Dagobert D. Runes, Dictionary of Philosophy, 1942.
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Gabirol, Solomon Ibn: Known to scholastics as Avicebron (q.v.), but not identified as such until the discovery by the French scholar, Munk. See Jewish Philosophy. -- M.W.
Galen, Claudius: Famous physician; died about the year 200 A.D.; an Eclectic philosopher who combined the Peripatetic and Stoic teachings.
Galen was the chief authority in medicine practically until the time of Vesalius (c. 1543). He is responsible for the fourth figure in the syllogism. His voluminous works remain untranslated. -- M.F.
Galenian Figure: See Figure, syllogistic.
Garbha: (Skr. seed) The creative power that lies at the bottom of the world, hypostatized in or symbolized by the germ or seed. In cosmologico-metaphysical conception it is allied to such termini technici as hiranyagarbha (golden germ), bija (seed), retas (semen), yoni (womb), anda (egg, world-egg), jan (to give birth to), srj (to pour out), etc., descriptive of psycho-cosmogony from the earliest days of Indian philosophy (s.v.). -- K.F.L.
Gassendi, Pierre: (1592-1655) Was a leading opponent of Cartesianism and of Scholastic Aristotelianism in the field of the physical sciences. Though he was a Catholic priest, with orthodox views in theology, he revived the materialistic atomism of Epicurus and Lucretius. Born in Provence, and at one time Canon of Dijon, he became a distinguished professor of mathematics at the Royal College of Paris in 1645. He seems to have been sincerely convinced that the Logic, Physics and Ethics of Epicureanism were superior to any other type of classical or modern philosophy. His objections to Descartes' Meditationes, with the Cartesian responses, are printed with the works of Descartes. His other philosophical works are Commentarius de vita moribus et placitis Epicuri (Amsterdam, 1659). Syntagma philosophiae Epicuri (Amsterdam, 1684). -- V.J.B.
Gautama Buddha: (Skr. Gautama, a patronymic, meaning of the tribe of Gotama; Buddha, the enlightened one) The founder of Buddhism. born about 563 B.C. into a royal house at Kapilavastu. As Prince Siddhartha (Siddhattha) he had all worldly goods and pleasures at his disposal, married, had a son, but was so stirred by sights of disease, old age, and death glimpsed on stolen drives through the city that he renounced all when but 29 years of age, became a mendicant, sought instruction in reaching an existence free from these evils and tortures, fruitlessly however, till at the end of seven years of search while sitting under the Bodhi-tree, he became the Buddha, the Awakened One, and attained the true insight. Much that is legendary and reminds one of the Christian mythos surrounds Buddha's life as retold in an extensive literature which also knows of his former and future existences. Mara, the Evil One, tempted Buddha to enter nirvana (s.v.) directly, withholding thus knowledge of the path of salvation from the world; but the Buddha was firm and taught the rightful path without venturing too far into metaphysics, setting all the while an example of a pure and holy life devoted to the alleviation of suffering. At the age of 80, having been offered and thus compelled to partake of pork, he fell ill and in dying attained nirvana. -- K.F.L.
Gay, John: (1669-1745) English schohr and clergyman, not to be confused with his contemporary, the poet and dramatist of the same name. He is important in the field of ethics for his Dissertation Concerning the Fundamental Principle of Virtue or Morality. This little work influenced David Hartley in his formulation of Associationism in Psychology and likewise sened to suggest the foundation for the later English Utilitarian School. -- L.E.D.
Gegenstandstheorie: (Ger. the theory of objects). It is the phenomenological investigation of various types of objects, existential and subsistential -- an object being defined in the widest sense as the terminus ad quem of any act of perceiving, thinking, willing or feeling. The theory was developed by H. Meinong under the influence of F. Brentano and is allied with the phenomonology of E. Husserl. See Phenomenology. -- L.W.
Geist: (Ger. Kant) That quality in a beautiful object which animates the mind (Gemüt) and gives life to the work of art. It is best translated "soul" or "spirit". See Kantianism, Hegel. -- O.F.K.
