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Ideas of Thomas Mautner, by Text

[Australian, fl. 1996, Lecturer at Australian National University.]

1996 Penguin Dictionary of Philosophy
'definition' p.126 'Real' definitions give the essential properties of things under a concept
'definition' p.126 'Contextual definitions' replace whole statements, not just expressions
'definition' p.126 Recursive definition defines each instance from a previous instance
'definition' p.126 A stipulative definition lays down that an expression is to have a certain meaning
'definition' p.126 Ostensive definitions point to an object which an expression denotes
p.102 p.102 The fallacy of composition is the assumption that what is true of the parts is true of the whole
p.105 p.105 'All x are y' is equivalent to 'all non-y are non-x', so observing paper is white confirms 'ravens are black' [PG]
p.111 p.111 Analytic philosophy studies the unimportant, and sharpens tools instead of using them
p.114 p.114 Counterfactuals are not true, they are merely valid
p.114 p.114 Counterfactuals presuppose a belief (or a fact) that the condition is false
p.114 p.114 Counterfactuals are true if in every world close to actual where p is the case, q is also the case
p.114 p.114 Counterfactuals say 'If it had been, or were, p, then it would be q'
p.115 p.115 Maybe counterfactuals are only true if they contain valid inference from premisses
p.150 p.150 Double effect is the distinction between what is foreseen and what is intended
p.151 p.151 Double effect acts need goodness, unintended evil, good not caused by evil, and outweighing
p.169 p.169 Entailment is logical requirement; it may be not(p and not-q), but that has problems
p.179 p.179 'Essentialism' is opposed to existentialism, and claims there is a human nature
p.179 p.179 Essentialism is often identified with belief in 'de re' necessary truths
p.194 p.194 Fallibilism is the view that all knowledge-claims are provisional
p.214 p.214 Fuzzy logic is based on the notion that there can be membership of a set to some degree
p.225 p.225 Observing lots of green x can confirm 'all x are green' or 'all x are grue', where 'grue' is arbitrary [PG]
p.247 p.247 The 'hermeneutic circle' says parts and wholes are interdependent, and so cannot be interpreted
p.270 p.270 Strict implication says false propositions imply everything, and everything implies true propositions
p.270 p.270 'Material implication' is defined as 'not(p and not-q)', but seems to imply a connection between p and q
p.272 p.272 The references of indexicals ('there', 'now', 'I') depend on the circumstances of utterance
p.279 p.279 A person who 'infers' draws the conclusion, but a person who 'implies' leaves it to the audience
p.318 p.318 Linguistic philosophy approaches problems by attending to actual linguistic usage
p.464 p.464 Quantifiers turn an open sentence into one to which a truth-value can be assigned
p.518 p.518 'Sense-data' arrived in 1910, but it denotes ideas in Locke, Berkeley and Hume
p.585 p.585 Vagueness seems to be inconsistent with the view that every proposition is true or false