Key terms Flashcards
A posteriori argument
An argument based on sense experience and observations of evidence
A priori argument
A type of philosophical argument that relies on logic or reasoning. Empirical evidence is not used in this type of argument.
Analytical statement
A statement that contains the truth needed to verify it within the statement itself, it is true because of its meaning.
Anamnesis
The soul remembering the Forms
Anselm’s four-dimensionalism
All times and places are equally real and present to God
Anthropomorphism
Describing God in human-like terms, so bringing God down to the level of humans.
Apophatic way (via negativa)
The only legitimate way to talk about God is to say what he is not (God is infinite, indescribable and unknowable)
Blik
A basic unfalsifiable belief
Cataphatic way (via positiva)
Uses positive language to describe the qualities and nature of God (God is good, loving, and just)
Category error
A logical error with the use of language: a mistake is made by applying concepts or language to the wrong type of category
Cognitive
A factual statement that can be true or false.
Conditional necessity
An action is observed only because it has been freely chosen.
Contingent
Can exist or not exist; relies on something outside of itself to exist (a baby is brought into existence by its parent and relies on oxygen and food to survive)
Conversion experience
A change of heart and turning around of one’s priorities, following a new direction in life.
Corporate religious experience
A religious experience shared with many people.
Deism
Belief in a creator that started the world but then has no further involvement with it
Empiricism
All knowledge and truth are derived from the senses, experiences and observation
Epicurean hypothesis
Finite particles given infinite time will eventually order. Hume adapted this idea from Epicurus (a Greek philosopher)
Epistemic distance
Humans cannot know or be sure that God exists in order to preserve free will.
Epistemology
The study of knowledge
Equivocal
A word has different meaning in different contexts.
Everlasting
A view of divine eternity. God has no beginning or end, moves through time and is in time.
Fallacy of composition
What is observed about the parts cannot be assumed to be the same for the whole
Falsification principle
A statement is a genuine scientific assertion if it is possible to say what evidence would prove it false or count against it
Following necessity
The moment of free choice is known in God’s eternal present; God is with us because that moment is in God
Form
Plato’s description of a perfect, unchanging concept or ideal in the World of Forms (Form of the Good)
Form of Life
The wider context in which statements are made.
Immutable
Unchanging
Inductive
Evidence is collected from observations and experiences to suggest a hypothesis which is then reinforced by further observations and experiences. An inductive argument can only lead to a probable or possible solutions (it is the basis of scientific reasoning)
Infinite regress
A chain of events that goes backwards forever
Language game
Rules (unspoken) which make sense of statements or words being used
Logical fallacy
An error in logical reasoning
Mass hysteria
Collective obsessional behaviour, with psychological and physical symptoms
Metaphor
A figure of speech that describes an object or action in a way that isn’t literally true but helps explain an idea or makes a comparison
Motus
Greek word meaning constant change, observed in the world
Mystical experience
An experience of something beyond normal awareness, sometimes described as super-sense or sub-sense
Necessary being
Cannot not exist, does not rely on anything for its own existence and holds the reason for its being within itself
Non-cognitive
A non-factual statement that cannot be said to be true or false.
Particulars or phenomena
the changing (mutable) things we witness in the world of the senses
Personhood
What makes each individual unique (memories, physical appearance, mind and soul)
Pluralism
All religions are valuable and hold truth
Pragmatism
The effects on and value to the individual; used by William James to emphasise the importance of the effects of a religious experience because they know it holds value for the individual
Preceding necessity
There is no free agent or choice involved (God’s knowledge of the laws of nature)
(Real or determining) Predicate
It adds something to the description of a subject or object
Premise
A statement which forms the basis of an argument
Principle of credulity
Things are as they seem to be unless we have evidence to the contrary
Principle of testimony
We should assume people are telling the truth unless we have good reason to believe otherwise.
Privation
Evil is not a substance itself but it is a privation, a lack of goodness.
Providence
God’s knowledge, not of the future but how God oversees the world and our free choices
Rationalism
Human reason is the source of all knowledge and reason
Self-limitation
God chooses to limit his attributes in order to allow free will
Simple necessity
The necessity of nature acting according to natural, physical laws.
Substance dualism
There are two kinds of basic substance: mental and physical
Synthetic statement
A statement that needs external evidence to verify whether it is true or false
Tautology
A statement that is always true, it contains the definition within it (the round circle)
Telos
Greek word meaning end or purpose. Teleology is the study of purpose
Theism
Belief in a God that is active and involved with the world, as in monotheistic religions
Theodicy
A defence or justification of God in the face of evil and suffering
Universal salvation
Everyone is saved or welcomed into heaven after death
Univocal
A word is used in the same way in different contexts
Vale of soul-making
This world, where natural and moral evil have a purpose, to allow humans to develop into the likeness of God
