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

Objective test
Any test, whether standardized or not, which meets the requirements of a measuring instrument, permitting no reasonable doubt as to the correctness or incorrectness of the answers given. -- J.E.B.

Objective
(a) Possessing the character of a real object existing independently of the knowing mind in contrast to subjective. See Subjective. (b) In Scholastic terminology beginning with Duns Scotus and continuing into the 17th and 18th centuries, objective designated anything existing as idea or representation in the mind without independent existence, (cf...

Objectivism, epistemological
Doctrine maintaining that everything apprehended is independent of the apprehender. (Montague.) -- H.H.

Objectivism
Realism (q.v.). Objective Idealism (q.v.). Logic, Aesthetics, Ethics: The view that the mind possesses objects, norms, or meanings of universal validity. The opposite of subjectivism, psychologism, solipsism, individualism (q.v.). -- W.L.

Objectivistic ethics
The view that ethical truths are not relative, that there are certain actions which are right or certain objects which arc good for all individuals alike. See Relativism. -- W.K.F.

Objectivize
The mental process whereby a sensation which is in the first instance, a subjective state, is transformed into the perception of an object. See Introjection. -- L.W.

Obligation
This may be said to be present whenever a necessity of any kind is laid upon any one to do a certain thing. Here the term 'obligation' may refer either to the necessity of his doing the act or to the act which it is necessary for him to do. Always, in any case of obligation, there is a kind of necessity for someone to do something. This is true in...

Oblivescence
(Lat. oblivesci, to forget) The gradual obliteration of a memory. -- L.W.

Observation
(Lat. ob + servare, to save, keep, observe) The act of becoming aware of objects through the sense organs and of interpreting them by means of concepts. See Sensation. -- A.C.B.

Observational Judgment
Any judgment, particular or general, which is based on observation or experience, but especially, and more strictly, any particular judgment based on sense-perception, e.g. ''That is a round tower.' -- W.K.F.

Obversion
See Logic, formal, § 4.

Occasion
(Lat. occasio, a happening) The agency of action. The proximate or historical cause. Any actual thing or event consideied as the historical cause of another. The occasion of anything is its antecedent reference, the cause, its logical reference. Syn. with actual. See Cause, Chance. -- J.K.F.

Occasional causes, the doctrine of
The doctrine that in some or in all cases of apparent causal connection, the apparent cause does not itself actually bring about the apparent effect, but only serves as the occasion on which some other agent or force brings about that effect. Thus Malebranche and the other Occasionalists held that in all cases where mind and body seem to be causal...

Occasionalism
A theory of knowledge and of voluntary control of action, in which mind and matter are non-interactive but events in one realm occur in correspondence with events in the other realm. Thus, God sees to it that an idea of noise occurs in a mind on the occasion of the occurrence of a physical noise, or, He makes a physical event happen when a mind wi...

Ockhamism
A term in common use since the early 15th century, indicating doctrines and methods associated with those of the English Franciscan theologian William of Ockham (died 1349). It is currently applied by neoscholastic writers as a blanket designation for a great variety of late mediaeval and early modern attitudes such as are destructive of the metap...

Om, aum
(Skr.) Mystic, holy syllable as a symbol for the indefinable Absolute. See Aksara, Vac, Sabda. -- K.F.L.

Omniscience
In philosophy and theology it means the complete and perfect knowledge of God, of Himself and of all other beings, past, present, and future, or merely possible, as well as all their activities, real or possible, including the future free actions of human beings. -- J.J.R.

On-handedness
(Ger. Vorhandenheit) Things exist in the mode of thereness, lying- passively in a neutral space. A 'deficient' form of a more basic relationship, termed at-handedness (Zuhandenheit). (Heidegger.) -- H.H.

One-one
A relation R is one-many if for every y in the converse domain there is a unique x such that xRy. A relation R is many-one if for every x in the domain there is a unique y such that xRy. (See the article relation.) A relation is one-one, or one-to-one, if it is at the same time one-many and many-one. A one-one relation is said to be, or to determi...

One
Philosophically, not a number but equivalent to unit, unity, individuality, in contradistinction from multiplicity and the mani-foldness of sensory experience. In metaphysics, the Supreme Idea (Plato), the absolute first principle (Neo-platonism), the universe (Parmenides), Being as such and divine in nature (Plotinus), God (Nicolaus Cusanus), the...

Ontological argument
Name by which later authors, especially Kant, designate the alleged proof for God's existence devised by Anselm of Canterbury. Under the name of God, so the argument runs, everyone understands that greater than which nothing can be thought. Since anything being the greatest and lacking existence is less then the greatest having also existence, the...

