Some of my favorite words and their meanings or etymologies

Philosophical words:

Philosophy:

The love of wisdom.

Wisdom:

An understanding of the whole. It must be noted that by understanding, this is not in the Budhist or Taoist sense, but in the more western sense of the word. It must be also noted that real wisdom allows for speach and communication of this understanding of the whole.

Telos:

A telos is a natural end. The concept of telos is sort of like a meaning in life. Telos is that which you were meant to do. A fair description of it (it is actually rather poor, but it is the best I can think of at the moment) is that which one could do that one could keep on doing and truly be at peace. The concept is slightly difficult, but if one ever recognizes their telos, he will recognize it immediately (though perhaps not by that name). It will bring them joy to be doing it and no other activity will compare. A poor example would be to say that the telos of a hammer is hammering. Another poor example is to say that the telos of a crystal glass is to hold beverages and be drunk out of I hope that you get the idea from this rather pathetic description.

Logos:

Word, speach, rationality, logic, thought, reason. Please note that all of these definitions were seen as interrelated, so speach thought and reason and logic were all part of the same thing (oddly enough, in modernity, this is rarely the case). See aristotle's definition of man.

Storge:

Storge is familial love. Storge is more precisely the love of the familiar. Storge is the least pretentious and least demanding of the loves, philia also has (with the possible exception of agape) the least requirements for love, basically that the beloved be simply around the person often. It is interesting that storge can be extended to animals and inanimate objects as well as people. Storge is actually most noticible when its object has been removed. Storge is probably the biggest factor in crying at funerals and wakes. PLease note that this love is essentially dead in me, so I am probably about the worst choice of people to describe storge, but for what is was worth, I tried. I hope that you have gained something of an understanding from this.

Eros:

The love that is supposed to be between men and women, especially in marriage. Erotic is derived from this love. Eros is not merely sexual, however, in fact eros can often be quite "pure" and sex can even be seen as a something cheaper than true eros. Eros is the love that seeks unity with the beloved, it wants to merge souls. With eros, lovers often hold each other and squeeze each other as if they could become one with physical force alone. Eros itself is sometimes called infatuation, but I think it is much more than the word implies. It should be noted that "obscession" is very common and is often a property of true eros.

Philia:

The love of friends. This love is a love that exists because the lovers have a common topic of discussion outside of either of them. This love can easily be between more than two people, as well. Philia is the most unusual of the loves in that is the love that many people can go through life and never experience. Please do note that when I say the love of friends, I mean true friends, not the mere aquaintances that are called friends in modern English. Friends often discuss things like true philosophy or religion.

Agape:

The love of God. Agape is the very love, the true love. This is the love that christians have for their brethren. Agape wants to give because it is full and does not need. Agape does not need those it loves, but loves them almost precisely for that reason. That agape wants to give is its most noticible and characteristic feature. Hopefully you have gotten a sense to what I am refering to, but as with all of the loves, if you have not experienced them yourself, you will have a hard time identifying them by these descriptions.

Super-natural:

This is not synonymous with superstition. The natural is the world, the laws we live by (like gravity), matter, time, and so forth. The super natural would be beings like God. God is not in nature, so God would be super-natural. God, Satan, angels, daemons, virgin conception\birth, resurection, miracles, and the like are all super-natural. Super really just means (basically) above, hence super-natural = "above nature".

Man (according to Aritsotle):

A political animal, capable of logos (see above).

Modernity:

This word is not entirely definable, and its actual definition varies with usage, but telling to what it refers from context is not difficult if you have any sense of the word. Modernity generally refers to modern times, especially those trains of "thought" that are common to those in power and to basically the majority of people. Modernity is also often used to refer to those people or their beliefs who are in positions of education or controling education, at any level.

Inductive Reasoning (a priori reasoning):

Reasoning which works from particulars and then concludes the general. A way of describing inductive reasoning which isn't really true, but helps to illustrate the point, is that inductive reasoning starts from premices and concludes a conclusion. An example of this is proving God exists from what people can secularly agree upon.

Deductive Reasoning (a posteriori reasoning):

Reasoning which works from the general and then concludes the particular. A way of describing deductive reasoning which isn't really true, but helps to illustrate the point, is that deductive reasoning starts from a conclusion and concludes the premices. An example of this is proving the secular (like morality) from the premise that God exists. (Please note that both methods of reasoning are valid, deductive may only be used with those who agree upon the general, however (i.e. it is useless in proving that God exists, but works well to prove morality to people who already believe that God does exist).

Interesting words:

Fanatic:

A person who, having lost sight of his goal, doubled his efforts.

Sophomore:

from the Greek meaning a wise fool.

Trivia:

In Roman times, whenever three roads met (hence "tri" meaning three and "via" meaning way) a sign would be posted with info on the surrounding countryside.

Plutocrat:

a person who through wealth has control and influence.

To be educated:

to be drawn out of one's self (lit. from the Latin educare meaning to draw out of)

Homo Sapiens:

The Knowing Man (lit. from the Latin Homo meaning man and sapiens meaning knowing)

Hierarchy:

Lit. from the Greek meaning sacred rule (hieros = sacred, arches = rule (email me if you want the greek)