Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Online philosophy reference work, articles are authored and updated by experts in the field. Edited by Edward Zalta.
18th Century German Philosophy Prior to Kant
Survey of work of, among others, Christian Thomasius and Christian Wolff; by Brigitte Sassen.
Abstract Objects
Survey of attempts to draw the distinction between concrete and abstract objects; by Gideon Rosen.
Action
Theories about intentional action and agency; by George Wilson.
Actualism
The thesis that there are no merely possible entities; by Christopher Menzel.
Adorno, Theodor
Life and work of 20th century German philosopher and critical theorist; by Lambert Zuidervaart.
Aesthetic Judgment
Philosophical theories about judgments of taste; by Nick Zangwill.
Albert of Saxony
Life and work of 14th century German logician and philosopher; by Joël Biard.
Alcmaeon
Life and work of early Greek medical writer and philosopher-scientist; by Carl Huffman.
Biological Altruism
Discussion of how altruistic behavior by organisms fits with the theory of evolution; by Samir Okasha.
Robert Alyngton
Life and work of 14th Century British philosopher, follower of Wyclif and Burley; by Alessandro Conti.
Medieval Theories of Analogy
By E. Jennifer Ashworth of the University of Waterloo.
Analysis
The historical development and conceptual structure of philosophical analysis; by Michael Beaney.
Saint Anselm
By Thomas Williams, University of Iowa.
Thomas Aquinas
Biographical and expository essay, by Ralph McInerny.
Archytas
Life and work of fourth century BC Greek mathematician, political leader and philosopher; by Carl Huffman.
Aristotle's Ethics
Discussion of Aristotle's ethical views; by Richard Kraut.
Aristotle's Logic
Survey of Aristotle's logical work, focus on the "Organon," syllogistic, and dialectic. From the Stanford Encyclopedia, by Robin Smith.
Aristotle's Metaphysics
Aristotle's notions of category and substance; by S. Marc Cohen.
Aristotle's Political Theory
By Fred D. Miller, Jr of Bowling Green State University.
Aristotle's Psychology
Recounts the principal and distinctive claims of Aristotle's psychological writings, especially "De Anima." By Christopher Shields of the University of Colorado.
Aristotle's Rhetoric
Discussion of one of Aristotle's major works; by Christof Rapp.
Artifact
By Risto Hilpinen of the University of Miami.
Saint Augustine
By Michael Mendelson of Lehigh University.
John Austin
Life and work of 19th century British legal philosopher and founder of legal positivism; by Brian Bix.
Bruno Bauer
Life and work of 19th century German philosopher; by Douglas Moggach.
Bayes' Theorem
Discussion of a formula to calculate conditional probabilities which figures in subjectivist approaches to epistemology; by James Joyce.
Behaviorism
By George Graham of University of Alabama at Birmingham.
Biodiversity
Discussion of philosophical issues related to biological diversity; by Daniel P. Faith.
The Biological Notion of Self and Non-self
History and discussion of the notion of the immune self; by Alfred Tauber.
The Mathematics of Boolean Algebra
Survey of the algebra of two-valued logic; by J. Donald Monk.
Bosanquet, Bernard
William Sweet of St. Francis Xavier University introduces the absolute idealist.
Robert Boyle
Life and work of 17th century Irish philosopher and physicist; by J. J. McIntosh, University of Calgary.
Bradley, F. H.
By Stewart Candlish of the University of Western Australia.
Brentano's Theory of Judgement
Discussion of Franz Brentano's foundation for logic and epistemology; by Johannes Brandl.
John Buridan
Life and work of late Medieval philosopher; by Jack Zupko.
Category Theory
Jean-Pierre Marquis of the University of Montreal introduces the general mathematical theory of structures and systems of structures.
Counterfactual Theories of Causation
Discussion of analysis of causal statements in terms of counterfactual conditionals; by Peter Menzies.
Probabilistic Causation
"Probabilistic Causation" designates a group of philosophical theories that aim to characterize the relationship between cause and effect using the tools of probability theory. A primary motivation for the development of such theories is the desire for a theory of causation that does not presuppose physical determinism.
