Philosophy
Definitions
Zacarias Malone
5/17//2018
PHI 220
1. Aesthetics-The form of a thing that is important in gaining its state of perfection. It is the study of beauty and all that it pertains. The virtues and values that constitute everything in its state of being. It’s existence whether perfect or imperfect and our attitudes and/or perceptions as to what we consider to be beautiful. It’s our judgement towards things considering our past experiences and the analysis of all attitudes and values. It’s our personal and subjective perceptions of how a thing is and how we think it should be.
2. Plato- Greek philosopher born in 428 B.C. and lived through 348 B.C., whose main inspiration was Socrates. He is the founder of the Academy in Athens for philosophy, science, mathematics, logic, the arts, etc. and widely known for his dialogues. A discussion between two or more philosophers put into script. The early consisted of discussions of what is morally good, and that “no one does wrong voluntarily”. The middle dialogues play with the idea of the many meanings and forms of love. Lastly, the later dialogues looks into the question of the one and the many, differences and similarities, positive and negative, and how forms come into being.
3. Philosophy- An attempt to try and systematically and analytically understand and break down the meaning of all those questions that we cannot simply answer. The art of understanding, or at least trying to, make sense of those things that are unknowable or at the very least unconceivable around us. Philosophy is going from thinking about something as complex as the origin of the universe and if God is real why do we have war to why we follow directions or learn for that matter.
4. Universal Idea- Aristotle thought like Plato about the universal idea. They thought that knowledge requires general or universal ideas. When describing a person place or thing, it is important to know that when giving this person place or thing a name, the person place or thing is the universal idea. The universal idea comes about through experience. With experience, we can filter out the things that would either be general or universal ideas. Which is the way Aristotle thought, unlike Plato.
5. Metaphysics- Tangible and real on every account and trying to explain the very concept of the physical form and what constitutes it . It is also the study of the most persistent and overall characteristics of the world: essence, being, time, space, change, existence, individuality, etc. It’s the idea that as all things physical can be comprehended, are tangible, and can be touched, so it follows that being or essence is kind of a result of itself. Things do not exist because they will themselves to be, but because the form a thing takes is the only form it can take, and so it exists as itself and nothing else.
6. Innate Ideas- Ideas that are not a construct of the physical nature of the human being but rather preexisting and innate thoughts that originate and are derived from the mind. They’re concepts and notions that are brought to the surface or the world of the tangible under very specific circumstances, such as being faced with an extremely difficult decision to make. These ideas are there from the beginning of one’s existence and are a kind of predisposition to act or think a certain way not due to a lack of experience but an absence of it.
7. Hylomorphic Composition-From the Greek words hyle and morphe, meaning form and matter, this is the theory that the entirety of the universe and everything that includes its uniform and united all throughout. The two exist separately but always together and where there is one there is always the other. It is the view that form which endures change, whether torn, broken, rusted, cut, etc. may have its physical appearance altered, but the matter will remain the same. You can make diamonds into rings and necklace by molding and shaping the diamond into what you like but it will always be a diamond.
8. Thales- Living from 640 to 546 B.C. the philosopher, astronomer, mathematician, and one of the advance thinkers of Greece who is considered by many including Aristotle, to be the very first philosopher. The foundation of what we now consider a philosopher. He is the first of three naturalists and a founder of a school of philosophy. For him, water is the source of all life, for it changes into all three states of matter naturally and exists in every living organism, and is the one vital resource that proves life cannot survive without it.
9. Parmenedes- A philosopher who existed during 5th century B.C., who was born in Elea, Italy. He was one of the philosophers who influenced Plato’s thoughts concerning philosophy. His single known work was a poem, On Nature which exists now only in fragments. Here he discusses his two forms of reality; “the way of truth” where reality is all “one”, change is not possible, and existence does not suffer from aging, is homogenous and fixed. The other is “the way of opinion” where appearances, as a result from our own personal viewpoints and sensory faculties, are false and deceitful. Nothing is true or even what it seems.10. Analogy of the Sun- This analogy Plato relates the Good to the intelligible world of Being as the sun goes hand in hand with the visible world, or the world of Becoming. Broken down into what I understand, the sun (the good) which exists in our world, our reality where things are visible (intelligible world) has the ability to give light (truth) to our solar system and all creatures in it. Our very ability to see comes from the light which, coincidentally, gives way to sight (knowledge) and all things that exist in the view of our sight, as things that can be understood can only be discerned thanks to knowledge.
11. Anaxagoras- Born in 500 B.C. but died in 428 B.C., Anaxagoras was among the other philosophers who classify as Pre-Socratics. Anaxagoras is known for his one book he wrote but as it states, there is only fragments left of it in the book called Simplicius of Cilicia in the 6th century A.D. he is also well known for his cosmological theory which is his idea for the mind. It basically states that the Mind is a portion of its own.
12. Anaximander- Born in 610 B.C., Anaximander was among other philosophers who classify as Pre-Socratics. Anaximander is known for actually writing down his own philosophy but it was slowly forgot about after Plato came around. What he was mostly known for was being dubbed as the “Father of Cosmology” due to his idea of physical processes. Sadly, he did not live too long of a life because he died in 546 B.C.
