..P
- parameter
- a value which controls the effect of some operation or procedure
- parametric polymorphism
- a kind of polymorphic type system in which a polymorphic function takes an (implicit or explicit) type parameter and processes in a uniform manner arguments of a polymorphic type involving a type variable which is instantiated by the type parameter.
- participate
- take part in
- participatory democracy
- a democracy in which people may participate directly in decision making processes rather than indirectly throught the election of representatives.
- See also:
- representative democracy
- philosophy
- the search for truth through reason, or for wisdom, by all means.
- piecemeal
- piece by piece, gradually
- piecemeal engineering
- a kind of social engineering advocated by Karl Popper.
- See also:
- utopian engineering
- performative utterence
- an utterence which, while appearing to make a statement, should (according to J.L.Austin) be understood as performing an action, e.g. "I promise...".
- physicalism
- the doctrine that physical reality is all that there is
- platonism
- (after Plato) the doctrine that abstract entities really do exist (often specialised to some particular domain, e.g. mathematics)
- pleonasm
- the use of more words than are needed to give the sense
- polymorphic
- Coming in various different forms, e.g. the caterpillar and the butterfly are different forms of one polymorphic insect.
- polymorphic type
- a generic type, usually involving a type variable, which can be instantiated to multiple specific types
- polymorphic type system
- a type system is polymorphic if it is possible in it to define functions which operate over more than one type of data.
Such a function would have a polymorphic type.
- polymorphism
- the property of being polymorphic.
- see also:
- ad hoc polymorphism
- coercion
- inclusion polymorphism
- overloading
- parametric polymorphism
- universal polymorphism
- posit
- postulate
- positivism
- Positivist philosophy in its broadest sense is a general tendency in philosophy which embraces aspects of the thought of many philosophers including Humean scepticism, the work of Comte (who coined the term), elements of utilitarianism and pragmatism, and logical positivism.
The term also has application in other disciplines, e.g. legal positivism.
- postulate
- (noun) an assumption used as premise for deductive inference, or (verb) the act of adopting a postulate (alternatively, posit).
This term is sometimes (e.g. in Aristotle) used when it is intended to avoid assertion of the truth of the postulate, otherwise the term axiom may be used (which sometimes, e.g. in Aristotle, suggests truth, but sometimes not e.g. in Hilbert).
- predicate
- that part of a sentence which affirms something of the subject of the sentence
- predicate logic
- a logic in which the internal structure of propositions is exposed by constructing atomic propositions from predicate applied to some subject, or relation expressed between several.
By contrast with a propositional logic in which atomic propositions are not further be analysed.
- predicative
- formed or contained in the predicate
- predicative type theory
- a type theory in which objects may be defined using predicates involving quantification over some whole of which the defined object is an element
- private
- known only to an individual or to a select group
- private language (1)
- a language which can, in principle, only be understood by one person
- private language (2)
- a language in which it is possible for an individual to talk (or write) about things which are private to him
- program (computing)
- a set of instructions for a computer prescribing how some task is to be performed
- programming language (computing)
- a language designed for programming computers
- projectivism
- a projectivist theory about some domain of discourse is one which claims that statements about that domain are not objective claims about reality but are projections onto the world of feelings or other mental states of the speaker, e.g. the position of David Hume and of logical positivism about ethical statements.
- proof theoretic strength
- a measure of the strength of a formal logical system.
- proposition
- that which is expressed by a statement
- propositional connective
- a word used to construct a compound proposition from one or more constituent propositions, e.g. and, or, not.
- propositional function
- in the context of some logic, a function whose value is a proposition or a truth value, as appropriate.
In classical logic, a boolean valued function.
Examples include the boolean operators.
- propositional logic
- an elementary form of logic concerned with truth functional combinations of atomic propositions
- propositional tautology
- a valid formula of propositional logic
- See also:
- tautology
- psychologism
- the intrusion of psychological considerations into logic (also used similarly in relation to other disciplines)
- pure
- unmixed, unadulterated
- pure type system (logic)
- a type system presented in a systematic way devised by Henk Barendregt.
This presentation is helpful (inter alia) in making clear the interpretation of these type theories as logics under the propositions-as-types interpretation.
- pyrrhonism
- the philosophy of Pyrrho of Elis (c300 b.c.), the ultimate scepticism (see also: PS)
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created 1995-2-27 modified 2006-05-07