Ontological Object
(Gr. onta, existing things + logos, science) The real or existing object of an act of knowledge as distinguished from the epistemological object. See Epistemological Object. -- L.W.

Ontologism
(Gr. on, being) In contrast to psychologism, is called any speculative system which starts philosophizing by positing absolute being, or deriving the existence of entities independently of experience merely on the basis of their being thought, or assuming that we have immediate and certain knowledge of the ground of being or God. Generally speakin...

Ontology
(Gr. on, being + logos, logic) The theory of being qua being. For Aristotle, the First Philosophy, the science of the essence of things. Introduced as a term into philosophy by Wolff. The science of fundamental principles, the doctrine of the categories. Ultimate philosophy; rational cosmology. Syn. with metaphysics. See Cosmology, First Principle...

Operation
'(Lit. operari, to work) Any act, mental or physical, constituting a phase of the reflective process, and performed with a view to acquiring1 knowledge or information about a certain subject-nntter. -- A.C.B. In logic, see Operationism. In philosophy of science, see Pragmatism, Scientific Empiricism.

Operationism
The doctrine that the meaning of a concept is given by a set of operations. 1. The operational meaning of a term (word or symbol) is given by a semantical rule relating the term to some concrete process, object or event, or to a class of such processes, objectj or events. 2. Sentences formed by combining operationally defined terms into propositio...

Ophelimity
Noun derived from the Greek, ophelimos useful, employed by Vilfredo Pareto (1848-1923) in economics as the equivalent of utility, or the capacity to provide satisfaction. -- J.J.R.

Opinion
(Lat. opinio, from opinor, to think) An hypothesis or proposition entertained on rational grounds but concerning which doubt can reasonably exist. A belief. See Hypothesis, Certainty, Knowledge. -- J.K.F-

Optimism
(Lat. optimus, the best) The view inspired by wishful thinking, success, faith, or philosophic reflection, that the world as it exists is not so bad or even the best possible, life is good, and man's destiny is bright. Philosophically most persuasively propounded by Leibniz in his Theodicee, according to which God in his wisdom would have created ...

Order type
See relation-number.

Order
A class is said to be partially ordered by a dyadic relation R if it coincides with the field of R, and R is transitive and reflexive, and xRy and yRx never both hold when x and y are different. If in addition R is connected, the class is said to be ordered (or simply ordered) by R, and R is called an ordering relation. Whitehcid and Russell apply...

Ordinal number
A class b is well-ordered by a dyadic relation R if it is ordered by R (see order) and, for every class a such that a ? b, there is a member x of a, such that xRy holds for every member y of a; and R is then called a well-ordering relation. The ordinal number of a class b well-ordered by a relation R, or of a well-ordering relation R, is defin...

Orexis
(Gr. orexis) Striving; desire; the conative aspect of mind, as distinguished from the cognitive and emotional (Aristotle). -- G.R.M..

Organicism
A theory of biology that life consists in the organization or dynamic system of the organism. Opposed to mechanism and vitalism. -- J.K.F.

Organism
An individual animal or plant, biologically interpreted. A. N. Whitehead uses the term to include also physical bodies and to signify anything material spreading through space and enduring in time. -- R.B.W.

Organismic Psychology
(Lat. organum, from Gr. organon, an instrument) A system of theoretical psychology which construes the structure of the mind in organic rather than atomistic terms. See Gestalt Psychology; Psychological Atomism. -- L.W.

Organization
(Lat. organum, from Gr. organon, work) A structured whole. The systematic unity of parts in a purposive whole. A dynamic system. Order in something actual. -- J.K.F.

Organon
(Gr. organon) The title traditionally given to the body of Aristotle's logical treatises. The designation appears to have originated among the Peripatetics after Aristotle's time, and expresses their view that logic is not a part of philosophy (as the Stoics maintained) but rather the instrument (organon) of philosophical inquiry. See Aristotelian...

Oriental Philosophy
A general designation used loosely to cover philosophic tradition exclusive of that grown on Greek soil and including the beginnings of philosophical speculation in Egypt, Arabia, Iran, India, and China, the elaborate systems of India, Greater India, China, and Japan, and sometimes also the religion-bound thought of all these countries with that o...

Ormazd
(New Persian) Same as Ahura Mazdah (q.v.), the good principle in Zoroastrianism, and opposed to Ahriman (q.v.). -- K.F.L.

