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Dictionary of Philosophy - Dagobert D. Runes Category: Language and Literature > Philosophy Date & country: 17/05/2009, UK Words: 2784

Illative
Having to do with inference. -- A.C.

Illicit importance, fallacy of
The mistake of assuming that because a proposition is self-evident, it is therefore important. -- H.H.

Illicit process of the major
In the categorical syllogism (Logic, formal, § 5), the conclusion cannot be a proposition E or O unless the major term appears in its premiss as distributed -- i.e., as subject of a proposition A or E, or the predicate of a proposition E or O. Violation of this rule is the fallacy of illicit process of the major. -- A.C.

Illicit process of the minor
In the categorical syllogism (logic, formal, § 5), the conclusion cannot be a proposition A or E unless the minor term appears in its premiss as distributed -- i.e., as the subject of a proposition A or E, or the predicate of a proposition E or O. Violation of this rule is the fallacy of illicit process of the minor. -- A.C.

Illumination
Source of contemplation, transfiguration of emotional life for the attainment of measure and harmony (Schleiermacher). -- L.V.

Illusion
(Lat. in + ludere, to play) An illusion of sense is an erroneous perception arising from a misinterpretation of data of sense because they are produced under unusual conditions of perception, physical, physiological or psychological. Illusion contrasts with hallucination in which the sensuous ingredients are totally absent. See Delusion; Hallucina...

Illusionism
The view that the spatial-temporal external world is merely a veil of maya, a phantasmagoria. Not only is everything illusion, deception, appearance, but existence itself has no real value. (Schopenhauer.) -- H.H.

Image
(Lat. imago, likeness) A sensory quality reinstated by the mind in the absence of sensory stimulation. -- L.W. Medieval: Image and Similitude are frequently used by the medieval scholars. Neither of them needs mean copy. Sometimes the terms are nearly synonymous with sign in general. The alteration of the sense organs when affected by some externa...

Imageless Thought
Conceptual meanings not embodied in sensuous imagery. The existence of imageless thought was a subject of controversy among American and German psychologists about 1910; imageless thought was affirmed by Kulpe, and Bühler, but was rejected by Titchener. -- L.W.

Imagination
Imagination designates a mental process consisting of: The revival of sense images derived from earlier perceptions (the reproductive imagination), and the combination of these elementary images into new unities (the creative or productive imagination.) The creative imagination is of two kinds: the fancy which is relatively spontaneous and uncon...

Imitation
In aesthetics, the general theory that artistic creation is primarily an imitative or revelatory process, and the work of art an imitation or representation. Such theories hold that the artist discovers, and in his work imitates, real Forms, and not physical objects, art is conceived as a revelation of a spiritual realm, and so as the exhibition o...

Immanence philosophy
In Germany an idealistic type of philosophy represented by Wilhelm Schuppe (1836-1913), which combines elements of British empiricism, Kant, and Fichte. It rejects any non-conscious thing-in-itself, and identifies the Real with consciousness considered as an inseparable union of the 'I' and its objects. The categories are restricted to identity-di...

Immanence
(late Lat. Immanere, to remain in) The state of being immanent, present, or in dwelling. In Medieval Scholasticism a cause is immanent whose effects are exclusively within the agent, as opposed to transient. For Kant the immanent is experiential as opposed to non-experiential or transcendent. In modern metaphysics and theology immanence signifies...

Immanent and Transient Activity
In logic, the activity of the mind which produces no effect upon the object of knowledge is called immanent, that which does have such an effect is called transient (or transitive). According to Kant, the immanent use of the understanding is valid, since it deals only with subject-matter furnished by the senses, while the transcendent effort to co...

Immanent Theism
Doctrine that God is both immanent and transcendent with respect to the World. This view differs from Pantheism (q.v.) by denying that God's essence is identical with that of the World. -- W.L.

Immaterialism
Doctrine of the non-existence of material or corporeal reality. Pure Idealism. -- W.L.

Immateriality
(Scholastic) Immaterial substances are the human soul and the subsistent forms, the angels. The rational faculties of the human soul, intellect and will are called immaterial and believed to need no bodily organ for their performances, although they depend on the senses for their activities. Their immateriality is proved by their capacity of becom...

Immediacy
(Lat. in + medius, middle) Immediacy is used in two senses: Contrasted with representation, immediacy is the direct presence to the mind of the object of knowledge. See Presentational immediacy. Contrasted with mediation, immediacy consists in the absence or minimal and submerged presence of inference, interpretation and construction in any proce...

