philosophical terminology

8/8/2019 Philosophical Terminology

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PHILOSOPHICAL WORDS & DEFINITIONS

Absolute in Latin means loosened from, hence complete, unconditioned,independent the opposite of relative. In general it is something, which isunconditioned and is variously taken as the identity of the knower and the known, orsimply the whole.

Absolutism in political theory is the view that there are no restrictions on the rightsand powers of the government.

Abstraction is the process by which we arrive at general words. A general wordsuch as man is one that can be used generally, to refer to any man; unlike GeorgeBush, which refers to a particular man.

Activism is the doctrine that action rather than theory is needed at some politicaljuncture; an activist is therefore one who works to make change happen.

Actualism is sometimes known as ACTUAL IDEALISM. The term also applies incontemporary works to the view that only the actual world is real, with other possibleworlds regarded as not themselves existing, but as wrongly thought to exist because

modal idioms are useful instruments of thought about the real world.Actuality is related to FORM & MATTER. So far as the matter, brass, is concernedthere is the potentiality of a candlestick, a vase, a paperweight. The actuality is thecandlestick, and so on. Matter without any form (prime matter) has no actualexistence; to exist it must have a form. So, in a sense, actuality is prior to potentiality.Aristotle associates this with the doctrine that everything exists for the sake of an end.Actualization means that for something to be real it must be actualized or madepart of the actual world. In theology it may be important that GOD has no potentialthat is not actualized, since this would imply a change away from present perfection to

something different and worse, or away from present imperfection to something better,neither of which is acceptable.

Aesthetics concerns perception. As ETHICS deals with questions of values inhuman actions, so aesthetics is concerned with values in works of art or in theappreciation of beauty in nature. Kant argues that aesthetic experience is adisinterested pleasure taken in some particular object; this pleasure is universally validbut not to be framed in general terms and therefore not a matter of the understandingor of reason, but of judgment.

Aestheticism holds that the appreciation of art and beauty is the highest aim ofhuman life, and especially that the pursuit of such experience is not constrained byordinary moral considerations. Art itself serves no ulterior moral or political purpose.

Agnostic one who neither believes nor disbelieves in the existence of God; one forwhom the existence of God is a real, continuing, open question. A doubter of Godsexistence, but not as strong as an atheist.

Agnosticism in Greek means suitable for knowing. It is the view that our powers ofknowing are bounded in certain regards, more particularly as to the ultimate reasonsfor things, and especially concerning the claims of religious dogma.

Akrasia ancient Greek, incontinence, weakness of will; a condition where one knows a

thing is good, desires that thing, yet still does not embrace it.

Alienation in Latin means estrangement, in philosophy; it denotes the action (or itsresult) of estranging things or people from what is considered to be their proper state.


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The term was first used by HEGEL to describe what happens to absolute spiritwhen it objectifies itself in the physical world of nature, a digression that is repairedwhen the spirit returns to itself in contemplating what we call the Humanities (inGerman, the Sciences of the spirit).

Altruism a disinterested benevolence and unselfish concern for the welfare of others,with no other end in mind.

Ambiguity from Latin it means going both ways. 1) The fact of several meanings

(in particular two) attaching to a term, so that a sentence containing it has nodeterminate sense. 2) And statement that can be taken in more than one-way. It isoften the main point at which an argument breaks down.

Amoral means having no morality, or having no implications for morality. Theamoralist either ignores or deplores the ways in which morality governs human lives.

Analogy comes from the Greek meaning according to. It is a resemblance, inquality or structure, which enables us to pursue an argument in the same way as hasalready been done in another, resembling case. It is a statement asserting that twothings have something in common, for example, Democracy is like sailing a ship: itworks best when all members do their part. The original meaning of the term comesfrom Greek MATHEMATICS, where it denotes proportionality.

Analysis is the process of breaking a concept down into more simple parts, so that itslogical structure is displayed.

Analytic Proposition a statement that is true or false by virtue of the meaning ofits key terms

Anarchism is the doctrine associated with Godwin and others, with the belief thathuman communities can and should flourish without government. Voluntarycooperation should replace the coercive machinery of the state; government itself

corrupts the natural sentiments of people. It is also a position, which holds thatgovernments and laws are unnecessary and that communities should flourish withoutthe coercion of the state.

Anecdotal Evidence evidence based not on scientific inquiry, but on a smallsampling and hearsay.

Animism is the theory that not only other human beings, and not only other animals,but also plants, and even things we do not ordinarily regard as living, have souls.

Antecedent within a conditional statement (in other words, an if then

statement) the antecedent is the preceding, if part.

Anthropomorphism is the representation of nonhuman creatures, for example,animals, nature, God, as having human characteristics.

Antimony: a Contradiction. The existence of two incompatible statements, eachof which, taken on its own, is reasonable.

Apathy is often viewed by teaches and coaches as being negative but in philosophy itis popular. In philosophy it is the idea ofbeing in a state of bliss or ofcompleteindependence from inclinations and desires and this freedom is both itself a virtue

and presupposed by other virtues. Generally, in a negative way it is seen as not beinginterested or caring about a particular issue. It is the sense of doing nothing and notcaring.


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Apologetics in Theology is the attempt to show that a faith is either provable byreason, or at least consistent with reason. More generally, it is the attempt to defend adoctrine.

Aretaic (ethics) from ancient Greek, arte, virtue. It proposes that the basis ofethical evaluation should be on the basis of character rather than actions becausegood character is the most valuable thing a human can possess.

Argument (as a form of reasoning); a line of reasoning containing premises that

supports a conclusion; philosophers use this term in a technical way that differs fromordinary usage. That was really a good argument you just made, would be acompliment among philosophers, not a sign that you were a troublemaker.

Argument from Design also known as the teleological argument is one of thetraditional arguments for the existence of God, which infers from the existence ofdesign to that of a designer. Just as when we see a house we can infer that somebodymust have built it, so the fact that the world has order in it allows us to conclude thatsomebody has ordered it. It is also a line of reasoning that argues that the intricate andcomplex nature of the world could not have existed without a divine designer, God. Atthe very least, it claims, if the universe shows evidence of intelligent design, then theexistence of some intelligent Designer can be inferred as its cause.

Assumption is aproposition that is treated as an assumption when it is added to astock of premises of an argument. The conclusion is then conditional upon thatassumption, unless the assumption can be discharged, or shown to be unnecessary, inthe course of the argument.

Atheism from the Greek denotes godlessness, a position that asserts that there isno God. In this, Atheism goes further than AGNOSTICISM, which merely says that wecannot know whether there is or not. AQUINAS agreed that we can know onmetaphysical grounds that God exists, but revelation is needed to tell us what He islike.

Attribute in LOGIC, is that which may be predicated of anything, as green may bepredicated of grass. In METAPHYSICS a distinction is made between essential andaccidental attributes.

Autonomy comes from the Greek meaning self law. In Philosophy it is the fact ofbeing self-determined, instead of being determined from outside. It is also the freedomto act independently of any external rule or authority. Thus in ETHICS the demand forautonomy is the notion that ethical rules must be freely arrived at as beingconformable to reason, rather than imposed. This view was strongly defended byKANT.

Aversion Dislike of unwillingness for a person or object.

Axiology is the general science or study of value.Axiom from the Greek it means a self-evident statement; literally, somethingworthy of respect. In LOGIC and other formal systems, a PROPOSITION which isassumed without proof and serves in turn to help in the proof of other propositions inthe system. A typical example is the principle of excluded middle (a proposition iseither true or false), which is adopted by most systems or logic (though not byINTUITIONISM); this seems so basic that we seem neither able to prove it nor

convinced that we need to.

