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


Sphaeriker
(German) A term used by Fredrich Froebel to designate those, including himself and Pestalozzi, who believe in or realize in practice the totality or wholeness of man in whom all polarities, such as mind and emotion, spirit and soul, are unified, the sphere with centre being the symbol of this attitude. -- K.F.L.

Spinozism
The philosophic doctrine of Benedict Spinoza (1632-1677). Described by Hegel as the philosophy of Substance. Spinoza denies the possibility of a plurality of substances, and reserves the term for absolute reality. Hence Spinozism is sometimes used as equivalent to Monism. It is also identified with Pantheism, although this is a highly misleading c...

Spir, African
(1837-1890) A native of Russia, whose philosophy was influenced by Spinoristic and Kantian traditions. The main thesis of his philosophy is that sensory experience and reasoning are basically contradictory, insofar as the former informs us of constant change, whereas the latter is characterized by the a priori principle of identity. -- R.B.W. Main...

Spirit
(L. Spiritus: breath, life, soul, mind, spirit) Originally, the Stoic fire-like, animating and energizing principle (pneuma) of the Cosmos. A being capable of consciousness and commonly considered as possessing will and intelligence. Immaterial being. A disembodied or incorporeal conscious being. The supersensuous, ideal order of being or realm o...

Spiritism
1. Doctrine that ancestral or other spirits can communicate with man; also the practice of contacting them. 2. Belief in the existence of conscious, voluntary beings other than of the organic, corporeal type represented by animals and man, such as souls connected with inorganic Nature, disembodied nature spirits, manes or ancestral spirits, demons...

Spiritual Realism
The theory that only the truly good will is free. Causality based on spiritual activity. Self-forgetfulness as the way to a supreme realization of personality. Ravaisson expressed it in the phrase 'To simplify one's self.' -- R.T.F.

Spiritualism
Spiritualism (1) is the doctrine that the ultimate reality in the universe is Spirit, (Pneuma, Nous, Reason, Logos) an Over-Mind akm to human spirit, but pervading the entire universe as its ground and rational explanation. It is opposed to materialism. Spiritualism (2) is sometimes used to denote the Idealistic view that nothing but an absolute S...

Spiritus rector
Literally in Latin, the ruling or master spirit, some sort of subtle natural force in corporeal beings. The alchemists applied the expression to some substance, or distilled product, said to be capable of transmuting metals into gold, and also to an elixir which was supposed to prolong life indefinitely. -- J.J.R.

Spontaneity
(Lat. sponte, of free will) The supposed ability of the will to act on its own initiative (sua sponte) and in independence of antecedent conditions. See Free-Will. -- L.W.

Spranger, Eduard
(1882) Developed Dilthey's thought, favoring like him, descriptive instead explanatory psychology. As leading exponent of the Verstehungspsychologie, he postulates ideal types representing ultimate categories of value. These types of personality represent merely 'schemata of comprehensibility,' theoretical guides or aids in understanding people. -...

Ssu chiao
The four things which Confucius taught his pupils, namely, letters, personal conduct, being one's true self (chung), and good faith in social relationship (hsin). -- W.T.C.

Ssu te
The Four Virtues Being attentive to the fundamentals, penetrative, beneficial, and unflinching -- the virtues of the trigram ch'ien (Heaven, male, yang) and therefore ethical ideals of the superior man. Filial piety, respect for elders, loyalty to superiors (chung), and good faith in social relationship (hsin). Lady-like conduct, speech, skill, a...

Ssu tuan
All men possess the 'four beginnings' of benevolence (jen), righteousness (i), propriety (li), and wisdom (chih). (Mencius). -- H.H.

Ssu
Deliberation, thinking. Wish. Idea. -- W.T.C.

Ssu
Partiality, selfishness. A private name. 'Only a particular substance bears the name.' (Neo-Mohism). -- W.T.C.

