Philosophical Conceptions
(a science that attempts to discover the fundamental principles of the sciences, the arts, and the world that the sciences and arts influence)
essence
The most important and significant aspect.
esthetics
The study of the nature of beauty; in Kant, the study of sensation.
ethics
The study of right and wrong in a person's conduct.
fatalism
The doctrine that nothing which the individual can do can in any way affect the fate to which he or she is destined.
finalism
The doctrine that events are caused by the purposes which they serve.
first cause
The beginning of an entire series of causes; usually, identified with God.
formally
In a technical way; according to the form or structure.
free will
The partial freedom of the agent, in acts of conscious choice, from the determining compulsion of heredity, environment, and circumstance.
hedonism
1. The doctrine that pleasure is the actual, and also the proper, motive of most choices.
2. A philosophical doctrine which states that pleasure is the highest good or the source of moral values.
3. The pursuit of pleasure as a matter of ethical principles.
2. A philosophical doctrine which states that pleasure is the highest good or the source of moral values.
3. The pursuit of pleasure as a matter of ethical principles.
heuristic
A method of research or a commonsense rule (or set of rules) intended to increase the probability of solving some problem.
idealism
In metaphysics, the doctrine that ideas, or thoughts, are the fundamental reality; in ethics, the devotion to moral ideals.
ideation
The process of thinking or of thoughts.
instrumentalism
The doctrine that ideas are instruments of response and adaptation, and that their truth is to be judged in terms of their effectiveness.
intuitionism
1. In metaphysics, the doctrine that intuition, rather than reason, reveals the reality of things.
2. In ethics, the doctrine that man has an innate sense of right and wrong.
2. In ethics, the doctrine that man has an innate sense of right and wrong.
lamarckhianism
1. The idea that an organism can pass on characteristics that it acquired during its lifetime to its offspring.
2. The belief in the transmissibility or heritability of acquired characteristics.
2. The belief in the transmissibility or heritability of acquired characteristics.
Named after the French biologist Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (1744–1829), who incorporated the action of soft inheritance into his evolutionary theories.
He proposed that individual efforts during the lifetime of organisms were the main mechanism driving species to adaptation, because it was theorized that they would acquire adaptive changes and pass them on to their offspring.
