Feb 22, 2007 · Even so, this entry will not aim to pin down any more informative definition of “naturalism”. It would be fruitless to try to adjudicate some official way of understanding the term. ... –––, 2003, “The American Origins of Philosophical Naturalism”, Journal of Philosophical Research, APA Centennial Volume: 83–98. Knobe J. and ...

In philosophy, naturalism is the idea or belief that only natural laws and forces (as opposed to supernatural ones) operate in the universe.. According to philosopher Steven Lockwood, naturalism can be separated into an ontological sense and a methodological sense. " Ontological" refers to ontology, the philosophical study of what exists.

Philosophy (from Greek: φιλοσοφία, philosophia, 'love of wisdom') is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some sources claim the term was coined by Pythagoras (c. 570 – c. 495 BCE), although this …

Jan 07, 2002 · The term “free will” has emerged over the past two millennia as the canonical designator for a significant kind of control over one’s actions. Questions concerning the nature and existence of this kind of control (e.g., does it require and do we have the freedom to do otherwise or the power of self-determination?), and what its true significance is (is it necessary for moral ...

A belief is an attitude that something is the case, or that some proposition is true. In epistemology, philosophers use the term "belief" to refer to attitudes about the world which can be either true or false. To believe something is to take it to be true; for instance, to believe that snow is white is comparable to accepting the truth of the proposition "snow is white".

Logic is the study of correct reasoning.It includes both formal and informal logic.Formal logic is the science of deductively valid inferences or of logical truths.It is a formal science investigating how conclusions follow from premises in a topic-neutral way. When used as a countable noun, the term "a logic" refers to a logical formal system that articulates a proof system.

Aug 20, 2002 · Personal identity deals with philosophical questions that arise about ourselves by virtue of our being people (or, ... (It is consistent, for instance, with Locke’s definition quoted in section 2.) Assuming that organisms persist by virtue of some sort of brute-physical continuity, animalism implies a version of the brute-physical view. Some ...

Pragmatism is a philosophical tradition that considers words and thought as tools and instruments for prediction, problem solving, and action, and rejects the idea that the function of thought is to describe, represent, or mirror reality.Pragmatists contend that most philosophical topics—such as the nature of knowledge, language, concepts, meaning, belief, and …

Feb 11, 2002 · Building on his naturalism, institutional pragmatism, social realism, and poetic religion, Santayana on leaving Harvard moves even farther from the role of philosophical statesman by removing the representative authority of language from the quest for a comprehensive synthesis, by narrowing the line between literature and philosophy (as he had ...

Agency is the capacity of an actor to act in a given environment. It is independent of the moral dimension, which is called moral agency.. In sociology, an agent is an individual engaging with the social structure.Notably, though, the primacy of social structure vs. individual capacity with regard to persons' actions is debated within sociology. This debate concerns, at least partly, the level ...