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


Utilitarianism
(a) Traditionally understood as the view that the right act is the act which, of all those open to the agent, will actually or probably produce the greatest amount of pleasure or happiness in the world at large (this is the so called Principle of Utility). This view has been opposed to intuitionism in the traditional sense in a long and well-known...

Utopia
(Gr. ou-topos, the Land of Nowhere) An expression used by Sir Thomas More in his book 'De optimo reipublicae statu deque nova insular Utopia,' 1516, which in the form of a novel described an ideal state. Phto's Politeia is the first famous Utopia. Plato, however, hid several predecessors and followers in this type of literature. From the Renaissan...

Utopian socialism
Given wide cuirency by the writings of Marx and Engels, this term signifies the socialist ideas of thinkcis like Owen, St. Simon and Fourier who protested against the sufferings of the masses under capitalism and who saw in social ownership of the means of production a remedy which would eliminate unemployment and afford economic security to all, ...

Uttara-Mimamsa
Same as Vedanta (q.v.).

Uttarapaksa
(Skr.) 'Subsequent view', the second, or the thinker's own view, stated after the refutation (Khandana) of the opponent's view (see prvapaksa). -- K.F.L.

Vac
(Skr.) Speech, voice, word. In Vedic (q.v.) philosophy vac and sabda (q.v.) have a similar role as the Logos in Greek philosophy (see e.g. Rigveda 10.125). It appears personified (feminine) and close to primeval reality in the hierarchy of emanations. -- K.F.L.

Vada
(Skr.) Theory.

Vague
A word (or the idea or notion associated with it) is vague if the meaning is so far not fixed that there are cases in which its application is in principle indeterminate -- although there may be other cases in which the application is quite definite. Thus longevity is vague because, although a man who dies at sixty certainly does not possess the c...

Vagueness
A term may be said (loosely) to be vngue if there are ''borderline cases' for its applicability, i.e. cases for which the rules of the language containing the term do not specify either that the term shall or that it shall not apply. Thus certain shades of reddish-orange in the spectrum are borderline cases for the application of the term 'red'. A...

Vaibhasika
(Skr.) A Buddist school of realism so named after a commentary (vibhasa) on one of their standard texts, same as Bahyapratyaksavada (q.v.) -- K.F.L.

Vairagya
(Skr. ) Disgust, aversion, renunciation of worldly things, recommended for the attainment of moksa (q.v.). -- K.F.L.

Vaisesika
One of the major systems of Indian philosophy (q.v.) founded by Ulaka, better known by his surname Kanada. It is a pluralistic realism, its main insistence being on visesa or particularity of the ultimate reality, incidental to an atomism. There are theistic implications. Reality falls into seven categories: nine substances (dravya, q.v.), 24 qual...

Valid inference
In common usage an inference is said to be valid if it is permitted by the laws of logic. It is possible to specify this more exactly only in formal terms, with reference to a particular logistic system (q.v.). The question of the validity of an inference from a set of premisses is, of course, independent of the question of the truth of the premis...

Valid
In the terminology of Carnap, a sentence (or class of sentences) is valid if it is a consequence of the null class of sentences, contra-valid if every sentence is a consequence of it. The notion of consequence here refers to a full set of primitive formulas and rules of inference for the language or logistic system (q.v.) in question, known as c-r...

Vallabha
An Indian thinker and theologian of the 15th century A.D., a follower of the Vedanta (q.v.) and of Vishnuism (q.v.), who interpreted all to be the divine reality with its threefold aspect of sat-cit-ananda, the human soul ananda. -- K.F.L.

Valuation
The process, act or attitude of assigning value to something, or of estimating its value. See Value; Evaluation. -- R.B.W.

Value, contributive
The value an entity has insofar as its being a constituent of some whole gives value to that whole. (G. E. Moore). -- C.A.B.

Value, instrumental
The value an entity possesses in virtue of the value of the consequences it produces, an entity's value as means. Sometimes the term is applied with reference only to the actual consequences, sometimes with reference to the potential consequences. -- C.A.B.

Value, intrinsic
Sometimes defined as (a) the value an entity would have even if it were to have no consequences. In this sense, an entity's intrinsic value is equivalent to its total value less its instrumental value; it would include its contributive value. Sometimes defined as (b) the value an entitv would have were it to exist quite alone. In this sense, an en...

Value, Ultimate
The intrinsic value of an entity possessing intrinsic value throughout. For example, a hedonist might say that a pleasant evening at the opera has intrinsic value and yet maintain that only the hedonic tone of the evening has ultimate value, because it alone has no constituents which fail to have intrinsic value (G. E. Moore). -- C.A.B.

