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Glossary

There are so many meanings of so many words it is hard to hold a conversation. I will always adopt the meaning of a word that I believe is in most general use in the philosophy community. My intention is to write in a way that is compatible with the bulk of the literature out there. But that is unfortunately not always possible when there are multiple meanings of a word.

To clarify my writing, I offer this glossary of definitions to clarify which of various meanings I am intending when I use a words. I hope to be consistent with these meanings when I write, however I am fallible and sometimes stray. My apologies in advance.

determinism​

The idea that every event is caused by prior events and conditions together with the laws of nature.

emergence​

When a large number of individual primitive units are put together to interact, new properties can emerge to describe the overall system. Those properties on the system as a whole can not be reduced to properties on the constituent parts. That is the properties can not be found on the individual parts of the system.

Examples of emergence:

  • atoms are emergent structures from subatomic particles which have chemical properties not found on the subatomic particles.
  • molecules are emergent structure built from atoms having chemical properties not found on atoms.
  • a solid is an emergent system built out of molecules which has "hardness" and "temperature" not found in the individual molecules
  • a gas is an emergent system built out of molecules which has properties of "temperature" and "pressure" which is not found on the individual molecules.
  • simple life, such as single celled organism have properties that are maintained over long periods of time as long as the organism stays alive
  • complex multicellular life has novel properties not found in single cell life.
  • neural systems display properties like "learning", "perception", and "memory" which are not found on the individual nerve cells themselves.

Weak emergence is the idea that these novel properties could be derived or calculated from the properties of the lower level. Strong emergence is the idea that these novel properties are something can not in any way be derived from or predicted from the properties at the lower level. I view strong emergence as a kind of magic and I don't know of any reason to believe it exists. On this site all emergence discussed will be assumed to be weak emergence.

libertarian free will​

The idea that will is completely independent (free) of any fact of the universe. For a will to be free, it must not be constrained by your needs and desires. The free agent literally can decide anything at anytime. This precisely the same thing as acting randomly. A quantum random number is the best example of a choice made without any dependence on the state of the universe. See Free Will.

Nobody want to act purely randomly. Nobody wants to act without any regard to their desires. Why then discuss it? Many people believe that the soul is independent of the universe. They then think that the universe should not constrain the soul in any way, but that is only because they think that the universe acts only against their will. They fail to see that their desires are limited by what they know, and what they know is limited by prior experience with the world. They can't see that their desires are actually from the world, and encoded into their physical selves as a kind of memory.

magic​

I will use the term magic to refer to supernatural acts performed by an agent. I am not talking about magic tricks that human magicians play, which are in fact clever tricks played against our normal patterns of perception. Nor do I believe there are people capable of real magic spells. Instead, if an actor performs an action that is supernatural, something that is not possible according to out understanding of the universe. In general I will use the term magic when referring to mythical acts of God which would violate the known laws of nature. For example, instantly turning water into wine would be magic because such a transformation could not occur naturally.

moral goodness​

moral responsibility​

The idea that a particular outcome was primarily caused by actions that one person did based on their internal needs and desires (self will).

morality​

Morality is a way of classifying behaviors along a spectrum of good to bad(evil). Good behaviors are those that you should perform, while bad behaviors should not be performed.

that are learned that enable us to live together in tribes. Both theists and atheists agree that we are born with some sense of those behaviors. We are further taught more behaviors while growing up.

objective​

Something is objective when it exists independent of observers, or external to the mind. There is one objective world in common to all of us. If we are careful about how we do measurements, all measurements of objective things if done carefully will always be the same without regard to who does the measuring. A tree is a particular height, and no matter who measures it will get the same measurement. A mountain has a particular mass. A planet has a particular size. The objective world is something that all people can agree on (if measured carefully) because those measurements are not dependent on who does the measuring. See more at Definitions

punishment​

A disagreeable action taken against a person in response to an action they took; negative reinforcement of an action.

self will​

Simply a name for a capability to choose one action from alternate courses of action where those choices are determined by our own internal needs and desires, and not imposed by anyone else. See Self Will.

In colloquial use, when a regular person on the street says "free will" they probably actually mean this idea of self will. They mean that they take an action that is according to their needs and desires, and not imposed by an external agent, and not that they act completely independent of the universe.

Unfortunately philosophical discussions that use "free will" usually intend the idea of libertarian free will, which is incoherent, and not at all what the common person means, making thorough discussions impossible.

soul​

By "soul" I mean your essential consciousness, the part of you that is aware that you exist.

An immaterial soul/spirit would be able to persist after death of the material body, because it is not dependent upon in. Soul is used in Christian literature to mean the part of you that continues on after death, and might then go to heaven or hell.

Such a situation was proposed by Rene Descartes where he assumes that the material world exists in one realm (res extensa), and consciousness/thinking/spirit exists in a separate realm (res cogitans). Thus your soul/spirit experiences the world without being part of the world. He felt that the spirit connected to the material world in the pineal gland of the brain, but he never found an explanation for how this happened.

Someone who believes in a soul separate from the body is a "dualist" because there are two aspects to the human experience. Also called a Cartesian Dualist because of the connection with Descartes.

I am however a non-dualist, and I believe that every aspect of consciousness can be explained by workings of the material world. I do not believe in an immaterial soul. Instead I think consciousness is a real process in the world.

spirit​

When speaking about spirit as an object, I mean exactly the same thing as soul. Spirit and soul are interchangeable in my writing. See Soul.

subjective​

Something is subjective when it depends upon the mind that is encountering it. Such an experience can and will be different for different people. Personal preferences are subjective, for example a favorite flavor of ice cream. There is no reason to think that everyone will have the same favorite flavor, and we can't even say that different minds experience things the same way. Some minds might find a particular piece of music or art pleasant, while others find it unpleasant. Subjective things are dependent on the mind and might be different for every mind that encounters it. See more at Definitions