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Quiddity
In scholastic philosophy, "quiddity" (; Latin: ''quidditas'') was another term for the essence of an object, literally its "whatness" or "what it is". Etymology The term "quiddity" derives from the Latin word ''quidditas'', which was used by the medieval scholastics as a literal translation of the equivalent term in Aristotle's Greek ''to ti ên einai'' (τὸ τί ἦν εἶναι)Aristotle, ''Metaphysics'', 1029b. or "the what it was to be (a given thing)". Overview Quiddity describes properties that a particular substance (e.g. a person) shares with others of its kind. The question "what (quid) is it?" asks for a general description by way of commonality. This is quiddity or "whatness" (i.e., its "what it is"). Quiddity was often contrasted by the scholastic philosophers with the haecceity or "thisness" of an item, which was supposed to be a positive characteristic of an individual that caused it to be ''this'' individual, and no other. It is used in this sense in British poe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Haecceity
Haecceity (; from the Latin , 'thisness') is a term from medieval scholastic philosophy, first coined by followers of Duns Scotus to denote a concept that he seems to have originated: the irreducible determination of a thing that makes it ''this particular'' thing. Haecceity is a person's or object's thisness, the individualising difference between the concept "a person" and the concept "Socrates" (''i.e.'', a ''specific'' person). In modern philosophy of physics, it is sometimes referred to as primitive thisness. Etymology Haecceity is a Latin neologism formed as an abstract noun derived from the demonstrative pronoun , meaning 'this (very)' (feminine singular) or 'these (very)' (feminine or neuter plural). It is apparently formed on the model of another (much older) neologism ('whatness'), which is a calque of Aristotle's Greek () or 'the what (it) is'. Haecceity vs. quiddity Haecceity may be defined in some dictionaries as simply the "essence" of a thing, or as a simple syn ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Essence
Essence () has various meanings and uses for different thinkers and in different contexts. It is used in philosophy and theology as a designation for the property (philosophy), property or set of properties or attributes that make an entity the entity it is or, expressed negatively, without which it would lose its Identity (philosophy), identity. Essence is contrasted with accident (philosophy), accident, which is a property or attribute the entity has metaphysical contingency, accidentally or contingently, but upon which its identity does not depend. Etymology The English language, English word ''essence'' comes from Latin language, Latin ''essentia'', via French language, French ''essence''. The original Latin word was created purposefully, by Ancient Roman philosophers, in order to provide an adequate Latin translation for the Greek language, Greek term ''ousia''. The concept originates as a precise technical term with Aristotle, who used the Ancient Greek, Greek expression ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Scholasticism
Scholasticism was a medieval European philosophical movement or methodology that was the predominant education in Europe from about 1100 to 1700. It is known for employing logically precise analyses and reconciling classical philosophy and Catholic Christianity. The Scholastics, also known as Schoolmen, utilized dialectical reasoning predicated upon Aristotelianism and the categories (Aristotle), Ten Categories. Scholasticism emerged within the monastic schools that translated medieval Judeo-Islamic philosophies (800–1400), Judeo-Islamic philosophies, and "rediscovered" the Corpus Aristotelicum, collected works of Aristotle. Endeavoring to harmonize Aristotle's metaphysics (Aristotle), metaphysics and Latin Catholic theology, these monastic schools became the basis of the earliest European medieval university, medieval universities, and thus became the bedrock for the development of History of science, modern science and Western philosophy, philosophy in the Western world. T ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Everville
''Everville'' is a 1994 fantasy novel by British author Clive Barker. The second in the '' Books of the Art'' series, it follows the 1989 novel '' The Great and Secret Show''. The story tells of the creation and transformation of the small town of Everville, including several characters from Quiddity, the vast universe or afterlife hinted previously in the series. Detective Harry D'Amour appears, as do the 'Shu (small, squid-like beings described as "pieces of God"), Phoebe Cobb, a resident of the town who passionately loves Joe, a dark-skinned painter, and Seth, a gay teenager who can hear angels knocking from the other side of Heaven. Plot summary In 1848, an Irish immigrant named Maeve O'Connell is traveling west with her father and a group of others. Her father seeks to found the town of Everville, being inspired by a mysterious man named Buddenbaum and having been given a medallion similar to the one possessed by Jaffe in the Great and Secret Show. Maeve's father is sca ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Metaphysical Properties
Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that examines the basic structure of reality. It is traditionally seen as the study of mind-independent features of the world, but some theorists view it as an inquiry into the conceptual framework of human understanding. Some philosophers, including Aristotle, designate metaphysics as first philosophy to suggest that it is more fundamental than other forms of philosophical inquiry. Metaphysics encompasses a wide range of general and abstract topics. It investigates the nature of existence, the features all entities have in common, and their division into categories of being. An influential division is between particulars and universals. Particulars are individual unique entities, like a specific apple. Universals are general features that different particulars have in common, like the color . Modal metaphysics examines what it means for something to be possible or necessary. Metaphysicians also explore the concepts of space, time, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tathātā