St. Louis School of Philosophy
Started with the first meeting between Henry Brokmeyer and Wm. Torrey Harris (q.v.) in 1858, it became one of the most important and influential movements in America to die in the early 1880's with the dispersion of the members who included among others Denton J. Snider, Adolph E. Kroeger, George H. Howison, and Thomas Davidson. It engendered the ...

State of Nature
The state of man as it would he if there were no political organization or government. The concept was used by many philosophers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries as a criterion of what man's naturnl condition might be and as to what extent that condition has been spoiled or corrupted by civilization. It was used as an argument for man's...

State
(Lat. status, Ital. stato; the term introduced by Machiavelli) A political organization based upon a common territory and exercising control over the inhabitants of that territory. Essential for a state is the existence of a government, and in the 'legal state', a written or unwritten constitution. By the pure theory of law (Kelsen), the state is ...

Statement
See Meaning, Kinds of, 1.

Statistics
The systematic study of quantitative facts, numerical data, comparative materials, obtained through description and interpretation of group phenomena. The method of using and interpreting processes of classification, enumeration, measurement and evaluation of group phenomena. In a restricted sense, the materials, facts or data referring to group ...

Stern, William
(1871-1938) Psychologist and philosopher who has contributed extensively to individual psychology (see Individual Psychology), child psychology and applied psychology. He was an innovator in the field of intelligence testing, having suggested the use of intelligence quotient (I.Q.) obtained by dividing in individual's mental age by his chronologic...

Stheme
An adjective derived from the Greek, Sthenos, strength. It was applied by Dr. John Brown (1735-1788), a Bntish physician, to diseases distinguished by a usual or excessive accumulation of vital power, or nervous energy. Kant applied it to vigorous or exciting emotions. -- J.J.R.

Stirner, Max
Pen name of Johann Caspar Schmidt (1806-1856) Most extreme and thoroughgoing individualist in the history of philosophy. In his classic, The Ego and his Own, he regards everything except the individual as minor; family, state and society all disappear before the individual, the ego, as the primary power for life and living. -- L.E.D.

Stoic School
Founded by Zeno (of Citium, in Cyprus) in the year 308 B.C. in Athens. For Stoicism virtue alone is the only good and the virtuous man is the one who has attained happiness through knowledge, as Socrites had taught. The virtuous man thus finds happiness in himself and is independent of the external world which he has succeeded in overcoming by mas...

Strato
of Lampsacus, head of the Peripatetic School of Greek philosophy from 287-269 B.C. -- M.F.

Strauss, David Friedrich
(1808-1874) German philosopher who received wide popularity and condemnation for his Life of Jesus. He held that the unity of God and man is not realized in Christ but in mankind itself and in its history. This relation, he believed, was immanent and not transcendent. His numerous writings displayed many currents from Hegelianism and Darwinism to ...

Stream of Consciousness or Thought
Thought considered as a process of continuous change. The metaphor of the stream was suggested by W. James. See The Principles of Psychology, Vol. 1, ch. IX, entitled 'The Stream of Thought' especially p. 239. -- L.W.

Strict implication
As early as 1912, C. I. Lewis projected a kind of implication between propositions, to be called strict implication, which should more nearly accord with the usual meaning of 'implies' than does material implication (see logic, formal, § 1). should make 'p implies q' synonymous with 'q is deducible from p,' and should avoid such so-called par...

Structural Psychology
A tendency in American psychology, represented by E. B. Titchener. (A Textbook of Psychology, (1909-10) which in opposition to Functional Psychology (see Functional Psychology, Functionalism) adopted as the method of psychology the analysis of mental states into component sensations, images and feelings; the structure of consciousness is for struc...

Structural Theories of Mind
See Structuralism.

Structuralism
(Lat. structura, a building) The conception of mind in terms of its structure whether this structure be interpreted (a) atomistically. See Psychological Atomism, Structural Psychology); or (b) configurationally. (Gestalt Psychology). -- L.W.

