Phil 86: Study Sheet of Concepts and Principles

From Terms & Methods pages

• ambiguities, equivocating
• a practical test or evidence to believe X is present (the epistemology of X), versus an “unpacking definition” or analysis of what we already understood by X (the metaphysics or nature of X), versus a stipulative definition of X
• questions about what X consists in (its nature), versus questions about the causes/mechanisms that bring X about
• conclusion, premises, assumptions
• deductively “valid” argument, “sound” argument, persuasive argument
• what makes it reasonable to think/expect/count something as an X, versus sufficient or necessary conditions (see below)
• notion of a “question-begging” argument (as philosophers use this label)
• dilemma (see Glossary page)

• antecedent and consequent of a conditional
• necessary condition (what’s required to be an X), versus sufficient condition (what guarantees something is an X)
• biconditional, “if and only if” (“iff”)
• difference between converse and contrapositive of a conditional
• reductio

• contrast between what’s part of the definition of some notion (for example, “mother” or “substance”), and further contentious claims about the notion (perhaps even about what’s necessarily true of it)

Introduced in Class

• self-conceptions (roles/categories that are important to you), your fundamental values, commitments and beliefs
• social identities (roles that shape how you relate to others and they relate to you), whether chosen or imposed, whether public or more private
• qualitative identity (being copies or duplicates of each other, at least at a given moment), versus numerical identity (being one and the same thing)
• necessary/essential properties, versus contingent/“accidental” properties
• what philosophical questions are raised by the Ship of Theseus?
• examples where an X continues to exist but is no longer an X