Philosophy

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Philosophy

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From Greek roots meaning "the love of wisdom".

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Metaphysics

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Raises questions that go beyond sense experience, beyond ordinary science.

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Epistemology

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From Greek for "knowledge", asks questions about knowledge, its nature and origins, whether its even possible.

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Ethics

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From Greek word "ethos". Study of moral problems, practical reasoning, right and wrong, good and bad, virtues and vices...etc.

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Social and Political Philosopy

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Concerned with the nature and origins of the government, sovereignty, the exercise of power, and the effects of social institutions on individuals.

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Willed ignorance

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An attitude of indifference to the possibility of error or enlightenment that holds on to beliefs regardless of the facts.

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Yin (in Ancient Chinese metaphysics)

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Weak, negative, dark, and destructive natural "force" or principle; Earth.

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Yang (in Ancient Chinese metaphysics)

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Strong, possitive, light, and constructive natural "force" or principle; Heaven.

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Form (Plato)

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Independently existing, nonspatial, nontemporal "somethings" known only through thought, not through the senses; independently existing objects of thought; that which makes a particular thing essentially what it is.

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the Divided Line

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Used (by Plato) to illustrate the relationship of knowledge to opinion, reality to appearance, metaphysics to epistemology, and the world of being to the world of becoming.

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the Allegory of the Cave

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Illustrates Plato's vision of the ascent on the mind from illusion to opinion to reasoned knowledge to enlightenment. These levels of awareness correspond to the segments of the Divided Line.

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Philisophical naturalism

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Belief that reality consists of the natural world; denial of the existence of a separate supernatural order of reality; belief that nature follows orderly, discoverable laws.

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Form (Aristotle)

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That which is in matter and makes a thing what it is; can be abstracted from matter but cannot exist independently of matter.

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Matter (Aristotle)

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The common material stuff found in a variety of things; it has no distinct characteristics until some form is imparted to it or until the form inherent in a thing becomes actualized.

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Eudaimonia

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Often translated as happiness; term Aristotle used to refer to fully realized existence; state of being fully aware, vital, alert.

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Entelechy

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From the Greek for "having its end within itself": according to Aristotle, an inner urge that drives all things to blossom into their own unique selves; inner order or design that governs all natural processes.

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The First Way: Motion (Thomas Aquinas)

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Attempt to prove the existence of God based on the reasoning that to avoid an infinite regress, there must be an Unmoved Mover capable of imparting motion to all other things.

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The Second Way: Cause (Thomas Aquinas)

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argument for the existence of God that because it is impossible for any natural thing to be the complete and sufficient source of its own existence, there must be an Uncaused Cause capable of imparting existence to all other things.

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The Third Way: Necessity (Thomas Aquinas)

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Argument for the existence of God based on the idea that if nothing had ever existed, nothing would always exist; therefore, there is something whose existence is necessary (an eternal something).

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The Fourth Way: Degree (Thomas Aquinas)

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Argument for the existence of God based on the idea that being progresses from inanimate objects to increasingly complex animated creatures, culminating in a qualitatively unique God.

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The Fifth Way: Design

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Argument for the existence of God claims that the universe manifests order and purpose that can only be the result of a conscious intelligence (God).

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Principle of the mean (Aristotle)

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Moral virtue was characterized as a mean between too little (deficiency) and too much (excess).

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Problem of Evil

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If God can prevent the suffering of the innocent, yet chooses not to, He is not good. If God chooses to prevent the suffering, but cannot, He is not omnipotent. If God cannot recognize the suffering of the innocent, He is not wise.