Causal Processes
Bertrand Russell, Wesley Salmon, and conserved quantities. By Phil Dowe of the University of Tasmania.
Philosophy of Childhood
The philosophy of childhood takes up philosophically interesting questions about childhood, about conceptions people have of childhood and attitudes they have toward children; by Gareth Matthews.
Philosophy for Children
Discusses introduction of philosophy into the school curriculum; by Michael Pritchard.
Philosophy and Christian Theology
Discussion of philosophical implications of Christian theological views; by Michael Murray.
Church-Turing Thesis
Jack Copeland of the University of Canterbury, New Zealand outlines this frequently misunderstood thesis.
Cognitive Science
The study of mind and intelligence. By Paul Thagard of the University of Waterloo.
Color
Metaphysical and epistemological accounts of color. By Barry Maund of the University of Western Australia.
The Computational Theory of Mind
The philosophical theopry that the mind is, or functions like, a computer; by Steven Horst.
The Modern History of Computing
Historical survey from Babbage onward; by B. Jack Copeland.
Confucius
The life and work of the Chinese philosopher and educatory; by Jeffrey Riegel.
Connectionism
Movement in cognitive science which hopes to explain human intellectual abilities using artificial neural networks. By James W. Garson of the University of Houston.
Medieval Theories of Conscience
The ability to act on the determinations of conscience is tied to the development of the moral virtues, which in turn refines the functions of conscience. By Doug Langston of the University of South Florida.
Animal Consciousness
By Colin Allen of Texas A & M, addressing the qualitative or phenomenological nature of experience.
Higher-order Theories of Consciousness
Theories which explain conscious states by their relations to higher-order representations of them; by Peter Carruthers.
Consciousness and Intentionality
Discussion of the connection between phenomenal consciousness and intentionality; by Charles Siewert.
Representational Theories of Consciousness
By William Lycan, University of North Carolina.
The Unity of Consciousness
History and philosophical accounts of unity of consciousness; by Andrew Brook.
Consequentialism
The view that normative properties depend only on consequences; by Walter Sinnott-Armstrong.
Constitutionalism
Philosophical survey of the idea that government should be limited in its powers by law; by Wil Waluchow.
Contemporary Approaches to the Social Contract
By Fred D'Agostino.
Contractarianism
By Ann E. Cudd, University of Kansas.
Cosmology: Methodological Debates 1932-48
Discusses philosophical views about cosmology in the 1930s and 1940s; by George Gale.
Cosmology and Theology
Deals with the cosmological argument. By John Leslie of the University of Guelph.
Cosmopolitanism
The view that all human beings belong to a single community; by Pauline Kleingeld and Eric Brown.
Curry's Paradox
Discussion of a semantic paradox due to Haskell B. Curry; by J. C. Beall.
Dante Alighieri
Life and work of 13th century Italian poet and philosopher; by Winthrop Wetherbee.
Donald Davidson
Jeff Malpas of the University of Tamania.
Death
Discussion of philosophical issues about death; by Steven Luper.
Descartes' Epistemology
By Lex Newman of the University of Nebraska, Lincoln.
Descartes' Modal Metaphysics
Interpretations of René Descartes' ontology of necessities and possibilities; by David Cunning.
Descartes' Ontological Argument
Discussion of René Descartes ontological proof of the existence of God; by Lawrence Nolan.
René Descartes' Life and Works
Life and work of 17th century French philosopher; by Kurt Smith.
Desert
Moral issues of desert (punishment, success) and justice; by Owen McLeod.
Robert Desgabets
Life and work of 17th century Cartesian philosopher; by Patricia Easton.
Determinates vs. Determinables
A distinction introduced by W. E. Johnson to apply, e.g., to red and colored; by David H. Sanford.
Dialetheism
Dialeth(e)ism is the view that there are true contradictions. By Graham Priest of the University of Queensland.
Disjunction
Theory and history of the binary connective 'or'; by Ray Jennings.
Doing vs. Allowing Harm
Views on the moral difference between doing harm and allowing harm; by Frances Howard-Snyder.
