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

Synergisrn
(Gr. syn., with, and ergein, to work) The theological position that there is more than one principle actively working in the salvation of man; the term became common in the 16th century disputes of Melancthon against the 'Monergism' of Luther; Melancthon held that the Holy Spirit, the Word of God, and the human will are three co-operating principl...

Synkatathesis
Greek noun derived from syn, together, and katathesis, to put down; hence Synkatathesis, to deposit together. In the passive voice the verb means, to assent to, to agree with. Used by the Stoics in the sense of agreement, or conviction. In general it signifies, the acknowledgment of the truth of a proposition, or consent given to it with someone e...

Syntactics
See Syntax, logical, and Semiotic 3.

Syntagma
The systematized wholes of life views, of life tendencies such as aestheticism, naturalism and intellectualism. (Eucken). -- H.H.

Syntax language
See Object language.

Syntax, logical
'By the logical syntax of a language,' according to Carnap, 'we mean the formal theory of the linguistic forms of that language -- the systematic statement of the formal rules which govern it together with the development of the consequences which follow from these rules. A theory, a rule, a definition, or the like is to be called formal when no r...

Synthesis
In logic, the general method of deduction or deductive reasoning, which proceeds from the simple to the complex, from the general to the particular, from the necessary to the contingent, from a principle to its application, from a general law to individual cases from cause to effect, from an antecedent to its consequent, from a condition to the c...

Synthetic Judgment
(Kant. Ger. synthetische Urteil) A judgment relating a subject concept with a predicate concept not included within the subject proper. The validity of such a judgment depends on its 'ground'. Kant's central question was: 'Are synthetic a priori judgments possible?' See Kantianism, Scientific Empiricism. See also Meaning, kinds of, 2. -- O.F.K.

Ta i
'The great unit', the greatest with nothing beyond itself. (Sophism). -- H.H.

Ta i
The Great Unit. See t'ai i.

Ta Ku
Major cause. See: ku.

Ta shun
Complete harmony, as a result of the Profound Virtue or Mysterious Power. See hsuan te. -- W.T.C.

Ta t'i
'The part of man which is great ' (Mencius). -- H.H.

Ta t'ung i
The great similarity-and-difference; all things are in one way all simihr, in another way all different. (Sophists). -- H.H.

Ta t'ung
The period of Great Unity and Harmony; the Confucian Utopia. (Early Confucianism; K'ang Yu-wei, 1858-1929). The Great Unity, Heaven and Earth and all things forming an organic unity. (Ancient Chinese philosophy). -- W.T.C.

Ta te
Universally recognized moral qualities of man, namely, wisdom (chih), moral chiracter (jen), and courage (yung). (Confucianism). -- W.T.C.

Ta
General name. 'All substances necessarily call for such a name.' (Neo-Mohism). -- W.T.C.

Taboo or Tabu
Anthropological term of Polynesian origin applied to persons or things with which contacts are forbidden under severe social and religious penalties. The primitive belief in taboos, affording as it does religious sanctions for moral prohibitions, is of great ethical significance and has even been considered by some to be the origin of morality and...

Tabula rasa
Literally, a blank tablet. John Locke (1632-1704) held that human knowledge came by way of experience. The mind is like a slate upon which experience records impressions. This is a denial of innate, a priori knowledge. -- V.F.

Tai Tung-yuan
(Tai Chen, Tai Shen-hsiu, 1723-1777) carne from a poor family, self-made to be a leader in outstanding intellectual activities of the time, and became an authority in philology, mathematics, geography as well as philosophy. By reinteipreting the teachings of Mencius, he attempted to rediscover the original meanings of Confucius and Mencius. His Ta...

Talmud, Babylonian
The Palestine Mishna was carried to Babylon and studied by 7 generations of Amoraim in the Academies of Nehardea (under Samuel). -- H.L.G.

Talmud, Palestinian
Was arranged first by Rabbi Johanan (d. 279 A.D.) and finally compiled early in the 5th century. It is based on the Mishnah of R. Judah as interpreted in the academies of Lydda, Caesaria, Sepphoris and Tiberias (closed 425 A.D.). Its Gemaras extend presently only over 39 of the 63 tractates of the Mishnah, but it is assumed that many Gemaras were ...

