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.

From New York Times

He shook his head and beckoned her to come away, but she was fascinated just then by the freedom of Speculative Philosophy, and kept her seat, trying to find out what the wise gentlemen intended to rely upon after they had annihilated all the old beliefs.

From Literature

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.

From The Guardian

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.

From New York Times

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

From Project Gutenberg