BASIC PHILOSOPHY 1.

Agnosticism is the belief that the nature and existence of gods is unknown and inherently unknowable due to the nature of subjective experience. Technically, this position is strong agnosticism: in popular usage, an agnostic may just be someone who takes no position, pro or con, on the existence of gods, or who has not yet been able to decide, or who suspends judgmentdue to lack of evidence one way or the other (weak agnosticism). Agnosticism maintains that the nature and attributes of God are beyond the grasp of man's finite and limited mind. Agnostics generally claim either that it is not possible to have absolute or certain knowledge of the existence or non-existence of God or gods, or that, while individual certainty may be possible, they personally have no knowledge. In both cases this involves some form of skepticism. The earliest professed agnostic was Protagoras, although the term itself (from the Greek "agnosis" meaning "without knowledge") was not coined in English until the 1880s by T. H. Huxley. 2. Atheism (or non-theism) is the belief that gods do not exist, or a complete rejection of Theism or any belief in a personal god or gods (the latter also known as antitheism). It can cover a range of both religious and nonreligious attitudes. Many atheists tend toward secular philosophies such as Humanism and Naturalism. The term "atheism" (from the Greek "godless") originated as an insult applied to any person or belief in conflict with established religion, the first English usage dating back to the 16th Century. In common use, it merely indicates a disbelief in God, rather than an active denial of the existence of any gods. With the spread of freethought, scientific skepticism and criticism of religion, the term began to gather a more specific meaning and was first used to describe a self-avowed belief in late 18th Century Europe, and is now increasingly used as a self-description by atheists. 3. Atomism is the theory that all of reality and all the objects in the universe are composed of very small, indivisible andindestructible building blocks known as atoms (from the Greek "atomos", meaning "uncuttable"). This leads logically to the position that only atoms exist, and there are no composite objects (objects with parts), which would mean that human bodies, clouds, planets, etc, all do not exist. Traditional Atomism asserts that all physical objects consist of different arrangements of eternal atoms and the infinite void in which they form different combinations and shapes. There is no room in this theory for the concept of a God, and essentially it is a type of Materialism or Physicalism. 4. Determinism is the philosophical proposition that every event, decision and action is causally determined by an unbroken chain of prior occurrences. This does not necessarily mean that humans have no influence on the future and its events (a

position more correctly known as Fatalism), but that the level to which humans have influence over their future is itselfdependent on present and past. Taken to its logical extreme, Determinism would argue that the initial Big Bang triggered every single action, and possibly mental thought, through a system of cause and effect. Thus, a Materialist or Physicalist view of the universe almost always involves some degree of Determinism. However, if theminds or souls of conscious beings are considered as separate entities (see the section on Philosophy of Mind), the position on Determinism becomes more complex. For instance, the immaterial souls may be considered part of a deterministicframework; or they could exert a non-deterministic causal influence on bodies and the world; or they could exert no causal influence, either free or determined. Another variation arises from the idea of Deism, which holds that the universe has been deterministic since Creation, but ascribes the Creation itself to a metaphysical God or first cause outside of the chain of determinism. Some hold that if Determinism were true, it would negate human morals and ethics. Some, however, argue that, through an extended period of social development, a confluence of events could have formed to generate the very idea of morals andethics in our minds (a sort of chicken and egg situation). 5. Dualism in Metaphysics is the belief that there are two kinds of reality: material (physical) and immaterial (spiritual). InPhilosophy of Mind, Dualism is the position that mind and body are in some categorical way separate from each other, and that mental phenomena are, in some respects, non-physical in nature. It can be contrasted (both as a metaphysical concept and as regards Philosophy of Mind) with various kinds of Monism (includingPhysicalism and Idealism), and with Pluralism, which holds that ultimately there are many kinds of substance, rather than just two. Dualism appeals to the common-sense intuition of the vast majority of nonphilosophically-trained people, and the mental and the physical do seem to most people to have quite different, and perhaps irreconcilable, properties. Mental events have a certainsubjective quality to them (known as qualia or "the ways things seem to us"), whereas physical events do not. Critics of dualism have often asked how something totally immaterial can affect something totally material (the problem of causal interaction). With the knowledge gained from modern science, few, if any, neuroscientists would consider taking a dualist position, and Monistic beliefs like Physicalism are now much more common within the field of philosophy. 6. Essentialism, at its simplest, is the view that things have essences (the attribute, or set of attributes, that make an object orsubstance what it fundamentally is). Thus, for any specific kind of entity, there is a set of characteristics (or properties ortraits), all of which any entity of that kind must have. A member of a specific kind of entity may possess other characteristics but these neither establish nor preclude its membership.

