normal propositional truth function (of a 3-valued logic)  a n-ary propositional truth function f₃: W₃ⁿ → W₃ (of a 3-valued logic) is normal iff it is the extension of any n-ary two-valued truth function f₂: W₂ⁿ → W₂ i.e. f₃|W₂ⁿ = f₂ (Fronhöfer, 2011) [CR25]

normativity of the mental  ascribing a propositional attitude to a person, such as believing, knowing, fearing, wanting, hoping… that x requires that we must also ascribe to them all of the beliefs which are logical consequences of that ascription, in accordance with the principle of charity [CT16]

nosology  that branch of medicine dealing with the classification of diseases [CT27]

no technical solution problems  problems that cannot be solved by focusing on technological fixes e.g. human overpopulation [CT18]

no true Scotsman  a group of fallacies in which someone attempts to shield a universal generalisation from a counterexample by changing a definition in the generalisation to a “TRUE X”, so as to exclude the counter example [CR04]

noumenon  Kant’s term for a thing-in-itself that exists objectively, though independently of human sense or perception G. Ding an sich cf. phenomenon [CT23]

nuisance variable  a variable that can influence the outcome of an investigation but that is of no particular interest in itself [CR17]

null hypothesis H₀  1. in general, the default hypothesis, a statement of what would be the case if the observed phenomenon was merely the result of chance 2. in statistical hypothesis testing, a statement that claims that the observed or inferred sample is that of a purely random outcome cf. alternate hypothesis [CR12] [CR15]

numerical identity  the relation everything has to itself and to nothing else (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy) cf. identity of indiscernibles [CT32]

objective probability  one that is independent of mental states such as preferences, expectations, beliefs and desires [CT30]

object language  a language described by a metalanguage [CR16]

obscurum per obscurius  L. explaining the obscure by the more obscure [CT06]

Occam’s razor  a problem-solving principle that states: “entities must not be multiplied beyond necessity.” In practical terms this means that among competing hypotheses, the one with the fewest assumptions should be preferred. L. lex parsimoniae [CT09] [CR12]

one-tailed test  see directional or one-tailed test

one-to-one  if a function 𝑓 from X to Y maps distinct elements in X onto distinct elements in Y then the function is said to be one-to-one [CR18]

one-to-one correspondence  if 𝑓: X→Y is one-to-one and onto Y, then 𝑓 effects a pairing of the elements of X with those of Y, and as such, is called a one-to-one correspondence between X and Y (Copi, I. Symbolic Logic 5th ed.) [CR18]

ontogenesis  the course of development of an organism from the earliest stage to maturity – adjective ontogenetic (O.E.D) cf. ontogeny, phylogeny / phylogenesis [CT13]

ontogeny  the origin and development of the individual organism (O.E.D.) cf. ontogenesis, phylogeny / phylogenesis [CT13]

ontological argument  an argument that purports to prove the existence of God based on one conception of existence [CT03]

opaque context  see intensional context a.k.a. opaque context

operationalisation  in science, the means by which the measurement of a phenomenon that is not directly measurable is defined as indicated by the existence of other phenomena that are directly measurable [CR12]

operational model  one in which the relevant variables are operationalised cf. operationalisation [CR12]

operations on classes (derived)  operations on classes e.g. class inclusion (⊂), that can be derived from those that are considered fundamental (below) [CR18]

operations on classes (fundamental)  make the relation between sets or classes explicit, three of which are regarded as fundamental i.e. sum or union (∪); product or intersection (∩) and complement (overscore or – ) [CR18]

order and disorder  in physics, order and disorder are used to designate the presence or absence, respectively, of some symmetry or correlation in a many-particle system. (Wikipedia: Order and disorder) cf. entropy [CT13]

order-from-disorder principle  a term coined by Erwin Schrödinger to describe how most macroscopic laws, which are orderly and regular, depend upon events on the microscopic scale, which are seemingly random and can only be described statistically [CT13]

order of precedence  the order in which logical operators should be applied – parentheses are used where the intended order of operations is not obvious [CR05]

order type  two ordered sets X and Y are said to have the same order type if they are order isomorphic i.e. 𝑓: X→Y such that both 𝑓 and its inverse are monotonic (preserving the given order of the elements) [CR18]

ordinal number  α is an ordinal number = df α is a well-ordered set such that s(ξ) = ξ for every ξ in α [CR18]

ordinal product  the ordinal product of two well-ordered sets A and B is the Cartesian product A × B, ordered as follows: begin with B disjoint sets, each similar to A; these can be produced as well ordered sets A_b = A × {b} for each b in B, then the set of all these disjoint A_b’s, {A_b: b ∈ B}, has, as its sum, ∪ {A_b: b ∈ B} ordered so that (a ; b) < (a’ ; b’) iff either b < b’ or (b = b’ and a < a’) (Copi, I. Symbolic Logic 5th ed.) [CR18]

ordinal sum  a natural addition on ordered sets such that given A and B are characterised as disjoint, well-ordered sets, allows us to define the order in A ∪ B in such a way that pairs of elements in A and pairs of elements in B keep their order, letting each element of A precede each element of B, then the union A ∪ B is known as the ordinal sum of A and B (Copi, I. Symbolic Logic 5th ed.) [CR18]

ordinal variable  a categorical variable whose values can be ranked or ordered [CR13]

organisation  among living systems, a high degree of order and complexity relative to their environment [CT13]

organism  a living thing [CT10]

original position  a hypothetical position designed to reflect what principles of justice would be manifest in a society based on liberty and fairness and the promotion of cooperation between citizens [CT05]

outliers  data points more than ± 3.29 standard deviations from the mean which are usually excluded as they tend to skew results too far one way or the other [CR19]

output variable  see dependent variable

overconfidence effect  a cognitive bias by which our subjective confidence in our own judgements systematically exceeds their objective accuracy, especially when confidence is relatively high [CR06]

overdetermination  when a single-observed effect is determined by multiple causes, any one of which alone would be conceivably sufficient to account for or “determine” the effect. (Wikipedia: Overdetermination) [CT34]

overlapping consensus  the end result of different arguments that appeal to different groups in society, in which all agree on the necessity of upholding basic liberties, albeit for different reasons (Kymlicka, W. Contemporary Political Philosophy 2nd ed.) [CT31]

overplacement  the false belief that one is better than others [CR06]

pair set or doubleton  a set containing just two members [CR18]

panentheism  the Pauline doctrine that God is in all cf. pantheism [CT13]

panpsychism  the belief that every material thing has an element of individual consciousness [CT18]

panspermia  the hypothesis that the “seeds” of life exist throughout the universe and can be propagated via comets, meteoroid, asteroids or interstellar dust to different locations [CT22]

pantheism  the belief that The Universe is God or that God is Everything cf. panentheism [CT13]

paraconsistent logic  a type of non-classical logic that allows for the coexistence of contradictory statements without leading to a logical explosion, where anything can be proven true (Wikipedia: Paraconsistent logic) cf. logic of paradox [CR25]

paradigm shift  a fundamental change in the basic concepts and experimental practices of a scientific discipline (Wikipedia) [CT27]

parallelism  accordingly, mental and physical events are (or were) perfectly coordinated (by God) so that when one mental event takes place, a corresponding physical event takes place, even though neither is the cause of the other [CT16]

parallel postulate  if two straight line segments on a plane intersect with at third, so that they form two interior angles on the same side which together are less than 180 degrees, then the two line segments, if extended indefinitely, will meet on the side on which the angles together are less than 180 degrees [CR16]

parameter  a number summarizing data for a population cf. statistic [CR13]

parametric statistical tests  statistical tests based on assumptions about the distribution of populations or sampling estimates of them cf. non-parametric statistical tests [CR15]

paratypes  specimens displaying a range of variation of a species, usually deposited in a museum collection together with the holotype for future taxonomists to consult [CT26]

parentheses (brackets)  symbolised as ‘(…)’ or ‘[…]’or ‘{…}’ parentheses are used in Logic as they are in Mathematics, Physics or Chemistry to indicate grouping or to signify the order of precedence of operators [CR05]

parsimonious  in science, a theory or model that has the fewest assumptions and variables but with greatest explanatory power [CR12] cf. Occam’s razor

parsing  the process of resolving a string of raw data or text into their component parts and identifying their syntactic roles [CT37]

parthenogenesis  “virgin birth” from an unfertilized embryo, as seen in some insects like aphids but also in some vertebrates, such as whiptail lizards [CT30]

partial designation  where there is some ambiguity about the reference of a name, partial designation allows that an object need not be uniquely designated but may partially designate more than one object cf. designation [CT25]

partial model (modal logic)  a model in modal logic that allows some statements to be neither true nor false [CR23]

partial order in a set  a set in which the relations of reflexivity and antisymmetry and transitivity obtain [CR18]

particular affirmative  a particular proposition of the form Some S is P that affirms something of at least one member of a class [CR11]

particular negative  a particular proposition of the form Some S is not P that denies something of at least one member of a class [CR11]

patch clamp technique  a technique for measuring changes in voltage across a section of a cell membrane containing an ion channel [CT27]

Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient (Pearson’s r)  a correlation coefficient given by the ratio between the covariance of two variables and the product of their standard deviations – Formula: [CR19]

perfectionism  the view that the state may, or should, promote valuable conceptions of the good life and discourage conceptions that are worthless or bad (Mang, F Perfectionism, Public Reason, and Excellences) cf. neutral state [CT31]

permutation  the number of ways of selecting items from a group such that order is taken into account [CR05] formula: [CR10] cf. combination

personality (psychiatry)  the characteristic configuration of behaviour response patterns that each person evolves as a reflection of his or her individual adjustment to life (Sadock, B. et al. Eds. Kaplan & Sadock’s Comprehensive Textbook of Psychiatry, 10th ed.) [CT32]

person-type (Williams)  if several replicas were created of a person, say Mary Smith, they would all be token Mary Smiths of the original type (Williams, B. Problems of the Self) [CT32]

perspectivalism  see perspectivism

perspectivism  the idea that one person’s knowledge is inevitably partial and limited by the perspective from which it is viewed and that any subject must be viewed and analysed from multiple perspectives; which if properly applied leads to a broader understanding of the subject – a.k.a. perspectivalism [CT07]

petty bourgeoisie  1. a social class composed of semi-autonomous peasantry and small-scale merchants (Wikipedia) 2. the lower middle class, especially when perceived as conventional and conservative (Oxford Languages) cf. bourgeoisie [CT12]

phenomenon  Kant’s term for the immediate object of sensory intuition cf. noumenon [CT23]

phenotype  all of an organism’s potentially observable traits cf. genotype [CT10]

pheromone  a volatile chemical substance produced and released into the environment by an organism, affecting the behaviour or physiology of others of its species [CT17]

philosophy  1. the most general of disciplines, relying principally on rational argument 2. that field of study that concerns itself especially with metaphysics, epistemology, logic, ethics and aesthetics 3. thinking about thinking [H]

phlogiston (theory)  attempted to explain such chemical processes as combustion and rusting, now collectively known as oxidation – the theory postulated the existence of a fire-like element, known as phlogiston, contained within flammable bodies that would be released along with heat during combustion [CT29]

phylogenetic / phyletic  relating to or denoting the evolutionary development of a species or other taxon – adjective of phylogeny / phylogenesis [CT26]

phylogenetic constraints  limitations on change arising in the evolutionary history of a group (phylogeny) cf. developmental constraints [CT30]

phylogeny / phylogenesis  the evolutionary development of a species through successive forms (O.E.D.) – adjective phylogenetic / phyletic cf. ontogenesis [CT13]

physical, the  anything and everything that comprises of matter and/or energy [CT11]

physical constraints  those imposed by the laws of physics or chemistry [CT30]

physical criterion of personal identity  according to the improved version: 1) what is necessary is not the continued existence of the whole body, but the continued existence of enough of the brain to be the brain of a living person; thus person X today is one and the same as person Y some time past, if and only if, 2) enough of Y’s brain continued to exist and is now X’s brain, and 3) this physical continuity has not taken a “branching” form; and 4) personal identity over time just consists in the holding of facts like 2) and 3) (Parfit, D. Reasons and Persons) [CT32]

physicalism  the ontological thesis that “all is physical” or that “there is nothing over or beyond what is physical” cf. monism and central-state identity theory [CT11]

Physical Stance (Dennett)  accordingly, behaviour could, in principle, be explained by the physical laws governing the interactions of constituent matter – one of three explanatory levels of abstraction according to Dennett, The Intentional Stance (1989) cf. Design Stance and Intentional Stance [CT27]

physics envy  the inappropriate pressing of non-fundamental disciplines, especially in the “soft sciences” and humanities, into the theoretic and empirical mould of physics (Wikipedia) [CT26]

pilot study  a small scale, preliminary study conducted prior to the full-scale research project [CR26]

placebo  L. an inert substance or sham treatment that has no therapeutic value, chosen for comparison in clinical trials cf. nocebo [CT06]

point mutation  a genetic mutation where a single nucleotide base is replaced, inserted or deleted from an organism’s genetic code cf. single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) [CT10]

poisoning the well  a fallacy in which prejudicial information is presented in order to discredit or ridicule a target before she has had a chance to state her case [CR04]

political liberalism  a view in favour of a state that interferes minimally with the freedoms of individuals and groups... [it] is mainly concerned with what should and shouldn’t be the role of the state (StackExchange Philosophy) cf. comprehensive liberalism [CT31]

politics of the common good  “According to a common good conception of political morality, members of a political community stand in a social relationship with one another. This relationship is not as intimate as the relationship among family members or the members of a church. But it is a genuine social relationship nonetheless, and it requires members not only to act in certain ways, but also to give one another’s interests a certain status in their practical reasoning.” (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (The Common Good)) [CT31]

polyadic predicate  a predicate with many subjects, that represents the relation that subsists between them cf. predicate and relation [CR14]

polypeptide  a single linear chain of amino acids (<50) (Wikipedia) [CT10]

polytheistic faiths  those that have many gods [CT35]

pooled standard deviation (σ_p)  a weighted average of standard deviations for two or more groups – the individual standard deviations are averaged, with more “weight” given to larger sample sizes (statisticshowto.com) – formula: [CR15]

population  a complete set of items, beings or events that share some property in common cf. sample [CR13]

positive feedback  a characteristic of any system in which the output of the system is fed back into the input in such a way as to increase the output even more e.g. O produces more of I which in turn produces even more of O [CT03]

possibility  it is possible that P if and only if it is not necessary that not P – In symbols ◊P ≡ ∼◻∼P [CT07] [CR23]

possible outcomes  the total number of possible results of a probability experiment [CR10]

possible worlds semantics  see many-worlds or possible worlds semantics

Post criterion for consistency  any system is consistent if it contains (that is, can express) a formula that is not provable as a theorem within the system [CR16]

post-truth  relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief (Oxford Dictionaries) [CR20]

postulate  see axiom

power axiom  the totality of subsets within a given set E is such that there exists a set S and for all x, x is an element of S if and only if x is also a member of E – formula: [CR18]

power of a statistical test  the ability of a statistical test to detect a significant relationship between variables when such a relationship does in fact exist – formula: [CR15]

power set (𝒫)  the power set 𝒫E is defined as the set of all x such that x is a member of E [CR18]

pragmatic theories of truth  several epistemic theories that regard utility as the essential mark of truth i.e. a proposition is regarded as true if it is useful or expedient to believe [CT09]

preadaptation  an adaptation which serves a different purpose from the one for which it evolved (Oxford Languages) [CT13]

precise  a term or predicate for which there are no borderline cases in their domain of application [CR31]

precuneus  the portion of the superior parietal lobule on the inner surface of each brain hemisphere – researchers propose that this subregion is “integral to a range of cognitive processes that require the self’s physical point of reference, given its location within a spatial environment" (Kwon, D. How the Brain Creates Your Physical Sense of Self [CT32]

predestination  a kind of fatalism according to which, someone, (usually famous) is thought to have emerged from prior circumstances that somehow assured their destiny [CT14]

predeterminism  the belief that all events, past, present and future, have already been determined or known since the origin of the Universe cf. causal determinism [CT14]

predicate  something which is affirmed or denied concerning the subject of a proposition [CR11]

predicate dualism  the view that, while there is only one ontological category of substances and properties, namely the physical, the predicates we use to describe mental events cannot be reduced to physical predicates of natural language cf. predicate monism [CT16]

predicate monism  the view espoused by eliminative materialists, that intentional predicates such as believing, knowing, fearing, wanting, hoping… that x, will ultimately be eliminated from the language of science and ordinary discourse because the entities to which they refer do not to exist cf. predicate dualism [CT16]

predictive validity (of a questionnaire)  assesses the ability of measure(s) in questionnaire to forecast future scores or outcomes on some criterion measure e.g. a questionnaire may be used to assess how compliant patients with high blood pressure are in adhering to their prescribed medication – this could be used to predict future medical outcomes such as actual systolic blood pressure control at their next monthly appointment cf. criterion-related validity and concurrent validity [CR26]

preformationism or preformism  the discredited notion according to which organisms develop from preformed miniature versions of themselves [CT26]

premise  a declarative statement assumed to be true that together with other premises support one or more conclusions within an argument [CR01] major premise and minor premise see syllogism

prenex normal form  a syntactic convention in which all the quantifiers in a formula are stacked at the left end, none is negated, and the scope of each extends to the end of the whole formula (Suber, P. 1997) [CR14]

priming  the process of subliminally arousing specific responses from memory following exposure to a certain stimulus e.g. someone who was previously exposed to the word ‘yellow’ will evoke a faster response to the related word ‘banana’ than the unrelated word ‘television’ – one feature of non-declarative or implicit memory [CT32]

primitive symbols  a logistic system requires two kinds of primitive symbols or basic units: ‘propositional’ symbols to stand for propositions and ‘operator’ symbols to stand for logical operators [CR21]

primitive connectives  a set of logical connectives in terms of which all other connectives in a logic can be defined cf. primitive symbols [CR25]

principle of absorption  an identity which resembles that of addition for statements, thus α = α ∪ (α ∩ β) and α = α ∩ (α ∪ β) [CR18]

principle of anomalism of the mental  there are no strict deterministic laws on the basis of which mental events can be predicted and explained (Davidson, D. Metal Events) [CT16]

principle of bivalence  every proposition is either true or false [CR21]

principle of causal interaction  some mental events causally interact with some physical events and vice versa [CT16]

principle of charity  interpreting a person’s statements in the most rational, consistent way possible and, in the case of any argument, favouring its best possible interpretation [CT01] [CT16]

principle of comprehension  the idea that from any condition expressed by a formula φ(x), it is possible to form the set of all sets x satisfying that condition {x|φ(x)} – the unrestricted use of this principle leads to a genuine contradiction cf. Russell’s paradox [CR18]

