AP Lang Final Semester 1 Flashcards

Determinism is the view that every event (including human decisions) is caused by prior events in accordance with natural laws. If determinism is true, then the future follows inevitably from the past and present.
Free Will is the capacity of agents to choose among alternatives in a way that makes them morally responsible. Philosophers debate whether free will is compatible with determinism (compatibilism) or not (incompatibilism). Wikipedia

Key idea:

• Compatibilists say we can act freely even in a deterministic world.

The hard problem of consciousness names the puzzle of why and how subjective experience (qualia) arises from physical processes. It was named by David Chalmers to highlight that explaining behavioral and neurological functions (easy problems) doesn’t explain subjective experience itself. Wikipedia

Philosophy of Mind is the area that studies the nature of the mind, mental states, consciousness, and their relation to the physical world and the brain. It includes debates like dualism, physicalism, and intentionality.

This is the foundational question in philosophy of mind about the relationship between mental states (thoughts, feelings) and the physical body (especially the brain).
The core difficulty is explaining how mental phenomena arise from or interact with physical processes. Wikipedia

Main positions include:

• Dualism: mind and body are distinct.
• Physicalism: everything is ultimately physical.

Property dualism: mental properties are real but not reducible to physical ones.

Identity in philosophy usually refers to what makes an individual the same over time (personal identity).
Duality here refers to mind–body dualism — the idea that mental and physical aspects of persons are fundamentally different.
Opposing Self often refers to internal conflicts within a person, a theme explored in philosophy of selfhood and existentialism. While SEP covers personal identity in depth generally, SEP’s Personal Identity entry discusses these themes.

In philosophy, the nature of evil asks what evil is, whether it’s real or merely the absence of good, how it relates to human freedom, and whether it arises from choice, ignorance, or social structures. Classic contributors include Augustine, Nietzsche, and modern moral philosophers. SEP entries on moral psychology, ethics, and religious philosophy cover aspects of this. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

This theme investigates how we perceive reality:

• Objectivity means perception and knowledge that do not depend on a particular subject’s point of view.
• Subjectivity means experiences shaped by personal perspectives and consciousness.

Phenomenology and analytic philosophy explore how perception includes both objective structure and subjective experience. Plato Project

Phenomenology is a method and movement (founded by Edmund Husserl) that studies the structures of conscious experience as it presents itself. Husserl argued that consciousness is “intentional” — always about something — and that the life-world (the world as experienced) is foundational for understanding reality. Plato Project

Key idea:
Rather than assuming an external world independent of experience, phenomenology starts with how the world shows up to consciousness. Plato Project

In Freud’s psychology, the unconscious holds desires, memories, and motivations outside of conscious awareness. The return of the repressed refers to how these hidden contents reappear in dreams, slips of the tongue, or neuroses. This theory is not in SEP but is grounded in psychoanalytic philosophy and psychology.

• Metaphysics studies the most basic features of reality — existence, causality, time, identity — and what kinds of things exist.
• Ontology is the branch of metaphysics that focuses specifically on what kinds of things exist and how they are categorized.
• Abstraction Ladder is a method of thinking from more concrete instances to more general concepts (e.g., from specific object → category → essence).

SEP’s metaphysics section explains these broad areas. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Nihilism is the view that life lacks inherent meaning, objective values, or intrinsic purpose. In metaphysics and ethics, it denies that there is any foundation for knowledge or moral truths. Nietzsche is the philosopher most associated with this idea. SEP covers nihilism in entries related to existentialism and value theory. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

• Aesthetics is the philosophy of art and beauty — how we appreciate aesthetic experience, art, and taste. SEP has a comprehensive Aesthetics section.

Egyptology is not a philosophical term per se (it’s the study of ancient Egyptian history and culture), but if paired with aesthetics it might reference how cultural artifacts evoke meaning or beauty.

Defamiliarization (from Russian Formalism) is making the familiar strange to renew perception. Philosophers and literary theorists (like Shklovsky) discuss this concept — it means to disrupt habitual ways of seeing so the object becomes vivid. SEP doesn’t have a direct entry, but theories of aesthetics and perception cover related ideas.

This is a narrative structure (from Joseph Campbell) describing a protagonist’s transformation through challenges. Philosophically it relates to identity, self-realization, and meaning. SEP doesn’t have a dedicated entry, but authors in aesthetics and narrative identity discuss similar themes.

• Idealism — reality is fundamentally mental or consciousness-based.
• Materialism (or physicalism) — reality is fundamentally physical.

In philosophy of mind, these are competing worldviews: idealists say the mind is primary; materialists say matter is primary. SEP’s entries on metaphysics and mind cover these positions. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

This theme refers to seeking truth about reality itself, a philosophical drive across metaphysics, epistemology, and ontology. SEP’s metaphysics and epistemology sections frame these debates. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

• Materialism — everything is physical.
• Commodification — treating social relationships or abstract qualities as market commodities (from critical theory, not SEP but widely discussed).
• Reification — treating abstract constructs as if they were real and concrete (from Marxist theory). These ideas aren’t SEP entries but are closely discussed in philosophy of culture and critical theory.

Melville’s literary aesthetics are not in SEP, but philosophical aesthetics includes the concept of the sublime (Longinus) — the experience of greatness beyond beauty, awe mixed with terror. SEP’s Aesthetics covers the sublime historically (including Kant and Burke)