Gemara: ( Heb. completion) Is the larger and latter
part of the Talmud (q.v.) discussing the Mishnah, and incorporating also vast materials not closely related to the Mishnah topics. The 1812 authorities of the gemara are known as Amoraim (speakers). Its contents bears on Halaeha (law) and Aggadah (tale), i.e. non-legal material like legends, history, science, ethics, philosophy, biography, etc. There are two gemaras better known as Talmuds: the Jerusalem (i.e. Palestinian) Talmud and the Babylonian Talmud. -- H.L.G.
Generalization: (Lat. genus, class, kind) 1. Process of arriving at a general notion or concept from individual instances. 2. Any general notion or concept. 3. A proposition stating an order or relation of events which holds without exception; universal proposition. -- A.C.B.
Generalization, rule of: See Logic, formal, § 3.
Generative Theory of Data: (Lat. generatus, pp. of generare, to beget) Theory of sense perception asserting that sense data or sensa are generated by the percipient organism or by the mind and thus exist only under the conditions of actual perception. The Theory which is common to subjective idealism and representational realism is opposed to the Selective Theory of Data. See Representationism, Selective theory of Data. -- L.W.
Generic Image: (Lat. genus, kind) A mental image which is sufficiently vague and indeterminate to represent a number of different members of a class and thus to provide the imaginal basis of a concept. A generic image is thus intermediate between a concrete image and a generic concept. The vagueness of the generic image contrasts with the specificity of the concrete image, yet the generic image lacks the fullness of meaning requisite to a genuine concept. The doctrine of the generic image was introduced by Francis Galton who drew the analogy with composite photography (Inquiries into Human Faculty, 1883 appendix on Generic Images) and is adopted by Huxley (Hume, Ch. IV). The existence of non-specific or generic images would be challenged by most contemporary psychologists. -- L.W.
Genesis: (Gr. genesis) Coming into being, particularly the coming into being of a substance through the taking on of form by matter (Aristotle.). The biblical account of creation (Book of Genesis). -- G.R.M.
Genetic: (Gr. genesis, origin) Having to do with the origin and the development of anything. -- K.F.
Genetic Fallacy: The misapplication of the genetic method resulting in the depreciatory appraisal of the product of an historical or evolutionary process because of its lowly origin. -- L.W.
Genetic Method: Explanation of things in terms of their origin or genesis. -- L.W.
Genius: Originally the word applied to a demon such as Socrates' inner voice. During the 17th century it was linked to the Plntonic theory of inspiration and was applied to the rejection of too rigid rules in art. It defined the real artist and distinguished his creative imagination from the logical reasoning of the scientist. In Kant (Critique of Judgment), genius creates its own rules. -- L.V.
Genres: Types of art to which special rules and independent developments were attributed. For example: in poetry -- epic, lyric, dramatic; in painting -- historic, portrait, landscape; in music -- oratorical, symphonic, operatic. -- L.V.
Gentile, Giovanni: Born in Castelvetrano (Sicily) 1875. Professor of Philosophy and History of Philosophy at universities in Palermo, Pisa, and Rome. Minister of Public Education 1922-1924. Senator since 1922. Reformed the school system of Italy.
A pupil of late followers of Hegel, he emphasized the unity of spirit which he recognized in the pure act. His philosophy is therefore called actualism. He is responsible for the philosophic theory of Fascism with the conception of the Ethic State to which the individual must be totally sacrificed.
- G. Gentile,
- La filosofia di Marx, 1899;
- Il concetto della storia della fiosofia, 1908;
- L'atto del pensare como atto pure, 1912;
- Sistema di logica come teoria del conoscere, 1917;
- Discorsi di Religione, 1920;
- La filosofia dell'Arte, 1931;
- Introd. alla filosofia, 1933.
-- L.V.
Genus: (Gr. genos) In Aristotle's logic: (1) that part of the essence of anything which belongs also to other things differing from it in species, (2) a class of objects possessing an identical character and consisting of two or more subclasses or species. See Species. -- G.R.M.
