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Aporia

Greek term for an experience in which we arrive at a state of confusion when we realize that we hold contradictory viewpoints and/or premises. It’s distressing but important and productive. Socrates employed the ‘Aporetic Method’ in order to bring this about in people as a way of motivating the pursuit of wisdom

Epistemology

The branch of philosophy that focuses on trying to understand how we can best determine knowledge claims, truths, and the limits/possibilities of human understanding. It’s often referred to as ‘Theories of Knowledge,” and evaluates different claims about what counts as justified ‘knowledge’ as opposed to mere ‘opinions.’

Metaphysics:

The branch of philosophy that focuses on trying to understand (and make arguments about) the nature of existence/reality and the human place in it. While it includes ancient questions like “is their one substance at the root of all things?,” it is also interested in things that are not just of a ‘physicalist’ nature, such as “What’s the nature of Will? Of the Soul? And is there a reality behind the realm of Appearances?

Premise

A principle or assumption lying at the foundations of a viewpoint or claim.

Subjectivity

Personhood. Where a person is a “subject” in the sense of the subject of existence

Telos/Teleological

Greek term referring to Purpose-seeking in life. It contains the idea that a part of being a person (a ‘subject’) is that we live life in a purposeful project-oriented way

Action

Arendt’s term for the category of human living in which we express ourselves to the world and involve ourselves in society through speech and deeds. It is ongoing, a part of our unfolding ‘story’, in terms of how we use our freedom/agency to take initiative and insert ourselves into the social world. Action cannot be reversed, which means we should approach it responsibly. She also names two unique forms of Action that we need in life generally, and which can help set the Political on a proper course: making/keeping Promises, and Forgiving

Approximation

Kierkegaard’s term for the best that an Objective (logical) approach to the question of religious truth can do. Being ‘objective’ about such things is fine up to a point, but it will only ever get you an ‘approximate’ sense of the reality of God and the truth of faith. By contrast, ‘subjective’ certainty is needed. (See Passion, Inwardness, Paradox, and Objective vs. Subjective Faith)

Cosmology:

We looked at this specifically in relation to Native American Philosophy’s version of metaphysics, although Cosmology is also found in other forms of philosophy. It includes the study of the overall nature of reality (metaphysics), but it emphasizes a spiritual dimension in this reality. Thus, Native American cosmology sees the ‘sacred’ in all things and places. (See Great Spirit.)

Four Noble Truths

The original main teachings of the Buddha. They emphasize the reality of suffering as the human condition (because of our cycles of desire and dissatisfaction), and the importance of Nirvana and the Noble Eight-Fold Path as the way forward through such suffering

Free-Will Argument (in relation to question of God’s existence):

Critics of the Teleological Argument (see below) ask: If there is a supreme God who has designed and who governs the world so wonderfully, then why is there evil and suffering? A prominent Christian response (by St. Augustine, we mentioned), is that God gave humans freedom to make choices in their lives (‘free-will’) rather than ‘determine’ (control) them in every way; so, evil/suffering are a result of bad uses of free-will which affect ourselves and others

Great Spirit

The Native American cosmological term for the central God – Wakan Tanka. This God is the source of life and spirit for all things, and through which all things of nature (including people) are connected. It is also sometimes called the “Great Mystery.” It is both Transcendent and Immanent

Herd

Nietzsche’s metaphor for conformity. We just follow the social herd and think and behave like everyone else because we are fearful of doing anything that would make us not fit in with the status quo. As members of the herd, we are in a state of ‘Bad Conscience’ – not living up to our freedom and the responsibility we hold to craft our own meanings in life

Humanism:

Term that describes Nietzsche’s philosophy, especially how he thinks that ‘Man’ is the ‘perfection’ (the highpoint) of Nature by virtue of being the creator of Culture.

Images of Man:

In Nietzsche’s philosophy, the archetypes (i.e., representative role models) for what a good ‘Untimely’ way of thinking and living might look like. He describes these in relation to Rousseau, Goethe, and Schopenhauer. Later, he echoes the same idea when he calls for Philosophers, Artists, and Saints to rescue human ‘Culture’ from its decline under so-called modern ‘Progress.’

Immanence:

Term referring to life in the here and now as it is lived – i.e., the Existential horizon of things. This is a central focus in Nietzsche’s philosophy as well as Kierkegaard’s. In Nietzsche, the focus on immanence deliberately sets aside any claims about ‘Transcendent’ (higher, other-worldly) sources of truth and meaning. In Kierkegaard, there are ways in which an intersection between the Immanent and Transcendent may be found (namely in religious faith)

Inwardness:

Kierkegaard’s term for the realm of the deeply personal/subjective in people, which for him is where we, in faith, relate to God and religious truth. The use of Reason is involved, yes, but religious truth is not to be ultimately decided in a purely ‘mental’ way. He also says Inwardness is an important position from which we decide on other big truths of life

Job

Character in the book of ‘Job’ in the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament of Bible). He was a good person upon whom God brought immense suffering. Interpretations vary as to why God did this, and why the story is included in the Bible. But it is of interest because it seems to complicate arguments for God’s existence that claim evil/suffering are a result of human free-will, not divine initiative

Karma

In Buddhist philosophy, the centrality of ‘actions/deeds’ and the consequences they bring to our lives. It is not a calculus of rewards/punishments, just an identification of how good/bad consequences happen. The term serves to place an emphasis on the importance of acting well. It is hard to interpret the function of Karma when we are inside the moments of life. The idea of Karma respects how people are ‘free’, while also holding that the effects of their actions (just that there will be consequences of some kind) is ‘determined.’

