Transcript

DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY

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DICTIONARY OF

PHILOSOPHY
DR.ASHIS KUMAR DASH

D

DR.ASHIS KUMAR DASH

DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY

CONTENTS
A. B. 3 25

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C. 29 D. 42 E. F. 53 65

G. 72 H. 74 I. J. K. L. 77 83 85 87

M. 90 N. 99 O. 105 P. R. S. T. 107 116 118 126 Q. 115

U. 128 V. 130 W. 133 X. Y. Z. 134 135 136

DR.ASHIS KUMAR DASH

DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY

A
ABHIDHARMA: The

Aristotle Stagira., Peripatetic

(384–322 founder school,

B.C.), of well

Greek philosopher born in

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known for his noble ideas viz. Golden mean, Logic etc

presentation of the major conceptual categories constituting Buddhist doctrine; used as a label for

analytical

and

systematic

both the texts that contain such presentations and the content of what is presented. ABHINIVESHA: Sanskrit word meaning ‘self-love’ or ‘will to live’. In Indian philosophy in general and in the Sankhya-Yoga system in particular, abhinivesha was regarded as an aspect of avidya (ignorance).

ABSOLUTE: The term used by idealists to describe the expression

one independent reality of which all things are an

ACCEDENTALISM: The metaphysical thesis that the occurrence of some events is either not necessitated ACOSMISM: A term formed in analogy to ‘atheism,’ meaning the denial of the ultimate reality of the world.
DR.ASHIS KUMAR DASH

or not causally determined or not predictable.

Later. it is the true self or soul of each ADVAITA: Also called Uttara Mimamsa. e. the the non-dualistic form of Vedanta.ASHIS KUMAR DASH an epistemological distinction (not a and the level of reality the natural environment. ‘relating to or belonging to the self’). It emerged as a separate . individual. in Hinduism. or spiritual exercise related to the self (adhyatma-yoga). Advaita Vedanta.DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY ADHYATMANA: (Sanskrit. it became a term for the Supreme Spirit. Advaita Vedanta makes metaphysical one) between the level of appearance AESTHETICS: The branch of philosophy that examines the nature of art and the character of our adventitious ideas aesthetics experience of art and of field of philosophical inquiry during the eighteenth century in England and on the Continent. the Supreme Self. meditating on that which appertains to the self. e. a state of pure consciousness. in Indian thought. monistic systems. ultimately the only Real.g. In adhyatman is the one Self that is the impersonal Absolute (Brahman). Page | 4 which.In early Hindu texts concerning such topics as knowledge of the self. DR. Dvaita Vedanta. In dualist systems. or the soul. is other than the ego.g.

and Buddhist agamas. the ego or faculty that gives the sense of ‘I’ or individual personality. There AHAMKARA : In Hindu thought. Page | 5 nonviolence to living creatures. ahimsa was equated with selfsacrificial love for all beings. To the Jains. Jain. are Hindu. it is the third element of ever AGNOSTICISM: (from Greek a-. word. ‘not’.DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY AGMA:(Sanskrit. for modern Indian thinkers. by extension. assertion of egoism. In the Sankhya and Yoga systems. ‘known’)This term was invented by Thomas Henry religious disproved. or deed. ahimsa was a vow to injure no living being (jiva) in thought. egotism. a positive sense of kindness to all creatures. ‘what has come down’). Many Buddhists practice ahimsa as a precept that denies the existence of the ego. DR.ASHIS KUMAR DASH . pride. conceit. changing Nature evolving in creation. since injuring another is an particularly Gandhi. With the modern period. and gnastos. traditionally and literally. An authoritative religious text of an Indian sect. AHIMSA: attitude of those who claim that Huxley in 1869 to denote the philosophical and metaphysical ideas can be neither proved nor (Sanskrit).

Analytic philosophers tend largely. to other English-speaking philosophers. specifically. Analysis.ASHIS KUMAR DASH . Page | 6 ANALYTICAL P0HILOSOPHY: A broader term currently used to cover a diverse assortment of philosophical techniques and tendencies. a category developed by specific philosophical problems. Moore. ANTINOMISM: The view that one is not bound by moral law. to be Englishspeaking academics whose writings are directed. concerned not language per se. but concepts and propositions DR. as practiced by Russell and Moore. and Wittgenstein. philosophers who self-consciously pursued “philosophical analysis” in the early part of the twentieth century.DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY ALAYA-VIJNANA: Sanskrit term meaning literally Indian Buddhist metaphysicians to solve some ‘storehouse consciousness’. on the whole. though not exclusively. notably those of delayed karmic effect and causation at a temporal distance. They are the intellectual heirs of Russell. the view that Christians are by grace set free from the need to observe moral laws.

Abhava is often defined as that its counter entity. as justification. ‘god’). the conclusion. and theos. No deity provide us with guidance or direction. abandonment is the awareness that there are no external sources of moral authority. The ABDUCTION: Canons of reasoning for the discovery. DR. This view is advanced by Kumalila.ASHIS KUMAR DASH . ATHEISM: (from Greek a-. whose knowledge is dependent on the knowledge of ABHIHITANVAYAVADA:(Sentence-meaning : Kumarila) : The meaning of a sentence is a concatenation of the individual items expressed by words. we achieve an authentic life by depending only on ourselves. view that there are no gods. ABHAVA : (Negation) It is the seventh category of the Vaisesika system. opposed to the or theories.Mimamsa. It is merely the synthesis (Anyava) of the meaning of the separate words composing it. of scientific hypotheses Page | 7 ABANDONMENT: In the ethical thought of existentialist writers as Sartre and Heidegger. ‘not’.DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY ARGUMENT: A sequence of statements such that some of them (the premises) purport to give reason to accept another of them.

Bradley. independent. totally God. Cf. all-inclusive. doctrine or practice of unconditioned sovereign power. as entirely unrestricted. DR. non-relative.DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY ABSOLUTE: unmodified. The and unconditioned. Spinoza. theory that values are objectively real. In ethics and aesthetics.ASHIS KUMAR DASH . A form of government in which political power is concentrated in the hands of a single individual or small group. triangles of different shapes are all triangular. In metaphysics. Cf. idea or concept is said to be abstract when it is thought of in isolation from the object to which it belongs. in particular. Bradley. Hegel. Royce. theory that reality is an absolute. Page | 8 ABSOLUTE IDEALISM : The doctrine that reality is entirely spiritual or mental and that every aspect of reality has its being and its character only as an aspect of the whole. Parmenides. ABSTRACT : A quality. For example. an absolute monarchy. having no environment or relations to anything external to it. In metaphysics. reality considered as a single entity. Hegel. perfect. indicates independence of relations. In politics. ABSOLUTISM : Opposed to relativism. unconditioned .

ACADEMY : School founded in Athens by the Philosopher Plato. thought. In other words. Generally. ACQUAINTANCE KNOWLEDGE BY : Immediate or intimate knowledge as distinct from knowledge by DR. patently false. self-contradictory. or possibly common to. ACCIDENT : A characteristic which is not one of the defining characteristic of the object to which it belongs. the process of forming a general concept by adding together different distinguishing feature from our notions of some collection of particular things. the absurd is that which violates rules of logic. Thus. an the process.DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY ABSTRACTION : The process of forming an idea of a characteristic common to. or any content of . ACQUAINTANCE : In this there is an awareness of consciousness. abstraction is the concept or idea that results from ABSURD : Irrational. the Academy eventually became fertile ground for the rise of ancient skepticism.ASHIS KUMAR DASH Page | 9 feeling. a number of objects. emotion.

The act-utilitarian asks. In this there is an awareness of Page | 10 Act-utilitarianism consequences. knowledge of as contrasted with feeling. He undergoes a strict ethico-spiritual discipline and makes a sincere and incessant endeavour worthy of it. while rule-utilitarianism considers the consequent value of wide spread performance of similar actions.ASHIS KUMAR DASH : Aristotle's distinction . Opposed to intellectualism. ACT/RULE supposes that each particular action should be evaluated solely by reference to the merit of its own UTILITARIANISM : knowledge about. thought. "How much pleasure or pain would result if everyone were to do this?" ACTIVISM : Any philosophical position that describes reality in terms of activity or otherwise emphasizes action. ACTUALITY/POTENTIALITY between what really is the case and what merely has the power to change or to come to be the case .DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY description. ADHIKARÎ : The competent student is an aspirant of Moksa or self-realisation. emotion or any content of consciousness. Qualifed to know DR.

For example.DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY Brahman. the superimposition of silver over conch shell is Adhyasa. It works not only in cases of illusion. competent for Brahmajnana. who is free from faults. who has tranquility of mind. AESTHETICS : The philosophy of art. Sankaracharya says that Adhikari of Vedanta is he. concepts and judgements arising from our appreciation of the arts or of the wider class of objects considered moving or beautiful. The study of the feelings. is called Adhyasa. DR. or sublime.ASHIS KUMAR DASH The . through our senses. AGENT : In ethics the person who acts. but also in the form of false identification of self with the not-self. superimposition of unreal on real and vice-versa. beauty and criticism. senses. who is obedient to his teacher and who is endowed with virtues. ADVENTITIOUS : Adventitious ideas are those that come to us from without. Descartes ditinguishes them from innate ideas & from ideas that are ourselves create. who has subjugated his Page | 11 ADHYASA : (Superimposition) According to Shankara it is an apparent presentation of something previously observed over some other thing.

unperceptible Brahman. AGREEMENT. The belief that we do not have sufficient reason either to affirm or to deny God’s existence.The theory that one ought to act for the good of all concerned. AGNOSTICISM : The theory that it is not possible to know whether God exists. mind and God. AGOCARA : Inaccessible to the senses. ALTRUISM : Concern for the interests and welfare of others.ASHIS KUMAR DASH . If a specific every occasion on which a phenomenon occurs. antecedent circumstance is found to be present on may be inferred to be the cause of that phenomenon. In other words . Or one who neither believes nor disbelieves in the existence of God. Agnosticism implies man’s Page | 12 ignorance of the real nature of such ultimate as matter. METHOD OF : One of Mill's methods for discovery of causal relationships.DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY AGNOSTIC : One who believes in agnosticism. based either upon enlightened self-interest or a belief in a common humanity. it DR.

ANADI : Beginningless.DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY AMBIGUITY : An expression having more than one meaning. A kind of inductive argument in which it is concluded that two entities are alike in some respect on the ground that they are alike in some other respect or respects. ANALOGY : A likeness drawn between two or more entities in one or more respects. One important discussion is in Aquinas. To Aquinas God is known analogically. discussion is in Aquinas. One of the uses of this concept is in attempts to explain how religious statements can make sense. ANALOGICAL ARGUMENT : An argument based on similarities. One important Page | 13 DR. AMORAL : Neither moral nor immoral. disembodied and indeterminate Brahman. ANALOGY : One of the uses of this concept is in attempts to explain how religious statements can make sense. incorporeal. AMÉRTAÍ : Formless.ASHIS KUMAR DASH .

its implications. its presuppositions. by drawing attention to its constituents.' According to Kant an analytic statement is one in which the predicate is negation is self-contradictory. A statement which must be true and cannot be false. a proposition in which the predicate is logically Page | 14 implied by the subject to which it is attributed and therefore gives us no new information about the subject. the analysis of statements about a physical object into sits of reports about sense data. Opposite of synthetic statement. a belief. for example. etc.' or 'All bachelors are unmarried male. 'All red roses are red. In traditional logic.ASHIS KUMAR DASH . for example.DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY ANALYSIS : Conceptual or philosophical analysis is the process of explaining a concept. ANALYTIC STATEMENT : A statement which is true because of the meanings of its terms. ANARCHISM : A theory or a political movement which interprets the ideals of human freedom and equality contained in the concept of the subject and its DR. philosophical analysis is conceived as reductive analysis. a theory. etc. sometimes.

ASHIS KUMAR DASH Page | 15 According to this theory there are . For philosophical theories that all matter contains an element of mind. innumerable. Anima means breath. There is refusal to accept the legitimacy of state power. material atoms and innumberable individual souls which are all separately and independently real and each atom and each soul possess innumerable aspects of its own or an infinite number of characteristics of its own. which is (asat) nor both. the term Panpsychism is more appropriate. p is the antecedent and q is the consequent. ANIMISM : The belief that material objects and the physical environment are imbued with some kind of soul or spirit.DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY very strictly. it is neither absolute being (sat) nor absolute non-being called anirvachaniya or indescribable. Accordingly. vital principle. ANEKANTAVADA : Jaina’s metaphysics is called anekantavada or the doctrine of the manyness of reality. ANIRVACHANÎYA : The advaitins explain illusion as experience of a relatively real object. DR. soul or spirit. ANTECEDENT : That which is before. in a conditional if p then q.

ANTHROPOMORPHISM : The attribution of human characteristics to God or to inanimate objects. Views which represent God as closely resembling a human being are anthropomorphic. Of the known attacks on religious anthropomorphism human needs and interests are of overriding moral ecocentrism. the view that everything in nature exists for the sake of man. p is the antecedent and q is the consequent. ANTHROPOCENTRISM : An outlook that places mankind at the centre of the universe.ASHIS KUMAR DASH Page | 16 the first was made by Xenopanes. A belief that and philosophical importance. A belief that human needs and interests are of overriding moral and philosophical importance. the opposite of . ANTINOMY : A Paradox . A contradiction between two conclusions drawn from equally credible premises. Kant in his Critique of Pure Reason presents four DR. The human form or human characteristics.DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY ANTECEDENT : In a conditional if P then q. term may refer to the portrayal of God as having The ascription of human characteristic to non-human beings. the opposite of eco-centrism.

that is. ANTITHESIS : An opposite statement : a contrary or a juxtaposition of two contrasting ideas. The first thesis is in space. A phrase containing a balanced Page | 17 causes. The second thesis is that there are ultimately simple substances. that is. contradictory. there is freedom. and the antithesis in each case expresses a demand of reason to regard every condition as being in turn conditioned. The third thesis is that not everything in the world is determined by natural that there exists an absolutely necessary being. that is. both of that the world has a beginning in time and is limited which are supplied with proofs. Kant resolves the antinomies by asserting that in each antinomy. a first cause. not everything exists contingently. Each thesis expresses a demand of reason to find an ultimate basis for everything conditioned.ASHIS KUMAR DASH . to regard every cause as in turn an effect of something else. that is.things as they appear to us. The fourth thesis is the other to noumena-things as they are in DR. themselves. one of the two conflicting statement can be thought to apply to phenomena .DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY antinomies: four pairs of thesis and antithesis.