Becoming refers to the ever-changing world of experience where all inanimate andliving things are said to come into existence, exist, and then pass away. In Platosuniverse, it contrasts with the unchanging, external world.


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Behaviorism is the methodological doctrine in that the proper kind of observation toemploy in PSYCHOLOGYis not the inward observation of private happenings(INTROSPECTION of mental events and processes), but the outward observation ofpublic happenings. It was called behaviorism on the assumption that how someonebehaves is something that is in principle open to anyone to observe, so that theoriesabout behavior can be confirmed or disconfirmed in broadly the same way, as cantheories in such natural sciences as biology. In other words, it is a psychological theorythat proposes the scientific study of human behavior solely through the observationand measurement of external behaviors, thereby classifying internal mental processes such as introspection, the unconscious, and thought as unscientific because theyare unmeasurable or unobservable by others.

Being all that is real and nothing that is unreal is contained in the domain known asbeing. In Platos theory, it is a perfect and unchanging world of Forms (idealessences), after which the changing things of this worlds appearances are patterned.

Beliefis the act ofa) believing that something is so, b) believing someone who saysit is so, or c) believing in someone or something (example: belief in a religiouscreed). In believing that something is so, belief is opposed to KNOWLEDGE: whereone says one only believes that something is so when one feels unjustified in claimingto know that it is. There is a connection between what one believes and how one acts,

but one cannot analyze the belief that P as the disposition to act as if P was true. Aperson can believe he is unselfish, and yet act as selfishly as anyone else.

Big Bang Theory a cosmological model of how the present, expanding universebegan: by a huge explosion of highly concentrated matter that occurred between 15 20 billion years ago.

Body The body is often contrasted unfavorably with the mind, and in Pythagorean,Indian and Christian traditions bodily residence is a kind of penance compared with thefull joy of purely spiritual existence. However most 20th Century Philosophy hasacknowledged, at least in principle, that embodiment is a necessary condition of a

mental life: our bodies are not just parts of the world external to our minds.

Burden Of Proof If in some situation there is a proper presumption that somethingis true, anyone seeking to prove its opposite is said to bear the burden of proof. Acertain amount of philosophical jockeying consists in trying to shift the burden of proof.In other words, it is in a two-sided argument, where argument A is appropriatelyassumed to be true, side B must prove it untrue by proving B in order to win. InAmerican justice, the prosecution has the burden of proof, since the accused is alwayspresumed innocent.

Capitalism an economic theory in which property, production of goods and servicesare privately owned and traded for the profit of the individual or corporation, usually ina market value where value is determined by price.

Cartesianism was the philosophy of Descartes theory that there are just twocreated substances: Mind, the essence of which is thinking, and Matter, the essenceof which is EXTENSION.

Catharsis according to Aristotle was the cleansing (purifying, purging) of feelingssuch as pity and fear by feeling them in an aesthetic context, such s the theatre. Theaim of tragedy is to achieve this purification.

Category is a term introduced by Aristotle for a general aspect under which one candescribe a thing. He recognized 10 of these, as set out in his work Categoriesand

they are: substance, quantity, relation, place, time, position, state, action andaffection. As he said, each uncombined expression means one of these: what, howlarge, what kind, related to what, where, when, how placed, in what state, acting orsuffering. Example: A man may be five foot six and a writer, a student of philosophy athis desk as midnight, sitting down and writing, and suffering from the cold.


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Causation was one of the central problem areas ofMETAPHYSICS. Causation isthe relation between two events that holds, when given that one occurs, it produces orbrings forth, or determines, or necessitates the second; equally we say that once thefirst has happened the second must happen or that the second follows on from thefirst. However, it is not clear that only events are related by causation. Example, acannon ball sitting stationary on a cushion, but causing the cushion to be the shapethat it is, and this suggests that states of affairs or objects or facts may also becausally related.

Cause a factor in the explanation of something being as it is.Casualism is the doctrine that all things and events happen by chance.

Chance is frequently regarded as unreal, a mere reflection of human ignorance, dueto be eroded by the onset of deterministic science. In ancient and medieval philosophychance could be contrasted with divine purpose. Later chance was argued against byuse of science and statistics. PROBABILITYbecame the guide of life providingthe tools with which to assess chances in insurance and gambling, discovering causalconnections, finding rates of mortality, crime, and marriage, even before the onset ofprobabilistic theories in physics such as statistical mechanics and then quantummechanics. The problem of interpretation is that of deciding whether probabilitiesmeasure something real, or whether they merely reflect the beliefs of reasonablepeople faced with various quantities of data.

Chaos is utter confusion, the study of apparently random behavior of deterministicsystems. In Philosophy, chaos has been seen as the unordered, unformed,undifferentiated beginnings of things, and the COSMOS, which is ordered by theuniverse.

Character is the collective qualities or characteristics, especially mental, and moralthat distinguishes a person or thing.

Class in political philosophy, it denotes a group of people who enjoy similarity ofstatus on the grounds of often ill-defined and varied features, that may differ from onesociety to another. Thus, in some places men are classified according to their income,in others according to their education, or their attainments, or their outlook.

Classicism is the aesthetic and cultural perspective guided by admiration forwhat are perceived as classical qualities: order, maturity, harmony, balance, andmoderation. The central models for works striving to achieve these qualities are theliterary, artistic, and architectural works of ancient Greece and Rome.

Cognition refers to the process of knowing, thinking, and being aware.

Cognitive having to do with all the elements involved in thought, knowledge andawareness; opposed to the emotional and feelings.

Cognitive Science an interdisciplinary science composed of philosophers,psychologists, computer scientists, and linguists, among others, who explore thenature of thought and its connections to the brain.

Cognito came from Latin meaning, I think, therefore I am. Descartes first coinedthis phrase. It is something that is so certain and so assured that all the mostextravagant suppositions brought forward by SCEPTICS are incapable of shaking it.

You just know that it is.Concept is what enables one to use a word correctly, recognize something as beingof the sort referred to by the word, and define the word. Someone or something couldstill have the concept that lacked one of these capacities. It is a term used to expressa general idea of which objects are individual instantiations; for example, Lassie,Snoopy, and Ole Yeller are instantiations of the concept, canine.


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Cognitive Meaning is the cognitive aspect of the meaning of a sentence. This isthought of as its content, or what is strictly said, abstracted away from the tone oremotive meaning, or other things.

Coherence Theory (of truth): the theory that a belief is true because it is a memberof body of a consistent set of beliefs that all hold together and make sense, and hence,need not to rest on one certain truth.

Compulsion is an irresistible urge to do something or to act in a certain way. It canalso be a feeling of obligation to do something. The key philosophical and legalproblem with this concept is to distinguish compulsion from pressures that are infact not resisted but in some appropriate sense could have been.

Conclusion is the terminating point of an argument. In a valid line of reasoning theconclusion should be supported by the premises.

Conditional Statement is any statement or proposition which takes the form, if,then

Confirmation is the degree to which evidence, collected through rationalinvestigation, supports the conclusion it is meant to support.

Connotation is the primary, objective meaning of a word, as opposed to itsdenotation, the objects to which it applies.

