BSEH SS Philosophy flashcards

32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

Philosophy

Greek philosophia means love of wisdom; it is the rational inquiry into fundamental questions about existence, knowledge, value, reason, and meaning, using argument rather than mere opinion.

Socratic elenchus

A method of question-and-answer examination that tests a claim by drawing out implications and exposing contradictions, aiming at intellectual humility and clearer definitions.

Validity

In deductive logic, an argument is valid when its premises cannot be true while its conclusion is false; validity concerns form, not actual truth of premises.

Thought experiment

An imagined scenario used to test a philosophical principle or intuition by isolating relevant features, as in trolley cases or brain-in-a-vat skepticism.

Metaphysics

The branch of philosophy studying what exists, including substance, causation, modality, universals, mind, and free will, often through a priori conceptual argument.

Epistemology

The study of knowledge, belief, justification, and truth, asking what we can know, how knowledge is acquired, and when belief is rationally justified.

Gettier problem

Cases in which a person has justified true belief that is true only by luck, challenging the traditional analysis of knowledge as justified true belief.

Aesthetics

The branch of philosophy concerned with beauty, art, aesthetic experience, taste, and the nature and evaluation of artworks.

Brahman

In Vedānta, the ultimate reality underlying the universe; Advaita identifies Brahman with the true self, Ātman, while other schools qualify or distinguish them.

Anātman

The Buddhist doctrine of non-self: there is no permanent, unchanging self or soul; what we call a person is a changing bundle of physical and mental processes.

Anekāntavāda

Jain doctrine of many-sidedness: reality has multiple aspects, so assertive claims are true only from a particular standpoint, supporting intellectual tolerance and nonviolence.

Pramāṇa

A valid means of knowledge in Indian epistemology; major candidates include perception, inference, comparison, testimony, and sometimes presumption or non-apprehension.

Platonic Forms

In Plato, eternal, non-material paradigms of which sensible things are imperfect copies; knowledge concerns Forms, while opinion concerns the changing visible world.

Cogito ergo sum

Descartes’s ‘I think, therefore I am’: even systematic doubt presupposes a thinking subject, providing a foundational certainty for knowledge.

Categorical imperative

Kant’s unconditional moral principle: act only on maxims that could be willed as universal laws, and treat humanity as ends, never merely as means.

Phenomenology

A philosophical method, associated with Husserl, that describes the structures of conscious experience as they appear, bracketing assumptions about their independent existence.

Utilitarianism

A consequentialist theory holding that the right action maximizes overall well-being or happiness, classically developed by Bentham and Mill.

Deontology

An ethical theory holding that certain acts are right or wrong in themselves, irrespective of consequences; Kantian deontology grounds morality in duty and rational principles.

Virtue ethics

An approach centered on character traits such as courage and justice, asking what kind of person one should be and how eudaimonia or human flourishing is achieved.

Is-ought gap

Hume’s claim that one cannot derive normative conclusions about what ought to be done solely from descriptive premises about what is the case.

Ontological argument

An a priori argument that God, defined as the greatest conceivable being, must exist, since a being that exists in reality is greater than one that exists only in thought.

Problem of evil

The challenge that an omnipotent, omniscient, omnibenevolent God would not permit the amount and kinds of suffering found in the world.

Free will defense

A response to the problem of evil arguing that God permits evil because granting creatures significant free will is a great good that requires the possibility of moral evil.

Fideism

The view that religious faith rests on commitment or revelation rather than on rational argument or evidence, sometimes claiming reason is inadequate for ultimate matters.

State of nature

A hypothetical condition before political society, used by Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau to explain why people institute government and what limits it should have.

General will

Rousseau’s concept of the collective will aimed at the common good; obeying it is said to be freedom because it expresses citizens’ rational shared interest.

Harm principle

Mill’s principle that society may restrict individual liberty only to prevent harm to others, not merely to enforce moral disapproval or personal ideals.

Veil of ignorance

Rawls’s device for choosing principles of justice without knowing one’s talents, social position, or conception of the good, ensuring impartiality.

Satyagraha

Gandhi’s method of nonviolent resistance based on truth and ahimsa, using civil disobedience and self-suffering to convert opponents rather than coerce them.

Integral yoga

Sri Aurobindo’s spiritual path aiming at the transformation of all life, not mere escape, through the evolution of consciousness toward a divine supermind.

Practical Vedanta

Vivekananda’s interpretation of Vedānta as a this-worldly philosophy of strength, service, and universal spiritual humanism rather than world-denying renunciation.

Choiceless awareness

Krishnamurti’s notion of attentive observation without judgment, choice, or conditioned frameworks, allowing insight into the workings of the mind and suffering.