Tathātā (; ; ) is a Buddhist term variously translated as "thusness" or "suchness", referring to the nature of reality free from conceptual elaborations and the subject–object distinction. Although it is a significant concept in Mahayana Buddhism, it is also used in the Theravada tradition. The Buddha The Buddha referred to himself as the Tathāgata, which can mean either "One who has thus come" or "One who has thus gone", and can also be interpreted as "One who has arrived at suchness". Theravada Buddhism In Theravada, this term designates the nature of existence (''bhāva''), the truth which applies to things. According to the '' Kathavatthu'', ''tathātā'' is not an unconditioned or un-constructed (''asankhata'') phenomenon. The only phenomenon which is un- constructed in Theravada is Nibbana. According to Buddhadasa Bhikkhu, ''tathātā'' is merely the way things are, the truth of all things: "When tathātā is seen, the three characteristics of anicca mpermanence ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Substance Theory
Substance theory, or substance–attribute theory, is an ontological theory positing that objects are constituted each by a ''substance'' and properties borne by the substance but distinct from it. In this role, a substance can be referred to as a ''substratum'' or a '' thing-in-itself''. ''Substances'' are particulars that are ontologically independent: they are able to exist all by themselves. Another defining feature often attributed to substances is their ability to ''undergo changes''. Changes involve something existing ''before'', ''during'' and ''after'' the change. They can be described in terms of a persisting substance gaining or losing properties. ''Attributes'' or ''properties'', on the other hand, are entities that can be exemplified by substances. Properties characterize their bearers; they express what their bearer is like. ''Substance'' is a key concept in ontology, the latter in turn part of metaphysics, which may be classified into monist, dualist, or plural ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Similarity (philosophy)
In philosophy, similarity or resemblance is a relation between objects that constitutes how much these objects are alike. Similarity comes in degrees: e.g. oranges are more similar to apples than to the moon. It is traditionally seen as an internal relation and analyzed in terms of shared properties: two things are similar because they have a property in common. The more properties they share, the more similar they are. They resemble each other exactly if they share all their properties. So an orange is similar to the moon because they both share the property of being round, but it is even more similar to an apple because additionally, they both share various other properties, like the property of being a fruit. On a formal level, similarity is usually considered to be a relation that is ''reflexive'' (everything resembles itself), ''symmetric'' (if ''a'' is similar to ''b'' then ''b'' is similar to ''a'') and ''non-transitive'' (''a'' need not resemble ''c'' despite ''a'' resemblin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Quidditism
In metaphysics, quidditism is the perspective implied by the belief that nomological roles do not supervene on causal properties. Quidditism endorses the existence of quiddities (the existence of "whatness" of properties) and is typically characterized in opposition to causal essentialism Essentialism is the view that objects have a set of attributes that are necessary to their Identity (philosophy), identity. In early Western thought, Platonic idealism held that all things have such an "essence"—an Theory of forms, "idea" or "f ....Wang, Jennifer, "The Nature of Properties: Causal Essentialism and Quidditism", ''Philosophy Compass'', 11(3), March 2016, pp. 171–172. Notes Substance theory Ontology {{ontology-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Problem Of Universals
The problem of universals is an ancient question from metaphysics that has inspired a range of philosophical topics and disputes: "Should the properties an object has in common with other objects, such as color and shape, be considered to exist beyond those objects? And if a property exists separately from objects, what is the nature of that existence?" The problem of universals relates to various inquiries closely related to metaphysics, logic, and epistemology, as far back as Plato and Aristotle, in efforts to define the mental connections a human makes when they understand a property such as shape or color to be the same in nonidentical objects. Universals are qualities or relations found in two or more entities. As an example, if all cup holders are ''circular'' in some way, ''circularity'' may be considered a universal property of cup holders. Further, if two daughters can be considered ''female offspring of Frank'', the qualities of being ''female'', ''offspring'', and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ousia
''Ousia'' (; ) is a philosophical and theological term, originally used in ancient Greek philosophy, then later in Christian theology. It was used by various ancient Greek philosophers, especially Aristotle, as a primary designation for philosophical concepts of ''essence'' or '' substance''. It is analogous to concepts of ''being'' and the ''ontological'' in contemporary philosophy. In Christian theology, the concept of (''divine essence'') is one of the most important doctrinal concepts, central to the development of trinitarian doctrine. The Ancient Greek term (; ''divine essence'') was translated in Latin as or , and hence in English as ''essence'' or '' substance''. Etymology The term is an Ancient Greek noun, formed on the feminine present participle of the verb , , meaning "to be, I am", so similar grammatically to the English noun "being". There was no equivalent grammatical formation in Latin, and it was translated as or . Cicero coined and the philosopher Sene ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hypokeimenon
''Hypokeimenon'' ( Greek: ὑποκείμενον), later often material substratum, is a term in metaphysics which literally means the "underlying thing" (Latin: ''subiectum''). To search for the ''hypokeimenon'' is to search for that substance that persists in a thing going through change—its basic essence. Overview Aristotle defined a ''hypokeimenon'' in narrowly and purely grammatical terms, as something which cannot be a predicate of other things, but which can carry other things as its predicates. The existence of a material substratum was posited by John Locke, with conceptual similarities to Baruch Spinoza's ''substance'' and Immanuel Kant's concept of the ''noumenon'' (in '' The Critique of Pure Reason''). Locke theorised that when all ''sensible properties'' were abstracted away from an object, such as its colour, weight, density or taste, there would still be something left to which the properties had adhered—something which allowed the object to exist indepe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