Talmud
(Learning) An encyclopedic work in Hebrew-Aramaic produced during 800 years (300 B.C.-500 A.D.) in Palestine and Babylon. Its six sedarim (orders) subdivided in 63 massektot (tractates) represent the oral tradition of Judaism expounding and developing the religious ideas and civil laws of the written special hermeneutic middot (measures) of law (i...

Tamas
(Skr.) One of the three gunas (q.v.) of the Sankhya (q.v.), representing the principle of inactivity, sluggishness, and indifference in matter or prakrti (q.v.). -- K.F.L.

Tan
The opposite of 'grossness'; remaining detached from all outside things, the climax of fineness. It is to have in oneself no contraries; the climax of purity, in the sense of 'un-mixedness'. (Chuang Tzu, between 399 and 295 B.C.). -- H.H.

Tanmatra
(Skr.) One of the five 'subtile elements' in the philosophy of the Sankhya (q.v.) and other systems, corresponding to the matter apprehended in the sensation of sound, touch, color, taste, and smell; generally, the manifold of sensory experience, perhaps also the 'reals', or sensation-generals, equivalent to bhutamatra (q.v.). -- K.F.L.

Tantra
(Skr.) One of a large number of treatises reflecting non-indogermanic Hindu and Mongolian influence, composed in the form of diaogues between Shiva (q.v.) and Durga (see Sakti) on problems of ritual, magic, philosophy, and other branches of knowledge. The Tantras, outside the main current of Vedic (q.v.) thinking yet sharing many of the deepest sp...

Tantric
Adjective to Tantra (q.v.)

Tao chia
The Taoist school, the followers of Lao Tzu, Chuang Tzu, Lieh Tzu, etc., who 'urged men to unity of spirit, teaching that all activities should be in harmony with the unseen (Tao), with abundant liberality toward all things in nature. As to method, they accept the orderly sequence of nature from the Yin Yang school, select the good points of Confu...

Tao chiao
The Taoist religion, or the religion which was founded on the exotic interpretation of the teachings of the Yellow Emperor and Lao Tzu (Huang Lao) that flourished in the Han dynasty (206 B.C.-220 A.D.), which assimilated the Yin Yang philosophy, the practice of alchemy, and the worship of natural objects and immortals, and which became highly elab...

Tao Hsueh
The 'Moral Law' School. See li hsueh -- W.T.C.

Tao shu
The essence of Tao, or the axis of Tao at the center of which all Infinities converge and all distinctions disappear. (Chuang Tzu, between 399 and 295 B.C.). -- W.T.C.

Tao
The Way, principle, cosmic order, nature. 'The Tao that can be expressed in words is not the eternal Tao.' It is 'vague and eluding,' 'deep and obscure,' but 'there is in it the form' and 'the essence.' 'In it is reality.' It 'produced the One, the One produced the two, the two produced the three, and the three produced all things.' Its 'standard...

Taoism
See Tao chia and Chinese philosophy.

Tapas
(Skr. heat) Austerity, penance, intense application of Yoga (q.v.). -- K.F.L.

Tarka
(Skr.) Reasoning, logic; also a name for the Nyaya (q.v.). -- K.F.L.

Taste
The faculty of judging art without rules, through sensation and experience. The ensemble of preferences shown by an artist in his choice of elements from nature and tradition, for his works of art. -- L.V.

Tat tvam asi
(Skr.) 'That art thou', the sum and substance of the instruction which Svetaketu received from his father Uddalaka Aruni, according to the Chandogya Upanishad. It hints the identity of the self, atman, with the essence of the world as the real, satya. -- K.F.L.

Tattva
(Skr.) 'Thatness', 'whatness', one of the principles ranging from abstract factors of conscious life to relations and laws governing natural facts. The Trika (q.v.). knows 36 tattvas which come into play when the universe 'unfolds', i.e., is created by Shiva in an act variously symbolized by the awakening of his mind, or a 'shining forth' (see abh...

Tauler, Johannes
(1300-1361) was an outstanding German mystic and preacher. Born in Strassburg, he entered the Dominican Order and did his philosophical and theological studies at Cologne, where he was probably influenced by Eckhart. He was most interested in the ethical and religious aspects of mysticism, and, like Eckhart, he concentrated on an analytical intuit...

Tautology
As a syntactical term of the propositional calculus this is defined in the article on logic, formal (q.v.). Wittgenstein and Ramsey proposed to extend the concept of a tautology to disciplines involving quantifiers, by interpreting a quantified expression as a multiple (possibly infinite) conjunction or disjunction; under this extension, however, ...

Taylor, Alfred Edward
Born in 1869, professor of philosophy at St. Andrews and Edinburgh, after teaching for many years at Oxford. Taylor's metaphysics were predominantly Hegelian and idealist (as in Elements of Metaphysics) during his early years, in later years (as in numerous essays in Mind, and his Gifford Lectures Faith of a Moralist) he has become something of a ...

Te
Virtue; power, character; efficacy -- The Individual Principle, Tao particularized or inherent in a thing, the 'abode of Tao,' through 'the obtaining of which' a thing becomes what it is. Virtue, moral character, 'that which obtains in a person;' 'that which is sufficient in the self without depending on any external help,' referring particularly...

Techne
(Gr. techne) The set of principles, or rational method, involved in the production of an object or the accomplishment of an end; the knowledge of such principles or method; art. Techne resembles episteme in implying knowledge of principles, but differs in that its aim is making or doing, not disinterested understanding. -- G.R.M.

Teichmüller, Gustav
(1832-1888) Strongly influenced by Leibniz and Lotze and anticipating some recent philosophic positions, taught a thoroughgoing personalism by regarding the 'I', given immediately in experience as a unit, as the real substance, the world of ideas a projection of its determinations (perspectivism). Nature is appearance, substantiality being ascribe...

Telegnosis
(Gr. tele, at a distance -- gnosis, knowledge) Knowledge of another mind which is presumably not mediated by the perception of his body nor by any other physical influence by which communication between minds is ordinarily mediated. See Intersubjective Intercourse, Telepathy. -- L.W.

Telegnostic situations
'Cognitive situation in which a mental event belonging to another mmd is the sole objective constituent.' (Broad). -- H.H.

Telegram Argument
Argument for the efficacy of mind resting on a radical difference of response to two slightly differing stimuli because of their difference of meaning. The Telegram Argument is so called because of the illustration of two telegrams: 'Our son has been killed' and 'Your son has been killed' received by parents whose son is away from home and whose d...

Teleological Argument for God
(Gr. telos, end or purpose) Sometimes referred to as the argument from design. Events, objects, or persons are alleged to reveal a kind of relationship which suggests a purpose or end toward which they move. Such ends reveal a Fashioner or Designer who guides and directs toward the fulfillment of their functions. This Architect is God. Paley (1745...

Teleological ethics
A species of axiological ethics which makes the determination of the lightness of an action wholly dependent on an estimate of its actual or probable conduciveness to some end or of its actual or probable productiveness, directly or indirectly, of the maximum good. E.g., utilitarianism. -- W.K.F.

Teleological Idealism
Name given by Lotze for his system of semi-monistic personahsm. -- W.L.

Teleological Personalism
The doctrine that God is to be thought of not as First, but as Final Cause. Applied to Lotze and Howison. -- R.T.F.

Teleology
(Gr. telos, end, completion) The theory of purpose, ends, goals, final causes, values, the Good (s.). The opposite of Mechanism. As opposed to mechanism, which explains the present and the future in terms of the past, teleology explains the past and the present in terms of the future. Teleology as such does not imply personal consciousness, voliti...

Teleosis
Noun used in German by Ernst Haeckle (1834-1919) denoting organic improvement or perfection. -- J.J.R.

Telepathy
(Gr. tele, at a distance + pathein, to experience) The phenomenon of direct communication between two minds separated by a great distance and without the normal operation of the organs of sense. Telepathy is a sub-variety of telegnosis (see Telegnosis) which is characterized by its felt directness or immediacy. -- L.W.

Telos
(Gr. telos) The end term of a process, specifically, in Aristotle, the purpose or final cause. See Aristotelianism. -- G.R.M.

Tension
Since normal mental life oscillates between two extremes: a plane of action in which sensori-motor functions occur, and a plane of dream, in which we live our imaginative life, of which memory is a major part, there are as many corresponding intermediate planes as there are degrees of 'attention to life', adaptation to reality. The mind has a powe...

