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University of Aberdeen - Philosophy terms Category: Education > Philosophical terms Date & country: 28/03/2011, UK Words: 75

aesthetics
The branch of philosophy that deals with beauty and art. Central questions in aesthetics include: What is art? What kinds of objects possess aesthetic value? Is aesthetic experience rational or emotional? What is the relationship between an artist, their artwork and the critics?

agnostic
Someone who claims that they do not know or are unable to know whether God exists.

altruism
Altruistic actions are those performed for the sake of others. Altruism is the hypothesis that morality involves acting for the sake of others.

analytic
Three common definitions (1) An analytic truth (e.g.

argument
Piece of reasoning from one or more statements (premises) to conclusion. Kinds include INDUCTIVE and DEDUCTIVE.

argument from analogy
In an argument from analogy we take two things which are similar in some observed ways and infer from this similarity that they are similar in other unobserved ways. If the observed similarity is not relevant to the posited unobserved similarity then this is a form of FALLACY.

atheist
Someone who believes that there is no God.

beg(ging) the question
Unsound reasoning in which one needs already to have established the conclusion in order to be entitled to assert one of the premises offered in support of the conclusion one is trying to establish. Hence the argument assumes the truth of the very point one is trying to prove. (

circular argument
Unsound reasoning in which it is argued both that A is the case on the grounds that B is the case and that B is the case on the grounds that A is the case. (Consider:

conclusion
The part of an ARGUMENT which states the result which the PREMISES are there to defend.

consequentialism
The doctrine that the right acts are right because they produce good consequences of some kind. UTILITARIANISM is the best-known example of a consequentialist moral position; ETHICAL EGOISM is another; so would be the claim,

contingent
Opposite of

counter-example
A way of showing that an ARGUMENT is not VALID. A counter-example shows that the PREMISES can be true while the CONCLUSION is false.

deductive argument
An argument in which the conclusion is supposed to follow from the premises in such a way that it would be self-contradictory to assert the premises and deny the conclusion.

deontology
The doctrine that there are acts whose rightness or wrongness is not wholly dependent on the goodness or badness of their consequences. Deontological theories take duty as the basis of morality. The phrase,

descriptive meaning
Utterances whose meaning is to be elucidated in terms of reporting or describing actual or possible facts or states of affairs have descriptive meaning. Contrast EMOTIVE MEANING.

determinism
The theory that whatever happens (including human acts) is caused by something else. Physical Determinism maintains that the

egoism
See ETHICAL EGOISM and PSYCHOLOGICAL EGOISM.

emotive meaning
Words have emotive meaning insofar as their meaning is to be elucidated in terms of the expression of feelings or attitudes (not

emotivism
Emotivism, or the emotive theory of moral judgements, maintains that moral utterances (

empirical
See A POSTERIORI.

empiricism
The doctrine that knowledge comes from experience, i.e. is A POSTERIORI.

epistemology
The branch of philosophy that involves the study of knowledge.

equivocation
A form of FALLACY where an ambiguity arises because a term or phrase has been used in two different senses within the one argument. E.g. The college has a special scholarship designed for poor students. My lecturer says that I

ethical egoism
The doctrine that acts are right solely insofar as they are advance the agent

ethical hedonism
The doctrine that acts are right solely insofar as they promote pleasure (or happiness). Compare UTILITARIANISM.

ethics
The branch of philosophy that deals with moral issues. Key questions in ethics include: What is it right (or wrong) to do? Do the intentions behind an action determine its goodness or does the actual outcome of the action matter more? Are there any universal ethical rules?

expedient/cy
In ordinary speech, what is expedient (= useful or convenient) may be contrasted with what morality or justice demands, but Mill sometimes uses

factual
When philosophers speak e.g. of a factual proposition or claim, they usually mean that it is true or false, especially that it is an EMPIRICAL or at least non-ANALYTIC truth or falsehood. Hence

fallacy
A fallacy is a mistake in reasoning. A fallacious ARGUMENT is not a VALID argument.

falsifiability
A claim (or theory) is falsifiable if and only if there is some possible empirical observation which could show that it is false.

felicific
Productive of happiness or tending to make happy; more generally, involving happiness or having to do with happiness.

fideism
Holds that religious beliefs are can not be justified by rational means, but only through faith.

first-person authority
I have first-person authority over a belief if it impossible for me to believe it falsely. A paradigmatic case of first-person authority is the claim that

foundationalism
An epistemological view which claims that we have two kinds of knowledge or beliefs: basic beliefs which are obvious or self-justifying and non-basic beliefs which are justified by those basic beliefs. The basic beliefs explain why the justification of knowledge does not involve an INFINITE REGRESS.

high redefinition
Fallacy in which the meaning of a word is narrowed in an attempt to defend a questionable proposition (

inductive argument
An argument in which a general conclusion (i.e. one applying to all instances) is derived from a premise or premises concerning one or many instances (but not all instances).

infinite regress
A chain or series that goes on forever. An infinite regress arises where we posit X 1 and, for whatever reason we posited X 1, we also have to posit X 2 and X 3 and so on without stop. (

intuition
(1) According to INTUITIONISM, a special faculty or power of apprehending moral truths; also any exercise or product of that faculty.