Immediate inference
See Logic, formal, § 4.

Immoralism
Monl indifference, in general the combating of traditional morality. (Nietzsche.) -- H.H.

Immortality
(Lat. in + mortalis, mortal) The doctrine that the soul or personality of man survives the death of the body. The two principal conceptions of immortality are: temporal immortality, the indefinite continuation of the individual mind after death and eternity, ascension of the soul to a higher plane of timelessness. Immortality is properly speakin...

Immutability
Changelessness, or the state or quality of not being susceptible to any alteration. An attribute of God denoting that His nature is essentially incapable of any internal change whatsoever. -- J.J.R.

Impersonalism
The mechanistic conception of the unconditional regularity of nature in mechanics, physics, and the sciences of the living organism. Opposite of Personalism. -- R.T.F.

Implication
See Logic, formal, §§1, 3; Strict implication.

Importation
The form of valid inference of the propositional calculus from A ? [B ? C] to AB ? C. The law of importation is the theorem of the propositional calculus: [p ? [q ? r]] ? [pq ? r]. -- A.C.

Imposition
In Scholastic logic, grammatical terms such as noun, pronoun, verb, tense, conjugation were classed as terms of second imposition, other terms as of first imposition. The latter were subdivided into terms of first and second intention (q. v.). -- A.C.

Impredicative definition
Poincare in a proposed resolution (1906) of the paradoxes of Burali-Forti and Richard (see Paradoxes, logical), introduced the principle thnt, in making a definition of a particular member of any class, no reference should be allowed to the totality of members of that class. Definitions in violation of this principle were called impredicative (non...

Impression
Act or process of affecting; effect or influence of such, especially psychological, immediate or momentnry effect; stimulation of neural processes apart from its effect, immediate effect in consciousness of neural stimulation; immediate, uninterpreted ditum of consciousness, especially of aesthetic objects; sensuous image; relatively vivid percept...

Impressionism
As a general artistic movement, the theory that art should strive only to reveal the felt quality of an object, scene, or event; i.e. the total effect that it creates in the artist. Specifically in painting, the general idea underling practice is to render the immediate visual appearance of the object, independently of its physical structure and i...

In and for itself
(Ger. an und für sich) An sich is the given primary, latent, undeveloped immediacy. The bare intrinsic and inherent essence of an object. Für sich is a greater, developed intensity of immediacy; an object genuinely independent either of consciousness or of other things; something for itself. In and for itself belongs to the Absolute alon...

In esse, in intellects in re
Medieval Latin expressions of which the first signifies, in being, in existence, the second, in the intellect, especially as a general idea formed by the process of abstraction, the third, in a really existing thing outside the mind. One may add that in the matter of is the commonly known signification of the third. -- J.J.R.

In fieri
(in Scholasticism) A thing is said to be in fieri when it is beginning to be, but is not yet complete. It is said to be in facto when it exists completely in the nature of things with those constituent parts with which it remains. Thus a picture is in fieri, when the painter is painting the canvas, but it is said to be in facto when the picture ha...

Incomplete symbol
A symbol (or expression) which has no meaning in isolation but which may occur as a constituent part in, and contribute to the meaning of, an expression which does have a meaning. Thus -- as ordinarily employed -- a terminal parenthesis ) is an incomplete symbol, likewise the letter ? which appears in the notation for functional abstraction...

Inconceivability
The property of being something that is unthinkable. Having self-contradictory properties such that mental representation is impossible. In metaphysics, Herbert Spencer's criterion of truth, that when the denial of a proposition is incapable of being conceived the proposition is to be accepted as necessary or true. Syn. with Inconceptible. -- J.K....

Inconsistency
As applied to logistic systems, the opposite of consistency (q. v.). A set of propositional functions is inconsistent if there is some propositional function such that their conjunction formally implies (see Logic, formal, § 3) both it and its negation. A set of sentences is inconsistent if there is some sentence A such that there is a valid ...

Incontinence
(Gr. akrasia) Moral condition of a person unable to control his bodily desires by rational principles. The incontinent man is distinguished from the licentious in that in the one case there is a conflict between bodily desires and rational choice and in the other case not (Aristotle). -- G.R.M.

Indefinite potentiality, error of
Inadequate analysis of causation. -- H.H.

