izzing: Athenian and Oxonian
dialectic.As Grice puts it, "Socrates, like us, was really trying to solve
linguistic puzzles."This is especially true in the longer dialogues of
Plato — the 'Republic' and the Laws'— where we learn quite a lot about
Socrates' method and philosophy, filtered, of course, through his devoted
pupil's mind.Some of the Pre-Socratics, who provide Plato and his master with
many of their problems, were in difficulties about how one thing could be two
things at once — say, a white horse. How could you say 'This is a horse
and this is white' without saying 'This one thing is two things'? Socrates
and Plato together solved this puzzle by saying that what was meant by
saying 'The horse is white' is that the horse partakes of the
eternal, and perfect, Form horseness, which was invisible but really more
horselike than any worldly Dobbin; and ditto about the Form whiteness: it was
whiter than any earthly white. The theory of Form covers our whole world
of ships and shoes and humpty-dumptys, which, taken all in all, are shadows —
approximations of those invisible, perfect Forms. Using the sharp tools in
our new linguistic chest, we can whittle Plato down to size and say that he
invented his metaphysical world of Forms to solve the problem of different
kinds of 'is'es -- what Grice calls the 'izz' proper and the 'izz' improper
('strictly, a 'hazz').You see how Grice, an Oxford counterpart of Plato, uses a
very simple grammatical tool in solving problems like this. Instead of
conjuring up an imaginary edifice of Forms, he simply says there are two
different types of 'is'es — one of predication and one of identity -- 'the izz'
and the 'hazz not.' The first, the 'izz' (which is really a 'hazz' -- it
is a 'hizz' for Socrates being 'rational') asserts a quality: this is
white.' The second 'hazz' points to the object named: 'This is a
horse.' By this simple grammatical analysis we clear away the rubble of
what were Plato's Forms. That's why an Oxford philosopher loves Aristotle
-- and his Athenian dialectic -- (Plato worked in suburbia, The Academy) -- who
often, when defining a thing — for example, 'virtue' — asked himself, 'Does the
definition square with the ordinary views (ta legomena) of men?' But while
Grice does have this or that antecedent, he is surely an innovator in
concentrating MOST (if not all) of his attention on what he calls 'the
conversational implicature.'Grice has little patience with past
philosophers.Why bother listening to men whose problems arose from bad grammar?
(He excludes Ariskant here). At present, we are mostly preoccupied with
language and grammar. Grice would never dream of telling his tutee what he
ought to do, the kind of life he ought to lead.That was no longer an aim of
philosophy, he explained, but even though philosophy has changed in its aims
and methods, people have not, and that was the reason for the complaining
tutees -- the few of them -- , for the bitter attacks of Times' correspondents,
and even, perhaps, for his turning his back on philosophy. Grice came to
feel that Oxford philosophy was a minor revolutionary movement — at least when
it is seen through the eyes of past philosophers. I asked him about the
fathers of the revolution. Again he was evasive. Strictly speaking,
the minor revolution is fatherless, except that Bertrand Russell, G. E. Moore,
and Vitters — all of them, as it happened, Cambridge University figures —
"are responsible for the present state of things at Oxford." under
‘conjunctum,’ we see that there is an alternative vocabulary, of ‘copulatum.’
But Grice prefers to narrow the use of ‘copula’ to izzing’ and ‘hazzing.’ Oddly,
Grice sees izzing as a ‘predicate,’ and symbolises it as Ixy. While he prefers
‘x izzes y,’ he also uses ‘x izz y.’ Under izzing comes Grice’s discussion of
essential predicate, essence, and substance qua predicabilia (secondary
substance). As opposed to ‘hazzing,’ which covers all the ‘ta sumbebeka,’ or
‘accidentia.’
Jacobi, Friedrich
Heinrich (1743–1819), German man of letters, popular novelist, and author of
several influential philosophical works. His Ueber die Lehre des Spinoza (1785)
precipitated a dispute with Mendelssohn on Lessing’s alleged pantheism. The
ensuing Pantheismusstreit (pantheism controversy) focused attention on the
apparent conflict between human freedom and any systematic, philosophical
interpretation of reality. In the appendix to his David Hume über den Glauben,
oder Idealismus und Realismus (“David Hume on Belief, or Idealism and Realism,”
1787), Jacobi scrutinized the new transcendental philosophy of Kant, and
subjected Kant’s remarks concerning “things-in-themselves” to devastating
criticism, observing that, though one could not enter the critical philosophy
without presupposing the existence of things-in-themselves, such a belief is
incompatible with the tenets of that philosophy. This criticism deeply
influenced the efforts of post-Kantians (e.g., Fichte) to improve
transcendental idealism. In 1799, in an “open letter” to Fichte, Jacobi
criticized philosophy in general and transcendental idealism in particular as
“nihilism.” Jacobi espoused a fideistic variety of direct realism and
characterized his own standpoint as one of “nonknowing.” Employing the
arguments of “Humean skepticism,” he defended the necessity of a “leap of
faith,” not merely in morality and religion, but in every area of human life.
Jacobi’s criticisms of reason and of science profoundly influenced German
Romanticism. Near the end of his career he entered bitter public controversies
with Hegel and Schelling concerning the relationship between faith and
knowledge. See also KANT. D.Br. Jainism, an Indian religious and philosophical
tradition established by Mahavira, a contemporary of the historical Buddha, in
the latter half of the sixth and the beginning of the fifth century B.C. The
tradition holds that each person (jiva) is everlasting and indestructible, a
self-conscious identity surviving as a person even in a state of final
enlightenment. It accepts personal immortality without embracing any variety of
monotheism. On the basis of sensory experience it holds that there exist mind-independent
physical objects, and it regards introspective experience as establishing the
existence of enduring selves. It accepts the doctrines of rebirth and karma and
conceives the ultimate good as escape from the wheel of rebirth. It rejects all
violence as incompatible with achieving enlightenment.
James, William
(1842–1910), American philosopher, psychologist, and one of the founders of
pragmatism. He was born in New York City, the oldest of five children and elder
brother of the novelist Henry James and diarist Alice James. Their father,
Henry James, Sr., was an unorthodox religious philosopher, deeply influenced by
the thought of Swedenborg, some of which seeped into William’s later
fascination with psychical research. The James family relocated to Cambridge,
Massachusetts, but the father insisted on his children obtaining a European
education, and prolonged trips to England and the Continent were routine, a
procedure that made William multilingual and extraordinarily cosmopolitan. In
fact, a pervasive theme in James’s personal and creative life was his deep
split between things American and European: he felt like a bigamist “coquetting
with too many countries.” As a person, James was extraordinarily sensitive to
psychological and bodily experiences. He could be described as “neurasthenic” –
afflicted with constant psychosomatic symptoms such as dyspepsia, vision
problems, and clinical depression. In 1868 he recorded a profound personal
experience, a “horrible fear of my own existence.” In two 1870 diary entries,
James first contemplates suicide and then pronounces his belief in free will
and his resolve to act on that belief in “doing, suffering and creating.” Under
the influence of the then burgeoning work in experimental psychology, James
attempted to sustain, on empirical grounds, his belief in the self as
Promethean, as self-making rather than as a playing out of inheritance or the
influence of social context. This bold and extreme doctrine of individuality is
bolstered by his attack on both the neo-Hegelian and associationist doctrines.
He held that both approaches miss the empirical reality of relations as
affec446 J 4065h-l.qxd 08/02/1999 7:40 AM Page 446 tively experienced and the
reality of consciousness as a “stream,” rather than an aspect of an Absolute or
simply a box holding a chain of concepts corresponding to single sense
impressions. In 1890, James published his masterpiece, The Principles of
Psychology, which established him as the premier psychologist of the
Euro-American world. It was a massive compendium and critique of virtually all
of the psychology literature then extant, but it also claimed that the
discipline was in its infancy. James believed that the problems he had
unearthed could only be understood by a philosophical approach. James held only
one academic degree, an M.D. from Harvard, and his early teaching at Harvard
was in anatomy and physiology. He subsequently became a professor of
psychology, but during the writing of the Principles, he began to teach
philosophy as a colleague of Royce and Santayana. From 1890 forward James saw
the fundamental issues as at bottom philosophical and he undertook an intense
inquiry into matters epistemological and metaphysical; in particular, “the
religious question” absorbed him. The Will to Believe and Other Essays in
Popular Philosophy was published in 1897. The lead essay, “The Will to
Believe,” had been widely misunderstood, partly because it rested on
unpublished metaphysical assumptions and partly because it ran aggressively
counter to the reigning dogmas of social Darwinism and neo-Hegelian absolutism,
both of which denigrated the personal power of the individual. For James, one
cannot draw a conclusion, fix a belief, or hold to a moral or religious maxim
unless all suggestions of an alternative position are explored. Further, some
alternatives will be revealed only if one steps beyond one’s frame of
reference, seeks novelty, and “wills to believe” in possibilities beyond
present sight. The risk taking in such an approach to human living is further
detailed in James’s essays “The Dilemma of Determinism” and “The Moral
Philosopher and the Moral Life,” both of which stress the irreducibility of
ambiguity, the presence of chance, and the desirability of tentativeness in our
judgments. After presenting the Gifford Lectures in 1901– 02, James published
his classic work, The Varieties of Religious Experience, which coalesced his
interest in psychic states both healthy and sick and afforded him the
opportunity to present again his firm belief that human life is characterized
by a vast array of personal, cultural, and religious approaches that cannot and
should not be reduced one to the other. For James, the “actual peculiarities of
the world” must be central to any philosophical discussion of truth. In his
Hibbert Lectures of 1909, published as A Pluralistic Universe, James was to
represent this sense of plurality, openness, and the variety of human
experience on a wider canvas, the vast reach of consciousness, cosmologically
understood. Unknown to all but a few philosophical correspondents, James had
been assiduously filling notebooks with reflections on the mind–body problem
and the relationship between meaning and truth and with a philosophical
exploration and extension of his doctrine of relations as found earlier in the
Principles. In 1904–05 James published a series of essays, gathered
posthumously in 1912, on the meaning of experience and the problem of
knowledge. In a letter to François Pillon in 1904, he writes: “My philosophy is
what I call a radical empiricism, a pluralism, a ‘tychism,’ which represents
order as being gradually won and always in the making.” Following his 1889
essay “On Some Omissions of Introspective Psychology” and his chapter on “The
Stream of Thought” in the Principles, James takes as given that relations
between things are equivalently experienced as the things themselves.
Consequently, “the only meaning of essence is teleological, and that
classification and conception are purely teleological weapons of the mind.” The
description of consciousness as a stream having a fringe as well as a focus,
and being selective all the while, enables him to take the next step, the
formulation of his pragmatic epistemology, one that was influenced by, but is
different from, that of Peirce. Published in 1907, Pragmatism generated a
transatlantic furor, for in it James unabashedly states that “Truth happens to
be an idea. It becomes true, is made true by events.” He also introduces the
philosophically notorious claim that “theories” must be found that will “work.”
Actually, he means that a proposition cannot be judged as true independently of
its consequences as judged by experience. James’s prose, especially in
Pragmatism, alternates between scintillating and limpid. This quality led to both
obfuscation of his intention and a lulling of his reader into a false sense of
simplicity. He does not deny the standard definition of truth as a
propositional claim about an existent, for he writes “woe to him whose beliefs
play fast and loose with the order which realities follow in his experience;
they will lead him nowhere or else make false connexions.” Yet he regards this
structure as but a prologue to the creative activJames, William James, William
447 4065h-l.qxd 08/02/1999 7:40 AM Page 447 ity of the human mind. Also in
Pragmatism, speaking of the world as “really malleable,” he argues that man
engenders truths upon reality. This tension between James as a radical
empiricist with the affirmation of the blunt, obdurate relational manifold
given to us in our experience and James as a pragmatic idealist holding to the
constructing, engendering power of the Promethean self to create its own
personal world, courses throughout all of his work. James was chagrined and
irritated by the quantity, quality, and ferocity of the criticism leveled at
Pragmatism. He attempted to answer those critics in a book of disparate essays,
The Meaning of Truth (1909). The book did little to persuade his critics; since
most of them were unaware of his radically empirical metaphysics and certainly
of his unpublished papers, James’s pragmatism remained misunderstood until the
publication of Perry’s magisterial two-volume study, The Thought and Character
of William James (1935). By 1910, James’s heart disease had worsened; he traveled
to Europe in search of some remedy, knowing full well that it was a farewell
journey. Shortly after returning to his summer home in Chocorua, New Hampshire,
he died. One month earlier he had said of a manuscript (posthumously published
in 1911 as Some Problems in Philosophy), “say that by it I hoped to round out
my system, which is now too much like an arch only on one side.” Even if he had
lived much longer, it is arguable that the other side of the arch would not
have appeared, for his philosophy was ineluctably geared to seeking out the
novel, the surprise, the tychistic, and the plural, and to denying the finality
of all conclusions. He warned us that “experience itself, taken at large, can
grow by its edges” and no matter how laudable or seductive our personal goal,
“life is in the transitions.” The Works of William James, including his
unpublished manuscripts, have been collected in a massive nineteen-volume
critical edition by Harvard University Press (1975–88). His work can be seen as
an imaginative vestibule into the twentieth century. His ideas resonate in the
work of Royce, Unamuno, Niels Bohr, Husserl, M. Montessori, Dewey, and
Wittgenstein.
James-Lange theory, the
theory, put forward by William James and independently by C. Lange, an anatomist,
that an emotion is the felt awareness of bodily reactions to something
perceived or thought (James) or just the bodily reactions themselves (Lange).
According to the more influential version (James, “What Is an Emotion?” Mind,
1884), “our natural way of thinking” mistakenly supposes that the perception or
thought causes the emotion, e.g., fear or anger, which in turn causes the
bodily reactions, e.g., rapid heartbeat, weeping, trembling, grimacing, and
actions such as running and striking. In reality, however, the fear or anger
consists in the bodily sensations caused by these reactions. In support of this
theory, James proposed a thought experiment: Imagine feeling some “strong”
emotion, one with a pronounced “wave of bodily disturbance,” and then subtract
in imagination the felt awareness of this disturbance. All that remains, James
found, is “a cold and neutral state of intellectual perception,” a cognition
lacking in emotional coloration. Consequently, it is our bodily feelings that
emotionalize consciousness, imbuing our perceptions and thoughts with emotional
qualities and endowing each type of emotion, such as fear, anger, and joy, with
its special feeling quality. But this does not warrant James’s radical
conclusion that emotions or emotional states are effects rather than causes of
bodily reactions. That conclusion requires the further assumption, which James
shared with many of his contemporaries, that the various emotions are nothing
but particular feeling qualities. Historically, the James-Lange theory led to
further inquiries into the physiological and cognitive causes of emotional
feelings and helped transform the psychology of emotions from a descriptive
study relying on introspection to a broader naturalistic inquiry.
Jansenism, a set of doctrines
advanced by European Roman Catholic reformers, clergy, and scholars in the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, characterized by a predestinarianism that
emphasized Adam’s fall, irresistible efficacious grace, limited atonement,
election, and reprobation. Addressing the issue of free will and grace left
open by the Council of Trent (1545–63), a Flemish bishop, Cornelius Jansen
(1585–1638), crystallized the seventeenth-century Augustinian revival,
producing a compilation of Augustine’s anti-Pelagian teachings (Augustinus).
Propagated by Saint Cyran and Antoine Arnauld (On Frequent Communion, 1643),
adopted by the nuns of Port-Royal, and defended against Jesuit attacks by
Pascal (Provincial Letters, 1656–57), Jansenism pervaded Roman Catholicism from
Utrecht to Rome for over 150 years. Condemned James-Lange theory Jansenism 448
4065h-l.qxd 08/02/1999 7:40 AM Page 448 by Pope Innocent X (Cum Occasione,
1653) and crushed by Louis XIV and the French clergy (the 1661 formulary), it
survived outside France and rearmed for a counteroffensive. Pasquier Quesnel’s
(1634–1719) “second Jansenism,” condemned by Pope Clement XI (Unigenitus,
1713), was less Augustinian, more rigorist, and advocated Presbyterianism and
Gallicanism. J.-L.S. Japanese philosophy, philosophy in Japan, beginning with
Buddhist thought and proceeding to academic “philosophy” (tetsugaku), which
emerged in Japan only during the Meiji Restoration period beginning in 1868.
Among representatives of traditional Japanese Buddhist philosophical thought
should be mentioned Saicho (767–822) of Tendai; Kukai (774–835) of Shingon;
Shinran (1173–1262) of Jodo Shinshu; Dogen (1200–53) of Soto Zen; and Nichiren
(1222–82) of Nichiren Buddhism. During the medieval period a duty-based warrior
ethic of loyalty and self-sacrifice emerged from within the Bushido tradition
of the Samurai, developed out of influences from Confucianism and Zen. Also,
the Zen-influenced path of Geido or way of the artist produced an important
religio-aesthetic tradition with ideas of beauty like aware (sad beauty), yugen
(profundity), ma (interval), wabi (poverty), sabi (solitariness), and shibui
(understatement). While each sect developed its own characteristics, a general
feature of traditional Japanese Buddhist philosophy is its emphasis on
“impermanence” (mujo), the transitoriness of all non-substantial phenomena as
expressed through the aesthetic of perishability in Geido and the constant
remembrance of death in the warrior ethic of Bushido. Much of twentieth-century
Japanese philosophy centers around the development of, and critical reaction
against, the thought of Nishida Kitaro (1870–1945) and the “Kyoto School”
running through Tanabe Hajime, Nishitani Keiji, Hisamatsu Shin’ichi, Takeuchi
Yoshinori, Ueda Shizuteru, Abe Masao, and, more peripherally, Watsuji Tetsuro,
Kuki Shuzo, and D. T. Suzuki. The thought of Nishida is characterized by the
effort to articulate an East-West philosophy and interfaith dialogue within a
Buddhist framework of “emptiness” (ku) or “nothingness” (mu). In his maiden
work, A Study of Good (1911), Nishida elaborates a theory of “pure experience”
(junsui keiken) influenced especially by William James. Like James, Nishida
articulates “pure experience” as an immediate awareness in the stream of
consciousness emerging prior to subject– object dualism. Yet it is widely
agreed that Nishida reformulates “pure experience” in light of his own study of
Zen Buddhism. Throughout his career Nishida continuously reworked the idea of
“pure experience” in terms of such notions as “self-awareness,” “absolute
will,” “acting intuition,” “absolute nothingness,” and the “social-historical
world.” From the Acting to the Seeing (1927) signifies a turning point in
Nishida’s thought in that it introduces his new concept of basho, the “place”
of “absolute Nothingness” wherein the “true self” arises as a “selfidentity of
absolute contradictions.” Nishida’s penultimate essay, “The Logic of Place and
a Religious Worldview” (1945), articulates a theory of religious experience
based upon the “self-negation” of both self and God in the place of
Nothingness. In this context he formulates an interfaith dialogue between the
Christian kenosis (self-emptying) and Buddhist sunyata (emptiness) traditions.
In Religion and Nothingness (1982), Nishitani Keiji develops Nishida’s
philosophy in terms of a Zen logic wherein all things at the eternalistic
standpoint of Being are emptied in the nihilistic standpoint of Relative
Nothingness, which in turn is emptied into the middle way standpoint of
Emptiness or Absolute Nothingness represented by both Buddhist sunyata and
Christian kenosis. For Nishitani, this shift from Relative to Absolute
Nothingness is the strategy for overcoming nihilism as described by Nietzsche.
Hisamatsu Shin’ichi interprets Japanese aesthetics in terms of Nishida’s Self
of Absolute Nothingness in Zen and the Fine Arts (1971). The encounter of
Western philosophy with Zen Nothingness is further developed by Abe Masao in
Zen and Western Thought (1985). Whereas thinkers like Nishida, Nishitani,
Hisamatsu, Ueda, and Abe develop a Zen approach based upon the immediate
experience of Absolute Nothingness through the “self-power” (jiriki) of
intuition, Philosophy as Metanoetics (1986) by Tanabe Hajime instead takes up
the stance of Shinran’s Pure Land Buddhism, according to which Nothingness is
the transforming grace of absolute “Other-power” (tariki) operating through
faith. Watsuji Tetsuro’s Ethics (1937), the premier work in modern Japanese
moral theory, develops a communitarian ethics in terms of the “betweenness”
(aidagara) of persons based on the Japanese notion of self as ningen, whose two
characters reveal the double structure of personhood as both individual and
social. Kuki Shuzo’s The Structure of Iki (1930), often regarded as the most creative
work in modern Japanese aesthetJapanese philosophy Japanese philosophy 449
4065h-l.qxd 08/02/1999 7:40 AM Page 449 ics, analyzes the Edo ideal of iki or
“chic” as having a threefold structure representing the fusion of the
“amorousness” (bitai) of the Geisha, the “valor” (ikuji) of the Samurai, and
the “resignation” (akirame) of the Buddhist priest. Marxist thinkers like
Tosaka Jun (1900–45) have developed strong ideological critiques of the
philosophy articulated by Nishida and the Kyoto School. In summary, the
outstanding contribution of modern Japanese philosophy has been the effort to
forge a synthesis of Eastern and Western values within the overall framework of
an Asian worldview.
Jaspers, Karl Theodor
(1883–1969), German psychologist and philosopher, one of the main
representatives of the existentialist movement (although he rejected
‘existentialism’ as a distortion of the philosophy of existence). From 1901
until 1908 Jaspers studied law and medicine at the universities of Heidelberg,
Munich, Berlin, and Göttingen. He concluded his studies with an M.D.
(Homesickness and Crime) from the University of Heidelberg (where he stayed
until 1948). From 1908 until 1915 he worked as a voluntary assistant in the
psychiatric clinic, and published his first major work (Allgemeine
Psychopathologie, 1913; General Psychopathology, 1965). After his habilitation
in psychology (1913) Jaspers lectured as Privatdocent. In 1919 he published
Psychologie der Weltanschauung (“Psychology of Worldviews”). Two years later he
became professor in philosophy. Because of his personal convictions and
marriage with Gertrud Mayer (who was Jewish) the Nazi government took away his
professorship in 1937 and suppressed all publications. He and his wife were
saved from deportation because the American army liberated Heidelberg a few
days before the fixed date of April 14, 1945. In 1948 he accepted a
professorship from the University of Basel. As a student, Jaspers felt a strong
aversion to academic philosophy. However, as he gained insights in the fields
of psychiatry and psychology, he realized that both the study of human beings
and the meaning of scientific research pointed to questions and problems that
demanded their own thoughts and reflections. Jaspers gave a systematic account of
them in his three-volume Philosophie (1931; with postscript, 1956; Philosophy,
1969–71), and in the 1,100 pages of Von der Wahrheit (On Truth, 1947). In the
first volume (“Philosophical World-orientation”) he discusses the place and
meaning of philosophy with regard to the human situation in general and
scientific disciplines in particular. In the second (“Clarification of
Existence”), he contrasts the compelling modes of objective (scientific)
knowledge with the possible (and in essence non-objective) awareness of being
in self-relation, communication, and historicity, both as being oneself
presents itself in freedom, necessity, and transcendence, and as existence
encounters its unconditionality in limit situations (of death, suffering,
struggle, guilt) and the polar intertwining of subjectivity and objectivity. In
the third volume (“Metaphysics”) he concentrates on the meaning of
transcendence as it becomes translucent in appealing ciphers (of nature,
history, consciousness, art, etc.) to possible existence under and against the
impact of stranding. His Von der Wahrheit is the first volume of a projected
work on philosophical logic (cf. Nachlaß zur philosophischen Logik, ed. H.
Saner and M. Hänggi, 1991) in which he develops the more formal aspects of his
philosophy as “periechontology” (ontology of the encompassing, des
Umgreifenden, with its modes of being there, consciousness, mind, existence,
world, transcendence, reason) and clarification of origins. In both works
Jaspers focuses on “existential philosophy” as “that kind of thinking through
which man tries to become himself both as thinking makes use of all real
knowledge and as it transcends this knowledge. This thinking does not recognize
objects, but clarifies and enacts at once the being of the one who thinks in
this way” (Philosophische Autobiographie, 1953). In his search for authentic
existence in connection with the elaboration of “philosophical faith” in reason
and truth, Jaspers had to achieve a thorough understanding of philosophical,
political, and religious history as well as an adequate assessment of the
present situation. His aim became a world philosophy as a possible contribution
to universal peace out of the spirit of free and limitless communication,
unrestricted open-mindedness, and unrelenting truthfulness. Besides a
comprehensive history of philosophy (Die groben Philosophen I, 1957; II and
III, 1981; The Great Philosophers, 2 vols., 1962, 1966) and numerous monographs
(on Cusanus, Descartes, Leonardo da Vinci, Schelling, Nietzsche, Strindberg,
van Gogh, Weber) he wrote on subjects such as the university (Die Idee der
Universität, 1946; The Idea of the University, 1959), the spiritual situation
of the age (Die geistige Situation der Zeit, 1931; Man in the Modern Age,
1933), the meaning of history (Vom Ursprung und Ziel der Geschichte, 1949; The
Origin and Goal of History, Jaspers, Karl Theodor Jaspers, Karl Theodor 450
4065h-l.qxd 08/02/1999 7:40 AM Page 450 1953, in which he developed the idea of
an “axial period”), the guilt question (Die Schuldfrage, 1946; The Question of
German Guilt, 1947), the atomic bomb (Die Atombombe und die Zukunft des
Menschen, 1958; The Future of Mankind, 1961), German politics (Wohin treibt die
Bundesrepublik? 1966; The Future of Germany, 1967). He also wrote on theology
and religious issues (Die Frage der Entymythologisierung. Eine Diskussion mit
Rudolf Bultmann, 1954; Myth and Christianity, 1958; Der philosophische Glaube
angesichts der Offenbarung, 1962; Philosophical Faith and Revelation, 1967).
jen, Chinese
philosophical term, important in Confucianism, variously translated as
‘kindness’, ‘humanity’, or ‘benevolence’. Scholars disagree as to whether it
has the basic meaning of an attribute distinctive of certain aristocratic
clans, or the basic meaning of kindness, especially kindness of a ruler to his
subjects. In Confucian thought, it is used to refer both to an all-encompassing
ethical ideal for human beings (when so used, it is often translated as
‘humanity’, ‘humaneness’, or ‘goodness’), and more specifically to the
desirable attribute of an emotional concern for all living things, the degree
and nature of such concern varying according to one’s relation to such things
(when so used, it is often translated as ‘benevolence’). Later Confucians
explain jen in terms of one’s being of one body with all things, and hence
one’s being sensitive and responsive to their well-being. In the political
realm, Confucians regard jen as ideally the basis of government. A ruler with
jen will care about and provide for the people, and people will be attracted to
the ruler and be inspired to reform themselves. Such a ruler will succeed in
bringing order and be without rivals, and will become a true king (wang).
Jevons, William Stanley (1835–82), British
economist, logician, and philosopher of science. In economics, he clarified the
idea of value, arguing that it is a function of utility. Later theorists
imitated his use of the calculus and other mathematical tools to reach
theoretical results. His approach anticipated the idea of marginal utility, a
notion basic in modern economics. Jevons regarded J. S. Mill’s logic as
inadequate, preferring the new symbolic logic of Boole. One permanent
contribution was his introduction of the concept of inclusive ‘or’, with ‘or’
meaning ‘either or, or both’. To aid in teaching the new logic of classes and
propositions, Jevons invented his “logical piano.” In opposition to the
confidence in induction of Mill and Whewell, both of whom thought, for
different reasons, that induction can arrive at exact and necessary truths,
Jevons argued that science yields only approximations, and that any perfect fit
between theory and observation must be grounds for suspicion that we are wrong,
not for confidence that we are right. Jevons introduced probability theory to
show how rival hypotheses are evaluated. He was a subjectivist, holding that
probability is a measure of what a perfectly rational person would believe
given the available evidence.
Jewish philosophy. The
subject begins with Philo Judaeus (c.20 B.C.–A.D. 40) of Alexandria. Applying
Stoic techniques of allegory, he developed a philosophical hermeneutic that
transformed biblical persons and places into universal symbols and virtues;
retaining the Hebrew Bible’s view of a transcendent God, Philo identified
Plato’s world of ideas with the mind or word of God, construing it as the
creative intermediary to the world. This logos doctrine influenced Christian
theology strongly, but had little effect upon Jewish thought. Rabbinic Judaism
was indifferent and probably hostile to all expressions of Greek philosophy,
Philo’s writings included. The tradition of philosophical theology that can be
traced to Philo took hold in Judaism only in the ninth century, and only after
it became accepted in the Islamic world, which Jews then inhabited. Saadiah
Gaon (882–942) modeled his philosophical work The Book of Critically Chosen
Beliefs and Convictions on theological treatises written by Muslim free will
theologians. Unlike them, however, and in opposition to Jewish Karaites,
Saadiah rejected atomistic occasionalism and accepted the philosophers’ view of
a natural order, though one created by God. Saadiah’s knowledge of Greek
philosophy was imperfect and eclectic, yet he argued impressively against the
notion of infinite duration, in order to affirm the necessity of believing in a
created universe and hence in a Creator. Saadiah accepted the historicity of
revelation at Sinai and the validity of Jewish law on more dogmatic grounds,
though Jean Poinsot Jewish philosophy 451 4065h-l.qxd 08/02/1999 7:40 AM Page
451 he developed a classification of the commandments that distinguished
between them on grounds of greater and lesser rationality. Isaac Israeli
(850–950), while a contemporary of Saadiah’s, was as different from him as East
(Baghdad for Saadiah) is from West (for Israeli, Qayrawan, North Africa).
Israeli showed no interest in theology, and was attracted to Neoplatonism and
the ideas advanced by the first Muslim philosopher, al-Kindi. The strictly
philosophical and essentially Neoplatonic approach in Jewish philosophy reached
a high point with the Fons Vitae of Solomon Ibn Gabirol (1020–57). He followed
Israeli in emphasizing form and matter’s priority over that of the universal
mind or noûs. This heralds the growing dominance of Aristotelian concepts in
medieval Jewish philosophy, in all but political thought, a dominance first
fully expressed, in Spain, in The Exalted Faith of Abraham Ibn Daud
(c.1110–80). Many of the themes and perspectives of Neoplatonism are here
retained, particularly that of emanation and the return of the soul to its
source via intellectual conjunction, as well as the notion of the unknowable
and strict unity of God; but the specific structures of Neoplatonic thought
give way to those of Aristotle and his commentators. This mix of approaches was
perfected by the Muslim falasifa al-Farabi (872–950) and Avicenna (980– 1037),
who became the main authorities for most Jewish philosophers through the
twelfth century, competing afterward with Averroes (1126–98) for the minds of
Jewish philosophers. Judah Ha-Levi (1075–1141), in The Kuzari, also written in
Spain, fought this attraction to philosophy with an informed critique of its
Aristotelian premises. But Moses Maimonides (1138–1204), in his Guide to the
Perplexed, written in Egypt and destined to become the major work of medieval
Jewish philosophy, found little reason to fault the philosophers other than for
accepting an eternal universe. His reservations on this subject, and his
reticence in discussing some other tenets of Jewish faith, led many to suspect
his orthodoxy and to seek esoteric meanings in all his philosophical views, a
practice that continues today. Whatever his philosophical allegiance,
Maimonides viewed Judaism as the paradigmatic philosophical religion, and saw
the ideal philosopher as one who contributes to the welfare of his community,
however much personal happiness is to be found ultimately only in contemplation
of God. Gersonides (1288–1344), living in Provence, responded fully to both
Maimonides’ and Averroes’ teachings, and in his Wars of the Lord denied the
personal providence of popular faith. These sorts of assertions led Hasdai
Crescas (1340–1410) to attack the philosophers on their own premises, and to
offer a model of divine love instead of intelligence as the controlling concept
for understanding oneself and God. Modern Jewish philosophy begins in Germany
with Moses Mendelssohn (1729–86), who attempted philosophically to remove from
Judaism its theocratic and politically compelling dimensions. Hermann Cohen
(1842–1918) further emphasized, under the influence of Kant and Hegel, what he
perceived as the essentially ethical and universal rational teachings of
Judaism. Martin Buber (1878–1965) dramatically introduced an existential
personalism into this ethicist reading of Judaism, while Franz Rosenzweig
(1886–1929) attempted to balance existential imperatives and ahistorical
interpretations of Judaism with an appreciation for the phenomenological
efficacy of its traditional beliefs and practices. The optimistic and universal
orientation of these philosophies was severely tested in World War II, and
Jewish thinkers emerged after that conflict with more assertive national
philosophies.
jhana, a term used by
Theravada Buddhists meaning ‘pondering’ or ‘contemplation’ and often translated
into English as ‘meditation’. This is one of many terms used to describe both
techniques of meditation and the states of consciousness that result from the
use of such techniques. Jhana has a specific technical use: it denotes a
hierarchically ordered series of four (or sometimes five) states of
consciousness, states produced by a gradual reduction in the range of affective
experience. The first of these states is said to include five mental factors,
which are various kinds of affect and cognitive function, while the last
consists only of equanimity, a condition altogether free from affect.
Joachim of Floris
(c.1132/35–1202), Italian mystic who traveled to the Holy Land and, upon his
return, became a Cistercian monk and abbot. He later retired to Calabria, in
southern Italy, where he founded the order of San Giovanni in Fiore. He devoted
the rest of his life to meditation and the recording of his prophetic visions.
In his major works Liber concordiae Novi ac Veteri Testamenti (“Book of the
Concordances between the New and the Old Testament,” 1519), Expositio jhana
Joachim of Floris 452 4065h-l.qxd 08/02/1999 7:40 AM Page 452 in Apocalypsim
(1527), and Psalterium decem chordarum (1527), Joachim illustrates the deep
meaning of history as he perceived it in his visions. History develops in
coexisting patterns of twos and threes. The two testaments represent history as
divided in two phases ending in the First and Second Advent, respectively.
History progresses also through stages corresponding to the Holy Trinity. The
age of the Father is that of the law; the age of the Son is that of grace,
ending approximately in 1260; the age of the Spirit will produce a
spiritualized church. Some monastic orders like the Franciscans and Dominicans
saw themselves as already belonging to this final era of spirituality and
interpreted Joachim’s prophecies as suggesting the overthrow of the
contemporary ecclesiastical institutions. Some of his views were condemned by
the Lateran Council in 1215. P.Gar. Johannes Philoponus (c.490–575), Greek
philosopher and theologian, who worked in Alexandria (philoponus, ‘workaholic’,
just a nickname). A Christian from birth, he was a pupil of the Platonist
Ammonius, and is the first Christian Aristotelian. As such, he challenged
Aristotle on many points where he conflicted with Christian doctrine, e.g. the
eternity of the world, the need for an infinite force, the definition of place,
the impossibility of a vacuum, and the necessity for a fifth element to be the
substance of the heavens. Johannes composed commentaries on Aristotle’s
Categories, Prior and Posterior Analytics, Meteorologics, and On the Soul; and
a treatise Against Proclus: On the Eternity of the World. There is dispute as to
whether the commentaries exhibit a change of mind (away from orthodox
Aristotelianism) on these questions. J.M.D. John Damascene.
John of Damascus, Saint,
also called John Damascene and Chrysorrhoas (Golden Speaker) (c.675–c.750),
Greek theologian and Eastern church doctor. Born of a well-to-do family in
Damascus, he was educated in Greek, Arabic, and Islamic thought. He attained a
high position in government but resigned under the antiChristian Caliph Abdul
Malek and became a monk about 700, living outside Jerusalem. He left extensive
writings, most little more than compilations of older texts. The Iconoclastic
Synod of 754 condemned his arguments in support of the veneration of images in
the three Discourses against the Iconoclasts (726–30), but his orthodoxy was
confirmed in 787 at the Second Council of Nicaea. His Sources of Knowledge
consists of a Dialectic, a history of heresies, and an exposition of orthodoxy.
Considered a saint from the end of the eighth century, he was much respected in
the East and was regarded as an important witness to Eastern Orthodox thought
by the West in the Middle Ages. J.Lo. John of Saint Thomas, also known as John
Poinsot (1589–1644), Portuguese theologian and philosopher. Born in Lisbon, he
studied at Coimbra and Louvain, entered the Dominican order (1610), and taught
at Alcalá de Henares, Piacenza, and Madrid. His most important works are the
Cursus philosophicus (“Course of Philosophy,” 1632–36), a work on logic and
natural philosophy; and the Cursus theologicus (“Course of Theology,” 1637–44),
a commentary on Aquinas’s Summa theologiae. John considered himself a Thomist,
but he modified Aquinas’s views in important ways. The “Ars Logica,” the first
part of the Cursus philosophicus, is the source of much subsequent Catholic
teaching in logic. It is divided into two parts: the first deals with formal
logic and presents a comprehensive theory of terms, propositions, and
reasoning; the second discusses topics in material logic, such as predicables,
categories, and demonstration. An important contribution in the first is a
comprehensive theory of signs that has attracted considerable attention in the
twentieth century among such philosophers as Maritain, Yves Simon, John Wild,
and others. An important contribution in the second part is the division of
knowledge according to physical, mathematical, and metaphysical degrees, which
was later adopted by Maritain. John dealt with metaphysical problems in the
second part of the Cursus philosophicus and in the Cursus theologicus. His views
are modifications of Aquinas’s. For example, Aquinas held that the principle of
individuation is matter designated by quantity; John interpreted this as matter
radically determined by dimensions, where the dimensions are indeterminate. In
contrast to other major figures of the Spanish Scholasticism of the times, John
did not write much in political and legal theory. He considered ethics and
political philosophy to be speculative rather than practical sciences, and
adopted a form of probabilism. Moreover, when in doubt about a course of
action, one may simply adopt any pertinent view proposed by a prudent moralist.
John of Salisbury
(c.1120–80), English prelate and humanist scholar. Between 1135 and 1141 he
studied dialectic with Peter Abelard and theology with Gilbert of Poitiers in
Paris. It is possible that during this time he also studied grammar, rhetoric,
and part of the quadrivium with William of Conches at the Cathedral School of
Chartres. After 1147 he was for a time a member of the Roman Curia, secretary
to Theobald, archbishop of Canterbury, and friend of Thomas Becket. For his
role in Becket’s canonization, Louis VII of France rewarded him with the
bishopric of Chartres in 1176. Although John was a dedicated student of
philosophy, it would be misleading to call him a philosopher. In his letters,
biographies of Anselm and Becket, and Memoirs of the Papal Court (1148– 52), he
provides, in perhaps the best medieval imitation of classical Latin style, an
account of some of the most important ideas, events, and personalities of his
time. Neither these works nor his Polycraticus and Metalogicon, for which he is
most celebrated, are systematic philosophical treatises. The Polycraticus is,
however, considered one of the first medieval treatises to take up political
theory in any extended way. In it John maintains that if a ruler does not
legislate in accordance with natural moral law, legitimate resistance to him
can include his assassination. In the Metalogicon, on the other hand, John
discusses, in a humanist spirit, the benefits for a civilized world of
philosophical training based on Aristotle’s logic. He also presents current
views on the nature of universals, and, not surprisingly, endorses an
Aristotelian view of them as neither extramental entities nor mere words, but
mental concepts that nevertheless have a basis in reality insofar as they are
the result of the mind’s abstracting from extramental entities what those
entities have in common. G.S.
Johnson, W(illiam)
E(rnest) (1858–1931), very English philosopher who lectured on psychology and
logic at Cambridge University. His Logic was published in three parts: Part I
(1921); Part II, Demonstrative Inference: Deductive and Inductive (1922); and
Part III, The Logical Foundations of Science (1924). He did not complete Part
IV on probability, but in 1932 Mind published three of its intended chapters.
Johnson’s other philosophical publications, all in Mind, were not abundant. The
discussion note “On Feeling as Indifference” (1888) deals with problems of
classification. “The Logical Calculus” (three parts, 1892) anticipates the
“Cambridge” style of logic while continuing the tradition of Jevons and Venn;
the same is true of treatments of formal logic in Logic. “Analysis of Thinking”
(two parts, 1918) advances an adverbial theory of experience. Johnson’s
philosophic influence at Cambridge exceeded the influence of these
publications, as one can see from the references to him by John Neville Keynes
in Studies and Exercises in Formal Logic and by his son John Maynard Keynes in
A Treatise on Probability. Logic contains original and distinctive treatments
of induction, metaphysics, the philosophy of mind, and philosophical logic.
Johnson’s theory of inference proposes a treatment of implication that is an
alternative to the view of Russell and Whitehead in Principia Mathematica. He
coined the term ‘ostensive definition’ and introduced the distinction between
determinates and determinables.
Juan Chi (210–63),
Chinese Neo-Taoist philosopher. Among his extant writings the most important
are Ta-Chuang lun (“Discourse on the Chuang Tzu”) and Ta-jen hsien-sheng chuan
(“Biography of Master Great Man”). The concept of naturalness (tzu-jan)
underpins Juan’s philosophy. The “great man” is devoid of self-interest,
completely at ease with his own nature and the natural order at large. In
contrast, orthodox tradition (mingchiao) suppresses openness and sincerity to
secure benefit. Politically tzu-jan envisages a selfgoverning pristine state, a
Taoist version of anarchism. However, the “great man” furnishes a powerful
symbol not because he plots to overthrow the monarchy or withdraws from the
world to realize his own ambition, but because he is able to initiate a process
of healing that would revitalize the rule of the tao.
Jung, Carl Gustav
(1875–1961), Swiss psychologist and founder of analytical psychology, a form of
psychoanalysis that differs from Freud’s chiefly by an emphasis on the
collective character of the unconscious and on archetypes as its privileged
contents. Jung, like Freud, was deeply influJohn of Salisbury Jung, Carl Gustav
454 4065h-l.qxd 08/02/1999 7:40 AM Page 454 enced by philosophy in his early
years. Before his immersion in psychiatry, he wrote several essays of
explicitly philosophical purport. Kant was doubtless the philosopher who
mattered most to Jung, for whom archetypes were conceived as a priori
structures of the human psyche. Plato and Neoplatonists, Schopenhauer and
especially Nietzsche (to whose Zarathustra he devoted a seminar of several
years’ duration) were also of critical importance. Jung was a close reader of
James, and his Psychological Types (1921) – in addition to an extended
discussion of nominalism versus realism – contains a detailed treatment of
Jamesian typologies of the self. Jung considered the self to be an amalgamation
of an “ectopsyche” – consisting of four functions (intuition, sensation,
feeling, and thinking) that surround an ego construed not as a singular entity
but as a “complex” of ideas and emotions – and an “endosphere” (i.e.,
consciousness turned inward in memory, affect, etc.). The personal unconscious,
which preoccupied Freud, underlies the endosphere and its “invasions,” but it
is in turn grounded in the collective unconscious shared by all humankind. The
collective unconscious was induced by Jung from his analysis of dream symbols
and psychopathological symptoms. It is an inherited archive of archaic-mythic
forms and figures that appear repeatedly in the most diverse cultures and
historical epochs. Such forms and figures – also called archetypes – are
considered “primordial images” preceding the “ideas” that articulate rational
thought. As a consequence, the self, rather than being autonomous, is embedded
in a prepersonal and prehistoric background from which there is no effective
escape. However, through prolonged psychotherapeutically guided
“individuation,” a slow assimilation of the collective unconscious into daily
living can occur, leading to an enriched and expanded sense of experience and
selfhood.
jung, ju, Chinese terms
that express the Confucian distinction between honor and shame or disgrace. The
locus classicus of the discussion is found in Hsün Tzu’s works. While the
distinction between jung (honor) and ju (disgrace, shame) pertains to the
normal, human conditions of security and danger, harm and benefit, it is
crucial to distinguish honor as derived from mere external recognition and
honor justly deserved, and to distinguish shame or disgrace due to
circumstance, as in poverty, from that due to one’s own ethical misconduct. The
chün-tzu (paradigmatic individual) should be content with the shame due to
circumstance but not with shame justly deserved because of misconduct. The key
issue is shame or honor justly deserved from the point of view of jen (benevolence)
and yi (rightness), and not shame or honor resting on contingencies beyond
one’s control.
jurisprudence, the
science or knowledge of law; thus, in its widest sense, the study of the legal
doctrines, rules, and principles of any legal system. More commonly, however,
the term designates the study not of the actual laws of particular legal
systems, but of the general concepts and principles that underlie a legal
system or that are common to all such systems (general jurisprudence).
Jurisprudence in this sense, sometimes also called the philosophy of law, may
be further subdivided according to the major focus of a particular study.
Examples include historical jurisprudence (a study of the development of legal
principles over time, often emphasizing the origin of law in custom or
tradition rather than in enacted rules), sociological jurisprudence (an
examination of the relationship between legal rules and the behavior of
individuals, groups, or institutions), functional jurisprudence (an inquiry
into the relationship between legal norms and underlying social interests or
needs), and analytical jurisprudence (an investigation into the meaning of, and
conceptual connections among, legal concepts). Within analytical jurisprudence
the most substantial body of thought focuses on the meaning of the concept of
law itself (legal theory) and the relationship between that concept and the
concept of morality. Legal positivism, the view that there is no necessary
connection between law and morality, opposes the natural law view that no sharp
distinction between these concepts can be drawn. The former view is sometimes
thought to be a consequence of positivism’s insistence that legal validity is
determined ultimately by reference to certain basic social facts: “the command
of the sovereign” (John Austin), the Grundnorm (Hans Kelsen), or “the rule of
recognition” (H. L. A. Hart). These different positivist characterizations of
the basic, law-determining fact yield different claims about the normative
character of law, with classical positivists (e.g., John Austin) insisting that
legal systems are essentially coercive, whereas modern positivists (e.g., Hans
Kelsen) maintain that they are normative. Disputes within legal theory often
generate or arise out of disputes about theories of adjudicajung, ju
jurisprudence 455 4065h-l.qxd 08/02/1999 7:40 AM Page 455 tion, or how judges
do or should decide cases. Mechanical jurisprudence, or formalism, the theory
that all cases can be decided solely by analyzing legal concepts, is thought by
many to have characterized judicial decisions and legal reasoning in the
nineteenth century; that theory became an easy target in the twentieth century
for various forms of legal realism, the view that law is better determined by
observing what courts and citizens actually do than by analyzing stated legal
rules and concepts. Recent developments in the natural law tradition also focus
on the process of adjudication and the normative claims that accompany the
judicial declaration of legal rights and obligations. These normative claims,
natural law theorists argue, show that legal rights are a species of political
or moral rights. In consequence, one must either revise prevailing theories of
adjudication and abandon the social-fact theory of law (Ronald Dworkin), or
explore the connection between legal theory and the classical question of
political theory: Under what conditions do legal obligations, even if
determined by social facts, create genuine political obligations (e.g., the
obligation to obey the law)? Other jurisprudential notions that overlap topics
in political theory include rule of law, legal moralism, and civil
disobedience. The disputes within legal theory about the connection between law
and morality should not be confused with discussions of “natural law” within
moral theory. In moral theory, the term denotes a particular view about the
objective status of moral norms that has produced a considerable literature,
extending from ancient Greek and Roman thought, through medieval theological writings,
to contemporary ethical thought. Though the claim that one cannot sharply
separate law and morality is often made as part of a general natural law moral
theory, the referents of the term ‘natural law’ in legal and moral theory do
not share any obvious logical relationship. A moral theorist could conclude
that there is no necessary connection between law and morality, thus endorsing
a positivist view of law, while consistently advocating a natural law view of
morality itself; conversely, a natural law legal theorist, in accepting the
view that there is a connection between law and morality, might nonetheless
endorse a substantive moral theory different from that implied by a natural law
moral theory.
jury nullification, a
jury’s ability, or the exercise of that ability, to acquit a criminal defendant
despite finding facts that leave no reasonable doubt about violation of a
criminal statute. This ability is not a right, but an artifact of criminal
procedure. In the common law, the jury has sole authority to determine the
facts, and the judge to determine the law. The jury’s findings of fact cannot
be reviewed. The term ‘nullification’ suggests that jury nullification is
opposed to the rule of law. This thought would be sound only if an extreme
legal positivism were true – that the law is nothing but the written law and
the written law covers every possible fact situation. Jury nullification is
better conceived as a form of equity, a rectification of the inherent limits of
written law. In nullifying, juries make law. To make jury nullification a
right, then, raises problems of democratic legitimacy, such as whether a small,
randomly chosen group of citizens has authority to make law.
justice, each getting
what he or she is due. Formal justice is the impartial and consistent
application of principles, whether or not the principles themselves are just.
Substantive justice is closely associated with rights, i.e., with what
individuals can legitimately demand of one another or what they can
legitimately demand of their government (e.g., with respect to the protection
of liberty or the promotion of equality). Retributive justice concerns when and
why punishment is justified. Debate continues over whether punishment is
justified as retribution for past wrongdoing or because it deters future
wrongdoing. Those who stress retribution as the justification for punishment
usually believe human beings have libertarian free will, while those who stress
deterrence usually accept determinism. At least since Aristotle, justice has
commonly been identified both with obeying law and with treating everyone with
fairness. But if law is, and justice is not, entirely a matter of convention,
then justice cannot be identified with obeying law. The literature on legal
positivism and natural law theory contains much debate about jury nullification
justice 456 4065h-l.qxd 08/02/1999 7:40 AM Page 456 whether there are moral
limits on what conventions could count as law. Corrective justice concerns the
fairness of demands for civil damages. Commutative justice concerns the
fairness of wages, prices, and exchanges. Distributive justice concerns the
fairness of the distribution of resources. Commutative justice and distributive
justice are related, since people’s wages influence how much resources they
have. But the distinction is important because it may be just to pay A more
than B (because A is more productive than B) but just that B is left with more
after-tax resources (because B has more children to feed than A does). In
modern philosophy, however, the debate about just wages and prices has been
overshadowed by the larger question of what constitutes a just distribution of
resources. Some (e.g., Marx) have advocated distributing resources in
accordance with needs. Others have advocated their distribution in whatever way
maximizes utility in the long run. Others have argued that the fair
distribution is one that, in some sense, is to everyone’s advantage. Still
others have maintained that a just distribution is whatever results from the free
market. Some theorists combine these and other approaches.
justification, a concept
of broad scope that spans epistemology and ethics and has as special cases the
concepts of apt belief and right action. The concept has, however, highly
varied application. Many things, of many different sorts, can be justified.
Prominent among them are beliefs and actions. To say that X is justified is to
say something positive about X. Other things being equal, it is better that X
be justified than otherwise. However, not all good entities are justified. The
storm’s abating may be good since it spares some lives, but it is not thereby
justified. What we can view as justified or unjustified is what we can relate
appropriately to someone’s faculties or choice. (Believers might hence view the
storm’s abating as justified after all, if they were inclined to judge divine
providence.) Just as in epistemology we need to distinguish justification from
truth, since either of these might apply to a belief in the absence of the other,
so in ethics we must distinguish justification from utility: an action might be
optimific but not justified, and justified but not optimific. What is
distinctive of justification is then the implied evaluation of an agent (thus
the connection, however remote, with faculties of choice). To say that a belief
is (epistemically) justified (apt) or to say that an action is (ethically)
justified (“right” – in one sense) is to make or imply a judgment on the
subject and how he or she has arrived at that action or belief. Often a much
narrower concept of justification is used, one according to which X is
justified only if X has been or at least can be justified through adducing
reasons. Such adducing of reasons can be viewed as the giving of an argument of
any of several sorts: e.g., conclusive, prima facie, inductive, or deductive. A
conclusive justification or argument adduces conclusive reasons for the
possible (object of) action or belief that figures in the conclusion. In turn,
such reasons are conclusive if and only if they raise the status of the
conclusion action or belief so high that the subject concerned would be well
advised to conclude deliberation or inquiry. A prima facie justification or
argument adduces a prima facie reason R (or more than one) in favor of the
possible (object of) action or belief O that figures in the conclusion. In
turn, R is a prima facie reason for O if and only if R specifies an advantage
or positive consideration in favor of O, one that puts O in a better light than
otherwise. Even if R is a prima facie reason for O, however, R can be
outweighed, overridden, or defeated by contrary considerations RH. Thus my
returning a knife that I promised to return to its rightful owner has in its
favor the prima facie reason that it is my legal obligation and the fulfillment
of a promise, but if the owner has gone raving mad, then there may be reasons
against returning the knife that override, outweigh, or defeat. (And there may
also be reasons that defeat a positive prima facie reason without amounting to
reasons for the opposite course. Thus it may emerge that the promise to return
the knife was extracted under duress.) A (valid) deductive argument for a
certain conclusion C is a sequence of thoughts or statements whose last member
is C (not necessarily last temporally, but last in the sequence) and each
member of which is either an assumption or premise of the argument or is based
on earlier members of the sequence in accordance with a sound principle of
necessary inference, such as simplification: from (P & Q) to P; or
addition: from P to (P or Q); or modus ponens: from P and (P only if Q) to Q.
Whereas the premises of a deductive argument necessarily entail the conclusion,
which cannot possibly fail to be true when the justice as fairness justification
457 4065h-l.qxd 08/02/1999 7:40 AM Page 457 premises are all true, the premises
of an inductive argument do not thus entail its conclusion but offer
considerations that only make the conclusion in some sense more probable than
it would be otherwise. From the premises that it rains and that if it rains the
streets are wet, one may deductively derive the conclusion that the streets are
wet. However, the premise that I have tried to start my car on many, many
winter mornings during the two years since I bought it and that it has always
started, right up to and including yesterday, does not deductively imply that
it will start when I try today. Here the conclusion does not follow
deductively. Though here the reason provided by the premise is only an
inductive reason for believing the conclusion, and indeed a prima facie and
defeasible reason, nevertheless it might well be in our sense a conclusive
reason. For it might enable us rightfully to conclude inquiry and/or
deliberation and proceed to (action or, in this case) belief, while turning our
attention to other matters (such as driving to our destination).
justification by faith,
the characteristic doctrine of the Protestant Reformation that sinful human
beings can be justified before God through faith in Jesus Christ. ‘Being
justified’ is understood in forensic terms: before the court of divine justice
humans are not considered guilty because of their sins, but rather are declared
by God to be holy and righteous in virtue of the righteousness of Christ, which
God counts on their behalf. Justification is received by faith, which is not
merely belief in Christian doctrine but includes a sincere and heartfelt trust
and commitment to God in Christ for one’s salvation. Such faith, if genuine,
leads to the reception of the transforming influences of God’s grace and to a
life of love, obedience, and service to God. These consequences of faith,
however, are considered under the heading of sanctification rather than
justification. The rival Roman Catholic doctrine of justification – often
mislabeled by Protestants as “justification by works” – understands key terms
differently. ‘Being just’ is understood not primarily in forensic terms but
rather as a comprehensive state of being rightly related to God, including the
forgiveness of sins, the reception of divine grace, and inner transformation.
Justification is a work of God initially accomplished at baptism; among the
human “predispositions” for justification are faith (understood as believing
the truths God has revealed), awareness of one’s sinfulness, hope in God’s
mercy, and a resolve to do what God requires. Salvation is a gift of God that
is not deserved by human beings, but the measure of grace bestowed depends to
some extent on the sincere efforts of the sinner who is seeking salvation. The
Protestant and Catholic doctrines are not fully consistent with each other, but
neither are they the polar opposites they are often made to appear by the
caricatures each side offers of the other.
just war theory, a set of
conditions justifying the resort to war (jus ad bellum) and prescribing how war
may permissibly be conducted (jus in bello). The theory is a Western approach
to the moral assessment of war that grew out of the Christian tradition
beginning with Augustine, later taking both religious and secular (including
legalist) forms. Proposed conditions for a just war vary in both number and
interpretation. Accounts of jus ad bellum typically require: (1) just cause: an
actual or imminent wrong against the state, usually a violation of rights, but
sometimes provided by the need to protect innocents, defend human rights, or
safeguard the way of life of one’s own or other peoples; (2) competent
authority: limiting the undertaking of war to a state’s legitimate rulers; (3)
right intention: aiming only at peace and the ends of the just cause (and not
war’s attendant suffering, death, and destruction); (4) proportionality:
ensuring that anticipated good not be outweighed by bad; (5) last resort:
exhausting peaceful alternatives before going to war; and (6) probability of
success: a reasonable prospect that war will succeed. Jus in bello
justification, conclusive just war theory 458 4065h-l.qxd 08/02/1999 7:40 AM
Page 458 requires: (7) proportionality: ensuring that the means used in war
befit the ends of the just cause and that their resultant good and bad, when
individuated, be proportionate in the sense of (4); and (8) discrimination:
prohibiting the killing of noncombatants and/or innocents. Sometimes conditions
(4), (5), and (6) are included in (1). The conditions are usually considered
individually necessary and jointly sufficient for a fully just war. But
sometimes strength of just cause is taken to offset some lack of proportion in
means, and sometimes absence of right intention is taken to render a war evil
though not necessarily unjust. Most just war theorists take jus ad bellum to
warrant only defensive wars. But some follow earlier literature and allow for
just offensive wars. Early theorists deal primarily with jus ad bellum, later
writers with both jus ad bellum and jus in bello. Recent writers stress jus in
bello, with particular attention to deterrence: the attempt, by instilling fear
of retaliation, to induce an adversary to refrain from attack. Some believe that
even though large-scale use of nuclear weapons would violate requirements of
proportionality and discrimination, the threatened use of such weapons can
maintain peace, and hence justify a system of nuclear deterrence.
kabala
Kala, in Indian thought,
time. The universe frequently is seen as forever oscillating between order and
chaos. Thus the goal of human existence, religiously conceived, tends to
involve escape from time. Jainism views time as immaterial, beginningless, and
continuous (without parts), distinguishing between time as perceived (in
divisions of units of our temporal measurement) and time as it inherently is
(unitless). For Sankhya-Yoga, there is no time distinct from atoms, and the
minimum temporal unit is the duration of an atom’s transverse of its own
spatial unit. For Nyaya-Vaishesika, time is a particular substance that exists
independently and appears to have parts only because we perceive it through
noticing distinct changes. Advaita Vedanta takes time to be only phenomenal and
apparent. Visistadvaita Vedanta takes time to be an inert substance dependent
on Brahman, coordinate with prakrti (material stuff), and beginningless. K.E.Y.
kalam, an Arabic term denoting a form of religious and theological discourse.
The word itself literally means ‘argue’ or ‘discuss’; although often translated
as ‘theology’ or ‘dialectical theology’, the Muslim usage does not correspond
exactly. In origin kalam was an argumentative reaction to certain perceived
doctrinal deviations on key issues – e.g., the status of the sinner, the
justice of God, attributes of God. Thus themes and content in kalam were
normally historically specific and not generally speculative. Later, in a
formal confrontation with philosophy, the predominantly dialectical mode of
reasoning employed until the twelfth century was replaced by full use of
syllogistic methods. Ultimately, the range of speculation grew until, in the
sophisticated compendiums of the major authorities, kalam became intellectually
speculative as well as doctrinally defensive. In a major development, one
school of kalam – the Ash‘arites – adopted an atomistic theory that rejected
the necessity of immediate or proximate causation, arguing instead that
patterns perceived in nature are merely the habitual actions of God as he
constantly re-creates and refashions the universe.
K’ang Yu-wei (1858–1927),
Chinese scholar who pushed for radical reforms under Emperor Kuan-hsü and was
forced into exile. He belonged to the modern-script school with respect to
studies of the Spring and Autumn Annals, and believed that Confucius was only
borrowing the names and authority of the ancient sage-emperors to push for
reform in his own days. K’ang gave expression to utopian ideals in his book
Ta-tung (Great Unity). Among his disciples were T’an Ssut’ung (1865–98) and
Liang Ch’i-ch’ao (1873– 1929). He became a reactionary in his old age and
refused to accept the fact that China had become a republic.
Kant, Immanuel
(1724–1804), preeminent German philosopher whose distinctive concern was to
vindicate the authority of reason. He believed that by a critical examination
of its own powers, reason can distinguish unjustifiable traditional
metaphysical claims from the principles that are required by our theoretical
need to determine ourselves within spatiotemporal experience and by our
practical need to legislate consistently with all other rational wills. Because
these principles are necessary and discoverable, they defeat empiricism and
skepticism, and because they are disclosed as simply the conditions of
orienting ourselves coherently within experience, they contrast with
traditional rationalism and dogmatism. Kant was born and raised in the eastern
Prussian university town of Königsberg (today Kaliningrad), where, except for a
short period during which he worked as a tutor in the nearby countryside, he
spent his life as student and teacher. He was trained by Pietists and followers
of Leibniz and Wolff, but he was also heavily influenced by Newton and
Rousseau. In the 1750s his theoretical philosophy began attempting to show how
metaphysics must accommodate as certain the fundamental principles underlying
modern science; in the 1760s his 460 K 4065h-l.qxd 08/02/1999 7:40 AM Page 460
practical philosophy began attempting to show (in unpublished form) how our
moral life must be based on a rational and universally accessible
self-legislation analogous to Rousseau’s political principles. The breakthrough
to his own distinctive philosophy came in the 1770s, when he insisted on
treating epistemology as first philosophy. After arguing in his Inaugural
Dissertation (On the Form and Principles of the Sensible and Intelligible
World, 1770) both that our spatiotemporal knowledge applies only to appearances
and that we can still make legitimate metaphysical claims about “intelligible”
or non-spatiotemporal features of reality (e.g., that there is one world of
substances interconnected by the action of God), there followed a “silent
decade” of preparation for his major work, the epoch-making Critique of Pure Reason
(first or “A” edition, 1781; second or “B” edition, with many revisions, 1787;
Kant’s initial reaction to objections to the first edition dominate his short
review, Prolegomena to any Future Metaphysics, 1783; the full title of which
means ‘preliminary investigations for any future metaphysics that will be able
to present itself as a science’, i.e., as a body of certain truths). This work
resulted in his mature doctrine of transcendental idealism, namely, that all
our theoretical knowledge is restricted to the systematization of what are mere
spatiotemporal appearances. This position is also called formal or Critical
idealism, because it criticizes theories and claims beyond the realm of
experience, while it also insists that although the form of experience is
ideal, or relative to us, this is not to deny the reality of something
independent of this form. Kant’s earlier works are usually called pre-Critical
not just because they precede his Critique but also because they do not include
a full commitment to this idealism. Kant supplemented his “first Critique”
(often cited just as “the” Critique) with several equally influential works in
practical philosophy – Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals (1785), Critique
of Practical Reason (the “second Critique,” 1788), and Metaphysics of Morals
(consisting of “Doctrine of Justice” and “Doctrine of Virtue,” 1797). Kant’s
philosophy culminated in arguments advancing a purely moral foundation for
traditional theological claims (the existence of God, immortality, and a
transcendent reward or penalty proportionate to our goodness), and thus was
characterized as “denying knowledge in order to make room for faith.” To be
more precise, Kant’s Critical project was to restrict theoretical knowledge in
such a way as to make it possible for practical knowledge to reveal how pure
rational faith has an absolute claim on us. This position was reiterated in the
Critique of Judgment (the “third Critique,” 1790), which also extended Kant’s
philosophy to aesthetics and scientific methodology by arguing for a priori but
limited principles in each of these domains. Kant was followed by radical
idealists (Fichte, Schelling), but he regarded himself as a philosopher of the
Enlightenment, and in numerous shorter works he elaborated his belief that
everything must submit to the “test of criticism,” that human reason must face
the responsibility of determining the sources, extent, and bounds of its own
principles. The Critique concerns pure reason because Kant believes all these
determinations can be made a priori, i.e., such that their justification does
not depend on any particular course of experience (‘pure’ and ‘a priori’ are
thus usually interchangeable). For Kant ‘pure reason’ often signifies just pure
theoretical reason, which determines the realm of nature and of what is, but
Kant also believes there is pure practical reason (or Wille), which determines
a priori and independently of sensibility the realm of freedom and of what
ought to be. Practical reason in general is defined as that which determines
rules for the faculty of desire and will, as opposed to the faculties of
cognition and of feeling. On Kant’s mature view, however, the practical realm
is necessarily understood in relation to moral considerations, and these in
turn in terms of laws taken to have an unconditional imperative force whose
validity requires presuming that they are addressed to a being with absolute
freedom, the faculty to choose (Willkür) to will or not to will to act for
their sake. Kant also argues that no evidence of human freedom is forthcoming
from empirical knowledge of the self as part of spatiotemporal nature, and that
the belief in our freedom, and thus the moral laws that presuppose it, would
have to be given up if we thought that our reality is determined by the laws of
spatiotemporal appearances alone. Hence, to maintain the crucial practical
component of his philosophy it was necessary for Kant first to employ his
theoretical philosophy to show that it is at least possible that the
spatiotemporal realm does not exhaust reality, so that there can be a
non-empirical and free side to the self. Therefore Kant’s first Critique is a
theoretical foundation for his entire system, which is devoted to establishing
not just (i) what the most general necessary principles for the spaKant,
Immanuel Kant, Immanuel 461 4065h-l.qxd 08/02/1999 7:40 AM Page 461 tiotemporal
domain are – a project that has been called his “metaphysics of experience” –
but also (ii) that this domain cannot without contradiction define ultimate
reality (hence his transcendental idealism). The first of these claims involves
Kant’s primary use of the term ‘transcendental’, namely in the context of what
he calls a transcendental deduction, which is an argument or “exposition” that
establishes a necessary role for an a priori principle in our experience. As
Kant explains, while mathematical principles are a priori and are necessary for
experience, the mathematical proof of these principles is not itself
transcendental; what is transcendental is rather the philosophical argument
that these principles necessarily apply in experience. While in this way some
transcendental arguments may presume propositions from an established science
(e.g., geometry), others can begin with more modest assumptions – typically the
proposition that there is experience or empirical knowledge at all – and then
move on from there to uncover a priori principles that appear required for
specific features of that knowledge. Kant begins by connecting metaphysics with
the problem of synthetic a priori judgment. As necessary, metaphysical claims
must have an a priori status, for we cannot determine that they are necessary
by mere a posteriori means. As objective rather than merely formal,
metaphysical judgments (unlike those of logic) are also said to be synthetic.
This synthetic a priori character is claimed by Kant to be mysterious and yet
shared by a large number of propositions that were undisputed in his time. The
mystery is how a proposition can be known as necessary and yet be objective or
“ampliative” or not merely “analytic.” For Kant an analytic proposition is one
whose predicate is “contained in the subject.” He does not mean this
“containment” relation to be understood psychologically, for he stresses that
we can be psychologically and even epistemically bound to affirm non-analytic
propositions. The containment is rather determined simply by what is contained
in the concepts of the subject term and the predicate term. However, Kant also
denies that we have ready real definitions for empirical or a priori concepts,
so it is unclear how one determines what is really contained in a subject or
predicate term. He seems to rely on intuitive procedures for saying when it is
that one necessarily connects a subject and predicate without relying on a
hidden conceptual relation. Thus he proposes that mathematical constructions,
and not mere conceptual elucidations, are what warrant necessary judgments
about triangles. In calling such judgments ampliative, Kant does not mean that they
merely add to what we may have explicitly seen or implicitly known about the
subject, for he also grants that complex analytic judgments may be quite
informative, and thus “new” in a psychological or epistemic sense. While Kant
stresses that non-analytic or synthetic judgments rest on “intuition”
(Anschauung), this is not part of their definition. If a proposition could be
known through its concepts alone, it must be analytic, but if it is not
knowable in this way it follows only that we need something other than
concepts. Kant presumed that this something must be intuition, but others have
suggested other possibilities, such as postulation. Intuition is a technical
notion of Kant, meant for those representations that have an immediate relation
to their object. Human intuitions are also all sensible (or sensuous) or
passive, and have a singular rather than general object, but these are less
basic features of intuition, since Kant stresses the possibility of (nonhuman)
non-sensible or “intellectual” intuition, and he implies that singularity of
reference can be achieved by non-intuitive means (e.g., in the definition of
God). The immediacy of intuition is crucial because it is what sets them off
from concepts, which are essentially representations of representations, i.e.,
rules expressing what is common to a set of representations. Kant claims that
mathematics, and metaphysical expositions of our notions of space and time, can
reveal several evident synthetic a priori propositions, e.g., that there is one
infinite space. In asking what could underlie the belief that propositions like
this are certain, Kant came to his Copernican revolution. This consists in
considering not how our representations may necessarily conform to objects as
such, but rather how objects may necessarily conform to our representations. On
a “pre-Copernican” view, objects are considered just by themselves, i.e., as
“things-in-themselves” (Dinge an sich) totally apart from any intrinsic
cognitive relation to our representations, and thus it is mysterious how we
could ever determine them a priori. If we begin, however, with our own
faculties of representation we might find something in them that determines how
objects must be – at least when considered just as phenomena (singular: phenomenon),
i.e., as objects of experience rather than as noumena (singular: noumenon),
i.e., things-inthemselves specified negatively as unknown and beyond our
experience, or positively as knowable in some absolute non-sensible way – which
Kant, Immanuel Kant, Immanuel 462 4065h-l.qxd 08/02/1999 7:40 AM Page 462 Kant
insists is theoretically impossible for sensible beings like us. For example,
Kant claims that when we consider our faculty for receiving impressions, or
sensibility, we can find not only contingent contents but also two necessary
forms or “pure forms of intuition”: space, which structures all outer
representations given us, and time, which structures all inner representations.
