Glossary of Philosophy - I

I

Idealism

the doctrine that reality or knowledge is founded on ideas (mental experience). Depending on the specific ideal, idealism is usually juxtaposed with materialism or realism.

• Objective idealism

  is an idealistic metaphysics that postulates that there is in an important sense only one perceiver, and that this perceiver is one with that which is perceived.

• German idealism

  a movement in philosophy, started with Immanuel Kant's transcendental idealism, centered in Germany. Many prominent exponents include Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Johann Gottlieb Fichte and Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling.

• Subjective idealism

  a philosophy in which human experiences are based on perceptions.

• Transcendental idealism

  the philosophy of Immanuel Kant and later Kantian and German Idealist philosophers; a view according to which our experience is not about the things as they are in themselves, but about the things as they appear to us. It differs from standard (empirical) idealism in that it does not claim that the objects of our experiences would be in any sense within our mind. The idea is that whenever we experience something, we experience it as it is for ourselves: the object is real as well as mind-independent, but is in a sense corrupted by our cognition (by the categories and the forms of sensibility, space and time). Transcendental idealism denies that we could have knowledge of the thing in itself. A view that holds the opposite is called transcendental realism.

Ignosticism

a philosophy questioning the existence of God relating to a lack of proof while at the same time arguing for a strong faith

Illusionism

a philosophy that holds that there is no material world but rather a collection of illusions formed by human consciousness that results in an environment for all humans to live in.

Immaterialism

a philosophy that holds that there are no material objects, but rather all reality is a construct of a flawed perception.

Immoralism

The philosophy that man should try to strive for the perfect aesthetic of eternal life.

Immortalism

another name for immortality (or eternal life), is the concept of existing for a potentially infinite, or indeterminate length, of time. Throughout history, humans have had the desire to live forever. What form an unending or indefinitely-long human life would take, or whether it is even possible, has been the subject of much speculation, fantasy, and debate.

Incompatibilism

the belief that free will and determinism are not logically compatible categories.

Indeterminism

the philosophical belief contradictory to determinism: that there are events that do not correspond with determinism (and therefore are uncaused in some sense).

Individualism

in political philosophy, the view that the rights or well-being of individuals are to be protected, rather than the well-being of groups such as nations or states, ideologies (such as communism or democracy), or religious communities (such as Christendom). Individualism is often associated with classical liberalism and opposed to the various sorts of communalism and nationalism.

Inductionism

the scientific philosophy where laws are "induced" from sets of data. As an example, one might measure the strength of electrical forces at varying distances from charges and induce the inverse square law of electrostatics. See also inductive reasoning.

Inductivism

a philosophy that holds that scientific research is guided by the various observations and data produced by previous science experiments; In other words, that science progresses in a direction that has prior experimental data. It exists both in a classical naive version, which has been highly influential, and in various more sophisticated versions. The naive version, which trace back to thinkers such as Abū Rayhān al-Bīrūnī and David Hume, says that general statements (theories) have to be based on empirical observations, which are subsequently generalized into statements that can be regarded as true or probably true.

Infinitism

is the view that knowledge may be justified by an infinite chain of reasons.

Innatism

doctrine that holds the mind is born with ideas or knowledge, and is not a 'blank slate' at birth as early empiricists such as John Locke claimed. It asserts that not all knowledge is obtained from experience and the senses.

• Knowledge innatism

  doctrine that asserts that humans have access to knowledge that is possessed innately.

• Idea innatism

  (also known as concept innatism), doctrine that asserts that humans have access to certain inborn ideas.

Instrumentalism

the idea that knowledge should be judged by its usefulness and that the truth-value of knowledge is irrelevant. Generally invoked in philosophy of science

Intellectualism

doctrine about the possibility of deriving knowledge from reason alone, intellectualism can stand for a general approach emphasising the importance of learning and logical thinking. Criticism of this attitude, sometimes summed up as Left Bank, caricatures intellectualism's faith in the mind and puts it in opposition to emotion, instinct, and primitivist values in general.

Internalism

in epistemology, the view that all evidence involved in justification must be knowable to the subject.

Intentionalism

a philosophy that questions the underpinnings of original intent and explores whether or not humans are the source of their own actions or are controlled by a higher power.

Interactionism

a philosophy that explores the relationship between cause and effect in regards to the human perception of the universe.

Interpretivism

in epistemology, the view that all knowledge is a matter of interpretation.

• Legal interpretivism

  school of thought in the philosophy of law, in which law is not considered to be a set of data or physical facts, but what lawyers aim to construct. It holds that there is no separation between law and morality although there are differences (this is the opposite of the main claim of legal positivism). According to legal interpretivism, law is not immanent in nature nor do legal values and principles exist independently and outside of the legal practice itself (this is the opposite of the main claim of natural law theory).

Intrinsicism

a philosophy that holds that the intrinsic value of an object cannot be judged by humans.

Intuitionism

in the philosophy of mathematics, intuitionism, or neointuitionism (opposed to preintuitionism), is an approach to mathematics as the constructive mental activity of humans. That is, mathematics does not consist of analytic activities wherein deep properties of existence are revealed and applied. Instead, logic and mathematics are the application of internally consistent methods to realize more complex mental constructs.

Irrationalism

a philosophy that claims that science is inferior to intuition, with art and the conquest of the aesthetic being the ultimate transcendence of the humanity.

Irrealism

a philosophy combining the phenomenalism and physicalism in epistemology with the view that either could be used interchangeably as agents of free will and study of the aesthetic.

Islamism

a set of political ideologies derived from various religious views of Muslim fundamentalists, which hold that Islam is not only a religion, but also a political system that governs the legal, economic and social imperatives of the state. Islamist movements seek to re-shape the state by implementing a conservative formulation of Sharia. Islamists regard themselves as Muslims rather than Islamists, while moderate Muslims reject this notion.