Struggle For Existence
This is given by Charles Darwin as a premise for his evolutionary hypothesis of natural selection. There is constant struggle in a species resultant from the over production of offspring. This notion is an outgrowth of the influence of Malthus on Darwin. Darwin does not mean actual or necessary combat at all stages, but requisite dependence of one...

Stuff, Neutral
A reality posited by certain philosophers which is neither mental nor physical, but which underlies both. See Neutral Monism. -- L W.

Stumpf, Carl
(184-8-1936) A life long Platonic realist, he was philosophically awakened and influenced by Brentano. His most notable contributions were in the psychology of tone and music, and in musicology. Metaphysics is, in his opinion, best constructed inductively as a continuation of the sciences. -- H.H. Main works: Tonpsychologie, 2 vols., 1883-90; Die ...

Sturm und Drang
(German, 'Storm and Stress'), a period sweeping the German countries about 1770-1785, in which men like Hamann, Herder, the young Goethe, Schiller, Wagner, Christian Schubart, and Friedrich Maximilian Klinger (from whose play the movement got its name) advocated, in a flush of creative enthusiasm, the forces of native talent, the value of emotion,...

Su p'u
'Unadorned simplicity', being the state of original nature, is a state of desirelessness, of total absence of knowledge distinctions, of pure instinctivity. (Chuang Tzu, between 399 and 295 B.C.) -- H.H.

Su
'Unadornment', (p'u) 'unadorned simplicity'; (ching) 'quiescence' bespeaking all the complete absence of desires, but really meaning that the desires should be made fewer. (Lao Tzu) Seeking for the tao, emptiness, singleness, concentrated attention (tu), quiescence are all rules for man's conduct. (Hsun Tzu C355-C288 B.C.) -- H.H.

Suarezianism
A school of philosophy and theology founded by Francisco Suarez, of the Society of Jesus, Spain, 1548-1617. His philosophic position is, in general, that of Christian Aristotelianism. The immediate background of his thought is to be found in Albertinism, Thomism, Scotism and Nominalism. The Disputationes Metaphysicae (no Eng. translation) forms a ...

Subalternation
See Logic, formal, § 4.

Subclass
A class a is a subclass of a class b if a ? b. See Logic, formal, § 7. A class a is a proper subclass of a class b if a ? b and a ? b. -- A.C.

Subconscious Mind
(Lat. sub, under -- cum together + scire to know) A compartment of the mind alleged by certain psychologists and philosophers (see Psycho-analysis) to exist below the threshold of consciousness. The subconscious, though not directly accessible to introspection (see Introspection), is capable of being tapped by special techniques such as random ass...

Subcontrary
See Logic, formal, § 4.

Subject
(Lat. subjicere to place under) a) In Epistemology: The subject of knowledge is the individual knower considered either as a pure ego (see Ego, Pure), a transcendental ego (see Ego, Transcendental) or an act of awareness. (See Awareness). b) In Psychology: The psychological subject is the individual subjected to observation. Thus the introspective...

Subjective Idealism
Sometimes referred to as psychological idealism or subjectivism. The doctrine of knowledge that the world exists only for the mind. The only world we know is the-world-we-know shut up in the realm of ideas. To be is to be perceived: esse est percipi. This famous doctrine (classically expressed by Bishop Berkeley, 1685-1753) became the cornerstone ...

Subjective rightness
An action is subjectively right if it is done in the belief that it is objectively right. See Objective rightness. -- W.F.K.

Subjectivism, epistemological
Doctrine contending that every object apprehended is created, constructed by the apprehender. (Montague). -- H.H.

Subjectivism
a) In Epistemology: The restriction of knowledge to the knowing subject and its sensory, affective ind volitional states and to such external realities as may be inferred from the mind's subjective states. See Solipsism, Ego-centric Predicament. b) In Axiology: The doctrine that moral and aesthetic values represent the subjective feelings and reac...

Sublimation
(Lat. sublimatio, from sublimare, to elevete, lift up) The psychological mechanism, described by Freudians, which consists in the discovery of a substitute object for the expression of a basic instinct or feeling, e.g., the sublimation of the sex impulses in aesthetic creation -- L.W.

