Philosophical terms

NelsonNeitzche (United States of America)
words to know in order to understand most of philosophy reading.
4 words 2 learners

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  1. secular
    characteristic of this world rather than the spiritual world
    Turkey has a secular led government. I wanted to be a priest, but later decided that a secular vocation would be less evil.
    From Wikipedia - Secularism is the principle of separation of government institutions, and the persons mandated to represent the State, from religious institutions and religious dignitaries. In one sense, secularism may assert the right to be free from religious rule and teachings, and the right to freedom from governmental imposition of religion upon the people within a state that is neutral on matters of belief.
  2. secularism
    a doctrine that rejects religious considerations
    From Wikipedia - Secularism is the principle of separation of government institutions, and the persons mandated to represent the State, from religious institutions and religious dignitaries. In one sense, secularism may assert the right to be free from religious rule and teachings, and the right to freedom from governmental imposition of religion upon the people within a state that is neutral on matters of belief.
  3. a posteriori
    involving reasoning from facts or particulars to general principles or from effects to causes
    The term a posteriori is used in philosophy to indicate inductive reasoning. The term is Latin, meaning “from what comes after”, refering to that which comes after experience.
    Your date of birth is something known a posteriori. You cannot reasonably argue that your date of birth occured on any particular day or time without knowledge that has been acquired empirically — either a record of your birth (such as a birth certificate or dated home video), testimonial from a witness (such as your mother) or some freakish ability to remember your own birth.
  4. a priori
    reasoned from a general principle to a necessary effect
    The term a priori is used in philosophy to indicate deductive reasoning. The term is Latin, meaning “from what comes before”, refering to that which comes before experience.
    A priori knowledge comes from reason alone and not from experience. Mathematical equations, for example, are an example of a priori knowledge, since they do not require any real-world evidence to be considered true.

    (You might argue that all knowledge is based in real-world experience. For example, even math takes root in an original human experience that assigned names to numbers and numbers to orders of objects. Although the knowledge of maths and counting originally sprung from experience, t
Created on Tue Jul 23 12:21:40 EDT 2013 (updated Sat Aug 03 17:53:08 EDT 2013)

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