Philosophy and the Nature of Reality Lecture Notes

Detailed vocabulary flashcards covering concepts of reality, epistemology, causality, logical fallacies, psychological biases, and perspectives on human personhood.

Reality

Things that have existed in the past and things that are yet to exist

Concrete reality

Physical phenomena that can be perceive with our senses

Abstract reality

Non physical concepts

Metaphysics

Explores the ultimate nature of reality

Ontology

Philosophical study of existence and realty

General ontology

Existence as a whole

Regional/applied ontology

Specific domains of existence

Certainty

Foundational concept of epistemology

Cartesian Doubt

Doubting everything

Rationalism

Reason and intellect

Priori Knowledge

Logical deduction, reason and self-avident concepts

Empiricism

Human knowledge comes from primary experience

Posterioiri Knowledge

Information that relies on empirical evidence

Skepticism

Doubting or questioning attitude toward knowledge claims (being skeptic)

Question of Causality

How and why events are connected explained through $4$ ways

Material cause

What is it made of

Formal cause

Shape or design

Efficient cause

Who or what made it

Final cause

What its purpose

Agency

Ability to make choices and act on them

Choice

Picking one option from multiple choices

Internal limits

Habits and feelings

External limits

Physical world or laws

Determinism

All events are completely caused by prior occurrence and laws of nature

Destiny

Ultimate inescapable future meant to a person

Etiology

Studies why things happen or exists

Teleology

Intended outcome

FALLACY

Arguments intended to support a conclusion

Argumentum ad hominem

Attacking the person

Argumentum ad baculum

Appeal to force

Argumentum ad misericordiam

Appeal to pity

Argumentum ad populum

Appeal to majority

Argumentum ad antiquities

Appeal to tradition (always been that way)

Fallacy of Division

Whats true for the group is also true for the every member

Petitio Principii

Begging the question

Argumentum ad Verecordiam

Someone perceived as an authority

Facts

Can be proven to be true using evidence

Opinion

Personal beliefs, feelings or interpretations

Evidence

Data providedd to support a statement

Hard evidence

Facts, statistics, scientific data, measurements, etc.

Soft evidence

Appeal to force authority, anecdotes

BIAS

One sided preference toward a perspective or idea

Correspondence Bias

Assumes a person's behavior is caused by their personality

Confirmation bias

Supports what we already believe

Framing

Ways information is presented affects how we understand it

Hindsight Bias

We knew it would happen “all along”

Conflict of Interest

Personal benefit or interest may influence their judgement

Cultural Bias

Judging people based on their cultural background

Biological perspective

Considers man as a part of the natural world and product of evolution

Psychological Perspective

Human behavior & thought process in analyzing human nature

Enactivism

Organism and its environment

Economic Perspective

Homo economicus (economic man), self interest in his desire to posess wealth

Social and Political Perspective

No individual is fully self sufficient

Human Person

Individuality

Sentience

Awareness of the self

The self as innate

Natural part of the human being and self awareness play an essential role

The self as emergent

Gained through self interaction with the world

The self as Integrated and Developing

Self is composed of varied elements that change over time

Identity

Perisist through time

Personhood

Distinct entity

The person as an Autonomous being

Possesses the ability to determine his or her life through reasoned free choice

Autonomy

Someone who give laws to himself

The person as a unified individual

A human being has an inherent capacity to function as a person

The person in relation to others

Human being becomes a person through interaction with others

The person is a transcendent being

A human being is always moving, changing, and evolving