Subliminal
(Lat. sub. under + limen, the threshold) Term popularized by F. Myers to describe allegedly unconscious mental processes especially sensations which lie below the threshold of consciousness. See Unconscious Mind. -- L.W.

Subsistents
Abstract and eternal entities, values, universals in a non-mental and non-physical world. -- H.H.

Substance Theory of Mind
The conception of the individual mind as a permanent, self-identical substance. (See Soul-Substance Theory). The Substance Theory is distinguished from the substantive theory by C. W. Morris, (Six Theories of Mind, Chs. I and V) but the distinction is difficult to maintain. -- L.W.

Substance
(Lat. sub + stare = Gr. hypo + stasis, to stand under. Also from Lat. quod quid est, or quod quid erat esse = Gr. to ti en einai, i.e., that by virtue of which a thing has its determinate nature, which makes it what it is, as distinguished from something else. See ousia, natura, subsistentia, essentia. Thus Augustine writes (De Trin. VII, ch. 4, #...

Substantive States
(Lat. substantivus, self-existent) Substantive states of mind in contrast to transitive or relational states are the temporary resting places in the flow of the stream of thought. The term was introduced by W. James (The Principles of Psychology, Vol. I, pp. 243-8). -- L.W.

Substantive Theory of Mind
A diluted form of the Substance Theory of mind which asserts that the mind, while not strictly a substance, possesses a substantial character. See Substance Theory of Mind. -- L.W.

Substitution, rule of
See logic, formal, § 1.

Substratum
(Gr. hypokeimenon) That in which an attribute inheres, or of which it is predicated; substance; subject. In Aristotle's philosophy hypokeimenon sometimes means matter as underlying form, sometimes the concrete thing as possessing attributes, sometimes the logicnl subject of predication. -- G.R.M.

Subsumption
Noun signifying that the subject of a proposition is taken under the predicate. Also the inclusion of the species under the genus, and the individual under the species. The minor premiss which applies a general law stated by the major premiss of a syllogism is called a subsumption. -- J.J.R.

Succession and Duration
These concepts are inseparable from the idea of 'flowing' time in which every event endures relatively to a succession of other events. In Leibniz's view, succession was the most important characteristic of time defined by him as 'the order of succession.' Some thinkers, notably H. Bergson, regard duration (duree) as the very essence of time, 'tim...

Sufficient condition
F is a sufficient condition of G if F(x) ?x C(x). See Necessary condition. -- A.C.

Sufficient Reason, Principle of
Consists in the necessary relation of every object or event to every other. Time, space, causality, ground of knowledge and motivation are so many forms of this most basic principle of the relatedness of phenomena. (Schopenhauer). In Leibniz, see Principle of Sufficient Reason. -- H.H.

Sufism
A classical development of mysticism and a reaction from the legalism and rigidity of orthodox Islam. Being a sect seeking to attain a nearer fellowship with God by scrupulous observation of the religious law, it represents an infiltration into Islam of the Christian-gnostic type of piety with its charismatic and ascetic features. Gained many of i...

Sui generis
(Lat ) Alone of its kind, the condition of a subject which is unique, applied puticularly to God. -- V.J.B.

Sukha-duhkha
(Skr.) Pleasure and pain, to which is often added moha (q.v.), a stereotyped expression for the involvement in activity and thought preventing moksa (q.v.). -- K.F.L.

Summa (Scholastic)
Name of comprehensive treitises, subdivided in tractatus or quaestiones, which in their turn may contain several articles or membra. The classical procedure is that of the quaestio disputata (see quaestio) which developed from the method adopted first by the students of Canon Law (Yves of Chartres, a.o.) and applied to philosophical and theologica...

Summation, Psychic
(Lat. summa, sum) Fusion or combination of separate states of mind to form a new whole. See Fusion, Psychic. -- L.W.

