German Philosophy Vocabulary20+ Philosophical Words

Master German philosophy vocabulary, for discussions on metaphysics and ethics.

Who doesn't want to learn some philosophical vocabulary to pimp up their German word lists?

German Philosophy Terms

Let's start off with some very general German philosophical terms.

der Sinn
sense
die Idee
idea
das Dilemma
dilemma
die Debatte
debate
die Wahrnehmung
perception
der Begriff
concept
die Bedeutung
meaning

German Philosophy Vocabulary - Disciplines

Philosophy is divided into several disciplines: logic, metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, political philosophy, philosophy of language & a few more. In German, these disciplines have very similar names:

die Philosophie
philosophy
die Metaphysik
metaphysics
die Ethik
ethics
die Epistemologie
epistemology
die Logik
logic
die Sprachphilosophie
philosophy of language
die politische Philosophie
political philosophy

Ethics Vocabulary

die Ethik
ethics
die Moral
moral
die Gerechtigkeit
justice
das Gedankenexperiment
thought experiment
die Tugend
virtue
die praktische Philosophie
practical philosophy
der Relativismus
relativism

Metaphysics Vocabulary

Metaphysics is the science of being. From Aristotle over Kant to Heidegger, metaphysics has always been a central tenet of philosophy. When reading metaphysics in German, you might come across the following words:

das Sein
being
die Eigenschaft
feature
das Objekt
object
die Existenz
existence

Let us know if you feel we should include a few more philosophical terms to any of these lists. The topic of philosophy is quite broad, so we only want to include the most important words, but this page is still in progress, so feel free to send us an email.