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First Actuality
''Actus primus'', or first actuality, is a technical expression used in scholastic philosophy. The Latin word ''actus'' means determination or complement. In every being there are many actualities, which are subordinated. Thus, existence supposes essence, power supposes existence, and faction supposes faculty. The first actuality (''actus primus'') begins a series: it supposes no other actuality preceding it in the same series, but calls for a further complement, namely, the second actuality (''actus secundus''). But as the same reality may be called "actuality" when viewed in the light of what precedes, and "potentiality" when viewed in the light of what follows (see '' actus et potentia''), the meaning of the term "first actuality" may vary according to the view one takes, and the point where the series is made to begin. Primary matter (see matter and form) is a pure potentiality, and the substantial form is its first determination, its first actuality. The complete substa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Scholastic Philosophy
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 Ten Categories. Scholasticism emerged within the monastic schools that translated medieval Judeo-Islamic philosophies, and "rediscovered" the collected works of Aristotle. Endeavoring to harmonize Aristotle's metaphysics and Latin Catholic theology, these monastic schools became the basis of the earliest European medieval universities, and thus became the bedrock for the development of modern science and philosophy in the Western world. The rise of scholasticism was closely associated with these schools that flourished in Italy, France, Portugal, Spain and England. Scholasticism is a method of learni ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Latin
Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area around Rome, Italy. Through the expansion of the Roman Republic, it became the dominant language in the Italian Peninsula and subsequently throughout the Roman Empire. It has greatly influenced many languages, Latin influence in English, including English, having contributed List of Latin words with English derivatives, many words to the English lexicon, particularly after the Christianity in Anglo-Saxon England, Christianization of the Anglo-Saxons and the Norman Conquest. Latin Root (linguistics), roots appear frequently in the technical vocabulary used by fields such as theology, List of Latin and Greek words commonly used in systematic names, the sciences, List of medical roots, suffixes and prefixes, medicine, and List of Latin legal terms ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
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] [Amazon] |
Existence
Existence is the state of having being or reality in contrast to nonexistence and nonbeing. Existence is often contrasted with essence: the essence of an entity is its essential features or qualities, which can be understood even if one does not know whether the entity exists. Ontology is the philosophical discipline studying the nature and types of existence. Singular existence is the existence of individual entities while general existence refers to the existence of concepts or universals. Entities present in space and time have Abstract and concrete, concrete existence in contrast to abstract entities, like numbers and sets. Other distinctions are between Subjunctive possibility, possible, Contingency (philosophy), contingent, and Metaphysical necessity, necessary existence and between Matter, physical and Mind, mental existence. The common view is that an entity either exists or not with nothing in between, but some philosophers say that there are degrees of existence, me ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Actus Purus
In scholastic philosophy, is the absolute perfection of God. Overview Created beings have potentiality that is not actuality, imperfections as well as perfection. Only God is simultaneously all that he can be, infinitely real and infinitely perfect: 'I Am that I Am' ( Exodus ). His attributes or his operations are really identical with his essence, and his essence necessitates his existence. (Contrast this understanding with the Essence–Energies distinction in Eastern Christian, particularly Palamite, theology). Charles Albert Dubray, as accepted by Charles George Herbermann, stated that in created beings, According to Thomas Aquinas, a thing which requires completion by another is said to be in potency to that other: realization of potency is called actuality. The universe is conceived of as a series of things arranged in an ascending order, or potency and act at once crowned and created by God, who alone is pure act. God is changeless because change means passage f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Actus Et Potentia
In philosophy, potentiality and actuality are a pair of closely connected principles which Aristotle used to analyze motion, causality, ethics, and physiology in his ''Physics'', ''Metaphysics'', ''Nicomachean Ethics'', and ''De Anima''. The concept of potentiality, in this context, generally refers to any "possibility" that a thing can be said to have. Aristotle did not consider all possibilities the same, and emphasized the importance of those that become real of their own accord when conditions are right and nothing stops them. Actuality, in contrast to potentiality, is the motion, change or activity that represents an exercise or fulfillment of a possibility, when a possibility becomes real in the fullest sense. Both these concepts therefore reflect Aristotle's belief that events in nature are not all natural in a true sense. As he saw it, many things happen accidentally, and therefore not according to the natural purposes of things. These concepts, in modified forms, rema ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Sacramental Matter And Form
