Glossary
Technical terms used on this site, most of them words that philosophers kept in their own language. Each definition is a sentence or two, drawn from the reference works cited beneath it. Where a term is used on a page, its first appearance links here.
Western
amour de soi
Self-love: in Rousseau, the basic drive that directs us first to our biological needs, such as food, shelter and warmth.
Source: Jean Jacques Rousseau, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
amour propre
Rousseau’s term for the self-interested drive, arising in society, to be recognised by others as worth something and to be respected, often translated as pride or vanity.
Source: Jean Jacques Rousseau, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
anaideia
Also written shamelessness
Shamelessness: the Cynic refusal to be governed by conventional shame, for which Hipparchia was famous.
Source: Hipparchia, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
apeiron
The Boundless or Unlimited, “that which has no boundaries”: Anaximander’s name for the source of all things.
Source: Anaximander, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
archē
Principle or origin: the starting point or fundamental principle of all things, which the first Greek philosophers sought. Aristotle reports that Thales took it to be water.
Source: Presocratic Philosophy, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
askēsis
Training or practice of the self, fundamental to Cynic life. Diogenes trained himself to adapt to any circumstances.
Source: Cynics, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
ataraxia
Freedom from mental disturbance, or tranquillity: the Epicurean goal of life, together with the absence of bodily pain, and for Pyrrhonian sceptics the reward of suspending judgement.
Source: Epicurus, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy; Sextus Empiricus, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
aufgehoben
Sublated: in Hegel, negated but also preserved, as earlier terms are when they continue within a new, higher category.
Source: Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
cogito
“I think”: the argument that one’s own existence cannot be doubted, since doubting is itself thinking. Descartes made it the foundation of his philosophy; Augustine had argued something similar.
Source: Augustine of Hippo, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy; René Descartes, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
conscientização
Also written conscientization
Paulo Freire’s word for the process of becoming aware of the social, political and economic forces that shape one’s life, and of one’s own power to act against oppression.
Source: Paulo Freire, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
das Man
“The anyone” (also translated “the they”): Heidegger’s name for the shared social norms through which, in everyday life, we act as anyone would.
Source: Martin Heidegger, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Dasein
Heidegger’s term for human beings, understood not as subjects facing an objective world but as beings-in-the-world, constituted by the practical and social settings that make their actions meaningful.
Source: Martin Heidegger, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Deus, sive Natura
“God, or Nature”: the phrase in the Latin edition of Spinoza’s Ethics that sums up his metaphysics of God.
Source: Baruch Spinoza, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
différance
Derrida’s coinage for the relation in which repeatability is internal to every singular thing, yet the two remain different from each other.
Source: Jacques Derrida, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
differend
Also written différend
Lyotard’s term for a conflict that cannot be settled fairly because no rule of judgement applies to both sides, so that judging by one side’s rules wrongs the other.
Source: Jean François Lyotard, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
élan vital
Vital impulse: Bergson’s name for the original impulse, common to all life, from which every living species has arisen.
Source: Henri Bergson, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
epochē
Suspension of judgement: the state the Pyrrhonian sceptic reaches by setting an equal and opposing argument against every argument.
Source: Sextus Empiricus, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
eudaimonia
Happiness, flourishing or living well. For Aristotle it is achieved by fully realising our natures, developing our human capacities to the highest degree.
Source: Aristotle, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
euthymia
Cheerfulness: one of the names Democritus gave to the good, an inner state of mind.
Source: Democritus, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
fides quaerens intellectum
“Faith seeking understanding”: Anselm’s motto, describing the aim of reasoning about what one already believes.
Source: Anselm of Canterbury, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Geist
Spirit, or mind. Hegel’s word for the shared life of mutual recognition and culture, as in “spirit of the age” (Zeitgeist).
Source: Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
haecceitas
“Thisness”, or haecceity: in Duns Scotus, what makes a common nature, such as humanity, individual in Socrates or in Plato.
Source: John Duns Scotus, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
homo sacer
In Roman law, a person who could be killed without penalty but not sacrificed. Agamben uses the figure for life abandoned by the law, a condition he thinks modern politics extends to everyone.