principle of equal consideration of interests  unlike the principle of equality which requires that equal cases should be treated equally, the principle of equal consideration of interests requires that equal consideration should be given when determining the rightness of an action and weighing those interests equally [CT24]

principle of equality (ethics)  requires that equal cases should be treated equally cf. principle of equal consideration of interests [CT24]

principle of natural selection (PNS)  if x is fitter than y in environment E, then probably, x will have more descendants than y in E, where x and y may be individual genes, genotypes, organisms, groups, species, or perhaps other biological entities cf. natural selection and fundamental theorem of natural selection [CT26]

principle of the nomological character of causality  events related as cause and effect fall under strict deterministic laws (Davidson, D. Metal Events) [CT16]

principle of utility  Actions are right in so far as they promote happiness or pleasure and wrong in that they tend to produce unhappiness or pain – a.k.a. greatest happiness principle [CT08]

principled bias  on the classical description theory of names, one definite description must be the right one if it is to denote at all, even though other descriptions pick out the same individual; however the theory provides no directive for deciding which association should be given special prominence [CT21]

prion  an abnormally folded protein that causes normal versions of the same protein to assume the misfolded form, causing a chain reaction of cellular damage – the fatal and incurable neurodegenerative diseases, Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD) in humans, and Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy a.k.a. “mad cow disease” in cattle, are familiar examples diseases caused by prions [CT36]

probability  the extent to which an event is likely to occur cf. objective probability and subjective probability [CR10]

probability density function (PDF)  a function of a continuous random variable that specifies the probability of a random variable falling within a particular range of values [CR13]

probability distribution  a statistical function that assigns a probability to each measurable subset of outcomes of an experiment [CR13]

probability experiment  any procedure that can be infinitely repeated and has a well-defined set of possible outcomes, known as the sample space (Wikipedia) [CR10]

probability mass function (PMF)  a function that gives the probability that a discrete random variable is exactly equal to some value (Wikipedia) [CR10]

probability theory  that branch of mathematics which deals with quantities having random distributions (OED) [CR10]

problem of causal interaction  a problem for dualism which fails to explain how mental events, which according to dualism have no physical properties, could ever interact with something that is wholly physical to bring about physical effects [CT06]

procedural knowledge  knowledge of how to do things as opposed to knowledge of facts or propositions [CT20]

procedural memory  refers to the slow and unconscious learning of skills such as learning to ride a bicycle – one part of non-declarative or implicit memory [CT32]

product or intersection (∩)  α ∩ β is the class to which both α and β belong [CR18]

proletariat  the class of modern wage labourers who, having no means of production of their own, are reduced to selling their labour power in order to live (Engels, F. 1888 English edition) [CT12]

proof  a derivation that does not contain any assumptions [CR28]

propaganda  a form of disinformation being biased or misleading in nature, especially to promote a political cause or point of view (Oxford Languages) [CR20]

proper subset  a proper subset of a set α is a subset of α that is not equal to α [CR18]

proposition  the content or meaning expressed by a declarative statement - Propositions are bearers of truth value and may be the objects of belief, and other propositional attitudes. [CR01]

propositional attitudes  1. inner states: beliefs, desires, hopes, fears, predicting, wishing, but also fearing, loving, suspecting, expecting etc. 2. the relation that a person has with a proposition, such as having an opinion concerning it or responding emotionally to it (Oxford Languages) [CT33]

propositional calculus  practically identical to the sentential calculus but different in theory, in that it deals with propositions expressed by declarative sentences and relations between them as well as their involvement in arguments cf. sentential calculus [CR02]

propositional consequence  a propositional formula F is a (propositional) consequence of a set G of propositional formulae, G ⊨ F iff for every interpretation I it holds that if I ⊨ G then I ⊨ F (Fronhöfer, 2011) [CR25]

propositional function  in predicate logic, propositional functions are expressions that contain individual variables – they become propositions when their individual constants are substituted for their individual variables (Copi, I. Symbolic Logic 5th ed.) [CR11]

propositional modal model  a triple ❬W,R,⊩❭ where W is a non-empty set of possible worlds, R an accessibility relation from W onto W and ⊩ the satisfaction relation [CR23]

propositional variables  symbols that may denote any formula, subject to certain restrictions [CR21]

protasis  see antecedent

proteins  large biomolecules, or macromolecules, consisting of one or more long chains of amino acids (Wikipedia) [CT10]

provable formula  a formula F is provable iff F is derivable from the empty set (Fronhöfer, 2011) [CR28]

proximate explanations  provide answers as to how a particular event, state, process, capacity, or disposition is brought about [CT34]

pseudorandom  processes which are deterministic and therefore predictable in theory, but not in practice due to insufficient information e.g. the roll of a die cf. stochastic [CT30]

psychological behaviourism  a theoretical approach that purports to explain human and animal behaviour in terms of external physical stimuli, responses, learning histories, and (for certain types of behaviour) reinforcements (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Behaviorism) [CT11]

psychological connectedness  the holding of particular direct psychological connections (Parfit, D. Reasons and Persons) [CT32]

psychological continuity  the holding of overlapping chains of strong psychological connectedness (Parfit, D. Reasons and Persons) [CT32]

psychological criterion of personal identity  involves: 1) psychological continuity if, and only if, there are overlapping chains of strong psychological connectedness, such that X today is one and the same person as Y at some past time if, and only if, 2) X is psychologically continuous with Y, 3) this continuity has the right kind of cause, and 4) it has not taken a “branching” form, 5) and personal identity over time just consists in facts like 2) to 4) obtaining (Parfit, D. Reasons and Persons) [CT32]

psychophysical laws  hypothetical laws linking neuronal events and mental events such that the existence of various types of neuronal events necessitate certain types of mental events (Davidson, D. Metal Events) cf. anomalous monism [CT16]

public language-of-thought hypothesis  accordingly, a person’s language of thought is in their language of speech or signing cf. Mentalise [CT33]

qualia  (singular: quale) instances of subjective, conscious experience (L. quālis “of what sort” or “of what kind” [CT06] [CT11] [CT23]

quantification  in science, the act of counting or measuring that maps observations and experiences onto quantities, usually expressed as a number together with a unit of measurement [CR12]

quantifier  in predicate logic, a quantifier specifies the quantity of specimens in the domain of discourse that satisfy a formula that contains at least one unsubstituted variable cf. universal quantifier and existential quantifier [CR11]

quantifier negation (QN)  in predicate logic, quantifier negation is represented four standard logical equivalences involving the negation of quantifiers, which can be used as rules of inference in proofs [CR11]

quantitatively identical  see identity of indiscernibles

quantum indeterminacy  the apparent necessary incompleteness in the description of a physical system, that has become one of the characteristics of the standard description of quantum physics (Wikipedia: Quantum indeterminacy) [CT13]

qua-problem  (L. qua for “as”) a problem for the theory of reference fixing by grounding, particularly of names and natural kind terms; when a speaker grounds a term through perceptual experience, in virtue of what is the term grounded in the cause of that experience qua-one-kind and not qua another? For that cause will always be an instance of many kinds e.g. the object may be an echidna, a monotreme, a mammal, a vertebrate, and so on (Devitt & Sterelny, Language and Reality 2nd ed.) [CT25]

quasi-contradiction  a formula is a quasi-contradiction if it is never true; therefore in any 3-valued system it always has the value F or ⊙ cf. quasi-tautology [CR25]

quasi-entailment  a set of formulae S quasi-entails a formula F, in symbols S ⊨_q F, iff there is no truth-value assignment on which each of the formulae in S has the value T or ⊙ when F has the value F; i.e. whenever each formula in S has either a T or ⊙ value, then so does F (Fronhöfer, 2011) [CR25]

quasi-tautology  a formula is a quasi-tautology iff it is never false; note however that although all tautologies are quasi-tautologies, not all quasi-tautologies are tautologies because in 3-valued logics quasi-tautologies may have a neutral truth value cf. quasi-contradiction [CR25]

quasi-valid  an argument (S, F) is quasi-valid iff S entails F (Fronhöfer, 2011) [CR25]

questionnaire  a research instrument consisting of a series of predetermined questions or prompts designed to gather information from respondents about a particular issue of interest [CR26]

radical behaviourism  the philosophy motivating “behavioural analysis” according to which animal behaviour can be studied and usefully compared with human behaviour – the environment being regarded as a cause of behaviour as well as the operations involved in the modification of behaviour (Wikipedia: Radical behaviorism) [CT27]

randomised controlled trial (RCT)  a controlled experiment for assessing the efficacy or effectiveness of some clinical intervention; so called because participants are randomly assigned to one of two or more groups, at least one of which is the experimental group and another, the control group [CR12]

range  the interval from the lowest to highest value of any data set [CR13]

range of a relation R (ran R)  the set of all second coordinates of R cf. domain of a relation and field of a relation [CR18]

rank correlation  a measure of the strength and direction of statistical association between two ranked variables [CR19]

rate  one quantity measured against another, in different units (often per unit time) [CR13]

ratio scales  quantitative scales with a defined zero value that allow us not only to order and quantify the difference between values but also to calculate ratios [CR13]

reading frame  spans of DNA sequence between start and stop codons – when used with the term “open” it is meant that the ribosome will be able to keep on reading the RNA code and add another amino acid one after another [CT34]

realism (philosophy of mind)  the claim that mental events such as beliefs, desires and thoughts are real phenomena and not merely artefacts of socio-cultural norms [CT27]