John Duns Scotus
In-depth article on the life, work, and thought of John Duns Scotus. By Thomas Williams.
Jonathan Edwards
Life and work of 18th century American philosophical theologian; by William Wainwright.
Egalitarianism
The view that people should get the same or be treated the same; by Richard Arneson.
Epiphenomenalism
Discusses the view that mental events are caused by physical events in the brain, but have no effects upon any physical events. From the Stanford Encyclopedia, by William S. Robinson.
Episteme and Techne
Discussion of the distinction between knowledge and craft, or art in ancient philosophy; by Richard Parry.
Bayesian Epistemology
Epistemological movement based on Bayesian confirmation and decision theory; by William Talbott.
Evolutionary Epistemology
Survey of naturalistic epistemology which emphasizes importance of natural selection; by Michael Bradie and William Harms
Naturalized Epistemology
The view that epistemology is of one piece with natural science; by Richard Feldman.
Social Epistemology
Survey of views on the social dimension of knowledge; by Alvin Goldman.
Virtue Epistemology
By John Greco of Fordham.
The Epsilon Calculus
Discussion of David Hilbert's development of this type of logical formalism with emphasis on proof-theoretic methods; by Jeremy Avigad and Richard Zach.
Equality
Survey of social and political equality; by Stefan Gosepath.
Thomas of Erfurt
Life and work of medieval philosopher and member of the Modists; by Jack Zupko.
Environmental Ethics
Branch of ethics dealing with the moral relationship of humans to the environment; by Andrew Brennan and Yeuk-Sze Lo.
Voluntary Euthanasia
By Robert Young, La Trobe University.
Events
Survey of philosophical views on the character and status of events; by Roberto Casati and Achille Varzi.
The Problem of Evil
Does the world contain undesirable states of affairs that provide the basis for an argument that makes it unreasonable for anyone to believe in the existence of God?; by Michael Tooley.
Existence
By Barry Miller.
Feminist Epistemology and Philosophy of Science
By Elizabeth Anderson.
Feminist Ethics
By Rosemarie Tong, Davidson College.
Feminist History of Philosophy
Survey of feminist writing on the philosophical canon; by Charlotte Witt.
Feminist Perspectives on the Self
By Diana Meyers of the University of Connecticut.
Paul Feyerabend
Biographical and expository essay by John Preston of Reading University.
Modal Fictionalism
Survey of the view that claims of necessity and possibility are to be construed as fictional claims; by Daniel Nolan.
Folk Psychology as Mental Simulation
By Robert M. Gordon, University of Missouri.
Folk Psychology as a Theory
By Ian Ravenscroft, the Flinders University of South Australia.
Francis of Marchia
Life and work of 14th century French theologian; by Christopher Schabel.
The Free Rider Problem
Philosophical issues related to collective action; by Russell Hardin.
Frege's Logic, Theorem, and Foundations for Arithmetic
By Edward N. Zalta of Stanford University.
Gottlob Frege
Edward N. Zalta of the Metaphysics Research Lab.
Game Theory
Von Neumann and Morgensterns mathematical theory of bargaining, introduced by Don Ross University of Cape Town.
Nineteenth Century Geometry
By Roberto Torretti, Universidad de Chile.
Finitism in Geometry
Approaches to geometry that do not presuppose an infinity of points; by Jean-Paul van Bendegem.
Globalization
Social theory and philosophy issues in globalization; by William Scheuerman.
William Godwin
Article on the life and work of the founder of philosophical anarchism. From the Stanford Encyclopedia, by Mark Philp.
Johann Georg Hamann
Life and work of this German Enlightenment philosopher; by Gwen Griffith-Dickson.
Harriet Taylor Mill
Life and work of 19th century English philosopher and proponent of women's rights; by Dale E. Miller.
Charles Hartshorne
Life and work of 20th Century metaphysician and philosopher of religion; by Dan Dombrowski.
Hegel, G. W. F.
Paul Redding of the University of Sydney.
