PHILOSOPHICAL WORDS & DEFINITIONS

Absolute in Latin means “loosened from”, hence complete, unconditioned,

independent – the opposite of relative. In general it is something, which is
unconditioned and is variously taken as the identity of the knower and the known, or
simply the whole.

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

Abstraction is the process by which we arrive at general words. A general word

such as “man” is one that can be used generally, to refer to any man; unlike George
Bush, which refers to a particular man.

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

Actualism is sometimes known as ACTUAL IDEALISM. The term also applies in

contemporary works to the view that only the actual world is real, with other possible
worlds 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 concerned
there is the potentiality of a candlestick, a vase, a paperweight. The actuality is the
candlestick, and so on. Matter without any form (prime matter) has no actual
existence; 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 made

part of the actual world. In theology it may be important that GOD has no potential
that 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 in

human actions, so aesthetics is concerned with values in works of art or in the
appreciation of beauty in nature. Kant argues that aesthetic experience is a
disinterested pleasure taken in some particular object; this pleasure is universally valid
but not to be framed in general terms and therefore not a matter of the understanding
or of reason, but of judgment.

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

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

Agnosticism in Greek means suitable for knowing. It is the view that our powers of
knowing are bounded in certain regards, more particularly as to the ultimate reasons
for 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 its
result) of estranging things or people from what is considered to be their proper state.
The term was first used by HEGEL to describe what happens to “absolute spirit”
when it objectifies itself in the physical world of nature, a digression that is repaired
when the spirit returns to itself in contemplating what we call the Humanities (in
German, 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 no
determinate sense. 2) And statement that can be taken in more than one-way. It is
often the main point at which an argument breaks down.

Amoral means having no morality, or having no implications for morality. The

amoralist either ignores or deplores the ways in which morality governs human lives.

Analogy comes from the Greek meaning “according to.” It is a resemblance, in

quality or structure, which enables us to pursue an argument in the same way as has
already been done in another, resembling case. It is a statement asserting that two
things have something in common, for example, “Democracy is like sailing a ship: it
works best when all members do their part. The original meaning of the term comes
from Greek MATHEMATICS, where it denotes proportionality.

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

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

its key terms

Anarchism is the doctrine associated with Godwin and others, with the belief that
human communities can and should flourish without government. Voluntary
cooperation should replace the coercive machinery of the state; government itself
corrupts the natural sentiments of people. It is also a position, which holds that
governments and laws are unnecessary and that communities should flourish without
the coercion of the state.

Anecdotal Evidence evidence based not on scientific inquiry, but on a small

sampling 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, each

of which, taken on its own, is reasonable.

Apathy is often viewed by teaches and coaches as being negative but in philosophy it
is popular. In philosophy it is the idea of being in a state of “bliss” or of complete
independence 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 being
interested or caring about a particular issue. It is the sense of doing nothing and not
caring.
Apologetics in Theology is the attempt to show that a faith is either provable by
reason, or at least consistent with reason. More generally, it is the attempt to defend a
doctrine.

Aretaic (ethics) from ancient Greek, arête, “virtue.” It proposes that the basis of
ethical evaluation should be on the basis of character rather than actions because
good 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 from
ordinary usage. “That was really a good argument you just made,” would be a
compliment among philosophers, not a sign that you were a troublemaker.

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

Assumption is a proposition that is treated as an assumption when it is added to a

stock of premises of an argument. The conclusion is then conditional upon that
assumption, unless the assumption can be discharged, or shown to be unnecessary, in
the course of the argument.

Atheism from the Greek denotes godlessness, a position that asserts that there is
no God. In this, Atheism goes further than AGNOSTICISM, which merely says that we
cannot know whether there is or not. AQUINAS agreed that we can know on
metaphysical grounds that God exists, but revelation is needed to tell us what He is
like.

Attribute in LOGIC, is that which may be predicated of anything, as “green” may be

predicated of grass. In METAPHYSICS a distinction is made between essential and
accidental attributes.

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

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, something

worthy of respect. In LOGIC and other formal systems, a PROPOSITION which is
assumed without proof and serves in turn to help in the proof of other propositions in
the system. A typical example is the principle of excluded middle (a proposition is
either true or false), which is adopted by most systems or logic (though not by
INTUITIONISM); 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 and
living things are said to come into existence, exist, and then pass away. In Plato’s
universe, it contrasts with the unchanging, external world.
Behaviorism is the methodological doctrine in that the proper kind of observation to
employ in PSYCHOLOGY is not the inward observation of private happenings
(INTROSPECTION of mental events and processes), but the outward observation of
public happenings. It was called behaviorism on the assumption that how someone
behaves is something that is in principle open to anyone to observe, so that theories
about behavior can be confirmed or disconfirmed in broadly the same way, as can
theories in such natural sciences as biology. In other words, it is a psychological theory
that proposes the scientific study of human behavior solely through the observation
and measurement of external behaviors, thereby classifying internal mental processes
– such as introspection, the unconscious, and thought – as unscientific because they
are unmeasurable or unobservable by others.