Genus, summum: (Lat.) In a classificatory scheme the largest and most inclusive genus which is not itself a species to any larger genus. -- A.C.B.
Geometry: Originally abstracted from the measurement of, and the study of relations of position among, material objects, geometry received in Euclid's Elements (c. 300 B.C.) a treatment which (despite, of course, certain defects by modern standards) became the historical model for the abstract deductive development of a mathematical discipline. The general nature of the subject of geometry may be illustrated by reference to the synthetic geometry of Euclid, and the analytic geometry which resulted from the introduction of coordinates into Euclidean geometry by Descartes (1637) (q.v.). In the mathematical usage of today the name geometry is given to any abstract mathematical discipline of a certain general type, as thus illustrated, without any requirement of applicability to spatial relations among physical objects or the like.
See Mathematics, and Non-Euclidean geometry. For a very brief outline of the foundations of plane Euclidean geometry, both from the synthetic and the analytic viewpoint, see the appendix to Eisenhart's book cited below. A more complete account is given bv Forder. -- A.C.
- L. P. Eisenhart,
- Coordinate Geometry, 1939.
- H. G. Forder,
- The Foundations of Euclidean Geometry, Cambridge, England, 1927.
- T. L. Heath,
- The Thirteen Books of Euclid's Elements, translated from the text of Heiberg, with introduction and commentary, 3 vols., Cambridge, England, 1908.
Gerbert of Aurillac: (Pope Sylvester II, died 1003) Was one of the greatest scholars of the 10th century. He studied at Aurillac with Odo of Cluny, learned something of Arabian science during three years spent in Spain. He taught at the school of Rheims, became Abbot of Bobbio (982), Archbishop of Rheims (991), Archbishop of Ravenna (998), Pope in 999. A master of the seven liberal aits, he excelled in his knowledge of the quadrivium, i.e. logic, math., astron. and music. His works, the most important of which are on mathematics, are printed in PL 139, 57-338. -- V.J.B.
Gerson, Levi ben: (Gersonides) Bible commentator, astronomer, and philosopher (1288-1340). He invented an instrument for astronomical observation which is described in his Sefer ha-Ttkunah (Hebr.) Book on Astronomy. His philosophy embodied in the Milhamot Elohim i.e., The Wars of God, is distinguished by its thoroughgoing Aristotehanism and by its general free spirit. His theory of the soul teaches that the passive or material intellect is only a potentiality for developing pure thought which is accomplished through the influence of the Universal Active Intellect, and that it is that part of the soul which contains the sum total of the exalted thoughts which remains immortal, thus making intellectuality a condition of immortality. He also teaches that God knows things from their general aspect but does not know the particulars in their infinite ramifications. -- See Jewish Philosophy. -- M.W.
Gestalt Psychology: (German, Gestalt, shape or form) A school of German psychology, founded about 1912 by M. Wertheimer, K. Koffka and W. Köhler. Gestalt psychology reacted against the psychic elements of analytic or associationist psychology (see Associationism) and substituted the concept of Gestalt or organized whole. The parts do not exist prior to the whole but derive their character from the structure of the whole. The Gestalt concept is applied at the physical and physiological as well as the psychological levels and in psychology both to the original sensory organization and to the higher intellectual and associative processes of mind. Configuration has been suggested as an English equivalent for Gestalt and the school is accordingly referred to as Configurationism. -- L.W.
Geulincx, Arnold: (1625-1669) Was born in Antwerpen but later, when he became a Protestant, he mined to Holland. His work lay along Cartesian lines, but he felt dissatisfied with Descartes' solution of the mind-body problem. As a result, he developed the doctrine of occasionalism according to which interaction between mind and body is impossible, but God effects bodily motions "on occasion" of each mentnl process.
A. Geulincx: Ethica, 1655; Metaphysica, 1695.
Complete works in 3 vols. ed. by J. P. Land, 1891-3. -- R.B.W.