These forms can explain how the synthetic a priori propositions of mathematics
will apply with certainty to all the objects of our experience. That is, if we
suppose that in intuiting these propositions we are gaining a priori insight
into the forms of our representation that must govern all that can come to our
sensible awareness, it becomes understandable that all objects in our
experience will have to conform with these propositions. Kant presented his
transcendental idealism as preferable to all the alternative explanations that
he knew for the possibility of mathematical knowledge and the metaphysical
status of space and time. Unlike empiricism, it allowed necessary claims in
this domain; unlike rationalism, it freed the development of this knowledge
from the procedures of mere conceptual analysis; and unlike the Newtonians it
did all this without giving space and time a mysterious status as an absolute
thing or predicate of God. With proper qualifications, Kant’s doctrine of the
transcendental ideality of space and time can be understood as a radicalization
of the modern idea of primary and secondary qualities. Just as others had
contended that sensible color and sound qualities, e.g., can be
intersubjectively valid and even objectively based while existing only as
relative to our sensibility and not as ascribable to objects in themselves, so
Kant proposed that the same should be said of spatiotemporal predicates. Kant’s
doctrine, however, is distinctive in that it is not an empirical hypothesis
that leaves accessible to us other theoretical and non-ideal predicates for
explaining particular experiences. It is rather a metaphysical thesis that
enriches empirical explanations with an a priori framework, but begs off any
explanation for that framework itself other than the statement that it lies in
the “constitution” of human sensibility as such. This “Copernican” hypothesis
is not a clear proof that spatiotemporal features could not apply to objects
apart from our forms of intuition, but more support for this stronger claim is
given in Kant’s discussion of the “antinomies” of rational cosmology. An
antinomy is a conflict between two a priori arguments arising from reason when,
in its distinctive work as a higher logical faculty connecting strings of
judgments, it posits a real unconditioned item at the origin of various
hypothetical syllogisms. There are antinomies of quantity, quality, relation,
and modality, and they each proceed by pairs of dogmatic arguments which
suppose that since one kind of unconditioned item cannot be found, e.g., an
absolutely first event, another kind must be posited, e.g., a complete infinite
series of past events. For most of the other antinomies, Kant indicates that
contradiction can be avoided by allowing endless series in experience (e.g., of
chains of causality, of series of dependent beings), series that are compatible
with – but apparently do not require – unconditioned items (uncaused causes,
necessary beings) outside experience. For the antinomy of quantity, however, he
argues that the only solution is to drop the common dogmatic assumption that the
set of spatiotemporal objects constitutes a determinate whole, either
absolutely finite or infinite. He takes this to show that spatiotemporality
must be transcendentally ideal, only an indeterminate feature of our experience
and not a characteristic of things-in-themselves. Even when structured by the
pure forms of space and time, sensible representations do not yield knowledge
until they are grasped in concepts and these concepts are combined in a
judgment. Otherwise, we are left with mere impressions, scattered in an
unintelligible “multiplicity” or manifold; in Kant’s words, “thoughts without
content are empty, intuitions without concepts are blind.” Judgment requires
both concepts and intuitions; it is not just any relation of concepts, but a
bringing together of them in a particular way, an “objective” unity, so that
one concept is predicated of another – e.g., “all bodies are divisible” – and
the latter “applies to certain appearances that present themselves to us,”
i.e., are intuited. Because any judgment involves a unity of thought that can
be prefixed by the phrase ‘I think’, Kant speaks of all representations, to the
extent that they can be judged by us, as subject to a necessary unity of
apperception. This term originally signified self-consciousness in contrast to
direct consciousness or perception, but Kant uses it primarily to contrast with
‘inner sense’, the precognitive manifold of temporal representations as they
are merely given in the mind. Kant also contrasts the empirical ego, i.e., the self
as it is known contingently in experience, with the transcendental ego, i.e.,
the self thought of as the subject of structures of intuiting and thinking that
are necessary throughout experience. The fundamental need for concepts and
judgments suggests that our “constitution” may require not just intuitive but
also conceptual forms, i.e., “pure concepts of the understanding,” or
“categories.” The proof that our experience does require such forms comes in
the “deduction of the objective validity of the pure concepts of the
understanding,” also called the transcendental deduction of the categories, or
just the deduction. This most notorious of all Kantian arguments appears to be
in one way harder and in one way easier than the transcendental argument for pure
intuitions. Those intuitions were held to be necessary for our experience
because as structures of our sensibility nothing could even be imagined to be
given to us without them. Yet, as Kant notes, it might seem that once
representations are given in this way we can still imagine that they need not
then be combined in terms of such pure concepts as causality. On the other
hand, Kant proposed that a list of putative categories could be derived from a
list of the necessary forms of the logical table of judgments, and since these
forms would be required for any finite understanding, whatever its mode of
sensibility is like, it can seem that the validity of pure concepts is even
more inescapable than that of pure intuitions. That there is nonetheless a special
difficulty in the transcendental argument for the categories becomes evident as
soon as one considers the specifics of Kant’s list. The logical table of
judgments is an a priori collection of all possible judgment forms organized
under four headings, with three subforms each: quantity (universal, particular,
singular), quality (affirmative, negative, infinite), relation (categorical,
hypothetical, disjunctive), and modality (problematic, assertoric, apodictic).
This list does not map exactly onto any one of the logic textbooks of Kant’s
day, but it has many similarities with them; thus problematic judgments are
simply those that express logical possibility, and apodictic ones are those
that express logical necessity. The table serves Kant as a clue to the
“metaphysical deduction” of the categories, which claims to show that there is
an origin for these concepts that is genuinely a priori, and, on the premise
that the table is proper, that the derived concepts can be claimed to be
fundamental and complete. But by itself the list does not show exactly what
categories follow from, i.e., are necessarily used with, the various forms of
judgment, let alone what their specific meaning is for our mode of experience.
Above all, even when it is argued that each experience and every judgment
requires at least one of the four general forms, and that the use of any form
of judgment does involve a matching pure concept (listed in the table of
categories: reality, negation, limitation; unity, plurality, totality; inherence
and subsistence, causality and dependence, community; possibility –
impossibility, existence –non-existence, and necessity–contingency) applying to
the objects judged about, this does not show that the complex relational forms
and their corresponding categories of causality and community are necessary
unless it is shown that these specific forms of judgment are each necessary for
our experience. Precisely because this is initially not evident, it can appear,
as Kant himself noted, that the validity of controversial categories such as
causality cannot be established as easily as that of the forms of intuition.
Moreover, Kant does not even try to prove the objectivity of the traditional
modal categories but treats the principles that use them as mere definitions
relative to experience. Thus a problematic judgment, i.e., one in which
“affirmation or negation is taken as merely possible,” is used when something
is said to be possible in the sense that it “agrees with the formal conditions
of experience, i.e., with the conditions of intuition and of concepts.” A clue
for rescuing the relational categories is given near the end of the
Transcendental Deduction (B version), where Kant notes that the a priori
all-inclusiveness and unity of space and time that is claimed in the treatment
of sensibility must, like all cognitive unity, ultimately have a foundation in
judgment. Kant expands on this point by devoting a key section called the
analogies of experience to arguing that the possibility of our judging objects
to be determined in an objective position in the unity of time (and,
indirectly, space) requires three a priori principles (each called an
“Analogy”) that employ precisely the relational categories that seemed
especially questionable. Since these categories are established as needed just
for the determination of time and space, which themselves have already been
argued to be transcendentally ideal, Kant can conclude that for us even a
priori claims using pure concepts of the understanding provide what are only transcendentally
ideal claims. Thus we cannot make determinate theoretical claims about
categories such as substance, cause, and community in an absolute sense that
goes beyond our experience, but we can establish principles for their
spatiotemporal specifications, called schemata, namely, the three Analogies:
“in all change of appearance substance is permanent,” “all alterations take
place in conformity with the law of the connection of cause and Kant, Immanuel
Kant, Immanuel 464 4065h-l.qxd 08/02/1999 7:40 AM Page 464 effect,” and “all
substances, insofar as they can be perceived to coexist in space, are in
thoroughgoing reciprocity.” Kant initially calls these regulative principles of
experience, since they are required for organizing all objects of our empirical
knowledge within a unity, and, unlike the constitutive principles for the
categories of quantity and quality (namely: “all intuitions [for us] are
extensive magnitudes,” and “in all appearances the real that is an object of
sensation has intensive magnitude, that is, a degree”), they do not
characterize any individual item by itself but rather only by its real relation
to other objects of experience. Nonetheless, in comparison to mere heuristic or
methodological principles (e.g., seek simple or teleological explanations),
these Analogies are held by Kant to be objectively necessary for experience,
and for this reason can also be called constitutive in a broader sense. The
remainder of the Critique exposes the “original” or “transcendental” ideas of pure
reason that pretend to be constitutive or theoretically warranted but involve
unconditional components that wholly transcend the realm of experience. These
include not just the antinomic cosmological ideas noted above (of these Kant
stresses the idea of transcendental freedom, i.e., of uncaused causing), but
also the rational psychological ideas of the soul as an immortal substance and
the rational theological idea of God as a necessary and perfect being. Just as
the pure concepts of the understanding have an origin in the necessary forms of
judgments, these ideas are said to originate in the various syllogistic forms
of reason: the idea of a soul-substance is the correlate of an unconditioned
first term of a categorical syllogism (i.e., a subject that can never be the
predicate of something else), and the idea of God is the correlate of the
complete sum of possible predicates that underlies the unconditioned first term
of the disjunctive syllogism used to give a complete determination of a thing’s
properties. Despite the a priori origin of these notions, Kant claims we cannot
theoretically establish their validity, even though they do have regulative
value in organizing our notion of a human or divine spiritual substance. Thus,
even if, as Kant argues, traditional proofs of immortality, and the
teleological, cosmological, and ontological arguments for God’s existence, are
invalid, the notions they involve can be affirmed as long as there is, as he
believes, a sufficient non-theoretical, i.e., moral argument for them. When
interpreted on the basis of such an argument, they are transformed into ideas
of practical reason, ideas that, like perfect virtue, may not be verified or
realized in sensible experience, but have a rational warrant in pure practical
considerations. Although Kant’s pure practical philosophy culminates in
religious hope, it is primarily a doctrine of obligation. Moral value is
determined ultimately by the nature of the intention of the agent, which in
turn is determined by the nature of what Kant calls the general maxim or
subjective principle underlying a person’s action. One follows a hypothetical
imperative when one’s maxim does not presume an unconditional end, a goal (like
the fulfillment of duty) that one should have irrespective of all sensible
desires, but rather a “material end” dependent on contingent inclinations
(e.g., the directive “get this food,” in order to feel happy). In contrast, a
categorical imperative is a directive saying what ought to be done from the
perspective of pure reason alone; it is categorical because what this
perspective commands is not contingent on sensible circumstances and it always
carries overriding value. The general formula of the categorical imperative is
to act only according to those maxims that can be consistently willed as a
universal law – something said to be impossible for maxims aimed merely at
material ends. In accepting this imperative, we are doubly self-determined, for
we are not only determining our action freely, as Kant believes humans do in
all exercises of the faculty of choice; we are also accepting a principle whose
content is determined by that which is absolutely essential to us as agents,
namely our pure practical reason. We thus are following our own law and so have
autonomy when we accept the categorical imperative; otherwise we fall into
heteronomy, or the (free) acceptance of principles whose content is determined
independently of the essential nature of our own ultimate being, which is
rational. Given the metaphysics of his transcendental idealism, Kant can say
that the categorical imperative reveals a supersensible power of freedom in us
such that we must regard ourselves as part of an intelligible world, i.e., a
domain determined ultimately not by natural laws but rather by laws of reason.
As such a rational being, an agent is an end in itself, i.e., something whose
value is not dependent on external material ends, which are contingent and
valued only as means to the end of happiness – which is itself only a
conditional value (since the satisfaction of an evil will would be improper).
Kant regards accepting the categorical imperative as tantamount to respecting
rational nature as an end in itself, and to willing as if we were legislating a
kingdom of ends. This is to will that the world become a “systematic Kant,
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different rational beings through common laws,” i.e., laws that respect and
fulfill the freedom of all rational beings. Although there is only one
fundamental principle of morality, there are still different types of specific
duties. One basic distinction is between strict duty and imperfect duty. Duties
of justice, of respecting in action the rights of others, or the duty not to
violate the dignity of persons as rational agents, are strict because they
allow no exception for one’s inclination. A perfect duty is one that requires a
specific action (e.g. keeping a promise), whereas an imperfect duty, such as
the duty to perfect oneself or to help others, cannot be completely discharged
or demanded by right by someone else, and so one has considerable latitude in
deciding when and how it is to be respected. A meritorious duty involves going
beyond what is strictly demanded and thereby generating an obligation in
others, as when one is extraordinarily helpful to others and “merits” their
gratitude.
Kao Tzu (fifth–fourth
century B.C.), Chinese thinker and philosophical adversary of Mencius (4th
century B.C.). He is referred to in the Meng Tzu (Book of Mencius). A figure of
the same name appeared in the Mo Tzu as a (probably younger) contemporary of Mo
Tzu (fifth century B.C.), but it is unclear if the two were the same
individual. As presented in the Meng Tzu, Kao Tzu held that human nature
(hsing) is morally neutral, and that living morally requires learning rightness
(yi) from sources (such as philosophical doctrines) outside the heart/mind
(hsin), and shaping one’s way of life accordingly. These ideas are opposed to
Mencius’s belief that the heart/mind has incipient moral inclinations from
which rightness can be derived, and that living morally involves one’s fully
developing such inclinations. Ever since the view that Mencius was the true
transmitter of Confucius’s teachings became established, largely through the
efforts of Chu Hsi (1130–1200), Confucians have distanced themselves from Kao
Tzu’s position and even criticized philosophical opponents for holding
positions similar to Kao Tzu’s.
karma, in Indian thought,
the force whereby right and wrong actions bring benefits and punishments in
this or a future existence. This occurs not arbitrarily, but by law. The
conditions of birth (one’s sex, caste, circumstances of life) are profoundly
affected by one’s karmic “bank account.” A typical Buddhist perspective is that
the state of the non-conscious world at any given time is largely determined by
the total karmic situation that then holds. For all of the Indian perspectives
that accept the karma-and-transmigration perspective, religious enlightenment,
the highest good, includes escape from karma. Were it absolutely impossible to
act without karmic consequences, obviously such escape would be impossible.
(Suicide is viewed as merely ending the life of one’s current body, and
typically is viewed as wrong, so that the cosmic effect of one’s suicide will
be more punishment.) Thus non-theistic views hold that one who has achieved a
pre-enlightenment status – typically reached by meditation, alms-giving,
ascetic discipline, or the achieving of esoteric knowledge – can act so as to
maintain life without collecting karmic consequences so long as one’s actions
are not morally wrong and are done disinterestedly. In theistic perspectives,
where moral wrongdoing is sin and acting rightly is obedience to God, karma is the
justice of Brahman in action and Brahman may pardon a repentant sinner from the
results of wrong actions and place the forgiven sinner in a relation to Brahman
that, at death, releases him or her from the transmigratory wheel.
kennyism: Cited by Grice in his British Academy lecture – Grice was
pleased that Kenny translated Vitters’s “Philosophical Grammar” – “He turned it
into more of a philosophical thing than I would have thought one could!”
Kepler, Johannes
(1571–1630), German mathematical astronomer, speculative metaphysician, and
natural philosopher. He was born in Weil der Stadt, near Stuttgart. He studied
astronomy with Michael Maestlin at the University of Tübingen, and then began
the regular course of theological studies that prepared him to become a
Lutheran pastor. Shortly before completing these studies he accepted the post
of mathematician at Graz. “Mathematics” was still construed as including
astronomy and astrology. There he published the Mysterium cosmographicum
(1596), the first mjaor astronomical work to utilize the Copernican system
since Copernicus’s own De revolutionibus half a century before. The Copernican
shift of the sun to the center allowed Kepler to propose an explanation for the
spacing of the planets (the Creator inscribed the successive planetary orbits
in the five regular polyhedra) and for their motions (a sun-centered driving
force diminishing with disKao Tzu Kepler, Johannes 466 4065h-l.qxd 08/02/1999
7:40 AM Page 466 tance from the sun). In this way, he could claim to have
overcome the traditional prohibition against the mathematical astronomer’s
claiming reality for the motion he postulates. Ability to explain had always
been the mark of the philosopher. Kepler, a staunch Lutheran, was forced to
leave Catholic Graz as bitter religious and political disputes engulfed much of
northern Europe. He took refuge in the imperial capital, Prague, where Tycho
Brahe, the greatest observational astronomer of the day, had established an
observatory. Tycho asked Kepler to compose a defense of Tycho’s astronomy
against a critic, Nicolaus Ursus, who had charged that it was “mere
hypothesis.” The resulting Apologia (1600) remained unpublished; it contains a
perceptive analysis of the nature of astronomical hypothesis. Merely saving the
phenomena, Kepler argues, is in general not sufficient to separate two
mathematical systems like those of Ptolemy and Copernicus. Other more properly
explanatory “physical” criteria will be needed. Kepler was allowed to begin
work on the orbit of Mars, using the mass of data Tycho had accumulated. But
shortly afterward, Tycho died suddenly (1601). Kepler succeeded to Tycho’s post
as Imperial Mathematician; more important, he was entrusted with Tycho’s
precious data. Years of labor led to the publication of the Astronomia nova
(1609), which announced the discovery of the elliptical orbit of Mars. One
distinctive feature of Kepler’s long quest for the true shape of the orbit was
his emphasis on finding a possible physical evaluation for any planetary motion
he postulated before concluding that it was the true motion. Making the sun’s
force magnetic allowed him to suppose that its effect on the earth would vary
as the earth’s magnetic axis altered its orientation to the sun, thus perhaps
explaining the varying distances and speeds of the earth in its elliptical
orbit. The full title of his book makes his ambition clear: A New Astronomy
Based on Causes, or A Physics of the Sky. Trouble in Prague once more forced
Kepler to move. He eventually found a place in Linz (1612), where he continued
his exploration of cosmic harmonies, drawing on theology and philosophy as well
as on music and mathematics. The Harmonia mundi (1618) was his favorite among
his books: “It can wait a century for a reader, as God himself has waited six
thousand years for a witness.” The discovery of what later became known as his
third law, relating the periodic times of any two planets as the ratio of the 3
/2 power of their mean distances, served to confirm his long-standing
conviction that the universe is fashioned according to ideal harmonic
relationships. In the Epitome astronomiae Copernicanae (1612), he continued his
search for causes “either natural or archetypal,” not only for the planetary
motions, but for such details as the size of the sun and the densities of the
planets. He was more convinced than ever that a physics of the heavens had to
rest upon its ability to explain (and not just to predict) the peculiarities of
the planetary and lunar motions. What prevented him from moving even further
than he did toward a new physics was that he had not grasped what later came to
be called the principle of inertia. Thus he was compelled to postulate not only
an attractive force between planet and sun but also a second force to urge the
planet onward. It was Newton who showed that the second force is unnecessary,
and who finally constructed the “physics of the sky” that had been Kepler’s
ambition. But he could not have done it without Kepler’s notion of a
quantifiable force operating between planet and sun, an unorthodox notion
shaped in the first place by an imagination steeped in Neoplatonic metaphysics
and the theology of the Holy Spirit.
Keynes, John Maynard
(1883–1946), English economist and public servant who revolutionized economic
theory and the application of economic theory in government policy. His most
philosophically important works were The General Theory of Employment, Interest
and Money (1936) and A Treatise on Probability (1921). Keynes was also active
in English philosophical life, being well acquainted with such thinkers as
Moore and Ramsey. In the philosophy of probability, Keynes pioneered the
treatment of propositions as the bearers of probability assignments. Unlike
classical subjectivists, he treated probabilities as objective evidential
relations among propositions. These relations were to be directly epistemically
accessible to an intuitive faculty. An idiosyncratic feature of Keynes’s system
is that different probability assignments cannot always be compared (ordered as
equal, less than, or greater than one another). Keynesian economics is still
presented in introductory textbooks and it has permanently affected both theory
and practice. Keynes’s economic thought had a number of philosophically
important dimensions. While his theorizing was in the capitalistic tradition,
he rejected Smith’s notion of an invisible hand that would optimize the
performance of an economy without any intentional direction by individuals or
by the government. This involved rejection of the economic policy of
laissez-faire, according to which government intervention in the economy’s
operation is useless, or worse. Keynes argued that natural forces could deflect
an economy from a course of optimal growth and keep it permanently out of
equilibria. In the General Theory he proposed a number of mechanisms for
adjusting its performance. He advocated programs of government taxation and
spending, not primarily as a means of providing public goods, but as a means of
increasing prosperity and avoiding unemployment. Political philosophers are
thereby provided with another means for justifying the existence of strong
governments. One of the important ways that Keynes’s theory still directs much
economic theorizing is its deep division between microeconomics and
macroeconomics. Keynes argued, in effect, that microeconomic analysis with its
emphasis on ideal individual rationality and perfect competition was inadequate
as a tool for understanding such important macrophenomena as employment,
interest, and money. He tried to show how human psychological foibles and
market frictions required a qualitatively different kind of analysis at the
macro level. Much current economic theorizing is concerned with understanding
the connections between micro- and macrophenomena and micro- and macroeconomics
in an attempt to dissolve or blur the division. This issue is a philosophically
important instance of a potential theoretical reduction.
Kierkegaard, Søren Aabye
(1813–55), Danish writer whose “literature,” as he called it, includes
philosophy, psychology, theology and devotional literature, fiction, and
literary criticism. Born to a well-to-do middle class family, he consumed his
inheritance while writing a large corpus of books in a remarkably short time.
His life was marked by an intense relationship with a devout but melancholy
father, from whom he inherited his own bent to melancholy, with which he
constantly struggled. A decisive event was his broken engagement from Regine
Olsen, which precipitated the beginning of his authorship; his first books are
partly an attempt to explain, in a covert and symbolic way, the reasons why he
felt he could not marry. Later Kierkegaard was involved in a controversy in
which he was mercilessly attacked by a popular satirical periodical; this
experience deepened his understanding of the significance of suffering and the
necessity for an authentic individual to stand alone if necessary against “the
crowd.” This caused him to abandon his plans to take a pastorate, a post for
which his theological education had prepared him. At the end of his life, he
waged a lonely, public campaign in the popular press and in a magazine he
founded himself, against the Danish state church. He collapsed on the street
with the final issue of this magazine, The Instant, ready for the printer, and
was carried to a hospital. He died a few weeks later, affirming a strong
Christian faith, but refusing to take communion from the hands of a priest of
the official church. Though some writers have questioned whether Kierkegaard’s
writings admit of a unified interpretation, he himself saw his literature as
serving Christianity; he saw himself as a “missionary” whose task was to
“reintroduce Christianity into Christendom.” However, much of this literature
does not address Christianity directly, but rather concerns itself with an
analysis of human existence. Kierkegaard saw this as necessary, because
Christianity is first and foremost a way of existing. He saw much of the
confusion about Christian faith as rooted in confusion about the nature of
existence; hence to clear up the former, the latter must be carefully analyzed.
The great misfortune of “Christendom” and “the present age” is that people
“have forgotten what it means to exist,” and Kierkegaard sees himself as a
modern Socrates sent to “remind” others of what they know but have forgotten.
It is not surprising that the analyses of human existence he provides have been
of great interest to non-Christian writers as well. Kierkegaard frequently uses
the verb ‘to exist’ (at existere) in a special sense, to refer to human
existence. In this sense God is said not to exist, even though God has eternal
reality. Kierkegaard describes human existence as an unfinished process, in
which “the individual” (a key concept in his thought) must take responsibility
for achieving an identity as a self through free choices. Such a choice is
described as a leap, to highlight Kierkegaard’s view that intellectual
reflection alone can never motivate action. A decision to end the process of
reflection is necessary and such a decision must be generated by passion. The
passions that shape a person’s self are referred to by Kierkegaard as the
individual’s “inwardness” or “subjectivity.” The most signifiKierkegaard, Søren
Aabye Kierkegaard, Søren Aabye 468 4065h-l.qxd 08/02/1999 7:40 AM Page 468 cant
passions, such as love and faith, do not merely happen; they must be cultivated
and formed. The process by which the individual becomes a self is described by
Kierkegaard as ideally moving through three stages, termed the “stages on
life’s way.” Since human development occurs by freedom and not automatically,
however, the individual can become fixated in any of these stages. Thus the
stages also confront each other as rival views of life, or “spheres of existence.”
The three stages or spheres are the aesthetic, the ethical, and the religious.
A distinctive feature of Kierkegaard’s literature is that these three lifeviews
are represented by pseudonymous “characters” who actually “author” some of the
books; this leads to interpretive difficulties, since it is not always clear
what to attribute to Kierkegaard himself and what to the pseudonymous
character. Fortunately, he also wrote many devotional and religious works under
his own name, where this problem does not arise. The aesthetic life is
described by Kierkegaard as lived for and in “the moment.” It is a life
governed by “immediacy,” or the satisfaction of one’s immediate desires, though
it is capable of a kind of development in which one learns to enjoy life reflectively,
as in the arts. What the aesthetic person lacks is commitment, which is the key
to the ethical life, a life that attempts to achieve a unified self through
commitment to ideals with enduring validity, rather than simply momentary
appeal. The religious life emerges from the ethical life when the individual
realizes both the transcendent character of the true ideals and also how far
short of realizing those ideals the person is. In Concluding Unscientific
Postscript two forms of the religious life are distinguished: a “natural”
religiosity (religiousness “A”) in which the person attempts to relate to the
divine and resolve the problem of guilt, relying solely on one’s natural
“immanent” idea of the divine; and Christianity (religiousness “B”), in which
God becomes incarnate as a human being in order to establish a relation with
humans. Christianity can be accepted only through the “leap of faith.” It is a
religion not of “immanence” but of “transcendence,” since it is based on a
revelation. This revelation cannot be rationally demonstrated, since the
incarnation is a paradox that transcends human reason. Reason can, however,
when the passion of faith is present, come to understand the appropriateness of
recognizing its own limits and accepting the paradoxical incarnation of God in
the form of Jesus Christ. The true Christian is not merely an admirer of Jesus,
but one who believes by becoming a follower. The irreducibility of the
religious life to the ethical life is illustrated for Kierkegaard in the biblical
story of Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son Isaac to obey the command
of God. In Fear and Trembling Kierkegaard (through his pseudonym Johannes de
Silentio) analyzes this act of Abraham’s as involving a “teleological
suspension of the ethical.” Abraham’s act cannot be understood merely in
ethical terms as a conflict of duties in which one rationally comprehensible
duty is superseded by a higher one. Rather, Abraham seems to be willing to
“suspend” the ethical as a whole in favor of a higher religious duty. Thus, if
one admires Abraham as “the father of faith,” one admires a quality that cannot
be reduced to simply moral virtue. Some have read this as a claim that
religious faith may require immoral behavior; others argue that what is relativized
by the teleological suspension of the ethical is not an eternally valid set of
moral requirements, but rather ethical obligations as these are embedded in
human social institutions. Thus, in arguing that “the ethical” is not the
highest element in existence, Kierkegaard leaves open the possibility that our
social institutions, and the ethical ideals that they embody, do not deserve
our absolute and unqualified allegiance, an idea with important political
implications. In accord with his claim that existence cannot be reduced to
intellectual thought, Kierkegaard devotes much attention to emotions and
passions. Anxiety is particularly important, since it reflects human freedom.
Anxiety involves a “sympathetic antipathy and an antipathetic sympathy”; it is the
psychological state that precedes the basic human fall into sin, but it does
not explain this “leap,” since no final explanation of a free choice can be
given. Such negative emotions as despair and guilt are also important for
Kierkegaard; they reveal the emptiness of the aesthetic and the ultimately
unsatisfactory character of the ethical, driving individuals on toward the
religious life. Irony and humor are also seen as important “boundary zones” for
the stages of existence. The person who has discovered his or her own “eternal
validity” can look ironically at the relative values that capture most people,
who live their lives aesthetically. Similarly, the “existential humorist” who
has seen the incongruities that necessarily pervade our ethical human projects
is on the border of the religious life. Kierkegaard also analyzes the passions
of faith Kierkegaard, Søren Aabye Kierkegaard, Søren Aabye 469 4065h-l.qxd
08/02/1999 7:40 AM Page 469 and love. Faith is ultimately understood as a
“willing to be oneself” that is made possible by a transparent, trusting
relationship to the “power that created the self.” Kierkegaard distinguishes
various forms of love, stressing that Christian love must be understood as
neighbor love, a love that is combined and is not rooted in any natural
relationship to the self, such as friendship or kinship, but ultimately is
grounded in the fact that all humans share a relationship to their creator.
Kierkegaard is well known for his critique of Hegel’s absolute idealism.
Hegel’s claim to have written “the system” is ridiculed for its pretensions of
finality. From the Dane’s perspective, though reality may be a system for God,
it cannot be so for any existing thinker, since both reality and the thinker
are incomplete and system implies completeness. Hegelians are also criticized
for pretending to have found a presuppositionless or absolute starting point;
for Kierkegaard, philosophy begins not with doubt but with wonder. Reflection
is potentially infinite; the doubt that leads to skepticism cannot be ended by
thought alone but only by a resolution of the will. Kierkegaard also defends
traditional Aristotelian logic and the principle of non-contradiction against
the Hegelian introduction of “movement” into logic. Kierkegaard is particularly
disturbed by the Hegelian tendency to see God as immanent in society; he
thought it important to understand God as “wholly other,” the “absolutely
different” who can never be exhaustively embodied in human achievement or
institutions. To stand before God one must stand as an individual, in “fear and
trembling,” conscious that this may require a break with the given social
order. Kierkegaard is often characterized as the father of existentialism.
There are reasons for this; he does indeed philosophize existentially, and he
undoubtedly exercised a deep influence on many twentieth-century
existentialists such as Sartre and Camus. But the characterization is
anachronistic, since existentialism as a movement is a twentieth-century
phenomenon, and the differences between Kierkegaard and those existentialists
are also profound. If existentialism is defined as the denial that there is
such a thing as a human essence or nature, it is unlikely that Kierkegaard is
an existentialist. More recently, the Dane has also been seen as a precursor of
postmodernism. His rejection of classical foundationalist epistemologies and
employment of elusive literary techniques such as his pseudonyms again make
such associations somewhat plausible. However, despite his rejection of the
system and criticism of human claims to finality and certitude, Kierkegaard
does not appear to espouse any form of relativism or have much sympathy for
“anti-realism.” He has the kind of passion for clarity and delight in making
sharp distinctions that are usually associated with contemporary “analytic”
philosophy. In the end he must be seen as his own person, a unique Christian
presence with sensibilities that are in many ways Greek and premodern rather
than postmodern. He has been joyfully embraced and fervently criticized by
thinkers of all stripes. He remains “the individual” he wrote about, and to
whom he dedicated many of his works.
Kilvington, Richard,
surname also spelled Kilmington, Chillington (1302/05–61), English philosopher,
theologian, and ecclesiastic. He was a scholar associated with the household of
Richard de Bury and an early member of the Oxford Calculators, important in the
early development of physics. Kilvington’s Sophismata (early 1320s) is the only
work of his studied extensively to date. It is an investigation of puzzles
regarding change, velocity and acceleration, motive power, beginning and
ceasing, the continuum, infinity, knowing and doubting, and the liar and
related paradoxes. His approach is peculiar insofar as all these are treated in
a purely logical or conceptual way, in contrast to the mathematical
“calculations” used by Bradwardine, Heytesbury, and other later Oxford
Calculators to handle problems in physics. Kilvington also wrote a commentary
on Peter Lombard’s Sentences and questions on Aristotle’s On Generation and
Corruption, Physics, and Nicomachean Ethics.
Kilwardby, Robert
(d.1279), English philosopher and theologian. He apparently studied and perhaps
taught at the University of Paris, later joining the Dominicans and perhaps
lecturing at Oxford. He became archbishop of Canterbury in 1272 and in 1277
condemned thirty propositions, among them Aquinas’s position that there is a
single substantial form in a human being. Kilwardby resigned his archbishopric
in 1278 and was appointed to the bishopric of Santa Rufina in Italy, where he
died. Kilwardby wrote extensively and had considerable medieval influence,
especially in philosophy of language; but it is now unusually difficult to
determine which works are authentically his. De Ortu Scientiarum advanced a
sophisticated Kilvington, Richard Kilwardby, Robert 470 4065h-l.qxd 08/02/1999
7:40 AM Page 470 account of how names are imposed and a detailed account of the
nature and role of logic. In metaphysics he insisted that things are individual
and that universality arises from operations of the soul. He wrote extensively
on happiness and was concerned to show that some happiness is possible in this
life. In psychology he argued that freedom of decision is a disposition arising
from the cooperation of the intellect and the will. C.G.Norm. Kim, Jaegwon
(b.1934), Korean-American philosopher, writing in the analytic tradition,
author of important works in metaphysics and the philosophy of mind. Kim has
defended a “fine-grained” conception of events according to which an event is
the possessing of a property by an object at a time (see “Causation, Nomic
Subsumption, and the Concept of Event,” 1973; this and other papers referred to
here are collected in Supervenience and Mind, 1993). This view has been a
prominent rival of the “coarse-grained” account of events associated with
Davidson. Kim’s work on the concept of supervenience has been widely
influential, especially in the philosophy of mind (see “Supervenience as a
Philosophical Concept,” 1990). He regards supervenience (or, as he now prefers,
“property covariation”) as a relation holding between property families (mental
properties and physical properties, for instance). If A-properties supervene on
B-properties, then, necessarily, for any A-property, a, if an object, o, has a,
there is some B-property, b, such that o has b, and (necessarily) anything that
has b has a. Stronger or weaker versions of supervenience result from varying
the modal strength of the parenthetical ‘necessarily’, or omitting it entirely.
Although the notion of supervenience has been embraced by philosophers who
favor some form of “non-reductive physicalism” (the view that the mental
depends on, but is not reducible to, the physical), Kim himself has expressed doubts
that physicalism can avoid reduction (“The Myth of Nonreductive Materialism,”
1989). If mental properties supervene on, but are distinct from, physical
properties, then it is hard to see how mental properties could have a part in
the production of physical effects – or mental effects, given the dependence of
the mental on the physical. More recently, Kim has developed an account of
“functional reduction” according to which supervenient properties are causally
efficacious if and only if they are functionally reducible to properties
antecedently accepted as causally efficacious (Mind in a Physical World, 1998).
Properties, including properties of conscious experiences, not so reducible are
“epiphenomenal.”
KK-thesis, the thesis
that knowing entails knowing that one knows, symbolized in propositional
epistemic logic as Kp P KKp, where ‘K’ stands for knowing. According to the
KK-thesis, the (propositional) logic of knowledge resembles the modal system
S4. The KK-thesis was introduced into epistemological discussion by Hintikka in
Knowledge and Belief (1962). He calls the KKthesis a “virtual implication,” a
conditional whose negation is “indefensible.” A tacit or an explicit acceptance
of the thesis has been part of many philosophers’ views about knowledge since
Plato and Aristotle. If the thesis is formalized as Kap P KaKap, where ‘Ka’ is
read as ‘a knows that’, it holds only if the person a knows that he is referred
to by ‘a’; this qualification is automatically satisfied for the first-person
case. The validity of the thesis seems sensitive to variations in the sense of
‘know’; it has sometimes been thought to characterize a strong concept of
knowledge, e.g., knowledge based on (factually) conclusive reasons, or active
as opposed to implicit knowledge. If knowledge is regarded as true belief based
on conclusive evidence, the KKthesis entails that a person knows that p only if
his evidence for p is also sufficient to justify the claim that he knows that
p; the epistemic claim should not require additional evidence.
Kleist, Heinrich von
(1771–1811), German philosopher and literary figure whose entire work is based
on the antinomy of reason and sentiment, one as impotent as the other, and
reflects the Aufklärung crisis at the turn of the century. In 1799 he resigned
from the Prussian army. Following a reading of Kant, he lost faith in a “life’s
plan” as inspired by Leibniz’s, Wolff’s, and Shaftesbury’s rationalism. He
looked for salvation in Rousseau but concluded that sentiment Kim, Jaegwon
Kleist, Heinrich von revealed itself just as untrustworthy as reason as soon as
man left the state of original grace and realized himself to be neither a
puppet nor a god (see Essay on the Puppet Theater, 1810). The Schroffenstein
Family, Kleist’s first play (1802), repeats the Shakespearian theme of two
young people who love each other but belong to warring families. One already
finds in it the major elements of Kleist’s universe: the incapacity of the
individual to master his fate, the theme of the tragic error, and the importance
of the juridical. In 1803, Kleist returned to philosophy and literature and
realized in Amphitryon (1806) the impossibility of the individual knowing
himself and the world and acting deliberately in it. The divine order that is
the norm of tragic art collapses, and with it, the principle of identity.
Kleistian characters, “modern” individuals, illustrate this normative chaos.
The Broken Jug (a comedy written in 1806) shows Kleist’s interest in law. In
his two parallel plays, Penthesilea and The Young Catherine of Heilbronn,
Kleist presents an alternative: either “the marvelous order of the world” and
the theodicy that carries Catherine’s fate, or the sublime and apocryphal
mission of the Christlike individual who must redeem the corrupt order. Before his
suicide in 1811, Kleist looked toward the renaissance of the German nation for
a historical way out of this metaphysical conflict.
knowledge by
acquaintance, knowledge of objects by means of direct awareness of them. The
notion of knowledge by acquaintance is primarily associated with Russell (The
Problems of Philosophy, 1912). Russell first distinguishes knowledge of truths
from knowledge of things. He then distinguishes two kinds of knowledge of
things: knowledge by acquaintance and knowledge by description. Ordinary speech
suggests that we are acquainted with the people and the physical objects in our
immediate environments. On Russell’s view, however, our contact with these
things is indirect, being mediated by our mental representations of them. He
holds that the only things we know by acquaintance are the content of our
minds, abstract universals, and, perhaps, ourselves. Russell says that
knowledge by description is indirect knowledge of objects, our knowledge being
mediated by other objects and truths. He suggests that we know external
objects, such as tables and other people, only by description (e.g., the cause
of my present experience). Russell’s discussion of this topic is quite
puzzling. The considerations that lead him to say that we lack acquaintance
with external objects also lead him to say that, strictly speaking, we lack
knowledge of such things. This seems to amount to the claim that what he has
called “knowledge by description” is not, strictly speaking, a kind of
knowledge at all. Russell also holds that every proposition that a person
understands must be composed entirely of elements with which the person is
acquainted. This leads him to propose analyses of familiar propositions in
terms of mental objects with which we are acquainted. See also PERCEPTION,
RUSSELL. R.Fe. knowledge by description.
knowledge de re,
knowledge, with respect to some object, that it has a particular property, or
knowledge, of a group of objects, that they stand in some relation. Knowledge
de re is typically contrasted with knowledge de dicto, which is knowledge of
facts or propositions. If persons A and B know that a winner has been declared
in an election, but only B knows which candidate has won, then both have de
dicto knowledge that someone has won, but only B has de re knowledge about some
candidate that she is the winner. Person B can knowingly attribute the property
of being the winner to one of the candidates. It is generally held that to have
de re knowledge about an object one must at least be in some sense familiar
with or causally connected to the object. knower, paradox of the knowledge de
re 472 4065h-l.qxd 08/02/1999 7:40 AM Page 472 A related concept is knowledge
de se. This is self-knowledge, of the sort expressed by ‘I am —— ’. Knowledge
de se is not simply de re knowledge about oneself. A person might see a group
of people in a mirror and notice that one of the people has a red spot on his
nose. He then has de dicto knowledge that someone in the group has a red spot
on his nose. On most accounts, he also has de re knowledge with respect to that
individual that he has a spot. But if he has failed to recognize that he
himself is the one with the spot, then he lacks de se knowledge. He doesn’t
know (or believe) what he would express by saying “I have a red spot.” So,
according to this view, knowledge de se is not merely knowledge de re about
oneself.
Köhler, Wolfgang
(1887–1967), German and American (after 1935) psychologist who, with Wertheimer
and Koffka, founded Gestalt psychology. Köhler made two distinctive
contributions to Gestalt doctrine, one empirical, one theoretical. The
empirical contribution was his study of animal thinking, performed on Tenerife
Island from 1913 to 1920 (The Mentality of Apes, 1925). The then dominant
theory of problem solving was E. L. Thorndike’s (1874–1949) associationist
trial-and-error learning theory, maintaining that animals attack problems by
trying out a series of behaviors, one of which is gradually “stamped in” by
success. Köhler argued that trial-and-error behavior occurred only when, as in
Thorndike’s experiments, part of the problem situation was hidden. He arranged
more open puzzles, such as getting bananas hanging from a ceiling, requiring
the ape to get a (visible) box to stand on. His apes showed insight – suddenly
arriving at the correct solution. Although he demonstrated the existence of
insight, its nature remains elusive, and trial-and-error learning remains the
focus of research. Köhler’s theoretical contribution was the concept of
isomorphism, Gestalt psychology’s theory of psychological representation. He
held an identity theory of mind and body, and isomorphism claims that a
topological mapping exists between the behavioral field in which an organism is
acting (cf. Lewin) and fields of electrical currents in the brain (not the
“mind”). Such currents have not been discovered. Important works by Köhler
include Gestalt Psychology (1929), The Place of Value in a World of Facts
(1938), Dynamics in Psychology (1940), and Selected Papers (1971, ed. M. Henle).
Ko Hung (fourth century
A.D.), Chinese Taoist philosopher, also known as the Master Who Embraced
Simplicity (Pao-p’u tzu). Ko Hung is a pivotal figure in the development of
Taoism. His major work, the Pao-p’u tzu, emphasizes the importance of moral cultivation
as a necessary step to spiritual liberation. In this Ko is often said to have
synthesized Confucian concerns with Taoist aspirations. He champions the use of
special drugs that would purify the body and spirit in the quest for Taoist
transcendence. A firm believer in the existence of immortals (hsien) and the
possibility of joining the ranks of the perfected, Ko experimented with
different methods that fall under the rubric of “external alchemy” (wai-tan),
which merits attention also in the history of Chinese science. See also HSIEN.
A.K.L.C. Korean philosophy, philosophy in traditional Korea. Situated on the
eastern periphery of the Asian mainland and cut off by water on three sides
from other potential countervailing influences, Korea, with its more than two
millennia of recorded history and a long tradition of philosophical reflection,
was exposed from early on to the pervasive influence of China. The influences
and borrowings from China – among the most pervasive of which have been the
three major religiophilosophic systems of the East, Taoism, Buddhism, and
Confucianism – were, in time, to leave their indelible marks on the
philosophical, cultural, religious, linguistic, and social forms of Korean
life. These influences from the Asian continent, which began to infiltrate
Korean culture during the Three Kingdoms era (57 B.C. to A.D. 558), did not,
however, operate in a vacuum. Even in the face of powerful and pervasive
exogenous influences, shamanism – an animistic view of man and nature – remained
the strong substratum of Korean culture, influencing and modifying the more
sophisticated religions, philosophies, and ideologies that found entry into
Korea during the last two thousand years. Originally a philosophical formula
for personal salvation through the renunciation of worldly desire, Buddhism, in
the course of propagation from its point of origin, had absorbed enough
esoteric deities and forms of worship to constitute a new school, Mahayana, and
it was this type of Buddhism that found ready acceptance in Korea. Its beliefs
were, at the plebeian level, furknowledge de se Korean philosophy 473
4065h-l.qxd 08/02/1999 7:40 AM Page 473 ther mixed with native shamanism and
integrated into a shamanistic polytheism. The syncretic nature of Korean Buddhism
manifests itself at the philosophical level in a tendency toward a
reconciliatory synthesis of opposing doctrines. Korean Buddhism produced a
number of monk-philosophers, whose philosophical writings were influential
beyond the boundaries of Korea. Wonhyo (617–86) of Silla and Pojo Chinul
(1158–1210) of Koryo may be singled out as the most original and representative
of those Buddhist philosophers. As Buddhism became more entrenched, a number of
doctrinal problems and disputes began to surface. The most basic and serious
was the dispute between the Madhyamika and Vijnaptimatrata-vadin schools of
thought within Mahayana Buddhism. At the metaphysical level the former tended
to negate existence, while the latter affirmed existence. An epistemological
corollary of this ontological dispute was a dispute concerning the possibility
of secular truth as opposed to transcendental truth. The former school denied
its possibility, while the latter affirmed it. No mediation between these two
schools of thought, either in their country of origin, India, or Korea, seemed
possible. It was to this task of reconciling these two opposed schools that
Wonhyo dedicated himself. In a series of annotations and interpretations of the
Buddhist scriptures, particularly of the Taeseung Kishin-non (“The Awakening of
Faith in Mahayana”), he worked out a position that became subsequently known as
Hwajaengnon – a theory of reconciliation of dispute. It consisted in essence of
seeing the two opposed schools as two different aspects of one mind. Wonhyo’s
Hwajaeng-non, as the first full-scale attempt to reconcile the opposing
doctrines in Mahayana Buddhism, was referred to frequently in both Chinese and
Japanese Buddhist exegetical writings. The same spirit of reconciliation is
also manifest later during the Koryo dynasty (918–1392) in Chinul’s
Junghae-ssangsu, in which the founder of Korean Son Buddhism attempts a
reconciliation between Kyo-hak (Scriptural school of Buddhism) and Son-ga
(Meditation school of Buddhism), which were engaged in a serious confrontation
with each other. Although many of its teachings were derivations from Mahayana
Buddhist metaphysics, the Son school of Buddhism emphasized the realization of
enlightenment without depending upon scriptural teachings, while the Scriptural
school of Buddhism emphasized a gradual process of enlightenment through faith
and the practice of understanding scriptures. Himself a Son master, Chinul
provided a philosophical foundation for Korean Son by incorporating the
doctrines of Scriptural Buddhism as the philosophical basis for the practices
of Son. Chinul’s successful synthesis of Kyo and Son served as the basis for
the development of an indigenous form of Son Buddhism in Korea. It is primarily
this form of Buddhism that is meant when one speaks of Korean Buddhism today.
Ethical self-cultivation stands at the core of Confucianism. Confucian theories
of government and social relationships are founded upon it, and the
metaphysical speculations have their place in Confucianism insofar as they are
related to this overriding concern. The establishment in A.D. 372 of Taehak, a
state-oriented Confucian institute of higher learning in the kingdom of
Kokuryo, points to a well-established tradition of Confucian learning already
in existence on the Korean peninsula during the Three Kingdoms era. Although
Buddhism was the state religion of the Unified Silla period (668–918),
Confucianism formed its philosophical and structural backbone. From 682, when a
national academy was established in the Unified Silla kingdom as a training
ground for high-level officials, the content of formal education in Korea
consisted primarily of Confucian and other related Chinese classics; this
lasted well into the nineteenth century. The preeminence of Confucianism in
Korean history was further enhanced by its adoption by the founders of the
Choson dynasty (1392–1910) as the national ideology. The Confucianism that
flourished during the Choson period was Neo-Confucianism, a philosophical
synthesis of original Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism achieved by the
Chinese philosopher Chu Hsi in the twelfth century. During the five hundred
years of Neo-Confucian orthodoxy, a number of Korean scholars succeeded in
bringing Neo-Confucian philosophical speculation to new heights of originality
and influence both at home and abroad. Yi Hwang (better known by his pen name
T’oegye, 1501– 70) and his adversary Yi I (Yulgok, 1536–84) deserve special
mention. T’oegye interpreted the origin of the four cardinal virtues
(benevolence, righteousness, propriety, and knowledge) and the seven emotions
(pleasure, anger, sorrow, joy, love, hate, and desire) in such a way as to
accord priority to the principle of reason I over the principle of material
force Ki. T’oegye went a step further than his Sung mentor Chu Hsi by claiming
that the prinKorean philosophy Korean philosophy 474 4065h-l.qxd 08/02/1999
7:40 AM Page 474 ciple of reason includes within itself the generative power
for matter. This theory was criticized by Yulgok, who claimed that the source
of generative power in the universe lay in the matter of material force itself.
The philosophical debate carried on by these men and its implications for
ethics and statecraft are generally considered richer in insight and more
intricate in argumentation than that in China. T’oegye’s ideas in particular
were influential in spreading NeoConfucianism in Japan. Neo-Confucian
philosophical speculation in the hands of those lesser scholars who followed
T’oegye and Yulgok, however, became overly speculative and impractical. It
evolved, moreover, into a rigid national orthodoxy by the middle of the
seventeenth century. Dissatisfaction with this intellectual orthodoxy was
further deepened by Korea’s early encounter with Christianity and Western
science, which had been reaching Korea by way of China since the beginning of
the seventeenth century. Coupled with the pressing need for administrative and
economic reforms subsequent to the Japanese invasion (1592–97), these
tendencies gave rise to a group of illustrious Confucian scholars who, despite
the fact that their individual lives spanned a 300-year period from 1550 to
1850, were subsequently and collectively given the name Silhak. Despite their
diverse interests and orientations, these scholars were bound by their devotion
to the spirit of practicality and utility as well as to seeking facts grounded
in evidence in all scholarly endeavors, under the banner of returning to the
spirit of the original Confucianism. Chong Yag-yong (1762–1836), who may be
said to be the culmination of the Silhak movement, was able to transform these
elements and tendencies into a new Confucian synthesis.
Kotarbigski, Tadeusz
(1886–1981), Polish philosopher, cofounder, with Lukasiewicz and Lesniewski, of
the Warsaw Center of Logical Research. His broad philosophical interests and
humanistic concerns, probity, scholarship, and clarity in argument, consequent
persuasiveness, and steadfast championship of human rights made him heir to
their common mentor Kasimir Twardowski, father of modern Polish philosophy. In
philosophical, historical, and methodological works like his influential
Elements of Theory of Knowledge, Formal Logic, and Scientific Methodology
(1929; mistitled Gnosiology in English translation), he popularized the more
technical contributions of his colleagues, and carried on Twardowski’s
objectivist and “anti-irrationalist” critical tradition, insisting on accuracy
and clarity, holding that philosophy has no distinctive method beyond the
logical and analytical methods of the empirical and deductive sciences. As a
free-thinking liberal humanist socialist, resolved to be “a true compass, not a
weathervane,” he defended autonomous ethics against authoritarianism, left or
right. His lifelong concern with community and social practice led him to
develop praxiology as a theory of efficacious action. Following Lesniewsi’s
“refutation” of Twardowski’s Platonism, Kotarbigski insisted on translating
abstractions into more concrete terms. The principal tenets of his “reist,
radical realist, and imitationist” rejection of Platonism, phenomenalism, and
introspectionism are (1) pansomatism or ontological reism as modernized
monistic materialism: whatever is anything at all (even a soul) is a body –
i.e., a concrete individual object, resistant and spatiotemporally extended,
enduring at least a while; (2) consequent radical realism: no object is a
“property,” “relation,” “event,” “fact,” or “abstract entity” of any other
kind, nor “sense-datum,” “phenomenon,” or essentially “private mental act” or “fact”
accessible only to “introspection”; (3) concretism or semantic reism and
imitationism as a concomitant “nominalist” program – thus, abstract terms that,
hypostatized, might appear to name “abstract entities” are pseudo-names or
onomatoids to be eliminated by philosophical analysis and elucidatory
paraphrase. Hypostatizations that might appear to imply existence of such
Platonic universals are translatable into equivalent generalizations
characterizing only bodies. Psychological propositions are likewise reducible,
ultimately to the basic form: Individual So-and-so experiences thus;
Such-and-such is so. Only as thus reduced can such potentially misleading
expressions be rightly understood and judged true or false. See also POLISH
LOGIC. E.C.L. ko wu, chih chih, Chinese philosophical terms used in the
Ta-hsüeh (Great Learning) to refer to two related stages or aspects of the
self-cultivation process, subsequently given different interpretations by later
Confucian thinkers. ‘Ko’ can mean ‘correct’, ‘arrive at’ or ‘oppose’; ‘wu’
means ‘things’. The first ‘chih’ can mean ‘expand’ or ‘reach out’; the second
‘chih’ means ‘knowledge’. Chu Hsi (1130–1200) took ‘ko wu’ to mean
arrivKotarbigski, Tadeusz ko wu, chih chih 475 4065h-l.qxd 08/02/1999 7:40 AM
Page 475 ing at li (principle, pattern) in human affairs and ‘chih chih’ to
mean the expansion of knowledge; an important part of the self-cultivation
process involves expanding one’s moral knowledge by examining daily affairs and
studying classics and historical documents.
Wang Yang-ming (1472–
1529) took ‘ko wu’ to mean correcting the activities of one’s heart/mind
(hsin), and ‘chih chih’ the reaching out of one’s innate knowledge (liang
chih); an important part of the self-cultivation process involves making fully
manifest one’s innate knowledge by constantly watching out for and eliminating
distortive desires. K.-l.S. Krause, Karl Christian Friedrich (1781–1832),
German philosopher representative of a tendency to develop Kant’s views in the
direction of pantheism and mysticism. Educated at Jena, he came under the
influence of Fichte and Schelling. Taking his philosophical starting point as
Fichte’s analysis of self-consciousness, and adopting as his project a
“spiritualized” systematic elaboration of the philosophy of Spinoza (somewhat
like the young Schelling), he arrived at a position that he called panentheism.
According to this, although nature and human consciousness are part of God or
Absolute Being, the Absolute is neither exhausted in nor identical with them.
To some extent, he anticipated Hegel in invoking an “end of history” in which
the finite realm of human affairs would reunite with the infinite essence in a
universal moral and “spiritual” order. See also FICHTE, PANTHEISM, SCHELLING.
J.P.Su.
Krebs. See NICHOLAS OF
CUSA. Kripke, Saul A(aron) (b.1940), American mathematician and philosopher,
considered one of the most deeply influential contemporary figures in logic and
philosophy. While a teenager, he formulated a semantics for modal logic (the
logic of necessity and possibility) based on Leibniz’s notion of a possible
world, and, using the apparatus, proved completeness for a variety of systems
(1959, 1963). Possible world semantics (due in part also to Carnap and others)
has proved to be one of the most fruitful developments in logic and philosophy.
Kripke’s 1970 Princeton lectures, Naming and Necessity (1980), were a
watershed. The work primarily concerns proper names of individuals (e.g.,
‘Aristotle’) and, by extension, terms for natural kinds (‘water’) and similar
expressions. Kripke uses his thesis that any such term is a rigid designator –
i.e., designates the same thing with respect to every possible world in which
that thing exists (and does not designate anything else with respect to worlds
in which it does not exist) – to argue, contrary to the received Fregean view,
that the designation of a proper name is not semantically secured by means of a
description that gives the sense of the name. On the contrary, the description
associated with a particular use of a name will frequently designate something
else entirely. Kripke derives putative examples of necessary a posteriori
truths, as well as contingent a priori truths. In addition, he defends
essentialism – the doctrine that some properties of things are properties that
those things could not fail to have (except by not existing) – and uses it,
together with his account of natural-kind terms, to argue against the
identification of mental entities with their physical manifestations (e.g.,
sensations with specific neural events). In a sequel, “A Puzzle about Belief”
(1979), Kripke addresses the problem of substitution failure in sentential
contexts attributing belief or other propositional attitudes. Kripke’s
interpretation of the later Wittgenstein as a semantic skeptic has also had a
profound impact (Wittgenstein on Rules and Private Language, 1980, 1982). His
semantic theory of truth (“Outline of a Theory of Truth,” 1975) has sparked
renewed interest in the liar paradox (‘This statement is false’) and related
paradoxes, and in the development of non-classical languages containing their
own truth predicates as possible models for natural language. In logic, he is
also known for his work in intuitionism and on his theory of transfinite
recursion on admissible ordinals. Kripke, McCosh Professor of Philosophy
(emeritus) at Princeton, frequently lectures on numerous further significant
results in logic and philosophy, but those results have remained unpublished.
Kripke semantics, a type
of formal semantics for languages with operators A and B for necessity and
possibility (‘possible worlds semantics’ and ‘relational semantics’ are
sometimes used for the same notion); also, a similar semantics for
intuitionistic logic. In a basic version a framefor a sentential language with
A and B is a pair (W,R) where W is a non-empty set (the “possible worlds”) and
R is a binary relation on W – the relation of “relative possibility” or
“accessibility.” A model on the frame (W,R) is a triple (W,R,V), Krause, Karl
Christian Friedrich Kripke semantics 476 4065h-l.qxd 08/02/1999 7:40 AM Page
476 where V is a function (the “valuation function”) that assigns truth-values
to sentence letters at worlds. If w 1 W then a sentence AA is true at world w
in the model (W,R,V) if A is true at all worlds v 1 W for which wRv.
Informally, AA is true at world w if A is true at all the worlds that would be
possible if w were actual. This is a generalization of the doctrine commonly
attributed to Leibniz that necessity is truth in all possible worlds. A is
valid in the model (W,R,V) if it is true at all worlds w 1 W in that model. It
is valid in the frame (W,R) if it is valid in all models on that frame. It is
valid if it is valid in all frames. In predicate logic versions, a frame may
include another component D, that assigns a non-empty set Dw of objects (the
existents at w) to each possible world w. Terms and quantifiers may be treated
either as objectual (denoting and ranging over individuals) or conceptual
(denoting and ranging over functions from possible worlds to individuals) and
either as actualist or possibilist(denoting and ranging over either existents
or possible existents). On some of these treatments there may arise further
choices about whether and how truth-values should be assigned to sentences that
assert relations among non-existents. The development of Kripke semantics marks
a watershed in the modern study of modal systems. In the 1930s, 1940s, and
1950s a number of axiomatizations for necessity and possibility were proposed and
investigated. Carnap showed that for the simplest of these systems, C. I.
Lewis’s S5, AA can be interpreted as saying that A is true in all “state
descriptions.” Answering even the most basic questions about the other systems,
however, required effort and ingenuity. In the late fifties and early sixties
Stig Kanger, Richard Montague, Saul Kripke, and Jaakko Hintikka each formulated
interpretations for such systems that generalized Carnap’s semantics by using
something like the accessibility relation described above. Kripke’s semantics
was more natural than the others in that accessibility was taken to be a
relation among mathematically primitive “possible worlds,” and, in a series of
papers, Kripke demonstrated that versions of it provide characteristic interpretations
for a number of modal systems. For these reasons Kripke’s formulation has
become standard. Relational semantics provided simple solutions to some older
problems about the distinctness and relative strength of the various systems.
It also opened new areas of investigation, facilitating general results
(establishing decidability and other properties for infinite classes of modal
systems), incompleteness results (exhibiting systems not determined by any
class of frames), and correspondence results (showing that the frames verifying
certain modal formulas were exactly the frames meeting certain conditions on
R). It suggested parallel interpretations for notions whose patterns of
inference were known to be similar to that of necessity and possibility,
including obligation and permission, epistemic necessity and possibility,
provability and consistency, and, more recently, the notion of a computation’s
inevitably or possibly terminating in a particular state. It inspired similar
semantics for nonclassical conditionals and the more general neighborhood or
functional variety of possible worlds semantics. The philosophical utility of
Kripke semantics is more difficult to assess. Since the accessibility relation
is often explained in terms of the modal operators, it is difficult to maintain
that the semantics provides an explicit analysis of the modalities it
interprets. Furthermore, questions about which version of the semantics is
correct (particularly for quantified modal systems) are themselves tied to substantive
questions about the nature of things and worlds. The semantics does impose
important constraints on the meaning of modalities, and it provides a means for
many philosophical questions to be posed more clearly and starkly.
Kristeva, Julia (b.1941),
Bulgarian-born French linguist, practicing psychoanalyst, widely influential
social theorist, and novelist. The centerpiece of Kristeva’s semiotic theory
has two correlative moments: a focus on the speaking subject as embodying
unconscious motivations (and not simply the conscious intentionality of a
Husserlian transcendental ego) and an articulation of the signifying phenomenon
as a dynamic, productive process (not a static sign-system). Kristeva’s most
systematic philosophical work, La Révolution du langage poétique (1974), brings
her semiotics to mature expression through an effective integration of
psychoanalysis (Freud and Lacan), elements of linguistic models (from Roman
Jakobson to Chomskyan generative grammar) and semiology (from Saussure to Peirce
and Louis Hjelmslev), and a literary approach to text (influenced by Bakhtin).
Together the symbolic and the semiotic, two dialectical and irreconcilable
modalities of meaning, constitute the signifying process. The symbolic
designates the systematic rules governing denotative and propositional speech,
while the Kristeva, Julia Kristeva, Julia 477 4065h-l.qxd 08/02/1999 7:40 AM
Page 477 semiotic isolates an archaic layer of meaning that is neither
representational nor based on relations among signs. The concept of the chora
combines the semiotic, translinguistic layer of meaning (genotext) with a
psychoanalytic, drive-based model of unconscious sound production, dream logic,
and fantasy life that defy full symbolic articulation. Drawing on Plato’s non-unified
notion of the maternal receptacle (Timaeus), the chora constitutes the space
where subjectivity is generated. Drives become “ordered” in rhythmic patterns
during the pre-Oedipal phase before the infant achieves reflexive capacity,
develops spatial intuition and time consciousness, and posits itself as an
enunciating subject. Ordered, but not according to symbolic laws, semiotic
functions arise when the infant forms associations between its vocal
gesticulations and sensorimotor development, and patterns these associations
after the mother’s corporeal modulations. The semiotic chora, while partly
repressed in identity formation, links the subject’s preverbal yet functional
affective life to signification. All literary forms – epic narrative,
metalanguage, contemplation or theoria and text-practice – combine two
different registers of meaning, phenotext and genotext. Yet they do so in
different ways and none encompasses both registers in totality. The phenotext
refers to language in its function “to communicate” and can be analyzed in
terms of syntax and semantics. Though not itself linguistic, the genotext
reveals itself in the way that “phonematic” and “melodic devices” and
“syntactic and logical” features establish “semantic” fields. The genotext
isolates the specific mode in which a text sublimates drives; it denotes the
“process” by which a literary form generates a particular type of subjectivity.
Poetic language is unique in that it largely reveals the genotext. This linkage
between semiotic processes, genotext, and poetic language fulfills the early
linguistic project (1967–73) and engenders a novel post-Hegelian social theory.
Synthesizing semiotics and the destructive death drive’s attack against stasis
artfully restores permanence to Hegelian negativity. Poetic mimesis, because it
transgresses grammatical rules while sustaining signification, reactivates the
irreducible negativity and heterogeneity of drive processes. So effectuating
anamnesis, poetry reveals the subject’s constitution within language and, by
holding open rather than normalizing its repressed desire, promotes critical
analysis of symbolic and institutionalized values. Later works like Pouvoirs de
l’horreur (1980), Etrangers à nous-mêmes (1989), Histoires d’amour (1983), and
Les Nouvelles maladies de l’âme (1993) shift away from collective political
agency to a localized, culturally therapeutic focus. Examining xenophobic
social formations, abjection and societal violence, romantic love, grief,
women’s melancholic poison in patriarchy, and a crisis of moral values in the
postmetaphysical age, they harbor forceful implications for ethics and social
theory.
Kropotkin, Petr
Alekseevich (1842–1921), Russian geographer, geologist, naturalist, and
philosopher, best remembered for his anarchism and his defense of mutual aid as
a factor of evolution. Traveling extensively in Siberia on scientific
expeditions (1862–67), he was stimulated by Darwin’s newly published theory of
evolution and sought, in the Siberian landscape, confirmation of Darwin’s
Malthusian principle of the struggle for survival. Instead Kropotkin found that
underpopulation was the rule, that climate was the main obstacle to survival,
and that mutual aid was a far more common phenomenon than Darwin recognized. He
soon generalized these findings to social theory, opposing social Darwinism,
and also began to espouse anarchist theory.
Kuan Tzu, also called
Kuan Chung (d.645 B.C.), Chinese statesman who was prime minister of Ch’i and
considered a forefather of Legalism. He was traditionally albeit spuriously
associated with the Kuan Tzu, an eclectic work containing Legalist, Confucian,
Taoist, five phases, and Huang–Lao ideas from the fourth to the second
centuries B.C. As minister, Kuan Tzu achieved peace and social order through the
hegemonic system (pa), wherein the ruling Chou king ratified a collective
power-sharing arrangement with the most powerful feudal lords.
Kuhn, Thomas S(amuel)
(1922–96), American historian and philosopher of science. Kuhn studied at
Harvard, where he received degrees in physics (1943, 1946) and a doctorate in
the history of science (1949). He then taught history of science or philosophy
of science at Harvard (1951–56), Berkeley (1956–64), Princeton (1964–79), and
M.I.T. (1979–91). Kuhn traced his shift from physics to the history and
philosophy of science to a moment in 1947 when he was Kropotkin, Petr
Alekseevich Kuhn, Thomas S(amuel) 478 4065h-l.qxd 08/02/1999 7:40 AM Page 478
asked to teach some science to humanities majors. Searching for a case study to
illuminate the development of Newtonian mechanics, Kuhn opened Aristotle’s
Physics and was astonished at how “simply wrong” it was. After a while, Kuhn
came to “think like an Aristotelian physicist” and to realize that Aristotle’s
basic concepts were totally unlike Newton’s, and that, understood on its own
terms, Aristotle’s Physics was not bad Newtonian mechanics. This new
perspective resulted in The Copernican Revolution (1957), a study of the
transformation of the Aristotelian geocentric image of the world to the modern
heliocentric one. Pondering the structure of these changes, Kuhn produced his
immensely influential second book, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
(1962). He argued that scientific thought is defined by “paradigms,” variously
describing these as disciplinary matrixes or exemplars, i.e., conceptual
world-views consisting of beliefs, values, and techniques shared by members of
a given community, or an element in that constellation: concrete achievements
used as models for research. According to Kuhn, scientists accept a prevailing
paradigm in “normal science” and attempt to articulate it by refining its
theories and laws, solving various puzzles, and establishing more accurate
measurements of constants. Eventually, however, their efforts may generate
anomalies; these emerge only with difficulty, against a background of
expectations provided by the paradigm. The accumulation of anomalies triggers a
crisis that is sometimes resolved by a revolution that replaces the old
paradigm with a new one. One need only look to the displacement of Aristotelian
physics and geocentric astronomy by Newtonian mechanics and heliocentrism for
instances of such paradigm shifts. In this way, Kuhn challenged the traditional
conception of scientific progress as gradual, cumulative acquisition of
knowledge. He elaborated upon these themes and extended his historical
inquiries in his later works, The Essential Tension (1977) and Black-Body
Theory and the Quantum Discontinuity (1978).
kung, szu, a Chinese
distinction corresponding to the opposition between “public” and “private”
interests, a key feature of Confucian and Legalist ethics. The distinction is
sometimes expressed by other terms suggestive of distinction between
impartiality and partiality, as in the Mo Tzu, or the Neo-Confucian distinction
between Heavenly principle (t’ien-li) and selfish desires. For the Confucians,
private and personal concerns are acceptable only insofar as they do not
conflict with the rules of propriety (li) and righteousness (i). Partiality
toward one’s personal relationships is also acceptable provided that such
partiality admits of reasonable justification, especially when such a concern
is not incompatible with jen or the ideal of humanity. This view contrasts with
egoism, altruism, and utilitarianism.
K’ung Ch’iu. See
CONFUCIUS. Kung Fu-tzu. See CONFUCIUS. Kung-sun Lung Tzu (fl. 300 B.C.),
Chinese philosopher best known for his dialogue defending the claim “A white
horse is not a horse.” Kung-sun probably regarded his paradox only as an
entertaining exercise in disputation (pien), and not as philosophically
illuminating. Nonetheless, it may have had the serious effect of helping to
bring disputation into disrepute in China. Numerous interpretations of the
“white horse” dialogue have been proposed. One recent theory is that Kung-sun
Lung Tzu is assuming that ‘white horse’ refers to two things (an equine shape
and a color) while ‘horse’ refers only to the shape, and then simply observing
that the whole (shape and color) is not identical with one of its parts (the
shape).
Kuo Hsiang (died A.D.
312), Chinese thinker of the Hsüan Hsüeh (Mysterious Learning) School. He is
described, along with thinkers like Wang Pi, as a Neo-Taoist. Kuo helped
develop the notion of li (pattern) as the underlying structure of the cosmos,
of which each thing receives an individual fen (allotment). All things are
“one” in having such “natural” roles to play, and by being tzu jan
(spontaneous), can attain a mystical oneness with all things. For Kuo, the fen
of human beings included standard Confucian virtues. Kuo is credited with
editing the current edition of the Chuang Tzu and composing what is now the
oldest extant commentary on it.
k’un Kyoto School 479
4065h-l.qxd 08/02/1999 7:40 AM Page 479 Labriola, Antonio (1843–1904), Italian
Marxist philosopher who studied Hegel and corresponded with Engels for several
years (Lettere a Engels, 1949). His essays on Marxism appeared first in French
in the collection Essais sur la conception matérialiste de l’histoire (“Essays
on the Materialist Conception of History,” 1897). Another influential work,
Discorrendo di socialismo e di filosofia (“Talks about Socialism and
Philosophy,” 1897), collects ten letters to Georges Sorel on Marxism. Labriola
did not intend to develop an original Marxist theory but only to give an
accurate exposition of Marx’s thought. He believed that socialism would
inevitably ensue from the inner contradictions of capitalist society and
defended Marx’s views as objective scientific truths. He criticized revisionism
and defended the need to maintain the orthodoxy of Marxist thought. His views
and works were publicized by two of his students, Sorel in France and Croce in
Italy. In the 1950s Antonio Gramsci brought new attention to Labriola as an example
of pure and independent Marxism.
labours:
the twelve labours of Grice. They are twelve. The first is Extensionalism. The
second is Nominalism. The third is Positivism. The fourth is Naturalism. The
fifth is Mechanism. The sixth is Phenomenalism. The seventh is Reductionism.
