SOM

ISM

Score

0.

Atomism

1. Philosophy. The ancient theory of Democritus (atomic theory of nature; absolute 'motion' of atoms), Epicurus (philosophy is about pleasure), and Lucretius (Wrote De rerum natura (On the Nature of Things) expounding Democritus and Epicurus' philosophies.), according to which simple, minute, indivisible, and indestructible particles are the basic components of the entire universe.

2. Philosophy. A theory according to which social institutions, values, and processes arise solely from the acts and interests of individuals, who thus constitute the only true subject of analysis.

3.

a. The division of or tendency to divide a society into subclasses, groups, or units.

b. The understanding of society as a set of independent wills, based on a belief in the priority of individual over cooperative values.

 

[Site author's comment: This type of atomism appears to base itself in Aristotelian material substance and Platonic concrete and objective forms. Would that today's classical societies were atomistic in their reverence for individuals. In our view they are not, however, and societies instead appear to be societies by societies for societies.

 

Quantonics' Millennium III efforts are guiding us toward a natureal quantumism in place of classical atomism, where quantum social patterns of value are subservient quantum individual patterns of value, with an quantum-coherent ensemble of individual autonomies as its analogue of 'society.']

 1.

Determinism

The philosophical doctrine that every event, act, and decision is the inevitable consequence of antecedents that are independent of the human will.

 

[Site author comment: Classical determinism is a nonstarter in newer quantum reality. Where classical determinism is 'single event' deterministic (e.g., y=f(t), where what happens next depends upon a single prior state-ic event (A causes B) in a unilogical function of homogeneous time), quantum reality demands that many animate plural outcomes stochastically Value many assessed paratehmp¤rally and asynchronously animate plural affects. Each classical deterministic event has one determinate event locus. Quantum events' loci are only ensehmble probability localable. Too, in classical reality there are only local causes and effects, and in quantum reality there are both local and nonlocal, both luminal and superluminal affects and outcomes. We see how classical reason is a tragedy of common, conventional 'locality and unitime.']

 

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 2.

Dualism

The state of being dual or consisting in two parts. A theory that there are two basic substances or principles. The doctrine that there are two independent divine beings or eternal principles, one good and the other evil. The belief that man embodies two parts, such as body and soul.

dualism

In philosophy and theology, system that explains all phenomena in terms of two distinct and irreducible principles, e.g., ideas and matter (as in PLATO, ARISTOTLE, and modern [Classical] METAPHYSICS) or mind and matter (as in psychology). In theology the term refers to a concept of opposing principles, e.g., good and evil. See also MONISM.

dualism

1. The condition of being double; duality.

2. Philosophy. The view that the world consists of or is explicable as two fundamental entities, such as mind and matter.

3. Psychology. The view that the mind and body function separately, without interchange.

4. Theology.

a. The concept that the world is ruled by the antagonistic forces of good and evil.

b. The concept that human beings have two basic natures, the physical and the spiritual.

Author’s note: Dualism assumes pre-existence. All exists only to be found by a process of discovery. 

[Site author comment: For Millennium III our primary philosophical considerations probably shall find their foci in a Quantonic blend of both pluralism and monism. See: Pirsig vis-à-vis Bergson's Monism and Pluralism.]

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 3.

Egoism

1. Egoism

a. The ethical doctrine that morality has its foundations in self-interest.

b. The ethical belief that self-interest is the just and proper motive for all human conduct.

2. Excessive preoccupation with one's own well-being and interests, usually accompanied by an inflated sense of self-importance.  Return to List

 4.

Empiricism

Philosophical doctrine holding that all knowledge is derived from experience, whether of the mind or of the senses. Thus it opposes the rationalist belief in the existence of innate ideas. A doctrine basic to the scientific method, empiricism is associated with the rise of experimental science after the 17th cent. It has been a dominant tradition in British philosophy, as in the works of LOCKE, HUME, and George BERKELEY. Most empiricists acknowledge certain a priori truths (e.g., principles of mathematics and logic), but John Stuart MILL and others have treated even these as generalizations deduced from experience.

empiricism

1. The view that experience, especially of the senses, is the only source of knowledge.

2. Empiricism

a. Employment of empirical methods, as in science.

b. An empirical conclusion.

