Philosophy Glossary

In my opinion, the term “virtue-signaling” should’ve been first coined by Ted Kaczynski, and it’s a shame that he wasn’t the one to invent the term. In his 1995 manifesto Industrial Society and Its Future, Kaczynski managed to identify that [virtue signaling] is largely a result of the power process being disrupted in industrial-technological society. Unfortunately, he referred to “virtue signaling” as “leftism” in his manifesto since the term had not been invented yet, and he repeatedly wrote that he wish he had a better term to describe what he was trying to talk about. This naturally drew a lot of criticism from leftists, but he would have drawn less hostile criticism if he had instead been the first to coin the neologism, since it would’ve communicated a more specific meaning and would’ve been more easily differentiable as a different concept. He had a golden opportunity to invent a new word that would’ve gained a lot of attention and popularity, but he missed it.

On the other hand, Richard Dawkins coined the term “meme” so that he could better describe a new field of knowledge that is related to evolution and biology, and he gained a lot of fame since he was the first person to invent the neologism and use it to communicate a very important and interesting phenomenon for describing how the world works.

The engagement with semantic fields and the invention of new words for specific concepts leads to faster neurological retrieval of those concepts. By coining my own neologisms, it will help to popularize this website since it may gain more attention for being the first or among the first sources to have ever used some new terms, if any of them catch on in popular language. Many of the terms defined on this webpage were not invented by myself, but they are displayed here anyway for quick reference, and so that newcomers to this website can learn its jargon more quickly.

Another reason why I am defining all the terminology that this website uses is to reduce the likelihood that people will misinterpret my language, as a consequence of the Sapir-Whorf Effect.

NOTE: This philosophy glossary is a work in progress. It will take more time to complete.

Disclaimer: I did not invent some of these terms, but I’m providing definitions for them since they will be used frequently throughout this blog.

Epistemology

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Reason

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Thinking

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Sensory Input

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Perception

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Critical Thinking Skills (CTSs)

Skills that increase one’s capacity to reason. Unsurprisingly, most CTS are epistemological concepts.

• Critical Thinking is about making sure that we have good reasons for our beliefs.

Reasoning Skills (RSs)

the same thing as critical thinking skills, but better wording IMO.

“We don’t know what we don’t know” (Plato’s Problem Clause)

“According to all available evidence and my current knowledge, this is the correct conclusion | the correct conclusion is: …”

Measurement Omission

The process in which the human mind forms abstract patterns from its sensory input that form the basis for concepts. Measurement Omission is necessary for forming many concepts, namely types from tokens that one observes.

Knowledge

The facts, information, and skills acquired by a person through experience or education.

Mental Representation

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Reality

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Information

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Pattern

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To predict

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Nature

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Natural

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Super-Natural

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Belief

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Belief System

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Belief Network

A collection of beliefs that form a subjective model of reality.

Knowledge Network

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Belief Node

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Basic Belief

i;

Self-Evident

i;

Common Sense

Basic reasoning that nearly everybody can do.

Theory

A theory is a set of sentences which is closed under logical implication. That is, given any subset of sentences {s_1,s2,…} in the theory, if sentence r is a logical consequence of {s_1,s2,…}, then r must also be in the theory.

• Weisstein, Eric W. “Theory.” From MathWorld–A Wolfram Web Resource. https://mathworld.wolfram.com/Theory.html

Theorem

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Corollary

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Fact

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Lemma

A subsidiary or intermediate theorem in an argument or proof.

Foundationalism

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Coherentism

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Infinitism

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Empirical Coherentism

Coherentism where beliefs are ultimately based one’s own empiricism.

Definition of absurdity / “the absurd”

The quality of being impossible to be conceptualized; something that makes no sense because it is contradictory.

Confidence in X

The belief that X is likely to be true.

Confidence Level in Believing X

The amount of confidence that the belief in X is likely to be true.

Skepticism

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Humble Skepticism

The willingness to be open to new ideas and the ability to admit when one is wrong.

Subject (philosophy)

A being who has a unique consciousness (will and awareness) and/or unique personal experiences, or an entity that has a relationship with another entity that exists outside itself (an object).

Object (philosophy)

A philosophical term often used in contrast to the term subject. A subject is an observer and an object is a thing observed.

Subject-Object Dichotomy

A categorization system for understanding different perspectives as a subject or object. It is the resolution to most philosophical problems.

Subject-Object Relation

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Qualia

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Concept

Anything that a person could possibly think of. Identifiable concepts have names or explicit descriptions attached to them, whereas unidentifiable concepts do not. An identifiable concept that has a word/name/referent that can refer to it can also be classified as a noun and any semantic attributes that are attached to that noun.

Property

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High-Level(er) Concept

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Procedural Knowledge

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Conceptual Knowledge

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Representational Knowledge

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Meta-Knowledge

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Cognition

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Social Knowledge

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Social Reality

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Subjective

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Objective

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Intersubjective

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Objectivism (v2)

Ayn Rand’s Philosophy. Also known as “Randian Objectivism”.

