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 Dictionary of Philosophy - Dagobert D. Runes
Category: Language and Literature > Philosophy
Date & country: 17/05/2009, UK
Words: 2784


Functor
In the terminology of Carnap, a functor is a sign for a (non-propositional) function (q. v.). The word is thus synonymous with (non-proposittonal) function symbol. -- A.C.

Fundamentum divisionis
(Lat.) Principle according to which a genus is subdivided into species. -- A.C.B.

Fusion, Psychic
See Psychic Fusion.

Future
That part of time which includes all the events which will happen; these events may be conceived as determined in advance, though unknown, or as an indefinite potentiality, not fixed in advance, but subject to chance, free choice, statistical determination, or Divine interference. In Aristotle, assertions about the future are always contingent or ...

Gabirol, Solomon Ibn
Known to scholastics as Avicebron (q.v.), but not identified as such until the discovery by the French scholar, Munk. See Jewish Philosophy. -- M.W.

Galen, Claudius
Famous physician; died about the year 200 A.D.; an Eclectic philosopher who combined the Peripatetic and Stoic teachings. Galen was the chief authority in medicine practically until the time of Vesalius (c. 1543). He is responsible for the fourth figure in the syllogism. His voluminous works remain untranslated. -- M.F.

Galenian Figure
See Figure, syllogistic.

Garbha
(Skr. seed) The creative power that lies at the bottom of the world, hypostatized in or symbolized by the germ or seed. In cosmologico-metaphysical conception it is allied to such termini technici as hiranyagarbha (golden germ), bija (seed), retas (semen), yoni (womb), anda (egg, world-egg), jan (to give birth to), srj (to pour out), etc., descrip...

Gay, John
(1669-1745) English schohr and clergyman, not to be confused with his contemporary, the poet and dramatist of the same name. He is important in the field of ethics for his Dissertation Concerning the Fundamental Principle of Virtue or Morality. This little work influenced David Hartley in his formulation of Associationism in Psychology and likewis...

Gegenstandstheorie
(Ger. the theory of objects). It is the phenomenological investigation of various types of objects, existential and subsistential -- an object being defined in the widest sense as the terminus ad quem of any act of perceiving, thinking, willing or feeling. The theory was developed by H. Meinong under the influence of F. Brentano and is allied with...

Geist
(Ger. Kant) That quality in a beautiful object which animates the mind (Gemüt) and gives life to the work of art. It is best translated 'soul' or 'spirit'. See Kantianism, Hegel. -- O.F.K.

Gemara
( Heb. completion) Is the larger and latter part of the Talmud (q.v.) discussing the Mishnah, and incorporating also vast materials not closely related to the Mishnah topics. The 1812 authorities of the gemara are known as Amoraim (speakers). Its contents bears on Halaeha (law) and Aggadah (tale), i.e. non-legal material like legends, history, sci...

Generalization, rule of
See Logic, formal, § 3.

Generalization
(Lat. genus, class, kind) 1. Process of arriving at a general notion or concept from individual instances. 2. Any general notion or concept. 3. A proposition stating an order or relation of events which holds without exception; universal proposition. -- A.C.B.

Generative Theory of Data
(Lat. generatus, pp. of generare, to beget) Theory of sense perception asserting that sense data or sensa are generated by the percipient organism or by the mind and thus exist only under the conditions of actual perception. The Theory which is common to subjective idealism and representational realism is opposed to the Selective Theory of Data. S...

Generic Image
(Lat. genus, kind) A mental image which is sufficiently vague and indeterminate to represent a number of different members of a class and thus to provide the imaginal basis of a concept. A generic image is thus intermediate between a concrete image and a generic concept. The vagueness of the generic image contrasts with the specificity of the conc...

Genesis
(Gr. genesis) Coming into being, particularly the coming into being of a substance through the taking on of form by matter (Aristotle.). The biblical account of creation (Book of Genesis). -- G.R.M.

Genetic Fallacy
The misapplication of the genetic method resulting in the depreciatory appraisal of the product of an historical or evolutionary process because of its lowly origin. -- L.W.

Genetic Method
Explanation of things in terms of their origin or genesis. -- L.W.