3. The practice of medicine that disregards scientific theory and relies solely on practical experience.  Return to List

 5.

Existentialism

Any of several philosophical systems of the 20th cent., all centered on the individual and the individual's relationship to the universe or to God. KIERKEGAARD developed a Christian existentialism that recognized the concrete ethical and religious demands confronting the individual, who is forced each time to make a subjective commitment. The necessity and seriousness of these decisions cause him dread and despair. Following Kierkegaard, HEIDEGGER and SARTRE, both students of HUSSERL, were the major thinkers of the movement. Heidegger rejected the label of existentialism, describing his philosophy as an investigation of the nature of being in which the analysis of human existence is only a first step. For Sartre, the only self-declared existentialist among the major thinkers, existence precedes essence: there is no God and no fixed human nature; thus, each person is totally free and entirely responsible for what he or she becomes and does. This responsibility accounts for human dread and anguish. Sartre influenced the writings of CAMUS and de BEAUVOIR. A Christian existentialism was developed in France by Gabriel Marcel, a Roman Catholic. The religious thinkers Karl BARTH, Paul TILLICH, Reinhold NIEBUHR, and Martin BUBER, and the philosopher Karl JASPERS are often included in the orbit of existentialism.

existentialism

Philosophy.

A philosophy that emphasizes the uniqueness and isolation of the individual experience in a hostile or indifferent universe, regards human existence as unexplainable, and stresses freedom of choice and responsibility for the consequences of one's acts.

existential

1. Of, relating to, or dealing with existence.

2. Based on experience; empirical.

3. Of or as conceived by existentialism or existentialists: an existential moment of choice.  Return to List

 6.

Formalism

1. Rigorous or excessive adherence to recognized forms, as in religion or art.

2. An instance of rigorous or excessive adherence to recognized forms. formalism in mathematics -The position that mathematics consists merely of formal symbols or expressions which are manipulated or combined according to preassigned rules or agreements. Formalism makes no inquiry as to the meaning of the expressions. The formalist believes that we can use our minds to create arbitrary rules. These rules exist only in our minds and gain objective meaning when they are interpreted through implementation in the environment. The rules did not exist before we invented them. This is counter to Platonism which believes all abstractions preexist as mental objects awaiting sentient discovery.  Return to List

 7.

Idealism

In philosophy, the attempt to account for all objects in nature and experience as representations of the mind, and sometimes to assign to such representations a higher order of existence. It is opposed to MATERIALISM and NATURALISM. Early idealism (e.g., that of PLATO) conceived a world in which eternal ideas constituted reality; in modern times idealism (e.g., that of George BERKELEY in the 18th cent.) has come to refer the source of ideas to the individual's consciousness. In KANT's transcendental idealism, the phenomenal world of human understanding opposes a world of things-in-themselves, while the later German idealists (e.g., FICHTE, SCHELLING, and HEGEL) treated all reality as the creation of mind or spirit. More recent idealists include F.H. BRADLEY and CROCE. 

Site author's note: As Pirsig points out, there are multiple sub-types of idealism. In the nearby ZMM parcel entitled The Birth of SOM, Pirsig distinguishes both the objective and subjective idealists. This is one reason for the SOM score of zero.

Pirsig characterizes the subjective idealist as anthropocentric and the objective idealist as passive observation-centric.

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 8.

Indeterminism

1. Unpredictability.

2. Philosophy.  The doctrine that the will is free and that human action is not necessarily or not at all predetermined by physiological and psychological antecedents.  Return to List

 9.

Inductionism also Inductivism

induction To conclude general principles from specific facts. Closely related to cause and effect. Use of historical information to predict future outcomes. Depends upon classical analyticity.

In general, induction does not work.

In very limited and constrained contexts like mathematics, induction deludes some practioners to think symbolic induction applies to physical reality. Quantum science, fractal nature, and other new knowledge now deny induction's general capability and application.

If induction worked, mathematicians could predict nature's fractal patterns. If induction worked, physicists could predict an individual electron's position and momentum simultaneously.

Macro reality, e.g., our cosmos deceives us because our lifetime in years is small compared to a solar system's or a galaxy's lifetime. We assume Earth will orbit our Sun forever. However, an infinity of possibilities may intervene stochastically, destroying/altering our Earth or our solar system or our galaxy. Induction deludes us none of this can happen, but it can — more precisely it shall.

