Introduction to Philosophy and Its Historical Development

Vocabulary flashcards covering the definitions, core concepts, causes, principles, and historical periods of philosophy from Eastern and Western traditions based on the lecture transcript.

Zhi-Xué

The Chinese term for philosophy meaning "the study of wisdom", where Zhi means wisdom and Xué means study, symbolizing that words and actions should complement each other.

Darshana

The Hindu term for philosophy meaning "vision", an instrument of vision, a viewpoint, or a mode of seeing objectively and honestly without biases or prejudices.

Pythagoras

Great philosopher of ancient Greece (570-504 BC) who coined the term philosophy from the Greek words philo (love) and sophia (wisdom).

Wisdom

The right application of knowledge, involving deeper understanding of how knowledge can be put to good use for oneself and for others.

Knowledge

What is learned from the perception of things through the senses via reading, listening, and observing.

Sophists

Figures of ancient Greece who pretended to be wise by engaging in verbal arguments to impress rather than present the truth.

Philosophy

A science which aims to discover the ultimate nature, cause, and principle of things using human reason alone.

Science (in Philosophy)

A body of knowledge that is certain and systematized, systematically demonstrating its conclusions based on reasoned demonstrations of causes.

Nature

The "what-ness" of a thing, representing that which makes a thing what it is.

Formal Cause

The cause that answers the question: What is this thing?

Ultimate or Final Cause

The cause that answers the question: What is this thing for?

Material Cause

The cause that answers the question: What is this thing made of?

Efficient Cause

The cause that answers the question: Who made this thing?

Principle

That from which something proceeds, serving as the cause or reason that a thing exists.

Principle of Identity

The fundamental principle stating that whatever is, is a thing; whatever is not, is not a thing.

Principle of Contradiction

The fundamental principle stating that it is impossible for a thing to be and not to be at the same time.

Principle of Excluded Middle

The fundamental principle stating that a thing either is or is not, leaving no middle ground.

Principle of Sufficient Reason

The fundamental principle stating that nothing exists without a sufficient reason for its being and existence.

Human Reason

Thinking, reasoning, and contemplation combined with experience, observation, and reflection to form a solid rational method.

Age of Universal Animism

A pre-historic period in which the world was conceived of as a living being performing the different phenomena of nature.

Age of Anthropomorphism

A pre-historic period in which the world was conceived of as full of gods and genii, construed as men with superior nature whose acts explained all things.

Miletus

A coastal island city in the Aegean Sea where Western philosophical activity began in the 6th century B.C.

Naturalistic Period

The first period of Greek philosophy focused on the philosophy of nature and cosmological origin, featuring Thales as the first Greek philosopher.

Metaphysical Period

A crucial period in Greek philosophy focused on morality and justice, formed by the Sophists, Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle.

Ethical Period

The Greek philosophy period following Aristotle's death focused on finding a way of life worthy of a philosopher through reason (Stoics), senses (Epicureans), or distrusting both (Skeptics).

Religious Period

The period focused on resolving human life problems such as evil and death through religion, eventually seeing the emergence of Christianity.

Patristic Period

A sub-period of Christian philosophy where Church Fathers defended Christianity against attacks by pagans and heretics.

Scholasticism

An organized system of truths created by Christianity in harmony with dogmatic teachings, whose most recognized philosopher was St. Thomas Aquinas.

Modern Philosophy

A period rising in rejection of ancient and scholastic medieval philosophy that treated nature or man, rather than God, as the metaphysical absolute.

Humanism

A movement under Modern Philosophy that "divinized" human beings.

Renaissance

A movement under Modern Philosophy that "divinized" nature.

Rationalism

A post-Renaissance philosophical approach concerned with the impressions made on the intellect.

Empiricism

A post-Renaissance philosophical approach holding that experience, especially sense experience, observation, and experimentation, is the primary source of knowledge and test of truth.

Illuminism

Also known as the Enlightenment, a movement emerging around the French Revolution (1789) that was anti-historical and naturalistic, opposing past ages in the light of reason.

Idealism

A philosophical view, majorly developed by George Berkeley in the 18th century, holding that mind or spirit constitutes fundamental reality and that objects of knowledge are ideas existing in the mind.

Positivism

A 19th-century system elaborated by Auguste Comte that denied metaphysical speculations and a personal God, maintaining that sense experience data is the supreme criteria of knowledge.

Pragmatism

A contemporary philosophy that interprets concepts by tracing their practical consequences, holding that value is relative to utility.

Existentialism

A contemporary philosophy that analyzes the concrete human condition, freedom, and the requirement to constantly use freedom to answer daily challenges.