Hilbert's Program
In 1921, David Hilbert made a proposal for a formalist foundation of mathematics, for which a finitary consistency proof should establish the security of mathematics. By Richard Zach.
Hobbes's Moral and Political Philosophy
Survey of work of Thomas Hobbes; by Sharon A. Lloyd.
Paul-Henri Thiry, Baron d'Holbach
Life and work of French Enlightenment philosoher; by Michael LeBuffe.
Holes
Short article by Roberto Casati of the École Polytechnique and Achille C. Varzi of Columbia.
Robert Holkot
Life and Work of Robert Holcot, 14th Century English philosopher and theologian; by Hester Gelber.
Homosexuality
Philosophical issues in homosexuality and queer theory; by Brent Pickett.
David Hume
Life and work of 18th century Scottish philosopher; by William Edward Morris.
The Identity of Indiscernibles
Peter Forrest introduces the principle of analytic ontology formulated by Leibniz, stating that no two distinct substances exactly resemble each other.
Personal Identity
How does a person stay the same person over time? By Eric T. Olson.
Identity Politics
History of the political activity and theorizing founded in the shared experiences of injustice of members of certain social groups; by Cressida Heyes.
Relative Identity
The view that there are objects which are the same F yet not the same G; by Harry Deutsch.
Divine Illumination
Augustine's doctrine described by Robert Pasnau of the University of Colorado.
Immutability
The doctrine that God cannot undergo real change; by Brian Leftow.
Impartiality
Survey of views on moral impartiality; by Troy Jollimore.
Incompatibilist (Nondeterministic) Theories of Free Will
By Randolph Clarke.
Roman Ingarden
Life and work of Polish phenomenologist, ontologist and aesthetician; by Amie Thomasson.
Integrity
Discussion of integrity as a virtue term; by Damian Cox, Marguerite La Caze, and Michael Levine.
William James
Life and work of 19th century American philosopher; by Russell Goodman.
Foundationalist Theories of Epistemic Justification
Survey of theories according to which knowledge and justified belief rest ultimately on a foundation of noninferential knowledge or justified belief. By Richard Fumerton of the University of Iowa.
Distributive Justice
By Julian Lamont, University of Queensland.
Justice as a Virtue
Survey of justice as a virtue from Plato to Rawls; by Michael Slote.
Public Justification
By Fred D'Agostino, University of New England, Australia.
Karl Leonhard Reinhold
Life and work of 19th century Austrian philosopher; by Dan Breazeale.
Søren Kierkegaard
Essay about Kierkegaard's life, work, and philosophy by William McDonald.
The Analysis of Knowledge
Survey of analyses of the concept of knowledge, including justified true belief and the Gettier problem; by Matthias Steup.
The Kochen-Specker Theorem
By Carsten Held.
The Language of Thought Hypothesis
By Murat Aydede, surveying the arguments for and against the proposition that thoughts are expressed in a mental language.
Naturalism in Legal Philosophy
Discusses naturalistic theses in the philosophy of law; by Brian Leiter.
On The Nature of Law
Survey of theories on the conditions of legal validity including natural law theories and legal positivism; by Andrei Marmor.
Laws of Nature
Philosophical theories about what it is to be a law; by John W. Carroll.
Formal Learning Theory
Discusses mathematical approaches to normative epistemology; by Oliver Schulte.
Legal Punishment
Justifications of legal punishment; by Antony Duff.
Interpretation and Coherence in Legal Reasoning
Survey of theories on legal reasoning; by Julie Dickson.
Leibniz on the Problem of Evil
By Michael J. Murray, Franklin & Marshall College.
Leibniz's Philosophy of Mind
By Mark Kulstad and Laurence Carlin.
Liberalism
Gerald F. Gaus outlines the general philosophical theory of liberalism.
Libertarianism
Theory about the permissibility of non-consensual force violating property rights in external things and oneself; by Peter Vallentyne.
John Locke
Influential 17th century British political philosopher.
Classical Logic
Introduction to classical logic, including completeness and Löwenheim-Skolem theorems; by Stewart Shapiro.
