History Midterm Terms

Epistemology

the discipline that deals with theory of knowledge.

Christian Epistemology

recognizes ontological Trinity as ultimate starting point of all knowledge, every fact must be recognized as created fact, or it can’t be properly known.

Logic

science of correct reasoning; it builds from fundamental laws of reality and truth, the principles that make rational thought possible.

Philosophy of Science

study of nature and status of scientific truth claims, and of the methods of science that lie behind those claims.

Determinism

philosophy that all events, whether involving inanimate matter or conscious beings like humans, are completely determined by previous events.

Free Will

capacity to choose, people thruout history have considered it the most unique and definitive quality of human beings, the one that supposedly shows we have souls, or consciousness, and makes us morally responsible and free.

Ontology

the study of being, ontology and metaphysics are used interchangeably. Both study being as being or the real as real. They are the disciplines that deal with ultimate reality.

Absolutism

the idea that reality, truth, or morality is “absolute”— the same for everybody, everywhere, and every-when, regardless of individual culture or cognition, or different situations or contexts.

Deism

 is a form of Monotheism in which it is believed that one God exists, but that this God does not intervene in the world, or interfere with human life and the laws of the universe.

Metaphysics

branch of philosophy concerned with the nature of existence, being and the world. Arguably, metaphysics is the foundation of philosophy: Aristotle calls it "first philosophy" (or sometimes just "wisdom"), and says it is the subject that deals with "first causes and the principles of things."

Theology

the study of the being, attributes, and works of God (i.e., ‘theology proper’)

Anthropology

the philosophical/theological study of man.

Psychology

 the scientific study of the human mind and its functions, especially those affecting behavior in a given context.

Cosmology

the study of (or speculation about) the universe as a whole and its history.

Philosophy of history

 reflection on the overall shape and direction (if any) of history

Eschatology

the study of ‘the end’ of history, theologically, the divinely appointed consummations of the individual, race and world.

Atheism

lack of a belief in gods or a belief that there is no god.

Causality

the principle that there is a cause for everything that happens.

Soteriology

the (theological) study of salvation

Ethics

the study of morality, right, wrong, the law of God, and related ideas

Politics

political philosophy, related to the theories and activities associated with the governance of a country.

Economics

The branch of knowledge concerned with the production, consumption and transfer of wealth.

Argument

A series of statements with the goal of persuading someone of something.

Aesthetics

The quality of something that brings pleasure or delight to the senses, or satisfaction and meaning to the mind through its appearance, value, usefulness, or desirability; in the theological sense, this quality is exhibited by God and instilled in creation.

Teleology

The doctrine that behind all things there is a final cause, and that all developments occur according to design or purpose.

Empirical

Dependent on, or in some way related to experience.

Conscience

is a faculty of the mind that motivates us to act morally—or at least according to our most deeply held values.

Critical Thinking

is the ability to reflect on (and so *improve*) your thoughts, beliefs, and expectations.

Idealism

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

Pantheism

is the view that the world is either identical to God, or an expression of God's nature. “God is everything and everything is God.”

Rationalism

is the epistemological view that "regards reason as the chief source and test of knowledge" or "any view appealing to reason as a source of knowledge or justification"

Material (physical) and immaterial (spiritual)

Dualism in metaphysics is the belief that there are two kinds of reality:

Humanism

is a belief in the value, freedom, and independence of human beings.

Scientificism

Theory or belief that all phenomena can be scientifically explained.

Monism

the metaphysical and theological view that all is one, and there are no fundamental divisions.

Aseity

is the absolute self-sufficiency, autonomy and independence of God.

Philologist

Love of learning and literature; the branch of knowledge that deals with (the linguistic, historical, interpretative, and critical aspects of).

Materialism

The theory that the only things that are real are objects that can be experienced through the senses (seeing, hearing, feeling, touching, smelling).

Phenomenology

the study of “phenomena”: appearances of things, or things as they appear in our experience, or the ways we experience things, thus the meanings things have in our experience.

Physicalism

The thesis, developed within empiricism, that every descriptive term in the language of science (in the widest sense, including social science) is connected with terms designating observable properties of things.

Agency

the capacity for humans to make choices and to impose those choices on the world.

A posteriori

where knowledge is possible only subsequent, or posterior, to certain sensory experiences, in addition to the use of reason (empirical).

A priori

where knowledge is possible independently of, or prior to, any experience, and requires only the use of reason (non-empirical).

Axiom

a proposition that is not proved or demonstrated but considered to be self-evident and taken for granted.

Consciousness

the faculty which perceives and identifies things that exist, and the relationship between oneself and one's environment.

Contingency

the status of facts that are not logically necessarily true or false (the possibility of something happening or not happening).

Deductive Reasoning

reasoning that proceeds from general principles or premises to derive particular information (what follows necessarily from given premises).

Dialectic

the exchange of arguments and counter-arguments, respectively advocating propositions (theses) and counter-propositions (antitheses), in arriving at a conclusion (synthesis).

Emergence

the way complex systems and patterns arise (emerge) out of a multiplicity of relatively simple interactions.

Entity

something that has a distinct and separate existence, although not necessarily a material existence.

Essence

the attributes that make an object or substance what it fundamentally is, and that it has necessarily.

Existence

the state or fact of existing or being (the continuance in being or life).

Formal Language

an organized set of symbols which can be precisely defined in terms of just the shapes and locations of those symbols, without any reference to any meanings or interpretations.

Forms (Platonic Forms)

the universal concepts or ideas which make all of the phenomenal world intelligible (the essences of objects, rather than their physical forms or appearances).

Hermeneutics

the study of theories of the interpretation and understanding of texts (often the Bible).

Normative

indicative of how things should or ought to be (as opposed to positive or descriptive).

Noumenon

the intellectual conception of a thing as it is in itself, not as it is known through perception (c.f. Phenomenon).

Object

a thing, an entity or a being, that can have properties and bear relations to other objects. They are usually types of particulars, but there can also be abstract objects.

Phenomenon

a thing as it appears to be, as constructed by the mind and perceived by the senses.

Scientific Method

the collection of data through observation and experimentation, and the formulation and testing of hypotheses.

Social Contract

that idea people give up some rights to a government and/or other authority in forming nations in order to jointly preserve or maintain social order and security.

Tabula Rasa

the idea that individual human beings are born with no innate mental content, but their knowledge is built up gradually from their experiences and sensory perceptions of the outside world (literally, "blank slate").

Theodicy

an attempt to reconcile the existence of evil or suffering in the world with the belief in an omniscient, omnipotent and benevolent God.