Dagobert D. Runes, Dictionary of Philosophy, 1942.
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Caitanya: (Skr.) Consciousness, "superconsciousness", a quality near the in-it-self aspect of the Absolute Spirit, and hence sometimes a synonym for it. -- K.F.L.
Calculus: The name calculus may be applied to any organized method of solving problems or drawing inferences by manipulation of symbols according to formal rules. Or an exact definition of a calculus may be provided by identifying it with a logistic system, (q.v.) satisfying the requirement of effectiveness.
In mathematics, the word calculus has many specific applications, all conforming more or less closely to the above statement. Sometimes, however, the simple phrase "the calculus" is used in referring to those branches of mathematical analysis (q.v.) which are known more explicitly as the differential calculus and the integral calculus. -- A.C.
Calkins, Mary Whiton: (1863-1930) Professor of Philosophy at Wellesley College with which institution she was associated from 1891. She advanced an objective idealism of the Roycean character, styling her views as absolutistic personalism. She endeavored to find psychological justification for her views in the gestalt theory. Her works were in both fields of her interest: An Introduction to Psychology, The Persistent Problems of Philosophy, The Good Man and the Good, among others. -- L.E.D.
Calvinism: A term covering the current of theological thought dating back to John Calvin (1509-1564) whose famous Institutes embodies its historic principles. Generally speaking, Calvinistic thought is a system in which God is made the center of all that is and happens, God's will pervading human and cosmic events, and upon whom man is utterly and cheerfully dependent. -- V.F.
Cambridge Platonists: A small group of 17th century Cambridge thinkers whose views represented a kind of revival of Platonism. Esp. Ralph Cudworth and Henry More. Remembered chiefly, perhaps, for holding that ethics rests on certain absolute and self-evident truths. -- W.K.F.
Newton was influenced by Henry More, e.g. in viewing space as the sensorium of God. See Cudworth, Deism. Cf. M.H. Nicolson, Conway Papers.
Cambridge School: A term loosely applied to English philosophers who have been influenced by the teachings of Professor G. E. Moore (mainly in unpublished lectures delivered at the Cambridge University, 1911-1939). In earlier years Moore stressed the need to accept the judgments of "common sense" on such matters as the existence of other persons, of an "external world", etc. The business of the analytical philosopher was not to criticise such judgments but to display the structure of the facts to which they referred. (Cf. "A defense of common-sense in philosophy," Contemporary British Philosophy, 2 (1925) -- Moore's only discussion of the method.) Such analysis would be directional, terminating in basic or atomic facts, all of whose constituents might be known by acquaintance. The examples discussed were taken largely from the field of epistemology, turning often about the problem of the relation of material objects to sense-data, and of indirect to direct knowledge. In this earlier period problems were often suggested by Russell's discussion of descriptions and logical constructions. The inconclusiveness of such specific discussions and an increasingly critical awareness of the functions of language in philosophical analysis has in later years tended to favor more flexible interpretations of the nature of analysis. (Cf. M. Black, "Relations Between Logical Positivism and the Cambridge School of Analysis", Journal of Unified Science (Erkenntnis), 8, 24-35 for a bibliography and list of philosophers who have been most influenced by emphasis on directional analysis.) -- M.B.
Campanella, Tommaso: (1568-1639) A Dominican monk in revolt against Aristotelianism, and influenced by the naturalism of Telesio, he arrived at philosophic conclusions in some ways prophetic of Descartes. Distrusting both the reports of the senses and the results of reasoning as indications of the nature of Reality, he found nothing trustworthy except the fact of his own existence, and the inferences drawn from that fact. As certain as his awareness of his own existence was the awareness of an external world to which experience referred and by which it was caused. Again, since the nature of the part is representative of the nature of the whole to which it belongs, the Universe of which the self is part must, like the part, be possessed of knowledge, will, and power. Hence I may infer from my own existence the existence of a God. Again, I must infer other of the divine nature more or less perfect manifestations than myself descending from the hierarchy of angels above man to the form or structure of the world, the ultimate corporeal elements, and the sensible phenomena produced by these elements of the physical universe, below him in the scale of perfection.
All nature is suffused with a love of God and a desire to return to him, witnessed by the laws of motion governing inanimate bodies, the law of self-preservation in organic life, and by man's conscious search for the divine.
Campanella was a political philosopher. In his City of the Sun he conceived a Utopia built on Platonic lines. He was also an ardent champion of the temporal power of the Papacy and of its political as well as its religious sovereignty through the world. -- B.A.G.F.
Canon: (Gr. kanon, rule) A term reminiscent of the arts and crafts, sometimes applied, since Epicurus who replaced the ancient dialectics by a canonics (kanonike), to any norm or rule which the logical process obeys. Thus John Stuart Mill speaks of five experimental methods as being regulated by certain canons. Kant defined canon as the sum total of all principles a priori of the correct use of our powers of knowledge. See Baconian method, Mill's methods. -- K.F.L.
Cantor, Georg (Ferdinand Ludwig Philipp), 1845-1918, (Russian born) German mathematician. Professor of mathematics at Halle, 1872-1913. He is known for contributions to the foundations of (mathematical) analysis, and as the founder of the theory of transfinite cardinal numbers (q.v.) and ordinal numbers (q.v.). See Infinite. -- A.C.
Gesammelte Abhandlungen Mathematischen und Philosophischen Inhalts, edited by E. Zermelo, and with a life by A. Fraenkel, Berlin, 1932.
Capacity:Any ability, potentiality, power or talent possessed by anything, either to act or to suffer. It may be innate or acquired, dormant or active. The topic of capacity figures, in the main, in two branches of philosophy: (a) in metaphysics, as in Aristotle's discussion of potentiality and actuality, (b) in ethics, where an agent's capacities are usually regarded as having some bearing on the question as to what his duties are. -- W.K.F.
Capitalism: A mode of economic production which is characterized by the fact that the instruments of production (land, factories, raw materials, etc.) are controlled to a greater or lesser extent by private individuals or groups. Since the control an individual can exercise over means of production is never absolute and as a matter of fact fluctuates widely with the ever-changing natural and social environment, "capitalism" is a very loose term which covers a host of actually different economic systems. An implication of this basic notion of individual control is that the individual will control production in his own interests. The ideological counterpart to this fact is the concept of "profit," just as the ideological counterpart to the control itself is the myth of "private property" and "free enterprise." -- M.B.M.
Capitalists: The economic class (q.v.) which owns means of production and hires people at wages to work them, thereby realizing profits. -- J.M.S.
Cardinal number: Two classes are equivalent if there exists a one-to-one correspondence between them (see One-one). Cardinal numbers are obtained by abstraction (q. v.) with respect to equivalence, so that two classes have the same cardinal number if and only if they are equivalent. This may be formulated more exactly, following Frege, by defining the cardinal number of a class to be the class of classes equivalent to it.
If two classes a and b have no members in common, the cardinal number of the logical sum of a and b is uniquely determined by the cardinal numbers of a and b, and is called the sum of the cardinal number of a and the cardinal number of b.
0 is the cardinal number of the null class. 1 is the cardinal number of a unit class (all unit classes have the same cardinal number).
A cardinal number is inductive if it is a member of every class t of cardinal numbers which has the two properties, (1) 0∈ t, and (2) for all x, if x∈ t and y is the sum of x and 1, then y∈ t. In other (less exact) words, the inductive cardinal numbers are those which can be reached from 0 by successive additions of 1. A class b is infinite if there is a class a, different from b, such that a ⊂ b and a is equivalent to b. In the contrary case b is finite. The cardinal number of an infinite class is said to be infinite, and of a finite class, finite. It can be proved that every inductive cardinal number is finite, and, with the aid of the axiom of choice, that every finite cardinal number is inductive.
The most important infinite cardinal number is the cardinal number of the class of inductive cardinal numbers (0, 1, 2, . . .); it is called aleph-zero and symbolized by a Hebrew letter aleph followed by an inferior 0.
For brevity and simplicity in the preceding account we have ignored complications introduced by the theory of types, which are considerable and troublesome. Modifications are also required if the account is to be incorporated into the Zermelo set theory. --A.C. G. Cantor, Contributions to the Founding of the Theory of Trasfinite Numbers, translated and with an introduction bv P.E.B. Jourdain, Chicago and London, 1915. Whitehead and Russell, Principia Mathematica, vol. 2.
Cardinal Point and Value: Psychological terms having to do with relationship of stimulus to the intensity of sensation. The point at which the proportionate increase of both is in a direct relation. -- C.K.D.
Cardinal virtues: The cardinal virtues for a given culture are those which it regards as primary, the others being regarded either as derived from them or as relatively unimportant. Thus the Greeks had four, wisdom, courage, temperance, and justice, to which the Christians added three, faith, hope, and love or charity. -- W.K.S.
Carlyle, Thomas: (1795-1881) Vigorous Scotch historian and essayist, apostle of work. He was a deep student of the German idealists and did much to bring them before English readers. His forceful style showed marked German characteristics. He was not in any sense a systematic philosopher but his keen mind gave wide influence to the ideas he advanced in ethics, politics and economics. His whimsical Sartor Resartus or philosophy of clothes and his searching Heroes and Hero-worship, remain his most popular works along with his French Revolution and Past and Present. He was among the Victorians who displayed some measure of distrust for democracy. -- L.E.D.
Carnap, Rudolf: (1891-) successively Privatdozent at the University of Vienna, Professor of Philosophy at the German University of Prague, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Chicago (since 1936); one of the leading representatives of the positivism of the Vienna Circle and subsequently of Scientific Empiricism (q.v.); co-editor of The Journal of Unified Science (previously: Erkenntnis).