Fuzzy Logic
Survey of logical systems with a continuum of truth values; by Petr Hajek.
Logic and games
Survey of game-theoretical approaches to logic; by Wilfrid Hodges.
Infinitary Logic
Infinitary Logic is a branch of formal logic where finitary formulae are replaced by potentially infinitary mathematical entities. By John L. Bell.
Informal Logic
By Leo Groarke, Wilfrid Laurier University.
Intuitionistic Logic
The principles L. E. J. Brouwer used in developing his intuitionistic mathematics. By Joan R. Moschovakis, UCLA.
Many-Valued Logic
Survey article on multiple-valued logics, by Siegfried Gottwaldof of Leipzig University.
Modal Logic
Originally the study of deductive behavior of the expressions `it is necessary that' and `it is possible that', now also includes logics for belief, tense, the deontic (moral) expressions. By James W. Garson, University of Houston.
Paraconsistent Logic
By Graham Priest and Koji Tanaka.
Relevance Logic
By Edwin D. Mares, Victoria University of Wellington.
Substructural Logics
By Greg Restall of Macquarie University.
Temporal Logic
The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry on the subject, with a detailed description, application areas and a bibliography.
Logical Constructions
Bernard Linsky, University of Alberta.
Logical Form
Introduction to logical form, surface and deep meaning. By Paul M. Pietroski, University of Maryland.
Salomon Maimon
Life and work of contemporary and critic of Kant; by Peter Thielke and Yitzhak Melamed.
Nicolas Malebranche
Life and work of French Cartesian philosopher; by Tad Schmaltz.
Mally's Deontic Logic
Discussion of Ernst Mally's logic of obligation; by Gert-Jan Lokhorst.
Maritain, Jacques
By William Sweet of St. Francis Xavier University.
Eliminative Materialism
The view that some or all of the mental states posited by common-sense do not actually exist; by William Ramsey.
Constructive Mathematics
By Douglas Bridges from Waikato University.
Inconsistent Mathematics
By Chris Mortensen, University of Adelaide.
Indispensability Arguments in the Philosophy of Mathematics
By Mark Colyvan, University of Tasmania.
Max Stirner
Life and work of German philosopher of egoism; by David Leopold.
Medieval Theories of Properties of Terms
The theories of proprietates terminorum was the basis of medieval semantic theory; by Stephen Read.
Mental Imagery
By Nigel Thomas of Leeds University.
Mental Representation
According to the Representational Theory of Mind, psychological states are to be understood as relations between agents and mental representations. By David Pitt, CUNY.
Mereology
The theory of parthood relations: of the relations of part to whole and the relations of part to part within a whole; by Achille Varzi.
The Identity Theory of Mind
Evaluates the theory that holds that states and processes of the mind are identical to states and processes of the brain. By J. J. C. Smart of Monash.
Miracles
Exploring Hume's argument and the religious significance. By Michael P. Levine of the University of Western Australia.
Medieval Theories of Modality
By Simo Knuuttila of the University of Helsinki.
The Moral Status of Animals
Philosophical theories about the difference between animals and humans responsible for the moral status of humans. By Lori Gruen.
Moral Dilemmas
Discusses cases of conflicting moral requirements; by Terrance McConnell.
Moral Particularism
The claim that there are no defensible moral principles; by Jonathan Dancy.
Moral Responsibility
Historical survey of the concept of moral responsibility; by Andrew Eshleman.
The Definition of Morality
Discussion of various descriptive and normative definitions of the term; Bernard Gert.
Multiple Realizability
John Bickle discusses the contention that a given mental kind (property, state, event) is realized by distinct physical kinds.
The Philosophy of Neuroscience
By John Bickle and Peter Mandik.
Friedrich Nietzsche
Robert Wicks, University of Auckland.
William of Ockham
Occam (1287-1347) was one of the most important philosophers of the Middle Ages. By Paul Vincent Spade.
Peter John Olivi
Life and work of one of the most original and interesting philosophers of the later Middle Ages. From the Stanford Encyclopedia, by Robert Pasnau.
