German Philosophy Terms

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

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

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

Ethics Vocabulary

die Ethik

ethics

die Moral

moral

die Gerechtigkeit

justice

das Gedankenexperiment

thought experiment

die Tugend

virtue

die praktische Philosophie

practical philosophy

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.

German Philosophy Terms | Vocabulary List