Kumarila like Nayayika admits negation as an independent ontological category. Words convey a meaning only of the contexts of a sentence.ASHIS KUMAR DASH Page | 18 knowledge to know negation. Nayayikas accept that inference as the correlate (pratiyogin) of negation is distinction is important in the philosophy of Plato. APHORISM : A concise statement expressing a stricking insight (sukti).DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY ANUPALABDHI: (Non-Apprehension) According to Kumarila Bhatta and others non-apprehension is the sixth independent source of knowledge. APAVARGA: Completion. Kant and Bradley. DR. but unlike Nayayika he accepts non-apprehension as an independent means of negation is known either by perception or by a subject of perception or inference. and attainment of liberation. APPEARANCE / REALITY : Distinction between the way things seem to be and the way they are. freedom of the soul from the worldly bondage. . the Descartes. ANVITABHIDHANVADA:(Sentence-meaning) (Prabhakara) : A sentence is first a construction (Anvaya) of the words with one another and there in expression of the construed meaning.

DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY A POSTERIORI : Knowledge a posterior is based on experience. According to him a word opposite meaning. APOHAVADA: The Buddhists maintain that the essence of meaning is negative in character. the word ‘cow’ denotes the exclusion of all objects that are not cows or the negation of non-cows.ASHIS KUMAR DASH . APODICTIC : The characteristic feature of any proposition that states what is necessary. which can be confirmed or disproved through experience. A PRIORI STATEMENT : A universally and necessarily true statement. For instance. Opposite of a posteriori statement. A POSTERIORI STATEMENT : A factual statement or an empirical statement. which is true independently of any factual state of affairs. perfectly certain or demonstrably tree. Opposite of a priori statement. Dinnaga first can express its meaning only by rejecting the promulgated this theory. A PRIORI : Knowledge a priori is independent of experience. Page | 19 DR.

APPLIED ETHICS : The philosophical examination. relations. of which other things are regarded as the copies. from a moral standpoint. questions of race. medical science and practice.ASHIS KUMAR DASH Page | 20 Ideas and the ideas of things existing according to . Kant and Bradley. DR.DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY APOLOGETICS : Defense against adverse criticism. APPERCEPTION : Awareness of one’s own mental representations. The original. The distinction is important in the philosophies of Plato. of particular problems in private and public life that are matters of moral judgement. Descartes. consciousness of one’s own self. The term was introduced by Leibnitz. a universal. for example. the Platonic Berkeley in the mind of God. also. The word is often used for defense of religious beliefs. and environmental issues. APPEARANCE/REALITY : Distinction between the way things seem to be and the way they are. an ideal pattern of which individual things are copies. Basically applied ethics is a branch of philosophical inquiry which guide us to find moral solutions in the sphere of personal relationship. political terrorism. or model. ARCHETYPE : An original essence.

of knowledge according to Kumarila Bhatta. It In the Polities. Ahankara. An argument is valid or invalid. ASCETICISM : A way of life focussing on the denial of sensual pleasures as a means of fostering spiritual development. correct or incorrect. sound or unsound.DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY ARGUMENT : Any group of propositions of which one (the conclusion) is claimed to follow from the others (the premisses) which are regarded as providing support for the truth of that one. ARTHAPATTÎ:(Presumption) It is an independent source consists in the assumption of some unperceived fact in order to explain apparently inconsistent facts. Aristotle discusses the relative merits of Page | 21 DR. as developed originally in the Organon of Aristotle. ASMITA: Egoism. But not as true or false. in the politics.ASHIS KUMAR DASH . monarchy and democracy. ARISTOCRACY : A class of person enjoying high status and hereditary privileges. aristocracy. ARISTOTELIAN LOGIC : Traditional categorical logic.

one which cannot be analyzed into basic. ATOMIC PROPOSITION : A simple proposition or statement.DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY ASSORTORIC :A proposition stating that something actually is the case. although essentially the same as. the universal reality or world soul. It is different from pantheism and agnosticism. The opposite of molecular proposition. the self as distinguished from. no God. ATHEISM: (not-God-ism) The view that there is no divine being.ASHIS KUMAR DASH . atomic fact. Pantheism is the view that God and the world are identical. Agnosticism (in religion) is the view that it is impossible for us to know whether God exist. ASRAVA: The flow of karmic matter towards the soul (Jaina philosophy). ATMAN: In Indian philosophy. Brahma. propositions or statements or the statement of a ATHEOLOGY : A theory designed to disprove God’s Page | 22 DR. rather than necessary or merely possible. existence.

one of the two powers of ajnana. monarchic rule without constitutional limitations. independence. AUTHORITARIANISM : A system of decision making without dice consultation with the parties concerned. any property or characteristic.DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY ATOMISM : Atomism is the name given to a materialist theory according to which nothing exists except atoms and the void. political as a pluralistic system composed of separate. AUTOCRACY : Absolute rule. AUTONOMY : Literally.ASHIS KUMAR DASH . Page | 23 DR. AVARANA: Veiling. an essential property. The power of ajnana which hides the self from the mind of man. self-government. discrete. Any theory that describes reality and irreducible entities. ATTRIBUTE : A property or characteristic necessary to a thing of a certain sort. A political system in which an elite rules without regard to the opinions of the ruled. the ability to see oneself as the author of a moral law by which one is bound. concealing. Or. AUTONOMY : (in ethics) a person's capacity for selfdetermination.

direct knowing. AXIOM : Proposition assumed to be true without proof and taken as basis for proof of other propositions. knowledge by acquaintance. The Philosophical Study of value.DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY AWARENCESS. Traditionally regarded as self-evident.ASHIS KUMAR DASH . commonly taken simply as an assumption for the purposes of formal demonstrations. ACT OF : The act of apprehending the content of consciousness. intuitive recognition. knowledge of as distinguished from knowledge about something. Page | 24 ***** DR. AXIOLOGY : A theory of value. in modern logic.

His well known statement is “ESSE EST PERCIPI” B relatively fixed in good conscience. ‘song of the blessed one/exalted lord’). Page | 25 BAD FAITH : As expounded by Sartre consists in character and by viewing oneself as being determined by one’s circumstances beyond one’s control.DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY Berkeley. This pretence of external unfreedom allows a person to disclaim responsibility BEGGING THE QUESTION: (Petitio Principii) The fallacy of assuming the conclusion of an argument by using BEHAVIOURISM : Broadly. Philosophically the doctrine of the conclusion as a premise. Hindu devotional DR. one of the three great British empiricists along with Locke and Hume. the view that behavior is fundamental in understanding mental phenomena A method in psychology which limits empirical investigation of the mind to the study of human behaviour. Berkeley’s first major publication. Irish philosopher and bishop in the Anglican Church of Ireland. BHAGABAT GITA: (from Sanskrit Bhagavadgita. George (1685–753). the Essay Towards a New Theory of Vision .ASHIS KUMAR DASH . behaviourism is that mental states are logical constructions out of dispositions to behavior.

In its narrative. reluctantly waiting to wage war. It contains eighteen chapters and seven hundred verses.C. and attachment. Bhakti includes the ideas of faith. and forms the sixth book (Chapters 23–40) of the Indian epic Mahabharata. Bodhisattava defers his own liberation in order to work for the liberation of others. Strictly classified as smrti or fallible tradition. This ideal distinguishes the DR. love. He is ready to suffer gladly so that he may liberate others.. common form of expression is worship by means of offerings. in Hindu theistic thought systems. surrender. affection. or devotion. typically treated as shruti or infallible revelation.D. and the second century A. puja etc.ASHIS KUMAR DASH . Compassion and wisdom constitute the essence of the Bodhisattava. Its most BODHISATTAVA: It is a special feature of Mahayana Buddhism. receives a selfless deeds and bhakti. Mahayana school from the spiritual individualism of the Hinyana school. the Gita is BHAKTI: (Sanskrit). the warrior revelation from the Lord Krishna that emphasizes Arjuna.DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY poem composed and edited between The fifth century B. Page | 26 devotion.

the historical founder ofBuddhism. living. a title (but not a name) of Siddharta Gotama (c. right conduct. ‘the enlightened one’). and of any of his later representations. that desire is the cause of suffering. BUDDHA:(From Sanskrit.C.483 B. The universal reality or world-soul. right intuition and right concentration. The eight-fold path involves right understanding.). right DR.). That suffering can be eliminated. without requiring the unifying presence of any underlying right resolve. all-pervasive essence and ground of the universe. The Four Noble Truths teach that life is suffering.ASHIS KUMAR DASH . The Pali Canon BUDDHISM : The philosophy or religion based on the teachings of Gautama Siddhartha (c.‘ Buddha’ can also mean Page | 27 anyone who has attained the state of enlightenment mentions twenty-four Buddhas. BUNDLE THEORY : Belief that an object comprises only the features or properties it exhibits. the supreme. right speech.C.DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY BRAHMA : Also Brahman.563–c. 563-c. and that the way to get rid of suffering is by following the eight-fold path. (Buddhahood) sought in Buddhism. 483 B. right effort.

ASHIS KUMAR DASH . Page | 28 ***** DR.DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY substance. Hence supposed that the human self is nothing more than a bundle of perceptions.

which His highest ethical ideal is jen includes an affective concern for the wellbeing of others Page | 29 CAPITALISM : An economic system in which wealth is owned by private individuals or businesses and goods are produced for exchange according to the CARTESIANISM : The philosophy of Rene Descartes (1596-1650). the purely formal principle of moral action: “Act only according to a maxim by which you can at the same DR. therefore I exist”. Confucius: Chinese thinker founder of the Confucian school of thought. CATEGORICAL IMPERATIVE : In the philosophy of Kant.DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY c dictates of the market. Descartes used a method of systematic doubt by which he arrived at the idea which served as the foundation of his philosophy: “Cogito.” “I think. CASUISTRY : Approach to ethics that begins by examining a series of concrete cases rather than by trying to deduce the consequences of a moral rule. ergo sum. the unconditional moral law for all rational beings. (humanity.ASHIS KUMAR DASH . goodness).

DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY time will that it shall become a universal law.” See also practical imperative. the Vaishesika system deal with the categories and categories (padarthas) CATEGORY MISTAKE : Confusion in the attribution of properties or the classification of things. mentions seventy categories.ASHIS KUMAR DASH .) while Kant accepts twelve categories. the entire universe is reduced to six or seven Hegel Page | 30 CAUSA SUI: (Latin. relation etc. quantity. Aristotle mentions ten categories (substance. an expression applied to God to mean in part that God owes his existence to nothing other than himself. In Indian Philosophy. The term ‘category’ means what is predicated or affirmed of something. ‘cause of itself’). DR. Ryle maintained that Cartesian dualism arises from such a mistake. CATEGORY : A fundamental class. It does not mean that God somehow brought himself into existence. one of the primary ideas to which all other ideas can be reduced. a basic conception. Thus to suppose that sleep is furious or that a city is nothing more than its buildings is to commit a category mistake.

CHARVAKA: Indian materialism. PRINCIPLE OF : It states that every change.DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY CAUSATION: the relation between cause and effect. Its viewed that the mind is simply the body and its capacities. CAUSE : In Aristotelian philosophy four kinds of cause are distinguished: material cause. has a cause. a state. or an object. accept only perception as a reliable source of knowledge. formal cause. and efficient cause. final cause. the act or event which produces the result. CAUSALITY. which may be an event. Some psychological Page | 31 Carvaka epistemologists.ASHIS KUMAR DASH . but differ physical property under some as to whether every mental property is simply a description (reductive materialism) or there are emergent irreducibly mental properties that are caused by physical properties and themselves have no causal impact (epiphenomenalism). that out of which something is made. the plan or idea by reference to which something is made. the purpose for which something is made. or the act of bringing about an effect. at least according to their critics. or every event. but in its most sophisticated form DR.

CLASS : A collection which results of a number of entities possess a common property. CIVIL LIBERTY : The private sphere of existence. definition defines an expression in terms of itself. CIVIL SOCIETY : Civil society is a social formation intermediate between the family and the state. A circular Page | 32 CIRCULAR ARGUMENT : A fallacious argument in which the conclusion is assumed in one of the premises. Also called petitio principii. formed by private citizens and enjoying independence from the government. A realm of autonomous associations and groups. families and so on. CIRCULARITY : A circular argument implicitly employs its over conclusion as it’s premise. An empty class DR. belonging to the citizen not to the state. freedom from government.DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY Carvaka. not unlike logical positivism. civil society includes businesses. allows inference at least to conclusions that concern perceptually accessible states of affairs. clubs.ASHIS KUMAR DASH . begging the question.

John Stuart Mill and DR. natural rights. a class-conscious class is a class-for-itself. CLASSICAL LIBERALISM : A doctrine stressing the importance of human rationality. Jeremy Bentham.ASHIS KUMAR DASH . constitutional limitations of government. the protection of civil Page | 33 liberties. David Ricardo. John Stuart Mill and property rights. David others. free markets and individual freedom from restraint as exemplified in the writings of Adam Smith. natural rights. individual Ricardo. constitutional limitations of government. CLASS-CONSCIOUSNESS : A Marxist term denoting an accurate awareness of class interests and a willingness to pursue them. free markets and individual freedom from restraint as exemplified in the writings of Adam Smith. a class which has no members. It is seen as the fusion of economic liberalism with political liberalism.DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY is a potential collection. the protection of civil liberties. Jeremy Bentham. individual property rights. CLASSICAL LIBERALISM : importance of human A doctrine stressing the rationality.

confused if it cannot. it is observe. From thinking. harmony and consistency among judgements. ERGO SUM : I think therefore I am. it is seem as the fusion of economic liberalism with political liberalism. An idea is distinct if it can be distinguished from any other idea. COGNITION : Any kind of knowledge process. CLEAR AND DISTINCT : An idea is clear if its content is raise and detailed otherwise. Bradley & Bosanquet etc.DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY others. existence of the self is proved by French rational philosopher Rene Descartes. certain theories of meaning for the (true or false) Descartes told that the clarity and distinctness of our Page | 34 COHERENCE THEORY OF TRUTH : The objective idealists (Hegel. The two are commonly supposed to coin cide on the grounds that clarify is a necessary and sufficient condition for distinctness. COGITO. COGNITIVE : The term cognitive meaning is used in information conveyed by a statement.ASHIS KUMAR DASH .) consider coherence to be the test of truth. ideas is a criterian for the truth of what use believe. Or. Coherence is agreement. the product of the knowledge process. The theory that truth is a property not of DR.