Carnap's work has been devoted especially to formal logic and its applications to problems of epistemology and the philosophy of science. His writings in formal logic include a textbook of mathematical logic and a comprehensive monograph devoted to logical syntax, a new branch of logical research to whose development Carnap has greatly contributed.
In his logical work, he has been specially interested in the nature of mathematics and its relation to logic. He has treated these topics in a number of special articles and in a monograph. The latter also includes an introduction to the youngest field of modern logic, semantics.
Carnap's contributions to the study of epistemological and philosophical problems may be characterized as applications of the methods of logical analysis to the languages of everyday life and of science. His books contain applications to the fundamental problems of epistemology, expound the principles of physicalism (q.v.) which was developed by Carnap and Neurath and which offers, amongst others, a basis for a more cautious version of the ideas of older behaviorism and for the construction of one common unified language for all branches of empirical science (see Unity of Science). Main works: Logische Aufblou der Welt; Abriss der Logistik; Logische Syntax der Sprache "Testability and Meaning," Phil. of Sci. (1916). -- C.G.H.
Carneades: (c. 215-125 B.C.) The most prominent head of the Middle Academy and opponent of the Stoics. His most noteworthy contribution to philosophy consisted in the doctrine of logical probabilism as a basis of scepticism. -- R.B.W.
Cartesianism: The philosophy of the French thinker, Rene Descartes (Cartesius) 1596-1650. After completing his formal education at the Jesuit College at La Fleche, he spent the years 1612-1621 in travel and military service. The reminder of his life was devoted to study and writing. He died in Sweden, where he had gone in 1649 to tutor Queen Christina. His principal works are:
- Discours de la methode, (preface to his Geometric, Meteores, Dieptrique) Meditationes de prima philosophia,
- Principia philosophiae,
- Passions de l'ame,
- Regulae ad directionem ingenii,
- Le monde.
Descartes is justly regarded as one of the founders of modern epistemology. Dissatisfied with the lack of agreement among philosophers, he decided that philosophy needed a new method, that of mathematics. He began by resolving to doubt everything which could not pass the test of his criterion of truth, viz. the clearness and distinctness of ideas. Anything which could pass this test was to be readmitted as self-evident. From self-evident truths, he deduced other truths which logically follow from them. Three kinds of ideas were distinguished:
- innate, by which he seems to mean little more than the mental power to think things or thoughts;
- adventitious, which come to him from without;
- factitious, produced within his own mind.
He found most difficulty with the second type of ideas. The first reality discovered through his method is the thinking self. Though he might doubt nearly all else, Descartes could not reasonably doubt that he, who was thinking, existed as a res cogitans. This is the intuition enunciated in the famous aphorism: I think, therefore I am, Cogito ergo sum. This is not offered by Descartes as a compressed syllogism, but as an immediate intuition of his own thinking mind. Another reality, whose existence was obvious to Descartes, was God, the Supreme Being. Though he offered several proofs of the Divine Existence, he was convinced that he knew this also by an innate idea, and so, clearly and distinctly. But he did not find any clear ideas of an extra-mental, bodily world. He suspected its existence, but logical demonstration was needed to establish this truth. His adventitious ideas carry the vague suggestion that they are caused by bodies in an external world. By arguing that God would be a deceiver, in allowing him to think that bodies exist if they do not, he eventually convinced himself of the reality of bodies, his own and others. There are, then, three kinds of substance according to Descartes:
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Created spirits, i.e. the finite soul-substance of each man: these are immaterial agencies capable of performing spiritual operations, loosely united with bodies, but not extended since thought is their very essence.
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Uncreated Spirit, i.e. God, confined neither to space nor time, All-Good and All-Powerful, though his Existence can be known clearly, his Nature cannot be known adequately by men on earth, He is the God of Christianity, Creator, Providence and Final Cause of the universe.
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Bodies, i.e. created, physical substances existing independently of human thought and having as their chief attribute, extension. Cartesian physics regards bodies as the result of the introduction of "vortices", i.e. whorls of motion, into extension. Divisibility, figurability and mobility, are the notes of extension, which appears to be little more thin what Descartes' Scholastic teachers called geometrical space.
God is the First Cause of all motion in the physical universe, which is conceived as a mechanical system operated by its Maker. Even the bodies of animals are automata. Sensation is the critical problem in Cartesian psychology; it is viewed by Descartes as a function of the soul, but he was never able to find a satisfactory explanation of the apparent fact that the soul is moved by the body when sensation occurs. The theory of animal spirits provided Descartes with a sort of bridge between mind and matter, since these spirits are supposed to be very subtle matter, halfway, as it were, between thought and extension in their nature. However, this theory of sensation is the weakest link in the Cartesian explanation of cognition. Intellectual error is accounted for by Descartes in his theory of assent, which makes judgment an act of free will. Where the will over-reaches the intellect, judgment may be false. That the will is absolutely free in man, capable even of choosing what is presented by the intellect as the less desirable of two alternatives, is probably a vestige of Scotism retained from his college course in Scholasticism. Common-sense and moderation are the keynotes of Descartes' famous rules for the regulation of his own conduct during his nine years of methodic doubt, and this ethical attitude continued throughout his life. He believed that man is responsible ultimately to God for the courses of action that he may choose. He admitted that conflicts may occur between human passions and human reason. A virtuous life is made possible by the knowledge of what is right and the consequent control of the lower tendencies of human nature. Six primary passions are described by Descartes wonder, love, hatred, desire, joy and sorrow. These are passive states of consciousness, partly caused by the body, acting through the animal spirits, and partly caused by the soul. Under rational control, they enable the soul to will what is good for the body. Descartes' terminology suggests that there are psychological faculties, but he insists that these powers are not really distinct from the soul itself, which is man's sole psychic agency. Descartes was a practical Catholic all his life and he tried to develop proofs of the existence of God, an explanation of the Eucharist, of the nature of religious faith, and of the operation of Divine Providence, using his philosophy as the basis for a new theology. This attempted theology has not found favor with Catholic theologians in general.
Apart from philosophy, Descartes' contribution to the development of analytical geometry, the theory of music and the science of optics, are noteworthy achievements.
Descartes is one of the fathers of modern philosophy; his general influence is too extensive to be detailed. Leibniz, Spinoza, Malebranche, Clauberg, De La Forge, Geulincx, Placentius, Chouet, Legrand, Corneio -- these and many others spread Cartesianism throughout Europe. (See Boutroux, "Descartes and Cartesianism," Camb. Mod. Hist., IV, ch. 27.) At present, German Phenomenology, French Spiritualism and Positivism, Bergsonism, and certain forms of Catholic thought represented by J. Geyser in Germany and M. Blondel in France, are offshoots of Cartesianism.
Oeuvres completes, ed. C. Adam et P. Tannery, 13 vols. (Paris, 1896-1911). The Philos. Works of Descartes, transl. by Haldane and Ross, 2 vols. (Cambridge, 1911-12). Fischer, K., Descartes and his School (London, 1887). Gilson, E., Le role de la pensee medievale dans la formation du systeme cartesien (Paris, 1930). Maritain, J., Le songe de Descartes (Paris, 1932). Gemelli, A. (ed.), Cartesio (symposium) (Milan, 1937). -- V.J.B.
Cassirer, Ernst: (1874-) Has been chiefly interested in developing the position of the neo-Kantian Philosophy of the Marburg School as it relates to scientific knowledge. Looking at the history of modern philosophy as a progressive formulation of this position, he has sought to extend it by detailed analyses of contemporary scientific developments. Of note are Cassirer's investigations in mathematics, his early consideration of chemical knowledge, and his treatment of Einstein's relativity theory. Main works: Das Erkenntntsprobleme, 3 vols. (1906); Substanz-u-Funktionsbegriff, 1910 (tr. Substance and Function); Philosophie der Symbolischen Forme (1923); Phanom. der Erkenntnis, 1929; Descartes; Leibniz. --C.K.D.
Casualism: The doctrine that all things and events come to be by chance. E.g., the view of the Epicureans.
Casuistic: Adjective; pertaining to casuistry and casuists, or relating to case histories, especially cases of conduct. In a depreciative sense, sophistical and misleading. -- J.J.R.
Casuistry: Study of cases of conscience and a method of solving conflicts of obligations by applying general principles of ethics, religion, and moral theology to particular and concrete cases of human conduct. This frequently demands an extensive knowledge of natural law and equity, civil law, ecclesiastical precepts, and an exceptional skill in interpreting these various norms of conduct. It becomes necessary to determine the degree of guilt and responsibility and weigh all the circumstances of the case, especially by taking into account all the conditions affecting motive and consent. -- J.J.R.
Catechetic: Noun ordinarily employed in the plural, denoting the method and practice of imparting religious instruction orally by means of questions and answers, especially to children. -- J.J.R.
Categorematic: In traditional 1ogic, denoting or capable of denoting a term, or of standing for a subject or predicate- -- said of words. Opposite of syncategorematic (q.v.). --A.C.
Categorial: A priori or non-empirical elements. (Alexander). -- H.H.
(Ger. kategorial) In Husserl: Of or pertaining to the function or the result of ego-spontaneity as conffering logical form on substrates and producing syntactical objects. -- D.C.
Categorical Imperative: (Kant. Ger. kategorischer Imperativ) The supreme, absolute moral law of rational, self-determining beings. Distinguished from hypothetical or conditional imperatives which admit of exceptions. Kant formulated the categorical imperative as follows "Act on maxims which can at the same time have for their object themselves as universal laws of nature." See Kantianism. -- O.F.K.
Categorical (Judgment): (Gr. kategorikos, affirmative, predicative) Aristotle: Affirmative explicit; direct. Commentators on Aristotle emphasized the opposition between categorical and conditional propositions, although Aristotle did not stress this connotation of the term. -- G.R.M.