Term
In common English usage the word 'term'' is syntactical or semantical in character, and means simply a word (or phrase), or a word associated with its meaning. The phrase 'undefined term' as used in mathematical postulate theory (see mathematics) is perhips best referred to this common meaning of 'term ' In traditional logic, a term is a concept a...

Termmism
See Nominalism.

Tertiary Qualities
Those qualities which are said to be imparted to objects by the mind. In contrast to primary and secondary qualities which are directed toward the objects (primary being thought of distinctly a part of objects) tertiary qualities are the subject's reactions to them. A thing, for example, is said to be good: The good points to the subject's reactio...

Tertii adjacentis
Latin expression employed to describe a proposition in which the subject, predicate, and copula are clearly distinguishable. -- J.J.R.

Tertium comparationis
(Lat.) A basis of comparison. -- V.J.B.

Tertium non datur
See Excluded middle, law of.

Tertium quid
(Lat.) A third something, a term to be discovered in addition to two original ones. -- V.J.B.

Tertullian
(165-220) A prominent Christian Apologist, later the leader of the sect of the Montanists. He took an excessively dogmatic position toward faith, regarded it as standing above reason, and expressed the attitude in his famous statement 'Credo quia absurdum est'. Cf. Migne PL (vols. 1, 2). -- R.B.W.

Tetractys
Literally the Greek term signifies, an aggregate of four, specifically it was applied to the Pythagorean perfect number, ten, which is the sum of one, two, three, and four. -- J.J.R.

Thales
6th Cent. B.C., of the Milesian School of Greek Philosophy, is said to have predicted the eclipse of 585; had probably been to Egypt and was proficient in mathematics and physics. Thales, along with the other cosmological thinkers of the Ionian school, presupposed a single elementary cosmic matter at the base of the transformations of nature and d...

Thanatism
A term employed by Ernst Haeckel (1834-1919) to express his doctrine of the mortality of annihilation of the human soul, the contrary of athanatism, immortality. -- J.J.R.

Theism
(Gr. theos, god) Is in general that type of religion or religious philosophy (see Religion, Philosophy of) which incorporates a conception of God as a unitary being; thus may be considered equivalent to monotheism. The speculation as to the relation of God to world gave rise to three great forms: God identified with world in pantheism (rare with e...

Theistic Personalism
The theory most generally held by Personalists that God is the ground of all being, immanent in and transcendent over the whole world of reality. It is pan-psychic but avoids pantheism by asserting the complementary nature of immanence and transcendence which come together in and are in some degree essential to all personality. The term used for t...

Thelematism
Noun derived from the Greek, thelema, will. The equivalent of voluntarism, employed in German, scarcely, if at all, in English. -- J.J.R.

Thelematology
(from Gr. thelema, will) The doctrine of the nature and phenomenology of the will. -- K.F.L.

Thema
A term proposed by Burgersdicius to indicate a sign which signifies its object directly as a result of a convention or intellectual insight without the necessity of factual connection in previous experience. -- C.A.B.

Theocracy
(Gr. theos, god, kratos, government, power) A view of political organization in which God is sole ruler. All political laws come under what is held to be the Divine Will. Church and State become one. Examples the development of the Hebrew ideal and Judaism, Mohammedan politics, Calvinism in Geneva, Puritan New England. -- V.F.

Theocrasy
(Gr. theos god, krasis a mixture) a) A mixture of the worship of different gods. b) The intimate union of the soul with God in contemplation as in NeoPlatonism. -- V.F.

Theodicy
(Gr. theos, god, dike, justice) The technical term for the problem of justifying the character of a good, creative and responsible God in the face of such doubts as arise by the fact of evil. If God is good, why evil? -- V.F. Title of Leibniz's essay on evil (Essai de Theodicee).

Theology
(Gr. theos, god, logos, study) Simply stated, theology is a study of the question of God and the relation of God to the world of reality. Theology, in the widest sense of the term, is a branch of philosophy, i.e., a special field of philosophical inquiry having to do with God. However, the term is widely employed to mean the theoretical expression...

Theomachy
(Gr. theoi, machein, battle against the gods), a term implying opposition to the divine will. -- K.F.L.