DR. CONTINENTAL PHILOSOPHY: The gradually changing spectrum of philosophical views that in the twentieth notably different from the various forms of analytic the Anglo-American century developed in continental Europe and that are philosophy that during the same period flourished in world. Moore. Prominent consequentialists include J. and Sidgwick. Immediately after World War II the expression was more or less synonymous with ‘phenomenology’. S.DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY individual statements or propositions but of the totality of ideas or of the absolutely inclusive idea. Mill. Page | 35 CONSEQUENTALISM: The doctrine that the moral rightness of an act is determined solely by the goodness of the act’s consequences. usually through the . COLLECTIVISATION : The abolition of private property and the establishment of a comprehensive system of mechanisms of the state.ASHIS KUMAR DASH common or public ownership. It holds the view that either the nature of truth or the sole criterion for determining truth is constituted by a relation of coherence between the belief (or judgment) being assessed and other beliefs (or judgments).

COMMUNISM : Communism is a social system in assets and all members of the society work for the group to the best of their abilities. COLONIALISM : The theory or practice of establishing control over a foreign territory. COMPLEMENT : The class of all and only those things that are not included in the class designated by a categorical term. usually by settlement or economic domination. communism is often used more broadly to refer to movements or regimes that are based on Marxist principles. (from each according to his abilities. In return the group will give to each member goods according to his or her deeds. highlighting the importance of social groups. In other words Communism is the principle of the common ownership of wealth.DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY COLLECTIVISM : A belief that human ends are best achieved through collaborative or collective effort.ASHIS KUMAR DASH Page | 36 which the community as a whole is the owner of all . to each according to his needs). DR. COMPATIBILISM : Belief that the causal determination of human conduct is consistent with the freedom required for responsible moral agency.

CONDITIONAL STATEMENT : Any statement of the form “If . CONSCIENCE : The faculty of judging morally one’s own actions... any universal which can be the object of thought. CONSEQUENTIALISM : Any normative theory holding that human actions derive their moral worth solely from the outcomes or result that they produce. Or. CONCEPT : Any idea. CONCEPTUALISM : The theory that general terms have mind. One of the several theories describing the status of universals in terms of mental concepts and nominalism.. properties of a term.” CONNOTATION : The properties common to whatever is designated by a particular term. Or.. FALLACY OF : The informal fallacy where reasoning mode from part to whole.DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY COMPOSITION. the ideas and images avoiding the extreme forms of both realism and meaning because universals exist as concepts in the Page | 37 DR.ASHIS KUMAR DASH . the defining associated with the use of a particular term. then . Or.

In logic.DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY CONSENSUS : An agreement on basic issues or principles that may permit disagreement about matters of detail or emphasis. CONTENT OF CONSCIOUSNESS : Whatever is directly apprehended in experience as distinguished from awareness. powers and functions of government institutions and the rights of the individual. CONSEQUENT : That which is after.ASHIS KUMAR DASH Page | 38 Or. the datum of experience. CONTINGENCY : A state of affairs which need not occur a state of affairs which may or may not occur. the closing clause of a conditional statement. CONTINGENT : A proposition that could be either true or false. of a whale. the relation between entitles which may be parts power should be exercised within a framework of . DR. CONSTITUTIONALISM : The belief that government rules (a constitution) that define the duties. CONSISTENCY : The logical relation which holds between propositions which are not contradictory. the act of experiencing content.

For instance. COSMOLOGICAL ARGUMENT : An argument which purports to prove the existence of God by DR. there is no coupla. collective effort intended to achieve mutual benefit. COPULA : The expression which joins the predicate to the subject in a sentence. COOPERATION : Working together. in the sentence Socrates is wise. and judgements with fact or object. A theory concerning the creation of .DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY CONTRADICTION : The logical relation which holds between two statements or propositions which cannot both be true and cannot both be false in that the truth of either involves the falsity of the other. COSMOGONY : the universe. It is a factual consistency.ASHIS KUMAR DASH Correspondence is agreement or harmony of ideas proposition is true if it corresponds to matter of fact. The theory that a statement or to correspond to fact. as in the sentence Socrates thinks. When the predicate is joined directly to the subject. Page | 39 CORRESPONDENCE THEORY OF TRUTH : The realist consider correspondence to be the test of truth. to actual state of affirs. the coupla is ‘is’.

God created the world ex nihilo. cospuscularians included Gassendi.DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY maintaining that there must have been a first cause which initiated the causal sequence of contingent things. According to traditional Christian theology.ASHIS KUMAR DASH Page | 40 state. parites. Boyle CREATION EX NIHILO: The act of bringing something into existence from nothing. more usually. an inquiry into the structure of the universe. the theory that knowledge of independently existing things is possible even when the ideas by which things are DR. CRITICAL REALISM : The theory that most existing things do not depend for their existence upon being perceived or conceived in mind. CRITICAL PHILOSOPHY : Kantian Philosophy. a belief in a world harmony and understanding amongst nations. COSPUSCULARIANISM: 17th century physical theory that supposed all matter to be composed of minute and Locke. a commitment to fostering . COSMOLOGY : The philosophic study of basic causes and processes in the universe. COSMOPOLITANISM : Literally.

The matter or material of knowledge is supplied by reason. Kants theory of knowledge is callled critical theory of knowledge. CYNICISM: Belief that the entire point of human life is the satisfaction of our most basic natural needs without any respect for social convention.ASHIS KUMAR DASH . CULTURAL NATIONALISM : A form of nationalism that places primary emphasis on the regeneration of the self-government. The forms of knowledge are Page | 41 ***** DR.DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY known differ in existence and in character from the things known. CRITICAL THEORY OF KNOWLEDGE : Kant regards reason and experience both as the source of knowledge. nation as a distinctive civilization rather than on supplied by experience.

DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY

D
selection.

Descartes, René (1596–1650), French philosopher and mathematician, a founder of the “modern age”. His well known statement is Cogito ergo sum (Latin, ‘I think, therefore I am’),the starting point of Descartes’s system of knowledge.

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DARWINANISM: The view that biological species evolve primarily by means of chance variation and natural DATUM : The given element. Or, whatever is presented as the content of consciousness. DECENTRALISATION : The expansion of local autonomy through the transfer of powers and responsibilities away from national or central bodies. DECISION PROCEDURE : An algorithm by means of which to establish in a finite number of steps, whether a statement form is tautologous or whether an argument form is valid. Drawing Venn diagrams provides a decision procedure for a modern interpretation of categorical logic and truth-tables give a decision procedure for the propositional quantification theory. calculus, but there is no decision procedure for

DR.ASHIS KUMAR DASH

DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY

DECONSTRUCTION : A form of textual analysis, usually combined with theoretical revision. Its aim is to unmask and overcome hidden (conceptual or theoretical) privilege. This is a key concept in the writings of Jacques Derrida. DEDUCTION : One of the two major types of argument traditionally induction. A deductive argument claims to provide deductive inference is one in which the conclusion is a necessary consequence of the premises. It is the mode of reasoning which involves passing from one or more propositions to other propositions logically implied by the former. DEEP ECOLOGY : A green ideological perspective that rejects anthropocentrism and gives priority to the such as biocentric equality, diversity maintenance of nature, and is associated with values decentralisation. and distinguished, the other being

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conclusive grounds for its conclusion. A valid

DE FACTO / DE JURE : Distinction between the grounds for a condition that merely happens to obtain (de facto) and one that holds as a matter of right or law (de jure)
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DEFINIENDUM : A word to be defined. DEFINIENS : An expression used to define a word. DEFINITION : The process of explaining the meaning of a term. Or, the expression used to explain the meaning of a term; the statement of the equivalence in meaning of a definiendum and definiens. DEFINITE DESCRIPTION : An expression that claims to refer to the single being that possess some unique proper analysis of such expressions, as the joint member of otherwise troubling difficulties. DEISM: The belief that God is unconcerned with the world he created. Or, the view that God can be understood by the use of reason and by reference to natural phenomena. It holds the view that true religion is natural religion. Some Christian deists accepted revelation although they self-styled feature. Russell showed nearly a century ago that the assertion of several distinct propositions, resolves a
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argued that its content is essentially the same as natural religion. Deism is largely a seventeenth- and eighteenth-century phenomenon and was most prominent in England. Among the more important English deists were John Toland (1670–1722),
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and Thomas Chubb (1679–1747). Continental deists included Voltaire and Reimarus. DEMOCRACY : A systems of government in which all citizens are entitled to participate in political decision-making. The class of entities to which a term refers. ‘craftsman’). a deity who shapes the material world from the preexisting chaos. or indirectly through elected representative. The DR. whatever a term designates. be it directly. Matthew Tindal (1657–1733). Herbert of Cherbury (1583–1648). DENOTATION : A general term is said to denote each object to which it refers. DEMONSTRATIONS : Demonstrative knowledge is indirect. ‘artisan’.ASHIS KUMAR DASH .e.DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY Anthony Collins (1676–1729). Palmer (1764–1806) were prominent Page | 45 DELIBERATIVE DEMOCRACY : A form of democracy that emphasises the role of discourse and debate in helping to define the public interest. DEMIURAGE: (from Greek demiourgos. immediate knowledge. Thomas Paine and Elihu American deists. Plato introduces the demiurge in his Timaeus. attained by proof in contrast to intuition. i.

DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY several object to which a term may correctly be applied. an ethics which regards an Page | 46 DR. Also known as Teleological agreement. its extension. The word 'descriptivism' was introduced by R.M. DEONTOLOGICAL ETHICS : Any theory of the right and the wrong which relates moral value not to the value of the consequences of human action but to the act as right if it conforms to moral principle. Hare as a contrasting team to his own prescriptivism. DESCRIPTIVISM : The thesis that the meaning of any evaluative statement is purely descriptive or factual. DETERMINISM : The theory that every event has a cause and an effect and that the character of any event is entirely a function of its cause. ARGUMENT FROM : Belief that the operation of the universe evidences its providential origin. Descriptivism is related to cognitivism and moral realism. formal nature of the act. Theory that every thing or event is totally conditioned by antecedent cause.ASHIS KUMAR DASH . DESIGN.

DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY DHARMA : In Indian philosophy. DILEMMA : In ordinary non-technical usage. division of a class into two subclasses that are mutually exclusive and jointly exhaustive. the right. Or. a dilemma is a situation requiring a difficult choice DR. The crude and deterministic form of Marxism that dominated intellectual life in communist states.ASHIS KUMAR DASH Page | 47 orthodox . Or. virtue. DICHOTOMY : Dividing into two. Or. DIALECTICAL MATERIALISM : A phiolosophy founded by Marx and Engels and supported by Lenin and Stalin. DICTUM DE OMNI ET NULLO : The Aristotelian principle of syllogistic logic which states that whatever can be affirmed or denied of the whole of a class may be affirmed or denied of a part. the method of philosophical inquiry by the use of questions and answers. the cosmic law. the critical treatment of paradoxes arising out of the misapplication of categories. DIALECTIC : The art of rational discourse. the method of constructing ideas by resolving apparent contradictories.

M. DIRECT DEMOCRACY POPULAR SELF-GOVERNMENT: Characterised by the direct and continuous participation of citizens in the tasks of government. DISJUNCTION : A compound statement of the form 'p or statements are called disjuncts. METHOD OF : One of mill’s Methods for discovering casual relationships. DIFFERENCE. If an antecedent circumstance is present only on those occasions q' is called a disjunction. DISCURSIVE : A term applied to processes of thinking which reach their conclusion step by step through a series of intermediary operations.DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY between alternatives. and the component DR.ASHIS KUMAR DASH . : The word DESCRIPTIVISM 'descriptivism' was Page | 48 introduced by R. Hare as a contrasting team to his own prescriptivism. both of which are bad. A common form of argument in ordinary discourse in which it claimed that a choice must be made between two alternatives. DISCOURSE ETHICS : A theory designed to establish the right moral and political principles.

without the mediation of ideas or sensory representations. emotion. FALLACY OF : The informal fallacy of attributing some feature of a collection to the members of that collection individually or reasoning from whole to part. thought. the predicate term is distributed in all Page | 49 DR. It is also called “Naive” realism. it may be inferred to be the cause of that phenomenon. or any content of consciousness. DISTRIBUTION OF TERMS : a term is distributed if the proposition refers to entire member of the class it term is distributed in all and only universal and only negative propositions. especially in its attempts to account for the occurrence of hallucinations and perceptual error. See also awareness. undistributed if it does not. intuition. designates. DIVISION. DIRECT REALISM : Theory of perceive according to which are perceive material objects directly.DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY when a phenomenon occurs.ASHIS KUMAR DASH . this view of ten requires a sophisticated defense. The subject propositions. DIRECT KNOWLEDGE : Awareness of feeling.

viz. dianoia. in ordinary physical objects.. belief . pistis.ASHIS KUMAR DASH .DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY DIVIDED LINE: One of three analogies offered in Plato’s Republic Socrates divides a line into two unequal segments: the longer represents the intelligible world and the shorter the sensible world. DOGMATISM : Dogmatism is the dogmatic procedure of pure reason without previous criticism of its own power. and deduce conclusion from them. and noesis illusion or the apprehension of images.rational ascent to the first principle of the Good by means of dialectic. Socrates segments (beginning with the shortest): eikasia. rationalism and empiricism. Page | 50 segments is divided in the same proportion. the sort of hypothetical reason dispositional belief divided lineing engaged in by mathematicians. Then each of the associates four mental states with the four resulting as a partial explanation of the Good. DR. Both these theories dogmatically assumes the truth of certain fundamental principles. without enquiring into the capacity of the organ of knowledge to comprehend the reality. Dogmatism assumes two forms. as Kant says.

for example.“God DUALISM : Any metaphysical theory which reduces the kinds of existing things to two basic substances. The crux of dualism is an apparently properties and events on the other are irreducibly Page | 51 DR.DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY DOUBLE ASPECT THEORY : Belief that mental properties and events on the one hand and physical distinct feature or as aspects of one and the same thing that exhibits them both. which may be bodily noble truths. In epistemology. Represented in Critical Realism. as the content of the mind in the knowing relationship. or in the knowledge theories of Locke and unbridgeable gap between two incommensurable orders of being that must be reconciled if our assumption that there is a comprehensible universe is to be justified. a theory that regards the object of knowledge as not numerically identical with the object as known.e. (ii) ‘Suffering’ ‘ill’. As the first of the four Descartes.. and mental. maintained that thought and extension are distinct or Nature” attributes of the one existing substance that is . Spinoza.ASHIS KUMAR DASH . DUÍKHA: (i) ‘Pain’ painful feeling. i.

