the existence of individual entities while general existence refers to the existence of concepts or universals. Entities present in space and time have Abstract and concrete, concrete existence in contrast to abstract entities, like numbers and sets. Other distinctions are between Subjunctive possibility, possible, Contingency (philosophy), contingent, and Metaphysical necessity, necessary existence and between Matter, physical and Mind, mental existence. The common view is that an entity either exists or not with nothing in between, but some philosophers say that there are degrees of existence, me ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Barry Smith (academic)
Barry Smith (born 4 June 1952) is an American mathematician, philosopher, and researcher in the field of Applied Ontology. Smith is the author of more than 700 scientific publications, including 15 authored or edited books, and one of the most widely cited living philosophers. Education From 1970 to 1973 Smith studied Mathematics and Philosophy at the University of Oxford, where he fell particularly under the influence of Michael Dummett. What he reports as the accidental discovery on the shelves of the Bodleian Library of the book ''Time and Modes of Being'' by Roman Ingarden, a Polish student of Edmund Husserl, initiated his interest in the possibilities of an ontological approach to philosophy that would span the boundaries of the analytic and phenomenological traditions. Smith obtained his PhD from the University of Manchester in 1976 for a dissertation on ontology and reference in Husserl and Frege. The dissertation was supervised by Wolfe Mays. Among the cohort of gr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Trope (philosophy)
Trope denotes figurative and metaphorical language and one which has been used in various technical senses. The term ''trope'' derives from the Greek τρόπος (''tropos''), "a turn, a change", related to the root of the verb τρέπειν (''trepein''), "to turn, to direct, to alter, to change"; this means that the term is used metaphorically to denote, among other things, metaphorical language. The term is also used in technical senses, which do not always correspond to its linguistic origin. Its meaning has to be judged from the context, some of which are given below. Basic meaning as metaphor Here a trope is a figurative and metaphorical use of a word or a phrase. The verb ''to trope'' means then to make a trope. In epistemology A trope or "mode" refers to skeptical stock arguments or "ways of refuting dogmatism." There are two sets of these tropes: the ten modes of Aenesidemus and the five modes of Agrippa. In metaphysics Trope theory (or trope nominalism) in met ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Metaethics
In metaphilosophy and ethics, metaethics is the study of the nature, scope, ground, and meaning of moral judgment, ethical belief, or values. It is one of the three branches of ethics generally studied by philosophers, the others being normative ethics (questions of how one ought to be and act) and applied ethics (practical questions of right behavior in given, usually contentious, situations). While normative ethics addresses such questions as "What should I do?", evaluating specific practices and principles of action, metaethics addresses questions about the nature of goodness, how one can discriminate good from evil, and what the proper account of moral knowledge is. Similar to accounts of knowledge generally, the threat of skepticism about the possibility of moral knowledge and cognitively meaningful moral propositions often motivates positive accounts in metaethics. Another distinction is often made between the nature of questions related to each: first-order (substantive) ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Philosophical Presentism
Presentism (sometimes 'philosophical presentism') is the view of time which states that only present entities exist (or, equivalently, that everything which is exists presently) and what is present (i.e., what exists) changes as time passes. According to presentism, there are no past or future entities at all, though some entities have existed and other entities will exist. In a sense, the past and the future do not exist for presentists—past events have happened (have existed, or have been present) and future events will happen (will exist, or will be present), but neither exist at all since they do not exist now. Presentism is a view about temporal ontology, i.e., a view about what exists in time, that contrasts with eternalism—the view that past, present and future entities exist (that is, the ontological thesis of the 'block universe')—and with no-futurism—the view that only past and present entities exist (that is, the ontological thesis of the ' growing block unive ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Abstract Object
In philosophy and the arts, a fundamental distinction exists between abstract and concrete entities. While there is no universally accepted definition, common examples illustrate the difference: numbers, sets, and ideas are typically classified as abstract objects, whereas plants, dogs, and planets are considered concrete objects. Philosophers have proposed several criteria to define this distinction: # ''Spatiotemporal existence'' – Abstract objects exist outside space-time, while concrete objects exist within space-time. # ''Causal influence'' – Concrete objects can cause and be affected by other entities (e.g., a rock breaking a window), whereas abstract objects (e.g., the number 2) lack causal powers and do not cause anything to happen in the physical world. # ''Metaphysical relation'' – In metaphysics, concrete objects are specific, individual things ( particulars), while abstract objects represent general concepts or categories ( universals). # ''Ontological d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Symmetric Relation
A symmetric relation is a type of binary relation. Formally, a binary relation ''R'' over a set ''X'' is symmetric if: : \forall a, b \in X(a R b \Leftrightarrow b R a) , where the notation ''aRb'' means that . An example is the relation "is equal to", because if is true then is also true. If ''R''T represents the converse of ''R'', then ''R'' is symmetric if and only if . Symmetry, along with reflexivity and transitivity, are the three defining properties of an equivalence relation. Examples In mathematics * "is equal to" ( equality) (whereas "is less than" is not symmetric) * "is comparable to", for elements of a partially ordered set * "... and ... are odd": :::::: Outside mathematics * "is married to" (in most legal systems) * "is a fully biological sibling of" * "is a homophone of" * "is a co-worker of" * "is a teammate of" Relationship to asymmetric and antisymmetric relations By definition, a nonempty relation cannot be both symmetric and asymmetric ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Summa Theologiae
The ''Summa Theologiae'' or ''Summa Theologica'' (), often referred to simply as the ''Summa'', is the best-known work of Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274), a scholastic theologian and Doctor of the Church. It is a compendium of all of the main theological teachings of the Catholic Church, intended to be an instructional guide for theology students, including seminarians and the literate laity. Presenting the reasoning for almost all points of Christian theology in the West, topics of the ''Summa'' follow the following cycle: God; Creation, Man; Man's purpose; Christ; the Sacraments; and back to God. Although unfinished, it is "one of the classics of the history of philosophy and one of the most influential works of Western literature". It remains Aquinas's "most perfect work, the fruit of his mature years, in which the thought of his whole life is condensed". Throughout the ''Summa'', Aquinas cites Christian, Muslim, Hebrew, and Pagan sources, including, but not limited to: Chr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