Omnipotence
The theistic thesis that God has maximal power; by Joshua Hoffman and Gary Rosenkrantz.
Ontological Arguments
Ontological arguments are arguments, for the conclusion that God exists, from premisses which are supposed to derive from some source other than observation of the world. From the Stanford Encyclopedia, by Graham Oppy.
Original Position
The original position is a hypothetical situation in which rational calculators, acting as agents or trustees for the interests of concrete individuals, are pictured as choosing those principles of social relations under which their principals would do best. From the Stanford Encyclopedia, by Fred D'Agostino.
Panpsychism
The doctrine that mind is a fundamental feature of the world which exists throughout the universe; by William Seager.
Pantheism
Definition of Pantheism by Michael P. Levine of the University of Western Australia.
The St. Petersburg Paradox
By Robert M. Martin, Dalhousie University.
Zeno's Paradoxes
Discusses the paradoxes of Zeno of Elea, e.g., Achilles and the Tortoise; by Nick Huggett.
Pascal's wager
An argument due to Blaise Pascal for believing, or for at least taking steps to believe, in God. From the Stanford Encyclopedia, by Alan Hájek.
Benjamin Peirce
Life and work of 19th century mathematician and philosopher of mathematics; by Ivor Grattan-Guinness and Alison Walsh.
Peirce's Logic
By Eric M. Hammer of Stanford.
Charles Sanders Peirce
Life and work of 19th centuruy American logician and philosopher; by Robert Burch.
William Penbygull
Life and work of 15th Century Oxford Realist philosopher; by Alessandro Conti.
Epistemological Problems of Perception
Discussion of how sense experience justifies or warrants beliefs about the physical world; by Lawrence BonJour.
Personal Autonomy
Survey of philosophical theories about what it is to govern oneself; by Sarah Buss.
Peter of Spain (Petrus Hispanus)
Life and work of 13th century logician and author of the Tractatus; by Joke Spruyt.
Philip the Chancellor
Life and work of this 13th-century philosopher, theologian, and lyric poet. From the Stanford Encyclopedia, by Colleen McCluskey.
Physicalism
Discussion of the thesis that everything is physical; by Daniel Stoljar.
Reichenbach's Common Cause Principle
By Frank Arntzenius of Rutgers.
Experiments in Physics
By Allan Franklin, University of Colorado.
Holism and Nonseparability in Physics
Comprehensive article by Richard Healey of the University of Arizona.
Intertheory Relations in Physics
Discussion of theory reduction in science; by Robert Batterman.
Plato's Middle Period Metaphysics and Epistemology
Discussion of Plato's views on metaphysics and the theory of knowledge, including his theory of forms; by Allan Silverman.
Plotinus
Life and work of this founder of Neoplatonism; by Lloyd Gerson.
Karl Popper
By Stephen Thornton from the University of Limerick.
Medieval Theories of Practical Reason
From the Stanford Encyclopedia, by Anthony Celano.
Principia Mathematica
Entry by A.D. Irvine discussing Russell and Whitehead's treatise.
Arthur Prior
Detailed biographical article by B. Jack Copeland of the University of Canterbury.
Prisoner's Dilemma
By Steven T. Kuhn of Georgetown University.
Privacy
Survey of philosophical views about privacy; by Judith DeCew.
Private Language
By Stewart Candlish from the University of Western Australia.
Process Philosophy
View that puts processes at the center of metaphysics; by Nicholas Rescher.
Propositional Attitude Reports
Explores semantic accounts of propositional attitude reports, and some of the theories developed to deal with Frege's puzzle. From the Stanford Encyclopedia, by Thomas J. McKay.
Properties
Entry in the Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy by Chris Swoyer. Principally concerned with existence and identity conditions.
Singular Propositions
Propositions about a particular object or individual in virtue of having the object or individual as a constituent of the proposition. By G. W. Fitch.
Structured Propositions
To say that propositions are structured is to say that they are complex entities, entities having parts or constituents. By Jeffrey C. King.
Punishment
Philosophical justifications of punishment; by Hugo Adam Bedau.