Summum Bonum
(Lat. the supreme good) A term applied to an ultimate end of human conduct the worth of which is intrinsically and substantively good. It is some end that is not subordinate to anything else. Happiness, pleasure, virtue, self-realization, power, obedience to the voice of duty, to conscience, to the will of God, good will, perfection have been clai...

Summum Genus
The highest genus in a division, a genus which is not a species of a higher genus. -- G.R.M.

Sunnites
Denotes the orthodox, traditionalist, by far the larger numbered Islamic sect which denies the Shiite claim that Ali and his descendants are alone entitled to the caliphate. -- H.H.

Sunya-vada
A Buddhist theory (vada) holding the world to be void (sunya) or unreal. Otherwise known as Madhyamaka (q.v.), this Mahayana (q.v.) school as founded by Nagarjuna and elaborated in the Madhyama-kasastra, is hardly correctly translated by nihilism. To be sure, the phenomenal world is said to have no reality, yet the world underlying it defies descr...

Supererogation
(Lat. super, above; and erogare, to spend public funds) The act or condition of doing more than is strictly required by law; in Catholic moral terminology, an act of supererorogation consists in doing more than one's duty, a practice of special virtue. -- V.J.B.

Superman
The nnme given by Nietzsche to what he deems a higher type of humanity, viewed as the goal of evolution. -- H.H.

Supernatural
That which surpasses the active and exactive powers of nature -- or that which natural causes can neither avail to produce nor require from God as the compliment of their kind. -- H.G.

Suppositio discreta
The kind of suppositio belonging to a proper name; opposed to suppositio communis. -- A.C.

Suppositio materialis
The use of a word autonymously, or as a name for itself (see autonymy) -- 'Homo est disyllabum'; opposed to suppositio formalis, the use of a noun in its proper or ordinary signification. -- A.C.

Suppositio naturalis
The use of a common noun to stand collectively for everything to which the name applies -- 'Homo est mortalis.' It would now usually be held that this involves an inadequate or misleading analysis -- see copula. -- A.C.

Suppositio personalis
The use of a common noun, or class name, to stand for a particular member of the class -- 'Homo currit.' Contemporary logical usage would supply, in such a case, either a description (corresponding in English to the definite article the) or an existential quantifier (corresponding to the indefinite article a). Suppositio personalis confusa (oppose...

Suppositio simplex
The use of a common noun to stand for the class concept to which it refers -- 'Homo est species.' Suppositio simplex was also ascribed to a common noun used for the predicate of an affirmative proposition. -- A.C.

Suppositio
In medieval logic, the kind of meaning in use which belongs to nouns or substantives; opposed to copulatio, belonging to adjectives and verbs A given noun having a fixed signification might nevertheless have different suppositiones (stand for different things). Various kinds of suppositio, i.e., various ways in which a noun may stand for something...

Supposititious
(Lat suppositions, put in the place of, substituted) Epistemological expression applying to any object which is assumed or posited by the mind without being actually given by experience. -- L.W.

Supralapsarianism
(Lat. supra, before; and lapsus, the Fall of man) The theological view that God positively decreed the Fall of man as a means to the manifestation of His Power of salvation, attributed to Calvinism but opposed by some 'Infralapsarian' Calvinists. See Predestination. -- V.J.B.

Surrealism
Spiritualistic trend of art. A recent artistic school representing dreams interpreted according to Freud's theories. -- L.V. Artistic movement which maintains that there exists, and seeks access to, a 'real' world that lies behind the artificial world of ordinary objects given in normal awareness. Argues that what is found on the conscious level ...

Sutra
(Skr. string) An aphorism, the earliest form chosen for mnemonic reasons, in which philosophic thought was couched in India, necessitating often elaborate commentaries (bhasya) which frequently differ widely in their interpretation of the original and have occasioned vanous schools. -- K.F.L.

Svabhava
(Skr.) being-in-itself, essence, natural state, inherent or innate nature; the thing-in-itself aspect of anything, independent being; in the view of some Indian philosophers, the principle governing the universe through the spontaneity and individual character of the various substances. -- K.F.L.