(In Kant) A judgment comprising two concepts related by a copula, typically an attribute (predicate) asserted of a substance or thing (subject). Kant denied that hypothetical and disjunctive propositions can be reduced to categorical ones and insisted that each of the forms of judgment denotes a distinct function of the understanding. See Logik, § 24. -- O.F.K.
Category: (Gr. kategoria) In Aristotle's logic (1) the predicate of a proposition; (2) one of the ultimate modes of being that may be asserted in predication, viz.: substance, quantity, quality, relation, place, time, position, state, action, passion. -- G.R.M.
(in Kant) Any of twelve forms or relating principles of the understanding, constituting necessary conditions of experience. Kant sought to deriv e an exhaustive list of pure forms of the understanding from the forms of judgment in the traditional logic. His list of categories comprises three each of quantity, quality, relation, and modality. See Kantianism. -- O.F.K.
Category of Unity: Kant: The first of three a priori, quantitative (so-called "mathematical") categories (the others being "plurality" and "totality") from which is derived the synthetic principle, "All intuitions (appearances) are extensive magnitudes." By means of this principle Kant seeks to define the object of experience a priori with reference to its spatial features. See Crit. of pure Reason, B106, B202ff. -- O.F.K
Catharsis: (Gr. katharsis) Purification; purgation; specifically the purging of the emotions of pity and fear effected by tragedy (Aristotle). -- G.R.M.
In aesthetics: Purification of and liberation from passions in art (Aristotle). First idea of the distinction between form and sentiment. -- L.V.
Catvari arya-satyani: (Skr.) "The four noble truths" of Gautama Buddha's (q.v.) teaching: Suffering exists; it has a cause; it may cease; there is a path leading to its cessation. -- K.F.L.
Causa sui: Cause of itself; necessary existence. Causa sui conveys both a negative and a positive meaning. Negatively, it signifies that which is from itself (a se), that which does not owe its being to something else; i.e., absolute independence of being, causelessness (God as uncaused). Positively, causa sui means that whose very nature or essence involves existence; i.e., God is the ground of his own being, and regarded as "cause" of his own being, he is, as it were, efficient cause of his own existence (Descartes). Since existence necessarily follows from the very essence of that which is cause of itself, causa sui is defined as that whose nature cannot be conceived as not existing (Spinoza). -- A.G.A.B.
Causality: (Lat. causa) The relationship between a cause and its effect. This relationship has been defined as
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a relation between events, processes, or entities in the same time series, such that
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when one occurs, the other necessarily follows (sufficient condition),
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when the latter occurs, the former must have preceded (necessary condition),
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both conditions a and b prevail (necessary and sufficient condition),
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when one occurs under certain conditions, the other necessarily follows (contributory, but not sufficient, condition) ("multiple causality" would be a case involving several causes which are severally contributory and jointly sufficient); the necessity in these cases is neither that of logical implication nor that of coercion;
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a relation between events, processes, or entities in the same time series such that when one occurs the other invariably follows (invariable antecedence),
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a relation between events, processes, or entities such that one has the efficacy to produce or alter the other;
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a relation between events, processes, or entities such that without one the other could not occur, as in the relation between
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the material out of which a product is made and the finished product (material cause),
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structure or form and the individual embodying it (formal cause),
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a goal or purpose (whether supposed to exist in the future as a special kind of entity, outside a time series, or merely as an idea of the pur-poser) and the work fulfilling it (final cause),
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a moving force and the process or result of its action (efficient cause);
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a relation between experienced events, processes, or entities and extra-experiential but either temporal or non-temporal events, processes, or entities upon whose existence the former depend;
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a relation between a thing and itself when it is dependent upon nothing else for its existence (self-causality);
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a relation between an event, process, or entity and the reason or explanation for its being;
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a relation between an idea and an experience whose expectation the idea arouses because of customary association of the two in this sequence;
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a principle or category introducing into experience one of the aforesaid types of order; this principle may be inherent in the mind, invented by the mind, or derived from experience; it may be an explanatory hypothesis, a postulate, a convenient fiction, or a necessary form of thought. Causality has been conceived to prevail between processes, parts of a continuous process, changing parts of an unchanging whole, objects, events, ideas, or something of one of these types and something of another. When an entity, event, or process is said to follow from another, it may be meant that it must succeed but can be neither contemporaneous with nor prior to the other, that it must either succeed or be contemporaneous with and dependent upon but cannot precede the other, or that one is dependent upon the other but they either are not in the same time series or one is in no time series at all.
-- M.T.K.
Cause: (Lat. causa) Anything responsible for change, motion or action. In the history of philosophy numerous interpretations were given to the term. Aristotle distinguished among
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the material cause, or that out of which something arises,
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the formal cause, that is, the pattern or essence determining the creation of a thing,
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the efficient cause, or the force or agent producing an effect; and
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the final cause, or purpose. Many thinkers spoke also of
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the first cause, usually conceived as God.
During the Renaissance, with the development of scientific interest in nature, cause was usually conceived as an object. Today, it is generally interpteted as energy or action, whether or not connected with matter. According to Newton, "to the same natural effects we must, as far as possible, assign the same causes." But J. S. Mill contended, in his doctrine of the plurality of causes, that an effect, or a kind of effect (e.g. heat or death) may be produced by various causes. The first clear formulation of the principle was given by Leukippus "Nothing happens without a ground but everything through a cause and of necessity." -- R.B.W.
In scholasticism: Four causes are distinguished, in accordance with Aristotle. Efficient cause, by which any change is brought about in the order new being arises -- prime matter in regard to substantial second matter in regard to accidental forms (Cf. Form, Matter) -- formal cause, the act by which a material substratum is determined towards a new being -- substantial or accidental -- final cause, that because of which something is or becomes. All things tend towards an end by a "natural appetite". -- R.A.
Cause-theory (of mind, body): The influence of mind upon body or body upon mind or both upon each other. This influence may be of any type, e.g., productive, directive, or a stimulus to activity. -- V.F.
Centre-theory: Ascribes the unity of the mind to a certain particular existent centre, "which stands in a common asymmetrical relation to all the mental events" of a certain mind. (Broad). --H.H.
Certainty: (Lat. Certus, sure) The alleged indubitability of certain truths, especially of logic and mathematics. -- L.W.
Certitude: Consists in the firmness, by which the mind adheres to any proposition, whereas evidence, besides the firmness of adhesion, implies also the quietude (or satisfaction) of the intellect in the thing known either because from a comparison. If the terms we immediately know the relation between a subject and predicate, or because, immediately, with the help of deduction we perceive an adequate reason for a thing. Hence for certitude to exist in the mind, it is sufficient that the cause from which it arises be of such a nature as to exclude all fear of the opposite, whereas for evidence, it is required that the intellect fully grasp that which it knows. -- H.G.
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-incidence of two causally determined series of events. In Peirce (q.v.), a vera causa and metaphysically grounded category. See Tychism.
Chang Heng-ch'u: (Chang Tsai, Chang Tzu-hou, 1021-1077) Was a typical Confucian government official and teacher. When young, he was interested in military strategy. He studied the Chung Yung (Golden Mean) at the advice of a prominent scholar, and went on to Taoist and Buddhist works. But he finally returned to the Confucian classics, explored their meanings and discussed them with the Ch'eng brothers. His works called Chang Heng-ch'u Hsien-sheng Ch'uan-chi (complete works of Master Chang Heng-ch'u) are indispensable to the study of the Neo-Confucian (li hsueh) movement. -- W.T.C.
Ch'ang: (a) "Invariables" or universal and eternal laws or principles running through the phenomenal change of the universe. (Lao Tzu). (b) Constant virtues. See wu ch'ang. -- H.H.
Ch'ang sheng: (a) Everlasting existence, such as that of Heaven and Earth, because of their "not existing for themselves." (Lao Tzu). (b) Long life, as a result of the nourishment of the soul and rich accumulation of virtue. (Taoist philosophy), (c) Immortality, to be achieved through internal alchemy and external alchemy (lien tan). (Taoist religion). -- W.T.C.
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.
Ch'an wei: Prognostics in 300 B.C.-400 A.D., a system represented by a group of prophetic writings called ch'an and a group of apocryphal "complements" or "woofs" to the Confucian classics, called wei, in an attempt to interpret the classics in terms of medieval Chinese theology, the theory of correspondence between man and the universe, and the Yin Yang philosophy. (Tung Chung-shu, 177-104 B.C., etc.). -- W.T.C.
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 and understand. It represents an adumbration of the more recent and more successful logistic treatment of mathematics and science. It is to be distinguished, however, from the "universal calculus," also projected by Leibniz, which was to be the instrument for the development and manipulation of systems in the universal language. -- W.K.F.
L. Couturat, La Logique de Leibniz (1901).
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 because of an insufficient distinction between character, personality, and person. But all agree that character manifests itself in the behavior of a person. One can distinguish a merely descriptive approach, one of classification, and one of interpretation. The general viewpoints of interpretation influence also description and classification, since they determine what is considered "important" and lay down the rules by which to distinguish and to classify. One narrow interpretation looks at character mainly as the result of inborn properties, rooted in organic constitution; character is considered, therefore, as essentially unchangeable and predetermined. The attempts at establishing correlations between character and body-build (Kretschmer a.o.) are a special form of such narrow interpretation. It makes but little difference if, besides inborn properties, the influence of environmental factors is acknowledged. The rationalistic interpretation looks at character mainly as the result of convictions. These convictions are seen as purely intellectual in extreme rationalism (virtue is knowledge, Socrates), or as referring to the value-aspect of reality which is conceived as apprehended by other than merely intellectual operations. Thus, Spranger gives a classification according to the "central values" dominating a man's behavior. (Allport has devised practical methods of character study on this basis.) Since the idea a person has of values and their order may change, character is conceived as essentially mutable, even if far going changes may be unfrequent. Character-education is the practical application of the principles of characterology and thus depends on the general idea an author holds in regard to human nature. Character is probably best defined as the individual's way of preferring or rejecting values. It depends on the innate capacities of value-apprehension and on the way these values are presented to the individual. Therefore the enormous influence of social factors. -- R.A.