Source: Giorgio Agamben, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
kosmopolitēs
Citizen of the world. When Diogenes of Sinope was asked which city he was from, this was his reply.
Source: Cynics, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
la durée
Also written durée
Duration: lived time in Bergson, a multiplicity of qualities, not of quantities as time is when it is measured.
Source: Henri Bergson, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
logos
Word, account or reason. Heraclitus spoke for a logos independent of himself, a message the world offers, which teaches that all things are one.
Source: Heraclitus, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
nous
Mind, reason or intellect. For Anaxagoras, cosmic nous is dispersed throughout everything and set the world in motion; scholars disagree whether it is a mind or rationality itself.
Source: Anaxagoras, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
parrhēsia
Frankness, or freedom of speech: one of the three kinds of freedom the Cynics prized, with liberty and self-sufficiency.
Source: Cynics, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
polis
The Greek city-state. For Aristotle it is both an authority and a set of communities, and human beings can flourish only within it.
Source: Aristotle, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
prohairesis
Choice or volition. Epictetus’s favoured term, used more often for the capacity for choice than for particular acts of choosing.
Source: Epictetus, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
ressentiment
In Nietzsche, the persistent, corrosive resentful hatred that people oppressed by the powerful developed against them, and which drove the moral revaluation of values.
Source: Friedrich Nietzsche, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Sittlichkeit
Ethical life, or ethical order: Hegel’s term, from Sitte, custom, for the social forms of the family, civil society and the state.
Source: Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
skepsis
Also written skeptikos
Investigation. A sceptic (skeptikos) is literally someone disposed to investigate, which is how Sextus Empiricus explains the Pyrrhonists’ name.
Source: Sextus Empiricus, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
tabula rasa
A blank slate: Locke’s image for the mind before sensation and reflection furnish the simple ideas from which knowledge is built.
Source: John Locke, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
virtù
Machiavelli’s word for the range of personal qualities a prince must acquire to keep hold of his state and achieve great things.
Source: Niccolò Machiavelli, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Arabic and Islamic
barzakh
Isthmus, barrier or limit: in Ibn ʿArabī, something that stands between two things and brings them together, as the created world stands between light and darkness.
Source: Ibn ‘Arabī, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
batin
The inner, esoteric realm, as against the outer, exoteric one (zahir). Ismaili accounts of creation are built on the split between these two realms.
Source: Nasir Khusraw, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
falsafa
Philosophy in the Arabic Aristotelian tradition, above all that of Avicenna and his followers, which al-Ghazālī both criticised and drew on.
Source: al-Ghazali, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
fitra
Also written fiṭra
Natural constitution: the inborn human disposition towards belief in God and the worship of God alone, which Ibn Taymiyya counted among the ways of knowing.
Source: Ibn Taymiyya, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
ḥads
Hitting upon the answer, or intuition: Avicenna’s name for the talent for finding the middle term of a syllogism, which he made the cornerstone of his theory of knowledge.
Source: Ibn Sina [Avicenna], Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
haqq
Truth, reality and rightness; also what is worthy and fitting. The Qurʾān uses it as a divine name, “the Real”, and for the content of revelation.
Source: Ibn ‘Arabī, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
ishraq
Also written ishraqi
Illumination: Suhrawardi’s philosophy, which critiques Avicenna’s theory of definition, describes reality as an ontology of lights, and holds that knowledge can come through presence.
Source: Suhrawardi, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
jahiliyya
Also written jāhiliyya
‘Ignorance’: the state of Arabia before Islam. Sayyid Qutb applied the term to every society of his own time, Muslim ones included, that did not live under God’s law alone.
Source: Sayyid Qutb, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
kalām
Also written kalam
Rational theology in the Islamic world. Saadia’s Jewish thought was shaped by the kalām theologians, whose approach seemed outdated by Ibn Daud’s time.
Source: Abraham Ibn Daud, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy; Abraham Ibn Ezra, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
maʿrifa
Also written ma'rifa
Recognition, or gnosis: for ʿAyn al-Quḍāt, a knowing beyond concepts and syllogisms that closes the gap between knower and known, reached through spiritual practice.