Being all that is real and nothing that is unreal is contained in the domain known as
“being.” In Plato’s theory, it is a perfect and unchanging world of Forms (ideal
essences), after which the changing things of this world’s appearances are patterned.

Belief is the act of a) believing that something is so, b) believing someone who says
it is so, or c) believing in someone or something (example: belief in a religious
creed). In believing that something is so, belief is opposed to KNOWLEDGE: where
one says one only believes that something is so when one feels unjustified in claiming
to 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.” A
person can believe he is unselfish, and yet act as selfishly as anyone else.

Big Bang Theory a cosmological model of how the present, expanding universe
began: 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 the
full joy of purely spiritual existence. However most 20th Century Philosophy has
acknowledged, 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 something

is true, anyone seeking to prove its opposite is said to bear the burden of proof. A
certain 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 appropriately
assumed to be true, side B must prove it untrue by proving B in order to win. In
American justice, the prosecution has the burden of proof, since the accused is always
presumed innocent.

Capitalism an economic theory in which property, production of goods and services

are privately owned and traded for the profit of the individual or corporation, usually in
a market value where value is determined by price.

Cartesianism was the philosophy of Descartes’ theory that there are just two
created substances: Mind, the essence of which is thinking, and Matter, the essence
of which is EXTENSION.
Catharsis according to Aristotle was the “cleansing” (purifying, purging) of feelings
such as pity and fear by feeling them in an aesthetic context, such s the theatre. The
aim of tragedy is to achieve this purification.

Category is a term introduced by Aristotle for a general aspect under which one can
describe a thing. He recognized 10 of these, as set out in his work “Categories” and
they are: substance, quantity, relation, place, time, position, state, action and
affection. As he said, “each uncombined expression means one of these: what, how
large, what kind, related to what, where, when, how placed, in what state, acting or
suffering. Example: A man may be five foot six and a writer, a student of philosophy at
his desk as midnight, sitting down and writing, and suffering from the cold.
Causation was one of the central problem areas of METAPHYSICS. Causation is
the relation between two events that holds, when given that one occurs, it produces or
brings forth, or determines, or necessitates the second; equally we say that once the
first has happened the second must happen or that the second follows on from the
first. However, it is not clear that only events are related by causation. Example, a
cannon ball sitting stationary on a cushion, but causing the cushion to be the shape
that it is, and this suggests that states of affairs or objects or facts may also be
causally 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, due

to be eroded by the onset of deterministic science. In ancient and medieval philosophy
chance could be contrasted with divine purpose. Later chance was argued against by
use of science and statistics. PROBABILITY became the “guide of life” providing
the tools with which to assess chances in insurance and gambling, discovering causal
connections, finding rates of mortality, crime, and marriage, even before the onset of
probabilistic theories in physics such as statistical mechanics and then quantum
mechanics. The problem of interpretation is that of deciding whether probabilities
measure something real, or whether they merely reflect the beliefs of reasonable
people faced with various quantities of data.

Chaos is utter confusion, the study of apparently random behavior of deterministic

systems. In Philosophy, chaos has been seen as the unordered, unformed,
undifferentiated beginnings of things, and the COSMOS, which is ordered by the
universe.

Character is the collective qualities or characteristics, especially mental, and moral

that distinguishes a person or thing.

Class in political philosophy, it denotes a group of people who enjoy similarity of

status on the grounds of often ill-defined and varied features, that may differ from one
society 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 for

what are perceived as classical qualities: order, maturity, harmony, balance, and
moderation. The central models for works striving to achieve these qualities are the
literary, 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 and
awareness; opposed to the emotional and feelings.

Cognitive Science an interdisciplinary science composed of philosophers,

psychologists, computer scientists, and linguists, among others, who explore the
nature of thought and its connections to the brain.

Cognito came from Latin meaning, “I think, therefore I am.” Descartes first coined
this phrase. It is something that is so certain and so assured that all the most
extravagant 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 being
of the sort referred to by the word, and define the word. Someone or something could
still have the concept that lacked one of these capacities. It is a term used to express
a general idea of which objects are individual instantiations; for example, Lassie,
Snoopy, and Ole’ Yeller are instantiations of the concept, canine.
Cognitive Meaning is the cognitive aspect of the meaning of a sentence. This is
thought of as its content, or what is strictly said, abstracted away from the tone or
emotive meaning, or other things.

Coherence Theory (of truth): the theory that a belief is true because it is a member
of 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 can

also be a feeling of obligation to do something. The key philosophical and legal
problem with this concept is to distinguish compulsion from pressures that are in
fact not resisted but in some appropriate sense could have been.

Conclusion is the terminating point of an argument. In a valid line of reasoning the

conclusion 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 rational

investigation, supports the conclusion it is meant to support.

Connotation is the primary, objective meaning of a word, as opposed to its

denotation, the objects to which it applies.