Characters: Statements or E-values like pleasant, true, known; all possible ego attitudes and feelings are so termed. (See Avenarius). --H.H.
Ch'eng:
- Honesty; sincerity; absence of fault; actuality.
- Reverence; seriousness.
- Being one's true self; absolute true self; truth, in the sense of "fulfillment of the self," which "is the beginning and end of material existence," and "without which there is no material existence." "Being true to oneself (or sincerity) is the law of Heaven. To try to be true to oneself is the law of man." "Only those who are their absolute true selves in the world can fulfill their own nature," "the nature of others," "the nature of things," "help Nature in growing and sustaining," and "become equals of Heaven and Earth." (Early Confucianism, Neo-Confucianism.)
Being true to the nature of being (of man and things), which is "the character of the sage," "the basis of the five cardinal moral principles and the source of the moral life." It is "the state of tranquillity without movement." (Chou Lien-hsi, 1017-1073.) "Sincerity (ch'eng) is the way of Heaven, whereas seriousness (ching) is the essence of human affairs. When there is seriousness, there is sincerity." "Sincerity means 'to have no depraved thought'." (Ch'eng I-ch'uan, 1033-1107 and Ch'eng Ming-tao, 1032-1086.) "It may also be expressed as the principle of reality." (Chu Hsi, 1130-1200.) -- 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.
Ch'eng I-ch'uan: (Ch'eng-I, Ch'eng-cheng-shu, 1033-1107) Was younger brother of Ch'eng Ming-tao. He led an active life as a high government official and a prominent teacher. "There was no book which he did not read and he studied with absolute sincerity. With the Great Learning, the Analects, Works of Mencius and the Chung Yung (Golden Mean) as basis, he penetrated all the six (Confucian) classics." He ranks with his brother as great Neo-Confucians. -- 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.
Ch'eng ming: (a) To arrive at understanding from being one's true self. This is due to one's nature, whereas to arrive at being one's true self from understanding is a matter of culture. (Confucianism).
(b) The knowledge that rises above distinctions, attainable only when the human mind, completely comprehends Heaven, nature and the moral law. (Chang Heng-Ch'u, 1020-1077). -- W.T.C.
Ch'eng Ming-tao: (Ch'eng Hou, Ch'eng Po-tun, 1032-1086) Served as government official both in the capital and in various counties with excellent records in social and educational achievements. For decades he studied Taoism and Buddhism but finally repudiated them. Together with his brother, he developed new aspects of Confucianism and became the greatest Confucian since Mencius and a leader of Neo-Confucianism (li hsueh). His works and those of his brother, called Erh Ch'eng Ch'uan-shu (complete works of the Ch'eng brothers), number 107 chuans, in 14 Chinese volumes. -- W.T.C.
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.
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, between 399 and 295 B.C.). -- W.T.C.
Ch'i:
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Breath; the vital fluid.
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Force; spirit.
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The vital force, as expressed in the operation and succession of the active principle (yang) and the passive principle (yin) and the Five Agents or Elements (wu hsing).
To Chou Lien-hsi (1017-1073), this material principle is identical with yin yang and the Five Elements. To Chang Heng-ch'u (1020-1077) it is the reality of the Ultimate Vacuity, having the two aspects of yin and yang. It is to the Ultimate Vacuity (Tai Hsu) as ice is to water. Ch'eng I-ch'uan (1033-1107) and Ch'eng Ming-tao (1032-1086) considered all that has physical form to be identical with the vital force. It is the principle of differentiation and individuation. When a thing disintegrates, the vital force is at an end, not to appear again in the creative process. A new entity is constituted of new vital force. Thus it is also the principle of novelty in creation. It is produced by Reason (li). But to the Neo-Confucians, especially Chi Hsi (1130-1200), Reason has no control over it. The two can never be separated; without it, Reason would having nothing to be embodied in.
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In aesthetics: Rhythmic vitality; vitalizing spirit; strength of expression or brush stioke.
-- W.T.C.
Ch'i: A material thing, whatever is within the realm of matter; corporeality; whatever has form. (Confucianism and Neo-Confucianism.) -- W.T.C.
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 the folk religion of nature and spirit worship, respectively. -- W.T.C.
Ch'i chia: Ordering one's home life by the practice of such virtues as filial piety, respect for one's elder brothers, and parental kindness or love, as a necessary condition for the ordering of national life. (Confucianism). -- W.T.C.
Chieh hsuan: Emancipation. See Hsuan chieh. -- W.T.C.
Ch'ien: Heaven, symbolized by ≡ in the Eight Trigrams (pa kua); the trigram of the male cosmic principle, yang, opposite of k'un. --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: (a) Memory, (b) Purpose, will. -- 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 Tao.
- Intuitive knowledge (liang chih). (Wang Yang-ming, 1473-1529.) -- 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: Basic stuff; essence; solid quality; solid worth. (Confucianism). -- 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 understood. In Wang Yang-ming (1473-1529), it means "extension to the utmost of the mind's intuitive knowledge of good -- the knowledge of good which Mencius calls the good-evil mind and which all people have." (Neo-Confucianism). -- W.T.C.
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
Ch'i hsueh: The intellectual movement in the state of Ch'i. See Chi Hsia.
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: 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.
Ch'in:
- Personal experience, or knowledge obtained through the contact of one's knowing faculty and the object to be known. (Neo-Mohists.)
- Parents.
- Kinship, as distinguished from the more remote relatives and strangers, such distinction being upheld by Confucians as essential to the social structure but severely attacked by the Mohists and Legalists as untenable in the face of the equality of men.
- Affection, love, which it is important for a ruler to have toward his people and for children toward parents. (Confucianism.)
-- 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 (tzu jan), "inaction" (wu wei) in the sense of non-artificiality or following nature, simplicity (p'u), "emptiness," tranquillity and enlightenment, all dedicated to the search for "long life and lasting vision" (in the case of Lao Tzu, 570 B.C.?), for "preserving life and keeping the essence of our being intact" (in the case of Yang Chu, c. 440-360 B.C.), and for "companionship with nature" (in the case of Chuang Tzu, between 399 and 295 B.C.). The notes of the "equality of things and opinions" (ch'i wu) and the "spontaneous and unceasing transformation of things" (tzu hua) were particularly stressed in Chuang Tzu.
Confucianism (ju chia), on the other hand, advocated true manhood (jen) as the highest good, the superior man (chun tzu) as the ideal being, and cultivation of life (hsiu shen) as the supreme duty of man. It was toward this moralism and humanism that Confucius (551-479 B.C.) taught the doctrines of "chung," or being true to the principles of one's nature, and "shu," or the application of those principles in relation to others, as well as the doctrine of the Golden Mean (chung yung), i.e., "to find the central clue of our moral being and to be harmonious with the universe." Humanism was further strengthened by Mencius (371-289 B.C.) who insisted that man must develop his nature fully because benevolence (jen) and righteousness (i) are natural to his nature which is originally good, and again reinforced by Hsun Tzu (c. 335-286 BC) who, contending that human nature is evil, advocated the control of nature. Amid this antagonism between naturalism and humanism, however, both schools conceived reality as unceasing change (i) and incessant transformation, perpetually in progress due to the interaction of the active (yang) and passive (yin) cosmic principles.
Taoism, however, became too mystical, and Confucianism too formalistic. "Hundred schools" grew and flourished, many in direct opposition to Taoism and Confucianism. There was Mohism (Mo, founded by Mo Tzu, between 500 and 396 B.C.) which rejected formalism in favor of "benefit" and "utility" which are to be promoted through universal love (chien ai), practical observation and application, and obedience to the will of Heaven. There was Neo-Mohism (Mo che, 300 B.C.) which, in trying to prove the thesis of Mohism, developed an intricate system of logic. There was Sophism (ming chia, 400 B.C.) which displayed much sophistry about terms and concepts, particularly about the relationship between substance and quality (chien pai). There was Legalism (fa chia, 500-200 B.C.) which advocated law, statecraft, and authority as effective instruments of government. finally, there was the Yin Yang school (400-200 B.C.) which emphasized yin and yang as the two fundamental principles, always contrasting but complementary, and underlying all conceivable objects, qualities, situations, and relationships. It was this school that provided a common ground for the fusion of ancient divergent philosophical tendencies in medieval China.
Medieval Chinese philosophy was essentially a story of the synthesis of indigenous philosophies and the development of Buddhism. In the second century B.C., the Yin Yang movement identified itself with the common and powerful movement under the names of the Yellow Emperor and Lao Tzu (Huang Lao). This, in turn, became interfused with Confucianism and produced the mixture which was the Eclectic Sinisticism lasting till the tenth century A.D. In both Huai-nan Tzu (d. 122 B.C.), the semi-Taoist, and Tung Chung-shu (177-104- B.C.), the Confucian, Taoist metaphysics and Confucian ethics mingled with each other, with yin and yang as the connecting links. As the cosmic order results from the harmony of yin and yang in nature, namely, Heaven and Earth, so the moral order results from the harmony of yang and yin in man, such as husband and wife, human nature and passions, and love and hate. The Five Agents (wu hsing), through which the yin yang principles operate, have direct correspondence not only with the five directions, the five metals, etc., in nature, but also with the five Constant Virtues, the five senses, etc., in man, thus binding nature and man in a neat macrocosm-microcosm relationship. Ultimately this led to superstition, which Wang Ch'ung (27-c. 100 A.D.) vigorously attacked. He reinstated naturalism on a rational ground by accepting only reason and experience, and thus promoted the critical spirit to such an extent that it gave rise to a strong movement of textual criticism and an equally strong movement of free political thought in the few centuries after him.
