Copy of `Dictionary of Philosophy - Dagobert D. Runes`

The wordlist doesn't exist anymore, or, the website doesn't exist anymore. On this page you can find a copy of the original information. The information may have been taken offline because it is outdated.

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

Ch'uan
(a) A weight; a standard; a balance. (b) Power; authority; force. (c) Expediency, a Confucian ethical concept which justifies deviation from cardinal standards or directions (ching) in ethics and government under certain abnormal circumstances. -- W.T.C.

Chance
(Lat. cadere, to fall) 1. Property or being undetermined. 2. Property of being predictable according to the laws of probability (q.v.). -- A.C.B. Chance events, according to Aristotle, are occurrences purposive in appearance but not actually the result of either conscious or unconscious teleology. -- G.R.M. In Cournot, following Aristotle, the co-...

Change, Philosophy of
(a) Any philosophical doctrine dealing with the subject of change, e.g., Aristotle's philosophy of change, (b) any philosophy which makes change an essential or pervasive character of reality, e.g., the philosophies of Heraclitus and Bergson. -- W.K.F.

Chaos
(Gr. chaos) The formless, confused, completely disorderly, absolutely lawless. -- H.H.

Character
(Gr. character from charassein to engrave) A name for the collective traits, emotional, intellectual and volitional, which constitute an individual mind. -- L.W.

Characteristic
Pertaining to the starting point of the artist in his quest for beauty. (Goethe). -- L.V.

Characteristica Universalis
The name given by Leibniz to his projected (but only partially realized) 'universal language' for the formulation of knowledge. This language was to be ideographic, with simple characters standing for simple concepts, and combinations of them for compound ideas, so that all knowledge could be expressed in terms which all could easily learn to use ...

Characterology
This name originally was used for types; thus in Aristotle and Theophrastus, and even much later, e.g. in La Bruyere. Gradually it came to signify something individual; a development paralleled by the replacement of 'typical' figures on the stage by individualities. There is no agreement, even today, on the definition; confusion reigns especially ...

Characters
Statements or E-values like pleasant, true, known; all possible ego attitudes and feelings are so termed. (See Avenarius). --H.H.

Chen jen
'The true man', the supreme man, the pure man, the man of supreme inward power, not in the moral sense but in the sense of 'pure gold', has limitless inward resources. One who has transcended the self and the non-self, and life and death, and has reached a state of mystical union with the universe. (Chuang Tzu between 399 and 295 B.C.) -- H.H.

Chen ts'a
The true Lord who directs the operation of the universe, to whose existence there is no clue. (Chuang Tzu, between 399 and 295 B.C.) -- W.T.C.

Chen yun
The True Prime Unit, by which the vital force (ch'i) is constituted. It is not mixed with, but nourished and cultivated by, the external force. (Neo-Confucianism). -- W.T.C.

Cheng hsin
Setting one's own heart right or rectifying one's own heart. When one is upset by anger, disturbed by fear, blinded by love, or involved in worries and anxieties, one's mind has lost its balance. It must be rectified before personal cultivation is possible. (Confucianism). -- W.T.C.

Cheng ming
The doctrine of the 'rectification of names' which holds that names should correspond to realities, and serve as standards for social organization and personal conduct. The actual must in each case be made to correspond to the name. (Confucius; Hsun Tzu, c. 335-c. 288 B.C.) -- H.H.

Chi
The moving power; the subtle beginning of motion; the great Scheme (or germs ?) from which all things came and to which all things return (Chuang Tzu, d. c 295 B.C.); a mechanical arrangement according to which heavenly and earthly bodies revolve (Taoist mechanism, especially Lieh Tzu, third century A.D.); man's pure nature (as in Chuang Tzu, betw...

Chia
Specification, a method of appellation or designation. 'To say 'a puppy' or 'a dog' is specification.' See chu and i. (Neo-Mohism.) -- W.T.C.

Chia
The method of hypothesis in argumentation. See pien. -- W.T.C.