Orphic Literature
The mystic writings, extant only in fragments, of a Greek religious-philosophical movement of the 6th century B.C., allegedly started by the mythical Orpheus. In their mysteries, in which mythology and rational thinking mingled, the Orphics concerned themselves with cosmogony, theogony, man's original creation and his destiny after death which the...

Ortega y Gasset, Jose
Born in Madrid, May 9, 1883. At present in Buenos Aires, Argentine. Son of Ortega y Munillo, the famous Spanish journalist. Studied at the College of Jesuits in Miraflores and at the Central University of Madrid. In the latter he presented his Doctor's dissertation, El Milenario, in 1904, thereby obtaining his Ph.D. degree. After studies in Leipzi...

Orthodoxy
Beliefs which are declared by a group to be true and normative. Heresy is a departure from and relative to a given orthodoxy. -- V.S.

Orthos Logos
See Right Reason.

Ostensible Object
(Lat. ostendere, to show) The object envisaged by cognitive act irrespective of its actual existence. See Epistemological Object. -- L.W.

Ostensive
(Lat. ostendere, to show) Property of a concept or predicate by virtue of which it refers to and is clarified by reference to its instances. -- A.C.B.

Ostwald, Wilhelm
(1853-1932) German chemist. Winner of the Nobel prize for chemistry in 1909. In Die Uberwindung des wissenschaftlichen Materialistmus and in Naturphilosophie, his two best known works in the field of philosophy, he advocates a dynamic theory in opposition to materialism and mechanism. All properties of matter, and the psychic as well, are special ...

Oupnekhat
Anquetil Duperron's Latin translation of the Persian translation of 50 Upanishads (q.v.), a work praised by Schopenhauer as giving him complete consolation. -- K.F.L.

Overindividual
Term used by H. Münsterberg to translate the German überindividuell. The term is applied to any cognitive or value object which transcends the individual subject. -- L.W.

Paganism
(Lat. pagus, village) The term probably reverts to the designation of villagers who had not yet been reached by the missionary propaganda emanating from populous centers. Fourth-century Christians employed the term to refer to those faiths and practices outside the circumference of the Christian faith. -- V.F.

Pai chia
The 'Hundred Schools,' referring to the various tendencies of thought in philosophy, logic, ethics, law, politics, diplomacy, economics, agriculture, military science, etc, in the third and fourth centuries B.C. with Chi Hsia as a center. -- W.T.C.

Pain
See Pleasure.

Painting
A plane surface covered with colors assembled in a given order (M. Denis, 1890). -- L.V.

Paley, William
(1743-1805) Was an English churchman well known for a number of works in theology. He is also widely remembered in the field of ethics. His Principles of Moral and Political Philosophy passed through many editions and served as a text book at Cambridge for many years. As an advocate of the doctrine of expediency, he gave impetus to the later Utili...

Palingenesis
(Gr palm, again, genesis, birth) Literally, a new birth or regeneration A rebirth of ideas and events (in a philosophy of history), a new birth of individuals (in theology). -- V.F.

Pan-entheism
(Gr. pan, all; en, in, theos, god) The term for the view that God interpenetrates everything without cancelling the relative independent existence of the world of entities, moreover, while God is immanent, this immanence is not absolute (as in pantheism), God is more than the world, transcendent, in the sense that though the created is dependent u...

Pan-objectivism
(Gr. pan, all + Lat. objectus, pp. of objicere, to throw over against) An extreme form of epistemological realism which attributes real ohjectivity to all objects of knowledge, veridical and non-veridical alike. See Epistemological Realism. -- L.W.

Pan-Satanism
The vague belief that the world is somehow identified with the devil. Name given to pantheism by Herbart. Otto Liebmann (1840-1912) regarded Schopenhauer's philosophy as a sort of Pan-Satanism. -- J.J.R.

Panaetius
(180-110 B.C.) A prominent Stoic philosopher whose thought was influenced by the Skeptics; in his attempt to adapt Stoicism to practical needs of life, he abandoned some of the more speculative notions current among his predecessors. Influenced Cicero and Augustine. -- R.B.W.

Panlogism
(Gr. pan, all + logos, word) The doctrine that the world is the actualization of Mind or Logos. Term applied to Hegel's theory of Reality. See Hegel. -- L.W.

Panpneumatism
According to Ed. v. Hartmmn (q.v.) a synthesis of panlogism and pantheism (q.v.). -- K.F.L.

Panpsychism
(Gr pan, all, psyche, soul) A form of metaphysical idealism, of which Leibniz's theory of monads is the classical example, according to which the whole of nature consists of psychic centers similar to the human mind. -- L.W.

