Absolute: not mixed or compared with anything else;complete,exact
Abstract: To think of a partial aspect or quality apart from a particular.
Accident: something which, unlike a substance, has no independent or self-sufficient existence
Act: An operation, as the intellect's act.
Actuality: Real or factual existence;(contrasted to mere possibility).
Aesthetics: The branch of philosophy dealing with beauty, especially in art.
Agnostic: A person who believes that nothing is known or can be known about God or things outside of human experience.
Analogy: A likeness between things that are otherwise unlike: Similarity.
Antithesis: Contrast of ideas: e.g.,Hate is the antithesis of love.
Autonomy: Self government: Freedom or independence of external constraint.
Being: everything that is real, that which is actual and complete, not becoming.
Belief: Faith or opinion; acceptance without certainty.
Body: Matter, substance, as opposed to spirit.
Cause: Anything responsible for change. motion or action.
Certitude: The state or quality of feeling certain; absence of doubt.
Choice: An act of willing to decide between two or more alternatives.
Cognition: The act of knowing, perceiving, or being aware of.
Concept: General notion; idea of a class of objects
Conscience: The sense within a person,of right and wrong.
Consciousness: The state of being aware.
Contemplation: Deep thought, meditation
Cosmogony: A theory, system or account of the origin of the world, the universe , the cosmos. The coming to be of the order of things, that which exists.
Cosmology: A science of the universe as a whole, its parts and laws. A study of the general nature of the universe.
Deduction: To move from a set of ideas or claims to another idea that is contained within the first set. Reasoning pattern such as from general laws to particular cases.
Deism: The belief that God exists apart from our world without relation to it.
Demonstration: Clear proof by pointing to the deductive process by which it can be inferred
Determinism: The belief that every fact in the universe is guided entirely by law. Antithetical to free-will.
Doxa: An opinion accepted on authority without the support of
demonstration.
Dualism: The doctrine that all the phenomena of the universe can be explained by two separate and distinct substances, such as mind and matter.
Effect: Some result made to happen by a person or thing.
Ego: The individual self
Empiricism: The doctrine that knowledge is based on experience, and no knowledge is independent of an experience.
End: Object for which the agent strives to move and act. Purpose. Goal.
Epistemology: The branch of philosophy that deals with the origin, nature and limits of knowledge.
Essence: That which makes a thing what it is. Necessary part or parts of a thing.
Ethics: The study of standards of right and wrong, dealing with morality, duty, judgement.
Event:Something which happens and does not endure over a long time.
Existence: Real, actual and continual being. Being.
Existentialism: A philosophy holding that existence is prior to essence, that man makes himself.
Experience: The state of subjectivity or awareness. The passing character of one's undergoings.
Faith: Belief without proof. Trust.
Freedom: Power to do, or say what one pleases. Independent cause of one's own actions.
Free-Will: Voluntary choice made of one1s own accord, without influence from outside constraints.
Generalization: Process of arriving at a general concept from individual experiences.
God: The highest, ultimate, independent being.
Greatest happiness. The highest good of the individual in ethics or of all people.
Good. In ethics that which is praise worthy, such as an action, character or motive. For Plato, the Supreme Idea.
Happiness: the state of being well pleased and undisturbed
Hedonism: The doctrine that the pursuit of pleasure is humankind’s greatest good.
Hypothetical: Something assumed because it seems likely to be a good explanation, a theory, a supposition.
Inference: A process of reasoninq whereby starting from one or more propositions accepted as true, the mind passes to other propositions whose truth is believed to be involved in the truth of the former.
Innate Ideas. Ideas in the mind or soul which were not learned: Inborn ideas, A Priori ideas.
Intellect: The power of knowing, understanding, as it operates at higher abstract and conceptual levels.
Intuition: The direct and immediate apprehension by a person, of itself, the external world, or other truths.
