The COHE glossary of humanist and related terms is offered as a public service to our site visitors. We hope that it will assist you with not only academic work, but also your pursuit of general knowledge about humanism, science, religion, psychology, ethics, politics, and more.

Because glossary terms are defined by the authors of COHE courses in our diverse Study Areas, some show multiple definitions depending on context within those modules. Note also the offering of synonyms (words with identical meanings) for some terms.

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recall
Psychology and Humanism [PSH 100]

In human memory, simple one-to-one correspondence.

recognition
Psychology and Humanism [PSH 100]

In human memory, the ability to tell something familiar from something novel.

redintegration
Psychology and Humanism [PSH 100]

The most complex form of human memory, involving several different senses and heavily laden with emotion.

reincarnation
Religion and Spirituality [RSP 100]

The belief that a deceased individual will return to life on earth as a new person or an animal.

relearning
Psychology and Humanism [PSH 100]

The least qualitative degree of human memory, so impoverished in content that it cannot be used consciously and must be demonstrated under lab conditions.

religion
Religion and Spirituality [RSP 100]

Belief in supernatural ideas and phenomena that lie outside the human realm, such as god, afterlife, reincarnation, heaven, hell, and miracles, and any combination of such supernatural aspects that combine to inform a particular religion or religious sect.

Religious Freedom Restoration Act
Law and Politics [LAP 100]

Act passed by Congress in 1994 (and then declared unconstitutional in 1997) to broaden religious freedom by restoring the Sherbert Doctrine, requiring that an exemption be granted whenever government inadvertently burdened religious conduct, except in the case of a compelling government justification.

religious moral theories
Ethics [ETH 100]

Category of moral theories which depend substantially on ideas about theistic or supernatural states of affairs.

religiously affiliated
Law and Politics [LAP 100]

Describes an institution that is able to separate its religious message from its secular mission. The Court has held that the Establishment Clause does not forbid government from supporting such institutions.

Renaissance
Humanist Studies [HUM 100]

The period in European history, beginning in the fourteenth century and continuing through to the early seventeenth century, which was marked by a rebirth of learning.

repertoire synonym with psychological repertoire
Psychology and Humanism [PSH 100]

Our term for the unique totality of one’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, replacing the term "personality."

response cost
Psychology and Humanism [PSH 100]

Form of inhibition which decreases an undesirable behavior by removing a positive consequence (from the subject as a result of the behavior; a fine or penalty.

restriction enzymes
Science and Humanism [SCH 100]

Biological molecules often used in biotechnology to cut pieces of DNA. While they are very useful to molecular biologists, their natural function in bacteria is to protect the cell from viral attacks: these enzymes recognize the viral DNA or RNA as foreign and cut it to pieces, thereby destroying the virus. The bacterium's own DNA is spared, a cunning example of natural selection.

revelation
Humanist Studies [HUM 100]

Messages believed to come directly from God; the act of direct communication between God and humans.

Roe v. Wade
Law and Politics [LAP 100]

(1973) A landmark Supreme Court case ruling that a woman had a qualified right to an abortion based on a pregnancy trimester system.

rule-utilitarianism
Ethics [ETH 100]

Ethical theory postulating that right actions are those that accord with an exceptionless rule that -- if consistently followed -- would result in the greatest happiness, everyone considered.

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