Value
The contemporary use of the term 'value' and the discipline now known as the theory of value or axiology are relatively recent developments in philosophy, being largely results of certain 19th and 20th century movements. See Ethics. 'Value' is used both as a noun and as a verb. As a noun it is sometimes abstract, sometimes concrete. As an abstract...

Values, Hierarchy of
(in Max Scheler) A scale of values and of personal value-types, based on 'essences' (saint, genius, hero, leading spirit, and virtuoso of the pleasures of life, in descending scale). -- P.A.S.

Variable error
The average departure or deviation from the average between several given values. In successive measurements of magnitudes considered in the natural sciences or in experimental psychology, the observed differences are the unavoidable result of a great number of small causes independent of each other and equally likely to make the measurement too s...

Variable
A letter occurring in a mathematical or logistic formula and serving, not as a name of a particular, but as an ambiguous name of ¦any one of a class of things -- this class being known as the range of the variable, and the members of the class as values of the variable. Where a formula contains a variable, say x, as a free variable, the meaning of...

Veda, plural Vedas
(Skr. knowledge) Collectively the ancient voluminous, sacred literature of India (in bulk prior to 1000 B.C.), composed of Rigveda (hymns to gods), Samaveda (priests' chants), Yajurveda (sacrificial formulae), and Atharvaveda (magical chants), which among theosophic speculations contain the first philosophic insights. Generally recognized as an au...

Vedanta
The 'end of the Veda' (q.v.), used both in the literal sense and that of final goal, or meaning. Applied to the Upanishads (q.v.) and various systems of thought based upon them. Specifically the doctrine elaborated in the Brahmasutras of Badarayana, restated, reinterpreted, and changed by later philosophers, notably Sankara, Ramanuja, Nimbarka, Ma...

Vedantasutras
See Brahmasutras.

Vedantic
Adjective, 'belonging to the Vedanta' (q.v.).

Vedic Religion
Or the Religion of the Vedas (q.v.). It is thoroughly cosmological, inspirational and ritualistic, priest and sacrifice playing an important role. It started with belief in different gods, such as Indra, Agni, Surya, Vishnu, Ushas, the Maruts, usually interpreted as symbolizing the forces of nature, but with the development of Hinduism it deterior...

Vedic
(Skr.) Adjective, referring to the Vedas (q.v.) or the period that generated them, considered closed about 500 B.C. -- K.F.L.

Venn diagram
See Euler diagram.

Verbal
Consisting of or pertaining to words. Having to do (merely) with the use and meaning of words. -- A.C.

Verbum mentis
(Lat. mental word) The concept; the intra-mental product of the act of intellection. -- V.J.B.

Veridicity
A property of certain perceptions, memories and other acts of cognition which, though not in the strictest sense true -- since truth is usually considered an exclusive property of propositions and judgments -- tend to form true propositions. Non-veridical cognitions including illusions and hallucinations though not in themselves false are deceptiv...

Verification, Confirmation
Verification: the procedure of finding out whether a sentence (or proposition) is true or false. A sentence is verifiable (in principle) if a (positive or negative) verification of it is possible under suitable conditions, leaving aside technical difficulties. Many philosophical doctrines (e.g. Scientific Empiricism, q.v.) hold that a verificatio...

Verification
(Ger. Bewährung) In Husserl: Fulfilment; especially, fulfilment of the sense of a doxic thesis. -- D.C.

Verite de fait (Verite de raison)
There are two kinds of truth, according to Leibniz, truths of fact and truths of reason (or reasoning).These two classes of truths are exhaustive, and also, with the single exception of the existence of God, which has a logically anomalous position of being a necessary truth about existence, completely exclusive. Truths of reason are completely ce...

Vicious circle
A vicious circle in proof (circulus in probando) occurs if p1 is used to prove p2, p2 to prove p3, . . . , pn-1 to prove pn, and finally pn to prove p1 -- p
Vidya
(Skr.) Knowledge; especially knowledge of the real, noumenal. -- K.F.L.

Vienna Circle
See Scientific Empiricism I.

Vijnana-vada
(Skr.) Theory (vada) of consciousness, specifically that consciousness is of the essence of reality; also the Buddhist school of subjective idealism otherwise known as Yogacara (q.v.). -- K.F.L.

Vijnana
(Skr.) Consciousness; the faculty of apprehension or individualization of experience, and as such perhaps equivalent to ahamkara. -- K.F.L.

