Key Concepts in Philosophy

Posted on Mar 4, 2025 in Philosophy and ethics

Key Philosophical Terms and Concepts

Matching Terms

  • 1. Tabula Rasa – C. Blank Slate
  • 2. Solipsism – E. The philosophical idea that “my mind is the only thing that I know exists”
  • 3. Epistemology – F. The study/science of knowing
  • 4. Monist – H. Believe “being is singular, eternal, and visible, and that things don’t come into and out of being”.
  • 5. Cogito ergo sum – I. I think, therefore, I am
  • 6. Metaphysics – A. The study of the physical world and ultimate reality
  • 7. Deduction – D. Orderly logical reasoning
  • 8. Deist – B. Belief in the existence of a supreme being, specifically of a creator who does not intervene in the universe.
  • 9. Substance – G. That which can exist independent of anything else

True or False

  1. Plato’s metaphysical epistemology accepts only the idea of permanence. False
  2. For Kant, it’s through sensibility by which objects are thought and judgments are made. False
  3. In Descartes’ conclusion on God, he states that some effects/ideas are derived from nothing. False
  4. Although he opposes rationalism, John Locke accepts Descartes’ conception of innate ideas. False
  5. Before he formulated his own idea, Kant was trained as a rationalist. True
  6. Solipsism is the philosophical idea that one can only know that one’s own mind exists. True
  7. Plato’s four levels of knowledge are: imagination, perception, physical things, and higher forms. False
  8. Searching for reliable sources of knowledge, Descartes tested sense, the ability to calculate, and God. True
  9. Platonic Dualism and empiricism are in direct metaphysical conflict. False
  10. Metaphysics is the study of knowing; it looks at the nature of knowledge. False
  11. Both Plato and Descartes equate mind with soul. True
  12. For Locke, the very real idea of God made it impossible for an evil genius to distort reality. False

Plato’s Allegory of the Cave

  1. When the prisoner sees shadows, this is equivalent to imagination on the epistemological side of the divided line theory.
  2. The sun represents goodness, which is direct intellectual apprehension on the epistemological side of the divided line theory.
  3. When the prisoner sees reflection, this begins the metaphysical intelligible world of being.
  4. When the prisoner sees fire and the physical things, he is still in the visible world.
  5. Seeing his reflection is the prisoner’s entry to epistemological knowledge.
  6. Plato’s visible world of becoming includes physical things, shadows, and images.
  7. Epistemologically, the visible world of becoming is equivalent to opinion.
  8. Metaphysically, deductive reasoning includes the lower forms.
  9. In the Allegory of the Cave, direct intellectual apprehension is represented by the sun.
  10. As epistemology has levels of knowledge, metaphysics has objects of knowledge.
  11. Knowledge is made up of direct intellectual apprehension and deductive reasoning.
  12. Shadows, images, reflections, pictures, and fantasies can also be called imagination.
  13. Seeing his reflection in the water introduces the prisoner to math and science.