The central tenets of Castanheira Neves' philosophy of law were made clear in his 1967 massive book on the philosophical and methodological distinction between matter of fact and matter of law.

On Monday there was also a partly visceral, partly philosophical distinction as well.

Less emphasis should be placed on minor philosophical distinctions than had been the case in scholasticism.

Other distinctions between rights draw more on historical association or family resemblance than on precise philosophical distinctions.

These positions make use of the philosophical Type-token distinction (e.g. having the same type of car need not mean that you and your friend share a token, a single vehicle).

Rorty's position requires a wholesale rejection of such traditional philosophical distinctions as those between appearance and reality, subjective and objective, replacing them with what he endorses as a new 'fuzziness'.

George Johnson, in Architects of Fear (1983), has described LaRouche's Neoplatonist conspiracy theory as a "distortion of a real philosophical distinction".

And he is sticking with the delicate philosophical distinction that enables him in good conscience to continue exploiting the same financial markets he vilifies.

Epistemological solipsists may argue that these philosophical distinctions are irrelevant since the professed pro-social knowledge of others is an illusion.

But the fine, philosophical distinction between this and what ordinary people call " prayer to God " breaks down as soon as you start doing it in earnest.