Geyser, Joseph: (1863-) Is a leader of Catholic psychological and metaphysical thought in present-day Germany. Born in Erkelenz, he has taught at the Universities of Freiburg, Müster and Munich (1924-). His criticism of materialistic tendencies in modern psychology, his Aristotelian views on causality, and his espousal of a semi-Cartesian position in epistemology, art noteworthy. He has written: Lehrbuch der allgem. Psychologie, 3rd ed. (1920); Erkenntnistheorie d. Anstoteles (1917); Das Prinzip vom zurelchenden Grunde (1930). See Philosophia Perennis (Geyser Festg.), II vol. (Regensbuig, 1930). -- V.J.B.
Gioberti, Vincenzo: Born in Turin (Italy) April 5, 1801. Died in Paris, October 26, 1852. Ordained priest 1825. Exiled to Paris, 1833, because too liberal. Triumphantly returned to Italy 1848. Served as Minister and Ambassador.
His fundamental problem was the relation between sensibility and intelligibility. Being creates existence. The universal spirit becomes individual by its own creation. Thus, the source of individuality is not subjective but divine. And individuality returns to universality when it attains the state of intelligibility from the state of sensibility.
Main works: Teoria della sovranaturale, 1838; Del bello, 1841; Del buono, 1842; Della filosofia della rivelazione, 1856 (posth.); Della protologia, 1857 (posth.). See B. Spaventa, La filosofia di G., 1863. -- L.V.
Given, The: Whatever is immediately present to the mind before it has been elaborated by inference, interpretation or construction. See Datum. -- L.W.
Gnosiology: (Gr. gnosis, knowledge + logos, discourse) Theory of knowledge in so far as it relates to the origin, nature, limits and validity of knowledge as distinguished from methodology, the study of the basic concepts, postulates and presuppositions of the special sciences. -- L.W.
Gnosis: (Gr. knowledge) Originally a generic term for knowledge, in the first and second centuries A.D. it came to mean an esoteric knowledge of higher religious and philosophic truths to be acquired by an elite group of intellectually developed believers. Philo Judaeus (30 B.C. to 50 A.D.) is a fore-runner of Jewish Gnosticism; the allegorical interpretation of the Old Testament, use of Greek philosophical concepts, particularly the Logos doctrine, in Biblical exegesis, and a semi-mystical number theory characterize his form of gnosis. Christian gnostics (Cerinthus, Menander, Saturninus, Valentine, Basilides, Ptolemaeus, and possibly Marcion) maintained that only those men who cultivated their spiritual powers were truly immortal, and they adopted the complicated teaching of a sphere of psychic intermediaries (aeons) between God and earthly things. There was also a pagan gnosis begun before Christ as a reformation of Greek and Roman religion. Philosophically, the only thing common to all types of gnosis is the effort to transcend rational, logical thought processes by means of intuition.
De Faye, E., Gnostiques et Gnosticisme, 2me. ed., (Paris, 1925). -- V.J.B.
Gobineau, Arthur de: (1816-1882) A French nobleman and author of Essay on the Inequality of Human Races, in which he propounds the doctrine of "nordic supremacy". According to him, "the white race originally possessed the monopoly of beauty, intelligence and stiength. By its union with other varieties hybrids were created, which were beautiful without strength. strong without intelligence, or, if intelligent, both weak and ugly." -- R.B.W.
God: In metaphysical thinking a name for the highest, ultimate being, assumed by theology on the basis of authority, revelation, or the evidence of faith as absolutely necessary, but demonstrated as such by a number of philosophical systems, notably idealistic, monistic and dualistic ones. Proofs of the existence of God fall apart into those that are based on facts of experience (desire or need for perfection, dependence, love, salvation, etc.), facts of religious history (consensus gentium, etc.)), postulates of morality (belief in ultimate justice, instinct for an absolute good, conscience, the categorical imperative, sense of duty, need of an objective foundation of morality, etc.)), postulates of reason (cosmological, physico-theological, teleological, and ontological arguments), and the inconceivableness of the opposite. As to the nature of God, the great variety of opinions are best characterized by their several conceptions of the attributes of God which are either of a non-personal (pantheistic, etc.) or personal (theistic, etc.) kind, representing concepts known from experience raised to a superlative degree ("omniscient", "eternal", etc.). The reality, God, may be conceived as absolute or as relative to human values, as being an all-inclusive one, a duality, or a plurality. Concepts of God calling for unquestioning faith, belief in miracles, and worship or representing biographical and descriptive sketches of God and his creation, are rather theological than metaphysical, philosophers, on the whole, utilizing the idea of God or its linguistic equivalents in other languages, despite popular and church implications, in order not to lose the feeling-contact with the rather abstract world-ground. See Religion, Philosophy of. -- K.F.L.