Genetic
(Gr. genesis, origin) Having to do with the origin and the development of anything. -- K.F.

Genius
Originally the word applied to a demon such as Socrates' inner voice. During the 17th century it was linked to the Plntonic theory of inspiration and was applied to the rejection of too rigid rules in art. It defined the real artist and distinguished his creative imagination from the logical reasoning of the scientist. In Kant (Critique of Judgmen...

Genres
Types of art to which special rules and independent developments were attributed. For example: in poetry -- epic, lyric, dramatic; in painting -- historic, portrait, landscape; in music -- oratorical, symphonic, operatic. -- L.V.

Gentile, Giovanni
Born in Castelvetrano (Sicily) 1875. Professor of Philosophy and History of Philosophy at universities in Palermo, Pisa, and Rome. Minister of Public Education 1922-1924. Senator since 1922. Reformed the school system of Italy. A pupil of late followers of Hegel, he emphasized the unity of spirit which he recognized in the pure act. His philosophy...

Genus, summum
(Lat.) In a classificatory scheme the largest and most inclusive genus which is not itself a species to any larger genus. -- A.C.B.

Genus
(Gr. genos) In Aristotle's logic: (1) that part of the essence of anything which belongs also to other things differing from it in species, (2) a class of objects possessing an identical character and consisting of two or more subclasses or species. See Species. -- G.R.M.

Geometry
Originally abstracted from the measurement of, and the study of relations of position among, material objects, geometry received in Euclid's Elements (c. 300 B.C.) a treatment which (despite, of course, certain defects by modern standards) became the historical model for the abstract deductive development of a mathematical discipline. The general ...

Gerson, Levi ben
(Gersonides) Bible commentator, astronomer, and philosopher (1288-1340). He invented an instrument for astronomical observation which is described in his Sefer ha-Ttkunah (Hebr.) Book on Astronomy. His philosophy embodied in the Milhamot Elohim i.e., The Wars of God, is distinguished by its thoroughgoing Aristotehanism and by its general free spir...

Gestalt Psychology
(German, Gestalt, shape or form) A school of German psychology, founded about 1912 by M. Wertheimer, K. Koffka and W. Köhler. Gestalt psychology reacted against the psychic elements of analytic or associationist psychology (see Associationism) and substituted the concept of Gestalt or organized whole. The parts do not exist prior to the whole...

Geyser, Joseph
(1863-) Is a leader of Catholic psychological and metaphysical thought in present-day Germany. Born in Erkelenz, he has taught at the Universities of Freiburg, Müster and Munich (1924-). His criticism of materialistic tendencies in modern psychology, his Aristotelian views on causality, and his espousal of a semi-Cartesian position in epistem...

Gioberti, Vincenzo
Born in Turin (Italy) April 5, 1801. Died in Paris, October 26, 1852. Ordained priest 1825. Exiled to Paris, 1833, because too liberal. Triumphantly returned to Italy 1848. Served as Minister and Ambassador. His fundamental problem was the relation between sensibility and intelligibility. Being creates existence. The universal spirit becomes indiv...

Given, The
Whatever is immediately present to the mind before it has been elaborated by inference, interpretation or construction. See Datum. -- L.W.

Gnosiology
(Gr. gnosis, knowledge + logos, discourse) Theory of knowledge in so far as it relates to the origin, nature, limits and validity of knowledge as distinguished from methodology, the study of the basic concepts, postulates and presuppositions of the special sciences. -- L.W.

Gnosis
(Gr. knowledge) Originally a generic term for knowledge, in the first and second centuries A.D. it came to mean an esoteric knowledge of higher religious and philosophic truths to be acquired by an elite group of intellectually developed believers. Philo Judaeus (30 B.C. to 50 A.D.) is a fore-runner of Jewish Gnosticism; the allegorical interpreta...

Gobineau, Arthur de
(1816-1882) A French nobleman and author of Essay on the Inequality of Human Races, in which he propounds the doctrine of 'nordic supremacy'. According to him, 'the white race originally possessed the monopoly of beauty, intelligence and stiength. By its union with other varieties hybrids were created, which were beautiful without strength. strong...