Knowledge-How

The term that White (the author of our main textbook) uses to characterize a core tenet of Native American epistemology. Knowledge in this sense, and often conveyed through narrative (story), is focused on the informative nature of experience, of what ‘works’ in life, in which case understanding is essentially a practical endeavor. This is different from Knowledge-That, which is the typically Western way of establishing truth claims as being either True of False in a logical sense. To approach understanding in a Knowledge-How way is to link the skills of thought with the skills of living. It is pragmatic

Labor

Arendt’s term for the category of life in which we do things in relation to the natural world in order to simply live, like growing food. So, it concerns our Subsistence. It is a ‘cyclical’ toil, but can also contain some joy. There is, she says, an element of Labor in all our Work (such as in having to take exams, partly just to do well enough as a student in order to get where you need to get in order to ‘make a living’).

Noble Eight-Fold Path

Buddhist system of practices to perform in our lives in order to train ourselves in wisdom, in morality, and in concentration

Objective Faith vs. Subjective Faith

Distinction that Kierkegaard draws when he is making his philosophical case for Christianity. His point is that to approach Faith ‘objectively’ is to misconstrue it (over-rationalize it), and that the kind of truth and meaning that apply to Faith are of a more ‘subjective’ (relational) sort

Paradox

We’ve used this terms in relation to lots of issues, often linked with the term Aporia. One major instance relates to Kierkegaard’s view of religions truth. He means that it involves a paradox – a contradiction or puzzle – between Subjective Certainty about God and Objective Uncertainty about God. In other words, how could Faith be ‘true’ if it is certain on one hand, but uncertain on the other? He thinks this is a mystery, but a good one, and that the ‘paradox’ is something that religious believers rightly decide to accept. We’ve also studied paradox in Buddhist philosophy’s view of the ‘Self’: it holds that we must work on ourselves rigorously by abiding by the Four Noble Truths and by following the Noble Eight-Fold Path, but Buddhism also holds that there is no single, defined ‘self’ in anyone – what’s primary, rather, are ‘activities.’ As with Kierkegaard’s paradox of faith, this paradox of the self is also seen as a good mystery and not a bad ‘contradiction.

Passion

For Kierkegaard, Passion is the driving quality that the religious person needs in order for their faith to be authentic in terms of relating human Inwardness (see above) to the being of God. ‘Passion’ means being more deeply invested in committing yourself to something, even embracing the struggles that go with (in this case) practicing a real relationship to God. Passion also involves risk – you are risking committing yourself to something without the full assurance of objectivity. So, it’s not just about being hyper-emotional

Polis:

Ancient Greek term for City, Community – the place of core social interactions on which government is based. This is important for Arendt and her interest in looking at the roots of the ‘Political’ in the Vita Activa.

Polycentrism

In Native American philosophy, the idea that the truths of life and the cosmos are found through paying attention to multiple perspectives, like profiles, that various people have. Human understanding of core truths is attained not through competing logical arguments, but through collaborative sharing of perspectives. ‘Poly’ implies ‘many.’ The term also refers to how the Great Spirit (see above) is in multiple places, yet centralized as one large spiritual being.

Teleological Argument:

Refers to efforts to prove the existence of God by formative Christian philosophers, Aquinas & Paley. Aquinas argued from what is called the ‘Governance of the World,’ meaning that, based on what we see in the world. there must be some supreme being ‘upholding’ things in a well-organized and purpose-driven way. Paley offered what is called the ‘Argument from Design,’ claiming that the natural world (even just the human eye) is so intricate in how it operates that there must have been some divine architect or ‘Watchmaker.’ Both of these versions of the Teleological Argument have a broadly ‘empirical’ focus: they infer from observations about the world that there must be a God.

Untimely

Nietzsche’s term for thinking and living in a way that does not fit in with the standard operating ways of living. Think: Unfashionable. He admires ideas (like his own) and people (like Schopenhauer) for being this way because they refuse to go along with inauthentic modes of being.

Vita Activa

Arendt’s term for the life of human activities – life in-the-doing. Her categories of Labor, Work, and Action fall within this

Vita Contemplativa:

Arendt’s term for the life of thinking, contemplation. She values this but thinks a longstanding bias towards it has misconstrued the significance of the Vita Activa

Wheel of Life

In Buddhist philosophy, the term/image that represents the condition of being stuck in continued lives of suffering. The goal of attaining spiritual ‘enlightenment’ is to escape from this wheel and possibly attain Nirvana. Escaping from the Wheel of life (which will take many rebirths) means escaping from the body and all the afflictions of desire.

Will:

A big emphasis, supported by Nietzsche, in Schopenhauer’s philosophy. Will names the underlying reality of the natural world, like a kind of primary force of energy and longing. The Will is present in human beings as Desire. It is a burden most of the time because it almost seems more powerful than us. The power of Will in nature (and therefore in people) leads to lots of disappointment. And yet, simply recognizing this reality is, Nietzsche thinks, a very good and empowering thing.

Work:

Arendt’s term for the category of human life in which we make things/objects of our own design. We build the world, so to speak. We make/fabricate ‘artifacts’ that get finished and last long. This is not cyclical (whereas Labor is). Work can involve some ‘violence’ toward nature