Key Philosophical Concepts and Terms Explained
Key Philosophical Concepts and Terms
Aporia: Uncertainty or doubt.
Atomism: The physical universe is composed of fundamental indivisible components known as atoms.
Correspondence Theory of Truth: The truth or falsity of a statement is determined only by how it relates to the world and whether it accurately describes that world.
Being: Any living creature, from a person to a bug.
Categories: A pure concept of the understanding. Fundamental classes/concepts used to organize and describe the structure of reality, thought, or language. Examples: Substance, Quantity, Quality, Relation, Place, Time, Position, State, Action, Passion.
Common Sense Realism: The view that the world is largely as we perceive it through our senses and that our everyday experiences give us reliable access to objective reality. Objects exist independently. We perceive these objects directly, rather than through a subjective or distorted medium. Common sense is reliable.
Ontology: The branch of metaphysics dealing with the nature of being and the general features of reality.
Qua: In the capacity of. As being. In virtue of. ____ (Refer) QUA ____ (Causal agency). E.g., The problem is in the design of the game qua game.
Character Development: The process of creating and evolving a character’s personality, beliefs, and moral compass throughout a narrative or philosophical discussion.
Dualism: The mind is the thinking substance, and matter is the extended substance. Mental phenomena are non-physical, or the mind and body are distinct and separable.
Final Cause: The sake for which a thing is changing.
Efficient Cause: Consists of things apart from the thing being changed, which interact so as to be the agency of the change.
Empiricism: The theory that all knowledge is derived from experience.
Empiricism → Impossibility of Language: If empiricism is knowledge derived from one’s experience, language cannot be used as a bridge between everyone because experience is not constant for everyone.
Episteme: “Knowledge”. Intellectually certain knowledge.
Epistemology: Theory of Knowledge regarding its methods, validity, and scope. Examines the nature, origin, and limits of knowledge.
Ethical Realism: The view that ethical statements are true or false. True or false. “Driven the truth.”
Theoretical/Practical Wisdom: Theoretical wisdom involves reasoning about or in a way that is aimed at truth. Practical wisdom involves reasoning about or in a way that is aimed at the good.
Eudaimonia: Happiness, flourishing, ripeness is all. = fulfilling your capacities in an excellent way. ≠ satisfaction of your desires. Not totally in your control. TRAGEDY Health. Relative. ‘Goods’
Fact/Value: Within the fact, there are certain values. Fact/value blend.
Flux View: Everything is constantly changing.
“The Good”: (Basis of Plato’s Critique of Reductionism) Normative → action guiding. Ethics. Aesthetics. Grammar. Focal meaning: All the senses ‘of being’ have one focus, one common element, or a central sense.
Form/Matter: Abstraction. Explanation can be independent of ontology. Ontology: Nature of being. Relative terms: Matter is believed to be absolutes, Matter is abstract. Potential terms: Matter has the potential to be something, Form is actual.
Formal Cause: Change or movement caused by the arrangement, shape, or appearance of the thing changing or moving.
Function: What makes something a thought, desire, pain.
Material Cause: The actual physical properties or makeup of a thing.
Irrational Numbers: Real numbers that cannot be represented in the form of a ratio. Cannot be expressed as the quotient of two integers.
Metaphysics: The world has a metaphysical structure. Asymmetrical structure. Normative structure of reality. Impossible to imagine a world where everything is backward. The “this”: Normative.
Rules vs. Perception:
- Rules: Restrictions of a domain of possibilities for subjects, communities, or functionaries.
- Perception: Immediate, sensory experience of the world.
Mimesis: The process by which the work reflects and reinterprets the world around it. Representation or imitation of the real world in art and literature.
Moral Luck: The moral judgment of an individual’s actions or character depends on factors beyond their control. Challenges the intuition that people should only be judged morally for actions or decisions they voluntarily and knowingly undertake.
Natural/Artificial Kind:
- Natural: Occurring without human intervention.
- Artificial: Created or influenced by human activity.
The “Queerness” Objection: Values are “ontologically queer” → weird, don’t fit in.
Naturalism/Anti-Naturalism:
- Naturalism: Pre-Socrates theorize about nature. Scientists, “Anti-mathematics”. Problems: Mathematics as abstract entities, Ethics → how the world ‘should’ work, Meaning, Consciousness.
- Anti-Naturalism: Plato.
Naturalistic: Approaches, theories, or perspectives that emphasize the role of nature, the natural world, and natural processes in explaining and understanding phenomena.