Conscience is something that humans have in regard as to whether an action is

morally required or forbidden. In Christianity, the nature of this awareness and its
status as knowledge is a central problem. On the one hand it is sinful to act against
one’s conscience; on the other hand conscience can deceive, since we can be mistaken
about what is required or forbidden.

Consciousness is possibly the most challenging and pervasive source of problems in

the whole of philosophy. Our own consciousness seems to be the most basic fact
confronting us, yet it is almost impossible to say what consciousness is. In simple
terms it is the awareness of one’s surroundings and identity.

Contemplation is the curious view common to Indian ethics, Plato, Aristotle and
western tradition that holds that the supremely valuable state of mind lies in the right
kind of contemplation: the contemplation of the form of the good, or reflection upon
the 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 to

that person’s statement opposition to what really is true. It is the “conjunction” of a
proposition and its negation. The standard proof of the inconsistency of a set of
propositions 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 the
study of space, time, number, matter and motion. In Physics, the term is used for the
science 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 a

feature of the World as it is and therefore establish that GOD exists. On other words it
uses facts of the known natural universe, i.e. motion, causation, and contingency to
infer 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.
Counterexample an example used to refute a general claim or principle, for
example, a pine tree is a counterexample of the claim that all trees shed their leaves in
the 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 of
judging” that could be used to distinguish what was trustworthy with that of SENSE-
IMPRESSIONS from others. In modern philosophy DESCARTES was concerned with
the question whether the criterion of something’s being true, is its being clearly and
distinctly perceived (CLEAR). KANT said that truth, formally, is the agreement of
KNOWLEDGE with its OBJECT, but that since the objects of knowledge vary, the
content of knowledge varies, so “it is quite impossible” and indeed absurd, to ask for a
general test of truth. It is a condition which must be met in order to qualify an item’s
inclusion in a category, for example, in the statement, “Mammals are fur-bearing
animals 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 is
necessarily dependent.

Critical Thinking the analysis, criticism, and evaluation of statements claimed to be

true 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 and
cannot 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 by
mastery over one’s desires and needs: happiness demands that one desires nothing
and 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 is
taken as a datum may change as changes of theory and evidence arise. Something
would 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 some
things may serve as a basis for particular enquiries, this does not protect them from
eventual challenge.

Deduction is a process of reasoning in which a conclusion is drawn from a set of

premises. Usually confined to cases in which the conclusion is supposed to follow from
the premises.

Deductive Reasoning is a kind of reasoning where a set of premises is set forth

from which a conclusion is necessarily drawn. If all the premises of a deductive
argument 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 the

distinctness in outline of an image.

Delusion is generally, any false opinion that a person persists in. In the philosophy of
perception, delusions such as hallucinations are sometimes distinguished from more
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 a
certain 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 not
directly 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 people’s ACTIONS, do not occur by
chance, but are caused to occur, usually with the implication that they could not be
otherwise than they are. There is the example of physical determinism in which
determinism is preceded by events in the course of nature, and in the case of divine
determinism, 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 philosophic

debating. The procedure was to accept an opponent’s view provisionally and to elicit
from 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 the
framing of sound definitions of terms, a philosophic process that ultimately leads to the
apprehension of the FORM of the GOOD.

Dialectical Materialism was the dominant philosophical strain of MARXISM,

combining materialism as an embracing philosophy of nature and science, with the
HEGELIAN notion of dialectic as a historical force, driving events onwards towards a
progressive 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 you

once believed in. You become disappointed about someone or something.

Discourse in Latin means “a running from one place to another.” A discourse is

a continuous stretch of language containing more than one sentence: conversations,
narratives, arguments, speeches.
Discernment means perceiving something clearly with the mind or the senses. It
can 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. In

the Christian Church, it was a belief communicated by divine revelation, and defined by
the Church.

Dualism is any view that postulates two kinds of a thing in some domain. It is
contrasting 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 the
agent 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 at
respecting and advancing the equality of persons.

Ego is the self; it is the seat of all conscious thought, the organizer of all subjective
sensory experience, and the originator of voluntary action.
Egoism & Altruism – egoism is usually considered in two forms. Psychological
egoism is the view that people are always motivated by self-interest. Ethical egoism
is the view that whether or not people are like this, they ought to be like this; usually
this is advanced in the form that rational behavior requires attempting to maximize
self-interest.

Elitism is the view that the formation of elites in some sphere is desirable, and that
the 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 to

experience. Experience is thought of either as the sensory contents of consciousness,
or as whatever is expressed in some designated class of statements that can be
observed to be true by the use of the senses. Empiricism denies that there is any
knowledge outside this class, or at least outside whatever is given by legitimate
theorizing on the basis of this class.
Encroachment means to invade or to intrude on someone else’s beliefs or
belongings.

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 the
conduct of human affairs: the dark mysteries of traditional attitudes in religion and
political life were pushed back, and in their place a new outlook grew up, informed by
reason and the power of scientific research and discovery.