According to the common teaching of the Schoolmen, philosophy is able to demonstrate the existence of God, though any statement of his essence is at best only analogical. See Analogy. Aquinas formulated the famous five ways by which to demonstrate God's existence, as prime motor, first cause, pure act to be assumed because there has to be act for anything to come into existence at all, necessary being in which existence and essence aie one, as set over against contingent beings which may be or not be, as summit of the hierarchy of beings. A basic factor in these demonstrations is the impossibility of infinite regress. God is conceived as the first cause and as the ultimate final cause of all beings. He is pure act, ens realissimum and summum bonum. Thomism and later Scholasticism denied that any adequate statement can be made on God's essence; but earlier thinkers, especially Anselm of Canterbury indulged in a so-called "Christian Rationalism" and believed that more can be asserted of God by '"necessary reasons". Anselm's proof of God's existence has been rejected by Aquinas and Kant. See Ontologtcal argument. -- R.A.
Godhead: In general, the state of being a god, godhood, godness, divinity, deity. More strictly, the essential nature of God, especially the triune God, one in three Persons. -- J.J.R.
Gödel, Kurt, 1906-, Austrian mathematician and logician -- educated at Vienna, and now located (1941) at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N. J. -- is best known for his important incompleteness theorem, the closely related theorem on the impossibility (under certain circumstances) of formalizing a consistency proof for a logistic system within that system, and the essentially simple but far-reaching device of arithmetization of syntax which is emploved in the proof of these theorems (see Logic, formal, § 6). Also of importance are his proof of the completeness of the functional calculus of first order (see Logic, formal, § 3), and his recent work on the consistency of the axiom of choice (q. v.) and of Cantor's continuum hypothesis. -- A.C.
Good: (AS god)
(a) In ethics, morally praise-worthy character, action, or motive.
(b) In axiology, two types of good, goodness, or value: intrinsic and extrinsic or instrumental.
Extrinsic or instrumental goodness depends for its existence upon some object, end or purpose which it serves. It derives its being from its service as an instrument in promoting or sustaining some more ultimate good and finally some ultimate or intrinsic good. It is good which is good for something.
Intrinsic goodness, or that which is good in itself without depending upon anything else for its goodness (though it may for its existence), is conceived in many ways: Realists, who agree that goodness is not dependent upon persons for its existence, say good is
- anything desirable or capable of arousing desire or interest,
- a quality of any desirable thing which can cause interest to be aroused or a capacity for being an end of action,
- that which ought to be desired,
- that which ought to be.
Subjectivists, who agree that goodness is dependent upon persons for existence, hold views of two sorts:
- good is partially dependent upon persons as
- anything desired or "any object of any interest" (R. B. Perry),
- "a quality of any object of any interest" causing it to be desired (A. K. Rogers);
- good is completely dependent upon persons as
- sittsfaction of any desire or any interest in any object (DeW. H. Parker),
- pleasant feeling (Hedonism).
See Value. Opposed to bad, evil, disvalue. -- A.J.B.
Good, Highest: (sometimes the greatest, or supreme, good. Lat. summum bonum) That good which transcends yet includes all the others. According to Augustine, Varro was able to enumerate 288 definitions. For Plato, the supreme Idea, the totality of being. For Aristotle, eudemonism (q.v.), which consists in the harmonious satisfaction of all rational powers. For the Epicureans, pleasure. For Aquinas, obedience to and oneness with God. The all-inclusive object of desire. -- J.K.F.