Virtue
(Gr. arete) In Aristotle's philosophy that state of a thing which constitutes its peculiar excellence and enables it to perform its function well; particularly, in man, the activity of reason and of rationally ordered habits. (Lat. virtus) In Roman philosophy, virtue became associated with virility and strength of character. In the Italian renaiss...

Vishnuism
(Visnuism) One of the major philosophico-religious groups into which Hinduism has articulated itself. It glorifies Vishnu as the supreme being who creates and maintains the world periodically by means of his bhuti and kriya saktis (q.v.) or powers of becoming and producing, corresponding to the causae materialis et efficiens. The place of man's so...

Visistadvaita
(Skr.) 'Qualified non-duality', the Vedantic (q.v.) doctrine of qualified monism advocated by Ramanuja (q.v.) which holds the Absolute to be personal, world and individuals to be real and distinct (visista), and salvation attainable only by grace of God earned through bhakti (q.v.). -- K.F.L.

Visnu
(Skr.) Deity of the Hindu trinity (see Trimurti). In philosophy, the principle of conservation, maintenance, or stability, the principle worshipped in Vishnuism (q.v.). -- K.F.L.

Vitalism
(Lat. vita, life) The doctrine that phenomena of life possess a character sui generis by virtue of which they differ radically from physico-chemical phenomena. The vitalist ascribes the activities of living organisms to the operation of a 'vital force' such as Driesch's 'entelechy' or Bergson's elan vital. (See H. Driesch, Der Vttalismus als Gesch...

Vivarta
(Skr. turning, whirling) The Cyclonic process of manifestation by which the One becomes the (illusory) Many, an essentially Vedantic (q.v.) concept of cosmogonic as well as psychologico-philosophical implications. -- K.F.L.

Volkelt, Johannes
(1848-1930) Waa influenced by the traditions of German idealism since Kant. His most imported work consisted in the analysis of knowledge which, he contended, had a double source; for it requires, first of all, empirical data, insofar as there can be no real knowledge of the external world apart from consciousness, and also logical thinking, insof...

Voltaire, Francois Marie Arouet de
(1694-1778) French dramatist and historian. He was one of the leading Encyclopaedists. He preached a natural religion of the deist variety. Though characterized as an atheist because of his fervent antagonism to the bigotry he found in the organized religions, he nevertheless believed in a righteous God. He was opposed to all intolerance and fough...

Voluminousness
(Lat. volumen, volume) The vague, relatively undifferentiated spatiality characterizing sensations of every sense. See W. James, The Principles of Psychology, Vol II, p. 134 ff. See Extensity. -- L.W.

Voluntarism
(Lat. voluntas, will) In ontology, the theory that the will is the ultimate constituent of reality. Doctrine that the human will, or some force analogous to it, is the primary stuff of the universe; that blind, purposive impulse is the real in nature. (a) In psychology, theory that the will is the most elemental psychic factor, that striving, impu...

Vortices
(Lat. vortex) Whirling figures used in Cartesian physics to explain the differentiation on geometrical principles of pure extension into vanous kinds of bodies. See Cartesianism. -- V.J.B.

Vyapakatva
(Skr.) 'All-reaching-ness', omni-presence. -- K.F.L.

Vyavaharika
(Skr.) Relating to practical or empirical matters. -- K.F.L.

Wai tan
External alchemy, as a means of nourishing life, attainingTao, and immortality, including transmutation of mercury into gold (also called chin tan), medicine, charms, magic, attempts at disappearance and change of bodily form. (Taoist religion). -- W.T.C.

Wai wang
Often used as referring to the man who through his virtues and abilities gains the necessary qualifications of a ruler. (Mencius). -- H.H.

Wang Chung
(Wang Chung-jen, c. 27-100 A.D.) Although strongly Taoistic in his naturalism, was independent in thinking. His violent and rational attack on all erroneous beliefs resulted in a strong movement of criticism. He was a scholar and official of high repute. (Lun Heng, partial Eng. tr. by A. Forke, Mettcilungen des Seminars für Orientalische Spra...

Wang tao
The ideal institutions described by Mencius constitute the 'Kingly Way,' one that is a kingly or virtuous government. -- H.H.

Watson, John Broadus
(1878-1958) American psychologist and leading exponent of Behaviorism (see Behaviorism), studied and served as Instructor at the University of Chicago, and was appointed Professor of Experimental Psychology at Johns Hopkins University 1908 where he served until 1920. Since then he engaged in the advertising business in New York City. The program f...

