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Plato's Ethics and Politics in The Republic
from Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
(2009-9-1 16:46)
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[Revised entry by Eric Brown on August 31, 2009.
Changes to: Main text, Bibliography]
Plato's Republic centers on a simple question: is it always better to be just than unjust? The puzzles in Book One prepare for this question, and Glaucon and Adeimantus make it explicit at the beginning of Book Two. To answer the question, Socrates takes a long way around, sketching an account of a good city on the grounds that a good city would be just and that defining justice as a virtue of a...
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The Distinction Between Innate and Acquired Characteristics
from Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
(2009-8-4 17:32)
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[New Entry by Paul Griffiths on August 4, 2009.]
The idea that some characteristics of an organism are explained by the organism's intrinsic nature, whilst others reflect the influence of the environment is an ancient one. It has even been argued that this distinction is itself part of the evolved psychology of the human species. The distinction played an important role in the history of philosophy as the locus of the dispute between Rationalism and...
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Evolutionary Game Theory
from Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
(2009-7-20 16:21)
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[Revised entry by J. McKenzie Alexander on July 19, 2009.
Changes to: Main text, Bibliography, Internet resources, dtd-fig-1.gif, dtd-fig-2.gif, dtd.gif, nash-4-5-6-corr-1.gif, nash-4-5-6-corr-2.gif, nash-4-5-6-simplex-nobox.gif, notes.html, sender-receiver-1.gif, sr-N2-fig01.gif, sr-N2-fig02.gif, sr-N2-fig03.gif
Changes to: Main text, WC-WbarOWbar.jpg, ppc.jpg]
Evolutionary game theory originated as an application of the mathematical theory of games to biological contexts, arising from the realization that frequency dependent fitness introduces a strategic aspect to evolution. Recently, however, evolutionary game theory has become of increased interest to economists, sociologists, and anthropologists--and social scientists in general--as well as...
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Operationalism
from Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
(2009-7-17 9:21)
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[New Entry by Hasok Chang on July 16, 2009.]
Operationalism is based on the intuition that we do not know the meaning of a concept unless we have a method of measurement for it. It is commonly considered a theory of meaning which states that "we mean by any concept nothing more than a set of operations; the concept is synonymous with the corresponding set of operations" (Bridgman 1927, 5). That drastic statement...
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Syrianus
from Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
(2009-7-7 9:49)
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[New Entry by Christian Wildberg on July 6, 2009.]
Syrianus (in antiquity known as "the Great") was a teacher of philosophy (and rhetoric, if we trust the evidence) in Athens during the late 4th and early 5th centuries CE, a slightly younger contemporary of Augustine of Hippo (354 - 430). Born in Alexandria sometime in the second half of the 4th century, he received his basic education there but went...
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The Paradox of Suspense
from Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
(2009-7-7 5:53)
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[New Entry by Aaron Smuts on July 6, 2009.]
The ultimate success of Hollywood blockbusters is dependent upon repeat viewings. Fans return to theaters to see films multiple times and buy DVDs so they can watch movies yet again. Although it is something of a received dogma in philosophy and psychology that suspense requires uncertainty, many of the biggest box office successes are action movies that fans claim to find suspenseful on...
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Mathematical Style
from Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
(2009-7-3 11:02)
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[New Entry by Paolo Mancosu on July 2, 2009.]
The essay begins with a taxonomy of the major contexts in which the notion of 'style' in mathematics has been appealed to since the early twentieth century. These include the use of the notion of style in comparative cultural histories of mathematics, in characterizing national styles, and in describing mathematical practice. These developments are then related to the more familiar...
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Singularities and Black Holes
from Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
(2009-6-30 14:16)
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[New Entry by Erik Curiel and Peter Bokulich on June 29, 2009.]
A spacetime singularity is a breakdown in the geometrical structure of space and time. It is a topic of ongoing physical and philosophical research to clarify both the nature and significance of such pathologies. Because it is the fundamental geometry that is breaking down, spacetime singularities are often viewed as an end, or "edge," of spacetime itself. However, numerous difficulties arise when one tries...
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Folk Psychology as Mental Simulation
from Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
(2009-6-22 18:24)
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[Revised entry by Robert M. Gordon on June 22, 2009.
Changes to: Main text, Bibliography]
The simulation (or, "mental simulation") theory (ST) is a theory of everyday human psychological competence: that is, of the skills and resources people routinely call on in the anticipation, explanation, and social coordination of behavior. ST holds that we represent the mental states and processes of others by mentally simulating them, or generating similar states and processes in ourselves: thus, for...
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Bell's Theorem
from Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
(2009-6-11 18:03)
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[Revised entry by Abner Shimony on June 11, 2009.
Changes to: Main text, Bibliography, notes.html]
Bell's Theorem is the collective name for a family of results, all showing the impossibility of a Local Realistic interpretation of quantum mechanics. There are variants of the Theorem with different meanings of "Local Realistic." In John S. Bell's pioneering paper of 1964 the realism consisted in postulating in addition to the quantum state a "complete state", which determines the...
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