Most physicists induce infinite lifetimes for many stable particles, but they have no way of knowing whether they are right or not.

In Quantonics, we see induction as an uncertainty relation. It is similar to how we see truth as an uncertainty relation. In very limited contexts (high local consistency) induction works well, e.g., mathematics, formal logic, or classical science. However, as context increases, induction quickly loses capability. In an extreme, complete context (high nonlocal completeness) induction is useless.

At an extreme of high local consistency, total consistency may not be perceived or measured since reality changes at ubiquitous Planck rates, exceeding 10^43 Hz.

At an extreme of high nonlocal completeness, total completeness may not be perceived or measured due to Homo sapiens' finite intellect and finite experimental apparatus.

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 10.

Instrumentalism

A pragmatic theory that concepts are instrumental and function as Kuhnian exemplars of actions, their validity being determined by successes of any actions.

[Site author comment: In Quantonics we take pragma in its Greek semantic, i.e., as literally meaning action. Recent 'reverse engineering' of pragmatic offers a tenor of 'practicality' which we deny when said 'practicality' implies classical scientific state-icity. We see physical reality as animate, absolutely in flux, and thus naturally incapable of classical state or stasis.]

 11.

Logical positivism

or logical empiricism

or scientific empiricism

A philosophy asserting the primacy of observation in assessing the truth of statements of fact and holding that metaphysical and subjective arguments not based on observable data are meaningless. [Site author comment: Notice how logical positivism has to throw out reality's most Valuable essence to make its radically mechanistic local 'convention' work. In this perspective logical positivism becomes a "tragedy of commons." Note its implicit insistence that one must throw out all other conventions (as subjective) along with all phenomenal and unknown 'subjective' reality.] Also called logical empiricism. logical positivism. Also known as scientific EMPIRICISM, modern school of philosophy that in the 1920s attempted to introduce the methodology and precision of mathematics to the study of philosophy, much as had been done in symbolic logic (see LOGIC). Led by the Vienna Circle, a group including the philosophers Rudolf CARNAP and Moritz Schlick and the mathematician Kurt GÖDEL, the logical positivists held that metaphysical speculation is nonsensical; that logical and mathematical propositions are tautological; and that moral and value statements are merely emotive. The function of philosophy, they maintained, is to clarify concepts in both everyday and scientific language. The movement received its inspiration from the work of FREGE, Bertrand RUSSELL, WITTGENSTEIN, and G.E. MOORE. The Vienna Circle disintegrated in the late 1930s after the Nazis took Austria, but its influence spread throughout Europe and America, and its concept, particularly its emphasis on the analysis of language as the function of philosophy, has been carried on throughout the West.

Notes from Robert M. Pirsig’s Lila, p. 72 (paperback): "[Metaphysics] has two kinds of opponents. The first are the philosophers of science, most particularly the group known as logical positivists, who say that only the natural sciences can legitimately investigate the nature of reality and that metaphysics is simply a collection of unprovable assertions that are unnecessary to the scientific observation of reality."The second group are the mystics…"  Return to List

 12.

Materialism

In philosophy, a widely held system of thought that explains the nature of the world as entirely dependent on matter, the final reality. Early Greek teaching, e.g., that of DEMOCRITUS, EPICURUS, and the proponents of STOICISM, conceived of reality as material in nature. The theory was renewed and developed beginning in the 17th cent., especially by HOBBES, and in the 18th cent. LOCKE's investigations were adapted to the materialist position. The system was developed further from the middle of the 19th cent., particularly in the form of DIALECTICAL MATERIALISM and in the formulations of LOGICAL POSITIVISM. materialism

1. Philosophy. The theory that physical matter is the only reality and that everything, including thought, feeling, mind, and will, can be explained in terms of matter and physical phenomena.

2. The theory or doctrine that physical well-being and worldly possessions constitute the greatest good and highest value in life.

3. A great or excessive regard for worldly concerns. Versions of Materialism (E.g., see Michael Lockwood):· Identity theory - simplest form of materialism. It states simply that mental states and processes are of the states and processes of the physical brain.  Return to List

 13.

