Philosophy AS AQA MUST KNOW "Key Words" Exam Prep

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Philosophy exam key words AS AQA. Must know for Summer 2016 exam
Obri Gonzalez
Flashcards by Obri Gonzalez, updated more than 1 year ago
Obri Gonzalez
Created by Obri Gonzalez almost 8 years ago
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Question Answer
A Posteriori Knowledge of propositions that can only be known to be true or false through sense experience.
A Priori Knowledge of propositions that do not require (sense) experience to be known to be true or false.
Analysis Process of breaking up a Complex concept or argument in order to reveal its simpler constituents, thereby discovering its meaning or structure.
Analytic A proposition that is true (or false) in virtue of the meanings of the words. E.g: "A bachelor is an unmarried man" - analytically true
Begging The Question The informal fallacy of (explicitly or implicitly) assuming the truth of the conclusion of an argument as one of the premises employed in an effort to demonstrate its truth.
Blik An attitude to or view of the world that is not held or withdrawn on the basis of empirical evidence.
Causal Principle The claim that everything has a cause.
Clear & Distinct Ideas Clear Idea: 'present & accessible to the attentive mind.' Distinct Idea: 'clear & sharply separated from other ideas so that every part of it is clear.
Principle of Closure If I know that the premises are true, and I validly deduce the conclusion from the premises, then I know the conclusion.
Cognitivism A Cognitivist account of religious language argues religious claims aim to describe how the world is & so can be expressed true/false. Express beliefs: 'Such-and-such" is the case. E.g: to believe that God exists is to believe that "God exists" is true.
Fallacy of Composition Informal fallacy of attributing some feature of the members of a collection to the collection itself, or reasoning from part to whole. E.g: Sodium & Chloride are both dangerous to humans, therefore Sodium Chloride (SALT) is dangerous to humans.
Consistent Two or more statements are consistent if they can both be true at the same time.
Constant Conjunction Two things always happening together, or one after the other.
Contingent Proposition that old be true/ false, a state of affairs that may or may not hold, depending on how the world actually is.
Copy Principle All simple ideas are copies of impressions.
Deductive An argument whose conclusion is logically entailed by its premises, I.e. If the premises are true, the conclusion cannot be false.
Disjunction An EITHER/OR claim. E.g: "Either it will rain or it will be sunny"
Empirical Relating to or deriving from experience, especially sense experience, but also including experimental scientific investigation.
Empiricism Theory that there can be no a priori Knowldge of synthetic propositions about the world (outside the mind), I.e. All a priori knowledge is of analytic propositions, while all knowledge of synthetic propositions must be checked against sense experience.
Concept Empiricism All concepts are derived from experience. There are no innate concepts.
Enumerative Induction Method of reasoning that argues from many instances of something to a general statement about that thing. E.g: "The sun has risen in the morning every day for X number of days, therefore the sun rises in the morning."
Fallacy of Equivocation The use of an ambiguous word or phrase in different senses within a single argument. E.g: "All banks are next to rivers, I deposit money in a bank, therefore I deposit money next to a river."
Eschatological The study (-ology) of the 'last thigs' (Greek eskhatos) - death, the final judgement and the ultimate destiny of human beings.
Falsification Principle A claim is meaningful only if it is falsifiable. E.g: It rules out some possible experience.
Form of Life The foundation out of which language games grow, the collection of cultural practices which embed language games.
Depth Grammar The way a sentence functions in its use within a specific language & which determines its meaning.
Surface Grammar The grammatical structure of a sentence as it appears, given by its grammatical parts (nouns, verbs, etc...)
Complex Idea An idea that is derived from two or more simple ideas.
Numerically Identical One and the same thing. Everything is numerically identical to itself, and nothing else.
Immanent God exists throughout everything that exists.
Immutable Not subject to change.
Logical Impossibility Self-contradictory E.g: a round square.
Physical Impossibility Goes against the laws of nature. E.g: it's is physically impossible for humans to fly unaided.
Inference of the Best Explanation An inductive argument from where the conclusion presents the 'best explanation' for why the premises are true.
Intuition Direct non-inferential awareness of abstract objects or truths.
Language Game Linguistic practice, constituted by certain 'rules' that determine the meaning of the words used. A speaking part of a 'form of life'. Wittgenstein's examples include asking, thanking, cursing, praying.
Maximal Excellence An entity possesses maximal excellence iff it is omnipotent, omniscient and supremely good.
Maximal Greatness The entity possesses maximal greatness iff nothing can be greater than it. Plantinga specifies MAXIMAL GREATNESS is maximal excellence in every possible world - that is, an entity is maximally great iff it is necessarily existent & necessarily maximally excellent.
Non-Cognitivism Language or bought that cannot be true/false and does not aim to express how things are.
Ockam's Razor Principle that states that we should not put forward a hypothesis that says many different things exist when simpler explanation will do as well. "Do not multiply entities beyond necessity." A simpler explanation is a better explanation, as long as it is just as successful.
Omnipresent Being present everywhere at the same time.
Paradigm A system or frame of reference which contains the background assumptions we make when looking at new evidence.
Possible World Way of talking about how things could be. Necessary truths (falsehoods) are true (false) in all possible worlds, whereas Contingent truths are true in some possible worlds and false in others. Saying that something is possible (impossible) is saying that it is true in some (no) possible world.
Primary Quality P.Q. Properties that are 'utterly inseperable' from the object, whatever changes it goes through, even if it's devided into smaller and smaller pieces. The object has these properties 'in & of itself'. Locke: Size, Shape, Motion, Number & Soldity as P.Q.
Relational Property A characteristic that something has only in relation to another thing. E.g: 'Being taller than Bob', or 'Being in love with Jack.'
Reductio ad Absurdum A form of argument that shows that some claim leads to a contradiction.
Sense-Data Mental images or representations of what is perceived, the 'content' of perceptual experience. If sense-data exist, they are the immediate objects of perception and are 'private', mind-dependent mental things.
Synthetic A proposition that is not analytic, but true/false depending on how the world is. E.g: 'Apples are red'
Theodicy An attempt to explain how or why an omnipotent, omniscient, supremely good God would allow the (apparent) presence of evil in the world.
Veridical A proposition that is true or an experience that represents the world as it actually is.
Tautology A statement that repeats the subject in the predicate, that 'says the same thing twice'. E.g: 'Green things are green'
Epistemic Virtue A skill, ability or trait of the mind or person that contributes to gaining knowledge and forming true beliefs.
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