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Summit U - Understanding the Times :: Chapter 9 - Philosophy

Terms in this set (31)

Philosophy
the study and acquisition of wisdom
Metaphysics
the study of what is ultimately real
Epistemology
the study of knowledge and how we know what we know
Monists
Philosophers who think reality consists of one sort of thing
Dualists
Philosophers who believe reality consists of two sorts of things
Naturalism
The belief that everything that happens can be explained in terms of natural causes (e.g., the law of gravity), and what can't be explained now will be explained later as science learns more about how our universe works.
Scientific empiricism
the belief that we can only know what we discover through the scientific method. it says that we can know what is observable and testable, but everything else falls outside our realm of knowledge
Foundationalism
the belief that we can have a reliable foundation for knowledge
The Correspondence Theory of Truth
capital "T" truth corresponds to the world as it is
Pragmatism
The belief that truth proceeds from what works rather than what is actually real.
Constructivism
The idea that we can understand nature only by developing mental constructs to explain our sensory perceptions, and that our models of the world are all we can really know.
Spiritual Monism
what really exists is the spiritual and that all things are ultimately divine.
Realism
believes that an objective reality exists independently from human perception or language.
What is the mind/body problem?
The mind/body problem has to do with the relationship between the mind and the physical body, the brain in particular. Humans possess the ability to evaluate our experiences and draw inference from them. But what enables us to make these judgments? Is it our brains only, or are our minds somehow based in our brains but separate and non-physical?
What is the metaphysics of secularism?
As their starting point, Secularists believe everything came into being without a purpose or design, and that nothing exists beyond the material universe. Their metaphysics is reducible to physics.
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