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PHILOSOPHICAL THEORY
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I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
A doctrine accepted by adherents to a philosophy
Synonyms:
philosophical doctrine; philosophical theory
Classified under:
Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents
Hypernyms ("philosophical theory" is a kind of...):
doctrine; ism; philosophical system; philosophy; school of thought (a belief (or system of beliefs) accepted as authoritative by some group or school)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "philosophical theory"):
Neoplatonism (a system of philosophical and theological doctrines composed of elements of Platonism and Aristotelianism and oriental mysticism; its most distinctive doctrine holds that the first principle and source of reality transcends being and thought and is naturally unknowable)
nominalism ((philosophy) the doctrine that the various objects labeled by the same term have nothing in common but their name)
operationalism ((philosophy) the doctrine that the meaning of a proposition consists of the operations involved in proving or applying it)
Platonism; realism ((philosophy) the philosophical doctrine that abstract concepts exist independent of their names)
pragmatism ((philosophy) the doctrine that practical consequences are the criteria of knowledge and meaning and value)
probabilism ((philosophy) the doctrine that (since certainty is unattainable) probability is a sufficient basis for belief and action)
rationalism ((philosophy) the doctrine that knowledge is acquired by reason without resort to experience)
naive realism; realism ((philosophy) the philosophical doctrine that physical objects continue to exist when not perceived)
relativism ((philosophy) the philosophical doctrine that all criteria of judgment are relative to the individuals and situations involved)
Scholasticism (the system of philosophy dominant in medieval Europe; based on Aristotle and the Church Fathers)
semiology; semiotics ((philosophy) a philosophical theory of the functions of signs and symbols)
sensationalism; sensualism ((philosophy) the ethical doctrine that feeling is the only criterion for what is good)
solipsism ((philosophy) the philosophical theory that the self is all that you know to exist)
Stoicism ((philosophy) the philosophical system of the Stoics following the teachings of the ancient Greek philosopher Zeno)
subjectivism ((philosophy) the doctrine that knowledge and value are dependent on and limited by your subjective experience)
Daoism; Taoism (philosophical system developed by Lao-tzu and Chuang-tzu advocating a simple honest life and noninterference with the course of natural events)
teleology ((philosophy) a doctrine explaining phenomena by their ends or purposes)
traditionalism (the doctrine that all knowledge was originally derived by divine revelation and that it is transmitted by traditions)
vitalism ((philosophy) a doctrine that life is a vital principle distinct from physics and chemistry)
aesthetic; esthetic ((philosophy) a philosophical theory as to what is beautiful)
Aristotelianism; peripateticism ((philosophy) the philosophy of Aristotle that deals with logic and metaphysics and ethics and poetics and politics and natural science)
conceptualism (the doctrine that the application of a general term to various objects indicates the existence of a mental entity that mediates the application)
Confucianism (the teachings of Confucius emphasizing love for humanity; high value given to learning and to devotion to family (including ancestors); peace; justice; influenced the traditional culture of China)
deconstruction; deconstructionism (a philosophical theory of criticism (usually of literature or film) that seeks to expose deep-seated contradictions in a work by delving below its surface meaning)
empiricism; empiricist philosophy; sensationalism ((philosophy) the doctrine that knowledge derives from experience)
environmentalism (the philosophical doctrine that environment is more important than heredity in determining intellectual growth)
existential philosophy; existentialism; existentialist philosophy ((philosophy) a 20th-century philosophical movement chiefly in Europe; assumes that people are entirely free and thus responsible for what they make of themselves)
determinism ((philosophy) a philosophical theory holding that all events are inevitable consequences of antecedent sufficient causes; often understood as denying the possibility of free will)
formalism ((philosophy) the philosophical theory that formal (logical or mathematical) statements have no meaning but that its symbols (regarded as physical entities) exhibit a form that has useful applications)
hereditarianism (the philosophical doctrine that heredity is more important than environment in determining intellectual growth)
idealism ((philosophy) the philosophical theory that ideas are the only reality)
intuitionism ((philosophy) the doctrine that knowledge is acquired primarily by intuition)
logicism ((philosophy) the philosophical theory that all of mathematics can be derived from formal logic)
materialism; physicalism ((philosophy) the philosophical theory that matter is the only reality)
mechanism ((philosophy) the philosophical theory that all phenomena can be explained in terms of physical or biological causes)
mentalism ((philosophy) a doctrine that mind is the true reality and that objects exist only as aspects of the mind's awareness)
nativism ((philosophy) the philosophical theory that some ideas are innate)
naturalism ((philosophy) the doctrine that the world can be understood in scientific terms without recourse to spiritual or supernatural explanations)