Wave mechanics
See Quantum mechanics.

Weber-Fechner Law
Basic law of psychophysics which expresses in quantitative terms the relation between the intensity of a stimulus and the intensity of the resultant sensation. E. H. Weber applying the method of 'just noticeable difference' in experiments involving weight discrimination found that the ability to discriminate two stimuli depends not on the absolute...

Wei wo
'For the self,' in the sense of 'preserving life and keeping the essence of our being intact and not to injure our material existence with things,' erroneously interpreted by Mencius as egotism, selfishness, 'everyone for himself.' (Yang Chu, c 440-c 360 B.C.). -- W.T.C.

Wei
The product of culture, social order, and training; ability acquired through training and accomplishment through effort; human activity as a result of the cogitation of the mind, as opposed to what is inborn. (Hsun Tzu, c 335-c 288 B.C.). -- W.T.C

Well-ordered
See Ordinal number.

Weltanschauung
(Ger.) The compound term means world-view, perspective of life, conception of things.

Wen
(a) Culture evidences of the Confucian Moral Law (tao), such as propriety, music, social institutions, governmental systems, education, etc., the tradition of the Chou dynasty which Confucius attempted to preserve. (b) Appearance polish, superficiality. (c) Letters: literature, one of the four things Confucius taught (ssu chiao). -- W.T.C.

Wertfrei
(Ger. value-free) Seeing the central strength of the scientific attitude in its valuational neutrality, Max Weber (1864-1920) insisted that the deliberate abstention from taking sides for the value or against the disvalue of a thing when under scientific scrutiny was essential to progress in the social sciences. -- H.H.

Wertheimer, Max
(1880) One of the originators -- along with Koffka and Köhler -- of Gestalt psychology. The three began their association at Frankfort about 1912 and later Wertheimer and Köhler worked together at the University of Berlin. Wertheimer was led to the basic conception of Gestalt in the course of his investigations of apparent movement which...

Wesen
(Ger. being, essence, nature) Designates essential being without which a thing has no reality. It has been conceived variously in the history of philosophy, as Ousia or constant being by Aristotle; as essenitia, real or nominal, or species, by the Schoolmen; as principle of all that which belongs to the possibility of a thing, by Kant; generally a...

Wesensschau
(Ger. intuition of essence) In Scheler: The immediate grasp of essences. -- P.A.S.

Whitehead, Alfred North
British philosopher. Born in 1861. Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, 1911-14. Lecturer in Applied Mathematics and Mechanics at University College, London, 1914-24. Professor of Applied Mathematics at the Imperial College of Science and Technology, London. From 1924 until retirement in 1938, Professor of Philosophy at Harvard University. Among ...

Whole
The term 'whole' has been used frequently in attempts to describe or to explain certain features of biological, psychological, or sociological (but sometimes also of physical and chemical) phenomena which were said to be inaccessible to a 'merely mechanistic' or 'summative' analysis. In fact, most applications of the concept of whole explicitly re...

Will (Scholastic)
Will is one of the two rational faculties of the human soul. Only man, as a rational animal, possesses will. Animals are prompted to action by the sensory appetites and in this obey the law of their nature, whereas human will is called free insofar as it determines itself towards the line of action it chooses. Though the objects of will are presen...

Will to Believe
A phrase made famous by William James (1842-1910) in an essay by that title (1896). In general, the phrase characterizes much of James's philosophic ideas: a defence of the right and even the necessity to believe where evidence is not complete, the adventurous spirit by which men must live, the heroic character of all creative thinking, the open-m...

Will, the Free Elective
(In Kant's ethics) Kant's ''free elective will' (freie Willkür) is a will undetermined by feeling at the time of willing, even though it is destined to be sanctioned and confirmed by a subsequent accrual of feeling. Such a will, Kant says, is freedom. -- P.A.S.

Will
In the widest sense, will is synonymous with conation. See Conation. In the restricted sense, will designates the sequence of mental acts eventuating in decision or choice between conflicting conative tendencies. An act of will of the highest type is analyzable into: The envisaging of alternative courses of action, each of which expresses conati...

William of Champeaux
(1070-1121) He was among the leading realists holding that the genus and species were completely present in each individual, making differences merely incidental. He was one of the teachers of Abelard. -- L.E.D.

Wissenschaftslehre
(Ger. doctrine of science) Since Fichte who understood by it critical philosophy in general and his idealistic system based on consciousness of the absolute ego apart from any definite content of knowledge in particular, a term characterizing philosophy as a scientific systcm of knowledge embracing the principles and methodology of all sciences un...

