Intro to Philosophy

Ontology

(from onto-, from the Greek "being; that which is") is the philosophical study of the nature of being, becoming, existence, or reality, as well as the basic categories of being and their relations. Traditionally listed as a part of the major branch of philosophy known as metaphysics, ontology deals with questions concerning what entities exist or can be said to exist, and how such entities can be grouped, related within a hierarchy, and subdivided according to similarities and differences

religious cosmology

(mythological cosmology), body of beliefs based on historical, myth, religion, and esoteric literature, and tradtion of creation and eschatology.

Final cause

(which originated by Aristotle) the ultimate. Not temporal. The that sake of which. The motive. The reason for, the motivation.

Facticity

All the facts that are attached to a person, historically and in present time. But, according to Sartre, that does not "make" the person. We still have to consider the desires, goals, dreams, and or future projections, which he calls a person's transcendence.

Self-consciousness

An acute sense of self-awareness. It is a preoccupation with oneself, as opposed to the philosophical state of self-awareness, which is the awareness that one exists as an individual being; although some writers use both terms interchangeably or synonymously.

The Relativistic View

Beliefs and ideas differ widely; there is relativism and cognitive diversity.

Cogito Ergo Sum

I think therefore I am

Empiricism

Justification comes through experience; Testimony and tests. a theory of knowledge that asserts that knowledge comes only or primarily from sensory experience.

The "Tabula Rasa"

Literally means "clean slate" and it is the argument that states that all people are born without predisposed ideas and concepts, but are learned through experience in the world.

First Principle of Existentialism

Man is nothing else but that which he makes of himself

Theory of Forms

Plato's forms are non-physical and non-mental. They exist nowhere in time or space, but neither do they exist in the mind, nor in the pleroma of matter; rather, matter is said to "participate" in form. It remained unclear however, even to Aristotle, exactly what Plato intended by that. ​

Rationalism

Requires Coherence/Consistency; Justified through Logic/reason - Ex: Intuition, Logical Principles, Reason, thought any view appealing to reason as a source of knowledge or justification". In more technical terms, it is a method or a theory "in which the criterion of the truth is not sensory but intellectual and deductive".

Authenticity

The degree to which one is true to one's own personality, spirit, or character, despite external pressures; the conscious self is seen as coming to terms with being in a material world and with encountering external forces, pressures and influences which are very different from, and other than, itself.

Self- Identity

The way you characterize yourself as an individual.

Existence

There are various interpretations; Being aware or conscious - (but also exists independent of that)

Truth

Whether someone's belief is true - is not a prerequisite for (its) belief.

Existential crisis

a moment at which an individual questions the very foundations of his or her life: whether his or her life has any meaning, purpose or value.

Nature

always active, even kinetic motion (due to potentiality). Nature is eminent. (Eminent: right in front of us, transcendent: beyond us)

Motion

always ground being; the driving force behind it (not to confuse with Parmenides idea of "Being") being to Aristotle is always, not potential like Permindes. (Motion is nature, like a sub-particles; electron...)

The Naturalistic view

approach to knowledge is on a scientific level; test the conclusion.

being qua being

being understood as being.

apeiron

central cosmological theory created by anaximander. Generated the opposites (hot-cold) believed that things are created then they're destroyed.

justified true belief

contemporary epistemology that seem to repudiate a definition of knowledge

The Skeptical View

contends that we know far less than the SV says we know. ​

Thales

debating issue of what universe was made of. Believed everything in the world was made up of water.

philosophy of self

defines the essential qualities that make one person distinct from all others.

Skepticism

generally any questioning attitude towards knowledge, facts, or opinions/beliefs stated as facts, or doubt regarding claims that are taken for granted elsewhere.

Adventitious

ideas from nature; direct perceptions, from nature (ex. Color blue...)

Innate

ideas from the cogito; Clear and distinct ideas will ground knowledge (innate) immediate apprehension, unmediated, idea without the help of anything.

Fictitious

ideas from thinking on nature; leads to another idea, indirectly perceive. (perception)

Knowledge

is a familiarity with someone or something, which can include facts, information, descriptions, or skills acquired through experience or education. It can refer to the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject. It can be implicit (as with practical skill or expertise) or explicit (as with the theoretical understanding of a subject); it can be more or less formal or systematic; the philosopher Plato famously defined knowledge as "justified true belief."

Pragmatism

is a philosophical tradition centered on the linking of practice and theory. It describes a process where theory is extracted from practice, and applied back to practice to form what is called intelligent practice

Qualia

is a term used in philosophy to refer to individual instances of subjective, conscious experience. The term derives from a Latin word meaning for "what sort" or "what kind."

Leibniz law The identity of indiscernibles

is an ontological principle which states that there cannot be separate objects or entities that have all their properties in common.

essence

is the attribute or set of attributes that make an entity or substance what it fundamentally is, and which it has by necessity, and without which it loses its identity. Essence is contrasted with accident: a property that the entity or substance has contingently, without which the substance can still retain its identity.

The Standard View of Knowledge (SV)

is the default view of what we know; what most, maybe all people believe that we know (proven, Common-Sense).

idealism

is the group of philosophies which assert that reality, or reality as we can know it, is fundamentally mental, mentally constructed, or otherwise immaterial.

Phenomenalism

is the view that physical objects cannot justifiably be said to exist in themselves, but only as perceptual phenomena or sensory stimuli (e.g. redness, hardness, softness, sweetness, etc.) situated in time and in space.

materialism

matter or energy. All things composed of material and all phenomena are result of material interactions. Matter is the only substance.

belief

means that the speaker has faith (trust) that something will prove to be useful or successful

pluralism

more than 2 substances, body and mind, spirit/soul, etc.

monism

only one primary substance to the universe

dualism

reality is transcendental, 2 substances, reality and meta-reality. Physical and non physcial, mind and body.

The Absurd

refers to the conflict between the human tendency to seek inherent value and meaning in life and the human inability to find any.

Traditional Analysis of Knowledge (TAK)

states that knowledge is defined through a tripartite of conditions: Truth, Belief and Justification. These are necessary for Propositional knowledge.

cosmology

study of origins and eventful fate of the universe. Physical cosmology is scholary and scientific study of origin, evolution, structure, and dynamics. etc.

Efficient cause

the by-which, a being moving on an object and changing it. The actual cause of change...

Formal cause

the into-which (the acorn has the form of an oak tree; which is a formal cause) the formal cause of the into which we become (the best use of which it defines us and it's the best reason for being; we have the form of student but a formal cause into a form of a parent)

Personal Identity

the necessary and sufficient conditions under which a person at one time and a person at another time can be said to be the same person, persisting through time

epistemology

the study of knowledge; What is it, and how we acquire it. The word "Episteme" is the Greek word for "Knowledge."

Material cause

the substance in which cause the transition or motion (the out of which, the matter; the materials for making a cake) the stuff, that makes things...

metaphysics

traditional branch of philosophy concerned with explaining the fundamental nature of being and the world. "What is there?" "What is it like?"

Being

what it is to be