Objectivism (v1)

The belief that ideas can correspond to objective reality, and that a belief is true if this correspondence exists.

Subjectivism

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Idealism

The academic term for Subjectivism.

Solipsism

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Panpsychism

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Transcendentalism

Theories of knowledge that posit another realm that transcends both objectivity and subjectivity.

View

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Idea

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Consequentialism (ToK)

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Pragmatism

The academic term for Consequentialism.

Intersubjectivism

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Representationalism

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SEMEX

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Information Compress

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Order

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Fit to Data

The degree to which a model reduces the information of the data.

Rafts of Coherence (Knowledge)

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Homunculus Fallacy

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Inverse Homunculus Fallacy

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Input

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Output

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Part

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Whole

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Part-Whole Distinction

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Type

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Instance

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Type-Instance Distinction

i. Also called the Type-Token Distinction.

Category

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Set

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Subset

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Set-Subset Distinction

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Conscious

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Subconscious

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The Will

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Awareness

A concept about knowing, perceiving and being cognizant of events.

Attention

The concentration of awareness on some phenomenon to the exclusion of other stimuli.

Selective Attention

An individual’s limited capacity to choose what they pay attention to and what they ignore.

Consciousness

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Levels of Consciousness

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Truth

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True

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False

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Unknown

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Mental Representation

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Unfalsifiable

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Undecidable

The same thing as unfalsifiable, right?

Unobservable

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Truth Function

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Abstraction Theory of Truth

i. Abbreviated as the “AToT”.

Information Compression Theory of Truth

The same thing as the Abstraction Theory of Truth. Abbreviated as the “Info-Com ToT”.

Pragmatist Theory of Truth

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Correspondence Theory of Truth

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Consensus Theory of Truth

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Justified True Belief

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Statement

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Proposition

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Formula

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Sentence

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Hypothesis

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Conjecture

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• If a claim is plausible, but there is no evidence for it, then the claim is a conjecture.

Conclusion

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Principle

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The Abyss

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Ontology

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Existence

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Logic

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Axiom

A statement that is taken to be true, to serve as a premise or starting point for further reasoning and arguments.

Postulate

The same thing as an axiom.

Assumption

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Presupposition

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Premise

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Implicit

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Explicit

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Implicit / Unstated Premise

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Explicit Premise

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Contradiction

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Performative Contradiction

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Self Refutation

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Tautology

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Law

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Inference Rule

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Propositional Logic

The same thing as propositional logic

Formal Logic

The same thing as propositional logic

Classical Logic

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Quantifier Logic

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Symbolic Logic

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Three-Valued Logic

A logical structure which does not assume the law of the excluded middle. Three truth values are possible: true, false, or undecided. There are 3072 such logics.

Scientific Method

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Reasoning Process

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Science

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Religion

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Inductive Reasoning

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Deductive Reasoning

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Inductive Logic

The same thing as Inductive Reasoning, but with better wording in my opinion.

Deductive Logic

The same thing as Deductive Reasoning, but with better wording in my opinion.

Necessary Condition

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Sufficient Condition

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Argument

A list of premises followed by a conclusion.

• Note: Statements are either true or false, and arguments are either valid or invalid. Arguments cannot be true or false.

Deductive Argument

An argument that guarantees its conclusions based on its premises.

Valid Argument

An argument such that any substitution of values for variables in it which makes the premises true also makes the conclusion true.

• In other words, for a valid argument, it is impossible for the premises to be true while the conclusion is false.
• Validity is the relationship between the premises and the conclusion.

Sound Argument

A valid argument with true premises.

• It is possible for arguments to be valid, and have false premises.
• In order to determine if an argument’s premises are true, you have to do some research.
• If any assignments of values to variables appearing in the argument makes all the premises true, then it also makes the conclusion true.

Ampliative Argument

An argument that makes its conclusions probable, but not certain based on their premises. Arguably, every ampliative argument has to use at least some degree of faith.

Strong Argument

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Weak Argument

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Cogent Argument

A type of Strong Argument where I.

Uncogent Argument

I. Uncogent Arguments can be either Strong Arguments or Weak Arguments.

Faith

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(Blind) Faith

High confidence in a belief, based on a perceived degree of warrant without using reason; the suspension of skepticism without using reason.

Rationalized

Attempting to make something seem reasonable, even if actually isn’t. This term can be applied to both metaphysics/epistemology or ethical / political philosophy, and while it can always describe someone’s attitude or actions towards facts about the former, it seems less applicable to apply it to people’s ethical or political opinions since morality is subjective, and most of the time when people do rationalize their ethical or political opinions, it is typically done in an attempt to justify oneself according to the Law of Egoism, in which case self-justification or self-rationalization may be better terms.

Self-Justification / Self-Rationalization

The psychological tendency for life to justify its own existence, beliefs, and actions for the sake of its own continued existence, even if their beliefs are wrong, their existence doesn’t accomplish anything meaningful according to rational beings, and their actions work against post-moral cooperation ethics.

