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Introduction to Philosophy

Key Terms

Introduction to PhilosophyKey Terms
Contextualist approach
an approach to the philosophy that interprets the ideas of philosophers in terms of the historical and cultural contexts in which they wrote.
Empiricism
a belief that all knowledge is derived inductively from sense experience.
Hermeneutic approach
an approach to philosophy that takes the historical context of the original text seriously but also recognizes the influence of contemporary issues and perspectives.
Logos
the thoughts of God, which according to Philo of Alexandria serve as the means by which God creates the physical world.
Monism
the belief that the universe is made up of one substance.
Natural philosophy
the fields of study that eventually gave rise to science.
Plurism
the belief that the universe is made up of more than one substance.
Presentist approach
an approach to philosophy that examines philosophical texts for the arguments they contain and judges how and whether they remain relevant today.
Theory of the forms
a metaphysical doctrine that holds that every particular thing that exists in our changing, material world participates in an immaterial form or essence, which is unchanging, invisible, and perfect and which gives this thing its identity.
Zeno’s paradoxes
paradoxes proposed by Zeno that attempt to prove that change and motion are illusory.
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