"Works by William James" refers to the various writings, lectures, and philosophical essays produced by the influential American philosopher and psychologist William James (1842-1910). He is known for his contributions to pragmatism, functional psychology, and philosophy of religion. Some of his most notable works include: 1. **The Principles of Psychology (1890)** - A foundational text in psychology that explores topics such as perception, consciousness, and habit.
"What Is It Like to Be a Bat?" is an influential philosophical essay written by philosopher Thomas Nagel, published in 1974. In this essay, Nagel explores the nature of consciousness and subjective experience, particularly focusing on the limitations of human understanding when it comes to the experiences of other beings, particularly non-human animals like bats. Nagel uses the example of a bat to illustrate his argument that there are aspects of consciousness that are fundamentally inaccessible to us.
Yahoo! Pipes was a web application released by Yahoo! in 2007 that allowed users to mash up data from various web services and APIs through a visual interface. Users could combine, filter, and manipulate data feeds from sources like RSS, JSON, and XML, creating custom applications and feeds without needing to write extensive code. The platform utilized a drag-and-drop interface, allowing users to connect different "modules" to perform operations such as aggregating feeds, filtering content, and transforming data formats.
Behaviorism is a psychological perspective that focuses on the study of observable behaviors rather than internal mental processes. It posits that behavior is learned through interactions with the environment and is shaped by experiences, rather than being driven by innate qualities or consciousness. Key principles of behaviorism include: 1. **Observable Behavior**: Behaviorists assert that psychology should be based on observable actions that can be measured and quantified, rather than introspection or subjective reports.
Internalism and externalism are two philosophical positions primarily discussed in the fields of epistemology and ethics, but they can also be relevant in other areas such as philosophy of mind and moral philosophy. ### Epistemology 1. **Internalism**: This is the view that justification for a belief depends solely on factors internal to the person holding the belief. In epistemology, internalists maintain that a person's beliefs are justified based on their own mental states, such as thoughts, experiences, and feelings.
Introspection illusion refers to a cognitive bias wherein individuals tend to overestimate their ability to understand the reasons behind their own thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. People may feel confident that they have direct access to their internal mental states and can accurately assess their motivations and the processes that drive their actions, when in fact, they often lack this insight. This phenomenon can lead to a disparity between an individual's perceived understanding of their inner workings and the actual complexity of those processes.
Property dualism is a philosophical perspective in the philosophy of mind that posits that there are two distinct types of properties that can be attributed to mental states: physical properties and non-physical (or mental) properties. Unlike substance dualism, which asserts that mind and body consist of fundamentally different substances (such as the mind being non-physical and the body being physical), property dualism suggests that both mental and physical properties exist within a unified substance—in this case, the brain and the body.
The term "Cartesian" typically refers to concepts and ideas associated with the philosopher René Descartes. In various fields, it can denote a framework of thought related to Cartesian coordinates in mathematics, Cartesian dualism in philosophy, or Cartesian reasoning in general.
"If a tree falls in a forest" is a philosophical thought experiment that explores the nature of observation, perception, and reality. The classic formulation of the question is: "If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?" This scenario raises issues about whether sound exists if there is no one to perceive it.
Distributionalism is an economic theory that emphasizes the distribution of income and wealth rather than just their overall production. It argues that economic considerations should focus on how resources and wealth are shared among individuals and groups within society, rather than solely on the total output or growth of the economy. Key aspects of distributionalism include: 1. **Focus on Fairness**: This approach prioritizes fairness in how wealth is distributed, advocating for policies that reduce income inequality and promote equitable access to resources.
Dramatism is a communication theory developed by Kenneth Burke in the mid-20th century. It views language and communication as a form of symbolic action, akin to a drama or play. Burke believed that human communication is fundamentally performative and that people use symbols (like language) to convey their experiences and motivations.
Literary nominalism is a concept in literature and literary theory that draws from the philosophical position of nominalism, which asserts that universal concepts or abstract objects do not exist independently of the things that express them. In a literary context, this suggests that meaning, themes, and characters in a work of literature are not determined by essentialist or universal properties, but rather by the specific details, contexts, and particularities of the text itself.
7AK7, also known as "7 AK 7," refers to a Russian rock band that was formed in the late 1980s. The band's music incorporates elements of rock, pop, and punk, and they are known for their energetic performances and catchy melodies. They gained popularity in the post-Soviet era and have released several albums over the years.
Grammatical number is a linguistic category that expresses the quantity of the noun it refers to. It typically distinguishes between singular (one) and plural (more than one) forms of a word. Some languages also include dual (referring to exactly two items) as a grammatical number category. For example, in English: - The word "cat" is singular, referring to one cat. - The word "cats" is plural, referring to more than one cat.
In semiotics, the study of signs and symbols and their use or interpretation, an "interpretant" is one of the three components of a sign, alongside the "signifier" (the form that the sign takes) and the "object" (the thing to which the sign refers). The concept of the interpretant was notably developed by the American philosopher Charles Sanders Peirce. The interpretant is essentially the understanding or meaning that is derived from a sign by an interpreter.
"Masterpiece" can refer to several different concepts depending on the context: 1. **Art**: In the realm of art, a masterpiece is a work of outstanding artistry, skill, or workmanship. It is often considered the pinnacle of an artist’s career and is highly valued for its creativity, excellence, and impact.
An "actant" is a term used in various fields, including semiotics, narrative theory, and actor-network theory. The meaning can vary depending on the context: 1. **Narrative Theory:** In this context, an actant refers to any entity that participates in a narrative, including characters, objects, or even abstract forces. Actants are often classified into roles such as the protagonist, antagonist, helper, or villain.
In general, the term "character" can refer to several different concepts, but in the context of symbols, it typically means: 1. **Character in Writing**: A character is a written symbol used to represent a speech sound or a concept in a written language. This includes alphabetic letters (such as 'A', 'B', 'C'), numerals (like '1', '2', '3'), punctuation marks (e.g., '.', ',', '?
In semiotics, which is the study of signs and symbols and their use or interpretation, connotation refers to the associative meanings and emotional implications that a sign carries beyond its literal or denotative meaning. While denotation is the explicit or direct meaning of a sign (like a word or image), connotation encompasses the cultural, emotional, and personal associations that people may have with that sign. For example, the word "home" denotatively refers to a physical place where someone lives.
A cultural trait is a specific characteristic, behavior, belief, value, or practice that is common to a particular culture or social group. Cultural traits can encompass a wide range of elements, including language, rituals, customs, traditions, social norms, art, and technological practices. Cultural traits are essential for defining the identity of a culture and can manifest in various forms, such as: 1. **Language**: The specific languages or dialects spoken within a culture.
Pinned article: Introduction to the OurBigBook Project
Welcome to the OurBigBook Project! Our goal is to create the perfect publishing platform for STEM subjects, and get university-level students to write the best free STEM tutorials ever.
Everyone is welcome to create an account and play with the site: ourbigbook.com/go/register. We belive that students themselves can write amazing tutorials, but teachers are welcome too. You can write about anything you want, it doesn't have to be STEM or even educational. Silly test content is very welcome and you won't be penalized in any way. Just keep it legal!
Intro to OurBigBook
. Source. We have two killer features:
- topics: topics group articles by different users with the same title, e.g. here is the topic for the "Fundamental Theorem of Calculus" ourbigbook.com/go/topic/fundamental-theorem-of-calculusArticles of different users are sorted by upvote within each article page. This feature is a bit like:
- a Wikipedia where each user can have their own version of each article
- a Q&A website like Stack Overflow, where multiple people can give their views on a given topic, and the best ones are sorted by upvote. Except you don't need to wait for someone to ask first, and any topic goes, no matter how narrow or broad
This feature makes it possible for readers to find better explanations of any topic created by other writers. And it allows writers to create an explanation in a place that readers might actually find it.Figure 1. Screenshot of the "Derivative" topic page. View it live at: ourbigbook.com/go/topic/derivativeVideo 2. OurBigBook Web topics demo. Source. - local editing: you can store all your personal knowledge base content locally in a plaintext markup format that can be edited locally and published either:This way you can be sure that even if OurBigBook.com were to go down one day (which we have no plans to do as it is quite cheap to host!), your content will still be perfectly readable as a static site.
- to OurBigBook.com to get awesome multi-user features like topics and likes
- as HTML files to a static website, which you can host yourself for free on many external providers like GitHub Pages, and remain in full control
Figure 3. Visual Studio Code extension installation.Figure 4. Visual Studio Code extension tree navigation.Figure 5. Web editor. You can also edit articles on the Web editor without installing anything locally.Video 3. Edit locally and publish demo. Source. This shows editing OurBigBook Markup and publishing it using the Visual Studio Code extension.Video 4. OurBigBook Visual Studio Code extension editing and navigation demo. Source. - Infinitely deep tables of contents:
All our software is open source and hosted at: github.com/ourbigbook/ourbigbook
Further documentation can be found at: docs.ourbigbook.com
Feel free to reach our to us for any help or suggestions: docs.ourbigbook.com/#contact