Pantheism, medieval
True pantheistic ideas are rare in medieval literature. The accusation raised against Scotus Eriugena seems unfounded and was caused more by his writings being quoted as authorities by the followers of Amalric of Bene (1206-7) whose views were condemned in 1210. His writings are lost, he apparently taught the identity of Creator and creature and c...

Pantheism
(Gr. Pan, all; Theos, God) 1. The doctrine that reality comprises a single being of which all things are modes, moments, members, appearances, or projections. 2. As a religious concept Pantheism is to be distinguished from Immanent Theism md Deism by asserting the essential imminence of God in the creatures. See Monism, Idealism -- W.L.

Pantheistic Personalism
The doctrine that reality consists of a Supreme Personality of which the world of persons are parts. The Divine Personality having no separate existence from its creation. See also Critical Personalism, Mono-Personalism. -- R.T.F.

Paracelsus, Theophrastus Bombast
(1493-1541) Of Hohenheim, was a physician who endeavored to use philosophy as one of the 'pillars' of medical science. His philosophy is a weird combination of Neo-Platonism, experimentalism, and superstitious magic. He rejected much of the traditional theory of Galen and the Arab physicians. His works (Labyrinthus, Opus paramirum, Die grosse Wund...

Paraclete
(Gr. parakaleo, to call to one's aid) One who is called to assistance. More specifically: the designation of the function of the Holy Spirit, the third embodiment of the Christian Trinity. -- V.F.

Paradigma
The Latin foim of the Greek noun, which denotes model. Plato called his ideas in the world of ideas, models on which were patterned the things of the phenomenal world. -- J.J.R.

Paradoxes, logical
The ancient paradox of Epimenides the Cretan, who said that all Cretans were liars (i.e., absolutely incapable of telling the truth), was known under numerous variant forms in ancient and medievd times The medieval name for these was insolubilia. A form of this paradox due to Jourdain (1913) supposes a card upon the front of which are written the ...

Parallelism, psychophysical
(Cr parallelos, from para, beside -- allelon, of one another). A dualistic solution of the mind body problem (see Mind-body relation) which asserts, in its extreme form, a perfect one-to-one correlation between the system of physical events in nature and the system of psychical events in mind. In its more moderate and restricted form, parallelism ...

Parallelism
(philosophiol) A doctrine advanced to explain the relation between mind and body according to which mental processes vary concomitantly with simultineous physiological processes. This general description is applicable to all forms of the theory More strictly it assumes that for every mental change there exists a correlated neural change, and it de...

Paralogism
(Gr. paralogismos) A fallacious svllogism, an error in reasoning. See Sophism. -- G.R.M. In Kant's system the paralogisms are arguments alleging to prove the substantivity, simplicity and eternality of the soul or pure ego. See Kantianism. -- O.F.K.

Paramanu
(Skr.) An exceedingly (parama) or infinitely small or magnitudeless thing (cf. anu), a discrete physical entity playing a similar role in Indian philosophy as ions, electrons, or protons in modern physics. -- K.F.L.

Paramarthika
(Skr) Relating to spiritual, essential, or absolute matters. -- A.F.L.

Parapsychology
(Gr. para, at the side or + psyche, soul + logia from logein, to speak) The investigation of prescience, telepathy and other alleged psychical phenomena which seem to elude ordinary physical and physiological explanation. The term was proposed by Boirac (1893) and was adopted by Florunay and Oesterreich. See A. Lalande, Vocabulaire de la philosoph...

Parcaratra
(Skr ) A quasi philosophical system of Vishnuism (q.v.) based upon the Agamas (q.v.). -- K.F.L.

Parinama-vada
(Skr.) Theory of evolution expounded by the Sankhya (q.v.), according to which the disturbed equilibrium between two primary substances (prakrti and purusa) is responsible for change. -- K.F.L.

Parmenides
6th-5th century B.C., head of the Eleatic School of Greek Philosophy, developed the conception of 'Being' in opposition to the 'Becoming' of Heraclitus. To think at all we must postulate something which is, that which is not cannot be thought, and cannot be. Thought without being or being without thought are impossible, and the two are therefore i...

Parousia
(Gr. presence) In Plato's philosophy, the presence of the Idea in the thing which, in turn, pirtakes of the Idea; in theology, the presence of Christ after his prophesied return to earth. -- K.F.L.

Parsimony, Law of
Name given to various statements of a general regulative principle of economy of thought, or effort, in the use of means to attain a purpose, like that of William of Ockham (died about 1349), called Ockham's razor: Entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem. It is interpreted in the sense that the least possible number of assumptions are to...