Chiao
(a) Teaching; a body of doctrines; a system of morality. (b) Religion, especially used in tsung chiao. K'ung Chiao (Confucianism) and Tao Chiao (Taoism) may either mean (a) the ethical, political, and philosophical teachings of Confucius and Lao Tzu respectively and their followers, or (b) the state cult of the worship of Heaven and ancestors and ...

Chieh hsuan
Emancipation. See Hsuan chieh. -- W.T.C.

Chien ai
The doctrine of 'universal love' interpreted wholly in terms of utilitarian standards. (Mo Tzu, between 500 and 396 B.C.) -- H.H.

Chien pai
Solidity (of stone) and whiteness (of a horse), central problems in the dispute over the relationship of substance and quality between the Sophists (pien che) and the Neo-Mohists (Mo che) in the third and fourth centuries B.C. -- W.T.C.

Chih chih
Extension of knowledge or achieving true knowledge through the investigation of things (ko wu) and understanding their Reason (li) to the utmost, not necessarily by investigating all things in the world, but by thoroughly investigating one thing and then more if necessary, so that the Reason in that thing, and thereby Reason in general, is underst...

Chih jen
'The perfect man', one who has reached a state of mystical union with the universe, or 'one who has not separated from the true.' (Chuang Tzu between 399 and 295 B.C.) -- H.H.

Chih kuo
The ordering of the national life, which is the intermediate step between the ordering of one's family life (ch'i chia) and the peace of the world. (Confucianism). -- W.T.C.

Chih shan
Highest excellence; perfection; the ultimate good, the goal of Confucian ethics and education. -- W.T.C

Chih
(a) Memory, (b) Purpose, will. -- W.T.C.

Chih
Basic stuff; essence; solid quality; solid worth. (Confucianism). -- W.T.C.

Chih
Marks, designation, pointing at (with a finger, chih), an obscure term in the logic of Kung-sun Lung (c. 400 - c. 300 B.C.) which can be interpreted as: (a) Marks or qualities of a thing. All things are marks or predicates. (b) That which is designated by a name. (c) An idea or concept which Kung-sun Lung used to designate the universal. -- W.T.C....

Chih
Uprightness; straightness; honesty; justice, 'exhausting one's sincere heart without any artificiality.' -- W.T.C.

Chih
Wisdom, one of the three Universally Recognized Moral qualities of man (ta te), the Three Moral Qualities of the superior man (san te), the Four Fundamentals of the moral life (ssu tuan), and the Five Constant Virtues (wu ch'ang). (Confucianism.) Knowledge; intelligence. Discriminate knowledge; small knowledge, which is incapable of understanding...

Chiliasm
Teaching and belief of some Jews and Christians that the Messiah will appear at the end of time to found a glorious kingdom on earth which is to last one thousand years; also called Millenarianism. -- J.J.R.

Chin hsin
Exerting one's mind to the utmost; complete development of one's mental constitution, by which one knows his nature and thereby Heaven. (Mencius, Wang Yang-ming, 1473-1529, and Tai Tung-yuan, 1723-1777.) -- W.T.C

Chin tan
Medicine of immortality. (Taoist alchemy, especially Pao-p'o Tzu, c 268-c 334.) See Wai tan. -- W.T.C.

Chin
Metal, one of the Five Agents or Elements. And fourth centuries B.C. where scholars (including Shen Tao, Tsou Yen) gathered under official patronage to write on and to freely discuss philosophy and politics. Seat of learning and freedom of thought at the time, which was called Ch'i Hsueh. -- W.T.C

Chin
Metal, one of the Five Agents or Elements. See wu hsing. -- W.T.C.

Chinese Philosophy
Confucianism and Taoism have been the dual basis of Chinese thought, with Buddhism presenting a strong challenge in medieval times. The former two, the priority of either of which is still controversial, rivaled each other from the very beginning to the present day. Taoism (tao chia) opposed nature to man, glorifying Tao or the Way, spontaneity (t...

Ching shen
The spirit and soul of man, or 'the vital force (ch'i) and the keeper of life of man,' which is endowed by Heaven as against the physical form which is endowed by Earth. (Huai-nan Tzu, d. 122 B.C.) -- W.T.C.

