RBSE SS Philosophy flashcards

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

Pratyaksha

In Nyaya epistemology, pratyaksha is direct perception arising from contact between a sense organ and its object, and it is the first of four accepted pramanas.

Anumana

Anumana is inferential knowledge in Indian logic, knowing an unperceived fact from a perceived sign, as when smoke on a hill warrants knowledge of fire.

Triguna

Triguna are the three qualities of prakriti in Samkhya: sattva (clarity), rajas (activity), and tamas (inertia); their balance or imbalance explains mental and physical states.

Anekantavada

Anekantavada is the Jain doctrine that reality has multiple aspects; because no single description captures everything, syadvada qualifies assertions with 'somehow' and cautions against absolutism.

Maya in Advaita

In Advaita Vedanta, maya is the beginningless power of ignorance that makes the one Brahman appear as a manifold world, without being either wholly real or wholly unreal.

Cogito ergo sum

Descartes' cogito ergo sum means 'I think, therefore I am'; even radical doubt presupposes a thinking subject, providing a secure foundation for knowledge.

Platonic Form

A Platonic Form is a timeless, non-physical paradigm or essence that particulars imperfectly imitate; Forms ground genuine knowledge, while sensory things are objects of opinion.

Aristotelian golden mean

Aristotle's golden mean is the virtuous intermediate between excess and deficiency, chosen by practical wisdom relative to the agent and situation, as courage lies between rashness and cowardice.

Hume's fork

Hume's fork divides meaningful propositions into relations of ideas, known by reasoning and independent of experience, and matters of fact, grounded in experience; metaphysical claims lacking either basis are suspect.

Kant's categorical imperative

Kant's categorical imperative is an unconditional moral command binding rational agents; its universal-law formula requires acting only on maxims that could consistently become universal laws.

Modus ponens

Modus ponens is the valid inference from 'if P then Q' and P to Q; affirming the antecedent guarantees the consequent, unlike the fallacy of affirming the consequent.

Modus tollens

Modus tollens is the valid inference from 'if P then Q' and not-Q to not-P; denying the consequent forces denial of the antecedent, but denying the antecedent does not.

Middle term distribution

In a valid categorical syllogism the middle term must be distributed in at least one premise; otherwise the argument commits the fallacy of undistributed middle.

Falsifiability criterion

Popper's falsifiability criterion holds that a scientific hypothesis must forbid some observable occurrence; a claim compatible with every possible observation is not empirically scientific.

Mill's method of difference

Mill's method of difference compares two cases alike except for one factor and an effect; if the effect appears only where the factor is present, that factor is causally implicated.

Utilitarianism

Utilitarianism is a consequentialist theory holding that an action is right if it maximizes overall well-being or happiness, impartially considering every affected being's interests.

Categorical imperative

Kant's categorical imperative tests maxims by universalizability and by treating humanity as an end, never merely as a means; moral worth lies in duty, not consequences.

Virtue ethics

Virtue ethics evaluates character rather than isolated acts, asking what a virtuous person would do; eudaimonia, practical wisdom, and habituation of virtues are central.

Rawls's veil of ignorance

Rawls's veil of ignorance is a hypothetical device in which parties choosing principles of justice do not know their talents, status, or conception of the good, ensuring impartiality.

Emotivism

Emotivism, associated with A. J. Ayer, holds that moral statements express attitudes or emotions rather than describe facts, so they are neither true nor false in a factual sense.

Gettier problem

The Gettier problem shows that justified true belief is not sufficient for knowledge: a belief can be true and justified yet true only by luck, as in fake-barn cases.

Correspondence theory of truth

The correspondence theory holds that a proposition is true when it matches or accurately represents an independent fact or state of affairs in the world.

Humean bundle self

Hume's bundle theory denies a persisting ego; the self is only a bundle of perceptions in constant flux, and personal identity is a fiction produced by imagination and memory.

Reliabilism

Reliabilism is an externalist theory of justification holding that a belief is justified when produced by a reliable cognitive process, such as perception or sound reasoning, whether or not the believer can defend it.

Ontological argument

The ontological argument reasons from the concept of God as the greatest conceivable being to God's existence, claiming that a being lacking existence would be less great.

Problem of evil

The problem of evil argues that an omnipotent, omniscient, wholly good God would prevent evil; the logical version claims contradiction, while the evidential version claims improbability.

Fideism

Fideism holds that religious faith rests on commitment or revelation rather than rational proof; Kierkegaard's leap of faith exemplifies the view that faith transcends objective uncertainty.

Verificationist critique of religion

A. J. Ayer's verificationism dismissed religious utterances as neither analytic nor empirically verifiable, hence literally meaningless; critics replied that the principle itself is not verifiable.

Difference principle

Rawls's difference principle permits inequalities only when they benefit the least advantaged members of society, qualifying formal equality with a concern for distributive justice.

Negative liberty

Negative liberty is freedom from interference or coercion by others; it concerns the absence of obstacles, whereas positive liberty concerns self-mastery and the capacity to act.

Precautionary principle

The precautionary principle holds that lack of full scientific certainty should not delay measures to prevent serious or irreversible harm, especially in environmental and public-health policy.

Civil disobedience

Civil disobedience is deliberate, public, and nonviolent lawbreaking aimed at protesting injustice, accepting legal penalties to appeal to the community's sense of justice.