PHILOSOPHY
- a (1) : all learning exclusive of technical precepts and practical arts (2) : the sciences and liberal arts exclusive of medicine, law, and theology <a doctor of philosophy> (3) : the 4-year college course of a major seminary
- b : a search for a general understanding of values and reality by chiefly speculative rather than observational means
SCIENCE
- : the state of knowing : knowledge as distinguished from ignorance or misunderstanding
- a : a department of systematized knowledge as an object of study <the science of theology>
EPISTEMOLOGY
- : the study or a theory of the nature and grounds of knowledge especially with reference to its limits and validity
KNOWLEDGE
- a (1) : the fact or condition of knowing something with familiarity gained through experience or association (2) : acquaintance with or understanding of a science, art, or technique
METHODOLOGY
- : a body of methods, rules, and postulates employed by a discipline : a particular procedure or set of procedures
METHOD
- : a procedure or process for attaining an object: as a (1) : a systematic procedure, technique, or mode of inquiry employed by or proper to a particular discipline or art (2) : a systematic plan followed in presenting material for instruction b (1) : a way, technique, or process of or for doing something (2) : a body of skills or techniques
- : a discipline that deals with the principles and techniques of scientific inquiry
INDUCTION
- a : the act or process of inducting (as into office)
DEDUCTION
- b : something that is or may be subtracted <deductions from his taxable income>
- a : the deriving of a conclusion by reasoning; specifically : inference in which the conclusion about particulars follows necessarily from general or universal premises — compare induction
HYPOTHESIS
- a : an assumption or concession made for the sake of argument
THEORY
- : the analysis of a set of facts in their relation to one another
- : abstract thought : speculation
OBJECTIVE
- a : relating to or existing as an object of thought without consideration of independent existence —used chiefly in medieval philosophy
SUBJECTIVE
ART
- a) skill acquired by experience, study, or observation <the artof making friends
RATIONALISM
- : reliance on reason as the basis for establishment of religious truth
- a : a theory that reason is in itself a source of knowledge superior to and independent of sense perceptions
EMPIRICISM
- a : a former school of medical practice founded on experience without the aid of science or theory
POSITIVISM
- a : a theory that theology and metaphysics are earlier imperfect modes of knowledge and that positive knowledge is based on natural phenomena and their properties and relations as verified by the empirical sciences
IDEALISM
- a (1) : a theory that ultimate reality lies in a realm transcending phenomena (2) : a theory that the essential nature of reality lies in consciousness or reason
OBSERVATION
- a : an act or instance of observing a custom, rule, or law b : observance 3
LANGUAGE
- a : the words, their pronunciation, and the methods of combining them used and understood by a community
HERMENEUTIC
- plural but sing or plural in constr : the study of the methodological principles of interpretation (as of the Bible)
SEMIOTIC
- : a general philosophical theory of signs and symbols that deals especially with their function in both artificially constructed and natural languages and comprises syntactics, semantics, and pragmatics
SEMANTIC
- : of or relating to meaning in language
PRAGMATIC
- : relating to or being in accordance with philosophical pragmatism