According to Catholic theology, the sacraments of the Catholic Church can be described in their matter and form. Description The terminology of ''form'' and ''matter'' to describe the sacraments seems to have been first proposed by William of Auxerre. However, the ''Catholic Encyclopedia'' states this conceptual view of the sacraments was already present in Augustine of Hippo's writings. The Catechism of the Council of Trent explains this concept this way: "every Sacrament consists of two things; 'matter,' which is called the element, and 'form,' which is commonly called 'the word. The ''matter'' of a sacrament is "that part of a sacrament with which or to which something is done in order to confer grace", "materials used and actions performed". The ''form'' of a sacrament consists of the words and the intention by which the sacrament is effected. For example, the ''matter'' for the sacrament of baptism is water. This matter is administered to a recipient along with the accompa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
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] [Amazon] |
Extension (metaphysics)
In metaphysics, extension signifies both 'stretching out' (Latin: ''extensio'') as well as later 'taking up space', and most recently, spreading one's internal mental cognition into the external world. The history of thinking about ''extension'' can be traced back at least to Archytas' spear analogy for the infinity of space. How far can one's hand or spear stretch out until it reaches the edge of reality? "If I arrived at the outermost edge of the heaven, could I extend my hand or staff into what is outside or not? It would be paradoxical iven our normal assumptions about the nature of spacenot to be able to extend it." History Descartes René Descartes defined extension as the property of existing in more than one dimension, a property that was later followed up in Grassmann's n-dimensional algebra. For Descartes, the primary characteristic of matter is extension (''res extensa''), just as the primary characteristic of mind is thought (''res cogitans''). Newton After rejecting ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Shape
A shape is a graphics, graphical representation of an object's form or its external boundary, outline, or external Surface (mathematics), surface. It is distinct from other object properties, such as color, Surface texture, texture, or material type. In geometry, ''shape'' excludes information about the object's Position (geometry), position, size, Orientation (geometry), orientation and chirality. A ''figure'' is a representation including both shape and size (as in, e.g., figure of the Earth). A plane shape or plane figure is constrained to lie on a ''plane (geometry), plane'', in contrast to ''solid figure, solid'' 3D shapes. A two-dimensional shape or two-dimensional figure (also: 2D shape or 2D figure) may lie on a more general curved ''surface (mathematics), surface'' (a two-dimensional space). Classification of simple shapes Some simple shapes can be put into broad categories. For instance, polygons are classified according to their number of edges as triangles, qua ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Potential Energy
In physics, potential energy is the energy of an object or system due to the body's position relative to other objects, or the configuration of its particles. The energy is equal to the work done against any restoring forces, such as gravity or those in a spring. The term ''potential energy'' was introduced by the 19th-century Scottish engineer and physicist William Rankine, although it has links to the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle's concept of Potentiality and Actuality, ''potentiality''. Common types of potential energy include gravitational potential energy, the elastic potential energy of a deformed spring, and the electric potential energy of an electric charge and an electric field. The unit for energy in the International System of Units (SI) is the joule (symbol J). Potential energy is associated with forces that act on a body in a way that the total Work (physics), work done by these forces on the body depends only on the initial and final positions of the b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Kinetic Energy
In physics, the kinetic energy of an object is the form of energy that it possesses due to its motion. In classical mechanics, the kinetic energy of a non-rotating object of mass ''m'' traveling at a speed ''v'' is \fracmv^2.Resnick, Robert and Halliday, David (1960) ''Physics'', Section 7-5, Wiley International Edition The kinetic energy of an object is equal to the work, or force ( F) in the direction of motion times its displacement ( s), needed to accelerate the object from rest to its given speed. The same amount of work is done by the object when decelerating from its current speed to a state of rest. The SI unit of energy is the joule, while the English unit of energy is the foot-pound. In relativistic mechanics, \fracmv^2 is a good approximation of kinetic energy only when ''v'' is much less than the speed of light. History and etymology The adjective ''kinetic'' has its roots in the Greek word κίνησις ''kinesis'', meaning "motion". The dichoto ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
