Questions tagged [terminology]
The study of terms and their use.
621 questions
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Origin of the Popular Distinction Between Morals and Ethics
Something that I've noticed is that, although it seems relatively rare for philosophers to make substantive distinctions between "Morals" and "Ethics," this distinction is ...
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Is there consensus whether function or predicate/relation is the more basic notion, particularly in the philosophy of mathematics?
So, usually in logics and mathematics in general, both concepts are introduced.
In set theory a function can be defined as a triple of two sets and a relation (which itself is defined as a pair of ...
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Meaning of the word «ἀδιάφορα» among the Stoics
Dictionaries translate (in Stoic context) this word as «indifferent things» that is, neither good nor evil. In this meaning they also say «οὐδέτερος».
Epictetus «The discourses» Book 1, Chapter XX:
...
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Looking for a term for “in accordance with human experience”
I’d like to discuss a concept. Suppose we say: “We infer its truth because it is in accordance with human experience.”
Is there a philosophical term for this idea of being “in accordance with human ...
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What is the term for the concept that a word exclude all other things rather than designate the thing being named?
I read it somewhere on line but can no longer place it. Example given there was of a cow that instead of cow (word) means cow (thing), cow (word) means negation of all things except cow. Or something ...
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Confusion in regards to a passage in "Introduction to Logic" by Alfred Tarski
PASSAGE OF THE BOOK IN QUESTION:
When we set out to construct a given discipline, we distinguish, first of all, a certain small group of expressions of this discipline that seem to us to be ...
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What is active vs. passive potency?
In Latin, potentia means "potentiality" (something passive/receptive to an agent/actualizer), but why does it also have the sense of "power" (something active)?
This is further ...
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Looking for philosophical works related to rankings [closed]
I enjoy rankings; e.g., “top 5 albums of 2025” or “top 3 quarterbacks in the NFL.” Is there a branch of philosophy that deals with questions that arise when ranking things?
Suppose you wish to create ...
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Name of the phenomenon that the small have difficulty getting big [closed]
For example, there are many million-score users on StackOverflow, while majority of new users can never hope to get that kind of high score.
Majority of small businesses will stay small, while large ...
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What logic is used in statements of fact, and statements of opinion? [closed]
The concepts of fact and opinion are the foundations for reasoning. What rules are used in a statement of fact, and what rules are used in a statement of opinion (like opinion on beauty)?
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Abstract Particular and Abstract Universal
What does "abstract particular" mean in terms of attribute abstraction?
What does "abstract universal" mean in terms of attribute abstraction?
What is the difference between the ...
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Name for "P → (Q→P)"
"P → Q" is called "material conditional". "¬ P" is called "negation". What is the schema "P → (Q→P)" called? I know it is a tautology, but is there a ...
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What are some necessary and sufficient conditions for a true or false statement to be a "fact" and not an "opinion"?
Motivation
Perhaps we are trying to formalize some informal definitions of the English words "fact" and the English word "opinion".
Suppose that someone wanted to make some ...
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If God is good, why does "Acts of God" refer to bad things?
I've often wondered about the phrase "Acts of God", which is used in legal and insurance writing to mean disasters like hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, wildfires...
What are we thinking with ...
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Was the concept of omnipotence, per that specific word, originally meant to refer to "all possibilities"? [closed]
In the days of its original use, the word "omnipotentia" would have occurred in the context of the act-potency distinction (from Aristotle, directly or indirectly). This would have been ...
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What are the strongest arguments against the view that all of philosophy is about "bets" or subjective judgment calls? [closed]
My question is motivated by this answer to Are there objective standards proposed in the literature for estimating the likelihood of a hypothesis when empirical statistics are unavailable?, in ...
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How to understand connecessity(?)?
Not quite following Messina and Rutherford[??], I assume that compossibility for propositions/factsF A and B is when:
A, B are compossible when A ∧ B is possible.
So I assume there is a slot to be ...
user40843
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Terminology question: philosophic equivalent for oversimplification of assumptions?
There is a trap that a lot of bad philosophers fall into of manipulating a simplified version of a concept and then thinking they have proven the general case. Sometimes they are lucky and that works, ...
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Finding a word for a thermodynamic process [closed]
"A ___ is a physical object with mass and volume that performs work (distinct from its thermal energy) by manipulating energy in one or more forms through internal processes, generating heat from ...
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Has anyone come up with a good technical term for a ‘selfie’ yet? [closed]
I have been wondering how to speak of a ‘selfie’ in a good court of law.
To my mind, ‘photographic self-portrait’ is inadequate - for the word ‘portray’ connotes, to me, some kind of human mediation: ...
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What is the difference between normative and prescriptive statements? [closed]
Are they just synonyms?
Thanks.
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Is plausibility more fundamental than probability?
There seem to be many contexts in which it makes sense to define a probability or atleast an approximate one and attach that to a certain proposition. If that is very low, it is often taken to be ...
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Why is deontological ethics the opposite of teleological ethics and not "ontological" ethics
A beginner question here, and perhaps its just a question of nomenclature, but:
if teleological ethics (consequentialism and utilitarianism etc) are the opposite of deontological ethics, why are they ...
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Do meanings of statements exist?
It was suggested to me in another thread that materialism is self defeating. But when I looked at the reason for that statement I found confusion in the argument.
(4) MATERIALISM
[Definition] The ...
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Is the uptake in grounding-talk, in modern analytic metaphysics, a carryover from the notion of a ground-state in physics?
The SEP article on metaphysical grounding says of the history of the topic:
There are interesting and difficult questions about grounding, its history, and what its relationship to the history of ...
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