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Arrow's Theorem
from Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
(2014-10-14 5:56)
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[New Entry by Michael Morreau on October 13, 2014.]
Kenneth Arrow's "impossibility" theorem - or "general possibility" theorem, as he called it - answers a very basic question in the theory of collective decision-making. Say there are some alternatives to choose among. They could be policies, public projects, candidates in an election,...
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Rationalism, Continental
from Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
(2014-10-11 13:09)
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Continental Rationalism Continental rationalism is a retrospective category used to group together certain philosophers working in continental Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries, in particular, Descartes, Spinoza, and Leibniz, especially as they can be regarded in contrast with representatives of “British empiricism,” most notably, Locke, Berkeley, and Hume. Whereas the British empiricists held that […]
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Atomism from the 17th to the 20th Century
from Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
(2014-10-10 9:38)
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[Revised entry by Alan Chalmers on October 9, 2014.
Changes to: Main text, Bibliography]
Atomism in the form in which it first emerged in Ancient Greece was a metaphysical thesis, purporting to establish claims about the ultimate nature of material reality by philosophical argument. Versions of atomism developed by mechanical philosophers in the seventeenth...
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Knowledge Norms
from Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
(2014-10-9 13:15)
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Knowledge Norms Epistemology has seen a surge of interest in the idea that knowledge provides a normative constraint or rule governing certain actions or mental states. Such interest is generated in part by noticing that fundamentally epistemic notions, such as belief, evidence, and justification, figure prominently not only in theorizing about knowledge, but also in […]
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Validity, Legal
from Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
(2014-10-9 12:35)
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Legal Validity Legal validity governs the enforceability of law, and the standard of legal validity enhances or restricts the ability of the political ruler to enforce his will through legal coercion. Western law adopts three competing standards of legal validity. Each standard emphasizes a different dimension of law (Berman 1988, p. 779), and each has […]
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Set Theory
from Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
(2014-10-9 10:27)
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[Revised entry by Joan Bagaria on October 8, 2014.
Changes to: Main text, Bibliography, ZF.html, basic-set-theory.html]
Set theory is the mathematical theory of well-determined collections, called sets, of objects that are called members, or elements, of the set. Pure set theory deals exclusively with sets, so the only sets under consideration are those whose members are also sets. The theory of the hereditarily-finite sets, namely those finite sets whose...
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Hume on Free Will
from Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
(2014-10-8 13:45)
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[Revised entry by Paul Russell on October 7, 2014.
Changes to: Main text, Bibliography]
But to proceed in this reconciling project with regard to the question of liberty and necessity; the most contentious question of metaphysics, the most contentious science... - David Hume (EU, 8.23/95)...
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Watsuji Tetsurô
from Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
(2014-10-8 9:39)
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[Revised entry by Robert Carter and Erin McCarthy on October 7, 2014.
Changes to: Main text, Bibliography]
Watsuji Tetsurō(1889 - 1960) was one of a small group of philosophers in Japan during the twentieth century who brought Japanese philosophy to the world. He wrote important works on both Eastern and Western philosophy and philosophers, from ancient Greek,...
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Descartes' Epistemology
from Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
(2014-10-7 10:10)
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[Revised entry by Lex Newman on October 6, 2014.
Changes to: Main text, Bibliography]
Rene Descartes (1596 - 1650) is widely regarded as the father of modern philosophy. His noteworthy contributions extend to mathematics and physics. This entry focuses on his philosophical contributions in the theory of knowledge. Specifically, the focus is on the epistemological...
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George Santayana
from Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
(2014-10-7 7:45)
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[Revised entry by Herman Saatkamp and Martin Coleman on October 6, 2014.
Changes to: Bibliography]
Philosopher, poet, literary and cultural critic, George Santayana is a principal figure in Classical American Philosophy. His naturalism and emphasis on creative imagination were harbingers of important intellectual turns on both sides of the Atlantic. He was a naturalist...
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