Ching
(a) Reverence. (Ancient Confucianism.) (b) Seriousness, the inner state of respect or politeness (kung). With respect to daily affairs, it is expressed in care, vigilance, attention, etc., and with respect to the laws of the universe, it is expressed in sincerity (ch'eng), especially toward the Reason (li) of things. 'Seriousness is the basis of m...

Ching
(a) The classics, whether Confucian or Taoist. Formerly spelled king. (b) Cardinal standards or directions in Confucian ethics and government. -- W.T.C.

Ching
(a) Tranquillity: rest; passivity: inactivity; 'the constant feature of the passive principle.' See tung. (Confucianism.) (b) Quietude; quiescence; interpreted by the Taoist as absence of desire and unity of thought, by Confucians in general as the original state of human nature, and by Hsun Tzu (c. 335-c. 288 B.C.) as the mind not being disturbed...

Ching
Essence. 'Essence and vital force (ch'i) constitute things.' Purity; the pure nature. Spirit; intelligence. Concentration; unity of thought. -- W.T.C.

Chiu ch'ou
The Nine Categories of the Grand Norm (hung fan) of ancient Confucian philosophy, consisting of the Five Elements (wu hsing), the reverent practice of the five functions (of personal appearance, speech, vision, hearing, and thought), the intensive application of the eight governmental measures, the harmonious use of the five regulations of time, t...

Chiu
Duration, or 'what reaches to different times,' or 'what unites past and present, morning and evening.' (Neo-Mohism.) -- W.T.C

Choice, axiom of
, or Zermelo's axiom, is the name given to an assumption of logical or logico-mathematical character which may be stated as follows: Given a class K whose members are non-empty classes, there exists a (one-valued) monadic function f whose range is K, such that f(x) &isin: x for all members x of K. This had often been employed unconsciously or tacit...

Choice
(a) In ethics the term choice refers to an agent's act of volition in deciding between two or more alternatives. Sometimes it is said that we may choose only between alternative courses of action, sometimes that we may also choose between alternative ends of action. In either case it is said that choice is deliberate and knowing, as compared with ...

Chou Tun-i
(Chou Lien-hsi, Chou Mao-shu, 1017-1073) Was active in government and was a renowned judge. He was the pioneer of Neo-Confucianism (li hsueh), anticipating the Ch'eng brothers. He wrote the T'ung-shu (explanation of the Book of Changes) and the T'aichi T'u-shu (explanation of the diagram of the Great Ultimate), fundamental texts of Neo-Confucian p...

Chrematistiscs
(Gr. chrematistike, the art of the use of money) A term insisted upon by Ingram (1823-1900) and others in a restricted sense to that portion of the science of political economy which relates to the management and regulation of wealth and property, one of the efforts to indicate more clearly the content of classical economics. -- H.H.

Christology
The totality of doctrines constituting that part of theology which treats of the nature and personality of Christ. First of all Christology must concern itself with the promise of a Saviour and Redeemer of the human race. It includes the study of the prophecies foretelling the Messiah, as well as their fulfillment. Further it must inquire into the...

Chrysippus
(280-209 B.C.) One of the leaders of the Stoic School, whose voluminous writings have been completely lost. In many respects he deviated from the Stoic speculative course; for instance, he combined the principle of natural necessity, or determinism, with the doctrine of Providence. -- R.B.W.

Chu Hsi
(Chu Hui-an, Chu Yiian-hui, Chu Chung-hui, 1130-1200) Early distinguished himself as a patriot-scholar, having repeatedly petitioned the emperor to practice the principles of 'investigation of things' and 'extension of knowledge' and not to make peace with the invading enemy. But he preferred a life of peace and poverty, accepted a number of gover...

Chu i wu shih
Unity of mind, with absolute steadfastness or impartiality, a state of reverential seriousness (ching). (Ch'eng I-ch'uan, 1033-1107, and Ch'eng Ming-tao, 1032-1086.) -- W.T.C.