Conscience is something that humans have in regard as to whether an action ismorally required or forbidden. In Christianity, the nature of this awareness and itsstatus as knowledge is a central problem. On the one hand it is sinful to act againstones conscience; on the other hand conscience can deceive, since we can be mistakenabout what is required or forbidden.

Consciousness is possibly the most challenging and pervasive source of problems inthe whole of philosophy. Our own consciousness seems to be the most basic factconfronting us, yet it is almost impossible to say what consciousness is. In simpleterms it is the awareness of ones surroundings and identity.

Contemplation is the curious view common to Indian ethics, Plato, Aristotle andwestern tradition that holds that the supremely valuable state of mind lies in the rightkind ofcontemplation: the contemplation of the form of the good, or reflection uponthe virtues. It is the idea of thinking about something very carefully.

Contingent 1) is a truth which could also have been false if circumstances had been

different; 2) the state of being dependent on something else for existence.Contradiction it is the idea of denying a statement made by a person in regard tothat persons statement opposition to what really is true. It is the conjunction of aproposition and its negation. The standard proof of the inconsistency of a set ofpropositions or sentences is to show that a contradiction may be derived from them.

Cosmology comes from the Greek word Cosmos or order. In philosophy, it is thestudy of space, time, number, matter and motion. In Physics, the term is used for thescience that studies the physical structure of the universe as a whole.

Cosmological Argument is any one of a set of arguments aiming to start from afeature of the World as it is and therefore establish that GOD exists. On other words ituses facts of the known natural universe, i.e. motion, causation, and contingency toinfer the existence of God as the initial cause of these phenomena.

Cosmos ancient Greek order, it has come to mean the organized universe,especially as subject to laws and principles of some kind.


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Counterexample an example used to refute a general claim or principle, forexample, a pine tree is a counterexample of the claim that all trees shed their leaves inthe fall.

Covenant is an agreement or a contract.

Creationism the doctrine that all species were created by God in one instant;

contrasts with the theory of Evolution.Criterion in Greek is the means of judging. The STOICS sought for a means ofjudging that could be used to distinguish what was trustworthy with that ofSENSE-IMPRESSIONS from others. In modern philosophy DESCARTES was concerned withthe question whether the criterion of somethings being true, is its being clearly anddistinctly perceived (CLEAR). KANT said that truth, formally, is the agreement ofKNOWLEDGE with its OBJECT, but that since the objects of knowledge vary, thecontent of knowledge varies, so it is quite impossibleand indeed absurd, to ask for ageneral test of truth. It is a condition which must be met in order to qualify an itemsinclusion in a category, for example, in the statement, Mammals are fur-bearinganimals who nurse their young, being a fur-bearing animal who nurses its young are

the criteria for inclusion in the category, mammal.

Critical Realism is any view that acknowledges that our knowledge of the real,objective nature of the world is mitigated by the mind, on which sensory experience isnecessarily dependent.

Critical Thinking the analysis, criticism, and evaluation of statements claimed to betrue and of arguments claimed to be valid.

Courage is the ability to disregard fear.

Cultural Relativism is the ethical theory that moral evaluation is rooted in andcannot be separated from the experience, beliefs and behaviors of a particular culture,and hence, that what is wrong in one culture may not be so in another.

Cynics for the CYNICS the virtuous life consisted in an independence achieved bymastery over ones desires and needs: happiness demands that one desires nothingand hence lacks nothing. A Cynic is a person with little faith in human nature.

Datum is a piece of evidence considered as fixed for the purpose in hand. What istaken as a datum may change as changes of theory and evidence arise. Somethingwould be absolutely a datum if it were incorrigible, but many theorists of knowledge

tend to be nervous about regarding anything as absolutely given, for although somethings may serve as a basis for particular enquiries, this does not protect them fromeventual challenge.

Deduction is a process of reasoning in which a conclusion is drawn from a set ofpremises. Usually confined to cases in which the conclusion is supposed to follow fromthe premises.

Deductive Reasoning is a kind of reasoning where a set ofpremises is set forthfrom which a conclusion is necessarily drawn. If all the premises of a deductiveargument are true, and if the argument is valid, then the conclusion must be true.An argument that is valid with true premises is called sound.

Definition is the meaning of a word or the nature of a thing. It is also thedistinctness in outline of an image.

Delusion is generally, any false opinion that a person persists in. In the philosophy ofperception, delusions such as hallucinations are sometimes distinguished from more


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everyday illusions, such as the bent appearance of a stick in water, or a mirage.Mirages and standard illusions are public and repeatable. They are cases in which acertain kind of stimulus naturally gives rise to an incorrect interpretation. A delusion,by contrast, is thought of as a private perceptual derangement.

Democracy in Greece meant rule by the citizens in general (excluding women &slaves). In modern society the sovereignty of the people in general, expressed notdirectly by a vote on individual questions, but through representatives.

Denotation is that which is denoted, or referred to by a term.

Determinism is the view that events, including peoples ACTIONS, do not occur bychance, but are caused to occur, usually with the implication that they could not beotherwise than they are. There is the example ofphysical determinism in whichdeterminism is preceded by events in the course of nature, and in the case of divinedeterminism, that is, GOD creating everything and preordaining what will happen to it.

Dialectic in Greek means the art of discussion. It was a form of philosophicdebating. The procedure was to accept an opponents view provisionally and to elicitfrom it contradictory consequences. This was a device often used by the SOPHISTS.Socrates and Plato used the dialectic as a method of question the answer in theframing of sound definitions of terms, a philosophic process that ultimately leads to theapprehension of the FORM of the GOOD.

Dialectical Materialism was the dominant philosophical strain ofMARXISM,combining materialism as an embracing philosophy of nature and science, with theHEGELIAN notion of dialectic as a historical force, driving events onwards towards aprogressive resolution of the contradictions that characterize each historical epoch.

Dialogue is the process between two people of asking questions and giving answers.

Dilemma is a situation where a choice has to be made between two equally

undesirable alternatives.

Disillusioned means freedom from illusions; disenchantment with something youonce believed in. You become disappointed about someone or something.

Discourse in Latin means a running from one place to another. A discourse isa continuous stretch of language containing more than one sentence: conversations,narratives, arguments, speeches.

Discernment means perceiving something clearly with the mind or the senses. Itcan also mean having or showing good judgment or insight.

Disposition is a tendency to be a certain way under a specific set of circumstances.

Dogma in general, is a belief held unquestioningly and with undefended certainty. Inthe Christian Church, it was a belief communicated by divine revelation, and defined bythe Church.

Dualism is any view that postulates two kinds of a thing in some domain. It iscontrasting views according to which there is only one kind of thing which is monistic.

Efficient Cause is one of the four kinds of causes distinguished by Aristotle, it is theagent by which a certain result is produced, for example, the efficient cause of a book

is its writer.

Egalitarianism is the doctrine that moral and political life should be aimed atrespecting and advancing the equality of persons.

Ego is the self; it is the seat of all conscious thought, the organizer of all subjectivesensory experience, and the originator of voluntary action.


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Egoism & Altruism egoism is usually considered in two forms. Psychologicalegoism is the view that people are always motivated by self-interest. Ethical egoismis the view that whether or not people are like this, they ought to be like this; usuallythis is advanced in the form that rational behavior requires attempting to maximizeself-interest.

Elitism is the view that the formation of elites in some sphere is desirable, and thatthe status and privileges of existing elites are worth protecting.