DYAD : A group of two.DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY DUTIES : What we ought to do. to perform. an action that people are required of a moral obligation.ASHIS KUMAR DASH . the practical content Page | 52 ***** DR.

notably of relativity and the quantum theory. ECOCENTRISM : A theoretical orientation that gives priority to the maintenance of ecological balance philosophy that recognizes that the eco sphere. industry and individual. On this view. ECO FEMINISM : Belief that human violation of the natural world is an extension of the prevalent patriarchy of western culture. efforts to protect the environment at large are feminist in discover something which is not dependent for its DR. Germanborn American physicist.ASHIS KUMAR DASH . rather than the achievement of human ends. Einstein’s own understanding of relativity stressed the invariance of the space-time interval and promoted realism with regard to the structure of space time. founder of the special and general theories of relativity and a fundamental contributor to several branches of physics and to the philosophical analysis and critique of modern physics. Page | 53 EGOCENTRIC PREDICAMENT : The peculiar situation in which any knower finds himself when he attempts to existence upon being known. Albert (1879–1955).DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY E Einstein. A rather than any individual organism is the source and support of all life and as such advises a holistic ad eco-centric approach to government.

EGOISM. ECONOMIC LIBERALISM : A belief in the market as a self-regulating mechanism that tends naturally to deliver general prosperity and opportunities for all. ECOLOGY : The study of the relationship between living organisms and the environment. DR. EGOISM : Concern for one’s own interest or welfare. since they challenge systemic male domination of the other. ECO CENTRISM : A philosophy that recognizes that the eco sphere. ecology stresses the network of relationships that sustain all forms of life. EFFICIENT CAUSE : The agent or event that produces some changes in the accidental features of a thing. or the belief that each individual is the entitled to function as a morally autonomous being. selfishness. rather than any individual organism is the source and support of all life and as such advises industry and individual. centre of his or her own moral universe. ETHICAL : The theory that one ought to act so as to secure the greatest possible good for oneself. one of Aristotle's four causes.DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY spirit. and is thus .ASHIS KUMAR DASH Page | 54 a holistic ad eco-centric approach to government.

an arising out of. for phenomenological ELAN VITAL : The life force. In the philosophy of Plato. EIDOS: Greek term for what is seen . shape or form.DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY EGOISM. It is a key concept in Gnostic and neo-Platonic philosophy. PSYCHOLOGICAL : The theory that man is so constituated that he must act to secure whatever he regards as best for himself.figure. or God. transcendent forms apprehended by human reason. EMANATION : The issuing forth from. one of the eternal. Asrisotole rejected the the notion of Page | 55 indenpendently existing forms. the basic creative principle of all living things or the evolutionary principle as operative in nature. has a fullness. The One. Husserl used the term “eidetie” apprehension of essences generally. DR. the eidos is the immutable genuine nature of a thing. indeed an overflow of being and other things come into being at various levels as emanations of the divine.ASHIS KUMAR DASH . The creative process in which all being is derived in a non temporal fashion from a single source of being.

DR. EMOTIVE MEANING : The capacity of an utterance to express or to communicate feeling.DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY EMOTION. with the most of the logical positivists and Stevenson.APPEAL accept or reject TO:(ARGUMENTU AD POPULISM) a conclusion of persuading someone to by arousing Page | 56 The informal fallacy favourable or unfavourable emotions toward it or by emphasizing its widespread acceptance or rejection by others. evocation or endorsement of powerful human feelings. EMERGENCE : The appearance of new forms of life or preceding forms. The descriptive meaning of an expression is its power to produce an idea or a belief in a hearer. EMOTIVISM : the meta-ethical theory according to which the meaning of moral language is exhausted by its expression. its origination lies in the non-cognitivist morality of theme.ASHIS KUMAR DASH . emotivism matter which cannot be explained by reference to reached its height early in the twentieth century. the emotive meaning of an expression is its power to produce a feeling or an attitude in a hearer.

The Enlightenment is at once a style. and practical. DR. skeptical. empirical. a temper –critical. EMPIRICAL STATEMENT : A statement which can be verified or shown to be false by reference to facts revealed by experience.DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY EMPATHY : The assumption of the attitude. in what it took to be “nature. politics and learning in general in the name of reason and progress. END : The goal or purpose of a thing. secular.ASHIS KUMAR DASH . in the ENLIGHTENMENT : An intellectual movement that reached its height in the eighteenth century and challenged traditional beliefs in religion. attitude. motion or state of mind of another as if one were the other. an philosophy of Aristotle. Hence empirical coincides Page | 57 with what is a posteriori. the observation or experience generally. ”and in the “natural feelings” of mankind. EMPIRICAL : Based on use of the senses. EMPIRICISM : The theory that all knowledge is derived from experience and that no knowledge is innate or a priori. hence. It is also characterized by core beliefs in human rationality. the final cause.

and Voltaire. Kant. ENTAILMENT : Relation between propositions such that one of them is strictly implied by the other(s). In metaphysics. EPICUREANISM : The theory that happiness is the greatest good and that happiness is to be achieved by living a life of moderation in which the contemplative pleasures are preferred to the EPI-PHENOMENALISM : The theory that mental events reflect bodily changes but have no cause influence DR. the promoting that view. The premises of a valid deductive argument entail its ENTELECHY : (from Greek entelecheia). .DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY Four of its most prominent exemplars are Hume.ASHIS KUMAR DASH sensuous pleasures. ENVIRONMENTALISM: (in ethics and politics) the view that the of major production of the natural environment is practical and moral concern for movement based on and conclusion. Page | 58 mankind. The essence or vital principle of a thing by virtue of which it is actual. ENTITY : Whatever can be considered or referred to. Thomas Jefferson. the realization of the essence of a thing.

The attempt to clarify ideas about knowledge and the methods for securing knowledge. according to which there is some physical basics for energy mental occurrence. It inquires into the origin. A theory about the relation between matter and mind.ASHIS KUMAR DASH . nature. the Judgment. DR. EPISTEMOLOGY : Epistemology is the theory of knowledge. EPISTEMOLOGICAL MONISM : The theory that the content of consciousness and the aspect of object known are distinct in existence even though they may be alike in essence. EPOCHE : suspension of In the Philosophy of the skeptics. Mental phenomena are seems as by products of a closed system of physical causes and effects.DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY on the body. EPISTEMOLOGICAL DUALISM : The theory that the content of consciousness and the object known are in essence. validity and extent of knowledge. and they have no causal power of their own. Greek term for distinct in existence even though they may be alike Page | 59 cessation or stoppage.

ESCHATOLOGY : The theological study of such final matters as death. whether or ESSENTIALISM : essential not it is the characteristic of something. any characteristic whatsoever. statements have the same truth Page | 60 EROS : The Greek god of erotic love. According to Berkeley.DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY EQUIVALENCE : Symbolized in the form : p = q. ESSENCE : The distinctive nature of a thing or. divine judgement and the end of the world. first appearing in Hesiod in opposition to reason. this is the most basic feature of all sensible objects. DR. . more broadly. ESSE EST PERCIPI : Latin phrase meaning “ to be is to be perceived”. immortality. EQUIVOCATION : The informal fallacy that can result when an ambiguous word or phrase is used in different senses within a single argument. Eros came to be symbolic of various aspects of love. It is a compound statement that is true whenever both of its component value.ASHIS KUMAR DASH . A metaphysical theory that objects non-essential or accidental have essences and that there is a distinction between and predications. for spirits.

ETHOS : characteristic conduct of an individual human life. obligations. or that facts about them hold. ETERNITY : The infinite temporal duration which includes all time or. is usually to from its being thought to hold or exist. Granting this to be the most fundamental principle of idealistic philosophy. and ethics the it stories the Greek word for western or habit. a state which transcends time. Page | 61 rights. esse est percipi “ to be is to perceive”. objectively and that similarly worded ethical statements by different persons make the same factual claims (and thus do not concern merely the speaker’s feelings). duties. ETHICAL OBJECTIVISM: The view that the objects of the most basic concepts of ethics (which may be supposed to be values. DR. or what not) exist. the say that its holding or existence is not derivative held that all behavior for good or evil .ASHIS KUMAR DASH . oughts. To say that a fact is objective. or that something has objective existence. moose argued that it is indefensible. beginning with study of human conduct Aristotle.DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY on the other hand. Hence.arises from the ethos of the individual.

as in hedonistic man’s well-being or happiness. ETHICAL HEDONISM : The theory that acts are right insofar as they contribute to happiness or pleasure or suffering. functions of. the attitudes of persons judging the acts. that part of philosophy which deals with questions concerning the nature and source of value. ETHICS : The philosophy of morality.DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY ETHICAL RELATIVISM : The theory that the rightness and wrongness of acts are relative to. rightness. EUDAEMONISM : (from Greek and wrong insofar as they contribute to unhappiness Page | 62 ‘happiness’.‘ flourishing’). but upon the way of life most suited to man’s nature.’ William Lillis defines ethics as the ‘normative science of the conduct of human beings living in societies. Mackenzie says that ethics is the ‘study of what is right or good in conduct.ASHIS KUMAR DASH . DR. The emphasis in ethics. It eudaimonia. The ethical doctrine that happiness is the ultimate justification for morality. holds that acts are right insofar as they contribute to eudeamonism is not upon pleasure. duty and related matters.

EXCLUDED MIDDLE. achieved either by promoting procreation amongst by the ‘unfit’. and that focused on the uniqueness of each human individual qualities. immediately after World War II. EVIL : Mean physical pain. It is a philosophical and literary movement that came to prominence in Europe. PRINCIPLE OF : The principle that a proposition is either true or it is false. as contingent upon the mode of existence.DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY EUGENICS : The theory or practice of selective breeding. EXTENSION / INTENSION : Distinction between ways in which the meaning of a term may be regarded: its DR. or character. mental suffering and moral wickedness. EXISTENTIALISM : A philosophy which distinguishes between existence and essence and gives priority to existence. The existentialist beings with the fact of an encountered existence and regards essence. particularly in France.ASHIS KUMAR DASH ‘fit’ members of a species or preventing procreation Page | 63 as distinguished from abstract universal human . the philosophy which claims that in man existence precedes essence.

is the set features those things are presumed to have in common. EXTENSIONALITY : The feature of a formal system in which the meaning of energy non-logical term is wholly determined by its extension. its intension or connotation. compound statements of the system will be truthPage | 64 ***** DR.ASHIS KUMAR DASH .DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY extension or denotation. this ensures that functional.

Freud. that is.ASHIS KUMAR DASH . That which objectively is. Austrian neurologist and psychologist. Drawn by Hume and defended by Stevension. religion . It follows that people who agree completely on the simple description of a state of affairs may never the less differ with respect to the appropriate action to take in response to it. Sigmund (1856–1939). Freud regarded dreams as “the royal road to a knowledge of the unconscious. the distinction is usually taken to entail that claims about moral obligation can never be validly inferred from the truth of factual premises alone.and political authority. Freud used the results of his investigations to speculate about the origins of morality. FACT / VALUE : Distinction between assertions about how things really are. facticity includes all DR. In the existentialism of Heidegger and Sartre.” Page | 65 FACT : A state of affairs.DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY F Facts simply are. Factual propositions are true or false. FACTICITY : The continent conditions of an individual human life. Not to be confused with a statement of fact or a factual proposition. the founder of psychoanalysis. value. that is. Hare and other ethical non cognitivists. fact and how things ought to be.

details-time and place of FALLACY : An unsound argument or an error in reasoning. FALLIBILISM : Theory that it is impossible to attain absolute certainty in factual knowledge. Peirce. Also. is possible that to specify a set of Page | 66 FALSIFIABILITY : A property of any proposition for circumstances the occurrence of which would demonstrate According to Karl Popper.DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY of the concrete birth. presence than which it FALSE CAUSE : The informal fallacy of affirming the of a causal relationship on anything less adequate grounds. FASCISM : A social philosophy that rejects democracy and freedom and glorifies the state as an instrument of power. a form of totalitarianism. FALSE CONSCIOUSNESS: concerning society. or values. the proposition is false.ASHIS KUMAR DASH . source and significance of one’s beliefs and attitudes DR. Lack of awareness of the religion. Cf. falsifiability is the crucial feature of scientific hypothesis : belief can never be tested against the empirical evidence are dogmatic.

the vague belief that somehow certain events are Marx) use the expression to explain and condemn Page | 67 theories of moral obligation as instances of masculine over. Marxists (if not illusions generated by unfair economic relationships.ASHIS KUMAR DASH . Serious attention DR. scientific traditional Cartesian Or. their analyses of its most common consequences. FEMINISM : Commitment to the abolition of male domination in human society. FATALISM : The belief that all or some events are determined by some supernatural being or power. dishonest forms of self-deception. FEDERALISM : A territorial distribution of power based on the sharing of sovereignty between central (usually national) bodies and peripheral ones. and their concrete proposals for overcoming it.DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY objectionable forms of ignorance and false belief. decided upon as historical facts prior to their occurrence.reliance on reason. but all share is the recognition that the subordination of women to men in our culture is indigestible and eliminable. Many feminist philosophers objectively oppose and dualism. Feminists differ widely in their accounts of the origins of patriarchy.

DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY to the experiences of women would offer a more FEMINIST PHILOSOPHY: A philosophical viewpoint that refuses to identify the human experience with the male experience. philosophers as diverse as Pascal. and doing as valuable as FEUDALISM : A system of agrarian-based production that is characterised by fixed social hierarchies and a rigid pattern of obligations. feminist philosophers challenge several to take seriously women’s interests. and issues. Bayle and DR. This focus on various forms.religious doctrines rest faith. In was maintained by exclusively on they do. and those of men. FIDEISM : Belief that . fideism Kierkegaard.ASHIS KUMAR DASH . perspectives. rather than of what they are. to recognize women’s adequate can not of human life. Writing from a variety of areas of traditional philosophy on the grounds that they fail identities. thinking. instead of on reason. Page | 68 ways of being. FEENCTIONALISM : An approach to the philosophy of mind that analysis mental states in terms of what action performed instead of on intrinsic features.

a necessary truth which serves as the foundation of a system of ideas. FIRST PRINCIPLE : The first cause of all contingent beings. FORMS. equality. of taken to eternal. Or. or equal. FIRST MOVER : (Prime Mover) The being or power that initiated change in the universe. necessary truths are involve knowledge ideas. FORMAL CAUSE : Structural features or attributes of a thing. Page | 69 arguments. the first cause.DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY FIVE WAYS : The attempts to prove the existence of God included They include three versions of the cosmological teleological arguments. FINAL CAUSE : The end or purpose for which something was done. PLATONIC : The pure objects of mathematical and dialectical knowledge. one of the four causes of Aristotle. in Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologa.ASHIS KUMAR DASH . or Good only in so far as they participate in the universal forms of beauty. In the vigorous realism of Plato’s middle dialogues. argument from moral perfection and the unchanging forms or Particular things in the realm of appearance are beautiful. DR.

which is in no will free from the excessive influences of other persons. a or prefer. without any external Page | 70 DR. FRATERNITY : Literally. bonds of sympathy and comradeship between and amongst human beings. rewarded or punished.ASHIS KUMAR DASH . FREE WILL : A will. Or. are just those which I perform freely. FUNDAMENTALISM : A belief in the original or most basic principles of a creed. as compulsion or restraint. FORMALISM : In ethics. the theory that moral obligation is relative to formal principles of conduct whose validity can be determined by intuitive reflection. often associated with way causally determined. brotherhood. The doctrine of forms was attacked in Plato’s own Parminides and by Aristotle. we choose FREEDOM : The human capacity to act or not to act. or power to decide. an uncoerced will.DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY or the Good. Freedom in this sense is usually regarded as a presupposition of moral responsibility: the actions to which I may be praised or blamed.

Developed by Lotfi Zadeh as a of providing for vagueness in the application of predicates. FUZZY LOGIC : Non .DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY fierce commitment and sometimes reflected in fanatical zeal.classical system of reasoning in which propositions may have many degrees of truth or falsity.systems.ASHIS KUMAR DASH . method Page | 71 ***** DR. fuzzy logic has found a number of significant practical applications in the design and operation of control .

ASHIS KUMAR DASH .DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY G Gandhi. GENERAL WILL : Collective desire for the welfare of a society as a whole. political DR. considering it a science whose end is truth (which he identified with God) and method nonviolence (ahimsa). GESTALT : Shape. form. GLOBALIZATION connectivity. Indian nationalist leader. which refers to between men and women. ‘force’). called Mahatma (1869–1948). the whole considered as more than the sum of its parts. : Refers to increasing global economic. Page | 72 GENDER : A social and cultural distinction between males and females. and agraha. ‘truth’. social. According to Jean Jacques Rousseau. He called his approach Satyagraha (Sanskrit satya. as opposed to sex. the citizens of a property contracted civil biological and therefore ineradicable differences society are infallibly guided by the general will. integration and interdependence in the and ecological spheres. an advocate of nonviolent mass political action. Mohandas Karamchand. technological. cultural. rather than by their conflicting individual selfinterests.

theological arguments is the problem of evil. As stated by Hutcheson. The most serious a western Philosophy.DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY GOD. the ontological argument the teleological argument. moral whether intrinsic or extrinsic GREATEST HAPPINESS PRINCIPLE : The definition of value by utilitarians.ASHIS KUMAR DASH . Bentham and mill. The Commonly employed Page | 73 ***** DR. GOOD : The most general term of approval both moral and non-moral. so far as they tend to and the moral argument. the principle is that action are right only in produce the greater balance of pleasure over pain for the largest number of people. EXISTENCE OF : Attempts to demonstrate the existence of God have been a notable feature of theistic efforts include the cosmological argument.

ASHIS KUMAR DASH allegiance to one supreme deity while . Hegel’s best-known attempt is dialectical resolution of many of the traditional oppositions and antinomies of past thought. Georg Wilhelm Friedrich (1770–1831). also well known for his philosophy of history and philosophy of religion. Although defended as a moral theory about the proper aim of human conduct. hedonism is usually grounded on the psychological claim that human beings simply do act in such ways as to maximize their own happiness. for Marxists. It is the belief that pleasure is the highest or only source of intrinsic value. HENOTHEISM : Maxmuller introduces the term ‘Henotheism’ as a transitional stage from polytheism God. Page | 74 HEDONISM : According to hedonism pleasure is the highest good and supreme end of life. highest good. hegemony implies ideological domination. It to monotheism.one of the most influential and systematic of the German idealists. Henotheism means belief in one only conceding existence to others. Aristotle argued against any attempt to identify pleasure as the HEGEMONY : The ascendency or domination of one element of a system over others.DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY H Hegel. also described as DR.

which denies reality to all gods save one. holism implies that understanding is gained by studying relationships among the parts. the term acquired a much broader significance in its historical development and finally philosophy. HIERARCHY : A gradation of social positions or status. hierarchy implies structural or fixed inequality in which position is unconnected with individual ability.as well as a type of philosophy that starts with questions of interpretation. incipient monotheism. a set of presuppositions that assigns to human beings a special position in the scheme of things. HOLISM : A belief that the whole is more important than its parts.DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY monolatry. HERMENEUTICS: The art or theory of interpretation .ASHIS KUMAR DASH . or practical monotheism. HUMANISM : A philosophical view which emphasises the centrality of man and rejects the supernatural. Not just a philosophical position in twentieth-century German became a DR. Originally concerned more Page | 75 narrowly with interpreting sacred texts. It occupies a middle ground between polytheism and radical monotheism.

empirical HYLOZOISM : The belief that all matter is living Page | 76 ***** DR. HYPOTHESIS : A General principle.ASHIS KUMAR DASH .DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY school of thought or a collection of specific beliefs or doctrines. tentatively put forward for the purposes of scientific explanation and subject to disconfirmation by evidence. humanism is rather a general perspective from which the world is viewed substance.

an eternal essence. His masterpiece.ASHIS KUMAR DASH . a philosophy. but exist only as in some way correlative to conception that reality as we understand it reflects IDENTITY OF INDISCERNIBLES : The principle that no two things can be identical in character.DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY I universal experience. Newton. English physicis and mathematician. The doctrine centers on the the workings of mind. DR. any sense object directly known in archetype of things. In the philosophy of Gottfried Wilhelm Von Leibniz (16461716). the principle that no two monads can have characters without a discernible difference. one of the greatest scientists of all time. Philosophiae Naturalis Principia mathematica (“The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy”) It has been remarked that conflicting strains of a rationalism (anticipating Kant) and empiricism (anticipating Hume) are present in Newton’s conception of science Page | 77 IDEA : In Platonic philosophy. In Berkeleian IDEALISM : The theory that only minds (spirits) and their ideas exist. It is the philosophical doctrine that reality is somehow mind-correlative or mindcoordinated – that the real objects constituting the “external world” are not independent of cognizing mental operations. Sir Isaac (1642–1727). minds.

in saying “ I will performs the illocutionary act of making a promise. The four classes of idols described by Bacon are the ‘Idols of the Tribe’ inherent human habits of thought. the individual. a cause of human ignorance or error. The fact that “A is A” is a tautology. ILLOCUTIONARY ACT : The speech act of doing something elsefor example – in offering advice or taking a vow.ASHIS KUMAR DASH . For example. the ‘Idols of the Market ‘Idols of the Cave’ the particular weaknesses of the Place’ of misconceptions resulting from the misuse Page | 78 language and the ‘Idols of the Theater’ false ideas resulting from the uncritical acceptance of authority.DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY IDENTITY. the process of uttering meaningful language. IDEOLOGY : A more or less coherent set of ideas that provides the basis for some kind of organised political action. repay you this money next week. PRINCIPLE OF : It states that an object is always the same as itself (A=A). IDOL : In the philosophy of Francis Bacon (15611626). “ one typically DR.

DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY

IMAGINATION: The mental faculty sometimes thought to encompass all acts of thinking about something novel, contrary to fact, or not currently perceived; propositions categorical that are logically equivalent IMMEDIATE INFERENCE : The relationship between two logic, the traditional immediate in
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inferences include : conversion, obversion and contraposition. IMMANENT : Being within, part of, indwelling. The IMMATERIALISM: The view that objects are best characterized as mere collections of qualities: “a certain colour, taste, smell, figure and consistence one distinct ting, signified by the name IMPLICATION : The logical relation which holds could not be the case that the one is true and the other false. p implies that q means that q can be correctly inferred from p. IN COMMENSURABILITY : measured against a common Incapable of being standard. The between one proposition and another whenever it having been observed to go together, are accounted opposite of transcendent.

preserved in commensurability of individual human
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DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY

pleasures is sometimes raised as an objection against hedonistic versions of utilitarianism. INCONTINENCE : Inability to act reasonably because of weakness of will, lack of self control. INCOMPLETE SYMBOL : An incomplete symbol is one which has no meaning in isolation, but only in some so, the present king of France etc. context. For example – or, and, if ... then, the so and INDETERMINISM : The theory that some events are not causally determined. Or, the theory that acts of will are not determined. INDIVIDUALISM : A belief in the central importance of the human individual as opposed to the social group or collective. INDUCTION : The process of moving from the particular to General. The method of empirical generalization. inferring a general conclusion from a argument claims that its premises give only some conclusion. number of particular instances. An inductive degree of probability but not certaintity to its
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INFERENCE : The process of reasoning from one idea or set of ideas (the premises) to a conclusion. Inference relationship. INNATE IDEAS : Beliefs with which man is born. According to Descartes those ideas which we have God. from birth before any experience. Like the Idea of INSTRUMENTALISM : Another term for the pragmatism of John Dewey and others. The view that theories regarded as tools. INTENTIONALITY: Aboutness. Things that are about other things exhibit intentionality. Beliefs and other mental states exhibit intentionality, but so, in a derived way, do sentences and chairs, tables and pictures, and other representations. The adjective ‘intentional’ in this philosophical sense is a technical characterizing something done on purpose. INTERACTIONISM : The theory that body and mind causally affect each other. See also epiphenomenalism and parallelism.
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is a kind of activity; implication is a logical

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are not strictly speaking true or false but are to be

term not to be confused with the more familiar sense,

DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY

INTERNATIONALISM : A theory or practice of politics that is based on transnational or global cooperation; the belief that nations are artificial and unwanted formation. INTRINSIC PROPERTY : Belonging to the nature or essence of a thing. Belonging to something independently of its relation to other things. INTUITION : The faculty of knowing by mental inspection and without recourse to reason; direct knowing or awareness which is neither deductive nor inductive. Or, the product of recognition. INTENTIONALITY : The characteristic feature of cognitive states - that they invariably represent or are about something beyond themselves. The intentions of a moral agent are therefore, the states of mind accompany its actions IRRELEVANT CONCLUSION:
(IGNORATIO ELENCHI)

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intuitive

Reasoning that misses the point the informal fallacy of defending the truth of a proposition by appeal to an argument that is actually concerned with something else.

*****
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J
enlightenment

Jean-Paul Sartre:(1905–80), French philosopher and writer, the leading advocate of existentialism during the years following World War II. The heart of his philosophy was the precious notion of freedom and its concomitant sense of personal responsibility., bolder slogan, “man makeshimself.”

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JAINISM: An Indian religious and philosophical of the sixth and the beginning of the fifth century B.C. The tradition holds that each person is

tradition established by Mahavira in the latter half

everlasting and indestructible, a self-conscious identity surviving as a person even in a state of final JAÒA: Unconsciousness; dull. JUDGEMENT : The simplest form of knowledge is expressed in a judgement. A judgement consists of a subject and a predicate.

JUSTICE : Each getting what he or she is due. Formal justice is the impartial and consistent application of are just. Substantive justice is closely principles, whether or not the principles themselves associated with rights, i.e., with what individuals

can legitimately demand of one another or what they

can legitimately demand of their government

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ASHIS KUMAR DASH . Page | 84 ***** DR.DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY Retributive justice concerns when and why punishment is justified.

the proposition is true and c. is open to question. KARMA: In Indian philosophy. The analysis of each element of the definition. deed or action. Philosophers have held proposed many different theories of truth. accepted this and jointly sufficient conditions for knowledge.DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY K all western Im Kant Immanuel. nearly deceptively simple statement of the three necessary is. I know a proposition if and only if: a : I Sincerely affirm the proposition b. however. that different views about the nature of belief and have DR. His philosophy is known as Criticism. the causal and moral law of the universe. Or. (17241804). philosophers have KNOWLEDGE : Justified true belief. my affirmation is genuinely based upon its truth. Since Plato.ASHIS KUMAR DASH . preeminent German philosopher whose distinctive concern was to Page | 85 vindicate the authority of reason.