The eighth is physicalism. The ninth is materialism. The tenth is Empiricism.
The eleventh is Scepticism, and the twelfth is functionalism. “As I thread my way unsteadily along the tortuous mountain
path which is supposed to lead, in the long distance, to the City of Eternal
Truth, I find myself beset by a multitude of demons and perilous places,
bearing names like Extensionalism, Nominalism, Positivism, Naturalism,
Mechanism, Phenomenalism, Reductionism, Physicalism, Materialism, Empiricism,
Scepticism, and Functionalism; menaces which are, indeed, almost as numerous as
those encountered by a traveller called Christian on another well-publicized
journey.”“The items named in this catalogue are obviously, in many cases, not
to be identified with one another; and it is perfectly possible to maintain a
friendly attitude towards some of them while viewing others with hostility.” “There are many persons, for example, who view Naturalism
with favour while firmly rejecting Nominalism.”“And it is not easy to see how
anyone could couple support for Phenomenalism with support for
Physicalism.”“After a more tolerant (permissive) middle age, I have come to
entertain strong opposition to all of them, perhaps partly as a result of the
strong connection between a number of them and the philosophical technologies
which used to appeal to me a good deal more than they do now.“But how would I
justify the hardening of my heart?” “The
first question is, perhaps, what gives the list of items a unity, so that I can
think of myself as entertaining one twelve-fold antipathy, rather than twelve
discrete antipathies.”
“To this question my answer is that
all the items are forms of what I shall call Minimalism, a propensity which
seeks to keep to a minimum (which may in some cases be zero) the scope
allocated to some advertised philosophical commodity, such as abstract
entities, knowledge, absolute value, and so forth.”“In weighing the case for
and the case against a trend of so high a degree of generality as Minimalism,
kinds of consideration may legitimately enter which would be out of place were
the issue more specific in character; in particular, appeal may be made to
aesthetic considerations.”“In favour of Minimalism, for example, we might hear
an appeal, echoing Quine, to the beauty of ‘desert landscapes.’”“But such an
appeal I would regard as inappropriate.”“We are not being asked by a Minimalist
to give our vote to a special, and no doubt very fine, type of landscape.”“We
are being asked to express our preference for an ordinary sort of landscape at
a recognizably lean time; to rosebushes and cherry-trees in mid-winter, rather
than in spring or summer.”“To change the image somewhat, what bothers me about
whatI am being offered is not that it is bare, but that it has been
systematically and relentlessly undressed.”“I am also adversely influenced by a
different kind of unattractive feature which some, or perhaps even all of these
betes noires seem to possess.”“Many of them are guilty of restrictive practices
which, perhaps, ought to invite the attention of a Philosophical Trade
Commission.”“They limit in advance the range and resources of philosophical
explanation.”“They limit its range by limiting the kinds of phenomena whose
presence calls for explanation.”“Some prima-facie candidates are watered down,
others are washed away.”“And they limit its resources by forbidding the use of
initially tempting apparatus, such as the concepts expressed by psychological,
or more generally intensional, verbs.”“My own instincts operate in a reverse
direction from this.”“I am inclined to look first at how useful such and such
explanatory ideas might prove to be if admitted, and to waive or postpone
enquiry into their certificates of legitimacy.”“I am conscious that all I have
so far said against Minimalsim has been very general in character, and also
perhaps a little tinged with rhetoric.”“This is not surprising in view of the
generality of the topic.”“But all the same I should like to try to make some
provision for those in search of harder tack.”“I can hardly, in the present
context, attempt to provide fully elaborated arguments against all, or even
against any one, of the diverse items which fall under my label
'Minimalism.’”“The best I can do is to try to give a preliminary sketch of what
I would regard as the case against just one of the possible forms of
minimalism, choosing one which I should regard it as particularly important to
be in a position to reject.”“My selection is Extensionalism, a position imbued
with the spirit of Nominalism, and dear both to those who feel that 'Because it
is red' is no more informative as an answer to the question 'Why is a
pillar-box called ‘red’?' than would be 'Because he is Grice' as an answer to
the question 'Why is that distinguished-looking person called
"Grice"?', and also to those who are particularly impressed by the
power of Set-theory.”“The picture which, I suspect, is liable to go along with
Extensionalism is that of the world of particulars as a domain stocked with
innumerable tiny pellets, internally indistinguishable from one another,
butdistinguished by the groups within which they fall, by the 'clubs' to which
they belong; and since the clubs are distinguished only by their memberships,
there can only be one club to which nothing belongs.”“As one might have
predicted from the outset, this leads to trouble when it comes to the
accommodation of explanation within such a system.”“Explanation of the actual
presence of a particular feature in a particular subject depends crucially on the
possibility of saying what would be the consequence of the presence of such and
such features in that subject, regardless of whether the features in question
even do appear in that subject, or indeed in any subject.”“On the face of it,
if one adopts an extensionalist view-point, the presence of a feature in some
particular will have to be re-expressed in terms of that particular's
membership of a certain set.”“But if we proceed along those lines, since there
is only one empty set, the potential consequences of the possession of in fact
unexemplified features would be invariably the same, no matter how different in
meaning the expressions used to specify such features would ordinarily be
judged to be.”“This is certainly not a conclusion which one would care to
accept.”“I can think of two ways of trying to avoid its acceptance, both of
which seem to me to suffer from serious drawbacks.”
Lacan, Jacques (1901–81),
French practitioner and theorist of psychoanalysis. Lacan developed and
transformed Freudian theory and practice on the basis of the structuralist
linguistics originated by Saussure. According to Lacan, the unconscious is not
a congeries of biological instincts and drives, but rather a system of
linguistic signifiers. He construes, e.g., the fundamental Freudian processes
of condensation and displacement as instances of metaphor and metonymy. Lacan
proposed a Freudianism in which any traces of the substantial Cartesian self
are replaced by a system of symbolic functions. Contrary to standard views, the
ego is an imaginary projection, not our access to the real (which, for Lacan,
is the unattainable and inexpressible limit of language). In accord with his
theoretical position, Lacan developed a new form of psychoanalytic practice
that tried to avoid rather than achieve the “transference” whereby the
analysand identifies with the mature ego of the analyst. Lacan’s writings
(e.g., Écrits and the numerous volumes of his Séminaires) are of legendary
difficulty, offering idiosyncratic networks of allusion, word play, and
paradox, which some find rich and stimulating and others irresponsibly obscure.
Beyond psychoanalysis, Lacan has been particularly influential on literary
theorists and on poststructuralist philosophers such as Foucault, Derrida, and
Deleuze.
Laffitte, Pierre
(1823–1903), French positivist philosopher, a disciple of Comte and founder
(1878) of the Revue Occidentale. Laffitte spread positivism by adopting Comte’s
format of “popular” courses. He faithfully acknowledged Comte’s objective
method and religion of humanity. Laffitte wrote Great Types of Humanity
(1875–76). In Positive Ethics (1881), he distinguishes between theoretical and
practical ethics. His Lectures on First Philosophy (1889–95) sets forth a
metaphysics, or a body of general and abstract laws, that attempts to complete
positivism, to resolve the conflict between the subjective and the objective,
and to avert materialism.
La Forge, Louis de
(1632–66), French philosopher and member of the Cartesian school. La Forge
seems to have become passionately interested in Descartes’s philosophy in about
1650, and grew to become one of its most visible and energetic advocates. La
Forge (together with Gérard van Gutschoven) illustrated the 1664 edition of
Descartes’s L’homme and provided an extensive commentary; both illustrations
and commentary were often reprinted with the text. His main work, though, is
the Traité de l’esprit de l’homme (1665): though not a commentary on Descartes,
it is “in accordance with the principles of René Descartes,” according to its
subtitle. It attempts to continue Descartes’s program in L’homme, left
incomplete at his death, by discussing the mind and its union with the body. In
many ways La Forge’s work is quite orthodox; he carefully follows Descartes’s
opinions on the nature of body, the nature of soul, etc., as they appear in the
extant writings to which he had access. But with others in the Cartesian
school, La Forge’s work contributed to the establishment of the doctrine of
occasionalism as 480 L 4065h-l.qxd 08/02/1999 7:40 AM Page 480 Cartesian
orthodoxy, a doctrine not explicitly found in Descartes’s writings.
Lambda implicature --
Church: a., philosopher, known in pure logic for his discovery and application
of the Church lambda operator, one of the central ideas of the Church lambda
calculus, and for his rigorous formalizations of the theory of types, a
higher-order underlying logic originally formulated in a flawed form by
Whitehead and Russell. The lambda operator enables direct, unambiguous,
symbolic representation of a range of philosophically and mathematically
important expressions previously representable only ambiguously or after
elaborate paraphrasing. In philosophy, Church advocated rigorous analytic
methods based on symbolic logic. His philosophy was characterized by his own
version of logicism, the view that mathematics is reducible to logic, and by
his unhesitating acceptance of higherorder logics. Higher-order logics,
including second-order, are ontologically rich systems that involve quantification
of higher-order variables, variables that range over properties, relations, and
so on. Higher-order logics were routinely used in foundational work by Frege,
Peano, Hilbert, Gödel, Tarski, and others until around World War II, when they
suddenly lost favor. In regard to both his logicism and his acceptance of
higher-order logics, Church countered trends, increasingly dominant in the
third quarter of the twentieth century, against reduction of mathematics to
logic and against the so-called “ontological excesses” of higher-order logic.
In the 0s, although admired for his high standards of rigor and for his
achievements, Church was regarded as conservative or perhaps even reactionary.
Opinions have softened in recent years. On the computational and epistemological
sides of logic Church made two major contributions. He was the first to
articulate the now widely accepted principle known as Church’s thesis, that
every effectively calculable arithmetic function is recursive. At first highly
controversial, this principle connects intuitive, epistemic, extrinsic, and
operational aspects of arithmetic with its formal, ontic, intrinsic, and
abstract aspects. Church’s thesis sets a purely arithmetic outer limit on what
is computationally achievable. Church’s further work on Hilbert’s “decision
problem” led to the discovery and proof of Church’s theorem basically that there is no computational
procedure for determining, of a finite-premised first-order argument, whether
it is valid or invalid. This result contrasts sharply with the previously known
result that the computational truth-table method suffices to determine the
validity of a finite-premised truthfunctional argument. Church’s thesis at once
highlights the vast difference between propositional logic and first-order
logic and sets an outer limit on what is achievable by “automated reasoning.”
Church’s mathematical and philosophical writings are influenced by Frege,
especially by Frege’s semantic distinction between sense and reference, his
emphasis on purely syntactical treatment of proof, and his doctrine that
sentences denote are names of their truth-values. lambda-calculus, also
l-calculus, a theory of mathematical functions that is (a) “logic-free,” i.e.
contains no logical constants (formula-connectives or quantifier-expressions),
and (b) equational, i.e. ‘%’ is its sole predicate (though its metatheory
refers to relations of reducibility between terms). There are two species,
untyped and typed, each with various subspecies. Termhood is always inductively
defined (as is being a type-expression, if the calculus is typed). A definition
of being a term will contain at least these clauses: take infinitely many
variables (of each type if the calculus is typed) to be terms; for any terms t
and s (of appropriate type if the calculus is typed), (ts) is a term (of type
determined by that of t and s if the calculus is typed); for any term t and a
variable u (perhaps meeting certain conditions), (lut) is a term (“of” type
determined by that of t and u if the calculus is typed). (ts) is an
application-term; (lut) is a l-term, the labstraction of t, and its l-prefix
binds all free occurrences of u in t. Relative to any assignment a of values
(of appropriate type if the calculus is typed) to its free variables, each term
denotes a unique entity. Given a term (ts), t denotes a function and (ts)
denotes the output of that function when it is applied to the denotatum of s,
all relative to a. (lut) denotes relative to a that function which when applied
to any entity x (of appropriate type if the calculus is typed) outputs the
denotatum of t relative to the variant of a obtained by assigning u to the
given x. Alonzo Church introduced the untyped l-calculus around 1932 as the
basis for a foundation for mathematics that took all mathematical objects to be
functions. It characterizes a universe of functions, each with that universe as
its domain and each yielding values in that universe. It turned out to be
almost a notational variant of combinatory logic, first presented by Moses Schonfinkel
(1920, written up and published by Behmann in 1924). Church presented the
simplest typed l calculus in 1940. Such a calculus characterizes a domain of
objects and functions, each “of” a unique type, so that the type of any given
function determines two further types, one being the type of all and only those
entities in the domain of that function, the other being the type of all those
entities output by that function. In 1972 Jean-Yves Girard presented the first
second-order (or polymorphic) typed l-calculus. It uses additional
type-expressions themselves constructed by second-order l-abstraction, and also
more complicated terms constructed by labstracting with respect to certain
type-variables, and by applying such terms to type-expressions. The study of
l-calculi has deepened our understanding of constructivity in mathematics. They
are of interest in proof theory, in category theory, and in computer science.
Lambert, Johann Heinrich
(1728–77), German natural philosopher, logician, mathematician, and astronomer.
Born in Mulhouse (Alsace), he was an autodidact who became a prominent member
of the Munich Academy (1759) and the Berlin Academy (1764). He made significant
discoveries in physics and mathematics. His most important philosophical works
were Neues Organon (“New Organon, or Thoughts on the Investigation and
Induction of Truth and the Distinction Between Error and Appearances,” 1764)
and Anlage zur Architectonic (“Plan of an Architectonic, or Theory of the
Simple and Primary Elements in Philosophical and Mathematical Knowledge,”
1771). Lambert attempted to revise metaphysics. Arguing against both German
rationalism and British empiricism, he opted for a form of phenomenalism
similar to that of Kant and Tetens. Like his two contemporaries, he believed
that the mind contains a number of basic concepts and principles that make
knowledge possible. The philosopher’s task is twofold: first, these fundamental
concepts and principles have to be analyzed; second, the truths of science have
to be derived from them. In his own attempt at accomplishing this, Lambert
tended more toward Leibniz than Locke. M.K. La Mettrie, Julien Offroy de
(1707–51), French philosopher who was his generation’s most notorious
materialist, atheist, and hedonist. Raised in Brittany, he was trained at
Leiden by Hermann Boerhaave, an iatromechanist, whose works he translated into
French. As a Lockean sensationalist who read Gassendi and followed
Lambda-abstraction La Mettrie, Julien Offroy de 481 4065h-l.qxd 08/02/1999 7:40
AM Page 481 the Swiss physiologist Haller, La Mettrie took nature to be life’s
dynamic and ultimate principle. In 1745 he published Natural History of the
Soul, which attacked Cartesian dualism and dispensed with God. Drawing from
Descartes’s animal-machine, his masterpiece, Man the Machine(1747), argued that
the organization of matter alone explains man’s physical and intellectual
faculties. Assimilating psychology to mechanistic physiology, La Mettrie
integrated man into nature and proposed a materialistic monism. An Epicurean
and a libertine, he denied any religious or rational morality in Anti-Seneca
(1748) and instead accommodated human behavior to natural laws. Anticipating
Sade’s nihilism, his Art of Enjoying Pleasures and Metaphysical Venus (1751)
eulogized physical passions. Helvétius, d’Holbach, Marx, Plekhanov, and Lenin
all acknowledged a debt to his belief that “to write as a philosopher is to
teach materialism.” J.-L.S. Lange, Friedrich Albert (1828–75), German
philosopher and social scientist. Born at Wald near Solingen, he became a
university instructor at Bonn in 1851, professor of inductive logic at Zürich
in 1870, and professor at Marburg in 1873, establishing neo-Kantian studies
there. He published three books in 1865: Die Arbeiterfrage (The Problem of the
Worker), Die Grundlegung der mathematischen Psychologie (The Foundation of
Mathematical Psychology), and J. S. Mills Ansichten über die sociale Frage und
die angebliche Umwälzung der Socialwissenschaftlichen durch Carey (J. S. Mill’s
Views of the Social Question and Carey’s Supposed Social-Scientific
Revolution). Lange’s most important work, however, Geschichte des Materialismus
(History of Materialism), was published in 1866. An expanded second edition in
two volumes appeared in 1873–75 and in three later editions. The History of
Materialism is a rich, detailed study not only of the development of
materialism but of then-recent work in physical theory, biological theory, and
political economy; it includes a commentary on Kant’s analysis of knowledge. Lange
adopts a restricted positivistic approach to scientific interpretations of man
and the natural world and a conventionalism in regard to scientific theory, and
also encourages the projection of aesthetic interpretations of “the All” from
“the standpoint of the ideal.” Rejecting reductive materialism, Lange argues
that a strict analysis of materialism leads to ineliminable idealist
theoretical issues, and he adopts a form of materio-idealism. In his Geschichte
are anticipations of instrumental fictionalism, pragmatism, conventionalism,
and psychological egoism. Following the skepticism of the scientists he
discusses, Lange adopts an agnosticism about the ultimate constituents of
actuality and a radical phenomenalism. His major work was much admired by Russell
and significantly influenced the thought of Nietzsche. History of Materialism
predicted coming sociopolitical “earthquakes” because of the rise of science,
the decline of religion, and the increasing tensions of “the social problem.”
Die Arbeiterfrage explores the impact of industrialization and technology on
the “social problem” and predicts a coming social “struggle for survival” in
terms already recognizable as Social Darwinism. Both theoretically and
practically, Lange was a champion of workers and favored a form of democratic
socialism. His study of J. S. Mill and the economist Henry Carey was a valuable
contribution to social science and political economic theory.
Lao Tzu (sixth century
B.C.), Chinese philosopher traditionally thought to be a contemporary of
Confucius and the author of the Tao Te Ching (“Classic of tao and te“). Most
contemporary scholars hold that “Lao Tzu” is a composite of legendary early
sages, and that the Tao Te Ching is an anthology, a version of which existed no
earlier than the third century B.C. The Tao Te Ching combines paradoxical
mysticism with hardheaded political advice (Han Fei Tzu wrote a commentary on
it) and a call to return to a primitive utopia, without the corrupting
accoutrements of civilization, such as ritual (li), luxury items, and even
writing. In its exaltation of spontaneous action and denigration of Confucian
virtues such as jen, the text is reminiscent of Chuang Tzu, but it is
distinctive both for its style (which is lapidary to the point of obscurity)
and its political orienLange, Friedrich Albert Lao Tzu 482 4065h-l.qxd
08/02/1999 7:40 AM Page 482 tation. Translations of the Tao Te Ching are based
on either the Wang Pi text or the recently discovered Ma-wang-tui text.
La Peyrère, Isaac
(1596–1676), French religious writer, a Calvinist of probable Marrano
extraction and a Catholic convert whose messianic and anthropological work (Men
Before Adam, 1656) scandalized Jews, Catholics, and Protestants alike.
Anticipating both ecumenism and Zionism, The Recall of the Jews (1643) claims
that, together, converted Jews and Christians will usher in universal
redemption. A threefold “salvation history” undergirds La Peyrère’s “Marrano
theology”: (1) election of the Jews; (2) their rejection and the election of the
Christians; (3) the recall of the Jews. J.-L.S. Laplace, Pierre Simon de
(1749–1827), French mathematician and astronomer who produced the definitive
formulation of the classical theory of probability. He taught at various
schools in Paris, including the École Militaire; one of his students was
Napoleon, to whom he dedicated his work on probability. According to Laplace,
probabilities arise from our ignorance. The world is deterministic, so the
probability of a possible event depends on our limited information about it
rather than on the causal forces that determine whether it shall occur. Our
chief means of calculating probabilities is the principle of insufficient
reason, or the principle of indifference. It says that if there is no reason to
believe that one of n mutually exclusive and jointly exhaustive possible cases
will obtain rather than some other, so that the cases are equally possible,
then the probability of each case is 1/n. In addition, the probability of a
possible event equivalent to a disjunction of cases is the number of cases
favorable to the event divided by the total number of cases. For instance, the
probability that the top card of a well-shuffled deck is a diamond is
13/52.Laplace’s chief work on probability is Théorie analytique des probabilités(Analytic
Theory of Probabilities, 1812).
Law -- H. P. Grice was
obsessed with ‘laws’ to introduce ‘psychological concepts.’ covering law model,
the view of scientific explanation as a deductive argument which contains
non-vacuously at least one universal law among its premises. The names of this
view include ‘Hempel’s model’, ‘Hempel-Oppenheim HO model’, ‘Popper-Hempel
model’, ‘deductivenomological D-N model’, and the ‘subsumption theory’ of
explanation. The term ‘covering law model of explanation’ was proposed by
William Dray. The theory of scientific explanation was first developed by
Aristotle. He suggested that science proceeds from mere knowing that to deeper
knowing why by giving understanding of different things by the four types of causes.
Answers to why-questions are given by scientific syllogisms, i.e., by deductive
arguments with premises that are necessarily true and causes of their
consequences. Typical examples are the “subsumptive” arguments that can be
expressed by the Barbara syllogism: All ravens are black. Jack is a raven.
Therefore, Jack is black. Plants containing chlorophyll are green. Grass
contains chlorophyll. Therefore, grass is green. In modern logical notation, An
explanatory argument was later called in Grecian synthesis, in Latin compositio
or demonstratio propter quid. After the seventeenth century, the terms
‘explication’ and ‘explanation’ became commonly used. The nineteenth-century
empiricists accepted Hume’s criticism of Aristotelian essences and necessities:
a law of nature is an extensional statement that expresses a uniformity, i.e.,
a constant conjunction between properties ‘All swans are white’ or types of
events ‘Lightning is always followed by thunder’. Still, they accepted the
subsumption theory of explanation: “An individual fact is said to be explained
by pointing out its cause, that is, by stating the law or laws of causation, of
which its production is an instance,” and “a law or uniformity in nature is
said to be explained when another law or laws are pointed out, of which that
law itself is but a case, and from which it could be deduced” J. S. Mill. A
general model of probabilistic explanation, with deductive explanation as a
specific case, was given by Peirce in 3. A modern formulation of the subsumption
theory was given by Hempel and Paul Oppenheim in 8 by the following schema of
D-N explanation: Explanandum E is here a sentence that describes a known
particular event or fact singular explanation or uniformity explanation of
laws. Explanation is an argument that answers an explanation-seeking
why-question ‘Why E?’ by showing that E is nomically expectable on the basis of
general laws r M 1 and antecedent conditions. The relation between the
explanans and the explanandum is logical deduction. Explanation is
distinguished from other kinds of scientific systematization prediction,
postdiction that share its logical characteristics a view often called the symmetry thesis
regarding explanation and prediction by
the presupposition that the phenomenon E is already known. This also separates
explanations from reason-seeking arguments that answer questions of the form
‘What reasons are there for believing that E?’ Hempel and Oppenheim required
that the explanans have empirical content, i.e., be testable by experiment or
observation, and it must be true. If the strong condition of truth is dropped,
we speak of potential explanation. Dispositional explanations, for
non-probabilistic dispositions, can be formulated in the D-N model. For
example, let Hx % ‘x is hit by hammer’, Bx % ‘x breaks’, and Dx % ‘x is
fragile’. Then the explanation why a piece of glass was broken may refer to its
fragility and its being hit: It is easy to find examples of HO explanations
that are not satisfactory: self-explanations ‘Grass is green, because grass is
green’, explanations with too weak premises ‘John died, because he had a heart
attack or his plane crashed’, and explanations with irrelevant information
‘This stuff dissolves in water, because it is sugar produced in Finland’. Attempts
at finding necessary and sufficient conditions in syntactic and semantic terms
for acceptable explanations have not led to any agreement. The HO model also
needs the additional Aristotelian condition that causal explanation is directed
from causes to effects. This is shown by Sylvain Bromberger’s flagpole example:
the length of a flagpole explains the length of its shadow, but not vice versa.
Michael Scriven has argued against Hempel that eaplanations of particular
events should be given by singular causal statements ‘E because C’. However, a
regularity theory Humean or stronger than Humean of causality implies that the
truth of such a singular causal statement presupposes a universal law of the
form ‘Events of type C are universally followed by events of type E’. The HO
version of the covering law model can be generalized in several directions. The
explanans may contain probabilistic or statistical laws. The
explanans-explanandum relation may be inductive in this case the explanation
itself is inductive. This gives us four types of explanations:
deductive-universal i.e., D-N, deductiveprobabilistic, inductive-universal, and
inductiveprobabilistic I-P. Hempel’s 2 model for I-P explanation contains a
probabilistic covering law PG/F % r, where r is the statistical probability of
G given F, and r in brackets is the inductive probability of the explanandum
given the explanans: The explanation-seeking question may be weakened from ‘Why
necessarily E?’ to ‘How possibly E?’. In a corrective explanation, the explanatory
answer points out that the explanandum sentence E is not strictly true. This is
the case in approximate explanation e.g., Newton’s theory entails a corrected
form of Galileo’s and Kepler’s laws.
lawlike generalization,
also called nomological (or nomic), a generalization that, unlike an accidental
generalization, possesses nomic necessity or counterfactual force. Compare (1)
‘All specimens of gold have a melting point of 1,063o C’ with (2) ‘All the
rocks in my garden are sedimentary’. (2) may be true, but its generality is
restricted to rocks in my garden. Its truth is accidental; it does not state
what must be the case. (1) is true without restriction. If we write (1) as the
conditional ‘For any x and for any time t, if x is a specimen of gold subjected
to a temperature of 1,063o C, then x will melt’, we see that the generalization
states what must be the case. (1) supports the hypothetical counterfactual
assertion ‘For any specimen of gold x and for any time t, if x were subjected
to a temperature of 1,063o C, then x would melt’, which means that we accept
(1) as nomically necessary: it remains true even if no further specimens of
gold are subjected to the required temperature. This is not true of (2), for we
know that at some future time an igneous rock might appear in my garden.
Statements like (2) are not lawlike; they do not possess the unrestricted
necessity we require of lawlike statements. Ernest Nagel has claimed that a
nomological statement must satisfy two other conditions: it must deductively
entail or be deductively entailed by other laws, and its scope of prediction
must exceed the known evidence for it.
laws of thought, laws by
which or in accordance with which valid thought proceeds, or that justify valid
inference, or to which all valid deduction is reducible. Laws of thought are
rules that apply without exception to any subject matter of thought, etc.;
sometimes they are said to be the object of logic. The term, rarely used in
exactly the same sense by different authors, has long been associated with
three equally ambiguous expressions: the law of identity (ID), the law of
contradiction (or non-contradiction; NC), and the law of excluded middle (EM).
Sometimes these three expressions are taken as propositions of formal ontology
having the widest possible subject matter, propositions that apply to entities
per se: (ID) every thing is (i.e., is identical to) itself; (NC) no thing
having a given quality also has the negative of that quality (e.g., no even
number is non-even); (EM) every thing either has a given quality or has the
negative of that quality (e.g., every number is either even or non-even).
Equally common in older works is use of these expressions for principles of
metalogic about propositions: (ID) every proposition implies itself; (NC) no
proposition is both true and false; (EM) every proposition is either true or
false. Beginning in the middle to late 1800s these expressions have been used
to denote propositions of Boolean Algebra about classes: (ID) every class
includes itself; (NC) every class is such that its intersection (“product”)
with its own complement is the null class; (EM) every class is such that its
union (“sum”) with its own complement is the universal class. More recently the
last two of the three expressions have been used in connection with the
classical propositional logic and with the socalled protothetic or quantified
propositional logic; in both cases the law of non-contradiction involves the
negation of the conjunction (‘and’) of something with its own negation and the
law of excluded middle involves the disjunction (‘or’) of something with its
own negation. In the case of propositional logic the “something” is a schematic
letter serving as a place-holder, whereas in the case of protothetic logic the
“something” is a genuine variable. The expressions ‘law of non-contradiction’
and ‘law of excluded middle’ are also used for semantic principles of model
theory concerning sentences and interpretations: (NC) under no interpretation
is a given sentence both true and false; (EM) under any interpretation, a given
sentence is either true or false. The expressions mentioned above all have been
used in many other ways. Many other propositions have also been mentioned as
laws of thought, including the dictum de omni et nullo attributed to Aristotle,
the substitutivity of identicals (or equals) attributed to Euclid, the socalled
identity of indiscernibles attributed to Leibniz, and other “logical truths.”
The expression “laws of thought” gained added prominence through its use by
Boole (1815–64) to denote theorems of his “algebra of logic”; in fact, he named
his second logic book An Investigation of the Laws of Thought (1854). Modern
logicians, in almost unanimous disagreement with Boole, take this expression to
be a misnomer; none of the above propositions classed under ‘laws of thought’
are explicitly about thought per se, a mental phenomenon studied by psychology,
nor do they involve explicit reference to a thinker or knower as would be the
case in pragmatics or in epistemology. The distinction between psychology (as a
study of mental phenomena) and logic (as a study of valid inference) is widely
accepted.
Lebensphilosophie, German
term, translated as ‘philosophy of life’, that became current in a variety of
popular and philosophical inflections during the second half of the nineteenth
century. Such philosophers as Dilthey and Eucken (1846– 1926) frequently
applied it to a general philosophical approach or attitude that distinguished
itself, on the one hand, from the construction of comprehensive systems by
Hegel and his followers and, on the other, from the tendency of empiricism and
early positivism to reduce law of double negation Lebensphilosophie 489
4065h-l.qxd 08/02/1999 7:40 AM Page 489 human experience to epistemological
questions about sensations or impressions. Rather, a Lebensphilosophie should
begin from a recognition of the variety and complexity of concrete and already
meaningful human experience as it is “lived”; it should acknowledge that all
human beings, including the philosopher, are always immersed in historical
processes and forms of organization; and it should seek to understand,
describe, and sometimes even alter these and their various patterns of
interrelation without abstraction or reduction. Such “philosophies of life” as
those of Dilthey and Eucken provided much of the philosophical background for
the conception of the social sciences as interpretive rather than explanatory
disciplines. They also anticipated some central ideas of phenomenology, in particular
the notion of the Life-World in Husserl, and certain closely related themes in
Heidegger’s version of existentialism.
legal moralism, the view
(defended in this century by, e.g., Lord Patrick Devlin) that law may properly
be used to enforce morality, including notably “sexual morality.” Contemporary
critics of the view (e.g., Hart) expand on the argument of Mill that law should
only be used to prevent harm to others.
legal positivism, a
theory about the nature of law, commonly thought to be characterized by two
major tenets: (1) that there is no necessary connection between law and
morality; and (2) that legal validity is determined ultimately by reference to
certain basic social facts, e.g., the command of the sovereign (John Austin),
the Grundnorm (Hans Kelsen), or the rule of recognition (Hart). These different
descriptions of the basic law-determining facts lead to different claims about
the normative character of law, with classical positivists (e.g., John Austin)
insisting that law is essentially coercive, and modern positivists (e.g., Hans
Kelsen) maintaining that it is normative. The traditional opponent of the legal
positivist is the natural law theorist, who holds that no sharp distinction can
be drawn between law and morality, thus challenging positivism’s first tenet.
Whether that tenet follows from positivism’s second tenet is a question of
current interest and leads inevitably to the classical question of political
theory: Under what conditions might legal obligations, even if determined by
social facts, create genuine political obligations (e.g., the obligation to
obey the law)?
legal realism, a theory
in philosophy of law or jurisprudence broadly characterized by the claim that
the nature of law is better understood by observing what courts and citizens
actually do than by analyzing stated legal rules and legal concepts. The theory
is also associated with the thoughts that legal rules are disguised predictions
of what courts will do, and that only the actual decisions of courts constitute
law. There are two important traditions of legal realism, in Scandinavia and in
the United States. Both began in the early part of the century, and both focus
on the reality (hence the name ‘legal realism’) of the actual legal system,
rather than on law’s official image of itself. The Scandinavian tradition is
more theoretical and presents its views as philosophical accounts of the
normativity of law based on skeptical methodology – the normative force of law
consists in nothing but the feelings of citizens or officials or both about or
their beliefs in that normative force. The older, U.S. tradition is more
empirical or sociological or instrumentalist, focusing on how legislation is
actually enacted, how rules are actually applied, how courts’ decisions are
actually taken, and so forth. U.S. legal realism in its contemporary form is
known as critical legal studies. Its argumentation is both empirical (law as
experienced to be and Lebenswelt legal realism 490 4065h-l.qxd 08/02/1999 7:40
AM Page 490 as being oppressive by gender, race, and class) and theoretical
(law as essentially indeterminate, or interpretative – properties that prime
law for its role in political manipulation).
Leibniz, Gottfried
Wilhelm (1646–1716), German rationalist philosopher who made seminal
contributions in geology, linguistics, historiography, mathematics, and
physics, as well as philosophy. He was born in Leipzig and died in Hanover.
Trained in the law, he earned a living as a councilor, diplomat, librarian, and
historian, primarily in the court of Hanover. His contributions in mathematics,
physics, and philosophy were known and appreciated among his educated
contemporaries in virtue of his publication in Europe’s leading scholarly
journals and his vast correspondence with intellectuals in a variety of fields.
He was best known in his lifetime for his contributions to mathematics,
especially to the development of the calculus, where a debate raged over
whether Newton or Leibniz should be credited with priority for its discovery. Current
scholarly opinion seems to have settled on this: each discovered the basic
foundations of the calculus independently; Newton’s discovery preceded that of
Leibniz; Leibniz’s publication of the basic theory of the calculus preceded
that of Newton. Leibniz’s contributions to philosophy were known to his
contemporaries through articles published in learned journals, correspondence,
and one book published in his lifetime, the Theodicy (1710). He wrote a
book-length study of Locke’s philosophy, New Essays on Human Understanding, but
decided not to publish it when he learned of Locke’s death. Examination of
Leibniz’s papers after his own death revealed that what he published during his
lifetime was but the tip of the iceberg. Perhaps the most complete formulation
of Leibniz’s mature metaphysics occurs in his correspondence (1698–1706) with
Burcher De Volder, a professor of philosophy at the University of Leyden.
Leibniz therein formulated his basic ontological thesis: Considering matters
accurately, it must be said that there is nothing in things except simple
substances, and, in them, nothing but perception and appetite. Moreover, matter
and motion are not so much substances or things as they are the phenomena of
percipient beings, the reality of which is located in the harmony of each
percipient with itself (with respect to different times) and with other
percipients. In this passage Leibniz asserts that the basic individuals of an
acceptable ontology are all monads, i.e., immaterial entities lacking spatial
parts, whose basic properties are a function of their perceptions and
appetites. He held that each monad perceives all the other monads with varying
degrees of clarity, except for God, who perceives all monads with utter
clarity. Leibniz’s main theses concerning causality among the created monads
are these: God creates, conserves, and concurs in the actions of each created
monad. Each state of a created monad is a causal consequence of its preceding
state, except for its state at creation and any of its states due to miraculous
divine causality. Intrasubstantial causality is the rule with respect to
created monads, which are precluded from intersubstantial causality, a mode of
operation of which God alone is capable. Leibniz was aware that elements of this
monadology may seem counterintuitive, that, e.g., there appear to be extended
entities composed of parts, existing in space and time, causally interacting
with each other. In the second sentence of the quoted passage Leibniz set out
some of the ingredients of his theory of the preestablished harmony, one point
of which is to save those appearances that are sufficiently well-founded to
deserve saving. In the case of material objects, Leibniz formulated a version
of phenomenalism, based on harmony among the perceptions of the monads. In the
case of apparent intersubstantial causal relations among created monads,
Leibniz proposed an analysis according to which the underlying reality is an
increase in the clarity of relevant perceptions of the apparent causal agent,
combined with a corresponding decrease in the clarity of the relevant
perceptions of the apparent patient. Leibniz treated material objects and
intersubstantial causal relations among created entities as well-founded
phenomena. By contrast, he treated space and time as ideal entities. Leibniz’s
mature metaphysics includes a threefold classifilegal right Leibniz, Gottfried
Wilhelm 491 4065h-l.qxd 08/02/1999 7:40 AM Page 491 cation of entities that
must be accorded some degree of reality: ideal entities, well-founded
phenomena, and actual existents, i.e., the monads with their perceptions and
appetites. In the passage quoted above Leibniz set out to distinguish the
actual entities, the monads, from material entities, which he regarded as
well-founded phenomena. In the following passage from another letter to De
Volder he formulated the distinction between actual and ideal entities: In
actual entities there is nothing but discrete quantity, namely, the multitude
of monads, i.e., simple substances. . . . But continuous quantity is something
ideal, which pertains to possibles, and to actuals, insofar as they are
possible. Indeed, a continuum involves indeterminate parts, whereas, by
contrast, there is nothing indefinite in actual entities, in which every division
that can be made, is made. Actual things are composed in the manner that a
number is composed of unities, ideal things are composed in the manner that a
number is composed of fractions. The parts are actual in the real whole, but
not in the ideal. By confusing ideal things with real substances when we seek
actual parts in the order of possibles and indeterminate parts in the aggregate
of actual things, we entangle ourselves in the labyrinth of the continuum and
in inexplicable contradictions. The labyrinth of the continuum was one of two
labyrinths that, according to Leibniz, vex the philosophical mind. His views
about the proper course to take in unraveling the labyrinth of the continuum
are one source of his monadology. Ultimately, he concluded that whatever may be
infinitely divided without reaching indivisible entities is not something that
belongs in the basic ontological category. His investigations of the nature of
individuation and identity over time provided premises from which he concluded
that only indivisible entities are ultimately real, and that an individual
persists over time only if its subsequent states are causal consequences of its
preceding states. In refining the metaphysical insights that yielded the
monadology, Leibniz formulated and defended various important metaphysical
theses, e.g.: the identity of indiscernibles – that individual substances
differ with respect to their intrinsic, non-relational properties; and the
doctrine of minute perceptions – that each created substance has some
perceptions of which it lacks awareness. In the process of providing what he
took to be an acceptable account of well-founded phenomena, Leibniz formulated
various theses counter to the then prevailing Cartesian orthodoxy, concerning
the nature of material objects. In particular, Leibniz argued that a correct
application of Galileo’s discoveries concerning acceleration of freely falling
bodies of the phenomena of impact indicates that force is not to be identified
with quantity of motion, i.e., mass times velocity, as Descartes held, but is
to be measured by mass times the square of the velocity. Moreover, Leibniz
argued that it is force, measured as mass times the square of the velocity,
that is conserved in nature, not quantity of motion. From these results Leibniz
drew some important metaphysical conclusions. He argued that force, unlike
quantity of motion, cannot be reduced to a conjunction of modifications of
extension. But force is a central property of material objects. Hence, he
concluded that Descartes was mistaken in attempting to reduce matter to
extension and its modifications. Leibniz concluded that each material substance
must have a substantial form that accounts for its active force. These
conclusions have to do with entities that Leibniz viewed as phenomenal. He drew
analogous conclusions concerning the entities he regarded as ultimately real,
i.e., the monads. Thus, although Leibniz held that each monad is absolutely
simple, i.e., without parts, he also held that the matter–form distinction has
an application to each created monad. In a letter to De Volder he wrote:
Therefore, I distinguish (1) the primitive entelechy or soul, (2) primary
matter, i.e., primitive passive power, (3) monads completed from these two, (4)
mass, i.e., second matter . . . in which innumerable subordinate monads come
together, (5) the animal, i.e., corporeal substance, which a dominating monad
makes into one machine. The second labyrinth vexing the philosophical mind,
according to Leibniz, is the labyrinth of freedom. It is fair to say that for
Leibniz the labyrinth of freedom is fundamentally a matter of how it is
possible that some states of affairs obtain contingently, i.e., how it is
possible that some propositions are true that might have been false. There are two
distinct sources of the problem of contingency in Leibniz’s philosophy, one
theological, and the other metaphysical. Each source may be grasped by
considering an argument that appears to have premises to which Leibniz was
predisposed and the conclusion that every state of affairs that obtains,
obtains necessarily, and hence that there are no contingent propositions.
Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm 492 4065h-l.qxd
08/02/1999 7:40 AM Page 492 The metaphysical argument is centered on some of
Leibniz’s theses about the nature of truth. He held that the truth-value of all
propositions is settled once truth-values have been assigned to the elementary
propositions, i.e., those expressed by sentences in subject-predicate form. And
he held that a sentence in subject-predicate form expresses a true proposition
if and only if the concept of its predicate is included in the concept of its
subject. But this makes it sound as if Leibniz were committed to the view that
an elementary proposition is true if and only if it is conceptually true, from
which it seems to follow that an elementary proposition is true if and only if
it is necessarily true. Leibniz’s views concerning the relation of the
truthvalue of non-elementary propositions to the truth-value of elementary
propositions, then, seem to entail that there are no contingent propositions.
He rejected this conclusion in virtue of rejecting the thesis that if an
elementary proposition is conceptually true then it is necessarily true. The
materials for his rejection of this thesis are located in theses connected with
his program for a universal science (scientia universalis). This program had
two parts: a universal notation (characteristica universalis), whose purpose
was to provide a method for recording scientific facts as perspicuous as
algebraic notation, and a formal system of reasoning (calculus ratiocinator)
for reasoning about the facts recorded. Supporting Leibniz’s belief in the
possibility and utility of the characteristica universalis and the calculus
ratiocinator is his thesis that all concepts arise from simple primitive
concepts via concept conjunction and concept complementation. In virtue of this
thesis, he held that all concepts may be analyzed into their simple, primitive
components, with this proviso: in some cases there is no finite analysis of a
concept into its primitive components; but there is an analysis that converges
on the primitive components without ever reaching them. This is the doctrine of
infinite analysis, which Leibniz applied to ward off the threat to contingency
apparently posed by his account of truth. He held that an elementary
proposition is necessarily true if and only if there is a finite analysis that
reveals that its predicate concept is included in its subject concept. By
contrast, an elementary proposition is contingently true if and only if there
is no such finite analysis, but there is an analysis of its predicate concept
that converges on a component of its subject concept. The theological argument
may be put this way. There would be no world were God not to choose to create a
world. As with every choice, as, indeed, with every state of affairs that
obtains, there must be a sufficient reason for that choice, for the obtaining
of that state of affairs – this is what the principle of sufficient reason
amounts to, according to Leibniz. The reason for God’s choice of a world to
create must be located in God’s power and his moral character. But God is
allpowerful and morally perfect, both of which attributes he has of necessity.
Hence, of necessity, God chose to create the best possible world. Whatever
possible world is the best possible world, is so of necessity. Hence, whatever
possible world is actual, is so of necessity. A possible world is defined with
respect to the states of affairs that obtain in it. Hence, whatever states of
affairs obtain, do so of necessity. Therefore, there are no contingent
propositions. Leibniz’s options here were limited. He was committed to the
thesis that the principle of sufficient reason, when applied to God’s choice of
a world to create, given God’s attributes, yields the conclusion that this is
the best possible world – a fundamental component of his solution to the
problem of evil. He considered two ways of avoiding the conclusion of the
argument noted above. The first consists in claiming that although God is
metaphysically perfect of necessity, i.e., has every simple, positive
perfection of necessity, and although God is morally perfect, nonetheless he is
not morally perfect of necessity, but rather by choice. The second consists in
denying that whatever possible world is the best, is so of necessity, relying
on the idea that the claim that a given possible world is the best involves a
comparison with infinitely many other possible worlds, and hence, if true, is
only contingently true. Once again the doctrine of infinite analysis served as
the centerpiece of Leibniz’s efforts to establish that, contrary to
appearances, his views do not lead to necessitarianism, i.e., to the thesis
that there is no genuine contingency. Much of Leibniz’s work in philosophical
theology had as a central motivation an effort to formulate a sound
philosophical and theological basis for various church reunion projects –
especially reunion between Lutherans and Calvinists on the Protestant side, and
ultimately, reunion between Protestants and Catholics. He thought that most of
the classical arguments for the existence of God, if formulated with care,
i.e., in the way in which Leibniz formulated them, succeeded in proving what
they set out to prove. For example, Leibniz thought that Descartes’s version of
the ontological argument established the existence of a perfect being, with one
crucial proviso: that an absolutely perfect being is possible. Leibniz, Gottfried
Wilhelm Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm 493 4065h-l.qxd 08/02/1999 7:40 AM Page 493
Leibniz believed that none of his predecessors had established this premise, so
he set out to do so. The basic idea of his purported proof is this. A
perfection is a simple, positive property. Hence, there can be no demonstration
that there is a formal inconsistency in asserting that various collections of
them are instantiated by the same being. But if there is no such demonstration,
then it is possible that something has them all. Hence, a perfect being is
possible. Leibniz did not consider in detail many of the fundamental
epistemological issues that so moved Descartes and the British empiricists.
Nonetheless, Leibniz made significant contributions to the theory of knowledge.
His account of our knowledge of contingent truths is much like what we would
expect of an empiricist’s epistemology. He claimed that our knowledge of
particular contingent truths has its basis in sense perception. He argued that
simple enumerative induction cannot account for all our knowledge of universal
contingent truths; it must be supplemented by what he called the a priori
conjectural method, a precursor of the hypothetico-deductive method. He made
contributions to developing a formal theory of probability, which he regarded
as essential for an adequate account of our knowledge of contingent truths.
Leibniz’s rationalism is evident in his account of our a priori knowledge,
which for him amounted to our knowledge of necessary truths. Leibniz thought
that Locke’s empiricism did not provide an acceptable account of a priori
knowledge, because it attempted to locate all the materials of justification as
deriving from sensory experience, thus overlooking what Leibniz took to be the
primary source of our a priori knowledge, i.e., what is innate in the mind. He
summarized his debate with Locke on these matters thus: Our differences are on
matters of some importance. It is a matter of knowing if the soul in itself is
entirely empty like a writing tablet on which nothing has as yet been written
(tabula rasa), . . . and if everything inscribed there comes solely from the
senses and experience, or if the soul contains originally the sources of
various concepts and doctrines that external objects merely reveal on occasion.
The idea that some concepts and doctrines are innate in the mind is central not
only to Leibniz’s theory of knowledge, but also to his metaphysics, because he
held that the most basic metaphysical concepts, e.g., the concepts of the self,
substance, and causation, are innate. Leibniz utilized the ideas behind the
characteristica universalis in order to formulate a system of formal logic that
is a genuine alternative to Aristotelian syllogistic logic and to contemporary
quantification theory. Assuming that propositions are, in some fashion,
composed of concepts and that all composite concepts are, in some fashion,
composed of primitive simple concepts, Leibniz formulated a logic based on the
idea of assigning numbers to concepts according to certain rules. The entire
program turns on his concept containment account of truth previously mentioned.
In connection with the metatheory of this logic Leibniz formulated the
principle: “eadem sunt quorum unum alteri substitui potest salva veritate” (“Those
things are the same of which one may be substituted for the other preserving
truth-value”). The proper interpretation of this principle turns in part on
exactly what “things” he had in mind. It is likely that he intended to
formulate a criterion of concept identity. Hence, it is likely that this
principle is distinct from the identity of indiscernibles, previously
mentioned, and also from what has come to be called Leibniz’s law, i.e., the
thesis that if x and y are the same individual then whatever is true of x is
true of y and vice versa. The account outlined above concentrates on Leibniz’s
mature views in metaphysics, epistemology, and logic. The evolution of his
thought in these areas is worthy of close study, which cannot be brought to a
definitive state until all of his philosophical work has been published in the
edition of the Akademie der Wissenschaften in Berlin.
lekton (Greek, ‘what can
be said’), a Stoic term sometimes translated as ‘the meaning of an utterance’.
Lekta differ from utterances in being what utterances signify: they are said to
be what the Greek grasps and the non-Greek speaker does not when Greek is
spoken. Moreover, lekta are incorporeal, which for the Stoics means they do
not, strictly speaking, exist, but only “subsist,” and so cannot act or be
acted upon. They constitute the content of our mental states: they are what we
assent to and endeavor toward and they “correspond” to the presentations given
to rational animals. The Stoics acknowledged lekta for predicates as well as for
sentences (including questions, oaths, and imperatives); axiomata or Leibniz’s
law lekton 494 4065h-l.qxd 08/02/1999 7:40 AM Page 494 propositions are lekta
that can be assented to and may be true or false (although being essentially
tensed, their truth-values may change). The Stoics’ theory of reference
suggests that they also acknowledged singular propositions, which “perish” when
the referent ceases to exist.
Lenin, Vladimir Ilich
(1870–1924), Russian political leader and Marxist theorist, a principal creator
of Soviet dialectical materialism. In Materialism and Empirio-Criticism (1909),
he attacked Russian contemporaries who sought to interpret Marx’s philosophy in
the spirit of the phenomenalistic positivism of Avenarius and Mach. Rejecting
their position as idealist, Lenin argues that matter is not a construct from
sensations but an objective reality independent of consciousness; because our
sensations directly copy this reality, objective truth is possible. The
dialectical dimension of Lenin’s outlook is best elaborated in his posthumous
Philosophical Notebooks (written 1914–16), a collection of reading notes and
fragments in which he gives close attention to the Hegelian dialectic and
displays warm sympathy toward it, though he argues that the dialectic should be
interpreted materialistically rather than idealistically. Some of Lenin’s most
original theorizing, presented in Imperialism as the Highest Stage of
Capitalism (1916) and State and Revolution (1918), is devoted to analyzing the
connection between monopoly capitalism and imperialism and to describing the
coming violent replacement of bourgeois rule by, first, the “dictatorship of
the proletariat” and, later, stateless communism. Lenin regarded all philosophy
as a partisan weapon in the class struggle, and he wielded his own philosophy
polemically in the interests of Communist revolution. As a result of the
victory of the Bolsheviks in November 1917, Lenin’s ideas were enshrined as the
cornerstone of Soviet intellectual culture and were considered above criticism
until the advent of glasnost in the late 1980s. With the end of Communist rule
following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, his influence declined
precipitously.
Lequier, Jules (1814–62),
French philosopher, educated in Paris, whose works were not published in his
lifetime. He influenced Renouvier, who regarded Lequier as his “master in
philosophy.” Through Renouvier, he came to the attention of James, who called
Lequier a “philosopher of genius.” Central to Lequier’s philosophy is the idea
of freedom understood as the power to “create,” or add novelty to the world.
Such freedom involves an element of arbitrariness and is incompatible with
determinism. Anticipating James, Lequier argued that determinism, consistently
affirmed, leads to skepticism about truth and values. Though a devout Roman
Catholic, his theological views were unorthodox for his time. God cannot know
future free actions until they occur and therefore cannot be wholly immutable
and eternal. Lequier’s views anticipate in striking ways some views of James,
Bergson, Alexander, and Peirce, and the process philosophies and process
theologies of Whitehead and Hartshorne. R.H.K. Leroux, Pierre (1797–1871),
French philosopher reputed to have introduced the word socialisme in France
(c.1834). He claimed to be the first to use solidarité as a sociological
concept (in his memoirs, La Grève de Samarez [The Beach at Samarez], 1863). The
son of a Parisian café owner, Leroux centered his life work on journalism, both
as a printer (patenting an advanced procedure for typesetting) and as founder
of a number of significant serial publications. The Encyclopédie Nouvelle (New
Encyclopedia, 1833–48, incomplete), which he launched with Jean Reynaud
(1806–63), was conceived and written in the spirit of Diderot’s magnum opus. It
aspired to be the platform for republican and democratic thought during the
July Monarchy (1830–48). The reformer’s influence on contemporaries such as
Hugo, Belinsky, J. Michelet, and Heine was considerable. Leroux fervently
believed in Progress, unlimited and divinely inspired. This doctrine he took to
be eighteenth-century France’s particular contribution to the Enlightenment.
Progress must make its way between twin perils: the “follies of illuminism” or
“foolish spiritualism” and the “abject orgies of materialism.” Accordingly,
Leroux blamed Condillac for having “drawn up the code of materialism” by
excluding an innate Subject from his sensationalism (“Condillac,” Encyclopédie
Nouvelle). Cousin’s eclecticism, state doctrine under the July Monarchy and
synonym for immobility (“Philosophy requires no further development; it is
complete as is,” Leroux wrote sarcastically in 1838, echoing Cousin), was a
lemmata Leroux, Pierre 495 4065h-l.qxd 08/02/1999 7:40 AM Page 495 constant
target of his polemics. Having abandoned traditional Christian beliefs, Leroux
viewed immortality as an infinite succession of rebirths on earth, our sense of
personal identity being preserved throughout by Platonic “reminiscences” (De
l’Humanité [Concerning Humanity], 1840).
Lesniewski, Stanislaw
(1886–1939), Polish philosopher-logician, cofounder, with Lukasiewicz and
Kotarbigski, of the Warsaw Center of Logical Research. He perfected the logical
reconstruction of classical mathematics by Frege, Schröder, Whitehead, and
Russell in his synthesis of mathematical with modernized Aristotelian logic. A
pioneer in scientific semantics whose insights inspired Tarski, Les’niewski
distinguished genuine antinomies of belief, in theories intended as true mathematical
sciences, from mere formal inconsistencies in uninterpreted calculi. Like Frege
an acute critic of formalism, he sought to perfect one comprehensive, logically
true instrument of scientific investigation. Demonstrably consistent, relative
to classical elementary logic, and distinguished by its philosophical
motivation and logical economy, his system integrates his central achievements.
Other contributions include his ideographic notation, his method of natural
deduction from suppositions and his demonstrations of inconsistency of other
systems, even Frege’s revised foundations of arithmetic. Fundamental were (1)
his 1913 refutation of Twardowski’s Platonistic theory of abstraction, which
motivated his “constructive nominalism”; and (2) his deep analyses of Russell’s
paradox, which led him to distinguish distributive from collective predication
and (as generalized to subsume Grelling and Nelson’s paradox of self-reference)
logical from semantic paradoxes, and so (years before Ramsey and Gödel) to differentiate,
not just the correlatives object language and metalanguage, but any such
correlative linguistic stages, and thus to relativize semantic concepts to
successive hierarchical strata in metalinguistic stratification. His system of
logic and foundations of mathematics comprise a hierarchy of three axiomatic
deductive theories: protothetic, ontology, and mereology. Each can be variously
based on just one axiom introducing a single undefined term. His prototheses
are basic to any further theory. Ontology, applying them, complements
protothetic to form his logic. Les’niewski’s ontology develops his logic of
predication, beginning (e.g.) with singular predication characterizing the
individual so-and-so as being one (of the one or more) such-and-such, without
needing classabstraction operators, dispensable here as in Russell’s “no-class
theory of classes.” But this, his logic of nouns, nominal or predicational
functions, etc., synthesizing formulations by Aristotle, Leibniz, Boole,
Schröder, and Whitehead, also represents a universal theory of being and
beings, beginning with related individuals and their characteristics, kinds, or
classes distributively understood to include individuals as singletons or
“one-member classes.” Les’niewski’s directives of definition and logical
grammar for his systems of protothetic and ontology provide for the unbounded
hierarchies of “open,” functional expressions. Systematic conventions of
contextual determinacy, exploiting dependence of meaning on context, permit
unequivocal use of the same forms of expression to bring out systematic
analogies between homonyms as analogues in Aristotle’s and Russell’s sense,
systematically ambiguous, differing in semantic category and hence
significance. Simple distinctions of semantic category within the object
language of the system itself, together with the metalinguistic stratification
to relativize semantic concepts, prevent logical and semantic paradoxes as
effectively as Russell’s ramified theory of types. Lesniewski’s system of logic,
though expressively rich enough to permit Platonist interpretation in terms of
universals, is yet “metaphysically neutral” in being free from ontic
commitments. It neither postulates, presupposes, nor implies existence of
either individuals or abstractions, but relies instead on equivalences without
existential import that merely introduce and explicate new terms. In his
“nominalist” construction of the endless Platonic ladder of abstraction,
logical principles can be elevated step by step, from any level to the next, by
definitions making abstractions eliminable, translatable by definition into
generalizations characterizing related individuals. In this sense it is
“constructively nominalist,” as a developing language always open to
introduction of new terms and categories, without appeal to “convenient
fictions.” Les’niewski’s system, completely designed by 1922, was logically and
chronologically in advance of Russell’s 1925 revision of Principia Mathematica
to accommodate Ramsey’s simplification of Russell’s theory of types. Yet
Les’niewski’s premature death, the ensuing disruption of war, which destroyed
his manuscripts and disLesniewski, Stanislaw Lesniewski, Stanislaw 496
4065h-l.qxd 08/02/1999 7:40 AM Page 496 persed survivors such as Sobocigski and
Lejewski, and the relative inaccessibility of publications delayed by
Les’niewski’s own perfectionism have retarded understanding of his work.
Lessing, Gotthold Ephraim
(1729–81), German philosopher, critic, and literary figure whose philosophical
and theological work aimed to replace the so-called possession of truth by a
search for truth through public debate. The son of a Protestant minister, he
studied theology but gave it up to take part in the literary debate between
Gottsched and the Swiss Bodmer and Breitinger, which dealt with French
classicism (Boileau) and English influences (Shakespeare for theater and Milton
for poetry). His literary criticism (Briefe, die neueste Literatur betreffend
[“Letters on the New Literature”], 1759–65), his own dramatic works, and his
theological-philosophical reflections were united in his conception of a
practical Aufklärung, which opposed all philosophical or religious dogmatism.
Lessing’s creation and direction of the National German Theater of Hamburg
(1767–70) helped to form a sense of German national identity. In 1750 Lessing
published Thoughts on the Moravian Brothers, which contrasted religion as lived
by this pietist community with the ecclesiastical institution. In 1753–54 he
wrote a series of “rehabilitations” (Rettugen) to show that the opposition
between dogmas and heresies, between “truth” and “error,” was incompatible with
living religious thought. This position had the seeds of a historical
conception of religion that Lessing developed during his last years. In 1754 he
again attempted a deductive formulation, inspired by Spinoza, of the
fundamental truths of Christianity. Lessing rejected this rationalism, as
substituting a dogma of reason for one of religion. To provoke public debate on
the issue, be published H. S. Reimarus’s Fragments of an Anonymous Author
(1774–78), which the Protestant hierarchy considered atheistic. The relativism
and soft deism to which his arguments seemed to lead were transformed in his
Education of Mankind (1780) into a historical theory of truth. In Lessing’s
view, all religions have an equal dignity, for none possesses “the” truth; they
represent only ethical and practical moments in the history of mankind.
Revelation is assimilated into an education of mankind and God is compared to a
teacher who reveals to man only what he is able to assimilate. This
secularization of the history of salvation, in which God becomes immanent in
the world, is called pantheism (“the quarrel of pantheism”). For Lessing,
Judaism and Christianity are the preliminary stages of a third gospel, the
“Gospel of Reason.” The Masonic Dialogues (1778) introduced this historical and
practical conception of truth as a progress from “thinking by oneself” to
dialogue (“thinking aloud with a friend”). In the literary domain Lessing broke
with the culture of the baroque: against the giants and martyrs of baroque
tragedy, he offered the tragedy of the bourgeois, with whom any spectator must
be able to identify. After a poor first play in 1755 – Miss Sara Sampson – which
only reflected the sentimentalism of the time, Lessing produced a model of the
genre with Emilia Galotti (1781). The Hamburg Dramaturgy (1767– 68) was
supposed to be influenced by Aristotle, but its union of fear and pity was
greatly influenced by Moses Mendelssohn’s theory of “mixed sensations.”
Lessing’s entire aesthetics was based not on permanent ontological, religious,
or moral rules, but on the spectator’s interest. In Laokoon (1766) he
associated this aesthetics of reception with one of artistic production, i.e.,
a reflection on the means through which poetry and the plastic arts create this
interest: the plastic arts by natural signs and poetry through the arbitrary
signs that overcome their artificiality through the imitation not of nature but
of action. Much like Winckelmann’s aesthetics, which influenced German
classicism for a considerable time, Lessing’s aesthetics opposed the baroque,
but for a theory of ideal beauty inspired by Plato it substituted a foundation
of the beautiful in the agreement between producer and receptor.
Leucippus (fl. c.440 B.C.), Greek pre-Socratic
philosopher credited with founding atomism, expounded in a work titled The
Great World-system. Positing the existence of atoms and the void, he answered
Eleatic arguments against change by allowing change of place. The arrangements
and rearrangements of groups of atoms could account for macroscopic changes in
the world, and indeed for the world itself. Little else is known of Leucippus.
It is difficult to distinguish his contributions from those of his prolific
follower Democritus.
Levinas, Emmanuel
(1906–95), philosopher. Educated as an orthodox Jew and a Russian citizen, he
studied philosophy at Strasbourg (1924–29) and Freiburg (1928– 29), introduced
the work of Husserl and Heidegger in France, taught philosophy at a Jewish
school in Paris, spent four years in a German labor camp (1940–44), and was a
professor at the universities of Poitiers, Nanterre, and the Sorbonne. To the
impersonal totality of being reduced to “the same” by the Western tradition
(including Hegel’s and Husserl’s idealism and Heidegger’s ontology), Levinas
opposes the irreducible otherness of the human other, death, time, God, etc. In
Totalité et Infini: Essai sur l’extériorité (1961), he shows how the other’s
facing and speaking urge philosophy to transcend the horizons of comprehension,
while Autrement qu’être ou au-delà de l’essence (1974) concentrates on the self
of “me” as one-for-the-other. Appealing to Plato’s form of the Good and
Descartes’s idea of the infinite, Levinas describes the asymmetrical relation
between the other’s “highness” or “infinity” and me, whose self-enjoyment is
thus interrupted by a basic imperative: Do not kill me, but help me to live!
The fact of the other’s existence immediately reveals the basic “ought” of
ethics; it awakens me to a responsibility that I have never been able to choose
or to refuse. My radical “passivity,” thus revealed, shows the anachronic
character of human temporality. It also refers to the immemorial past of “Him”
whose “illeity” is still otherwise other than the human other: God, or the Good
itself, who is neither an object nor a you. Religion and ethics coincide
because the only way to meet with God is to practice one’s responsibility for
the human other, who is “in the trace of God.” Comprehensive thematization and
systematic objectification, though always in danger of reducing all otherness,
have their own relative and subordinate truth, especially with regard to the
economic and political conditions of universal justice toward all individuals
whom I cannot encounter personally. With and through the other I meet all
humans. In this experience lies the origin of equality and human rights.
Similarly, theoretical thematization has a positive role if it remains aware of
its ancillary or angelic role with regard to concern for the other. What is
said in philosophy betrays the saying by which it is communicated. It must
therefore be unsaid in a return to the saying. More than desire for theoretical
wisdom, philosophy is the wisdom of love.
Lewin, Kurt (1890–1947),
German and American (after 1932) psychologist, perhaps the most influential of
the Gestalt psychologists in the United States. Believing traditional
psychology was stuck in an “Aristotelian” class-logic stage of theorizing,
Lewin proposed advancing to a “Galilean” stage of field theory. His central
field concept was the “life space, containing the person and his psychological
environment.” Primarily concerned with motivation, he explained locomotion as
caused by life-space objects’ valences, psychological vectors of force acting
on people as physical vectors of force act on physical objects. Objects with
positive valence exert attractive force; objects with negative valence exert
repulsive force; ambivalent objects exert both. To attain theoretical rigor,
Lewin borrowed from mathematical topology, mapping life spaces as diagrams. For
example, this represented the motivational conflict involved in choosing
between pizza and hamburger: Life spaces frequently contain psychological
barriers (e.g., no money) blocking movement toward or away from a valenced
object. Lewin also created the important field of group dynamics in 1939,
carrying out innovative studies on children and adults, focusing on group cohesion
and effects of leadership style. His main works are A Dynamic Theory of
Personality (1935), Principles of Topological Psychology (1936), and Field
Theory in Social Science (1951).
Lewis, C(larence)
I(rving) (1883–1964), American philosopher who advocated a version of
pragmatism and empiricism, but was nonetheless strongly influenced by Kant.
Lewis was born in Massachusetts, educated at Harvard, and taught at the
University of California (1911–20) and Harvard (1920–53). He wrote in logic (A
Survey of Symbolic Logic, 1918; Symbolic Logic, 1932, coauthored with C. H.
Langford), in epistemology (Mind and the World Order, 1929; An Analysis of
Knowledge and Valuation, 1946), and in Levinas, Emmanuel Lewis, C(larence)
I(rving) 498 4065h-l.qxd 08/02/1999 7:40 AM Page 498 ethical theory (The Ground
and Nature of the Right, 1965; Our Social Inheritance, 1957). General views.
Use of the senses involves “presentations” of sense experiences that signalize
external objects. Reflection upon the relations of sense experiences to
psychological “intensions” permits our thoughts to refer to aspects of
objective reality. Consequently, we can experience those non-presented
objective conditions. Intensions, which include the mind’s categories, are
meanings in one ordinary sense, and concepts in a philosophical sense. When
judging counts as knowing, it has the future-oriented function and sole value
of guiding action in pursuit of what one evaluates as good. Intensions do not
fundamentally depend upon being formulated in those linguistic phrases that may
express them and thereby acquire meaning. Pace Kant, our categories are
replaceable when pragmatically unsuccessful, and are sometimes invented,
although typically socially instilled. Kant also failed to realize that any a
priori knowledge concerns only what is expressed by an “analytic truth,” i.e.,
what is knowable with certainty via reflection upon intensions and permits
reference to the necessary inclusion (and exclusion) relations between
objective properties. Such inclusion/exclusion relationships are “entailments”
expressible by a use of “if . . . then . . .” different from material
implication. The degree of justification of an empirical judgment about
objective reality (e.g., that there is a doorknob before one) and of any beliefs
in consequences that are probable given the judgment, approximates to certainty
when the judgment stands in a relationship of “congruence” to a collection of
justified judgments (e.g., a collection including the judgments that one
remembers seeing a doorknob a moment before, and that one has not just turned
around). Lewis’s empiricism involves one type of phenomenalism. Although he
treats external conditions as metaphysically distinct from passages of sense
experience, he maintains that the process of learning about the former does not
involve more than learning about the latter. Accordingly, he speaks of the
“sense meaning” of an intension, referring to an objective condition. It
concerns what one intends to count as a process that verifies that the particular
intension applies to the objective world. Sense meanings of a statement may be
conceived as additional “entailments” of it, and are expressible by
conjunctions of an infinite number of statements each of which is “the general
form of a specific terminating judgment” (as defined below). Lewis wants his
treatment of sense meaning to rule out Berkeley’s view that objects exist only
when perceived. Verification of an objective judgment, as Kant realized, is
largely specified by a non-social process expressed by a rule to act in
imaginable ways in response to imaginable present sense experiences (e.g.
seeing a doorknob) and thereupon to have imaginable future sense experiences
(e.g. feeling a doorknob). Actual instances of such passages of sense experience
raise the probability of an objective judgment, whose verification is always
partial. Apprehensions of sense experiences are judgments that are not reached
by basing them on grounds in a way that might conceivably produce errors. Such
apprehensions are “certain.” The latter term may be employed by Lewis in more
than one sense, but here it at least implies that the judgment is rationally
credible and in the above sense not capable of being in error. So such an
apprehension is “datal,” i.e., rationally employed in judging other matters,
and “immediate,” i.e., formed noninferentially in response to a presentation.
These presentations make up “the (sensory) given.” Sense experience is what
remains after everything that is less than certain in one’s experience of an
objective condition is set aside. Lewis thought some version of the epistemic
regress argument to be correct, and defended the Cartesian view that without
something certain as a foundation no judgment has any degree of justification.
Technical terminology. Presentation: something involved in experience, e.g. a
visual impression, in virtue of which one possesses a non-inferential judgment
that it is involved. The given: those presentations that have the content that
they do independently of one’s intending or deciding that they have it.
Terminating: decisively and completely verifiable or falsifiable in principle.
(E.g., where S affirms a present sense experience, A affirms an experience of
seeming to initiate an action, and E affirms a future instance of sense
experience, the judgment ‘S and if A then E’ is terminating.) The general form
of the terminating judgment that S and if A then E: the conditional that if S
then (in all probability) E, if A. (An actual judgment expressed by this
conditional is based on remembering passages of sense experience of type S/A/E
and is justified thanks to the principle of induction and the principle that
seeming to remember an event makes the judgment that the event occurred
justified at least to some degree. These statements concern a connection that
holds independently of whether anyone is thinking and underlies the rationality
of relying to any degree upon what is not part of one’s self.) Congruence: the
relationship among statements in a collection when the following conditional is
true: If each had some degree of justification independently of the remaining
ones, then each would be made more justified by the conjoint truth of the
remaining ones. (When the antecedent of this conditional is true, and a
statement in the collection is such that it is highly improbable that the
remaining ones all be true unless it is true, then it is made very highly
justified.) Pragmatic a priori: those judgments that are not based on the use
of the senses but on employing a set of intensions, and yet are susceptible of
being reasonably set aside because of a shift to a different set of intensions
whose employment is pragmatically more useful (roughly, more useful for the
attainment of what has intrinsic value). Valuation: the appraising of something
as having value or being morally right. (What has some value that is not due to
its consequences is what has intrinsic value, e.g., enjoyable experiences of
self-realization in living rationally. Other evaluations of what is good are
empirical judgments concerning what may be involved in actions leading to what
is intrinsically good. Rational reflection permits awareness of various moral
principles.)
Lewis, C(live) S(taples)
(1898–1963), very Irish literary critic, novelist, and Christian apologist.
Born in Belfast, Lewis took three first-class degrees at Oxford, became a tutor
at its Magdalen College in 1925, and assumed the chair of medieval and
Renaissance studies at Cambridge in 1954. While his tremendous output includes
important works on medieval literature and literary criticism, he is best known
for his fiction and Christian apologetics. Lewis combined a poetic sense and
appreciation of argument that allowed him to communicate complex philosophical
and theological material to lay audiences. His popular writings in the
philosophy of religion range over a variety of topics, including the nature and
existence of God (Mere Christianity, 1952), miracles (Miracles, 1947), hell
(The Great Divorce, 1945), and the problem of evil (The Problem of Pain, 1940).
