Great Ideas of Philosophy

Functionalism: The view that consciousness is not a material entity attached to the brain, but a process, a stream ofexperiences knitted together as they flow by a supernumerary intelligence.Hedonism: Doctrine holding that pleasure is the highest good.Hypothetical imperative: Driver for one alternative action over another made to attain a specific end. Hypotheticalimperatives are contingent; they are tied to a particular context and to the needs and desires of natural creaturesunder the press of the needs to survive, to avoid pain, and to gain pleasure. Decisions thus grounded are non-moral,because they arise from our natures as merely human beings, not as rational beings; that is, they are essentiallyreactions.Id: According to Sigmund Freud’s theory of psychoanalysis, one of the three parts that make up the self. The id ispurported to represent primary process thinking—our most primitive need-gratification thoughts.Intuition: An instinctive knowing, or impression that something might be the case, without the use of rationalprocesses.Ius civile: Expression of local values and interests, which differs from place to place and people to people.Ius gentium: Universally adopted precepts of those who live under any rule of law, such as the idea that harm doneto another without cause is wrong, as is the taking of what clearly belongs to another.Jainism: Ethical school based on the Pythagorean teachings, which emphasizes the celebration of all that lives.Labor theory of value: The concept that property is worth only as much as the labor invested in it; the surplus isprofit, which accumulates as capital.Logos: The aims and goals generated by the rational intelligence behind the order of the cosmos.Lyssa: “Wolf’s rage”; extreme anger in the heat of battle.Malleus maleficarum: A coherent theory of witchcraft, a set of tests to determine witchcraft, and a list ofappropriate punishments used during the witch hunts from 1400 to 1700 and beyond.Marxism: A form of communism based on the writings of Karl Marx, who theorized that actions and humaninstitutions are economically determined, that the class struggle is the basic agency of historical change, and thatcapitalism will ultimately be superseded by communism.Metaphysics: Concept referring to two distinguishable but interconnected sets of questions: first, the question ofwhat really exists and, second, the question of how we know such things and whether the way we go about knowingis defensible or defective. The term is derived from the writings of Aristotle.Mimesis: The imitative representation of nature or human behavior.Mythos: The complex of beliefs, values, and attitudes characteristic of a specific group or society.Naturalism: The meta-ethical thesis that moral properties are reducible to natural ones or that ethical judgmentsmay be derived from non-ethical ones. Also, a scientific account of the world in terms of causes and natural forcesthat rejects all spiritual, supernatural, or teleological explanations.Natural law: An ethical belief or system of beliefs supposed to be inherent in human nature and discoverable byreason rather than revelation. Also, the philosophical doctrine that the authority of the legal system or of certainlaws derives from their justifiability by reason and, indeed, that a legal system that cannot be so justified has noauthority.Natural rights: Rights inherent in a being because of its nature as a being of a certain sort.Nomological: The mode of causation employed by God, according to the Stoics; immutable laws control the affairsof the cosmos.Nomos: Prevailing social expectations and requirements, or “the law of the land.”Noumena/Phenomena: According to Immanuel Kant, knowledge arises from experience; therefore, it must beknowledge of phenomena, that is, of things and events as these are delivered by the senses. From the evidence at thephenomenal level, we can reason to the fact that there is a noumenal realm of being. Thus, we can know that it is©2004 The Teaching Company Limited Partnership 39