Monism

Reality is a single principle or substance.

monism

In METAPHYSICS, term applied from the 18th century to any theory that explains phenomena by one unifying principle or as the manifestation of a single substance, variously identified as spirit or mind (e.g., HEGEL), energy, or an all-pervasive deity (e.g., SPINOZA). The opposites of monism are pluralism, the explanation of the universe in terms of many principles or substances, and DUALISM.

monism

Philosophy.

1. The view in metaphysics that reality is a unified whole and that all existing things can be ascribed to or described by a single concept or system.

2. The doctrine that mind and matter are formed, or reducible to, the same ultimate substance or principle of being.

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 14.

Mysticism

[Gr., = the practice of those who are initiated into the mysteries]

The practice of putting oneself into direct relation with GOD, the Absolute, or any unifying principle of life. There are two general tendencies in the speculation of mystics—to regard God as outside the soul, which rises to God by successive stages, or to regard God as dwelling within the soul, to be found by delving deeper into one's own reality. The contemplative path to union conventionally requires a series of steps involving purgation, illumination, and increase of spiritual love. Various rituals may assist the process. The language of mysticism is difficult and usually symbolic; biographies and autobiographies of mystics are the major sources for direct study (for example, those of such mystics as St. THERESA of Ávila; St. JOHN OF THE CROSS; Jakob BOEHME; and Aurobindo GHOSE). Although mysticism is inseparably linked with religion, the term itself is used very broadly in English, being extended to magic, occultism, or the esoteric. Mysticism is encountered in Greek NEOPLATONISM, CHRISTIANITY, JUDAISM, BUDDHISM, HINDUISM, ISLAM, and TAOISM.

mysticism

1. mysticism

a. Immediate consciousness of the transcendent or ultimate reality or God.

b. The experience of such communion as described by mystics.

2. A belief in the existence of realities beyond perceptual or intellectual apprehension that are central to being and directly accessible by subjective experience.

3. Vague, groundless speculation.  Return to List

 15.

Naturalism

In philosophy, a position that attempts to explain all phenomena by means of strictly natural (as opposed to supernatural) categories. Generally considered the opposite of IDEALISM, naturalism looks for causes and takes little account of reasons. It is often equated with MATERIALISM, POSITIVISM, and EMPIRICISM. Some naturalists (e.g., COMTE, NIETZSCHE, and MARX) have professed ATHEISM, while others (e.g., ARISTOTLE, SPINOZA, and William JAMES) have accepted some form of a deity. Later thinkers such as WHITEHEAD have sought to unify the scientific viewpoint with the concept of an all-encompassing reality.

naturalism

In literature, an approach to reality grounded in a belief in the determining power of natural forces like heredity and environment. Émile ZOLA, the founder and chief exemplar of the school, theorized in The Experimental Novel (1880) that the novelist should observe and record dispassionately, like the scientist. Besides Zola and Guy de MAUPASSANT in France, naturalism included the American novelists Stephen CRANE, Theodore DREISER, and James T. FARRELL, and such modern dramatists as Henrik IBSEN, Gerhart HAUPTMANN, and Maxim GORKY.

naturalism

1. Factual or realistic representation, especially:

a. The practice of describing precisely the actual circumstances of human life in literature.

b. The practice of reproducing subjects as precisely as possible in the visual arts.

2. naturalism

a. A movement or school advocating such precise representation.

b. The principles and methods of such a movement or of its adherents.

3. Philosophy.

The system of thought holding that all phenomena can be explained in terms of natural causes and laws without attributing moral, spiritual, or supernatural significance to them.

4. Theology.

The doctrine that all religious truths are derived from nature and natural causes and not from revelation.

5. Conduct or thought prompted by natural desires or instincts.  Return to List

 16.