Independence
In a set of postulates for a mathematical discipline (see Mathematics), a particular postulate is said to be independent if it cannot be proved as a consequence of the others. A non-independent postulate is thus superfluous, and should be dropped. In a logistic system (q. v.), a primitive formula or a primitive rule of inference may be said to be ...

Indeterminism
(Lat. in + determinatus, pp. of determinare) Theory that volitional decisions are in certain cases independent of antecedent physiological and psychological causation. See Free-Will, Determinism. -- L.W.

Index
(Lat. indicare, to indicate) A directing sign; that which indicates. Employed by C. S. Peirce (1839-1914) in logic, or semiotic, as that sign which refers to an object by virtue of being affected by it. See Sign. -- J.K.F.

Indian Aesthetics
Art in India is one of the most diversified subjects. Sanskrit silpa included all crafts, fine art, architecture and ornament, dancing, acting, music and even coquetry. Behind all these endeavors is a deeprooted sense of absolute values derived from Indian philosophy (q.v.) which teaches the incarnation of the divine (Krsna, Shiva, Buddha), the tr...

Indian Ethics
Ethical speculations are inherent in Indian philosophy (q.v.) with its concepts of karma, moksa, ananda (q.v.). Belief in salvation is universal, hence optimism rather than pessimism is prevalent even though one's own life is sometimes treated contemptuously, fatalism is embraced or the doctrine of non-attachment and desirelessness is subscribed t...

Indian Philosophy
General name designating a plethora of more or less systematic thinking born and cultivated in the geographic region of India among the Hindus who represent an amalgamation of adventitious and indigenous peoples, but confined at first exclusively to the caste-conscious Indo-germanic conquerors of the lands of the Indus and Ganges. Its beginnings a...

Indifferents
(Gr. adiaphora) In Stoic ethics those things which are in themselves neither good nor bad, as producing neither virtue nor vice; such as life, health, pleasure, beauty, wealth, noble birth, and their contraries. The Stoics further distinguished between indifferents that are to be preferred (proegmena) and those that are not to be preferred (apopro...

Indirect proof
See Reductio ad absurdum.

Indiscernibles, Principle of
(Lat. indiscernibilis, indistinguishable) In the philosophy of Leibniz (Monadology, IX, Nouv. Essais, II, 22), no two monads can be exactly alike. -- V.J.B.

Individual Psychology
(a) In the widest sense, individual psychology is one of the major departments of psychology, comparable to such other major subdivisions as experimental psychology, abnormal psychology, comparative psychology, etc. It is the branch of psychology devoted to the investigation of mental variations among individuals and includes such topics as: chara...

Individual
In formal logic, the individuals form the first or lowest type of Russell's hierarchy of types. In the Principia Mathematica of Whitehead and Russell, individuals are 'defined as whatever is neither a proposition nor a function.' It is unnecessary, however, to give the word any such special significance, and for many purposes it is better (as is o...

Individualism
The doctrine that emphasizes the reality of the individual and concrete. Differs from Personalism (q.v.) -- R.T.F. In political philosophy, the doctrine that the state exists for the individual, not vice versa. In political economy, laissez faire system of competition.

Individuation
The constitution of a reality as a singular member of a species. In the context of the matter and form theory it is difficult to explain how either prime matter (which is in itself the same in all physical things), or substantial form (which is the same in all members of the same species), can be the cause or principle of individuality. See Thomis...

Indriya
(Skr.) One of five or more sensory functions or 'senses', conceived generally in Indian philosophy kinetically as powers subservient to manas (q.v.). A common division is into the quintads of karmendriyas (q.v.) and jnanendriyas (s.v.). -- K.F.L.

Induction, complete or mathematical
See Recursion.

Induction
(Lat. in and ducere, to lead in) i.e., to lead into the field of attention a number of observed particular facts as ground for a general assertion. 'Perfect' induction is assertion concerning all the entities of a collection on the basis of elimination of each and every one of them. The conclusion sums up but does not go beyond the facts observed....

Inference
(Lat. in + ferre, to bear) The process of reasoning whereby starting from one or more propositions accepted as true, the mind passes to another proposition or propositions whose truth is believed to be involved in the truth of the former. Inference is a psychological process connecting propositions asserted to be true and is to be distinguished fr...

Infima species
The lowest species of a classification. In Aristotle, the individual. -- R.B.W.

Infinite
Opposite of finite (q. v.), as applied to classes, cardinal and ordinal numbers, sequences, etc. See further Cardinal number; Limit. -- A.C.