Naturalizing Teleology: Explanation via a purpose. There is natural teleology/purpose that can explain normativity.
Non-Cognitivism: Moral statements or judgments do not express propositions that can be true or false.
Normative: Concepts, statements, or theories that involve standards, values, or rules that prescribe how things ought to be, rather.
Ousia: True being. Stuff, things, objects, subjects.
Species: Refers to a class or kind of entity, most commonly used to categorize living organisms, but the term also has broader applications in discussion of classification, identity, and essence.
Phronesis: A type of wisdom or intelligence concerned with practical action. “Practical wisdom.”
Phronimos: Theoretical wisdom. Practical wisdom, Knowledge about particulars without actually knowing deeper reasons.
Platonism: Research program. Theory of forms. Living philosophy. There exists abstract entities. Abstract entities are necessary.
Primary/Secondary Qualities:
- Primary Qualities: Properties of objects that are independent of any observer. Objective and measurable, E.g., Number.
- Secondary Qualities: Properties that depend on the observer’s perception. Subjective and result of the interaction between the object and the perceiver’s senses.
Principle of Non-Contradiction: Foundational concept in philosophy and logic that asserts that a proposition cannot be both true and false at the same time and in the same respect.
Problem of Change: Reconciling these seemingly incompatible truths.
Proper/Concurrent Cause:
- Proper Cause: Has primacy in producing the effect. E.g., Doctor performing an operation.
- Concurrent Cause: Assists or contributes in a dependent way. E.g., the medical tools used by the surgeon.
Property/Predicate:
- Property: Refers to a characteristic or feature that an object or entity has. Can be attributed to a subject and is used to describe the nature of the object or entity. E.g., the color of a car.
- Predicate: Refers to the linguistic or logical term that functions to attribute a property or quality to a subject in a sentence or logical proposition. E.g., ‘is a dog’ in ‘Dylan is a dog.’
Psuche: A living being, a living soul.
Pythagoreanism: Refers to the philosophical system associated with Pythagoras and the Pythagoreans. Belief that the universe and all things within it were made by numbers, and thus everything could be counted.
Realism: Certain entities, properties, or phenomena exist independently of our perception, thought, or language.
Reductionism: Total explanation. Explaining something without anything left over.
Reductive Materialism: All phenomena, including mental phenomena, can be explained by reducing them to physical processes or material components.
Relativism: Good ← society. Good ← genetics. Nothing is wrong, just relative. Conversation stopper. No experts.
Scientific Realism: Asserts that the entities, processes, and theories described by successful scientific theories correspond to real aspects of the world.
Self-Maintaining Systems: Self-correcting, Negative feedback.
Skepticism: Refers to a questioning or doubting attitude toward knowledge, beliefs, or claims that are generally accepted as true.
Substance: Refers to that which underlies or supports properties and changes in the world.
Teleological Explanation: Using purpose as the drive. Objections: Fire, icicles, etc., Voltaire Objection: questions what the purpose of something is.
The Cave Analogy: Sense perception. How human beings live in the world, Reality.
The Theory of the Forms: Ideas. Abstract entities. Abstract relations.
The Open Question Argument: Critiques Ethical Reductionism. Relativism is wrong. Divine Command Theory is wrong.
The Normativity of the Mental: Mental states, whether beliefs, desires, intentions, or actions, are governed by certain norms or standards.
Theory of Habits: The study and understanding of habitual behavior and how habits influence human actions, thoughts, and even moral and social life.
The Pluralists: Believe that social heterogeneity prevents any single group from gaining dominance. Refers to the view that reality, or the way we understand the world, is composed of many different kinds of elements, and that no single explanation or theory can capture all the richness and diversity of existence.
Universal/Particular:
- Universal: Category (red).
- Particular: Specifics (Ted).
Virtues/Vices:
- Virtues: Positive character traits or qualities that enable individuals to act in morally good, ethical, or admirable ways. Often seen as habits or dispositions that help people make morally sound decisions. E.g., courage, justice, temperance, wisdom, honesty.
- Vices: Negative character traits or qualities that lead individuals to act in ways that are morally bad or undesirable. Opposite of virtues, and they typically hinder the achievement of a good or flourishing life by promoting selfishness, harm, or immorality. E.g., moral deficiency, habitual, hinders flourishing, extreme or imbalanced.
Zeno’s Paradoxes: “No such thing as knowledge.” Achilles and the Tortoise: Achilles first has to run to the Tortoise’s starting point, but the latter has already moved, making it impossible for Achilles to win.