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Based on the Lat. intuitio, intuitus, and coined by W. von Moerbeke (ca. 1215–86) as a philosophical term, “intuition” in the sense of inspiration or an intuitive grasp of something belongs to a philosophical tradition that goes back to Epicureanism (Greek Philosophy), which used epibolē for a sudden, total, and immediate understanding of the whole object of knowledge. More broadly, “intuition” can denote the direct knowledge that carries within itself its own conditioning and justification. In mysticism it relates to an intuitive expe…

The word “agnosticism” (related to Gk. agnōsia, “not knowing”) was coined as a technical term by the English scientist T. H. Huxley (1825–95). It denotes an attitude that refuses to recognize knowledge that is not logical or empirical. In particular, agnosticism ¶ denies the claim that God is knowable. In general, it might be called metaphysical abstention. The problem raised by agnosticism was present even before Huxley coined the term. The earlier tradition of skeptical thinking includes positions that since Huxley’s day we might call agnosticism.…

The word “illusion” derives from Lat. illusio (action of mocking) and illudo (mock at, play with). In common usage it denotes “self-deception,” “false idea,” “misleading perception,” or “fantasy,” but it also has more specific senses in aesthetics, metaphysics, and criticism of religion (Religion, Criticism of). 1. Aesthetics In aesthetics illusion is the term for a state of perception induced by a work of art (plastic, literary, or rhetorical) in which those who see, read, or hear the work are voluntarily carried into the relation to its o…

Philosophia perennis, or “perennial philosophy,” may be used in a very general, nonhistorical sense for philosophy as an ongoing conversation on the great themes that are dealt with by Western philosophy. In the history of philosophy, however, A. Steucho (1497–1548) introduced the term in an effort to equate one philosophy with revealed religion (Revelation). The term then took on special significance in G. W. Leibniz (1646–1716), who was aware that each philosophy is timebound and who thus wished to show what were the common philosophical lines across the centuries. The neoscholast…