Source: ʿAyn al-Quḍāt, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
tahqiq
Realisation: in Ibn ʿArabī, coming to speak, affirm and actualise the truth (haqq) of things for oneself, in contrast to imitation, following authority.
Source: Ibn ‘Arabī, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
tawhid
God’s oneness, or unity. Nasir Khusraw held that only a clear understanding of it leads to spiritual perfection; for al-Shahrastani it meant denying God every attribute humans ascribe.
Source: Nasir Khusraw, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy; Al-Shahrastānī, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy; Sayyid Qutb, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
zahir
The outer, exoteric realm, as against the inner, esoteric one (batin). Ismaili accounts of creation are built on the split between these two realms.
Source: Nasir Khusraw, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Indian
advaita
Non-dualism, literally “non-secondness”: the name of Advaita Vedānta, for which brahman, revealed in the Upaniṣads, is the nondual reality of all things. Śaṅkara promoted it, but its origins are earlier.
Source: Vedanta, Advaita, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy; Śaṅkara, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
ajāti
Non-origination: Gauḍapāda’s doctrine that nothing is ever truly born, by which he establishes that consciousness is eternal and non-dual.
Source: Gaudapada, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
ālaya-vijñāna
Store consciousness: in Yogācāra, the eighth and weightiest of the consciousnesses, which stores and coordinates everything reflected in the mind.
Source: Xuanzang (Hsüan-tsang), Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
anātman
Non-self: the Buddha’s teaching that no enduring self is found among the five classes of physical and mental element (skandhas) that make up a person.
Source: Buddha, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
anumāna
Inference, one of the ways of knowing (pramāṇas) that Indian philosophers debated. Materialists were known for accepting perception alone and rejecting inference.
Source: Jayarāśi, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
apoha
“Exclusion”: the theory of concepts devised by Dignāga and taken up by Dharmakīrti, to explain how words and concepts can be about particulars, which only perception grasps as they really are.
Source: Dharmakīrti, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
asparśa yoga
Contactless contemplation: in Gauḍapāda’s Māṇḍūkya Kārikā, the path by which the unborn, non-dual self is realised.
Source: Gaudapada, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
ātman
The self. Advaita Vedānta reads the Vedānta texts as identifying the individual self with brahman; Madhva read them as teaching a fundamental difference between the two.
Source: Madhva, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
avidyā
Ignorance: in Advaita Vedānta, the error of mistaking body and mind for the self and the self for them, which Śaṅkara identified as the root of all existential suffering.
Source: Śaṅkara, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
bhakti
Devotion to a personal God. Rāmānuja argued for its importance for knowledge and liberation, and Madhva held that only a real difference between soul and God gives it meaning.
Source: Ramanuja, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy; Madhva, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
bodhicitta
The Awakening Mind: the altruistic resolve to attain Buddhahood and to stay in the cycle of rebirth until every being is freed from suffering. Having it is what makes a bodhisattva.
Source: Śāntideva, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
brahman
The ultimate reality taught in the Vedānta. Advaita identifies it with the self (ātman); Madhva held that the self and brahman are fundamentally and permanently different.
Source: Madhva, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
dharma
In Mīmāṃsā, duty or right action: what links a person to the highest good, which only the injunctions of the Vedas can make known.
Source: Kumārila, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
dharmakāya
Also written hosshin
The truth-body, or embodiment of the Dharma: one of the Buddha’s three bodies. Exoteric Buddhism held it to be abstract and silent; Kūkai taught that it preaches through the cosmos.
Source: Kūkai, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
dhyāna
Meditation. The Chinese name Chan, and so the Japanese Zen, transliterates this Sanskrit word, though Chan did not stand out among Chinese Buddhist schools for its meditation.
Source: Chan Buddhism, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Dvaita
Also written tattvavāda
Dualism: Madhva’s school of Vedānta, which holds that the individual self and the ultimate reality, brahman, are fundamentally different. Madhva and his followers called it tattvavāda, “the realist viewpoint”.
Source: Madhva, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Īśvara
God, the Lord. In the Yoga Sūtras, devotion to Īśvara is one way, but not the only way, to reach the goal of yoga.