Chu
Direct appellation, a method of designation. 'To call out 'Puppy!' is direct appellation.' See chia and i (Neo-Mohism.) -- W.T.C.

Chuang Tzu
(Chuang Chou, Chuing Chi-yuan, between 399 and 295 B.C.) The second greatest Taoist, was once a petty officer in his native state, Meng (in present Honan), in the revolutionary and romantic south. A little-travelled scholar, he declined a premiership in favor of freedom and peace. His love of nature, his vivid imagination and subtle logic make his...

Chun tu
The superior man, the perfect man, the moral man, the noble man. 'There may have been a superior man who is not a true man (jen), but there has never been an inferior man (hsiao jen) who is a true man.' The superior man 'makes upward progress,' 'understands profit,' and 'despises the ordinances of Heaven, great men, and the words of the sages.' (...

Chung yung
The Golden Mean. See Chung and i kuan. Centrality and harmony, a law 'from whose operation we cannot for one instant in our existence escape', the central clue to man's moral being which unites him to the universal order (or to attain central harmony). (Early Confucianism.) The Universal and the Changeless which is the true principle of things an...

Chung
Being true to the principle of the self; being true to the originally good nature of the self; being one's true self; the Confucian 'central thread or principle' (i kuan) with respect to the self, as reciprocity (shu) is that principle with respect to others. See i kuan. Exerting one's pure heart to the utmost, to the extent of 'not a single thou...

Chung
Identity, one of the proofs of agreement. See Mo che. -- W.T.C.

Chung
The Mean. See Chung yung. (Confucius.) The central self or moral being, in which 'the passions such as joy, anger, grief, and pleasure have not awakened,' and which exists 'in a state of absolute tranquillity without being moved.' See ho. (Early Confucianism; Neo-Confucianism.) The central or the proper principle; the Moral Law (tao); the 'ultima...

Cicero
(Marcus Tullius, 106-43 B.C.) Famous for his eclectic exposition of general scientific knowledge and philosophy, by which he aimed to arouse an appreciation of Greek culture in the minds of his countrymen, the Romans. -- M.F. Cicero: De Natura deorum; De officiis; Disputationes: Tuscalanae; De finibus bonorum et malorum.

Circular evidence
(Lat, circulus in probando) Proof or evidence involving premisses which assume the conclusion which is to be established. -- O.F.K.

Cit
(Skr.) Awareness. Cf. sat-cit-ananda. -- K.F.L.

Citi
(Skr.) Spirit, highest intelligence. -- K.F.L.

Citta
(Skr.) In the philosophy of the Yogasutras (q.v.) the phenomenal form of mind as the first creation of prakrti (q.v.) which is differentiated into mental states (vrttis), such as true and false knowledge, imagination, memory, sleep. These states being of the active, need restraining (citta-vrtti nirodha; cf. Yoga) in order to have the true and abi...

Claims
See prima facie duties.

Clarification
(Ger. Klärung, Aufklärung) In Husserl: Synthesis of identification, in which the noematic sense is given less clearly in an earlier than in a later intending. The course of potential clarification is predelineated horizonally for every element of sense that is either intended emptily or experienced with less than optimal clarity. The hor...

Class concept
A monadic propositional function, thought of as determining a class (q.v.). -- A.C.

Class consciousness
The consciousness on the part of an individual of his membership in a given economic class (q.v.). -- J.M.S.

Class struggle
Fundamental in Marxian social thought, this term signifies the conflict between classes (q.v.) which, according to the theory of historical materialism (see the entry, Dialectical materialism) may and usually does take place in all aspects of social life, and which has existed ever since the passing of primitive communism (q.v.). The class struggl...

Class
(Socio-economic) Central in Marxian social theory (see Historical materialism) the term class signifies a group of persons having, in respect to the means of production, such a common economic relationship as brings them into conflict with other groups having a different economic relationship to these means. For example, slaves and masters, serfs ...