It is contrasted with Non-Essentialism (which states that there are no specific traits which any given kind of entity must have), and with Nominalism (which states that abstract concepts, general terms or universals have no independent existence but exist only as names). An essence characterizes a permanent, unalterable and eternal substance, or a form (in the sense of the Forms or Ideas inPlatonic Realism). Plato was therefore one of the first essentialists, believing in the concept of ideal forms, an abstract entity of which individual objects are mere facsimilies. Classical Humanism has an essentialist conception of the human being, which means that it believes in an eternal and unchangeable human nature. 7. Existentialism is a philosophy that emphasizes individual existence, freedom and choice. It is the view that humans define their own meaning in life, and try to make rational decisions despite existing in an irrational universe. It focuses on the question of human existence, and the feeling that there is no purpose or explanation at the core of existence. It holds that, as there is no God or any other transcendent force, the only way to counter this nothingness (and hence to find meaning in life) is by embracing existence. Thus, Existentialism believes that individuals are entirely free and must take personal responsibility for themselves (although with this responsibility comes angst, a profound anguish or dread). It therefore emphasizes action, freedom and decision as fundamental, and holds that the only way to rise above the essentially absurd condition of humanity (which is characterized bysuffering and inevitable death) is by exercising our personal freedom and choice (a complete rejection of Determinism). Often, Existentialism as a movement is used to describe those who refuse to belong to any school of thought, repudiating of theadequacy of any body of beliefs or systems, claiming them to be superficial, academic and remote from life. Although it has much in common with Nihilism, Existentialism is more a reaction against traditional philosophies, such as Rationalism,Empiricism and Positivism, that seek to discover an ultimate order and universal meaning in metaphysical principles or in the structure of the observed world. It asserts that people actually make decisions based on what has meaning to them, rather than what is rational. Existentialism originated with the 19th Century philosophers Sren Kierkegaard and Friedrich Nietzsche, although neither used the term in their work. In the 1940s and 1950s, French existentialists such as Jean-Paul Sartre, Albert Camus (1913 1960), and Simone de Beauvoir (1908 - 1986) wrote scholarly and fictional works that popularized existential themes, such as dread, boredom, alienation, the absurd, freedom, commitment and nothingness. 8. Fideism (from the Latin "fides" or "faith") is the view that religious belief depends on faith or revelation, rather than reason,intellect or natural theology. In this respect it is in direct oppposition to the doctrine of Deism. More accurately it objects toevidentialism,

the notion that no belief should be held unless it is supported by evidence. As a result, it holds that theologymay include logical contradictions without apology. It may or may not also involve active disparagement of the claims of reason. Fideism teaches that rational or scientific arguments for the existence of God (see the section on Philosophy of Religion) arefallacious and irrelevant, and have nothing to do with the truth of Christian theology because Christian theology teaches that people are saved by faith in the Christian God (i.e. trust in the empirically unprovable) and if the Christian God's existence can be proven, either empirically or logically, then to that extent faith becomes unnecessary or irrelevant. Therefore, if Christian theology is true, no immediate proof of the Christian God's existence is possible. 9. Idealism is the metaphysical and epistemological doctrine that ideas or thoughts make up fundamental reality. Essentially, it is any philosophy which argues that the only thing actually knowable is consciousness (or the contents of consciousness), whereas we never can be sure that matter or anything in the outside world really exists. Thus, the only real things are mental entities, not physical things (which exist only in the sense that they are perceived). Idealism is a form of Monism (as opposed to Dualism or Pluralism), and stands in direct contrast to other Monist beliefs such asPhysicalism and Materialism (which hold that the only thing that can be truly proven to exist is physical matter). It is also contrasted with Realism (which holds that things have an absolute existence prior to, and independent of, our knowledge or perceptions). A broad enough definition of Idealism could include many religious viewpoints, although an Idealistic viewpoint need not necessarily include God, supernatural beings, or an existence after death. It is a major tenet in the early Yogacara school ofBuddhism, which developed into the mainstream Mahayana school. Some Hindu denominations are idealistic in outlook, although some have favoured a form of Dualism, as with Christianity. In general parlance, "idealism" is also used to describe a person's high ideals (principles or values actively pursued as agoal), sometimes with the connotation that those ideals are unrealisable or impractical. The word "ideal" is also commonly used as an adjective to designate qualities of perfection, desirability and excellence, which is totally foreign to theepistemological use of the word "idealism", which pertains to internal mental representations. Idealism is a label which covers a number of philosophical positions with quite different tendencies and implications, includingSubjective Idealism, Objective Idealism, Transcendental Idealism and Absolute Idealism, as well as several more minor variantsor related concepts (see the section on Other Types of Idealism below). Other labels which are essentially equivalent to Idealism include Mentalism and Immaterialism.

