Aesthetics
Branch of philosophy concerned with the principles of art and the notion of beauty
Analytic Philosophy
A view of philosophy that sees its aim as clarification-the clarification of concepts, statements, methods, arguments, and theories by carefully taking them apart
Epistemology
The branch of philosophy concerned with what sort of thing, if anything, we can know; how we know it; and what knowledge is. In practice it is the dominant branch of philosophy
Ethics
A branch of philosophy that is concerned with questions about how we should live, and therefore about the nature of right and wrong, good and bad, ought and ought not, duty, and other such concepts
Logic
The branch of philosophy that makes a study of rational argument itself-its terms, concepts, rules, and methods
Metaphysics
The branch of philosophy concerned with the ultimate nature of what exists. It questions the natural world "from outside", and its questions cannot be answered by science.
Ontology
A branch of philosophy that asks what actually exists, as distinct from the nature of our knowledge of it, which is covered by the branch of epistemology.
Philosophy
Literally, "the love of wisdom." The word is widely used for any sustained rational reflection about general principles that has the aim of achieving a deeper understanding.
Philosophy of Religion
The branch of philosophy that looks at human belief systems and the real or imaginary objects, such as gods, that form the basis for these beliefs.
Philosophy of Science
A branch of philosophy concerned with the nature of scientific knowledge and the practice of scientific endeavor.
Political Philosophy
The branch of philosophy that questions tee nature and methods of the state and deals with such subjects as justice, law, social hierarchies, political power, and constitutions.
Scepticism
The view that it is impossible for us to know anything for certain.
Presocratics: Monism
A view of something as formed by a single element; for example, the view that human beings do not consist of elements that are ultimately separable, like a body and a soul, but are of one single substance.
Mozi: Jian Ai
Universal love, we should care for all people equally, regardless of the status or their relationship to us
Plato's Theory of Forms
for every earthly thing that we have the power to perceive with our senses, there is a corresponding "Form" - an eternal and perfect reality of that thing-in the world of ideas.
Rationalism
The view that we can gain knowledge of the world through the use of reason without relying on sense-perception, which is regarded by rationalists as unreliable
Empiricism
The view that all knowledge of anything that actually exists must be derived from experience
Aristotle's Theory of Forms
Things in the material world are not imperfect copies of some ideal Form themselves, but the essential form of a thing is actually inherent in each instance of that thing.
Teleology
A study of ends or goals. A teleological explanation is one that explains something in terms of the ends that it serves.
Dualism
A view of something as made up of two irreducible parts, such as the idea of human beings as consisting of bodies and minds, the two being radically unlike
Materialism
The doctrine that all real existence is ultimately of something material.
Idealism
The view that reality consists ultimately of something nonmaterial, whether it be mind, the contents of mind, spirits, or one spirit
Presocratics
-First philosophers; before Socrates
-were obsessed with "the one and the many
The One and the Many
What is the one thing that all things have in common and underlying multiple appearances.
Thales's view of the arche
Everything is water
Pythagoras' view of the arche
Everything is number
Parmenides; view of the arche
-Everything is one.
-Permanent form cannot change because something that is permanent cannot change into something else without it ceasing to be permanent.
-Fundamental change is IMPOSSIBLE
-All that is real must be eternal-"all is one
Relativism
-Truth is relative to the beliefs of an individual or culture (sophists)
Socrates
Knowledge is virtue"- "There is only one good: knowledge"
-Thought evil was done because of lack of wisdom and knowledge
-Spent his life search for definitions using the method of Socratic ignorance
-He believed that if we know what things are, then we w
Substance
an individual thing, for example, a man or a horse
Accident
A characteristic of a substance, for example, a man's knowledge or a horse's strength
Material cause
what a thing is made of (humans: flesh and bones)
Formal cause
What a thing is by nature (humans: a human being)
Efficient cause
what a thing was made by (humans: parents)
Final cause
what a thing's end or telos is (humans: happiness)
Actuality
what a thing is or is doing
Potentiality
what has the possibility of being actualized; what a thing can be or can be doing.
Essence
that which is distinctive of a thing and makes it what it is
Necessary and sufficient conditions
A necessary condition is a true statement but may not make the entire argument true. A sufficient condition is what makes the argument true.
Hedonism
pleasure is the only good
Augustine
definition of evil
-States that evil is a lack of something that should be present (good)
-Better state: Evil is a privation of the Good
Boethius
God as eternal and how this resolves the apparent incompatibility between free will and divine foreknowledge.
Apophatic theology
negative theology, says what God is not
Kataphatic theology
positive theology, says what God is
3 main aspects of Aquinas' ethics
1) Desire for happiness and God
2) Virtue/Vice (Cardinal, our own efforts, Theological gifts)
3) Natural law: what is right ultimately be known by our nature
Existential Thomism
Emphasizes the role of being (existence, esse) in Aquinas' philosophy (Joseph Owens)
River Forest Thomism
Emphasizes the Aristotelian elements of Aquinas' philosophy (form/matter & act/potency) and their place in modern science (William Wallace)
Transcendental Thomism
Integrates Kantian epistemology into Aquinas' philosophy (Bernard Lonergan)
Lublin Thomism
Uses phenomenology (analysis of experience) to present a Thomistic view of the human person (Thomistic Personlism) (Karol Wojtyla)
Analytic Thomism
Uses modern logic to express Aquinas' philosophy (Peter Geach)