Empirical is that which can be proved or disproved by sensory experience.Empiricism is the permanent strand of philosophy that attempts to tie knowledge toexperience. Experience is thought of either as the sensory contents of consciousness,or as whatever is expressed in some designated class of statements that can beobserved to be true by the use of the senses. Empiricism denies that there is anyknowledge outside this class, or at least outside whatever is given by legitimatetheorizing on the basis of this class.

Encroachment means to invade or to intrude on someone elses beliefs orbelongings.

Enlightenment was the name given to the general intellectual movement in 18th

Century France, Germany and Great Britain. The period saw greater light shed on theconduct of human affairs: the dark mysteries of traditional attitudes in religion andpolitical life were pushed back, and in their place a new outlook grew up, informed byreason and the power of scientific research and discovery.

Epicureanism is a view associated with the ancient philosopher Epicurus; itencourages the pursuit and enjoyment in moderation of broadly defined pleasures, for

example, friendship, peace, and the contemplation of beauty, and it decries striving formaterial pursuits.

Epistemology is the theory of knowledge. Its central questions include the originof knowledge; the place of experience in generating knowledge, and the place ofreason in doing so; the relationship between knowledge and certainty, and betweenknowledge and the impossibility of error; the possibility of universal skepticism; andthe changing forms of knowledge that arise from new conceptualizations of the world.

Eschatology in Greek means the last and it is used as the formation of ideasabout the end of life, or the end of the world, and in Christian theology, it refers to

the study of the last judgment and resurrection.Essence is the basic or primary element in the being of a thing; the things nature, orthat without which it could not be what it is. A thing cannot lose its essence withoutceasing to exist, and the essential nature of a natural kind, such as water or gold, isthat property without which there is no instance of the kind.

Ethics is the study of the concepts involved in practical reasoning: good, right, duty,obligations, virtue, freedom, rationality, and choice.

Ethical Objectivism is the view that the claims of ethics are objectively true; they

are not relative to a subject or a culture, nor purely subjective in their nature.

Ethical Relativism is the ethical theory that denies the existence of universal moraltruths and proposes that right & wrong must be defined variously, based on differencesin cultural norms and mores. What is morally right is relative to ones society andtime in history, not absolute across time & cultures.


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Existentialism is a loose title for various philosophies that emphasize certaincommon themes: the individual, the experience of choice, and the absence of rationalunderstanding of the universe with a consequent dread or sense of absurdity in humanlife.

External World is the everyday world of places and things that we perceive, moveamongst, and act upon. The word external suggests, misleadingly in the opinion ofmany philosophers, that this world is separated from the world of the mind, so that ourimmediate experience is one thing, and the question of the nature of the world of

which it is an experience is another thing. This is commonly called a Cartesianpicture of the mind, and has been the target of many epistemologists, especiallysince the middle of the 20th Century.

Extrinsic a property that an object possesses only because of its relationship withsomething else, for example, a movie that is number one at the box office has theextrinsic property of being a box-office champion. It only holds that property inrelationship to weekly box-office champion. (Need to Finish) pg. 20

Faith is the belief in the truth of a doctrine that may not be capable of being proventrue by reason or evidence, and which may require suspension of rational judgmentthrough an act of will.

Fallacy is any error of reasoning. Reasoning may fail in many ways, and a greatvariety of fallacies have been distinguished and named. The main division is intoformal fallacies in which something purports to be deductively valid reasoning but isnot, and informal fallacies in which some other mistake is made. Such mistakes mayinclude the introduction of irrelevancies, failure to disambiguate terms, vagueness,misplaced precision, and so on. In essence it is a mistaken belief, and is alsomisleading and a mistake (error).

Fatalism is the doctrine that human action has no influence on events. Example:either a bullet will hit me or it will not; if it does, then there is no point in taking

precautions for it will kill me anyhow; if it does not then there is no point in takingprecautions. The dilemma ignores the highly likely possibility that whether the bulletwill hit you depends on whether you take precautions. Fatalism is wrongly confusedwith DETERMINISM, which by itself carries no implications that human action isineffectual.

Fictitious is something that is imaginary or not real. It is counterfeit to the realthing.

Final Cause one of Aristotles four causes, it is the end or goal towards which a thingis brought into being.

First Cause Argument is a classic argument for the existence of God that statesthat because all events in the natural world must have a cause, God must exist as thefirst initiator of these events. It assumes that a regress without end back into time isunacceptable.

Formal Cause one of Aristotles four causes, it is the conceptual blueprint that givesa thing its form or essence.

Free Will & Determinism in free will there is the problem or reconciling oureveryday consciousness of ourselves as agents, with the best view of what science tellsus that we are. Determinism is one part of the problem. It may be defined as the

doctrine that every event has a cause. More precisely, for any event there will besome antecedent state of nature. Free will in essence is your choice to do what youbelieve is right or wrong and you are the one who ultimately must make the choice ofwhich action you will follow.


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Free Will Defense is an attempt to resolve the problem of evil. Evil is explainedbecause a benevolent God endowed humanity with free will and the greatest exerciseof free is to overcome the greatest adversity and temptation.

Generalization means speaking in a general or indefinite way. It is to infer an ideaby a law or conclusion you have as a whole without having all of the evidence. Inphilosophy it is a remark made about all things of some kind or typical things of a kind.

Gnosticism according to this doctrine, we attain salvation through gaining esoteric

KNOWLEDGE concerning GOD and the world. There is a DUALISM of matter andspirit, the former being essentially EVIL. Gnostic doctrines greatly influenced bothJewish and Christian MYSTICISM in the Middle Ages and traces of them can be foundin idealist philosophies (IDEALISM).

Golden Rule is a proverb that says one should, Do unto others, as you wouldhave them do unto you.

Hedonism refers to the pursuit of ones own pleasure as an end in itself, in ethics,the view that such a pursuit is the proper aim of all action. Since there are differentconceptions of pleasure there are correspondingly different varieties of hedonism.

Humanism is an intellectual movement that brings out one central feature of theRENAISSANCE: a revaluation of man and human affairs, as against the god-centeredview of being responsible to the CREATOR. It is a progressive non-religious approachto life without God.

Hypothesis in science is a provisional explanation that observation andexperiment may or may not confirm. If confirmed, it is accepted as a theory, or LAWOF NATURE. In LOGIC, it is an assumption on the basis of which otherPROPOSITIONS are obtained. If the latter turns out to be false, then the hypothesis isdisproved. A Hypothesis is a supposition that is advanced so that its truth may be putto the test, either empirically or through rational argument.

Idealism is a doctrine holding that reality is fundamentally mental in nature. Thetraditional Christian view is that God is a sustaining cause, possessing greater realitythan his creation. It is any view that denies that there is a reality independent of themind and mental states.

Ideology is any wide-ranging system of beliefs, ways of thought, and categories thatprovide the foundation of programs of political and social action; an ideology is aconceptual scheme with a practical application.

Immaterialism is the theory that MATTER (as opposed to the MIND) does not exist.BERKELEYused the term to describe his own theory that IDEAS are caused, not bycorpuscles of matter affecting our sense organs, but by GOD.

Immortality refers to the survival, for ever, after death. DESCARTES claimed it asone of the advantages of his mind-body DUALISM, that it is a prerequisite ofimmortality: a mind can survive death because it is distinct from a body even though itis somehow united with one.

Implication from Latin implies that ofenfolding in which in LOGIC, the relationbetween two connected PROPOSITIONS such that is the first holds, so does thesecond. In essence, it is something that is implied with a given result to follow.

