Definitions Of Terms

Question 1

teleology

Answer 1

the science or logic or reasoning of meaning and purpose.

from Greek telos, “end,” and logos, “reason”), explanation by reference to some purpose, end, goal, or function. Traditionally, it was also described as final causality, in contrast with explanation solely in terms of efficient causes (the origin of a change or a state of rest in something).

Question 2

epistemology

Answer 2

the science or logic or reasoning of how you come to know what you claim to know and therefore how you can justify your claim that you know something.

from the greek epistēmē (knowledge) and logos (reason)

Defined narrowly, epistemology is the study of knowledge and justified belief. As the study of knowledge, epistemology is concerned with the following questions: What are the necessary and sufficient conditions of knowledge? What are its sources? What is its structure, and what are its limits? As the study of justified belief, epistemology aims to answer questions such as: How we are to understand the concept of justification? What makes justified beliefs justified? Is justification internal or external to one’s own mind? Understood more broadly, epistemology is about issues having to do with the creation and dissemination of knowledge in particular areas of inquiry.

Question 3

ontology

Answer 3

the science or study or logic or reasoning of beingness and the reality of being.

from latin onto-
word-forming element meaning “a being, individual; being, existence,” from stem of Greek on (genitive ontos) “being,” neuter present participle of einai “to be” (from Sanskrit root *as- “to be” as in asmi ….)

The Latin term ontologia (“science of being”) was felicitously invented by the German philosopher Jacob Lorhard (Lorhardus) and first appeared in his work Ogdoas Scholastica (1st ed.) in 1606

Question 4

metaphysics

Answer 4

study or science or logic or teasoning of what does not change. Everything material from the natural world is changing with time. That is the Physics. Metaphysics means beyond physics or beyond what changes.

we assume that ‘metaphysics’ is a name for that “science” which is the subject-matter of Aristotle’s Metaphysics? If we assume this, we should be committed to something in the neighborhood of the following theses:

The subject-matter of metaphysics is “being as such”
The subject-matter of metaphysics is the first causes of things
The subject-matter of metaphysics is that which does not change
Any of these three theses might have been regarded as a defensible statement of the subject-matter of what was called ‘metaphysics’ until the seventeenth century. But then, rather suddenly, many topics and problems that Aristotle and the Medievals would have classified as belonging to physics.

One might almost say that in the seventeenth century metaphysics began to be a catch-all category, a repository of philosophical problems that could not be otherwise classified as epistemology, logic, ethics or other branches of philosophy. (It was at about that time that the word ‘ontology’ was invented—to be a name for the science of being as such, an office that the word ‘metaphysics’ could no longer fill.)

Question 5

ethics

Answer 5

Its subject consists of the fundamental issues of practical decision making, and its major concerns include the nature of ultimate value and the standards by which human actions can be judged right or wrong.

Aristotle has

late 14c., ethik “study of morals,” from Old French etique “ethics, moral philosophy” (13c.), from Late Latin ethica, from Greek ēthike philosophia “moral philosophy,” fem. of ēthikos “ethical, pertaining to character,” from ēthos “moral character,” related to ēthos “custom” (see ethos).

The word also traces to Ta Ethika, title of Aristotle’s work

Question 6

ipse dixit

Answer 6

Latin literally “She herself said it.”

Term coined in Latin by Cicero.

Ipse dixit is an assertion without proof. or a dogmatic expression of opinion.

The fallacy of defending a proposition by baldly asserting that it is “just how it is” distorts the argument by opting out of it entirely: the claimant declares an issue to be intrinsic, and not changeable.

Question 7

ex parte

Answer 7

Representation with respect to or in the interests of one side only. Or of an interested outside party.

Latin - from a side

Question 8

dum spiro spero

Answer 8

Where there is life, there is hope

Question 9

paradox

Answer 9

A seemingly absurd or self-contradictory statement or proposition that when investigated or explained proves to be true