Qualitative Reasoning

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Quantitative Reasoning

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Bayes Theorem

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Correlation

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Causation

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Type I Error

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Type II Error

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Ignorance

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Rational Ignorance

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Philosophical Razor

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Fallacy

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Bias

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Optimism Bias

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Tactical Nihilism

A bad-faith debating tactic where the debater selectively rejects commonly understood concepts, systems of classification, or terminology used by their opponent, halting any substantive debate, but supports their own viewpoints using those same concepts. From: Urban Dictionary: Tactical Nihilism.

Tactical Empiricism

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Raison d’être

Reason for being. The claimed reason for the existence of something or someone; the sole or ultimate purpose of something or someone.

Nature

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Axiomatic Set Theory

A version of set theory in which axioms are taken as uninterpreted rather than as formalizations of pre-existing truths.

Paradox

A statement which appears self-contradictory or contrary to expectations, also known as an antinomy.

Antinomy

A paradox or contradiction.

Pseudoparadox

An apparent paradox, such as the catalogue paradox, for which there is no underlying actual contradiction.

The Flynn Effect

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Generalization

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Overgeneralization

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A Priori

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A Posteriori

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Post-Facto

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“How?”

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“Why?”

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make-believe (uncountable)

• (childish) The quality or act of pretending; acting as if something is true when in fact one knows it is not.
• (childish) The action of pretending or imagining that things are better than they really are.

Scientific Method

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Reasoning Process

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Science

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Religion

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The Religious / Make-Believe Approach (for Understanding the Universe)

Attempting to explain the “why” questions and then explain the “how” questions.

The Scientific Approach (for Understanding the Universe)

Attempting to explain how things work before explaining why things work the way they do (if one can even get to the latter part).

Interrogative Word

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Agent

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Materialism (Metaphysics)

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Cause and Effect

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Determinism

The doctrine that every event is necessitated by antecedent events and conditions together with the laws of nature. Determinism implies that only one course of events can occur given the materialist configuration of the Universe at a given time t. Causality and empirical evidence imply determinism.

Causality

The phenomenon where one event, process, state, or object (a cause) contributes to the production of another event, process, state, or object (an effect) where the cause is partly responsible for the effect, and the effect is partly dependent on the cause. Causality is built into the way humans think, so it’s an inescapable aspect of the human condition.

Hard Determinism

The doctrine that all events, including human action, are ultimately determined by causes external to the will of agents. In other words, Determinism is true, and OFW is false. Since Zero Contradictions argues that OFW is false, Hard Determinism is effectively the same thing as Determinism.

Subjective Free Will (SFW)

The ability of a subject to consciously choose to do what it wants, regardless of whether it can actually fulfill its desires or not, and also regardless of whether Determinism is true or false.

Libertarian Free Will (LFW)

Determinism does not exist. LFW is the exact opposition of Hard Determinism. Libertarian Free Will does not exist in reality, and it is easily disproven.

Objective Free Will (OFW)

The doctrine that agents are able to make decisions independently of external factors. OFW is false.

Compatibilism

The doctrine that Determinism and Objective Free Will both coexist. Whether or not this is true depends on how the terms are defined.

Subject-Object Compatibilism

The doctrine that Determinism and Objective Free Will both coexist according to the subject-object dichotomy.

Incompatibilism

The doctrine that Determinism and Objective Free Will cannot coexist. Incompatibilism may be either Hard Determinism or Libertarianism.

Agency

The satisfaction of two conditions that: 1. a subject can choose to do as it wants, and 2. it is able to do it within its current circumstances. Since being conscious is a requirement in order to be ’capable’ of doing something, Agency has to be conscious by definition.

Power

Essentially, the same thing as agency. The key difference is that agency emphasizes internal processes while power emphasizes external processes.

Desire

To want something. Desire is a precursor to Subjective Free Will because Desires are necessary for Values to exist. All sentient organisms have desires.

Volition

The same thing as Subjective Free Will (SFW).

Spatio-Temporal Envelope

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Cultural Education/Indoctrination/Instillation/…

i

Subject & Object (philosophy)

A being who has a unique consciousness (will and awareness) and/or unique personal experiences, or an entity that has a relationship with another entity that exists outside itself (an object). A subject is an observer and an object is a thing observed. Object is used in contrast to the term subject.

Materialism

A form of philosophical monism which holds that matter is the fundamental substance in nature, and that all things, including mental states and consciousness, are results of material interactions of material/objective things.

Physicalism

The view that all that exists is ultimately physical. It is arguably the same thing as materialism.

Memory

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Short-Term Memory

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Long-Term Memory

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Procedural Memory

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Physical Memory

The same thing as procedural memory.

Muscle Memory

The same thing as procedural memory.

Intelligence

The capacity for sound reasoning.

• More broadly, this implies that intelligence also includes the capacity to understand reality, learn, apply knowledge, and solve problems.
• Since reason consists of sensory input, memory / knowledge / concept formation, and logic, these three elements are the only components of intelligence.