Pyrrho
The life and work of the founder of Pyrrhonism; by Richard Bett.
Collapse Theories
Survey of the dynamical reduction program; by Giancarlo Ghirardi.
The Copenhagen Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics
First interpretation of quantum mechanics due to Nields Bohr; by Jan Faye.
Everett's Relative-State Formulation of Quantum Mechanics
Describes Everett's attempt to solve the measurement problem by dropping the collapse dynamics from the standard von Neumann-Dirac theory of quantum mechanics. By Jeffrey A. Barrett.
The Many-Worlds Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics
Interpretation of quantum mechanics due to Hugh Everett according to which many universes exist in parallel at the same space and time; by Lev Vaidman.
Relational Quantum Mechanics
An interpretation of quantum theory which discards the notions of absolute state of a system, absolute value of its physical quantities, or absolute event; by Federico Laudisa and Carlo Rovelli.
Quantum Mechanics
Survey by Jenann Ismael.
Identity and Individuality in Quantum Theory
Assesses the metaphysical implications of quantum theory by considering the impact of the theory on our understanding of objects as individuals with well defined identity conditions. By Steven French of Leeds University.
Measurement in Quantum Theory
Study of the details and some of the implications of the measurement problem. By Henry Krips of the University of Pittsburgh.
Quantum Logic and Quantum Probability
How quantum mechanics can be regarded as a non-classical probabilistic calculus; by Alexander Wilce.
Qualia: The Knowledge Argument
Aims to establish that conscious experience involves non-physical properties. It is one of the most discussed arguments against physicalism; by Martine Nida-Rümelin.
Qualia
Qualia are introspectively accessible, phenomenal aspects of our mental lives. By Michael Tye.
Historicist Theories of Rationality
By Carl Matheson of the University of Manitoba.
Semantic Challenges to Realism
Realism and the representation problem; by Drew Khlentzos.
Realism
Survey of realism and anti-realism in various forms; by Alexander Miller.
Automated Reasoning
Survey of automated deduction and theorem proving; by Frederic Portoraro.
Reflective Equilibrium
The result of a process of reflection on an area of (moral) inquiry, a notion figuring prominently in Rawls' Theory of Justice; by Norman Daniels.
Thomas Reid
Life and work of 18th century Scottish philosopher; by Gideon Yaffe.
Medieval Theories of Relations
Survey of medieval views concerning the nature and ontological status of relations; by Jeffrey Brower.
The Epistemology of Religion
By Peter Forrest.
Richard the Sophister
Richardus Sophista was an English philosopher/logician who studied at Oxford most likely sometime during the second quarter of the thirteenth century. From the Stanford Encyclopedia, by Paul Streveler.
Richard Rorty
Life and work of 20th century American philosopher; by Bjørn Ramberg.
Russell's Paradox
By A. D. Irvine.
Russell, Bertrand
By A. D. Irvine.
Saadya [Saadiah]
Life and work of Saadya Gaon (Saadya ben Joseph, known in Arabic as Sa'id ‘ibn Yusuf al-Fayyûmî, 10th century theologian, philosopher and rabbi; by Sarah Pessin.
George Santayana
Life and work of early 20th century Spanish-born American philosopher; by Herman Saatkamp.
Friedrich Daniel Schleiermacher
Life and work of the 18th century German philosopher; by Michael Forster.
Arthur Schopenhauer
Life and work of 19th century German philosopher; by Robert Wicks.
Scientific Explanation
Philosophical theories about the nature of explanation in science; by James Woodward.
Social Dimensions of Scientific Knowledge
Discussess the impact of social relations and values on scientific research; by Helen Longino.
Scientific Realism
The thesis that science discovers truths about a theory-independent reality; by Richard Boyd.
Scottish Philosophy in the Eighteenth Century
Survey of Scottish Enlightenment philosophers, including Francis Hutcheson, Henry Home (Lord Kames), and George Campbell; by lexander Broadie.
Scottish Philosophy in the Nineteenth Century
Survey of the work of William Hamilton, James Frederick Ferrier, and Alexander Bain; by Gordon Graham.