recessive  the opposite of dominant [CT10]

reciprocal altruism  behaviour whereby an organism acts in a manner that temporarily reduces its fitness while increasing another organism’s fitness, with the expectation that the other organism will act in a similar manner at a later time (Wikipedia) [CT10]

recursive definition  a definition relating to or involving the repeated application of a rule, definition, or procedure (to successive results) (Oxford Languages) [CR21]

readiness potential (RP)  a negative spike in recorded neural activity of the motor cortex and supplementary motor area that precedes voluntary movement by 1 to 2 seconds among humans [CR27]

reductio ad absurdum  L. reduction to absurdity – an argument form which seeks to demonstrate that a statement or propositions is true by showing that a false, untenable, or absurd result follows from its denial (Wikipedia) [CR09]

reductionism  several philosophical approaches which hold that complex systems are the sum of their parts and can, at least in principle, be explained as such [CT11] [CT13] [CT23]

reductionism (psychiatry)  the belief that at some level, adverse changes in the neural substrate or functioning are necessary to account for mental disorders cf. reductionism [CT27]

redundancy of the genetic code  genes code for proteins, which are composed of a sequence of any of 20 amino acids, each coded by a triplet (codon) of nucleic acids that code for a specific amino acid, and given that there are 4 different nucleic acids, there are therefore potentially 64 different ways of coding for just 20 amino acids; hence there is more than one way of coding for some amino acids [CT34]

redundant axiom  axioms that are not independent are said to be redundant cf. independent axiom [CR16]

reference  G. bedeutung a term coined by Frege for that aspect of meaning concerned with the extension of a term, or what it picks out; also the genus of which all referential relationships – for example, application, designation, denotation – are species (Devitt & Sterelny, Language and Reality 2nd ed.) cf. sense [CT17]

reference borrowing  the acquisition or reinforcement of an ability to use a term as the result of the exercise by another via an act of communication (Devitt & Sterelny, Language and Reality 2nd ed.) cf. reference [CT21]

reference fixing  the act or process of determining reference [CT25]

referent  the thing or phenomenon in the world that a word or phrase denotes or stands for [CT17]

referential  adjective of reference [CT29]

reflexive relation  a relation is reflexive when x has a relation R to itself if there is some y such that Rxy or Ryx cf. totally reflexive relation [CR14]

refutable  see falsifiable

regular connective  a connective is regular iff its truth function is regular [CR25]

regular logic  a logic is called regular if the tables of all its standard connectives are regular [CR25]

regular propositional truth function in a 3-valued logic  a given column/row contains T’s or F’s in the ⊙ row/column implies the column/row consists entirely of T’s or entirely of F’s (Kleene, 1952) [CR25]

regulatory genes  produce proteins (a.k.a. transcription factors) that control the rate of transcription of genetic information from DNA to mRNA, by binding to a specific DNA sequence cf. structural genes [CT34]

relation  a connection that one (or more) things or phenomena has to others [CR14]

relation R (Parfit)  psychological connectedness and/or psychological continuity, with the right kind of cause (Parfit, D. Reasons and Persons) [CT32]

relative fitness  the total number of offspring that an organism has compared to the average number of offspring for the population i.e. absolute fitness ÷ average fitness [CT26]

relative frequency  the proportion of times that an event occurs [CR10]

relative tautology  A formula is a relative tautology iff it has a designated truth-value on every interpretation [CR25]

relativism  the doctrine that there are no absolute truths; that truth is always relative to some particular frame of reference, such as a language or a culture [CT07]

relevance logic  requires that the antecedent and consequent of implications should be relevantly related; this is intended to capture aspects of implication that are ignored by material implication in classical truth-functional logic E.g. “If the sun is shining then two squared is four” may be true if translated as a material implication; however it seems intuitively false because a true implication must tie together the antecedent and consequent in a way that is relevant. (Wikipedia: Relevance logic) [CR25]

reliabilism  any of several epistemic theories that hold that a belief is justified if and only if it is the result of some highly reliable process [CT07]

reliability of an instrument  a reliable instrument provides consistent and repeatable measurements [CR26]

replacement  interchanging one statement (or part of a statement) with another that is logically equivalent to it q.v. rule of replacement [CR07]

replicator  any entity in the universe of which copies are made (Dawkins, R. The Extended Phenotype) [CT10]

representational content  the content of mental representations seemingly indistinguishable from the representational meaning of a sentence used to express or communicate a thought [CT33]

representational validity (of a questionnaire)  see translational or representational validity (of a questionnaire)

representativeness heuristic  a heuristic used when making judgments about the probability of an event under uncertainty - This is done by judging (i) the similarity or representativeness of events or things to the population from which they are derived; and (ii) the degree to which it reflects the salient features or processes by which it is generated (such as randomness). [CR06]

representative sample  a sample that is independent and accurately reflects the characteristics and proportions of the of the parent population [CR13]

reproducibility  a result obtained by an experiment or observational study is reproducible if it can be repeated using the same methodology by different researchers, yielding the same result [CR12]

reproduction  among living systems, the potential ability to produce new individuals of the same kind, either on its own (asexually) or together with another organism of the same kind, usually of the opposite sex (sexually) [CT13]

research instruments  tools designed to obtain data from objects of interest to researchers [CR26]

research question  a question that a research project sets out to answer [CR19]

resemblance theory of representation  accordingly, we understand a representation because it resembles what it represents [CT19]

residual matrix  in factor analysis, the matrix obtained after the first factor has been partialed out [CR29]

residuals  given by the vertical distance (the difference in the y-coordinates) between each datapoint and the regression line; i.o.w. a residual is a measure of how well a regression line fits an individual data point cf. line of best fit [CR29]

responsibility  the state or fact of being responsible, answerable, or accountable for something within one’s power, control, or management (dictionary.com) [CT18]

response fatigue  although reliability increases with the number of items on the test, so does the length of the test; therefore potential respondents are less likely to participate or to answer thoughtfully or completely [CR26]

response to stimuli  detectable environmental changes, whether internal or external, will elicit a response from a living system [CT13]

retrodiction  a testable “prediction” about some event in the past [CR12]

retrograde amnesia  the inability to retrieve information that was acquired before the date of a specific brain change, operation or head trauma cf. anterograde amnesia [CT32]

rhetoric  the art of persuasion cf. rhetorical device [CR01]

rhetorical device  a technique of language use that is intended to induce an effect on its audience – a.k.a. persuasive device; stylistic device cf. rhetoric [CR01]

rigid designator  designates the same object in all possible worlds in which that object exists, and never designates anything else (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy) [CT20]

rigidified descriptions  in order to avoid the problems of unwanted ambiguity and lost rigidity a ‘rigidity operator’ (e.g. ‘… in the actual world…’) could be introduced into a description so that resultant description limits it to just our world making the name synonymous with the description [CT21]

rigorous  a system is said to be rigorous if no formula is asserted to be a theorem unless it is logically entailed by its axioms (Copi, I. Symbolic Logic 5th ed.) [CR16]

RNA (Ribonucleic acid)  a macromolecule composed of a single polynucleotide chain, essential to various biological roles in coding, decoding, regulation and the expression of genes; also used by many viruses to encode their genetic material (Wikipedia) [CT10]

RNA splicing  the cutting out and rearranging of sections of mRNA [CT34]

robust (statistics)  statistical techniques are said to be roust if they perform well with data drawn from a broad range of probability distributions, including distributions that are not normal [CR17]

r-strategists  species that invest relatively very few resources in a very large number of offspring with a relatively short reproductive period cf. k-strategists [CT18]

rule of detachment  a.k.a. modus ponens, so called because it allows the conclusion to be “detached” from the premises (Fronhöfer, 2011) [CR28]

rule of replacement  a transformation rule that allows the replacement of either a full line or part of a line in a proof with a logically equivalent expression, so that the truth value of the resulting statement is the same as that of the original statement [CR07]

rule utilitarianism  a utilitarian theory according to which an action is right insofar as it conforms to a rule that maximises utility cf. act utilitarianism [CT08]

Russell’s paradox  let φx be the propositional function that x ∉ x i.e. that x is not a member of itself, then we have the set R = {x|x ∉ x}; therefore for any y, y ∈ R ≡ y ∉ y; substituting R for y yields R ∈ R ≡ R ∉ R, which is a contradiction [CR18]

sacred  L. sacerdos and sanctum set apart (for some special purpose) [CT18]

saltations (evolutionary biology)  relatively sudden and large mutational changes from one generation to the next, potentially causing single-step speciation (Wikipedia) [CT22]

salva veritate  L. with (or by) unharmed truth; thus truth preserving [CT17]

sample  a subset of the population, drawn at random or by some other statistical procedure from the population q.v. representative sample cf. population [CR13]

sample space  the set of all possible outcomes of a probability experiment [CR10]

sampling  a method of drawing a sample, or subset of individuals, from a given population in the hope that such a sample will be representative, or a good estimate, of the population for some characteristic of interest [CR13]

sampling distribution of a statistic  a distribution arrived at through repeated sampling, with replacement, from a larger population showing every possible result and the frequency of each result [CR13]

sampling distribution of the mean  the sampling distribution of the mean specifically, as opposed to that for some other statistic q.v. sampling distribution of a statistic [CR13]

sanctity of life  the often hypocritical view that all life is sacred; however in practice this seldom applies to other species or other human beings if they are perceived as inferior or as enemies [CT24]

satisfaction relation (⊩)  in possible worlds semantics ⊩ is the relation between a set of possible worlds W, including a possible world Γ∈W and the set of all wffs, such that ⊩ obeys certain conditions: see [CR23]