Neoplatonism

Ancient mystical philosophy based on the later doctrines of PLATO, especially those in the Timaeus. Considered the last of the great pagan philosophies, it was developed in the 3d cent. AD by PLOTINUS. Rejecting DUALISM, he saw reality as one vast hierarchical order containing all the various levels and kinds of existence. At the center is the One, an incomprehensible, all-sufficient unity that flows out in a radiating process called emanation, giving rise to the Divine Mind, or Logos. The Logos contains all intelligent forms of all individuals. This in turn generates the World Soul, which links the intellectual and material worlds. Despite his mysticism, Plotinus' method was thoroughly rational, based on the logical traditions of the Greeks. Later Neoplatonists grafted onto its body such disparate elements as Eastern mysticism, divination, demonology, and astrology. Neoplatonism, widespread until the 7th cent., was an influence on early Christian thinkers (e.g., ORIGEN) and medieval Jewish and Arab philosophers. It was firmly joined with Christianity by St. AUGUSTINE, who was a Neoplatonist before his conversion. Neoplatonism has had a lasting influence on Western metaphysics and MYSTICISM. Philosophers whose works contain elements of Neoplatonism include St. THOMAS AQUINAS, BOETHIUS, and HEGEL.

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 17.

Nihilism

1. Philosophy.

a. An extreme form of skepticism that denies all existence.

b. A doctrine holding that all values are baseless and that nothing can be known or communicated.

2. Rejection of all distinctions in moral or religious value and a willingness to repudiate all previous theories of morality or religious belief.

3. The belief that destruction of existing political or social institutions is necessary for future improvement.

4. Also Nihilism. A diffuse, revolutionary movement of mid 19th-century Russia that scorned authority and tradition and believed in reason, materialism, and radical change in society and government through terrorism and assassination.

5. Psychiatry. A delusion, experienced in some mental disorders, that the world or one's mind, body, or self does not exist.  Return to List

 18.

Nominalism

In philosophy, theory holding that universal words (nomina) or concepts have no objective reality outside the mind, and that only individual things and events exist objectively. The theory, contrasted to Platonic IDEALISM and, in the Middle Ages, to REALISM, is appropriate to MATERIALISM and EMPIRICISM.

Philosophy.

The doctrine holding that abstract concepts, general terms, or universals have no objective reference but exist only as names.  Return to List

 19.

Objectivism

1. Philosophy.

One of several doctrines holding that all reality is objective and external to the mind and that knowledge is reliably based on observed objects and events.

2. An emphasis on objects rather than feelings or thoughts in literature or art.  Return to List

 20.

Platonism

Philosophy.

The philosophy of Plato, especially insofar as it asserts ideal forms as an absolute and eternal reality of which the phenomena of the world are an imperfect and transitory reflection. Platonists believe that all ideal forms preexist, awaiting sentient discovery. These ideal forms are not physical, but totally mental.  Return to List

 21.

Pluralism

Similar to dualism. Implies more than one principle or substance.

pluralism

1. The condition of being plural.

2. A condition of society in which numerous distinct ethnic, religious, or cultural groups coexist within one nation.

3. Ecclesiastical. The holding by one person of two or more positions or offices, especially two or more ecclesiastical benefices, at the same time.

4. Philosophy.

a. The doctrine that reality is composed of many ultimate substances.

b. The belief that no single explanatory system or view of reality can account for all the phenomena of life.

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 22.

Positivism

State or quality of being positive; definiteness; assurance. A philosophical system founded by Auguste Comte, concerned with positive facts and phenomena, and excluding speculation upon ultimate causes or origins.

positivism

In philosophy, a system of thought opposed to METAPHYSICS and maintaining that the goal of knowledge is simply to describe the phenomena experienced. Its basic tenets are contained in the works of Francis BACON, George BERKELEY, and HUME. The term itself was coined by COMTE, whose doctrines influenced the development of much of 19th- and 20th-cent. thinking, especially that of LOGICAL POSITIVISM. positivism

1. Philosophy.

a. A doctrine contending that sense perceptions are the only admissible basis of human knowledge and precise thought.

b. The application of this doctrine in logic, epistemology, and ethics.

c. The system of Auguste Comte designed to supersede theology and metaphysics and depending on a hierarchy of the sciences, beginning with mathematics and culminating in sociology.

d. Any of several doctrines or viewpoints, often similar to Comte's, that stress attention to actual practice over consideration of what is ideal: "Positivism became the ‘scientific’ base for authoritarian politics, especially in Mexico and Brazil" (Raymond Carr).

2. The state or quality of being positive.  Return to List

 23.

