Main -isms, -ologies, and definitions

A priori - knowledge or justification independent of experienceFor example, “All bachelors are unmarried.” By contrast, a posteriori knowledge or justification is dependent on experience or empirical evidence. For example, “Some bachelors are very happy.”

Deontological Ethics - is the ethical position that judges the morality of an action based on the action's adherence to a rule or rules. It is sometimes described as "duty" or "obligation" or "rule" based ethics, because rules bind you to your duty. Deontological ethics is commonly contrasted with consequentialist ethical theories, according to which the rightness of an action is determined by its consequences. Deontological ethics is also contrasted from pragmatic ethics.

Determinism - is a philosophy stating that for everything that happens there are conditions such that, given them, nothing else could happen. Determinism is often taken to mean simply causal determinism: an idea known in physics as cause-and-effect. Determinism is also often contrasted with free will.

Empiricism - is a theory of knowledge that asserts that knowledge comes only or primarily via sensory experience. Empiricism emphasizes evidence, especially as discovered in experiments. It is a fundamental part of the scientific method that all hypotheses and theories must be tested against observations of the natural world rather than resting solely on a priori reasoning, intuition, or revelation.

Existentialism - is a school of 20th-century philosophers who shared the belief that philosophical thinking begins with the human subject - not merely the thinking subject, but the acting, feeling, living, human individual. In existentialism, the individual's starting point is characterized by what has been called "the existential attitude," or a sense of disorientation and confusion in the face of an apparently meaningless or absurd world. A central proposition of existentialism is that existence precedes essence, which means that the actual life of the individual is what constitutes what could be called his or her "essence" instead of there being a predetermined essence that defines what it is to be a human. Thus, the human beings - through their own consciousness - create their own values and determine a meaning to their life.

Free Will - is the ability of agents to make choices free from certain kinds of constraints. Historically, the constraint of dominant concern has been the metaphysical constraint of determinism. Two prominent opposing positions within that debate are metaphysical libertarianism, the claim that determinism is false and thus that free will exists (or is at least possible); and hard determinism, the claim that determinism is true and thus that free will does not exist. These positions are described as incompatibilism - the position that free will and determinism are logically incompatible, and that the major question regarding whether or not people have free will is thus whether or not their actions are determined. Compatibilists maintain that determinism is compatible with free will. It may, however, be more accurate to say that compatibilists define free will in a way that allows it to co-exist with determinism. Compatibilists believe freedom can be present or absent in a situation for reasons that have nothing to do with metaphysics. Compatibilists define free will as freedom to act according to one's determined motives without hindrance from other individuals. Compatibilists argue that determinism does not matter; what matters is that individuals' wills are the result of their own desires and are not overridden by some external force.

Humanism – is an approach in philosophy that focuses on human values and concerns, attaching prime importance to human rather than divine or supernatural matters. Humanism is a perspective that affirms some notion of human nature. Secular humanism is a secular ideology that espouses reason, ethics, and justice, while specifically rejecting supernatural and religious dogma as a basis of morality and decision-making. Secular humanism contrasts with religious humanism, which is an integration of humanist ethical philosophy with religious rituals and beliefs that center on human needs, interests, and abilities.

Idealism – is the family of views that asserts reality, or reality as we can know it, is fundamentally mental, mentally constructed, or otherwise immaterial. Idealism maintains that the ultimate nature of reality is based on the mind or ideas. Epistemological idealists might insist the only things that can be directly known for certain are ideas.

Is-Ought Problem - as articulated by Scottish philosopher David Hume, is that many writers make claims about what ought to be on the basis of statements about what is. However, Hume found that there seems to be a significant difference between descriptive statements (about what is) and prescriptive or normative statements (about what ought to be), and it is not obvious how we can get from making descriptive statements to prescriptive.

Materialism - the theory that the only thing that exists is matter or energy; that all things are composed of material and all phenomena (including consciousness) are the result of material interactions. In other words, matter is the only substance, and reality is identical with the actually occurring states of energy and matter. To many philosophers, materialism is synonymous with physicalism. However, materialists have historically held that everything is made of matter, but physics has shown that gravity, for example, is not made of matter in the traditional sense so physicalism is used to emphasize a connection to physics and the physical sciences.

Mind-Body Problem - arises because mental phenomena arguably differ, qualitatively or substantially, from the physical body on which they apparently depend. There are a few major theories on the resolution of the problem. Dualism is the theory that the mind and body are two distinct substances, and monism is the theory that they are, in reality, just one substance. Monist materialists/physicalists take the view that they are both matter, and monist idealists take the view that they are both in the mind. The absence of an empirically identifiable meeting point between the non-physical mind and its physical extension has proven problematic to dualism and many modern philosophers maintain that the mind is not something separate from the body.

