Ancient Catholic Philosophy Final Exam Review

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering basic concepts in God, Reality, Truth, Self, Freedom, and Justice for the Ancient Catholic Philosophy Final Exam.

Theist

A person who believes in the existence of a god or gods.

Atheist

A person who disbelieves or lacks belief in the existence of God or gods.

Agnostic

A person who believes that nothing is known or can be known of the existence or nature of God.

Religious syncretism

The blending of different beliefs and various schools of thought into a single religious tradition.

God as Transcendent

The conception of God as being beyond the ordinary world of human experience.

God as Immanent

The conception of God as not outside of us or distinct from the Universe.

Pantheism (Spinoza)

The belief that God is everything and identical to the universe.

Deism

The belief in God as a Transcendent Creator or an impersonal 1st principle of physics who remains distant from the world.

Moral Evil

Evil that is done or perpetrated by human beings.

Non-moral Evil

Evil resulting from natural causes such as diseases and natural disasters.

Cosmological Argument

Thomas Aquinas's argument for God's existence based on the necessity of a first cause for everything.

Argument from Design

The argument for God's existence based on the perceived order and purpose in the universe, associated with William Paley and C. Darwin.

Ontological Argument

St. Anselm's 11th-century argument that the very idea of God makes it necessary that He exists.

Rational Faith (Kant)

The belief that God is rationally necessary for a person to be morally good and to provide a foundation for morality and justice.

Irrational Faith (Kierkegaard)

The view that faith is an intensely personal commitment or 'leap' that is not subject to proofs or reason.

Mysticism

A direct experience or vision of God that cannot be completely described or communicated to others.

Ontology

The study of what is real and the effort to establish a hierarchy of levels of reality.

Metaphysics

An interpretation of the world that attempts to say what reality is.

Cosmology

A branch of metaphysics concerning how most real things came into being.

Thales

A Pre-Socratic materialist who believed reality is ultimately water.

Democritus

A Pre-Socratic materialist who believed reality consists of tiny atoms.

Logos

The underlying logic or mind of God; Heraclitus viewed it as the basis of change, while Plato viewed it as the mind of God.

Plato's Ideals/Forms

The theory that the unseen eternal world is more real than the seen material world.

Aristotle's Substance + Essence

The view that forms coexist within the material world and that reality is found in everyday material objects like trees and roads.

Idealism

The philosophy that what is real is the Mind, and things are real only insofar as they are experienced by the mind.

Monism (Spinoza)

The belief that there is only one universal substance in reality, and individuality is an illusion.

Monads (Leibniz)

Immaterial substances created by God that do not interact with each other even though they appear to.

The Will (Schopenhauer)

An irrational, violent force inside us that creates desires and passions and drives us to act to no purpose.

Teleology

The view that the world has a goal or purpose and is continually developing toward it.

Epistemology

The theory of knowledge, exploring how we know things through facts or faith.

Empirical Truth

A truth that is known because of facts or experience; also known as a contingent truth.

Necessary Truth

A truth that is true a priori (prior to experience) and cannot possibly be false, such as $2+2=4$.

Rationalism

The confidence that human reason can provide final answers to philosophical questions, resulting in necessary truths.

Empiricism

The theory that all knowledge comes from experience and the rejection of innate ideas (e.g., John Locke's Tabula Rasa).

Cogito ergo Sum

Descartes's principle: 'I think, therefore I am,' proving existence through the act of thinking.

Hume’s Fork

The skepticism that there are only two kinds of truth: matters of fact and truths of reason.

Linguistic Determinism

The view that language structures the way we experience and think about the world.

Correspondence Theory of Truth

The theory that a statement is true if and only if it corresponds to the facts.

Coherence Theory of Truth

The theory that what is true is the belief that best fits into the overall network of one's experience and other beliefs.

Pragmatic Theory of Truth

The view that truth is determined by whether a belief allows us to function better or 'works' in practice.

Relativism

The idea that what is true for one person or group may not be true for another.

Essential Self

The set of characteristics that defines a particular person and does not change across different contexts.

The Egocentric Predicament

The problem arising from the idea that the individual self is at the center of all experience, making it difficult to know the existence of others.

Behaviorism

The denial of mental events, insisting that what we call 'mental' is simply a predisposition to behave in certain ways.

Identity Theory

The theory that mental events and brain processes are the same thing, despite having different descriptions.

Authentic Self

The image of what one wants to be, characterized by a sense of being incomplete and in process through free choice.

Bad Faith

Sartre's term for the denial of responsibility for one's self by pretending life is irrevocably defined by certain facts.

Determinism

The view that all events have an explanatory cause and there is no human freedom of choice or action.

Negative Freedom

The state of being free from something, such as jail, tyranny, or oppression.

Positive Freedom

The freedom to do something or act upon one's own will.

Compatibilism

A group of views, including soft determinism, that trial to show determinism and free will are compatible.

Utilitarianism

The ethical theory advocating for laws and policies that bring about the greatest good for the greatest number of people.

Categorical Imperative

Kant's moral principle intended to bring about an ideal community.

Utopia

Literally 'nowhere'; a concept of a perfect state of harmony first found in Plato and later in St. Thomas More’s work.

Plutocracy

A government or society ruled by the wealthy.

Meritocracy

A system where power is held by people selected on the basis of their ability.

Theocracy

A system of government in which priests or religious leaders rule in the name of God.

Oligarchy

A small group of people having control of a country, organization, or institution.

Retributive Justice

Justice focused on punishing criminals, wrongdoers, and the wicked.

Distributive Justice

A fair arrangement of the goods, benefits, and responsibilities within a society.