Philosophy 100 Vocab
Vocab for Midterm from Classic Philosophical Questions
Terms
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- Solipsism
- the doctrine that only "I" exists
- Correspondence theory
- the view contending that truth is an agreement between the proposition and a fact
- Tautology
- a proposition that is true because of the meanings of its word
- Omnipotent
- all-powerful
- Method of intuition (Peirce)
- those who follow this method arrive at thier beliefs independent of experience, that is, by intuition
- Ethical egoism
- the belief that all people ought to seek their own interests
- Secondary qualities
- according to Locke, qualities that we impose on an object: colour, smell, texture, and so on
- Social philosophy
- the application of moral principles to the problems of freedom, equality, and justice
- Nihilism
- the view that nothing has value
- Intrinsic value
- the inherent worth that something has
- Soft determinism
- attempts to reconcile freedom and responsibility with determinism
- Monotheism
- the belief in a single God
- Contingent
- something that may be and also may not be
- Emotivism
- the metaethical position that ethical statements fundamentally express emotions
- Utilitarianism
- the view that each of us should seek the greatest good for the greatest number of people
- Analogy
- when one reasons by analogy, one concludes that because two or more entitles share one aspect, they share another as well
- Naturalism
- the worldview that holds that there is but a single order of reality, that of matter-in-motion
- Hypothetical imperative
- a command that is useful to attain some end
- Materialism
- the metaphysical view that holds that only physical entities are real or exist
- Normative ethics
- the area of ethics that makes judgements about obligation and value
- Indeterminism
- the view that some individual choices are not caused by earlier events
- Agnosticism
- the view that God's existence can be neither proved nor disproved
- Aesthetics
- the area of philosophy that studies beauty, especially in the arts
- Inference
- an argument using induction or deduction
- Logic
- teh branch of philosophy that studies the methods and principles of correct reasoning
- Psychological egoism
- the belief that individuals always seek their own interests
- Cosmology
- the study of the way by which the world unfolds and evolves
- Ethics
- the area of philosophy that analyzes the good and right thing to do
- A posteriori
- concerns knowledge gianed through experience
- Method of science (Peirce)
- this method involves the sound reasoning and painstaking observation that is used in any science to establish the nature of the real; Peirce argues that the scientific method is the only one of the four approaches that can distinguish the true from the false and this alone can settle disagreements in belief
- A priori
- concerns knowledge that is gained prior to experience
- Laissez-faire
- in economics, the act of governement noninterference
- Compatibilism
- another name for soft determinism
- Predestination
- the view that every aspect of our lives has been divinely determined from the beginning of time
- Predicate
- that which is affirmed or denied of a subject or substance
- Pragmatism
- the philosophy that rejects all first principles and tests truth through workability
- Deism
- the view that God, having created the universe, remains apart from it and administers it through natural laws
- Subjective idealism
- the view that all we ever know are our own ideas
- Atheism
- denial of theism; it does not believe in a Supreme Being who created and cares for people, but it does not necessarily deny the existence of nontheistic gods
- Epistemology
- the area of philosophy that investigates the nature, sources, limitations, and validity of knowledge
- Induction
- logical reasoning to probable conclusions
- Ethical relativism
- the position that moral principles vary from individual to indivdual, from culture to culture; it denies the existence of universal, objective moral principles
- Method of tenacity (Peirce)
- fixing one's beliefs according to envirionment or personal relationships
- Essence
- the qualities without which any particular object/event would not exist or would be a distinctly different kind of object/event. The qualities necessary for anything to be what it is
- memes
- they replicate by memory and imitation (mimesis); includes tunes, ideas, fashions and techniques; they require, as teh environment in which they can replicate, a collection of minds, that is, brains that have the powers of imitation and memory; these brains are themselves the products of evolution by gene selection
- Empiricism
- the view that knowledge has its origins in and derives all of its content from experience
- Substance
- in metaphysics, an entity that can have properties indicated of it but cannot itself be a predicate of any object
- Realism
- the view that to be real is to exist apart from perception
- Skepticism
- the view that either doubts all assumptions until proved or claims that no knowledge is possible
- Dialectical method
- a method used by Socrates, Hegel, and Marx, of asking questions and critically analyzing answers as a way to arrive at propositions that can be accepted as true
- Formula of Humanity (Kant)
- Act as to treat humanity, whether in thine own person or in that of any other, in every case as an end withal, never as a means only
- Free will
- the view that human acts are not completely determined
- Egoism
- an ethical theory that contends that we act morally when we act for our own interests
- Rationalism
- the theory of knowledge that holds the ultimate source of knowledge is reason