Epicureanism is a view associated with the ancient philosopher Epicurus; it

encourages the pursuit and enjoyment in moderation of broadly defined pleasures, for
example, friendship, peace, and the contemplation of beauty, and it decries striving for
material pursuits.

Epistemology is the theory of knowledge. Its central questions include the origin
of knowledge; the place of experience in generating knowledge, and the place of
reason in doing so; the relationship between knowledge and certainty, and between
knowledge and the impossibility of error; the possibility of universal skepticism; and
the 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 ideas
about 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 thing’s nature, or
that without which it could not be what it is. A thing cannot lose its essence without
ceasing to exist, and the essential nature of a natural kind, such as water or gold, is
that 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 moral
truths and proposes that right & wrong must be defined variously, based on differences
in cultural norms and mores. What is morally right is “relative to” one’s society and
time in history, not absolute across time & cultures.
Existentialism is a loose title for various philosophies that emphasize certain
common themes: the individual, the experience of choice, and the absence of rational
understanding of the universe with a consequent dread or sense of absurdity in human
life.

External World is the everyday world of places and things that we perceive, move
amongst, and act upon. The word “external” suggests, misleadingly in the opinion of
many philosophers, that this world is separated from the world of the mind, so that our
immediate 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 “Cartesian
picture” of the mind, and has been the target of many epistemologists, especially
since the middle of the 20th Century.

Extrinsic a property that an object possesses only because of its relationship with
something else, for example, a movie that is number one at the box office has the
extrinsic property of being a box-office champion. It only holds that property in
relationship 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 proven
true by reason or evidence, and which may require suspension of rational judgment
through an act of will.

Fallacy is any error of reasoning. Reasoning may fail in many ways, and a great
variety of fallacies have been distinguished and named. The main division is into
formal fallacies in which something purports to be deductively valid reasoning but is
not, and informal fallacies in which some other mistake is made. Such mistakes may
include the introduction of irrelevancies, failure to disambiguate terms, vagueness,
misplaced precision, and so on. In essence it is a mistaken belief, and is also
misleading 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 taking
precautions. The dilemma ignores the highly likely possibility that whether the bullet
will hit you depends on whether you take precautions. Fatalism is wrongly confused
with DETERMINISM, which by itself carries no implications that human action is
ineffectual.

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

thing.

Final Cause one of Aristotle’s four causes, it is the end or goal towards which a thing
is brought into being.

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

Formal Cause one of Aristotle’s four causes, it is the conceptual blueprint that gives
a thing its form or essence.

Free Will & Determinism – in free will there is the problem or reconciling our
everyday consciousness of ourselves as agents, with the best view of what science tells
us 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 be
some antecedent state of nature. Free will in essence is your choice to do what you
believe is right or wrong and you are the one who ultimately must make the choice of
which action you will follow.
Free Will Defense is an attempt to resolve the “problem of evil.” Evil is explained
because a benevolent God endowed humanity with free will and the greatest exercise
of free is to overcome the greatest adversity and temptation.

Generalization means speaking in a general or indefinite way. It is to infer an idea

by a law or conclusion you have as a whole without having all of the evidence. In
philosophy 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 and
spirit, the former being essentially EVIL. Gnostic doctrines greatly influenced both
Jewish and Christian MYSTICISM in the Middle Ages and traces of them can be found
in idealist philosophies (IDEALISM).

Golden Rule is a proverb that says one should, “Do unto others, as you would
have them do unto you.”

Hedonism refers to the pursuit of one’s 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 different
conceptions of pleasure there are correspondingly different varieties of hedonism.

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

Hypothesis in science is a provisional explanation that observation and

experiment may or may not confirm. If confirmed, it is accepted as a theory, or LAW
OF NATURE. In LOGIC, it is an assumption on the basis of which other
PROPOSITIONS are obtained. If the latter turns out to be false, then the hypothesis is
disproved. A Hypothesis is a supposition that is advanced so that its truth may be put
to the test, either empirically or through rational argument.

Idealism is a doctrine holding that reality is fundamentally mental in nature. The

traditional Christian view is that God is a sustaining cause, possessing greater reality
than his creation. It is any view that denies that there is a reality independent of the
mind and mental states.

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

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

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

Implication from Latin implies that of “enfolding” in which in LOGIC, the relation
between two connected PROPOSITIONS such that is the first holds, so does the
second. 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 vague

notion or belief. We usually form an impression upon meeting someone for the first
time.

Impulse is an act of impelling; a push to take a certain action. It is like a sudden

desire or tendency to act without reflection.
Induction is the term used in any process of reasoning that takes us from empirical
premises to empirical conclusions supported by the premises but not deductively
entailed by them. Inductive arguments are therefore kinds of ampliative
arguments, in which something beyond the content of the premises is inferred as
probable 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 are
also 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 circumstance

and outside the control of deliberation and reason. The view that animals accomplish
even complex tasks by nature and not by reason was common to Aristotle and the
Stoics.