Pragmatism

Method of philosophy in which the truth of a proposition is measured by its correspondence with experimental results and by its practical outcome. Thus pragmatists hold that truth is modified as discoveries are made and that it is relative to time and place and purpose of inquiry. C.S. PEIRCE and William JAMES were the originators of the system, which influenced John DEWEY.

pragmatism

1. Philosophy. A movement consisting of varying but associated theories, originally developed by Charles S. Peirce and William James and distinguished by the doctrine that the meaning of an idea or a proposition lies in its observable practical consequences.

2. A practical, matter-of-fact way of approaching or assessing situations or of solving problems. Peirce, Charles Sanders, 1838–1914, American philosopher; b. Cambridge, Mass. Viewing logic as the beginning of all philosophic study, he held that the meaning of an idea was to be found in an examination of the consequences to which the idea would lead; he coined the term PRAGMATISM to describe this principle. His followers included William JAMES and John DEWEY. Peirce was also a modern founder of SEMIOTICS. He was virtually unknown during his lifetime; his major essays appeared posthumously as Chance, Love, and Logic (1923), and his collected papers were published between 1931 and 1958.

Site Author's note: Greek for 'pragma' is action. We might thus call pragmatism, 'actionism.' Action fits well with Pirsig's Dynamic Quality. In a sense, DQ is action. Reality is action. Quantum reality is quantized Planck rate action (measurement, or Quality Events) whose outcome is incremental evolution.

Pirsig warns us to take care how we view outcomes of Quality Events (quantum pragma). Classical science's view is cause and effect. I.e., now causes an analytic future. Some classicists extend analytic cause and effect for induction, and include past or historical evidence to do so. In Pirsig's MoQ and quantum science we say an outcome prefers or values preconditions from a preceding pragma. It is impossible to know all preconditions for any outcome, so outcomes are intrinsically nonanalytic. Pragmatists of James' and Peirce's ilk unfortunately retain a classical perspective, and thus we see Pirsig's impetus for his own extension of pragmatism by adding quantum concepts.

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 24.

Rationalism

1. Reliance on reason as the best guide for belief and action.

2. Philosophy.

The theory that the exercise of reason, rather than the acceptance of empiricism, authority, or spiritual revelation, provides the only valid basis for action or belief and that reason is the prime source of knowledge and of spiritual truth.

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 25.

Realism

In philosophy:

1 In medieval philosophy, realism was the position that universals or general concepts have existence independent of both the human mind and individual objects. It is a position directly opposite to NOMINALISM.

2 In EPISTEMOLOGY, realism represents the theory that individual things exist independently of the mind's perception of them, as opposed to IDEALISM, which holds that reality exists only in the mind.

 

realism

1. An inclination toward literal truth and pragmatism.

2. The representation in art or literature of objects, actions, or social conditions as they actually are, without idealization or presentation in abstract form.

3. Philosophy.

a. The scholastic doctrine, opposed to nominalism, that universals exist independently of their being thought.

b. The modern philosophical doctrine, opposed to idealism, that physical objects exist independently of their being perceived. 

See real, reality.

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 26.

Relativism

Philosophy.

A theory that conceptions of truth and moral values are not absolute but are relative to the persons or groups holding them.  Return to List

 27.

Scientific Empiricism

The philosophical view that there are no ultimate differences among the various sciences.  Return to List

 28.

Solipsism

Philosophy.

1. The theory that the self is the only thing that can be known and verified.

2. The theory or view that the self is the only reality.

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 29.

Stoicism

School of philosophy founded by Zeno of Citium c.300 BC Influenced by Socratic ideals and by the thought of HERACLITUS, ARISTOTLE, and PLATO, the Stoics held that all reality is material but is shaped by a universal working force (God) that pervades everything. Only by putting aside passion, unjust thoughts, and indulgence, and by performing one's duty with the right disposition can a person live consistently with nature and thus achieve true freedom. The school was especially well received in the Roman world; CICERO, SENECA, EPICTETUS, and MARCUS AURELIUS were all Stoics.  Return to List

 30.

Subjectivism

1. The quality of being subjective.

2. Subjectivism

a. The doctrine that all knowledge is restricted to the conscious self and its sensory states.

b. A theory or doctrine that emphasizes the subjective elements in experience.

3. The theory that individual conscience is the only valid standard of moral judgment.  Return to List