- Proposition
- a true or false statement
- Communitarianism
- a critique of classical social and political liberalism, stressing the central importance of the community group over the autonomous individual in the formulation of political and economic rights and obligations
- Formula of Autonomy (Kant)
- the idea of the will of every rational being as a universally legislative will
- Polytheism
- belief in many Gods
- Forms
- a metaphysical term used by Plato to refer to nonmaterial, eternal, and changeless entities that constitute reality; examples of Plato's Forms are beauty, justice, man, and so on
- Predeterminism
- the belief that events (either some or all) throughout eternity have been foreordained by some supernatural power (usually God)
- Synthetic
- a statement in which the subject term does not contain the predicate
- Deontology
- in ethics, the theory that emphasizes obligations as primary
- Summum bonum
- in ethics, the Ultimate Good of human existence, that is, the final good toward which all our endeavors should be directed
- Determinism
- the view that everything that happens is caused
- Libertarianism
- teh metaphysical view that humans have free will in spite of any past events; this is the theory of Sartre and Richard Taylor
- Catharsis
- Aristotole's doctrine that states that tragedy provokes emotions of pity and fear to the extent that they are purged from the individual, who takes pleasure in that purgation
- Existentialism
- the philosophy that argues that we create our own essence through free action
- Leap of faith
- an expression used by Kierkegaard to refer to the unquestioned existence of God
- Formula of Universal Law of Nature (Kant)
- act as if teh mazim of the action were to become by thy will a universal law of nature
- Teleology
- the theory that deliberate, purposive activity, rather than mere chance, is involved in some process
- Dualism
- the view that reality is composed of two different substances, so that neither one can be related to the other, thus: spirit/matter, mind/body, good/evil
- Law of contradiction
- a law of logic that states that a proposition and its negation cannot both be true at the same time
- Deduction
- logical reasoning to necessary conclusions
- Nominalism
- the position that only particular entities are real and that universals represent detectable likeness among particulars
- Proletariat
- the worker or the members of the working class
- Method of authority (Peirce)
- fixing one's beliefs according to a person, an institution, or a state; one blieves that what this authority states is true
- Intuition
- a source of knowledge that does not rely immediately on the senses or reason by on direct awareness
- Innate ideas
- ideas that are inborn or naturally born
- Idealism
- in metaphysics, the position that reality is nonmaterial; in epistemology, the view that we all know are our ideas
- Instinctive
- natural
- Morals
- a person's principles concerning what is right or wrong
- Social humanism
- the political philosophy of John Dewey, which holds that every mature human being must be allowed to participate in the formation of the values that regulate living of people together
- Metaethics
- the study of the meanings of ethical words and of the sentences in which they appear
- Bourgeoisie
- those who own the means of production
- Axiom
- a proposition regarded as self-evident or true
- Truth
- the approximation of thought to reality
- Fatalism
- the view that events are fixed, usually by a divine being
- Universal
- that which is predictive of many particular entities; thus "human" is a universal, because it is predictive of individual humans
- Validity
- refers to an argument whose conclusion follws by logical necessity
- Theology
- the study of God, including religious doctrines
- Soul
- the immaterial entity that is identified with consciousness, mind, or personality
- Pantheism
- teh belief that everything is God
- Fascism
- an organic view of the state in which the supreme value is placed on the state rather than on the individual
- Denotation
- defining a term by providing examples
- Hedonism
- in ethics, the doctrine that pleasure is the ultimate goal of life that does and should determine our behaviour
- Creationism
- the theory that life orginated through an act of the Creator; it strongly criticizes the theory of evolution
- Categorical imperative
- Immanuel Kant's ethical standard: so act as if the maxim by which you act were to become a universal law
- Coherence theory
- the view contending that truth is a property of a related group of consistent statements
- Subjective
- that which refers to the knower; that which exists in the consciousness but not apart from it
- Relativism
- the view that one's moral views are conditioned by factors such as acculturation and personal bias
- Rational
- based on or appealing to reason
- Absolute
- whatever is absolute would be underived, complete, perfect, unconditioned, and unchangeable in any way
- Analytic
- in epistemology, a particular kind of statement in which the predicate merely spells our what the subject implies, for example, "a bachelor is an unmarried man,"
- Tenacity
- establishing one's beliefs thorugh one's parents and/or one's environment
- Omnipresent
- being everywhere at once
- Instrumental value
- the worth that something has because of its use
- Omniscient
- all-knowing
- Sense data
- images or sense impressions
- Totalitarianism
- the political view that the state is of paramount importance
- Hedonistic calculus
- a series of calculations used to evaluate the particular ends, either pleasures or avoidance of pains, that human seek