Impression is an effect produced especially on the mind or feelings. It is a vaguenotion or belief. We usually form an impression upon meeting someone for the firsttime.

Impulse is an act of impelling; a push to take a certain action. It is like a suddendesire or tendency to act without reflection.


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Induction is the term used in any process of reasoning that takes us from empiricalpremises to empirical conclusions supported by the premises but not deductivelyentailed by them. Inductive arguments are therefore kinds ofampliativearguments, in which something beyond the content of the premises is inferred asprobable or supported by them. It is a general law from particular instances.

Inference is the process of drawing conclusions from a set of existing facts.

Infinite unlimited, without bounds, endless.

Innate Ideas are ideas that are inborn and not the product of experience. They arealso thoughts that are believed to be inborn, present within the mind, at birth.

Insight is the capacity of understanding hidden truths.

Instinct implies innately determined behavior, inflexible to change in circumstanceand outside the control of deliberation and reason. The view that animals accomplisheven complex tasks by nature and not by reason was common to Aristotle and theStoics.

Instrumental Value is worth that a thing has because it contributes to a furthergood, not because it has intrinsic value of its own.

Intelligence is most generally, the capacity to deal flexibly and effectively withpractical and theoretical problems. Since peoples capacities to do this vary with theproblem, it may be doubted whether there is a useful level of abstraction at which onething, intelligence, can be thought of as equally manifested in whatever logical,theoretical, practical, mathematical, linguistic, etc. successes we achieve.

Intrigue is when someone carries on an underhanded plot, use secret influence, orarouse the curiosity of others.

Intrinsic the property which an object possesses because of its nature which isindependent of its relations to other things and their properties.

Introspection was defined by William James as the looking into our own minds andreporting what we there discover. Everyone agrees, James said, that we therediscover states ofCONSCIOUSNESS, such as THINKING; this belief he regarded asbasic to PSYCHOLOGY.

Intuitionism is the direct awareness of fundamental truths without the aid ofsensation or reasoning.

Intuitionism in Ethics, intuitionism is the view that moral truths are apprehended byintuition.

Justice comes from Latin meaning righteousness in ETHICS it is synonymouswith fairness. It applies in an economic sense where people compete for scareresources, but also in human actions in general where these affect others. In a specialsense it applies to the law and to its impartial treatment of those who come before it(like cases merit like judgment).

Justification reasons for doing, supporting, or believing something; what backs up abelief; the evidence for a position.

Knowledge (Epistemology) in KNOWLEDGE we have the word know which isused in talk of: 1) knowing that something is the case. 2) Knowing some person orplace. 3) Knowing how to do something. Philosophers agree in distinguishing betweenknowledge in the first of these senses, and belief. But they differ in their accounts ofhow they are to be distinguished. Locke described knowing and believing asoperations or actings of our minds which we observe in ourselves by reflection.


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Laws of Nature are often contested concepts in the philosophy of science. Thephrase suggests the dictate or fiat of a law giver, and for most thinkers at leastuntil the 18th Century, discovering the laws of nature would be discovering how GODhad ordained that events should unfold. Without the backing the notion may seem todisappear, leaving only a conception of nature as a succession of different events that

just happen to show patterns and regularities.

Leap of Faith is a phrase associated with Soren Kierkegaard, originally referring tothe unquestioned acceptance of Gods will even when doing so results in immoralbehavior; now more generally used to refer to belief in God, or the incarnation of Godas Jesus.

Liberalism is a political ideology centered upon the individual, thought of aspossessing rights against the government, including rights of equality of respect,freedom of expression and action, and freedom from religious and ideologicalconstraint.

Libertarianism is a view that seeks to protect the reality of human free will bysupposing that a free choice is not causally determined but nor random either. What isneeded is the conception of a rational, responsible intervention in the ongoing course

of events.

Logic is the general science of inference. It is also deductive logic, in which aconclusion follows from a set of premises, and is distinguished from inductive logic,which studies the way in which premises may support a conclusion without entailing it.In deductive logic the conclusion cannot be false if the premises are true. The aim oflogic is to make explicit the rules by which inferences may be drawn, rather than tostudy the actual reasoning processes that people use, which may or may not conformto those rules.

Logos in Greek means, statement, principle, law, reason, proportion. In

Heraclitus, logos was the cosmic principle that gives order and rationality to theworld, in a way analogous to that in which human reason orders human action. Logosalso enables us to apprehend the principles and forms, for example the aspect of ourown reasoning. The view becomes fused with Christian doctrine when logos isGODS instrument in the development (redemption) of the world. The notion alsosurvives in the ideas of laws of nature, if these are conceived of as independent guidesof the natural course of events, existing beyond the temporal world that they order.

Matter is that which occupies space, possessing size and shape, mass, movability,and solidity (which may be the same as impenetrability).

Maturity means with fully developed powers of body and mind; an adult. It is theidea of complete natural development; ripe. It is when a person is duly careful oradequate. It also means being fully grown up, of age, experienced, knowledgeable,and sophisticated.

Material Cause is the MATTER of a thing (in the Aristotelian sense of matter, asopposed to FORM) considered as a factor in the explanation of the thing being as it is.

Materialism is one of two theories that relates to the MATTER of Descartess mind-matter DUALISM. The less common use of the term MATERIALIST refers to aphilosopher who believes in the existence of material things over and above thesensory IDEAS we have of them. In this sense MATERIALISM is opposed to

IMMATERIALISM or PHENOMENALISM. The more common use of the word denotesthose who hold that everything in the universe, including MINDS, can be explained interms of matter in MOTION.

Maxim is a general truth or rule of conduct, expressed in a sentence. It can by a:saying, proverb, axiom or byword.


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Metaethics is the study of the precise meaning and structure of the concepts,sentences, and words found in ethical reasoning. Ethics is about right and wrongactions in our world; Metaethics is about the concepts and theories we use to thinkabout those actions and about whether those ideas are adequate and true.

Metaphysics was originally a title for those books ofAristotle that came after thePHYSICS; the term is now applied to any enquiry that raises questions about realitiesthat lie beyond or behind those capable of being tackled by the methods of science.

Traditional questions ofMetaphysics often deal with the mind and body, substanceand accident, events, causation, and the categories of things that exist.

Metaphor is an application of a name or descriptive term or phrase to an object oraction to which it is not literally applicable. It is also like a figure of speech, analogy,and image.

Mind the mind in regard to Plato means either what has KNOWLEDGE, which is ofwhat is eternal and hence rare or what sets everything in order and arranges eachindividual thing in the way that is best for it. Aristotles use is linked with his theoryof sense-perception. The sense, or sense organ, receives the SENSIBLE FORMwithout the MATTER. For example, when someone puts his hand in hot water his handbecomes hot but it does not become water. Only the form, the quality of heat, is taken

in. The matter of a sense organ is such that it can take in only certain forms. The eyecan take in colors but not sounds. Mind, on the other hand, is not limited in what it cantake in, so is not itself a combination of matter and form. Before it thinks, it is notactually any real thing; but potentially it is whatever is thinkable.

Mind-Body Problem the question arises how MIND and BODY are related. Are theytwo different things (DUALISM), or two aspects of one thing (MONISM), or what?For ancient Greek philosophers the question arose when they distinguished betweeneternal INTELLIGIBLE things (Platos FORMS) and transient SENSIBLE things. Platois a dualist for saying that before birth and after death the soul can have anapprehension ofFORMS that is pure because then the soul is separate and

independent of the body, while the bodily senses impede such apprehension. Thequestion of how mind and body can interact became pressing only when, withDESCARTES, the body had become a SUBSTANCE, and the mind a different kind ofsubstance, the two having nothing in common save their dependence for existence onGOD. The mind-body problem, as it occurs in modern philosophy, starts withDESCARTES.

