GLOSARY*

Glosary...

Definition of PHILOSOPHY

* a (1) : all learning exclusive of technical precepts and practical arts (2) : the sciences and liberal arts exclusive of medicine, law, and theology (3) : the 4-year college course of a major seminary
* b (1) archaic : physical science (2) : ethics
* c : a discipline comprising as its core logic, aesthetics, ethics, metaphysics, and epistemology
* a : pursuit of wisdom
* b : a search for a general understanding of values and reality by chiefly speculative rather than observational means
* c : an analysis of the grounds of and concepts expressing fundamental beliefs



Definition of SCIENCE

* : the state of knowing : knowledge as distinguished from ignorance or misunderstanding

* a : a department of systematized knowledge as an object of study


* b : something (as a sport or technique) that may be studied or learned like systematized knowledge

Definition of EPISTEMOLOGY

* : the study or a theory of the nature and grounds of knowledge especially with reference to its limits and validity



Definition of 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


* b (1) : the fact or condition of being aware of something (2) : the range of one's information or understanding


* c : the circumstance or condition of apprehending truth or fact through reasoning : cognition


* d : the fact or condition of having information or of being learned


Definition of METHODOLOGY

* : a body of methods, rules, and postulates employed by a discipline : a particular procedure or set of procedures

* : the analysis of the principles or procedures of inquiry in a particular field

Definition of 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

* a : orderly arrangement, development, or classification : plan


* b : the habitual practice of orderliness and regularity

* capitalized : a dramatic technique by which an actor seeks to gain complete identification with the inner personality of the character being portrayed

Definition of INDUCTION

* a : the act or process of inducting (as into office)


* b : an initial experience : initiation c : the formality by which a civilian is inducted into military service

* a (1) : inference of a generalized conclusion from particular instances — compare deduction 2a (2) : a conclusion arrived at by induction

Definition of DEDUCTION

* a : an act of taking away


* b : something that is or may be subtracted

* 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


* b : a conclusion reached by logical deduction

Definition of HYPOTHESIS

* a : an assumption or concession made for the sake of argument


* b : an interpretation of a practical situation or condition taken as the ground for action

* : a tentative assumption made in order to draw out and test its logical or empirical consequences

* : the antecedent clause of a conditional statement


Definition of THEORY

* : the analysis of a set of facts in their relation to one another

* : abstract thought : speculation

* : the general or abstract principles of a body of fact, a science, or an art

* a : a belief, policy, or procedure proposed or followed as the basis of action b : an ideal or hypothetical set of facts, principles, or circumstances —often used in the phrase in theory

Definition of OBJECTIVE

* a : relating to or existing as an object of thought without consideration of independent existence —used chiefly in medieval philosophy


* b : of, relating to, or being an object, phenomenon, or condition in the realm of sensible experience independent of individual thought and perceptible by all observers : having reality independent of the mind — compare subjective 3a


* c of a symptom of disease : perceptible to persons other than the affected individual — compare subjective 4c


* d : involving or deriving from sense perception or experience with actual objects, conditions, or phenomena


Definition of SUBJECTIVE

* : of, relating to, or constituting a subject: as a obsolete : of, relating to, or characteristic of one that is a subject especially in lack of freedom of action or in submissiveness


* b : being or relating to a grammatical subject; especially : nominative

* : of or relating to the essential being of that which has substance, qualities, attributes, or relations

* a : characteristic of or belonging to reality as perceived rather than as independent of mind : phenomenal — compare objective 1b


* b : relating to or being experience or knowledge as conditioned by personal mental characteristics or states

Definition of ART

* a) skill acquired by experience, study, or observation


* b : a record or description so obtained

* : a judgment on or inference from what one has observed; broadly : remark, statement

* obsolete : attentive care : heed

* : the condition of one that is observed



Definition of LANGUAGE

* a : the words, their pronunciation, and the methods of combining them used and understood by a community


* b (1) : audible, articulate, meaningful sound as produced by the action of the vocal organs (2) : a systematic means of communicating ideas or feelings by the use of conventionalized signs, sounds, gestures, or marks having understood meanings (3) : the suggestion by objects, actions, or conditions of associated ideas or feelings (4) : the means by which animals communicate (5) : a formal system of signs and symbols (as FORTRAN or a calculus in logic) including rules for the formation and transformation of admissible expressions

Definition of HERMENEUTIC

* plural but sing or plural in constr : the study of the methodological principles of interpretation (as of the Bible)

* : a method or principle of interpretation

Definition of SEMIOTICS

* : 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

Definition of SEMANTIC

* : of or relating to meaning in language

* : of or relating to semantics


Definition of PRAGMATIC

* : relating to matters of fact or practical affairs often to the exclusion of intellectual or artistic matters : practical as opposed to idealistic

* : relating to or being in accordance with philosophical pragmatism

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/