Glossary

Phantom accountability refers to the illusion of responsibility that exists when individuals or institutions are formally designated as accountable but are practically insulated from the adverse consequences of their decisions or actions. This detachment creates a moral hazard, where decis

Antifragility is a property, theorized by Nassim Nicholas Taleb, where a system or entity not only resists adverse events, shocks, or volatility but actually improves and strengthens when exposed to them. It stands in contrast to 'fragile' (harmed by stress) and 'robust' (unaffected by str

The Paradox of Fiction refers to the philosophical puzzle arising from our ability to genuinely experience emotions (e.g., sadness, fear, joy) toward fictional entities or events, despite simultaneously holding the belief that these entities and events do not exist in reality. This phenome

The Make-Believe Theory, predominantly associated with philosopher Kendall Walton, posits that our emotional responses to fiction are not genuine emotions directed at real objects, but rather "quasi-emotions" or "make-believe emotions" that arise within the context of a game of make-believ

The Non-Identity Problem is a philosophical paradox, prominently articulated by Derek Parfit, that questions the very nature of harm and moral responsibility towards future individuals whose existence is entirely dependent upon the choices made in the present. It highlights the counter-int

The Person-Affecting Principle is a foundational ethical intuition asserting that an action or state of affairs can only be considered good or bad, right or wrong, if it is good or bad for someone. It posits that moral evaluation must be anchored to the impact on identifiable individuals,

Everyday aesthetics is a branch of philosophy, prominently championed by Yuriko Saito, which shifts the traditional focus of aesthetic inquiry from "high art" to the aesthetic dimensions of commonplace objects, actions, and environments encountered in daily life. It posits that the manner

Aesthetic literacy, as conceptualized by Yuriko Saito within the framework of everyday aesthetics, refers to the cultivated capacity to discern, appreciate, and critically evaluate the aesthetic qualities present in ordinary experiences and objects. This goes beyond mere sensory perception

Testimonial smothering is a form of self-silencing where a speaker voluntarily truncates or withholds their own testimony because they anticipate that their audience, due to structural prejudices, will fail to comprehend it correctly or will distort it to cause further harm.

Hermeneutical injustice is the structural disadvantage that occurs when a society's collective interpretive resources—such as language, legal terms, and social concepts—are inadequate for allowing members of marginalized groups to understand or communicate their own lived experiences.