Draft:Philosophy

Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational argument.

"Philosophy is a study of problems which are ultimate, abstract and general. These problems are concerned with the nature of existence, knowledge, morality, reason and human purpose."

"The aim of philosophical inquiry is to gain insight into questions about knowledge, truth, reason, reality, meaning, mind, and value."

Theory of philosophy
"Philosophy is rationally critical thinking, of a more or less systematic kind about the general nature of the world (metaphysics or theory of existence), the justification of belief (epistemology or theory of knowledge), and the conduct of life (ethics or theory of value). Each of the three elements in this list has a non-philosophical counterpart, from which it is distinguished by its explicitly rational and critical way of proceeding and by its systematic nature. Everyone has some general conception of the nature of the world in which they live and of their place in it. Metaphysics replaces the unargued assumptions embodied in such a conception with a rational and organized body of beliefs about the world as a whole. Everyone has occasion to doubt and question beliefs, their own or those of others, with more or less success and without any theory of what they are doing. Epistemology seeks by argument to make explicit the rules of correct belief formation. Everyone governs their conduct by directing it to desired or valued ends. Ethics, or moral philosophy, in its most inclusive sense, seeks to articulate, in rationally systematic form, the rules or principles involved."

Def.


 * 1) a written work, or academic discipline, “that seeks truth through reasoning rather than empiricism”
 * 2) a "love of wisdom"
 * 3) a "comprehensive system of belief"
 * 4) a "view or outlook [regarding fundamental principles underlying] of some other domain" is called a philosophy.

Philosophy is often [generally] "divided into five major subtopics [branches]: logic, metaphysics, epistemology, ethics and aesthetics."

Definition theory
“[D]efinitions are always of symbols, for only symbols have meanings for definitions to explain.” A term can be one or more of a set of symbols such as words, phrases, letter designations, or any already used symbol or new symbol.

In the theory of definition, “the symbol being defined is called the definiendum, and the symbol or set of symbols used to explain the meaning of the definiendum is called the definiens.” “The definiens is not the meaning of the definiendum, but another symbol or group of symbols which, according to the definition, has the same meaning as the definiendum.”

Def. "[t]he term - word or phrase - defined in a definition" is called a definiendum.

Def. "[t]he word or phrase that defines the definiendum in a definition" is called a definiens.

Semantics
Def.
 * 1. "the study of meanings:"
 * 1.a: "the historical and psychological study and the classification of changes in the signification of words or forms viewed as factors in linguistic development",
 * 1.b: "a branch of semiotic dealing with the relations between signs and what they refer to and including theories of denotation, extension, naming, and truth"
 * 2.a: "the meaning or relationship of meanings of a sign or set of signs; [especially]: connotative meaning"
 * 2.b: "the exploitation of connotation and ambiguity (as in propaganda)"

is called semantics.

Def. "the branch of linguistics devoted to the investigation of linguistic meaning, the interpretation of expression in a language system." is called semantics.

Starting with universals and ontology, where the word "semantics" is in category 543. MEANING, a definition of semantics using concepts from categories lower in number than 543 may be as follows:

Def. the knowledge of the nature of ideas transferred among entities is called semantics.

Every word after Def. and before "is called" has its most popular category of usage less than 543.

Impredicative definitions
Def. "definable only in terms of a totality of which it is itself a part" is called impredicative.

"When a set M and a particular object m are so defined that on the one hand m is a member of M, and on the other hand the definition of m depends on M, we say that the procedure (or the definition of m, or the definition of M) is impredicative. Similarly, when a property P is possessed by an object m whose definition depends on P (here M is the set of the objects which possess the property P). An impredicative definition is circular, at least on its face, as what is defined participates in its own definition."

Finite definability
Richard's paradox (1905), "substantially given by Dixon 1906, deals with the notion of finite definability."

"For definiteness, let this refer to a given language, say the English language with a preassigned alphabet, dictionary and grammar. The alphabet we may take as consisting of the blank space (to separate words), the 26 Latin letters, and the comma. By an 'expression' in the language we may understand simply any finite sequence of these 28 symbols not beginning with a blank space. The expressions in the English language can then be enumerated by the device [...] of the matrix [which] constitutes a general one for enumerating [...] algebraic equations [such as] a pairing between members of two collections or 'sets' of objects [called] a one-to-one (1-1) correspondence."

Consider "the function whose value, for any given natural number as argument, is equal to one more than the value, for the given natural number as argument, of the function defined by the expression which corresponds to the given natural number in the last described enumeration".