Wittgenstein, Ludwig
(Lecturer in philosophy at University of Cambridge, 1929-1939; professor and head of department since 1939. Author of Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, 1922. Apart from technical innovations in logical theory (notably in the discussion of tautology and probability), Wittgenstein's main contribution to contemporary philosophy has been his demonstrati...

Wolff. Christian
(1679-1754) A most outstanding philosopher of the German Enlightenment, and exponent of an all pervasive rationalism, who was professor of mathematics at Halle. He was a dry and superficial systematic popularizer of dogmatic philosophy whose laws have for him a purely logical and rational foundation. -- H.H. Miin works: In German a series of works...

Woodbridge, Frederick James Eugene
(1867-1940) Was Professor of Philosophy of Columbia University and one of the Editors of the Journal of Philosophy. He was an important member of the realist school. For him consciousness was a relation of meaning, a connection of objects and structure was a notion of greater philosophic value than substance. His best known works are Philosophy of...

World Ground
The source, cause, essence, or sustaining power within or behind the World. See Absolute. -- W.L.

World soul
1. An intelligent, animating, indwelling principle of the cosmos, conceived as its organizing or integrating cause, or as the source of its motion; thus posited on the analogy of the hurnan soul and body. Such a doctrine, common among primitive peoples, was taught by Plato, Stoicism, Neo-Platonism, Renaissance Platonism, Bruno, etc. 2. This view h...

World-event
An event conceived in four dimensions, including its duration. See Space-Time. -- R.B.W.

World-line
A line conceived in four dimensions; a line cutting across space-time. See Space-Time. -- R.B.W.

World-point
A four-dimensional point; a durationless geometricil point. See Space- Time. -- R.B.W.

Wrong action
Any action that is not right. See Right action. -- C.A.B.

Wu ch'ang
The Five Constant Virtues of ancient Confucianism: righteousness on the part of the mother, brotherliness on the part of the elder brother, respect on the part of the young brother, and filial piety on the part of the son. Also called wu chiao and wu tien. The Five Constant Virtues of Confucianism from the Han dynasty (206 B.C. -220 A.D.) on bene...

Wu chi
The Non-Ultimate. See T'ai Chi. -- W.T.C.

Wu chiao
The Five Teachings. See wu ch'ang.

Wu hsing
The Five Agents, Elements or Powers of Water, Fire, Wood, Metal and Earth, the interaction of which gives rise to the multiplicity of things, and which have their correspondence in the five senses, tastes, colors, tones, the five virtues, the five atmospheric conditions, the five ancient emperors, etc. Also called wu te. (The Yin Yang School in t...

Wu hua
The transformation of things, that is, the conception that entities should be. and could be, so transfomed, spiritually speaking, that absolute identity may exist between them, especially between the self and the non-self, and between man and things. (Chuang Tzu, between 399 and 295 B.C.). -- W.T.C.

Wu lun
The five human relationships, 'those between the father and the son, the ruler and subordinates, husbind and wife, the elder and the younger, and friends.' Also called the Five Constants (wu ch'ang). 'Between father and son, there should be affection, between sovereign and ministers, there should be righteousness, between husband and wife, attenti...

Wu shih
The Five Origins of Order in the medievil Confucian interpretation of history, namely, the beginning of Heaven is rectified by the depth of the Prime; the government of the empire is rectified by the beginning of Heaven; the position of the princes is rectified by the government of the empire; and the order of the state is rectified by the positio...

Wu te
(a) The Five Powers, or the characteristics of the Five Agents or Elements (wu hsing) of the Yin Yang school. (b) The Five Constant Virtues. See wu ch'ang. -- W.T.C.

Wu tien
The Five Constant Virtues. See wu ch'ang.

Wu wei
Following nature, non-artificiality, non-assertion, inaction, inactivity or passivity. It means that artificiality must not replace spontaneity, that the state of nature must not be interfered with by human efforts, superficial morality and wisdom. 'Tao undertakes no activity (wu wei), and yet there is nothing left undone. If kings and princes wou...

Wu wu
To regard things as things, that is, to regard things with objectivity and no attachment or selfishness, on the one hand, and, with the conviction that the self and the non-self form an organic unity on the other. -- W.T.C.

Wu
'Eternal Non-Being' is that which is opposed to being of material objects; refers to the essence of Tao, the first principle. (Lao Tzu). -- H.H.