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Formalism in the Philosophy of Mathematics
from Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
(2015-3-12 10:06)
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[Revised entry by Alan Weir on March 11, 2015.
Changes to: Main text, Bibliography]
The guiding idea behind formalism is that mathematics is not a body of propositions representing an abstract sector of reality but is much more akin to a game, bringing with it no more commitment to an ontology of objects or properties than ludo or chess. This idea has some intuitive plausibility: consider the tyro toiling at multiplication tables or the student using a standard algorithm for differentiating or integrating a function. It also corresponds to some aspects of the practice of advanced mathematicians in some periods - for example, the...
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Behaviorism
from Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
(2015-3-12 9:12)
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[Revised entry by George Graham on March 11, 2015.
Changes to: Main text, Bibliography]
It has sometimes been said that "behave is what organisms do." Behaviorism is built on this assumption, and its goal is to promote the scientific study of behavior. The behavior, in particular, of individual organisms. Not of social groups. Not of cultures. But of particular persons and animals....
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Aristotle on Causality
from Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
(2015-3-12 9:01)
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[Revised entry by Andrea Falcon on March 11, 2015.
Changes to: Bibliography]
Each Aristotelian science consists in the causal investigation of a specific department of reality. If successful, such an investigation results in causal knowledge; that is, knowledge of the relevant or appropriate causes. The emphasis on the concept of cause explains why Aristotle developed a theory of causality which is commonly known as the doctrine of the four causes. For Aristotle, a firm grasp of what a cause is, and how many kinds of causes there are, is essential for a...
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Memory, Epistemology of
from Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
(2015-3-11 14:55)
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Epistemology of Memory We learn a lot. Friends tell us about their lives. Books tell us about the past. We see the world. We reason and we reflect on our mental lives. As a result we come to know and to form justified beliefs about a range of topics. We also seem to keep these … Continue reading Memory, Epistemology of →
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Divine Illumination
from Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
(2015-3-11 14:20)
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[Revised entry by Robert Pasnau on March 10, 2015.
Changes to: Bibliography]
Divine illumination is the oldest and most influential alternative to naturalism in the areas of mind and knowledge. The doctrine holds that human beings require a special divine assistance in their ordinary cognitive activities. Although most closely associated with Augustine and his scholastic followers, the doctrine has its origins in the ancient period and would reappear, transformed, in the early modern era....
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Principia Mathematica
from Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
(2015-3-11 14:16)
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[Revised entry by Andrew David Irvine on March 10, 2015.
Changes to: Bibliography]
Principia Mathematica, the landmark work in formal logic written by Alfred North Whitehead and Bertrand Russell, was first published in three volumes in 1910, 1912 and 1913. A second edition appeared in 1925 (Volume 1) and 1927 (Volumes 2 and 3). In 1962 an abbreviated issue (containing only the first 56 chapters) appeared in paperback. In 2011 a digest of the book's main definitions...
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Alfred North Whitehead
from Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
(2015-3-11 13:56)
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[Revised entry by Andrew David Irvine on March 10, 2015.
Changes to: Main text, Bibliography]
Alfred North Whitehead (1861 - 1947) was a British mathematician, logician and philosopher best known for his work in mathematical logic and the philosophy of science. In collaboration with Bertrand Russell, he co-authored the landmark three-volume Principia Mathematica (1910, 1912, 1913). Later he was instrumental in pioneering the approach...
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Bertrand Russell
from Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
(2015-3-11 11:17)
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[Revised entry by Andrew David Irvine on March 10, 2015.
Changes to: Main text, Bibliography]
Bertrand Arthur William Russell (1872 - 1970) was a British philosopher, logician, essayist and social critic best known for his work in mathematical logic and analytic philosophy. His most influential contributions include his championing of logicism (the view that mathematics is in some important sense reducible to logic), his refining of Gottlob Frege's predicate calculus (which still forms the basis of most contemporary systems of...
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Physicalism
from Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
(2015-3-10 12:31)
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[Revised entry by Daniel Stoljar on March 9, 2015.
Changes to: Main text, Bibliography]
Physicalism is the thesis that everything is physical, or as contemporary philosophers sometimes put it, that everything supervenes on the physical. The thesis is usually intended as a metaphysical thesis, parallel to the thesis attributed to the ancient Greek philosopher Thales, that everything is water, or the idealism of the 18th Century philosopher Berkeley, that everything is mental. The general idea is that the nature of the actual world (i.e. the universe and everything in it) conforms to a certain condition, the condition of being physical. Of course, physicalists...
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Existentialism
from Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
(2015-3-10 12:22)
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[Revised entry by Steven Crowell on March 9, 2015.
Changes to: Main text, Bibliography, notes.html]
Like "rationalism" and "empiricism," "existentialism" is a term that belongs to intellectual history. Its definition is thus to some extent one of historical convenience. The term was explicitly adopted as a self-description by Jean-Paul Sartre, and through the wide dissemination of the postwar literary and philosophical output of Sartre and his associates - notably Simone de Beauvoir, Maurice Merleau-Ponty,...
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