ntellectualism is the view that regards the intellect as superior to the will, and that the intellect is the basic factor, both in theuniverse and in human conduct. It is usually contrasted with Voluntarism, the view that regards the will as superior to the intellect and to emotion). Intellectualism is also similar in many respects to Rationalism, which views reason as the main source of knowledge or justification. In non-specific common usage, "intellectualism" is often used to describe an attitude of devotion or high regard for intellectual pursuits (sometimes with the connotation of excessive regard, or of an absence of emotion or emotional coldness) 10. Materalism holds that the only thing that can be truly proven to exist is matter. Thus, according to Materialism, all things are composed of material and all phenomena are the result of material interactions, with no accounting of spirit orconsciousness. As well as a general concept in Metaphysics, it is more specifically applied to the mind-body problem inPhilosophy of Mind. In common use, the word "materialist" refers to a person for whom collecting material goods is an important priority, or who primarily pursues wealth and luxury or otherwise displays conspicuous consumption. This can be more accurately termedEconomic Materialism. With its insistence on a single basic substance, it is a type of Monism (as opposed to Dualism or Pluralism), and it can also be considered a variety of Naturalism (the belief that nature is all exists, and that all things supernatural therefore do not exist). It stands (like the related concept of Physicalism) in contrast to Idealism (also known as Immaterialism) and Solipsism.Physicalism, however, has evolved with the physical sciences to incorporate far more sophisticated notions of physicality than just matter, for example wave/particle relationships and non-material forces produced by particles. 11. Naturalism is the belief that nature is all that exists, and that all things supernatural (including gods, spirits, souls and non-natural values) therefore do not exist. It is often called Metaphysical Naturalism or Philosophical Naturalism or Ontological Naturalism to distinguish it from Methodological Naturalism (see the section on Types of Naturalism below). It holds that any mental properties that exist (and hence any mental powers or beings) are causally derived from, andontologically dependent on, systems of nonmental properties, powers or things (i.e. all minds, and all the contents and powers and effects of minds, are entirely constructed from or caused by natural phenomena). Some naturalistic beliefs claim that what is commonly called supernatural is, in fact, part of the natural world. 12. Objectivism is the view that there is a reality, or realm of objects and facts, which exists wholly independent of the mind. Thus, Objectivism holds that there is only one correct description of reality, whether we have any knowledge of it or not. Therefore,

existence takes primacy over consciousness, in that existence exists independently of consciousness, and the essential function of consciousness is the grasp of existence, and the underlying objective reality can be perceived in different ways. In broader terms, objectivity is the strict adherence to truth-conducive methods in one's thinking, particularly taking into account all available information, and avoiding any form of prejudice, bias or wishful thinking. The term "objective" can be applied to methods used in this process, or results produced by it. An objective fact means a truth that remains true always and everywhere, independently of human thought or feelings (e.g. it is true always and everywhere that '2 and 2 make 4'). A subjective fact, on the other hand, is a truth that is only true in certain times or places, or for certain people (e.g. 'That painting is good' may be true for someone who likes it, but it is not necessarilytrue that it is a good painting pure and simple, and would remain so always, no matter what people thought of it). It is a metaphysical and ontological doctrine in that it deals with the existence of things rather than the truth or falsity of things (objects in themselves cannot be said to be "true" or "false", although references or statements about objects may be). It is a matter of dispute among philosophers to what degree objectivity can be applied to Aesthetics, Ethics and Epistemology. Plato's Realism, for example, is a form of metaphysical objectivism, holding that Ideas or Forms exist objectively and independently. Berkeley's Idealism, on the other hand, could be called Subjectivism in that it holds that things only exist to the extent that they are perceived. Objectivism as it is known today that finds its origins in the early 19th Century epistemological and metaphysical work ofGottlob Frege. The doctrine is, however, most closely identified with the 20th Century philosopher Ayn Rand (1905 1982) and her overarching (and sometimes controversial) concept of Objectivism, expressed through her novels as well as non-fiction works, encompasses positions on Metaphysics, Epistemology, Ethics, Politics and Epistemology. Rand descibes her formulation of Objectivism as a "philosophy for living", and it has spawned multiple organizations that promote the philosophy, as well as academic journals, conferences, societies, online forums, websites, books and lectures. It has also generated muchcriticism, partly due to Rand's forcful denunciations of other philosophers and doctrines, partly due to its unplalatable politicalovertones, and partly due to its "popular" and somewhat unrigorous approach. 13. Realism, at it simplest and most general, is the view that entities of a certain type have an objective reality, a reality that is completely ontologically independent of our conceptual schemes, linguistic practices, beliefs, etc. Thus, entities (includingabstract concepts and universals as well as more concrete objects) have an existence independent of the act of perception, and independent of their names.