Instrumental Value is worth that a thing has because it contributes to a further

good, not because it has intrinsic value of its own.

Intelligence is most generally, the capacity to deal flexibly and effectively with
practical and theoretical problems. Since peoples’ capacities to do this vary with the
problem, it may be doubted whether there is a useful level of abstraction at which one
thing, 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, or

arouse the curiosity of others.

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

Introspection was defined by William James as “the looking into our own minds and
reporting what we there discover.” Everyone agrees, James said, that we there
discover states of CONSCIOUSNESS, such as THINKING; this belief he regarded as
basic to PSYCHOLOGY.

Intuitionism is the direct awareness of fundamental truths without the aid of

sensation or reasoning.

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

Justice comes from Latin meaning “righteousness” in ETHICS it is synonymous

with fairness. It applies in an economic sense where people compete for scare
resources, but also in human actions in general where these affect others. In a special
sense 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 a

belief; the evidence for a position.

Knowledge (Epistemology) – in KNOWLEDGE we have the word “know” which is

used in talk of: 1) knowing that something is the case. 2) Knowing some person or
place. 3) Knowing how to do something. Philosophers agree in distinguishing between
knowledge in the first of these senses, and belief. But they differ in their accounts of
how they are to be distinguished. Locke described knowing and believing as
“operations” or “acting’s” of our minds which we observe in ourselves by reflection.
Laws of Nature are often contested concepts in the philosophy of science. The
phrase suggests the dictate or fiat of a “law giver,” and for most thinkers at least
until the 18th Century, discovering the laws of nature would be discovering how GOD
had ordained that events should unfold. Without the backing the notion may seem to
disappear, 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 to

the unquestioned acceptance of God’s will even when doing so results in immoral
behavior; now more generally used to refer to belief in God, or the incarnation of God
as Jesus.

Liberalism is a political ideology centered upon the individual, thought of as

possessing rights against the government, including rights of equality of respect,
freedom of expression and action, and freedom from religious and ideological
constraint.

Libertarianism is a view that seeks to protect the reality of human free will by
supposing that a free choice is not causally determined but nor random either. What is
needed 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 a

conclusion 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 of
logic is to make explicit the rules by which inferences may be drawn, rather than to
study the actual reasoning processes that people use, which may or may not conform
to those rules.

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

Heraclitus, “logos” was the cosmic principle that gives order and rationality to the
world, in a way analogous to that in which human reason orders human action. Logos
also enables us to apprehend the principles and forms, for example the aspect of our
own reasoning. The view becomes fused with Christian doctrine when logos is
GOD’S instrument in the development (redemption) of the world. The notion also
survives in the ideas of laws of nature, if these are conceived of as independent guides
of 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 the
idea of complete natural development; ripe. It is when a person is duly careful or
adequate. 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, as
opposed 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 Descartes’s mind-
matter DUALISM. The less common use of the term MATERIALIST refers to a
philosopher who believes in the existence of material things over and above the
sensory IDEAS we have of them. In this sense MATERIALISM is opposed to
IMMATERIALISM or PHENOMENALISM. The more common use of the word denotes
those who hold that everything in the universe, including MINDS, can be explained in
terms 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.
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 wrong
actions in our world; Metaethics is about the concepts and theories we use to think
about those actions and about whether those ideas are adequate and true.

Metaphysics was originally a title for those books of Aristotle that came after the
PHYSICS; the term is now applied to any enquiry that raises questions about realities
that lie beyond or behind those capable of being tackled by the methods of science.
Traditional questions of Metaphysics often deal with the mind and body, substance
and 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 or

action 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 of
what is eternal and hence rare or what sets everything in order and arranges each
individual thing in the way that is best for it. Aristotle’s use is linked with his theory
of sense-perception. The sense, or sense organ, receives the SENSIBLE FORM
without the MATTER. For example, when someone puts his hand in hot water his hand
becomes 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 eye
can take in colors but not sounds. Mind, on the other hand, is not limited in what it can
take in, so is not itself a combination of matter and form. Before it thinks, it is not
actually any real thing; but potentially it is whatever is thinkable.

Mind-Body Problem the question arises how MIND and BODY are related. Are they
two different things (DUALISM), or two “aspects” of one thing (MONISM), or what?
For ancient Greek philosophers the question arose when they distinguished between
eternal INTELLIGIBLE things (Plato’s FORMS) and transient SENSIBLE things. Plato
is a dualist for saying that before birth and after death the soul can have an
apprehension of FORMS that is pure because then the soul is separate and
independent of the body, while the bodily senses impede such apprehension. The
question of how mind and body can interact became pressing only when, with
DESCARTES, the body had become a SUBSTANCE, and the mind a different kind of
substance, the two having nothing in common save their dependence for existence on
GOD. The mind-body problem, as it occurs in modern philosophy, starts with
DESCARTES.