God
In metaphysical thinking a name for the highest, ultimate being, assumed by theology on the basis of authority, revelation, or the evidence of faith as absolutely necessary, but demonstrated as such by a number of philosophical systems, notably idealistic, monistic and dualistic ones. Proofs of the existence of God fall apart into those that are b...

Godhead
In general, the state of being a god, godhood, godness, divinity, deity. More strictly, the essential nature of God, especially the triune God, one in three Persons. -- J.J.R.

Good, Highest
(sometimes the greatest, or supreme, good. Lat. summum bonum) That good which transcends yet includes all the others. According to Augustine, Varro was able to enumerate 288 definitions. For Plato, the supreme Idea, the totality of being. For Aristotle, eudemonism (q.v.), which consists in the harmonious satisfaction of all rational powers. For th...

Good
(AS god) (a) In ethics, morally praise-worthy character, action, or motive. (b) In axiology, two types of good, goodness, or value: intrinsic and extrinsic or instrumental. Extrinsic or instrumental goodness depends for its existence upon some object, end or purpose which it serves. It derives its being from its service as an instrument in promoti...

Goodness
(AS. god) The extrinsic elections of things. The positive object of desire. For Plato, coextensive with being. For the Romans, duty. For Kant, that which has value. For Peirce, the adaptation of a subject to its end. In psychology: the characteristic actions which follow moral norms. Opposite of evil. See Ethics. -- J.K.F.

Gorgias
(c. 480 - c. 375 B.C.) Celebrated orator, rhetorician and philosopher from Leontini in Sicily. He was numbered among the leading Sophists. He spent the major part of his long life in Greece, particularly in Athens. The Platonic dialogue bearing his name indicates in some measure the high esteem in which he was held. -- L.E.D.

Gothic
A style in architecture, sculpture and pointing between the 12th and the 16th centurv. During the neo-classical 18th century, a syn. for the barbarous and lawless, the 'romanticists' who reacted against the 18th century classicism, reverted to a love for the medieval Gothic styles. -- L.V.

Government
This term is used in two senses. Sometimes it is used to indicate the particular administrative institutions or agencies of a society whose function it is to control individual action, safeguard individual and national rights, and, in general, promote the public welfare; all in accordance with the methodological principles and for the sake of the ...

Grabmann, Martin
(1875-) Is one of the most capable historians of medieval philosophy. Born in Wintershofen (Oberpfalz), he was ordained in 1898. He his taught philosophy and theology at Eichstätt (1906), Vienna (1913), and Munich (1918-). An acknowledged authority on the chronology and authenticity of the works of St. Thomas, he is equally capable in dealing...

Grand style
A style based on antique statues and Italian art of the Renaissance, flourishing in France during the 17th century, and in England during the 18th century. -- L.V.

Green, Thomas Hill
(1836-1882) Neo-Hegelian idealist, in revolt against the fashionable utilitarian ethics and Spencerian positivism and agnosticism of his time, argued the existence of a rational self from our inability to derive from sense-experience the categories in which we think and the relations that pertain between our percepts. Again, since we recognize our...

Grotesque
(It. grottesca, from grotta, grotto) The idealized ugly. In aesthetics, the beauty of fantastic exaggeration, traditionally achieved by combining foliate and animal or human figures, as for example those found in the classic Roman and Pompeiian palaces and reproduced by Raphael in the Vatican. -- J.K.F.

Grotius, Hugo
(1583-1645) Dutch jurist. In his celebrated De jure belli et pacis (1625) he presents a theory of natural rights, based largely upon Stoicism and Roman legal principles. A sharp distinction is made between inviolable natural law and the ever changing positive or civil law. His work has been basic in the history of international law. Other works: D...

Guilt
In ethics, conduct involving a breach of moral law. The commission of a moral offense considered as the failure of duty. Defection from obligation or responsibility. In the psychology of ethics, the sense of guilt is the awareness of having violated an ethical precept or law. Opposite of innocence, merit. -- J.K.F.