13. Anaximenes- Born in 585 B.C. but died in 525 B.C., Anaximenes was apart of the early Pre-Socratics. Like his friend and pupil Anaximander, he wrote down his own ideas but they were also slowly forgotten about. He was known for his Cosmology idea that water is the one thing in the universe that is needed everywhere. Anaximenes took Anaximander’s refined idea of this idea and went a step backwards and stated that air was everything in the universe.
14. Aristotle- Born 384 B.C. but later died in 322 B.C.. Aristotle had enough writings to fill up 12 volumes of work but only one fifth of this survived to this day. Logic was Aristotle’s main piece of work which solely focused on right reasoning. He was also very analytical which meant he paid very close attention to language. Aristotle also had Plato as his predecessor which meant that he was his teacher.
15. Transcendence- that state which only transcendent beings, objects, or even ideas reach. This is often characterized by being beyond, that can be scientifically explained, reasoned or even understood. It is forever at a distance from any ordinary experience of humans and is independent and separate in its own plane of reality. It is understanding on a higher level. It takes time to achieve this but it is possible for this to happen.
16. Rationalism- The philosophic approach that stresses above all else the use of reason and logic to form opinion, acquire knowledge and engage in justified actions rather than religion, faith, or emotional response. Through hard-rooted thinking we can come towards immutable and undeniable truths about the universe, how it came to be, why it is even here and the like. Even after considering virtually all possibilities, everything falls upon one thing which is logic. Everything can be deduced and comprehended regardless of its initial complexity or abstractedness through a logical progression of essence and its “coming to be”.
17. Principle of Causality- The principle of causality is the relationship between the cause and effect of something. Aristotle made sense of four different things: efficient, final, material, and formal. A statue is created by a sculptor (the efficient) who makes changes in marble (the material) in order to have a beautiful object (the final) with the characteristics of a statue (the formal). This is stated as the principle of causality.
18. Allegory of the Cave- In order to reach truth and realize there is more to the world than what one sees with the eyes, they must go through certain trials. One has to break free from the shackles of containment and see past the shadows. Once that is done, one must go past the fire that has created the false reality for them, the obstacles and naysayers casting doubt in your way. Then they must ascend the staircase and escape the cave they’ve known all their lives and finally see the sunlight (which is the truth of the world, good, bad and ugly).
19. Atom- Atoms have to do with materialism. Democritus believes that everything in the universe, including the mind body and soul, are made up of atoms. He had an influence on people too because this idea was adopted by the Greek Philosopher Epicurus. He also states that there is an infinite amount of these. So in a sense, humans go wither and die out but atoms will still be the only that are left in the ashes.
20. Contingent- Contingency can be defined in many ways. One way is to say that you are being dependent for existence or something else. Another way is on a scale of three terms: Necessary, Contingent, and Impossible. These three terms make Contingency vary by the likelihood of anything happening with necessary being IT MUST HAPPEN and impossible meaning that IT CANNOT OR EVER WILL HAPPEN.
21. The Form of the Good- is the peak of reality. Things like justice, morality, purity, kindness are just some of things that exemplify the nature of the form of the good. Every Form possesses “Goodness” so this concept is that which connects all other forms. The Good paves a way for understanding and assimilation through organization and simplicity which grants everyone and everything their very existence. The Good is all those things we strive to be in their ultimate form. All those qualities that make a Form good and wholesome. It is beauty and pure.
22. Christian Humanism- This is a philosophy that regards human beings in all that they are and the highest form of being. Thought is dedicated toward continually improving the physical and moral state of humans to reach a higher productivity and level for creativity with no limits to the supernatural as action towards this endgame. Those can be readily accessed and improved upon as far as improving the individual and its collective. It is the act of being better and learning for the greater good.
23. Pre-Socratics- The Pre-Socratics are the philosophers that thought differently from Socrates or the people who came before him. Some philosophers who fall in to this category or Anaximander, Anaximenes, and Anaxagoras. These people focused on substance. They focused on things that are the ultimate substance in the universe. For example, Thales thought that water was the ultimate substance when Anaximenes thought that air was the ultimate substance.
24. Materialism- Anything in the universe is matter, therefore matter is the only thing that exists. This is the idea of materialism. That means your fingernails, hair follicles, nose hairs, dust bunnies, even the things you can’t see, are made of matter. Meaning that these things do exist. If you could possibly find something in the world that is not made of matter, which is probably hard to find, then you can say that it does not exist. Materialism also had to do with meta physics, which means beyond matter.
25. Teleology- Derived from telos, meaning end, and logos, meaning the study of, this is the study or reasoning or explanation behind the intrinsic purpose, end, or goal of a thing. It’s the development of a thing or lifeform from its simplest processes to its most sophisticated or mature state through growth. Teleology is the study of how this occurs. For example, a tree grows from a small seed. It continues to grow and it becomes a mature from of a fully-grown tree.
