speculative philosophy

noun

1. philosophy embodying beliefs insusceptible of proof and attempting to gain insight into the nature of the ultimate by intuitive or a priori means.

Word History and Origins

Origin of speculative philosophy¹

First recorded in 1855–60

Example Sentences

If “Clarissa” is an epistolary novel, then so, really, is “The Post Card” — and then half of “Tristram Shandy” is speculative philosophy.

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One email even pointed out that the scientists at UC Irvine were not the first to find someone with a memory like this – an 1871 article in the Journal of Speculative Philosophy described the curious case of Daniel McCartney, then a 54-year-old blind man living in Ohio who could remember the day of the week, the weather, what he was doing, and where he was for any date back to 1 January 1827, when he was nine years and four months old.

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Zulawski, who died in February, was one of the last great renegades of European art cinema, a wildly inventive, madly ambitious artist who infused his films with the spirit of experimental theater, avant-garde literature and speculative philosophy.

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Their importance must not be measured by the fact that our speculative philosophy still moves to a great extent in their paths of thought.

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The speculative philosophy, and the conceptions of morals, that accompanied the inroad of Oriental religions, were of a kindred nature.

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