Deconstruction: A philosophical practice of disclosing the inner productive contradictions of classical metaphysical concepts aimed at opening human thinking to new and shifting horizons of meaning. 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… Read More

Deduction: process of reasoning in which a conclusion follows necessarily from the stated premises. An argument whose premise(s) are supposed to logically imply its conclusion. In ordinary language, another word for reasoning, as in, “When he saw the smoke, he deduced (made the deduction that) the engine overheated.” In the discipline of logic, deduction is used as a technical term… Read More

Deductive Logic: The branch of logic that studies the principles of entailment — the situation that occurs when one proposition follows necessarily from another, or others. This happens when it is impossible for the premises of the argument to be true and the conclusion false. This relationship is sometimes also called implication. Entailment (implication) instantiates the… Read More

Deductive nomological explanation: Type of covering law model which assumes the argument form required is a deductively valid one. 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. 

Deep ecology: A movement founded by Arne Naess whose leading ideas against environmental resourcism are that “the well-being and flourishing of non-human life have value in themselves independent of their usefulness for human purposes” and “humans have no right to reduce the richness and diversity of life forms except to satisfy vital needs”. Because Naess leaves… Read More

Deep naturalistic fallacy: Does not merely identify the good with a natural property, but identifies the survival-of-the-fittest order of nature with human order, and assumes this order as both necessary and good for human survival and development. Source: ‘What is Good? What is Bad? The Value of All Values across Time, Place and Theories’ by John McMurtry, Philosophy… Read More

Defeasible Reasoning: The forms of reasoning that are not as formal and rigorous as deductive reasoning. The term was brought to prominence by Pollock (1995), reasoning is defeasible when the corresponding argument, though not valid, is yet rationally meritorious. Pollock developed the term to help work through issues in epistemology. Given the relationship between epistemology and… Read More

Deism: doctrine according to which God, having designed the universe and set it in motion, then left it to continue by itself. 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. 

Democracy: The practice of collective self-government and self-determination. 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. 

Deontological ethics: Essentially, “duty ethics”, standardly opposed to utilitarianism insofar as it holds that good lies in the principle or duty which action embodies, not its consequences of happiness. 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… Read More