| Ad hominen argument | A logical fallacy (a formally faulty argument) that assumes tat because a person is who he or she is, his or her viewpoint must be wrong
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| Cynicism | Distrust in evidence of virtue or disinterested motives. Pessimism. Originally a Greek school of thought believing that virtue, not pleasure or intellect, was the ultimate goal of life. Deteriorated into the idea of self-righteousness.
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| Dichotomy | An "either-or" statement. A false dichotomy: an either-or statement that ignores other possibilities.
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| Epistemology | Theory of knowledge. One of the main branches of traditional philosophy.
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| Ethicist | A person professionally or vocationally involved with the theory ad application of ethics.
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| Ethics | The study, questioning, and justification of moral rules.
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| Ethics of Conduct | The study of moral rules pertaining to decisions about what course of action to take or "what to do".
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| Ethos | The moral rules and attitudes of a culture
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| Exemplar | A model, an example for others to follow.
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| Fallacy | A flaw in one's reasoning; an argument that does not follow the rules of logic.
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| Metaphysics | The philosophical study of the nature of reality or of being.
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| Monism | A type of metaphysics that holds that there is one element of reality only, such as materialism or idealism.
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| Narrative | A story with a plot.
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| Narrative structure | perceiving events as having a logical progression from a beginning through a middle to an ending.
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| Revisionism | Advocacy of revision of former values and viewpoints. Today: refers mostly to a cynical revision of heroic values of the past.
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| Slippery Slope Argument | A version of the reduction ad absurdum argument; you reduce your opponent's view to unacceptable or ridiculous consequences which you opponent will presumably have to accept or else abandon his or her theory . Your opponent's argument must "slide down the slope" of logic. A way to defeat the slippery slope argument is to "draw the line" and defend your viewpoint on the basis that there is a difference between the "top of the slope" and the "bottom of the slope"
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| Straw Man (Straw Dummy) Argument | A logical fallacy that consists of attacking and disproving a theory invented for the occasion.
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