Glossary

INTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHY (UNIV 31014)

GLOSSARY OF PHILOSOPHICAL TERMS

Term | Meaning |

absolute | a demonstrated or self-evident, true principle or presupposition, such as a moral absolute |

absolutism | 1. belief in an ultimate reality that is without limitation2. the view that truth is objectively real, that there is only one correct explanation of reality, truth and values |

aesthetics | branch of philosophy that studies beauty and taste |

agnosticism | belief that human beings do not have sufficient knowledge to affirm or deny something, especially the claim that one cannot know whether God exists or does not exist |

animism | belief that everything in the universe (or the universe itself) has some kind of soul or is a living being. |

anthropomorphism | Attribution of human characteristics to non-human things. Thus, an anthropomorphic religion treats god as a personal being, and anthropomorphic natural theories may suppose that plants, animals, or the earth itself think and feel in the same ways that we do. |

atheism | belief that God does not exist |

doctrine | belief or a set of beliefs held and taught by a religion |

humanism | is an approach in study, philosophy, world view or practice that focuses on human values and concerns, attaching prime importance to human rather than divine or supernatural matters |

logos | in Greek philosophy and theology, the divine reason implicit in the cosmos, ordering it and giving it form and meaning |

metempsychosis | Transmigration Of Thes; the doctrine that at death the soul passes into another living creature, man, animal, or even plant. |

The Absolute | That which is entirely independent, such as ultimate reality. A term sometimes used for God |

theology | the field of study and analysis that treats of God and of God's attributes and relations to the universe; the study of divine things or religious truth; divinity. |