Monism is the theory that there is really only one thing, or it is the theory that thereare many things but that they are all of one fundamental kind. According to Spinozasphilosophy he believed in the Monism in the first of these senses. The one thing isGOD, a SUBSTANCE with infinite ATTRIBUTES, two of which, the mental and thebodily, are known to us. A monism in the second sense is, for example, the

materialism of those who hold that sensations are identical with brain processes. Theopposite form ofMonism to materialism is the theory that the things that appear tous as material are, in themselves, spiritual.

Moral Law some theories ofETHICS see the subject in terms of a number of laws(as in the 10 Commandments). The status of these laws may be that they are theedicts of a divine lawmaker, or that they are truths of reason, and knowable.

Moral Dilemmas are situations in which each possible course of action breachessome otherwise binding moral principle. Serious dilemmas make the stuff of manytragedies. The conflict can be described in different ways. One suggestion is that

whichever action the subject undertakes, he or she does something wrong, orsomething he or she ought not to do. Another is that this is not so, for the dilemmameans that in the circumstances what he or she did was right, or as right as anyalternative.

Morality Although the morality of people and their ETHICS amount to the samething, there is a usage that restricts morality to systems such as that ofKANT, based


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on notions such as duty, obligation, andprinciples of conduct, reserving ethics for themore Aristotelian approach of practical reasoning, based on the notion of a virtue,and generally avoiding the separation ofmoral considerations from otherpractical considerations.

Moral Pluralism strictly speaking, it is neither a philosophical term nor a theory ofethics but a common view about morality; it holds that there are a variety ofirreducible views about morality, none of which are entirely true, and moreimportantly, it posits that humans will never agree about which theory of morality istrue.

Motive is a factor or circumstance that induces a person to act in a particular way.

Mysticism comes from the Greek meaning secret. Mysticism is a speculativestreak in religion and philosophy, seeking to attain a state of union with GOD and theWorld, by means that are essentially hidden and arcane. The notion goes back to themystery cults of Greece, of which those ofEleusis were the most famous.

Naturalism is most generally, sympathy with the view that ultimately nothing resistsexplanation by the methods characteristic of the natural sciences. A Naturalist will beopposed, for example, to mind-body dualism since it leaves the mental side of things

outside the explanatory grasp ofbiology or physics.

Neo Platonism is the fusion of Platos philosophy with religious, Pythagorean andother classical doctrines. Ploninus conceived of the universe as an emanation oreffulguration of the One, the omnipresent, transcendental Good derived from PlatosParmenides. The One gives rise to the realm of ideas & intelligence, and that in turnto the soul, or souls, some of which sink into bodies (while others remain celestial).

Nominal comes from Latin and it means name or in name only. A nominaldefinition says what the MEANING of a word is, example: JUSTICE is a realDEFINITION, which says what the real ESSENCE of justice is. PLATO believed in real

definitions, since he believed in real essences, apprehended by intelligence.

Norm is a standard or pattern or type. It generally is customary behavior.

Normative Ethics is the area of ethics that seeks answers to questions about whichacts should be advocated and which prohibited; the phrase contrasts with Metaethics.

Objective the kind of viewpoint that is unbiased by individual prejudices, sensory andperceptual distortions, or misinterpretations; contrasts with subjective.

Occasionalism is the theory that when one event appears to cause another whatreally happens is that GOD, on the occasion of the first, causes the second; the firsteven is not the real or primary CAUSE of the second, but only its occasional orsecondary cause.

Omnipotence is a term that describes GOD as an all-powerful being that governsthe Universe and who is able to foresee all things.

Omnipresence is the capacity ofGOD to be ever present everywhere at once.

Omniscience is the property of knowing everything.

Ontological Argument is a celebrated argument for the existence ofGOD first putforward by Anselm in his Proslogion. The argument he makes is an attempt to provethe existence ofGOD without using any contingent premise. Anselm believed thatGOD is a being of which nothing greater can be conceived. GOD then exists inunderstanding, since we understand this concept. But if He only existed in theunderstanding, something greater could be conceived, for a Being that exists in realityis greater than one that exists only in the understanding. But then we can conceive ofsomething greater than that which nothing greater can be conceived, which is


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contradictory. Therefore GOD cannot exist only in the understanding but exists inreality.

Pantheism is the view that GOD is in everything, or that GOD and the universe areone.

Paradigm a standard, framework, model, or pattern for a concept, around whichsubsequent investigation is structured.

Paradox arises when a set of apparently incontrovertible premises givesunacceptable or contradictory conclusions. To solve a paradox will involve eithershowing that there is a hidden flaw in the premises or that the reasoning is erroneous,or that the apparently unacceptable conclusion can in fact, be tolerated.

Perception is a fundamental philosophical topic both for its central place in anytheory of knowledge, and its central in any theory of consciousness. Perception givesus knowledge of the world around us. We are conscious of that world by being awareof sensible qualities: colors, sounds, tastes, smells, felt warmth, and the shapes and

positions of objects in the environment.

Platonism is the influence of Platos teaching. In the more strict application of theterm, two aspects of the Theory of Forms are important: that there is one supremeFORM, the Form of the Good, which has a role in the apprehension of the otherForms comparable to that of the sun in the apprehension of visible things. And thevisible world was created by divine ARTIFICER modeling likenesses of the Forms in areceptacle, space.

Pluralism is the view that there is not just one SUBSTANCE (MONISM), or twosubstances (DUALISM), but that there are many, a plurality of substances. In politicaltheory, pluralism is the view that there is no single overriding interest, but a range ofcompeting interests.

Positivism is a philosophic doctrine that holds that we must confine ourselves towhat is given to us in sense-experience as sources ofKNOWLEDGE. ThusPOSITIVISM rejects all metaphysical speculation and abstract theorizing, and even acritical examination of its own presuppositions. Another writer named COMTE believedthat civilizations go through three phases, the first theological, the secondmetaphysical and the third and last, scientific or positive. Thus, the positivist sees histask in finding the general principles of science starting from EXPERIENCE.

Potentiality (see Actuality)

Pragmatism is a philosophy that arose in the U.S. in the late 19th Century and firstput forward the basic principle that in order to assess the significance or MEANING ofwhat we say we must examine what practical bearings it has on human activities.

Predestination the doctrine that all individuals have been predestined from birth forsalvation or damnation regardless of their deeds in life.

Predicate a condition; a property or attribute that qualifies another thing.

Premise a proposition or statement, a number of which make up an argument, fromwhich a conclusion is finally drawn.

Presupposition informally, is any suppressed premise or background framework ofthought necessary to make an argument valid or a position tenable. More formally, apresupposition has been defined as a proposition whose truth if necessary for eitherthe truth or the falsity of another statement.


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Proposition is that which is proposed or stated; the content of a declarativesentence, capable of truth and falsity. To grasp (understand) a proposition is tounderstand what is said, supposed, suggested, and so on.

Protestant Work Ethic is the set of values associated by Weber with the rise ofmodern Capitalism and industrial society. The ethic is that we fulfill our duty to GODby diligence, hard work, and restrained expenditure, with the resulting accumulation ofgoods acting as a reassuring sign (although not a cause, since the outcome ispredestined) of eventual salvation.

