Metaphysics

By Craig, Edward

Metaphysics is a broad area of philosophy marked out by two types of inquiry. The first aims to be the most general investigation possible into the nature of ...

Fatalism

By Craig, Edward

‘Fatalism’ is sometimes used to mean the acceptance of determinism, along with a readiness to accept the consequence that there is no such thing as human freedom. The ...

Genetic modification

By Tester, Mark; Craig, Edward

Genetic modification is the heritable alteration of the genetic make-up of an organism. As a natural process this is as old as genes themselves, and has been utilized ...

Knowing how to

By Craig, Edward

It is sometimes said that when philosophers have thought about knowledge they have attended exclusively to knowing that p (or ‘propositional knowledge’, since p stands here for a ...

Monism

By Craig, Edward

‘Monism’ is a very broad term, applicable to any doctrine which maintains either that there is ultimately only one thing, or only one kind of thing; it has ...

Ontology

By Craig, Edward

The word ‘ontology’ is used to refer to philosophical investigation of existence, or being. Such investigation may be directed towards the concept of being, asking what ‘being’ means, ...

Pluralism

By Craig, Edward

‘Pluralism’ is a broad term, applicable to any doctrine which maintains that there are ultimately many things, or many kinds of thing; in both these senses it is ...

Private states and language

By Craig, Edward

Something is ’private’ if it can be known to one person only. Many have held that perceptions and bodily sensations are in this sense private, being knowable only ...

Realism and antirealism

By Craig, Edward

The basic idea of realism is that the kinds of thing which exist, and what they are like, are independent of us and the way in which we ...

Relativism

By Craig, Edward

Someone who holds that nothing is simply good, but only good for someone or from a certain point of view, holds a relativist view of goodness. Protagoras, ...

Solipsism

By Craig, Edward

‘Solipsism’ (from the Latin solus ipse – oneself alone) is the doctrine that only oneself exists. This formulation covers two doctrines, each of which has been called ...

Williams, Bernard Arthur Owen (1929–2003)

By Harrison, Ross; Craig, Edward

Bernard Williams wrote on the philosophy of mind, especially personal identity, and political philosophy; but the larger and later part of his published work is on ethics. He ...

Williams, Bernard Arthur Owen (1929–2003)

Bernard Williams wrote on the philosophy of mind, especially personal identity, and political philosophy, where his position is staunchly liberal; but the larger and later part of his ...