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59 Cards in this Set
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Philosophy |
“loveof wisdom;” the academic discipline that deals primarily withmetaphysics, logic, epistemology, ethics, aesthetics, andsocio-political theory. |
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Metaphysics: |
abranch of philosophy that studies Reality and asks questions aboutreality. |
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Induction |
a logical methodused to infer generalized rules from a select sample of cases,observations, and/or truth claims. |
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PsychologicalEgoism |
theorythat states, “Humans always-alreadydoact in their own self-interest.” |
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Consequentialism |
refersto a class or set of ethical theories that stress that theconsequences of one’s actions determine the moral stance (rightnessor wrongness) of those actions. “The *end (teleology) justifies themeans.” |
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Normative |
anapproach to ethics that makesmoral judgments, and prescribes moral precepts that one oughtto follow. |
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Metaethics |
anapproach to ethics that “goes beyond” both descriptive andnormative ethics, and asks questions about the nature of ethicalproperties, statements, attitudes, judgments, and the logic andlanguage of ethics in general. |
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Descriptive |
anempirical approach to ethics within the social sciences used tocollect data, and simply describe human behavior/conduct. |
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Epistemology |
branchof philosophy that deals with knowledge and questions aboutknowledge, and how we know. |
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Logic |
branchof philosophy that deals with the use of clear and valid reasoning. |
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Ethics |
branchof philosophy that deals with questions about the “good life,”virtue, justice, and morality. |
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Socio-politicalphilosophy |
thestudy of questions about social behavior and interpretations ofsociety and social institutions in terms of ethical values placingemphasis on understanding the social contexts for political, legal,moral, and cultural questions, and to the development of noveltheoretical frameworks, from social ontology to care ethics tocosmopolitan theories of democracy, human rights, gender equity andglobal justice. The study of topics such as politics, liberty,justice, property, rights, law, and the enforcement of a legal codeby authority: what they are, why (or even if) they are needed, what,if anything, makes a government legitimate, what rights and freedomsit should protect and why, what form it should take and why, what thelaw is, and what duties citizens owe to a legitimate government, ifany, and when it may be legitimately overthrown, if ever. |
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Aesthetics |
branchof philosophy studies the nature of art and beauty. |
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EthicalEgoism |
theorythat states that “humans ought to act in their own self-interest.” |
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Deontology |
theorythat states that “humans have an obligation or duty to be ethicalagents.” |
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VirtueEthics |
anapproach to ethics that emphasizes individual character. |
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CategoricalImperative |
Kant’sformulation that states, “Act according to a maxim that you wouldwill to become a universal law.” |
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Is/OughtProblem |
hename of the concept “discovered” by David Hume, which states thatthere is a significant difference between descriptive statements andprescriptive statements, and that there is no coherent or logicalmove from descriptive statements to prescriptive statements. |
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Rationalism |
branchof epistemology which holds that knowledge comes from the use ofrationality and/or innate ideas. |
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Empiricism |
branchof epistemology which holds that knowledge comes from sense-data. |
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Apriori |
Latinphrase used in philosophy to refer to knowledge without or beforeexperience |
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Aposteriori |
Latinphrase used in philosophy to refer to knowledge with or afterexperience |
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Deduction |
alogical method used to demonstrate that one truth claim (or theory)follows validly (necessarily) from one or more other truth claims (ortheories.) |
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Virtue |
thequality of moral excellence, righteousness, and responsibility… aspecific type of moral excellence or other exemplary qualityconsidered meritorious; a worthy practice or ideal. |
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Virtus |
aspecific virtue in Ancient Rome. It carries connotations of valor,manliness, excellence, courage, character, and worth, perceived asmasculine strengths (from Latin vir,“man”). It was a frequently stated virtue of Roman emperors, andwas personified as a deity. |
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Aristotle |
AncientGreek fourth century BCE philosopher from Stageira who was student ofPlato, and tutor of Alexander the Great, and the first systematizerof Western philosophy. |
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GoldenMean |
desirablemiddle between two extremes (excess and deficiency.) |
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Aristos |
Greekword from whence we get the term “aristocracy,” which means“showing superlative ability and superiority, and nobility.” |
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Arete |
“asettled disposition of the mind determining the choice of actions andemotions, consisting essentially in the observance of the meanrelative to us, this being determined by principle, that is, as theprudent man would determine it.” |
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Potentiality |
InAristotle’s philosophy, anything that “might chance to happen ornot to happen.” |
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Actuality |
InAristotle’s philosophy, anything which “is currently happening.” |
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NicomacheanEthics |
Aristotle’smost important work on ethics – originally consisting of ten“books” (scrolls) based on his lecture notes from the Lyceum,which were edited by, and named after, his son Nicomachus. |
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Eudaimonia |
