Experimental philosophy

By Mallon, Ron; Nichols, Shaun

Experimental philosophy is not a philosophy, it is a method that is supposed to contribute to philosophical inquiry. Characteristically, experimental philosophers use empirical techniques to investigate philosophically significant ...

Experimental philosophy

Experimental philosophy is not a philosophy; it is a method that is supposed to contribute to philosophical inquiry. Characteristically, experimental philosophers use empirical techniques to investigate philosophically significant ...

Intuitions, philosophical appeals to

By Pust, Joel

Intuitions are, according to many philosophers, treated as a primary source of evidence in much distinctively philosophical inquiry. While some contest this claim, if it is true, then ...

Newton, Isaac (1642–1727)

By Harper, William L.; Smith, George E.; Biener, Zvi

Newton is best known for having invented the calculus and formulated the theory of universal gravity – the latter in his Principia, the single most important work in ...

Magic

By Kassell, Lauren

Magic is the art of influencing the workings of nature through occult powers. It can be found in most societies throughout history. It is often defined by contrast ...

Free will

‘Free will’ is the conventional name of a topic that is best discussed without reference to the will. Its central questions are ‘What is it to act (or ...

Experimental epistemology

By Beebe, James

Experimental epistemology is the branch of experimental philosophy devoted to the empirical study of our shared practices of reasoning and making judgments about knowledge, evidence, and justified belief. ...

Boyle, Robert (1627–91)

By Sargent, Rose-Mary

Boyle is often remembered for the contributions that he made to the sciences of chemistry and pneumatics. Like other natural philosophers in seventeenth-century England, however, he was a ...

Gettier problem

By Hetherington, Stephen

Edmund Gettier, in 1963, introduced into philosophy what soon became known as the Gettier problem. It is still with us – frustratingly so for some, intriguingly so for ...

Epistemic Luck

By Broncano-Berrocal, Fernando; Carter, J. Adam

In almost any domain of endeavour, successes can be attained through skill, but also by dumb luck. An archer’s wildest shots occasionally hit the target. Against enormous odds, ...

Naturalized epistemology

Epistemology, the theory of knowledge, is one of the central areas of philosophy. The questions addressed by epistemology have historically included what knowledge is, how we can or ...

Metaepistemology

By Gerken, Mikkel

Metaepistemology may be partly characterized as the study of the nature, aims, methods and legitimacy of epistemology. Given such a characterization, most epistemological views and theories have an ...

Epistemology

Epistemology has been traditionally concerned with questions about the nature, value, and scope of knowledge, together with other questions that arise in relation to these. Hence, another name ...

Cavendish, Margaret Lucas (1623–73)

By O'Neill, Eileen

The only seventeenth-century woman to publish numerous books on natural philosophy, Cavendish presented her materialism in a wide range of literary forms. She abandoned her early commitment to ...

Newton, Isaac (1642–1727)

By Biener, Zvi

Isaac Newton is best known as a mathematician and physicist. He invented the calculus, discovered universal gravitation and made significant advances in theoretical and experimental optics. His master-work ...

Linguistic turn

By Glock, Hans-Johann; Kalhat, Javier

The term ‘the linguistic turn’ refers to a radical reconception of the nature of philosophy and its methods, according to which philosophy is neither an empirical science nor ...

Mind and body in early modern philosophy

By Duncan, Stewart

European philosophers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries proposed a wide range of views about the nature of the mind and its relation to the body. ...

Moral psychology, empirical work in

By May, Joshua

How do we form our moral judgments, and how do they influence behaviour? What ultimately motivates kind versus malicious action? Moral psychology is the interdisciplinary study of such ...

Moral psychology, empirical work in

How do we form our moral judgments, and how do they influence behaviour? What ultimately motivates kind versus malicious action? Moral psychology is the interdisciplinary study of such ...

Pragmatic Encroachment

By Ganson, Dorit

When Pascal entreats us to ‘Wager, then, without hesitation that He is’ upon consideration of the potential gains (all) and losses (nothing) of such a wager, we recognise ...

Twentieth-century philosophy

By Livingston, Paul M.

Although it is difficult to generalize, twentieth-century philosophy has a number of broadly characteristic and widely shared concerns. These include the ambition to clarify the nature and foundations ...

Locke, John (1632–1704)

John Locke was the leading English philosopher of the late seventeenth century. His two major works, An Essay concerning Human Understanding and Two Treatises of ...

Ordinary language philosophy

By Martinich, A.P.

Ordinary language philosophy is a method of doing philosophy, rather than a set of doctrines. It is diverse in its methods and attitudes. It belongs to the general ...

Enlightenment, Scottish

By Wood, Paul

Rooted in the intellectual revolution of the seventeenth century, the Scottish Enlightenment was a branch of the Moderate Enlightenment that dominated the Atlantic world in the eighteenth century. ...

Glanvill, Joseph (1636–80)

By Rogers, G.A.J.

Joseph Glanvill was an opponent of the scholastic philosophy which he had been taught in England, supporting instead the new learning associated with Francis Bacon and the Royal ...