Moral Relativism - describes the way things are, without suggesting a way they ought to be. It seeks only to point out that people frequently disagree over what is the most moral course of action. Moral Relativism holds the position that the truth or falsity of moral judgments is not objective. Justifications for moral judgments are not universal, but are instead relative to the traditions, convictions, or practices of an individual or a group of people. The moral relativist might say, "It's moral to me, because I believe it is." Moral Relativism holds that because there is no universal moral standard by which to judge others, we ought to tolerate the behavior of others, even when it runs counter to our personal or cultural moral standards.

Naturalism - the philosophical viewpoint that natural laws and forces (as opposed to supernatural ones) operate in the universe, and that nothing exists beyond this natural universe, or, if it does, it does not affect the natural universe that we know. Followers of naturalism assert that natural laws are the rules that govern the structure and behavior of the universe, that the universe is a product of these laws, and that the goal of science is to discover and publish them systematically. Further, this sense of naturalism holds that spirits, deities, and ghosts are not real and that there is no "purpose" in nature.

Nihilism - is the philosophical doctrine suggesting the negation of one or more putatively meaningful aspects of life. Most commonly, nihilism is presented in the form of existential nihilism, which argues that life is without objective meaning, purpose, or intrinsic value.

Positivism - is a philosophy of science based on the view that in the social as well as natural sciences, data derived from sensory experience, and logical and mathematical treatments of such data, are together the exclusive source of all authentic knowledge. Obtaining and verifying data that can be received from the senses is known as empirical evidence. Society operates according to laws like the physical world. Introspective and intuitional attempts to gain knowledge are rejected.

Postmodern Philosophy - is a philosophical direction that is critical of the foundational assumptions and structures of philosophy. Postmodern philosophy is skeptical or nihilistic toward many of the values and assumptions of philosophy that derive from modernity, such as humanity having an essence that distinguishes humans from animals, or the assumption that one form of government is demonstrably better than another. It is usually associated with the following philosophical trends: nihilism and relativism, neo-marxism, neo-pragmatism, and neo-existentialism.

Pragmatism – is a philosophical tradition centered on the linking of practice and theory. It describes a process where theory is extracted from practice, and applied back to practice to form what is called intelligent practice. Pragmatism is based on the premise that the human capability to theorize is necessary for intelligent practice. Theory and practice are not separate spheres; rather, theories and distinctions are tools or maps for finding our way in the world. Pragmatism holds that an ideology or proposition is true if it works satisfactorily, that the meaning of a proposition is to be found in the practical consequences of accepting it, and that unpractical ideas are to be rejected.

Physicalism - is a philosophical position holding that everything which exists is no more extensive than its physical properties; that is, that there are no kinds of things other than physical things. According to physicalism, the language of physics is the universal language of science and, consequently, any knowledge can be brought back to statements on the physical objects. In contemporary philosophy, physicalism is most frequently associated with the mind-body problem where it holds that all that has been ascribed to "mind" is more correctly ascribed to "brain" or the activity of the brain.

Rationalism - is any view appealing to reason as a source of knowledge or justification. In more technical terms, it is a method or a theory in which the criterion of the truth is not sensory but intellectual and deductive. Different degrees of emphasis on this method or theory lead to a range of rationalist standpoints, from the moderate position that reason has precedence over other ways of acquiring knowledge, to the more extreme position that reason is the unique path to knowledge.

Realism - is the belief that reality is independent of our conceptual schemes, linguistic practices, beliefs, etc. Philosophers who profess realism state that truth consists in the mind's correspondence to reality. Realists tend to believe that whatever we believe now is only an approximation of reality and that every new observation brings us closer to understanding reality.

Romanticism - was an artistic revolt against aristocratic social and political norms of the Age of Enlightenment and a reaction against the scientific rationalization of nature. Romanticism placed new emphasis on such emotions as trepidation, horror, terror, and awe - especially that which is experienced in confronting the sublimity of untamed nature. Romanticism was rooted in the German Sturm und Drang movement, which prized intuition and emotion over Enlightenment rationalism.

Scientism - refers to a belief in the universal applicability of the scientific method and approach, and the view that empirical science constitutes the most authoritative worldview or most valuable part of human learning to the exclusion of other viewpoints. Scientism describes the dogmatic endorsement of scientific methodology and the reduction of all knowledge to only that which is measurable.

Skepticism - Philosophical skepticism is an approach that denies the possibility of certainty in knowledge, whereas methodological skepticism is an approach that subjects all knowledge claims to scrutiny with the goal of sorting out true from false claims. Skeptics critically examine meaning systems. Skeptical examination often results in a position of ambiguity or doubt.

