•   aleatory:    dependent upon a chance event
•   a posteriori: can be known to be true only through experience and observation and not purely by reasonsing.
•   a priori: can be known tobe true purely by reasoning without observation, e.g. if something exists, then something exists. Contrast with a posteriori
•   argument: made up of one or more premises (assumptions), and a conclusion.
•   astragalomancy: a method of divination using knuckle bones
•   astragal(us):  a knuckle bone
•   atom:  (eytmologically) a piece of matter than cannot be divided
•   axiom: This is a Greek word, originally used by Aristotle to mean "that which is assumed as a basis of demonstration", or a "self-evident principle".  Euclid's geometry distinguishes between postulates (Greek: aitemata, e.g. a straight line can be drawn between any two points), and axioms (Greek: koinai ennoiai - "common notions", e.g. things equal to a given thing are equal to each other).
•  bottomry: an early form of marine insurance on the hull of a boat (click here for more)
•   canonic (noun): An Epicurean system of logical rules (click here for a reference)
•   cartesian: adjective from "Descartes"
•   catastrophe: used by René Thom as a technical term for discontinuous change. Click for a lot more on Thom's "qualitative dynamics"
•   causation: commonly viewed as a relation between events
•   circular argument: an argument where the conclusion appears also as an assumption, or is presupposed by one of the assumptions of the argument.
•   contingent: in the propositional sense, a contingent proposition is one which is not necessarily the case, and not necessarily not the case;  the word can also be used to denote logical (or metaphysical) dependence: "A is contingent on B"  means that A would not exist without B
•   creationism: the view that the biblical account of the creation of the world, including the creation of living things, can be taken literally and is true, and that it can be defended as a scientifically correct (or at least acceptable) alternative to the theory of evolution
•   descriptive : concerning what actually is the case, what actually happen, as opposed to what ought to happen.
•   determinism: the simplest statement of the determinist position is "Every event has a cause"
•   divination: foretelling future events, or discovering what is hidden or obscure, by supernatural or magical means
•   entropy:  "Clausius (Pogg. Ann. CXXV. 390), assuming (unhistorically) the etymological sense of energy to be `work-contents' (werk-inhalt), devised the term entropy as a corresponding designation for the `transformation-contents' (verwandlungsinhalt) of a system.  In Clausiusÿÿÿ’úúú sense, the entropy of a system is the measure of the unavailability of its thermal energy for conversion into mechanical work. A portion of matter at uniform temperature retains its entropy unchanged so long as no heat passes to or from it, but if it receives a quantity of heat without change of temperature, the entropy is increased by an amount equal to the ratio of the mechanical equivalent of the quantity of heat to the absolute measure of the temperature on the thermodynamic scale. The entropy of a system = the sum of the entropies of its parts, and is always increased by any transport of heat within the system: hence `the entropy of the universe tends to a maximum' (Clausius)." (OED) Putting it more simply, this thermodynamic principle says that the Universe tends to greater disorder, towards its "heat death".  Click for a site collecting WWW resources about entropy.
•   epigenesis: the theory that the germ cell has no structure, and that the embryo develops through the action of the environment on the protoplasm (as opposed to the theory of preformation)
•   epistemology: the theory of knowledge
•   evidence: used as a mass noun for facts put forward in support of a given proposition; sometimes also used as an abstract noun for the property of being evident (or obvious)
•   experiment:  "An action or operation undertaken in order to discover something unknown, to test a hypothesis, or establish or illustrate some known truth" (OED)
•   evolution:  The term "theory of evolution" used to be applied from the eighteenth century in a different way to what we know now, to "the hypothesis (first propounded under that name by Bonnet 1762) that the embryo or germ, instead of being brought into existence by the process of fecundation, is a development or expansion of a pre-existing form, which contains the rudiments of all the parts of the future organism. Also called ÿÿ‘úúthe theory of Preformationÿÿ’úú; the latter name is now preferred, to avoid confusion with the following sense."  (OED)  In the modern, sense it is applied to "the origination of species of animals and plants, as conceived by those who attribute it to a process of development from earlier forms, and not to a process of ÿÿ‘úúspecial creationÿÿ’úú".   Although it is essentially Darwin's theory which is normally accepted today, Lamarck's theory was also a theory of evolution (in this sense).  See Lamarckianism.