Prudence describes a person who is careful to avoid undesired consequences. Thisperson is often wise, cautious and discreet.

Psychoanalysis is the method of therapy for psychological disorders pioneered by Z.Freud. The method relies on an interpretation of what a patient says while freelyassociating or reporting what comes to mind in connection with topics suggested bythe therapist. The interpretation proceeds according to the scheme favored by theanalyst, and reveals ideas dominating the unconscious mind of the subject. When

these are confronted, improvement can be expected.

Quality is the degree of excellence. It is a distinctive attribute of faculty.

Rationalism is the philosophic position that sees all KNOWLEDGE of the world asbased on reason (Latin ratio) meaning alone. From this we get the view that theWorld is itself constructed on rational lines; that is, in ways that belong to our reason.Opposed to this is the view that our knowledge must rest on EXPERIENCE, an outlookcalled EMPIRICISM (Greek Experience). Rationalists thinkers tend to assumethat the MIND and its powers are given all of a piece, so that there seems no genuineroom for learning anything. At the same time they take the World to be reducible to

simple ELEMENTS, from which everything can be constructed by LOGIC alone. Thebest field to illustrate this is MATHEMATICS, which is readily organized in this manner.

Realism in MEDIEVAL PHILOSOPHYis the theory that UNIVERSALS have real(thing like) existence, as against the opposite view ofNOMINALISM whereUNIVERSALS are mere names. In modern philosophy, the term means a theory ofKNOWLEDGE according to which the world is furnished with independent OBJECTSand that it is these we perceive directly when we train our senses on them. This isopposed to a variety of views according to which we perceive something else: whetherappearances, sense data, or some other intermediate entity that stands between usand the World. One reason for such a view is that we sometimes misperceive (theargument from illusion): we seem to see things that are not there, or that appear

otherwise than they are; what then is it that we se in such cases?

Reality comes from the Latin meaning thing and whatever is regarded as havingexistence as an OBJECTIVE thing, and not merely in appearance, thought, orlanguage. For example, G.E. MOORE says that ethical PROPOSITIONS cannot bereduced to any assertion about reality. He thinks of the natural world, as the only worldthat exists objectively, and excludes the truths ofETHICS from it on the grounds thatGood is not a natural property.

Reductionism is the attempt to explain away something that is in some respect

puzzling, by reducing it to something else that is, in that respect, not puzzling.Philosophical BEHAVIORISM is an example. Statements about other peoples minds(ex. He is in pain) are puzzling in that they seem to go beyond the evidence for makingthem (ex. Observation of his moaning). How can one justify the inference from painfulbehavior to pain? A philosophical behaviorist simply offers a philosophical analysisof statements about other minds in terms of statements about behavior. He reducesthe former to the latter (MEANING). The term REDUCTIONISM is used also, of the


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attempt to explain away some whole science, such as PSYCHOLOGY, in terms ofanother, such as PHYSIOLOGY.

Reflection is the inner observation of mental operations. (INTROSPECTION)

Refute means to prove the falsity or the error of a statement, often throughargument.

Regress (In Latin it means a going back). In LOGIC, the recurrence, after some

argument, of the same question with which one began. This may happen indefinitelyoften, in which case the regress is called infinite, and the initial question remainsunanswered. (ARGUMENT FROM DESIGN).

Relativism in philosophy generally means the position that there are no absolutetruths or values. The classical expression of relativism is the dictum ofPROTAGORAS,who believed that man is the measure of all things.

Religion, philosophy of, is an examination of the concepts of religious theory andtheir function in practice. In particular, it concerns theological themes, the nature andexistence ofGOD or gods, and the way in which GOD is related to the world, whetheras CREATOR, ORGANIZER, RULER or GIVER OF MORAL COMMANDS. In this wide

sense, theology borders on aspects ofMETAPHYSICS. In both Greek philosophyand Christianity there are similar ethical ideas and views ofGOD. This is the traditionin which various proofs for the existence ofGOD arose.

Rhetoric is the art of using language so as to persuade or influence others. Althoughrhetoric is apparently opposed to the philosophical ideal of the exact pursuit of truth,their reconciliation has sometimes seemed desirable, most notably to CICERO. If onethinks of philosophy as a matter of argument rather than doctrine, as the academicskeptics did, then rhetoric is good practice in argument. The cultivation of this are wasan important study in Medieval universities, and began to regain ground with thebelief, widely shared in the late 20th Century, that all discourse and argument contains

a political and persuasive core.

Renaissance (French Rebirth) was a period of cultural revival at the end of medievaltimes. It was a time when renewed interest was taken in the ancient civilizations ofGreece and Rome. The movement began in the 14th Century in Italy, traveled toFrance in the 15th and to England and Germany in the 16th. This was essentially areturn to pre-Christian traditions and gradually undermined clerical supremacy.

Rights that which one is due; there are legal rights, natural rights, human rights, andmoral rights in a particular society. Rights are often short-hand for moral rules abouthow people should get along, for example, the right to a smoke-free workplace isbecoming an ethical and legal right in contemporary American society.

Romanticism was a style of thinking and looking at the World that dominated 19th

Century Europe. The term is not very precise and literally goes back to the rise of talesin the Romance language in early medieval times, as against works in classical Latin.Since many of these tales were about courtly love and other sentimental topics, theterm later came to be used to refer to an outlook marked by refined and responsivefeelings and thus inward looking, subjective, sensitive, given to noble dreams. TheRomantic Movement took off as the 19th century ENLIGHTENMENT went past its peak.

Semantics (Greek sign) is the theory of how words have MEANING, and is aconcern both of students of language and of logicians and philosophers. On the

practical side, it is a descriptive account of any actual (natural) language. On thetheoretical side, it considers the constructions of systems of meaning-rules. Thus whatwe study here are interpreted signs (signs with their meanings specified), in contrastwith SYNTAX where we leave the signs uninterpreted. One problem that belongs tosemantics is whether, and if so how, there come to be semantic shifts (drifts ofmeaning). Another is to examine how the surface semantics of a language might bederived from a deeper level of signification.


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Semanticsis a branch ofsemiotics; it studies the meaning of words and therelationship between the symbols of language and the actual world, whereas syntaxstudies grammar and the relation between kinds of words.

Sensation is a feeling in some part of ones body, such as a pain in ones hand; or asensation of something one is touching, such as a sensation of the furriness andwarmth of a cat; or, controversially, a sensation of whiteness on seeing snow, or asensation of screeching on hearing an owl.

Sensationalism is the theory that KNOWLEDGE is derived from sensations. Theconcept ofSENSATION used in this rests on two questionable assumptions: that wehave not only bodily sensations and sensations of touch, but also sensations from thefunctioning of all of our senses, including the most important, vision; and that asensation is an ELEMENT IN PERCEPTION of which the perceiver is conscious andwhich is interpreted to yield a judgment, the perceiver being passive and neither rightor wrong in respect of sensation, but active and either right or wrong in respect of

judgment.

Sense Datum is what is given in sense perception, according to philosophicaltheories of perception propounded by RUSSELL, MOORE, and others in the early partof the 20th Century. Like the term SENSATION in the REPRESENATIVE THEORY OF

PERCEPTION, it is often introduced along with a distinction between mediatedawareness ofOBJECTS in the external world and immediate awareness of theSENSATION of SENSE DATUM. Whereas a sensation is by definition mental, a sensedatum might be mind independent.