Monism is the theory that there is really only one thing, or it is the theory that there
are many things but that they are all of one fundamental kind. According to Spinoza’s
philosophy he believed in the Monism in the first of these senses. The one thing is
GOD, a SUBSTANCE with infinite ATTRIBUTES, two of which, the mental and the
bodily, 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. The
opposite form of Monism to materialism is the theory that the things that appear to
us as material are, in themselves, spiritual.

Moral Law – some theories of ETHICS 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 the
edicts of a divine lawmaker, or that they are truths of reason, and knowable.

Moral Dilemmas are situations in which each possible course of action breaches
some otherwise binding moral principle. Serious dilemmas make the stuff of many
tragedies. The conflict can be described in different ways. One suggestion is that
whichever action the subject undertakes, he or she does something wrong, or
something he or she ought not to do. Another is that this is not so, for the dilemma
means that in the circumstances what he or she did was right, or as right as any
alternative.

Morality – Although the morality of people and their ETHICS amount to the same
thing, there is a usage that restricts morality to systems such as that of KANT, based
on notions such as duty, obligation, and principles of conduct, reserving ethics for the
more Aristotelian approach of practical reasoning, based on the notion of a virtue,
and generally avoiding the separation of “moral considerations” from other
practical considerations.

Moral Pluralism strictly speaking, it is neither a philosophical term nor a theory of

ethics but a common view about morality; it holds that there are a variety of
irreducible views about morality, none of which are entirely true, and more
importantly, it posits that humans will never agree about which theory of morality is
true.

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 speculative

streak in religion and philosophy, seeking to attain a state of union with GOD and the
World, by means that are essentially hidden and arcane. The notion goes back to the
mystery cults of Greece, of which those of Eleusis were the most famous.

Naturalism is most generally, sympathy with the view that ultimately nothing resists
explanation by the methods characteristic of the natural sciences. A Naturalist will be
opposed, for example, to mind-body dualism since it leaves the mental side of things
outside the explanatory grasp of biology or physics.

Neo Platonism is the fusion of Plato’s philosophy with religious, Pythagorean and
other classical doctrines. Ploninus conceived of the universe as an emanation or
effulguration of the One, the omnipresent, transcendental Good derived from Plato’s
Parmenides. The One gives rise to the realm of ideas & intelligence, and that in turn
to 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 nominal
definition says what the MEANING of a word is, example: “JUSTICE” is a real
DEFINITION, 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 which
acts should be advocated and which prohibited; the phrase contrasts with Metaethics.

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

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

Omnipotence is a term that describes GOD as an all-powerful being that governs

the Universe and who is able to foresee all things.

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

Omniscience is the property of knowing everything.

Ontological Argument is a celebrated argument for the existence of GOD first put
forward by Anselm in his Proslogion. The argument he makes is an attempt to prove
the existence of GOD without using any contingent premise. Anselm believed that
GOD is a being of which nothing greater can be conceived. GOD then exists in
understanding, since we understand this concept. But if He only existed in the
understanding, something greater could be conceived, for a Being that exists in reality
is greater than one that exists only in the understanding. But then we can conceive of
something greater than that which nothing greater can be conceived, which is
contradictory. Therefore GOD cannot exist only in the understanding but exists in
reality.

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

Paradigm a standard, framework, model, or pattern for a concept, around which

subsequent investigation is structured.

Paradox arises when a set of apparently incontrovertible premises gives

unacceptable or contradictory conclusions. To solve a paradox will involve either
showing 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 any
theory of knowledge, and its central in any theory of consciousness. Perception gives
us knowledge of the world around us. We are conscious of that world by being aware
of sensible qualities: colors, sounds, tastes, smells, felt warmth, and the shapes and
positions of objects in the environment.

Platonism is the influence of Plato’s teaching. In the more strict application of the
term, two aspects of the Theory of Forms are important: that there is one supreme
FORM, the Form of the Good, which has a role in the apprehension of the other
Forms comparable to that of the sun in the apprehension of visible things. And the
visible world was created by divine ARTIFICER modeling likenesses of the Forms in a
receptacle, space.

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

Positivism is a philosophic doctrine that holds that we must confine ourselves to

what is given to us in sense-experience as sources of KNOWLEDGE. Thus
POSITIVISM rejects all metaphysical speculation and abstract theorizing, and even a
critical examination of its own presuppositions. Another writer named COMTE believed
that civilizations go through three phases, the first theological, the second
metaphysical and the third and last, scientific or positive. Thus, the positivist sees his
task 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 first
put forward the basic principle that in order to assess the significance or MEANING of
what we say we must examine what practical bearings it has on human activities.

Predestination the doctrine that all individuals have been predestined from birth for
salvation 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, from

which a conclusion is finally drawn.

Presupposition informally, is any suppressed premise or background framework of

thought necessary to make an argument valid or a position tenable. More formally, a
presupposition has been defined as a proposition whose truth if necessary for either
the truth or the falsity of another statement.
Proposition is that which is proposed or stated; the content of a declarative
sentence, capable of truth and falsity. To grasp (understand) a proposition is to
understand what is said, supposed, suggested, and so on.