The doctrine had its beginnings with Pre-Socratic philosophers like Thales, Heraclitus and Parmenides, but its definitive formulation was that of Plato and his theory of Forms (see the section on Platonic Realism below). Later philosophers (especially Christians) amended and adapted the doctrine to suit their needs:

St. Augustine modified Plato's realism by holding that universals existed before the material universe in God's creative mind, and that humanity as a universal preceded individual men (thus explaining away problematical theological concepts such as the transmission of original sin in the human race, and the oneness of the Trinity). St. Anselm believed that he could derive truth about what actually exists from consideration of an ideal or universal, and argued that because God is the greatest of beings, he must exist in reality as well as in thought (for if he existed in thought only, a greater being could be conceived of). St. Thomas Aquinas built on Aristotle's watered down Realism (see the section on Moderate Realism below) to argue that human reason could not totally grasp God's being, but that one could use reason in theology whenever it was concerned with the connection between universals and individual objects.

It is a concept which has repercussions throughout philosophy in Metaphysics, Epistemology, Ethics, Aesthetics, Politics, Philosophy of Perception, Science, Mathematics, Religion, Law, etc - and it is as contentious today as it was for the Ancient Greeks. Realism is contrasted with Anti-Realism (any position denying the objective reality of entities) and with Nominalism (the position that abstract concepts, general terms or universals have no independent existence, but exist only as names) and withIdealism (the position that the mind is all that exists, and that the external world is an illusion created by the mind). There are many different types and degrees of Realism, some of which are described in detail in the sections below, and other which are touched on in brief in the Other Types of Realism section below. 14. Relativism is the idea that some element or aspect of experience or culture is relative to (or dependent on) some otherelement or aspect. Therefore, as Aristotle expressed it, things are what they are only relative to other things, and nothing is what it is simply in virtue of itself. It is not a single doctrine, but a family of views whose common theme is that some central aspect of experience, thought, evaluation, or even reality, is somehow relative to something else. Thus, as well as Metaphysics, Relativism is relevant toEpistemology, Ethics, even Aesthetics.

Protagoras and the other Sophists, as early as the 5th Century B.C., are considered the founding fathers of Relativism in the western world, although their beliefs are mainly known through the writings of their opponents, Plato and Socrates. Relativism was also discussed by early Hindu, Jain and Sikh philosophers in India. Subjectivism is the theory that perception (or consciousness) is reality, and that there is no underlying, true reality that existsindependent of perception. It does not, however, claim that "all is illusion" or that "there is no such thing as reality", merely that the nature of reality is dependent on the consciousness of the individual. In an extreme form, it may hold that the nature and existence of every object depends solely on someone's subjective awareness of it. Subjectivism has its philosophical basis in the writings of Ren Descartes ("Cogito Ergo Sum"), and the Empiricism andIdealism of George Berkeley is a more exteme form of it. It is very similar to the doctrine of Solipsism and is related in some ways to metaphysical Relativism. The antithesis of Subjectivism is Objectivism, which holds that reality exists wholly independent of the mind. Another concept related to Subjectivism is that of Panpsychism, the view that all parts of matter involve mind, that everything is sentient and that there are either many separate minds, or one single mind that unites everything that is. 15. Constructivism (also known as Constructionism) is a relatively recent perspective in Epistemology that views all of our knowledge as "constructed" in that it is contingent on convention, human perception and social experience. Therefore, our knowledge does not necessarily reflect any external or "transcendent" realities. It is considered by its proponents to be an alternative to classical Rationalism and Empiricism. The constructivist point of view is both pragmatic and relativistic in nature. It opposes Positivism and Scientism in that it maintains that scientific knowledge is constructed by scientists, and not discovered from the world through strict scientific method, and it holds that there is no single valid methodology, and that other methodologies may be more appropriate for social science. The common thread between all forms of Constructivism is that they do not focus on an ontological reality ("reality-as-it-is-in-itself", which constructivists regard as is utterly incoherent and unverifiable), but instead on constructed reality. Thus, they reject out of hand any claims to universalism, realism or objective truth, and admit that their position is merely a view, a more or less coherent way of understanding things that has thus far worked for them as a model of the world. 16. Deconstructionism (or sometimes just Deconstruction) is a theory in Epistemology and Philosophy of Language initiated byJacques Derrida in the 1960s. It is a theory of literary criticism that questions traditional assumptions about certainty, identity, and truth; asserts that words can only refer to other words; and attempts to demonstrate how statements about any text subvert their own meanings.

