- abandonment
- absence paradox
- absolute
- absolutism
- abstractionism
- act utilitarianism
- activism
- agnosticism
- altruism
- analytic/synthetic
- animism
- anomalous monism
- anthropomorphism
- anthroposophy
- anti-nomianism
- anti-realism
- apriorism
- Aristotelianism
- Aristotle's four causes
- associationism
- atheism
- atomic uniformity, principle of
- atomism
- attitude theories
- Bayesianism
- behaviorism
- bivalence, law or principle of
- Boo Hurrah theory
- British empiricists
- bundle theories
- Buridan's ass
- categorical imperative
- category mistake
- causal principle
- causal realism
- causal theories
- causal theories of meaning
- causal theories of perception
- causal theories of reference
- causal theory of knowledge
- causal theory of memory
- causal theory of names
- chain of being
- charity, principle of
- classical theory of probability
- coherence theory of truth
- compatibilism
- computational psychology
- conceptualism
- confirmation principle
- Confucianism
- connectionism
- connexive implication
- consequentialism
- consistent empiricism
- constructivism
- contextualism
- continental rationalists
- continuity, law or principle of
- contractualism
- contradiction, law of
- convention t
- conventionalism
- correspondence or relational theories of meaning
- correspondence theory of truth
- counterpart theory
- covering law model
- Craig's theorem
- creative evolution
- critical realism
- cynicism
- de facto and de jure theories of meaning
- deduction theorem
- deductivism
- degrees of truth
- deism
- denotation and connotation
- deontology
- descriptions, theory of
- descriptive theory of names
- descriptivism
- determinism
- dialectic
- dialetheism
- double aspect theory of mind
- double effect doctrine
- double negation principle
- dualism
- eclecticism and syncretism
- effluxes, theory of
- egocentric predicament
- egoism
- Eleaticism
- emergence theories
- emotive theory of truth
- emotivism
- empiricism
- empiriocriticism
- Epicureanism
- epiphenomenalism
- epistemic closure, principle of
- essentialism
- excluded middle, law of
- existentialism
- extensionality thesis
- externalism
- fact/value distinction
- fallibilism
- falsificationism
- fatalism
- fideism
- 'Fido'-Fido theories
- finalism
- finitism
- five ways
- folk psychology
- formalism
- foundationalism
- four humors
- frequency theory of probability
- functionalism
- golden rule
- Goodman's paradox
- greatest happiness principle
- haecceitism
- hedonism
- hedonistic utilitarianism
- Hempel's paradox
- hermeneutics
- historicism
- holism
- holistic explanation
- human nature
- humanity, principle of
- Hume's law
- hylomorphism
- hylozoism
- hypothetico-deductive method
- ideal utilitarianism
- idealism
- ideational theories of meaning
- identity, law of
- identity of indiscernibles
- identity theory of mind
- identity theory of predication
- identity theory of truth
- ideology
- immaterialism
- impossibility of a gambling system, principle of the
- improbabilism
- indeterminacy of reference and translation
- indeterminism
- indifference, principle of
- indiscernibility of identicals
- individuation principle
- induction
- inductivism
- infinite divisibility
- innate ideas
- inscriptionism
- instrumentalism
- interactionism
- internal relations, doctrine of
- internalism
- intuitionism
- isolationism
- Jourdain's paradox
- justice
- language of thought
- lawyer paradox
- legal positivism
- legitimacy
- Leibniz's law
- libertarianism
- limited independent variety, principle of
- linguistic phenomenology
- linguistic philosophy
- local sign theory
- logical atomism
- logical empiricism
- logical positivism
- logical relation theory of probability
- logicism
- Manicheism
- materialism
- mean, doctrine of the
- meaning, theories of
- mechanism
- Meinong's jungle
- meliorism
- mereology
- metalanguage
- methodological theories
- modal realism
- monism
- moral sense theories
- mysticism
- naive realism
- naming theories of meaning
- nativism
- naturalism
- naturalized epistemology
- necessitarianism
- negation, performative theory of
- negative utilitarianism
- neo-Platonism
- neo-Pythagoreanism
- neutral monism
- new riddle of induction
- Nicod's criterion
- nihilism
- no-ownership theory of the mind
- nominalism
- non-cognitivism
- objective idealism
- objectivism
- objectivism (2)
- occasionalism
- Ockham's Razor
- one over many principle
- ontology
- operationalism
- organic unities, principle of
- organicism
- origins of life
- Orphism
- panpsychism
- pantheism
- paraconsistency
- paradigmatism
- parsimony, principle of
- particularism
- Pascal's wager
- perfection, principle of
- performative, theory of truth
- personalism
- perspective realism
- perspectivism
- phenomenalism
- phenomenology
- physicalism
- picture theory of meaning
- Plato's theory of forms
- Platonism
- plenitude, principle of
- plurality of causes
- positivism
- pragmatic theory of truth
- pragmatism
- pre-established harmony, doctrine of
- preference utilitarianism
- prescriptivism
- private language argument
- probabilism
- process philosophy
- propensity theory of probability
- psychologism
- psychophysical parallelism
- Pyrrhonism
- Pythagoreanism
- radical empiricism
- radical interpretation
- range theories of probability
- rationalism
- real self
- realism
- reducibility, axiom of
- reductionism (1)
- reductionism (2)
- redundancy theory of truth
- regularity theory of causation
- relativism
- relevance logics
- relevant alternatives, theory of
- reliabilism
- representationalism
- resemblance theories of universals
- retributivism
- rule utilitarianism
- semantic atomism
- semantics
- semantics, truth-conditional
- sensationalism
- sense and reference
- situationism
- skepticism
- solipsism
- speciation, theory of
- species essentialism
- species, theory of
- speciesism
- specious present
- speech act theory
- stimulus-response model
- Stoicism
- subjective idealism
- subjectivism
- subjectivist theories of probability
- sufficient reason, principle of
- tacit knowledge
- teleology
- theism
- third man argument
- three laws of thought
- trace theory of memory
- transcendental idealism
- trialism
- Tristram Shandy paradox
- tropisms, theory of
- truth theory
- truth-conditional semantics
- types, ramified theory of
- types, simple theory of
- uniformity of nature, principle of the
- universalism
- universalizability
- use theories of meaning
- utilitarianism
- utilitarianism, Bentham's theory of
- utopianism
- verifiability principle
- vicious circle principle
- Vienna Circle
- vitalism
- voluntarism
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descriptive theory of names
Theory that proper names, or some of them, and words for natural kinds, like 'tiger' or 'water', have meaning by specifying a description that the object or stuff concerned must satisfy for the name to apply to it.
For example 'tiger' means 'fierce animal with stripes...', 'water' means 'colorless tasteless liquid suitable for drinking 'Homer' means 'poet who wrote the Iliad and Odyssey'.
Recently the theory has been attacked by advocates of the causal theory of names.
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