satisfiable proposition  a compound proposition is satisfiable if it is true for some assignment of truth values to its variables [CR25]

satisfiable set of formulae  a set of formulae G is satisfiable iff there is an interpretation mapping each element F ∈ G to T (Fronhöfer, 2011) [CR25]

scatter plot  a graphical representation of data points for typically two variables of interest using Cartesian coordinates [CR19]

science  a way of knowing that distinguishes itself from other ways of knowing by being systematic, logical and which builds on the best available evidence and organises knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the world [CR12]

scientific hypothesis  a testable hypothesis taking account of the best available evidence at the time [CR12]

scientific law  a statement based on repeated experiments or observations that have been widely confirmed cf. scientific theory [CR12]

scientific model  basically a working analogy – a representation of some aspect of real world phenomena that makes them easier to understand, define, quantify, visualize, or simulate by comparing them to events, relations or processes that are already well understood cf. conceptual model, operational model, mathematical model and graphical model [CR12]

scientific theory  a set of relationships among concepts, supported by a group of scientific hypotheses that explain some aspect of the natural world cf. scientific law [CR12]

scope of an assumption  those lines of a conditional proof that depend on a temporary assumption [CR09]

scope of a quantifier  in logic, the scope of a quantifier (or a quantification) is the range of the formula over which the quantifier applies – usually this is indicated to the right of the quantifier in parentheses [CR11]

second law of thermodynamics  the entropy of any isolated system always increases towards thermal equilibrium – the state of maximum entropy of the system [CT13]

segregation distorter alleles  those that distort the process of normal segregation in their own favour, which results in an unequal transmission of alleles from parents to offspringing [CT26]

selected effects (SE) analysis of function  allows biologists to interpret their functional terminology as a literal account of the world, without appealing to notions of teleology and hence backward causation (Wright, 1972 & 1973) cf. causal role (CR) account of functions [CT30]

self (psychiatry)  the psychophysical total of a person at any given moment, including conscious and unconscious attributes (Sadock, B. et al. Eds. Kaplan & Sadock’s Comprehensive Textbook of Psychiatry, 10th ed.) [CT32]

selfishness  the opposite of altruism [CT10]

self-reference effect (SRE)  the tendency for people to encode information differently depending on whether they are implicated in the information – when people are asked to remember information when it is related in some way to themselves, their recall can be improved (Wikipedia) [CT32]

self-selection  a bias that arises in any situation in which individuals select themselves into a group based on some shared characteristic(s) [CR13]

semantically consistent formulae  a set of formulae S is semantically consistent or satisfiable iff there exists an interpretation on which all formulae in S evaluate to T (Fronhöfer, 2011) [CR28]

Semantic Deduction Theorem  a set {P} of formulae entails a formula Q iff P ⊃ Q is a tautology, i.e. {P} ⊨ Q iff ⊨ P ⊃ Q (Fronhöfer, 2011) cf. Syntactic/Proof-Theoretical Deduction Theorem [CR28]

semantic holism  a theory of language according to which a part of a language e.g. sentence (and hence a word), is only meaningful in the context of the whole language cf. holism of the mental [CT16]

semantic memory  refers to memory encoded with a specific meaning cf. declarative or explicit memory [CT32]

semantics  the theory of meaning cf. formal semantics [CT17]

semantic shift  a change in the a meaning of a term in different contexts [CR04]

semantic theory  a theory that attempts to define what a term means [CT19]

sense  G. sinn a term coined by Frege for that aspect of meaning concerned with intension or the concept that a term evokes cf. reference [CT17]

sentential calculus  that branch of logic that deals with declarative sentences and relations between them as well as their involvement in arguments cf. propositional calculus [CR02]

separation  a.k.a. modus ponens [CR28]

series-person (Nagel)  according to Nagel, while a person is essentially a particular embodied brain, an imagined series-person is potentially an R-related series of embodied brains (Nagel, T. The View from Nowhere ) [CT32]

set or class  the terms ‘set’ or ‘class’ cannot be defined without circularity and so are treated as undefined or primitive terms when discussed axiomatically – loosely speaking, a collection of “things” known as elements or members which may be real or abstract, including other sets [CR18]

sex cells  a.k.a. gametes represented by sperm and ova in animals – both have only one set of chromosomes each and so are also said to be haploid [CT10]

shame  in psychology, a painful self-conscious emotion caused by consciousness of guilt, shortcoming, or impropriety cf. guilt [CT18]

shorter truth table technique  a test of validity via the method of reductio ad absurdum using only the conditional corresponding to the argument and the consistent assignment of truth values to components of the conditional under the assumption that it is false – if a contradiction arises, the argument to which it corresponds is valid; if not it is invalid [CR09]

short-term memory  see working memory

significance level (α)  the probability at which a researcher(s) will be willing to reject the null hypothesis, given that the null hypothesis is true [CR15]

similar sets (X ≅ Y)  two partially ordered sets are said to be similar if there is a one-to-one correspondence between them that preserves order (Copi, I. Symbolic Logic 5th ed.) [CR18]

simplicate  to make a system more complex so that the use of the system is easier or simpler – to intentionally design or modify a complex system so that the end-user experience is simpler; this often involves adding internal complexity to reduce external effort. (Wiktionary.org) [CR31]

simplification  an elementary valid argument of the form: A and B /∴ A [CR02]

simply ordered set  see totally ordered or simply ordered set

simulation  the implementation of a model representing some real-world process or system over time [CR12]

"sin"  an act which is regarded as a transgression of divine law and an offence against God (OED) [CT35]

single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP)  a genomic variant at a single base position in the DNA cf. point mutation [CT27]

singleton  see unit set or singleton

singular proposition  those that are about a particular individual cf. general proposition [CR11]

singular term  an expression purporting to refer to just one object e.g. names, definite descriptions and demonstratives cf. general term and mass term (Devitt & Sterelny, Language and Reality 2nd ed.) [CT29]

Sittlichkeit (Hagel)  the concept of “ethical life” or “ethical order” espoused by Hegel, that emphasizes the way in which human welfare, identity and our capacity for moral agency is bound up with the community to which we belong, including family, civil society and the State [CT31]

sleep latency  the time elapsed from bedtime to the onset of sleep [CR12]

slippery slope fallacy  a series of graduated events that are assumed, without reason or argument, to follow inevitably, one from the other [CR04]

Słupecki Tertium operator (T)  allows for the definition of a neutral truth constant: n = Tp₁ (Fronhöfer, 2011) [CR25]

Słupecki’s Theorem  extending the standard connectives of Ł₃ by the T connective results in a complete set of connectives (Fronhöfer, 2011) [CR25]

social constructivism  a sociological theory according to which truth and knowledge are social constructs which are historically and culturally specific and shaped inter alia by power struggles within a community [CT09]

social contract  an actual or hypothetical contract, or agreement, entered into voluntarily between people with competing interests in a “primitive” society in order to secure peace [CT05]

socialism  1. a political and economic theory of social organization which advocates that the means of production, distribution, and exchange should be owned or regulated by the community as a whole 2. (in Marxist theory) a transitional social state between the overthrow of capitalism and the realization of communism (Oxford Languages) [CT12]

social learning theory  accordingly, learning is a cognitive process that takes place in a social context and can occur purely through observation or direct instruction, even in the absence of motor reproduction or direct reinforcement (Wikipedia) E.g. violent behaviour can be learned by observing a model performing or acting out violent behaviour [CR26]

social thesis (political philosophy)  the belief that the capacity for self-determination can only be exercised in a certain kind of society, with a certain kind of social environment cf. atomistic view of individuals [CT31]

sociobiology  the scientific study of the biological (especially ecological and evolutionary) aspects of social behaviour in [other] animals and humans (Oxford Languages) [CT36]

Sorites paradox a.k.a. paradox of the heap  a group of paradoxical incremental arguments that arise from the application of vague predicates. E.g. if a heap of sand is reduced by removing a single grain of sand at a time, no single grain of sand can identified as making the difference between there being a heap and not being a heap – not the first, nor the second, nor the third… nor the last [CR04] [CR31]

soul  according to Aristotle, the soul or psyche, is the form of a living thing; thus the soul is related to the body as form is to matter [CT13]

sound argument  a valid argument whose premises are all true cf. unsound argument [CR02]

sound derivation system  a derivation system for classical propositional logic is said to be sound iff all theorems are tautologies, and whenever a formula F is derivable from a set of formulae S, then F is also entailed by S (Fronhöfer, 2011) [CR28]

Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient (Spearman’s ρ)  a non-parametric version of Pearson’s r that measures rank correlation between two ranked variables [CR19]

special sciences  those sciences which are irreducible to fundamental physics; this includes chemistry, biology, neuroscience to which other sciences are sometimes reduced cf. strong autonomy [CT26]

speciesism  the prejudicial bias towards members of one’s own species and against members of other species [CT24]

specious present  the duration in time in which one’s perceptions are considered to be in the present (Wikipedia) [CT32]

spectrum aetiological concept  according to which, mental disorders are regarded as the outcome of a spectrum of possible effects [CT27]

sphexish  an unknowing and mechanical form of ‘seeming intelligence’… totally opposite to what we feel we are all about, particularly when we talk about our own consciousness – noun sphexishness the state or condition of being sphexish (Hofstadter, D Metamagical Themas) [CT14]

spite  harmful behaviour which is costly to perform but which exacts an even greater cost for the target [CR20]

split-half estimates and the split-half reliability index  involves dividing up a sample into two halves e.g. odd items in the first half and even items in the second half or vice versa; both halves are then given to the same individuals and the responses from each half are correlated; the degree of such correlation then is a measure of internal consistency [CR26]

spontaneous generation  the theory that that living creatures can arise spontaneously from inanimate matter as a matter of course a.k.a. abiogenesis [CR12]

stability of a test  see test-retest reliability (stability)

stages of cosmic evolution (Popper)  proposed by Popper in 1972: World 1 is the world of things or physical objects, such as rocks, trees and human bodies; World 2 is the worlds of subjective experiences, feelings, emotions and consciousness; World 3 is the world of ideas, language, stories, works of art, mathematics, sciences and technology – according to Popper, these three “worlds” emerged sequentially through an evolutionary process (Popper, K. Objective Knowledge: An Evolutionary Approach) [CT36]

standard deviation  a measure of the extent to which the data points of group deviate from the mean of the group – formula: [CR13]

standard deviation of the sampling means  see standard error

standard error  an estimate of the size of the error we are likely to make if we use the mean of the sampling means as an estimate of the population mean – formula: [CR13]

standardising or normalisation  in statistics, the process of converting raw scores to a standardised scheme for interpreting the distribution of probabilities e.g. the conversion of a raw score x into a z-score – formula: [CR13]

standard normal distribution  a special case of the normal distribution where the value of the mean (μ) is 0 and the standard deviation (σ) is equal to 1 [CR13]

standard person or reference person  a theoretical model of a human individual which has perfectly “normal” characteristics (Wikipedia: Standard person) [CT27]

stasis (evolutionary biology)  a relative lack of evolutionary change over a long period during the history of a species (Oxford Bibliographies) [CT22]

state of affairs  a worldly situation that either obtains or does not obtain [CT09]

state of nature  the real or hypothetical life of people before societies, civilisation or government came into being [CT05]

statistic  a number summarizing data for a sample cf. parameter [CR13]

statistical experiment  a procedure of drawing a sample with the intention of making a decision [CR10]

statistical hypothesis  a statement about a population parameter that may or may not be true [CR15]

statistical hypothesis test  a formal set of procedures by which to decide whether to accept or reject a statistical hypothesis [CR15]

statistical relationship  requires one variable’s value to increase or decrease when the other variable’s value changes, a relationship that is almost never exact or prefect cf. deterministic relationship [CR22]

stochastic  processes that are non-deterministic and therefore truly random cf. determinism and pseudorandom [CT13]

straw man fallacy  one that misrepresents an opponent’s position in an absurd or ridiculous manner which is easily refuted - The image is of a proponent dressed up as a scarecrow, which the opponent then proceeds to demolish. [CR04]

strong argument  an inductive argument that is well structured such the truth of the premises makes the truth of the conclusion highly probable cf. weak argument [CR03]

strong autonomy  an anti-reductionist position argued for by Jerry Fodor (1974) according to which the special sciences are not even in principle reducible to fundamental physics [CT26]

Strong Completeness Theorem  for a formula A of classical logic and a set of formulae S of classical logic, if S ⊨ A, then S ⊢ A (Fronhöfer, 2011) cf. Weak Completeness Theorem [CR28]

strong conjunction/disjunction  see Łukasiewicz’s bold connectives

strongest possible regular extension of classical 2-valued functions  the truth functions of K^S₃ are regular and have a T or a F in each position where any regular extension of the 2-valued tables can have a T or a F (Fronhöfer, 2011) [CR25]

strong induction  a variant of basic mathematical induction which makes the induction step easier to prove by using a stronger hypothesis i.e. one proves the statement P(m+1) under the assumption that P(n) is true for all natural numbers n less than m+1; by contrast basic induction only assumes P(m) (Wikipedia) [CR18]

strongly complete derivation system  a derivation system is said to be strongly complete (or just complete) iff, in addition, whenever a set of formulae S entails a formula F, then F is also derivable from S within the system (Fronhöfer, 2011) cf. weakly complete derivation system [CR28]

strong psychological connectedness  the existence of enough direct psychological connections that obtain on any day, with “enough” being somewhat arbitrarily defined (Parfit, D. Reasons and Persons) cf. psychological connectedness [CT32]

structural genes  code for proteins that build and operate the body’s cells e.g. haemoglobin, myoglobin, albumin etc. cf. regulatory genes [CT34]

stupid tax  1. a dysphemism for gambling, in general and the lottery in particular 2. the price you pay for ignorance [CR10]

subcontraries  any two propositions which are so related that they cannot both be false (although both may be true) [CR11]

subjective probability  the odds that a rational agent would assign to the outcome of a particular event, given the available evidence [CT30]

subject matter expert raters (SMEs) (of a questionnaire)  experts who are familiar with the constructs of a questionnaire who review all items for readability, clarity and comprehensiveness [CR26]

subjects and predicates  in predicate logic, the simplest propositions are formed by combining a predicate with an individual, corresponding to the subject in ordinary language [CR11]

subset  see class inclusion (⊂); cf. proper subset

subsist vs. exist  historically, concrete objects are said to exist and subsist, while abstract objects are said not to exist but to subsist [CT20] [CT28]

substitution  a statement written in place of a variable in an argument with the same statement written in place of the same variable, if it occurs elsewhere in the argument [CR07]

substitution instance  in predicate logic, any singular proposition can be regarded as a substitution instance of the propositional function from which it results by the substitution of an individual constant for the individual variable in the propositional function (Copi, I. Symbolic Logic 5th ed.) [CR11]

substitutivity of identity  according to Leibniz’s rule of substitutivity of identity, any singular codesignational term may be substituted salva veritate – this applies to contexts that are extensional or transparent [CT17]

substrate-neutral algorithm  an algorithm that can be implemented by many different physical systems [CT26] [CT36]

subtractivity of equality  the property of arithmetic subtraction such that if equal quantities are subtracted from equal quantities their difference will be equal [CR16]

sui generis  L. of its own kind (and hence) unique in its characteristics [CT08]

sum or union (∪)  α ∪ β is the class to which α or β belong [CR18]

sum-of-squares for between-group variability (SS_between)  in ANOVA, the sum of the sample sizes multiplied by the squared differences between samples and the grand mean - Formula: [CR24]

sum-of-squares for within-group variability (SS_within)  in ANOVA, the sum of squared differences between each value and the group mean for that value plus the same for the second group and the third group etc. - Formula: [CR24]

summand  a quantity to be added to another [CR18]

summum bonum  L. the greatest good [CT08]

sunken costs fallacy  see escalation of commitment heuristic

supererogation  L. supererogatio : payment beyond what is needed or asked; hence going beyond the call of duty [CT08]

supervenience  a relation between sets of properties or sets of facts; thus x is said to supervene on y if and only if some difference in y is necessary for any difference in x to be possible (Wikipedia) E.g. mental properties supervene on physical properties in such a way that changes to mental properties can not occur without corresponding changes to physical properties on which they supervene [CT16]

sweeping generalization  see fallacy of accident

syllogism  a classic form of a deductive argument often comprising of a general statement (the major premise) and a specific statement (the minor premise) from which a conclusion may be validly derived e.g. All men are mortal. Socrates is a man. / Therefore, Socrates is mortal. [CR02]

symmetrical relation  a relation is symmetrical if x has a relation R to y then y has a relation R to x – formula: [CR14]

syntactically consistent formulae  a set of formulae S is syntactically consistent iff there does not exist a formula F such that both F and ∼F are provable from S (Fronhöfer, 2011) [CR28]

syntactically inconsistent formulae  a set of formulae S is syntactically inconsistent iff there does exist a formula F such that both F and ∼F are provable from S (Fronhöfer, 2011) [CR28]

syntactic competence  the ability of being able to combine words to form grammatical sentences [CT37]

Syntactic/Proof-Theoretical Deduction Theorem  a formula Q is derivable from a set of formulae P₁, …, P_n of formulae iff P_n ⊃ Q is derivable from P₁, …, P_n-1 – in the special case of n = 1, a formula Q is derivable from a formula P iff P ⊃ Q is a theorem (Fronhöfer, 2011) cf. Semantic Deduction Theorem [CR28]

syntax  a series of rules by which to differentiate strings of symbols in a formal system that are to count as well formed formulae (wffs) from those that that are purely nonsensical (Copi, I. Symbolic Logic 5th ed.) [CR16]

synthetic statement  one that depends for its truth, not only on its meaning, but also on something about the world e.g. All humans are mortal [CT29]

systemic model of psychology  involves viewing people in relations with others especially, but not only, families, rather than individuals – people are seen within the context of their interactional patterns and dynamics... (Skorunka, 2009 Systemic Familytherapy) [CT27]

tabula rasa  L. a blank slate – the idea that humans are born without innate mental content or predispositions [CT09]

Tao  often translated as ‘Way’, ‘path’, or ‘technique’ underlying ultimate reality cf. Taoism [CT35]