Source: The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
karma
Action. The Buddha taught that action means the intention behind a deed, not the movement it causes, and that rebirth is governed by it: good deeds bring fortunate births, evil deeds unpleasant ones.
Source: Buddha, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
māyā
The creative or magical power by which, in Advaita Vedānta, the one reality appears as a world of many things. Gauḍapāda held that all dualities are projected by māyā and do not really exist.
Source: Gaudapada, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
prajñā
Wisdom, the insight that sees things as they truly are. Jinul paired it with concentration (samādhi) as two sides of one practice; for Sengzhao it knows without concepts or a split between subject and object.
Source: Korean Buddhism, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy; Sengzhao, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
prakṛti
Matter, or nature: in Sāṅkhya and Yoga, the original stuff from which the physical world unfolds, one of the two principles behind everything.
Source: The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
pramāṇa
Also written pramāṇas
A reliable way of knowing, such as perception or inference. Indian theory of knowledge debated which there are and what makes them reliable; Kumārila held that the Vedas alone are reliable about duty (dharma).
Source: Kumārila, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
pratibhā
Intuition: in Bhartṛhari, the instantaneous flash of recognition in which a hearer becomes conscious of the meaning of what is said.
Source: Bhartrihari, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
puruṣa
In Sāṅkhya and Yoga, the conscious self, of which there are many, caught up in matter (prakṛti). Liberation is its release.
Source: The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
śabda-brahman
The Word as brahman: Bhartṛhari’s view that cognition and language are at the ultimate level one reality, brahman, the foundation of everything that language names.
Source: Bhartrihari, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Śakti
Also written Shakti
Power, conceived in Kashmiri Śaivism as the female counterpart of Śiva and the means by which he emanates and controls the universe.
Source: Kashmiri Shaiva Philosophy, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
samādhi
Concentration, the meditative stability of the mind. Jinul held that it and wisdom (prajñā) are essence and function of a single practice.
Source: Korean Buddhism, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
sphoṭa
Bhartṛhari’s theory that the unit of meaning is the sentence, a single entity that cannot be accounted for by the sounds and words we hear.
Source: Bhartrihari, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
śūnyatā
Also written śūnya
Emptiness: the central notion of Nāgārjuna’s Madhyamaka, that all things are empty of intrinsic nature (svabhāva), since nothing exists independently of other things.
Source: Nāgārjuna, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy; Madhyamaka, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
svabhāva
Intrinsic nature or inherent existence: the nature a thing would have of itself, uncaused, unchanging and independent of anything else. Nāgārjuna argued that nothing has it.
Source: Nāgārjuna, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
svataḥ prāmāṇya
Also written svataḥ
Intrinsic validity, or immediate justification: Kumārila’s doctrine that ways of knowing are to be trusted from the start, not first proved trustworthy by something else.
Source: Kumārila, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
turīya
“The fourth”: the state of consciousness beyond waking, dreaming and deep sleep, which Gauḍapāda describes as non-dual and without attributes.
Source: Gaudapada, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
vijñaptimātra
“Appearance only” or “ideation only”: the central Yogācāra thesis that everything in the world merely appears, and has no real existence beyond perception.
Source: Vasubandhu, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Viśiṣṭādvaita
Qualified non-dualism: Rāmānuja’s school of Vedānta, which affirms the unity of all things in brahman without denying the reality of the many.
Source: Ramanuja, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
vyāpti
Pervasion: the natural relation, like that of smoke to fire, on which an inference rests. Gaṅgeśa asked how such pervasions can be known.
Source: Gaṅgeśa, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Chinese
cheng
Authenticity or sincerity (誠), which Zhou Dunyi made necessary for attaining sagehood. Later Neo-Confucians regarded him as its exemplar.
Source: Dunyi, Zhou, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
dao
The Way (道). In the Laozi it is the nameless, formless source of all things, which can only be called dark or profound; Confucians spoke of the gentleman’s way, and Neo-Confucians identified the Dao with principle.
Source: Laozi, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy; Confucius, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy; Cheng Hao (Cheng Mingdao), Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
fa
Standards, models or law (法). The Mohists sought objective standards for judging right and wrong; the fa thinkers, often called Legalists, sought impartial standards of rule, enforced by rewards and punishments.