Knowledge: Opposite of opinion. Apprehended truth, not belief; or trust. A justified , true , belief
Logic: The science of reasoning, and proof.
Love: a characteristic of a relationship between conscious beings, involving a complex of features, including, knowledge, respect, caring, and sense of responsibility.
Mean: That through which an end is attained.
Metaphysics: The study of being as such, of the real nature of the universe. Of what constitutes reality. The study of what is.
Method:Any procedure employed to attain a certain goal or object.
Mind: Contrasted with material substance, that which thinks, feels and wills.
Monism: The view that there is one fundamental reality or "stuff" in the universe.
Myth: a story that is told with the hope that those who hear it shall believe it and be guided by it. A truth symbolically, or effectively presented. For example, the legends of the Gods concerning cosmogonical or cosmological questions.
Nature: The objective world, all things except those made by man.
Necessary: A state of affairs which cannot be otherwise. A certifiable truth.
Nihilism: The doctrine that nothing exists or is knowable, or valuable. Denial of objective reality, or a basis for morality.
Object: Anything perceived, imagined or thought about.
Ontology: First philosophy, or the science of the essence of things, of fundamental principles.
Opinion: A propositon or hypothesis open to doubt.
Pantheism: The doctrine that a bingle being comprises all of reality, of which all things are other modes, appearances or members.
Paradox: statement that may be true, but seems to say two opposite things.
Particular: An individual, or member of a class. Apart from others, not a Universal.
Perception: The apprehension of ordinary sense objects, such as trees, houses, chairs; etc.
Person: The composite of soul and body. The unity of acts.
A self-conscious being.
Phenomena: Appearances. Facts, events or circumstances that are observable.
Philosophy: The rational explanation of anything. The science of sciences. The study of principles underlying all knowledge.
The most critical and comprehensive thought process developed by conscious beings.
Pleasure: The enjoyable or delightful quality found in some experiences. Something felt.
Pragmatism: The doctrine or philosophy that tests the truth and value of ideas by their practical consequences.
Premise: A statement assumed to be true, used to draw a conclusion.
Principles: A fundamental cause or universal truth. A truth that is a foundation for other truths.
Probability: The field of knowledge between complete ignorance and full certitude. Chance, Possibility.
Psychology: The science of the mind; its functions and behavioral effects.
Rationalism: The doctrine that accepts reason as the supreme authority
in matters of opinion, belief or conduct. The criterion of truth in relationship
is not sensory but intellectual and deductive.
Reason: The mental faculty of thinking and drawing conclusions.
Right: An action conforming to the moral law (ethics). In a legal sense, any claim against others recognized by law.
Scepticism: A doctrine about the limitations of knowledge. A method of intellectual caution.
Sensation: The action of any of the senses: Kant The way in which a subject is modified by the presence of an object.
Sense: The power of the mind to know what happens outside itself.
sociology: The study of society and societal relations., of all social facts.
Socratic Method:. A method of bringing a student to awareness, whereby the teacher draws forth more and more definite answers by means of pointed questions. A method by which one leads another to think.
Sophism: Unsound reasoning, by the use of clever, but misleading arguments.
Species: a number of individuals having certain common characteristics or essential qualities. The subdivision of genus.
Subject: The mind of self, as contrasted with everything outside the mind.
Substance: What a thing consists of; Matter Material. That which is sought when philosophers investigate the primary being of things.
Truth: 1.That which is in accordance with the facts:actual, real. 2. That which is consistent with and coheres with other claims already accepted as being true.
3. That which is accepted by a community in accordance with its criteria for truth.
Understanding; The faculty of forming concepts, judgements and principles; of comprehending.
Universal: Not limited to certain individuals or groups within the whole. Applicable to all members of the class.
Vague Not definitely or precisely expressed.
Virtue: Moral excellence. goodness. For Aristotle, rationality.
Whole: Comprising. the full amount, quality, extent, number.
Will: The power of the mind to decide and do.