Solipsism - is the idea that only one's own mind is sure to exist. Solipsism holds that knowledge of anything outside one's own mind is unsure. The external world and other minds cannot be known, and might not exist outside the mind.

Stoicism - taught that destructive emotions resulted from errors in judgment, and that a sage, or person of moral and intellectual perfection, would not suffer such emotions. Stoics presented their philosophy as a way of life, and they thought that the best indication of an individual's philosophy was not what a person said but how they behaved.

Tautology - is an unnecessary repetition of meaning, using dissimilar words that effectively say the same thing. A rhetorical tautology can also be defined as a series of statements that comprise an argument, whereby the statements are constructed in such a way that the truth of the proposition is guaranteed, or that the truth of the proposition cannot be disputed, by defining a dissimilar or synonymous term in terms of another self-referentially. Tautologies play a role in analytic discussions of logic and what it is possible to know.

Teleology - any philosophical account that states final causes (purposes, aims, goals) exist in nature, meaning that design and purpose analogous to that found in human actions are inherent also in the rest of nature.

Transhumanism - is an international intellectual and cultural movement that affirms the possibility and desirability of fundamentally transforming the human condition by developing and making widely available technologies to eliminate aging and to greatly enhance human intellectual, physical, and psychological capacities. Transhumanist thinkers study the potential benefits and dangers of emerging technologies that could overcome fundamental human limitations, as well as study the ethical matters involved in developing and using such technologies.

Utilitarianism - is an ethical theory holding that the proper course of action is the one that maximizes the overall happiness. It is thus a form of consequentialism, meaning that the moral worth of an action is determined only by its resulting outcome, and that one can only weigh the morality of an action after knowing all its consequences.


Current philosophical camps

Analytic Philosophy - In the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Scandinavia, Australia, and New Zealand, the overwhelming majority of university philosophy departments identify themselves as "analytic" departments. Analytic philosophy is often understood as being defined in opposition to continental philosophy. The term "analytic philosophy" can refer to a tradition of doing philosophy characterized by an emphasis on clarity and argument, often achieved via modern formal logic and analysis of language, and a respect for the natural sciences. In this sense, analytic philosophy makes specific philosophical commitments: 1) The positivist view that there are no specifically philosophical truths and that the object of philosophy is the logical clarification of thoughts. This may be contrasted with the traditional foundation that views philosophy as a special sort of science, the highest one, which investigates the fundamental reasons and principles of everything. As a result, many analytic philosophers have considered their inquiries as continuous with, or subordinate to, those of the natural sciences. 2) The view that the logical clarification of thoughts can only be achieved by analysis of the logical form of philosophical propositions. The logical form of a proposition is a way of representing it (often using the formal grammar and symbolism of a logical system) to display its similarity with all other propositions of the same type. However, analytic philosophers disagree widely about the correct logical form of ordinary language. 3) The rejection of sweeping philosophical systems in favor of close attention to detail, common sense, and ordinary language.

Continental Philosophy – This refers to a set of traditions of 19th and 20th century philosophy from mainland Europe. Continental philosophy includes the following movements: German idealism, phenomenology, existentialism, hermeneutics, structuralism, post-structuralism, French feminism, the critical theory of the Frankfurt School, and some other branches of Western Marxism. Continental philosophers generally reject scientism, the view that the natural sciences are the best or most accurate way of understanding all phenomena. Continental philosophers often argue that science depends upon a "pre-theoretical substrate of experience, and that scientific methods are inadequate to understand such conditions of intelligibility." Continental philosophy usually considers the conditions of possible experience as variable: determined at least partly by factors such as context, space and time, language, culture, or history. Continental philosophy typically holds that conscious human agency can change the conditions of possible experience: "if human experience is a contingent creation, then it can be recreated in other ways." Thus continental philosophers tend to take a strong interest in the unity of theory and practice, and tend to see their philosophical inquiries as closely related to personal, moral, or political transformation. This tendency is very clear in the Marxist tradition ("philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways; the point, however, is to change it"), but is also central in existentialism and post-structuralism. Continental philosophy has an emphasis on metaphilosophy. In the wake of the development and success of the natural sciences, continental philosophers have often sought to redefine the method and nature of philosophy. In some cases, such as German idealism or phenomenology, this manifests as a renovation of the traditional view that philosophy is the first, foundational, a priori science. In other cases, such as hermeneutics, critical theory, or structuralism, it is held that philosophy investigates a domain that is irreducibly cultural or practical. And some continental philosophers, such as Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, or Derrida, doubt whether any conception of philosophy can be truly coherent.