Guna
(Skr. thread, cord) Quality, that which has substance (see dravya) as substratum. It is variously conceived in Indian philosophy and different enumerations are made. The Vaisesika, e.g., knows 24 kinds, along with subsidiary ones; the Sankhya, Trika, and others recognize three: sativa, rajas, tamas (q.v.). -- K.F.L.

Guru
(Skr.) Teacher.

Ha-Levi, Judah
(b. ca. 1080, d. ca. 1140) Poet and philosopher. His Kuzari (Arabic Kitab Al-Khazari), written in dialogue form, has a double purpose. First, as its subtitle, A Book of Proofs and Arguments in Defense of the Humiliated Religion, indicates, it aims to prove the dignity and worth of Judaism. Secondly, he endeavors to show the insufficiency of philos...

Habit Memory
The retention and reproduction of something learned e.g. a poem, a geometrical demonstration -- without the recognition characteristic of memory proper. See Memory. -- L.W.

Habit
(Lat. habitus from habere, to have) In psychology: An acquired mental function reinforced by repetition. In metaphysics, one of Aristotle's 10 categories, Hume's ground for causality ('custom of the mind') and Peirce's leading principle or basis of natural law. -- L.W.

Hades
(Gr. Haides) In Greek mythology the god of the underworld, the son of Cronos and Rhea and the brother of Zeus, hence the kingdom ruled over by Hades, or the abode of the dead. -- G.R.M.

Haeberlin, Paul
(1878-) A well known Swiss thinker whose major contributions until recent years were in the field of education. In his hands phenomenology has become existential philosophy. A transcendental-idealistic tone pervades his philosophy. He combines in theory the advantages of existential phenomenology with those of psychologism. -- H.H.

Haecceity
(Lat. haecceitas, literally thisness) A term employed by Duns Scotus to express that by which a quiddity, or general essence, becomes an individual, particular nature, or being. That incommunicable nature which constitutes the individual difference, or individualizes singular beings belonging to a class; hence his principle of individuation. -- J....

Hallucination, Negative
The failure to perceive an object which is in fact present to the organs of sense. See Hallucination. -- L.W.

Hallucination
(Lat. hallucinatio, from hallucinari, to wander in mind) A non-veridical or delusive perception of a sense object occurring when no object is in fact present to the organs of sense. See Delusion, Illusion. -- L.W.

Hamann, Johann Georg
(1730-1788) Kant's extreme pietist friend, and, like him, a native of Königsberg, he saw in the critical philosophy of Kant an unsuccessful attempt to make reason independent of all tradition, belief and experience. -- H.H.

Happiness
(in Kant's ethics) Kant is more concerned with happiness in terms of its ideal possibility than with its realization in actual human experience. Its ideal possibility rests on the a priori laws of intelligible freedom (vide), by which the individual through self-determination achieves unity: the self-sufficiency and harmony of his own being. 'Real...

Harmony, Pre-Established
The perfect functioning of mind and body, as ordained by God in the beginning. The dualism of Descartes (1596-1650) had precluded interaction between mind or soul and body by its absolute difference and opposition between res cogitans and res extensa. How does it happen, then, that the mind perceives the impressions of the body, and the body is re...

Hartmann, Eduard von
(1842-1906) Hybridizing Schopenhauer's voluntarism with Hegel's intellectualism, and stimulated by Schelling, the eclectic v.H. sought to overcome irrationalism and rationalism by postulating the Unconscious, raised into a neutral absolute which has in it both will and idea in co-ordination. Backed by an encyclopaedic knowledge he showed, allegedl...

Hartmann, Nicolai
(1882-) A realist in metaphysics, he refutes nineteenth century idealism and monism, and attacks medieval super-naturalism and the various forms of theism. As exponent of a philosophic humanism, he made extensive contributions to ethics. N. Hartmann, Platos Lehre vom Sein, 1909; Grundzüge einer Metaphysik der Erkenntnis, 1921; Ethik, 1926 (En...

Hauber's law
Given a set of conditional sentences A1 ? B1, A2 ? B2, . . . , An ? Bn, we may infer each of the conditional sentences B1 ? A1, B2
Hedonic Calculus
View, ascribed to Jeremy Bentham, that the ends of mankind may be calculated by determining the preponderance of the pleasurable over the painful in order to evaluate the useful. See Utilitarianism. -- L.F.D.