Infinitesimal
In a phraseology which is logically inexact but nevertheless common, an infinitesimal is a quantity, or a variable, whose limit is 0. Thus in considering the limit of f(x) as x approaches c, if this limit is 0 the 'quantity' f(x) may be said to be an infinitesimal; or in considering the limit of f(x) as x approaches 0, the 'quantity' x may be said...

Infinity, axiom of
See Logic, formal, §§ 6, 9.

Infinity
An endless extent of space, time, or any series. Is usually conceived negatively, as having no termination; may be conceived positively, in respect to reality as actually extending without end. -- R.B.W.

Ingression
According to A. N. Whitehead, participation of potentialities in the creation of complex actualities; 'a concretion -- that is, a growing together -- of diverse elements.' -- R.B.W.

Innate Ideas
(Lat. innatis, inborn) The power of understanding given in the very nature of mind. Such ideas are spoken of as a priori. Ideas which are inborn and come with the mind at birth, such as God or immortality. More generally, ideas which all men as human and rational, necessarily and universally possess. Locke's arguments against Descartes' belief in ...

Innatism
(Lat. in + natus, inborn) A theory of philosophy in which ideas, or principles, are considered to be present in the mind at birth, either fully formed or requiring some additional experience for their complete formulation. -- V.J.B.

Inner sense
The capacity of feeling immediately, (i.e. unconditioned by the knowledge of principles, causes, or advantages) the beauty and harmony (or their opposites) of material objects. (Francis Hutcheson.) -- K.E.G.

Innervation, Sensation of
(Lat. in + nervus, nerve) Sensation accompanying the efferent nerve currents which discharge from the central nervous system into the muscles. The existence of such a sensation has been much disputed by psychologists. (See W. James, The Principles of Psychology, Vol. II, pp. 498 ff.) -- L.W.

Insolubilia
See Paradoxes, logical.

Inspection
(Lat. inspection, from inspectus, pp. of inspicere, to look into) Rudimentary knowledge of qualities and relations between qualities as given in immediate experience, (see Presentational Immediacy) in contradistinction to perception, memory, introspection and other higher cognitive processes which are conversant not with qualities but with objects...

Institutions
(Lat. instituere, to cause to stand) (a) Establishments. Relatively permanent group behavior patterns or established social practices, as distinguished from temporary practices or patterns. (b) Socially established behavior patterns, authoritatively or legally enforced, as distinguished from Folkways which are merely taken-for-granted common but u...

Instrumental theory
The mind is a substance existentially independent of the body, either existing prior to the body, or after the destruction of the body. (Broad.) -- H.H.

Instrumental value
See Value, Instrumental.

Instrumentalism
See Pragmatism.

Integral
A whole composed of parts. Belonging to a whole as one of its parts. Anything composed of distinguishable parts. Complete, untouched. In mathematics, related to integers, the result of integration. -- J K.F.

Integration
(Lat. integrare, to make whole) The act of making a whole out of parts. In mathematics, a limiting process which may be described in vague terms as summing up an infinite number of infinitesimals, part of the calculus. In psychology, the combination of psycho-physical elements into a complex unified organization. In cosmology, the synthetic philos...

Intellect
(Lat. intellects from intellegere, to understand) The cognitive faculty of the mind as it operates at higher abstract and conceptual levels. -- L.W. St. Augustine distinguished the intellect from reason, aliud est intellectus, aliud ratio. Intellection would be impossible without reason: Intelligere non valemus, nisi ralionem habeamus. The intelle...

Intellectual virtues
See Dianoetic virtues.

Intellectualism
(aesthetics) a. The 'Intellectual Principle' is supreme beauty (Plotinus). b. 'Intellectual Intuition' turned objective is esthetic intuition (Schelling). -- L.V.

Intelligence, creative
A term denoting the presence of self-consciousness, self-direction and purpose in the creative processes of the world. Syn. in Personalism for God, elan vital, but in naturalism of Dewey, divorced from such associttion. -- R.T.F.

Intelligence
(Lat. intelligent, from intellegere, to understand) The capacity of the mind to meet effectively -- through the employment of memory, imagination and conceptual thinking -- the practical and theoretical problems with which it is confronted. Intelligence is more inclusive than intellect which is primarily conceptual. See Intellect. In Dewey (q.v.),...

