 163. Terminology |
SYLLOGISM: Aristotle's logical argument that has two premises and a conclusion. The famous example is, "All men are mortal. Socrates is a man. Therefore, Socrates is mortal."
SYNCHRONIC: A view of language, in structural linguistics, that looks at language as a system that exists all at the same time.
TABULA RASA: Latin for "blank slate." Many philosophers, including John Locke and Voltaire, believed that we are born with an empty mind, ready to have sensory experiences imprinted on our brains.
TAI CHI: (Chinese). Taoism. The state of perfect union, union with Tao, God-self-realization.
TAMAS: A person who is slow in learning or lazy.
TANMATRAS: The five fundamental principles which correspond to the five senses: sight, hearing, taste, touch, smell, which corresponds to the energies of air, fire, earth, ether, water.
TANTRAS: Any of the writings or scriptures pertaining to the worship of "shakti." The "force" of God which through correct practice we can obtain freedom, liberation, enlightenment, etc.
TAO: Means God, supreme self, pure consciousness being prior to creation, the "way," "truth," "reality."
TAPAS: One's daily spiritual disciplines.
TATHAGATA: Literally "thus-gone" or "thus-come." One who by walking on the path of reality has reached the ultimate reality, i.e., an enlightened person. The term by which the Buddha commonly referred to himself.
TE or TEH: (Chinese). "Virtue."
TELEOLOGY: The study of the purpose of things in the natural world. It stems from the ancient Greek word telos, meaning end or completion. Teleology has been discredited by modern scientists.
THINGS IN THEMSELVES: This is Kant's name for the Noumenal world, the metaphysical reality beyond the limited reality that we can perceive, which he called the phenomenal world.
TRANSCENDENCE: Beyond experience. The idealists believed we can have a transcendent understanding of a unified reality.
TYAGA: The renunciation of possessions and social activities.
UNCONSCIOUS: In Freudian psychology, the aspect of the mind that contains wishes and desires that are not consciously recognized.
UNIVERSALS: Aristotle's spin on Platonic Forms. He believed that the Forms were within the physical object, not separate entities in another dimension.
UNMANI: The state in which we are out of the body such as in "astral travel."