Although Derrida himself denied that it was a method or school or doctrine of philosophy (or indeed anything outside of reading the text itself), the term has been used by others to describe Derrida's particular methods of textual criticism, which involved discovering, recognizing and understanding the underlying assumptions (unspoken and implicit), ideas and frameworks that form the basis for thought and belief. Deconstructionism is notoriously difficult to define or summarize, and many attempts to explain it in a straight-forward, understandable way have been academically criticized for being too removed from the original texts, and even contradictory to the concepts of Deconstructionism. Some critics have gone so far as to claim that Deconstruction is a dangerous form ofNihilism, leading to the destruction of Western scientific and ethical values, and it has been seized upon by some conservativeand libertarian writers as a central example of what is wrong with modern academia. 17. Externalism is the view in Epistemology that there are factors other than those which are internal to the believer which can affect the justificatory status of a belief. Therefore, factors deemed "external" (meaning outside of the psychological states of those who are gaining the knowledge) can be conditions of knowledge so that, if the relevant facts justifying a proposition are external, then they still can be acceptable. The alternative view is known as Internalism (the view that everything necessary to provide justification for a belief is immediately available in a person's consciousness without having to resort to external factors). Externalism about justification is a widely-endorsed view (despite Edmund Gettier and his "Gettier-examples" which have recently suggested that there is more to knowledge than just justified true belief). Some Externalists holds that to count as knowing something, one must also be suitably related in some way to the thing or fact in question, for example, causally related. An example of this Causal Theory of Knowledge (the idea that a belief must be caused in some way by the truth itself) might be: I know that Caesar crossed the Rubicon if his doing so caused some historian to write a book saying so, which caused my local library to buy it, which caused me to read and believe it. 18. Historicism (also known as Historism) holds that there is an organic succession of developments, and that local conditionsand peculiarities influence the results in a decisive way. It can be contrasted with Reductionism or Atomism, which both hold that all developments can be explained by fundamental principles on an ad hoc basis. Historicism recognizes the historical character of all human existence, but views history not as an integrated system but as a scene in which a diversity of human wills express themselves. It holds that all historical knowledge is relative to the standpoint of the historian. By the middle of the 19th Century, the term "historismus" (from which Historicism comes) was well established in Germany, where much of the early development of the doctrine occurred in the 18th and 19th Century. As early as 1797, Friedrich Schlegel (1772 - 1829) mentions Historicism as a kind of philosophy which places the

main stress on history. However, it was mainly used as a pejorative term until the 20th Century. The Austrian-British philosopher Karl Popper (1902 - 1994) has objected to Historicism on the grounds that it leads to an inevitable and deterministic pattern to history, and therefore abrogates the democratic responsibility of each one of us to make our own free contributions to the evolution of society, and hence leads to Totalitarianism. 19. Pluralism, appropriate to its name, is a concept used many different ways in Philosophy (see below). But, in general terms, it is the theory that there is more than one basic substance or principle. It is contrasted to Monism, which holds that ultimately there is just one kind of substance, and to Dualism, which holds that ultimately there are two kinds of substance in the universe (or, in Philosophy of Mind, that the mind and matter are two separate substances). Arguably, Dualism is a specific case of Pluralism. 20. Positivism is the view that the only authentic knowledge is scientific knowledge, and that such knowledge can only come from positive affirmation of theories through strict scientific method (techniques for investigating phenomena based on gathering observable, empirical and measurable evidence, subject to specific principles of reasoning). The doctrine was developed in the mid-19th Century by the French sociologist and philospher Auguste Comte (1798 - 1857). The term "positive" in the epistemological sense indicates a "valuefree" or objective approach to the study of humanity that shares much in common with methods employed in the natural sciences, as contrasted with "normative", which is indicative of how things should or ought to be. Comte saw the scientific method as replacing Metaphysics in the history of thought and Philosophy of Science. His Law of Three Stages (or Universal Rule) sees society as undergoing three progressive phases in its quest for the truth: thetheological (where everything is referenced to God, and the divine will subsumes human rights); the metaphysical (the post-Enlightenment humanist period, where the universal rights of humanity are most important); and the positive (the final scientific stage, where individual rights are more important than the rule of any one person). Comte believed that Metaphysics andtheology should be replaced by a hierarchy of sciences, from mathematics at the base to sociology at the top. 21. Pragmatism (or Pragmaticism) is the view that considers practical consequences or real effects to be vital components of both meaning and truth. More simply, something is true only insofar as it works. It argues that the meaning of any concept can be equated with the conceivable operational or practical consequences of whatever the concept portrays.