Class
or set, or aggregate (in most connections the words are used synonymously) can best be described by saying that classes are associated with monadic propositional functions (in intension -- i.e., properties) in such a way that two propositional functions determine the same class if and only if they are formally equivalent. A class thus differs from...

Classic
A. Art of the first class (Aulus Gellius). B. Greek and Roman art in which perfect balance between body and spirit is achieved (Hegel). Contrasted with Modern and Romantic. -- L.V.

Classicism
Taste based on the imitation of classic art. -- L.V.

Classification
1. Process of grouping objects into classes on the basis of the discovery of common properties; or the results of such grouping. 2. Process of grouping species into genera, genera into still larger genera, and so on to the summum genus (q.v.). -- A.C.B.

Cleanthes
(c. 310-230 B.C.) Zeno's disciple and one of the most prominent thinkers of the Stoic School. Of his writings only a hymn to Zeus is extant. -- R.B.W.

Clearness
(Ger. Klarheit) In Husserl: Intuitional fullness, whether perceptual, fictively perceptual, memorial, or anticipational. See Clarification, Distinctness, and Intuition. -- D.C.

Clement of Alexandria
(150-217) An early Christian thinker and theologian who attempted to raise the attitude of faith to the level of knowledge; he was influenced by Plato, Aristotle, the Stoics, and Philo Judaeus. -- R.B.W.

Co-conscious, The
(Lat. co- + conscire, to know) Consciousness which is dissociated from the central core of a personality and of which that personality is unaware. The co-conscious and the unconscious consisting of neural structures and processes are, in the terminology of Morton Prince, the two species of the subconscious. (The Unconscious, pp. 247 ff.) -- L.W.

Coenaesthesis
(Gr. Koinos, common + aisthesis, feeling) Organic sensation (circulatory, digestive etc.) as distinguished from external sensation (visual, auditory, tactual etc.). See Somatic Datum. -- L.W.

Cogitatio
One of the two attributes (q.v.) of God which, according to Spinoza, are accessible to the human intellect (Ethica, II, passim) Though God is an infinite thinking thing, it is not possible so to define him; God is 'substance consisting of infinite attributes, etc.' (Ibid, I, Def. 6), and is thus beyond the grasp of the human mind which can know on...

Cogito Argument, The
(Lat. cogito, I think) An argument of the type employed by Descartes (Meditation II) to establish the existence of the self. Descartes' Cogito, ergo sum ('I think, therefore I exist') is an attempt to establish the existence of the self in any act of thinking, including even the act of doubting. The cogito ergo sum is, as Descartes himself insiste...

Cogito
In Husserl: A collective name for spontaneous acts, acts in which the ego lives. -- D.C.

Cognition
(Lat. cognoscere, to know) Knowledge in its widest sense including: non-propositional apprehension (perception, memory, introspection, etc.) as well as propositions or judgments expressive of such apprehension. Cognition, along with conation and affection, are the three basic aspects or functions of consciousness. See Consiousness, Epistemology. ...

Cognoscendum
(pl. cognoscenda) (Lat. cognoscere, to know) The object of a cognition. Cognoscenda may be real and existent e.g. in veridical perception and memory; abstract and ideal e.g. in conception and valuation; fictitious, e.g. in imagination and hallucination. See Object, Objective. -- L.W.

Cohen, Hermann
(1842-1918) and Paul Natorp (1854-1924) were the chief leaders of the 'Marburg School' which formed a definite branch of the Neo-Kantian movement. Whereas the original founders of this movement, O. Liebmann and Fr. A. Lange, had reacted to scientific empiricism by again calling attention to the a priori elements of cognition, the Marburg school co...

Cohen, Morris Raphael
(1880-) Emeritus Professor of Philosophy of the College of the City of New York. His contributions have been many in the fields of social, political and legal philosophy. He describes his view in general as realistic rationalism, a view that emphasizes the importance of intellect or reason as applied to what is, rather than in vacuo. He has found ...

Coherence Theory of Truth
Theory of knowledge which maintains that truth is a property primarily applicable to any extensive body of consistent propositions, and derivatively applicable to any one proposition in such a system by virtue of its part in the system. -- A.C.B.

