Shared Flashcard Set

Details

Exam 2
exam 2
27
Philosophy
Not Applicable
11/20/2005

Additional Philosophy Flashcards

 


 

Cards

Term
Psychological Certainty
Definition
Where one feels certain that p.
Term
Epistemological Certainty
Definition
If a belief or claim that p is epistemologically certain, there must be overwhelming evidence that p, and no possibility of evidence that not p.
Term
Deductive Certainty
Definition
A belief or claim p is deductively certain when not p is contradictory.
Term
Epistemological Rationalism:
Definition
The view that much of human knowledge is innate. Descartes, Spinoza, and Leibniz.
Term
Empiricism
Definition
The view that all knowledge is based upon experience, there is no innate knowledge. Locke, Berkeley, and Hume.
Term
Sentence
Definition
A string of meaningful symbols in a natural language
Term
Proposition
Definition
The standard meaning of a sentence in a natural language.
Term
Statement
Definition
The use of a sentence by a speaker to make a claim
Term
Analytic Sentence
Definition
A sentence in which the meaning of its predicate term is contained in the meaning of its subject term -- 'Triangles are three-sided figures.' Their denials are contradictions. A synonym for tautology.
Term
Synthetic Sentence
Definition
A sentence in which the meaning of the predicate term is not contained in the meaning of its subject term. A synonym for contingency.
Term
A priori statement:
Definition
Any claim the truth of which is independent of sense experience.
Term
A posteriori statement
Definition
Any claim the truth of which can only be determined via sense experience.
Term
A priori Synthetic Statement
Definition
Any statement the meaning of whose predicate term is not contained in the meaning of its subject term, but whose truth is not determined via sense experience. Kant's example: "Every event has a cause"
Term
Epistemological Idealism:
Definition
The thesis that only minds and their ideas can be known. There is no basis for the belief in material substances, or independently existing material things.
Term
Philosophical Skepticism:
Definition
Any instantiation of the Y in the following principle: No human could ever know anything about the existence or characteristics of anything of kind Y.
Term
Classical Philosophical Skepticism
Definition
The instantiation of the above principle for physical objects, Gods, the past, the future, the self, and other persons, or the claim that "with the exception of tautologies and sense data statements no human could ever know anything with certainty.
Term
Possible for/ Possible that distinction:
Definition
While it is possible for any governor to commute any prisoner's sentence, it may not be possible that a particular governor will commute a particular prisoner's sentence. For it to be possible that he will do so there must be evidence that he will do so.
Term
Axiology:
Definition
That branch of philosophy concerned with the nature and justification of values. It consists of ethics and aesthetics.
Term
Prescriptive Ethics:
Definition
That branch of philosophy which is concerned with the nature and justification of moral practices and the determination of moral character.
Term
Descriptive Ethics:
Definition
The description of the moral practices or morality of some individual or group. As a discipline it is part of the social sciences.
Term
Ethically or Morally Permitted:
Definition
An action x is ethically or morally permitted if it is not wrong to do x.
Term
Ethically or morally obligatory:
Definition
An action x is ethically or morally obligatory if it is wrong NOT to do X.
Term
Deontological ethical Theories
Definition
Theories which define ethical obligation in terms of duty as opposed to achievement of desirably consequences or qualities of character. Consequences and good character are said to be irrelevant to the determination of ethical or moral obligation.
Term
Hedonistic Ethical theories
Definition
Theories which define good and bad consequences in terms of pleasure and pain.
Term
Non-hedonistic ethical theories
Definition
Theories which define good and bad consequences in terms of anything other than pleasure and pain.
Term
Supernaturalism in ethics
Definition
It is the view or theory that moral obligation is fiated by God or is an expression of God's will. Also known as divine command theory.
Term
Kant's Categorical Imperative
Definition
a) 1st formulation: "I ought never to act except in such a way that I can also will that my maxim should become a universal law," or alternately, "Do not do x if the universal doing of x would make it impossible for you to do x. (b) 2nd formulation: "Treat every person as an end and never simply as a means".
Supporting users have an ad free experience!