Flashcards in Key Words Deck (77)
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1
Analytic
Describes the manner in which a proposition is true. It is true by definition - all bachelors are unmarried
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Anti-realism
If you are a realist about something you believe it exists independently of our minds. If you are anti realist about something you believe it is mind dependent. Eg epistemology - anti realists about perception believe that material objects exist only in the mind
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A posteriori
Describes a belief that can only be known via experience eg. Snow is white
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A priori
Describes knowledge that is known prior/independently from experience
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Argument
A series of propositions intended to support an argument
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Atemporal
Outside of time - no past, present or future
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Agent
A being who is capable of action, they have the capacity to reason, make a choice between to courses of action, then do what they have chosen
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benevolence
the desire and disposition to good for others
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Clear and distinct ideas
the basic/self justifying beliefs that Descartes hopes to use as foundations for his system f knowledge. They are ideas that can be intuited in the mind by what he calls the 'light of reason' i.e. the truths of reason that can be known in the mind alone. e.g. logic or maths
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cognitivism
a position in philosophy of language which holds that judgements must be true or false if they are to mean anything.
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Non cognitivism
the position in philosophy of language that statements can be meaningful even if they do not refer to the world and the concepts of truth and falsity do not apply to them
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Coherentism
a view about the structure of justification which claims that no beliefs are foundational and therefore that all beliefs need justification in terms of further beliefs. Beliefs are more or less well justified to the extent that they fit in or cohere with otters beliefs in the system
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concept
Having a concept is what enables us to recognise it, distinguish it from other things and think about it
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Contingent
A contingent truth happens to be true, but may have not been. A truth that could logically be false.
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Corporeal
made of matter
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Cosmological arguments
argue for the existence of god by claiming that there must be some ultimate cause or reason for the existence of the universe.
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Deductive argument
Where the conclusion is guaranteed in the truth of the premises. If one accepts the premises, they must by logic also accept the conclusion.
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Dualism
the claim that humans are made of two kinds of stuff - a material body and a spiritual mind
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Empiricism
An epistemological position which holds that our beliefs and knowledge must be based on experience.
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Eschatological
eschatology is the study of the 'end of things' or the 'last things' as described from a religious perspective - including death, what happens after we die, the end of time etc. (used to show that religious statements can be meaningful as they can be verified if true)
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Euthyphro dilemma
In what way are God's commands good?
1. whatever god commands is good. (so command to commit genocide is fabulous)
2. God's commands are good because they conform to some external moral law - (so we should pay attention to the moral law not God)
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Evil
Moral evil - by humans
natural evil - brought about by natural events
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Evolution
Darwin - organisms gradually change over time according to changes in their environment and genetic mutations, some mutations lead to traits which are better suited to the environment and these more successful organisms have offspring that also survive and reproduce.
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Factual significance
statement has this if it tells us something about the real world - verificationism maintain that a sentence is only meaningful if it has factual significance
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Fallacy
argument which is flawed because either a mistake has been made or because has a form or structure which is always invalid
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Falsificationism
claims that for a proposition to be meaningful we must be able to understand what would count as proving the proposition false
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foundationalism
A view about the structure of justification which claims that there are two sorts of belief - those which are basic or foundational and which require no justification and those which are built on top of the foundations and justified in terms of them
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Free will
also known as metaphysical freedom. The idea of free will is that the self controls aspects of its own life such a bodily movement.
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determinism
opposite of free will - all events in the universe are the necessary consequence of physical laws, these laws apply to human actions as well. May argue that humans are like complex pieces of biological machinery with no real freedom of will
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