Hedonic
Possessing pleasurable or painful affective quality. See Algedonic. -- L.W.

Hedonism, Ethical
(Gr. hedone, pleasure) A doctrine as to what entities possess intrinsic value. According to it pleasure or pleasant consciousness, and this alone, has positive ultimate value, that is, is intrinsically good and has no parts or constituents which are not intrinsically good. The contrary hedonic feeling tone, displeasure or unpleasant consciousness,...

Hedonism, Psychological
(Gr. hedone, pleasure) Theory that psychological motivation is to be explained exclusively in terms of desire for pleasure and aversion from pain. (See W. James' criticism of psychological hedonism, The Principles of Psychology, II pp. 549 ff.) Psychological hedonism, as a theory of human motivation in contrast with ethical hedonism which accepts ...

Hedonistic Aesthetics
Theories reducing beauty to the pleasure of seeing, hearing and playing, to the satisfaction of sensual enjoyment. -- L.V.

Hedonistic Paradox
A paradox or apparent inconsistency in hedonistic theory arising from (1) the doctrine that since pleasure is the only good, one ought always to seek pleasure, and (2) the fact that whenever pleasure itself is the object sought it cannot be found. Human nature is such that pleasure normally arises as an accompaniment of satisfaction of desire for ...

Hegelianism
As expounded in the writings of Hegel, Hegelianism is both a doctrine and a method. The two are held to be logically inseparable: the method is precisely the formulation of the doctrine, and the doctrine is precisely the detailed expression of the method. This integration of the two aspects of the philosophy presents a formidable obstacle to inter...

Heidegger, Martin
(1889-) Trained in Husserl's radical structural analysis of pure consciousness, Heidegger shares with phenomenology the effort to methodically analyze and describe the conceptual meanings of single phenomena. He aimed at a phenomenological analysis of human existence in respect to its temporal and historical character. Concentrating on the Greek t...

Helvetius, Claude Adrien
(1715-1771) A French philosopher, he developed on the basis of Condillac's sensationalism his superficial materialistic philosophy. His theories of the original mental equality of individuals, of the egoism or self-interest as the sole motive of human action, and of the omnipotence of education, stress the basic determining influence of circumstan...

Heraclitus
('The Obscure') Of Ephesus, about 536-470 B.C. In opposition to the Milesians, from whom he is separated by a generation, he held that there is nothing abiding in the world. All things and the universe as a whole are in constant, ceaseless flux, nothing is, only change is real, all is a continuous passing away. For this reason the world appeared t...

Herbart, Johann Friedrich
(1776-1841) Best known as the 'father' of scientific pedagogy centrally based upon psychology, a general tenet that still has weight today, Herbart occupies as educational philosophical theorist a position strikingly similar to that of John Dewey, the nestor of American philosophy. Objecting to Fichte, his master's method of deducing everything fr...

Herbartianism
The philosophical, but particularly the psychological and pedagogical doctrines of Johann Friedrich Herbart (q.v.) as expounded in modified and developed form by his disciples, notably M. Lazarus and H. Steinthal in psychology, T. Zillcr and W. Rein in pedagogy, M. Drobisch in religious philosophy and ethics. In America, the movement was vigorous ...

Hereditary property
See Recursion, proof by.

Hermeneutics
The art and science of interpreting especially authoritative writings, mainly in application to sacred scripture, and equivalent to exegesis. -- K.F.L.

Herrenmoral
(German) A concept popularly used as a blanket term for any ruthless, non-Chnstian type of morality justly and unjustly linked with the ethical theories of Friedrich Nietzsche (q.v.) as laid down by him especially in the works of his last productive period fraught as it was with iconoclast vehemence against all plebeian ideals and a passionate des...

Hetero-psychological Ethics
Ethics based on mental categories other than the conscience, as contrasted with idio-psychological ethics, or ethics based on the inner facts of conscience. Introduced as terms into ethics by J. Martineau (1805-1899) in 1885. -- J.K.F.