In the meantime, Taoism degenerated and identified itself with the lowest forms of religious worship. Its naturalistic philosophy was carried to the point of fatalistic mechanism in Lieh Tzu (c. 300 A.D.) and was made the theoretical basis for alchemy and the search for longevity in Ko Hung (c. 268-c. 334 A.D.). In Kuo Hsiang (c. 312 A.D.), however, the true spirit of Taoism revived. He restored and developed the Taoist doctrines of naturalism and spontaneous transformation to a position of dignity.
Parallel with these developments was the growth of Buddhism in China, a story too long to relate here. Many Buddhist doctrines, latent in India, were developed in China. The nihilism of Madhyamika (Sun-lan, c. 450-c. 1000) to the effect that reality is Void in the sense of being "devoid" of any specific character, was brought to fullness, while the idealism of Vijnaptimatravada (Yogacara, Fahsiang, 563-c. 1000), which claimed that reality in its imaginary, dependent and absolute aspects is "representation-only," was pushed to the extreme. But these philosophies failed because their extreme positions were not consonant with the Chinese Ideal of the golden mean. In the meantime, China developed her own Buddhist philosophy consistent with her general philosophical outlook. We need only mention the Hua-yen school (Avatamisaka, 508) which offered a totalistic philosophy of "all in one" and "one in all," the T'ien-t'ai school (c. 550) which believes in the identity of the Void, Transitoriness, and the Mean, and in the "immanence of 3,000 worlds in one moment of thought," and the Chin-t'u school (Pure Land, c. 500) which bases its doctrine of salvation by faith and salvation for all on the philosophy of the universality of Buddha-nature. These schools have persisted because they accepted both noumenon and phenomenon, both ens and non-ens, and this "both-and" spirit is predominantly characteristic of Chinese philosophy.
The most strange development was Ch'an (Meditation, Zen, c. 500). It is basically a method of "direct intuition into the heart to find Buddha-nature," a method based, on the one hand, on the eightfold negation of production and extinction, annihilation and permanence, unity and diversity, and coming and departing, and, on the other hand, on the affirmation of the reality of the Buddha-nature in all things. Its sole reliance on meditation was most un-Chinese, but it imposed on the Chinese mind a severe mental and spiritual discipline which was invigorating as well as fascinating. For this reason, it exerted tremendous influence not only on Taoism which had much in common with it and imitated it in every way, but also on Neo-Confucianism, which stood in diametrical opposition to it.
Neo-Confucianism developed in three phases, namely the Reason school in the Sung period (960-1279), the Mind school in the Ming period (1388-1644) and the Moral-Law school in the Ch-ing period (1644-1911). The central idea of the movement is focused on the Great Ultimate (T'ai Chi) and Reason (li). The Great Ultimate moves and generates the active principle, yang, when its activity reaches its limit, and engenders the passive principle, yin, when it becomes tranquil. The eternal oscillation of yin and yang gives rise to the material universe through their Five Agents of Water, Fire, Wood, Metal and Earth. Thus, reality is a progressively evolved and a well-coordinated system.
This dynamic and orderly character of the universe is due to Reason and the vital force. As the Ch'eng brothers (I-ch'uan, 1033-1077, and Min-tao, 1032-1086) said, "All things have the same Reason in them." Thus, Reason combines the Many into One, while the vital force differentiates the One into the Many, each with its own "determinate nature." The two principles, however, are not to be sharply contrasted, for neither is independent of the other. Reason operates through, and is embodied in, the vital force. It is this cooperative functioning of theirs that makes the universe a cosmos, a harmonious system of order and sequence. "Centrality is the order of the universe and harmony is its unalterable law." As such the cosmos is a moral order. This is the main reason why the greatest of the Neo-Confucians, Chu Hsi (1130-1200) said that "the Great Ultimate is nothing but the Reason of ultimate goodness."
Furthermore, the universe is a social order, and nothing can stand by itself. At the same time, everything has its opposite. "No two of the productions of creation are alike," and the Taoist doctrine of the equality of things must be rejected. In the eternal sequence of appearance and disappearance every creation is new, and the Buddhist doctrine of transmigration must be rejected.
In order to appreciate fully the meaning of the universe, man must comprehend Reason. This can be done by "investigating things to the utmost" (ko wu), that is, by "investigating the Reason of things to the utmost (ch'iung li)." When sufficient effort is made, and understanding naturally comes, one's nature will be realized and his destiny will be fulfilled, since "the exhaustive investigation of Reason, the full realization of one's nature, and the fulfillment of destiny are simultaneous." When one understands Reason, he will find that "All people are brothers and sisters, and all things are my companions," because all men have the same Reason in them. Consequently one should not entertain any distinction between things and the ego. This is the foundation of the Neo-Confucian ethics of jen, true manhood, benevolence or love. Both the understanding of Reason and the practice of jen require sincerity (ch'eng) and seriousness (ching) which to the Neo-Confucians almost assumed religious significance. As a matter of fact these have a certain correspondence with the Buddhist dhyana and prajna or meditation and insight. Gradually the Neo-Confucian movement became an inward movement, the mind assuming more and more importance.
When it came to the Ming period especially in Wang Yang-ming (1473-1529), Reason became identified with Mind. Mencius' doctrine of intuitive knowledge (liang chih) was revived and made the basis of his theory of the identity of knowledge and conduct and the sacred duty of man to "fully exercise his mind" and to "manifest his illustrious virtues."
Wang Yang-ming considered desire as an obstacle to the mind. The Neo-Confucians of the Ch'ing period, especially Tai Tung-yuan (1723-1777), however, argued that since desire is part of our nature, it has its rightful place, just as the vital force has its rightful place beside Reason. The main problem then would be to attain the harmony of human passion (ch'ing) and the originally good human nature (hsing). Thus Neo-Confucianism reasserted the principle of central harmony (chung yung), and central harmony is the Moral Law (tao). This Law finds expression in constant and orderly transformation, the realization of which is Reason. It will be seen that Neo-Confucianism is essentially compatible with western philosophy and science. It is to be expected, therefore, that both Neo-Confucianism and western thought will play a great role in any future philosophy in China. -- W.T.C
References:
- Alfred Forke,
- Geschichte der neueren chinesischen Philosophie, De Gruyter & Co., Hamburg, 1938;
- Fung Yu-lan,
- A History of Chinese Philosophy (ancient period), tr. by D. Bodde, Henri Vetch, Peiping, 1937;
- Hu Shih,
- The Development of the Logical Method in Ancient China, The Oriental Book Co., Shanghai, 1922.
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) 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 moral cultivation, the essence of human affairs, just as sincerity is the way of Heaven." It is "to straighten one's internal life and righteousness (i) is to square one's external life." It means "unity of mind and absolute equanimity and absolute steadfastness." (Neo-Confucianism.) -- W.T.C.
Ching:
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Essence. "Essence and vital force (ch'i) constitute things."
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Purity; the pure nature.
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Spirit; intelligence.
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Concentration; unity of thought.
-- 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 by such things as dreams. -- W.T.C.
Ch'ing: Passions; feelings; emotions; interpreted as
(a) Human nature (which is originally tranquil) when moved and awakened and expressed in the seven feelings (joy, anger, sorrow, fear, love, hatred, and desire), like and dislike, and the sense of advantage and disadvantage.
(b) The impure side of man, born of the passive (yin) vital force (ch'i) as contrasted with the pure, the nature (hsing) born of the active (yang) vital force and expressed in the Five Constant Virtues (wu ch'ang).
(c) Human nature, or feelings original in or proper to man. -- W.T.C.
Ch'ing (dynasty) philosophy: See li hsueh and Chinese philosophy. -- W.T.C
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.
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.
Chiu: Duration, or "what reaches to different times," or "what unites past and present, morning and evening." (Neo-Mohism.) -- 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, the establishment of the royal standard, the orderly practice of the three virtues, the intelligent practice of divination, the thoughtful following of various indications, and the rewarding with five kinds of good and punishment with six forms of evil. -- W.T.C.
Ch'iung li: Investigation of Reason of things to the utmost. A thing is considered by the Neo-Confucianists to be an event. A perfect understanding of an event can be obtained by investigating to the utmost the Reason underlying it. This does not require the investigation of the Reason of all things. When the Reason in one thing is extensively investigated, the Reason in other things can be understood. (Neo-Confucianism.) -- W.T.C.
Ch'i wu: The equality of things and opinions, the identity of contraries. "Viewed from the standpoint of Tao, a beam and a pillar are identical. So are ugliness and beauty, greatness, wickedness, perverseness, and strangeness. Separation is the same as construction; construction is the same as destruction." Therefore the sages harmonize the systems of right and wrong, and rest in the equilibrium of nature (t'ien chun). "This is called following two courses at the same time." (Chuang Tzu, between 399 and 295 B.C.) -- W.T.C.
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 preference, which may be spontaneous; and that it is one's choices which both determine and express one's moral character. Two further questions arise (a) Are our choices free in the sense of not being determined by previous events' and (b) Are our choices simply the determinations of our strongest desires? -- W.K.F.
See Cause, Determinism, Will.
