Philosophy Terms

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a posteriori

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Used to describe knowledge that comes from experience

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a priori

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Used to describe knowledge that can be acquired independently of experience through pure reason

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aesthetics

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the science of feelings and sensation; a branch of philosophy concerned with value - judgements about beauty and taste, especially in art

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analytic

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a system of logical analysis;that which discovers the function of pure reason; describes a judgement whose truth is found by analsying the concepts involved

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axiom

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a necessary and self-evident proposition, requiring no proof

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causality

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the relationship between a cause and its effect

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deduction

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the act of reaching a conclusion by arguing from the general to the particular

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dialectic

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means of discovering the truth by proceeding from a thesis to a denial of it or antithesis and finally reconciling the two through a synthesis

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empirical

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knowledge derived from experience rather than by logic

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epistemological

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branch of philosophy that attempts to answer questions about the nature of knowledge and the means by which it is acquired. study of the origins of human knowledge

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ethics

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branch of inquiry that attempts to answer questions about right and wrong, good and evil; pertaining to how human life should be lived

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induction

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the logic of drawing general conclusions from particular instances

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logic

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branch of philosophy (and esp. mathematics) that by abstracting the subject matter of statements and deductive arguements, seeks to investigate their structure and form

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metaphysics

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branch of philosophy concerned with systems of ideas that attempt to explain a general theory of the universe and mans place in it, relying on a priori arguements rather than empirical proofs

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paradox, logical

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any conclusion that at first sounds ridiculous but has an arguement to sustain it. e.g. the cretan philosopher Epimenides said 'all cretans are liars,' as he was a cretan himself was his statement true or false?

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predestination

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postulation that all events of a humans life are determined beforehand

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sense datum

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what one actually sees, hears, touches, smells, tastes of an object, from which the receiver of such data projects his understanding of identification of the whole object

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sophistry

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containing a fallacious arguement

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synthesis

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the outcome of the confrontation of two arguments, by which a truth is discovered

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teleological

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arguement or theory that postulates that things can be explained better in terms of what they are now or have been

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thesis

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a proposition or arguement

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value-judgement

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assessment of a things worth in aesthetic terms