Philosophy: Philosophical Terminology Quiz

Answer: What is Philosophy?

The etymology of the word philosophy comes from 'philos' which means love, and 'sophia', which means wisdom. Philosophers investigate concepts and important issues in every day life. By examining these things, we can achieve clearer concepts and hopefully make wiser, better people.

Answer: Axiology

Axiology is the the study of value. Justice, Ethics, and Beauty are some of the subjects concerned within Axiology. Ethics is the study of what is the standard of morality, what is right and wrong. However, ethics is not a branch of Philosophy, but a branch of Axiology that is concerned with Moral Value.

Answer: Epistemology

"What is knowledge?" and "How do we know things?" are questions discussed in Epistemology. Philosophers throughout time have debated whether we get our most important concepts through Empirical Knowledge or A Priori Knowledge.

Answer: Rationalism

Plato was the first Rationalist. He devised the Two World Theory in which we have the world of sensation and the world of reason. The world of reason is the higher realm where our true perfect concepts exist. According to Socrates in the Meno, the way we get our knowledge is through Recollection of everything we learned 'prior to' (a priori) birth.

Answer: What is empirical knowledge?

Empiricism is the view that we get our concepts through the sense experience of the world.

Answer: Fatalism

Fatalism is an extreme form of Determinism, though not as extreme as Hard Determinism. John Calvin was the most famous theologian who believed in fatalism.

Answer: Mechanism

Called the Non-Traditional World View, Mechanism holds the view of the universe as a fine tuned machine without real meaning or purpose but functional. Rene Descartes was the first Mechanist, but not in the same respects as today because of the revolutionary thinking of Mechanists like Darwin and Freud.

Answer: Teleology

This is the Traditional View of a Divine Creator who gave meaning and purpose to all his creations. The purpose is not yet known but it will achieve a goal.

Answer: Utilitarianism

John Stewart Mill fine tuned the Utilitarian View. The Primary Principle that right actions are right if they produce the greatest amount of good for the greatest amount of people, and the Secondary Principles such as the laws, which work to assure the utility of the Primary {Principle;} such as, Don't Kill, Don't Lie, or Don't Steal.

Answer: Law of Noncontradiction

The Law of Noncontradiction is a logical law made apparent by Aristotle and Gottfried von Leibniz, but was originally used in a Socratic Argument within Book IV of Plato's Republic.

Answer: Monotheism

Theism is a belief in a god, relying totally on faith. Philosophers have argued ways in which we can know God. Descartes' viewed that we can know God by Reason; we know God through our concept of perfection. Empirically, we can know God through the Four Causes; being, everything in existence has an Efficient Cause, or the First Mover of Neoplatonism, God must therefore exist as the Efficient Cause.

Answer: Atheism

Atheism is not a belief it is the absence of belief, which denies the external existence of god in any reality other than the internal concept of a god or gods within our minds. This concept of a god is equivalent to the concepts of Unicorns, Angels, Leprechauns, Humpty Dumpty, and Smurfs.

The existence of a god is viewed as a logical impossibility. The Problem with Evil is a problem for a existence of a perfect god. IF God is good, then why does Evil exist? If God exists and Evil exists, and God created everything; therefore, God must have created evil. Which would not make God good because if evil exists, and God has the power to obliterate Evil, then He must allow Evil to exist.

Other problems occur with the Creation Theory, for if anything in Existence has an Efficient Cause, then who created God? If God is Self-Existing and does not need an Efficient Cause, then that contradicts the Four Cause theory. If God is self-existing it is just as reasonable to view that the universe is self-existing without an efficient cause.

Answer: Theory of Forms

To explain his concept of forms more clearly, Plato used the Allegory of the Cave to represent his Two World Theory and the concept of Perfect Forms. Plato explains his view of forms in the Phaedo where it's believed his idea of forms originated and is examined through Socrates.

Answer: Existentialism

Heidegger, Kierkegaard, and Nietzsche are considered the fuel for the ideas of Existentialism. Jean-Paul Sartre used these ideas and formed his own Metaphysical view in Existentialism. Simone de Beauvior and Albert Camus were some of the people within the moment.

Answer: Hedonism

Utilitarianism gives a practical account to the value of hedonism.