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Introduction to Philosophy

Key Terms

Introduction to PhilosophyKey Terms
Actuality
in Aristotelian thought, the level to which a being has realized its purpose.
Anatman
a Buddhist concept of the self as no-self (as not retaining identity through time).
Compatibilism
the view that a lack of freedom for the human moral agent is compatible with moral culpability for that same agent.
Cosmological argument
a type of argument for the existence of God based upon consideration of cosmic causality.
Determinism
the belief that human actions are governed by the laws of nature.
Dualism
a view that posits two types of being in order to account fully for the nature of the thing under scrutiny.
Libertarianism
within the problem of freedom, the view that human actions are freely chosen and outside of the causality that governs natural objects.
Metaphysics
the field of philosophy concerned with identifying that which is real.
Monism
the view that reality is comprised of one fundamental type of being.
Naturalism
the rejection of any non-natural or appeal to supernatural explanatory concepts within philosophy.
Ontological argument
an argument for the existence of God built upon a consideration of the attribute of God’s existence.
Ontology
a field within metaphysics dedicated to the study of being.
Particular
when discussing being, the instance of a specific being.
Physicalism
the notion that being is material or physical.
Pluralism
asserts that fundamental reality consists of many types of being.
Potentiality
in Aristotelian thought, the level to which a being’s purpose might reach.
Substance
the most enduring and underlying reality of a thing; from the Latin substantiaI or that which supports a thing.
Teleological argument
an argument for the existence of God based upon the presence of ends (goals or purpose) as observed within nature.
Universal
when discussing being, a reality or concept that accounts for the shared whatness of a specific type of being.
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