Analogy: Things are analogous insofar as they are similar. Arguments from analogy and scientific discoveries from analogies are therefore arguments and discoveries based on similarities. Source: ‘What is Good? What is Bad? The Value of All Values across Time, Place and Theories’ by John McMurtry, Philosophy and World Problems, Volume I-III, UNESCO in partnership with Encyclopedia of Life Support… Read More

Analytic philosophy: An umbrella term covering any school or method of philosophy for which logical rigor and distinctions are prioritized and referents restricted to linguistic entities. See Synthetic / analytic distinction. Source: ‘What is Good? What is Bad? The Value of All Values across Time, Place and Theories’ by John McMurtry, Philosophy and World Problems, Volume I-III, UNESCO in… Read More

Analytic sentence: A sentence with a self-contradictory negation. Source: ‘What is Good? What is Bad? The Value of All Values across Time, Place and Theories’ by John McMurtry, Philosophy and World Problems, Volume I-III, UNESCO in partnership with Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems: Oxford, 2004-11. 

Anarchism: social, political and philosophical movements advocating self-government of individuals and community against the coercive central authority of the State. Source: ‘What is Good? What is Bad? The Value of All Values across Time, Place and Theories’ by John McMurtry, Philosophy and World Problems, Volume I-III, UNESCO in partnership with Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems: Oxford, 2004-11. 

Animism: belief in the existence of souls or spirits inhabiting individual and/or collective objects, including the universe as a whole. Source: ‘What is Good? What is Bad? The Value of All Values across Time, Place and Theories’ by John McMurtry, Philosophy and World Problems, Volume I-III, UNESCO in partnership with Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems: Oxford, 2004-11. 

Antecedent: Sentences following “if” and preceding “then” in conditional claims. Source: ‘What is Good? What is Bad? The Value of All Values across Time, Place and Theories’ by John McMurtry, Philosophy and World Problems, Volume I-III, UNESCO in partnership with Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems: Oxford, 2004-11. 

Anti-foundationalism: A generic term for the dominant trend of philosophy over the recent century whose unifying characteristic is denial of any universal truths or values. A generic term for the dominant trend of philosophy over the recent century embracing many contemporary philosophers and schools of thought whose unifying characteristic is denial of any universal necessities of self,… Read More

Antinomy: A special form of contradiction in which the conclusions of two arguments on the same subject are valid but contrary to each other. Source: ‘What is Good? What is Bad? The Value of All Values across Time, Place and Theories’ by John McMurtry, Philosophy and World Problems, Volume I-III, UNESCO in partnership with Encyclopedia of Life Support… Read More

Argument: set of statements in which one (conclusion) follows logically from the others (premises). Sequence of sentences such that some of the sentences (premises) are offered as reasons for accepting another part (conclusion). Typically in the tradition, a certain type of cognitive (or rational) product in which reasons are offered in support of a claim or thesis. The… Read More

Argument form: Logical structure, pattern or skeleton of an argument. Source: ‘What is Good? What is Bad? The Value of All Values across Time, Place and Theories’ by John McMurtry, Philosophy and World Problems, Volume I-III, UNESCO in partnership with Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems: Oxford, 2004-11.