Glossary!

Welcome to my Glossary Page!

ARGUMENT

Argument:  coherent series of reasons, statements, or facts intended to support or establish a point of view(Argumentation lecture notes)

Deductive Argument: Author guarantees the true conclusion to be “deducted” given that the argument’s premises are true (Argumentation lecture notes)

Inductive Argument: An argument where if the premises were to be true, then it would be unlikely that the conclusion is false. Using past events to predict the future. (Argumentation lecture notes)

Premise: The assertion from which a conclusion is inferred.(Argumentation lecture notes)

Soundness: An Argument is sound if it is valid and all of its premises are true.(Argumentation lecture notes)

Conclusion: The final claim that is meant to be supported by the premises.(Argumentation lecture notes)

Valid Argument: an argument with a conclusion that must be true, based on deductive logic, assuming that all its premises are true. (Argumentation lecture notes)

Contradiction: Opposing ideas, statements, beliefs, or features of a situation. (Argumentation lecture notes)

Art and Reality

Mimesis: representation or imitation of the real world in art and literature. (Aristotle’s Poetics Notes)

Equanimity: The ability to have the calmness of mind or remain even-tempered in a difficult situation. (The Republic: Book X)

Muse: a person or personified force who is the source of inspiration for a creative artist. A Muse could also mean each of nine goddesses, the daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne, who preside over the arts and sciences. (The Republic: Book X)

Catharsis: The process of being relieved of strong or repressed emotion. (Aristotle’s Poetics Notes)

Meditation

Epistemology: the study, or a branch of philosophy, of knowledge. (Meditations 123 notes)

Foundationalism: the theory in Epistemology that beliefs can be justified based on basic or foundational beliefs (Meditations 123 notes)

Skepticism: the critical thinking process of inquiry whereby claims are evaluated by engaging in a rigorous examination of evidence and reasoning used to support those claims (Meditations on First Philosophy)

Rationalism: a belief or theory that opinions and actions should be based on reason and knowledge and not on superstition or emotions (Meditations on First Philosophy)

SELF

Self: a single thing which is the subject of all our experiences, which continues the same over time (hume mac identity notes)

Teleology: an explanation for something as a function of its end, purpose, or goal. (Of Personal Identity)

Empiricism: the theory that all knowledge is derived from sense-experience (Of Personal Identity)

Leibniz’s law: an ontological principle that states that there cannot be separate objects or entities that have all their properties in common. (Of Personal Identity)

Personal Identity: the fact of being who or what a person or thing is. (Of Personal Identity)

Accountable: I am responsible for being able to compose a life narrative. Where I can tell a story that makes the connection between who I am now and who I was in the past and I can describe how I became the person I am today. (Of Personal Identity)

Resemblance: When our present thoughts are similar to memories of the past, we associate those thoughts as belonging to the same thing. (hume mac identity notes)

Freedom and the Meaning of Life

Determinism : the doctrine that all events are ultimately determined by causes external to the will (The Obviousness of the Truth of Determinism)

Ontology: the philosophical study of being. (Frankfurt Notes)

Metaphysics:  branch of philosophy that deals with the first principles of things, including abstract concepts such as being, knowing, substance, cause, identity, time, and space. (Frankfurt Notes)

Volition: This is the desire one has to make a decision. (The Obviousness of the Truth of Determinism)

Freedom of Action: This is the ability to act on one’s first-order desires. (Frankfurt Notes)

Freedom of Will: This is the ability to be able to have the will that one wants to have. (Frankfurt Notes)

Existentialism: This is the school of philosophy that takes as its starting point the experience of the human subject—not just the thinking subject, but the acting, feeling, living human individual. (Existentialism humanism notes)