Wilfrid Sellars
By Jay F. Rosenberg.
Set Theory
Survey of the mathematical theory of the infinite; by Thomas Jech.
Lord Shaftesbury [Anthony Ashley Cooper, Third Earl of Shaftesbury]
Life and work of 18th century English philosopher; by Michael Gill.
Ancient Skepticism
Two movements in ancient philosophy, Pyrrhonism, and Academic Skepticism. By Leo Groarke.
Moral Skepticism
Survey of forms of scepticism about moral knowledge; Walter Sinnott-Armstrong.
Sorites Paradox
By Dominic Hyde.
Sovereignty
Modern notion of political authority of supreme authority within a territory; by Dan Philpott.
Being and Becoming in Modern Physics
Discusses implications of general relativity for the philosophy of time; by Steven Savitt.
Conventionality of Simultaneity
By Allen I. Janis, University of Pittsburgh.
The Hole Argument
The hole argument is an attempt to illustrate how spacetime substantivalism causes errors in a large class of spacetime theories. By John D. Norton of the University of Pittsburgh.
Space and Time: Inertial Frames
Frames of reference relative to which motion and rest are measured; by Robert DiSalle.
Supertasks
Introduced by Jon Pérez Laraudogoitia from the University of the Basque Country.
Species
Philosophical theories on what makes a species; by Marc Ereshefsky.
Speusippus
Life and work of Speusippus of Athens, son of Plato's sister Potone and head of the Academy; by Russell Dancy.
Baruch Spinoza
Life and work of 17th century Dutch Rationalist philosopher; by Steven Nadler.
Square of Opposition
By Terence Parsons.
Philosophy of Statistical Mechanics
By Lawrence Sklar.
Stoicism
Stoicism was one of the new philosophical movements of the Hellenistic period. By Dirk Baltzly.
Teleological Notions in Biology
By Colin Allen of Texas A & M.
Thought Experiments
By James Robert Brown, University of Toronto.
The Experience and Perception of Time
By Robin Le Poidevin.
Time Travel and Modern Physics
Survey of philosophical woories about inconsistencies inherent in the idea of time travel in the context of modern physics. From the Stanford Encyclopedia, by Tim Maudlin.
Timon of Phlius
Timon (c. 320-230 BC) was the younger contemporary and leading disciple of Pyrrho; by Richard Bett.
Tropes
An article describing tropes by John Bacon.
Coherence Theory of Truth
The truth of any (true) proposition consists in its coherence with some specified set of propositions. By James O. Young.
The Correspondence Theory of Truth
The thesis that propositions are made true in virtue of corresponding to facts; by Marian David.
Deflationary Theory of Truth
According to the deflationary theory of truth, to assert that a statement is true is just to assert the statement itself. By Daniel Stoljar.
Identity Theory of Truth
When a truth-bearer is true, there is a truth-maker with which it is identical and the truth of the former consists in its identity with the latter. By Stewart Candlish.
Revision Theory of Truth
Theory developed to analyze paradoxes that appear to show that common-sense beliefs about truth are inconsistent. By Eric M. Hammer.
Truthlikeness
Discussion of notion of verisimilitude, closeness to truth; by Graham Oddie.
Turing Machine
Article on Turing Machines from the Stanford Encyclopedia.
The Turing Test
Proposal due to Alan Turing for a criterion of the presence of mind or consciousness; by Graham Oppy and David Dowe.
Alan M. Turing
Life and work of philosopher and mathematician Alan Mathison Turing; by Andrew Hodges.
The Medieval Problem of Universals
By Gyula Klima.
Vagueness
By Roy Sorensen.
Giambattista Vico
Life and work of 18th century Italian philosopher; by Timothy Costelloe.
Theological Voluntarism
Survey of divine command theory; by Mark Murphy.
War
Article on the ethics of war and peace, the Just War theory, and pacificsm. From the Stanford Encyclopedia, by Brian D. Orend.
William Whewell
Life and work of 19th century British philosopher; by Laura J. Snyder.
Alfred North Whitehead
By A. D. Irvine.
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