His own conversion to Christianity as an adult is chronicled in his
autobiography (Surprised by Joy, 1955). In defending theism Lewis employed
arguments from natural theology (most notably versions of the moral and
teleological arguments) and arguments from religious experience. Also of
philosophical interest is his defense of moral absolutism in The Abolition of
Man (1943).
Lewis, David K. (b.1941),
philosopher influential in many areas. Lewis received the B.A. in philosophy
from Swarthmore in 1962 and the Ph.D. in philosophy from Harvard in 1967. He
has been a member of the philosophy department at U.C.L.A. (1966–70) and
Princeton (1970–). In philosophy of mind, Lewis is known principally for “An
Argument for the Identity Theory” (1966), “Psychophysical and Theoretical
Identifications” (1972), and “Mad Pain and Martian Pain” (1980). He argues for
the functionalist thesis that mental states are defined by their typical causal
roles, and the materialist thesis that the causal roles definitive of mental
states are occupied by physical states. Lewis develops the view that
theoretical definitions in general are functionally defined, applying the
formal concept of a Ramsey sentence. And he suggests that the platitudes of
commonsense or folk psychology constitute the theory implicitly defining
psychological concepts. In philosophy of language and linguistics, Lewis is
known principally for Convention (1969), “General Semantics” (1970), and
“Languages and Language” (1975). His theory of convention had its source in the
theory of games of pure coordination developed by von Neumann and Morgenstern.
Roughly, conventions are arbitrary solutions to coordination problems that
perpetuate themselves once a precedent is set because they serve a common
interest. Lewis requires it to be common knowledge that people prefer to
conform to a conventional regularity given that others do. He treats linguistic
meanings as compositional intensions. The basic intensions for lexical
constituents are functions assigning extensions to indices, which include
contextual factors and a possible world. An analytic sentence is one true at
every index. Languages are functions from sentences to meanLewis, C(live)
S(taples) Lewis, David K. 500 4065h-l.qxd 08/02/1999 7:40 AM Page 500 ings, and
the language of a population is the one in which they have a convention of
truthfulness and trust. In metaphysics and modal logic, Lewis is known
principally for “Counterpart Theory and Quantified Modal Logic” (1968) and On
the Plurality of Worlds (1986). Based on its theoretical benefits, Lewis argues
for modal realism: other possible worlds and the objects in them are just as
real as the actual world and its inhabitants. Lewis develops a non-standard
form of modal logic in which objects exist in at most one possible world, and
for which the necessity of identity fails. Properties are identified with the
set of objects that have them in any possible world, and propositions as the
set of worlds in which they are true. He also develops a finergrained concept
of structured properties and propositions. In philosophical logic and
philosophy of science, Lewis is best known for Counterfactuals (1973),
“Causation” (1973), and “Probabilities of Conditionals and Conditional
Probabilities” (1976). He developed a formal semantics for counterfactual
conditionals that matches their truth conditions and logic much more adequately
than the previously available material or strict conditional analyses. Roughly,
a counterfactual is true if its consequent is true in every possible world in
which its antecedent is true that is as similar overall to the actual world as
the truth of the antecedent will allow. Lewis then defended an analysis of
causation in terms of counterfactuals: c caused e if e would not have occurred
if c had not occurred or if there is a chain of events leading from e to c each
member of which is counterfactually dependent on the next. He presents a
reductio ad absurdum argument to show that conditional probabilities could not
be identified with the probabilities of any sort of conditional. Lewis has also
written on visual experience, events, holes, parts of classes, time travel,
survival and identity, subjective and objective probability, desire as belief,
attitudes de se, deontic logic, decision theory, the prisoner’s dilemma and the
Newcomb problem, utilitarianism, dispositional theories of value, nuclear
deterrence, punishment, and academic ethics.
lexical ordering, also
called lexicographic ordering, a method, given a finite ordered set of symbols,
such as the letters of the alphabet, of ordering all finite sequences of those
symbols. All finite sequences of letters, e.g., can be ordered as follows:
first list all single letters in alphabetical order; then list all pairs of
letters in the order aa, ab, . . . az; ba . . . bz; . . . ; za . . . zz. Here
pairs are first grouped and alphabetized according to the first letter of the
pair, and then within these groups are alphabetized according to the second
letter of the pair. All sequences of three letters, four letters, etc., are
then listed in order by an analogous process. In this way every sequence of n
letters, for any n, is listed. Lexical ordering differs from alphabetical
ordering, although it makes use of it, because all sequences with n letters come
before any sequence with n ! 1 letters; thus, zzt will come before aaab. One
use of lexical ordering is to show that the set of all finite sequences of
symbols, and thus the set of all words, is at most denumerably infinite.
li1, Chinese term meaning
‘pattern’, ‘principle’, ‘good order’, ‘inherent order’, or ‘to put in order’.
During the Han dynasty, li described not only the pattern of a given thing,
event, or process, but the underlying grand pattern of everything, the deep
structure of the cosmos. Later, Hua-yen Buddhists, working from the Mahayana
doctrine that all things are conditioned and related through past causal
relationships, claimed that each thing reflects the li of all things. This
influenced Neo-Confucians, who developed a metaphysics of li and ch’i (ether),
in which all things possess all li (and hence they are “one” in some deep
sense), but because of the differing quality of their ch’i, things manifest
different and distinct characteristics. The hsin (heart/mind) contains all li
(some insist it is li) but is obscured by “impure” ch’i; hence we understand
some things and can learn others. Through self-cultivation, one can purify
one’s ch’i and achieve complete and perfect understanding.
li2, Chinese term meaning
‘rite’, ‘ritual’, ‘etiquette’, ‘ritual propriety’. In its earliest use, li
refers to politico-religious rituals such as sacrifices to ancestors or
funerals. Soon the term came to encompass matters of etiquette, such as the
proper way to greet a guest. In some texts the li include even matters of
morality or natural law. Mencius refers to li as a virtue, but it is unclear
lexical ambiguity li2 501 4065h-l.qxd 08/02/1999 7:40 AM Page 501 how it is
distinct from his other cardinal virtues. Emphasis upon li is one of the
distinctive features of Confucianism. Critics charge that this emphasis is a
conflation of the natural with the conventional or simply naive traditionalism.
Others claim that the notion of li draws attention to the subtle
interdependence of morality and convention, and points the way to creating
genuine communities by treating “the secular as sacred.”
li3, Chinese term meaning
‘profit’ or ‘benefit’, and probably with the basic meaning of ‘smooth’ or
‘unimpeded’. Mo Tzu (fourth century B.C.) regarded what brings li (benefit) to
the public as the criterion of yi (rightness), and certain other classical
Chinese texts also describe yi as the basis for producing li. Confucians tend
to use ‘li’ pejoratively to refer to what profits oneself or social groups
(e.g., one’s family) to which one belongs, and contrast li with yi. According
to them, one should ideally be guided by yi rather than li, and in the
political realm, a preoccupation with li will lead to strife and disorder.
Liang Ch’i-ch’ao
(1873–1929), Chinese scholar and writer. A disciple of K’ang Yu-wei, the young
Liang was a reformist unsympathetic to Sun Yatsen’s revolutionary activities.
But after the republic was founded, he embraced the democratic ideal. He was
eager to introduce ideas from the West to reform the Chinese people. But after
a tour of Europe he had great reservations about Western civilization. His
unfavorable impressions touched off a debate between science and metaphysics in
1923. His scholarly works include studies of Buddhism and of Chinese thought in
the last three hundred years.
liang-chih, Chinese term
commonly rendered as ‘innate knowledge of the good’, although that translation
is quite inadequate to the term’s range of meanings. The term first occurs in
Mencius but becomes a key concept in Wang Yangming’s philosophy. A coherent
explication of liang-chih must attend to the following features. (1) Mencius’s
liang-chih (sense of right and wrong) is the ability to distinguish right from
wrong conduct. For Wang “this sense of right and wrong is nothing but the love
[of good] and the hate [of evil].” (2) Wang’s liang-chih is a moral
consciousness informed by a vision of jen or “forming one body” with all things
in the universe. (3) The exercise of liang-chih involves deliberation in coping
with changing circumstances. (4) The extension of liang-chih is indispensable
to the pursuit of jen.
Liang Sou-ming
(1893–1988), Chinese philosopher branded as the last Confucian. He actually
believed, however, that Buddhist philosophy was more profound than Confucian philosophy.
Against those advocating Westernization, Liang pointed out that Western and
Indian cultures went to two extremes; only the Chinese culture took a middle
course. But it was immature, and must learn first from the West, then from
India. After the Communist takeover, he refused to denounce traditional Chinese
culture. He valued human-heartedness, which he felt was neglected by Western
science and Marxism. He was admired overseas for his courage in standing up to
Mao Tse-tung.
Li Ao (fl. A.D. 798),
Chinese philosopher who learned Buddhist dialects and developed a theory of
human nature (hsing) and feelings (ch’ing) more sophisticated than that of Han
Yü, his teacher. He wrote a famous article, “Fu-hsing shu” (“Essay on returning
to Nature”), which exerted profound influence on Sung-Ming Neo-Confucian
philosophers. According to him, there are seven feelings: joy, anger, pity,
fear, love, hate, and desire. These feelings tend to obscure one’s nature. Only
when the feelings do not operate can one’s nature gain its fulfillment. The
sage does possess the feelings, but he remains immovable; hence in a sense he
also has never had such feelings.
Liber vitae -- Arbitrium
– liber vitae -- book of life, expression found in Hebrew and Christian
scriptures signifying a record kept by the Lord of those destined for eternal
happiness Exodus 32:32; Psalms 68; Malachi 3:16; Daniel 12:1; Philippians 4:3;
Revelation 3:5, 17:8, 20:12, 21:27. Medieval philosophers often referred to the
book of life when discussing issues of predestination, divine omniscience,
foreknowledge, and free will. Figures like Augustine and Aquinas asked whether
it represented God’s unerring foreknowledge or predestination, or whether some
names could be added or deleted from it. The term is used by some contemporary
philosophers to mean a record of all the events in a person’s life.
Liberalism – alla Locke –
“meaning liberalism” – Bennett on Locke: An utterer has all the freedom he has
to make any of his expressions for any idea he pleases. Constant, Benjamin –
Grice was a sort of a liberal – at least he was familiar with “pinko Oxford”
-- in full, Henri-Benjamin Constant de
Rebecque, defender of liberalism and passionate analyst of and European politics. He welcomed the Revolution but not the Reign of Terror, the
violence of which he avoided by accepting a lowly diplomatic post in
Braunschweig 1787 94. In 1795 he returned to Paris with Madame de Staël and
intervened in parliamentary debates. His pamphlets opposed both extremes, the
Jacobin and the Bonapartist. Impressed by Rousseau’s Social Contract, he came
to fear that like Napoleon’s dictatorship, the “general will” could threaten
civil rights. He had first welcomed Napoleon, but turned against his autocracy.
He favored parliamentary democracy, separation of church and state, and a bill
of rights. The high point of his political career came with membership in the
Tribunat 180002, a consultative chamber appointed by the Senate. His centrist
position is evident in the Principes de politique 180610. Had not republican
terror been as destructive as the Empire? In chapters 1617, Constant opposes
the liberty of the ancients and that of the moderns. He assumes that the
Grecian world was given to war, and therefore strengthened “political liberty”
that favors the state over the individual the liberty of the ancients.
Fundamentally optimistic, he believed that war was a thing of the past, and
that the modern world needs to protect “civil liberty,” i.e. the liberty of the
individual the liberty of the moderns. The great merit of Constant’s comparison
is the analysis of historical forces, the theory that governments must support
current needs and do not depend on deterministic factors such as the size of
the state, its form of government, geography, climate, and race. Here he
contradicts Montesquieu. The opposition between ancient and modern liberty
expresses a radical liberalism that did not seem to fit politics. However, it was the beginning of
the liberal tradition, contrasting political liberty in the service of the
state with the civil liberty of the citizen cf. Mill’s On Liberty, 1859, and
Berlin’s Two Concepts of Liberty, 8. Principes remained in manuscript until
1861; the scholarly editions of Étienne Hofmann 0 are far more recent. Hofmann
calls Principes the essential text between Montesquieu and Tocqueville. It was
tr. into English as Constant, Political Writings ed. Biancamaria Fontana, 8 and
7. Forced into retirement by Napoleon, Constant wrote his literary
masterpieces, Adolphe and the diaries. He completed the Principes, then turned
to De la religion 6 vols., which he considered his supreme achievement. liberalism, a political philosophy first
formulated during the Enlightenment in response to the growth of modern
nation-states, which centralize governmental functions and claim sole authority
to exercise coercive power within their boundaries. One of its central theses
has long been that a government’s claim to this authority is justified only if
the government can show those who live under it that it secures their libli3
liberalism 502 4065h-l.qxd 08/02/1999 7:40 AM Page 502 erty. A central thesis
of contemporary liberalism is that government must be neutral in debates about
the good human life. John Locke, one of the founders of liberalism, tried to
show that constitutional monarchy secures liberty by arguing that free and
equal persons in a state of nature, concerned to protect their freedom and
property, would agree with one another to live under such a regime. Classical
liberalism, which attaches great value to economic liberty, traces its ancestry
to Locke’s argument that government must safeguard property. Locke’s use of an
agreement or social contract laid the basis for the form of liberalism
championed by Rousseau and most deeply indebted to Kant. According to Kant, the
sort of liberty that should be most highly valued is autonomy. Agents enjoy
autonomy, Kant said, when they live according to laws they would give to
themselves. Rawls’s A Theory of Justice (1971) set the main themes of the chapter
of liberal thought now being written. Rawls asked what principles of justice
citizens would agree to in a contract situation he called “the original
position.” He argued that they would agree to principles guaranteeing adequate
basic liberties and fair equality of opportunity, and requiring that economic
inequalities benefit the least advantaged. A government that respects these
principles secures the autonomy of its citizens by operating in accord with
principles citizens would give themselves in the original position. Because of
the conditions of the original position, citizens would not choose principles
based on a controversial conception of the good life. Neutrality among such
conceptions is therefore built into the foundations of Rawls’s theory. Some
critics argue that liberalism’s emphasis on autonomy and neutrality leaves it
unable to account for the values of tradition, community, or political
participation, and unable to limit individual liberty when limits are needed.
Others argue that autonomy is not the notion of freedom needed to explain why
common forms of oppression like sexism are wrong. Still others argue that
liberalism’s focus on Western democracies leaves it unable to address the most
pressing problems of contemporary politics. Recent work in liberal theory has
therefore asked whether liberalism can accommodate the political demands of
religious and ethnic communities, ground an adequate conception of democracy,
capture feminist critiques of extant power structures, or guide nation-building
in the face of secessionist, nationalist, and fundamentalist claims.
liberum arbitrium, Latin
expression meaning ‘free judgment’, often used to refer to medieval doctrines
of free choice or free will. It appears in the title of Augustine’s seminal work
De libero arbitrio voluntatis (usually translated ‘On the Free Choice of the
Will’) and in many other medieval writings (e.g., Aquinas, in Summa theologiae
I, asks “whether man has free choice [liberum arbitrium]”). For medieval
thinkers, a judgment (arbitrium) “of the will” was a conclusion of practical
reasoning – “I will do this” (hence, a choice or decision) – in contrast to a
judgment “of the intellect” (“This is the case”), which concludes theoretical
reasoning.
Li Chi (“Record of
Rites”), Chinese Confucian treatise, one of the three classics of li (rites,
rules of proper conduct). For Confucian ethics, the treatise is important for
its focus on the reasoned justification of li, the role of virtues in human
relationships, and the connection between personal cultivation and the
significance of the rites of mourning and sacrifices. Perhaps even more
important, the Li Chi contains two of the basic Four Books of Confucian ethics:
The Great Learning (Ta Hsüeh) and The Doctrine of the Mean (Chung Yung). It
also contains a brief essay on learning liberal theory of the state Li Chi 503
4065h-l.qxd 08/02/1999 7:40 AM Page 503 that stresses its interaction with
ethical teaching. See also CONFUCIANISM. A.S.C. li-ch’i, technical term in
Chinese Neo-Confucianism primarily used in the context of speculative
cosmology, metaphysics, and ontology for accounting for changing phenomena and
their ethical significance. Li is often rendered as ‘principle’, ‘order’,
‘pattern’, or ‘reason’; ch’i as ‘material force’, ‘ether’, or ‘energy’. Recent
NeoConfucian scholarship provides no clear guide to the li-ch’i distinction. In
ethical contexts, however, the distinction is used to explain the origin of
human good and evil. In its pure state, ch’i is inseparable from li, in the sense
of compliance with the Confucian ethical norm that can be reasonably justified.
In its impure state, ch’i presumably explains the existence of human evils.
This perplexing distinction remains a subject of scholarly inquiry.
Lieh Tzu, also called
Lieh Yu-K’ou (440?–360? B.C.), Chinese Taoist philosopher whose name serves as
the title of a work of disputed date. The Lieh Tzu, parts (perhaps most) of
which were written as late as the third or fourth century A.D., is primarily a
Taoist work but contains one chapter reflecting ideas associated with Yang Chu.
However, whereas the original teachings of Yang Chu emphasized one’s duty to
preserve bodily integrity, health, and longevity, a task that may require
exercise and discipline, the Yang Chu chapter advocates hedonism as the means
to nourish life. The primary Taoist teaching of the Lieh Tzu is that destiny
trumps will, fate conquers effort. R.P.P. & R.T.A. life, the characteristic
property of living substances or things; it is associated with either a capacity
for mental activities such as perception and thought (mental life) or physical
activities such as absorption, excretion, metabolism, synthesis, and
reproduction (physical life). Biological or carbon-based lifeis a natural kind
of physical life that essentially involves a highly complex, selfregulating
system of carbon-based macromolecules and water molecules. Silicon-based life
is wholly speculative natural kind of physical life that essentially involves a
highly complex, selfregulating system of silicon-based macromolecules. This
kind of life might be possible, since at high temperatures silicon forms
macromolecules with chemical properties somewhat similar to those of
carbon-based macromolecules. Living organisms have a high degree of functional
organization, with a regulating or controlling master part, e.g., a dog’s
nervous system, or the DNA or nucleus of a single-celled organism. Mental life
is usually thought to be dependent or supervenient upon physical life, but some
philosophers have argued for the possibility at least of purely spiritual
mental life, i.e., souls. The above characterization of biological life
appropriately implies that viruses are not living things, since they lack the
characteristic activities of living things, with the exception of an attenuated
form of reproduction.
li-i-fen-shu, a Chinese
phrase meaning ‘Principle is one while duties or manifestations are many’.
Chang Tsai (1020–77) wrote the essay “The Western Inscription” in which he said
that all people were his brothers and sisters. Ch’eng Yi’s (1033–1107) disciple
Yang Shih (1053–1135) suspected Chang Tsai of teaching the Mohist doctrine of
universal love. Ch’eng Yi then coined the phrase to clarify the situation:
Chang Tsai was really teaching the Confucian doctrine of graded love – while
principle (li) is one, duties are many. Chu Hsi (1130–1200) further developed
the idea into a metaphysics by maintaining that principle is one while
manifestations are many, just as the same moon shines over different rivers.
limiting case, an
individual or subclass of a given background class that is maximally remote
from “typical” or “paradigm” members of the class with respect to some ordering
that is not always explicitly mentioned. The number zero is a limiting case of
cardinal number. A triangle is a limiting case of polygon. A square is a
limiting case of rectangle when rectangles are ordered by the ratio of length
to width. Certainty is a limiting case of belief when beliefs are ordered
according to “strength of subjective conviction.” Knowledge is a limiting case
of belief when beliefs are ordered according “adequacy of objective grounds.” A
limiting case is necessarily a case (member) of the background class; in
contrast a li-ch’i limiting case 504 4065h-l.qxd 08/02/1999 7:40 AM Page 504
borderline case need not be a case and a degenerate case may clearly fail to be
a case at all.
linguistic botany: Ryle preferred to call himself a ‘geographer,’ or
cartographer – cf. Grice on conceptual latitude and conceptual longitude. But
then there are plants. Pretentious Austin, mocking continental philosophy
called this ‘linguistic phenomenology,’ meaning literally, the ‘language
phenomena’ out there. Feeling Byzanthine. Possibly the only occasion when Grice
engaged in systematic botany. Like Hare, he would just rather ramble around. It
was said of Hare that he was ‘of a different world.’ In the West Country, he
would go with his mother to identify wild flowers, and they identied “more than
a hundred.” Austin is not clear about ‘botanising.’ Grice helps. Grice was a
meta-linguistic botanist. His point was to criticise ordinary-language
philosophers criticising philosophers. Say: Plato and Ayer say that episteme is
a kind of doxa. The contemporary, if dated, ordinary-language philosopher detects
a nuance, and embarks risking collision with the conversational facts or data:
rushes ahead to exploit the nuance without clarifying it, with wrong dicta
like: What I known to be the case I dont believe to be the case. Surely, a
cancellable implicatum generated by the rational principle of conversational
helpfulness is all there is to the nuance. Grice knew that unlike the
ordinary-language philosopher, he was not providing a taxonomy or description,
but a theoretical explanation. To not all philosophers analysis fits them to a
T. It did to Grice. It did not even fit Strawson. Grice had a natural talent
for analysis. He could not see philosophy as other than conceptual analysis.
“No more, no less.” Obviously, there is an evaluative side to the claim that
the province of philosophy is to be identified with conceptual analysis. Listen
to a theoretical physicist, and hell keep talking about concepts, and even
analysing them! The man in the street may not! So Grice finds himself fighting
with at least three enemies: the man in the street (and trying to reconcile
with him: What I do is to help you), the
scientists (My conceptual analysis is meta-conceptual), and synthetic
philosophers who disagree with Grice that analysis plays a key role in
philosophical methodology. Grice sees this as an update to his post-war Oxford
philosophy. But we have to remember that back when he read that paper, post-war
Oxford philosophy, was just around the corner and very fashionable. By the time
he composed the piece on conceptual analysis as overlapping with the province
of philosophy, he was aware that, in The New World, anaytic had become, thanks
to Quine, a bit of an abusive term, and that Grices natural talent for
linguistic botanising (at which post-war Oxford philosophy excelled) was not
something he could trust to encounter outside Oxford, and his Play Group! Since
his Negation and Personal identity Grice is concerned with reductive analysis.
How many angels can dance on a needles point? A needless point? This is Grices
update to his Post-war Oxford philosophy. More generally concerned with the
province of philosophy in general and conceptual analysis beyond ordinary
language. It can become pretty technical. Note the Roman overtone of province.
Grice is implicating that the other province is perhaps science, even folk
science, and the claims and ta legomena of the man in the street. He also likes
to play with the idea that a conceptual enquiry need not be philosophical.
Witness the very opening to Logic and conversation, Prolegomena. Surely not all
inquiries need be philosophical. In fact, a claim to infame of Grice at the
Play Group is having once raised the infamous, most subtle, question: what is
it that makes a conceptual enquiry philosophically interesting or important? As
a result, Austin and his kindergarten spend three weeks analysing the distinct
inappropriate implicata of adverbial collocations of intensifiers like highly
depressed, versus very depressed, or very red, but not highly red, to no avail.
Actually the logical form of very is pretty complicated, and Grice seems to
minimise the point. Grices moralising implicature, by retelling the story, is
that he has since realised (as he hoped Austin knew) that there is no way he or
any philosopher can dictate to any other philosopher, or himself, what is it
that makes a conceptual enquiry philosophically interesting or important.
Whether it is fun is all that matters. Refs.: The main references are
meta-philosophical, i. e. Grice talking about linguistic botany, rather than
practicing it. “Reply to Richards,” and the references under “Oxonianism” below
are helpful. For actual practice, under ‘rationality.’ There is a specific
essay on linguistic botanising, too. The H. P. Grice Papers, BANC.
linguistic relativity,
the thesis that at least some distinctions found in one language are found in
no other language (a version of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis); more generally,
the thesis that different languages utilize different representational systems
that are at least in some degree informationally incommensurable and hence
non-equivalent. The differences arise from the arbitrary features of languages
resulting in each language encoding lexically or grammatically some
distinctions not found in other languages. The thesis of linguistic determinism
holds that the ways people perceive or think about the world, especially with
respect to their classificatory systems, are causally determined or influenced
by their linguistic systems or by the structures common to all human languages.
Specifically, implicit or explicit linguistic categorization determines or
influences aspects of nonlinguistic categorization, memory, perception, or
cognition in general. Its strongest form (probably a straw-man position) holds
that linguistically unencoded concepts are unthinkable. Weaker forms hold that
concepts that are linguistically encoded are more accessible to thought and
easier to remember than those that are not. This thesis is independent of that
of linguistic relativity. Linguistic determinism plus linguistic relativity as
defined here implies the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis.
literary theory, a
reasoned account of the nature of the literary artifact, its causes, effects,
and distinguishing features. So understood, literary theory is part of the systematic
study of literature covered by the term ‘criticism’, which also includes
interpretation of literary works, philology, literary history, and the
evaluation of particular works or bodies of work. Because it attempts to
provide the conceptual foundations for practical criticism, literary theory has
also been called “critical theory.” However, since the latter term has been
appropriated by neo-Marxists affiliated with the Frankfurt School to designate
their own kind of social critique, ‘literary theory’ is less open to
misunderstanding. Because of its concern with the ways in which literary
productions differ from other verbal artifacts and from other works of art,
literary theory overlaps extensively with philosophy, psychology, linguistics,
and the other human sciences. The first ex professo theory of literature in the
West, for centuries taken as normative, was Aristotle’s Poetics. On Aristotle’s
view, poetry is a verbal imitation of the forms of human life and action in
language made vivid by metaphor. It stimulates its audience to reflect on the
human condition, enriches their understanding, and thereby occasions the
pleasure that comes from the exercise of the cognitive faculty. The first real
paradigm shift in literary theory was introduced by the Romantics of the
nineteenth century. The Biographia Literaria (1817) of Samuel Taylor Coleridge,
recounting the author’s conversion from Humean empiricism to a form of German
idealism, defines poetry not as a representation of objective structures, but
as the imaginative self-expression of the creative subject. Its emphasis is not
on the poem as a source of pleasure but on poetry as a heightened form of
spiritual activity. The standard work on the transition from classical
(imitation) theory to Romantic (expression) theory is M. H. Abrams’s The Mirror
and the Lamp (1953). In the present century theory has assumed a place of
prominence in literary studies. In the first half of the century the works of
I. A. Richards – from his early positivist account of linear order literary
theory 505 4065h-l.qxd 08/02/1999 7:40 AM Page 505 poetry in books like Science
and Poetry (1926) to his later idealist views in books like The Philosophy of
Rhetoric (1936) – sponsored the practice of the American New Critics. The most influential
theorist of the period is Northrop Frye, whose formalist manifesto, Anatomy of
Criticism (1957), proposed to make criticism the “science of literature.” The
introduction of Continental thought to the English-speaking critical
establishment in the 1960s and after spawned a bewildering variety of competing
theories of literature: e.g., Russian formalism, structuralism, deconstruction,
new historicism, Marxism, Freudianism, feminism, and even the anti-theoretical
movement called the “new pragmatism.” The best summary account of these
developments is Frank Lentricchia’s After the New Criticism (1980). Given the
present near-chaos in criticism, the future of literary theory is
unpredictable. But the chaos itself offers ample opportunities for philosophical
analysis and calls for the kind of conceptual discrimination such analysis can
offer. Conversely, the study of literary theory can provide philosophers with a
better understanding of the textuality of philosophy and of the ways in which
philosophical content is determined by the literary form of philosophical
texts.
lit. hum. (philos.): While Grice would take tutees under different curricula, he
preferred Lit. Hum. So how much philosophy did this include. Plato, Aristotle,
Locke, Kant, and Mill. And that was mainly it. We are referring to the
‘philosophy’ component. Ayer used to say that he would rather have been a
judge. But at Oxford of that generation, having a Lit. Hum. perfectly qualified
you as a philosopher. And people like Ayer, who would rather be a juddge, end
up being a philosopher after going through the Lit. Hum. Grice himself comes as
a “Midlands scholarship boy” straight from Clifton on a classics scholarship,
and being from the Midlands, straight to Corpus. The fact that he got on so well
with Hardie helped. The fact that his interim at Merton worked was good. The
fact that the thing at Rossall did NOT work was good. The fact that he becamse
a fellow at St. John’s OBVIOUSLY helped. The fact that he had Strawson as a
tutee ALSO helped helped. H. P. Grice, Literae Humaniores (Philosophy), Oxon.
Liu Shao-ch’i
(1898–1969), Chinese Communist leader. A close ally of Mao Tse-tung, he was
purged near the end of his life when he refused to follow Mao’s radical
approach during the Cultural Revolution, became an ally of the practical Teng
Hsiao-ping, and was branded the biggest Capitalist Roader in China. In 1939 he
delivered in Yenan the influential speech “How to Be a Good Communist,”
published in 1943 and widely studied by Chinese Communists. As he emphasized
self-discipline, there appeared to be a Confucian dimension in his thought. The
article was banned during the Cultural Revolution, and he was accused of
teaching reactionary Confucianism in the revolutionary camp. He was later
rehabilitated.
Liu Tsung-chou, also
called Ch’i-shan (1578– 1645), Chinese philosopher commonly regarded as the
last major figure in Sung–Ming Neo-Confucianism. He opposed all sorts of
dualist thoughts, including Chu Hsi’s philosophy. He was also not happy with
some of Wang Yangming’s followers who claimed that men in the streets were all
sages. He shifted the emphasis from rectification of the mind to sincerity of
the will, and he gave a new interpretation to “watchful over the self” in the
Doctrine of the Mean. Among his disciples was the great intellectual historian
Huang Tsung-hsi.
locke.
Grice cites Locke in “Personal identity,” and many more places. He has a
premium for Locke. Acceptance, acceptance and
certeris paribus condition, acceptance and modals, j-acceptance, moral
acceptance, prudential acceptance, v-acceptance, ackrill,
Aristotle, Austin, botvinnik ,
categorical imperative, chicken soul, immortality of,
Davidson, descriptivism, descriptivism and
ends, aequi-vocality thesis, final cause, frege, happiness, happiness and H-desirables, happiness and I-desirables,
happiness as a system of ends, happiness as an end, hardie, hypothetical imperative , hypothetical imperative -- see technical imperatives,
isaacson, incontinence,
inferential principles, judging, judging and acceptance, Kant, logical theory, meaning,
meaning and speech procedures, sentence meaning, what a speaker means, modes,
modes and moods, moods, modes and embedding of mode-markers , judicative operator, volitive operator, mood operators,
moods morality, myro, nagel, necessity, necessity and provability, necessity and
relativized and absolute modalities, principle of total evidence, principles of
inference, principles of inference, reasons, and necessity, provability,
radical, rationality : as faculty manifested in reasoning, flat and variable,
proto-rationality, rational being, and value
as value-paradigmatic concept, rationality operator, reasonable, reasoning,
reasoning and defeasibility, reasoning defined, rasoning and explanation,
reasoning -- first account of, reasoning and good reasoning, reasoning, special
status of, reasoning the hard way of, reasoning and incomplete reasoning,
reasoning and indeterminacy of, reasoning and intention, reasoning and
misreasoning, reasoning, practical, reasoning, probabilistic, reasoning as
purposive activity, reasoning, the quick way of , reasoning -- too good to be reasoning, reasons, reasons
altheic, reasons: division into practical and alethic, reasons: explanatory,
reasons justificatory, reasons: justificatory-explanatory, reasoning and
modals, reasoning and necessity, personal, practical and non-practical
(alethic) reasons compared, systematizing hypothesis: types of, Russell,
satisfactoriness, technical imperatives, value, value paradigmatic concepts, Wright,
willing and acceptance, Vitters. Index
acceptance 71-2 , 80-7 and certeris paribus condition 77 and modals 91-2
J-acceptance 51 moral 61 , 63 , 87 prudential 97-111 V-acceptance 51 Ackrill,
J. L. 119-20 Aristotle 4-5 , 19 , 24-5 , 31 , 32 , 43 , 98-9 , 112-15 , 120 ,
125 Austin, J. L. 99 Botvinnik 11 , 12 , 18 Categorical Imperative 4 , 70
chicken soul, immortality of 11-12 Davidson, Donald 45-8 , 68 descriptivism 92
ends 100-10 Equivocality thesis x-xv , 58 , 62 , 66 , 70 , 71 , 80 , 90 final
cause 43-4 , 66 , 111 Frege, Gottlob 50 happiness 97-134 and H-desirables
114-18 , 120 and I-desirables 114-18 , 120 , 122 , 128 as a system of ends
131-4 as an end 97 , 113-15 , 119-20 , 123-8 Hardie, W. F. R. 119 hypothetical
imperative 97 , see technical imperatives Isaacson, Dan 30n. incontinence 25 ,
47 inferential principles 35 judging 51 , see acceptance Kant 4 , 21 , 25 , 31
, 43 , 44-5 , 70 , 77-8 , 86-7 , 90-8 logical theory 61 meaning ix-x and speech
procedures 57-8 sentence meaning 68-9 what a speaker means 57-8 , 68 modes 68 ,
see moods moods xxii-xxiii , 50-6 , 59 , 69 , 71-2 embedding of mode-markers
87-9 judicative operator 50 , 72-3 , 90 volative operator 50 , 73 , 90 mood
operators , see moods morality 63 , 98 Myro, George 40 Nagel, Thomas 64n. necessity
xii-xiii , xvii-xxiii , 45 , 58-9 and provability 59 , 60-2 and relativized and
absolute modalities 56-66 principle of total evidence 47 , 80-7 principles of
inference 5 , 7 , 9 , 22-3 , 26 , 35 see also reasons, and necessity provability 59 , 60-2 radical 50-3 , 58-9 ,
72 , 88 rationality : as faculty manifested in reasoning 5 flat and variable
28-36 proto-rationality 33 rational being 4 , 25 , 28-30 and value as
value-paradigmatic concept 35 rationality operator xiv-xv , 50-1 reasonable
23-5 reasoning 4-28 and defeasibility 47 , 79 , 92 defined 13-14 , 87-8 and
explanation xxix-xxxv , 8 first account of 5-6 , 13-14 , 26-8 good reasoning 6
, 14-16 , 26-7 special status of 35 the hard way of 17 end p.135 incomplete
reasoning 8-14 indeterminacy of 12-13 and intention 7 , 16 , 18-25 , 35-6 ,
48-9 misreasoning 6-8 , 26 practical 46-50 probabilistic 46-50 as purposive
activity 16-19 , 27-8 , 35 the quick way of 17 too good to be reasoning 14-18
reasons 37-66 altheic 44-5 , 49 division into practical and alethic 44 , 68
explanatory 37-9 justificatory 39-40 , 67-8 justificatory-explanatory 40-1 , 67
and modals 45 and necessity 44-5 personal 67 practical and non-practical
(alethic) reasons compared xiixiii , 44-50 , 65 , 68 , 73-80 systematizing
hypothesis 41-4 types of 37-44 Russell, Bertrand 50 satisfactoriness 60 , 87-9
, 95 technical imperatives 70 , 78 , 90 , 93-6 , 97 value 20 , 35 , 83 , 87-8
value paradigmatic concepts 35-6 von Wright 44 willing 50 , see acceptance
Wittengenstein, Ludwig 50
Locke, John (1632–1704),
English philosopher and proponent of empiricism, famous especially for his
Essay concerning Human Understanding (1689) and for his Second Treatise of
Government, also published in 1689, though anonymously. He came from a
middle-class Puritan family in Somerset, and became acquainted with Scholastic
philosophy in his studies at Oxford. Not finding a career in church or
university attractive, he trained for a while as a physician, and developed
contacts with many members of the newly formed Royal Society; the chemist
Robert Boyle and the physicist Isaac Newton were close acquaintances. In 1667
he joined the London households of the then Lord Ashley, later first Earl of
Shaftesbury; there he became intimately involved in discussions surrounding the
politics of resistance to the Catholic king, Charles II. In 1683 he fled
England for the Netherlands, where he wrote out the final draft of his Essay.
He returned to England in 1689, a year after the accession to the English
throne of the Protestant William of Orange. In his last years he was the most
famous intellectual in England, perhaps in Europe generally. Locke was not a
university professor immersed in the discussions of the philosophy of “the
schools” but was instead intensely engaged in the social and cultural issues of
his day; his writings were addressed not to professional philosophers but to
the educated public in general. The Essay. The initial impulse for the line of
thought that culminated in the Essay occurred early in 1671, in a discussion
Locke had with some friends in Lord Shaftesbury’s apartments in literature,
philosophy of Locke, John 506 4065h-l.qxd 08/02/1999 7:40 AM Page 506 London on
matters of morality and revealed religion. In his Epistle to the Reader at the
beginning of the Essay Locke says that the discussants found themselves quickly
at a stand by the difficulties that arose on every side. After we had awhile
puzzled ourselves, without coming any nearer a resolution of those doubts which
perplexed us, it came into my thoughts that we took a wrong course, and that
before we set ourselves upon enquiries of that nature it was necessary to
examine our own abilities, and see what objects our understandings were or were
not fitted to deal with. Locke was well aware that for a thousand years
European humanity had consulted its textual inheritance for the resolution of
its moral and religious quandaries; elaborate strategies of interpretation,
distinction, etc., had been developed for extracting from those disparate
sources a unified, highly complex, body of truth. He was equally well aware
that by his time, more than a hundred years after the beginning of the
Reformation, the moral and religious tradition of Europe had broken up into
warring and contradictory fragments. Accordingly he warns his readers over and
over against basing their convictions merely on say-so, on unexamined
tradition. As he puts it in a short late book of his, The Conduct of the
Understanding, “We should not judge of things by men’s opinions, but of
opinions by things.” We should look to “the things themselves,” as he sometimes
puts it. But to know how to get at the things themselves it is necessary, so
Locke thought, “to examine our own abilities.” Hence the project of the Essay.
The Essay comes in four books, Book IV being the culmination. Fundamental to
understanding Locke’s thought in Book IV is the realization that knowledge, as
he thinks of it, is a fundamentally different phenomenon from belief. Locke
holds, indeed, that knowledge is typically accompanied by belief; it is not,
though, to be identified with it. Knowledge, as he thinks of it, is direct
awareness of some fact – in his own words, perception of some agreement or
disagreement among things. Belief, by contrast, consists of taking some
proposition to be true – whether or not one is directly aware of the
corresponding fact. The question then arises: Of what sorts of facts do we
human beings have direct awareness? Locke’s answer is: Only of facts that
consist of relationships among our “ideas.” Exactly what Locke had in mind when
he spoke of ideas is a vexed topic; the traditional view, for which there is a
great deal to be said, is that he regarded ideas as mental objects.
Furthermore, he clearly regarded some ideas as being representations of other entities;
his own view was that we can think about nonmental entities only by being aware
of mental entities that represent those non-mental realities. Locke argued that
knowledge, thus understood, is “short and scanty” – much too short and scanty
for the living of life. Life requires the formation of beliefs on matters where
knowledge is not available. Now what strikes anyone who surveys human beliefs
is that many of them are false. What also strikes any perceptive observer of
the scene is that often we can – or could have – done something about this. We
can, to use Locke’s language, “regulate” and “govern” our belief-forming
capacities with the goal in mind of getting things right. Locke was persuaded
that not only can we thus regulate and govern our belief-forming capacities; we
ought to do so. It is a God-given obligation that rests upon all of us.
Specifically, for each human being there are some matters of such
“concernment,” as Locke calls it, as to place the person under obligation to
try his or her best to get things right. For all of us there will be many
issues that are not of such concernment; for those cases, it will be acceptable
to form our beliefs in whatever way nature or custom has taught us to form
them. But for each of us there will be certain practical matters concerning
which we are obligated to try our best – these differing from person to person.
And certain matters of ethics and religion are of such concern to everybody
that we are all obligated to try our best, on these matters, to get in touch
with reality. What does trying our best consist of, when knowledge –
perception, awareness, insight – is not available? One can think of the
practice Locke recommends as having three steps. First one collects whatever
evidence one can find for and against the proposition in question. This
evidence must consist of things that one knows; otherwise we are just wandering
in darkness. And the totality of the evidence must be a reliable indicator of
the probability of the proposition that one is considering. Second, one
analyzes the evidence to determine the probability of the proposition in
question, on that evidence. And last, one places a level of confidence in the
proposition that is proportioned to its probability on that satisfactory
evidence. If the proposition is highly probable on that evidence, one believes
it very firmly; if it only is quite probable, one Locke, John Locke, John 507
4065h-l.qxd 08/02/1999 7:40 AM Page 507 believes it rather weakly; etc. The
main thrust of the latter half of Book IV of the Essay is Locke’s exhortation
to his readers to adopt this practice in the forming of beliefs on matters of
high concernment – and in particular, on matters of morality and religion. It
was his view that the new science being developed by his friends Boyle and
Newton and others was using exactly this method. Though Book IV was clearly
seen by Locke as the culmination of the Essay, it by no means constitutes the
bulk of it. Book I launches a famous attack on innate ideas and innate
knowledge; he argues that all our ideas and knowledge can be accounted for by
tracing the way in which the mind uses its innate capacities to work on
material presented to it by sensation and reflection (i.e., self-awareness).
Book II then undertakes to account for all our ideas, on the assumption that
the only “input” is ideas of sensation and reflection, and that the mind, which
at birth is a tabula rasa (or blank tablet), works on these by such operations
as combination, division, generalization, and abstraction. And then in Book III
Locke discusses the various ways in which words hinder us in our attempt to get
to the things themselves. Along with many other thinkers of the time, Locke
distinguished between what he called natural theology and what he called
revealed theology. It was his view that a compelling, demonstrative argument
could be given for the existence of God, and thus that we could have knowledge
of God’s existence; the existence of God is a condition of our own existence.
In addition, he believed firmly that God had revealed things to human beings.
As he saw the situation, however, we can at most have beliefs, not knowledge,
concerning what God has revealed. For we can never just “see” that a certain
episode in human affairs is a case of divine revelation. Accordingly, we must
apply the practice outlined above, beginning by assembling satisfactory
evidence for the conclusion that a certain episode really is a case of divine
revelation. In Locke’s view, the occurrence of miracles provides the required
evidence. An implication of these theses concerning natural and revealed
religion is that it is never right for a human being to believe something about
God without having evidence for its truth, with the evidence consisting
ultimately of things that one “sees” immediately to be true. Locke held to a
divine command theory of moral obligation; to be morally obligated to do
something is for God to require of one that one do that. And since a great deal
of what Jesus taught, as Locke saw it, was a code of moral obligation, it
follows that once we have evidence for the revelatory status of what Jesus
said, we automatically have evidence that what Jesus taught as our moral
obligation really is that. Locke was firmly persuaded, however, that revelation
is not our only mode of access to moral obligation. Most if not all of our
moral obligations can also be arrived at by the use of our natural capacities,
unaided by revelation. To that part of our moral obligations which can in
principle be arrived at by the use of our natural capacities, Locke (in
traditional fashion) gave the title of natural law. Locke’s own view was that
morality could in principle be established as a deductive science, on analogy
to mathematics: one would first argue for God’s existence and for our status as
creatures of God; one would then argue that God was good, and cared for the
happiness of God’s creatures. Then one would argue that such a good God would
lay down commands to his creatures, aimed at their overall happiness. From
there, one would proceed to reflect on what does in fact conduce to human
happiness. And so forth. Locke never worked out the details of such a deductive
system of ethics; late in his life he concluded that it was beyond his
capacities. But he never gave up on the ideal. The Second Treatise and other
writings. Locke’s theory of natural law entered intimately into the theory of
civil obedience that he developed in the Second Treatise of Government.
Imagine, he said, a group of human beings living in what he called a state of nature
– i.e., a condition in which there is no governmental authority and no private
property. They would still be under divine obligation; and much (if not all) of
that obligation would be accessible to them by the use of their natural
capacities. There would be for them a natural law. In this state of nature they
would have title to their own persons and labor; natural law tells us that
these are inherently our “possessions.” But there would be no possessions
beyond that. The physical world would be like a gigantic English commons, given
by God to humanity as a whole. Locke then addresses himself to two questions:
How can we account for the emergence of political obligation from such a
situation, and how can we account for the emergence of private property? As to
the former, his answer is that we in effect make a contract with one another to
institute a government for the Locke, John Locke, John 508 4065h-l.qxd
08/02/1999 7:40 AM Page 508 elimination of certain deficiencies in the state of
nature, and then to obey that government, provided it does what we have
contracted with one another it should do and does not exceed that. Among the
deficiencies of the state of nature that a government can be expected to
correct is the sinful tendency of human beings to transgress on other persons’
properties, and the equally sinful tendency to punish such transgressions more
severely than the law of nature allows. As to the emergence of private
property, something from the world at large becomes a given person’s property when
that person “mixes” his or her labor with it. For though God gave the world as
a whole to all of us together, natural law tells us that each person’s labor
belongs to that person himself or herself – unless he or she freely contracts
it to someone else. Locke’s Second Treatise is thus an articulate statement of
the so-called liberal theory of the state; it remains one of the greatest of
such, and proved enormously influential. It should be seen as supplemented by
the Letters concerning Toleration (1689, 1690, 1692) that Locke wrote on
religious toleration, in which he argued that all theists who have not pledged
civil allegiance to some foreign power should be granted equal toleration. Some
letters that Locke wrote to a friend concerning the education of the friend’s
son should also be seen as supplementing the grand vision. If we survey the way
in which beliefs are actually formed in human beings, we see that passion, the
partisanship of distinct traditions, early training, etc., play important
obstructive roles. It is impossible to weed out entirely from one’s life the
influence of such factors. When it comes to matters of high “concernment,”
however, it is our obligation to do so; it is our obligation to implement the
three-step practice outlined above, which Locke defends as doing one’s best.
But Locke did not think that the cultural reform he had in mind, represented by
the appropriate use of this new practice, could be expected to come about as
the result just of writing books and delivering exhortations. Training in the
new practice was required; in particular, training of small children, before
bad habits had been ingrained. Accordingly, Locke proposes in Some Thoughts
concerning Education (1693) an educational program aimed at training children
in when and how to collect satisfactory evidence, appraise the probabilities of
propositions on such evidence, and place levels of confidence in those
propositions proportioned to their probability on that evidence.
logical consequence, a
proposition, sentence, or other piece of information that follows logically
from one or more other propositions, sentences, or pieces of information. A
proposition C is said to follow logically from, or to be a logical consequence
of, propositions P1, P2, . . . , if it must be the case that, on the assumption
that P1, P2, . . . , Pn are all true, the proposition C is true as well. For
example, the proposition ‘Smith is corrupt’ is a logical consequence of the two
propositions ‘All politicians are corrupt’ and ‘Smith is a politician’, since
it must be the case that on the assumption that ‘All politicians are corrupt’
and ‘Smith is a politician’ are both true, ‘Smith is corrupt’ is also true.
Notice that proposition C can be a logical consequence of propositions P1, P2,
. . . , Pn, even if P1, P2, . . . , Pn are not actually all true. Indeed this
is the case in our example. ‘All politicians are corrupt’ is not, in fact,
true: there are some honest politicians. But if it were true, and if Smith were
a politician, then ‘Smith is corrupt’ would have to be true. Because of this,
it is said to be a logical consequence of those two propositions. The logical
consequence relation is often written using the symbol X, called the double
turnstile. Thus to indicate that C is a logical consequence of P1, P2, . . . ,
Pn, we would write: P1, P2, . . . , Pn X C or: P X C where P stands for the set
containing the propositions p1, P2, . . . , Pn. The term ‘logical consequence’
is sometimes reserved for cases in which C follows from P1, P2, . . . , Pn
solely in virtue of the meanings of the socalled logical expressions (e.g.,
‘some’, ‘all’, ‘or’, ‘and’, ‘not’) contained by these propositions. In this
more restricted sense, ‘Smith is not a politician’ is not a logical consequence
of the proposition ‘All politicians are corrupt’ and ‘Smith is honest’, since
to recognize the consequence relation here we must also understand the specific
meanings of the non-logical expressions ‘corrupt’ and ‘honest’.
logical constant, a
symbol, such as the connectives -, 8, /, or S or the quantifiers D or E of
elementary quantification theory, that represents logical form. The contrast
here is with expressions such as terms, predicates, and function symbols, which
are supposed to represent the “content” of a sentence or proposition. Beyond
this, there is little consensus on how to understand logical constancy. It is
sometimes said, e.g., that a symbol is a logical constant if its interpretation
is fixed across admissible valuations, though there is disagreement over exactly
how to construe this “fixity” constraint. This account seems to make logical
form a mere artifact of one’s choice of a model theory. More generally, it has
been questioned whether there are any objective grounds for classifying some
expressions as logical and others not, or whether such a distinction is (wholly
or in part) conventional. Other philosophers have suggested that logical
constancy is less a semantic notion than an epistemic one: roughly, that a is a
logical constant if the semantic behavior of certain other expressions together
with the semantic contribution of a determine a priori (or in some other
epistemically privileged fashion) the extensions of complex expressions in
which a occurs. There is also considerable debate over whether particular symbols,
such as the identity sign, modal operators, and quantifiers other than D and E,
are, or should be treated as, logical constants.
logical construction,
something built by logical operations from certain elements. Suppose that any
sentence, S, containing terms apparently referring to objects of type F can be
paraphrased without any essential loss of content into some (possibly much more
complicated) sentence, Sp, containing only terms referring to objects of type G
(distinct from F): in this case, objects of type F may be said to be logical
constructions out of objects of type G. The notion originates with Russell’s
concept of an “incomplete symbol,” which he introduced in connection with his
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Page 510 ory of descriptions. According to Russell, a definite description –
i.e., a descriptive phrase, such as ‘the present king of France’, apparently
picking out a unique object – cannot be taken at face value as a genuinely referential
term. One reason for this is that the existence of the objects seemingly
referred to by such phrases can be meaningfully denied. We can say, “The
present king of France does not exist,” and it is hard to see how this could be
if ‘the present king of France’, to be meaningful, has to refer to the present
king of France. One solution, advocated by Meinong, is to claim that the
referents required by what ordinary grammar suggests are singular terms must
have some kind of “being,” even though this need not amount to actual
existence; but this solution offended Russell’s “robust sense of reality.”
According to Russell, then, ‘The F is G’ is to be understood as equivalent to
(something like) ‘One and only one thing Fs and that thing is G’. (The phrase
‘one and only one’ can itself be paraphrased away in terms of quantifiers and
identity.) The crucial feature of this analysis is that it does not define the
problematic phrases by providing synonyms: rather, it provides a rule, which
Russell called “a definition in use,” for paraphrasing whole sentences in which
they occur into whole sentences in which they do not. This is why definite
descriptions are “incomplete symbols”: we do not specify objects that are their
meanings; we lay down a rule that explains the meaning of whole sentences in
which they occur. Thus definite descriptions disappear under analysis, and with
them the shadowy occupants of Meinong’s realm of being. Russell thought that
the kind of analysis represented by the theory of descriptions gives the clue
to the proper method for philosophy: solve metaphysical and epistemological
problems by reducing ontological commitments. The task of philosophy is to
substitute, wherever possible, logical constructions for inferred entities.
Thus in the philosophy of mathematics, Russell attempted to eliminate numbers,
as a distinct category of objects, by showing how mathematical statements can
be translated into (what he took to be) purely logical statements. But what
really gave Russell’s program its bite was his thought that we can refer only
to objects with which we are directly acquainted. This committed him to holding
that all terms apparently referring to objects that cannot be regarded as
objects of acquaintance should be given contextual definitions along the lines
of the theory of descriptions: i.e., to treating everything beyond the scope of
acquaintance as a logical construction (or a “logical fiction”). Most notably,
Russell regarded physical objects as logical constructions out of sense-data,
taking this to resolve the skeptical problem about our knowledge of the
external world. The project of showing how physical objects can be treated as
logical constructions out of sense-data was a major concern of analytical
philosophers in the interwar period, Carnap’s Der Logische Aufbau der Welt
(“The Logical Structure of the World,” 1928) standing as perhaps its major
monument. However, the project was not a success. Even Carnap’s construction
involves a system of space-time coordinates that is not analyzed in sense-datum
terms and today few, if any, philosophers believe that such ambitious projects
can be carried through..
logical form, the form
obtained from a proposition, a set of propositions, or an argument by
abstracting from the subject matter of its content terms or by regarding the
content terms as mere placeholders or blanks in a form. In a logically perfect
language the logical form of a proposition, a set of propositions, or an
argument is determined by the grammatical form of the sentence, the set of sentences,
or the argument-text expressing it. Two sentences, sets of sentences, or
argument-texts are said to have the same grammatical form, in this sense, if a
uniform one-toone substitution of content words transforms the one exactly into
the other. The sentence ‘Abe properly respects every agent who respects
himself’ may be regarded as having the same grammatical form as the sentence
‘Ben generously assists every patient who assists himself’. Substitutions used
to determine sameness of grammatical form cannot involve change of form words
such as ‘every’, ‘no’, ‘some’, ‘is’, etc., and they must be
category-preserving, i.e., they must put a proper name for a proper name, an
adverb for an adverb, a transitive verb for a transitive verb, and so on. Two
sentences having the same grammatical form have exactly the same form words
distributed in exactly the same pattern; and although they of course need not,
and usually do not, have the same content words, they do have logical
dependence logical form exactly the same number of content words. The most
distinctive feature of form words, which are also called syncategorematic terms
or logical terms, is their topic neutrality; the form words in a sentence are
entirely independent of and are in no way indicative of its content or topic.
Modern formal languages used in formal axiomatizations of mathematical sciences
are often taken as examples of logically perfect languages. Pioneering work on
logically perfect languages was done by George Boole (1815–64), Frege, Giuseppe
Peano (1858–1952), Russell, and Church. According to the principle of logical
form, an argument is (formally) valid or invalid in virtue of logical form.
More explicitly, every two arguments in the same form are both valid or both
invalid. Thus, every argument in the same form as a valid argument is valid and
every argument in the same form as an invalid argument is invalid. The argument
form that a given argument fits (or has) is not determined solely by the
logical forms of its constituent propositions; the arrangement of those
propositions is critical because the process of interchanging a premise with
the conclusion of a valid argument can result in an invalid argument. The
principle of logical form, from which formal logic gets its name, is commonly used
in establishing invalidity of arguments and consistency of sets of
propositions. In order to show that a given argument is invalid it is
sufficient to exhibit another argument as being in the same logical form and as
having all true premises and a false conclusion. In order to show that a given
set of propositions is consistent it is sufficient to exhibit another set of
propositions as being in the same logical form and as being composed
exclusively of true propositions. The history of these methods traces back
through non-Cantorian set theory, non-Euclidean geometry, and medieval
logicians (especially Anselm) to Aristotle. These methods must be used with
extreme caution in languages such as English that fail to be logically perfect
as a result of ellipsis, amphiboly, ambiguity, etc. For example, ‘This is a
male dog’ implies ‘This is a dog’ but ‘This is a brass monkey’ does not imply
‘This is a monkey’, as would be required in a logically perfect language.
Likewise, of two propositions commonly expressed by the ambiguous sentence ‘Ann
and Ben are married’ one does and one does not imply the proposition that Ann
is married to Ben. Quine and other logicians are careful to distinguish, in
effect, the (unique) logical form of a proposition from its (many) schematic
forms. The proposition (A) ‘If Abe is Ben, then if Ben is wise Abe is wise’ has
exactly one logical form, which it shares with (B) ‘If Carl is Dan, then if Dan
is kind Carl is kind’, whereas it has all of the following schematic forms: (1)
If P then if Q then R; (2) If P then Q; (3) P. The principle of form for
propositions is that every two propositions in the same logical form are both
tautological (logically necessary) or both non-tautological. Thus, although
propositions A and B are tautological there are non-tautological propositions
that fit the three schematic forms just mentioned. Failure to distinguish
logical form from schematic form has led to fallacies. According to the
principle of logical form quoted above every argument in the same logical form
as an invalid argument is invalid, but it is not the case that every argument
sharing a schematic form with an invalid argument is invalid. Contrary to what
would be fallaciously thought, the conclusion ‘Abe is Ben’ is logically implied
by the following two propositions taken together, ‘If Abe is Ben, then Ben is
Abe’ and ‘Ben is Abe’, even though the argument shares a schematic form with
invalid arguments “committing” the fallacy of affirming the consequent.
logical indicator, also
called indicator word, an expression that provides some help in identifying the
conclusion of an argument or the premises offered in support of a conclusion.
Common premise indicators include ‘for’, ‘because’, and ‘since’. Common
conclusion indicators include ‘so’, ‘it follows that’, ‘hence’, ‘thus’, and
‘therefore’. Since Tom sat in the back of the room, he could not hear the
performance clearly. Therefore, he could not write a proper review. ’Since’
makes clear that Tom’s seat location is offered as a reason to explain his
inability to hear the performance. ‘Therefore’ indicates that the logical form,
principle of logical indicator 512 4065h-l.qxd 08/02/1999 7:40 AM Page 512
proposition that Tom could not write a proper review is the conclusion of the
argument. T.J.D. logically perfect language. See LOGICAL FORM, SCOPE. logically
proper name. See RUSSELL. logical mechanism. See COMPUTER THEORY. logical
necessity. See NECESSITY. logical notation, symbols designed to achieve
unambiguous formulation of principles and inferences in deductive logic. Such
notations involve some regimentation of words, word order, etc., of natural
language. Some schematization was attempted even in ancient times by Aristotle,
the Megarians, the Stoics, Boethius, and the medievals. But Leibniz’s vision of
a universal logical language began to be realized only in the past 150 years.
The notation is not yet standardized, but the following varieties of logical
operators in propositional and predicate calculus may be noted. Given that ‘p’,
‘q’, ‘r’, etc., are propositional variables, or propositions, we find, in the
contexts of their application, the following variety of operators (called
truth-functional connectives). Negation: ‘-p’, ‘Ýp’, ‘p - ’, ‘p’ ’.
Conjunction: ‘p • q’, ‘p & q’, ‘p 8 q’. Weak or inclusive disjunction: ‘p 7
q’. Strong or exclusive disjunction: ‘p V q’, ‘p ! q’, ‘p W q’. Material
conditional (sometimes called material implication): ‘p / q’, ‘p P q’. Material
biconditional (sometimes called material equivalence): ‘p S q’, ‘p Q q’. And,
given that ‘x’, ‘y’, ‘z’, etc., are individual variables and ‘F’, ‘G’, ‘H’,
etc., are predicate letters, we find in the predicate calculus two quantifiers,
a universal and an existential quantifier: Universal quantification: ‘(x)Fx’,
‘(Ex)Fx’, ‘8xFx’. Existential quantification: ‘(Ex)Fx’, ‘(Dx)Fx’, ‘7xFx’. The
formation principle in all the schemata involving dyadic or binary operators
(connectives) is that the logical operator is placed between the propositional
variables (or propositional constants) connected by it. But there exists a
notation, the so-called Polish notation, based on the formation rule
stipulating that all operators, and not only negation and quantifiers, be
placed in front of the schemata over which they are ranging. The following representations
are the result of application of that rule: Negation: ‘Np’. Conjunction: ‘Kpq’.
Weak or inclusive disjunction: ‘Apq’. Strong or exclusive disjunction: ‘Jpq’.
Conditional: ‘Cpq’. Biconditional: ‘Epq’. Sheffer stroke: ‘Dpq’. Universal
quantification: ‘PxFx’. Existential quantifications: ‘9xFx’. Remembering that
‘K’, ‘A’, ‘J’, ‘C’, ‘E’, and ‘D’ are dyadic functors, we expect them to be
followed by two propositional signs, each of which may itself be simple or
compound, but no parentheses are needed to prevent ambiguity. Moreover, this
notation makes it very perspicuous as to what kind of proposition a given
compound proposition is: all we need to do is to look at the leftmost operator.
To illustrate, ‘p7 (q & r) is a disjunction of ‘p’ with the conjunction
‘Kqr’, i.e., ‘ApKqr’, while ‘(p 7 q) & r’ is a conjunction of a disjunction
‘Apq’ with ‘r’, i.e., ‘KApqr’. ‘- p P q’ is written as ‘CNpq’, i.e., ‘if Np,
then q’, while negation of the whole conditional, ‘-(p P q)’, becomes ‘NCpq’. A
logical thesis such as ‘((p & q) P r) P ((s P p) P (s & q) P r))’ is
written concisely as ‘CCKpqrCCspCKsqr’. The general proposition ‘(Ex) (Fx P
Gx)’ is written as ‘PxCFxGx’, while a truth-function of quantified propositions
‘(Ex)Fx P (Dy)Gy’ is written as ‘CPxFx9yGy’. An equivalence such as ‘(Ex) Fx Q
- (Dx) - Fx’ becomes ‘EPxFxN9xNFx’, etc. Dot notation is way of using dots to
construct well-formed formulas that is more thrifty with punctuation marks than
the use of parentheses with their progressive strengths of scope. But dot
notation is less thrifty than the parenthesis-free Polish notation, which
secures well-formed expressions entirely on the basis of the order of logical
operators relative to truth-functional compounds. Various dot notations have
been devised. The convention most commonly adopted is that punctuation dots
always operate away from the connective symbol that they flank. It is best to
explain dot punctuation by examples: (1) ‘p 7 (q - r)’ becomes ‘p 7 .q P - r’;
(2) ‘(p 7 q) P - r’ becomes ‘p 7 q. P - r’; (3) ‘(p P (q Q r)) 7 (p 7 r)’
becomes ‘p P. q Q r: 7. p 7r’; (4) ‘(- pQq)•(rPs)’ becomes ‘-p Q q . r Q s’.
logically perfect language logical notation 513 4065h-l.qxd 08/02/1999 7:40 AM
Page 513 Note that here the dot is used as conjunction dot and is not flanked
by punctuation dots, although in some contexts additional punctuation dots may
have to be added, e.g., ‘p.((q . r) P s), which is rewritten as ‘p : q.r. P s’.
The scope of a group of n dots extends to the group of n or more dots. (5) ‘- p
Q (q.(r P s))’ becomes ‘- p. Q : q.r P s’; (6)‘- pQ((q . r) Ps)’ becomes ‘~p.
Q: q.r.Ps’; (7) ‘(- p Q (q . r)) P s’ becomes ‘- p Q. q.r: P s’. The notation
for modal propositions made popular by C. I. Lewis consisted of the use of ‘B’
to express the idea of possibility, in terms of which other alethic modal
notions were defined. Thus, starting with ‘B p’ for ‘It is possiblethat p’ we
get ‘- B p’ for ‘It is not possible that p’ (i.e., ‘It is impossible that p’),
‘- B - p’ for ‘It is not possible that not p’ (i.e., ‘It is necessary that p’),
and ‘B - p’ for ‘It is possible that not p’ (i.e., ‘It is contingent that p’ in
the sense of ‘It is not necessary that p’, i.e., ‘It is possible that not p’).
Given this primitive or undefined notion of possibility, Lewis proceeded to
introduce the notion of strict implication, represented by ‘ ’ and defined as
follows: ‘p q .% . - B (p. -q)’. More recent tradition finds it convenient to
use ‘A’, either as a defined or as a primitive symbol of necessity. In the
parenthesis-free Polish notation the letter ‘M’ is usually added as the sign of
possibility and sometimes the letter ‘L’ is used as the sign of necessity. No
inconvenience results from adopting these letters, as long as they do not
coincide with any of the existing truthfunctional operators ‘N’, ‘K’, ‘A’, ‘J’,
‘C’, ‘E’, ‘D’. Thus we can express symbolically the sentences ‘If p is
necessary, then p is possible’ as ‘CNMNpMp’ or as ‘CLpMp’; ‘It is necessary
that whatever is F is G’ as ‘NMNPxCFxGx’ or as ‘LPxCFxGx’; and ‘Whatever is F
is necessarily G’ as ‘PxCFxNMNGx’ or as PxCFxLGx; etc.
logical positivism, also
called positivism, a philosophical movement inspired by empiricism and
verificationism; it began in the 1920s and flourished for about twenty or
thirty years. While there are still philosophers who would identify themselves
with some of the logical positivists’ theses, many of the central docrines of
the theory have come under considerable attack in the last half of this
century. In some ways logical positivism can be seen as a natural outgrowth of
radical or British empiricism and logical atomism. The driving force of
positivism may well have been adherence to the verifiability criterion for the
meaningfulness of cognitive statements. Acceptance of this principle led positivists
to reject as problematic many assertions of religion, morality, and the kind of
philosophy they described as metaphysics. The verifiability criterion of
meaning. The radical empiricists took genuine ideas to be composed of simple
ideas traceable to elements in experience. If this is true and if thoughts
about the empirical world are “made up” out of ideas, it would seem to follow
that all genuine thoughts about the world must have as constituents thoughts
that denote items of experience. While not all positivists tied meaning so
clearly to the sort of experiences the empiricists had in mind, they were
convinced that a genuine contingent assertion about the world must be
verifiable through experience or observation. Questions immediately arose concerning
the relevant sense of ‘verify’. Extreme versions of the theory interpret
verification in terms of experiences or observations that entail the truth of
the proposition in question. Thus for my assertion that there is a table before
me to be meaningful, it must be in principle possible for me to accumulate
evidence or justification that would guarantee the existence of the table,
which would make it impossible for the table not to exist. Even this statement
of the view is ambiguous, however, for the impossibility of error could be
interpreted as logical or conceptual, or something much weaker, say, causal.
Either way, extreme verificationism seems vulnerable to objections. Universal
statements, such as ‘All metal expands when heated’, are meaningful, but it is
doubtful that any observations could ever conclusively verify them. One might
modify the criterion to include as meaningful only statements that can be
either conclusively confirmed or conclusively disconfirmed. It is doubtful,
however, that even ordinary statements about the physical world satisfy the
extreme positivist insistence that they admit of conclusive verification or
falsification. If the evidence we have for believing what we do about the
physical world consists of knowledge of fleeting and subjective sensation, the
possibility of hallucination or deception by a malevolent, powerful being seems
to preclude the possibility of any finite sequence of sensations conclusively
establishing the existence or absence of a physical object. logical paradoxes
logical positivism 514 4065h-l.qxd 08/02/1999 7:40 AM Page 514 Faced with these
difficulties, at least some positivists retreated to a more modest form of
verificationism which insisted only that if a proposition is to be meaningful
it must be possible to find evidence or justification that bears on the
likelihood of the proposition’s being true. It is, of course, much more
difficult to find counterexamples to this weaker form of verificationism, but
by the same token it is more difficult to see how the principle will do the
work the positivists hoped it would do of weeding out allegedly problematic
assertions. Necessary truth. Another central tenet of logical positivism is
that all meaningful statements fall into two categories: necessary truths that
are analytic and knowable a priori, and contingent truths that are synthetic
and knowable only a posteriori. If a meaningful statement is not a contingent,
empirical statement verifiable through experience, then it is either a formal
tautology or is analytic, i.e., reducible to a formal tautology through
substitution of synonymous expressions. According to the positivist,
tautologies and analytic truths that do not describe the world are made true
(if true) or false (if false) by some fact about the rules of language. ‘P or
not-P’ is made true by rules we have for the use of the connectives ‘or’ and
‘not’ and for the assignments of the predicates ‘true’ and ‘false’. Again there
are notorious problems for logical positivism. It is difficult to reduce the following
apparently necessary truths to formal tautologies through the substitution of
synonymous expressions: (1) Everything that is blue (all over) is not red (all
over). (2) All equilateral triangles are equiangular triangles. (3) No
proposition is both true and false. Ironically, the positivists had a great
deal of trouble categorizing the very theses that defined their view, such as
the claims about meaningfulness and verifiability and the claims about the
analytic–synthetic distinction. Reductionism. Most of the logical positivists
were committed to a foundationalist epistemology according to which all
justified belief rests ultimately on beliefs that are non-inferentially
justified. These non-inferentially justified beliefs were sometimes described as
basic, and the truths known in such manner were often referred to as
self-evident, or as protocol statements. Partly because the positivists
disagreed as to how to understand the notion of a basic belief or a protocol
statement, and even disagreed as to what would be good examples, positivism was
by no means a monolithic movement. Still, the verifiability criterion of
meaning, together with certain beliefs about where the foundations of
justification lie and beliefs about what constitutes legitimate reasoning,
drove many positivists to embrace extreme forms of reductionism. Briefly, most
of them implicitly recognized only deduction and (reluctantly) induction as
legitimate modes of reasoning. Given such a view, difficult epistemological
gaps arise between available evidence and the commonsense conclusions we want
to reach about the world around us. The problem was particularly acute for
empiricists who recognized as genuine empirical foundations only propositions
describing perceptions or subjective sensations. Such philosophers faced an
enormous difficulty explaining how what we know about sensations could confirm
for us assertions about an objective physical world. Clearly we cannot deduce
any truths about the physical world from what we know about sensations
(remember the possibility of hallucination). Nor does it seem that we could
inductively establish sensation as evidence for the existence of the physical
world when all we have to rely on ultimately is our awareness of sensations.
Faced with the possibility that all of our commonplace assertions about the
physical world might fail the verifiability test for meaningfulness, many of
the positivists took the bold step of arguing that statements about the
physical world could really be viewed as reducible to (equivalent in meaning
to) very complicated statements about sensations. Phenomenalists, as these
philosophers were called, thought that asserting that a given table exists is
equivalent in meaning to a complex assertion about what sensations or sequences
of sensations a subject would have were he to have certain other sensations.