Taoism  a diverse philosophical and religious tradition indigenous to China, advocating humility and religious piety cf. Tao [CT35]

tautology  1. the restatement of a proposition such that it is unconditionally true e.g. “What will be, will be” or “Socrates is either mortal or he is not” 2. a statement that is true for all substitution instances [CR01] [CR05]

tautology in a 3-valued logic  a formula F that has the value T on all interpretations [CR25]

tautology of Boolean algebra (BA-tautology)  a formula of propositional logic is a tautology of Boolean algebra (a BA-tautology) if the formula evaluates to unit under every algebraic interpretation based on that algebra (Bergmann, M. An introduction to Many-Valued and Fuzzy Logic) [CR31]

taxon  (plural: taxa) a group of one or more populations of an organism or organisms regarded by taxonomists as forming a unit (Wikipedia) – these include species themselves, genera, families, orders, classes, phyla, divisions and kingdoms [CT26]

t-conorm  if v is a disjunctive connective, then if P is F, then P v Q has the value of Q, then v is called t-conorm (Fronhöfer, 2011) [CR25]

technology  anything and everything used do things better [CT36]

teleological  an explanation of a phenomenon in terms of the purpose it serves rather than of the cause by which it arises (Oxford Languages) cf. final or end cause [CT22]

teleological semantics  a semantic theory, usually of thoughts, that holds that the meaning of an expression type is determined by the selective history of that type (Devitt & Sterelny, Language and Reality 2nd ed.) cf. indicator semantics [CT33]

temporal modalities  modalities that express time or tense [CR23]

tensed identity (persons)  identity that obtains between two continuant persons at a given time [CT32]

testing effect  occurs when scores on the post-test are influenced by simple exposure to the pre-test (Statistics Solutions) [CR26]

test-retest reliability (stability)  the closeness of agreement between the results of successive measurements under the same conditions – it provides an indication of stability over time and may be expressed as a correlation [CR26]

tetradic predicate  a predicate with four subjects, that represents the relation that subsists between them cf. predicate and relation [CR14]

theological determinism  the belief that, since God is both omnipotent and omniscient and created the Universe, he or she already knew at the beginning of time the outcome of every event; therefore every event that occurs has been predestined to occur cf. determinism and causal determinism [CT14]

theorem  a statement, in words or symbols, that is formally true (or tautological,) in which all substitution instances are true [CR05] [CR21] [CR28]

theorem to degree v  a formula P is a theorem to degree v in Ł₃PA if there is a proof [P, v] and there is no proof of [P, w] with w > v [CR28]

theory of descriptions a.k.a. law of identity  Russell’s theory of descriptions is used to analyse sentences in which definite descriptions occur in places in which proper names might occur. Accordingly, subject-predicate sentences containing an occurrence of a proper name are treated differently to those containing definite descriptions. (Ryckman, T Russell's Theory of Descriptions) – see e.g. [CR14]

theory of everything or final theory  a hypothetical coherent theoretical framework of physics containing all physical principles (Wikipedia: Theory of everything) [CT36]

theory of mind  the capacity to understand other people by ascribing mental states to them (that is, surmising what is happening in their mind) (Wikipedia) [CT20] [CT27]

ties  data from a data set that have the same values [CR17]

t-norm  if • is a conjunctive connective, then if P is T, then P • Q has the value of Q, then • is called t-norm (Fronhöfer, 2011) [CR25]

token identity theory  any theory of mind in which particular mental states or events are identified with some or other physical states or events cf. type identity theory [CT11]

tool  an object that aids in accomplishing a particular task [CT36]

totally ordered or simply ordered set  a set in which all distinct members are ordered by a relation (note: all totally ordered sets are also partially ordered but not vice versa) cf. partial order in a set [CR18]

totally reflexive relation  a relation R is totally reflexive if everything has that relation to itself, i.e. if Rxx, e.g. x is identical to itself cf. reflexive relation [CR14]

tragedy of the commons  a situation in which individuals with access to a public resource (or common) act in their own rational self-interest to over consume the resource, at the expense of every other individual, and in so doing so ultimately deplete the resource [CT18]

trait  a distinct variant of a phenotypic characteristic of an organism e.g. eye colour or blood type: A, B or O – a.k.a. phenotypic trait; character state (Wikipedia) [CT10]

transfinite induction  an extension of mathematical induction to well-ordered sets: suppose P(α) is a property defined for any ordinal number α, and that whenever P(β) is true for all β < α, then P(α) is also true; then transfinite induction tells us that P is true for all ordinals (Wiktionary) [CR18]

transitive relation  if x has a relation R to y and y has the same relation R to z then x has the same relation R to z – formula: [CR14]

transitive set  a set that contains every member of any of its members – formula: [CR18]

transitivity of equality  things that are equal to the same thing are also equal to one another (Euclid, Elements) cf. transitive relation [CR16]

translational or representational validity (of a questionnaire)  a function of how well theoretical constructs are represented by operational measures within a questionnaire [CR26]

trend forecasting or impact of change  uses regression analysis to predict trends and future values or point estimates [CR22]

triadic predicate  a predicate with three subjects, that represents the relation that subsists between them cf. predicate and relation [CR14]

true-breeding  an organism, sometimes called a purebred, that always passes down certain phenotypic traits to offspring of many generations [CT26]

truth condition  a situation or condition that would make a declarative statement (and the proposition it expresses) true cf. declarative statement and proposition [CT17]

truth function  a logical function that has truth values (true and false) as input and a unique truth value (true or false) as output [CR09]

truthiness  1. that which has the ring of truth about it, but for which there is absolutely no evidence (UCT, Department of Philosophy c. 1996) 2. the quality of preferring concepts or facts one wishes to be true, rather than concepts or facts known to be true (Merriam-Webster Dictionary) [CR20]

truth table  a diagram in rows and columns showing how the truth or falsity of a compound proposition varies with that of its components cf. shorter truth table technique [CR05]

truth value  a value indicating the relation of a proposition to truth - In classical logic there are two truth values: true and false. [CR01]

truth-value assignment (propositional logic)  a mapping that assigns a truth value to each of the proposition constants in the language (Stanford Introduction to Logic, Ch. 2) cf. context of discussion: [CR25]

t-test  a statistical test that is used to determine the significance of the difference between the means of two groups [CR17]

t_c -test  A t-test for two independent samples that is used to determine the significance of the difference between their means [CR17]

t_d -test  A t-test for two dependent samples that is used to determine the significance of their mean difference scores [CR17]

tunnel vision  a reluctance to consider alternative ideas or opinions to one’s own or, in the case of social media, to those of one’s “liked” contacts or followers cf. groupthink [CR20]

Turing machine  an abstract machine with a finite number of programme states that manipulates symbols on a strip of tape of infinite length, according to some table of rules to determine a result from a set of input variables [CT19]

Twin Earth  a planet imagined by Hilary Putnam which is just like Earth in every respect, right down to the existence of an identical double or doppelgänger of every Earthling; each doppelgänger would speak a language that is phonologically and syntactically the same as that spoken on Earth; however according to Putnam, their languages would not be semantically the same, at least not for names, because they would be referentially different [CT21]

two-level utilitarianism  a utilitarian theory according to which moral decisions should be based on a set of general ‘intuitive’ moral rules, except in rare circumstances in which it is more appropriate to engage in a level of ‘critical’ act utilitarian reasoning [CT08]

two-tailed test  see non-directional or two-tailed test

type I error  rejecting the null hypothesis when it’s actually true cf. false positive [CR15]

type II error  failing to reject the null hypothesis when it’s actually false cf. false negative [CR15]

type identity theory  any theory of mind in which certain types of mental states or events are identified with certain types of physical states or events cf. token identity theory [CT11]

type specimens  physical specimens designated as types, including the holotype and paratypes that are kept in a museum, herbarium or research collection [CT26]

ultimate explanations  provide reasons explaining how certain proximate causal mechanisms arose – ultimate explanations are almost always given in terms of the adaptational aetiology of such mechanisms [CT34]

unbiased operators  those where the mean of the estimator coincides with the mean of the quantity itself [CR26]

Uncertainty Principle a.k.a. Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle  asserts that there is a fundamental limit to the accuracy with which the values for certain pairs of physical quantities of a particle, such as its position and momentum, can be known – formula: [CT14]

uniform connective  a connective is uniform iff its truth-function is uniform [CR25]

uniform logic  a logic is called uniform if the truth tables of all its standard connectives are uniform [CR25]

uniform propositional truth function  a propositional truth function in a 3-valued logic is uniform iff for every row/column of its truth table, the following holds: if all entries (of this row/column) in the classically restricted table are the same - i.e. either T or F - then this value is also in the non-classical cell (of this row/column) (Fronhöfer, 2011) [CR25]

uniform substitution  in any given instance, the same formula must be substituted for every occurrence of the same letter (Fronhöfer, 2011) [CR28]

union (∪)  see sum or union (∪)

unit of measurement  a definite magnitude of a quantity, defined and adopted by convention or by law, that is used as a standard for measurement of the same quantity (Wikipedia: Unit of measurement) [CR12]

unit set or singleton  a set with exactly one element [CR18]

universal  loosely speaking, what particular things have in common, i.e. their characteristics or qualities that make them what they are – alternatively, a property or relation that can be instanced, or instantiated, by a number of different particular things: each yellow thing provides an instance of the property of yellowness, and each square thing the property of being square. The things covered by a universal are thus similar in some respect (Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy) [CT20]

universal affirmative  a universal proposition of the form All S are P that affirms something of all members of a class [CR11]

Universal Darwinism  the application of Darwinian thinking beyond its domain of biological evolution on Earth to a generalized version of the mechanisms of variation, selection and heredity proposed by Darwin, to explain evolution in a much wider variety of other domains [CT36]

universal generalisation (UG)  in predicate logic, universal generalisation is a valid rule of inference that allows one to move from Φν where Φ is any propositional function whatsoever and ν is any arbitrarily selected object in the domain of discourse to (∀μ)Φμ, provided that ν is a variable that does not occur free either in (∀μ)Φμ or in any assumption within whose scope Φν lies [CR11]