Source: Legalism in Chinese Philosophy, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy; Mohism, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
fen
Share or role (分): in Guo Xiang, the allotment fixed by the qi a person receives, which decides their part in the whole, as hands, feet and head each serve the body.
Source: Guo Xiang, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
jian ai
Inclusive care (兼愛), sometimes translated “universal love”: the Mohist principle of caring about everyone in society and seeking to benefit them, not only one’s own family or state.
Source: Mohism, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
jing
Reverence or composure (敬). In the Analects it is reverence towards parents, rulers and spirits; Cheng Yi took it as keeping the mind unified, a chief way of cultivating it in accord with principle.
Source: Cheng Yi, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
junzi
The gentleman or exemplary person (君子): the moral ideal of the Analects, whose way is marked by benevolence, rightness, ritual propriety, wisdom and trustworthiness.
Source: Confucius, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
li
Pattern or principle (理), the central concept of Neo-Confucianism, identified with human nature. With the Cheng brothers it became, for the first time, the ultimate reality of all that exists.
Source: Cheng Hao (Cheng Mingdao), Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
li
Ritual propriety (禮): the forms of ritual and etiquette, from ceremonies to everyday courtesy, which the Analects counts among the gentleman’s central virtues.
Source: Confucius, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
lixue
Also written study of principle
The ‘study of principle’, the Neo-Confucian learning of the Song and Ming, which Gu Yanwu insisted came down entirely to the study of the classics.
Source: Qing Philosophy, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
ming
Destiny (命). Wang Chong held that a person’s success and fortune depend on destiny, and the length of their life on the qi received at birth, not on talent or virtue.
Source: Wang Chong (Wang Ch’ung), Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
qi
Vital force or material force (氣), the stuff of which all things are made. Neo-Confucians paired it with principle (li), and explained the differences between people by the qi each is endowed with.
Source: Cheng Hao (Cheng Mingdao), Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
ren
Humaneness or benevolence (仁), the cardinal Confucian virtue. Cheng Hao treated it as the whole of human nature, by which a person forms one body with all things and feels their pain as their own.
Source: Cheng Hao (Cheng Mingdao), Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
shi
Also written 勢
Conditions, or circumstances. Wang Fuzhi held that principle shows itself in actual conditions, so that as times and conditions change, principle changes with them.
Source: Qing Philosophy, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
shi
Also written 事
Things, events or phenomena. In Huayan thought, Chengguan’s first dharma-realm is that of shi: the world met as countless distinct, conditioned particulars, unreal like an illusion.
Source: Huayan Buddhism, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
shu
Techniques of rule (術): in the fa tradition, devices by which a ruler monitors his officials’ performance, and also means of safeguarding his power against them.
Source: Legalism in Chinese Philosophy, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
taiji
Supreme Polarity (太極), or Supreme Ultimate: in Zhou Dunyi, the core of actual existence, which produces yin and yang as it moves between stillness and activity.
Source: Dunyi, Zhou, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
tian
Heaven (天), the highest power in early Chinese thought. Wang Chong argued that it gives forth qi spontaneously, not by will or purpose.
Source: Wang Chong (Wang Ch’ung), Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
tian li
Heavenly principle (天理): principle (li) understood as Heaven itself. The words had been used before, but Cheng Hao said that their meaning was something he had grasped for himself.
Source: Cheng Hao (Cheng Mingdao), Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
wu
Nonbeing or nothingness (無), literally “not having”. The Laozi says that being is born of nonbeing and speaks of the Dao itself as nonbeing; Wang Bi and He Yan held that nothingness is the root of all beings.
Source: Laozi, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy; Neo-Daoism, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
wuji
Non-Polarity (無極): in Zhou Dunyi’s cosmology, the origin of everything real, itself without definite form, which he paradoxically identifies with the Supreme Polarity (taiji).
Source: Dunyi, Zhou, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
wunian
Also written wu nian
No-thought (無念): the teaching, central to Huineng’s Platform Sutra, of a mind that is open and free of concepts, “unstained in all environments”, and so meets reality directly.