The gap between sensation and the physical world is just one of the epistemic
gaps threatening the meaningfulness of commonplace assertions about the world.
If all we know about the mental states of others is inferred from their
physical behavior, we must still explain how such inference is justified. Thus
logical positivists who took protocol statements to include ordinary assertions
about the physical world were comfortable reducing talk about the mental states
of others to talk about their behavior; this is logical behaviorism. Even some
of those positivists who thought empirical propositions had to be reduced
ultimately to talk about sensations were prepared to translate talk about the
mental states of others into talk about their behavior, which, ironically,
would in turn get translated right back into talk about sensation. logical
positivism logical positivism 515 4065h-l.qxd 08/02/1999 7:40 AM Page 515 Many
of the positivists were primarily concerned with the hypotheses of theoretical
physics, which seemed to go far beyond anything that could be observed. In the
context of philosophy of science, some positivists seemed to take as
unproblematic ordinary statements about the macrophysical world but were still
determined either to reduce theoretical statements in science to complex
statements about the observable world, or to view theoretical entities as a
kind of convenient fiction, description of which lacks any literal truth-value.
The limits of a positivist’s willingness to embrace reductionism are tested,
however, when he comes to grips with knowledge of the past. It seems that
propositions describing memory experiences (if such “experiences” really exist)
do not entail any truths about the past, nor does it seem possible to establish
memory inductively as a reliable indicator of the past. (How could one
establish the past correlations without relying on memory?) The truly hard-core
reductionists actually toyed with the possibility of reducing talk about the
past to talk about the present and future, but it is perhaps an understatement
to suggest that at this point the plausibility of the reductionist program was
severely strained.
See also
ANALYTIC–SYNTHETIC DISTINCTION, BEHAVIORISM, EMPIRICISM, FOUNDATIONALISM,
PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE, VERIFICATIONISM, VIENNA CIRCLE. R.A.F. logical
predicate. See LOGICAL SUBJECT. logical priority. See DEPENDENCE. logical
probability. See PROBABILITY. logical product, a conjunction of propositions or
predicates. The term ‘product’ derives from an analogy that conjunction bears
to arithmetic multiplication, and that appears very explicitly in an algebraic
logic such as a Boolean algebra. In the same way, ‘logical sum’ usually means
the disjunction of propositions or predicates, and the term ‘sum’ derives from
an analogy that disjunction bears with arithmetic addition. In the logical
literature of the nineteenth century, e.g. in the works of Peirce, ‘logical
product’ and ‘logical sum’ often refer to the relative product and relative
sum, respectively. In the work of George Boole, ‘logical sum’ indicates an
operation that corresponds not to disjunction but rather to the exclusive ‘or’.
The use of ‘logical sum’ in its contemporary sense was introduced by John Venn
and then adopted and promulgated by Peirce. ‘Relative product’ was introduced
by Augustus De Morgan and also adopted and promulgated by Peirce. R.W.B.
logical reconstruction. See RATIONAL RECONSTRUCTION. logical subject, in
Aristotelian and traditional logic, the common noun, or sometimes the intension
or the extension of the common noun, that follows the initial quantifier word
(‘every’, ‘some’, ‘no’, etc.) of a sentence, as opposed to the grammatical
subject, which is the entire noun phrase including the quantifier and the noun,
and in some usages, any modifiers that may apply. The grammatical subject of
‘Every number exceeding zero is positive’ is ‘every number’, or in some usages,
‘every number exceeding zero’, whereas the logical subject is ‘number’, or the
intension or the extension of ‘number’. Similar distinctions are made between
the logical predicate and the grammatical predicate: in the above example, ‘is
positive’ is the grammatical predicate, whereas the logical predicate is the
adjective ‘positive’, or sometimes the property of being positive or even the
extension of the word ‘positive’. In standard first-order logic the logical
subject of a sentence under a given interpretation is the entire universe of
discourse of the interpretation.
See also GRAMMAR, LOGICAL
FORM, SUBJECT, UNIVERSE OF DISCOURSE. J.Cor. logical sum. See LOGICAL PRODUCT.
logical syntax, description of the forms of the expressions of a language in
virtue of which the expressions stand in logical relations to one another.
Implicit in the idea of logical syntax is the assumption that all – or at least
most – logical relations hold in virtue of form: e.g., that ‘If snow is white,
then snow has color’ and ‘Snow is white’ jointly entail ‘Snow has color’ in
virtue of their respective forms, ‘If P, then Q’, ‘P’, and ‘Q’. The form
assigned to an expression in logical syntax is its logical form. Logical form
may not be immediately apparent from the surface form of an expression. Both
(1) ‘Every individual is physical’ and (2) ‘Some individual is physical’
apparently share the subjectpredicate form. But this surface form is not the
form in virtue of which these sentences (or the propositions they might be said
to express) stand in logical relations to other sentences (or propositions),
for if it were, (1) and (2) would have the same logical relations to all
sentences (or propological predicate logical syntax 516 4065h-l.qxd 08/02/1999
7:40 AM Page 516 sitions), but they do not; (1) and (3) ‘Aristotle is an
individual’ jointly entail (4) ‘Aristotle is physical’, whereas (2) and (3) do
not jointly entail (4). So (1) and (2) differ in logical form. The contemporary
logical syntax, devised largely by Frege, assigns very different logical forms
to (1) and (2), namely: ‘For every x, if x is an individual, then x is
physical’ and ‘For some x, x is an individual and x is physical’, respectively.
Another example: (5) ‘The satellite of the moon has water’ seems to entail
‘There is at least one thing that orbits the moon’ and ‘There is no more than
one thing that orbits the moon’. In view of this, Russell assigned to (5) the
logical form ‘For some x, x orbits the moon, and for every y, if y orbits the
moon, then y is identical with x, and for every y, if y orbits the moon, then y
has water’. See also GRAMMAR, LOGICAL FORM, THEORY OF DESCRIPTIONS. T.Y.
logical system.
See FORMAL SEMANTICS,
LOGISTIC SYSTEM. logical table of judgments. See KANT. logical truth,
linguistic theory of. See CONVENTIONALISM. logicism, the thesis that
mathematics, or at least some significant portion thereof, is part of logic.
Modifying Carnap’s suggestion (in “The Logicist Foundation for Mathematics,”
first published in Erkenntnis, 1931), this thesis is the conjunction of two
theses: expressibility logicism: mathematical propositions are (or are
alternative expressions of) purely logical propositions; and derivational
logicism: the axioms and theorems of mathematics can be derived from pure
logic. Here is a motivating example from the arithmetic of the natural numbers.
Let the cardinality-quantifiers be those expressible in the form ‘there are
exactly . . . many xs such that’, which we abbreviate ¢(. . . x),Ü with ‘. . .’
replaced by an Arabic numeral. These quantifiers are expressible with the
resources of first-order logic with identity; e.g. ‘(2x)Px’ is equivalent to
‘DxDy(x&y & Ez[Pz S (z%x 7 z%y)])’, the latter involving no numerals or
other specifically mathematical vocabulary. Now 2 ! 3 % 5 is surely a
mathematical truth. We might take it to express the following: if we take two
things and then another three things we have five things, which is a validity
of second-order logic involving no mathematical vocabulary: EXEY ([(2x) Xx
& (3x)Yx & ÝDx(Xx & Yx)] / (5x) (Xx 7 Yx)). Furthermore, this is
provable in any formalized fragment of second-order logic that includes all of
first-order logic with identity and secondorder ‘E’-introduction. But what
counts as logic? As a derivation? As a derivation from pure logic? Such
unclarities keep alive the issue of whether some version or modification of
logicism is true. The “classical” presentations of logicism were Frege’s
Grundgesetze der Arithmetik and Russell and Whitehead’s Principia Mathematica.
Frege took logic to be a formalized fragment of secondorder logic supplemented
by an operator forming singular terms from “incomplete” expressions, such a
term standing for an extension of the “incomplete” expression standing for a
concept of level 1 (i.e. type 1). Axiom 5 of Grundgesetze served as a
comprehension-axiom implying the existence of extensions for arbitrary Fregean
concepts of level 1. In his famous letter of 1901 Russell showed that axiom to
be inconsistent, thus derailing Frege’s original program. Russell and Whitehead
took logic to be a formalized fragment of a ramified full finite-order (i.e.
type w) logic, with higher-order variables ranging over appropriate
propositional functions. The Principia and their other writings left the latter
notion somewhat obscure. As a defense of expressibility logicism, Principia had
this peculiarity: it postulated typical ambiguity where naive mathematics
seemed unambiguous; e.g., each type had its own system of natural numbers two
types up. As a defense of derivational logicism, Principia was flawed by virtue
of its reliance on three axioms, a version of the Axiom of Choice, and the
axioms of Reducibility and Infinity, whose truth was controversial.
Reducibility could be avoided by eliminating the ramification of the logic (as
suggested by Ramsey). But even then, even the arithmetic of the natural numbers
required use of Infinity, which in effect asserted that there are infinitely
many individuals (i.e., entities of type 0). Though Infinity was “purely
logical,” i.e., contained only logical expressions, in his Introduction to
Mathematical Philosophy (p. 141) Russell admits that it “cannot be asserted by
logic to be true.” Russell then (pp. 194–95) forgets this: “If there are still
those who do not admit the identity of logic and mathematics, we may challenge
them to indicate at what point in the successive definitions and deductions of
Principia Mathematica they consider that logic ends and mathematics begins. It
will then be obvious that any answer is arbitrary.” The answer, “Section 120,
in which Infinity is first assumed!,” is not arbitrary. In Principia Russell
and Whitehead logical system logicism 517 4065h-l.qxd 08/02/1999 7:40 AM Page
517 say of Infinity that they “prefer to keep it as a hypothesis” (Vol. 2, p.
203). Perhaps then they did not really take logicism to assert the above identity,
but rather a correspondence: to each sentence f of mathematics there
corresponds a conditional sentence of logic whose antecedent is the Axiom of
Infinity and whose consequent is a purely logical reformulation of f. In spite
of the problems with the “classical” versions of logicism, if we count
so-called higherorder (at least second-order) logic as logic, and if we
reformulate the thesis to read ‘Each area of mathematics is, or is part of, a
logic’, logicism remains alive and well.
logistic system, a formal
language together with a set of axioms and rules of inference, or what many
today would call a “logic.” The original idea behind the notion of a logistic
system was that the language, axioms, rules, and attendant concepts of proof
and theorem were to be specified in a mathematically precise fashion, thus
enabling one to make the study of deductive reasoning an exact science. One was
to begin with an effective specification of the primitive symbols of the
language and of which (finite) sequences of symbols were to count as sentences
or wellformed formulas. Next, certain sentences were to be singled out
effectively as axioms. The rules of inference were also to be given in such a
manner that there would be an effective procedure for telling which rules are
rules of the system and what inferences they license. A proof was then defined
as any finite sequence of sentences, each of which is either an axiom or
follows from some earlier line(s) by one of the rules, with a theorem being the
last line of a proof. With the subsequent development of logic, the requirement
of effectiveness has sometimes been dropped, as has the requirement that
sentences and proofs be finite in length. See also ALGORITHM, INFINITARY LOGIC,
PROOF THEORY. G.F.S. logocentric. See DECONSTRUCTION. logoi. See
DECONSTRUCTION, LOGOS. logos(plural: logoi) (Greek, ‘word’, ‘speech’,
‘reason’), term with the following main philosophical senses. (1) Rule,
principle, law. E.g., in Stoicism the logos is the divine order and in
Neoplatonism the intelligible regulating forces displayed in the sensible
world. The term came thus to refer, in Christianity, to the Word of God, to the
instantiation of his agency in creation, and, in the New Testament, to the
person of Christ. (2) Proposition, account, explanation, thesis, argument.
E.g., Aristotle presents a logos from first principles. (3) Reason, reasoning,
the rational faculty, abstract theory (as opposed to experience), discursive
reasoning (as opposed to intuition). E.g., Plato’s Republic uses the term to
refer to the intellectual part of the soul. (4) Measure, relation, proportion,
ratio. E.g., Aristotle speaks of the logoi of the musical scales. (5) Value,
worth. E.g., Heraclitus speaks of the man whose logos is greater than that of
others. R.C. Lombard, Peter. See PETER LOMBARD. Longinus (late first century
A.D.), Greek literary critic, author of a treatise On the Sublime (Peri
hypsous). The work is ascribed to “Dionysius or Longinus” in the manuscript and
is now tentatively dated to the end of the first century A.D. The author argues
for five sources of sublimity in literature: (a) grandeur of thought and (b)
deep emotion, both products of the writer’s “nature”; (c) figures of speech,
(d) nobility and originality in word use, and (e) rhythm and euphony in
diction, products of technical artistry. The passage on emotion is missing from
the text. The treatise, with Aristotelian but enthusiastic spirit, throws light
on the emotional effect of many great passages of Greek literature; noteworthy
are its comments on Homer (ch. 9). Its nostalgic plea for an almost romantic
independence and greatness of character and imagination in the poet and orator
in an age of dictatorial government and somnolent peace is unique and
memorable. See also AESTHETICS, ARISTOTLE. D.Ar. loop, closed. See CYBERNETICS.
loop, open.
See CYBERNETICS. lottery
paradox, a paradox involving two plausible assumptions about justification
which yield the conclusion that a fully rational thinker may justifiably
believe a pair of contradictory propositions. The unattractiveness of this
conclusion has led philosophers to deny one or the other of the assumptions in
question. The paradox, which is due to Henry Kyburg, is generated as follows.
Suppose I am contemplating a fair lotlogic of discovery lottery paradox 518
4065h-l.qxd 08/02/1999 7:40 AM Page 518 tery involving n tickets (for some
suitably large n), and I justifiably believe that exactly one ticket will win.
Assume that if the probability of p, relative to one’s evidence, meets some
given high threshold less than 1, then one has justification for believing that
p (and not merely justification for believing that p is highly probable). This
is sometimes called a rule of detachment for inductive hypotheses. Then
supposing that the number n of tickets is large enough, the rule implies that I
have justification for believing (T1) that the first ticket will lose (since
the probability of T1 (% (n † 1)/n) will exceed the given high threshold if n
is large enough). By similar reasoning, I will also have justification for
believing (T2) that the second ticket will lose, and similarly for each
remaining ticket. Assume that if one has justification for believing that p and
justification for believing that q, then one has justification for believing that
p and q. This is a consequence of what is sometimes called “deductive closure
for justification,” according to which one has justification for believing the
deductive consequences of what one justifiably believes. Closure, then, implies
that I have justification for believing that T1 and T2 and . . . Tn. But this
conjunctive proposition is equivalent to the proposition that no ticket will
win, and we began with the assumption that I have justification for believing
that exactly one ticket will win. See also CLOSURE, JUSTIFICATION. A.B. Lotze,
Rudolf Hermann (1817–81), German philosopher and influential representative of
post-Hegelian German metaphysics. Lotze was born in Bautzen and studied
medicine, mathematics, physics, and philosophy at Leipzig, where he became
instructor, first in medicine and later in philosophy. His early views,
expressed in his Metaphysik (1841) and Logik (1843), were influenced by C. H.
Weisse, a former student of Hegel’s. He succeeded J. F. Herbart as professor of
philosophy at Göttingen, where he served from 1844 until shortly before his
death. Between 1856 and 1864, he published, in three volumes, his best-known
work, Mikrocosmus. Logik (1874) and Metaphysik (1879) were published as the
first two parts of his unfinished three-volume System der Philosophie. While
Lotze shared the metaphysical and systematic appetites of his German idealist
predecessors, he rejected their intellectualism, favoring an emphasis on the
primacy of feeling; believed that metaphysics must fully respect the methods,
results, and “mechanistic” assumptions of the empirical sciences; and saw
philosophy as the never completed attempt to raise and resolve questions
arising from the inevitable pluralism of methods and interests involved in
science, ethics, and the arts. A strong personalism is manifested in his
assertion that feeling discloses to us a relation to a personal deity and its
teleological workings in nature. His most enduring influences can be traced, in
America, through Royce, Santayana, B. P. Bowne, and James, and, in England,
through Bosanquet and Bradley.
See also IDEALISM,
PERSONALISM. J.P.Su. love, ethics of. See DIVINE COMMAND ETHICS.
Löwenheim-Skolem theorem, the result that for any set of sentences of standard
predicate logic, if there is any interpretation in which they are all true,
there there is also an interpretation whose domain consists of natural numbers
and in which they are all true. Leopold Löwenheim proved in 1915 that for
finite sets of sentences of standard predicate logic, if there is any
interpretation in which they are true, there is also an interpretation that
makes them true and where the domain is a subset of the domain of the first
interpretation, and the new domain can be mapped one-to-one onto a set of
natural numbers. Löwenheim’s proof contained some gaps and made essential but
implicit use of the axiom of choice, a principle of set theory whose truth was,
and is, a matter of debate. In fact, the Löwenheim-Skolem theorem is equivalent
to the axiom of choice. Thoralf Skolem, in 1920, gave a more detailed proof
that made explicit the appeal to the axiom of choice and that extended the
scope of the theorem to include infinite sets of sentences. In 1922 he gave an
essentially different proof that did not depend on the axiom of choice and in
which the domain consisted of natural numbers rather than being of the same
size as a set of natural numbers. In most contemporary texts, Skolem’s result
is proved by methods later devised by Gödel, Herbrand, or Henkin for proving
other results. If the language does not include an identity predicate, then
Skolem’s result is that the second domain consists of the entire set of natural
numbers; if the language includes an identity predicate, then the second domain
may be a proper subset of the natural numbers. (See van Heijenoort, From Frege
to Gödel: A Source Book in Mathematical Logic 1879–1931, 1967, for translations
of the original papers.) The original results were of interest because they
showed that in many cases unexpected interpretations with smaller infinite
domains Lotze, Rudolf Hermann Löwenheim-Skolem theorem 519 4065h-l.qxd
08/02/1999 7:40 AM Page 519 than those of the initially given interpretation
could be constructed. It was later shown – and this is the Upward
Löwenheim-Skolem theorem – that interpretations with larger domains could also
be constructed that rendered true the same set of sentences. Hence the theorem
as stated initially is sometimes referred to as the Downward Löwenheim-Skolem
theorem. The theorem was surprising because it was believed that certain sets
of axioms characterized domains, such as the continuum of real numbers, that
were larger than the set of natural numbers. This surprise is called Skolem’s
paradox, but it is to be emphasized that this is a philosophical puzzle rather
than a formal contradiction. Two main lines of response to the paradox
developed early. The realist, who believes that the continuum exists
independently of our knowledge or description of it, takes the theorem to show
either that the full truth about the structure of the continuum is ineffable or
at least that means other than standard first-order predicate logic are
required. The constructivist, who believes that the continuum is in some sense
our creation, takes the theorem to show that size comparisons among infinite
sets is not an absolute matter, but relative to the particular descriptions
given. Both positions have received various more sophisticated formulations
that differ in details, but they remain the two main lines of development.
Lucretius (99 or 94–55
B.C.), Roman poet, author of On the Nature of Things (De rerum natura), an epic
poem in six books. Lucretius’s emphasis, as an orthodox Epicurean, is on the
role of even the most technical aspects of physics and philosophy in helping to
attain emotional peace and dismiss the terrors of popular religion. Each book
studies some aspect of the school’s theories, while purporting to offer
elementary instruction to its addressee, Memmius. Each begins with an
ornamental proem and ends with a passage of heightened emotional impact; the
argumentation is adorned with illustrations from personal observation,
frequently of the contemporary Roman and Italian scene. Book 1 demonstrates
that nothing exists but an infinity of atoms moving in an infinity of void.
Opening with a proem on the love of Venus and Mars (an allegory of the Roman
peace), it ends with an image of Epicurus as conqueror, throwing the javelin of
war outside the finite universe of the geocentric astronomers. Book 2 proves
the mortality of all finite worlds; Book 3, after proving the mortality of the
human soul, ends with a hymn on the theme that there is nothing to feel or fear
in death. The discussion of sensation and thought in Book 4 leads to a diatribe
against the torments of sexual desire. The shape and contents of the visible
world are discussed in Book 5, which ends with an account of the origins of
civilization. Book 6, about the forces that govern meteorological, seismic, and
related phenomena, ends with a frightening picture of the plague of 429 B.C. at
Athens. The unexpectedly gloomy end suggests the poem is incomplete (also the
absence of two great Epicurean themes, friendship and the gods). See also
EPICUREANISM. D.Ar. Lu Hsiang-shan (1139–93), Chinese Neo-Confucian philosopher,
an opponent of Chu Hsi’s metaphysics. For Lu the mind is quite sufficient for
realizing the Confucian vision of the unity and harmony of man and nature
(t’ien-jen ho-i). While Chu Hsi focused on “following the path of study and
inquiry,” Lu stressed “honoring the moral nature (of humans).” Lu is a sort of
metaphysical idealist, as evident in his statement, “The affairs of the
universe are my own affairs,” and in his attitude toward the Confucian
classics: “If in our study we know the fundamentals, then all the Six Classics
[the Book of Odes, Book of History, Book of Rites, Book of Changes, the
Chou-li, and the Spring and Autumn Annals] are my footnotes.” The realization
of Confucian vision is ultimately a matter of self-realization, anticipating a
key feature of Wang Yang-ming’s philosophy.
Lukács, Georg
(1885–1971), Hungarian Marxist philosopher best known for his History and Class
Consciousness: Studies in Marxist Dialectics (1923). In 1918 he joined the
Hungarian Communist Party and for much of the remainder of his career had a
controversial relationship with it. For several months in 1919 he was People’s
Commissar for Education in Béla Kun’s government, until he fled to Vienna and
later moved to Berlin. In 1933 he fled Hitler and moved to Moscow, remaining
there until the end of World War II, when he returned to Budapest as a
university professor. In 1956 he was Minister of Culture in Imre Nagy’s
short-lived government. This led to lower functional calculus Lukacs, Georg 520
4065h-l.qxd 08/02/1999 7:40 AM Page 520 a brief exile in Rumania. In his later
years he returned to teaching in Budapest and was much celebrated by the
Hungarian government. His Collected Works are forthcoming in both German and
Hungarian. He is equally celebrated for his literary criticism and his
reconstruction of the young Marx’s thought. For convenience his work is often
divided into three periods: the pre-Marxist, the Stalinist, and the
post-Stalinist. What unifies these periods and remains constant in his work are
the problems of dialectics and the concept of totality. He stressed the Marxist
claim of the possibility of a dialectical unity of subject and object. This was
to be obtained through the proletariat’s realization of itself and the
concomitant destruction of economic alienation in society, with the
understanding that truth was a still-to-be-realized totality. (In the
post–World War II period this theme was taken up by the Yugoslavian praxis
theorists.) The young neo-Kantian Lukács presented an aesthetics stressing the
subjectivity of human experience and the emptiness of social experience. This
led several French philosophers to claim that he was the first major
existentialist of the twentieth century; he strongly denied it. Later he
asserted that realism is the only correct way to understand literary criticism,
arguing that since humanity is at the core of any social discussion, form
depends on content and the content of politics is central to all historical
social interpretations of literature. Historically Lukács’s greatest claim to
fame within Marxist circles came from his realization that Marx’s materialist
theory of history and the resultant domination of the economic could be fully
understood only if it allowed for both necessity and species freedom. In History
and Class Consciousness he stressed Marx’s debt to Hegelian dialectics years
before the discovery of Marx’s Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844.
Lukács stresses his Hegelian Marxism as the correct orthodox version over and
against the established Engels-inspired Soviet version of a dialectics of
nature. His claim to be returning to Marx’s methodology emphasizes the primacy
of the concept of totality. It is through Marx’s use of the dialectic that
capitalist society can be seen as essentially reified and the proletariat
viewed as the true subject of history and the only possible salvation of
humanity. All truth is to be seen in relation to the proletariat’s historical
mission. Marx’s materialist conception of history itself must be examined in light
of proletarian knowledge. Truth is no longer given but must be understood in
terms of relative moments in the process of the unfolding of the real union of
theory and praxis: the totality of social relations. This union is not to be
realized as some statistical understanding, but rather grasped through
proletarian consciousness and directed party action in which subject and object
are one. (Karl Mannheim included a modified version of this theory of
social-historical relativism in his work on the sociology of knowledge.) In
Europe and America this led to Western Marxism. In Eastern Europe and the
Soviet Union it led to condemnation. If both the known and the knower are
moments of the same thing, then there is a two-directional dialectical
relationship, and Marxism cannot be understood from Engels’s one-way movement
of the dialectic of nature. The Communist attack on Lukács was so extreme that
he felt it necessary to write an apologetic essay on Lenin’s established views.
In The Young Hegel: Studies in the Relations between Dialectics and Economics
(1938), Lukács modified his views but still stressed the dialectical
commonality of Hegel and Marx. In Lukács’s last years he unsuccessfully tried
to develop a comprehensive ethical theory. The positive result was over two
thousand pages of a preliminary study on social ontology.
Lukasiewicz, Jan
(1878–1956), Polish philosopher and logician, the most renowned member of the
Warsaw School. The work for which he is best known is the discovery of
many-valued logics, but he also invented bracket-free Polish notation; obtained
original consistency, completeness, independence, and axiom-shortening results
for sentential calculi; rescued Stoic logic from the misinterpretation and
incomprehension of earlier historians and restored it to its rightful place as
the first formulation of the theory of deduction; and finally incorporated
Aristotle’s syllogisms, both assertoric and modal, into a deductive system in
his work Aristotle’s Syllogistic from the Standpoint of Modern Formal Logic.
Reflection on Aristotle’s discussion of future contingency in On Interpretation
led Lukasiewicz in 1918 to posit a third truth-value, possible, in addition to
true and false, and to construct a formal three-valued logic. Where in his
notation Cpq denotes ‘if p then q’, Np ‘not p’, Apq ‘either p or q’, and Kpq
‘both p and q’, the system is defined by the following matrices (½ is the third
truthvalue): Lukasiewicz, Jan Lukasiewicz, Jan 521 4065h-l.qxd 08/02/1999 7:40
AM Page 521 Apq is defined as CCpqq, and Kpq as NANpNq. The system was
axiomatized by Wajsberg in 1931. Lukasiewicz’s motivation in constructing a
formal system of three-valued logic was to break the grip of the idea of
universal determinism on the imagination of philosophers and scientists. For
him, there was causal determinism (shortly to be undermined by quantum theory),
but there was also logical determinism, which in accordance with the principle
of bivalence decreed that the statement that J.L. would be in Warsaw at noon on
December 21 next year was either true or false now, and indeed had been either
true or false for all time. In three-valued logic this statement would take the
value ½, thus avoiding any apparent threat to free will posed by the law of
bivalence.
Lull, Raymond, also
spelled Raymond Lully, Ramon Llull (c.1232–1316), Catalan Christian mystic and
missionary. A polemicist against Islam, a social novelist, and a constructor of
schemes for international unification, Lull is best known in the history of
philosophy for his quasialgebraic or combinatorial treatment of metaphysical
principles. His logic of divine and creaturely attributes is set forth first in
an Ars compendiosa inveniendi veritatem (1274), next in an Ars demonstrativa
(1283–89), then in reworkings of both of these and in the Tree of Knowledge,
and finally in the Ars brevis and the Ars generalis ultima (1309–16). Each of
these contains tables and diagrams that permit the reader to calculate the
interactions of the various principles. Although his dates place him in the
period of mature Scholasticism, the vernacular language and the Islamic or
Judaic construction of Lull’s works relegate him to the margin of Scholastic
debates. His influence is to be sought rather in late medieval and Renaissance
cabalistic or hermetic traditions.
Lü-shih ch’un-ch’iu, a
Chinese anthology of late Warring States (403–221 B.C.) philosophical writings.
It was compiled by a patron, Lü Pu-wei, who became chancellor of the state of
Ch’in in about 240 B.C. As the earliest example of the encyclopedic genre, and
often associated with the later Huai Nan Tzu, it includes the full spectrum of
philosophical schools, and covers topics from competing positions on human
nature to contemporary farming procedures. An important feature of this work is
its development of correlative yin–yang and five-phases vocabulary for
organizing the natural and human processes of the world, positing relations
among the various seasons, celestial bodies, tastes, smells, materials, colors,
geographical directions, and so on.
Luther, Martin
(1483–1546), German religious reformer and leader of the Protestant
Reformation. He was an Augustinian friar and unsystematic theologian from
Saxony, schooled in nominalism (Ockham, Biel, Staupitz) and trained in biblical
languages. Luther initially taught philosophy and subsequently Scripture
(Romans, Galatians, Hebrews) at Wittenberg University. His career as a church
reformer began with his public denunciation, in the 95 theses, of the sale of
indulgences in October 1517. Luther produced three incendiary tracts: Appeal to
the Nobility, The Babylonian Captivity of the Church, and The Freedom of a
Christian Man (1520), which prompted his excommunication. At the 1521 Diet of
Worms he claimed: “I am bound by the Scripture I have quoted and my conscience
is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and will not retract anything since it
is neither safe nor right to go against my conscience. Here I stand, may God
help me.” Despite his modernist stance on the primacy of conscience over tradition,
the reformer broke with Erasmus over free will (De servo Arbitrio, 1525),
championing an Augustinian, antihumanist position. His crowning achievement,
the translation of the Bible into German (1534/45), shaped the modern German
language. On the strength of a biblical-Christocentric, anti-philosophical
theology, he proclaimed justification by faith alone and the priesthood of all
believers. He unfolded a theologia crucis, reformed the Mass, acknowledged only
two sacraments (baptism and the Eucharist), advocated consubstantiation instead
of transubstantiation, and propounded the Two Kingdoms theory in church–state
relations.
Lyceum, (1) an extensive
ancient sanctuary of Apollo just east of Athens, the site of public athletic
facilities where Aristotle taught during the last decade of his life; (2) a
center for philosophy and systematic research in science and history organized
there by Aristotle and his associates; it began as an informal group and lacked
any legal status until Theophrastus, Aristotle’s colleague and principal heir,
acquired land and buildings there c.315 B.C. By a principle of metonymy common
in philosophy (cf. ‘Academy’, ‘Oxford’, ‘Vienna’), the name ‘Lyceum’ came to
refer collectively to members of the school and their methods and ideas,
although the school remained relatively non-doctrinaire. Another ancient label
for adherents of the school and their ideas, apparently derived from
Aristotle’s habit of lecturing in a portico (peripatos) at the Lyceum, is
‘Peripatetic’. The school had its heyday in its first decades, when members
included Eudemus, author of lost histories of mathematics; Aristoxenus, a
prolific writer, principally on music (large parts of two treatises survive);
Dicaearchus, a polymath who ranged from ethics and politics to psychology and
geography; Meno, who compiled a history of medicine; and Demetrius of Phaleron,
a dashing intellect who wrote extensively and ruled Athens on behalf of foreign
dynasts from 317 to 307. Under Theophrastus and his successor Strato, the school
produced original work, especially in natural science. But by the midthird
century B.C., the Lyceum had lost its initial vigor. To judge from meager
evidence, it offered sound education but few new ideas; some members enjoyed
political influence, but for nearly two centuries, rigorous theorizing was
displaced by intellectual history and popular moralizing. In the first century
B.C., the school enjoyed a modest renaissance when Andronicus oversaw the first
methodical edition of Aristotle’s works and began the exegetical tradition that
culminated in the monumental commentaries of Alexander of Aphrodisias (fl. A.D.
200). .
Lyotard, Jean-François
(1924–98), French philosopher, a leading representative of the movement known
in the English-speaking world as post-structuralism. Among major
post-structuralist theorists (Gilles Deleuze [1925–97], Derrida, Foucault),
Lyotard is most closely associated with postmodernism. With roots in
phenomenology (a student of Merleau-Ponty, his first book, Phenomenology
[1954], engages phenomenology’s history and engages phenomenology with history)
and Marxism (in the 1960s Lyotard was associated with the Marxist group
Socialisme ou Barbarie, founded by Cornelius Castoriadis [1922–97] and Claude
Lefort [b.1924]), Lyotard’s work has centered on questions of art, language,
and politics. His first major work, Discours, figure (1971), expressed
dissatisfaction with structuralism and, more generally, any theoretical
approach that sought to escape history through appeal to a timeless, universal
structure of language divorced from our experiences. Libidinal Economy (1974)
reflects the passion and enthusiasm of the events of May 1968 along with a
disappointment with the Marxist response to those events. The Postmodern
Condition: A Report on Knowledge (1979), an occasional text written at the
request of the Quebec government, catapulted Lyotard to the forefront of
critical debate. Here he introduced his definition of the postmodern as
“incredulity toward metanarratives”: the postmodern names not a specific epoch
but an antifoundationalist attitude that exceeds the legitimating orthodoxy of
the moment. Postmodernity, then, resides constantly at the heart of the modern,
challenging those totalizing and comprehensive master narratives (e.g., the Enlightenment
narrative of the emancipation of the rational subject) that serve to legitimate
its practices. Lyotard suggests we replace these narratives by less ambitious,
“little narratives” that refrain from totalizing claims in favor of recognizing
the specificity and singularity of events. Many, including Lyotard, regard The
Differend (1983) as his most original and important work. Drawing on
Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations and Kant’s Critique of Judgment, it
reflects on how to make judgments (political as well as aesthetic) where there
is no rule of judgment to which one can appeal. This is the différend, a
dispute between (at least) two parties in which the parties operate within
radically heterogeneous language games so incommensurate that no consensus can
be reached on principles or rules that could govern how their dispute might be
settled. In contrast to litigations, where disputing parties share a language
with rules of judgment to consult to resolve their dispute, différends defy resolution
(an example might be the conflicting Lyceum Lyotard, Jean-François 523
4065h-l.qxd 08/02/1999 7:40 AM Page 523 claims to land rights by aboriginal
peoples and current residents). At best, we can express différends by posing
the dispute in a way that avoids delegitimating either party’s claim. In other
words, our political task, if we are to be just, is to phrase the dispute in a
way that respects the difference between the competing claims. In the years
following The Differend, Lyotard published several works on aesthetics,
politics, and postmodernism; the most important may well be his reading of
Kant’s third Critique in Lessons on the Analytic of the Sublime (1991).
Mach, Ernst(1838–1916),
Austrian physicist and influential philosopher of science. He was born in
Turas, Moravia, now part of the Czech Republic, and studied physics at the
University of Vienna. Appointed professor of mathematics at Graz in 1864, he
moved in 1867 to the chair of physics at Prague, where he came to be recognized
as one of the leading scientists in Europe, contributing not only to a variety
of fields of physics (optics, electricity, mechanics, acoustics) but also to
the new field of psychophysics, particularly in the field of perception. He
returned to Vienna in 1895 to a chair in philosophy, designated for a new
academic discipline, the history and theory of inductive science. His writings
on the philosophy of science profoundly affected the founders of the Vienna
Circle, leading Mach to be regarded as a progenitor of logical positivism. His
best-known work, The Science of Mechanics (1883), epitomized the main themes of
his philosophy. He set out to extract the logical structure of mechanics from
an examination of its history and procedures. Mechanics fulfills the human need
to abridge the facts about motion in the most economical way. It rests on
“sensations” (akin to the “ideas” or “sense impressions” of classical
empiricism); indeed, the world may be said to consist of sensations (a thesis
that later led Lenin in a famous polemic to accuse Mach of idealism). Mechanics
is inductive, not demonstrative; it has no a priori element of any sort. The
divisions between the sciences must be recognized to be arbitrary, a matter of
convenience only. The sciences must be regarded as descriptive, not as
explanatory. Theories may appear to explain, but the underlying entities they
postulate, like atoms, for example, are no more than aids to prediction. To
suppose them to represent 525 M 4065m-r.qxd 08/02/1999 7:41 AM Page 525 reality
would be metaphysical and therefore idle. Mach’s most enduring legacy to
philosophy is his enduring suspicion of anything “metaphysical.”
Machiavelli, Niccolò --
the Italian political theorist commonly considered the most influential
political thinker of the Renaissance. Born in Florence, he was educated in the
civic humanist tradition. From 1498 to 1512, he was secretary to the second
chancery of the republic of Florence, with responsibilities for foreign affairs
and the revival of the domestic civic militia. His duties involved numerous
diplomatic missions both in and outside Italy. With the fall of the republic in
1512, he was dismissed by the returning Medici regime. From 1513 to 1527 he
lived in enforced retirement, relieved by writing and occasional appointment to
minor posts. Machaivelli’s writings fall into two genetically connected
categories: chancery writings (reports, memoranda, diplomatic writings) and
formal books, the chief among them The Prince (1513), the Discourses (1517),
the Art of War (1520), Florentine Histories (1525), and the comic drama
Mandragola (1518). With Machiavelli a new vision emerges of politics as
autonomous activity leading to the creation of free and powerful states. This
vision derives its norms from what humans do rather than from what they ought
to do. As a result, the problem of evil arises as a central issue: the
political actor reserves the right “to enter into evil when necessitated.” The
requirement of classical, medieval, and civic humanist political philosophies
that politics must be practiced within the bounds of virtue is met by
redefining the meaning of virtue itself. Machiavellian virtù is the ability to
achieve “effective truth” regardless of moral, philosophical, and theological
restraints. He recognizes two limits on virtù: (1) fortuna, understood as
either chance or as a goddess symbolizing the alleged causal powers of the
heavenly bodies; and (2) the agent’s own temperament, bodily humors, and the
quality of the times. Thus, a premodern astrological cosmology and the
anthropology and cyclical theory of history derived from it underlie his
political philosophy. History is seen as the conjoint product of human activity
and the alleged activity of the heavens, understood as the “general cause” of
all human motions in the sublunar world. There is no room here for the
sovereignty of the Good, nor the ruling Mind, nor Providence. Kingdoms,
republics, and religions follow a naturalistic pattern of birth, growth, and
decline. But, depending on the outcome of the struggle between virtù and
fortuna, there is the possibility of political renewal; and Machiavelli saw
himself as the philosopher of political renewal. Historically, Machiavelli’s
philosophy came to be identified with Machiavellianism (also spelled
Machiavellism), the doctrine that the reason of state recognizes no moral
superior and that, in its pursuit, everything is permitted. Although
Machiavelli himself does not use the phrase ‘reason of state’, his principles
have been and continue to be invoked in its defense.
MacIntyre, Alasdair
(b.1929), Scots philosopher and eminent contemporary representative of
Aristotelian ethics. He was born in Scotland, educated in England, and has
taught at universities in both England and (mainly) the United States. His
early work included perceptive critical discussions of Marx and Freud as well
as his influential A Short History of Ethics. His most discussed work, however,
has been After Virtue (1981), an analysis and critique of modern ethical views
from the standpoint of an Aristotelian virtue ethics. MacIntyre begins with the
striking unresolvability of modern ethical disagreements, which he diagnoses as
due to a lack of any shared substantive conception of the ethical good. This
lack is itself due to the modern denial of a human nature that would provide a
meaning and goal for human life. In the wake of the Enlightenment, MacIntyre
maintains, human beings are regarded as merely atomistic individuals, employing
a purely formal reason to seek fulfillment of their contingent desires. Modern
moral theory tries to derive moral values from this conception of human
reality. Utilitarians start from desires, arguing that they must be fulfilled
in such a way as to provide the greatest happiness (utility). Kantians start
from reason, arguing that our commitment to rationality requires recognizing
the rights of others to the same goods that we desire for ourselves. MacIntyre,
however, mainMachiavelli, Niccolò MacIntyre, Alasdair 526 4065m-r.qxd
08/02/1999 7:41 AM Page 526 tains that the modern notions of utility and of
rights are fictions: there is no way to argue from individual desires to an
interest in making others happy or to inviolable rights of all persons. He
concludes that Enlightenment liberalism cannot construct a coherent ethics and
that therefore our only alternatives are to accept a Nietzschean reduction of
morality to will-to-power or to return to an Aristotelian ethics grounded in a
substantive conception of human nature. MacIntyre’s positive philosophical
project is to formulate and defend an Aristotelian ethics of the virtues (based
particularly on the thought of Aquinas), where virtues are understood as the
moral qualities needed to fulfill the potential of human nature. His aim is not
the mere revival of Aristotelian thought but a reformulation and, in some
cases, revision of that thought in light of its history over the last 2,500
years. MacIntyre pays particular attention to formulating concepts of practice
(communal action directed toward a intrinsic good), virtue (a habit needed to
engage successfully in a practice), and tradition (a historically extended
community in which practices relevant to the fulfillment of human nature can be
carried out). His conception of tradition is particularly noteworthy. His an
effort to provide Aristotelianism with a historical orientation that Aristotle
himself never countenanced; and, in contrast to Burke, it makes tradition the
locus of rational reflection on and revision of past practices, rather than a
merely emotional attachment to them. MacIntyre has also devoted considerable
attention to the problem of rationally adjudicating the claims of rival
traditions (especially in Whose Justice? Which Rationality?, 1988) and to
making the case for the Aristotelian tradition as opposed to that of the
Enlightenment and that of Nietzscheanism (especially in Three Rival Versions of
Moral Inquiry, 1990).
McTaggart, John McTaggart
Ellis (1866–1925), English philosopher, the leading British personal idealist.
Aside from his childhood and two extended visits to New Zealand, McTaggart
lived in Cambridge as a student and fellow of Trinity College. His influence on
others at Trinity, including Russell and Moore, was at times great, but he had
no permanent disciples. He began formulating and defending his views by
critically examining Hegel. In Studies in the Hegelian Dialectic (1896) he
argued that Hegel’s dialectic is valid but subjective, since the Absolute Idea
Hegel used it to derive contains nothing corresponding to the dialectic. In
Studies in Hegelian Cosmology (1901) he applied the dialectic to such topics as
sin, punishment, God, and immortality. In his Commentary on Hegel’s Logic
(1910) he concluded that the task of philosophy is to rethink the nature of
reality using a method resembling Hegel’s dialectic. McTaggart attempted to do
this in his major work, The Nature of Existence (two volumes, 1921 and 1927).
In the first volume he tried to deduce the nature of reality from self-evident
truths using only two empirical premises, that something exists and that it has
parts. He argued that substances exist, that they are related to each other,
that they have an infinite number of substances as parts, and that each
substance has a sufficient description, one that applies only to it and not to
any other substance. He then claimed that these conclusions are inconsistent
unless the sufficient descriptions of substances entail the descriptions of
their parts, a situation that requires substances to stand to their parts in
the relation he called determining correspondence. In the second volume he
applied these results to the empirical world, arguing that matter is unreal,
since its parts cannot be determined by determining correspondence. In the most
celebrated part of his philosophy, he argued that time is unreal by claiming
that time presupposes a series of positions, each having the incompatible
qualities of past, present, and future. He thought that attempts to remove the
incompatibility generate a vicious infinite regress. From these and other
considerations he concluded that selves are real, since their parts can be
determined by determining correspondence, and that reality is a community of
eternal, perceiving selves. He denied that there is an inclusive self or God in
this community, but he affirmed that love between the selves unites the
community producing a satisfaction beyond human understanding.
Madhva (1238–1317),
Indian philosopher who founded Dvaita Vedanta. His major works are the
Brahma-Sutra-Bhafya (his commentary, competitive with Shankara’s and Ramanuja’s,
on the Brahma-Sutras of Badarayana); the Gita-Bhafya and Gitatatparya
(commentaries on the Bhagavad Gita); the Anu-Vyakhyana (an extension of the
Brahma-Sutra-Bhafya including a general critique of Advaita Vedanta); the
Pramapa Laksana, an account of his epistemology; and the TattvaSajkhyana, a
presentation of his ontology. He distinguishes between an independent Brahman
and a dependent world of persons and bodies and holds that each person has a
distinct individual essence.
Madhyamika (Sanskrit,
‘middle way’), a variety of Mahayana Buddhism that is a middle way in the sense
that it neither claims that nothing at all exists nor does it embrace the view
that there is a plurality of distinct things. It embraces the position in the
debate about the nature of things that holds that all things are “empty.”
Madhyamika offers an account of why the Buddha rejected the question of whether
the enlightened one survives death, saying that none of the four answers
(affirmative, negative, affirmative and negative, neither affirmative nor
negative) applies. The typically Buddhist doctrine of codependent arising
asserts that everything that exists depends for its existence on something
else; nothing (nirvana aside) at any time does or can exist on its own. From this
doctrine, together with the view that if A cannot exist independent of B, A
cannot be an individual distinct from B, Madhyamika concludes that in offering
causal descriptions (or spatial or temporal descriptions) we assume that we can
distinguish between individual items. If everything exists dependently, and
nothing that exists dependently is an individual, there are no individuals.
Thus we cannot distinguish between individual items. Hence the assumption on
which we offer causal (or spatial or temporal) descriptions is false, and thus
those descriptions are radically defective. Madhyamika then adds the doctrine
of an ineffable ultimate reality hidden behind our ordinary experience and
descriptions and accessible only in esoteric enlightenment experience. The
Buddha rejected all four answers because the question is raised in a context
that assumes individuation among items of ordinary experience, and since that
assumption is false, all of the answers are misleading; each answer assumes a
distinction between the enlightened one and other things. The Madhyamika seems,
then, to hold that to be real is to exist independently; the apparent objects
of ordinary experience are sunya (empty, void); they lack any essence or
character of their own. As such, they are only apparently knowable, and the
real is seamless. Critics (e.g., Yogacara Mahayana Buddhist philosophers) deny
that this view is coherent, or even that there is any view here at all. In one
sense, the Madhyamika philosopher Nagarjuna himself denies that there is any
position taken, maintaining that his critical arguments are simply reductions
to absurdity of views that his opponents hold and that he has no view of his
own. Still, it seems clear in Nagarjuna’s writings, and plain in the tradition
that follows him, that there is supposed to be something the realization of
which is essential to becoming enlightened, and the Madhyamika philosopher must
walk the (perhaps non-existent) line between saying two things: first, that
final truth concerns an ineffable reality and that this itself is not a view,
and second, that this represents what the Buddha taught and hence is something
different both from other Buddhist perspectives that offer a mistaken account
of the Buddha’s message and from nonBuddhist alternatives.
magnitude, extent or size
of a thing with respect to some attribute; technically, a quantity or
dimension. A quantity is an attribute that admits of several or an infinite
number of degrees, in contrast to a quality (e.g., triangularity), which an object
either has or does not have. Measurement is assignment of numbers to objects in
such a way that these numbers correspond to the degree or amount of some
quantity possessed by their objects. The theory of measurement investigates the
conditions for, and uniqueness of, such numerical assignments. Let D be a
domain of objects (e.g., a set of physical bodies) and L be a relation on this
domain; i.e., Lab may mean that if a and b are put on opposite pans of a
balance, the pan with a does not rest lower than the other pan. Let ; be the
operation of weighing two objects together in the same pan of a balance. We
then have an empirical relational system E % ‹ D, L, ; (. One can prove that,
if E satisfies specified conditions, then there exists a measurement function
mapping D to a set Num of real numbers, in such a way that the L and ;
relations between objects in D correspond to the m and ! relations between
their numerical values. Such an existence theorem for a measurement function
from an empirical relational system E to a numerical relational system, N % ‹
Num, m ! (, is called a representation theorem. Measurement functions are not
unique, but a uniqueness theorem characterizes all such functions for a
specified kind of empirical relational system and specified type of numerical
image. For example, suppose that for any measurement functions f, g for E there
exists real number a ( 0 such that for any x in D, f(x) % ag(x). Then it is
said that the measurement is on a ratio scale, and the function s(x) % ax, for
x in the real numbers, is the scale transformation. For some empirical systems,
one can prove that any two measurement functions are related by f % ag ! b,
where a ( 0 and b are real numbers. Then the measurement is on an interval
scale, with the scale transformation s(x) % ax ! b; e.g., measurement of
temperature without an absolute zero is on an interval scale. In addition to
ratio and interval scales, other scale types are defined in terms of various
scale transformations; many relational systems have been mathematically
analyzed for possible applications in the behavioral sciences. Measurement with
weak scale types may provide only an ordering of the objects, so quantitative
measurement and comparative orderings can be treated by the same general methods.
The older literature on measurement often distinguishes extensive from
intensive magnitudes. In the former case, there is supposed to be an empirical
operation (like ; above) that in some sense directly corresponds to addition on
numbers. An intensive magnitude supposedly has no such empirical operation. It
is sometimes claimed that genuine quantities must be extensive, whereas an
intensive magnitude is a quality. This extensive versus intensive distinction
(and its use in distinguishing quantities from qualities) is imprecise and has
been supplanted by the theory of scale types sketched above.
Mahavira, title (‘Great
Hero’) of Vardhamana Jnatrputra (sixth century B.C.), Indian religious leader
who founded Jainism. He is viewed within Jainism as the twenty-fourth and most
recent of a series of Tirthankaras or religious “ford-makers” and conquerors
(over ignorance) and as the establisher of the Jain community. His
enlightenment is described in the Jaina Sutras as involving release of his
inherently immortal soul from reincarnation and karma and as including his
omniscience. According to Jaina tradition, Vardhamana Jnatrputra was born into
a warrior class and at age thirty became a wandering ascetic seeking
enlightenment, which he achieved at age forty-two. See also JAINISM. K.E.Y.
Mahayana Buddhism. See BUDDHISM. maieutic. See SOCRATES. Maimon, Salomon
(1753–1800), Lithuanianborn German Jewish philosopher who became the friend and
protégé of Moses Mendelssohn and was an acute early critic and follower of Kant.
His most important works were the Versuch über die Transzendentalphilosophie.
Mit einem Anhang über die symbolische Erkenntnis (“Essay on Transcendental
Philosophy. With an Appendix on Symbolic Cognition,” 1790), the Philosophisches
Wörterbuch (“Philosophical Dictionary,” 1791) and the Versuch einer neuen Logik
oder Theorie des Denkens (“Attempt at a New Logic or Theory of Thought,” 1794).
Maimon argued against the “thing-in-itself” as it was conceived by Karl
Leonhard Reinhold and Gottlieb Ernst Schulze. For Maimon, the thing-in-itself
was merely a limiting concept, not a real object “behind” the phenomena. While
he thought that Kant’s system was sufficient as a refutation of rationalism or
“dogmatism,” he did not think that it had – or could – successfully dispose of
skepticism. Indeed, he advanced what can be called a skeptical interpretation
of Kant. On the other hand, he also argued against Kant’s sharp distinction
between sensibility and understanding and for the necessity of assuming the
idea of an “infinite mind.” In this way, he prepared the way for Fichte and
Hegel. However, in many ways his own theory is more similar to that of the
neoKantian Hermann Cohen.
Maimonides, Latinized
name of Moses ben Maimon (1135–1204), Spanish-born Jewish philosopher,
physician, and jurist. Born in Córdova, Maimonides and his family fled the
forced conversions of the Almohad invasion in 1148, living anonymously in Fez
before finding refuge in 1165 in Cairo. There Maimonides served as physician to
the vizier of Saladin, who overthrew the Fatimid dynasty in 1171. He wrote ten
medical treatises, but three works secured his position among the greatest
rabbinic jurists: his Book of the Commandments, cataloguing the 613 biblical
laws; his Commentary on the Mishnah, expounding the rational purposes of the
ancient rabbinic code; and the fourteen-volume Mishneh Torah, a codification of
Talmudic law that retains almost canonical authority. His Arabic philosophic
masterpiece The Guide to the Perplexed mediates between the Scriptural and
philosophic idioms, deriving a sophisticated negative theology by subtly
decoding biblical anthropomorphisms. It defends divine creation against
al-Farabi’s and Avicenna’s eternalism, while rejecting efforts to demonstrate
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apodictically. The radical occasionalism of Arabic dialectical theology (kalam)
that results from such attempts, Maimonides argues, renders nature
unintelligible and divine governance irrational: if God creates each particular
event, natural causes are otiose, and much of creation is in vain. But
Aristotle, who taught us the very principles of demonstration, well understood,
as his resort to persuasive language reveals, that his arguments for eternity
were not demonstrative. They project, metaphysically, an analysis of time,
matter, and potentiality as they are now and ignore the possibility that at its
origin a thing had a very different nature. We could allegorize biblical
creation if it were demonstrated to be false. But since it is not, we argue
that creation is more plausible conceptually and preferable theologically to
its alternative: more plausible, because a free creative act allows
differentiation of the world’s multiplicity from divine simplicity, as the
seemingly mechanical necessitation of emanation, strictly construed, cannot do;
preferable, because Avicennan claims that God is author of the world and
determiner of its contingency are undercut by the assertion that at no time was
nature other than it is now. Maimonides read the biblical commandments
thematically, as serving to inform human character and understanding. He
followed al-Farabi’s Platonizing reading of Scripture as a symbolic elaboration
of themes best known to the philosopher. Thus he argued that prophets learn
nothing new from revelation; the ignorant remain ignorant, but the gift of
imagination in the wise, if they are disciplined by the moral virtues,
especially courage and contentment, gives wing to ideas, rendering them
accessible to the masses and setting them into practice. In principle, any
philosopher of character and imagination might be a prophet; but in practice
the legislative, ethical, and mythopoeic imagination that serves philosophy
finds fullest articulation in one tradition. Its highest phase, where
imagination yields to pure intellectual communion, was unique to Moses,
elaborated in Judaism and its daughter religions. Maimonides’ philosophy was
pivotal for later Jewish thinkers, highly valued by Aquinas and other Scholastics,
studied by Spinoza in Hebrew translation, and annotated by Leibniz in Buxtorf’s
1629 rendering, Doctor Perplexorum.
Malcolm, Norman
(1911–90), American philosopher who was a prominent figure in post– World War
II analytic philosophy and perhaps the foremost American interpreter and
advocate of Wittgenstein. His association with Wittgenstein (vividly described
in his Ludwig Wittgenstein, A Memoir, 1958) began when he was a student at
Cambridge (1938–40). Other influences were Bouwsma, Malcolm’s undergraduate
teacher at the University of Nebraska, and Moore, whom he knew at Cambridge.
Malcolm taught for over thirty years at Cornell, and after his retirement in
1978 was associated with King’s College, London. Malcolm’s earliest papers
(e.g., “The Verification Argument,” 1950, and “Knowledge and Belief,” 1952)
dealt with issues of knowledge and skepticism, and two dealt with Moore. “Moore
and Ordinary Language” (1942) interpreted Moore’s defense of common sense as a
defense of ordinary language, but “Defending Common Sense” (1949) argued that
Moore’s “two hands” proof of the external world involved a misuse of ‘know’.
Moore’s proof was the topic of extended discussions between Malcolm and
Wittgenstein during the latter’s 1949 visit in Ithaca, New York, and these
provided the stimulus for Wittgenstein’s On Certainty. Malcolm’s
“Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations” (1954) was a highly influential
discussion of Wittgenstein’s later philosophy, and especially of his “private
language argument.” Two other works of that period were Malcolm’s Dreaming
(1958), which argued that dreams do not have genuine duration or temporal
location, and do not entail having genuine experiences, and “Anselm’s
Ontological Arguments” (1960), which defended a version of the ontological
argument. Malcolm wrote extensively on memory, first in his “Three Lectures on
Memory,” published in his Knowledge and Certainty (1963), and then in his
Memory and Mind (1976). In the latter he criticized both philosophical and
psychological theories of memory, and argued that the notion of a memory trace
“is not a scientific discovery . . . [but] a product of philosophical thinking,
of a sort that is natural and enormously tempting, yet thoroughly muddled.” A
recurrent theme in Malcolm’s thought was that philosophical understanding
requires getting to the root of the temptations to advance some philosophical
doctrine, and that once we do so we will see the philosophical doctrines as
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Page 530 confused or nonsensical. Although he was convinced that dualism and
other Cartesian views about the mind were thoroughly confused, he thought no
better of contemporary materialist and functionalist views, and of current
theorizing in psychology and linguistics (one paper is entitled “The Myth of
Cognitive Processes and Structures”). He shared with Wittgenstein both an
antipathy to scientism and a respect for religion. He shared with Moore an
antipathy to obscurantism and a respect for common sense. Malcolm’s last
published book, Nothing Is Hidden (1986), examines the relations between
Wittgenstein’s earlier and later philosophies. His other books include Problems
of Mind (1971), Thought and Knowledge (1977), and Consciousness and Causality
(1984), the latter coauthored with Armstrong. His writings are marked by an
exceptionally lucid, direct, and vivid style.
Malebranche, Nicolas
(1638–1715), French philosopher and theologian, an important but unorthodox
proponent of Cartesian philosophy. Malebranche was a priest of the Oratory, a
religious order founded in 1611 by Cardinal Bérulle, who was favorably inclined
toward Descartes. Malebranche himself became a Cartesian after reading
Descartes’s physiological Treatise on Man in 1664, although he ultimately
introduced crucial modifications into Cartesian ontology, epistemology, and
physics. Malebranche’s most important philosophical work is The Search After
Truth (1674), in which he presents his two most famous doctrines: the vision in
God and occasionalism. He agrees with Descartes and other philosophers that
ideas, or immaterial representations present to the mind, play an essential
role in knowledge and perception. But whereas Descartes’s ideas are mental
entities, or modifications of the soul, Malebranche argues that the ideas that
function in human cognition are in God – they just are the essences and ideal
archetypes that exist in the divine understanding. As such, they are eternal
and independent of finite minds, and make possible the clear and distinct
apprehension of objective, neccessary truth. Malebranche presents the vision in
God as the proper Augustinian view, albeit modified in the light of Descartes’s
epistemological distinction between understanding and sensation. The theory
explains both our apprehension of universals and mathematical and moral
principles, as well as the conceptual element that, he argues, necessarily
informs our perceptual acquaintance with the world. Like Descartes’s theory of
ideas, Malebranche’s doctrine is at least partly motivated by an
antiskepticism, since God’s ideas cannot fail to reveal either eternal truths
or the essences of things in the world created by God. The vision in God,
however, quickly became the object of criticism by Locke, Arnauld, Foucher, and
others, who thought it led to a visionary and skeptical idealism, with the mind
forever enclosed by a veil of divine ideas. Malebranche is also the best-known
proponent of occasionalism, the doctrine that finite created beings have no
causal efficacy and that God alone is a true causal agent. Starting from
Cartesian premises about matter, motion, and causation – according to which the
essence of body consists in extension alone, motion is a mode of body, and a
causal relation is a logically necessary relation between cause and effect –
Malebranche argues that bodies and minds cannot be genuine causes of either
physical events or mental states. Extended bodies, he claims, are essentially
inert and passive, and thus cannot possess any motive force or power to cause
and sustain motion. Moreover, there is no necessary connection between any
mental state (e.g. a volition) or physical event and the bodily motions that
usually follow it. Such necessity is found only between the will of an
omnipotent being and its effects. Thus, all phenomena are directly and
immediately brought about by God, although he always acts in a lawlike way and
on the proper occasion. Malebranche’s theory of ideas and his occasionalism, as
presented in the Search and the later Dialogues on Metaphysics (1688), were
influential in the development of Berkeley’s thought; and his arguments for the
causal theory foreshadow many of the considerations regarding causation and
induction later presented by Hume. In addition to these innovations in Cartesian
metaphysics and epistemology, Malebranche also modified elements of Descartes’s
physics, most notably in his account of the hardness of bodies and of the laws
of motion. In his other major work, the Treatise on Nature and Grace (1680),
Malebranche presents a theodicy, an explanation of how God’s wisdom, goodness,
and power are to be reconciled with the apparent imperfections and evils in the
world. In his account, elements of which Leibniz borrows, Malebranche claims
that God could have created a more perfect world, one without the defects that
plague this world, but that this would have Malebranche, Nicolas Malebranche,
Nicolas 531 4065m-r.qxd 08/02/1999 7:42 AM Page 531 involved greater complexity
in the divine ways. God always acts in the simplest way possible, and only by
means of lawlike general volitions; God never acts by “particular” or ad hoc
volitions. But this means that while on any particular occasion God could
intervene and forestall an apparent evil that is about to occur by the ordinary
courses of the laws of nature (e.g. a drought), God would not do so, for this
would compromise the simplicity of God’s means. The perfection or goodness of
the world per se is thus relativized to the simplicity of the laws of that
world (or, which is the same thing, to the generality of the divine volitions
that, on the occasionalist view, govern it). Taken together, the laws and the
phenomena of the world form a whole that is most worthy of God’s nature – in
fact, the best combination possible. Malebranche then extends this analysis to
explain the apparent injustice in the distribution of grace among humankind. It
is just this extension that initiated Arnauld’s attack and drew Malebranche
into a long philosophical and theological debate that would last until the end
of the century.
Manichaeanism, also
Manichaeism, a syncretistic religion founded by the Babylonian prophet Mani
(A.D. 216–77), who claimed a revelation from God and saw himself as a member of
a line that included the Buddha, Zoroaster, and Jesus. In dramatic myths,
Manichaeanism posited the good kingdom of God, associated with light, and the
evil kingdom of Satan, associated with darkness. Awareness of light caused
greed, hate, and envy in the darkness; this provoked an attack of darkness on light.
In response the Father sent Primal Man, who lost the fight so that light and
darkness were mixed. The Primal Man appealed for help, and the Living Spirit
came to win a battle, making heaven and earth out of the corpses of darkness
and freeing some capured light. A Third Messenger was sent; in response the
power of darkness created Adam and Eve, who contained the light that still
remained under his sway. Then Jesus was sent to a still innocent Adam who
nonetheless sinned, setting in motion the reproductive series that yields
humanity. This is the mythological background to the Manichaean account of the
basic religious problem: the human soul is a bit of captured light, and the
problem is to free the soul from darkness through asceticism and esoteric knowledge.
Manichaeanism denies that Jesus was crucified, and Augustine, himself a
sometime Manichaean, viewed the religion as a Docetic heresy that denies the
incarnation of the second person of the Trinity in a real human body. The
religion exhibits the pattern of escape from embodiment as a condition of
salvation, also seen in Hinduism and Buddhism.
Mannheim, Karl
(1893–1947), Hungarian-born German social scientist best known for his
sociology of knowledge. Born in Budapest, where he took a university degree in
philosophy, he settled in Heidelberg in 1919 as a private scholar until his
call to Frankfurt as professor of sociology in 1928. Suspended as a Jew and as
foreign-born by the Nazis in 1933, he accepted an invitation from the London
School of Economics, where he was a lecturer for a decade. In 1943, Mannheim
became the first professor of sociology of education at the University of
London, a position he held until his death. Trained in the Hegelian tradition,
Mannheim defies easy categorization: his mature politics became those of a
liberal committed to social planning; with his many studies in the sociology of
culture, of political ideologies, of social organization, of education, and of
knowledge, among others, he founded several subdisciplines in sociology and
political science. While his Man and Society in an Age of Reconstruction (1940)
expressed his own commitment to social planning, his most famous work, Ideology
and Utopia (original German edition, 1929; revised English edition, 1936),
established sociology of knowledge as a scientific enterprise and
simultaneously cast doubt on the possibility of the very scientific knowledge
on which social planning was to proceed. As developed by Mannheim, sociology of
knowledge attempts to find the social causes of beliefs as contrasted with the
reasons people have for them. Mannheim seemed to believe that this
investigation both presupposes and demonstrates the impossibility of
“objective” knowledge of society, a theme that relates sociology of knowledge
to its roots in German philosophy and social theory (especially Marxism) and
earlier in the thought of the idéologues of the immediate post–French
Revolution decades. L.A.
Mansel, Henry Longueville
(1820–71), British philosopher and clergyman, a prominent defender of Scottish
common sense philosophy. Mansel was a professor of philosophy and
ecclesiastical history at Oxford, and the dean of St. Paul’s Cathedral. Much of
his philosophy was derived from Kant as interpreted by Hamilton. In Prolegomena
Logica (1851) he defined logic as the science of the laws of thought, while in
Metaphysics(1860) he argued that human faculties are not suited to know the
ultimate nature of things. He drew the religious implications of these views in
his most influential work, The Limits of Religious Thought (1858), by arguing
that God is rationally inconceivable and that the only available conception of
God is an analogical one derived from revelation. From this he concluded that
religious dogma is immune from rational criticism. In the ensuing controversy
Mansel was criticized by Spenser, Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95), and J. S.
Mill.
many-valued logic, a
logic that rejects the principle of bivalence: every proposition is true or
false. However, there are two forms of rejection: the truth-functional mode
(many-valued logic proper), where propositions may take many values beyond
simple truth and falsity, values functionally determined by the values of their
components; and the truth-value gap mode, in which the only values are truth
and falsity, but propositions may have neither. What value they do or do not
have is not determined by the values or lack of values of their constituents.
Many-valued logic has its origins in the work of Lukasiewicz and
(independently) Post around 1920, in the first development of truth tables and
semantic methods. Lukasiewicz’s philosophical motivation for his three-valued
calculus was to deal with propositions whose truth-value was open or “possible”
– e.g., propositions about the future. He proposed they might take a third
value. Let 1 represent truth, 0 falsity, and the third value be, say, ½. We
take Ý (not) and P (implication) as primitive, letting v(ÝA) % 1 † v(A) and v(A
P B) % min(1,1 † v(A)!v(B)). These valuations may be displayed: Lukasiewicz
generalized the idea in 1922, to allow first any finite number of values, and
finally infinitely, even continuum-many values (between 0 and 1). One can then
no longer represent the functionality by a matrix; however, the formulas given
above can still be applied. Wajsberg axiomatized Lukasiewicz’s calculus in
1931. In 1953 Lukasiewicz published a four-valued extensional modal logic. In
1921, Post presented an m-valued calculus, with values 0 (truth), . . . , m † 1
(falsity), and matrices defined on Ý and v (or): v(ÝA) % 1 ! v(A) (modulo m)
and v(AvB) % min (v(A),v(B)). Translating this for comparison into the same
framework as above, we obtain the matrices (with 1 for truth and 0 for
falsity): The strange cyclic character of Ý makes Post’s system difficult to
interpret – though he did give one in terms of sequences of classical
propositions. A different motivation led to a system with three values
developed by Bochvar in 1939, namely, to find a solution to the logical
paradoxes. (Lukasiewicz had noted that his three-valued system was free of
antinomies.) The third value is indeterminate (so arguably Bochvar’s system is
actually one of gaps), and any combination of values one of which is
indeterminate is indeterminate; otherwise, on the determinate values, the
matrices are classical. Thus we obtain for Ý and P, using 1, ½, and 0 as above:
In order to develop a logic of many values, one needs to characterize the
notion of a thesis, or logical truth. The standard way to do this in manyvalued
logic is to separate the values into designated and undesignated. Effectively,
this is to reintroduce bivalence, now in the form: Every proposition is either
designated or undesignated. Thus in Lukasiewicz’s scheme, 1 (truth) is the only
designated value; in Post’s, any initial segment 0, . . . , n † 1, where n‹m (0
as truth). In general, one can think of the various designated values as types
of truth, or ways a proposition may be true, and the undesignated ones as ways
it can be false. Then a proposition is a thesis if and only if it takes only
designated values. For example, p P p is, but p 7 Ýp is not, a Lukasiewicz
thesis. However, certain matrices may generate no logical truths by this
method, e.g., the Bochvar matrices give ½ for every formula any of whose
variables is indeterminate. If both 1 and ½ were designated, all theses of
classical logic would be theses; if only 1, no theses result. So the
distinction from classical logic is lost. Bochvar’s solution was to add an
external assertion and negation. But this in turn runs the risk of undercutting
the whole philosophical motivation, if the external negation is used in a
Russell-type paradox. One alternative is to concentrate on consequence: A is a
consequence of a set of formulas X if for every assignment of values either no
member of X is designated or A is. Bochvar’s consequence relation (with only 1
designated) results from restricting classical consequence so that every
variable in A occurs in some member of X. There is little technical difficulty
in extending many-valued logic to the logic of predicates and quantifiers. For
example, in Lukasiewicz’s logic, v(E xA) % min {v(A(a/x)): a 1. D}, where D is,
say, some set of constants whose assignments exhaust the domain. This
interprets the universal quantifier as an “infinite” conjunction. In 1965,
Zadeh introduced the idea of fuzzy sets, whose membership relation allows
indeterminacies: it is a function into the unit interval [0,1], where 1 means
definitely in, 0 definitely out. One philosophical application is to the
sorites paradox, that of the heap. Instead of insisting that there be a sharp
cutoff in number of grains between a heap and a non-heap, or between red and,
say, yellow, one can introduce a spectrum of indeterminacy, as definite
applications of a concept shade off into less clear ones. Nonetheless, many
have found the idea of assigning further definite values, beyond truth and
falsity, unintuitive, and have instead looked to develop a scheme that
encompasses truthvalue gaps. One application of this idea is found in Kleene’s
strong and weak matrices of 1938. Kleene’s motivation was to develop a logic of
partial functions. For certain arguments, these give no definite value; but the
function may later be extended so that in such cases a definite value is given.
Kleene’s constraint, therefore, was that the matrices be regular: no
combination is given a definite value that might later be changed; moreover, on
the definite values the matrices must be classical. The weak matrices are as
for Bochvar. The strong matrices yield (1 for truth, 0 for falsity, and u for
indeterminacy): An alternative approach to truth-value gaps was presented by
Bas van Fraassen in the 1960s. Suppose v(A) is undefined if v(B) is undefined
for any subformula B of A. Let a classical extension of a truth-value
assignment v be any assignment that matches v on 0 and 1 and assigns either 0
or 1 whenever v assigns no value. Then we can define a supervaluation w over v:
w(A) % 1 if the value of A on all classical extensions of v is 1, 0 if it is 0
and undefined otherwise. A is valid if w(A) % 1 for all supervaluations w (over
arbitrary valuations). By this method, excluded middle, e.g., comes out valid,
since it takes 1 in all classical extensions of any partial valuation. Van
Fraassen presented several applications of the supervaluation technique. One is
to free logic, logic in which empty terms are admitted.
