Metaphysics Key terms

Chapter 4 Key Terms:

Dualism: The view that reality consists of ultimately of two fundamentally different kinds of things or properties: minds and matter, or mental states and physical states

Essence: The intrinsic nature of something, separate from its physical appearance

Form: The essence of quality in a thing that makes it what it is

Idealism: The theory that reality is based on the mind or ideas

Materialism: A theory that reality consists only of matter

Monism: The belief that reality is based on one unified all-encompassing substance or principle

Ontology: The area of philosophy that studies the nature of being and reality

Substance: A thing that underlies or supports a phenomenon and that is separate from its properties

Taoism: A philosophy that holds that nature is ordered by the balance between positive and negative forces, which underlie the existence of all things

Ultimate Reality: The absolute nature of all things, separate from the reality that is a product of the individual mind

Ultimate truth: The truth about the ultimate nature of reality as experienced by someone who is completely enlightened

Chapter 5 Key Terms:

Agent intelligent: The mind of god

Eliminative Materialism: A theory that our understanding of the mind is deeply mistaken and full of confusion

Functionalism: a theory that there are many kinds of brains that can support the same thoughts and perceptions

Identity theory: The theory that types of mental events, such as thoughts, correlate to types of physical events in the brain

New mysterianism: A theory that the human mind is structured in such a way that there are and always will be unsolved problems

Objective facts: Facts that can be accessed from more than one point of view

Qualia: Subjective conscious experiences or sensations

Subjective facts: Facts that can be accessed only from the point of view of the experiencer

Chapter 6 Key Terms:

Agnosticism: The belief that the existence of a deity or deities cannot be known or proven

Argument from design: The argument that the existence of order in nature implies that there must be some supremely intelligent agent who is responsible for creating this order

Argument from insufficient evidence: An argument that fails to provide sufficient evidence or reasoning to support a claim; often used in reference to the belief that there is not enough evidence to prove the existence of god

Ataraxia: a state of inner stillness

Atheism: The belief that there is no such thing as a deity

Cosmological argument: The argument that whatever exists must come from something else, so there must be a deity that caused the universe to exist

Deism: The belief that a supreme being exists but does not influence the lives of humans

Existentialism: The belief that there is no objective or absolute meaning in life and that the meaning of a person’s life must be invented or chosen by that person in full awareness of the groundlessness of existence

Hedonism: The belief that the meaning of life is founded in pleasure or happiness

Monotheism: The belief that there is only one supremely perfect omnipotent, omniscient and omnibenevolent being

Ontological argument: An argument that does not rely on any form of empirical observation evidence, or date, but is a prior argument, relying entirely on the logic of concepts

Panentheism: The belief that everything that exists is in god, there is nothing outside of god and nothing beyond god’s reality, and that god is not a person or distinct from its creation

Pantheism: The belief that god and the universe are identical, that god has no personal or anthropomorphic characteristics, and that god is not distinct from its creation

Perceiver relativity argument: The argument that an object of perception can look different ways to different perceivers

Pessimism: The belief that life has a negative value and that the world is as bad as it could possibly be

Polytheism: The belief that there are many deities, each with a particular role in the creation or governance of the world

Theism: The belief that there is a deity that is distinct from and transcends the world, which it created and intervenes in