Crystallized Intelligence

The capacity to reason that one has now, including all the knowledge, CTS, and brain development that they have currently acquired.

Solidified Intelligence

The same thing as crystallized intelligence.

Fluid Intelligence

The capacity to reason that one could achieve by learning more concepts and critical thinking skills (and brain development if that’s not finished yet).

Intelligence Quotient (IQ)

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g-factor

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s-factor

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General Measurement (GM)

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Types of Intelligence

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Logical-Mathematical Intelligence

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Musical-Rhythmic Intelligence

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Visual-Spatial Intelligence

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Verbal-Linguistic Intelligence

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Bodily-Kinesthetic Intelligence

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Interpersonal Intelligence

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Intrapersonal Intelligence

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Creative Intelligence

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Emotional Intelligence

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Language

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Semantics

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Pragmatics

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Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

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Reverse Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

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Biredirectional Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

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Sapir-Whorf

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Sapir-Whorf Effect

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Reverse Sapir-Whorf Effect

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Biredirectional Sapir-Whorf Effect

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Thesaurus Argument

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Semantic Trojan Horse

An alternative term for ’Thesaurus Argument’.

Selective Attention

An individual’s limited capacity to choose what they pay attention to and what they ignore.

Classical Conditioning

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Operant Conditioning

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Semantic Domain

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Corpus Linguistics

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Collocation

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Zipf Probability Distribution Function

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Noun

A word that is a person, place, thing, or idea. A noun is essentially the same thing as a concept, but “Noun” is used when talking about language instead.

Noun Phrase

A phrase that has a noun or pronoun as its head or performs the same grammatical function as a noun.

Verb

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Adposition

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Conlang

A Conlang is a language whose phonology, grammar, and vocabulary, instead of having developed naturally, are consciously devised for some purpose.

Worldlang

A Worldwide Auxiliary Language (Worldlang) is a conlang that was created to facilitate communication between people who have different native languages. Worldlangs are typically designed to have phonology, grammar, and vocabulary that is easy to learn by second language (SL) learners.

Evolution

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Selection

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Genetic Variation

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Reproduction

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Mutation

A variation in DNA that has not gone through any selectionary pressures. More specifically, mutations are alteration in the nucleic acid sequence of the genome of an organism, virus, or extrachromosomal DNA that resulted from errors during DNA or viral replication, mitosis, or meiosis or other types of damage to DNA.

Adaptive

Of a trait: that helps an individual to function well in society.

Adaption

The process of change that an organism undergoes to be better suited to its environment.

DNA

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Genetics

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Genotype

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Genome

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Phenome

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Phenotype

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Extended Phenotype

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Biological Realism

The unbiased application of the implications of evolutionary reasoning onto human beings, regarding race, sex, selfishness, eugenics/dysgenics, and intrinsic violence.

Biological Determinism

The theory that many traits, abilities, and much of human behavior are determined primarily (or even exclusively) by biological and hereditary factors, such as genetics, hormones, and evolutionary influences.

Race Realism

A subcategory of Biological Realism. The acknowledgment that: 1. Race is defined as “a statistical cluster of genetic variation characterized by phenotypic similarity”, and 2. All the genes of the various races in the world occur at different statistical frequencies for each race due to all the different evolutionary and selectionary pressures that persisted in their ancestral environments for many thousands of years, and 3. Race is often a categorization scheme for human beings based on phenotypic similarity.

Sex Realism

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Socio-Psychological Realism

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Scientific Racism

A pejorative term for “race realism” that misrepresents what it actually is. This term is intended to suggest that the belief is motivated by racism and justified by “pseudo-science”. Race Realism does not imply racism.

Human Bio-Diversity (HBD)

Another term that generally means “race realism”, but can be extended to also talk about other things like sexual differences and such. It seems that HBD may have fewer stigmas or negative connotations than either “Race Realism” or “Scientific Racism”.

Race

A statistical cluster of genetic variation characterized by phenotypic similarity. Races are both social constructs and useful categories for describing biological realities.

Statistical Cluster

A grouping of a set of objects in such a way that objects in the same group (called a cluster) are more similar (in some sense) to each other than to those in other groups (clusters). For more info, see: Wikipedia: Cluster Analysis.

Mixed-Race

Having genes and ancestry from multiple different races. Note that being Mixed-Race cannot be well-defined unless two or more races are defined beforehand.

Ethnicity / Ethnic Group

A grouping of people who identify with each other on the basis of shared attributes that distinguish them from other groups. Those attributes can include common sets of traditions, ancestry, language, history, society, culture, nation, religion, or social treatment within their residing area.

Malthusianism

The theory that potentially exponential population growth can surpass the linear growth of an environment’s carrying capacity (including its food supply and other resources), which eventually causes members of the population to die off until settling back down to the carrying capacity.