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

Prudence describes a person who is careful to avoid undesired consequences. This

person 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 freely
associating or reporting what comes to mind in connection with topics suggested by
the therapist. The interpretation proceeds according to the scheme favored by the
analyst, 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 as
based on reason (Latin ratio) meaning alone. From this we get the view that the
World 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 outlook
called EMPIRICISM (Greek – Experience). Rationalists’ thinkers tend to assume
that the MIND and its powers are given all of a piece, so that there seems no genuine
room 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. The
best field to illustrate this is MATHEMATICS, which is readily organized in this manner.

Realism in MEDIEVAL PHILOSOPHY is the theory that UNIVERSALS have “real”

(thing like) existence, as against the opposite view of NOMINALISM where
“UNIVERSALS” are mere names. In modern philosophy, the term means a theory of
KNOWLEDGE according to which the world is furnished with independent OBJECTS
and that it is these we perceive directly when we train our senses on them. This is
opposed to a variety of views according to which we perceive something else: whether
appearances, sense data, or some other intermediate entity that stands between us
and the World. One reason for such a view is that we sometimes misperceive (the
argument 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 having
existence as an OBJECTIVE thing, and not merely in appearance, thought, or
language. For example, G.E. MOORE says that ethical PROPOSITIONS cannot be
reduced to any assertion about reality. He thinks of the natural world, as the only world
that exists objectively, and excludes the truths of ETHICS from it on the grounds that
“Good” 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 people’s minds
(ex. He is in pain) are puzzling in that they seem to go beyond the evidence for making
them (ex. Observation of his moaning). How can one justify the inference from painful
behavior to pain? A philosophical behaviorist simply offers a philosophical analysis
of statements about other minds in terms of statements about behavior. He reduces
the former to the latter (MEANING). The term “REDUCTIONISM” is used also, of the
attempt to explain away some whole science, such as PSYCHOLOGY, in terms of
another, 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 through
argument.

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 indefinitely
often, in which case the regress is called infinite, and the initial question remains
unanswered. (ARGUMENT FROM DESIGN).

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

Religion, philosophy of, is an examination of the concepts of religious theory and

their function in practice. In particular, it concerns theological themes, the nature and
existence of GOD or gods, and the way in which GOD is related to the world, whether
as CREATOR, ORGANIZER, RULER or GIVER OF MORAL COMMANDS. In this wide
sense, theology borders on aspects of METAPHYSICS. In both Greek philosophy
and Christianity there are similar ethical ideas and views of GOD. This is the tradition
in which various proofs for the existence of GOD arose.

Rhetoric is the art of using language so as to persuade or influence others. Although

rhetoric is apparently opposed to the philosophical ideal of the exact pursuit of truth,
their reconciliation has sometimes seemed desirable, most notably to CICERO. If one
thinks of philosophy as a matter of argument rather than doctrine, as the academic
skeptics did, then rhetoric is good practice in argument. The cultivation of this are was
an important study in Medieval universities, and began to regain ground with the
belief, 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 medieval
times. It was a time when renewed interest was taken in the ancient civilizations of
Greece and Rome. The movement began in the 14th Century in Italy, traveled to
France in the 15th and to England and Germany in the 16th. This was essentially a
return to pre-Christian traditions and gradually undermined clerical supremacy.

Rights that which one is due; there are legal rights, natural rights, human rights, and
moral rights in a particular society. Rights are often short-hand for moral rules about
how people should get along, for example, the right to a smoke-free workplace is
becoming 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 tales
in 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, the
term later came to be used to refer to an outlook marked by refined and responsive
feelings and thus inward looking, subjective, sensitive, given to noble dreams. The
Romantic 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 a
concern 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 the
theoretical side, it considers the constructions of systems of meaning-rules. Thus what
we study here are interpreted signs (signs with their meanings specified), in contrast
with SYNTAX where we leave the signs uninterpreted. One problem that belongs to
semantics is whether, and if so how, there come to be semantic shifts (drifts of
meaning). Another is to examine how the surface semantics of a language might be
derived from a deeper level of signification.
 Semantics is a branch of semiotics; it studies the meaning of words and the
relationship between the symbols of language and the actual world, whereas syntax
studies grammar and the relation between kinds of words.

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

Sensationalism is the theory that KNOWLEDGE is derived from sensations. The

concept of SENSATION used in this rests on two questionable assumptions: that we
have not only bodily sensations and sensations of touch, but also sensations from the
functioning of all of our senses, including the most important, vision; and that a
sensation is an ELEMENT IN PERCEPTION of which the perceiver is conscious and
which is interpreted to yield a judgment, the perceiver being passive and neither right
or 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 philosophical

theories of perception propounded by RUSSELL, MOORE, and others in the early part
of the 20th Century. Like the term SENSATION in the REPRESENATIVE THEORY OF
PERCEPTION, it is often introduced along with a distinction between mediated
awareness of OBJECTS in the external world and immediate awareness of the
SENSATION of SENSE DATUM. Whereas a sensation is by definition mental, a sense
datum might be mind independent.

