Science: In its original signification as the Latin translation of the Greek term theoria, science referred to the contemplation of the universal principles of order assumed to rule the universe, principles which were treated as superior to and unchangeable by human beings. In its modern signification science refers to the systematic mathematical modeling, for the… Read More

Scientific method: A method which requires independently observable and reproducible verification of factual findings and laws, but required by this method to erase first-person inner experience a-priori.This built-in erasure of inner life is a limit unrecognized by Scientism. Traditional name used to describe procedures for obtaining empirical knowledge by means of careful observation of the… Read More

Scientific paradigm: A set of accepted models of good practice, hypotheses, laws, theories and rules of behavior or regulative principles. 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. 

Scientific theory: Several alternative definitions have been proposed, but most people would define a scientific theory as an organized set of propositions designed to describe some aspect of the natural world, including aspects and behavior of individuals and social groups. Source: ‘What is Good? What is Bad? The Value of All Values across Time, Place and Theories’ by… Read More

Scientism: See Scientific method. See also I-consciousness. 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. 

Second-order Shift: A move from first-order value-system (e.g., to maximize pecuniary possessions or equivalents) to a second order level of value understanding and choice within which the first-order value-system is one regulating possibility. This is a logic of distinction which is straightforward in non-normative matters (e.g., the first-order of red and blue, and the second… Read More

Secularism: indifference to religion or wilful exclusion of it from civil, political and/or cultural and scientific life. 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. 

Self-consciousness: state or quality of being aware of one’s own self qua self. 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. 

Self-contradictory sentence: The negation of an analytic sentence. 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. 

Self-Determination: The specifically human capability to consciously structure our social environment such that individual life is not mechanically determined by external forces, but by the decisions of individuals living in that society. 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… Read More