Neo-Malthusianism

The theory and concern that overpopulation (and overconsumption) may increase resource depletion and/or environmental degradation and lead to ecological collapse or other hazards. Neo-Malthusianism is often coupled with advocacy of human population planning to ensure sufficient resources for current and future human populations as well as for other species.

Cornucopianism

The pseudo-scientific theory that overpopulation, overconsumption, and environmental problems faced by society either do not exist or can be solved by technology and/or the free market.

Ecological Overshoot

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Demographic Transition Theory (DTT)

The pseudo-scientific theory that populations are self-regulating. DTT proposes that the world population will peak, decline, and stabilize, which is not true.

Overpopulation

An excessive number of occupants (people, animals, plants, etc.) in a particular area; specifically, when the number of occupants exceeds the ability of that area to provide for them.

War, Disease, and Famine

The main traditional ways how overpopulation have historically been solved in human societies. The vast majority of deaths throughout human history can be attributed to War, Disease, and Famine.

Birth Control

The use of methods or devices to prevent unwanted pregnancy. The main force of population control in Modernity. Birth Control is responsible for causing countries all over the world to have below replacement fertility rates, temporarily in the grand scheme of things.

Population Control

The practice of preventing the size of a population from growing past the carrying capacity, in the interest of avoiding an Overpopulation Crisis. For humans specifically, population control must be done by either artificially via Birth Control (and immigration restrictions), or naturally via War, Disease, and Famine.

Eugenic Population Control (EPC)

Population Control via mandatory Birth Control and (Laissez-Faire) Eugenics via Reproduction Licenses.

Overpopulation Crisis

When the carrying capacity is so high above the carrying capacity, that War, Disease, and Famine start to occur.

Carrying Capacity

The maximum population size of a biological species that can be sustained by that specific environment, given the food, habitat, water, and other resources available.

Population Buffer Space (PBS)

The estimated difference between the Carrying Capacity and the LMPL.

Legal Maximum Population Limit (LMPL)

The maximum population limit of the society that the population must avoid exceeding, in the interest of avoiding an Overpopulation Crisis, as set by a eugenostate. The LMPL is always lower than the Carrying Capacity, with the Population Buffer Space being the quantitative difference between them. The LMPL is meant to be a target population the society should stay below, but if the population does rise above it, the Population Buffer Space gives the eugenostate some flexibility, as it still avoids exceeding the Carrying Capacity.

Sexual Market Value (SMV)

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Tradition

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Fashion

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Cult

The same thing as a fashion.

TRA

Trans-Right Activist

Modernity

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Humanism

See: What is Humanism?

Rational Humanism

See: What is Rational Humanism?

Pragmatopianism

An alternative name for Rational Humanism. May the better name win.

Eugenics

The improvement of genetic qualities through selection, to make people/organisms more adaptive to their relative environments. What is considered “Eugenic” is always relative to a given environment, but when the term is used, it’s usually assumed that the environment in question is Modernity. In simpler words, Eugenics just means selecting for traits that we value in other human beings, such as intelligence and responsibility.

Dysgenics

The opposite of eugenics. The accumulation of traits that make people/organisms less adaptive to their environments, thus resulting in Evolutionary Mismatch. Dysgenics usually arises when selectionary pressures are removed.

Evolutionary Mismatch

When evolved traits that were once advantageous become maladaptive due to changes in the environment. As it relates to humans, nearly all the evolutionary mismatch in the modern world is caused by rapid technological advancements that occurred during the Industrial Revolution. See: Catepillars and Philosophy.

Dirigiste (Top-down) “Eugenics”

The supposed improvement of human hereditary qualities through overly selective breeding, thus causing a dramatic reduction in genetic diversity. It can be done by either positive eugenics or negative eugenics. Ironically, top-down “eugenics” would actually make people less adaptive to their environments, hence why the term is used with quotes.

Laissez-Faire (Bottom-up) Eugenics

The improvement of human hereditary qualities by requiring reproduction licenses (which have minimal requirements) in order for people to have children. Laissez-Faire Eugenics during Modernity would be the re-introduction of reasonable selectionary pressures on the human genome.

Positive Eugenics

Encouraging or subsidizing people with good genetic qualities to reproduce more.

Negative Eugenics

Preventing or discouraging people with bad genetic qualities from reproducing.

Eugenostate

A state that enforces Eugenic Population Control, Laissez-Faire Eugenics, and Immigration restrictions, regardless of race or ethnicity.

Racism

Irrational prejudice or discrimination based upon race or ethnicity.

Reproduction License

A legal document that affirms that the citizen who possesses the title is legally authorized to have X number of children, given that they meet the legal requirements and have paid for the license.

Georgism

An economic philosophy stating that natural resources belong equally to all. It achieves this by placing a single tax on the value of natural resources, which pays for all government expenses. See this page for more info.

The West

Countries that have majority European populations and/or have been influenced by Western Culture, including Europe, the Americas, Australia, and New Zealand. Sometimes I use this term more generally to also include Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan since those countries have also been influenced by Western culture, and have decent genetics for modernity, as far as our policy objectives are concerned.