Like the related notion of Instrumentalism, Pragmatism asserts that any theory that proves itself more successful in predictingand controlling our world than its rivals can be considered to be nearer the truth. Thus, slow and stumbling ratiocination is not necessarily to be automatically preferred over instinct, introspection and tradition, which are all valid methods for philosophical investigation, even if they each have their own drawbacks. The scientific method is generally best suited totheoretical inquiry, although the settlement of doubt can also be achieved by tenacity and persistence, the authority of a source of ready-made beliefs or other methods. Pragmatists believe that truth is not "ready-made", but that truth is made jointly by us and reality. Some pragmatists also believe that that truth is mutable (beliefs can pass from being true to being untrue and back again), and that truth is relative to a conceptual scheme. 22. Rationalism is any view appealing to intellectual and deductive reason (as opposed to sensory experience or any religious teachings) as the source of knowledge or justification. Thus, it holds that some propositions are knowable by us by intuitionalone, while others are knowable by being deduced through valid arguments from intuited propositions. Depending on thestrength of the belief, this can result in a range of positions from the moderate view that reason has precedence over other ways of acquiring knowledge, to the radical position that reason is the only path to knowledge. Rationalism relies on the idea that reality has a rational structure in that all aspects of it can be grasped through mathematicaland logical principles, and not simply through sensory experience. Rather than being a "tabula rasa" to be imprinted with sense data, the mind is structured by, and responds to, mathematical methods of reasoning. 23. Cognitivism is the view that ethical sentences express propositions and can therefore be true or false (i.e. they are truth-apt). Thus, moral judgments are capable of being objectively true, because they describe some feature of the world. A proposition in Epistemology is, roughly speaking, an assertion or a declarative sentence (as opposed to an interrogative, exclamatory or imperative sentence). Thus, an ethical statement which is a valid proposition (e.g. "Mary is a good person") is able to bear truth values, and one can say of it "that is true" or "that is false". Two people may disagree on its truth or falsity, but it has at least the capacity for truth. 24. Individualism is a moral, political or social outlook that stresses human independence and the importance of individual self-reliance and liberty. It opposes most external interference with an individual's choices, whether by society, the state or any other group or institution (collectivism or statism), and it also opposed to the view that tradition, religion or any other form of external moral standard should be used to limit an individual's choice of actions. Ethical Individualism, then, is the position that individual conscience or reason is the only moral rule, and there is no objective authority or standard which it is bound to

take into account. It can be applied to the morality of the Scottish School of Common Sense of the late 18th Century, the autonomous morality of Immanuel Kant, and even ancient Greek Hedonismand Eudaimonism. Some Individualists are also Egoists (the ethical position that moral agents ought to do whatever is in their own self-interest), although they usually do not argue that selfishness is inherently good. Rather, they would argue that individuals are not dutybound to any socially-imposed morality, and that individuals should be free to choose to be selfish or not. Existentialist ethics is also characterized by an emphasis on moral Individualism, especially given its focus on the subjective, personal lives of individual human beings. Existentialism holds that there is no basic and given human nature that is common to all people, and so each person must define individually what humanity means to them and what values or purpose will dominate in their lives. The term "individualism" was first used by French and British proto-Socialists, followers of Saint-Simon (1760 - 1825) andRobert Owen (1771 - 1858), initially as a pejorative term, and mainly in the sense of Political Individualism (see the section below). The 19th Century American Henry David Thoreau is often cited as an example of a committed Individualist. In popular usage, the connotations of "individualism" can be positive or negative, depending on who is using the term, and how. 25. Humanism is a broad category of ethical, metaphysical, epistemological and political philosophies in which human interests,values and dignity predominate. It has an ultimate faith in humankind, believes that human beings possess the power or potentiality of solving their own problems, through reliance primarily upon reason and scientific method applied with courage and vision. Rather than being a specific doctrine on its own, Humanism is more a general life stance or attitude that upholds human reason, ethics and justice, and is a component of a variety of more specific philosophical systems, and is incorporated into some religious schools of thought. It is an optimistic attitude to life whose ultimate goal is human flourishing (see the section on Eudaimonism), doing good and living well in the here and now, and leaving the world better for those who come after. As an ethical doctrine, it affirms the dignity and worth of all people and their ability to determine right and wrong purely by appeal to universal human qualities, especially rationality. It searches for truth and morality through human means in support of human interests, and focuses on the human capacity for self-determination. It endorses universal morality (Moral Universalism) based on the commonality of the human condition. As a metaphysical doctrine, Humanism believes in a naturalistic metaphysics or attitude toward the universe that considers all forms of the supernatural as myth, and