Mao Tse-tung (1893–1976),
Chinese Communist leader, founder of the People’s Republic of China in 1949. He
believed that Marxist ideas must be adapted to China. Contrary to the Marxist
orthodoxy, which emphasized workers, Mao organized peasants in the countryside.
His philosophical writings include On Practice (1937) and On Contradiction
(1937), synthesizing dialectical materialism and traditional Chinese philosophy.
In his later years he departed from the gradual strategy of his On New
Democracy (1940) and adopted increasingly radical means to change China.
Finally he started the Cultural Revolution in 1967 and plunged China into
disaster.
Marcel, Gabriel (1889–1973),
French philosopher and playwright, a major representative of French existential
thought. He was a member of the Academy of Political and Social Science of the
Institute of France. Musician, drama critic, and lecturer of international
renown, he authored thirty plays and as many philosophic essays. He considered
his principal contribution to be that of a philosopher-dramatist. Together, his
dramatic and philosophic works cut a path for Mao Tse-tung Marcel, Gabriel 534
4065m-r.qxd 08/02/1999 7:42 AM Page 534 the reasoned exercise of freedom to
enhance the dignity of human life. The conflicts and challenges of his own life
he brought to the light of the theater; his philosophic works followed as
efforts to discern critically through rigorous, reasoned analyses the
alternative options life offers. His dramatic masterpiece, The Broken World,
compassionately portrayed the devastating sense of emptiness, superficial
activities, and fractured relationships that plague the modern era. This play
cleared a way for Marcel to transcend nineteenth-century British and German
idealism, articulate his distinction between problem and mystery, and evolve an
existential approach that reflectively clarified mysteries that can provide
depth and meaningfulness to human life. In the essay “On the Ontological
Mystery,” a philosophic sequel to The Broken World, Marcel confronted the
questions “Who am I? – Is Being empty or full?” He explored the regions of body
or incarnate being, intersubjectivity, and transcendence. His research focused
principally on intersubjectivity clarifying the requisite attitudes and
essential characteristics of I-Thou encounters, interpersonal relations,
commitment and creative fidelity – notions he also developed in Homo Viator
(1945) and Creative Fidelity (1940). Marcel’s thought balanced despair and
hope, infidelity and fidelity, self-deception and a spirit of truth. He
recognized both the role of freedom and the role of fundamental attitudes or
prephilosophic dispositions, as these influence one’s way of being and the
interpretation of life’s meaning. Concern for the presence of loved ones who
have died appears in both Marcel’s dramatic and philosophic works, notably in
Presence and Immortality. This concern, coupled with his reflections on intersubjectivity,
led him to explore how a human subject can experience the presence of God or
the presence of loved ones from beyond death. Through personal experience,
dramatic imagination, and philosophic investigation, he discovered that such
presence can be experienced principally by way of inwardness and depth.
“Presence” is a spiritual influx that profoundly affects one’s being, uplifting
it and enriching one’s personal resources. While it does depend on a person’s
being open and permeable, presence is not something that the person can summon
forth. A conferral or presence is always a gratuitous gift, coauthored and
marked by its signal benefit, an incitement to create. So Marcel’s reflection
on interpersonal communion enabled him to conceive philosophically how God can
be present to a person as a life-giving and personalizing force whose benefit
is always an incitement to create.
Marcus, Ruth Barcan
(b.1921), American philosopher best known for her seminal work in philosophical
logic. In 1946 she published the first systematic treatment of quantified modal
logic, thereby turning aside Quine’s famous attack on the coherence of
combining quantifiers with alethic operators. She later extended the
first-order formalization to second order with identity (1947) and to modalized
set theory (1963). Marcus’s writings in logic either inaugurated or brought to
the fore many issues that have loomed large in subsequent philosophical
theorizing. Of particular significance are the Barcan formula (1946), the
theorem about the necessity of identity (1963), a flexible notion of
extensionality (1960, 1961), and the view that ordinary proper names are
contentless directly referential tags (1961). This last laid the groundwork for
the theory of direct reference later advanced by Kripke, Keith Donnellan, David
Kaplan, and others. No less a revolutionary in moral theory, Marcus undermined
the entire structure of standard deontic logic in her paper on iterated deontic
modalities (1966). She later (1980) argued against some theorists that moral
dilemmas are real, and against others that moral dilemmas need neither derive
from inconsistent rules nor imply moral anti-realism. In her series of papers
on belief (1981, 1983, 1990), Marcus repudiates theories that identify beliefs
with attitudes to linguistic or quasi-linguistic items. She argues instead that
for an agent A to believe that p is for A to be disposed to behave as if p
obtains (where p is a possible state of affairs). Her analysis mobilizes a
conception of rational agents as seeking to maintain global coherence among the
verbal and non-verbal indicators of their beliefs. During much of Marcus’s
career she served as Reuben Post Halleck Professor of Philosophy at Yale
University. She has also served as chair of the Board of Officers of the
American Philosophical Association and president of its Central Division,
president of the Association of Symbolic Logic, and president of the Institut
International de Philosophie.
Marcus Aurelius (A.D.
121–80), Roman emperor (from 161) and philosopher. Author of twelve books of
Meditations (Greek title, To Himself), Marcus Aurelius is principally
interesting in the history of Stoic philosophy (of which he was a diligent
student) for his ethical self-portrait. Except for the first book, detailing his
gratitude to his family, friends, and teachers, the aphorisms are arranged in
no order; many were written in camp during military campaigns. They reflect
both the Old Stoa and the more eclectic views of Posidonius, with whom he holds
that involvement in public affairs is a moral duty. Marcus, in accord with
Stoicism, considers immortality doubtful; happiness lies in patient acceptance
of the will of the panentheistic Stoic God, the material soul of a material
universe. Anger, like all emotions, is forbidden the Stoic emperor: he exhorts
himself to compassion for the weak and evil among his subjects. “Do not be
turned into ‘Caesar,’ or dyed by the purple: for that happens” (6.30). “It is
the privilege of a human being to love even those who stumble” (7.22). Sayings
like these, rather than technical arguments, give the book its place in
literary history.
Marcuse, Herbert
(1898–1979). German-born American political philosopher who reinterpreted the
ideas of Marx and Freud. Marcuse’s work is among the most systematic and
philosophical of the Frankfurt School theorists. After an initial attempt to
unify Hegel, Marx, and Heidegger in an ontology of historicity in his
habilitation on Hegel’s Ontology and the Theory of Historicity (1932), Marcuse
was occupied during the 1930s with the problem of truth in a critical
historical social theory, defending a contextindependent notion of truth
against relativizing tendencies of the sociology of knowledge. Marcuse thought
Hegel’s “dialectics” provided an alternative to relativism, empiricism, and
positivism and even developed a revolutionary interpretation of the Hegelian
legacy in Reason and Revolution (1941) opposed to Popper’s totalitarian one.
After World War II, Marcuse appropriated Freud in the same way that he had appropriated
Hegel before the war, using his basic concepts for a critical theory of the
repressive character of civilization in Eros and Civilization (1955). In many
respects, this book comes closer to presenting a positive conception of reason
and Enlightenment than any other work of the Frankfurt School. Marcuse argued
that civilization has been antagonistic to happiness and freedom through its
constant struggle against basic human instincts. According to Marcuse, human
existence is grounded in Eros, but these impulses depend upon and are shaped by
labor. By synthesizing Marx and Freud, Marcuse holds out the utopian
possibility of happiness and freedom in the unity of Eros and labor, which at
the very least points toward the reduction of “surplus repression” as the goal
of a rational economy and emancipatory social criticism. This was also the goal
of his aesthetic theory as developed in The Aesthetic Dimension (1978). In One
Dimensional Man (1964) and other writings, Marcuse provides an analysis of why
the potential for a free and rational society has never been realized: in the
irrationality of the current social totality, its creation and manipulation of
false needs (or “repressive desublimation”), and hostility toward nature.
Perhaps no other Frankfurt School philosopher has had as much popular influence
as Marcuse, as evidenced by his reception in the student and ecology movements.
Mariana, Juan de
(1536–1624), Spanish Jesuit historian and political philosopher. Born in
Talavera de la Reina, he studied at Alcalá de Henares and taught at Rome,
Sicily, and Paris. His political ideas are contained in De rege et regis
institutione (“On Kingship,” 1599) and De monetae mutatione (“On Currency,”
1609). Mariana held that political power rests on the community of citizens,
and the power of the monarch derives from the people. The natural state of
humanity did not include, as Vitoria held, government and other political
institutions. The state of nature was one of justice in which all possessions
were held in common, and cooperation characterized human relations. Private
property is the result of technological advances that produced jealousy and
strife. Antedating both Hobbes and Rousseau, Mariana argued that humans made a
contract and delegated their political power to leaders in order to eliminate
injustice and strife. However, only the people have the right to change the
law. A monarch who does not follow the law and ceases to act for the citizens’
welfare may be forcibly removed. Tyrannicide is thus justifiable under some
circumstances.
Maritain, Jacques
(1882–1973), French Catholic philosopher whose innovative interpretation of
Aquinas’s philosophy made him a central figure in Neo-Thomism. Bergson’s
teaching saved him from metaphysical despair and a suicide pact with his
fiancée. After his discovery of Aquinas, he rejected Bergsonism for a realistic
account of the concept and a unified theory of knowledge, aligning the
empirical sciences with the philosophy of nature, metaphysics, theology, and
mysticism in Distinguish to Unite or The Degrees of Knowledge (1932). Maritain
opposed the skepticism and idealism that severed the mind from sensibility,
typified by the “angelism” of Descartes’s intuitionism. Maritain traced the
practical effects of angelism in art, politics, and religion. His Art and
Scholasticism (1920) employs ancient and medieval notions of art as a virtue
and beauty as a transcendental aspect of being. In politics, especially Man and
the State (1961), Maritain stressed the distinction between the person and the
individual, the ontological foundation of natural rights, the religious origins
of the democratic ideal, and the importance of the common good. He also argued
for the possibility of philosophy informed by the data of revelation without
compromising its integrity, and an Integral Humanism (1936) that affirms the
political order while upholding the eternal destiny of the human person.
Marsilius of Inghen
(c.1330–96), Dutch philosopher and theologian. Born near Nijmegen, Marsilius
studied under Buridan, taught at Paris for thirty years, then, in 1383, moved
to the newly founded University of Heidelberg, where he and Albert of Saxony
established nominalism in Germany. In logic, he produced an Ockhamist revision
of the Tractatus of Peter of Spain, often published as Textus dialectices in
early sixteenthcentury Germany, and a commentary on Aristotle’s Prior
Analytics. He developed Buridan’s theory of impetus in his own way, accepted
Bradwardine’s account of the proportions of velocities, and adopted Nicholas of
Oresme’s doctrine of intension and remission of forms, applying the new physics
in his commentaries on Aristotle’s physical works. In theology he followed
Ockham’s skeptical emphasis on faith, allowing that one might prove the
existence of God along Scotistic lines, but insisting that, since natural
philosophy could not accommodate the creation of the universe ex nihilo, God’s
omnipotence was known only through faith.
Marsilius of Padua, in
Italian, Marsilio dei Mainardini (1275/80–1342), Italian political theorist. He
served as rector of the University of Paris between 1312 and 1313; his
anti-papal views forced him to flee Paris (1326) for Nuremberg, where he was
political and ecclesiastic adviser of Louis of Bavaria. His major work,
Defensor pacis (“Defender of Peace,” 1324), attacks the doctrine of the
supremacy of the pope and argues that the authority of a secular ruler elected
to represent the people is superior to the authority of the papacy and
priesthood in both temporal and spiritual affairs. Three basic claims of
Marsilius’s theory are that reason, not instinct or God, allows us to know what
is just and conduces to the flourishing of human society; that governments need
to enforce obedience to the laws by coercive measures; and that political power
ultimately resides in the people. He was influenced by Aristotle’s ideal of the
state as necessary to foster human flourishing. His thought is regarded as a
major step in the history of political philosophy and one of the first defenses
of republicanism. P.Gar. Martineau, James (1805–1900), English philosopher of
religion and ethical intuitionist. As a minister and a professor, Martineau
defended Unitarianism and opposed pantheism. In A Study of Religion (1888)
Martineau agreed with Kant that reality as we experience it is the work of the
mind, but he saw no reason to doubt his intuitive conviction that the
phenomenal world corresponds to a real world of enduring, causally related
objects. He believed that the only intelligible notion of causation is given by
willing and concluded that reality is the expression of a divine will that is
also the source of moral authority. In Types of Ethical Theory (1885) he
claimed that the fundamental fact of ethics is the human tendency to approve
and disapprove of the motives leading to voluntary actions, actions in which
there are two motives present to consciousness. After freely choosing one of
the motives, the agent can determine which action best expresses it. Since
Martineau thought that agents intuitively know through conscience which motive
is higher, the core of his ethical theory is a ranking of the thirteen
principal motives, the highest of which is reverence.
Marx, Karl (1818–83),
German social philosopher, economic theorist, and revolutionary. He lived and
worked as a journalist in Cologne, Paris, and Brussels. After the unsuccessful
1848 revolutions in Europe, he settled in London, doing research and writing
and earning some money as correspondent for the New York Tribune. In early
writings, he articulated his critique of the religiously and politically
conservative implications of the then-reigning philosophy of Hegel, finding
there an acceptance of existing private property relationships and of the
alienation generated by them. Marx understood alienation as a state of radical
disharmony (1) among individuals, (2) between them and their own life activity,
or labor, and (3) between individuals and their system of production. Later, in
his masterwork Capital (1867, 1885, 1894), Marx employed Hegel’s method of
dialectic to generate an internal critique of the theory and practice of
capitalism, showing that, under assumptions (notably that human labor is the
source of economic value) found in such earlier theorists as Adam Smith, this
system must undergo increasingly severe crises, resulting in the eventual
seizure of control of the increasingly centralized means of production
(factories, large farms, etc.) from the relatively small class of capitalist
proprietors by the previously impoverished non-owners (the proletariat) in the
interest of a thenceforth classless society. Marx’s early writings, somewhat
utopian in tone, most never published during his lifetime, emphasize social
ethics and ontology. In them, he characterizes his position as a “humanism” and
a “naturalism.” In the Theses on Feuerbach, he charts a middle path between
Hegel’s idealist account of the nature of history as the selfunfolding of
spirit and what Marx regards as the ahistorical, mechanistic, and passive
materialist philosophy of Feuerbach; Marx proposes a conception of history as
forged by human activity, or praxis, within determinate material conditions
that vary by time and place. In later Marxism, this general position is often
labeled dialectical materialism. Marx began radically to question the nature of
philosophy, coming to view it as ideology, i.e., a thought system parading as
autonomous but in fact dependent on the material conditions of the society in
which it is produced. The tone of Capital is therefore on the whole less philosophical
and moralistic, more social scientific and tending toward historical
determinism, than that of the earlier writings, but punctuated by bursts of
indignation against the baneful effects of capitalism’s profit orientation and
references to the “society of associated producers” (socialism or communism)
that would, or could, replace capitalist society. His enthusiastic predictions
of immanent worldwide revolutionary changes, in various letters, articles, and
the famous Communist Manifesto (1848; jointly authored with his close
collaborator, Friedrich Engels), depart from the generally more hypothetical
character of the text of Capital itself. The linchpin that perhaps best
connects Marx’s earlier and later thought and guarantees his enduring relevance
as a social philosopher is his analysis of the role of human labor power as a
peculiar type of commodity within a system of commodity exchange (his theory of
surplus value). Labor’s peculiarity, according to him, lies in its capacity
actively to generate more exchange value than it itself costs employers as
subsistence wages. But to treat human beings as profit-generating commodities
risks neglecting to treat them as human beings.
Marxism, the philosophy
of Karl Marx, or any of several systems of thought or approaches to social
criticism derived from Marx. The term is also applied, incorrectly, to certain
sociopolitical structures created by dominant Communist parties during the
mid-twentieth century. Karl Marx himself, apprised of the ideas of certain French
critics who invoked his name, remarked that he knew at least that he was not a
Marxist. The fact that his collaborator, Friedrich Engels, a popularizer with a
greater interest than Marx in the natural sciences, outlived him and wrote,
among other things, a “dialectics of nature” that purported to discover certain
universal natural laws, added to the confusion. Lenin, the leading Russian
Communist revolutionary, near the end of his life discovered previously
unacknowledged connections between Marx’s Capital (1867) and Hegel’s Science of
Logic (1812–16) and concluded (in his Philosophical Notebooks) that Marxists
for a half-century had not understood Marx. Specific political agendas of,
among others, the Marxist faction within the turn-of-the-century German Social
Democratic Party, the Bolshevik faction of Russian socialists led by Lenin, and
later governments and parties claiming allegiance to “Marxist-Leninist
principles” have contributed to reinterpretations. For several decades in the
Soviet Union and countries allied with it, a broad agreement concerning
fundamental Marxist doctrines was established and politically enforced,
resulting in a doctrinaire version labeled “orthodox Marxism” and virtually
ensuring the widespread, wholesale rejection of Marxism as such when dissidents
taught to accept this version as authentic Marxism came to power. Marx never
wrote a systematic exposition of his thought, which in any case drastically
changed emphases across time and included elements of history, economics, and
sociology as well as more traditional philosophical concerns. In one letter he
specifically warns against regarding his historical account of Western
capitalism as a transcendental analysis of the supposedly necessary historical
development of any and all societies at a certain time. It is thus somewhat
paradoxical that Marxism is often identified as a “totalizing” if not
“totalitarian” system by postmodernist philosophers who reject global theories
or “grand narratives” as inherently invalid. However, the evolution of Marxism
since Marx’s time helps explain this identification. That “orthodox” Marxism
would place heavy emphasis on historical determinism – the inevitability of a
certain general sequence of events leading to the replacement of capitalism by a
socialist economic system (in which, according to a formula in Marx’s Critique
of the Gotha Program, each person would be remunerated according to his/her
work) and eventually by a communist one (remuneration in accordance with
individual needs) – was foreshadowed by Plekhanov. In The Role of the
Individual in History, he portrayed individual idiosyncrasies as accidental:
e.g., had Napoleon not existed the general course of history would not have
turned out differently. In Materialism and Empiriocriticism, Lenin offered
epistemological reinforcement for the notion that Marxism is the uniquely true
worldview by defending a “copy” or “reflection” theory of knowledge according
to which true concepts simply mirror objective reality, like photographs.
Elsewhere, however, he argued against “economism,” the inference that the
historical inevitability of communism’s victory obviated political activism.
Lenin instead maintained that, at least under the repressive political
conditions of czarist Russia, only a clandestine party of professional
revolutionaries, acting as the vanguard of the working class and in its
interests, could produce fundamental change. Later, during the long political
reign of Josef Stalin, the hegemonic Communist Party of the USSR was identified
as the supreme interpreter of these interests, thus justifying totalitarian
rule. So-called Western Marxism opposed this “orthodox” version, although the
writings of one of its foremost early representatives, Georg Lukacs, who
brilliantly perceived the close connection between Hegel’s philosophy and the
early thought of Marx before the unpublished manuscripts proving this
connection had been retrieved from archives, actually tended to reinforce both
the view that the party incarnated the ideal interests of the proletariat (see
his History and Class Consciousness) and an aesthetics favoring the art of
“socialist realism” over more experimental forms. His contemporary, Karl
Korsch, in Marxism as Philosophy, instead saw Marxism as above all a heuristic
method, pointing to salient phenomena (e.g., social class, material
conditioning) generally neglected by other philosophies. His counsel was in
effect followed by the Frankfurt School of critical theory, including Walter
Benjamin in the area of aesthetics, Theodor Adorno in social criticism, and
Wilhelm Reich in psychology. A spate of “new Marxisms” – the relative degrees
of their fidelity to Marx’s original thought cannot be weighed here –
developed, especially in the wake of the gradual rediscovery of Marx’s more
ethically oriented, less deterministic early writings. Among the names meriting
special mention in this context are Ernst Bloch, who explored Marxism’s
connection with utopian thinking; Herbert Marcuse, critic of the
“one-dimensionality” of industrial society; the Praxis school (after the name
of their journal and in view of their concern with analyzing social practices)
of Yugoslav philosophers; and the later Jean-Paul Sartre. Also worthy of note
are the writings, many of them composed in prison under Mussolini’s Italian
Fascist rule, of Antonio Gramsci, who stressed the role of cultural factors in
determining what is dominant politically and ideologically at any given time.
Simultaneous with the decline and fall of regimes in which “orthodox Marxism” was
officially privileged has been the recent development of new approaches,
loosely connected by virtue of their utilization of techniques favored by
British and American philosophers, collectively known as analytic Marxism.
Problems of justice, theories of history, and the questionable nature of Marx’s
theory of surplus value have been special concerns to these writers. This
development suggests that the current unfashionableness of Marxism in many
circles, due largely to its understandable but misleading identification with
the aforementioned regimes, is itself only a temporary phenomenon, even if
future Marxisms are likely to range even further from Marx’s own specific
concerns while still sharing his commitment to identifying, explaining, and
criticizing hierarchies of dominance and subordination, particularly those of
an economic order, in human society.
materia et forma. If anything characterizes
‘analytic’ philosophy, then it is presumably the emphasis placed on
analysis. But as history shows, there is a wide range of conceptions of
analysis, so such a characterization says nothing that would distinguish
analytic philosophy from much of what has either preceded or developed
alongside it. Given that the decompositional conception is usually offered
as the main conception, it might be thought that it is this that characterizes
analytic philosophy, even Oxonian 'informalists' like Strawson.But this
conception was prevalent in the early modern period, shared by both the British
Empiricists and Leibniz, for example. Given that Kant denied the
importance of de-compositional analysis, however, it might be suggested that
what characterizes analytic philosophy is the value it places on such
analysis. This might be true of G. E. Moore's early work, and of one strand
within analytic philosophy; but it is not generally true. What
characterizes analytic philosophy as it was founded by Frege and Russell is the
role played by logical analysis, which depended on the development of modern
logic. Although other and subsequent forms of analysis, such as
'linguistic' analysis, were less wedded to systems of FORMAL logic, the central
insight motivating logical analysis remained. Pappus's account of
method in ancient Greek geometry suggests that the regressive conception of analysis
was dominant at the time — however much other conceptions may also have been
implicitly involved.In the early modern period, the decompositional conception
became widespread.What characterizes analytic philosophy—or at least that
central strand that originates in the work of Frege and Russell—is the
recognition of what was called earlier the transformative or interpretive
dimension of analysis.Any analysis presupposes a particular framework of
interpretation, and work is done in interpreting what we are seeking to analyze
as part of the process of regression and decomposition. This may involve
transforming it in some way, in order for the resources of a given theory or
conceptual framework to be brought to bear. Euclidean geometry provides a
good illustration of this. But it is even more obvious in the case of
analytic geometry, where the geometrical problem is first ‘translated’ into the
language of algebra and arithmetic in order to solve it more easily.What
Descartes and Fermat did for analytic geometry, Frege and Russell did for
analytic PHILOSOPHY. Analytic philosophy is ‘analytic’ much more in the
way that analytic geometry (as Fermat's and Descartes's) is ‘analytic’ than in
the crude decompositional sense that Kant understood it. The
interpretive dimension of philosophical analysis can also be seen as
anticipated in medieval scholasticism and it is remarkable just how much of
modern concerns with propositions, meaning, reference, and so on, can be found
in the medieval literature. Interpretive analysis is also illustrated in
the nineteenth century by Bentham's conception of paraphrasis, which he
characterized as "that sort of exposition which may be afforded by
transmuting into a proposition, having for its subject some real entity, a
proposition which has not for its subject any other than a fictitious
entity." Bentham, a palaeo-Griceian, applies the idea in ‘analyzing
away’ talk of ‘obligations’, and the anticipation that we can see here of
Russell's theory of descriptions has been noted by, among others, Wisdom and
Quine in ‘Five Milestones of Empiricism.'vide: Wisdom on Bentham as
palaeo-Griceian.What was crucial in analytic philosophy, however, was the
development of quantificational theory, which provided a far more powerful
interpretive system than anything that had hitherto been available. In the
case of Frege and Russell, the system into which statements were ‘translated’
was predicate calculus, and the divergence that was thereby opened up between
the 'matter' and the logical 'form' meant that the process of 'translation' (or
logical construction or deconstruction) itself became an issue of philosophical
concern. This induced greater self-consciousness about our use of language
and its potential to mislead us (the infamous implicatures, which are neither
matter nor form -- they are IMPLICATED matter, and the philosopher may want to
arrive at some IMPLICATED form -- as 'the'), and inevitably raised semantic,
epistemological and metaphysical questions about the relationships between
language, logic, thought and reality which have been at the core of analytic
philosophy ever since. Both Frege and Russell (after the latter's
initial flirtation with then fashionable Hegelian Oxonian idealism -- "We
were all Hegelians then") were concerned to show, against Kant, that
arithmetic (or number theory, from Greek 'arithmos,' number -- if not geometry)
is a system of analytic and not synthetic truths, as Kant misthought. In
the Grundlagen, Frege offers a revised conception of analyticity, which arguably
endorses and generalizes Kant's logical as opposed to phenomenological
criterion, i.e., (ANL) rather than (ANO) (see the supplementary section on
Kant): (AN) A truth is analytic if its proof depends only on
general logical laws and definitions. The question of whether arithmetical
truths are analytic then comes down to the question of whether they can be
derived purely logically. This was the failure of Ramsey's logicist
project.Here we already have ‘transformation’, at the theoretical level —
involving a reinterpretation of the concept of analyticity.To demonstrate this,
Frege realized that he needed to develop logical theory in order to 'FORMALISE'
a mathematical statements, which typically involve multiple generality or
multiple quantification -- alla "The altogether nice girl loves the
one-at-at-a-time sailor" (e.g., ‘Every natural number has a
successor’, i.e. ‘For every natural number x there is another natural number y
that is the successor of x’). This development, by extending the use of
function-argument analysis in mathematics to logic and providing a notation for
quantification, is essentially the achievement of his Begriffsschrift,
where he not only created the first system of predicate calculus but also,
using it, succeeded in giving a logical analysis of mathematical induction (see
Frege FR, 47-78). In Die Grundlagen der Arithmetik, Frege goes on to
provide a logical analysis of number statements (as in "Mary had two
little lambs; therefore she has one little lamb" -- "Mary has a
little lamb" -- "Mary has at least one lamb and at most one
lamb").
Frege's central idea is
that a number statement contains an assertion about a 'concept.'A statement
such as Jupiter has four moons.is to be understood NOT as *predicating* of
*Jupiter* the property of having four moons, but as predicating of the
'concept' "moon of Jupiter" the second-level property " ... has
at least and at most four instances," which can be logically
defined. The significance of this construal can be brought out by
considering negative existential statements (which are equivalent to number
statements involving "0"). Take the following negative
existential statement: Unicorns do not exist. Or
Grice's"Pegasus does not exist.""A flying horse does not
exist."If we attempt to analyze this decompositionally, taking the
'matter' to leads us to the 'form,' which as philosophers, is all we care for,
we find ourselves asking what these unicorns or this flying horse called
Pegasus are that have the property of non-existence!Martin, to provoke Quine,
called his cat 'Pegasus.'For Quine, x is Pegasus if x Pegasus-ises (Quine, to
abbreviate, speaks of 'pegasise,' which is "a solicism, at Oxford."We
may then be forced to posit the Meinongian subsistence — as opposed to
existence — of a unicorn -- cf. Warnock on 'Tigers exist' in "Metaphysics
in Logic" -- just as Meinong (in his ontological jungle, as Grice calls
it) and Russell did ('the author of Waverley does not exist -- he was invented
by the literary society"), in order for there to be something that is the
subject of our statement.
On the Fregean account, however, to deny that
something exists is to say that the corresponding concept has no instance -- it
is not possible to apply 'substitutional quantification.' (This leads to the
paradox of extensionalism, as Grice notes, in that all void predicates refer to
the empty set). There is no need to posit any mysterious object, unless
like Locke, we proceed empirically with complex ideas (that of a unicorn, or
flying horse) as simple ideas (horse, winged). The Fregean analysis of
(0a) consists in rephrasing it into (0b), which can then be readily FORMALISED
as(0b) The concept unicorn is not instantiated. (0c) ~(∃x)
Fx. Similarly, to say that God exists is to say that the concept God
is (uniquely) instantiated, i.e., to deny that the concept has 0 instances (or
2 or more instances). This is actually Russell's example ("What does
it mean that (Ex)God?")But cf. Pears and Thomson, two collaborators with
Grice in the reprint of an old Aristotelian symposium, "Is existence a
predicate?"On this view, existence is no longer seen as a (first-level)
predicate, but instead, existential statements are analyzed in terms of the
(second-level) predicate is instantiated, represented by means of the
existential quantifier. As Frege notes, this offers a neat diagnosis of
what is wrong with the ontological argument, at least in its traditional form
(GL, §53). All the problems that arise if we try to apply decompositional
analysis (at least straight off) simply drop away, although an account is still
needed, of course, of concepts and quantifiers. The possibilities
that this strategy of ‘translating’ 'MATTER' into 'FORM' opens up are
enormous.We are no longer forced to treat the 'MATTER' of a statement as a
guide to 'FORM', and are provided with a means of representing that form.
This is the value of logical analysis.It allows us to ‘analyze away’
problematic linguistic MATERIAL or matter-expressions and explain what it is
going on at the level of the FORM, not the MATTERGrice calls this
'hylemorphism,' granting "it is confusing in that we are talking 'eidos,'
not 'morphe'." This strategy was employed, most famously, in Russell's
theory of descriptions (on 'the' and 'some') which was a major motivation
behind the ideas of Wittgenstein's Tractatus.SeeGrice, "Definite
descriptions in Russell and in the vernacular"Although subsequent
philosophers were to question the assumption that there could ever be a
definitive logical analysis of a given statement, the idea that this or that 'material'
expression may be systematically misleading has remained. To
illustrate this, consider the following examples from Ryle's
essay ‘Systematically Misleading Expressions’:
(Ua) Unpunctuality is reprehensible.Or from Grice's and Strawson's
seminar on Aristotle's Categories:Smith's disinteresteness and altruism are in
the other room.Banbury is an egoism. Egoism is reprehensible Banbury is
malevolent. Malevolence is rephrensible. Banbury is an altruism. Altruism and
cooperativeness are commendable. In terms of second-order predicate calculus.
If Banbury is altruist, Banbury is commendable. (Ta) Banbury hates
(the thought of) going to hospital. Ray Noble loves the very thought
of you. In each case, we might be tempted to make unnecessary 'reification,' or
subjectification, as Grice prefers (mocking 'nominalisation' -- a category
shift) taking ‘unpunctuality’ and ‘the thought of going to hospital’ as
referring to a thing, or more specifically a 'prote ousia,' or spatio-temporal
continuant. It is because of this that Ryle describes such expressions as
‘systematically misleading’. As Ryle later told Grice, "I would have
used 'implicaturally misleading,' but you hadn't yet coined the thing!"
(Ua) and (Ta) must therefore be rephrased: (Ub) Whoever is unpunctual
deserves that other people should reprove him for being unpunctual.
Although Grice might say that it is one harmless thing to reprove
'interestedness' and another thing to recommend BANBURY himself, not his
disinterestedness. (Tb) Jones feels distressed when he thinks of what he will
undergo IF he goes to hospital. Or in more behaviouristic terms: The
dog salivates when he salivates that he will be given food.(Ryle avoided
'thinking' like the rats). In this or that FORM of the MATTER, there is no
overt talk at all of ‘unpunctuality’ or ‘thoughts’, and hence nothing to tempt
us to posit the existence of any corresponding entities. The problems that
otherwise arise have thus been ‘analyzed away’. At the time that he
wrote ‘Systematically Misleading Expressions’, Ryle too, assumed that every
statement has a form -- even Sraffa's gesture has a form -- that was to be
exhibited correctly.But when he gave up this assumption (and call himself and
Strawson 'informalist') he did not give up the motivating idea of conceptual
analysis—to show what is wrong with misleading expressions. In The Concept
of Mind Ryle sought to explain what he called the ‘category-mistake’ involved
in talk of the mind as a kind of ‘Ghost in the Machine’. "I was so fascinated
with this idea that when they offered me the editorship of "Mind," on
our first board meeting I proposed we changed the name of the publication to
"Ghost." They objected, with a smile."Ryle's aim is to
“'rectify' the conceptual geography or botany of the knowledge which we already
possess," an idea that was to lead to the articulation of connective
rather than 'reductive,' alla Grice, if not reductionist, alla Churchland,
conceptions of analysis, the emphasis being placed on elucidating the
relationships BETWEEN this or that concepts without assuming that there is a
privileged set of intrinsically basic or prior concepts (v. Oxford Linguistic
Philosophy). For Grice, surely 'intend' is prior to 'mean,' and
'utterer' is prior to 'expression'. Yet he is no reductionist. In
"Negation," introspection and incompatibility are prior to 'not.'In
"Personal identity," memory is prior to 'self.'Etc. Vide, Grice,
"Conceptual analysis and the defensible province of philosophy."Ryle
says, "You might say that if it's knowledge it cannot be rectified, but
this is Oxford! Everything is rectifiable!" What these varieties of
conceptual analysis suggest, then, is that what characterizes analysis in
analytic philosophy is something far richer than the mere ‘de-composition’ of a
concept into its ‘constituents’. Although reductive is surely a
necessity.The alternative is to take the concept as a 'theoretical' thing
introduced by Ramseyfied description in this law of this theory.For things
which are a matter of intuition, like all the concepts Grice has philosophical
intuitions for, you cannot apply the theory-theory model. You need the
'reductive analysis.' And the analysis NEEDS to be 'reductive' if it's to be
analysis at all! But this is not to say that the decompositional conception of
analysis plays no role at all. It can be found in Moore, for example.It
might also be seen as reflected in the approach to the analysis of concepts
that seeks to specify the necessary and sufficient conditions for their correct
employment, as in Grice's infamous account of 'mean' for which he lists
Urmson and Strawson as challenging the sufficiency, and himself as challenging
the necessity! Conceptual analysis in this way goes back to the Socrates
of Plato's early dialogues -- and Grice thought himself an English Socrates --
and Oxonian dialectic as Athenian dialectic-- "Even if I never saw him
bothering people with boring philosophical puzzles."But it arguably
reached its heyday with Grice.The definition of ‘knowledge’ as ‘justified true
belief’ is perhaps the second most infamous example; and this definition was
criticised in Gettier's classic essay -- and again by Grice in the section on
the causal theory of 'know' in WoW -- Way of Words.The specification of
necessary and sufficient conditions may no longer be seen as the primary aim of
conceptual analysis, especially in the case of philosophical concepts such as
‘knowledge’, which are fiercely contested.But consideration of such conditions
remains a useful tool in the analytic philosopher's toolbag, along with the
implicature, what Grice called his "new shining tool" "even if
it comes with a new shining skid!"The use of ‘logical form,’ as Grice and Strawson note, tends
to be otiose. They sometimes just use ‘form.’ It’s different from the
‘syntactic matter’ of the expression. Matter is strictly what Ammonius uses to
translate ‘hyle’ as applied to this case. When Aristotle in Anal. Pr. Uses
variable letters that’s the forma or eidos; when he doesn’t (and retreats to
‘homo’, etc.) he is into ‘hyle,’ or ‘materia.’ What other form is there?
Grammatical? Surface versus deep structure? God knows. It’s not even clear with
Witters! Grice at least has a theory. You draw a skull to communicate there is
danger. So you are concerned with the logical form of “there is danger.” An
exploration on logical form can start and SHOULD INCLUDE what Grice calls the
‘one-off predicament,” of an open GAIIB.” To use Carruthers’s example and
Blackburn: You draw an arrow to have your followers choose one way on the fork
of the road. The logical form is that of the communicatum. The emissor means
that his follower should follow the left path. What is the logical form of
this? It may be said that “p” has a simplex logical form, the A is B –
predicate calculus, or ‘predicative’ calculus, as Starwson more traditionally
puts it! Then there is molecular complex logical form with ‘negation,’ ‘and’,
‘or’, and ‘if.’. you can’t put it in symbols, it’s not worth saying. Oh, no, if
you can put it in symbols, it’s not worth saying. Grice loved the adage, “quod
per litteras demonstrare volumus, universaliter demonstramus.” material
adequacy, the property that belongs to a formal definition of a concept when
that definition characterizes or “captures” the extension (or material) of the
concept. Intuitively, a formal definition of a concept is materially adequate
if and only if it is neither too broad nor too narrow. Tarski advanced the
state of philosophical semantics by discovering the criterion of material
adequacy of truth definitions contained in his convention T. Material adequacy
contrasts with analytic adequacy, which belongs to definitions that provide a
faithful analysis. Defining an integer to be even if and only if it is the
product of two consecutive integers would be materially adequate but not analytically
adequate, whereas defining an integer to be even if and only if it is a
multiple of 2 would be both materially and analytically adequate.
McCosh, James (1811–94),
Scottish philosopher, a common sense realist who attempted to reconcile Christianity
with evolution. A prolific writer, McCosh was a pastor in Scotland and a
professor at Queen’s College, Belfast, before becoming president of the College
of New Jersey (now Princeton University). In The Intuitions of the Mind (1860)
he argued that while acts of intelligence begin with immediate knowledge of the
self or of external objects, they also exhibit intuitions in the spontaneous
formation of self-evident convictions about objects. In opposition to Kant and
Hamilton, McCosh treated intuitions not as forms imposed by minds on objects,
but as inductively ascertainable rules that minds follow in forming convictions
after perceiving objects. In his Examination of Mr. J. S. Mill’s Philosophy
(1866) McCosh criticized Mill for denying the existence of intuitions while
assuming their operation. In The Religious Aspects of Evolution (1885) McCosh
defended the design argument by equating Darwin’s chance variations with
supernatural design. J.W.A. McDougall, William (1871–1938), British and
American (after 1920) psychologist. He was probably the first to define
psychology as the science of behavior (Physiological Psychology, 1905;
Psychology: The Science of Behavior, 1912) and he invented hormic (purposive)
psychology. By the early twentieth century, as psychology strove to become
scientific, purpose had become a suspect concept, but following Stout,
McDougall argued that organisms possess an “intrinsic power of
self-determination,” making goal seeking the essential and defining feature of
behavior. In opposition to mechanistic and intellectualistic psychologies,
McDougall, again following Stout, proposed that innate instincts (later,
propensities) directly or indirectly motivate all behavior (Introduction to
Social Psychology, 1908). Unlike more familiar psychoanalytic instincts,
however, many of McDougall’s instincts were social in nature (e.g.
gregariousness, deference). Moreover, McDougall never regarded a person as
merely an assemblage of unconnected and quarreling motives, since people are
“integrated unities” guided by one supreme motive around which others are
organized. McDougall’s stress on behavior’s inherent purposiveness influenced
the behaviorist E. C. Tolman, but was otherwise roundly rejected by more
mechanistic behaviorists and empiricistically inclined sociologists. In his
later years, McDougall moved farther from mainstream thought by championing
Lamarckism and sponsoring research in parapsychology. Active in social causes,
McDougall was an advocate of eugenics (Is America Safe for Democracy?, 1921).
low-subjective contraster: in WoW: 140, Grice distinguishes between a subjective
contraster (such as “The pillar box seems red,” “I see that the pillar box is
red,” “I believe that the pillar box is red” and “I know that the pillar box is
red”) and an objective contraster (“The pillar box is red.”) Within these
subjective contraster, Grice proposes a sub-division between nonfactive
(“low-subjective”) and (“high-subjective”). Low-subjective contrasters are “The
pillar box seems red” and “I believe that the pillar box is red,” which do NOT
entail the corresponding objective contraster. The high-subjective contraster,
being factive or transparent, does. The entailment in the case of the
high-subjective contraster is explained via truth-coniditions: “A sees that the
pillar box is red” and “A knows that the pillar box is red” are analysed ‘iff’
the respective low-subjective contraster obtains (“The pillar box seems red,”
and “A believes that the pillar box is red”), the corresponding objective
contraster also obtains (“The pillar box is red”), and a third condition
specifying the objective contraster being the CAUSE of the low-subjective
contraster. Grice repeats his account of suprasegmental. Whereas in “Further
notes about logic and conversation,” he had focused on the accent on the
high-subjective contraster (“I KNOW”), he now focuses his attention on the
accent on the low subjective contraster. “I BELIEVE that the pillar box is
red.” It is the accented version that gives rise to the implicatum, generated
by the utterer’s intention that the addressee’s will perceive some restraint or
guardedness on the part of the utterer of ‘going all the way’ to utter a claim
to ‘seeing’ or ‘knowing’, the
high-subjective contraster, but stopping short at the low-subjective
contraster.
martian
conversational implicatum: “Oh, all
the difference in the world!” Grice converses with a
Martian. About Martian x-s that the pillar box is red. (upper x-ing
organ) Martian y-s that the pillar box is red. (lower y-ing organ). Grice: Is
x-ing that the pillar box is red LIKE y-ing that the pillar-box is red?
Martian: Oh, no; there's all the difference in the world! Analogy x smells
sweet. x tastes sweet. Martian x-s the the pillar box is red-x. Martian y-s
that the pillar box is red-y. Martian x-s the pillar box is medium red. Martian
y-s the pillar box is light red.
Materialism: one of the
twelve labours of H. P. Grice. d’Holbach, Paul-Henri-Dietrich, Baron,
philosopher, a leading materialist and prolific contributor to the Encyclopedia.
He dharma d’Holbach, Paul-Henri-Dietrich 231
231 was born in the Rhenish Palatinate, settled in France at an early
age, and read law at Leiden. After inheriting an uncle’s wealth and title, he
became a solicitor at the Paris “Parlement” and a regular host of philosophical
dinners attended by the Encyclopedists and visitors of renown Gibbon, Hume,
Smith, Sterne, Priestley, Beccaria, Franklin. Knowledgeable in chemistry and
mineralogy and fluent in several languages, he tr. G. scientific works and English
anti-Christian pamphlets into . Basically, d’Holbach was a synthetic thinker,
powerful though not original, who systematized and radicalized Diderot’s
naturalism. Also drawing on Hobbes, Spinoza, Locke, Hume, Buffon, Helvétius,
and La Mettrie, his treatises were so irreligious and anticlerical that they
were published abroad anonymously or pseudonymously: Christianity Unveiled
1756, The Sacred Contagion 1768, Critical History of Jesus 1770, The Social
System 1773, and Universal Moral 1776. His masterpiece, the System of Nature
1770, a “Lucretian” compendium of eighteenth-century materialism, even shocked
Voltaire. D’Holbach derived everything from matter and motion, and upheld
universal necessity. The self-sustaining laws of nature are normative. Material
reality is therefore contrasted to metaphysical delusion, self-interest to
alienation, and earthly happiness to otherworldly optimism. More vindictive
than Toland’s, d’Holbach’s unmitigated critique of Christianity anticipated
Feuerbach, Strauss, Marx, and Nietzsche. He discredited supernatural
revelation, theism, deism, and pantheism as mythological, censured Christian
virtues as unnatural, branded piety as fanatical, and stigmatized clerical
ignorance, immorality, and despotism. Assuming that science liberates man from
religious hegemony, he advocated sensory and experimental knowledge. Believing
that society and education form man, he unfolded a mechanistic anthropology, a
eudaimonistic morality, and a secular, utilitarian social and political program.
maximum: Grice uses ‘maximum’ variously. “Maximally effective
exchange of information.” Maximum is used in decision theory and in value
theory. Cfr. Kasher on maximin. “Maximally effective exchange of information”
(WOW: 28) is the exact phrase Grice uses, allowing it should be generalised. He
repeats the idea in “Epilogue.” Things did not change.
maximal consistent set,
in formal logic, any set of sentences S that is consistent – i.e., no
contradiction is provable from S – and maximally so – i.e., if T is consistent
and S 0 T, then S % T. It can be shown that if S is maximally consistent and s
is a sentence in the same language, then either s or - s (the negation of s) is
in S. Thus, a maximally consistent set is complete: it settles every question
that can be raised in the language.
maximin strategy, a
strategy that maximizes an agent’s minimum gain, or equivalently, minimizes his
maximum loss. Writers who work in terms of loss thus call such a strategy a
minimax strategy. The term ‘security strategy’, which avoids potential
confusions, is now widely used. For each action, its security level is its
payoff under the worst-case scenario. A security strategy is one with maximal
security level. An agent’s security strategy maximizes his expected utility if
and only if (1) he is certain that “nature” has his worst interests at heart
and (2) he is certain that nature will be certain of his strategy when choosing
hers. The first condition is satisfied in the case of a two-person zero-sum
game where the payoff structure is commonly known. In this situation, “nature”
is the other player, and her gain is equal to the first player’s loss.
Obviously, these conditions do not hold for all decision problems.
Maxwell, James Clerk
(1831–79), Scottish physicist who made pioneering contributions to the theory
of electromagnetism, the kinetic theory of gases, and the theory of color
vision. His work on electromagnetism is summarized in his Treatise on
Electricity and Magnetism (1873). In 1871 he 4065m-r.qxd 08/02/1999 7:42 AM
Page 543 maya Mead, George Herbert 544 became Cambridge University’s first
professor of experimental physics and founded the Cavendish Laboratory, which
he directed until his death. Maxwell’s most important achievements were his
field theory of electromagnetism and the discovery of the equations that bear
his name. The field theory unified the laws of electricity and magnetism,
identified light as a transverse vibration of the electromagnetic ether, and
predicted the existence of radio waves. The fact that Maxwell’s equations are
Lorentz-invariant and contain the speed of light as a constant played a major
role in the genesis of the special theory of relativity. He arrived at his
theory by searching for a “consistent representation” of the ether, i.e., a
model of its inner workings consistent with the laws of mechanics. His search
for a consistent representation was unsuccessful, but his papers used
mechanical models and analogies to guide his thinking. Like Boltzmann, Maxwell
advocated the heuristic value of model building. Maxwell was also a pioneer in
statistical physics. His derivation of the laws governing the macroscopic
behavior of gases from assumptions about the random collisions of gas molecules
led directly to Boltzmann’s transport equation and the statistical analysis of
irreversibility. To show that the second law of thermodynamics is
probabilistic, Maxwell imagined a “neat-fingered” demon who could cause the
entropy of a gas to decrease by separating the faster-moving gas molecules from
the slower-moving ones.
maya, a term with various
uses in Indian thought; it expresses the concept of Brahman’s power to act. One
type of Brahmanic action is the assuming of material forms whose appearance can
be changed at will. Demons as well as gods are said to have maya, understood as
power to do things not within a standard human repertoire. A deeper sense
refers to the idea that Brahman has and exercises the power to sustain
everlastingly the entire world of conscious and non-conscious things. Monotheistically
conceived, maya is the power of an omnipotent and omniscient deity to produce
the world of dependent things. This power typically is conceived as feminine
(Sakti) and various representations of the deity are conceived as male with
female consorts, as with Vishnu and Siva. Without Sakti, Brahman would be
masculine and passive and no created world would exist. By association, maya is
the product of created activity. The created world is conceived as dependent,
both a manifestation of divine power and a veil between Brahman and the
devotee. Monistically conceived, maya expresses the notion that there only
seems to be a world composed of distinct conscious and nonconscious things, and
rather than this seeming multiplicity there exists only ineffable Brahman.
Brahman is conceived as somehow producing the illusion of there being a
plurality of persons and objects, and enlightenment (moksha) is conceived as
seeing through the illusion. Monotheists, who ask who, on the monistic view,
has the qualities requisite to produce illusion and how an illusion can see
through itself, regard enlightenment (moksha) as a matter of devotion to the
Brahman whom the created universe partially manifests, but also veils, whose
nature is also revealed in religious experience.
Mead, George Herbert
(1863–1931), American philosopher, social theorist, and social reformer. He was
a member of the Chicago school of pragmatism, which included figures such as
James Hayden Tufts and John Dewey. Whitehead agreed with Dewey’s assessment of Mead:
“a seminal mind of the very first order.” Mead was raised in a household with
deep roots in New England puritanism, but he eventually became a confirmed
naturalist, convinced that modern science could make the processes of nature
intelligible. On his path to naturalism he studied with the idealist Josiah
Royce at Harvard. The German idealist tradition of Fichte, Schelling, and Hegel
(who were portrayed by Mead as Romantic philosophers in Movements of Thought in
the Nineteenth Century) had a lasting influence on his thought, even though he
became a confirmed empiricist. Mead is considered the progenitor of the school
of symbolic interaction in sociology, and is best known for his explanation of
the genesis of the mind and the self in terms of language development and role
playing. A close friend of Jane Addams (1860–1935), he viewed his theoretical
work in this area as lending weight to his progressive political convictions.
Mead is often referred to as a social behaviorist. He employed the categories of
stimulus and response in order to explain behavior, but contra behaviorists
such as John B. Watson, Mead did not dismiss conduct that was not observed by
others. He examined the nature of self-consciousness, whose development is
depicted in Mind, Self, and Society, from the Standpoint of a Social
Behaviorist. He also addressed 4065m-r.qxd 08/02/1999 7:42 AM Page 544 behavior
in terms of the phases of an organism’s adjustment to its environment in The
Philosophy of the Act. His reputation as a theorist of the social development
of the self has tended to eclipse his original work in other areas of concern
to philosophers, e.g., ethics, epistemology, metaphysics, and the philosophy of
science. Influenced by Darwin, Mead sought to understand nature, as well as social
relationships, in terms of the process of emergence. He emphasized that
qualitatively new forms of life arise through natural and intelligible
processes. When novel events occur the past is transformed, for the past has
now given rise to the qualitatively new, and it must be seen from a different
perspective. Between the arrival of the new order – which the novel event
instigates – and the old order, there is a phase of readjustment, a stage that
Mead describes as one of sociality. Mead’s views on these and related matters
are discussed in The Philosophy of the Present. Mead never published a
book-length work in philosophy. His unpublished manuscripts and students’ notes
were edited and published as the books cited above.
meaning, the
conventional, common, or standard sense of an expression, construction, or
sentence in a given language, or of a non-linguistic signal or symbol. Literal
meaning is the non-figurative, strict meaning an expression or sentence has in
a language by virtue of the dictionary meaning of its words and the import of
its syntactic constructions. Synonymy is sameness of literal meaning:
‘prestidigitator’ means ‘expert at sleight of hand’. It is said that meaning is
what a good translation preserves, and this may or may not be literal: in
French ‘Où sont les neiges d’antan?’ literally means ‘Where are the snows of
yesteryear?’ and figuratively means ‘nothing lasts’. Signal-types and symbols
have non-linguistic conventional meaning: the white flag means truce; the lion
means St. Mark. In another sense, meaning is what a person intends to
communicate by a particular utterance – utterer’s meaning, as Grice called it,
or speaker’s meaning, in Stephen Schiffer’s term. A speaker’s meaning may or
may not coincide with the literal meaning of what is uttered, and it may be
non-linguistic. Non-literal: in saying “we will soon be in our tropical
paradise,” Jane meant that they would soon be in Antarctica. Literal: in saying
“that’s deciduous,” she meant that the tree loses its leaves every year.
Non-linguistic: by shrugging, she meant that she agreed. The literal meaning of
a sentence typically does not determine exactly what a speaker says in making a
literal utterance: the meaning of ‘she is praising me’ leaves open what John
says in uttering it, e.g. that Jane praises John at 12:00 p.m., Dec. 21, 1991.
A not uncommon – but theoretically loaded – way of accommodating this is to
count the context-specific things that speakers say as propositions, entities
that can be expressed in different languages and that are (on certain theories)
the content of what is said, believed, desired, and so on. On that assumption,
a sentence’s literal meaning is a context-independent rule, or function, that
determines a certain proposition (the content of what the speaker says) given
the context of utterance. David Kaplan has called such a rule or function a
sentence’s “character.” A sentence’s literal meaning also includes its
potential for performing certain illocutionary acts, in J. L. Austin’s term.
The meaning of an imperative sentence determines what orders, requests, and the
like can literally be expressed: ‘sit down there’ can be uttered literally by
Jane to request (or order or urge) John to sit down at 11:59 a.m. on a certain
bench in Santa Monica. Thus a sentence’s literal meaning involves both its
character and a constraint on illocutionary acts: it maps contexts onto
illocutionary acts that have (something like) determinate propositional
contents. A context includes the identity of speaker, hearer, time of utterance,
and also aspects of the speaker’s intentions. In ethics the distinction has
flourished between the expressive or emotive meaning of a word or sentence and
its cognitive meaning. The emotive meaning of an utterance or a term is the
attitude it expresses, the pejorative meaning of ‘chiseler’, say. An emotivist
in ethics, e.g. C. L. Stevenson, cited by Grice in “Meaning” for the Oxford
Philosophical Society, holds that the literal meaning of ‘it is good’ is
identical with its emotive meaning, the positive attitude it expresses. On
Hare’s theory, the literal meaning of ‘ought’ is its prescriptive meaning, the
imperative force it gives to certain sentences that contain it. Such
“noncognitivist” theories can allow that a term like ‘good’ also has non-literal
descriptive meaning, implying nonevaluative properties of an object. By
contrast, cognitivists take the literal meaning of an ethical term to be its
cognitive meaning: ‘good’ stands for an objective property, and in asserting
“it is good” one literally expresses, not an attitude, but a true or false
judgment. ’Cognitive meaning’ serves as well as any other term to capture what
has been central in the theory of meaning beyond ethics, the “factual” element
in meaning that remains when we abstract from its illocutionary and emotive
aspects. It is what is shared by ‘there will be an eclipse tomorrow’ and ‘will
there be an eclipse tomorrow?’. This common element is often identified with a
proposition (or a “character”), but, once again, that is theoretically loaded.
Although cognitive meaning has been the preoccupation of the theory of meaning
in the twentieth century, it is difficult to define precisely in
non-theoretical terms. Suppose we say that the cognitive meaning of a sentence
is ‘that aspect of its meaning which is capable of being true or false’: there
are non-truth-conditional theories of meaning (see below) on which this would
not capture the essentials. Suppose we say it is ‘what is capable of being
asserted’: an emotivist might allow that one can assert that a thing is good.
Still many philosophers have taken for granted that they know cognitive meaning
(under that name or not) well enough to theorize about what it consists in, and
it is the focus of what follows. The oldest theories of meaning in modern
philosophy are the seventeenth-to-nineteenth-century idea theory (also called
the ideational theory) and image theory of meaning, according to which the
meaning of words in public language derives from the ideas or mental images
that words are used to express. As for what constitutes the representational
properties of ideas, Descartes held it to be a basic property of the mind,
inexplicable, and Locke a matter of resemblance (in some sense) between ideas
and things. Contemporary analytic philosophy speaks more of propositional
attitudes – thoughts, beliefs, intentions – than of ideas and images; and it
speaks of the contents of such attitudes: if Jane believes that there are lions
in Africa, that belief has as its content that there are lions in Africa.
Virtually all philosophers agree that propositional attitudes have some crucial
connection with meaning. A fundamental element of a theory of meaning is where
it locates the basis of meaning, in thought, in individual speech, or in social
practices. (i) Meaning may be held to derive entirely from the content of
thoughts or propositional attitudes, that mental content itself being
constituted independently of public linguistic meaning. (‘Constituted
independently of’ does not imply ‘unshaped by’.) (ii) It may be held that the
contents of beliefs and communicative intentions themselves derive in part from
the meaning of overt speech, or even from social practices. Then meaning would
be jointly constituted by both individual psychological and social linguistic
facts. Theories of the first sort include those in the style of Grice,
according to which sentences’ meanings are determined by practices or implicit
conventions that govern what speakers mean when they use the relevant words and
constructions. The emissor’s meaning is explained in terms of certain
propositional attitudes, namely the emissor’s intentions to produce certain
effects in his emissee. To mean that it is raining and that the emissee is to
close the door is to utter or to do something (not necessarily linguistic) with
the intention (very roughly) of getting one’s emissee to believe that it is
raining and go and close the door. Theories of the emissor’s meaning have been
elaborated at Oxford by H. P. Grice (originally in a lecture to the Oxford
Philosophical Society, inspired in part by Ogden and Richards’s The Meaning of
Meaning – ‘meaning’ was not considered a curricular topic in the Lit. Hum.
programme he belonge in) and by Schiffer. David Lewis has proposed that
linguistic meaning is constituted by implicit conventions that systematically
associate sentences with speakers’ beliefs rather than with communicative
intentions. The contents of thought might be held to be constitutive of
linguistic meaning independently of communication. Russell, and Wittgenstein in
his early writings, wrote about meaning as if the key thing is the
propositional content of the belief or thought that a sentence (somehow)
expresses; they apparently regarded this as holding on an individual basis and
not essentially as deriving from communication intentions or social practices.
And Chomsky speaks of the point of language as being “the free expression of
thought.” Such views suggest that ‘linguistic meaning’ may stand for two
properties, one involving communication intentions and practices, the other
more intimately related to thinking and conceiving. By contrast, the content of
propositional attitudes and the meaning of overt speech might be regarded as
coordinate facts neither of which can obtain independently: to interpret other
people one must assign both content to their beliefs/intentions and meaning to
their utterances. This is explicit in Davidson’s truth-conditional theory (see
below); perhaps it is present also in the post-Wittgensteinian notion of
meaning as assertability conditions – e.g., in the writings of Dummett. On
still other accounts, linguistic meaning is essentially social. Wittgenstein is
interpreted by Kripke as holding in his later writings that social rules are
essential to meaning, on the grounds that they alone explain the normative
aspect of meaning, explain the fact that an expression’s meaning determines
that some uses are correct or others incorrect. Another way in which meaning
meaning 546 4065m-r.qxd 08/02/1999 7:42 AM Page 546 meaning may be essentially
social is Putnam’s “division of linguistic labor”: the meanings of some terms,
say in botany or cabinetmaking, are set for the rest of us by specialists. The
point might extend to quite non-technical words, like ‘red’: a person’s use of
it may be socially deferential, in that the rule which determines what ‘red’
means in his mouth is determined, not by his individual usage, but by the usage
of some social group to which he semantically defers. This has been argued by
Tyler Burge to imply that the contents of thoughts themselves are in part a
matter of social facts. Let us suppose there is a language L that contains no
indexical terms, such as ‘now’, ‘I’, or demonstrative pronouns, but contains
only proper names, common nouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, logical words. (No
natural language is like this; but the supposition simplifies what follows.)
Theories of meaning differ considerably in how they would specify the meaning
of a sentence S of L. Here are the main contenders. (i) Specify S’s truth
conditions: S is true if and only if some swans are black. (ii) Specify the
proposition that S expresses: S means (the proposition) that some swans are
black. (iii) Specify S’s assertability conditions: S is assertable if and only
if blackswan-sightings occur or black-swan-reports come in, etc. (iv) Translate
S into that sentence of our language which has the same use as S or the same
conceptual role. Certain theories, especially those that specify meanings in
ways (i) and (ii), take the compositionality of meaning as basic. Here is an
elementary fact: a sentence’s meaning is a function of the meanings of its
component words and constructions, and as a result we can utter and understand
new sentences – old words and constructions, new sentences. Frege’s theory of
Bedeutung or reference, especially his use of the notions of function and
object, is about compositionality. In the Tractatus, Wittgenstein explains
compositionality in his picture theory of meaning and theory of
truth-functions. According to Wittgenstein, a sentence or proposition is a
picture of a (possible) state of affairs; terms correspond to non-linguistic
elements, and those terms’ arrangements in sentences have the same form as
arrangements of elements in the states of affairs the sentences stand for. The
leading truth-conditional theory of meaning is the one advocated by Davidson,
drawing on the work of Tarski. Tarski showed that, for certain formalized
languages, we can construct a finite set of rules that entails, for each
sentence S of the infinitely many sentences of such a language, something of
the form ‘S is true if and only if . . .’. Those finitely statable rules, which
taken together are sometimes called a truth theory of the language, might
entail ‘ “(x) (Rx P Bx)” is true if and only if every raven is black’. They
would do this by having separately assigned interpretations to ‘R’, ‘B’, ‘P’,
and ‘(x)’. Truth conditions are compositionally determined in analogous ways
for sentences, however complex. Davidson proposes that Tarski’s device is
applicable to natural languages and that it explains, moreover, what meaning
is, given the following setting. Interpretation involves a principle of
charity: interpreting a person N means making the best possible sense of N, and
this means assigning meanings so as to maximize the overall truth of N’s
utterances. A systematic interpretation of N’s language can be taken to be a
Tarski-style truth theory that (roughly) maximizes the truth of N’s utterances.
If such a truth theory implies that a sentence S is true in N’s language if and
only if some swans are black, then that tells us the meaning of S in N’s
language. A propositional theory of meaning would accommodate compositionality
thus: a finite set of rules, which govern the terms and constructions of L,
assigns (derivatively) a proposition (putting aside ambiguity) to each sentence
S of L by virtue of S’s terms and constructions. If L contains indexicals, then
such rules assign to each sentence not a fully specific proposition but a
‘character’ in the above sense. Propositions may be conceived in two ways: (a)
as sets of possible circumstances or “worlds” – then ‘Hesperus is hot’ in
English is assigned the set of possible worlds in which Hesperus is hot; and
(b) as structured combinations of elements – then ‘Hesperus is hot’ is assigned
a certain ordered pair of elements ‹M1,M2(. There are two theories about M1 and
M2. They may be the senses of ‘Hesperus’ and ‘(is) hot’, and then the ordered
pair is a “Fregean” proposition. They may be the references of ‘Hesperus’ and
‘(is) hot’, and then the ordered pair is a “Russellian” proposition. This
difference reflects a fundamental dispute in twentieth-century philosophy of
language. The connotation or sense of a term is its “mode of presentation,” the
way it presents its denotation or reference. Terms with the same reference or
denotation may present their references differently and so differ in sense or
connotation. This is unproblematic for complex terms like ‘the capital of
Italy’ and ‘the city on the Tiber’, which refer to Rome via different
connotations. Controversy arises over simple terms, such as proper names and
common nouns. Frege distinguished sense and reference for all expressions; the
proper names ‘Phosphorus’ and ‘Hesperus’ express descriptive senses according
to how we understand them – [that bright starlike object visible before dawn in
the eastern sky . . .], [that bright starlike object visible after sunset in
the western sky . . .]; and they refer to Venus by virtue of those senses.
Russell held that ordinary proper names, such as ‘Romulus’, abbreviate definite
descriptions, and in this respect his view resembles Frege’s. But Russell also
held that, for those simple terms (not ‘Romulus’) into which statements are
analyzable, sense and reference are not distinct, and meanings are “Russellian”
propositions. (But Russell’s view of their constituents differs from
present-day views.) Kripke rejected the “Frege-Russell” view of ordinary proper
names, arguing that the reference of a proper name is determined, not by a
descriptive condition, but typically by a causal chain that links name and
reference – in the case of ‘Hesperus’ a partially perceptual relation perhaps,
in the case of ‘Aristotle’ a causal-historical relation. A proper name is
rather a rigid designator: any sentence of the form ‘Aristotle is . . . ‘
expresses a proposition that is true in a given possible world (or set of
circumstances) if and only if our (actual) Aristotle satisfies, in that world,
the condition ‘ . . . ‘. The “Frege-Russell” view by contrast incorporates in
the proposition, not the actual referent, but a descriptive condition
connotated by ‘Aristotle’ (the author of the Metaphysics, or the like), so that
the name’s reference differs in different worlds even when the descriptive
connotation is constant. (Someone else could have written the Metaphysics.)
Some recent philosophers have taken the rigid designator view to motivate the
stark thesis that meanings are Russellian propositions (or characters that map
contexts onto such propositions): in the above proposition/meaning ‹M1,M2(, M1
is simply the referent – the planet Venus – itself. This would be a referential
theory of meaning, one that equates meaning with reference. But we must
emphasize that the rigid designator view does not directly entail a referential
theory of meaning. What about the meanings of predicates? What sort of entity
is M2 above? Putnam and Kripke also argue an anti-descriptive point about
natural kind terms, predicates like ‘(is) gold’, ‘(is a) tiger’, ‘(is) hot’.
These are not equivalent to descriptions – ’gold’ does not mean ‘metal that is
yellow, malleable, etc.’ – but are rigid designators of underlying natural
kinds whose identities are discovered by science. On a referential theory of
meanings as Russellian propositions, the meaning of ‘gold’ is then a natural
kind. (A complication arises: the property or kind that ‘widow’ stands for
seems a good candidate for being the sense or connotation of ‘widow’, for what
one understands by it. The distinction between Russellian and Fregean
propositions is not then firm at every point.) On the standard sense-theory of
meanings as Fregean propositions, M1 and M2 are pure descriptive senses. But a
certain “neo-Fregean” view, suggested but not held by Gareth Evans, would count
M1 and M2 as object-dependent senses. For example, ‘Hesperus’ and ‘Phosphorus’
would rigidly designate the same object but have distinct senses that cannot be
specified without mention of that object. Note that, if proper names or natural
kind terms have meanings of either sort, their meanings vary from speaker to
speaker. A propositional account of meaning (or the corresponding account of
“character”) may be part of a broader theory of meaning; for example: a
Grice-type theory involving implicit conventions; (b) a theory that meaning
derives from an intimate connection of language and thought; (c) a theory that
invokes a principle of charity or the like in interpreting an individual’s
speech; (d) a social theory on which meaning cannot derive entirely from the
independently constituted contents of individuals’ thoughts or uses. A central
tradition in twentieth-century theory of meaning identifies meaning with
factors other than propositions (in the foregoing senses) and truth-conditions.
The meaning of a sentence is what one understands by it; and understanding a
sentence is knowing how to use it – knowing how to verify it and when to assert
it, or being able to think with it and to use it in inferences and practical
reasoning. There are competing theories here. In the 1930s, proponents of
logical positivism held a verification theory of meaning, whereby a sentence’s
or statement’s meaning consists in the conditions under which it can be
verified, certified as acceptable. This was motivated by the positivists’
empiricism together with their view of truth as a metaphysical or non-empirical
notion. A descendant of verificationism is the thesis, influenced by the later
Wittgenstein, that the meaning of a sentence consists in its assertability conditions,
the circumstances under which one is justified in asserting the sentence. If
justification and truth can diverge, as they appear to, then a meaning meaning
sentence’s assertability conditions can be distinct from (what
non-verificationists see as) its truth conditions. Dummett has argued that
assertability conditions are the basis of meaning and that truth-conditional
semantics rests on a mistake (and hence also propositional semantics in sense
[a] above). A problem with assertability theories is that, as is generally
acknowledged, compositional theories of the assertability conditions of
sentences are not easily constructed. A conceptual role theory of meaning (also
called conceptual role semantics) typically presupposes that we think in a
language of thought (an idea championed by Fodor), a system of internal states
structured like a language that may or may not be closely related to one’s
natural language. The conceptual role of a term is a matter of how thoughts
that contain the term are dispositionally related to other thoughts, to sensory
states, and to behavior. Hartry Field has pointed out that our Fregean
intuitions about ‘Hesperus’ and ‘Phosphorus’ are explained by those terms’
having distinct conceptual roles, without appeal to Fregean descriptive senses
or the like, and that this is compatible with those terms’ rigidly designating
the same object. This combination can be articulated in two ways. Gilbert
Harman proposes that meaning is “wide” conceptual role, so that conceptual role
incorporates not just inferential factors, etc., but also Kripke-Putnam
external reference relations. But there are also two-factor theories of
meaning, as proposed by Field among others, which recognize two strata of
meaning, one corresponding to how a person understands a term – its narrow
conceptual role, the other involving references, Russellian propositions, or
truth-conditions. As the language-of-thought view indicates, some concerns
about meaning have been taken over by theories of the content of thoughts or propositional
attitudes. A distinction is often made between the narrow content of a thought
and its wide content. If psychological explanation invokes only “what is in the
head,” and if thought contents are essential to psychological explanation,
there must be narrow content. Theories have appealed to the “syntax” or
conceptual roles or “characters” of internal sentences, as well as to images
and stereotypes. A thought’s wide content may then be regarded (as motivated by
the Kripke-Putnam arguments) as a Russellian proposition. The naturalistic
reference-relations that determine the elements of such propositions are the
focus of causal, “informational” and “teleological” theories by Fodor, Dretske,
and Ruth Millikan. Assertability theories and conceptual role theories have
been called use theories of meaning in a broad sense that marks a contrast with
truthconditional theories. On a use theory in this broad sense, understanding
meaning consists in knowing how to use a term or sentence, or being disposed to
use a term or sentence in response to certain external or conceptual factors.
But ‘use theory’ also refers to the doctrine of the later writings of
Wittgenstein, by whom theories of meaning that abstract from the very large
variety of interpersonal uses of language are declared a philosopher’s mistake.
The meanings of terms and sentences are a matter of the language games in which
they play roles; these are too various to have a common structure that can be
captured in a philosopher’s theory of meaning. Conceptual role theories tend
toward meaning holism, the thesis that a term’s meaning cannot be abstracted
from the entirety of its conceptual connections. On a holistic view any belief
or inferential connection involving a term is as much a candidate for determining
its meaning as any other. This could be avoided by affirming the
analytic–synthetic distinction, according to which some of a term’s conceptual
connections are constitutive of its meaning and others only incidental.