Theophany
(Gr. theos, God; phaino, to appear) The manifestation of God to man by actual appearance. -- V.F.

Theophrastus
(370-287 B.C.), the most important disciple and friend of Aristotle, left voluminous writings of which only fragments are extant; they dealt with many topics of philosophy and science (notably, botany) and defended his master's philosophy against rival schools of thought, particularly against Stoics. Cf. Characters of Theophrastus. -- R.R.V.

Theorem
(Gr. theorema, a sight, theory, theorem) Any proposition which is demonstrated in terms of other more basic propositions. -- A.C.B.

Theoretical Reason
(Kant. Ger. theoretische Vernunft) Reflective thought dealing with cognition, knowledge and science. Contrasted with practical reason (q.v.) which is concerned with moral and religious intuitions. See Kantianism. -- O.F.K.

Theory
(Gr. theoria, viewing) The hypothetical universal aspect of anything. For Plato, a contemplated truth. For Aristotle, pure knowledge as opposed to the practical. An abstraction from practice. The principle from which practice proceeds. Opposite of practice. -- J.K.F. Hypothesis. More loosely: supposition, whatever is problematic, verifiable but n...

Theosis
The ultimate absorption of the soul into Deity. -- V.F.

Theosophy
(Gr., lit. 'divine wisdom') is a term introduced in the third century by Ammonius Saccas, the master of Plotinus to identify a recurring tendency prompted often by renewed impulses from the Orient, but implicit in mystery schools as that of Eleusis, among the Essenes and elsewhere. Theosophy differs from speculative philosophy in allowing validity...

Thesis
(Gr. thesis) In Aristotle's logic (1) an undemonstrated proposition used as a premiss in a syllogism, sometimes distinguished from axiom in that it need not be self-evident or intrinsically necessary; (2) any proposition contrary to general opinion but capable of being supported by reasoning. See Antithesis, Dialectic, Synthesis. -- G.R.M.

Thetics
(from Gr. Thetikos) According to Kant the sum total of all affirmations. -- K.F.L.

Theurgy
(Gr. theos, god, ergon, work) The work of some divine, supernatural agency in the affairs of men, generally by direct intervention. -- V.F.

Thnetopsychite
(Gr.) One who confesses the doctrine that the soul dies when the body dies and rises when it is resurrected. -- K.F.L.

Thoreau, Henry David
(1817-1862) One of the leading American transcendentilists, of the Concord group. He was a thoroughgoing individualist, most famous for the attempts to be self-sufficient that he recounts so brilliantly in his diaries, lectures, essays and expositions, such was the famous 'Walden'. -- L.E.D.

Thought-Transference
Equivalent to Telegnosis. See Telegnosis. -- L.W.

Ti chih tse
'The pattern of the Lord' by which is meant the political and social regulations instituted by the supreme ruler or emperor on high. (Taoism). -- H.H.

Ti
Also t'i. Respect for elders. See: hsiao. Brotherliness. Younger brother. -- W.T.C.

Ti
The Confucian anthropomorphic Lord or Supreme Lord (Shang Ti), almost interchangeable with Heaven (T'ien) except that Ti refers to the Lord as the directing and governing power whereas Heaven refers to the Lord in the sense of omnipresence and all-inclusiveness. The world-honored deities (such as those of the four directions and the Five Elements...

Timarchy
(Gr.) A type of government characterized by voluntary or acclamatory rule of worthv and competent men, not aristocrats. -- K.F.L.

Time-Arrow
The general direction of change in time, is supposed to point toward the future. The concept was suggested by A. S. Eddington. -- R.B.W.

Time-perception
The apprehension of the protensive or durational character of the data of experience. See Dimensions of Consciousness; Protensity. -- L.W.

Timeless
Having no end in time, pertaining to no time, or transcending time. -- R.B.W.

Timology
(Gr. time, esteem, dignity, logos, study of) A term meaning a study of excellence or worth. More particularly, the term refers to a theory of value which holds that value has an intrinsic worth apart from considerations of any particular point of view. Opposed, e.g., to the view that value is relative to an individual. A notable expounder of the t...

Timon of Phlius
(320-230 B.C.) A sceptic who held that an ultimate knowledge of things was beyond man's capacity. Author of Silloi. See Pyrrho, teacher of Timon. -- M.F.