regards Nature as the totality of being, and as a constantly changing system of matter and energy which exists independently of any mind or consciousness. It rejects the validity of transcendental justifications, such as a dependence on belief without reason, the supernatural, or texts of allegedly divine origin. It considers faith an unacceptable basis for action, and holds that it is up to humans to find the truth, as opposed to seeking it through revelation, mysticism, tradition or anything else that is incompatible with the application of logic to the observable evidence. It is therefore generally compatible with Atheism and Agnosticism, but does not require these, and can be compatible with some religions. It is an ethical process, not a dogma about the existence or otherwise of gods. To some extent, it supplements or supplants the role of religions, and can be considered in some ways as "equivalent" to a religion. As an epistemological doctrine, it supports scientific skepticism (i.e. it questions the veracity of claims lacking empirical evidence) and the scientific method (the collection of data through observation and experimentation, and the formulation and testing of hypotheses). As a political philosophy, Humanism emphasizes individual freedom and responsibility, human values and compassion, and the need for tolerance and cooperation, and it rejects authoritarian beliefs. It affirms that we must take responsibility for ourown lives and the communities and world in which we live. The term "humanism" was coined in 1808, based on the 15th Century Italian term "umanista", which was originally used to designate a teacher or student of classic literature. 26. Capitalism is the the economic and social system (and also the mode of production) in which the means of production are predominantly privately owned and operated for profit, and distribution and exchange is in a mainly market economy. It is usually considered to involve the right of individuals and corporations to trade (using money) in goods, services, labour and land. Some form of Capitalism has been dominant in the Western world since the end of feudalism in the Middle Ages, and has provided the main, although not exclusive, means of industrialization throughout much of the world. Its rise to prominence sprang out of the mercantilism of the 16th to the 18th Centuries, and followed the rise of Liberalism and laissez-faire economics in western society. The capitalist mode of production, however, may exist within societies with differing state systems (e.g. liberal democracy, fascism) and different social structures. In Marxist terms, the owners of capital are the dominant capitalist class (or bourgeoisie), and the working class (orproletariat) who do not own capital must live by selling their labour power in exchange for a wage. Thus, according to Karl Marx, Capitalism is based on the exploitation of workers by the owners of capital, and under his theory of historical materialism, represents just one of the stages in the evolution of a society

which would be overthown as the workers gain class consciousness and take control over the state. 27. Communism is a socio-economic structure that promotes the establishment of a classless, stateless society based oncommon ownership of the means of production. It encourages the formation of a proletarian state in order to overcome theclass structures and alienation of labour that characterize capitalistic societies, and their legacy of imperialism andnationalism. Communism holds that the only way to solve these problems is for the working class (or proletariat) to replace the wealthy ruling class (or bourgeoisie), through revolutionary action, in order to establish a peaceful, free society, without classes or government. Communism, then, is the idea of a free society with no division or alienation, where humanity is free from oppression andscarcity, and where there is no need for governments or countries and no class divisions. It envisages a world in which each person gives according to their abilities, and receives according to their needs. Its proponents claim it to be the only meansto the full realization of human freedom. It is usually considered a branch of the broader Socialist movement. The dominant forms of Communism, such as Leninism,Trotskyism and Luxemburgism, are based on Marxism, but non-Marxist versions of Communism (such as Christian Communism and Anarchist Communism) also exist - see the section on Types of Communism below. In the late 19th Century, the terms "socialism" and "communism" were often used interchangeably. However, Marxist theory argues that Communism would not emerge from Capitalism in a fully developed state, but would pass through a "first phase" (Socialism) in which most productive property was owned in common, but some class differences remained. This would eventually evolve into a "higher phase" (Communism) in which class differences were eliminated, and a state was no longer needed and would wither away. It further argued that revolutionary activity by the working classes was required to bring about these changes. 28. Feminism comprises a number of egalitarian social, cultural and political movements, theories and moral philosophies concerned with gender inequalities and equal rights for women. It is the doctrine advocating social, political and all other rights for women which are equal to those of men. Feminist political activists have been concerned with issues such as a woman's right of contract and property; a woman's right to bodily integrity and autonomy (e.g. on matters such as reproductive rights, abortion rights, access to contraceptionand quality prenatal care); women's rights to protection from domestic violence, sexual harassment and rape; women'sworkplace rights (e.g. maternity leave, equal pay, glass ceiling practices, etc); and opposition to all other forms ofdiscrimination. Feminist Theory is an extension of Feminism into theoretical or philosophical fields, such as anthropology, sociology, economics, women's studies, literary criticism, art history,