(‘Bachelors are unmarried’ versus ‘Bachelors have a tax advantage’.) But many
philosophers follow Quine in his skepticism about that distinction. The
implications of holism are drastic, for it strictly implies that different
people’s words cannot mean the same. In the philosophy of science, meaning
holism has been held to imply the incommensurability of theories, according to
which a scientific theory that replaces an earlier theory cannot be held to
contradict it and hence not to correct or to improve on it – for the two
theories’ apparently common terms would be equivocal. Remedies might include,
again, maintaining some sort of analytic–synthetic distinction for scientific
terms, or holding that conceptual role theories and hence holism itself, as
Field proposes, hold only intrapersonally, while taking interpersonal and
intertheoretic meaning comparisons to be referential and truth-conditional.
Even this, however, leads to difficult questions about the interpretation of
scientific theories. A radical position, associated with Quine, identifies the
meaning of a theory as a whole with its empirical meaning, that is, the set of
actual and possible sensory or perceptual situations that would count as
verifying the theory as a whole. This can be seen as a successor to the
verificationist theory, with theory replacing statement or sentence.
Articulations of meaning internal to a theory would then be spurious, as would
virtually all ordinary intuitions about meaning. This fits well Quine’s
skepticism about meaning, his thesis of the indeterminacy of translation,
according to which no objective facts distinguish a favored translation of
another language into ours from every apparently incorrect translation. Many
constructive theories of meaning may be seen as replies to this and other
skepticisms about the objective status of semantic facts.
meaning postulate, a
sentence that specifies part or all of the meaning of a predicate. Meaning
postulates would thus include explicit, contextual, and recursive definitions,
reduction sentences for dispositional predicates, and, more generally, any
sentences stating how the extensions of predicates are interrelated by virtue
of the meanings of those predicates. For example, any reduction sentence of the
form (x) (x has f / (x is malleable S x has y)) could be a meaning postulate
for the predicate ‘is malleable’. The notion of a meaning postulate was
introduced by Carnap, whose original interest stemmed from a desire to
explicate sentences that are analytic (“true by virtue of meaning”) but not
logically true. Where G is a set of such postulates, one could say that A is
analytic with respect to G if and only if A is a logical consequence of G. On
this account, e.g., the sentence ‘Jake is not a married bachelor’ is analytic
with respect to {’All bachelors are unmarried’}.
Mechanism.
A monster. But on p. 286 of WoW he speaks of mechanism, and psychological
mechanism. Or rather of this or that psychological mechanism to be BENEFICIAL
for a mouse that wants to eat a piece of cheese. He uses it twice, and it’s the
OPERATION of the mechanism which is beneficial. So a psychophysical
correspondence is desirable for the psychological mechanism to operate in a way
that is beneficial for the sentient creature. Later in that essay he now
applies ‘mechanism’ to communication, and he speak of a ‘communication
mechanism’ being beneficial. In particular he is having in mind Davidson’s
transcendental argument for the truth of the transmitted beliefs. “If all our
transfers involved mistaken beliefs, it is not clear that the communication
mechanism would be beneficial for the institution of ‘shared experience.’”
mechanistic explanation,
a kind of explanation countenanced by views that range from the extreme
position that all natural phenomena can be explained entirely in terms of masses
in motion of the sort postulated in Newtonian mechanics, to little more than a
commitment to naturalistic explanations. Mechanism in its extreme form is
clearly false because numerous physical phenomena of the most ordinary sort
cannot be explained entirely in terms of masses in motion. Mechanics is only
one small part of physics. Historically, explanations were designated as
mechanistic to indicate that they included no reference to final causes or
vital forces. In this weak sense, all present-day scientific explanations are
mechanistic. The adequacy of mechanistic explanation is usually raised in
connection with living creatures, especially those capable of deliberate
action. For example, chromosomes lining up opposite their partners in
preparation for meiosis looks like anything but a purely mechanical process,
and yet the more we discover about the process, the more mechanistic it turns
out to be. The mechanisms responsible for meiosis arose through variation and
selection and cannot be totally understood without reference to the
evolutionary process, but meiosis as it takes place at any one time appears to
be a purely mechanistic physicochemical meaning, conceptual role theory of
mechanistic explanation process. Intentional behavior is the phenomenon that is
most resistant to explanation entirely in physicochemical terms. The problem is
not that we do not know enough about the functioning of the central nervous
system but that no matter how it turns out to work, we will be disinclined to
explain human action entirely in terms of physicochemical processes. The
justification for this disinclination tends to turn on what we mean when we
describe people as behaving intentionally. Even so, we may simply be mistaken
to ascribe more to human action than can be explained in terms of purely
physicochemical processes.
Medina, Bartolomeo
(1527–80), Dominican theologian who taught theology at Alcalá and then at
Salamanca. His major works are commentaries on Aquinas’s Summa theologica.
Medina is often called the father of probabilism but scholars disagree on the
legitimacy of this attribution. Support for it is contained in Medina’s
commentary on Aquinas’s Prima secundae (1577). Medina denies that it is
sufficient for an opinion to be probable that there are apparent reasons in its
favor and that it is supported by many people. For then all errors would be
probable. Rather, an opinion is probable if it can be followed without censure
and reproof, as when wise persons state and support it with excellent reasons.
Medina suggests the use of these criteria in decisions concerning moral
dilemmas (Suma de casos morales [“Summa of Moral Questions”], 1580). P.Gar.
Megarians, also called Megarics, a loose-knit group of Greek philosophers
active in the fourth and early third centuries B.C., whose work in logic
profoundly influenced the course of ancient philosophy. The name derives from
that of Megara, the hometown of Euclid (died c.365 B.C.; unrelated to the later
mathematician), who was an avid companion of Socrates and author of (lost)
Socratic dialogues. Little is recorded about his views, and his legacy rests
with his philosophical heirs. Most prominent of these was Eubulides, a
contemporary and critic of Aristotle; he devised a host of logical paradoxes,
including the liar and the sorites or heap paradoxes. To many this ingenuity
seemed sheer eristic, a label some applied to him. One of his associates,
Alexinus, was a leading critic of Zeno, the founder of Stoicism, whose
arguments he twitted in incisive parodies. Stilpo (c.380–c.300 B.C.), a native
of Megara, was also famous for disputation but best known for his apatheia
(impassivity). Rivaling the Cynics as a preacher of self-reliance, he once
insisted, after his city and home were plundered, that he lost nothing of his
own since he retained his knowledge and virtue. Zeno the Stoic was one of many
followers he attracted. Most brilliant of the Megarians was Diodorus, nicknamed
Cronus or “Old Fogey” (fl. 300 B.C.), who had an enormous impact on Stoicism
and the skeptical Academy. Among the first explorers of propositional logic, he
and his associates were called “the dialecticians,” a label that referred not
to an organized school or set of doctrines but simply to their highly original
forms of reasoning. Diodorus defined the possible narrowly as what either is or
will be true, and the necessary broadly as what is true and will not be false.
Against his associate Philo, the first proponent of material implication, he
maintained that a conditional is true if and only if it is neverthe case that
its antecedent is true and its consequent false. He argued that matter is
atomic and that time and motion are likewise discrete. With an exhibitionist’s
flair, he demonstrated that meaning is conventional by naming his servants
“But” and “However.” Most celebrated is his Master (or Ruling) Argument, which
turns on three propositions: (1) Every truth about the past is necessary; (2)
nothing impossible follows from something possible; and (3) some things are
possible that neither are nor will be true. His aim was apparently to establish
his definition of possibility by showing that its negation in (3) is
inconsistent with (1) and (2), which he regarded as obvious. Various Stoics,
objecting to the implication of determinism here, sought to uphold a wider form
of possibility by overturning (1) or (2). Diodorus’s fame made him a target of
satire by eminent poets, and it is said that he expired from shame after
failing to solve on the spot a puzzle Stilpo posed at a party.
Meinong, Alexius
(1853–1920), Austrian philosopher and psychologist, founder of
Gegenstandstheorie, the theory of (existent and nonexistent intended) objects.
He was the target of Russell’s criticisms of the idea of non-existent objects
in his landmark essay “On Denoting” (1905). mediate inference Meinong, Alexius
551 4065m-r.qxd 08/02/1999 7:42 AM Page 551 Meinong, after eight years at the
Vienna Gymnasium, enrolled in the University of Vienna in 1870, studying German
philology and history and completing a dissertation (1874) on Arnold von
Brescia. After this period he became interested in philosophy as a result of
his critical selfdirected reading of Kant. At the suggestion of his teacher
Franz Brentano, he undertook a systematic investigation of Hume’s empiricism,
culminating in his first publications in philosophy, the Hume-Studien I, II
(1878 and 1882). In 1882, Meinong was appointed Professor Extraordinarius at
the University of Graz (receiving promotion to Ordinarius in 1889), where he
remained until his death. At Graz he established the first laboratory for
experimental psychology in Austria, and was occupied with psychological as well
as philosophical problems throughout his career. The Graz school of
phenomenological psychology and philosophical semantics, which centered on Meinong
and his students, made important contributions to object theory in
philosophical semantics, metaphysics, ontology, value theory, epistemology,
theory of evidence, possibility and probability, and the analysis of emotion,
imagination, and abstraction. Meinong’s object theory is based on a version of
Brentano’s immanent intentionality thesis, that every psychological state
contains an intended object toward which the mental event (or, in a less common
terminology, a mental act) is semantically directed. Meinong, however, rejects
Brentano’s early view of the immanence of the intentional, maintaining that
thought is directed toward transcendent mind-independent existent or
non-existent objects. Meinong distinguishes between judgments about the being
(Sein) of intended objects of thought, and judgments about their “so-being,”
character, or nature (Sosein). He claims that every thought is intentionally
directed toward the transcendent mind-independent object the thought purports
to be “about,” which entails that in at least some cases contingently
non-existent and even impossible objects, for instance Berkeley’s golden
mountain and the round square, must be included as non-existent intended
objects in the object theory semantic domain. Meinong further maintains that an
intended object’s Sosein is independent of its Sein or ontological status, of
whether or not the object happens to exist. This means, contrary to what many
philosophers have supposed, that non-existent objects can truly possess the
constitutive properties predicated of them in thought. Meinong’s object theory
evolved over a period of years, and underwent many additions and revisions. In
its mature form, the theory includes the following principles: (1) Thought can
freely (even if falsely) assume the existence of any describable object
(principle of unrestricted free assumption, or unbeschränkten Annahmefreiheit
thesis); (2) Every thought is intentionally directed toward a transcendent,
mind-independent intended object (modified intentionality thesis); (3) Every
intended object has a nature, character, Sosein, “how-it-is,” “so-being,” or
“being thus-and-so,” regardless of its ontological status (independence of
Sosein from Sein thesis); (4) Being or non-being is not part of the Sosein of
any intended object, nor of an object considered in itself (indifference
thesis, or doctrine of the Aussersein of the homeless pure object); (5) There
are two modes of being or Sein for intended objects: (a) spatiotemporal
existence and (b) Platonic subsistence (Existenz/Bestand thesis); (6) There are
some intended objects that do not have Sein at all, but neither exist nor
subsist (objects of which it is true that there are no such objects). Object
theory, unlike extensionalist semantics, makes it possible, as in much of
ordinary and scientific thought and language, to refer to and truly predicate
properties of non-existent objects. There are many misconceptions about
Meinong’s theory, such as that reflected in the objection that Meinong is a
super-Platonist who inflates ontology with non-existent objects that
nevertheless have being in some sense, that object theory tolerates outright
logical inconsistency rather than mere incompatibility of properties in the
Soseine of impossible intended objects. Russell, in his reviews of Meinong’s
theory in 1904–05, raises the problem of the existent round square, which seems
to be existent by virtue of the independence of Sosein from Sein, and to be
non-existent by virtue of being globally and simultaneously both round and
square. Meinong’s response involves several complex distinctions, but it has
been observed that to avoid the difficulty he need only appeal to the
distinction between konstitutorisch or nuclear and ausserkonstitutorisch or
extranuclear properties, adopted from a suggestion by his student Ernst Mally
(1878–1944), according to which only ordinary nuclear properties like being
red, round, or ten centimeters tall are part of the Sosein of any object, to
the exclusion of categorical or extranuclear properties like being existent,
determinate, possible, or impossible. This avoids counterexamples like the
existent round square, because it limits the independence of Sosein from Sein
exclusively to nuclear properties,implying that neither the existent nor the
nonexistent round square can possibly have the (extranuclear) property of being
existent or nonexistent in their respective Soseine, and cannot be said truly
to have the properties of being existent or non-existent merely by free
assumption and the independence of Sosein from Sein.
meliorism (from Latin
melior, ‘better’), the view that the world is neither completely good nor
completely bad, and that incremental progress or regress depend on human
actions. By creative intelligence and education we can improve the environment
and social conditions. The position is first attributed to George Eliot and
William James. Whitehead suggested that meliorism applies to God, who can both
improve the world and draw sustenance from human efforts to improve the world.
Melissus of Samos (fl.
mid-fifth century B.C.), Greek philosopher, traditionally classified as a
member of the Eleatic School. He was also famous as the victorious commander in
a preemptive attack by the Samians on an Athenian naval force (441 B.C.). Like
Parmenides – who must have influenced Melissus, even though there is no
evidence the two ever met – Melissus argues that “what-is” or “the real” cannot
come into being out of nothing, cannot perish into nothing, is homogeneous, and
is unchanging. Indeed, he argues explicitly (whereas Parmenides only implies)
that there is only one such entity, that there is no void, and that even
spatial rearrangement (metakosmesis) must be ruled out. But unlike Parmenides,
Melissus deduces that what-is is temporally infinite (in significant contrast
to Parmenides, regardless as to whether the latter held that what-is exists
strictly in the “now” or that it exists non-temporally). Moreover, Melissus
argues that what-is is spatially infinite (whereas Parmenides spoke of “bounds”
and compared what-is to a well-made ball). Significantly, Melissus repeatedly
speaks of “the One.” It is, then, in Melissus, more than in Parmenides or in
Zeno, that we find the emphasis on monism. In a corollary to his main argument,
Melissus argues that “if there were many things,” each would have to be – per
impossibile – exactly like “the One.” This remark has been interpreted as
issuing the challenge that was taken up by the atomists. But it is more
reasonable to read it as a philosophical strategist’s preemptive strike:
Melissus anticipates the move made in the pluralist systems of the second half
of the fifth century, viz., positing a plurality of eternal and unchanging
elements that undergo only spatial rearrangement.
memory, the retention of,
or the capacity to retain, past experience or previously acquired information.
There are two main philosophical questions about memory: (1) In what does
memory consist? and (2) What constitutes knowing a fact on the basis of memory?
Not all memory is remembering facts: there is remembering one’s perceiving or
feeling or acting in a certain way – which, while it entails remembering the
fact that one did experience in that way, must be more than that. And not all
remembering of facts is knowledge of facts: an extremely hesitant attempt to
remember an address, if one gets it right, counts as remembering the address
even if one is too uncertain for this to count as knowing it. (1) Answers to
the first question agree on some obvious points: that memory requires (a) a
present and (b) a past state of, or event in, the subject, and (c) the right
sort of internal and causal relations between the two. Also, we must
distinguish between memory states (remembering for many years the name of one’s
first-grade teacher) and memory occurrences (recalling the name when asked). A
memory state is usually taken to be a disposition to display an appropriate
memory occurrence given a suitable stimulus. But philosophers disagree about
further specifics. On one theory (held by many empiricists from Hume to
Russell, among others, but now largely discredited), occurrent memory consists
in images of past experience (which have a special quality marking them as
memory images) and that memory of facts is read off such image memory. This
overlooks the point that people commonly remember facts without remembering
when or how they learned them. A more sophisticated theory of factual memory
(popular nowadays) holds that an occurrent memory of a fact requires, besides a
past learning of it, (i) some sort of present mental representation of it
(perhaps a linguistic one) and (ii) continuous storage between then and now of
a representation of it. But condition (i) may not be Meister Eckhart memory 553
4065m-r.qxd 08/02/1999 7:42 AM Page 553 conceptually necessary: a disposition
to dial the right number when one wants to call home constitutes remembering
the number (provided it is appropriately linked causally to past learning of
the number) and manifesting that disposition is occurrently remembering the
fact as to what the number is even if one does not in the process mentally
represent that fact. Condition (ii) may also be too strong: it seems at least
conceptually possible that a causal link sufficient for memory should be
secured by a relation that does not involve anything continuous between the
relevant past and present occurrences (in The Analysis of Mind, Russell
countenanced this possibility and called it “mnemic causation”). (2) What must
be added to remembering that p to get a case of knowing it because one remembers
it? We saw that one must not be uncertain that p. Must one also have grounds
for trusting one’s memory impression (its seeming to one that one remembers)
that p? How could one have such grounds except by knowing them on the basis of
memory? The facts one can know not on the basis of memory are limited at most
to what one presently perceives and what one presently finds self-evident. If
no memory belief qualifies as knowledge unless it is supported by memory
knowledge of the reliability of one’s memory, then the process of qualifying as
memory knowledge cannot succeed: there would be an endless chain, or loop, of
facts – this belief is memory knowledge if and only if this other belief is,
which is if and only if this other one is, and so on – which never becomes a
set that entails that any belief is memory knowledge. On the basis of such
reasoning a skeptic might deny the possibility of memory knowledge. We may
avoid this consequence without going to the lax extreme of allowing that any
correct memory impression is knowledge; we can impose the (frequently
satisfied) requirement that one not have reasons specific to the particular
case for believing that one’s memory impression might be unreliable. Finally,
remembering that p becomes memory knowledge that p only if one believes that p
because it seems to one that one remembers it. One might remember that p and
confidently believe that p, but if one has no memory impression of having
previously learned it, or one has such an impression but does not trust it and
believes that p only for other reasons (or no reason), then one should not be
counted as knowing that p on the basis of memory.
Mencius, also known as
Meng-tzu, Meng K’o (fl. fourth century B.C.), Chinese Confucian philosopher,
probably the single most influential philosopher in the Chinese tradition. His
sayings, discussions, and debates were compiled by disciples in the book
entitled Meng-tzu. Mencius is best known for his assertion that human nature is
good but it is unclear what he meant by this. At one point, he says he only
means that a human can become good. Elsewhere, though, he says that human
nature is good just as water flows downward, implying that humans will become
good if only their natural development is unimpeded. Certainly, part of what is
implied by the claim that human nature is good is Mencius’s belief that all
humans have what he describes as four “hearts” or “sprouts” – benevolence
(jen), righteousness (yi), ritual propriety (li), and wisdom (chih). The term
‘sprout’ seems to refer to an incipient emotional or behavioral reaction of a
virtuous nature. Mencius claims, e.g., that any human who saw a child about to
fall into a well would have a spontaneous feeling of concern, which is the
sprout of benevolence. Although all humans manifest the sprouts,
“concentration” (ssu) is required in order to nurture them into mature virtues.
Mencius is not specific about what concentration is, but it probably involves
an ongoing awareness of, and delight in, the operation of the sprouts. The result
of the concentration and consequent delight in the operation of the sprouts is
the “extension” (t’ui, ta, chi) or “filling out” (k’uo, ch’ung) of the
incipient reactions, so that benevolence, for instance, comes to be manifested
to all suffering humans. Nonetheless, Mencius maintains the belief, typical of
Confucianism, that we have greater moral responsibility for those tied to us
because of particular relationships such as kinship. Mencius is also Confucian
in his belief that the virtues first manifest themselves within the family.
Although Mencius is a self-cultivationist, he also believes that one’s
environment can positively or negatively affect one’s moral development, and
encourages rulers to produce social conditions conducive to virtue. He admits,
however, that there are moral prodigies who have flourished despite deleterious
circumstances. Mencius’s virtue ethic is like Aristotle’s in combining
antinomianism with a belief in the objectivity of specific moral judgments, but
his de-emphasis of intellectual virtues and emphasis upon benevolence are
reminiscent of Joseph Butler. Mencius differs from Butler, however, in that
although he thinks the Confucian way is the most profitable, he condemns profit
or self-love as a motivation. Mencius saw himself as defending the doctrines of
Confucius against the philosophies of other thinkers, especially Mo Tzu and
Yang Chu. In so doing, he often goes beyond what Confucius said.
Mendel, Gregor (1822–84),
Austrian botanist and discoverer of what are now considered the basic
principles of heredity. An Augustinian monk who conducted plant-breeding
experiments in a monastery garden in Brünn (now Brno, Czech Republic), Mendel
discovered that certain characters of a common variety of garden pea are
transmitted in a strikingly regular way. The characters with which he dealt
occur in two distinct states, e.g., pods that are smooth or ridged. In
characters such as these, one state is dominant to its recessive partner, i.e.,
when varieties of each sort are crossed, all the offspring exhibit the dominant
character. However, when the offspring of these crosses are themselves crossed,
the result is a ratio of three dominants to one recessive. In modern terms,
pairs of genes (alleles) separate at reproduction (segregation) and each
offspring receives only one member of each pair. Of equal importance, the
recessive character reappears unaffected by its temporary suppression. Alleles
remain pure. Mendel also noted that the pairs of characters that he studied
assort independently of each other, i.e., if two pairs of characters are
followed through successive crosses, no statistical correlations in their
transmission can be found. As genetics developed after the turn of the century,
the simple “laws” that Mendel had set out were expanded and altered. Only a
relatively few characters exhibit two distinct states, one dominant to the
other. In many, the heterozygote exhibits an intermediate state. In addition,
genes do not exist in isolation from each other but together on chromosomes.
Only those genes that reside on different pairs of chromosomes assort in total
independence of each other. During his research, Mendel corresponded with Karl
von Nägeli (1817–91), a major authority in plant hybridization. Von Nägeli
urged Mendel to cross varieties of the common hawkweed. When Mendel took his
advice, he failed to discover the hereditary patterns that he had found in
garden peas. In 1871 Mendel ceased his research to take charge of his
monastery. In 1900 Hugo de Vries (1848–1935) stumbled upon several instances of
three-to-one ratios while developing his own theory of the origin of species.
No sooner did he publish his results than two young biologists announced
independent discovery of what came to be known as Mendel’s laws. The founders of
modern genetics abandoned attempts to work out the complexities of
embryological development and concentrated just on transmission. As a result of
several unfortunate misunderstandings, early Mendelian geneticists thought that
their theory of genetics was incompatible with Darwin’s theory of evolution.
Eventually, however, the two theories were merged to form the synthetic theory
of evolution. In the process, R. A. Fisher (1890–1962) questioned the veracity
of Mendel’s research, arguing that the only way that Mendel could have gotten
data as good as he did was by sanitizing it. Present-day historians view all of
the preceding events in a very different light. The science of heredity that
developed at the turn of the century was so different from anything that Mendel
had in mind that Mendel hardly warrants being considered its father. The
neglect of Mendel’s work is made to seem so problematic only by reading later
developments back into Mendel’s original paper. Like de Vries, Mendel was
interested primarily in developing a theory of the origin of species. The
results of Mendel’s research on the hawkweed brought into question the
generalizability of the regularities that he had found in peas, but they
supported his theory of species formation through hybridization. Similarly, the
rediscovery of Mendel’s laws can be viewed as an instance of multiple,
simultaneous discovery only by ignoring important differences in the views
expressed by these authors. Finally, Mendel certainly did not mindlessly
organize and report his data, but the methods that he used can be construed as
questionable only in contrast to an overly empirical, inductive view of
science. Perhaps Mendel was no Mendelian, but he was not a fraud either.
Mendelian genetics. See
MENDEL. Mendelssohn, Moses (1729–86), German philosopher known as “the Jewish
Socrates.” He began as a Bible and Talmud scholar. After moving to Berlin he
learned Latin and German, and became a close friend of Lessing, who modeled the
Jew in his play Nathan the Wise after him. Mendelssohn began writing on major
philosophical topics of the day, and won a prize from the Berlin Academy in
1764. He was actively engaged in discussions about aesthetics, psychology, and
religion, and offered an empirical, subjectivist view that was very popular at
the time. His most famous writings are Morgenstunden (Morning Hours, or
Lectures on the Existence of God, 1785), Phaedon (Phaedo, or on the Immortality
of the Soul, 1767), and Jerusalem (1783). He contended that one could prove the
existence of God and the immortality of the soul. He accepted the ontological
argument and the argument from design. In Phaedo he argued that since the soul
is a simple substance it is indestructible. Kant criticized his arguments in
the first Critique. Mendelssohn was pressed by the Swiss scientist Lavater to
explain why he, as a reasonable man, did not accept Christianity. At first he
ignored the challenge, but finally set forth his philosophical views about
religion and Judaism in Jerusalem, where he insisted that Judaism is not a set
of doctrines but a set of practices. Reasonable persons can accept that there
is a universal religion of reason, and there are practices that God has
ordained that the Jews follow. Mendelssohn was a strong advocate of religious
toleration and separation of church and state. His views played an important
part in the emancipation of the Jews, and in the Jewish Enlightenment that
flowered in Germany at the beginning of the nineteenth century.
mens rea, literally,
guilty mind, in law Latin. It is one of the two main prerequisites (along with
actus reus) for prima facie liability to criminal punishment in Anglo-American
legal systems. To be punishable in such systems, one must not only have
performed a legally prohibited action, such as killing another human being; one
must have done so with a culpable state of mind, or mens rea. Such culpable
mental states are of three kinds: they are either motivational states of
purpose, cognitive states of belief, or the non-mental state of negligence. To
illustrate each of these with respect to the act of killing: a killer may kill
either having another’s death as ultimate purpose, or as mediate purpose on the
way to achieving some further, ultimate end. Alternatively, the killer may act
believing to a practical certainty that his act will result in another’s death,
even though such death is an unwanted side effect, or he may believe that there
is a substantial and unjustified risk that his act will cause another’s death.
The actor may also be only negligent, which is to take an unreasonable risk of
another’s death even if the actor is not aware either of such risk or of the
lack of justification for taking it. Mens rea usually does not have to do with
any awareness by the actor that the act done is either morally wrong or legally
prohibited. Neither does mens rea have to do with any emotional state of guilt
or remorse, either while one is acting or afterward. Sometimes in its older
usages the term is taken to include the absence of excuses as well as the mental
states necessary for prima facie liability; in such a usage, the requirement is
helpfully labeled “general mens rea,” and the requirement above discussed is
labeled “special mens rea.”
Mentalese, the language
of thought (the title of a book by Fodor, 1975) or of “brain writing” (a term
of Dennett’s); specifically, a languagelike medium of representation in which
the contents of mental events are supposedly expressed or recorded. (The term
was probably coined by Wilfrid Sellars, with whose views it was first
associated.) If what one believes are propositions, then it is tempting to
propose that believing something is having the Mentalese expression of that
proposition somehow written in the relevant place in one’s mind or brain.
Thinking a thought, at least on those occasions when we think “wordlessly”
(without formulating our thoughts in sentences or phrases composed of words of
a public language), thus appears to be a matter of creating a short-lived
Mentalese expression in a special arena or work space in the mind. In a further
application of the concept, the process of coming to understand a sentence of
natural language can be viewed as one of translating the sentence into
Mentalese. It has often been argued that this view of understanding only postpones
the difficult questions of meaning, for it leaves unanswered the question of
how Mentalese expressions come to have the meanings Meng K’o Mentalese 556
4065m-r.qxd 08/02/1999 7:42 AM Page 556 they do. There have been frequent
attempts to develop versions of the hypothesis that mental activity is
conducted in Mentalese, and just as frequent criticisms of these attempts. Some
critics deny there is anything properly called representation in the mind or
brain at all; others claim that the system of representation used by the brain
is not enough like a natural language to be called a language. Even among
defenders of Mentalese, it has seldom been claimed that all brains “speak” the
same Mentalese.
mentalism, any theory
that posits explicitly mental events and processes, where ‘mental’ means
exhibiting intentionality, not necessarily being immaterial or non-physical. A
mentalistic theory is couched in terms of belief, desire, thinking, feeling,
hoping, etc. A scrupulously non-mentalistic theory would be couched entirely in
extensional terms: it would refer only to behavior or to neurophysiological
states and events. The attack on mentalism by behaviorists was led by B. F.
Skinner, whose criticisms did not all depend on the assumption that mentalists
were dualists, and the subsequent rise of cognitive science has restored a sort
of mentalism (a “thoroughly modern mentalism,” as Fodor has called it) that is
explicitly materialistic.
mentatum: Grice prefers psi-transmission. He knows that ‘mentatum’
sounds too much like ‘mind,’ and the mind is part of the ‘rational soul,’ not
even encompassing the rational pratical soul. If perhaps Grice was unhappy
about the artificial flavour to saying that a word is a sign, Grice surely
should have checked with all the Grecian-Roman cognates of mean, as in his
favourite memorative-memorable distinction, and the many Grecian realisations,
or with Old Roman mentire and mentare. Lewis and Short have
“mentĭor,” f. mentire, L and S note, is prob. from root men-, whence mens and
memini, q. v. The original meaning, they say, is to invent, hence, but
alla Umberto Eco with sign, mentire comes to mean in later use what Grice (if
not the Grecians) holds is the opposite of mean. Short and Lewis render mentire
as to lie, cheat, deceive, etc., to pretend, to declare falsely: mentior nisi
or si mentior, a form of asseveration, I am a liar, if, etc.: But also,
animistically (modest mentalism?) of things, as endowed with a mind. L and S go
on: to deceive, impose upon, to deceive ones self, mistake, to lie or speak
falsely about, to assert falsely, make a false promise about; to feign,
counterfeit, imitate a shape, nature, etc.: to devise a falsehood, to
assume falsely, to promise falsely, to invent, feign, of a poetical
fiction: “ita mentitur (sc. Homerus), Trop., of inanim. grammatical
Subjects, as in Semel fac illud, mentitur tua quod subinde tussis, Do what your
cough keeps falsely promising, i. e. die, Mart. 5, 39, 6. Do what your cough
means! =imp. die!; hence, mentĭens, a fallacy, sophism: quomodo
mentientem, quem ψευδόμενον vocant, dissolvas;” mentītus, imitated,
counterfeit, feigned (poet.): “mentita tela;” For “mentior,” indeed, there is a
Griceian implicatum involving rational control. The rendition of mentire as to
lie stems from a figurative shift from to be mindful, or inventive, to
have second thoughts" to "to lie, conjure up". But Grice would
also have a look at cognate “memini,” since this is also cognate with “mind,” “mens,”
and covers subtler instances of mean, as in Latinate, “mention,” as in Grices
“use-mention” distinction. mĕmĭni, cognate with "mean" and German
"meinen," to think = Grecian ὑπομένειν, await (cf. Schiffer,
"remnants of meaning," if I think, I hesitate, and therefore re-main,
cf. Grecian μεν- in μένω, Μέντωρ; μαν- in μαίνομαι, μάντις; μνᾶ- in μιμνήσκω,
etc.; cf.: maneo, or manere, as in remain. The idea, as Schiffer well
knows or means, being that if you think, you hesitate, and therefore, wait and
remain], moneo, reminiscor [cf. reminiscence], mens, Minerva, etc. which L and
S render as “to remember, recollect, to think of, be mindful of a
thing; not to have forgotten a person or thing, to bear in
mind (syn.: reminiscor, recordor).” Surely with a relative clause,
and to make mention of, to mention a thing, either in speaking or
writing (rare but class.). Hence. mĕmĭnens, mindful And then Grice would
have a look at moneo, as in adMONish, also cognate is “mŏnĕo,” monere,
causative from the root "men;" whence memini, q. v., mens (mind),
mentio (mention); lit. to cause to think, to re-mind, put in mind of, bring to
ones recollection; to admonish, advise, warn, instruct, teach (syn.: hortor,
suadeo, doceo). L and S are Griceian if not Grecian when they note that
‘monere’ can be used "without the accessory notion [implicatum or
entanglement, that is] of reminding or admonishing, in gen., to teach,
instruct, tell, inform, point out; also, to announce, predict,
foretell, even if also to punish, chastise (only in Tacitus): “puerili verbere moneri.” And surely,
since he loved to re-minisced, Grice would have allowed to just earlier on just
minisced. Short and Lewis indeed have rĕmĭniscor, which, as they point out,
features the root men; whence mens, memini; and which they compare to comminiscere,
v. comminiscor, to recall to mind, recollect, remember (syn. recordor), often
used by the Old Romans with with Grices beloved that-clause, for
sure. For what is the good of reminiscing or comminiscing, if you cannot
reminisce that Austin always reminded Grice that skipping the dictionary was
his big mistake! If Grice uses mention, cognate with mean, he loved commenting
Aristotle. And commentare is, again, cognate with mean. As opposed to the
development of the root in Grecian, or English, in Roman the root for mens is
quite represented in many Latinate cognates. But a Roman, if not a Grecian,
would perhaps be puzzled by a Grice claiming, by intuition, to retrieve the
necessary and sufficient conditions for the use of this or that expression. When
the Roman is told that the Griceian did it for fun, he understands, and joins
in the fun! Indeed, hardly a natural kind in the architecture of the world, but
one that fascinated Grice and the Grecian philosophers before him!
Communication.
Mercier, Désiré-Joseph
(1851–1926), Belgian Catholic philosopher, a formative figure in NeoThomism and
founder of the Institut Supérieur de Philosophie (1889) at Louvain. Created at
the request of Pope Leo XIII, Mercier’s institute treated Aquinas as a subject
of historical research and as a philosopher relevant to modern thought. His
approach to Neo-Thomism was distinctive for its direct response to the
epistemological challenges posed by idealism, rationalism, and positivism.
Mercier’s epistemology was termed a criteriology; it intended to defend the
certitude of the intellect against skepticism by providing an account of the
motives and rules that guide judgment. Truth is affirmed by intellectual
judgment by conforming itself not to the thing-in-itself but to its abstract
apprehension. Since the certitude of judgment is a state of the cognitive
faculty in the human soul, Mercier considered criteriology as psychology; see
Critériologie générale ou Théorie générale de la certitude (1906), Origins of
Contemporary Psychology (trans. 1918), and Manual of Scholastic Philosophy
(trans. 1917–18).
mereology (from Greek
meros, ‘part’), the mathematical theory of parts; specifically, Lesniewski’s
formal theory of parts. Typically, a mereological theory employs notions such
as the following: proper part, improper part, overlapping (having a part in
common), disjoint (not overlapping), mereological product (the “intersection”
of overlapping objects), mereological sum (a collection of parts), mereological
difference, the universal sum, mereological complement, and atom (that which
has no proper parts). Formal mereologies are axiomatic systems. Lesniewski’s
mereology and Goodman’s formal mereology (which he calls the Calculus of
Individuals) are compatible with nominalism, i.e., no reference is made to
sets, properties, or other abstract entities. Lesniewski hoped that his
mereology, with its many parallels to set theory, would provide an alternative
to set theory as a foundation for mathematics. Fundamental and controversial
implications of Lesniewski’s and Goodman’s theories include their
extensionality and collectivism. Extensional theories imply that for any
individuals, x and y, x % y provided x and y have the same proper parts. One
reason extensionality is controversial is that it rules out an object’s
acquiring or losing a part, and therefore is inconsistent with commonsense
beliefs such as that a car has a new tire or that a table has lost a sliver of
wood. A second reason for controversy is that extensionality is incompatible with
the belief that a statue and the piece of bronze of which it is made have the
same parts and yet are diverse objects. Collectivism implies that any
individuals, no matter how scattered, have a mereological sum or constitute an
object. Moreover, according to collectivism, assembling or disassembling parts
does not affect the existence of things, i.e., nothing is created or destroyed
by assembly or disassembly, respectively. Thus, collectivism is incompatible
with commonsense beliefs such as that when a watch is disassembled, it is
destroyed, or that when certain parts are assembled, a watch is created.
Because the aforementioned formal theories shun modality, they lack the
resources to express mentalism mereology 557 4065m-r.qxd 08/02/1999 7:42 AM
Page 557 meritarian Merleau-Ponty, Maurice 558 the thesis that a whole has each
of its parts necessarily. This thesis of mereological essentialism has recently
been defended by Roderick Chisholm.
meritarian, one who
asserts the relevance of individual merit, as an independent justificatory
condition, in attempts to design social structures or distribute goods.
‘Meritarianism’ is a recently coined term in social and political philosophy,
closely related to ‘meritocracy’, and used to identify a range of related concerns
that supplement or oppose egalitarian, utilitarian, and contractarian
principles and principles based on entitlement, right, interest, and need,
among others. For example, one can have a pressing need for an Olympic medal
but not merit it; one can have the money to buy a masterpiece but not be worthy
of it; one can have the right to a certain benefit but not deserve it.
Meritarians assert that considerations of desert are always relevant and
sometimes decisive in such cases. What counts as merit, and how important
should it be in moral, social, and political decisions? Answers to these
questions serve to distinguish one meritarian from another, and sometimes to
blur the distinctions between the meritarian position and others. Merit may
refer to any of these: comparative rank, capacities, abilities, effort,
intention, or achievement. Moreover, there is a relevance condition to be met:
to say that highest honors in a race should go to the most deserving is
presumably to say that the honors should go to those with the relevant sort of
merit – speed, e.g., rather than grace. Further, meritarians may differ about
the strength of the merit principle, and how various political or social
structures should be influenced by it.
meritocracy, in ordinary
usage, a system in which advancement is based on ability and achievement, or
one in which leadership roles are held by talented achievers. The term may also
refer to an elite group of talented achievers. In philosophical usage, the
term’s meaning is similar: a meritocracy is a scheme of social organization in
which essential offices, and perhaps careers and jobs of all sorts are (a) open
only to those who have the relevant qualifications for successful performance
in them, or (b) awarded only to the candidates who are likely to perform the
best, or (c) managed so that people advance in and retain their offices and
jobs solely on the basis of the quality of their performance in them, or (d)
all of the above.
Merleau-Ponty, Maurice
(1908–61), French philosopher disliked by Austin, loved by Grice, and described
by Paul Ricoeur as “the greatest of the French phenomenologists.” MerleauPonty
occupied the chair of child psychology and pedagogy at the Sorbonne and was
later professor of philosophy at the Collège de France. His sudden death
preceded completion of an important manuscript; this was later edited and
published by Claude Lefort under the title The Visible and the Invisible. The
relation between the late, unfinished work and his early Phenomenology of
Perception (1945) has received much scholarly discussion. While some
commentators see a significant shift in direction in his later thought, others
insist on continuity throughout his work. Thus, the exact significance of his
philosophy, which in his life was called both a philosophy of ambiguity and an
ambiguous philosophy, retains to this day its essential ambiguity. With his
compatriot and friend, Sartre, Merleau-Ponty was responsible for introducing
the phenomenology of Edmund Husserl into France. Impressed above all by the
later Husserl and by Husserl’s notion of the life-world (Lebenswelt),
Merleau-Ponty combined Husserl’s transcendental approach to epistemological
issues with an existential orientation derived from Heidegger and Marcel. Going
even further than Heidegger, who had himself sought to go beyond Husserl by
“existentializing” Husserl’s Transcendental Ego (referring to it as Dasein),
MerleauPonty sought to emphasize not only the existential (worldly) nature of
the human subject but, above all, its bodily nature. Thus his philosophy could
be characterized as a philosophy of the lived body or the body subject (le
corps propre). Although Nietzsche called attention to the all-importance of the
body, it was MerleauPonty who first made the body the central theme of a
detailed philosophical analysis. This provided an original perspective from
which to rethink such perennial philosophical issues as the nature of
knowledge, freedom, time (temporality), language, and intersubjectivity.
Especially in his early work, Merleau-Ponty battled against absolutist thought
(“la pensée de l’absolu”), stressing the insurmountable ambiguity and
contingency of all meaning and truth. An archopponent of Cartesian rationalism,
he was an early and ardent spokesman for that position now called
antifoundationalism. Merleau-Ponty’s major early work, the Phenomenology of
Perception, is best known for its central thesis concerning “the primacy of
perception.” In this lengthy study he argued that all the “higher” functions of
consciousness (e.g., intellection, volition) are rooted in and depend upon the
subject’s prereflective, bodily existence, i.e., perception (“All consciousness
is perceptual, even the consciousness of ourselves”). MerleauPonty maintained,
however, that perception had never been adequately conceptualized by
traditional philosophy. Thus the book was to a large extent a dialectical
confrontation with what he took to be the two main forms of objective thinking
– intellectualism and empiricism – both of which, he argued, ignored the
phenomenon of perception. His principal goal was to get beyond the intellectual
constructs of traditional philosophy (such as sense-data) and to effect “a
return to the phenomena,” to the world as we actually experience it as embodied
subjects prior to all theorizing. His main argument (directed against mainline
philosophy) was that the lived body is not an object in the world, distinct
from the knowing subject (as in Descartes), but is the subject’s own point of
view on the world; the body is itself the original knowing subject (albeit a
nonor prepersonal, “anonymous” subject), from which all other forms of
knowledge derive, even that of geometry. As a phenomenological (or, as he also
said, “archaeological”) attempt to unearth the basic (corporeal) modalities of
human existence, emphasizing the rootedness (enracinement) of the personal
subject in the obscure and ambiguous life of the body and, in this way, the
insurpassable contingency of all meaning, the Phenomenology was immediately and
widely recognized as a major statement of French existentialism. In his
subsequent work in the late 1940s and the 1950s, in many shorter essays and
articles, Merleau-Ponty spelled out in greater detail the philosophical
consequences of “the primacy of perception.” These writings sought to respond
to widespread objections that by “grounding” all intellectual and cultural
acquisitions in the prereflective and prepersonal life of the body, the
Phenomenology of Perception results in a kind of reductionism and
anti-intellectualism and teaches only a “bad ambiguity,” i.e., completely
undermines the notions of reason and truth. By shifting his attention from the
phenomenon of perception to that of (creative) expression, his aim was to work
out a “good ambiguity” by showing how “communication with others and thought
take up and go beyond the realm of perception which initiated us to the truth.”
His announced goal after the Phenomenology was “working out in a rigorous way
the philosophical foundations” of a theory of truth and a theory of
intersubjectivity (including a theory of history). No such large-scale work (a
sequel, as it were, to the Phenomenology) ever saw the light of day, although
in pursuing this project he reflected on subjects as diverse as painting,
literary language, Saussurian linguistics, structuralist anthropology,
politics, history, the human sciences, psychoanalysis, contemporary science
(including biology), and the philosophy of nature. Toward the end of his life,
however, MerleauPonty did begin work on a projected large-scale manuscript, the
remnants of which were published posthumously as The Visible and the Invisible.
A remarkable feature of this work (as Claude Lefort has pointed out) is the
resolute way in which Merleau-Ponty appears to be groping for a new philosophical
language. His express concerns in this abortive manuscript are explicitly
ontological (as opposed to the more limited phenomenological concerns of his
early work), and he consistently tries to avoid the subject
(consciousness)–object language of the philosophy of consciousness (inherited
from Husserl’s transcendental idealism) that characterized the Phenomenology of
Perception. Although much of Merleau-Ponty’s later thought was a response to
the later Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty sets himself apart from Heidegger in this
unfinished work by claiming that the only ontology possible is an indirect one
that can have no direct access to Being itself. Indeed, had he completed it,
Merleau-Ponty’s new ontology would probably have been one in which, as Lefort has
remarked, “the word Being would not have to be uttered.” He was always keenly
attuned to “the sensible world”; the key term in his ontological thinking is
not so much ‘Being’ as it is ‘the flesh’, a term with no equivalent in the
history of philosophy. What traditional philosophy referred to as “subject” and
“object” were not two distinct sorts of reality, but merely “differentiations
of one sole and massive adhesion to Being [Nature] which is the flesh.” By
viewing the perceiving subject as “a coiling over of the visible upon the
visible,” Merleau-Ponty was attempting to overcome the subject–object dichotomy
of modern philosophy, which raised the intractable problems of the external
world and other minds. With the notion of the flesh he believed he could
finally overcome the solipsism of modern philosophy and had discovered the
basis for a genuine intersubjectivity (conceived of as basically an
intercorporeity). Does ‘flesh’ signify something significantly different from
‘body’ in Merleau-Ponty’s earlier thought? Did his growing concern with
ontology (and the question of nature) signal abandonment of his earlier
phenomenology (to which the question of nature is foreign)? This has remained a
principal subject of conflicting interpretations in Merleau-Ponty scholarship.
As illustrated by his last, unfinished work, Merleau-Ponty’s oeuvre as a whole
is fragmentary. He always insisted that true philosophy is the enemy of the
system, and he disavowed closure and completion. While Heidegger has had
numerous disciples and epigones, it is difficult to imagine what a
“Merleau-Ponty school of philosophy” would be. This is not to deny that
Merleau-Ponty’s work has exerted considerable influence. Although he was
relegated to a kind of intellectual purgatory in France almost immediately upon
his death, the work of his poststructuralist successors such as Foucault and
Jacques Derrida betrays a great debt to his previous struggles with
philosophical modernity. And in Germany, Great Britain, and, above all, North
America, Merleau-Ponty has continued to be a source of philosophical
inspiration and the subject of extensive scholarship. Although his work does
not presume to answer the key questions of existence, it is a salient model of
philosophy conceived of as unremitting interrogation. It is this questioning
(“zetetic”) attitude, combined with a non-dogmatic humanism, that continues to
speak not only to philosophers but also to a wide audience among practitioners
of the human sciences (phenomenological psychology being a particularly
noteworthy example).
Mersenne, Marin
(1588–1648), French priest who compiled massive works on philosophy,
mathematics, music, and natural science, and conducted an enormous
correspondence with such figures as Galileo, Descartes, and Hobbes. He translated
Galileo’s Mechanics and Herbert of Cherbury’s De Veritate and arranged for
publication of Hobbes’s De Cive. He is best known for gathering the objections
published with Descartes’s Meditations. Mersenne served a function in the rise
of modern philosophy and science that is today served by professional journals
and associations. His works contain attacks on deists, atheists, libertines,
and skeptics; but he also presents mitigated skepticism as a practical method
for attaining scientific knowledge. He did not believe that we can attain
knowledge of inner essences, but argued – by displaying it – that we have an
immense amount of knowledge about the material world adequate to our needs.
Like Gassendi, Mersenne advocated mechanistic explanations in science, and
following Galileo, he proposed mathematical models of material phenomena. Like
the Epicureans, he believed that mechanism was adequate to save the phenomena.
He thus rejected Aristotelian forms and occult powers. Mersenne was another of
the great philosopher-priests of the seventeenth century who believed that to
increase scientific knowledge is to know and serve God.
merton: merton holds a portrait of H. P. Grice. And the
association is closer. Grice was sometime Hammondsworth Scholar at Merton. It
was at Merton he got the acquaintance with S. Watson, later historian at St.
John’s. Merton is the see of the Sub-Faculty of Philosophy. What does that
mean? It means that the Lit. Hum. covers more than philosophy. Grice was Lit.
Hum. (Phil.), which means that his focus was on this ‘sub-faculty.’ The faculty
itself is for Lit. Hum. in general, and it is not held anywhere specifically.
Grice loved Ryle’s games with this:: “Oxford is a universale, with St. John’s
being a particulare which can become your sense-datum.’
meta-ethics. “philosophia moralis” was te traditional label – until
Nowell-Smith. Hare is professor of moral philosophy, not meta-ethics. Strictly,
‘philosophia practica’ as opposed to ‘philosophia speculativa’. Philosophia speculativa is distinguished
from philosophia
practica; the former is further differentiated into physica,
mathematica, and theologia; the latter into moralis, oeconomica and
politica. Surely the philosophical mode does not change
when he goes into ethics or other disciplines. Philosophy is ENTIRE. Ethics
relates to metaphysics, but this does not mean that the philosopher is a
moralist. In this respect, unlike, say Philippa Foot, Grice remains a
meta-ethicist. Grice is ‘meta-ethically’ an futilitarian, since he provides a
utilitarian backing of Kantian rationalism, within his empiricist, naturalist,
temperament. For Grice it is complicated, since there is an ethical or
practical side even to an eschatological argument. Grice’s views on ethics are
Oxonian. At Oxford, meta-ethics is a generational thing: there’s Grice, and the
palaeo-Gricieans, and the post-Gricieans. There’s Hampshire, and Hare, and
Nowell-Smith, and Warnock. P. H. Nowell Smith felt overwhelmed by Grice’s
cleverness and they would hardly engage in meta-ethical questions. But Nowell
Smith felt that Grice was ‘too clever.’ Grice objected Hare’s use of
descriptivism and Strawsons use of definite descriptor. Grice preferred to say
“the the.”. “Surely Hare is wrong when sticking with his anti-descriptivist
diatribe. Even his dictum is descriptive!” Grice was amused that it all started
with Abbott BEFORE 1879, since Abbott’s first attempt was entitled, “Kant’s
theory of ethics, or practical philosophy” (1873). ”! Grices explorations on
morals are language based. With a substantial knowledge of the classical
languages (that are so good at verb systems and modes like the optative, that
English lacks), Grice explores modals like should, (Hampshire) ought to
(Hare) and, must (Grice ‒ necessity). Grice is well aware of Hares
reflections on the neustic qualifications on the phrastic. The imperative has
usually been one source for the philosophers concern with the language of
morals. Grice attempts to balance this with a similar exploration on good,
now regarded as the value-paradeigmatic notion par excellence. We cannot
understand, to echo Strawson, the concept of a person unless we understand the
concept of a good person, i.e. the philosopher’s conception of a good
person. Morals is very Oxonian. There were in Grices time only
three chairs of philosophy at Oxford: the three W: the Waynflete chair of
metaphysical philosophy, the Wykeham chair of logic (not philosophy, really),
and the White chair of moral philosophy. Later, the Wilde chair of
philosophical psychology was created. Grice was familiar with Austin’s
cavalier attitude to morals as Whites professor of moral philosophy, succeeding
Kneale. When Hare succeeds Austin, Grice knows that it is time to play
with the neustic implicatum! Grices approach to morals is very
meta-ethical and starts with a fastidious (to use Blackburns characterisation,
not mine!) exploration of modes related to propositional phrases involving
should, ought to, and must. For Hampshire, should is the moral word par
excellence. For Hare, it is ought. For Grice, it is only must that
preserves that sort of necessity that, as a Kantian rationalist, he is looking
for. However, Grice hastens to add that whatever hell say about the buletic,
practical or boulomaic must must also apply to the doxastic must, as in What
goes up must come down. That he did not hesitate to use necessity operators is
clear from his axiomatic treatment, undertaken with Code, on Aristotelian
categories of izzing and hazzing. To understand Grices view on ethics, we
should return to the idea of creature construction in more detail. Suppose we
are genitors-demigods-designing living creatures, creatures Grice calls Ps. To
design a type of P is to specify a diagram and table for that type plus
evaluative procedures, if any. The design is implemented in animal stuff-flesh
and bones typically. Let us focus on one type of P-a very sophisticated type
that Grice, borrowing from Locke, calls very intelligent rational Ps. Let me be
a little more explicit, and a great deal more speculative, about the possible
relation to ethics of my programme for philosophical psychology. I shall
suppose that the genitorial programme has been realized to the point at which
we have designed a class of Ps which, nearly following Locke, I might call very
intelligent rational Ps. These Ps will be capable of putting themselves in the
genitorial position, of asking how, if they were constructing themselves with a
view to their own survival, they would execute this task; and, if we have done
our work aright, their answer will be the same as ours . We might, indeed,
envisage the contents of a highly general practical manual, which these Ps
would be in a position to compile. The contents of the initial manual would
have various kinds of generality which are connected with familiar discussions
of universalizability. The Ps have, so far, been endowed only with the
characteristics which belong to the genitorial justified psychological theory;
so the manual will have to be formulated in terms of that theory, together with
the concepts involved in the very general description of livingconditions which
have been used to set up that theory; the manual will therefore have conceptual
generality. There will be no way of singling out a special subclass of
addressees, so the injunctions of the manual will have to be addressed,
indifferently, to any very intelligent rational P, and will thus have
generality of form. And since the manual can be thought of as being composed by
each of the so far indistinguishable Ps, no P would include in the manual
injunctions prescribing a certain line of conduct in circumstances to which he
was not likely to be Subjects; nor indeed could he do so even if he would. So
the circumstances for which conduct is prescribed could be presumed to be such
as to be satisfied, from time to time, by any addressee; the manual, then, will
have generality of application. Such a manual might, perhaps, without
ineptitude be called an immanuel; and the very intelligent rational Ps, each of
whom both composes it and from time to time heeds it, might indeed be ourselves
(in our better moments, of course). Refs.: Most of Grice’s theorizing on ethics
counts as ‘meta-ethic,’ especially in connection with R. M. Hare, but also with
less prescriptivist Oxonian philosophers such as Nowell-Smith, with his
bestseller for Penguin, Austin, Warnock, and Hampshire. Keywords then are
‘ethic,’ and ‘moral.’ There are many essays on both Kantotle, i.e. on Aristotle
and Kant. The H. P. Grice Papers, BANC.
metalanguage, in formal
semantics, a language used to describe another language (the object language).
The object language may be either a natural language or a formal language. The
goal of a formal semantic theory is to provide an axiomatic or otherwise
systematic theory of meaning for the object language. The metalanguage is used
to specify the object language’s symbols and formation rules, which determine
its grammatical sentences or well-formed formulas, and to assign meanings or
interpretations to these sentences or formulas. For example, in an extensional
semantics, the metalanguage is used to assign denotations to the singular
terms, extensions to the general terms, and truth conditions to sentences. The
standard format for assigning truth conditions, as in Tarski’s formulation of
his “semantical conception of truth,” is a T-sentence, which takes the form ‘S
is true if and only if p.’ Davidson adapted this format to the purposes of his
truth-theoretic account of meaning. Examples of T-sentences, with English as
the metalanguage, are ‘ “La neige est blanche” is true if and only if snow is
white’, where the object langauge is French and the homophonic (Davidson)
‘“Snow is white” is true if and only if snow is white’, where the object
language is English as well. Although for formal purposes the distinction
between metalanguage and object language must be maintained, in practice one
can use a langauge to talk about expressions in the very same language. One
can, in Carnap’s terms, shift 4065m-r.qxd 08/02/1999 7:42 AM Page 560 from the
material mode to the formal mode, e.g. from ‘Every veterinarian is an animal
doctor’ to ‘ “Veterinarian” means “animal doctor”.’ This shift is important in
discussions of synonymy and of the analytic–synthetic distinction. Carnap’s
distinction corresponds to the use–mention distinction. We are speaking in the
formal mode – we are mentioning a linguistic expression – when we ascribe a
property to a word or other expression type, such as its spelling,
pronunciation, meaning, or grammatical category, or when we speak of an
expression token as misspelled, mispronounced, or misused. We are speaking in
the material mode when we say “Reims is hard to find” but in the formal mode
when we say “ ‘Reims’ is hard to pronounce.”
metaphilosophy, the
theory of the nature of philosophy, especially its goals, methods, and
fundamental assumptions. First-order philosophical inquiry includes such
disciplines as epistemology, ontology, ethics, and value theory. It thus
constitutes the main activity of philosophers, past and present. The philosophical
study of firstorder philosophical inquiry raises philosophical inquiry to a
higher order. Such higher-order inquiry is metaphilosophy. The first-order
philosophical discipline of (e.g.) epistemology has the nature of knowledge as
its main focus, but that discipline can itself be the focus of higher-order
philosophical inquiry. The latter focus yields a species of metaphilosophy
called metaepistemology. Two other prominent species are metaethics and
metaontology. Each such branch of metaphilosophy studies the goals, methods,
and fundamental assumptions of a first-order philosophical discipline. Typical
metaphilosophical topics include (a) the conditions under which a claim is
philosophical rather than non-philosophical, and (b) the conditions under which
a first-order philosophical claim is either meaningful, true, or warranted.
Metaepistemology, e.g., pursues not the nature of knowledge directly, but
rather the conditions under which claims are genuinely epistemological and the
conditions under which epistemological claims are either meaningful, or true,
or warranted. The distinction between philosophy and metaphilosophy has an
analogue in the familiar distinction between mathematics and metamathematics.
Questions about the autonomy, objectivity, relativity, and modal status of
philosophical claims arise in metaphilosophy. Questions about autonomy concern
the relationship of philosophy to such disciplines as those constituting the
natural and social sciences. For instance, is philosophy methodologically
independent of the natural sciences? Questions about objectivity and relativity
concern the kind of truth and warrant available to philosophical claims. For
instance, are philosophical truths characteristically, or ever, made true by
mind-independent phenomena in the way that typical claims of the natural
sciences supposedly are? Or, are philosophical truths unavoidably conventional,
being fully determined by (and thus altogether relative to) linguistic
conventions? Are they analytic rather than synthetic truths, and is knowledge
of them a priori rather than a posteriori? Questions about modal status
consider whether philosophical claims are necessary rather than contingent. Are
philosophical claims necessarily true or false, in contrast to the contingent
claims of the natural sciences? The foregoing questions identify major areas of
controversy in contemporary metaphilosophy.
metaphor, a figure of
speech (or a trope) in which a word or phrase that literally denotes one thing
is used to denote another, thereby implicitly comparing the two things. In the
normal use of the sentence ‘The Mississippi is a river’, ‘river’ is used
literally – or as some would prefer to say, used in its literal sense. By
contrast, if one assertively uttered “Time is a river,” one would be using
‘river’ metaphorically – or be using it in a metaphorical sense. Metaphor has
been a topic of philosophical discussion since Aristotle; in fact, it has
almost certainly been more discussed by philosophers than all the other tropes
together. Two themes are prominent in the discussions up to the nineteenth
century. One is that metaphors, along with all the other tropes, are
decorations of speech; hence the phrase ‘figures of speech’. Metaphors are
adornments or figurations. They do not contribute to the cognitive meaning of
the discourse; instead they lend it color, vividness, emotional impact, etc.
Thus it was characteristic of the Enlightenment and proto-Enlightenment
philosophers – Hobbes and Locke are good examples – to insist that though
philosophers may sometimes have good reason to communicate their thought with
metaphors, they themselves should do their thinking entirely without metaphors.
The other theme prominent in discussions of metaphor up to the nineteenth
century is that metaphors are, so far as their cognitive force is concerned,
elliptical similes. The cognitive force of ‘Time is a river’, when ‘river’ in
that sentence is used metaphorically, is the same as ‘Time is like a river’.
What characterizes almost all theories of metaphor from the time of the
Romantics up through our own century is the rejection of both these traditional
themes. Metaphors – so it has been argued – are not cognitively dispensable
decorations. They contribute to the cognitive meaning of our discourse; and
they are indispensable, not only to religious discourse, but to ordinary, and
even scientific, discourse, not to mention poetic. Nietzsche, indeed, went so
far as to argue that all speech is metaphorical. And though no consensus has
yet emerged on how and what metaphors contribute to meaning, nor how we
recognize what they contribute, nearconsensus has emerged on the thesis that
they do not work as elliptical similes.
metaphysical deduction: cf. the transcendental club. or
argument. transcendental argument Metaphysics,
epistemology An argument that starts from some accepted experience or fact to
prove that there must be something which is beyond experience but which is a
necessary condition for making the accepted experience or fact possible. The
goal of a transcendental argument is to establish the transcendental dialectic truth of this precondition.
If there is something X of which Y is a necessary condition, then Y must be
true. This form of argument became prominent in Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason,
where he argued that the existence of some fundamental a priori concepts,
namely the categories, and of space and time as pure forms of sensibility, are
necessary to make experience possible. In contemporary philosophy,
transcendental arguments are widely proposed as a way of refuting skepticism.
Wittgenstein used this form of argument to reject the possibility of a private
language that only the speaker could understand. Peter Strawson employs a
transcendental argument to prove the perception-independent existence of
material particulars and to reject a skeptical attitude toward the existence of
other minds. There is disagreement about the kind of necessity involved in
transcendental arguments, and Barry Stroud has raised important questions about
the possibility of transcendental arguments succeeding. “A transcendental
argument attempts to prove q by proving it is part of any correct explanation
of p, by proving it a precondition of p’s possibility.” Nozick Philosophical
Explanations transcendental deduction Metaphysics, epistemology, ethics,
aesthetics For Kant, the argument to prove that certain a priori concepts are
legitimately, universally, necessarily, and exclusively applicable to objects
of experience. Kant employed this form of argument to establish the legitimacy
of space and time as the forms of intuition, of the claims of the moral law in
the Critique of Practical Reason, and of the claims of the aesthetic judgment
of taste in the Critique of Judgement. However, the most influential example of
this form of argument appeared in the Critique of Pure Reason as the
transcendental deduction of the categories. The metaphysical deduction set out
the origin and character of the categories, and the task of the transcendental
deduction was to demonstrate that these a priori concepts do apply to objects
of experience and hence to prove the objective validity of the categories. The
strategy of the proof is to show that objects can be thought of only by means
of the categories. In sensibility, objects are subject to the forms of space
and time. In understanding, experienced
objects must stand under the conditions of the transcendental unity of
apperception. Because these conditions require the determination of objects by
the pure concepts of the understanding, there can be no experience that is not
subject to the categories. The categories, therefore, are justified in their
application to appearances as conditions of the possibility of experience. In
the second edition of the Critique of Pure Reason (1787), Kant extensively
rewrote the transcendental deduction, although he held that the result remained
the same. The first version emphasized the subjective unity of consciousness,
while the second version stressed the objective character of the unity, and it
is therefore possible to distinguish between a subjective and objective
deduction. The second version was meant to clarify the argument, but remained
extremely difficult to interpret and assess. The presence of the two versions
of this fundamental argument makes interpretation even more demanding.
Generally speaking, European philosophers prefer the subjective version, while
Anglo-American philosophers prefer the objective version. The transcendental
deduction of the categories was a revolutionary development in modern
philosophy. It was the main device by which Kant sought to overcome the errors
and limitations of both rationalism and empiricism and propelled philosophy
into a new phase. “The explanation of the manner in which concepts can thus
relate a priori to objects I entitle their transcendental deduction.” Kant,
Critique of Pure Reason. metaphysical realism, in the widest
sense, the view that (a) there are real objects (usually the view is concerned
with spatiotemporal objects), (b) they exist independently of our experience or
our knowledge of them, and (c) they have properties and enter into relations
independently of the concepts with which we understand them or of the language
with which we describe them. Anti-realism is any view that rejects one or more
of these three theses, though if (a) is rejected the rejection of (b) and (c)
follows trivially. (If it merely denies the existence of material things, then
its traditional name is ‘idealism.’) Metaphysical realism, in all of its three
parts, is shared by common sense, the sciences, and most philosophers. The
chief objection to it is that we can form no conception of real objects, as
understood by it, since any such conception must rest on the concepts we
already have and on our language and experience. To accept the objection seems
to imply that we can have no knowledge of real objects as they are in
themselves, and that truth must not be understood as correspondence to such
objects. But this itself has an even farther reaching consequence: either (i)
we should accept the seemingly absurd view that there are no real objects
(since the objection equally well applies to minds and their states, to
concepts and words, to properties and relations, to experiences, etc.), for we
should hardly believe in the reality of something of which we can form no
conception at all; or (ii) we must face the seemingly hopeless task of a
drastic change in what we mean by ‘reality’, ‘concept’, ‘experience’,
‘knowledge’, ‘truth’, and much else. On the other hand, the objection may be
held to reduce to a mere tautology, amounting to ‘We (can) know reality only as
we (can) know it’, and then it may be argued that no substantive thesis, which
anti-realism claims to be, is derivable from a mere tautology. Yet even if the
objection is a tautology, it serves to force us to avoid a simplistic view of
our cognitive relationship to the world. In discussions of universals,
metaphysical realism is the view that there are universals, and usually is
contrasted with nominalism. But this either precludes a standard third
alternative, namely conceptualism, or simply presupposes that concepts are
general words (adjectives, common nouns, verbs) or uses of such words. If this
presupposition is accepted, then indeed conceptualism would be the same as nominalism,
but this should be argued, not legislated verbally. Traditional conceptualism
holds that concepts are particular mental entities, or at least mental
dispositions, that serve the classificatory function that universals have been
supposed to serve and also explain the classificatory function that general
words undoubtedly also serve. -- metaphysics, most generally, the philosophical
investigation of the nature, constitution, and structure of reality. It is
broader in scope than science, e.g., physics and even cosmology (the science of
the nature, structure, and origin of the universe as a whole), since one of its
traditional concerns is the existence of non-physical entities, e.g., God. It
is also more fundamental, since it investigates questions science does not
address but the answers to which it presupposes. Are there, for instance,
physical objects at all, and does every event have a cause? So understood,
metaphysics was rejected by positivism on the ground that its statements are
“cognitively meaningless” since they are not empirically verifiable. More
recent philosophers, such as Quine, reject metaphysics on the ground that
science alone provides genuine knowledge. In The Metaphysics of Logical
Positivism (1954), Bergmann argued that logical positivism, and any view such
as Quine’s, presupposes a metaphysical theory. And the positivists’ criterion
of cognitive meaning was never formulated in a way satisfactory even to them. A
successor of the positivist attitude toward metaphysics is P. F. Strawson’s
preference (especially in Individuals, 1959) for what he calls descriptive
metaphysics, which is “content to describe the actual structure of our thought
about the world,” as contrasted with revisionary metaphysics, which is
“concerned to produce a better structure.” The view, sometimes considered
scientific (but an assumption rather than an argued theory), that all that
there is, is spatiotemporal (a part of “nature”) and is knowable only through
the methods of the sciences, is itself a metaphysics, namely metaphysical
naturalism (not to be confused with natural philosophy). It is not part of
science itself. In its most general sense, metaphysics may seem to coincide
with philosophy as a whole, since anything philosophy investigates is
presumably a part of reality, e.g., knowledge, values, and valid reasoning. But
it is useful to reserve the investigation of such more specific topics for
distinct branches of philosophy, e.g., epistemology, ethics, aesthetics, and
logic, since they raise problems peculiar to themselves. Perhaps the most
familiar question in metaphysics is whether there are only material entities –
materialism – or only mental entities, i.e., minds and their states – idealism
– or both – dualism. Here ‘entity’ has its broadest sense: anything real. More
specific questions of metaphysics concern the existence and nature of certain
individuals – also called particulars – (e.g., God), or certain properties
(e.g., are there properties that nothing exemplifies?) or relations (e.g., is
there a relation of causation that is a necessary connection rather than a mere
regular conjunction between events?). The nature of space and time is another
important example of such a more specific topic. Are space and time peculiar
individuals that “contain” ordinary individuals, or are they just systems of
relations between individual things, such as being (spatially) higher or
(temporally) prior. Whatever the answer, space and time are what render a world
out of the totality of entities that are parts of it. Since on any account of
knowledge, our knowledge of the world is extremely limited, concerning both its
spatial and temporal dimensions and its inner constitution, we must allow for
an indefinite number of possible ways the world may be, might have been, or will
be. And this thought gives rise to the idea of an indefinite number of possible
worlds. This idea is useful in making vivid our understanding of the nature of
necessary truth (a necessarily true proposition is one that is true in all
possible worlds) and thus is commonly employed in modal logic. But the idea can
also make possible worlds seem real, a highly controversial doctrine. The
notion of a spatiotemporal world is commonly that employed in discussions of
the socalled issue of realism versus anti-realism, although this issue has also
been raised with respect to universals, values, and numbers, which are not
usually considered spatiotemporal. While there is no clear sense in asserting
that nothing is real, there seems to be a clear sense in asserting that there
is no spatiotemporal world, especially if it is added that there are minds and
their ideas. This was Berkeley’s view. But contemporary philosophers who raise
questions about the reality of the spatiotemporal world are not comfortable
with Berkeleyan minds and ideas and usually just somewhat vaguely speak of
“ourselves” and our “representations.” The latter are themselves often
understood as material (states of our brains), a clearly inconsistent position
for anyone denying the reality of the spatiotemporal world. Usually, the
contemporary anti-realist does not actually deny it but rather adopts a view
resembling Kant’s transcendental idealism. Our only conception of the world,
the anti-realist would argue, rests on our perceptual and conceptual faculties,
including our language. But then what reason do we have to think that this
conception is true, that it corresponds to the world as the world is in itself?
