LANG Vocab

Epistemology

Study of knowledge: what counts as knowing and how we justify it

Metaphysics

Study of what exists or what reality is

Ethics

Study of right and wrong

Logic

Study of valid reasoning

Contradiction

Claims cannot both be true in the same sense and circumstances

Paradox

Claims seem incompatible but may both be true once distinctions are made

Rationalism

Reason and logic are primary sources of knowledge

Empiricism

Sensory experience is a primary source of knowledge

Skepticism

Questioning claims that are taken as knowledge

Idealism

In the version taught here, existence depends on a perceiving mind

Reductionism

Explaining a complex thing through its simpler components

Qualia

The subjective character of an experience

Correspondence

It matches the underlying reality

Pragmatic

It works better than competing ideas for a purpose

Coherence

It fits logically with other beliefs in a system