[atreestump]

Philosophical language is not like our everyday ordinary language – the reason for this is because some words may carry multiple meanings that make discussion confusing, we might think a word we use has a given meaning, but when we use it in philosophy, it just doesn’t work very well.

Getting over the ‘no common sense’ formal language hurdle is hard for beginners and is frustrating. I completely empathise. There are however, lots of online resources for philosophical terms, Wikipedia has a few, if you go to the disambiguiation pages for certain words, you will see philosophy in brackets next to these words. 

Here’s another great resource: https://plato.stanford.edu/ Stanford has a wealth of information on most philosophers and philosophical concepts.

Internet Encyclopaedia of Philosophy: http://www.iep.utm.edu/

Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy: https://www.rep.routledge.com/

My advice is to keep things simple, take your time and don’t worry if you don’t understand something, it usually means it’s not yet relevant to understand something when you are just starting out.

Plato is probably the best and easiest philosopher for beginners, his dialogues are very easy to read and understand, the more you can actually read books on philosophy the better, in fact, reading is essential. Philosophy is a devout pursuit, it is very time consuming and can take 2 or 3 years to get the hang of it.

Give yourself a break, philosophy isn’t for everyone either, it can seem too personal and infuriating as it’s like learning a whole new language and way of thinking.

[kFoyauextlH]

Can you also post some quick online glossaries please like:

http://www.philosophybasics.com/general_glossary.html

http://www.jimpryor.net/teaching/vocab/glossary.html

https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/hegel/help/isms.htm

http://www.dummies.com/education/philosophy/glossary-of-basic-philosophy-terms/

https://www.csudh.edu/phenom_studies/study/glossary.htm

http://global.oup.com/us/companion.websites/9780199812998/studentresources/pdf/perry_glossary.pdf

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossary_of_philosophy

http://www.philosophy-index.com/terms/

http://www.philosophicalsociety.com/glossary.htm

http://www.philosophypages.com/dy/

http://www.calpoly.edu/~fotoole/321.1/glossary.html

http://www.translationdirectory.com/glossaries/glossary078.htm

http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en-US&source=android-browser&ei=A90IWYezCojAjwO7hJ9w&q=Glossary+of+Philosophical+terms&oq=Glossary+of+Philosophical+terms&gs_l=mobile-gws-serp.3..0l2j0i22i30k1.2497.9715.0.10062.24.24.0.6.6.0.161.2428.13j10.23.0….0…1c.1j4.64.mobile-gws-serp..1.23.2012.S8JwYIFM3xk

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One can also type into goole or a search engine looking for glossaries of Buddhist, Chinese, Taoist, Sufi, Islamic, Islamic Philosophy or Islamic Philosophical, Islamic Occult, Islamic Esoteric, Islamic Mystic, Medieval Philosophical, Greek Philosophical, Plato and Platonic, Aristotle, New Age, Theosophy, Alchemy and Alchemical, Hermetic, Esoteric, Mystic, Zen, Mahayana, Vajrayana, Hindu, Vedic, Zoroastrian, Avestan, Jain, Hindu Philosophical, Vedic Philosophical, Sikh, Christian, Jewish, Mesopotamian, Mythological, Gothic, Christian Occult, Christian Esoteric, Christian Mystic, Jewish Occult, Jewish Esoteric, Jewish Mystic, Cabbalistic and Kabbalistic terms.

By writing:

Glossary of —– terms

Dictionary of —– terms pdf

Encyclopedia of —– terms pdf

Two other specialized areas are linguistics and literature, and one can also look into aesthetics and art.

Reading, understanding, and communicating is all about knowing words and using words well.

It can also help to read or get hold of large and copious thesaurus collections of words which also go into advanced language and reading through advanced language dictionaries.

The more words one knows, even just by skimming or reading quickly like a machine, the more one might be able to formulate and express their thoughts in nuanced ways which can be carefully explained.

Initiation through the Eye.
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An early step to productive philosophical practice is to question or to be open to questioning ones own assumptions, which requires a keen awareness and subtle perception to even catch them out. Some assumptions that are very basic, common, and taken for granted are causation (this leads to that rather than this appears to lead to that), time (chronology, flow, motion), what is seen really or specifically (you may see a thing, but what you have seen may differ from what would have been seen from another angle), and many things like that.

If one assumes they already know the world and how it works and that it is obvious, they probably have it all worked out, having no curiousity or questions, and can pursue a successful career in placing bets on things.

[Socrates]

Philosophy basics is a good site.

[Author]

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