20terms defined. A living dictionary of the concepts you’ll encounter on Debby.
The observation that every chain of justification must end in one of three ways: an axiomatic foundation, circular reasoning, or infinite regress.
A chain of reasoning where every justification requires a further justification, endlessly, with no ultimate foundation.
An assertion that something 'just is' without any further explanation or justification — the weak form of the dogmatic horn of Agrippa's Trilemma.
An implicit assumption that must be true for an argument to make sense, often unexamined by the person making the argument.
The question: Is something good because God commands it, or does God command it because it is good?
A statement or proposition that forms the basis of an argument or from which a conclusion is drawn.
An error in reasoning that renders an argument invalid, regardless of the truth of its premises or conclusion.
A self-evident truth that requires no further justification and serves as the foundational bedrock of an argument chain.
A logical fallacy where the conclusion of an argument is assumed in one of its premises, creating a closed loop of justification.
A form of deductive reasoning consisting of a major premise, a minor premise, and a conclusion that necessarily follows from them.
A fallacy of attacking the person making the argument rather than the argument itself.
A fallacy of misrepresenting an opponent's argument to make it easier to attack.
The practice of constructing the strongest possible version of an opponent's argument before attempting to refute it.
The branch of philosophy concerned with the nature, sources, and limits of knowledge.
The branch of philosophy concerned with the nature of being, existence, and reality itself.
An argument that the existence of God is the necessary precondition for the intelligibility of human experience — including logic, science, and morality.
The Orthodox Christian doctrine of human divinization — becoming by grace what God is by nature, through union with God's uncreated energies.
An argument for the existence of God based on the observation that the universe exists and requires an explanation for its existence.
The philosophical challenge of reconciling the existence of evil and suffering with the existence of an omnipotent, omniscient, and omnibenevolent God.
The Protestant doctrine that the Bible alone is the sole infallible rule of faith and practice for Christians.