Svaraj
(Skr.) self-rule, self-determination, currently a designation of the home rule movement in India. -- K.F.L.

Svatantra
(Skr. 'what has itself as basis') Presuppositionless, absolute, free, said of the ultimate in its in-it-self aspect. -- K.F.L.

Svetambara
(Skr. 'white robed') A branch of the Jainas (q.v.) differing with the Digambaras (q.v.) in doctrine and habits. -- K.F.L.

Swedenborgianism
A highly developed religious philosophy arising from Emanuel Swedenborg (Jan. 29, 1688-March 29, 1772). Swedenborg claimed direct spiritual knowledge. He recognized three descending levels or 'degress of being in God'; Love the Celestial, Spirit or the End; then Wisdom, the Spiritual or Soul, Cause; and finally the degree of Use, the Natural and P...

Syadvada
(Skr.) The theory of 'somehow' (syat), a theory of judgment of the Jainas (q.v.) which takes full account of the partiality of the judged reality and the idiosyncracy of the one who is judging in the world of discourse. -- K.F.L.

Syllogism
See Antilogism; Figure (syllogistic); and Logic, formal, §§ 2, 5.

Symbol
Used by some writers as synonymous with sign (q.v.). A conventional sign, i.e., a sign which functions as such in virtue of a convention, explicit or implicit, between its users. In this sense 'symbol' is sometirnes opposed to 'natural sign'. -- M B.

Symbolism
An artistic trend flourishing at the end of the XIXth century in reaction to faith in the beauty of nature, and endeavoring to represent spiritual values by means of abstract signs. -- L.V.

Symmetry
A dyadic relation R is symmetric if, for all x and y in the field of R, xRy ? yRx; it is asymmetric if, for all x and y in the field of R, xRy ? ~ yRx; non-symmetric if there are x and y in the field of R such that [xRy] [~ yRx]. An n-adic propositional function F is symmetric if F(x1, x2
Sympathy
On psychological levels, a participation in and feeling for other living beings in adversity or other emotional phases, not always painful, which may or may not lead to participating or alleviating action, explained naturalistically as a general instinct inherent in all creatures, ethically sometimes as an original altruism, sociologically as acqu...

Synaesthesia
(Gr. syn. with + aesthesis, sensation) A connection between sensation of different senses which is indepedent of association established by experience. For example, the capacity of certain musical notes to induce color-images. -- L.W.

Syncategorematic
(word): Approximately a synonym of incomplete symbol (q.v.), but usually applied to words of such a language as English rather than to symbols or expressions in a fully formalized logistic system. -- A.C.

Syncretism
(Gr. syn., with; and either kretidzein, or kerannynai, to mix incompatible elements) A movement to bring about a harmony of positions in philosophy or theology which are somewhat opposed or different. Earliest usage (Plutarch) in connection with the Neo-Platonic effort to unify various pagan religions in the 2nd and 4th centuries A.D. Next used in...

Synderesis
(Late Gr. synteresis, spark of conscience, may be connected with syneidesis, conscience) In Scholastic philosophy: the habitus, or permanent, inborn disposition of the mind to think of general and broad rules of moral conduct which become the principles from which a man may reason in directing his own moral activities. First used, apparently, by S...

Syndicalism
This social and political theory, usually considered as the creation of Georges Sorel, is philosophically rooted in a radical anti-intellectualism. Will, faith and action are the basic and creative realities of human nature, whereas all ideological factors are but creatures of these realities -- they are 'myths.' Working upon this metaphysical ass...

Synechism
(Gr. syn, with; and echein, to hold) A theory of philosophical explanation developed, and first named by C. S. Peirce (Monist, II, 534). He defined the theory as: 'That tendency of philosophical thought which insists upon the idea of continuity as of prime importance in philosophy, and in particular, upon the necessity of hypothesis involving true...

Synechology
The doctrine that simple conscious functions correspond to composite physical events, the psycho-physical view of Fechner (q.v.). -- K.F.L.