Introduction to Philosophy and Ancient Greek Context

Vocabulary flashcards reviewing core philosophical terms, branches of philosophy, and historical ancient Greek context from the lecture.

Metaphysics

A broad area of philosophy dealing with questions of what is real, including questions about matter, immaterial souls, and cause-and-effect relations.

Ontology

The study of being, derived from the Greek word for being ($on$) combined with the suffix -ology.

Epistemology

The branch of philosophy concerned with the study of knowledge, derived from the Greek word episteme.

Episteme

The Greek word variously translated as knowledge or science, which forms the root of epistemology.

Value Theory

A broad category of philosophy that encompasses ethics (moral philosophy), aesthetics, and political philosophy.

Axiology

A traditional, rarely used term for value theory.

Logic

One of the four main branches of philosophy, derived from the Greek word logos.

Logos

The Greek word meaning study of or reason, from which both logic and the suffix -ology derive.

Cosmos

An ancient Greek term originally meaning order, ornament, decoration, or embellishment, which came to denote the world as an ordered system.

Theogony

A long poem written by Hesiod giving an organized account of the birth and origins of the gods, combining the root for gods (theo-) with the suffix for account of origin (-gony).

Hesiod

An ancient Greek poet who wrote the Theogony shortly after Homer, serving as a key representative of the mythological cultural background from which philosophy emerged.

Miletus

An ancient Greek city located on the Ionian Coast, founded by immigrants from Athens during the transition from the Bronze Age to the Dark Age, and home to the Milesian philosophers.

Ionian Coast

The west coast of Turkey that was settled by migrating Greeks from mainland Greece.

Thales

An ancient Greek figure identified as the first philosopher, living one or two hundred years after Hesiod.