intuitionism
(1) The theory that there are moral truths, the apprehension of which involves the exercise of a power of INTUITION. This supposed power of intuition is usually likened to our power of apprehending truths independently of sense-experience in maths and logic. Intuitionists tend to be deontologists as well (see DEONTOLOGY), though it may be that logi...

logic
The branch of philosophy that deals with the formal properties of arguments and the philosophical problems associated with them. Central questions in logic include: What is a good argument? How can we work out if an argument is good or not? What are paradoxes? Can they be resolved? How can we talk meaningfully about objects that don

low redefinition
Fallacy in which the meaning of a word is stretched in an attempt to defend a questionable proposition (

materialism
The claim that only material (physical) things exist. Often used in PHILOSOPHY OF MIND in contrast to the claim that mental objects and events cannot be reduced to physical objects and events.

metaphysics
The branch of philosophy which studies the underlying structure of reality. Central questions in metaphysics include: Can we act freely? What is it for something to exist? How are causes related to their effects? What is time? What is space? How is change possible?

natural theology
Knowledge of God which is obtained by reason alone, without the aid of revelation.

necessary / necessity
Necessity is signified by a

necessary condition
X is a necessary condition of Y if there cannot be Y without X. Thus, being unmarried is a necessary condition of being a bachelor, breaking eggs is a necessary condition of making an omelette, and under Scots law, corroboration is a necessary condition of being found guilty. Contrast with SUFFICIENT CONDITION.

omnipotence
Omnipotence is all-powerfulness. Many religions view God as omnipotent. Descartes discusses the possibility of an omnipotent demon who could manipulate our thoughts and deceive us.

omniscience
Omniscience is the property of knowing everything. Many religions view God as omniscient.

ontology
The branch of METAPHYSICS which studies the nature of existence. Central questions include: What kinds of objects exist? What is it for something to exist?

philosophy of mind
The branch of philosophy which studies the nature of the mind. Central questions in the philosophy of mind include: Is it possible for a machine to think? How is the mind related to the brain? Do animals have minds? How can I know that anyone else has a mind? (This last one is sometimes called the problem of other minds.)

philosophy of religion
The branch of philosophy which discusses the nature and existence of God. Central questions include: Does God exist? What sort of evidence could justify belief in God? If there is a God, why is there so much suffering in the world? Is there life after death? Do we have souls? How could we know anything about God?

philosophy of science
The branch of philosophy which analyses the nature and results of scientific inquiry. Central questions include: Do scientist describe reality or just appearances? Can we have good reason to believe in the existence of unobservable entities (e.g. quarks)? What happens when one scientific theory replaces an older theory?

physical determinism
See DETERMINISM.

political philosophy
The branch of philosophy that discusses freedom, justice, rights, democracy and other political issues. Central questions include: Is democracy the best form of government? How can we balance rights and responsibilities?

premises
The part of an ARGUMENT which gives reasons for accepting the CONCLUSION.

prudence
(adjective:

psychological determinism
See DETERMINISM.

psychological egoism
The doctrine that a person actually pursues nothing but his own interests. Note carefully how it differs from ETHICAL EGOISM.

psychological hedonism
The doctrine that a person actually pursues nothing but her own pleasure [or happiness].

rationalism
The doctrine that genuine knowledge, or at least the most significant kind of knowledge, is not established by sense-experience, or at least not by sense-experience alone, and so is wholly or at least to a significant extent A PRIORI. Contrast EMPIRICISM

refute
To refute a proposition or theory is to establish or prove that it is false. Lately many people have taken to using

rule-utilitarianism
See UTILITARIANISM.

scepticism
Scepticism is the claim that knowledge is either impossible or very difficult to obtain. Global scepticism is scepticism about all branches of knowledge. There are also several forms of local scepticism which involve scepticism about one or more areas of knowledge. E.g. local scepticism about the external world may lead to SOLIPSISM.

solipsism
A form of SCEPTICISM. Solipsism is the belief that nothing exists except my mind and the creations of my mind.

sound
A sound ARGUMENT is a VALID argument in which all of the PREMISES are true.

sufficient condition
X is a sufficient condition of Y if, where there is X, there must be Y. Thus, being a bachelor is a sufficient condition of being unmarried, cutting off someone

synthetic
Best understood as the opposite of

theodicy
An argument which tries to explain how a good and all-powerful God could create a world with suffering and evil in it.

truth-value
A proposition

utilitarianism
The doctrine that acts are right solely in so far as their consequences maximise the general happiness (in some versions: maximise the general pleasure; in some versions: maximise the general welfare). It is controversial whether the general happiness must be interpreted as the happiness of the majority.

valid
Term of appraisal applying to arguments. An argument is valid if the truth of the premise(s) really does warrant us in asserting the truth of the conclusion. In philosophy, avoid using

verification principle
An account of meaningfulness which claims that all and only those sentences which can be empirically verified are meaningful. Particularly associated with the philosophers of the Vienna Circle.

a posteriori
The opposite of

a priori
A priori knowkedge is knowledge which can be established independently of experience or reasoning from experience. Examples of a priori truths: