Phil Vocab Flashcards
Reductio ad absurdum
attempts to establish a claim by showing that the opposite scenario would lead to absurdity or contradiction eg.
Substance dualism
mind and the body are composed of different substances and that the mind is a thinking thing that lacks the usual attributes of physical objects
Particularism about conspiracy theories
Validity and soundness (for arguments)
premise must support conclusion for it to be valid, then if the premise is true or false in actuality, true for it to be sound.
Problem of Evil
If God is omnipotent and wholly good evil cannot exist, yet it does.
Principle of non-contradiction
if something is true, the opposite has to be false
Theistic notion of God
highest being, metaphysically complete, omni-properties (omnipotent, omnibenevolent, omniscient), Transcendent, creator, and moral agent
Necessary condition
X if only Y - y is necessary for X
Sufficient condition
X if Y -y is sufficient for X
Deductive argument
arguments that guarantee their conclusion - if their premises are true, the conclusion must be true
Counter-example
example of a belief that is true and has justification and still does not seem like knowledge
The fallacy of begging the question
when an argument’s premises assume the truth of the conclusion, instead of supporting it
The ‘JTB’ account of knowledge
must believe it to be true, the proposition must actually be true, and they must have a good reason for believing it to be true
Gettier problem
person who has a belief that is both true and justified, but their belief is based on a faulty or unreliable premise
Ataraxia
achieving “unperturbedness”
Equipollence
method of achieving Ataraxia–> by opposing judgments to appearances, put all judgments
(beliefs) in equipollence, equally (and oppositely) weighted (with respect to probability), so that the beliefs are suspended.
Problem of the criterion
On what basis can we distinguish between truthful experiences and unreliable ones, so that the former serve as a standard for knowledge (proof needs proof etc)
A priori (truth or proof)
knowledge or justification that is independent of experience eg. bachelors are unmarried
Contingent truth
proposition or statement that happens to be true, but could have been false based on experience eg. it is raining outside
Constant conjunction
a relationship between two events, where one event is invariably followed by the other
Testimony
statements conveying information that are supposed to convey as evidence for it
Consciousness
Cogito argument
this proposition, I am, I exist, is necessarily true whenever it is our forward by me or conceived in my mind –> conclusion: I am (exist), does not allow for any doubt
Body-to-mind causation
physical events and processes in the body can influence mental states and processes
Mind-to-body causation
physical events and processes in the body can influence mental states and processes
The causal pairing problem
Archer A causes Balloon A to pop but not Balloon B- to pair events causally, there needs to be a spatial framework that coordinates and relates the events
The strong program in Artificial Intelligence
aims to create intelligent machines that are indistinguishable from the human mind.
The Luminous room argument
A response to Searles Chinese room thought experiment, in where the conditions of producing light from a magnet are not recreated (speed)
Ontological reduction
Physicalism (about the mind)
minds reduce completely to brains
Demarcation problem
identify the necessary and sufficient conditions that distinguish scientific theories from non-scientific ones.
The floating man argument
if human were created in such an instance that the limbs were separated from one another and he could not see them or feel them and they did not touch one another he would not know his organs exist bur he would know he exists as a uniquely single thing despite not knowing everything else - we can know ourselves without any sensory input from the body
