Introduction to Philosophy and Metaphysics Flashcards

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards generated from lecture notes covering key philosophical concepts, thinkers, theories of mind, human nature, and metaphysics.

Socratic Mission

Socrates' conviction that the greatest thing a person can do is question oneself and others to discover what makes us good.

Plato's Chariot Allegory

Plato's comparison of the soul to a chariot with a charioteer and two horses.

Metaphysics

The branch of philosophy concerned with the study of the ultimate or basic nature of reality.

Phenomenology Starting Point

Consciousness, which serves as the foundational starting point for phenomenologists in philosophical study.

Phenomenon

In phenomenology, that which appears or shows itself.

Intentionality of Consciousness

The claim that all mental activities are directed at something.

Turing Test

A test for determining artificial intelligence that involves being unable to distinguish between the responses of a computer and those of a human.

Belief in an Enduring Self

The claim that the self remains the same without change.

Pragmatism (Metaphysics)

The view held by pragmatists like William James that metaphysical disputes can be resolved by tracing each view's practical consequences to see if they make a real difference.

Oracle at Delphi

The entity that declared Socrates to be the wisest of men, a claim Socrates accepted as true because he knew he didn't know.

Dualism

The metaphysical view claiming that reality ultimately consists of two kinds of things, traditionally mind and body.

Atomistic View of the Self

The view held by Descartes and others that the self is essentially independent of its historical-social forces.

George Berkeley

An outstanding defender of metaphysical idealism who argued that to exist—that is, to be—is to be perceived.

Edmund Husserl's Phenomenological Method

The requirement that taking a phenomenological point of view requires us to put the world within brackets.

Traditional Greek View of the Soul

The view that the soul is composed of three parts: aggression, appetite, and reason.

David Hume's View of the Self

The view that if the self is to be known, it is known through perception, and that we have no constant and invariable idea of an enduring self.

Social View of the Self

The view, supported by Hegel, that the self is best understood as essentially a reflection of its historical-social forces.

Mental Residue Objection

A critique of materialism asserting that its fatal flaw is that reality seems to contain a mental residue beyond physics.

Aquinas' View of Human Nature

The traditional Christian view that wanting to know God is an essential aspect of human nature.

Behaviorism

A version of metaphysical materialism whose fundamental problem is accounting for the subjective feature of all consciousness.

John Locke's Personal Identity

The argument that personal identity or sameness of self resides in the continuity of memory.

Democritus

A fifth-century B.C.E. philosopher who expressed one of the earliest materialistic views of reality.

Theory of Natural Selection (Human Nature)

The theory claiming that there is a difference in degree between humans and all other creatures.

Myth of the Cave

Plato's allegory describing a group of people existing in ignorance at the bottom of a cave, where leaving is gradual, frightening, painful, and involves being dragged out reluctantly into the light of reality.

Socrates' Death Sentence

The legal condemnation of Socrates for the charges of impiety and corrupting the youth.

Realists vs. Anti-Realists Debate

A major debate in metaphysics turning on the claim that reality is external and independent of the consciousness of it.

Existentialism

The philosophical view that humans are self-defining creatures who create their own nature.

Thomas Hobbes

A contemporary and critic of René Descartes who argued that reality ultimately consists of matter in motion.

Problem of Mind-Body Interaction

One of the most formidable traditional problems facing any metaphysical theory of dualism.

Reductionist Theories

Theories claiming that mental phenomena are really some type of physical phenomena.

Judaic-Christian-Islamic View of Human Nature

The view holding that humans are created in the image of God, emphasizing our capacity for choice over the Greek emphasis on reason.

John Searle's Chinese Room Argument

An argument aimed at artificial intelligence demonstrating that computers only manipulate formal symbols.

The Buddha's View of the Self

The teaching that the idea of an enduring self is an illusion that produces suffering and egoism.

Hegel's Master-Slave Relation

The idea that the self's struggle for freedom forms the basis of the rise of masters and slaves.

Perictione

A female Greek philosopher who wrote that while other subjects study a particular aspect of the world, philosophy is concerned with all that exists.

Functionalism

A theory of mind holding that mental activities and states should be explained in terms of inputs and outputs.

Diotima

The philosopher who argued that unlike the gods, a mortal creature cannot remain the same throughout eternity.

Kant's Concept of the 'Real Me'

Immanuel Kant's view that the real self is a being who can choose or will for himself.

Subjective Idealism

The metaphysical view that the world consists of my own mind and things that are dependent on it.

Saint Augustine

The Christian philosopher who borrowed Plato's view that humans have an immaterial and immortal soul.

J.J.C. Smart

The philosopher who argued that there is a contingent identity between sensations and brain states.

Robert Nozick's View of Reality

The view stating that to say something is real is to say it has value, meaning, importance, and weight.