"In the [above] quoted expression we refer to the above described enumeration of the expressions in the English language defining a number-theoretic function, without defining it. But we could easily have written in the definition of that enumeration in full, as part of the quoted expression. We should then have before us a definition of a function (briefly, the function fn(n) + 1), by an expression in the English language. This function, by its definition, must differ from every function definable by an expression in the English language."

Consider, "the least natural number not nameable in fewer than twenty-two syllables". "This expression names in twenty-one syllables a natural number which by definition cannot be named in fewer than twenty-two syllables! (Berry 1906)."

Logic
Def.


 * a(1): "a science that deals with the canons and criteria of validity of inference and demonstration : the science of the normative formal principles of reasoning"
 * (2): "a branch of semiotic; [especially: syntactics]"
 * (3): "the formal principles of a branch of knowledge"
 * b: "a particular mode of reasoning"
 * c: "interrelation or sequence of facts or events when seen as inevitable or predictable"

is called logic.

Similar to the above dictionary, or lexical, definition is

Def. logic "is the study of correct argumentation."

Def. a "method of human thought that involves thinking in a linear, step-by-step pattern [manner] about how a problem can be solved" is called logic.

Def. the "study of the principles and criteria of valid inference and demonstration" is called logic.

Def. the "mathematical study of relationships between rigorously defined concepts and of mathematical proof of statements" is called logic.

Def. a "formal or informal language together with a deductive system or a model-theoretic semantics" is called logic.

Def. any "system of thought, whether rigorous and productive or not, especially one associated with a particular person" is called logic.

Metaphysics
Def. the "branch of philosophy which studies fundamental principles intended to describe or explain all that is, and which are not themselves explained by anything more fundamental; the study of first principles; the study of being insofar as it is being " is called metaphysics.

Epistemology
Def. the "branch of philosophy dealing with" the study of knowledge; theory of knowledge, asking such questions as "What is knowledge?", "How is knowledge acquired?", "What do people know?", "How do we know what we know?" is called epistemology.

Ethics
Def. the "study of principles relating to right and wrong conduct" or the "standards that govern the conduct of a person, especially a member of a profession" is called ethics.

Usage notes

"Although the terms ethics and morality may sometimes be used interchangeably, philosophical ethicists often distinguish them, using ethics to refer to theories and conceptual studies relating to good and evil and right and wrong, and using morality and its related terms to refer to actual, real-world beliefs and practices concerning proper conduct." "In this vein, the American philosopher Brand Blanshard wrote concerning his friend, the eminent British ethicist G. E. Moore:" "We often discussed ethics, but seldom morals.... He was a master in ethical theory, but did not conceive himself as specially qualified to pass opinions on politics or social issues."

Aesthetics
Def. the "study or philosophy of beauty" is called aesthetics.

Continental philosophy
"Continental philosophy is a term used in philosophy to designate one of two major contemporary "traditions" of current Western philosophy. It is so named to distinguish it from analytic philosophy, because, at the time when this, so-called, "Schism between Analytic and Continental Philosophy" first occurred (in the mid-twentieth century), continental philosophy was the dominant style of philosophy in continental Europe, while analytical philosophy was the predominant style in the English-speaking world and in Scandinavia. Continental philosophy is generally agreed to include phenomenology, existentialism, hermeneutics, structuralism, post-structuralism and post-modernism, deconstruction, French feminism, critical theory such as that of the Frankfurt School, psychoanalysis, the works of Friedrich Nietzsche and Søren Kierkegaard, and most branches of Marxism and Marxist philosophy (though there also exists a self-described Analytical Marxism)."

Dominant group
“The dominant group in educational philosophy, if one is to judge by the lists of set texts and required readings at English-speaking universities, is the School of Philosophical Analysis represented by Richard S. Peters, Paul H. Hirst, and Michael Oakeshott, with their American contemporaries Israel Scheffler, William R. Perry, and others who are cited in Chapter 7. Deconstruction, Critical Theory and Post-Modernism figure in Chapters 10 and 12, with scandinavian thinkers from Kierkegaard to Bohr in Chapter 11.”

"But, in Western societies, when litigation does take place, the plaintiff is unable to be heard because the regulation of the conflict takes place in the idiom of one party-the economically dominant group."

Universals
"When we examine common words, we find that, broadly speaking, proper names stand for particulars, while other substantives, adjectives, prepositions, and verbs stand for universals."

Hypotheses

 * 1) Philosophers work on unanswerable questions.