Had our faculties and language been different, surely we would have had very
different conceptions of the world. And very different conceptions of it are
possible even in terms of our present faculties, as seems to be shown by the
fact that very different scientific theories can be supported by exactly the
same data. So far, we do not have anti-realism proper. But it is only a short
step to it: if our conception of an independent spatiotemporal world is
necessarily subjective, then we have no good reason for supposing that there is
such a world, especially since it seems selfcontradictory to speak of a
conception that is independent of our conceptual faculties. It is clear that
this question, like almost all the questions of general metaphysics, is at
least in part epistemological. Metaphysics can also be understood in a more
definite sense, suggested by Aristotle’s notion (in his Metaphysics, the title
of which was given by an early editor of his works, not by Aristotle himself)
of “first philosophy,” namely, the study of being qua being, i.e., of the most
general and necessary characteristics that anything must have in order to count
as a being, an entity (ens). Sometimes ‘ontology’ is used in this sense, but
this is by no means common practice, ‘ontology’ being often used as a synonym
of ‘metaphysics’. Examples of criteria (each of which is a major topic in
metaphysics) that anything must meet in order to count as a being, an entity,
are the following. (A) Every entity must be either an individual thing (e.g.,
Socrates and this book), or a property (e.g., Socrates’ color and the shape of
this book), or a relation (e.g., marriage and the distance between two cities),
or an event (e.g., Socrates’ death), or a state of affairs (e.g., Socrates’
having died), or a set (e.g., the set of Greek philosophers). These kinds of
entities are usually called categories, and metaphysics is very much concerned
with the question whether these are the only categories, or whether there are
others, or whether some of them are not ultimate because they are reducible to
others (e.g., events to states of affairs, or individual things to temporal
series of events). (B) The existence, or being, of a thing is what makes it an
entity. (C) Whatever has identity and is distinct from everything else is an
entity. (D) The nature of the “connection” between an entity and its properties
and relations is what makes it an entity. Every entity must have properties and
perhaps must enter into relations with at least some other entities. (E) Every
entity must be logically self-consistent. It is noteworthy that after
announcing his project of first philosophy, Aristotle immediately embarked on a
defense of the law of non-contradiction. Concerning (A) we may ask (i) whether
at least some individual things (particulars) are substances, in the
Aristotelian sense, i.e., enduring through time and changes in their properties
and relations, or whether all individual things are momentary. In that case,
the individuals of common sense (e.g., this book) are really temporal series of
momentary individuals, perhaps events such as the book’s being on a table at a
specific instant. We may also ask (ii) whether any entity has essential
properties, i.e., properties without which it would not exist, or whether all
properties are accidental, in the sense that the entity could exist even if it
lost the property in question. We may ask (iii) whether properties and
relations are particulars or universals, e.g., whether the color of this page
and the color of the next page, which (let us assume) are exactly alike, are
two distinct entities, each with its separate spatial location, or whether they
are identical and thus one entity that is exemplified by, perhaps even located
in, the two pages. Concerning (B), we may ask whether existence is itself a
property. If it is, how is it to be understood, and if it is not, how are we to
understand ‘x exists’ and ‘x does not exist’, which seem crucial to everyday
and scientific discourse, just as the thoughts they express seem crucial to
everyday and scientific thinking? Should we countenance, as Meinong did,
objects having no existence, e.g. golden mountains, even though we can talk and
think about them? We can talk and think about a golden mountain and even claim
that it is true that the mountain is golden, while knowing all along that what
we are thinking and talking about does not exist. If we do not construe
non-existent objects as something, then we are committed to the somewhat
startling view that everything exists. Concerning (C) we may ask how to
construe informative identity statements, such as, to use Frege’s example, ‘The
Evening Star is identical with the Morning Star’. This contrasts with trivial
and perhaps degenerate statements, such as ‘The Evening Star is identical with
the Evening Star’, which are almost never made in ordinary or scientific
discourse. The former are essential to any coherent, systematic cognition (even
to everyday recognition of persons and places). Yet they are puzzling. We
cannot say that they assert of two things that they are one, even though
ordinary language suggests precisely this. Neither can we just say that they
assert that a certain thing is identical with itself, for this view would be
obviously false if the statements are informative. The fact that Frege’s
example includes definite descriptions (‘the Evening Star’, ‘the Morning Star’)
is irrelevant, contrary to Russell’s view. Informative identity statements can
also have as their subject terms proper names and even demonstrative pronouns
(e.g., ‘Hesperus is identical with Phosphorus’ and ‘This [the shape of this
page] is identical with that [the shape of the next page]’), the reference of
which is established not by description but ostensively, perhaps by actual
pointing. Concerning (D) we can ask about the nature of the relationship,
usually called instantiation or exemplification, between an entity and its
properties and relations. Surely, there is such a relationship. But it can
hardly be like an ordinary relation such as marriage that connects things of
the same kind. And we can ask what is the connection between that relation and
the entities it relates, e.g., the individual thing on one hand and its
properties and relations on the other. Raising this question seems to lead to
an infinite regress, as Bradley held; for the supposed connection is yet
another relation to be connected with something else. But how do we avoid the
regress? Surely, an individual thing and its properties and relations are not
unrelated items. They have a certain unity. But what is its character?
Moreover, we can hardly identify the individual thing except by reference to
its properties and relations. Yet if we say, as some have, that it is nothing
but a bundle of its properties and relations, could there not be another bundle
of exactly the same properties and relations, yet distinct from the first one?
(This question concerns the so-called problem of individuation, as well as the
principle of the identity of indiscernibles.) If an individual is something
other than its properties and relations (e.g., what has been called a bare
particular), it would seem to be unobservable and thus perhaps unknowable.
Concerning (E), virtually no philosopher has questioned the law of
non-contradiction. But there are important questions about its status. Is it
merely a linguistic convention? Some have held this, but it seems quite implausible.
Is the law of non-contradiction a deep truth about being qua being? If it is,
(E) connects closely with (B) and (C), for we can think of the concepts of
self-consistency, identity, and existence as the most fundamental metaphysical
concepts. They are also fundamental to logic, but logic, even if ultimately
grounded in metaphysics, has a rich additional subject matter (sometimes
merging with that of mathematics) and therefore is properly regarded as a
separate branch of philosophy. The word ‘metaphysics’ has also been used in at
least two other senses: first, the investigation of entities and states of
affairs “transcending” human experience, in particular, the existence of God,
the immortality of the soul, and the freedom of the will (this was Kant’s
conception of the sort of metaphysics that, according to him, required
“critique”); and second, the investigation of any alleged supernatural or
occult phenomena, such as ghosts and telekinesis. The first sense is properly
philosophical, though seldom occurring today. The second is strictly popular,
since the relevant supernatural phenomena are most questionable on both
philosophical and scientific grounds. They should not be confused with the
subject matter of philosophical theology, which may be thought of as part of
metaphysics in the general philosophical sense, though it was included by
Aristotle in the subject matter of metaphysics in his sense of the study of
being qua being.
metaphysical wisdom: J. London-born philosopher, cited by H. P. Grice in his
third programme lecture on Metaphysics. “Wisdom used to say that metaphysics is
nonsense, but INTERESTING nonsense.” Some more “contemporary” accounts of
“metaphysics” sound, on the face of it at least, very different from either of
these. Consider, for example, from the
OTHER place, John Wisdom's description of a metaphysical, shall we say,
‘statement’ – I prefer ‘utterance’ or pronouncement! Wisdom says that a metaphysical, shall we
say, ‘proposition’ is, characteristically, a sort of illuminating falsehood, a
pointed paradox, which uses what Wisdom calls ‘ordinary language’ in a
disturbing, baffling, and even shocking way, but not otiosely, but in order to
make your tutee aware of a hidden difference or a hidden resemblance between
this thing and that thing – a difference and a resemblance hidden by our
ordinary ways of “talking.” The
metaphysician renders what is clear, obscure.
And the metaphysician MUST retort to some EXTRA-ordinary language, as
Wisdom calls it! Of course, to be fair
to Wisdom and the OTHER place, Wisdom does not claim this to be a complete
characterisation, nor perhaps a literally correct one. Since Wisdom loves a figure of speech and a
figure of thought! Perhaps what Wisdom
claims should *itself* be seen as an illuminating paradox, a meta-meta-physical
one! In any case, its relation to
Aristotle's, or, closer to us, F. H. Bradley's, account of the matter is not
obvious, is it? But perhaps a relation
CAN be established. Certainly not every
metaphysical statement is a paradox serving to call attention to an usually
unnoticed difference or resemblance.
For many a metaphysical statement is so obscure (or unperspicuous, as I
prefer) that it takes long training, usually at Oxford, before the
metaphysician’s meaning can be grasped.
A paradox, such as Socrates’s, must operate with this or that familiar
concept. For the essence of a paradox is
that it administers a shock, and you cannot shock your tutee when he is
standing on such unfamiliar ground that he has no particular expectations. Nevertheless there IS a connection between
“metaphysics” and Wisdom's kind of paradox.
He is not speaking otiosely! Suppose
we consider the paradox: i. Everyone is
really always alone. Considered by
itself, it is no more than an epigram -- rather a flat one - about the human condition. The implicatum, via hyperbole, is “I am
being witty.” The pronouncement (i) might be said, at least, to minimise the
difference between “being BY oneself” and “being WITH other people,” Heidegger’s
“Mit-Sein.” But now consider the
pronouncement (i), not simply by itself, but surrounded and supported by a
certain kind of “metaphysical” argument: by a “metaphysical” argument to the
effect that what passes for “knowledge” of the other's mental or psychological
process is, at best, an unverifiable conjecture, since the mind (or soul) and
the body are totally distinct things, and the working of the mind (or soul, as
Aristotle would prefer, ‘psyche’) is always withdrawn behind the screen of its
bodily manifestations, as Witters would have it. (Not in vain Wisdom calls
himself or hisself a disciple of Witters!)
When this solitude-affirming paradox, (i) is seen in the context of a
general theory about the soul and the body and the possibilities and limits of
so-called “knowledge” (as in “Knowledge of other minds,” to use Wisdom’s
fashionable sobriquet), when it is seen as embodying such a “metaphysical”
theory, indeed the paradox BECOMES clearly a “metaphysical” statement. But the fact that the statement or
proposition is most clearly seen as “metaphysical” in such a setting does not
mean that there is no “metaphysics” at all in it when it is deprived of the
setting. (Cf. my “The general theory of context.”). An utterance like (ii) Everyone is alone. invites us to change, for a moment at least
and in one respect, our ordinary way of looking at and talking about things,
and hints (or the metaphysician implicates rather) that the changed view the
tutee gets is the truer, the profounder, view.
Cf. Cook Wilson, “What we know we know,” as delighting this air marshal.
methodological holism,
also called metaphysical holism, the thesis that with respect to some system
there is explanatory emergence, i.e., the laws of the more complex situations
in the system are not deducible by way of any composition laws or laws of
coexistence from the laws of the simpler or simplest situation(s). Explanatory
emergence may exist in a system for any of the following reasons: that at some
more complex level a variable interacts that does not do so at simpler levels,
that a property of the “whole” interacts with properties of the “parts,” that
the relevant variables interact by different laws at more complex levels owing
to the complexity of the levels, or (the limiting case) that strict lawfulness
breaks down at some more complex level. Thus, explanatory emergence does not
presuppose descriptive emergence, the thesis that there are properties of
“wholes” (or more complex situations) that cannot be defined through the
properties of the “parts” (or simpler situations). The opposite of
methodological holism is methodological individualism, also called explanatory
reductionism, according to which all laws of the “whole” (or more complex
situations) can be deduced from a combination of the laws of the simpler or
simplest situation(s) and either some composition laws or laws of coexistence
(depending on whether or not there is descriptive emergence). Methodological
individualists need not deny that there may be significant lawful connections
among properties of the “whole,” but must insist that all such properties are
either definable through, or connected by laws of coexistence with, properties
of the “parts.”
middle knowledge,
knowledge of a particular kind of propositions, now usually called
“counterfactuals of freedom,” first attributed to God by the sixteenth-century
Jesuit Luis de Molina. These propositions state, concerning each possible free
creature God could create, what that creature would do in each situation of
(libertarian) free choice in which it could possibly find itself. The claim
that God knows these propositions offers important theological advantages; it
helps in explaining both how God can have foreknowledge of free actions and how
God can maintain close providential control over a world containing libertarian
freedom. Opponents of middle knowledge typically argue that it is impossible
for there to be true counterfactuals of freedom.
Middle Platonism, the
period of Platonism between Antiochus of Ascalon (c.130–68 B.C.) and Plotinus
(A.D. 204–70), characterized by a rejection of the skeptical stance of the New
Academy and by a gradual advance, with many individual variations, toward a
comprehensive dogmatic position on metaphysical principles, while exhibiting a
certain latitude, as between Stoicizing and Peripateticizing positions, in the
sphere of ethics. Antiochus himself was much influenced by Stoic materialism
(though disagreeing with the Stoics in ethics), but in the next generation a
neo-Pythagorean influence made itself felt, generating the mix of doctrines
that one may most properly term Middle Platonic. From Eudorus of Alexandria
(fl. c.25 B.C.) on, a transcendental, two-world metaphysic prevailed, featuring
a supreme god, or Monad, a secondary creator god, and a world soul, with which
came a significant change in ethics, substituting, as an ‘end of goods’
(telos), “likeness to God” (from Plato, Theaetetus 176b), for the Stoicizing
“assimilation to nature” of Antiochus. Our view of the period is hampered by a lack
of surviving texts, but it is plain that, in the absence of a central
validating authority (the Academy as an institution seems to have perished in
the wake of the capture of Athens by Mithridates in 88 B.C.), a considerable
variety of doctrine prevailed among individual Platonists and schools of
Platonists, particularly in relation to a preference for Aristotelian or Stoic
principles of ethics. Most known activity occurred in the late first and second
centuries A.D. Chief figures in this period are Plutarch of Chaeronea
(c.45–125), Calvenus Taurus (fl. c.145), and Atticus (fl. c.175), whose
activity centered on Athens (though Plutarch remained loyal to Chaeronea in
Boeotia); Gaius (fl. c.100) and Albinus (fl. c.130) – not to be identified with
“Alcinous,” author of the Didaskalikos; the rhetorician Apuleius of Madaura
(fl. c.150), who also composed a useful treatise on the life and doctrines of
Plato; and the neo-Pythagoreans Moderatus of Gades (fl. c.90), Nicomachus of
Gerasa (fl. c.140), and Numenius (fl. c.150), who do not, however, constitute a
“school.” Good evidence for an earlier stage of Middle Platonism is provided by
the Jewish philosopher Philo of Alexandria (c.25 B.C.–A.D. 50). Perhaps the
single most important figure for the later Platonism of Plotinus and his
successors is Numenius, of whose works we have only fragments. His speculations
on the nature of the first principle, however, do seem to have been a stimulus
to Plotinus in his postulation of a supraessential One. Plutarch is important
as a literary figure, though most of his serious philosophical works are lost;
and the handbooks of Alcinous and Apuleius are significant for our
understanding of second-century Platonism.
Milesians, the
pre-Socratic philosophers of Miletus, a Greek city-state on the Ionian coast of
Asia Minor. During the 6th century B.C. Thales, Anaximander, and Anaximenes
produced the earliest Western philosophies, stressing an arche or material
source from which the cosmos and all things in it were generated.
Mill, James (1773–1836),
Scottish-born philosopher and social theorist. He applied the utilitarianism of
his contemporary Bentham to such social matters as systems of education and
government, law and penal systems, and colonial policy. He also advocated the
associationism of Hume. Mill was an influential thinker in early
nineteenth-century London, but his most important role in the history of
philosophy was the influence he had on his son, J. S. Mill. He raised his more
famous son as a living experiment in his associationist theory of education.
His utilitarian views were developed and extended by J. S. Mill, while his
associationism was also adopted by his son and became a precursor of the
latter’s phenomenalism.
Mill, John Stuart
(1806–73), British empiricist philosopher and utilitarian social reformer. He
was the son of James Mill, a historian of British India, a leading defender of
Bentham’s utilitarianism, and an advocate of reforms based on that philosophy.
The younger Mill was educated by his father in accordance with the principles
of the associationist psychology adopted by the Benthamites and deriving from
Hartley, and was raised with the expectation that he would become a defender of
the principles of the Benthamite school. He began the study of Greek at three
and Latin at eight, and later assisted his father in educating his younger
brothers and sisters. At twenty he went to France to learn the language, and
studied chemistry and mathematics at Montpellier. From 1824 to 1828 he wrote
regularly for the Westminster Review, the Benthamite journal. In 1828 he
underwent a mental crisis that lasted some months. This he later attributed to
his rigid education; in any case he emerged from a period of deep depression
still advocating utilitarianism but in a very much revised version. Mill
visited Paris during the revolution of 1830, meeting Lafayette and other
popular leaders, and was introduced to the writings of Saint-Simon and Comte.
Also in 1830 he met Mrs. Harriet Taylor, to whom he immediately became devoted.
They married only in 1851, when her husband died. He joined the India House
headquarters of the East India Company in 1823, serving as an examiner until
the company was dissolved in 1858 in the aftermath of the Indian Mutiny. Mill
sat in Parliament from 1865 to 1868. Harriet Mill died in 1858, and was buried
at Avignon, where Mill thereafter regularly resided for half of each year until
his own death. Mill’s major works are his System of Logic, Deductive and
Inductive (first edition, 1843), Political Economy (first edition, 1848), On
Liberty (1860), Utilitarianism (first published in Fraser’s Magazine, 1861),
The Subjection of Women (1869), An Examination of Sir William Hamilton’s
Philosophy (1865), and the posthumous Three Essays on Religion (1874). His writing
style is excellent, and his history of his own mental development, the
Autobiography (1867), is a major Victorian literary text. His main opponents
philosophically were Whewell and Hamilton, and it is safe to say that after
Mill their intuitionism in metaphysics, philosophy of science, and ethics could
no longer be defended. Mill’s own views were later to be eclipsed by those of
T. H. Green, F. H. Bradley, and the other British idealists. In the present
century his views in metaphysics and philosophy of science have been revived
and defended by Russell and the logical positivists, while his utilitarian
ethics has regained its status as one of the major ethical theories. His social
philosophy deeply infuenced the Fabians and other groups on the British left;
its impact continues. Mill was brought up on the basis of, and to believe in,
the strict utilitarianism of his father. His own development largely consisted
in his attempts to broaden it, to include a larger and more sympathetic view of
human nature, and to humanize its program to fit this broader view of human
beings. In his own view, no doubt largely correct, he did not so much reject
his father’s principles as fill in the gaps and eliminate rigidities and
crudities. He continued throughout his life his father’s concern to propagate
principles conceived as essential to promoting human happiness. These extended
from moral principles to principles of political economy to principles of logic
and metaphysics. Psychology. Mill’s vision of the human being was rooted in the
psychological theories he defended. Arguing against the intuitionism of Reid
and Whewell, he extended the associationism of his father. On this theory,
ideas have their genetic antecedents in sensation, a complex idea being
generated out of a unique set of simple, elementary ideas, through associations
based on regular patterns in the presented sensations. Psychological analysis
reveals the elementary parts of ideas and is thus the means for investigating
the causal origins of our ideas. The elder Mill followed Locke in conceiving
analysis on the model of definition, so that the psychological elements are
present in the idea they compose and the idea is nothing but its associated
elements. The younger Mill emerged from his mental crisis with the recognition
that mental states are often more than the sum of the ideas that are their
genetic antecedents. On the revised model of analysis, the analytical elements
are not actually present in the idea, but are present only dispositionally,
ready to be recovered by association under the analytical set. Moreover, it is
words that are defined, not ideas, though words become general only by becoming
associated with ideas. Analysis thus became an empirical task, rather than
something settled a priori according to one’s metaphysical predispositions, as
it had been for Mill’s predecessors. The revised psychology allowed the younger
Mill to account empirically in a much more subtle way than could the earlier
associationists for the variations in our states of feeling. Thus, for example,
the original motive to action is simple sensations of pleasure, but through
association things originally desired as means become associated with pleasure
and thereby become desirable as ends, as parts of one’s pleasure. But these
acquired motives are not merely the sum of the simple pleasures that make them
up; they are more than the sum of those genetic antecedents. Thus, while Mill
holds with his father that persons seek to maximize their pleasures, unlike his
father he also holds that not all ends are selfish, and that pleasures are not
only quantitatively but also qualitatively distinct. Ethics. In ethics, then,
Mill can hold with the intuitionists that our moral sentiments are
qualitatively distinct from the lower pleasures, while denying the intuitionist
conclusion that they are innate. Mill urges, with his father and Bentham, that
the basic moral norm is the principle of utility, that an action is right
provided it maximizes human welfare. Persons always act to maximize their own
pleasure, but the general human welfare can be among the pleasures they seek.
Mill’s position thus does not have the problems that the apparently egoistic
psychology of his father created. The only issue is whether a person ought to
maximize human welfare, whether he ought to be the sort of person who is so
motivated. Mill’s own ethics is that this is indeed what one ought to be, and
he tries to bring this state of human being about in others by example, and by
urging them to expand the range of their human sympathy through poetry like
that of Wordsworth, through reading the great moral teachers such as Jesus and
Socrates, and by other means of moral improvement. Mill also offers an argument
in defense of the principle of utility. Against those who, like Whewell, argue
that there is no basic right to pleasure, he argues that as a matter of
psychological fact, people seek only pleasure, and concludes that it is
therefore pointless to suggest that they ought to do anything other than this.
The test of experience thus excludes ends other than pleasure. This is a
plausible argument. Less plausible is his further argument that since each
seeks her own pleasure, the general good is the (ultimate) aim of all. This
latter argument unfortunately presupposes the invalid premise that the law for
a whole follows from laws about the individual parts of the whole. Other moral
rules can be justified by their utility and the test of experience. For
example, such principles of justice as the rules of property and of promise
keeping are justified by their role in serving certain fundamental human needs.
Exceptions to such secondary rules can be justified by appeal to the principle
of utility. But there is also utility in not requiring in every application a
lengthy utilitarian calculation, which provides an objective justification for
overlooking what might be, objectively considered in terms of the principle of
utility, an exception to a secondary rule. Logic and philosophy of science. The
test of experience is also brought to bear on norms other than those of
morality, e.g., those of logic and philosophy of science. Mill argues, against
the rationalists, that science is not demonstrative from intuited premises.
Reason in the sense of deductive logic is not a logic of proof but a logic of
consistency. The basic axioms of any science are derived through generalization
from experience. The axioms are generic and delimit a range of possible
hypotheses about the specific subject matter to which they are applied. It is
then the task of experiment and, more generally, observation to eliminate the
false and determine which hypothesis is true. The axioms, the most generic of
which is the law of the uniformity of nature, are arrived at not by this sort
of process of elimination but by induction by simple enumeration: Mill argues
plausibly that on the basis of experience this method becomes more reliable the
more generic is the hypothesis that it is used to justify. But like Hume, Mill
holds that for any generalization from experience the evidence can never be
sufficient to eliminate all possibility of doubt. Explanation for Mill, as for
the logical positivists, is by subsumption under matter-of-fact
generalizations. Causal generalizations that state sufficient or necessary and
sufficient conditions are more desirable as explanations than mere
regularities. Still more desirable is a law or body of laws that gives
necessary and sufficient conditions for any state of a system, i.e., a body of
laws for which there are no explanatory gaps. As for explanation of laws, this
can proceed either by filling in gaps or by subsuming the law under a generic
theory that unifies the laws of several areas. Mill, John Stuart Mill, John
Stuart 569 4065m-r.qxd 08/02/1999 7:42 AM Page 569 Mill argues that in the
social sciences the subject matter is too complex to apply the normal methods
of experiment. But he also rejects the purely deductive method of the
Benthamite political economists such as his father and David Ricardo. Rather,
one must deduce the laws for wholes, i.e., the laws of economics and sociology,
from the laws for the parts, i.e., the laws of psychology, and then test these
derived laws against the accumulated data of history. Mill got the idea for
this methodology of the social sciences from Comte, but unfortunately it is
vitiated by the false idea, already noted, that one can deduce without any
further premise the laws for wholes from the laws for the parts. Subsequent
methodologists of the social sciences have come to substitute the more reasonable
methods of statistics for this invalid method Mill proposes. Mill’s account of
scientific method does work well for empirical sciences, such as the chemistry
of his day. He was able to show, too, that it made good sense of a great deal
of physics, though it is arguable that it cannot do justice to theories that
explain the atomic and subatomic structure of matter – something Mill himself
was prepared to acknowledge. He also attempted to apply his views to geometry,
and even more implausibly, to arithmetic. In these areas, he was certainly
bested by Whewell, and the world had to wait for the logical work of Russell
and Whitehead before a reasonable empiricist account of these areas became
available. Metaphysics. The starting point of all inference is the sort of
observation we make through our senses, and since we know by experience that we
have no ideas that do not derive from sense experience, it follows that we
cannot conceive a world beyond what we know by sense. To be sure, we can form
generic concepts, such as that of an event, which enable us to form concepts of
entities that we cannot experience, e.g., the concept of the tiny speck of sand
that stopped my watch or the concept of the event that is the cause of my
present sensation. Mill held that what we know of the laws of sensation is
sufficient to make it reasonable to suppose that the immediate cause of one’s
present sensation is the state of one’s nervous system. Our concept of an
objective physical object is also of this sort; it is the set of events that
jointly constitute a permanent possible cause of sensation. It is our inductive
knowledge of laws that justifies our beliefs that there are entities that fall
under these concepts. The point is that these entities, while unsensed, are (we
reasonably believe) part of the world we know by means of our senses. The
contrast is to such things as the substances and transcendent Ideas of
rationalists, or the God of religious believers, entities that can be known
only by means that go beyond sense and inductive inferences therefrom. Mill
remained essentially pre-Darwinian, and was willing to allow the plausibility
of the hypothesis that there is an intelligent designer for the perceived order
in the universe. But this has the status of a scientific hypothesis rather than
a belief in a substance or a personal God transcending the world of experience
and time. Whewell, at once the defender of rationalist ideas for science and
for ethics and the defender of established religion, is a special object for Mill’s
scorn. Social and political thought. While Mill is respectful of the teachings
of religious leaders such as Jesus, the institutions of religion, like those of
government and of the economy, are all to be subjected to criticism based on
the principle of utility: Do they contribute to human welfare? Are there any
alternatives that could do better? Thus, Mill argues that a free-market economy
has many benefits but that the defects, in terms of poverty for many, that
result from private ownership of the means of production may imply that we
should institute the alternative of socialism or public ownership of the means
of production. He similarly argues for the utility of liberty as a social
institution: under such a social order individuality will be encouraged, and
this individuality in turn tends to produce innovations in knowledge,
technology, and morality that contribute significantly to improving the general
welfare. Conversely, institutions and traditions that stifle individuality, as
religious institutions often do, should gradually be reformed. Similar
considerations argue on the one hand for democratic representative government
and on the other for a legal system of rights that can defend individuals from
the tyranny of public opinion and of the majority. Status of women. Among the
things for which Mill campaigned were women’s rights, women’s suffrage, and
equal access for women to education and to occupations. He could not escape his
age and continued to hold that it was undesirable for a woman to work to help
support her family. While he disagreed with his father and Bentham that all
motives are egoistic and self-interested, he nonetheless held that in most
affairs of ecoMill, John Stuart Mill, John Stuart 570 4065m-r.qxd 08/02/1999
7:42 AM Page 570 millet paradox Mill’s methods 571 nomics and government such
motives are dominant. He was therefore led to disagree with his father that
votes for women are unnecessary since the male can speak for the family.
Women’s votes are needed precisely to check the pursuit of male self-interest.
More generally, equality is essential if the interests of the family as such
are to be served, rather than making the family serve male self-interest as had
hitherto been the case. Changing the relation between men and women to one of
equality will force both parties to curb their self-interest and broaden their
social sympathies to include others. Women’s suffrage is an essential step
toward the moral improvement of humankind.
Mill’s methods,
procedures for discovering necessary conditions, sufficient conditions, and
necessary and sufficient conditions, where these terms are used as follows: if
whenever A then B (e.g., whenever there is a fire then oxygen is present), then
B is a necessary (causal) condition for A; and if whenever C then D (e.g.,
whenever sugar is in water, then it dissolves), then C is a sufficient (causal)
condition for D. Method of agreement. Given a pair of hypotheses about
necessary conditions, e.g., (1) whenever A then B1 whenever A then B2, then an
observation of an individual that is A but not B2 will eliminate the second
alternative as false, enabling one to conclude that the uneliminated hypothesis
is true. This method for discovering necessary conditions is called the method
of agreement. To illustrate the method of agreement, suppose several people
have all become ill upon eating potato salad at a restaurant, but have in other
respects had quite different meals, some having meat, some vegetables, some
desserts. Being ill and not eating meat eliminates the latter as the cause;
being ill and not eating dessert eliminates the latter as cause; and so on. It
is the condition in which the individuals who are ill agree that is not
eliminated. We therefore conclude that this is the cause or necessary condition
for the illness. Method of difference. Similarly, with respect to the pair of
hypotheses concerning sufficient conditions, e.g., (2) whenever C1 then D
whenever C2 then D, an individual that is C1 but not D will eliminate the first
hypothesis and enable one to conclude that the second is true. This is the
method of difference. A simple change will often yield an example of an
inference to a sufficient condition by the method of difference. If something
changes from C1 to C2, and also thereupon changes from notD to D, one can
conclude that C2, in respect of which the instances differ, is the cause of D.
Thus, Becquerel discovered that burns can be caused by radium, i.e., proximity
to radium is a sufficient but not necessary condition for being burned, when he
inferred that the radium he carried in a bottle in his pocket was the cause of
a burn on his leg by noting that the presence of the radium was the only
relevant causal difference between the time when the burn was present and the
earlier time when it was not. Clearly, both methods can be generalized to cover
any finite number of hypotheses in the set of alternatives. The two methods can
be combined in the joint method of agreement and difference to yield the
discovery of conditions that are both necessary and sufficient. Sometimes it is
possible to eliminate an alternative, not on the basis of observation, but on
the basis of previously inferred laws. If we know by previous inductions that
no C2 is D, then observation is not needed to eliminate the second hypothesis
of (2), and we can infer that what remains, or the residue, gives us the
sufficient condition for D. Where an alternative is eliminated by previous
inductions, we are said to use the method of residues. The methods may be
generalized to cover quantitative laws. A cause of Q may be taken not to be a
necessary and sufficient condition, but a factor P on whose magnitude the
magnitude of Q functionally depends. If P varies when Q varies, then one can
use methods of elimination to infer that P causes Q. This has been called the
method of concomitant variation. More complicated methods are needed to infer
what precisely is the function that correlates the two magnitudes. Clearly, if
we are to conclude that one of (1) is true on the basis of the given data, we
need an additional premise to the effect that there is at least one necessary
condition for B and it is among the set consisting of A1 and A2. 4065m-r.qxd
08/02/1999 7:42 AM Page 571 Mimamsa mimesis 572 The existence claim here is
known as a principle of determinism and the delimited range of alternatives is
known as a principle of limited variety. Similar principles are needed for the
other methods. Such principles are clearly empirical, and must be given prior
inductive support if the methods of elimination are to be conclusive. In
practice, generic scientific theories provide these principles to guide the
experimenter. Thus, on the basis of the observations that justified Kepler’s
laws, Newton was able to eliminate all hypotheses concerning the force that
moved the planets about the sun save the inverse square law, provided that he
also assumed as applying to this specific sort of system the generic
theoretical framework established by his three laws of motion, which asserted
that there exists a force accounting for the motion of the planets
(determinism) and that this force satisfies certain conditions, e.g., the
action-reaction law (limited variety). The eliminative methods constitute the
basic logic of the experimental method in science. They were first elaborated
by Francis Bacon (see J. Weinberg, Abstraction, Relation, and Induction, 1965).
They were restated by Hume, elaborated by J. F. W. Herschel, and located
centrally in scientific methodology by J. S. Mill. Their structure was studied
from the perspective of modern developments in logic by Keynes, W. E. Johnson,
and especially Broad.
Mimamsa, also called
Purva Mimamsa, an orthodox school within Hinduism that accepts the existence of
everlasting souls or minds to which consciousness is not intrinsic, everlasting
material atoms, and mind-independent physical objects caused by the natural
mutual attraction of atoms. Atheistic, it accepts – in common with the other
orthodox schools – the doctrines of the beginningless transmigration of souls and
the operation of karma. Mimamsa accepts perception, inference, and testimony
(or authority) as reliable sources of knowledge. Testimony comes in two kinds,
personal and impersonal. Personal testimony (someone’s spoken or written word,
giving knowledge if the person giving it is reliable) is descriptive.
Impersonal testimony (the Vedas) is imperatival, giving commands that ritual
actions be performed; properly understanding and following these commands is
essential to achieving enlightenment. Reliable personal testimony presupposes
reliable perception and inference; impersonal testimony does not. Postulation
is taken to be a fourth source of knowledge. If the postulation that event A
occurred adequately explains that event B occurred, though A is unobserved and
there is no necessary or universal connection between events like A and events
like B, one can know that A occurred, but this knowledge is neither perceptual
nor inferential. In effect, this distinguishes inference to best explanation
(abduction) from inductive reasoning.
mimesis (from Greek
mimesis, ‘imitation’), the modeling of one thing on another, or the presenting
of one thing by another; imitation. The concept played a central role in the
account formulated by Plato and Aristotle of what we would now call the fine
arts. The poet, the dramatist, the painter, the musician, the sculptor, all
compose a mimesis of reality. Though Plato, in his account of painting,
definitely had in mind that the painter imitates physical reality, the general
concept of mimesis used by Plato and Aristotle is usually better translated by
‘representation’ than by ‘imitation’: it belongs to the nature of the work of
art to represent, to re-present, reality. This representational or mimetic
theory of art remained far and away the dominant theory in the West until the
rise of Romanticism – though by no means everyone agreed with Plato that it is
concrete items of physical reality that the artist represents. The hold of the
mimetic theory was broken by the insistence of the Romantics that, rather than
the work of art being an imitation, it is the artist who, in his or her
creative activity, imitates Nature or God by composing an autonomous object.
Few contemporary theorists of art would say that the essence of art is to
represent; the mimetic theory is all but dead. In part this is a reflection of
the power of the Romantic alternative to the mimetic theory; in part it is a
reflection of the rise to prominence over the last century of nonobjective,
abstract painting and sculpture and of “absolute” instrumental music.
Nonetheless, the phenomenon of representation has not ceased to draw the
attention of theorists. In recent years three quite different general theories
of representation have appeared: Nelson Goodman’s (The Languages of Art),
Nicholas Wolterstorff’s (Works and Worlds of Art), and Kendall Walton’s
(Mimesis as Make-Believe).
ming, Chinese term
meaning ‘fate’, ‘mandate’. In general, ming is what is outside of human
control. ‘Ming’ is thus nearly synonymous with one use of ‘t’ien’, as in the
observation by Mencius: “That which is done when no one does it is due to
t’ien; that which comes about when no one brings it about is due to ming.” Ming
can also refer to the mandate to rule given by t’ien or the “moral endowment”
of each human.
minimal transformationalism. Grice was proud that his system PIROTESE ‘allowed for the
most minimal transformations.” transformational
grammar Philosophy of language The most powerful of the three kinds of grammar
distinguished by Chomsky. The other two are finite-state grammar and
phrasestructure grammar. Transformational grammar is a replacement for
phrase-structure grammar that (1) analyzes only the constituents in the
structure of a sentence; (2) provides a set of phrase-structure rules that
generate abstract phrase-structure representations; (and 3) holds that the
simplest sentences are produced according to these rules. Transformational
grammar provides a further set of transformational rules to show that all
complex sentences are formed from simple elements. These rules manipulate
elements and otherwise rearrange structures to give the surface structures of
sentences. Whereas phrase-structure rules only change one symbol to another in
a sentence, transformational rules show that items of a given grammatical form
can be transformed into items of a different grammatical form. For example,
they can show the transformation of negative sentences into positive ones,
question sentences into affirmative ones and passive sentences into active ones.
Transformational grammar is presented as an improvement over other forms of
grammar and provides a model to account for the ability of a speaker to
generate new sentences on the basis of limited data. “The central idea of
transformational grammar is determined by repeated application of certain
formal operations called ‘grammatical transformations’ to objects of a more
elementary sort.” Chomsky, Aspects of the Theory of Syntax
miracle, an extraordinary
event brought about by God. In the medieval understanding of nature, objects
have certain natural powers and tendencies to exercise those powers under
certain circumstances. Stones have the power to fall to the ground, and the
tendency to exercise that power when liberated from a height. A miracle is then
an extraordinary event in that it is not brought about by any object exercising
its natural powers – e.g., a liberated stone rising in the air – but brought
about directly by God. In the modern understanding of nature, there are just
events (states of objects) and laws of nature that determine which events
follow which other events. There is a law of nature that heavy bodies when
liberated fall to the ground. A miracle is then a “violation” of a law of
nature by God. We must understand by a law a principle that determines what
happens unless there is intervention from outside the natural order, and by a
“violation” such an intervention. There are then three problems in identifying
a miracle. The first is to determine whether an event of some kind, if it occurred,
would be a violation of a law of nature (beyond the natural power of objects to
bring about). To know this we must know what are the laws of nature. The second
problem is to find out whether such an event did occur on a particular
occasion. Our own memories, the testimony of witnesses, and physical traces
will be the historical evidence of this, but they can mislead. And the evidence
from what happened on other occasions that some law L is a law of nature is
evidence supporting the view that on the occasion in question L was operative,
and so there was no violation. Hume claimed that in practice there has never
been enough historical evidence for a miracle to outweigh the latter kind of
counterevidence. Finally, it must be shown that God was the cause of the
violation. For that we need grounds from natural theology for believing that
there is a God and that this is the sort of occasion on which he is likely to
intervene in nature.
misfire. Used by Grice in Meaning Revisited. Cf. Austin.
“When the utterance is a misfire, the procedure which we purport to invoke is
disallowed or is botched: and our act (marrying, etc.) is void or without
effect, etc. We speak of our act as a purported act, or perhaps an attempt, or
we use such an expression as ‘went through a form of marriaage’ by contrast
with ‘married.’ If somebody issues a performative utterance, and the
utterance is classed as a misfire because the procedure invoked is not
accepted , it is presumably persons other than the speaker who do not
accept it (at least if the speaker is speaking seriously ). What would be
an ex- ample ? Consider ‘I divorce you*, said to a wife by her
husband in a Christian country, and both being Chris- tians rather than
Mohammedans. In this case it might be said, ‘nevertheless he has not
(successfully) divorced her: we admit only some other verbal or
non-verbal pro- cedure’; or even possibly ‘we (we) do not admit any
procedure at all for effecting divorce — marriage is indis- soluble’.
This may be carried so far that we reject what may be called a whole code
of procedure, e.g. the code of honour involving duelling: for example, a
challenge may be issued by ‘my seconds will call on you’, which is
equivalent to ‘ I challenge you’, and we merely shrug it off The general
position is exploited in the unhappy story of Don Quixote. Of
course, it will be evident that it is comparatively simple if we never
admit any ‘such’ procedure at all — that is, any procedure at all for
doing that sort of thing, or that procedure anyway for doing that
particular thing. But equally possible are the cases where we do
sometimes — in certain circumstances or at certain hands — accept
n n^A/'Q/1n U UlUVlfU u plUVWUiV/, ULIL
UW 111 T\llt 1 n nrttT at* amaiitvwifnnaati at* af
ULIL 111 ttllj UL1U/1 L/llCUllli3Lail\/^ KJL CIL other
hands. And here we may often be in doubt (as in 28
Horn to do things with Words the naming example
above) whether an infelicity should be brought into our present class A.
i or rather into A. 2 (or even B. i or B. 2). For example, at a party,
you say, when picking sides, ‘I pick George’: George grunts ‘I’m
not playing.’ Has George been picked? Un- doubtedly, the situation is an
unhappy one. Well, we may say, you have not picked George, whether
because there is no convention that you can pick people who aren’t
playing or because George in the circumstances is an inappropriate object
for the procedure of picking. Or on a desert island you may say to me ‘Go
and pick up wood’; and I may say 4 1 don’t take orders from you’ or
‘you’re not entitled to give me orders’ — I do not take orders from you
when you try to ‘assert your authority’ (which I might fall in with but
may not) on a desert island, as opposed to the case when you are the
captain on a ship and therefore genuinely have authority.
Miskawayh (936–c.1030),
Persian courtierstatesman, historian, physician, and advocate of Greek and
other ancient learning in Islam. His On the Refinement of Character (tr.
Constantine Zurayk, 1968) has been called “the most influential work on
philosophical ethics” in Islam. It transmutes Koranic command ethics into an
Aristotelian virtue ethics whose goal is the disciplining (ta’dib, cf. the
Greek paideia) of our natural irascibility, allowing our deeper unity to be
expressed in love and fellowship. Miskawayh’s system was copied widely –
crucially, in al-Ghazali’s all-but-canonical treatment of virtue ethics – but
denatured by al-Ghazali’s substitution of pietistic themes where Miskawayh
seemed too secular or humanistic.
missum: If Grice uses psi-transmission, he also
uses transmission, and mission, transmissum, and missum. Grice was out on a
mission. Grice uses ‘emissor,’ but then there’s the ‘missor.’ This is in key
with modern communication theory as instituted by Shannon. The ‘missor’ ‘sends’
a ‘message’ to a recipient – or missee. But be careful, he may miss it. In any
case, it shows that e-missor is a compound of ‘ex-‘ plus ‘missor,’ so that
makes sense. It transliterates Grice’s ut-terer (which literally means
‘out-erer’). And then there’s the prolatum, from proferre, which has the
professor, as professing that p, that is. As someone said, if H. P. Girce were
to present a talk to the Oxford Philosophical Society he would possibly call it
“Messaging.” c. 1300, "a communication
transmitted via a messenger, a notice sent through some agency," from Old
French message "message,
news, tidings, embassy" (11c.), from Medieval Latin missaticum, from Latin missus "a sending away,
sending, dispatching; a throwing, hurling," noun use of past participle
of mittere "to
release, let go; send, throw" (see mission). The Latin word is glossed in Old English by ærende. Specific religious sense of
"divinely inspired communication via a prophet" (1540s) led to
transferred sense of "the broad meaning (of something)," which is
attested by 1828. To get the message "understand" is by 1960.
M’Naghten rule, a rule in
Anglo-American criminal law defining legal insanity for purposes of creating a
defense to criminal liability: legal insanity is any defect of reason, due to
disease of the mind, that causes an accused criminal either not to know the
nature and quality of his act, or not to know that his act was morally or
legally wrong. Adopted in the M’Naghten case in England in 1843, the rule harks
back to the responsibility test for children, which was whether they were
mature enough to know the difference between right and wrong. The rule is
alternatively viewed today as being either a test of a human being’s general
status as a moral agent or a test of when an admitted moral agent is
nonetheless excused because of either factual or moral/legal mistakes. On the
first (or status) interpretation of the rule, the insane are exempted from
criminal liability because they, like young children, lack the rational agency
essential to moral personhood. On the second (or mistake) interpretation of the
rule, the insane are exempted from criminal liability because they instantiate
the accepted moral excuses of mistake or ignorance. See also
mnemic causation, a type
of causation in which, in order to explain the proximate cause of an organism’s
behavior, it is necessary to specify not only the present state of the organism
and the present stimuli operating upon it, but also the past experiences of the
organism. The term was introduced by Russell in The Analysis of Mind (1921).
Mode
of correlation: a technical jargon. Grice is not sure whether ‘mode’ ‘of’ and
‘correlation’ are the appropriate terms. Grice speaks of an associative mode of
correlation – vide associatum. He also speaks of a conventional mode of
correlation (or is it mode of conventional correlation) – vide
non-conventional, and he speaks of an iconic mode of correlation, vide
non-iconic. Indeed he speaks once of ‘conventional correlation’ TO THE
ASSOCIATED specific response. So the
mode is rather otiose. In the context when he uses ‘conventional correlation’
TO THE ASSOCIATED specific response, he uses ‘way’ rather than mode – Grice
wants ‘conventional correlation’ TO THE ASSOCIATED specific RESPONSE to be just
one way, or mode. There’s ASSOCIATIVE correlation, and iconic correlation, and
‘etc.’ Strictly, as he puts it, this or that correlation is this or that
provision of a way in which the expressum is correlated to a specific response.
When symbolizing he uses the informal “correlated in way c with response r’ –
having said that ‘c’ stands for ‘mode of correlation.’ But ‘mode sounds too
pretentious, hence his retreat to the more flowing ‘way.’
model theory: H. P.
Grice, “A conversational model,” a branch of mathematical logic that deals with
the connection between a language and its interpretations or structures. Basic
to it is the characterization of the conditions under which a sentence is true
in structure. It is confusing that the term ‘model’ itself is used slightly
differently: a model for a sentence is a structure for the language of the
sentence in which it is true. Model theory was originally developed for
explicitly constructed, formal languages, with the purpose of studying
foundational questions of mathematics, but was later applied to the semantical
analysis of empirical theories, a development initiated by the Dutch
philosopher Evert Beth, and of natural languages, as in Montague grammar. More
recently, in situation theory, we find a theory of semantics in which not the
concept of truth in a structure, but that of information carried by a statement
about a situation, is central. The term ‘model theory’ came into use in the 0s,
with the work on first-order model theory by Tarski, but some of the most
central results of the field date from before that time. The history of the
field is complicated by the fact that in the 0s and 0s, when the first
model-theoretic findings were obtained, the separation between first-order
logic and its extensions was not yet completed. Thus, in 5, there appeared an
article by Leopold Löwenheim, containing the first version of what is now
called the Löwenheim-Skolem theorem. Löwenheim proved that every satisfiable
sentence has a countable model, but he did not yet work in firstorder logic as
we now understand it. One of the first who did so was the Norwegian logician
Thoralf Skolem, who showed in 0 that a set of first-order sentences that has a
model, has a countable model, one form of the LöwenheimSkolem theorem. Skolem
argued that logic was first-order logic and that first-order logic was the
proper basis for metamathematical investigations, fully accepting the
relativity of set-theoretic notions in first-order logic. Within philosophy
this thesis is still dominant, but in the end it has not prevailed in
mathematical logic. In 0 Kurt Gödel solved an open problem of Hilbert-Ackermann
and proved a completeness theorem for first-order logic. This immediately led
to another important model-theoretic result, the compactness theorem: if every
finite subset of a set of sentences has a model then the set has a model. A
good source for information about the model theory of first-order logic, or
classical model theory, is still Model Theory by C. C. Chang and H. J. Keisler
3. When the separation between first-order logic and stronger logics had been
completed and the model theory of first-order logic had become a mature field,
logicians undertook in the late 0s the study of extended model theory, the
model theory of extensions of first-order logic: first of cardinality
quantifiers, later of infinitary languages and of fragments of second-order
logic. With so many examples of logics around
where sometimes classical theorems did generalize, sometimes not Per Lindström showed in 9 what sets
first-order logic apart from its extensions: it is the strongest logic that is
both compact and satisfies the LöwenheimSkolem theorem. This work has been the
beginning of a study of the relations between various properties logics may
possess, the so-called abstract model.
modus: Grice was an expert on mode. There is one mode too many.
If Grice found ‘senses’ obsolete (“Sense are not to be multiplied beyond
necessity”), he was always ready to welcome a new mode – e. g. the quessertive
--. or mode. ἔγκλισις , enclisis, mood of a verb, D.H.Comp.6, D.T.638.7, A.D. Synt.248.14,
etc.Many times, under ‘mode,’ Grice describes what others call ‘aspect.’ Surely
‘tense’ did not affect him much, except when it concerned “=”. But when it came
to modes, he included ‘aspect,’ so there’s the optative, the imperative, the
indicative, the informational, and then the future intentional and the future
indicative, and the subjunctive, and the way they interact with the praesens,
praeteritum and futurum, and wih the axis of what Aristotle called ‘teleios’
and ‘ateleios,’ indefinite and definite, or ‘perfectum, and ‘imperfectum, ‘but
better ‘definitum’ and ‘indefinitum.’ Grice
uses psi-asrisk, to be read asterisk-sub-psi. He is not concerned with
specficics. All the specifics the philosopher can take or rather ‘assume’ as
‘given.’ The category of mode translates ‘tropos,’ modus. Kant wrongly assumed
it was Modalitat, which irritated Grice so much that he echoed Kant as saying
‘manner’! Grice is a modista. He sometimes uses ‘modus,’ after Abbott. The
earliest record is of course “Meaning.” After elucidating what he calls
‘informative cases,’ he moves to ‘imperative’ ones. Grice agreed with Thomas
Urquhart that English needed a few more moods! Grice’s seven modes.Thirteenthly,
In lieu of six moods which other languages have at most, this one injoyeth
seven in its conjugable words. Ayer had said that non-indicative
utterances are hardly significant. Grice had been freely using the very English
not Latinate ‘mood’ until Moravcsik, of all people, corrects him: What you
mean ain’t a mood. I shall call it mode just to please you, J. M. E. The
sergeant is to muster the men at dawn is a perfect imperative. They shall not
pass is a perfect intentional. A version of this essay was presented in a
conference whose proceedings were published, except for Grices essay, due to
technical complications, viz. his idiosyncratic use of idiosyncratic
symbology! By mode Grice means indicative or imperative. Following Davidson,
Grice attaches probability to the indicative, via the doxastic, and
desirability to the indicative, via the buletic-boulomaic. He also
allows for mixed utterances. Probability is qualified with a suboperator
indicating a degree d; ditto for desirability, degree d. In some of the drafts,
Grice kept using mode until Moravsik suggested to him that mode was a better
choice, seeing that Grices modality had little to do with what other authors
were referring to as mood. Probability, desirability, and modality, modality, desirability,
and probability; modality, probability, desirability. He would use mode
operator. Modality is the more correct term, for things like should,
ought, and must, in that order. One sense. The doxastic modals are
correlated to probability. The buletic or boulomaic modals are correlated to
desirability. There is probability to a degree d. But there is also
desirability to a degree d. They both combine in Grices attempt to
show how Kants categorical imperative reduces to the hypothetical or
suppositional. Kant uses modality in a way that Grice disfavours, preferring
modus. Grice is aware of the use by Kant of modality qua category in the reduction
by Kant to four of the original ten categories in Aristotle). The Jeffrey-style
entitled Probability, desirability, and mode operators finds Grice at his
formal-dress best. It predates the Kant lectures and it got into so much detail
that Grice had to leave it at that. So abstract it hurts. Going further than
Davidson, Grice argues that structures expressing probability and desirability
are not merely analogous. They can both be replaced by more complex structures
containing a common element. Generalising over attitudes using the symbol ψ,
which he had used before, repr. WoW:v, Grice proposes G ψ that p. Further,
Grice uses i as a dummy for sub-divisions of psychological attitudes. Grice
uses Op supra i sub α, read: operation supra i sub alpha, as Grice was
fastidious enough to provide reading versions for these, and where α is a dummy
taking the place of either A or B, i. e. Davidsons prima facie or desirably,
and probably. In all this, Grice keeps using the primitive !, where a more
detailed symbolism would have it correspond exactly to Freges composite
turnstile (horizontal stroke of thought and vertical stroke of assertoric
force, Urteilstrich) that Grice of course also uses, and for which it is
proposed, then: !─p. There are generalising movements here but also merely
specificatory ones. α is not generalised. α is a dummy to serve as a
blanket for this or that specifications. On the other hand, ψ is indeed
generalised. As for i, is it generalising or specificatory? i is a dummy for
specifications, so it is not really generalising. But Grice generalises over
specifications. Grice wants to find buletic, boulomaic or volitive as he
prefers when he does not prefer the Greek root for both his protreptic and
exhibitive versions (operator supra exhibitive, autophoric, and operator supra
protreptic, or hetero-phoric). Note that Grice (WoW:110) uses the asterisk * as
a dummy for either assertoric, i.e., Freges turnstile, and non-assertoric, the
!─ the imperative turnstile, if you wish. The operators A are not mode
operators; they are such that they represent some degree (d) or measure of
acceptability or justification. Grice prefers acceptability because it connects
with accepting that which is a psychological, souly attitude, if a general one.
Thus, Grice wants to have It is desirable that p and It is believable
that p as understood, each, by the concatenation of three elements. The first
element is the A-type operator. The second element is the protreptic-type
operator. The third element is the phrastic, root, content, or proposition
itself. It is desirable that p and It is believable that p share the utterer-oriented-type
operator and the neustic or proposition. They only differ at the
protreptic-type operator (buletic/volitive/boulomaic or judicative/doxastic).
Grice uses + for concatenation, but it is best to use ^, just to echo who knows
who. Grice speaks in that mimeo (which he delivers in Texas, and is known as
Grices Performadillo talk ‒ Armadillo + Performative) of various things. Grice
speaks, transparently enough, of acceptance: V-acceptance and J-acceptance. V
not for Victory but for volitional, and J for judicative. The fact that both
end with -acceptance would accept you to believe that both are forms of
acceptance. Grice irritatingly uses 1 to mean the doxastic, and 2 to mean the
bulematic. At Princeton in Method, he defines the doxastic in terms of the
buletic and cares to do otherwise, i. e. define the buletic in terms of the
doxastic. So whenever he wrote buletic read doxastic, and vice versa. One may
omits this arithmetic when reporting on Grices use. Grice uses two further
numerals, though: 3 and 4. These, one may decipher – one finds oneself as an
archeologist in Tutankamons burial ground, as this or that relexive attitude.
Thus, 3, i. e. ψ3, where we need the general operator ψ, not just
specificatory dummy, but the idea that we accept something simpliciter. ψ3
stands for the attitude of buletically accepting an or utterance: doxastically
accepting that p or doxastically accepting that ~p. Why we should be concerned
with ~p is something to consider. G wants to decide whether to believe p
or not. I find that very Griceian. Suppose I am told that there is a volcano in
Iceland. Why would I not want to believe it? It seems that one may want to
decide whether to believe p or not when p involves a tacit appeal to value.
But, as Grice notes, even when it does not involve value, Grice still needs
trust and volition to reign supreme. On the other hand, theres 4, as attached
to an attitude, ψ4. This stands for an attitude of buletically accepting an or
utterance: buletically accepting that p, or G buletically accepting that ~p, i.
e. G wants to decide whether to will, now that p or not. This indeed is
crucial, since, for Grice, morality, as with Kantotle, does cash in desire, the
buletic. Grice smokes. He wills to smoke. But does he will to will to smoke?
Possibly yes. Does he will to will to will to smoke? Regardless of what Grice
wills, one may claim this holds for a serious imperatives (not Thou shalt not
reek, but Thou shalt not kill, say) or for any p if you must (because if you
know that p causes cancer (p stands for a proposition involving cigarette) you
should know you are killing yourself. But then time also kills, so what gives?
So I would submit that, for Kant, the categoric imperative is one which allows
for an indefinite chain, not of chain-smokers, but of good-willers. If, for
some p, we find that at some stage, the P does not will that he wills that he
wills that he wills that, p can not be universalisable. This is proposed in an
essay referred to in The Philosophers Index but Marlboro Cigarettes took no
notice. One may go on to note Grices obsession on make believe. If I say, I
utter expression e because the utterer wants his addressee to believe that the
utterer believes that p, there is utterer and addresse, i. e. there are two
people here ‒ or any soul-endowed creature ‒ for Grices
squarrel means things to Grice. It even implicates. It miaows to me while I was
in bed. He utters miaow. He means that he is hungry, he means (via implicatum)
that he wants a nut (as provided by me). On another occasion he miaowes
explicating, The door is closed, and implicating Open it, idiot. On the other
hand, an Andy-Capps cartoon read: When budgies get sarcastic Wild-life
programmes are repeating One may note that one can want some other person
to hold an attitude. Grice uses U or G1 for utterer and A or G2 for addressee.
These are merely roles. The important formalism is indeed G1 and G2. G1 is a
Griceish utterer-person; G2 is the other person, G1s addressee. Grice dislikes
a menage a trois, apparently, for he seldom symbolises a third party, G3. So, G
ψ-3-A that p is 1 just in case G ψ2(G ψ1 that p) or G ψ1 that ~p is 1. And here
the utterers addressee, G2 features: G1 ψ³ protreptically that p is 1 just
in case G buletically accepts ψ² (G buletically accepts ψ² (G doxastically
accepts ψ1 that p, or G doxastically accepts ψ1 that ~p))) is 1. Grice seems to
be happy with having reached four sets of operators, corresponding to four sets
of propositional attitudes, and for which Grice provides the paraphrases. The
first set is the doxastic proper. It is what Grice has as doxastic,and which
is, strictly, either indicative, of the utterers doxastic, exhibitive state, as
it were, or properly informative, if addressed to the addressee A, which is
different from U himself, for surely one rarely informs oneself. The second is
the buletic proper. What Grice dubs volitive, but sometimes he prefers the
Grecian root. This is again either self- or utterer-addressed, or
utterer-oriented, or auto-phoric, and it is intentional, or it is
other-addressed, or addressee-addressed, or addressee- oriented, or
hetero-phoric, and it is imperative, for surely one may not always say to
oneself, Dont smoke, idiot!. The third is the doxastic-interrogative, or
doxastic-erotetic. One may expand on ? here is minimal compared to the
vagaries of what I called the !─ (non-doxastic or buletic turnstile), and which
may be symbolised by ?─p, where ?─ stands for the erotetic turnstile. Geachs
and Althams erotetic somehow Grice ignores, as he more often uses the Latinate
interrogative. Lewis and Short have “interrŏgātĭo,” which they render as “a
questioning, inquiry, examination, interrogation;” “sententia per
interrogationem, Quint. 8, 5, 5; instare interrogation; testium; insidiosa; litteris
inclusæ; verbis obligatio fit ex interrogatione et responsione; as rhet. fig.,
Quint. 9, 2, 15; 9, 3, 98. B. A syllogism: recte genus hoc interrogationis
ignavum ac iners nominatum est, Cic. Fat. 13; Sen. Ep. 87 med. Surely more
people know what interrogative means what erotetic means, he would not say ‒
but he would. This attitude comes again in two varieties: self-addressed or
utterer-oriented, reflective (Should I go?) or again, addresee-addressed, or
addressee-oriented, imperative, as in Should you go?, with a strong hint that
the utterer is expecting is addressee to make up his mind in the proceeding,
not just inform the utterer. Last but not least, there is the fourth kind, the
buletic-cum-erotetic. Here again, there is one varietiy which is reflective, autophoric,
as Grice prefers, utterer-addressed, or utterer-oriented, or inquisitive (for
which Ill think of a Greek pantomime), or addressee-addressed, or
addressee-oriented. Grice regrets that Greek (and Latin, of which he had less ‒
cfr. Shakespeare who had none) fares better in this respect the Oxonian that
would please Austen, if not Austin, or Maucalay, and certainly not Urquhart --
his language has twelve parts of speech: each declinable in eleven cases, four
numbers, eleven genders (including god, goddess, man, woman, animal, etc.); and
conjugable in eleven tenses, seven moods, and four voices.These vocal
mannerisms will result in the production of some pretty barbarous English
sentences; but we must remember that what I shall be trying to do, in uttering
such sentences, will be to represent supposedly underlying structure; if that
is ones aim, one can hardly expect that ones speech-forms will be such as to
excite the approval of, let us say, Jane Austen or Lord Macaulay. Cf. the
quessertive, or quessertion, possibly iterable, that Grice cherished. But then
you cant have everything. Where would you put it? Grice: The modal implicatum. Grice sees two different,
though connected questions about mode. First, there is the obvious demand
for a characterisation, or partial characterisation, of this or that mode as it
emerges in this or that conversational move, which is plausible to regard as
modes primary habitat) both at the level of the explicatum or the implicatum,
for surely an indicative conversational move may be the vehicle of an
imperatival implicatum. A second, question is how, and to what extent, the
representation of mode (Hares neustic) which is suitable for application to
this or that conversational move may be legitimately exported into
philosophical psychology, or rather, may be grounded on questions of
philosophical psychology, matters of this or that psychological state, stance,
or attitude (notably desire and belief, and their species). We need to
consider the second question, the philosophico- psychological question, since,
if the general rationality operator is to read as something like acceptability,
as in U accepts, or A accepts, the appearance of this or that mode within its
scope of accepting is proper only if it may properly occur within the scope of
a generic psychological verb I accept that . Lewis and Short have “accepto,”
“v. freq. a. accipio,” which Short and Lewis render as “to take, receive,
accept,” “argentum,” Plaut. Ps. 2, 2, 32; so Quint. 12, 7, 9; Curt. 4, 6, 5;
Dig. 34, 1, 9: “jugum,” to submit to, Sil. Ital. 7, 41. But in Plin. 36, 25,
64, the correct read. is coeptavere; v. Sillig. a. h. l. The easiest way Grice
finds to expound his ideas on the first question is by reference to a schematic
table or diagram (Some have complained that I seldom use a board, but I will
today. Grice at this point reiterates his temporary contempt for
the use/mention distinction, which which Strawson is obsessed. Perhaps
Grices contempt is due to Strawsons obsession. Grices exposition would make the
hair stand on end in the soul of a person especially sensitive in this area.
And Im talking to you, Sir Peter! (He is on the second row). But
Grices guess is that the only historical philosophical mistake properly attributable
to use/mention confusion is Russells argument against Frege in On denoting, and
that there is virtually always an acceptable way of eliminating disregard of
the use-mention distinction in a particular case, though the substitutes are
usually lengthy, obscure, and tedious. Grice makes three initial
assumptions. He avails himself of two species of acceptance, Namesly,
volitive acceptance and judicative acceptance, which he, on occasion, calls
respectively willing that p and willing that p. These are to be thought
of as technical or semi-technical, theoretical or semi-theoretical, though each
is a state which approximates to what we vulgarly call thinking that p and
wanting that p, especially in the way in which we can speak of a beast such as
a little squarrel as thinking or wanting something ‒ a nut, poor
darling little thing. Grice here treats each will and judge (and accept)
as a primitive. The proper interpretation would be determined by the role
of each in a folk-psychological theory (or sequence of folk-psychological
theories), of the type the Wilde reader in mental philosophy favours at Oxford,
designed to account for the behaviours of members of the animal kingdom, at
different levels of psychological complexity (some classes of creatures being
more complex than others, of course). As Grice suggests in Us meaning,
sentence-meaning, and word-meaning, at least at the point at which (Schema Of
Procedure-Specifiers For Mood-Operators) in ones syntactico-semantical
theory of Pirotese or Griceish, one is introducing this or that mode (and
possibly earlier), the proper form to use is a specifier for this or that
resultant procedure. Such a specifier is of the general form, For the
utterer U to utter x if C, where the blank is replaced by the appropriate
condition. Since in the preceding scheme x represents an utterance or
expression, and not a sentence or open sentence, there is no guarantee that
this or that actual sentence in Pirotese or Griceish contains a perspicuous and
unambiguous modal representation. A sentence may correspond to more than
one modal structure. The sentence is structurally ambiguous
(multiplex in meaning ‒ under the proviso that senses are not to be
multiplied beyond necessity) and will have more than one reading, or parsing,
as every schoolboy at Clifton knows when translating viva voce from Greek or
Latin, as the case might be. The general form of a procedure-specifier for a
modal operator involves a main clause and an antecedent clause, which follows
if. In the schematic representation of the main clause, U represents an
utterer, A his addressee, p the radix or neustic; and Opi represents that
operator whose number is i (1, 2, 3, or 4), e.g g., Op3A represents
Operator 3A, which, since ?⊢ appears in the Operator column for 3A)
would be ?A ⊢ p. This
reminds one of Grandys quessertions, for he did think they were iterable
(possibly)). The antecedent clause consists of a sequence whose elements
are a preamble, as it were, or preface, or prefix, a supplement to a
differential (which is present only in a B-type, or addressee-oriented case), a
differential, and a radix. The preamble, which is always present, is
invariant, and reads: The U U wills (that) A A judges (that) U (For surely meaning is a species of intending
is a species of willing that, alla Prichard, Whites professor,
Corpus). The supplement, if present, is also invariant. And the idea
behind its varying presence or absence is connected, in the first instance,
with the volitive mode. The difference between an ordinary expression of
intention ‒ such as I shall not fail, or They shall not
pass ‒ and an ordinary imperative (Like Be a little kinder to
him) is accommodated by treating each as a sub-mode of the volitive mode,
relates to willing that p) In the intentional case (I shall not fail), the
utterer U is concerned to reveal to his addressee A that he (the utterer U)
wills that p. In the imperative case (They shall not pass), the utterer U is
concerned to reveal to his addressee A that the utterer U wills that the
addresee A will that p. In each case, of course, it is to be
presumed that willing that p will have its standard outcome, viz., the
actualization, or realisation, or direction of fit, of the radix (from expression
to world, downwards). There is a corresponding distinction between two uses of
an indicative. The utterer U may be declaring or affirming that p, in
an exhibitive way, with the primary intention to get his addressee A to judge
that the utterer judges that p. Or the U is telling (in a protreptic way)
ones addressee that p, that is to say, hoping to get his addressee to
judge that p. In the case of an indicative, unlike that of a volitive, there is
no explicit pair of devices which would ordinarily be thought of as sub-mode
marker. The recognition of the sub-mode is implicated, and comes from
context, from the vocative use of the Names of the addressee, from the presence
of a speech-act verb, or from a sentence-adverbial phrase (like for your
information, so that you know, etc.). But Grice has already, in his
initial assumptions, allowed for such a situation. The
exhibitive-protreptic distinction or autophoric-heterophoric distinction, seems
to Grice to be also discernible in the interrogative mode (?). Each differentials
is associated with, and serve to distinguish, each of the two basic modes
(volitive or judicative) and, apart from one detail in the case of the
interrogative mode, is invariant between autophoric-exhibitive) and
heterophoric-protreptic sub-modes of any of the two basic modes. They are
merely unsupplemented or supplemented, the former for an exhibitive sub-mode
and the latter for a protreptic sub-mode. The radix needs (one hopes) no
further explanation, except that it might be useful to bear in mind that Grice
does not stipulated that the radix for an intentional (buletic exhibitive
utterer-based) incorporate a reference to the utterer, or be in the first
person, nor that the radix for an imperative (buletic protreptic
addressee-based) incorporate a reference of the addresee, and be in the second
person. They shall not pass is a legitimate intentional, as is You shall
not get away with it; and The sergeant is to muster the men at dawn, as uttered
said by the captain to the lieutenant) is a perfectly good
imperative. Grice gives in full the two specifiers derived from the
schema. U to utter to A autophoric-exhibitive ⊢ p if U wills that A judges that U judges
p. Again, U to utter to A ! heterophoric-protreptic p if U wills that A A
judges that U wills that A wills that p. Since, of the states denoted by
each differential, only willing that p and judging that p are strictly cases of
accepting that p, and Grices ultimate purpose of his introducing this
characterization of mode is to reach a general account of expressions which are
to be conjoined, according to his proposal, with an acceptability operator, the
first two numbered rows of the figure are (at most) what he has a direct use
for. But since it is of some importance to Grice that his treatment of
mode should be (and should be thought to be) on the right lines, he adds a
partial account of the interrogative mode. There are two varieties of
interrogatives, a yes/no interrogatives (e. g. Is his face clean? Is the king
of France bald? Is virtue a fire-shovel?) and x-interrogatives, on which Grice
qua philosopher was particularly interested, v. his The that and the why.
(Who killed Cock Robin?, Where has my beloved gone?, How did he fix
it?). The specifiers derivable from the schema provide only for yes/no interrogatives,
though the figure could be quite easily amended so as to yield a restricted but
very large class of x-interrogatives. Grice indicates how this could be
done. The distinction between a buletic and a doxastic interrogative
corresponds with the difference between a case in which the utterer U indicates
that he is, in one way or another, concerned to obtain information (Is he at
home?), and a case in which the utterer U indicates that he is concerned to
settle a problem about what he is to do ‒ Am I to leave the door open?, Shall I
go on reading? or, with an heterophoric Subjects, Is the prisoner to be
released? This difference is fairly well represented in grammar, and much
better represented in the grammars of some other languages. The
hetero-phoric-cum-protreptic/auto-phoric-cum- exhibitive difference may
not marked at all in this or that grammar, but it should be marked in Pirotese.
This or that sub-mode is, however, often quite easily detectable. There is
usually a recognizable difference between a case in which the utterer A says,
musingly or reflectively, Is he to be trusted? ‒ a case in which the
utterer might say that he is just wondering ‒ and a case in which he
utters a token of the same sentence as an enquiry. Similarly, one can usually
tell whether an utterer A who utters Shall I accept the invitation? is
just trying to make up his mind, or is trying to get advice or instruction from
his addressee. The employment of the variable α needs to be
explained. Grice borrows a little from an obscure branch of logic, once
(but maybe no longer) practised, called, Grice thinks, proto-thetic ‒ Why?
Because it deals with this or that first principle or axiom, or thesis), the
main rite in which is to quantify over, or through, this or that connective. α
is to have as its two substituents positively and negatively, which may modify
either will or judge, negatively willing or negatively judging that p is
judging or willing that ~p. The quantifier (∃1α) . . . has to be treated
substitutionally. If, for example, I ask someone whether John killed Cock
Robin (protreptic case), I do not want the addressee merely to will that I have
a particular logical quality in mind which I believe to apply. I want the
addressee to have one of the Qualities in mind which he wants me to believe to
apply. To meet this demand, supplementation must drag back the
quantifier. To extend the schema so as to provide specifiers for a single
x-interrogative (i. e., a question like What did the butler see? rather than a
question like Who went where with whom at 4 oclock yesterday afternoon?),
we need just a little extra apparatus. We need to be able to superscribe a
W in each interrogative operator e.g., together with the proviso that a radix
which follows a superscribed operator must be an open radix, which contains one
or more occurrences of just one free variable. And we need a chameleon
variable λ, to occur only in this or that quantifier. (∃λ).Fx is to be regarded as a way of
writing (∃x)Fx. (∃λ)Fy is a way of writing (∃y)Fy. To provide a specifier for a
x-superscribed operator, we simply delete the appearances of α in the specifier
for the corresponding un-superscribed operator, inserting instead the
quantifier (∃1λ) () at the
position previously occupied by (∃1α) (). E.g. the specifiers for Who
killed Cock Robin?, used as an enquiry, would be: U to utter to A killed Cock Robin if U wills A to judge U to
will that (∃1λ) (A should
will that U judges (x killed Cock Robin)); in which (∃1λ) takes on the shape (∃1x) since x is the free variable within
its scope. Grice compares his buletic-doxastic distinction to prohairesis/doxa
distinction by Aristotle in Ethica Nichomachea. Perhaps his simplest
formalisation is via subscripts: I will-b but will-d not. Refs.: The main
references are given above under ‘desirability.’ The most systematic treatment
is the excursus in “Aspects,” Clarendon. BANC.
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