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 tacitly by mathematicians -- and is apparently necessary for the proofs of certain important mathematical theorems -- but was first made explicit by Zermelo in 1904, who used it in a proof that every class can be well-ordered. Once explicitly stated the assumption was attacked by many mathematicians as lacking in validity or as not of legitimately mathematical character, but was defended by others, including Zermelo.
An equivalent assumption, called by Russell the multiplicative axiom and afterwards adopted by Zermelo as a statement of his Auswahl-prinzip, is as follows: Given a class K whose members are non-empty classes no two of which have a member in common, there exists a class A (the Auswahlmenge) all of whose members are members of members of K and which has one and only one member in common with each member of K. Proof of equivalence of the multiplicative axiom to the axiom of choice is due to Zermelo. -- A.C.
- E. Zermelo,
- Beweis, dass jede Menge wohlgeord net werden kann, Mathematische Annalen, vol. 59 (1904), pp. 514-516.
- B. Russell,
- On some difficulties in the theory of transfinite numbers and order types. Proceedings of the London Mathematical Society, ser 2. vol. 4 (1906), pp 29-53.
- E. Zermelo,
- Neuer Beweis fur die Moglichkeit einer Wohlordnung, Mathematische Annalen, vol. 65 (1908), pp. 107-128.
- K. Gödel,
- The Consistency of the Axiom of Choice and of the Generalized Continuum Hypothesis with the Axioms of Set Theory. Princeton, N.J., 1940.
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 philosophy. -- W.T.C.
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 mystery of the Incarnation, of the Word made flesh, and examine all the circumstances of the birth, passion, and resurrection of Christ. Since He acknowledged that He was God, the Son of God, one with the Father, it becomes necessary to examine His credentials, His own prophecies, miracles, and saintly life, which were to serve as evidence that He was sent by God and really possessed all power in heaven and on earth. Christology must deal with the human and Divine nature, their relation to each other, and the hypostatic union of both in one Divine Person, as well as the relation of that Person to the Father and the Holy Ghost. Moreover, the authentic decisions of the Councils of the Church form an exceedingly important portion of all christological theories and doctrines, and also the interpretations of those decisions by theologians. -- J.J.R.
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: Direct appellation, a method of designation. "To call out 'Puppy!' is direct appellation." See chia and i (Neo-Mohism.) -- W.T.C.
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.
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 works masterpieces of an exquisite style. Only the first seven and a few other chapters of Chuang Tzu (English transl. by H. (Giles and by Feng Yu-lan) are authentic. -- W.T.C.
Ch'uan hsing: Preservation of one's original nature. (Taoism.) -- W.T.C.
Ch'uan sheng: (a) Preservation of life, by the suppression of desires. (Taoism.)
(b) Completeness of life, that is, "all desires reach a proper harmony." (Taoism.) -- W.T.C.
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 government appointments with a great deal of reluctance. His lectures at the White Deer Grotto attracted all prominent scholars of the time. The works of this leader of Neo-Confucianism (li hsueh) include the Chu Tzu Ch'uan-shu ("Complete Works," really Selected Works, partial English transl. by J. P. Bruce: The Philosophy of Human Nature by Chu Hsi) of 66 Chinese chuans in 25 volumes and the Yu Lei (Sayings Arranged by Topics) of 140 chuans in 40 volumes. -- W.T.C.
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.
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 "ultimate principle" of the universe; "the great basis of existence"; "the beginning and the end of the universe."
- The principle of centrality, which is observable in everything, that everything should have the proper balance of activity and tranquillity. (Tung Chung-shu, 177-104 B.C., Ch'eng Ming-tao, 1032-1086.)
- Impartiality; the principle of neutrality which is present in every human heart.
- The inner life; the inner principle. (Lao Tzu.)
-- W.T.C.
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 thought not having been exhausted", honesty, sincerity; devotion of soul, conscientiousness. (Confucianism.) "Honesty (chung) is complete realization of one's nature" whereas truthfulness (hsin) is "complete realization of the nature of things." "Honesty (chung) is the subjective side of truthfulness (hsin) whereas truthfulness is the objective side of honesty." (Ch'eng Ming-tao, 1032-1086.)
"Honesty is exerting one's heart to the utmost whereas truthfulness is the observance of the Reason of things." (Chu Hsi, 1230-1300.)
- Impartiality, especially in love and profit,
- Loyalty, especially to one's superiors, faithfulness.
-- W.T.C.
Chung: Identity, one of the proofs of agreement. See Mo che. -- W.T.C.
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 and the eternal law of the universe. (Neo-Confucianism.)
-- W.T.C.
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." (Confucius.)
"The superior man's moral order is on the increase, while the inferior man's moral order is on the decrease." "The superior man abides by what is internal, whereas the inferior man abides by what is external." (Ancient Confucianism )
"The superior man makes advance in the moral law, whereas the inferior man makes advance in profit." "The superior man enjoys in the fulfillment of the moral law, whereas
the inferior man enjoys in the fulfillment of his desires." (Medieval Confucianism.) The superior man "sees what is great and far" and is interested in "helping things to perfection," whereas the inferior man "sees what is small and near" and is interested in destroying things." (Neo-Confucianism.)
- A ruler.
- Husband (as in the Odes).
-- W.T.C.
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 abiding nature of self (purusa) come into its own. -- K.F.L.
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 horizonal experiencings in which "the same" would be given more clearly are explicable in phantasy. Thus, the essential dimensions and the range of indeterminacy of the object (and its essential possibility or impossibility) as intended can be grasped in evidence. This is clarification in the usual sense. On the other hand, potential experiencings of "the same" may be made actual rather than fictively actual (phantasied) -- in which case, the synthesis of clarification is a synthesis of fulfilment. See Fulfilment. -- D.C.
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 a propositional function in extension only in that it is not usual to employ the notation of application of function to argument in the case of classes (see the article Propositional function). Instead, if a class a is determined by a propositional function A, we say that x is a member of a (in symbols x∈a) if and only if A(x).
Whitehead and Russell, by introducing classes into their system only as incomplete symbols, "avoid the assumption that there are such things as classes." Their method (roughly) is to reinterpret a proposition about a class determined by a propositional function A as being instead an existential proposition, about some propositional function formally equivalent to A.
See also Logic, formal, §§ 7, 9. -- A.C.
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 and lords, proletariat and capitalists are considered pairs of classes basic respectively to ancient, medieval and modern economies. At the same time many subordinate classes or sub-classes are distinguished besides or within such primary ones. In "'Revolution and Counter-Revolution" for instance, Marx applies the term class to the following groups, feudal nobility, wealthy bourgeoisie, petty bourgeoisie, small farmers, proletariat, agricultural laborers, subdividing the class of small farmers into two further "classes", peasant free-holders and feudal tenants. The conflict of interests involved has many manifestations, both economic and non-economic, all of which are considered part of the class struggle (q.v.) -- J.M.S.
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 struggle is considered basic to the dynamics of history in the sense that a widespread change in technics, or a fuller utilization of them, which necessitates changes in economic relations and, in turn, in the social superstructure, is championed and carried through by classes which stand to gain from the change. The economic aspects of the class struggle under capitalism manifest themselves most directly, Marx held, in disputes over amount of wages, rate of profits, rate of interest, amount of rent, length of working day, conditions of work and like matters. The Marxist position is that the class struggle enters into philosophy, politics, law, morals, art, religion and other cultural institutions and fields in various ways, either directly or indirectly, and, in respect to the people involved, consciously or unconsciously, willingly or unwillingly. In any case the specific content of any such field or institution at a given time it held to have a certain effect upon a given class in its conflicts with other classes, weakening or aiding it. Marxists believe that certain kinds of literature or art may inspire people with a lively sense of the need and possibility of a radical change in social relations, or, on the contrary, with a sense of lethargy or complacency, and that various moral, religious or philosophical doctrines may operate to persuade a given class that it should accept its lot without complaint or its privileges without qualms, or may operate to persuade it of the contrary. The Marxist view is that every field or institution has a history, an evolution, and that this evolution is the result of the play of conflicting forces entering into the field, which forces are connected, in one way or another, with class conflicts. While it is thus held that the class struggle involves all cultural fields, it is not held that any cultural production or phenomenon, selected or delimited at random, can be correlated in a one-to-one fashion with an equally delimited class interest. -- J.M.S.
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 only thought and extension (extensio, q.v.). -- W.S.W.
Cogito: In Husserl: A collective name for spontaneous acts, acts in which the ego lives. -- D.C.
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 insisted, not so much inference as a direct appeal to intuition, but it has commonly been construed as an argument because of Descartes' formulation. -- L.W.
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. -- L.W.
In Scholasticism: Whatever is known is, as known, an accident of the knowing soul and therefore caused by an informing agent. All knowledge ultimately is due to an affection of the senses which are informed by the agency of the objects through a medium. The immutation of the sense organ and the corresponding accidental change of the soul are called species sensibilis impressa. The conscious percept is the species expressa. Intellectual knowledge stems from the phantasm out of which the active intellect disengages the universal nature which as species intelligibilis impressa informs the passive intellect and there becomes, as conscious concept. the species expressa or verbum mentis. Sensory cognition is a material process, but it is not the matter of the particular thing which enters into the sensory faculties; rather they supply the material foundation for the sensible form to become existent within the mind. Cognition is, therefore, "assimilation" of the mind to its object. The cognitive mental state as well as the species by which it originates are "images" of the object, in a metaphorical or analogical sense, not to be taken as anything like a copy or a reduplication of the thing. The senses, depending directly on the physical influence exercised by the object, cannot err; error is of the judging reason which may be misled by imagination and neglects to use the necessary critique. -- R.A.
Abstractive: That meaning of cognition which lacks one of the two requisites for intuitive knowledge: for in abstrictive cogniti n either we know things through other things, and not through their proper images -- or we know th'ngs that are not present: e.g., the knowledge we now have of God, through creatures -- or the knowledge we have of Adam, a being not present to us.