Sense Impression is the IMPRESSION, or IDEA, said to be imprinted on the MIND

as 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, and
emotion 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 attempt
to abstract features in virtue of which situations merit a judgment, and then to argue
about new cases in the light of those features, is potentially misleading: for a feature
may contribute to the value of one situation, but be irrelevant in another, just as a
splash 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 to
what 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 there
is no adequate justification for such KNOWLEDGE claims; and hence that we ought
either to deny that we know these things, or to suspend judgment about them.

Slippery Slope Argument also referred to as the “camel’s note under the tent”
and “wedge” arguments; is one of the most famous ideas in ethics and politics. It is
often 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 of POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY, according to which

societies arise from individuals who agree to abandon their “state of nature” in
which everyone is out for himself alone, and come together in communities, giving up
certain individual habits (such as indiscriminate killing) for the good of the whole. This
is a theory about the origin of society and assumes that the individual is prior to the
group, a rationalist assumption that has been abandoned in the light of anthropological
enquiry.
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 (or
after). It is a living but immaterial thing that animates one’s consciousness, maintains
(some think even before birth) an identity throughout life, and many believe survives
beyond death.

Sound Argument is a valid deductive argument whose conclusion follows

logically from its premises, and whose premises are all true.

Sovereignty is having complete dominion or rule over something or someone. It is

the idea of being in complete control of the situation and guiding the events that are
taking place.

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

Structuralism which was popular in the 1960’s is the idea or belief that phenomena
of human life are not intelligible except through their interrelations. These relations
constitute a structure, and behind local variations in the surface phenomena there are
constant laws of abstract structure. Thus superficially diverse sets of myth, or works of
art, 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: all
horses 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 common
with the other premise. The term that does not occur in the conclusion is called the
middle term. The major premise of the syllogism is the premise containing the
predicate of the conclusion (the major term), and the minor premise contains its
subject (the minor term).

Syncretism is a movement aimed at establishing a harmony between apparently

opposing positions in philosophy or theology.

Tautology technically, is a formula of the propositional calculus that is true whatever

the truth-value assigned to its constituent propositional variables. A tautology is thus
valid, or true in all interpretations. In more informal contexts a tautology is often
thought 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 such
a 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 include
not drinking alcohol.

Theism is the belief in the existence of GOD.

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

Theory Of Forms (theory of ideas), which originated with Plato is many-sided in its
structure. 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 rest
of us do; he must be able to provide a “real” definition of Justice, to say for example
what justice really and essentially is, apart from whatever our conventional linguistic
practice may be with the term “just.”

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

Truth is a condition in which a statement accurately reflects the world; truth refers to
statements, validity to arguments. In other words, truth refers to content and validity
to 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 that
correct use of a word is not just conforming to the implicit rules for it, but that the
linguistic practice itself conforms to something. A linguistic realist holds that the
rules of grammar require justification rather as one justifies a sentence by pointing to
what verifies it.

Utilitarianism is the theory of ETHICS on which we must judge actions in terms of

their consequences: if these are good, so are the actions: if not, not. Goodness in turn
is 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 that
are nowhere realized, or indeed realizable. Thus any imaginative account of such
conditions, or any theory that see Heaven on Earth as a possible outcome, or theories
that 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, baldness
is a vague concept: when is a man definitely bald?

Validity in LOGIC is the feature of those arguments in which certain premises lead to
the conclusion. It is important to remember that the fact that an argument is valid
says 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 the
contents of its constituents. From valid argument alone, we cannot establish that
anything is the case. For that we need true premises: to find any of these is rather
more difficult than to argue validity.

Values are one’s principles or standards; one’s judgment of what is valuable or

important in life.

Veracity regards one’s speaking the truth. It is trying to determine what the person
is saying is actually accurate and true.

Verifiability means to establish the truth or correctness by examination. It is the

idea of confirming, checking out, or testifying to what is true and provable.

Verification is the process of ascertaining, either through logical argument or

empirical 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 Aristotle
devote much time to the unity of the virtues, or the way in which possession of one in
the right way requires possession of the others; another central concern is the way in
which possession of virtue, which might seem to stand in the way of self-interest, in
fact makes possible the achievement of one’s goals.

Virtue Ethics is the theory of ethics that values virtue, or virtues, rather than duty or
the 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 the
Cardinal virtues) courage, wisdom, self-control, and justice, as well as other admirable
traits such as loyalty and compassion. “Virtues” refers to excellences of character
identified in ancient Greece, whereas “virtue” is broader and also includes Virtue
Ethics.
Vocation means strong feelings of fitness for a particular career. As a religious term
it 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 to

make the difference between intentional or voluntary action and mere behavior.

Wit means intelligent and quick understanding of an issue. It also is the idea of
combining humor with or contrasting ideas and expressions. It is the power of giving
intellectual pleasure.