Conception, Nature, Scope and Problems of Philosophy

These vocabulary flashcards provide definitions for key terms, philosophical schools, and major figures discussed in the study of the nature, scope, and problems of philosophy.

Philein

The Greek word meaning "to love."

Sophia

The Greek word meaning "wisdom."

Wisdom (Ancient Greek definition)

The ability to draw meaning from experience, judge experience wisely, and see beyond what merely meets the eyes.

Thales

An ancient Greek philosopher from Miletus who identified the "basic stuff" of reality as water.

Apeiron

A term used by the philosopher Anaximander meaning the "limitless something" which is neither a substance nor an empirical object.

Linguistic Turn

A 20th-century shift in Western philosophy, particularly in Britain and the USA, where the central task became the logical and semantic analysis of language.

Noam Chomsky

A renowned grammarian who argued that philosophy marks out the deep structures of language from their "surface structure."

Socrates

The father of Western philosophy who viewed philosophy as the search for the ideal life and how to live it, famously demonstrating obedience to state laws even in death.

Existence Precedes Essence

The existentialist view that man exists first of all appearances and defines himself before turning to understand the world.

Metaphysics

The branch of philosophy concerned with fundamental questions about reality and existence, such as "Why is there something and not nothing?"

Materialism

The school of thought holding that the world and man are purely material and that there are no spirits.

Idealism

The school of thought maintaining that the world is essentially spiritual and that man is a spiritual being.

Dualism

The school of thought holding that the world and man are composed of both spiritual and material elements.

Epistemology

The study of the nature, origin, scope, limits, and reliability of human knowledge.

Noumena

A term used by Immanuel Kant to describe things that are beyond human knowledge.

G.W.F. Hegel

A philosopher who disagreed with Kant, arguing that nothing is beyond human knowledge or the cognitive power of human reason.

Sceptics

Philosophers who deny that man can ever know anything with absolute certainty.

Ethics

The core area of philosophy concerned with morality, right and wrong, and determining the moral standard of behavior.

Jurisprudence

Also called the Philosophy of Law, it raises questions about the nature of law, justice, and legal obligations.

Philosophy of Religion

The branch of philosophy exploring concepts such as the existence of God, the nature of evil, and whether religion can exist without the concept of God.

Philosophy of Mind

The study of the nature of the mind and the problem of how the spiritual mind interacts with the material body.

African Philosophy

A branch of philosophy that debates its own distinguishing characteristics, its "Africanness," and the implications of being written in foreign languages.

Ontologists

Philosophers who study "Being," described as the ultimate source from which all things derive their existence.

Scope of Philosophy

The area or range covered by philosophy, the boundaries of which are debated between different schools of thought like materialism and idealism.