Heterogeneity
(Lat. Heterogeneitas) The condition of having different parts; diversity of composition; distinction of kind. Hamilton's law: 'that every concept contains other concepts under it; and therefore, when divided proximately, we descend always to other concepts, but never to individuals; in other words, things the most homogeneous -- similar -- must in...

Heteronomy of Ends
(Kant) Just as autonomy of the will is that state of affairs in the life of a rational being in which the will is determined in its choices by no ends other than itself, so heteronomy of the will is the state in which the will is determined by ends other than itself, e.g. happiness or gain either for self or others. In autonomy the will is its own...

Heteronomy
(Gr. hetero, other + nomos, law) See Autonomy.

Heterotelic
(from Gr. heteros, another, and telos, end) Said of any activity having a conscious or implied reference to the accomplishment of some end. In aesthetics applied to creative art and play in which a useful purpose may be discerned or may constitute the motive. See also Autotelic. -- K.F.L.

Heterozetesis
(Gr. heteros, other + zetein, inquiry) In logic, ignoratio elenchi, an argument which does not prove the conclusion wanted. The fallacy of irrelevant conclusion; the general name for fallacies due to irrelevancy. -- J.K.F.

Heuristic
(Gr. heuriskein, to discover) Serving to find out, helping to show how the qualities and relations of objects are to be sought. In Kant's philosophy, applying to ideas of God, freedom and immortality, as being undemonstrable but useful in the interpretation of things and events in time and space. In methodology, aiding in the discovery of truth. T...

Hexis
(Gr. hexis) In Aristotle's philosophy a state or condition of a thing; particularly an acquired disposition or habit, not easily changed, and affecting the welfare of its possessor, such as the moral virtues and the intellectual skills. -- G.R.M.

Hierarchy of types
See Logic, formal, § 6.

Hilbert, David,
1862-, German mathematician. Professor of mathematics at the University of Göttingen, 1895-. A major contributor to many branches of mathematics, he is regarded by many as the greatest mathematician of his generation. His work on the foundations of Euclidean geometry is contained in his Grundlagen der Geometrie (1st edn., 1899, 7th edn., 1930...

Hillel of Verona
(1220-1295) Physician and philosopher. His principal philosophic work, the Tagmule ha-Nefesh (Heb.) The Reward of the Soul, is devoted to two problems, that of the soul and that of reward and punishment. In his theory of the soul he follows partly Averroes (q.v.) and assumes with him that the universal Active Intellect acts upon the soul of the in...

Hindu Aesthetics
See Indian Aesthetics.

Hindu Ethics
See Indian Ethics.

Hindu Philosophy
See Indian Philosophy.

Historical materialism
The social philosophy of dialectical materialism. The application of the general principles of dialectical materialism to the specific field of human history, the development of human society. One of the chief problems Marx dealt with was that of the basic causal agent in the movement of human history. He states his thesis as follows: 'In the soci...

Historicism
The view that the history of anything is a sufficient explanation of it, that the values of anything can be accounted for through the discovery of its origins, that the nature of anything is entirely comprehended in its development, as for example, that the properties of the oak tree are entirely accounted for by an exhaustive description of its d...

Historiography
(Gr. histor + graphein, to write) The art of recording history (q.v.).

History of Art
Vasari (16th century) began the history of the artists. Winckelmann (18th century) began the history of art, that is of the development of the clements comprised in works of art. The history of art today is directed towards a synthesis of the personalities of the artists and of their reaction to tradition and environment. -- L.V.

History, Philosophy of
History investigates the theories concerning the development of man as a social being within the limits of psychophysical causality. Owing to this double puipose the philosophy of history has to study the principles of historiography, and, first of all, their background, their causes and underlying laws, their meaning and motivation. This can be c...

History
(Gr. histor, learned) Ambiguously used to denote either (a) events or (b) records of the past. The term historiography (q.v.) is used for (b). Also ambiguous in denoting natural as well as human events, or records of either.

Ho
(a) Harmony; being 'neither too weak nor too strong.' 'When the passions, such as joy, anger, grief, and pleasure, have not awakened, that is our central self, or moral being (chung). When these passions awaken and each and all attain due measure and degree, that is harmony, or the moral order (ho). Our central self or moral being is the great bas...