Source: Huineng (Hui-neng), Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
wuwei
Nonaction (無為): acting without contrivance, letting things take their natural course. In the Laozi it is how naturalness (ziran) is put into practice.
Source: Laozi, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
xiao
Filial piety (孝): respect and devotion to one’s parents. The Analects says that someone who behaves with filial piety will rarely disorder society.
Source: Confucius, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
xinxue
Also written learning of the heart-mind
‘Learning of the heart-mind’: the strand of Neo-Confucianism linked with Lu Xiangshan and Wang Yangming, which finds principle within the heart-mind, set against the ‘learning of principle’ of Cheng Yi and Zhu Xi.
Source: Song-Ming Confucianism, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
xuan
Dark, hidden or profound (玄); the word names a black tinged with dark red. The Laozi uses it of the Dao, too deep to describe, and the Neo-Daoist movement took its name, Xuanxue, from it.
Source: Neo-Daoism, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Xuanxue
“Learning in the Profound” (玄學), the Chinese name for the movement called Neo-Daoism in English, which centred on the Classic of Changes, the Laozi and the Zhuangzi.
Source: Neo-Daoism, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
zihua
Self-transformation (自化): Guo Xiang’s name for how all things come to exist by themselves, without a creator, each responsible for its own creation and its relations with everything else.
Source: Guo Xiang, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
ziran
Naturalness, literally being “self so” (自然): how things are when they follow their own course. The Laozi uses it to describe the workings of the Dao, and Guo Xiang held that social roles too arise naturally.
Source: Laozi, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy; Guo Xiang, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Japanese
aidagara
Betweenness: for Watsuji, the field of relationships where people find themselves, and where their connections with one another take shape.
Source: Watsuji Tetsurō, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
fūdo
Climate, literally “wind and earth”: for Watsuji, a land’s geography and weather together with the ways of living, building, eating and dressing that a people develops there.
Source: Watsuji Tetsurō, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
hosshin seppō
The cosmic Buddha’s teaching of the Dharma through the phenomena of the universe: Kūkai’s Shingon doctrine that the cosmic Buddha Dainichi preaches through everything that can be sensed.
Source: Kūkai, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
iki
A refined, alluring style from the pleasure quarters of Edo-period cities. Kuki Shūzō analysed it as seductiveness joined with brave composure and Buddhist resignation.
Source: Japanese Aesthetics, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
kami
The powers revered in ancient Japanese religion and in Shintō, often too narrowly translated “gods”, which manifested a power to inspire awe.
Source: Japanese Philosophy, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
ki
Also written 氣
Generative force, the Japanese reading of the Chinese qi: the stuff of reality in Neo-Confucian metaphysics, which Itō Jinsai made the only thing that exists, and which Kaibara Ekken urged people to nourish.
Source: Japanese Confucian Philosophy, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy; Japanese Zen Buddhist Philosophy, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
kokoro
Heart, or spirit. Kamo no Mabuchi sought the words and kokoro of Japan as they were before Chinese influence, in its oldest poetry.
Source: The Kokugaku (Native Japan Studies) School, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
kokū
Empty-expanse: Ueda Shizuteru’s word, borrowed from Zen, for the place of absolute nothingness in which the everyday world of language rests.
Source: The Kyoto School, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
magokoro
True heart: in Kokugaku, the birthright of people in Japan, which lets them follow the Way of the kami spontaneously.
Source: The Kokugaku (Native Japan Studies) School, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
mappō
The final, degenerate age of the Buddhist teaching, in which teachings are lost or no longer understood and enlightenment is no longer attained. It was popularly believed that Buddhism had entered it.
Source: Japanese Philosophy, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
mono no aware
The pathos of things: the feeling that things stir in us because they pass away. Motoori Norinaga made it the key to reading The Tale of Genji and Japanese poetry.
Source: Japanese Aesthetics, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy; The Kokugaku (Native Japan Studies) School, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
nembutsu
Also written nenbutsu
Saying the name of Amida Buddha, central to Pure Land practice. For Shinran it is not beings calling on the Buddha but the Buddha’s call to beings, to awaken them.