psychoanalysis and philosophy. It aims to understand gender inequality and focuses on gender politics, power relations and sexuality, as well as the promotion of women's rights and interests. 29. Marxism is an economic and social system derived from the work of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels (1829 - 1895). It is atheoretical-practical framework based on the analysis of "the conflicts between the powerful and the subjugated" withworking class self-emancipation as its goal. It asserts that the Capitalist mode of production enables the bourgeoisie (or owners of capital) to exploit the proletariat (or workers) and that class struggle by the proletariat must be the central element in social and historical change. According toMarx, a socialist revolution must occur, in order to establish a "dictatorship of the proletariat" with the ulimate goal of public ownership of the means of production, distribution, and exchange. Classical Marxism is a variety of Socialism and provides the intellectual base for various forms of Communism. It was conceived (as to some extent was Anarchism) as a reaction against the rampant Capitalism and Liberalism of 19th Century Europe. It is grounded in Materialism and it is committed to political practice as the end goal of all thought. As a philosopher, Marx was influenced by a number of different thinkers, including: German philosophers (e.g. Immanuel Kant, Georg Hegel and Ludwig Feuerbach); British political economists (e.g. Adam Smith and David Ricardo); and French social theorists (e.g. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Charles Fourier, Henri de Saint-Simon, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, Flora Tristan and Louis Blanc). The defining document of Marxism and Communism is "The Communist Manifesto", published jointly by Marx and Engels in 1848. The first volume of "Das Kapital" (Marx's ambitious treatise on political economy and critical analysis of Capitalism and its practical economic application) was published in 1867, with two more volumes edited and published after his death by Engels. For the most part, these works were collaborations and, while Marx is the more famous of the two, he was strongly influenced by Engels' earlier works, and Engels was also responsible for much of the interpretation and editing of Marx's work. 30. Nationalism is the doctrine that one's national culture and interests are superior to any other, and that nations should actindependently (rather than collectively) to attain their goals. It holds that a nation, usually defined in terms of language,ethnicity or culture, has the right to constitute an independent or autonomous political community based on a shared historyand common destiny. It can also refer to the aspiration for national independence felt by people under foreign domination. Nationalism seeks to order the world as a series of nation-states, each based on the geopolitical national homeland of its respective nation, and holds that each nation has

a moral entitlement to a sovereign state. It seeks to guarantee thecontinued existence of a nation, to preserve its distinct identity, and to provide a territory where the national culture andethos are dominant. In turn, nation-states appeal to a national culturalhistorical mythos to justify their existence, and to conferpolitical legitimacy. Simplistically, Nationalism is the desire of a nation to self-determination. It is usually associated with patriotism (a positive and supportive attitudes to a "fatherland"), but it can also lead to chauvinism (aggressive patriotism, or blind or biased devotionto any group, attitude or cause), imperialism, racism and xenophobia, militarism, or ultimately to Fascism. It is usually considered a relatively recent idea, based as it is on the concept of the nationstate which is a largely 19th Centuryphenomenon and, until around 1800, very few people had more than local loyalties. National identity and unity were originallyimposed from above by European states, in order to modernize the economy and society. 31. Socialism is a socio-economic system in which property and the distribution of wealth are subject to control by the workers, either directly through popular collectives such as workers' councils, or indirectly exercised on behalf of the people by the state, and in which Egalitarianism or equality is an important goal. Thus, under Socialism, the means of production are owned by the state, community or the workers (as opposed to privately owned as under Capitalism). Adherents of Socialism are split into differing, and sometimes opposing, branches, particularly between reformists andrevolutionaries, and some of these are briefly describe in the Types of Socialism section below. The term "socialism" is variously attributed to Pierre Leroux (1798 - 1871) or to Marie Roch Louis Reybaud (1799 - 1879) or to Robert Owen (1771 - 1858) in the mid-19th Century. According to Frederick Engels (1820 - 1895), by 1847, the term "socialism" (usually referring to the utopian philosophies of Robert Owen and Charles Fourier (1772 - 1837), was considered quite respectable on the continent of Europe, while "communism" was the opposite.

Kolehiyo ng Sining, Agham at Edukasyon Pamantasang Holy Angel Lungsod ng Angeles

BATAYANG PILOSOPIYA

Ipinasa ni;

Tayag, Micah Angela Maniego BSEdIV-FILIPINO

Para kay;

Gng. Hilda Garcia Guro ng 3Kurfil

July. 19, 2012