KNOWLEDGE BY ACQUAINTANCE : Knowledge of objects by means of direct awareness of them.ASHIS KUMAR DASH . sketies suppose that the third condition is never met and contemporary philosophers since gettier have questioned whether even the satisfaction of all these elements is genuinely sufficient for knowledge.DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY Much of western epistemology has focused on the third element: precisely what constitutes adequate justification for knowledge? Rationalists and empiricists disagree about the sources which might provide relevant evidence. falliblists raise practical doubts about over certainly in achieving the second condition. notion of knowledge by acquaintance is primarily Page | 86 ***** DR. The associated with Russell KNOWLEDGE BY DESCRIPTION : Knowledge about a thing in terms of its properties.

sometimes they are said to be the object of logic. Monadology etc. LOCUTIONARY ACT : The simple speech act of generating sounds that are linked together by grammatical conventions so as to say something DR. Page | 87 LAWS OF THOUGHT : laws by which or in accordance with which valid thought proceeds. LIBERALISM: a political philosophy first formulated of modern nation-states.. etc.ASHIS KUMAR DASH interference with the natural order of in general and centralize .FAIRE : French phrase meaning “allow to do!” hence in political philosophy and economies. German rationalist philosopher who gives the theory of the pre established harmony.DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY L Leibniz Gottfried Wilhelm: (1646–1716). which during the Enlightenment in response to the growth governmental functions and claim sole authority to exercise coercive power within their boundaries. or to which all valid deduction is reducible. or that justify valid inference. Laws of thought are rules that apply without exception to any subject matter of thought. LAISSERZ . a presumption against the desirability or governmental with the conduct of free trade in particular.

. The philosophy of rational argument. the clarification of the terms of formal of forms of inference and rules for their use. e. LOGIC : That branch of philosophy which deals with the nature and problems of clear and accurate thinking and argument. LOGICAL FORM : The structure of a proposition or an argument from which all content has been removed DR. the philosophy which relies on logic and science and which rejects metaphysics as meaningless.”which he introduced in connection with his experience.g. criticism.DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY meaningful..ASHIS KUMAR DASH Page | 88 The notion symbol . LOGICAL EMPIRICISM : The philosophy which endorses the logical analysis of language as the method of philosophy and which regards statements as or theoretically verifiable in meaningful only if they are either logically analytic consequently. “it is raining” per forms the locutionary act of saying that it is raining. operations from certain element. together with the invention or specification LOGICAL CONSTRUCTION: something built by logical originates with Russell’s concept of an “incomplete theory of descriptions.

logical. contradiction and Page | 89 ***** DR. the principles of identity. The earlier version of logical empiricism as developed by the Vienna Circle (Moritz Schlick.tautology and validity are features that hold only in LOGICAL POSITIVISM : virtue of logical form. Chiefly distinguished from logical empiricism by its more rigid criteria of empirical meaning. a philosophical movement inspired by empiricism and verificationism. Otto Neurath and others) over the period 1923-1936. it began in the 1920s and flourished for about twenty or thirty years. LOGICAL SYNTAX : See syntax. Herbert Feigl. excluded middle. the creative thought or plan of the universe.ASHIS KUMAR DASH . LOGICAL PRINCIPLES : The principles on which the analysis of the structure of arguments depends.DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY . LOGOS : The divine reason. Also called positivism. the word of God namely.

MATIERIAL EQUEVALENCE : The logical relationship between any two propositions that have the same truth value. followers of to a radical dualism between and body and recommended an ascetic way of life . founder of Dvaita or “dualist” school of Vedanta philosophy well known for his theory panchavedaveda Page | 90 MANANA: Intellectual conviction after critical analysis. Persian religion . or spirit Madhvacarya(Madhva). or any of several systems of thought or approaches to social criticism derived from Marx. Augustine. DR. one of Aristotle’s four causes.ASHIS KUMAR DASH . later wrote an extended refutation of his heretical doctrine. MARXISM: The philosophy of Karl Marx. MATERIAL CAUSE : Basic stuff of which a thing is made.DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY M MANICHACANISM : manes adhered good and evil. who had been a manichaean before his commersion to christianity.

any two propositions such that either Page | 91 MATERIALISM : The doctrine that everything is composed of matter. The term may also refer to an elite DR. In ordinary usage. MERITOCRACY : Meritocracy means rule by a talented or intellectual elite. maya is the power of an omnipotent and omniscient deity to produce the world of dependent things. Everything that exists can be understood as a form of matter. In ethics. merit being defined in Michael Young's formula as IQ + efforts. the doctrine that material wellbeing and self-interest should always govern individual actions. In Aristotelian philosophy. a system in which advancement is based on ability and achievement. MAYA:A term with various uses in Indian thought.DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY MATERIAL IMPLICATIONS : The logical relationship between the first is false or the second is true. Monotheistically conceived. MATTER : The stuff of which things are made. it regards matter as the only reality and life and mind as the products of matter. the capacity to be something. it expresses the concept of Brahman’s power to act.ASHIS KUMAR DASH . pure potentiality.

both success and failures are 'personal' achievements. the term's meaning is similar.ASHIS KUMAR DASH . the idea of Page | 92 rewards are distributed according to individual talent and hard work.DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY group of talented achievers. (Cambridge Dictionary). others are either untalented or lazy. METALANGUAGE : A language devised to describe another language. or (c) managed so that people advance in and retain their offices and jobs solely on the basis of the quality of their performance in them. or (b) awarded only to the candidates who are likely to perform the best. In a meritocratic society. DR. reflecting the simple fact that while some are born with skills and a willingness to work hard. or (d) all of the above. In philosophical usage. a meritocracy is a scheme of social organization in which essential officers. meritocracy relies heavily upon the ability clearly to distinguish between 'natural' and 'social' causes of inequality.In meritocratic society perhaps careers and jobs of all sorts are (a) open only However. and to those who have the relevant qualifications for successful performance in them.

DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY METAPHYSICS : Metaphysics is that branch of philosophy which deals with the nature of the ultimate reality underlying the world of our experience.. it is the aim of experience. cosmology and metaphysics to describe a reality lying beyond being as such (ontology).ASHIS KUMAR DASH . Hence.. life. Speculative inquiry Page | 93 concerning philosophical matters which lie beyond the range of empirical inquiry. Traditionally.. whose literal meaning is ‘That comes after the physics’.. to the ultimate reality or the Absolute. The Fundamental postulate of metaphysics is that there is a super or hinter phenomena/reality . It also seeks to determine the relation of the world.) as a descriptive name for that part of Aristotle’s philosophy which appeared in the collection ‘after the physics’). Aristotle himself prefers ‘first philosophy’ or ‘wisdom’ (sophia).In Andronicus’s edition. (The terms ‘metaphysics’ was originally used by Andronicus of Rhodes (first century B. that part of philosophy which epistemology.C. the fourteen books now known as the Metaphysics were placed after the Physics.. matter etc. the study of includes ontology. mind.. whence comes the word ‘metaphysics’. in a limited sense.The subject is DR.

without any reference to intelligent agency or purpose.ASHIS KUMAR DASH . META ETHICS : Branch of philosophical ethics concerned with judgments language the meaning of propositions and the grounds upon are to be justified which oral Meta ethical moral theories typically offer an account of moral and its uses together with between an explanation of the logical relations assertion of fact and value. METAPHYSICS: Most generally. As employed by Descartes and phenomena in terms of the causal Page | 94 Mechanism offered an alternative to the scholastic reliance on explanatory appeals to final causes. Aristotle held that virtue is always a mean between extremes of excess and deficiency. constitution. and DR. the philosophical investigation of the nature. Hobbes. MECHANISM : Belief that science can explain all natural interaction among material parties. MEAN : The middle way between too much and too little of something.DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY defined as the theoretical science of the causes and principles of what is most knowable.

Parallalism of Spinoza. It is broader in scope than METAPHYSICAL REALISM: In the widest sense. neoplatonists are taken to reflect the structure of the universe as a Interactionism of Descartes. physics and even cosmology.g.ASHIS KUMAR DASH .DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY structure of reality. Absolute Idealism MIRACLE: An extraordinary event brought about by God.. DR. of Hegel etc. Page | 95 independently of the concepts with which we understand them or of the language with which we describe them. and they have properties and enter into relations science. the view that there are real objects exist independently of our experience or our knowledge of them. a “ littel world”. Pre-establish harmony of Leibniz. Historically. in the philosophy of whole MIND BODY PROBLEM : The difficulty of explaining howthe to their the most includes mental activities of human being relate lining physical organisms. commonly accepted solutions have Occasionalism of Melbronchi Causal the Aristotles. MECROCOSM : Literally. e.

the individual substance. For example "either today is Tuesday or have made a mistake.DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY MODERATE REALISM : The doctrine that universals exist in things or as concepts in mind but not as nominalism and to Platonic realism. the individual soul. a unity of body and mind. the theory that all reality is basically of one substance. purposive. self-contained. Opposed to Page | 96 DR.ASHIS KUMAR DASH . In epistemology. active. MOLECULAR PROPOSITION : A proposition which is analyzable into atomic propositions. In the philosophy of Leibniz. the theory that the object known and the given element in experience are one in existence as well as in essence. Opposed to dualism or pluralism." MONAD : In the philosophy of Giordano Bruno (15481600). MONOTHEISM: (one-God-ism) Monotheism is the belief that there is but one supreme being who is only because of a divinely pre-established harmony independently subsisting quantities. MONISM : In metaphysics. possessing knowledge of experiences. a manifestation of divine energy.

Page | 97 concludes that God perfect cause of all lesser goods. The fourth of Aquinas’ five ways others.DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY personal and moral and who seeks a total and MORALITY: an informal public system applying to all rational persons. and including what are commonly known as the moral rules. Kant postulation of God’s existence is a condition for our capacity to apply the moral MYSTICISM : The doctrine that the fundamental nature of reality is ineffable. that is. having the lessening of evil or unqualified response from human creatures.ASHIS KUMAR DASH . indescribable in any ordinary human consciousness. moral ideals. and moral virtues. of reality involves the immediate of the terms and categories at the command of DR. The belief that knowledge awareness of God’s nature and presence. governing behavior that affects harm as its goal. of God MORAL ARGUMENT : an attempt to prove the existence in the universe. inaccessible through either the sense or the intellect. by appeal to preserve of moral value must exist as the most argued that necessary law.

or the study of such stories. Page | 98 ***** DR.DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY MYTHOLOGY : A collection of myths or stories associated with primitive regions.ASHIS KUMAR DASH . Myths arise out of man's unscientific efforts to account for the world around him.

Here ‘A Unicorn’ is not a name but it is an incomplete symbol. Chomsky’s bestknown scientific achievement is the establishment of a rigorous and philosophically compelling foundation for the scientific study of the grammar of natural language Page | 99 NASKARMAYA: Freedom from action.DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY N desire of action. (b. philosopher.ASHIS KUMAR DASH . Sometimes the term is used to refer to new realism. DR. NAME : Names are names only if they refer to individuals. or philosophy concerning God. based on ordinary experience and not dependent on revelation. and political activist who has spent his professional career at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. For example ‘I met a unicorn’. Where there are no individuals to be referred there are no names. preeminent American linguist. According to Sankara Naiskarmya means freedom from the selfish NAIVE REALISM : The conventional opinion that the world is directly known and that it has whatever character we perceive it to have. NATURAL THEOLOGY : The theology. Noam Chomsky.1928). An indefinite description which describes nothing.

moral ideals and conducts are determined entirely by the organic structure and needs characteristic of the human species. NATURALISTIC ETHICS : Any philosophical theory concerning the right and the wrong.ASHIS KUMAR DASH . The theory that reality is understandable without reference to the supernatural. composed of energy. which claims that value terms and moral predicates are definable empirically and DR. physics and chemistry and thinks the world of matter life and mind can be satisfactorily explained by physical and chemical laws. that its behaviour is not teleologically explicable by final causes and purposes.DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY NATURALISM : Theory that the universe has no supernatural origin or ground and needs no supernatural explanation. which is Naturalism lays stress on physical sciences. that human life and behaviour are in no way exceptional and outside the course of Page | 100 natural events and are to be explained by the same principles as obtained throughout the rest of nature and that human values. the good and the bad. the obligatory. that it is self-existing and should be explained solely by reference to itself. It regards nature as the whole reality.

Moore (1873-1958) as the error of confusing some property common to good things but distinct from the property goodness with the property goodness. Judgement based on this partial knowledge is also included in ‘Naya’. Knowledge of one of the innumerable aspects of a thing is called ‘Naya’. All truth is relative to our stand points. Page | 101 DR. Neutral monism was deferded by James and Russell. For self realization. profound meditation and absorption is necessary.DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY that value assertions and moral judgements are empirically verifiable. NATURALISTIC FALLACY : The fallacy defined by G.ASHIS KUMAR DASH . the practice of hearing. NEUTRAL MONISM : Belief that both mental and physical properties are the features of substances of a single sort. reflection. Profound and constant meditation. NIDIDHYASANA: Practical realisation.E. NAYA: (Jaina philosophy) Naya means a stand point of thought from which we make a statement about a thing. which are themselves ultimately neither mental nor physical..

having been related to consciousness. DR. 185-c. are regarded as material.ASHIS KUMAR DASH . neither essentially mental nor essentially material. Vedantic idea of Neti -Neti is to support the view that the indeterminate Brahman or Atman is beyond the name and form.DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY NEO PLATONISM : A philosophic movement started in the beginning of the third century by Ammonious Saccas the teacher of Plotinus (c. NEUTRAL MONISM : The theory. are described as mental. NETI NETI: It is understood as 'not thus not this. Neo-platonism combines Platonic conceptions from Eastern philosophy and maintains that reality is an absolute oneness. 254). In some and Aristotelian ideas with certain Page | 102 negation of being and that the One creates orders of contexts the neutral entities. proposed by William James (1842-1910). not this'. having been perceived as the aspects of physical things.204-c. in other contexts the neutral entities. 270) and Origen (c. which claims that the elements of reality are one in kind. thought it is allpervading. but neutral. that matter is the being by a non-temporal process of emanation.