Source: Japanese Pure Land Philosophy, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
ningen
The Japanese word for a human being, made of characters meaning “person” and “between”. Watsuji took it to show that a human being is both an individual and a member of social groups.
Source: Watsuji Tetsurō, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
ri
Also written 理
Principle: the Japanese reading of the Neo-Confucian li. For Hayashi Razan there is a ri for every aspect of existence; Itō Jinsai held that it dwells within generative force rather than above it.
Source: Japanese Confucian Philosophy, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
shinjin
True entrusting in Amida’s vow. Shinran held that the shinjin found in beings is Amida’s own mind, given to them.
Source: Japanese Pure Land Philosophy, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
sokushinjōbutsu
Becoming a Buddha in this very body: Kūkai’s teaching that enlightenment can be reached in one’s present embodied life.
Source: Kūkai, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
uji
Also written being-time
‘Being-time’: Dōgen’s word for the inseparability of being and time, each thing unfolding in time and time existing only in things.
Source: Japanese Zen Buddhist Philosophy, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
wabi
Also written wabicha
Simple, austere beauty. Sen no Rikyū built his tea ceremony, wabicha, on it, against the display of wealth in aristocratic tea.
Source: Japanese Aesthetics, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
waka
Traditional Japanese verse of thirty-one syllables. The Kokugaku scholars studied the oldest waka, in the Man’yōshū, to recover Japan’s ancient language and spirit.
Source: The Kokugaku (Native Japan Studies) School, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
zangedō
Also written metanoesis
The way of metanoetics, or repentance: Tanabe’s philosophy, in which reason, relying on its own power, runs into contradictions again and again and is reborn only through what Shinran called Other-power.
Source: The Kyoto School, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Korean
gi
Also written ki
Material force (氣), the Korean reading of the Chinese qi. In the Four-Seven Debate, Yi I argued that material force issues both the four beginnings and the seven feelings, and principle rides on it.
Source: Korean Confucianism, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
gyeong
Also written kyŏng
Mindfulness, or reverence (敬): for Yi Hwang, the disciplined attention by which the mind governs thought and action, and the cornerstone of learning to be a sage.
Source: Korean Confucianism, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
hobal
Alternate issuance (互發): Yi Hwang’s mature view that, though principle and material force are always intertwined, the four beginnings issue from principle and the seven feelings from material force.
Source: Korean Confucianism, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
hwadu
Also written huatou
The keyword (話頭; Chinese huatou): a critical phrase taken from a Chan dialogue and made the focus of meditation in Kanhwa Seon, which Jinul championed.
Source: Korean Buddhism, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
hwajaeng
Reconciling disputes (和諍): Wonhyo’s way of harmonising rival Buddhist doctrines, holding that disputes arise from language and that each school grasps part of the Buddha’s teaching.
Source: Korean Buddhism, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
i
Principle (理), the Korean reading of the Chinese li. In the Four-Seven Debate, Yi Hwang held that it leads material force (gi), and Yi I that it acts only through it.
Source: Korean Confucianism, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
ilsim
Also written One Mind
The One Mind (一心): in Wonhyo, after the Awakening of Faith, the source from which all beings arise and to which they return, with an aspect of suchness and an aspect of arising and ceasing.
Source: Korean Buddhism, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
irwonsang
Also written One Circle Form and irwŏnsang
The ‘One Circle Form’ at the heart of Won Buddhism: a circle symbolising the dharma-body of the Buddha, the essence of all beings, and the endless turning of being and non-being.
Source: Korean Buddhism, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Sangje
The Lord on High (上帝; Chinese Shangdi), a term from the Five Classics. In Jeong Yakyong it is a personal, all-seeing creator who governs creation; Korea’s early Catholics took it to mean God.
Source: Korean Confucianism, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
African
ethnophilosophy
A critical label, made notorious by Paulin Hountondji, for work such as Placide Tempels’ Bantu Philosophy that presents African philosophy as the shared, unwritten worldview of a whole people.
Source: African Sage Philosophy, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Ujamaa
Swahili for “familyhood”: Julius Nyerere’s name for an African socialism built on the communal “we” of traditional African life rather than on individualism.
Source: History of African Philosophy, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy