# Philosophy glossary - part 2

## Aesthetics

Aesthetics - The branch of philosophy concerned with the nature of [beauty and taste](values-quality.md) values.

### What should we define as quality?

Aestheticism - Art should be beautiful, but not necessarily have a [purpose](purpose.md).

Formalism (aesthetics) - Things should be assessed by their inherent [created](creations.md) quality or qualities, not by the social or historical context that it was made in or how much it evokes a feeling.

Romanticism - Art is an emotional experience based on the consumers' [feelings](mind-feelings.md).

### How should we [create](mind-creativity.md)?

Automatism/surrealist automatism - Spontaneously creating without any conscious self-censorship.

Classicism - Creating with a high regard for classical antiquity. A type of aesthetic absolutism. Contrasts against romanticism.

Expressionism - Creating by over-exaggerating to create an emotional effect. Contrasts to moral realism.

Modernism - Borrowing from humanism (see above), create with an emphasis on [science](science.md) and [technology](technology.md).

Primitivism - Pushing against intellectualism (see above), create with an emphasis on low-[technology](technology.md) experience and [feelings](mind-feelings.md).

Surrealism - Creating by using the element of surprise and unrelated things. Most of the creators tend to declare that they made a philosophical movement first and the works were just its byproduct.

Symbolism - Creating by using [representations](symbols.md) that carry particular meanings and patterns, which allow broader interpretation than literal representations would.

## Ethics

Ethics - The branch of philosophy concerned with the nature of [moral values](morality.md).

Cognitivism - Ethical statements can only be true or false. Opposite of non-cognitivism.

- Moral realism - Moral judgments express beliefs, which can only be true or false, so objective moral values exist.

Emotivism/Hurrah-boo theory - We make ethical statements based on our attitude about other statements, not as stand-alone ideas.

- Universal prescriptivism - Ethical statements always have a [purpose](purpose.md)-based part to them (e.g., "Killing is bad" always means "You shouldn't kill").

Expressivism - Moral statement (e.g., "wrongness", "goodness") never state real, metaphysical things. Thus, moral statements don't directly apply to truth. A middle ground between cognitivism and non-cognitivism.

Non-cognitivism - Ethical statements don't state facts or beliefs, so they're not matters of truth. Opposite of cognitivism.

Quasi-realism - Ethical statements aren't facts or beliefs, but do project emotional viewpoints as if they were real.

Value pluralism - Two or more moral values may be equally true, but also in conflict.

### Why are things good or bad?

Ascriptivism - Even if determinism (see above) is true, people are still responsible for their actions.

Consequentialism - The consequences from deicisions determine whether something was the right decision. Opposite of deontologism.

- Eudaimonism - Actions are good to the degree that they produce human flourishing.
- Situationalism/Situation ethics - Moral principles, while generally true, can be cast aside in certain situations if it's the most [loving](people-love.md) action.

Deontologism/Non-consequentialism - All moral values come from principles, so consequences never dictate morality. Opposite of consequentialism.

- Extrinsicism - External laws and precepts are more important than principles to determine moral conduct.
- Kantiamism - Morality is a matter of duty to "categorical imperatives", not [feelings](mind-feelings.md) or [purposes](purpose.md).

Humanism - A broad range of ethics that says humanity is the source of values.

- Meliorism - Progress is a real value, made by humans, that transcends natural things.
- Posthumanism - There's no special place for humanity in the universe.
- Secular/scientific humanism - Ethics and reason are the only legitimate means of gaining knowledge, with some supplementation from the arts.
- Transcendentalism - People must find a spiritual state to transcend their physical state.
  - Neo-Platonism - People must use philosophy to find a mystical union with the divine.
- Transhumanism/>H/H+ - [Science](science.md) and [technology](technology.md) can overcome human limitations and improve the human condition.
  - Extropianism - [Science](science.md) and [technology](technology.md) will someday let people live functionally forever.
  - Singularitarianism - A [technological](technology.md) singularity with smarter-than-human intelligence is possible, and its coming must be preserved.
- Religious humanism - Religious rituals/beliefs harmonize with centering on human needs, interests, and abilities.
  - Christian humanism - Christian rituals/beliefs harmonize with centering on human needs, interests, and abilities.

Moral absolutism - We can judge moral questions against absolute standards, so some things are universally right/wrong irrespective of the context. Opposite of moral relativism.

Moral relativism - Presuming relativism (see above), morality is completely relative to indviduals or their [culture](people-culture.md). Opposite of moral absolutism.

Moral universalism/Universalism - Moral statements can apply universally. A middle ground between moral absolutism and moral relativism.

## [Government/Politics](groups-large.md)

### Can we understand politics and society?

Behavioralism - Political activity can be measured and explained with a [scientific](science.md), unbiased approach.

Formalism (economic anthropology) - Far-reaching principles of economics can apply to *all* humanity.

Interactionism - Large-scale elements of society form through [social interaction](people-conversation.md).

Social atomism - Every [group of people](groups-small.md) should be assessed by each individual, since their collective [purposes](purpose.md) constitute the entire group's actions.

### What's wrong with society?

Anarchism - Remove rulers/governors.

- Anarcho-primitivism - The shifts from [technology](technology.md) created a [hierarchy](mgmt-badsystems.md), so we must remove [specialization](jobs-specialization.md) and technology to create fairness.
- Anarcho-syndicalism - Replace capitalism, wages, private property, and the state with labor unions for everything.

Complementarianism - [Females and males](gender.md) are far too different to compete fairly. Contrasts with feminism.

Environmentalism - [High-technology](technology.md) humanity destroys nature, so low-technology living is the solution.

Feminism - Females should never be unequal to males. Contrasts with complementarianism.

Marxism - Because of dialectical materialism (see above), all [social classes](classes.md) will eventually be destroyed as the weaker gain more [power](power.md) through social darwinism (see above).

- Communism - Abolish all private property.
- Distributism - Whenever anyone makes things, everyone gets a portion of it, with no central control over it.
- Neo-Marxism - A broad term for things that adapt the Marxist theory to fit new social standards (e.g., critical race).
- Socialism - Specific collectives control everything. It's often claimed as the transitionary stage into communism.

Mohism - People are unevenly [loving](people-love.md) toward others, and should balance it more fairly.

Reconstructivism - Society should continually rebuild and remake itself to become more perfect.

### Who should have power in society?

Communalism - The government should focus on protecting cultures and groups. Opposite of individualism.

- Communitarianism - Because society forms [identity](identity.md) and [personality](personality.md), the individual *and* the community must be protected.

Conservatism - [Traditions and cultures](people-culture.md) should be cherished.

Egalitarianism/Equalitarianism - Everyone should be treated as equals.

Individualism - The government should focus on protecting individuals. Opposite of communalism.

Liberalism - Individuals should be free to do as they please.

- Libertarianism - Individuals should be free to do as they please, without large group intervention.

Mercantilism/Colbertism - A society should concern aim for the best interests of its own people.

- Fascism - Everyone should be loyal to their nation, more than anything else.

Nativism - Presuming ethnocentrism (see above), the original [culture](people-culture.md) of a [group](groups-large.md) has more important values than the culture of people joining the group.

[Contractarianism](people-contracts.md)/Social contract - People give up some of their [power](power.md) to governments to protect the rest of their rights or maintain [order](people-boundaries.md).

Social Darwinism - Some people are more fit to rule society than others.

- Critical race - Some racially-divided [groups of people](groups-large.md) are so [powerful](power.md) that other groups are destined to always lag behind, so rulers must help those weaker races.

Speciesism - Social status should be based on species membership, usually implying that humans have more value than other animals.

Techno-progressivism/Democratic transhumanism - Everyone should equally access transhuman technologies.

Youthism - Young people should have the same [rights](people-boundaries.md) as adults.

### How should we pick our leaders?

Capitalism/laissez-faire economy/free market economy/free enterprise system/economic liberalism/economic individualism - Everyone owns stuff and a free market sets the prices of everything.

- Anarcho-capitalism/Voluntaryism - The private sector's free market, not the natural monopoly of the government, should control everything.

Democracy - The subjects should choose their rulers.

- Associationalism/Associative democracy - Voluntary and democratically self-governing associations should run as much of society as possible.

Political absolutism - One person should hold all the power.

- Enlightened absolutism - One person who does things that benefit the subjects should hold all the power.

Secularism - The government shouldn't include [religion](religion-answers.md) in its rule.

Theocracy - The government should rule by a specific [religion's](religion-answers.md) doctrine.

- Islamism - Everyone must abide by the Qu'ran's Sharia Law.

### How should we enforce laws?

Authoritarianism - Leaders' power should be used with extreme force, in domains that the subjects will often not like.

- Totalitarianism/Statism - The government should control nearly every part of public and private behavior.

Formalism (legal) - The fairness of the process is more important than its outcomes.

Individualism (politics) - Governments should protect the best interests of individuals, not groups.

Legal interpretivism - [Laws](people-rules.md) are not a set of facts or data, but frameworks made by lawyers, and completely open to interpretation. They also dictate [morality](morality.md). The opposite of natural law.

Legal positivism/Positive law - Human beings made laws, so they're not necessarily ethical or moral. Distinct from natural law.

- Legal naturalism - Natural law itself is simply made by society.

Natural law - There are specific, unaltered [patterns](humanity-universals.md) in human nature that laws must conform with to be ethical. Distinct from positive law.

- Legal realism - Laws should reflect the natural laws of [science](science.md).

Legalism - Making laws should follow a mechanical, logical way of interpreting laws from previous rulings, regardless of the context those laws were made in.

- Original intent/Originalism - The laws should be interpreted by the [purpose](purpose.md) the law-writers were trying to achieve.

## Philosophy's [Purpose](purpose.md) and [Culture](people-culture.md)

Aristotelianism/Perpatetic school/Scotism - Start with the facts that experience gives things.

- Neo-Aristotelianism - See things the way the [creators](creations.md) originally saw it.

Cognitivism - Sentences people say come from their brain, and can be declared as [logically](logic.md) true or false.

Contextualism - People can only understand something within the context where something happens.

Eclecticism - To fully understand things, you need more than 1 set of assumptions and have to look at it from different viewpoints. Syncretism, but more broad.

Particularism - Ask "what do I know?" before "how do I know?"

Platonic school - Start with the ideals, then work downward into the experiences.

Scholasticism/Dialectical method - Use conversations between opposing views to draw distinctions and resolve contradictions.

Sophism (ancient) - Teaching with a heavy emphasis on virtue.

Sophism/Sophistry (modern) - Giving an illogical argument, especially to deceive.

Thomism - Someone should accept truth, no matter how they found it.

Truth claim - A [logical](logic.md) sentence stated as either true or false, and claimed to be true.