Comprehensive: Strictly speaking, that which is adequate to or fully commensurate with the object, -- a knowledge in which the whole object is known completely and in every way in which it can be known -- even to all the effects and consequences with which it has an intrinsic connection. This knowledge must be clear, certain, evident, and quidditative, because it is the most perfect type of knowledge corresponding to the object. E.g., God's complete knowledge of Himself.
Intuitive: Requires two things: (1) that it result from the proper species, or the proper image of the object itself, impressed upon the mind by the object or by God, and (2) that it bear upon an object that is really present with the greatest clearness and certitude. Our knowledge of the sun is intuitive while we are looking at the sun, and that knowledge which the blessed have of God is intuitive.
Quidditative: In the strict sense, is that which arises from the proper image of an object, like intuitive knowledge, and besides, penetrates distinctly, with a clear, proper, and positive concept, the essential predicates of a thing even to the last difference. The knowledge which God has of Himself is of this kind. But quidditative knowledge in the wide sense is any knowledge of the quiddity or essence of an object, or any definition explaining what a thing is. -- H.G.
Cognitive Meaning, Cognitive Sentence: See Meaning, Kinds of, 1.
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 contended that all cognition was exclusively a priori. They definitely rejected not only the notion of "things-in-themselves" but even that of anything immediately "given" in experience. There is no other reality than one posited by thought and this holds good equally for the object, the subject and God. Nor is thought in its effort to "determine the object = x" limited by any empirical data but solely by the laws of thought. Since in Ethics Kant himself had already endeavored to eliminate all empirical elements, the Marburg school was perhaps closer to him in this field than in epistemology. The sole goal of conduct is fulfillment of duty, i.e., the achievement of a society organized according to moral principles and satisfying the postulates of personal dignity. The Marburg school was probably the most influential philosophic trend in Germany in the last 25 years before the First World War. The most outstanding present-day champion of their tradition is Ernst Cassirer (born 1874). Cohen and Natorp tried to re-interpret Plato as well as Kant. Following up a suggestion first made by Lotze they contended that the Ideas ought to be understood as laws or methods of thought and that the current view ascribing any kind of existence to them was based on a misunderstanding of Aristotle's. -- H.G.
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 the principle of polarity a fruitful means of resolving antinomies. His best known works are Reason and Nature and Law and the Social Order. -- L.E.D.
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 interest among his prose works are Biographia Literaria, Aids to Reflection and Confessions of an Inquiring Spirit. His influence was greit upon his contemporaries and also upon the American transcendentalists. -- L.E.D.
Collective and Distributive Properties: A general term is taken in its collective sense when what is predicated of its applies to its designation as a whole, rather than to each of the individual members belonging to it; the distributive properties are those that apply only in the latter way.
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 appropriates the term and carefully differentiates it from induction: whereas colligation is a simple "description" of observed facts, induction is an extension to the unknown and to the future. See Logic, III, ii, § 4. -- L.W.
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 the resultant percept.
- Fusion is a union of parts into a whole in which the identity of the parts is obliterated. Thus the amalgamation of two sense images to form a new quality would, if this phenomenon were psychologically possible, be an instance of psychic fusion.
See Psychic Fusion. -- L.W.
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 mechanical, sometimes as a quasi-chemical process. -- W.K.F.
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 presence in the system of certain kinds of function symbols. For a more detailed and exact account, reference must be made to the papers cited below. -- A.C.
- M. Schönfinkel,
- Über die Bausteine der mathematischen Logik, Mathematische Annalen, vol. 92 (1924), pp. 305-316.
- H. B. Curry,
- Grundlagen der kombmatorischen Logik, American Journal of Mathematics, vol. 52 (1930), pp. 509-536, 789-834.
- H. B. Curry,
- The universal quantifier in combinatory logic, Annals of Mathematics, ser. 2, vol. 32 (1931), pp. 154-180.
- H. B. Curry,
- Apparent variables from the standpoint of combinatory logic, Annals of Mathematics, ser. 2, vol 34 (1933), pp. 381-404.
- H. B. Curry,
- Functionality in combinatory logic, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 20 (1934), pp. 584-590.
- J. B. Rosser,
- A mathematical logic without variables, Annals of Mathematics, ser. 2, vol. 36 (1935), pp 127-150, and Duke Mathematical Journal, vol. 1 (1935), pp. 328-355.
- H. B. Curry,
- A revision of the fundamental rules of combinatory logic, The Journal of Symbolic Logic, vol. 6 (1941), pp. 41-53.
- H. B. Curry,
- Consistency and completeness of the theory of combinators, ibid , pp. 54-61.
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 reality as exhausted in a single category. Cf. Bergson, Le rire (Laughter).
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: 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 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 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: 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 that with regard to which accord between the speaker and interpreter is achieved.
The definition is intended to cover the communication of attitudes, evaluations, desires, etc., as well as of judgments or assertions. See Functions of Language, Speech Situation. -- M.B.
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 telepathy and other occult means.
See Telegnosts; Telepathy. -- L.W.
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, and it will be possible to apply the principle, "from each according to ability, to each according to need" (Marx "Gotha Program"). It is held that the release of productive potentialities resulting from socialized ownership of the means of production will create a general sufficiency of economic goods which in turn will afford the possibility of educational and cultural development for all, and that under such conditions people will learn to live in accordance with valued standards without the compulsion of physical force represented by a special apparatus of state power. It is considered that by intelligent planning, both economic and cultural, it will then be possible to eradicate the antagonism between town and country and the opposition between physical and mental labor. It is now considered in the U.S.S.R. that the principal features of communist society, with the exception of the "withering away" of the state, may be attained in one country of an otherwise capitalist world. Trotsky considered this a false version of Marxism. -- J.M.S.
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, alternative denial and its dual; also corresponding laws in the algebra of classes. -- A.C.
Comparison: (Lat. com- + par, equal) The act of discerning or describing the common properties possessed by two or more objects; or the result of such discernment or description. -- A.C.B.
Compathy: (Ger. Miteinanderfühlen) Men feel with each other the same sorrow, the same pain. It is a with-each-other feeling. Only psychical suffering can thus be felt, not physical pain. There is no symagony. See Sympathy. -- H.H.
Completeness: A logistic system (q.v.) may be called complete if there is no formula of the system which is not a theorem and which can be added to the list of primitive formulas (no other change being made) without rendering the system inconsistent, in one of the senses of consistency (q.v.). The pure propositional calculus -- as explained under logic, formal, § 1 -- is complete in this sense.
Given the concept of semantical truth (q.v.), we may also define a logistic system as complete if every true formula of the system is a theorem. This sense of completeness is not, in general, equivalent to the other; and may be the weaker one if formulas containing free variables occur. See Logic, formal, §§ 3, 6. -- A.C.
Complex: (Lat. complecti, to entwine around, comprise) 1. Anything that possesses distinguishable parts, or the property of possessing distinguishable parts. 2. Anything that possesses distinguishable parts which are related in such a way as to give unity to the whole; or the property of having parts so related. -- A.C.B.
Complication: (Lat. com + plicatio, folded together) The union or act of combining more or less disparate elements into a single whole impression or idea. The term usually has reference to the synthesis of sense data in perceptions, or of perceptions in a unifying idea. -- O.F.K.
Composite: (Scholastic) The existing being as composed of prime matter (q.v.) and form (q.v.). The human composite: matter informed by the spiritual and rational soul. -- R.A.
Composite idea: Any idea that consists of a fusion of sentient elements, which together are presumed to pass the threshold of consciousness. In logic, a compound of undefined ideas by way of definition. -- C.K.D.
Composition is the form of valid inference of the propositional calculus from A ⊃ B and A ⊃ C to A ⊃ BC. The law of composition is the theorem of the propositional calculus:
[p ⊃ q][p ⊃ r] ⊃ [p ⊃ qr].
-- A.C.
Composition and Division, fallacies of: Semi-formal logical fallacies. In the fallacy of composition it is assumed that what characterizes individuals qua individuals will likewise characterize groups of these same individuals qua groups. In that of division what is taken as validly applying to the group as a whole is then assumed to apply with equal validity to the individuals constituting said group. Called semi-formal because they involve passing from the distributive to the collective use of terms and vice versa. -- C.K.D.
Compossibility: Those things are compossible in Leibniz's philosophy which are literally "co-possible," i.e., which may exist together, which belong to the same possible world. Since metaphysical possibility means for Leibniz simply the absence of contradiction, two or more things are compossible if, and only if, their joint ascription to a single world involves no contradiction. All possible worlds are held by Leibniz to have general laws analogous to those of our own actual world. Compossibility for any set of things, consequently, involves their capacity to be brought under one and the same general system of laws. That this last provision is important follows from the fact that Leibniz affirmed all simple predicates to be compatible. -- F.L.W.
Compound: (Lat. con + ponere, to place) A complex whole formed by the union of a number of parts in contrast to an element which is a simple unanalyzable part. A mental compound is a state of mind formed by the combination (see Combination) of simple mental elements, either conscious or unconscious. -- L.W.
Compound Theory of Mind: The conception of mind as a compound of psychological elements analogous to a chemical compound. See Psychological Atomism. -- L.W.
Comprehension: (Lat. com + prehendere, to grasp) The act or faculty of understanding, intellectual grasp, or insight. Comprehension may be achieved variously by:
- unifying and relating manifold facts or ideas;
- deducing something from premises;
- accommodating new facts or ideas to established knowledge;
- seeing a thing or idea in its proper or significant context;
- relating a fact or idea to something known, universal and subject to law.