Westernized

Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, and other countries that have been significantly influenced by Western culture. These countries also have similar values to Western countries and decent genetics for modernity, as far as our policy objectives are concerned.

The Great Replacement (of White People)

The phenomenon where white people are being replaced by foreign ethnicities within Western countries. It is very real and in several decades, it is projected to be finished by the end of the 21st century.

White Preservationism

A movement to counter the Great Replacement by increasing white fertility rates in the Western World. From a eugenics standpoint, the goal of white preservationism is to preserve (most of) the (good) genes of Europeans, not necessarily to preserve white people as a distinctive race.

White Nationalism

An ideology that promotes ethnostates for white people, perhaps as a way to support white preservationism.

White Supremacy

A form of race idealism that values white people.

Race Idealism

An ideology that espouses racial superiority, preserving racial composition, and racial solidarity (v1) as its core values. Race idealism is accompanied with racism and selective data and interpretations to affirm its values.

Ethnostate (v1)

A country populated by, or dominated by the interests of, a single racial or ethnic group.

Ethnostate (v2)

A sovereign state of which citizenship is restricted to members of a particular racial or ethnic group.

Ethnostate (v3)

An ethnonationalist state that enforces racial or ethnic homogeneity.

Ethnocracy

The same thing as an ethnostate, except there doesn’t necessarily have to be a single ethnic group that populates the majority of the country.

Race Denialism

The denial of Race Realism, either with fallacies and/or a refusal to extend the implications of evolutionary reasoning onto human beings.

Race Creationism

The same thing as Race Denialism, with the connotation that the belief is similar to religious dogma.

Biological Denialism

The denial of Biological Realism, either with fallacies and/or a refusal to extend the implications of evolutionary reasoning onto human beings (and perhaps other animals too).

Sex Denialism

A form of biological denialism that denies innate sexual differences.

Racial Solidarity (v1)

Solidarity between all the members of a race with each other. Proponents of racial solidarity tend to believe in kin altruism.

Racial Solidarity (v2)

Solidarity between people from different races with each other.

Immigration

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Push Immigration

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Pull Immigration

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Axiology

The philosophical study of value.

Value

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Biological Value

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Psychological Value

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Social Value

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Philosophical Value

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Instrumental Value

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Intrinsic Value

This is the equivalent to objective value. It does not exist.

Emotion

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Motivation

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Pleasure

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Pain

i

Zero-Sum Emotions Theory (ZSET)

The theory that emotions relating to pain and pleasure balance out in the long-term.

Descriptive Claim

A statement that describes something.

Value Judgment

A statement that expresses an evaluation or judgment relative to a standard or ideal. Value judgments are often implicit.

Normative Claim

The same thing as a value judgment.

Morality (subjective)

What a person thinks people should and shouldn’t do, i.e. what a person wants other people to do and/or how a person wants other people to behave, according to their values. Note that “morality” has many different definitions, so it is highly vulnerable to the Sapir-Whorf Effect.

Morality (inter-subjective)

i

Morality (colloquial)

The intersubjective consensus (within some group of people) of “right” and “wrong”, “good” and “bad/evil”, or what people should and shouldn’t do, usually formed according to collective values. Since what people consider to be morally right or morally wrong depends on morality, this is a circular definition, and hence a meaningless one.

Morality (platonic realm)

The conception that morality has a platonic realm that everybody should try to follow. This does not exist in reality.

Post-Overton

The philosophical position that game theory, the intrinsic selfishness of life, and memetics are the best way to understand morality. It is similar to moral relativism since it posits that morality can only be based on subjective values (which are perspective-dependent), but it’s different since it also embraces the game-theoretic assumptions of selfishness and rationality, as well as the zero-sum nature of life. Post-overtons believe that the only legitimate rights are legal rights.

Post-Moralism

The same thing as Post-Overton, but with a different name.

Amoralism

An absence of, indifference towards, disregard for, or incapacity for morality.

(no term)

Moral Objectivism is the ethical view that all or some actions have intrinsic positive value (“are good”) and intrinsic negative value (“are bad/evil”), regardless of context, consequence, or perspective.

Moral Relativism

The position that morality is subjective and perspective-dependent. This term covers a range of different philosophical positions with different nuances. Moral Relativists believe that different individuals, groups, and cultures can all have different conceptions of morality that are each justified according to their own perspectives.

Moral Nihilism

The view that nothing is morally right or morally wrong.

Moral Realism

The position that moral propositions refer to objective features of the world. “Moral Realism” is a misnomer, and a sub-category of moral objectivism.

Good

i

Evil

i

Is-Ought Gap

i

Is-Ought Fallacy

i

Normative

i

Selfishness

Acting for your own benefit, regardless of others.

Altruism

Acting for the benefit of other, at some cost to oneself.

Cynicalism

Selfishness, except that you take what you can, and give nothing back. A cynical person does not use a moral accounting system, nor are they interested in cooperating during a prisoner’s dilemma.

