Philosophy key terms grade 12

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Key terms
Personhood: What it means to be a person
Personal Identity: The characteristics, or equalities, that make one the same person over time.
Survival: A persons continued existence over time.
Mind-brain problem: The metaphysical debate over the nature of the connection between thoughts and the physical events that occur in the human brain.
Identity theorists: A metaphysical theory that says that metal states are identical to brain states.
Eliminative materialism: A theory that says that neuroscientific brain- state terms will eventually replace everyday psychological terms to describe desires, beliefs, and attitudes
Functionalism: A materialist theory that says that mental states can be realized in various ways, such as through brain tissue or computer chips.
Turing test: A test, developed by Arthur turing, to discover whether a computer can converse in a way that would fool a human being.
Strong Artificial intelligence: A functionalist theory that says that computers can be programmed to think.
Intentionality: In metaphysics, the idea that mental states are about or represent something.
Chinese room: A thought experiment, devised by John Searle, to show that computers lack intentionality.

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Key Terms
Theism: A theory that says that the universe was created by a perfect, all powerful supreme being who continues to be interested in its well-being and can intervene to perform miracles or make revelations.
Deism: A theory that says that a supreme being created the universe but does not intervene in its workings.
Polytheists: A theory that says that many gods govern the universe.\
Pantheists: A theory that says that a supreme being is everywhere and that everything in the universe contains the spirit of this being.
Ontological argument: The area of metaphysics that deals with the nature of being and reality.
Cosmological argument: An argument that says that a supreme being must exist because the chain of causes must have a beginning, and this beginning was a supreme being.
Argument from design: An argument that says that the order that characterizes the universe must have been designed and set in motion by a supreme being.
Atheists: A theory that rejects the idea of the existence of a supreme being.
Free will: The idea that the will is uncaused.
Hard determinists: A theory that denies the existence of free will and says that all thoughts, actions, desires, and physical events are caused by previous events.
Soft determinists: A theory that says that free will and determinism are compatible. Though desires are determined by a chain of causes extending back in time, people can be self- determined if they are free of coercion.
Nihilists: A theory that says that life is meaningless and that human striving is pointless because nothing matters. In ethics, nihilists believe that there is no such thing as right or wrong because moral truths do not exist.