Opposed to Platonic realism and to moderate realism. Dealing with values. NON COGNITIVISM : A meta . hatred and delusion (raga. moral of samsara or becoming. not facts.ethical theory according to which moral issues are not subject to rational determination. Etymologically. NIHILISM : Complete rejection of the existence of human knowledge and values or denial of the things. It is the annihilation of Page | 103 DR.ASHIS KUMAR DASH . dvesa and moha) NOMINALISM : The theory that general terms do not designate universal properties but are mere vocal sounds.DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY NEW REALISM : The theory that physical objects exist independently of being perceived and that the knowledge of physical objects is direct in that physical objects are immediately perceived. It is the cessation of the vicious circle passion. the word is combination of two words (Ni-vana) which means freedom or departure from craving. possibility of making any useful distinctions among NIRVANA (Duhka-Nirodha) Cessation of suffering) Nirvana is the summum bonum of Buddhism.

feelings.DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY assertion are neither true nor false. 1937). or demands. the unique state of mind which results from ***** DR. NORMATIVE SCIENCE : Normative Science judge the Normative Science is concerned not with factual judgement but judgements of what ought to be. but with norms or ideals which regulate human life. regulative sciences. Normative sciences are not concerned with actual facts or their laws. express but merely attitudes. Ethics is a normative science. appreciative and NOUMENON : In the philosophy of Kant.ASHIS KUMAR DASH . the unknowable reality behind phenomena. NUMINOUS : In the philosophy of Rudalf Otto (1869being aware of God as awesome and mysterious. desires. a thing-initself. Page | 104 NON-NATURALISTIC ETHICS : Any ethics which regards value as unique and unanalisable and which regards intuition as the only way of knowing the truth of moral claims. Normative sciences are called value of a fact in terms of an ideal or standard.

DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY O OCCASIONALISM Osho: born Chandra Mohan Jain ( 1931 1990) also known as Acharya Rajneesh was an Indian mystic and spiritual teacher who emphasises the importance of meditation. 1280-C. 1350) to the effect that whatever explanation involves the fewest assumptions is to be preferred. ONE : In philosophy. The theory that God causes mental phenomena to accompany physical events. the One is the universe considered as the divine unity of all being. seventeenth-century Cartesian DR. including Johannes Clauberg (1622– 65). celebration. awareness. Géraud de Cordemoy (1626–84). and Nicolas Malebranche (1638–1715). creativity and humour – qualities that he viewed as being suppressed by adherence to static belief systems. especially God.ASHIS KUMAR DASH . OCKHAM’S RAZOR : The scientific principle introduced by William of Ockham (c. love. Louis de la Forge (1632–66). This theory of causation held by a number of important philosophers. religious tradition and socialisation Page | 105 : Theory of psycho-physical parallelism where mind and matter do not interact but correspond in their events as a result of a mediator. Arnold Geulincx (1624–69).

ontology is the general theory of being as such. ORPHISM: A religious movement in ancient Greece that Socratics.. may have influenced Plato and some of the preinterdependent. rational psychology. working together for the good of the ***** DR. or theory of being qua being. This is the central subject-matter or Aristotle's Metaphysics. the soul and God. ORGANICISM : The cosmological theory that the universe is like an organism in that its parts are whole. The word ontology was coined in the early 17th century to avoid was ambiguities the first 'metaphysics'.e. and natural theology. the theory of the world. The three special parts are general cosmology. i. and forms the major general part of metaphysics.ASHIS KUMAR DASH . Leibniz of Page | 106 philosopher to adopt the word.DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY ONTOLOGY : Inquiry into.

PARALLELISM : In connection with the mind-body problem.C. the theory that mental and physical events See also epiphenomenalism and interactionism.”. Employed by Kant to designate the incorrect reasoning by which the substantial. the kind.g. a thing of a kind.). PANTHEISM : The doctrine that everything is an aspect of God. Page | 107 PARALOGISM : False reasoning.DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY P Plato (427–347 B. Greek philosopher whose chief contribution consists in his conception of the observable world as an imperfect image of a realm of unobservable and unchanging “Forms. PANPSYCHISM : The doctrine that everything has a mind or soul. (God-is-all-ism) is the belief that God is identical with nature or with the world as a whole. and personal character of the soul. Kant uses the word for those errors of reasoning which give rise to the theory of the incorruptibility and substantiality of the soul. the universal. e.ASHIS KUMAR DASH occur concomitantly but are not causally related. . as distinguished from the class. PARTICULAR : A member of a class. DR. is "demonstrated". Leibnitz' monadology. simple. Theory that reality consists of minds or psychicentities.

PHENOMENOLOGY : The philosophy of Edmund Husserl (1859-1938). PETITIO PRINCIPII : The informal fallacy of begging the question. PERSONALISM personality. PERSUASIVE DEFINITION : A definition formulated and used to resolve a dispute by influencing attitudes or emotive language.DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY PERCEPT : A given element in perceptual experience. and of . a sensation or sense datum.ASHIS KUMAR DASH : The philosophy which regards personality as the highest good and God as the divine Page | 108 stirring emotions. as distinguished from a thing-in itself. senses. often relying upon the use of We merely know objects as they appear to our science of the subjective. See also noumenon. which purported to be a intended objects considered as intended. PHENOMENON : An appearance. an argument in which the conclusion is assumed in one of the premisses. of phenomena. DR. PHENOMENALISM : The belief that we can know only phenomena and not the ultimate nature of things.

beauty. and criticism. PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION : Philosophical thinking about religion. The major fields of philosophy are aesthetics. the truth of religious belief and the value of religious attitude and practices. the love of wisdom and.ASHIS KUMAR DASH . ethics. According to Brightman . It is not an organ of religious teaching.DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY PHILOSOPHY : Literally. and cosmology. thus. consequently search for wisdom. the philosophy of morality. the attempt to make basic ideas clear and to justify descriptions of reality. logic. have a reality of their own of Philosophy. the philosophy of knowledge." PLATONIC RREALISM : The theory that universals. the philosophy of Page | 109 DR. the philosophy of formal argument."Philosophy of being as such. The intellectual attempt to resolve problems having to do with the nature of matters of common experience and concern. the philosophy cosmic structure. It is not a branch of theology but a branch of Religion is an attempt to discover by rational interpretation of religion and its relation to other types of experiences. and metaphysics. the philosophy of art. or general characteristics. ontology. which includes epistemology.

for others an axiom is a self-evident truth and a postulate is a presupposition or premise of a train of reasoning and not necessarily self-evident. more than one God. The view that there is not just one substance (Monism) or two substances substances. a plurality of Page | 110 latter sense. In this postulates are axioms. apart from the things which embody them. POTENTIALITY : An unrealized or latent capacity or power. Leibnitz was a pluralist. POSTULATES : Fundamental assumptions used as a basis for developing a system of proofs.ASHIS KUMAR DASH . POSITIVISM : See logical positivism. Descartes was a dualist. all axioms are postulates. but not all DR. Spinoza was a monist. POLYTHEISM : Any theory which claims that there is (Dualism) but that there are many. PLURALISM : Any theory which asserts that there are many ultimate substances. Opposite of actuality. While some logicians use axioms and postulates as synonymous.DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY and subsist eternally. but not themselves subject to proof within the system.

“Truth Page | 111 DR. some persons. in every case as an end withal. never as a means only. “So act as to treat humanity. If it leads to a happens to an idea. It becomes true.” PRAMA : Knowledge of reality or valid cognition is called Prama. it is made true by events.DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY PRACTICAL IMPERATIVE : In Kant’s philosophy.” See also categorical imperative. a branch of semiotic. PRAMANA : Source of valid cognition. An idea is true if it works. doctrine that God has foreordained the eternal life of Or. James. Schiller and Dewey) consider workability to be the test of truth. the fruitful consequence. PRAGMATISM : The pragmatists (Peirce. the moral law which states. PRAGMATICS : The study of the relations of signs to those who use them.ASHIS KUMAR DASH . James said . it is true. PREDESTINATION : The doctrine that all events are determined by the action of God’s will. whether in thine own person or in that of any other.

D. the conclusion of an argument is based. even though monads have no access to external events. In metaphysics. the theory that individual souls (monads) know reality contemporaneously with other monads. Hare’s contention that the use to act accordingly. PRIMA FACIE DUTIES : In the philosophy of W. Ross. M. When prima facie duties conflict. everything else being equal. of moral language conveys an implicit commitment Page | 112 DR. those duties which. because of God’s causing the experiences of all monads to be harmonious with one another. an attribute of a substance. PRELOUTIONARY ACT : The speech act of having an effect on those who hear a meaningful utterance. PRESCRIPTIVISM : R. PREMISE : A proposition on which. A term indicating a property.ASHIS KUMAR DASH . at least in part. are morally binding.DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY PREDICATE : That which is asserted of a subject. PREESTABLISHED HARMONY : In the philosophy of Leibniz. Such duties are know by intuition to be duties.

characteristics regarded as inseparable from physical objects and as belonging to them quite apart from any relation to other objects or to knowing minds : solidity. figure. and number. See also secondary qualities. PRIME MOVER : See first mover. PRIVATE LANGUAGE ARGUMENT : Wittgenstein’s individual to employ language.ASHIS KUMAR DASH . PRIMARY QUALITIES : In the philosophy of John Locke 1632-1704). the principle that the series of contingent events (events that need not have occurred) must be accounted for by reference to some reason or cause events in the series. contention that it is impossible for an isolated have adequate criteria for following This arguments is commonly other than that supplied by any of the contingent Page | 113 taken as a refutation of solipsism. PRINCIPLE OF SUFFICIENT REASON : In the philosophy of Leibniz.DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY further acts of intuition are needed to resolve the conflict. motion or rest. since a single person could not linguistic rules. extension. DR.

any essential characteristic. Cf. They symbols. Or. reporting the results of observations. a sentence ascribing a basic sense property to some physical object. PSYCHO-PHYSICAL PARALLELISM : See parallelism. a declarative sentence and hence Pleasure is the natural ***** DR.ASHIS KUMAR DASH . Or. any relational characteristic. PROTOCOL SENTENCE : A sentence reporting a sense response. In some logical positivists. Or. sentence. any defining characteristic or. pleasure and avoid pain. Basic PSYCHOLOGICAL HEDONISM : According to the psychological hedonism. They assert but do not command or wish. Page | 114 PROPOSITION : A state of affairs meant by a declarative always either true or false. especially Neurath and Carnap. pleasure is the natural end and motive of human action. We always seek are complex symbols. object of desire. They symbolize something. sentences proposition. being symbols whose parts are Or.DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY PROPERTY : Any characteristic.

QUANTOM LOGIC: the logic of which the models are certain non-Boolean algebras derived from the mathematical representation of quantum mechanical systems. renowned for his rejection of the analytic–synthetic distinction and for his advocacy of extensionalism. empiricism. physicalism.DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY Q Quine. naturalism. ‘for some y’) to an open formula. American philosopher and logician.ASHIS KUMAR DASH . and holism Page | 115 QUALITIES:Properties or characteristics QUANTIFICATION:the application of one or more quantifiers (e.g. W(illard) V(an) O(rman) (b.1908). ‘for all x’. ***** DR..

Spinoza and Leibnitz are known as REALISM : In metaphysics. Platonic realism. RELATIVISM : Belief that human judgments are always conditioned by the specific social environment of a particular person.British philosopher. Also. one of the founders of analytic philosophy. REDUCTIO AD ABSURDUM : The method of proving a proposition by showing that its contradictory involves an inconsistency or of disproving a proposition by showing that the proposition involves an inconsistency. the doctrine that universals exist new realism.and man of letters. or place. See also critical realism.DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY R rationalist thinkers. moderate realism. Descartes. logician. the doctrine that physical objects exist independently of being thought or perceived. DR.ASHIS KUMAR DASH . Page | 116 RATIONALISM : Reason is the source of true knowledge. Russell. Moral relativists hold that there are no universal standards of moral (subsist) apart from things. social reformer . Bertrand (Arthur William) (1872–1970).

DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY value. RIGHT : The term ‘right’ is derived from the Latin ‘rectus’ which means straight or according to rule. When an action is said to be right. conforms to the rule or law. but only the cultural norms of particulars societies. RELIGION : According to Flint “Religion is man’s belief in a Being or Beings. mightier than himself and inaccessible to his sense.” REPRESENTATIONALISM according to only through the : Theory of perception which we are aware of objects mediation of the ideas that Locke were both sentiments and actions.ASHIS KUMAR DASH . but not indifferent to his practices which flow from such belief. which the feelings and Page | 117 represent them. it means that it ***** DR. Descartes and representationalists.

political theorist. moral philosopher. Dutch metaphysician. but with judgements of what ought to be. NORMATIVE : Normative science judge the value of the facts in terms of an ideal. Baruch (1632–77). the sudden recognition of the unity Buddhism. psychologist. The main Christina doctrines with reason and the philosophy . Normative sciences are concerned not with factual judgements. and rebirth from The circuit of worldly life. death. Ethics is a DR. SCIENCE. Page | 118 SANSARA: The cycle of birth.ASHIS KUMAR DASH philosophers of the medieval period. SCHOLASTICISM : Applied to the methods and doctrines of the Schoolmen. the moment which one can escape only by achieving nirvana. MORAL : A force that is supposed to motionate moral agents to perform their duties. epistemologist. and philosopher of religion. Spinoza. of SANCTION. generally regarded as one of the most important figures of seventeenth-century rationalism. or the Christian concern of this group was the reconciliation of the of Aristotle. enlightenment.DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY S SATORI : In Zen of being.

Physics. It analyses. A positive science is also called a Page | 119 natural science and a descriptive science. Psychology etc. hypotheses. Positive sciences are those which seek to discover the origin of things. and simplicity. It is primarily concerned with what ought to be the right type of conduct. natural or descriptive sciences. to trace the line of their development. that exhibits certain essential features. describes and explains facts. SCIENCE. always subject to revision. compatibility with previously relevance. predictive power. well-established DR. SCIENTIFIC EXPLANATION : Any theoretical account of some fact or event.DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY normative science. and (2) the group of normative. appreciative or regulative sciences. positive. Ethics is not concerned with giving a mere description of human conduct. Positive science deals with things as they are found in nature.. and to discover the actual order of things. It is concerned with judgement of value or what ought to be.ASHIS KUMAR DASH . POSITIVE : Sciences are usually classified into two groups (1) the group of theoretical. belong to the group of positive sciences.