• NOTE: I am aware that I am defining Cynicalism in a non-standard way, but I am doing so because I feel that the most common definition of “Cynicalism” is too closely related to the definition for “Selfishness”, and I feel that “Cynicalism” would be better used to convey a shade of meaning that most people tend to mistakenly associate with the headword “Selfishness”. By explicitly defining “Selfishness” and “Cynicalism”, I can contrast the two definitions to show what “Selfishness” is not what most people think it is.

Moral Accounting System (MAS)

The system of emotions in a human’s brain (and some other species’ brains too) that motivates people to do give-and-take behavior, or exchanges of labor. Evolution caused the MAS to develop in humans since they are more reproductively successful when they engage in give and take behavior within human tribes. The MAS is the primary reason why people are not cynical, and the behavior that MASs encourage does not count as “reciprocal altruism” since “reciprocal altruism” is an oxymoron.

Rafts of Coherence (Axiology)

i

Collaboration/Cooperation

When rational individuals work together for mutual benefit. When people are collaborating, the group is never places above the individuals for the sake of the group. Cooperation requires trust (the expectation of reciprocity), and every individual who collaborates does so with the expectation that they will get something in return.

Individualism

i

Collectivism

When individuals place the collective above the individual for the sake of the collective.

Utopian Ideology

Any naive ideology that people will believe in order to claim moral superiority and maintain the illusion of knowledge. Utopian Ideologies typically use the Rhetoric of Exploitation, simple-minded worldviews, moral narratives, visionary fantasies, and effective memetic propagations to delude people and spread the ideology. Read more: Utopian Ideology.

The Rhetoric of Exploitation

A Classic Tactic used by Utopian Ideologists to replace rationalist thinking with rhetoric and self-righteous nonsense. The key is to use selective metaphors and phrases and portray the “oppressors” as having agency and the “victims” as having no agency. Read more: The Rhetoric of Exploitation.

Meme

i

Memetic System

i

Diversity (v1)

i

Diversity (v2)

Equal / near-equal representation of a population’s factions in positions of power and influence, when a population has different factions or sub-groups.

Economics

i

Money

i

Wealth

i

Capitalism

i.

Georgism

An economic philosophy stating that natural resources belong equally to all. It achieves this by placing a single tax on the value of natural resources, which pays for all government expenses. See this page for more info.

Geostate

A government with a Georgist economic policy and taxation system.

Welfare State

A state that provides welfare by taxing productive citizens in order to subsidize unproductive citizens. Welfare states have dysgenic and unsustainable practices.

Socialism

i.

Communism

i.

Game Theory

The study of mathematical models of strategic interactions among selfish rational agents; the study of how and why people make decisions.

Game Theoretic Problems

Problems that can only be understood via game theory.

Problems of Cooperation

The same thing as Game Theoretic Problems, but with an emphasis on the difficulty of creating a functioning (cooperative) society.

Prisoner’s Dilemma

A game-theoretical thought experiment that challenges two completely rational agents: each can cooperate for mutual benefit or betray their partner (“defect”) for individual reward.

Tragedy of the Commons (TotC)

A game-theoretical problem where if numerous independent individuals should enjoy unfettered access to a finite, valuable resource e.g. a pasture, they will tend to over-use it, and may end up by destroying its value altogether.

Free-Rider Problem

A game-theoretical problem and market failure that occurs when those who benefit from resources, public goods, and common pool resources do not pay for them or under-pay.

Free Market

i.

Anti-Free Market

i.

Market Failure

i.

Planned Obsolescence

i.

Cooperationist Economics

Economic policies that promote the greatest production possible according to the post-moral cooperationist ethics (and as such, a system of land rent and citizen’s dividend is implied)

Classical School of Economics

i.

Keynesian School of Economics

i.

Austrian School of Economics

i.

Natural Resources

Resources that are drawn from nature and used with few modifications; the physical inputs to the economy.

Taxes

A compulsory financial charge or some other type of levy imposed on a taxpayer.

Income Tax

Taxes on Labor (and productivity).

Sales Tax

Taxes on Sales (and productivity).

Head Tax

A fixed amount of money that every citizen has to pay, in exchange for receiving the benefits and services provided by the government.

Ground Rent

i.

Land Rent

The same thing as Ground Rent.

Natural Resources Tax (NRT)

Taxes on natural resources (including land).

Land Value Tax (LVT)

Taxation applied to the Ground Rent of a given area of land.

Location Value Tax (LoVT)

Taxation that depends on the real estate value of the land. It may be affected by: proximity to shops, businesses, schools, parks, etc; job markets, demographics, proximity to transportation networks (railroads, roads, harbors, airports, etc), vulnerability to natural disasters and pests/weeds, etc.

ATCOR

All Taxes Come Out of Rent.