Sense Impression is the IMPRESSION, or IDEA, said to be imprinted on the MINDas a result of the sense organ being stimulated. If no idea is imprinted on the mind,LOCKE says, there follows no sensation.

Sentiment is a mental feeling of what one feels. It is also an attitude, sensibility, andemotion about someone or something.

Situational Ethics is the view that ethical judgment applies to whole situations,rather as aesthetic judgment is formed in response to total works of art. Any attemptto abstract features in virtue of which situations merit a judgment, and then to argueabout new cases in the light of those features, is potentially misleading: for a featuremay contribute to the value of one situation, but be irrelevant in another, just as asplash of color might be just what one picture needs, but be inappropriate in another.In essence, people often make up their minds as to what they will do in accordance towhat they feel the situation is demanding from them.

Skepticism (Greek doubt) was the view that our claims to know various things,such as that there are physical OBJECTS that exist independently of our perceiving

them, or that there are other minds cannot be accepted without justification; that thereis no adequate justification for such KNOWLEDGE claims; and hence that we oughteither to deny that we know these things, or to suspend judgment about them.

Slippery Slope Argument also referred to as the camels note under the tentand wedge arguments; is one of the most famous ideas in ethics and politics. It isoften used to oppose any change in society involving medicine or restriction of rights.It envisions a continuous slope, where there is a good reason for taking the first step,but where at the bottom of the slope there is a morally repugnant result.

Social Contract is a notion ofPOLITICAL PHILOSOPHY, according to which

societies arise from individuals who agree to abandon their state of nature inwhich everyone is out for himself alone, and come together in communities, giving upcertain individual habits (such as indiscriminate killing) for the good of the whole. Thisis a theory about the origin of society and assumes that the individual is prior to thegroup, a rationalist assumption that has been abandoned in the light of anthropologicalenquiry.


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Soul is the immaterial I that possesses conscious experience, controls passion,desire, and action, and maintains a perfect identity from birth (or before) to death (orafter). It is a living but immaterial thing that animates ones consciousness, maintains(some think even before birth) an identity throughout life, and many believe survivesbeyond death.

Sound Argument is a valid deductive argument whose conclusion followslogically from its premises, and whose premises are all true.

Sovereignty is having complete dominion or rule over something or someone. It isthe idea of being in complete control of the situation and guiding the events that aretaking place.

Status Quo is the existing state of affairs (the way things just are in the present).

Structuralism which was popular in the 1960s is the idea or belief that phenomenaof human life are not intelligible except through their interrelations. These relations

constitute a structure, and behind local variations in the surface phenomena there areconstant laws of abstract structure. Thus superficially diverse sets of myth, or works ofart, or practices of marriage, might be revealed as sharing the same pattern.

Syllogism is the inference of one proposition from two premises. An example is: allhorses have tails; all things with tails are four-legged; so all horses are four-legged.Each premise has one term in common with the conclusion, and one term in commonwith the other premise. The term that does not occur in the conclusion is called themiddle term. The major premise of the syllogism is the premise containing thepredicate of the conclusion (the major term), and the minor premise contains itssubject (the minor term).

Syncretism is a movement aimed at establishing a harmony between apparentlyopposing positions in philosophy or theology.

Tautology technically, is a formula of the propositional calculus that is true whateverthe truth-value assigned to its constituent propositional variables. A tautology is thusvalid, or true in all interpretations. In more informal contexts a tautology is oftenthought of as a proposition that says nothing, or merely repeats a definition.

Teleology is the study of the ends or purposes of things. The idea that there is sucha thing as the end or purpose of life is prominent in the Aristotelian view of nature(and ethics), and then in the Christian tradition.

Temperance means moderation especially in eating and drinking, and may includenot drinking alcohol.

Theism is the belief in the existence of GOD.

Theoretical is something that is concerned with knowledge but not its practicalapplication. It is based on theory rather than experience.

Theory Of Forms (theory of ideas), which originated with Plato is many-sided in itsstructure. An example of this theory might be when someone cannot be said to know

what, say, Justice is simply on the grounds that he applies the term just as the restof us do; he must be able to provide a real definition ofJustice, to say for examplewhat justice really and essentially is, apart from whatever our conventional linguisticpractice may be with the term just.

Transcendence is the state of being outside ordinary experience or understanding.


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Truth is a condition in which a statement accurately reflects the world; truth refers tostatements, validity to arguments. In other words, truth refers to content and validityto good form in arguments. An argument may have good form, like a bottle of wine,but have false premises (bad wine).

Universals is a term that has its place in linguistic realism, the notion thatcorrect use of a word is not just conforming to the implicit rules for it, but that thelinguistic practice itself conforms to something. A linguistic realist holds that therules of grammar require justification rather as one justifies a sentence by pointing towhat verifies it.

Utilitarianism is the theory of ETHICS on which we must judge actions in terms oftheir consequences: if these are good, so are the actions: if not, not. Goodness in turnis to be judged in terms of the amount of happiness that an action produces.

Utopianism envisions an outlook that envisions perfect conditions of human life thatare nowhere realized, or indeed realizable. Thus any imaginative account of suchconditions, or any theory that see Heaven on Earth as a possible outcome, or theoriesthat view human progress as inevitable, may be described as utopian.

Vagueness is a term describing the impression of fuzziness of classifying

statements, which leads to borderline or unable to say cases. For example, baldnessis a vague concept: when is a man definitely bald?

Validity in LOGIC is the feature of those arguments in which certain premises lead tothe conclusion. It is important to remember that the fact that an argument is validsays nothing about the truth or falsehood of any of its component PROPOSITIONS.

The validity concerns the form of an argument, while truth and falsehood concern thecontents of its constituents. From valid argument alone, we cannot establish thatanything is the case. For that we need true premises: to find any of these is rathermore difficult than to argue validity.

Values are ones principles or standards; ones judgment of what is valuable orimportant in life.

Veracity regards ones speaking the truth. It is trying to determine what the personis saying is actually accurate and true.

Verifiability means to establish the truth or correctness by examination. It is theidea of confirming, checking out, or testifying to what is true and provable.

Verification is the process of ascertaining, either through logical argument orempirical demonstration, the truth of a proposition.

Vice means evil or immoral conduct. It is also a defect of character or behavior.

Virtue is a trait of character that is to be admired: one rendering its possessor better,either morally, or intellectually, or in the conduct of specific affairs. Plato and Aristotledevote much time to the unity of the virtues, or the way in which possession of one inthe right way requires possession of the others; another central concern is the way inwhich possession of virtue, which might seem to stand in the way of self-interest, infact makes possible the achievement of ones goals.

Virtue Ethics is the theory of ethics that values virtue, or virtues, rather than duty orthe utilitarian greatest good, as the answer to the question, What makes an act

right?

Virtues as a plural, the term refers to excellence of character that include (as theCardinal virtues) courage, wisdom, self-control, and justice, as well as other admirabletraits such as loyalty and compassion. Virtues refers to excellences of characteridentified in ancient Greece, whereas virtue is broader and also includes VirtueEthics.


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Vocation means strong feelings of fitness for a particular career. As a religious termit is a calling as one feels GOD is directing his/her life.

Volition is a mental act of willing or trying, whose presence is sometimes supposed tomake the difference between intentional or voluntary action and mere behavior.

Wit means intelligent and quick understanding of an issue. It also is the idea ofcombining humor with or contrasting ideas and expressions. It is thepower of giving

intellectual pleasure.

philosophical terminology

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