Literary movements and philosophy Flashcards
Determinism
the philosophy which suggests that free will does not exist
Idealism
the philosophy that states that matter does not exist
Fatalism
the philosophy that our futures are fixed
Materialism
a philosophy that argues only matter exists.
Metaphysics
a branch of philosophy that explores the nature of reality.
Skepticism
philosophy that truths about existence forever unknown.
Karl Marx
German philosopher who influenced communism.
“Allegory of the cave”
Plato’s metaphor for his dualistic philosophy or it can be read as a criticism of science or politics.
Plato’s Theory of Forms
Plato’s theory that there are perfect and unchanging forms or ideas, that transcend the physical.
Ptolemy
A Greek astrologist and geographer. His ideas influenced people from the Middle Ages and Renaissance.
Ptolemaic Universe
Ptolemy theorized that earth was the center of the universe and there were nine spheres rotated around earth.
Enlightenment
A movement in Europe focused on scientific thought.
Existentialism
existentialists were radical individualists who believed that people should not conform to their essence; they should have the will to live for themselves.
Bad faith
the idea of self-deception, when conform to our essence rather than see the world.
Friedrich Nietzsche
German philosopher who called Christianity a “slave religion” He redefined morality in his book about Masters and Slaves.
Übermensch
the concept of the “above man,”. He would make his own rules and values and accept any consequences of his decisions.
Blaise Pascal
French philosopher who believed the world was in a state full of misery, and the way to escape is to believe in God.
Pascal’s wager
argument that we’re not be able to prove that God exists
Neoclassicism
Influenced by what they considered the formal or structural perfection of classical prose and poetry. They felt human beings are limited in their ability to understand the world, that art’s main purpose is to teach people to be better.
Romanticism
a philosophical movement that questioned to ideas of the Enlightenment and Neoclassical movement. Romantics believed in imagination over reason and nature is divine.
Soren Kierkegaard
19th-century Danish and Christian philosopher who is sometimes called the first existentialist. He believed that most people are inauthentic and wear masks and hide themselves from the true misery of the world. Kierkegaard believed we need to remove those masks, sink into the abyss that is the meaningless world. Only from this abyss can we make a leap of faith to God.
existence vs. essence
—For thousands of years philosophers debated the essence of things: what makes a knife a knife or a human a human. The existentialists rejected this emphasis and said that existence precedes essence, meaning that our individual lives and choices are far more important than categories people put us into.
being-in-itself vs. being-for-oneself
—A being-in-itself is merely a causal object (like a rock or tree or animal) or a person who fails to chose and live authentically. A being-for-oneself is a person who sees the world for what it really is and makes choices.