SEMANTICS : The systematic attempt to discover the meanings of linguistic expressions as used.DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY SCIENTIFIC METHOD : A set of techniques for solving problems involving the construction of preliminary hypotheses. SELF EVIDENT TRUTH : A known truth that requires no further proof or justification. deduced. the study of the uses of signs. and the application of the theory thus confirmed to further problems. the secondary qualities are the colors. tastes. the deduction of consequences from hypotheses. and explanatory Page | 120 DR. semantics. and smells of things. See also primary qualities. the testing of the consequences. SECONDARY QUALITYES : In the philosophy of Locke.ASHIS KUMAR DASH . sounds. the branch of semiotic concerned with the meanings of signs SEMIOTIC : The study of signs and symbols. Semiotic includes pragmatics. those characteristics of physical objects which do not belong to the physical objects themselves except as powers to cause sensations. the formulation of hypotheses. the study of the meanings of signs.

a form of subjective idealism where an individual affirms that he alone exists and all other DR. the given content of any experience. SOCIOLOGY : Sociology is the science of structure. customs and institutions of human society in all its stages of development.ASHIS KUMAR DASH Page | 121 view that all knowledge is merely probable. SENSE DATUM : The given content of a sense experience. manners. origin and development of human society. Or. In metaphysics.DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY synatactics. never . SENSUM : Synonym for sense datum. To understand the meaning of all the Vedantic tenets. simply means doubting. SKEPTICISM : The philosophical position of one who maintains that knowledge is not possible. Listening to scriptures. Theory that reliable knowledge is impossible. a sense image. the study of the forms of linguistic expressions. It investigates the habits. the certain. SRAVANA: Hearing the truth. from the primitive to the present civilised state. SOLIPSISM : The belief that only oneself exists. Or.

the claim by George Berkeley (16851753) that esse est percipi : to be is to be perceived.ASHIS KUMAR DASH . which is peculiar to DR. the external world and other selves. an describing what is universally out any reference to or merely temporal positions and eternally true. with dependence upon the of reality. aspect of SUB SPECIC ACTERNITATIS : Latin word for “ under the expression Page | 122 eternity”. SUBSISTENCE : The mode of existence. The interpretation of the world as our private sense data. without independent existence.DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY reality. that which is intrinsically valuable. SUMMUM BONUM : Latin phrase meaning “ highest ultimate generally. goal or end of human life good”. the SUBJECTIVE IDEALISM : The doctrine that knowledge of the world is limited to the world as a complex system of sensations. from Spinoza on words. Linguistic solipsism has been treated as a problem especially in logical positivism. the view that matter is a complex of sensations. is a product of his own mental operations. involving neither temporal nor spatial location.

that which is intrinsically better than any other good and which is thus qualified to serve as the end of human conduct. relation between them. the substance which is characterized. The theory of relativity of knowledge. SUBSTRATUM : That which bears properties. SYNTACTICS : The study of the forms of linguistic expression. that branch of semiotic which is concerned with the regulation of symbols. and other abstract entities. SYLLOGISM : Any deductive argument in which a conclusion is inferred from two premisses. either as a property of them or a as what exists in itself and conceived by itself. A substance or thing is fundamental entity or reality which manifests and Page | 123 Every being is dependent for its existence on them. SYADAVADA: The epistemological and logical theory of the Jaina is called ‘Syadavad’.DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY universals Ideas. archetypes. realizes itself.ASHIS KUMAR DASH . DR. SUBSTANCE : A substance is that which is permanent in the midst of changes. Descartes defines a substance SUMMUM BONUM : The highest good.

Logical syntax indicates the formal rules of a symbolic system. SYNTHETIC STATEMENT : A statement whose truth value cannot be determined by logical analysis. a synthetic statement would be a statement whose truth value cannot be determined universally and necessarily true. Hence. by logical analysis and which is nevertheless Page | 124 ***** DR. a statement in which the subject does not imply the predicate.DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY SYNTAX : Formal arrangement of symbols in a symbolic system.ASHIS KUMAR DASH .

(1225–74). He produced a powerful philosophical synthesis that combined Aristotelian and Neo platonic elements within a Christian context in an original and ingenious way. Also.themselves but can only postulate their nature from what we know about observable phenomena.in . we can not know things .DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY T Thomas Aquinas.IN . TAUTOLOGY : An analytically true statement. TABULA RASA : In Locke’s philosophy. at birth as being without innate ideas.ITSELF : An object as it is. Italian philosopher-theologian. As per Kant. the term. used to describe the mind’s DR.ASHIS KUMAR DASH . Page | 125 TAUTOLOGY : A statement which is neccessarily true by virtue of its logical form. the most influential thinker of the medieval period. a statement which can be shown to be true by logical analysis. TELEOLOGICAL ARGUMENT : An argument devised to prove God’s existence by maintaining that evidence meaning ‘’black tablet’’. A rule of replacement of the forms: THING .

TAO :The source and principle of the cosmic order. THEISM : (Often used as a synonym for monotheism) is belief in a personal deity. theology depends on revelation. A theory which purports to solve the problems of evil.ASHIS KUMAR DASH . THEOLOGY : The philosophical study of God and of problems concerned with God. TELEOLOGY : Any theory of ends of purposes Or. the study of events as signs of purpose. THEODICY : Theory to justify the goodness of God in view of the evil in the world. TRANSCENDENTAL PHILOSOPHY : Philosophy which studies either the a priori form of experience or Natural theology stresses reason and empirical evidence : revealed Page | 126 DR.DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY of design or purpose in nature suggests the existence of a cosmic designer. the constant flow of the life force in increasing change. Opposite of immanent. TRANSCENDENT : Beyond the natural world of sense experience. As a cosmic principle the Tao bears some similarity to logos.

philosophy which regards the spiritual as the essence of reality or as a mode of being which transcends the empirical and the physical.ASHIS KUMAR DASH . Or. ***** DR.DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY experience as formed a priori. TRUTH FUNCTIONAL STATEMENT : statement is said to be a truth functional statement A compound Page | 127 when its truth or falsity can be determined solely from the truth or falsity of its constituent statements or propositions.

Hume pointed out that such uniformity is presupposed by all of our belief in matters of fact. mill recognising its instances. events in nature. scholar. UNMOVED MOVER : The first cause. God. he studied in Bilbao and Madrid and taught Greek and philosophy in Salamanca. again. Page | 128 MIDDLE categorical syllogism that middle term is not : The formal fallacy distributed in either premise. UNIFORMITY OF NATURE : The complete regularity of UNIFORMITY OF NATURE : Presumption that the future will be like the post. as the prime mover.DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY U UNDISTRIBUTED committed is a is invalid because its Unamuno. material cause. to dismissal from the rectorship in1936. but Goodman raised a significant paradox of induction. His open criticism of the Spanish government led to dismissal from the university and exile (1924–30)and.ASHIS KUMAR DASH identified several practical methods for . UPADANA: Constituting matter. or mover. assumption that the world exhibits enough regularity to warrant inductive reasoning. and writer. Miguel de (1864–1936). DR. Born in Bilbao. not itself moved. Spanish philosopher.

DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY UPAMANA (comparison) : Upamana means 'knowledge by similarity'. It describes in detail a society with ideal political structures and an ideal way of life. comparison is the object denoted by that word. a utopia. UTOPIANISM : A belief in the unlimited possibilities of human development typically embodied in the vision of a perfect or ideal society. UTILITARIANISM : According to this moral theory actions are to be judged according to their utility or usefulness as means for promotion of greatest happiness of the greatest number. UTOPIA : The word was created by Thomas More. knowledge of the relation between a word and the Page | 129 ***** DR. It is the knowledge of similarity of an unknown object like wild cow with a known object like a cow. According to Nyaya.ASHIS KUMAR DASH .

INTRINSIC : The value which something has by virtue of its intrinsic quality. He is considered a key figure in the introduction of Vedanta and Yoga in Europe and America and is also credited with raising inter faith awareness. The Indian philosophy based on the Upanishads. Upanishads are known concluding portion.ASHIS KUMAR DASH . the value of something merely as a means. Page | 130 VALUE. (i) Because they are literally the which is worth while on its own account and not DR. the end of the Vedas. the height of the Vedic philosophy. VEDANTA: The end of the Veda. (ii) Secondly because they are the essence. Vivekanan(1863–1902). Narendranath Dutta was the chief disciple of the 19th century mystic Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa and the founder of Ramakrishna Mission..DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY V good. as Vedanta. the cream. the philosophic writings which made up the last of the Vedas. VOLUNTARISM : The theory that the will is the basic reality or controlling power of the universe. INSTRUMENTAL : The value which something has because it is a means to something intrinsically VALUE.

Gooedl. Neveralt. VIENNA CIRCLE : A group of philosophers. Sehlick.ASHIS KUMAR DASH . The verifiability principle formulates a criterion of meaningfulness of a synthetic statement to be meaningful. VIRTUE ETHICS : Normative theory that all moral value is derived truth-value of the statement directly or indirectly by The other It Page | 131 DR. that is. One contains the statements that are analytically tree or false. assumes that meaningful statements can be divided into two broad classes. contains synthetic statements. Hahn and Waismann. it must be possible to determine the means of sensory experience. control tenet of logical positivism. matter moticians and scientists in Austria during 1920’s and early 1930s who founded logical positivism. members of the circle included Carnap. Feigl. VERIFICATION : Process of determining the truth or falsity of a proposition. true or false entirely in virtue of their meaning.DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY VERIFIABILITY PRINCIPLE : Also called the verification principle. VIDEHA MUKTIH: Liberation after leaving the body.

ASHIS KUMAR DASH . physical or chemical processes.. E.DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY from the character of moral agents. H. VITALISM : Theory that living things are identified by a property of life or a life force that is not reducible to H. Aristotle and others assumed that the acquisition of virtue is the proper goal of human conduct. VOLUNTARY ACTION : An action performed by a selfconscious and self-determined agent deliberately and intentionally to realise some foreseen ends with the free choice of means. Bergson. Driesch and Page | 132 ***** DR.g. VOLITION : Excercise of the faculty of willing.

ASHIS KUMAR DASH . not according to rule. Austrian born British philosopher. one of the most original and challenging philosophical writers of the twentieth century. which Wittgenstein wrote in the trenches of World War I. WORLD : The universe. Wrong law. See logos. which sustains and directs the universe. WORLD SOUL : The spirit or creative principle which makes life possible and which endows contingent things with reality and order. Wittgenstein’s work into two sharply distinct phases. the system of totality of whatever exists.e. and the later period that of the Philosophical Investigations(1953). WORLD GROUND : That power. Page | 133 WISDOM : Good judgment with respect to abstract truth or thoeretical matters. wisdom is the virtue appropriate to the rational soul and for Aristotle. for Plato. action is an action which does not conform to the moral ***** DR. or basic reality. which he composed between 1936 and1948. WRONG : The term ‘ wrong’ is related to the word ‘wring’ which means ‘twisted’ i. The early period is that of the TractatusLogico-Philosophicus (1921).DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY W Wittgenstein. it is the highest intellectual virtue. Ludwig (1889–1951)..

He penetrating and intelligent “social thinker” whose over many centuries.ASHIS KUMAR DASH .475 B.) Greek soldier and historian.430–c. was interested in philosophy.475 B. Page | 134 XENOPHANES: (c.) Greek philosopher.C. a proponent of an idealized conception of the divine.DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY X epistemological views. and the first of the pre-Socratics to propound XENOPHON: (c. Xenophanes (c. author of several Socratic dialogues..C.a proponent of an idealized conception of the divine.570–c.350 B. Greek philosopher .C. and the first of the pre-Socratics to propound epistemological views.). and he was a views on morality and society have been influential ***** DR.570–c.

DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY Y the world-soul. Page | 135 YOGA: In Indian philosophy. a method of bodily and mental discipline devised to effect the union of atman. ***** DR.). attributed to him by Mencius. that oneought not sacrifice even a single hair to save the whole world. or YOGACARA BUDDHISM: The Yogacara (perhaps “Yoga” because it used meditation to remove belief in mindindependent physical objects) school of Mahayana Buddhism contends for a more ambitious revision of our beliefs about objects than does Sautrantika or Vaibhasika. and Brahma. Yang Chu: (c.370–319 B. but a less radical one than the Madhyamika.C.ASHIS KUMAR DASH . or the spirit of the individual.Chinese philosopher most famous for the assertion.

C.DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY Z Buddhism Zeno: Zeno of Elea. Achilles and the tortoise. strictly. Zoroastrianism suffered a steep decline after the seventh century A.e. in particularAristotle. Page | 136 ZA-ZEN: The term used for meditation in Zen ZEN BUDDHISM: It is a form of religion which developed out of and in reaction to. Hinayana and Mahayana Buddhism. and the arrow. fifth-century B.the acetrack.ASHIS KUMAR DASH . ***** DR. ZOROSTRAINISM: the national religion of ancient Iran.D. because of conversion to Islam. the stadium. Greek philosopher well known for his Four paradoxes relating to space and motion attributed to Zeno i. Zeno’s work is known to us through secondary sources. PARADOXES.

Tomlin.N. Singh. Central Publishing House. Prof. Ram Murti Sharma. (iv) Dictionary of Indian Philosophical Concepts by Dr.F. Fuller and MacMurrin. B. edited by Thomas Mautner. Bertrand Russell. (v) Living Issues in Philosophy.W. Page | 137 ***** DR. (v) Manual of Buddhist Terms and Doctrines. Titus. (ii) The Cambridge Dictonary of Philosophy. edited by Nyanaponika (v) History of Western Philosophy. Audi. (vii) Philosophers of East and West. (vi) A History of Philosophy. E. (v) History of Philosophy. (viii) Political Ideas and Concepts — An Introduction. Harold H.DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY REFERENCE BOOKS (i) The Penguin Dictonary of Philosophy. Allahabad. edited by Robert (iii) Encyclopaedia of Vedanta.ASHIS KUMAR DASH . by Andrew Heywood.