Land Owner

i

Land Possessor

i

Unimproved Value of Land

This is a somewhat misleading term, so I recommend to avoid using it whenever possible. When people use this term, they’re usually referring to the location value of a parcel of land, plus whatever natural resources the land itself might have. The term is misleading because Location Value includes the value that the land gains from improvements to the surrounding land, but not improvements to the land parcel that is in question itself.

Property Tax

Taxes on real estate, including both the land and improvements to the land (e.g. buildings, structures, etc). A property tax is a combination of a good tax that increases productivity (LVT) and a bad tax that reduces productivity (taxes improvements to the land).

Anti-Money Laundering (AMT)

i

Know Your Customer (KYC)

i

Land (Physical, Real Estate)

i.

Land (Economics)

i.

Land Speculation

i.

Universal Basic Income (UBI)

i.

Citizen’s Dividend (CD)

Henry George’s proposal of UBI funded by LVT, as a solution to the anti-free-market and inefficient economic system that he observed.

Georgist Theory of Property (GTP)

i.

Original Appropriation Theory of Property (OATP)

i.

Polycentric Law

A theoretical legal structure in which “providers” of legal systems compete or overlap in a given jurisdiction.

Private Cities Anarcho-Capitalism (PCAC)

Anarcho-Capitalism, except that only one political corporation can have control over a plot of territory. Different communities that favor different laws, legal codes, customs, and such would each form their own private city where their ideals are exclusively enforced.

Private Defense Agency

i

Political Corporation

i

Ownership

i

Posession

i

Private Property

i

Public Property

i

Over-Socialized

i. This term is thought to have been coined by the Unabomber.

Power Process

i. This term was coined by the Unabomber.

Surrogate Activity

i.

Autonomy (Unabomber)

i.

Large-Scale Technology

i.

Small-Scale Technology

Technology that can be used by small-scale communities without outside assistance.

Organization-Dependent Technology

Technology that depends on large-scale social organization.

Game Theory

The study of mathematical models of strategic interactions among selfish rational agents; the study of how and why people make decisions.

Prisoner’s Dilemma

A game-theoretical thought experiment that challenges two completely rational agents: each can cooperate for mutual benefit or betray their partner (“defect”) for individual reward.

Tragedy of the Commons (TotC)

A game-theoretical problem where if numerous independent individuals should enjoy unfettered access to a finite, valuable resource e.g. a pasture, they will tend to over-use it, and may end up by destroying its value altogether.

Free-Rider Problem

A game-theoretical problem and market failure that occurs when those who benefit from resources, public goods, and common pool resources do not pay for them or under-pay.

Social Construct

A social convention or perception, used by a particular society to describe human behavior.

Social Construct

A social convention or perception, used by a particular society to describe human behavior.

Overton Window

The range of policies politically acceptable to the mainstream population at a given time.

Implicit Mutual Social Agreement (IMSA)

A better term for the relationship between a citizen and the government, instead of the misleading term, “social contract”.

Implicit Social Reciprocity (ISR)

A concept related to the IMSA. [elaborate]

Law of Egoism

Corollary to the Law of Biological Evolution.

Hedonism

i

Utilitarianism

i

Euvalism

The philosophy of Adam Lanza, which is uniquely distinguishable by its rejection of culture and value. It has many similarities to Efilism, but is distinctly different.

Efilism

A absolutist negative-utilitarian philosophy characterized by its rejection of life, and supported by the observation and analysis of determinism, materialism, and unintelligent design, taken to the conclusion of the Benevolent World-Exploder Proposal.

Benevolent World-Exploder Proposal

An absolutist, negative-utilitarian ethic in favor of annihilating the Earth and euthanizing all its sentient life.

Unintelligent Design

A range of biological phenomena characterized by Darwinian Evolution and unnecessary suffering, including the consumption, competition, reproduction, and death experienced by all sentient life.

Hedonistic Imperative

An absolutist, negative-utilitarian ethic in favor of genetically re-engineering all sentient life to be devoid of suffering.

Neurodiversity

i

Autizmo

The Internet slang sense of Autism.

Autism

Autism Spectrum Disorder, the neurological condition.

Agreeing to Disagree

i

Disagreeing to Agree

i

Violent Agreement

The same thing as Disagreeing to Agree, however this is two-sided instead of one-sided.

Civilization

i

Society

i

Culture

i

Neotribalism

The sociological concept that humans have evolved to live in a tribal society and thus will naturally form social networks constituting new “tribes”.

Polity

i

Government

A system or group of people with the power to make and/or enforce laws to control a country, land area, people, or organization. Governments exist to solve game-theoretical problems.

State

A state is a type of government, which is a type of polity.

Country

A country is a distinct territorial polity by the broadest definition, though many people use ’country’ as being synonymous with ’state’.

Nation

A nation is a community of people formed on the basis of a common language, history, ethnicity, a common culture and, in many cases, a shared territory.

Community

i

Sovereignty

i

Kratocracy

A government established by seizure utilizing force or deceit with rule maintained by strength.

Freedom

i

Moral Rights

i

Legal Rights

i

Deontology

i

Consequentialism (morality)

i