Coleridge, Samuel Taylor
(1772-1834) Leading English poet of his generation along with his friend and associate, William Wordsworth. He was for a time a Unitarian preacher and his writings throughout display a keen interest in spiritual affairs. He was among the first to bring the German idealists to the attention of the English reading public. Of greatest philosophic int...

Colligation
(Lat. con + ligare, to bind) The assimilation of a number of separately observed facts to a unified conception or formula. The term was introduced by Whewcll who gives the eximple of the idea of an eliptical orbit which 'unifies all observations made on the positions of a planet' (see Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences, I Aphorism 1). J. S. Mill...

Combination of Ideas
According to Locke and his followers, the process by which the mind forms complex ideas out of the simple ideas furnished to it by experience, and one of the three ways in which the mind by its own activity can get new ideas not furnished to it from without (Locke, Essay concerning Human Understanding, Bk. II, ch. 12, 22). Conceived sometimes as a...

Combination
(Lat. combinare, to join) The process of forming a new whole by the union of parts; also the product of such union. Two types of combination are distinguishable: Composition is a union of parts such that the component parts are discernible in the compound. Thus the visual and factual data which combine to form a total percept are recognizable in ...

Combinatory Logic
A branch of mathematical logic, which has been extensively investigated by Curry, and which is concerned with analysis of processes of substitution, of the use of variables generally, and of the notion of a function. The program calls, in particular, for a system of logic in which variables are altogether eliminated, their place being taken by the...

Comedy
In Aristotle (Poetics), a play in which chief characters behave worse than men do in daily life, as contrasted with tragedy, where the main characters act more nobly. In Plato's Symposium, Socrates argues at the end that a writer of good comedies is able to write good tragedies. See Comic. Metaphysically, comedy in Hegel consists of regarding real...

Commentator, The
Name usually used for Averroes by the medieval authors of the 13th century and later. In the writings of the grammarians (modistae, dealing with modis significandi) often used for Petrus Heliae. -- R.A.

Common Sense Realism
A school of Scottish thinkers founded by Thomas Reid (1710-96) which attempted to set up a theory of knowledge which would support the realistic belief of the man on the street. (See Naive Realism.) The school began a movement of protest against Locke's theory which led to an eventual subjective idealism and skepticism. -- V.F.

Common Sense
In Aristotle's psychology the faculty by which the common sensibles are perceived. It is probable also that Aristotle attributes to this faculty the functions of perceiving what we perceive and of uniting the data of different senses into a single object. -- G.R.M.

Common Sensibles
(Lat. sensibilia communia) In the psychology of Aristotle the qualities of a sense object that may be apprehended by several senses; e.g. motion (or rest), number, shape, size; in distinction from the proper sensibles, or qualities that can be apprehended by only one sense, such as color, taste, smell. -- G.R.M.

Communication
(Lat. communicare, to share) Intercourse between minds or selves whereby sensations, imagery or conceptional meanings are transferred from one to another. Communication includes: ordinary sense-mediated communication by means of speech, writing, gesture, facial expression and bodily attitude and allegedly direct contact between minds by mental te...

Communication
A term used to refer to a certain feature of sign-situations, viz. the identity, similarity or correspondence of what is understood by the interpreter with what is, or is intended to be, expressed by the speaker. By a familiar ambiguity the term is used indiscriminately to refer either to the process by which such accordance is brought about, or t...

Communism
(Marxian) In its fullest sense, that stage of social development, which, following socialism (q.v.) is conceived to be characterized by an economy of abundance on a world wide scale in which the state as a repressive force (army, jails, police and the like) is considered unnecessary because irreconcilable class antagonisms will have disappeared, a...

Commutative law
is any law of the form x o y = y o x, or with the biconditional, etc., replacing equality -- compare Associative law. Commutative laws of addition and multiplication hold in arithmetic, also in the theory of real numbers, etc. In the propositional calculus there are commutative laws of conjunction, both kinds of disjunction, the biconditional, alte...