Comprehension carries sometimes the special connotation of thorough understanding.
Logic: The sum of characteristics which connote a class notion symbolized by a general term. Also, the features common to a number of in stances or objects. Thus, the connotation (q.v.) or intension (q.v.) of a concept. See Intension. -- O.F.K.
Compresence: (Lat. compraesentia from praesse, to be present) The togetherness of two or more items, for example, the coexistence of several elements in the unity of consciousness. In the terminology of S. Alexander (Space, Time and Deity), an unique kind of togetherness which underlies cognition. -- F.W.
Comte, Auguste: (1798-1857) Was born and lived during a period when political and social conditions in France were highly unstable. In reflecting the spirit of his age, he rose against the tendency prevalent among his predecessors to propound philosophic doctrines in disregard of the facts of nature and society. His revolt was directed particularly against traditional metaphysics with its endless speculations, countless assumptions, and futile controversies. To his views he gave the name of positivism. According to him, the history of humanity should be described in terms of three stages. The first of these was the theological stage when people's interpretation of reality was dominated by superstitions and prejudicesj the second stage was metaphysical when people attempted to comprehend, and reason about, reality, but were unable to support their contentions by facts; and the third and final stage was positive, when dogmatic assumptions began to be replaced by factual knowledge. Accordingly, the history of thought was characterized by a certain succession of sciences, expressing the turning of scholarly interest toward the earthly and human affairs, namely; mathematics, astronomy, physics, chemistry, biology, and sociology. These doctrines were discussed in Comte's main work, Cours de philosophic positive. -- R.B.W.
Conation: (Lat. conatio, attempt) Referring to voluntary activity. -- V.F.
Conatus: The drive, force, or urge possessed by a thing which is directed towards the preservation of its own being. Since, for Spinoza, all things are animated, the term is used by him in a broader meaning than that accorded it, for example, in the Stoic philosophy. Spinoza maintains that there is no conatus for self-destruction (Ethica, III, 4; see also IV, 20 Schol., etc.); rather, the conatus relates to a thing's "power of existence", and he thus speaks of it as a kind of amour propre (natuurlyke Liefde) which characterizes a specific thing. See Short Tr., App. H. -- W.S.W.
Conceivability: The quality or condition of taking into and holding an idea in mind. It has come to mean any affection of the mind or any apprehension, imagining or opinion of the mind. It is a necessary though not sufficient criterion for the truth of said idea or affection, etc. -- C.K.D
Concept: In logic syn. either with propositioned function (q.v.) generally or with monadic propositional function. The terminology associated with the word function is not, however, usually employed in connection with the word concept; and the latter word may serve to avoid ambiguities which have arisen from loose or variant usages of the word function (q.v.); or it may reflect a difference in point of view. -- A.C.
In scholasticism: the "word of the mind" (verbum mentis) by which the possible intellect expresses (therefore also in later writers species expressa) the universal nature disengaged by the active intellect from the phantasm and transmitted as species intelligibilis to the possible intellect. -- R.A.
In Kant: In the strict sense, any generic or class term, exclusive or relational terms or categories. Sometimes, loosely, any general or abstract representation. -- O.F.K.
In Husserl: 1. An expressible sense. 2. An eidos as intended. -- D.C.
Conception: (Lat. concipere, to take together) Cognition of abstracta or universals as distinguished from cognition of concreta or particulars. (See Abstractum.) Conception, as a mode of cognition, may or may not posit real or subsistent universals corresponding to the concepts of the mind. See Conceptualism; Conceptual Realism. -- L.W.
Conceptualism: A solution of the problem of universals which seeks a compromise between extreme nominalism (generic concepts are signs which apply indifferently to a number of particulars) and extreme realism (generic concepts refer to subsistent universals). Conceptualism offers various interpretations of conceptual objectivity:
- the generic concept refers to a class of resembling particulars,
- the object of a concept is a universal essence pervading the particulars, but having; no reality apart from them,
- concepts refer to abstracta, that is to say, to ideal objects envisaged by the mind but having no metaphysical status.
-- L.W.
See Scholasticism.
Conceptual Realism: Theory which ascribes objectivity of some sort to conceptual cognition, includes extreme or Platonic realism and conceptualism but excludes nominalism. See Conceptualism. -- L.W.
Concomitance: (Latin concomitantia, accompaniment), literally the act or state of being associated, the term has received wide currency in logic, particularly since John Stuart Mill clearly formulated the method of concomitant variations, as the concurrent existence, appearance or disappearance of certain characters which, under circumstances, admit but do not necessarily postulate causal interrelatedness. -- K.F.L.
Precise conjunction or accompaniment, spatial or temporal. -- C.A.B.
Concrete: Anything that is specific or individual. The term is opposed to "general" or to "abstract", terms which stress common characteristics or qualities considered apart from their specific setting. -- V.F.
Concrete Universal: In Hegel's system a category is concrete when it possesses the basic character of the real, i.e. tension, change dialectical opposition. Such a universal comprises a synthesis of two opposite abstractions; and with one exception, it in turn becomes an abstract member of a piir of logical opposites united or "sublated" in a higher category. The lowest of such dynamic or concrete universals is Becoming, which is a dialectical synthesis of Being and Not-Being. The only absolutely concrete universal, however, is Reality itself, the World Whole, conceived as an all-inclusive, organic svstem of self-thinking Thought.
2. Neo-idealism (q.v.) in Italy introduce a second type of concrete universal whose element^ lack the character of dialectical opposition and logical abstractness. -- W.L.
Concretion: (Lat. concresco, to grow together) A uniting or growing together. -- V.F.
Santayana calls universals "concretions of discourse." (Life of Reason, vol. I (Reason in Common Sense)).
Concupiscence: (Lat. con + cupere, to desire wholly or altogether) Desire for pleasure or delight of the senses; as such it is a desire which is natural, necessary and proper to man. But when this desire operates independently of, or contrary to the right rule of reason, then concupiscence is a bad habit or vice, contrary to nature, and thus opposed to the virtue of temperance or "nothing in excess." In an extended sense, concupiscence may apply to desire for objects arousing appetites other than those of the senses. -- L.M.H.
Concurrence: The doctrine of Augustine that before the Fall it was possible for man not to sin, but he needed God's help, adjutorium sine quo non. After the Fall man needs God's grace or concurrence which acts with him, adjutotium quo, with which he must co-operate. The term also signifies, concursus, or the general cooperation of God, the primary cause, with the activity of all creatures, as secondary causes. -- J.J.R.
Concursus dei (or divinus): (Lat. Divine concurrent activity) The divine activity in its relation to the finite causes in the development of the world and the free will of man. The term suggests that divine activity runs parallel with the activity of things and creatures. The concursus dei is differently conceived depending on whether the stress is laid on the divine action or on the action of secondary causes. -- H.H.
Condignity: A characteristic of merit which implies equality and proportionality between service rendered and its recompense, to which there is a claim on the ground of justice. Merit of this description is called condign merit, or meritum de condigno. -- J.J.R.
Condillac, Etienne: (l715-1780) French sensationalist. Successor of Locke. In his Traite des sensations, he works out the details of a system based on Lockean foundations in which all the human faculties are reduced in essence to a sensory basis. Understanding in all its phases, is deemed nothing more than the comparison or multiplication of sensations. He is important today for his having followed the lead of Locke in pointing the way to psychology to profit by observation and experience. -- L.E.D.
E. Condillac, Traite des systemes, 1846;
Traite des sensations, 1854;
Langue des calculs, 1858.
Condition: (Lat. conditio, agreement, condition) 1. The if-clause in an implicative proposition. 2. Cause (q.v.). 3. Necessary cause (q.v.) as opposed to sufficient cause. -- A.C.B.
Conditional: The sentential connective ⊃. See Logic, formal, § 1.
A sentence of the form A ⊃ B (or a proposition expressed by such a sentence) -- verbally, "if A then B" -- may be called a conditional sentence (or proposition). -- A. C.
Conditional Immortality: A teaching affirming that immortality is a gift of God conferred on believers in Christ, who become the children of God, and denying that the human soul is immortal by nature. -- J.J.R.
Conditional Morality: Any system of morals which has for its basic principle what Kant calls a hypothetical imperative, e.g., a system of morals which reasons that we should act in certain ways because such actions will bring us happiness, assuming that we want happiness. See Hypothetical imperatives. -- W.K.F.
Conditioned Reflex: See Conditioned Response.
Conditioned Response: Response of an organism which, originally produced by its "natural" stimulus, is subsequently produced in the absence of the original stimulus by a substitute or "conditioning" stimulus. Thus if S represents an original stimulus (in Pavlov's experiment, the presentation of food to a dog) and R is the natural response (the salivary flow of the dog) and if S' is a conditioning stimulus associated with S (the ringing of a bell at the time of presenting food to the dog) then R, produced by S' in the absence of S is said to be a conditioned or conditional response. See Behaviorism. -- L.W.
Conditiones sine quibus non: A phrase descriptive of such accompanying conditions without the presence of which it is impossible for a cause to produce an effect, conditions for which there are no substitutes. -- J.J.R.
Conduct: (Lat. conducere, to bring together) (a) Voluntary behavior of any sort, actual or intended. Action for which a person may he held responsible. Subject-matter of ethics which seeks to determine right and wrong action or proper and improper conduct. Deportment.
(b) In psychology. Behavior of a living organism reacting to environmental stimuli. See Behaviorism. -- A.J.B.
Configuration: (Lat. configurare from con, together and figurare, to form) A structural pattern at the physical, physiological or psychological level. The term has been suggested to translate the German Gestalt. See Gestalt Psychology. -- L.W.
Configurationism: A suggested English equivalent for Gestalt Psychology. See Gestalt P