Introduction to Philosophy Review: Epistemology, Metaphysics, and Social Philosophy

Vocabulary practice flashcards covering central concepts, arguments, and traditions in epistemology, metaphysics, and social philosophy from Hume, Descartes, Shankara, Nägasena, Laozi, Nyaya, and Winner.

Hume's Problem of Bread Nourishment

The difficulty that appealing to past success does not independently prove that future cases must resemble the past when predicting that similar bread will nourish us.

Disagreement in Philosophy Texts

An important philosophical element that allows one to examine assumptions, compare arguments, and reconsider beliefs.

Subjective Experience of a Bat

The concept that behaving like a bat does not reveal what it is like to be a bat because our imagination is limited by our subjective experiences and our human point of view.

Impressions vs. Ideas (Hume)

Two classes of mental perceptions distinguished by vividness and emotion.

Ignorance (Shankara)

Defined by Shankara as the cause of bondage.

Philosophical Arguments (vs. Personal Opinion)

Distinguished by relying on evidence and reason to support conclusions.

Philosophy in Everyday Life

The practice of examining reasons behind beliefs and looking at different perspectives.

The 'Really Real' (Shankara)

That which qualifies as real by being permanent and unsublatable.

Mystical Experience Knowledge

Knowledge understood as demonstration that.

Doctrine of No Soul or Substance (Nagasana)

The teaching that there is no independent soul or substance because everything depends on something else for existence.

Personal Identity in Black Mirror

The philosophical question concerning whether personal identity is located in the physical body or the brain.

Certain Knowledge

Knowledge defined by having no possibility of doubt, illusion, or error.

Social and Political Philosophy

The study undertaken to understand how societies are organized regarding justice, power, rights, and responsibility.

Winner's Central Argument

The claim that technical artifacts and systems can embody specific forms of power and authority.

Winner's Approach (Highway Placement)

An analytical approach illustrated by asking how a technical arrangement (such as routing a highway through a politically uninfluential community) might establish patterns of power and authority among people.

Four Valid Means of Knowledge (Nyaya)

The four means of knowledge according to the Nyaya tradition: perception, inference, comparison, and testimony.

Indeterminate vs. Determinate Perception

Indeterminate perception is basic sensory contact, whereas determinate perception recognizes what the sensed thing is.

Distrust of the Senses (Descartes)

The argument that we cannot completely trust our senses because they sometimes deceive us about what we perceive.

Descartes' Method of Doubt

A systematic method whose primary goal is to discover whether anything can be known with absolute certainty.

Caution Regarding Desires (Laozi)

The view that people should be cautious of excessive desires and the pursuit of wealth or status because desires and competition can produce dissatisfaction and disrupt harmony.

Water Analogy (Laozi)

An example demonstrating how something soft and yielding can overcome what is hard and strong, illustrating that flexibility and yielding can be more effective than force.

Simile of the Chariot (Nägasena)

A philosophical analogy concluding that the chariot is merely a designation for parts arranged together, not an independently existing entity.

'Golden Mountain' Example (Hume)

An example used by Hume to show that the mind can combine ideas drawn from earlier impressions.

"The Sun Will Not Rise Tomorrow" (Hume)

A proposition conceivable without contradiction because statements about matters of fact are not demonstratively certain in the way relations of ideas are.