•   finality: the property of tending towards a goal
•   genotype: "The genetic constitution of an individual, esp. as distinguished from its phenotype; the sum-total of the genes in an individual or group" (OED)
•   hazard: chance; also a game of dice (probably from the Arabic word al-zahar, meaning dice)
•   homeostasis: "The maintenance of a dynamically stable state within a system by means of internal regulatory processes that tend to counteract any disturbance of the stability by external forces or influences; the state of stability so maintained" (OED)
•   hypothesis: a proposition assumed to be true for the sake of argument or testing
•   induction: inference from given data to a conclusion applying to a wider range of cases
•   inference: the process of drawing a conclusion from given propositions; also used of the conclusion so drawn (don't use "infer" - deduce - when you mean "imply".  This is a common error made by otherwise literate native speakers of English.)
•   isomorphism: the property in two structures of having the same form; also applied to the form itself
•   justify: give reason to show that something is acceptable.
•   Lamarckianism: A position in line with Lamarck's "theory respecting the cause of organic evolution, which he ascribed to inheritable modifications produced in the individual by habit, appetency, and the direct action of the environment" (OED); i.e. Lamarck believed in the hereditability of "cquired characteristics".
•   logic: the study of the validity of different kinds of inference
•   logical and temporal priority: take the case of human society.  Some thinkers have taken the view that human society is based on a contract or agreement between its members.  One version of this (that of Hobbes) is that human beings are by nature selfish, and for this reason, life without civil society would be miserable and short (for most of them at least).  It therefore makes sense for them to agree to give power to a sovereign who can maintain civil society.  On one view, Hobbes's account of the state of nature is regarded as a claim of temporal priority: that is, before civil society existed, at some time in history, human beings lived in the state of nature; and then they got together and created civil society.  On a different view, we view the state of nature as involving a logical rather than temporal priority: that is, it expresses assumptions about human nature which enable us to provide an analysis of human society.  There is discussion whether the ancient atomists' description of the fall of atoms was intended by them to be a description of a state of the universe which was logically or temporally prior to the Universe as we know it.
•   metabolism: "The process, in an organism or a single cell, by which nutritive material is built up into living matter" (OED)
•   metaphysics: "That branch of speculative inquiry which treats of the first principles of things, including such concepts as being, substance, essence, time, space, cause, identity, etc.; theoretical philosophy as the ultimate science of Being and Knowing" (OED)
•   morphogenesis: the coming into being of forms
•   necessity: what is not contingent
•   nexus: a link
•   normative: concerning what ought to be the case, what should be the case. Contrast with descriptive.
•   objectivity: In the Middle Ages, scholars distinguished between what belonged to things subjectively (as they are in themselves) from what belonged to them objectively (that is, considered as an object of consciousness).  But later, in philosophy, the word "subject", formerly applying to the "subject" of any proposition or judgment, came to apply especially to "the conscious subject".  This new emphasis was due to Descartes.  As a result, the meaning of the word "subjective" was in effect reversed.  So what is in the mind of the perceiving or thinking self is called subjective, and what is considered as independent of the perceiving or thinking self is called in contrast objective.
•   oracle: "a person through whom a deity is believed to speak; a shrine in which a deity reveals hidden knowledge or the divine purpose through such a person; an answer or decision given by an oracle" (Merriam-Webster)
•  phenotype: "the sum total of the observable features of an individual, regarded as the consequence of the interaction of its genotype with its environment".
•   postulate (vb): hypothesize
•   pragmatism: "The doctrine that the whole ÿÿ‘úúmeaningÿÿ’úú of a conception expresses itself in practical consequences, either in the shape of conduct to be recommended, or of experiences to be expected, if the conception be true (W. James); or, the method of testing the value of any assertion that claims to be true, by its consequences, i.e. by its practical bearing upon human interests and purposes (F. C. S. Schiller). Also, the philosophical method of inquiry of C. S. Peirce".  (OED)
•   predation.  Some animals eat others.  They "prey" on them, and the victims are also called the "prey" of these predators.  The activity is called "predation".
•   probability: see the remarks of Hacking
•   random: "Governed by or involving equal chances for each of the actual or hypothetical members of a population; also, produced or obtained by a random process (and therefore completely unpredictable in detail)" (OED)
•   rational: in accordance with reason, can give good reasons to justify
•   respondentia: an early form of marine insurance of a ship's cargo (see "bottomry")
•   tautology: a compound proposition which remains true whatever the truth values of its constituent propositions
•   thought experiment:  an experiment carried out only in imagination and by thought (also known by its German name, as a "Gedankenexperiment").  A thought-experiment asks "What would happen if ...?", not "What does happen if ...?"
•   vitalism: the view that living matter is governed by a special principle
•   void: empty, or as a noun, empty space.