Final Exam Flashcards
knowledge gained from or after experience. (2) knowledge gained through sensory impression. (3) proceeding by induction from effect to cause.
A posteriori
(1) a self-evident truth that does not need to be proved. (2) knowledge that is independent of sensory impression. (3) proceeding by deduction from cause to effect. (4) a presupposition
A priori
(1) The branch of philosophy or metaphysics that inquires into the nature of origins particularly through the investigation of cause and effect relationships. (2) A study of the universe’s origin.
Cosmology
The belief that all events are caused by unalterable antecedent factors. Theological determinism argues that God ultimately causes all events. Naturalistic determinism argues that natural law or biological factors cause all events.
Determinism
That form of knowledge acquisition which relies on experience, induction, and scientific experiment. (2) a posteriori knowledge.
Empiricism
The branch of philosophy that inquires into the nature of knowledge, its origin, foundation, and validity
Epistemology
An attempt to transcend atheistic nihilism by postulating that individual persons create their own meaning, values, and purpose in life without reference to a creator
Existentialism
The belief that not all events are causally determined, but may result from human choice.
Indeterminism
The doctrine that nothing more than material or physical entities exist. (2) a synonym of naturalism—a rejection of supernaturalism.
Materialism
The branch of philosophy that inquires into the nature of existence or being. (2) The study of existing things with a view to categorizing all phenomena of human experience. In philosophical literature, metaphysics divides into two branches, cosmology and ontology.
Metaphysics
(1) The physical universe of matter and energy is all that exists; nature creates and sustains itself. (2) A rejection of all supernaturalism. (3) Materialism, or the doctrine that noting exists apart from material phenomena. (4) Atheism.
Naturalism
(1) nothingness; (2) a rejection of meaning, value, and moral norms in human history.
Nihilism
A subcategory of metaphysics that inquires into the nature of real and unreal. (2) Inquiry into the essential nature of things. Example: Are such things as dreams, spirits, & ethical persuasions real?
Ontology
A twentieth-century school of thought that claimed only empirically verified statements could be certifiably true.
Positivism
(1) That form of knowledge acquisition which relies on intuition, deduction and the laws for logic. (2) a priori knowledge.
Rationalism
Socratic method
Socrates
philosophical method of questioning to gain truth; answering a question with a question reversing the roles of student and teacher so that a student answers his own question
Socratic method
Theory of Forms, Tripartite Soul, and Cave of Ignorance
Plato
Plato’s theory of a three-part human nature ideally ruled by reason
Tripartite Soul
Plato believed in both materialism and immaterialism but thought that the immaterial entities were more real,which he called forms. Goal = know invisible forms rather than a particular objects of sense perception
Plato’s Forms
Most people go through life as prisoners in a cave with our heads chained so that all we can see our the shadows cast by the fire behind us. We must be freed by reason and leave the cave to enter the world of form.
Cave of Ignorance
Theory of Forms, Prime Mover, and The “Golden Mean”
Aristotle
unrealized potentiality/ actualization of potentiality
Aristotle’s Forms
Aristotle’s term for describing ethical behavior as a midpoint between extremes
Golden mean
Materialism/atomism
Epicurius
a tendency to consider material possessions and physical comfort as more important than spiritual values
Materialism
Materialistic determinism
Stoicism
pyrrhonism
Skepticism
Neoplatonism
Plotinus