Universal Grammar  according to the linguist Noam Chomsky, certain grammatical structures and rules are innate to all human languages; in other words, we are neurologically hardwired with information about the kinds of rules needed to learn a language [CT33]

universal instantiation (UI)  in predicate logic, universal instantiation is a valid rule of inference drawn from a truth about all members of a class to the truth about a particular individual of that class (Wikipedia) [CR11]

universal negative  a universal proposition of the form All S are not P that denies something of all members of a class [CR11]

universal quantification  in predicate logic, a propositional function that can be satisfied by every member of the domain of discourse [CR11]

universal quantifier  in predicate logic, a type of quantifier symbolised by ∀ for ‘all’ – when used together with a predicate variable (∀x) it reads ‘for all x ...’ or ‘given any x ...’ [CR11]

universal set (U)  the non-existent set to which all elements belong, including itself [CR18]

unsatisfiable proposition  a compound proposition is unsatisfiable if it is false for all assignments of truth values to its variables [CR25]

unwanted ambiguity  if, on the classical description theory of names, we had a principled bias and applied it to one user of a name it would, presumably, select a certain definite description that has an important role for that user; however it would almost certainly not select the same definite description for every other member of a speech community, for whom it may have a different yet important role; hence the unwanted ambiguity [CT21]

unwanted necessity  if, on the classical description theory of names, we set aside the problem of ambiguity of a name’s sense and suppose instead that everyone in a given speech community associates a name with a unique definite description, then we can use the name in contingent statements; however if we use the same name as an abbreviated definite description, then the name can feature in necessary statements which are unwanted [CT21]

Upanishads  late Vedic Sanskrit texts of religious teachings which form the foundations of Hinduism (Wikipedia: Upanishads) [CT13]

union (∪)  see sum or union (∪)

unsound argument  a valid argument that has one or more false premises cf. sound argument [CR02]

unspeakable experiment, the  an imaginary evil experiment to determine the function of langue in humans by preventing the experimental group from acquiring language while allowing the control group to develop normally, and observing the outcome [CR12]

upward causation  the ability of processes at the sub-microscopic level to produce effects at the macroscopic level e.g. the forces between molecules at the sub-microscopic level account for the physical properties of matter at the macroscopic level cf. downward causation [CT34]

urban legends or urban myths  a genre of folklore concerning stories about unusual (usually scary) or humorous events that many people believe to be true but largely are not [CT36]

utilitarianism  a family of ethical theories that promote actions or laws that maximize the happiness and well-being of the greatest number of individuals – see act utilitarianism, rule utilitarianism and two-level utilitarianism. [CT08]

vacuous truth  a statement that asserts that all members of the empty set have a certain property; e.g. if someone asserts that there are no cell phones switched on in the room, their statement will be vacuously true if there were no cell phones in the room anyway [CR23]

vague  a term or predicate that lacks precise, sharp boundaries, making it difficult to determine whether it applies in certain cases, known as borderline cases (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy) cf. general term 2 [CR31]

valid  1. a deductive argument that is structured in such a way that it is impossible for the premises to be true and the conclusion(s) false cf. invalid [CR02] 2. an instrument that measures what it is supposed to or is intended to measure [CR26]

validity of an instrument  a valid instrument measures what it is supposed to or intended to measure [CR26]

valid propositional formula  a propositional formula F is valid (⊨ F) iff ∼F is unsatisfiable; alternatively, ⊨ F iff F evaluates to T under every interpretation (Fronhöfer, 2011) [CR25]

valuation (propositional logic)  see truth-value assignment (propositional logic)

variance  the square of the standard deviation [CR13]

varying domain model (modal logic)  the frame of which ❬W,R,D❭ is identical to the constant domain model except that D is a function that assigns each world in W to a domain so that the actual domain for a world Γ is not D but D(Γ) [CR23]

veil of ignorance  an imaginary barrier to prevent people in the original position from knowing their place in society beforehand so that they would choose fairly and equitably – see original position [CT05]

ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC)  part of the mammalian brain located in the frontal lobe at the bottom of the cerebral hemispheres – the human vmPFC is involved inter alia in tasks related to the self-reference effect (SRE) [CT32]

verbal fallacy  one that involves some problem with the way that it is worded [CR04]

verbosity  a rhetorical device that uses more words than necessary [CR04]

verifiability principle  meaning is a method of verification i.e. a statement is meaningful only if it is either empirically verifiable or else a tautology [CT09]

verisimilitude  the notion that some propositions or theories are closer to the truth than others [CT09]

vertical transmission  transmission of a gene, trait, pathogen or meme from a parent to its offspring e.g. from mother to child [CT36]

verum factum principle  L. Verum esse ipsum factum “What is true is precisely what is made” – argued by Giambattista Vico (1710) according to which truth is verified through creation or invention and not, as per Descartes, through observation (Wikipedia) [CT09]

vitalism  the belief that the life-principle is essentially dependent on some non-physical “spirit” or élan vital [CT13]

volenti non fit iniuria  L. to a willing person, injury is not done – a.k.a. voluntary assumption of risk – a common law doctrine which states that if someone willingly and knowingly places themself in a position where harm might result, they may not bring a claim against the other party [CT08]

volitional interests  those for which there are no wrong or right answers, such as whether we prefer chocolate instead of vanilla (Dworkin, R. Sovereign Virtue) cf. critical interests [CT31]

voluntary assumption of risk  see volenti non fit iniuria

von Baer’s law  during the development of a species, from embryo to adult, it progressively diverges from developmental pathways followed by its evolutionary relatives, with the result that early embryonic stages are shared by larger groups of more distantly related species while later stages are shared by smaller, more closely related subgroups cf. Haeckel’s law [CT26]

WASP  White Anglo-Saxon Protestant i.e. the British and Scottish settlers of the first 13 American colonies, who were considered elite – Catholics, Eastern and Southern Europeans, Spanish and (especially) Jews were not considered WASPs; on the other hand, at no point were all Caucasians considered WASPs (Gregory Jablynski, Quora) [CT31]

weak argument  an inductive argument in which the truth of the premises makes the truth of the conclusion only slightly probable cf. strong argument [CR03]

Weak Completeness Theorem  for a formula A of classical logic and a set of formulae S of classical logic, if ⊨ A, then ⊢ A (Fronhöfer, 2011) cf. Strong Completeness Theorem [CR28]

weak connectives  the ordinary ‘and’ (⋅) and ‘or’ (v) of classical logic as opposed to Łukasiewicz’s bold connectives (&) and (∇) respectively (Fronhöfer, 2011) [CR25]

weakly complete derivation system  a derivation system for classical propositional logic is said to be weakly complete iff every tautology of classical logic is a theorem within the system (Fronhöfer, 2011) cf. strongly complete derivation system [CR28]

weakness of the will  a lack of self-control or the state of acting against one’s better judgment – a.k.a. akrasia (Wikipedia) [CT14]

welfare  1. the health, happiness, and fortunes of a person or group 2. [the] chances of survival (Dawkins, R. The Selfish Gene) [CT10]

well formed formula (wff)  a finite sequence of symbols from a given “alphabet” of a formal language that obeys the syntactic formation rules of the system [CR16]

well-ordered set  a partially ordered set such that every non-empty subset of which has a first (least or smallest) element that is related to the ordering relation to every other element in the subset (Copi, I. Symbolic Logic 5th ed.) [CR18]

weltanschauung  G. worldview – a comprehensive conception or theory of the world and the place of humanity within it… an intellectual construct that provides both a unified method of analysis for and a set of solutions to the problems of existence. (encyclopedia.com) [CT09]

within-group variability  variation in values within individual groups without taking into account interactions between other such samples cf. between group variability [CR24]

within-group variability (MS_within)  in ANOVA, the sum-of-squares value (SS_within) divided by the degrees of freedom (df SS_within) - Formula: [CR24]

working hypothesis  an hypothesis that is already widely accepted and forms the basis for further research [CR12]

working memory  that part of memory which holds multiple pieces of transitory information in mind, where they can processed on the order of 10 to 15 seconds [CR06]

Wu wei (non-action)  an ideal practice of “inaction”, “inexertion” or “effortless action” as a state of personal harmony and free-flowing, spontaneous creative manifestation (Wikipedia: Wu wei) [CT35]

XOR (exclusive or)  a logical connective that produces a true compound statement when either disjucnt is true, but false when both disjucnts are true together or false together [CR05]

z-distribution  mathematically identical to the standard normal distribution and used in in testing hypotheses about means or proportions of samples drawn from populations whose standard deviations are known [CR13]

z-score  a measure of how many standard deviations (positive or negative) a datum or raw score x is above the mean [CR13]

Zermelo-Fraenkel set theory (ZF)  an axiomatic system proposed in the early twentieth century by mathematicians Ernst Zermelo and Abraham Fraenkel, in order to formulate a theory of sets that would be free of paradoxes [CR18]

zero sum game  one in which one player’s total gains (or losses) is exactly matched by the other player’s losses (or gains) respectively. i.e. a gain for me is a loss for you and vice-versa [CT10]

zombie  a being who is behaviourally indistinguishable from ordinary humans but who lacks consciousness [CT06]

zombie arguments  any of several arguments in favour of dualism which rely on the metaphysical possibility of zombies [CT06]

zygote  a cell formed by the union of two gametes (a sperm and ovum in the case of animals) [CT10]