Aesthetics
The branch of philosophy concerned with the nature of art and beauty, the arts, artistic values and criticism.
Analytic philosophy
An approach to philosophy based on logical analysis of statements and arguments to clarify their meaning and establish whether they provide objective knowledge of the world.
Analytic statement
A statement that can be shown to be true or false by analysing it without reference to other facts. It is the opposite of a synthetic statement, whose truth can only be determined by checking the facts it refers to.
A priori and a posteriori
A proposition is a priori if it is known to be true without evidence from experience. Propositions that can only be known to be true by experience are a posteriori.
Contingent
A contingent truth is one that happens to be true, but in other circumstances might not have been. A necessary truth, on the other hand, is one that is true in any circumstances, and could not be otherwise.
Cosmos
(see World)
Deduction
A process of inference drawing a particular conclusion from a general premise. For example, ‘All men are mortal. Socrates is a man. Therefore Socrates is mortal.’ In contrast, induction infers from the particular to the general. For example, ‘Socrates, Plato and Aristotle were philosophers. They were all Greek. Therefore all philosophers are Greek.’ If the premises of a deductive argument are true, the conclusion is also true, but in an inductive argument the conclusion may or may not be true.
Determinism
The view that every event is determined by and the necessary outcome of a prior cause, and that nothing can happen other than what happens.
Dialectic
In the philosophy of Hegel and Marx, the idea that any statement, action or state contains within it a contradiction that provokes opposition, and results in a synthesis that reconciles the two.
Dualism
The view that things are made up of two different elements. In the philosophy of mind, dualism refers to the view that mind and body are distinct.
Empiricism
The view that all knowledge is acquired through experience, and there is no such thing as a priori knowledge.
Epistemology
The branch of philosophy concerned with knowledge – what, if anything, we can know, how we acquire knowledge and what knowledge is.
Ethics
The branch of philosophy concerned with how we should live our lives and morality, including questions of right and wrong, good and bad, and duty.
Existentialism
An approach to philosophy based on the subjective human experience of existence, and in particular the search for meaning in life.
Fallacy
An error of reasoning or false conclusion.
Falsifiability
In the philosophy of Popper, the concept that a theory is capable of being proved false by empirical evidence.
Humanism
The approach that considers humankind as more important than any supernatural world as a basis for philosophical enquiry.
Idealism
The view that reality is ultimately immaterial, and consists of minds, ideas or spirits. The opposite of materialism.
Induction
(see Deduction)
Inference
A process of reasoning in which a conclusion follows from premises, such as deduction and induction.
Logic
The branch of philosophy concerned with the methods, rules and validity of rational argument.
Materialism
The view that reality is ultimately material or physical, and consists of matter. Materialism is therefore the opposite of idealism.
Metaphysics
The branch of philosophy concerned with the nature of reality, of what exists, including concepts of being and substance.
Monism
The view that things are made up of a single element.
Moral philosophy
(see Ethics)
Necessary
(see Contingent)
Noumenon
The reality, also known as the ‘thing-in-itself’, that exists independent of our experience of it. In the philosophy of Kant, the noumenal world is the world of ultimate reality, as opposed to the world of the phenomenon, the world as it is experienced by human consciousness.
Ontology
The branch of philosophy concerned with the nature of existence and being.
Phenomenon
(see Noumenon)
Pragmatism
The view that truth is valid explanation – in other words, that a statement can be considered true if it describes a situation accurately enough to be useful.
Rationalism
The view that we acquire our knowledge of the world through reason rather than experience.
Relativism
The view in ethics that the morality of an action is dependent upon its context – for example, that different cultures and traditions have different views of what is right or wrong.
Scepticism
The view that it is not possible to have certain knowledge of anything.
Synthetic statement
(see Analytic statement)
Universe
(see World)
Utilitarianism
In ethics and political philosophy, the view that the morality of an action should be judged by its consequences, which should bring about the greatest good for the greatest number.
Validity
In logic, an argument is said to be valid if its conclusion follows from its premises. In a valid argument, the conclusion will be true if the premises are true, but if any of the premises are false, the conclusion may not be true.
World
In philosophy, ‘the world’ (and sometimes ‘the cosmos’ or ‘the universe’) is used to mean everything that exists that we can have experience of, everything in empirical reality.
