Glossary
This glossary defines philosophical terms used in this book, giving them
the sense they bear here. Unfortunately, not all of these terms have the
same sense whenever they appear in a philosophy book. Terms marked
with an asterisk (*) are also defined in the glossary.
Advaita Vedanta A Hindu religious tradition whose core doctrine says that the
only thing that exists is Brahman without qualities; its most famous
expositor is Shankara.
argument A set of claims (premises) from which another claim (the
conclusion) is supposed to follow in such a way that evidence has been
provided for the conclusion’s truth.
bundle theory The view of persons on which a person at a time is a
collection of momentary states and over time is a series of such collections.
Christianity A monotheistic religion whose central doctrine is that God
became incarnate in Jesus Christ who died for our sins and whose
resurrection from the dead is the basis for our hope of life everlasting.
compatibilism The view that we can be morally responsible for our actions
even if determinism is true.
consistency strategy The strategy of arguing that because three propositions,
none of which is a necessary falsehood, are consistent with one another,
any two of them are consistent with one another.
cosmological argument An argument to the effect that there being things
that might never have existed and/or depend for existence on something
else is best explained by reference to a being that cannot depend on
anything else and has the power to create them.
determinism The view that only one future is compatible with the past.
diagnosis An account of someone’s illness.
doctrine A claim about God, human persons, the human condition, the
cosmos, and the like, made by a religious tradition.
dualism The view that there are minds and bodies, each of which belongs to
its own kind, neither of which is reducible to the other.
enlightenment The condition of having achieved release from the cycle of
rebirth.
entails A proposition P entails a proposition Q if and only if it is logically
impossible that P is true and Q is false; There are three hens entails There
are at least two hens.
essence An essence is a set of properties that makes what has those properties
the member of a kind; Water is H
2
O ascribes an essence to water, and
Persons are self-conscious agents ascribes an essence to persons.