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Human Enhancement
from Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
(2015-4-8 10:26)
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[New Entry by Eric Juengst and Daniel Moseley on April 7, 2015.]
At first glance there does not seem to be anything philosophically problematic about human enhancement. Activities such as physical fitness routines, wearing eyeglasses, taking music lessons and prayer are routinely utilized for the goal of enhancing human capacities. This entry is not concerned with every activity and intervention that might improve people's embodied lives. The focus of this entry is a cluster of debates in practical ethics that is conventionally labeled as "the ethics of human enhancement". These debates include clinicians' concerns about the limits of legitimate health care,...
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The Experience and Perception of Time
from Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
(2015-4-7 9:50)
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[Revised entry by Robin Le Poidevin on April 6, 2015.
Changes to: Bibliography]
We see colours, hear sounds and feel textures. Some aspects of the world, it seems, are perceived through a particular sense. Others, like shape, are perceived through more than one sense. But what sense or senses do we use when perceiving time? It is certainly not associated with one particular sense. In fact, it seems odd to say that we see, hear or touch time passing. And indeed, even if all our senses were prevented from functioning for a while, we could still...
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Pragmatics
from Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
(2015-4-3 11:44)
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[Revised entry by Kepa Korta and John Perry on April 2, 2015.
Changes to: Main text, Bibliography]
These lines - also attributed to H. L. Mencken and Carl Jung - may or may not be fair to diplomats, but are surely correct in reminding us that more is involved in what one communicates than what one literally says; more is involved in what one means than the standard, conventional meaning of the words one uses. The words 'yes,' 'perhaps,' and 'no' each has a perfectly identifiable meaning, known by every speaker of...
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Metaphysics in Chinese Philosophy
from Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
(2015-4-3 11:02)
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[New Entry by Franklin Perkins on April 2, 2015.]
While there was no word corresponding precisely to the term "metaphysics", China has a long tradition of philosophical inquiry concerned with the ultimate nature of reality - its being, origins, components, ways of changing, and so on. In this sense, we can speak of "metaphysics" in Chinese Philosophy, even if the particular questions and positions that arose differed from those dominant in Europe. Explicit metaphysical discussions appeared in China with a turn toward questions of cosmogony in the mid-fourth century BCE. These cosmogonies express a number of views that became...
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Intensional Logic
from Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
(2015-4-3 9:52)
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[Revised entry by Melvin Fitting on April 2, 2015.
Changes to: Main text, Bibliography]
There is an obvious difference between what a term designates and what it means. At least it is obvious that there is a difference. In some way, meaning determines designation, but is not synonymous with it. After all, "the morning star" and "the evening star" both designate the planet Venus, but don't have the same meaning. Intensional logic attempts to study both designation and meaning and investigate the relationships between them....
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Heritability
from Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
(2015-4-3 9:50)
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[Revised entry by Stephen M. Downes on April 2, 2015.
Changes to: Main text, Bibliography]
A heritable trait is most simply an offspring's trait that resembles the parents' corresponding trait. Inheritance or heredity was a focus of systematic research before its inclusion as a key concept within evolutionary theory. An influential 18th and early 19th century theory of heredity was preformationism. This view took several forms, each maintaining that organisms were passed on from one generation to the next, miniature and...
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Philosophy in Chile
from Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
(2015-4-3 9:26)
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[New Entry by Ivan Jaksic on April 2, 2015.]
Philosophy in Chile, as in the rest of Latin America, has been an academic pursuit ever since the conquest and settlement of the New World by Spain and Portugal in the early sixteenth century. Very few philosophers ventured beyond the walls of academic or religious institutions (usually one and the same) during the entire colonial period, which ended in most Spanish American countries (the exceptions being Cuba and Puerto Rico) in the early nineteenth century. Even after Independence, philosophy remained a fundamentally academic endeavor. Chile, in contrast to other nations in the region, has...
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Chan Buddhism
from Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
(2015-4-2 13:28)
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[New Entry by Peter Hershock on April 1, 2015.]
The Chan School (Chan zong,禪宗) is an indigenous form of Chinese Buddhism that developed beginning in the sixth century CE and subsequently spread to the rest of East Asia (Japanese: Zen; Korean: Son; Vietnamese; Thin). Although the Sinograph "chan" (禪) transliterates the Sanskrit dhyāna or "meditation", and Chan zong can thus be translated as the "Meditation School", Chan was not distinctive within Chinese Buddhism in its use of meditative techniques. What distinguished Chan were its novel...
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Inverted Qualia
from Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
(2015-4-2 11:37)
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[Revised entry by Alex Byrne on April 1, 2015.
Changes to: Main text, Bibliography]
Qualia inversion thought experiments are ubiquitous in contemporary philosophy of mind (largely due to the influence of Shoemaker 1982 and Block 1990). The most popular kind is one or another variant of Locke's hypothetical case of "spectrum inversion", in which strawberries and ripe tomatoes produce visual experiences of the sort that are actually produced by grass and cucumbers, grass and cucumbers produce experiences of the sort that are actually produced by...
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Nominalism in Metaphysics
from Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
(2015-4-2 9:30)
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[Revised entry by Gonzalo Rodriguez-Pereyra on April 1, 2015.
Changes to: Main text]
Nominalism comes in at least two varieties. In one of them it is the rejection of abstract objects; in the other it is the rejection of universals. Philosophers have often found it necessary to postulate either abstract objects or universals. And so Nominalism in one form or another has played a significant role in the metaphysical debate since at least the Middle Ages, when versions of the second variety of Nominalism were introduced. The two varieties of Nominalism are...
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