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Anamnesis  Greek: re-remembering . Plato's theory of remembering the truth about the Forms, forgotten at birth.
Crusades, the  Military expeditions undertaken by European Christians from the eleventh through the thirteenth centuries to recover the Holy Land from the Muslims.
Dialectic method  Socrates' method of guiding his students to their own realization of the truth through a covnersati9n, a dialogue. Also called the Socratic Method,
Divine command theory  A theological theory that God has created the laws of morality; in other words, something is right because God commands it. Opposed to natural lawtheory, which claims that God commands something because it is right. See also natural law theory.
Forms, theory of  Plato's metaphysical theory of a higher reality that gives meaning and existence to the world we experience through our senses. This higher reality is accessible through the mind. Example: a perfect circle; it doesn't exist in the world of the senses, but it does exist in the intelligible world of Forms.
Idealism  The metaphysical theory that reality consists of mind only, not matter.
Irony  Ridicule through exaggeration, praise, or understatement.
Materialism  The metaphysical theory that reality consists of matter only, not mind.
Moral agent  A person capable of reflecting on a moral problems and acting on his or her decision.
Morality, morals  The moral rules and attitudes that we live by, or are expected to live by.
Natural law  A view introduced to the Catholic church by Thomas Aquinas that what is natural for humans (in other words, what God has intended) is good for humans. What is natural for humans includes: preservation of life, procreation, socialization, and pursuit of knowledge of God.
Utopia  Literally, no place. Sir Thomas More's term for a nonexistent world, usually used as a term for a world too good to be true. Utopia can also mean "good place". A bad place is know as "Dystopia".







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