Semiotics is a broad field closely related to Logic, Linguistics, and the Philosophy of Language which is the study of activity and processes involving Signs as Communications with Meanings. The term “Semiosis” was introduced by Charles Sanders Peirce in a Theory of Sign Relations which described a logical process of...

Modern Philosophy is Philosophy done of course during the “Modern” era of Europe, Britain, and North America. It is not a specific doctrine or school, and while it should not be confused with Modernism in Art or Modernity in History in a literal way, they are all clearly facets of the same era. Although there are certain...

Metadata (“about” or “above” + “data” or “information”), literally “data about data”, is information that describes another set of data. A common example is a library catalog card, which contains data about the contents and location of a book: It is data about the data in the book referred to by the card. Other common contents of metadata include the source or author of the described dataset, how it should be accessed,...

PseudoPhilosophy is any idea or system that masquerades itself as Philosophy while significantly failing to meet even basic intellectual standards. The term is frequently pejorative, and most applications of it are quite contentious. The term bears the same relationship to Philosophy that PseudoScience bears to Science, or Anti-Matter to Matter. PseudoPhilosophy is simply “Bullshit”, in the common vernacular. The...

The Creative Commons (CC, at CreativeCommons.org) is a non-profit organization devoted to expanding the range of creative work available for others legally to build upon and share. The organization has released a number of easy to understand Creative Commons Licenses using simple graphics and labels defining or...

American Indian Philosophy is based on the tribal histories, cultures, Languages, and traditions of the early peoples of “The Americas” originating before colonization, histories which are still active today. Many key philosophical traditions developed across the very broad geographical area of the Americas, from Alaska to Patagonia,...

Dynamism (see Dynamism for encyclopedic information) is a series of treatises in Philosophy and Science by M.R.M. Parrott, addressing subjects in Metaphysics, such as a Theory of Reality, a Theory of Life, Subjectivity, Ethics, and more. Dynamism: A Philosophy and Science Series is available in paperback from Barnes & Noble,...

Metaphysics is a difficult branch of Philosophy, but it is rather easy to define: It is the study of the most fundamental concepts and beliefs about those beliefs. “Metaphysical” concepts include Being, Existence, Purpose, Universals, Property, Relation, Causality, Space, Time, Event, and many others. These concepts are fundamental,...

The Philosophy of Mind, which includes the Philosophy of Perception, is a branch of Epistemology (or “Theory of Knowledge”), which in turn is a major branch of Philosophy. The specialization of the Philosophy of Mind is the focus on the nature of Mind, Mental Events and Functions, Perception, Memory, and Consciousness,...

The Philosophy of Mathematics is a specialization of Logic closely related to the Philosophy of Logic, which are all a part of Philosophy. Addressing questions about the character of Mathematics and “Number”, the conduct of mathematical inquiry, the Philosophy of Mathematics is focused on the role of mathematical objects in describing empirical...

GetWiki (GetWiki.net) is an interactive PHP/MariaDB collaboration software application, and the concept of “getting wiki” with interactive websites, originated by M.R.M. Parrott in 2003-2004. As the overview explains, GetWiki introduces indexing with Facets and Categories, content-driven Atom/XML Syndication, and XML import of...

David Hume (7 May 1711 - 25 Aug 1776, and pronounced: “Hyoom”) was a Scottish philosopher, a key essayist in the Enlightenment, and most known for his subtle argument against “Causality” using “Induction”. Hume's six-volume History of England (1754 - 1762) was very popular well into the Nineteenth Century. Influenced by the “Empiricism”...

Arthur Schopenhauer (22 February 1788 - 21 September 1860, and pronounced: “Showpenhower”) was a Dutch-German (Polish-born, German-raised) philosopher best known for his 1818 masterpiece, The World as Will and Representation (Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung, sometimes translated as The World as Will and Idea, and expanded in 1844), which incorporated...

John Bordley Rawls (21 Feb 1921 - 24 Nov 2002), a Harvard University professor, was a leading American figure in Moral Philosophy. Rawls' A Theory of Justice (1971) is considered a primary text in political and ethical reasoning, and he earned a Schock Prize for Logic and Philosophy, and a National Humanities Medal presented by U.S. President Bill Clinton in...

Dynamism is term of Philosophy and Science coined by Gottfried Leibniz and developed into a full system of Reality and Cosmology. Dynamism describes that what exists are simple Elements, or for Leibniz, “Monads”, groups of Essences which have are Forces. Interactions between...

Cybernetics is the study of Communication and Control Theory, typically involving regulatory feedback in living Organisms, Machines, Organizations, and their combinations. For example, it includes the study of computer-controlled Machines such as Automata and Robots, along with the study of sociotechnical systems. The term Cybernetics stems from the Ancient Greek Κυβερνήτης (kybernetes, steersman, governor,...

Teleology (from the Greek, telos, or end, purpose) is an ancient branch of Metaphysics, which is a branch of Philosophy. The study of Design and Purpose in everything, Teleology is about “Why?”, the directive principles and finality of any Substance, Organism, or Event. This much is inherent in Science today as a basic explanation...

Paul-Michel Foucault (15 October 1926 - 25 June 1984, and pronounced: “Fookoh”) was a French philosopher who was also a professor, literary critic, and political activist. Foucault's theories primarily addressed the relationships between social and political Power as contrasted with traditional studies of Knowledge, Existence, or Liberty,...

Charles Sanders Peirce (10 Sep 1839 - 19 Apr 1914, and pronounced: “Purce”) was an American philosopher, logician, mathematician, and developer of Semiotics, for which he is largely appreciated today. Peirce considered himself a logician first and foremost, and made major contributions to the development of Formal Logic, while he is still read in...

An “operating system” consists of many utilities, along with a master control program, called the “kernel”. The kernel provides services to start and stop programs, handle the file system and other “low level” tasks most programs on your computer share. Perhaps most importantly, the kernels also schedule access to hardware, avoiding conflicts if two programs try to access the same resource or device simultaneously. ...

All Rights Reserved © 2004 & 2007 M.R.M. ParrottThis article is updated from a version which appeared on rimric folio in 2004, and has been protected on GetWiki on behalf of the author, republished here with permission. All rights reserved. “Participating in a Wiki brings many of the same feelings of freedom as having one's own website or participating in a discussion forum, but there...

Timeless is a trilogy of action-adventure novels by M.R.M. Parrott, combining science fiction, time travel, intrigue, political theory and history, with stories of love and discovery. Timeless: A Novel Trilogy is available in paperback from Barnes & Noble, Amazon, and other retailers via the publisher, [rimric.com...

Epistemology is a branch of Philosophy dealing with the nature, origin and scope of Knowledge and Beliefs, how we come to have them, and methods of obtaining them. Epistemology asks about the ultimate justification and rationality of what we know, as well other “epistemic” features of Belief. “How do we know anything?” “What do we know when we know...

There are key elements of Philosophy, Theology, Teleology and Ontology present throughout The Matrix Series. The overall story involves a critique of a society much like our own which has allowed technological controls to run amok, impinging on freedoms, but...

There are many definitions of Complexity, therefore many natural, artificial and abstract objects or networks can be considered to be complex systems, and their study (complexity science) is highly interdisciplinary. Examples of complex systems include ant-hills, ants themselves, economies, nervous systems, cells and living things, including human beings, as well as modern energy or telecommunication...