Greekword meaning, “well-being, happiness, or “human flourishing.” |
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Confucius |
majorfifth century BCE Chinese thinker and social philosopher whosethought emphasized personal and governmental morality, correct socialrelationships, justice, and sincerity. |
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Ren |
principleof benevolence; devotion to truth; doing what’s right because it isright, not for personal gain. |
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Yi |
principleof justice, reciprocity, righteousness – the internalization of Li. |
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Li |
concepts of ritualsand propriety. Propriety refers to the idea that there are properways to live one’s life and perform daily rituals. |
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Junzi |
Chinesephilosophical concept of a “superior person.” |
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TheFour Noble Truths |
fundamentalBuddhist philosophy that states, All existence is suffering. Theorigin of suffering is craving or attachment. There is a way out ofsuffering. The way out of suffering is through following the NobleEightfold Path.” |
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Anatman |
theBuddhist concept of “no-self.” |
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EightfoldPath |
fundamentalBuddhist ethical philosophy broken down as: Right View, RightIntentions, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood, Righteffort, Right Consciousness, Right Mindfulness. |
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FriedrichNietzsche |
anineteenth century German philosopher, cultural critic, poet,composer, and Philologist. |
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Perspectivism |
term coined byNietzsche in developing the philosophical view that all ideationstake place from particular perspectives. This means that there aremany possible conceptual schemes, or perspectives in which judgmentof truth or value can be made. Thisis often taken to imply that no way of seeing the world can be takenas definitively “true,” but does not necessarily entail that allperspectives are equally valid. |
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Willto Power |
a prominent conceptdeveloped by Nietzsche; it describes what Nietzsche may have believedto be the main drivingforcein humans – namely, achievement, ambition, and the striving toreach the highest possible position in life. |
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EternalRecurrence |
conceptformulated by Nietzsche which holds the idea that with infinite timeand a finite number of events, events will recur again and againinfinitely… |
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Nihilism |
Latin nihil,meaning “nothing,” is a philosophical doctrine that suggests thelack of belief in one or more reputedly meaningful aspects of life. |
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Übermensch |
German,meaning “Overman,” is a central concept to the philosophy ofNietzsche of the “future” goal for humanity to strive to become,beings who overcome the “tragic” and create their own values. |
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Ressentiment |
(Fr.Latin intensive prefix 're', and 'sentir' "to feel").Ressentiment is a sense of one form of resentment or hostilitydirected at that which one identifies as the cause of one'sfrustration, that is, an assignment of blame for one's frustration.The sense of weakness or inferiority and perhaps jealousy in the faceof the "cause" generates a rejecting/justifying valuesystem, or morality, which attacks or denies the perceived source ofone's frustration. This value system is then used as a means ofjustifying one's own weaknesses by identifying the source of envy asobjectively inferior, serving as a defense mechanism that preventsthe resentful individual from addressing and overcoming theirinsecurities and flaws. |
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Mastermorality |
Nietzscheanconcept of “individual morality,” ideally that of an Übermensch,which involves a transvaluation of all values, and based onsentiment, and noble virtues. |
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Slavemorality |
Nietzscheanconcept also called “herd morality” of the system of moralitydeveloped in the West, but especially Christianity, which is based onre-sentiment or inverting the values held by the nobler beings. |
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Amorfati |
Latin phrase used byNietzsche that may be loosely translated as “love of fate” or“love of one's fate.” It is used to describe an attitude in whichone sees everything that happens in one's life, including sufferingand loss, as good or, at the very least, necessary, in that they areamong the facts of one's life and existence, so they are alwaysnecessarily there whether one likes them or not. |
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Absolutism |
theacceptance of, or belief in, absolute principles in political,philosophical, ethical, or theological matters. |
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Relativism |
“approachto ethics which states that there are no absolute values at all andthat all values are relative to time, place, persons, and peoples;all are relative to the specific place in which they are held.” |
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PropositionalLogic |
branchof mathematical logic concerned with the study of statements (whetherthey are true or false) that are formed by other statements with theuse of logical connectives, and how their value depends on the truthvalue of their components. |
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Parallax |
“adisplacement or difference in the apparent position of an objectviewed along two different lines of sight, and is measured by theangle or semi-angle of inclination between those two lines. The termis derived from the Greek word parallaxis,meaning ‘alteration.’ Nearby objects have a larger parallax thanmore distant objects when observed from different positions, soparallax can be used to determine distances.” |
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Proposition |
“theprimary bearers of truth-value; the objects of belief and other‘hypothetical attitudes’ (i.e., what is believed, doubted, etc.)The referents of that-clauses and the meanings of declarativesentences.” |
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AnalyticProposition |
aproposition whose predicate concept is contained in its subjectconcept. |
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SyntheticProposition |
aproposition whose predicate concept is not contained in its subjectconcept but related. |
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Belief |
OldEnglish, geleafa, meaning “to wish; psychological state ofwishing.’” |