Intelligible
Understandable; comprehensible; knowable; meaningful; Orderly; logical; coherent; rational; Communicable; expressible; Having unity of principle; capable of complete rational explanation or understanding; capable of causal explanation; Clear to natural or pure reason; apprehensible by the intellect (q.v.) only as against apprehensible through the...

Intension and extension
The intension of a concept consists of the qualities or properties which go to make up the concept. The extension of a concept consists of the things which fall under the concept; or, according to another definition, the extension of a concept consists of the concepts which are subsumed under it (determine subclasses). This is the old distinction ...

Intensive quantity
Any quantity which is such that there exists no known physical process of addition by which a greater quantity of the kind in question could be produced from a lesser quantity; opposed to extensive quantity (q.v.). -- A.C.B.

Intent
(Lat. intensus, pp. of intendere, to stretch) The act of directing the mind towards an object. See Intentionality. -- L.W.

Intention
In Scholastic logic, first intentions were properties or classes of, and relations between, concrete things. Second intentions were properties or classes of, and relations between, first intentions. This suggests the beginning of a simple hierarchy of types (see Logic, formal, § 6), but actually is not so, because no 'third intentions' were s...

Intentional Theory of Mind
The definition of mind in terms of intentionality (See Intentionality) which originated in the Scholastic doctrine of intentio, was revived by F. Brentano (Psychologie vom empirischen standpunkte, 1874) though his influence has become a characteristic theory of German phenomenology. See Phenomenology. -- L.W.

Intentionalism
Theory of mind and knowledge which considers intentionality a distinctive if not the defining characteristic of mind and the basis for mind's cognitive and conative functions. See Intentional Theory of Mind. -- L.W.

Intentionality
(Lat. intentio, from intendere, to stretch) The property of consciousness whereby it refers to or intends an object. The intentional object is not necessarily a real or existent thing but is merely that which the mental act is about. Intentionality is the modern equivalent of the Scholastic intentio. -- L.W. (Ger. Intentionalität) In Husserl:...

Intentionally
(in Scholasticism) Same as mentally. -- H.G.

Interaction Theory
(Lat. inter + actio, action) A dualistic theory of the body-mind relation, advanced by Descartes (1596-1650), which asserts a two directional causal influence between mind and body. See Mind-Body Relation. -- L.W.

Interactionism
See Interaction Theory.

Interest
(Lat. interest, it concerns, 3rd pers. sing, of interesse, to be between) The characteristic attitude of the mind toward any object which attracts and absorbs its attention. See Attention. -- L.W.

Interoceptor
See Receptor.

Intersubjective cognition
See Intersubjective Intercourse.

Intersubjective intercourse
(Lat. inter + subiectus) Knowledge by one subject of another subject or the other's conscious states. (See J. Ward, Naturalism and Agnosticism, pp. 164-70). -- L.W.

Intersubjective
Used and understood by, or valid for different subjects. Especially, i. language, i. concepts, i. knowledge, i. confirmability (see Verification). The i. character of science is especially emphasized by Scientific Empiricism (q. v., I C). -- R.C.

Intra-ordinal Laws
Connecting properties of aggregates of the same order. Laws connecting the characteristics of living organisms. (Broad.) -- H.H.

Intrinsic goodness
The property of being good in itself or good as an end (and not as a means merely) or desirable for its own sake. Sometimes identified with the property of being desired for its own sake. According to G. E. Moore a thing is intrinsically good if it would be good even if it existed quite alone. -- W.K.F.

Intrinsic
(Lat. inter, between + secus, beside) Having internal value. Value in the relation of parts to whole. -- J.K.F.

Introception
(in Personalism) The coalescence of the world of objective values with his own substance by which a person attains reality. -- R.T.F.

Introjection
(Lat. intro. within + jacere, to throw) In Epistemology, theory of the knowledge process, that objects of knowledge are represented in consciousness by images. A name given by R. Avenarius (1843-1896) to the doctrine of perception which he rejected. The doctrine of representative perception. In psychology, the ascription to material objects of som...

Introspection
(Lat. intro, within + spicere, to look) Observation directed upon the self or its mental states and operations. The term is the modern equivalent of 'reflection' and 'inner sense' as employed by Locke and Kant. Two types of introspection may be distinguished: (a) the direct scrutiny of conscious states and processes at the time of their occurrence...

Introspectionism
The standpoint in psychology which advocates the employment of the introspective method. -- L.W.