Particular proposition
In traditional logic, propositions A, E (excepting singular forms, according to some) were called universal and I, O, particular. See Logic, formal, § 4. -- A.C.

Particular
(Lat pars, a part) A member of a class as opposed to the property which defines the class; an individual as opposed to a universal. -- A.C.B.

Particulate
An adjective which means, having the form of minute particles, or assuming such a form. Also a verb now almost obsolete which signified, to divide into parts mentally, or to separate into really existing particles. Formerly it also meant, to particularize. -- J.J.R.

Parva Naturalia
The name traditionally given to a series of short treatises by Aristotle on psychological and biological topics: viz. De Sensu et Sensibili, De Memoria et Reminiscentia, De Somno, De Somniis, De Divinatione per Somnium, De Longitudine et Brevitate Vitae, De Vita et Morte, De Respiratione. -- G.R.M.

Pascal, Blaise
(1623-1662) French philosopher mathematician and scientist. He conducted scientific researches including experiments on atmospheric pressure and invented an ingenious calculating machine. He turned from preoccupation with the scientific to the study of man and his spiritual problems and found faith as a sounder guide than reason. At this stage of ...

Passive Empiricism
The doctrine that knowledge comes by way of experience with the emphasis upon the negative character of the mind. The mind can act only upon the stimulus of contact with the world outside itself. John Locke furnishes an example of this view. See Tabula rasa. -- V.F.

Past-Time
All the extent of time preceding a given event or experience, the term is occasionally confined to that extent of preceding time which is relevant to a given event or experience. Obviously enough, past-time is not a permanent condition unrelated to the succession of events: anything that is past has been present and also future before it became pr...

Past
That part of time, continuously growing, which includes all the events which have already happened. Their relationship with other past events is generally regarded as fixed. -- R.B.W.

Patanjali
The author of the Yogasutras (q.v.), not identical with the famous Hindu grammarian by the same name -- K.F.L.

Patripassianism
(Lat. pater, father, patior, suffer) The teaching that God suffers. In Christian thought this view was held by Sabellius (fi. first half of third century) in connection with the sufferings of Jesus conceived to be God manifested -- V.F.

Patristic Philosophy
The advent of Christian revelation introduced a profound change in the history of philosophy. New facts about God, the world and man were juxtaposed to the conclusions of pagan philosophy, while reason was at once presented with the problem of reconciling these facts with the pagan position and the task of constructing them into a new science call...

Patterns of learning
Reaction modes, physiological habit systems. -- J.E.B.

Peano, Giuseppe
, 1858-1932, Italian mathematician. Professor of mathematics at the University of Turin, 1890-1932. His work in mathematical logic marks a transition stage between the old algebra of logic and the newer methods. It is inferior to Frege's by present standards of rigor, but nevertheless contains important advances, among which may be mentioned the di...

Peirce's law
The theorem of the propositional calculus, [[p ? q] ? p] ? p. -- A.C.

Peirce, Charles Sanders
American Philosopher. Born in Cambridge, Mass, on September 10th, 1839. Harvard M.A. in 1862 and Sc. B. in 1863. Except for a brief cireer as lectuier in philosophy at Harvard, 1864-65 and 1869-70 and in logic at Johns Hopkins, 1879-84, he did no formal teaching. Longest tenure was with the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey for thirty years ...

Pelagianism
The teaching of Pelagius of Britain who was active during the first quarter of the fifth century in Rome, North Africa, and Palestine. He denied original sin and the necessity of baptism in order to be freed from it. Death was not a punishment for sin, and men can be saved without the aid of divine grace. By justification men are purged of their s...

Perception, non-sensory
As the opposite of imagining, it lacks the sensory content. Space and time have this characteristic as experienced by man. (Montague.) -- H.H.

Perception, pure
Is a form of action rather than a form of cognition. Involves an actual presence of external objects to the sense organs, is the reflection of the body's virtual or possible action upon these objects, or of the object's possible action upon the body. The consciousness of perception is a measure of its indetermination. (Bergson.) -- H.H.

Perception
(Lat. perceptio, from percipere, to perceive) (a) In contemporary psychology and epistemology: Perception is the apprehension of ordinary sense-objects, such as trees, houses, chairs, etc., on the occasion of sensory stimulation. Perception is distinguished, on the one hand, from sensation (the apprehension of isolated sense qualities) and on the ...

Percepts
The abbreviation for perceptual data.