Goodness: (AS. god) The extrinsic elections of things. The positive object of desire. For Plato, coextensive with being. For the Romans, duty. For Kant, that which has value. For Peirce, the adaptation of a subject to its end. In psychology: the characteristic actions which follow moral norms. Opposite of evil. See Ethics. -- J.K.F.
Gorgias: (c. 480 - c. 375 B.C.) Celebrated orator, rhetorician and philosopher from Leontini in Sicily. He was numbered among the leading Sophists. He spent the major part of his long life in Greece, particularly in Athens. The Platonic dialogue bearing his name indicates in some measure the high esteem in which he was held. -- L.E.D.
Gotama: The founder of the Nyaya (s.v.), also known as Gautama and Aksapada. -- K.F.L.
Gothic: A style in architecture, sculpture and pointing between the 12th and the 16th centurv.
During the neo-classical 18th century, a syn. for the barbarous and lawless, the "romanticists" who reacted against the 18th century classicism, reverted to a love for the medieval Gothic styles. -- L.V.
Government: This term is used in two senses. Sometimes it is used to indicate the particular administrative institutions or agencies of a society whose function it is to control individual action, safeguard individual and national rights, and, in general, promote the public welfare; all in accordance with the methodological principles and for the sake of the ends decreed to be legitimate by the sovereign. A government is, consequently, purely instrumental, and cannot rightly create sanctions for its own activities. It may, however, persist through change of personnel. In another less common use the word indicates the person or persons who hold office in these institutions, rather than the institutions themselves. This second use is more common in Europe than in America, and corresponds to the American term '"the administration." -- M.B.M.
Grabmann, Martin: (1875-) Is one of the most capable historians of medieval philosophy. Born in Wintershofen (Oberpfalz), he was ordained in 1898. He his taught philosophy and theology at Eichstätt (1906), Vienna (1913), and Munich (1918-). An acknowledged authority on the chronology and authenticity of the works of St. Thomas, he is equally capable in dealing with the thought of St. Augustine, or of many minor writers in philosophy and theology up to the Renaissance, Aus d. Geisteswelt d. Mittelalters (Festg. Grabmann) Münster i. W. 1935, lists more than 200 of his articles and books, published before 1934. Chief works Die Geschichte der scholastischen Methods (1909), Mittelalterliches Geistesleben (1926), Werke des hl. Thomas v. Aq. (1931). -- V.J.B.
Grand style: A style based on antique statues and Italian art of the Renaissance, flourishing in France during the 17th century, and in England during the 18th century. -- L.V.
"Greatest Happiness": In ethics, the basis of ethics considered as the highest good of the individual or of the greatest number of individuals. The feeling-tone of the individual, varying from tranquillity and contentment to happiness, considered as the end of all moral action, as for example in Epicurus, Lucretius and Rousseau. The welfare of the majority of individuals, or of society as a whole, considered as the end of all moral action, as for example in Plato, Bentham and Mill. The greatest possible surplus of pleasure over pain in the greatest number of individuals. Although mentioned by Plato in the Republic (IV, 420), the phrase in its current form probably originated in the English translation, in 1770, of Beccaria's Dei delitti e delle pene, where it occurs as "la massima felicita divisa nel maggior numero", which was rendered as "the greatest happiness of the greatest number", a phrase enunciated by Hutcheson in 1725. One of a number of ethical ideals or moral aims. The doctrine with which the phrase is most closely associated is that of John Stuart Mill, who said in his Utilitarianism (ch. II) that "the happiness which forms the . . . standard of what is right in conduct, is not the agent's own happiness, but that of all concerned". -- J.K.F.
Green, Thomas Hill: (1836-1882) Neo-Hegelian idealist, in revolt against the fashionable utilitarian ethics and Spencerian positivism and agnosticism of his time, argued the existence of a rational self from our inability to derive from sense-experience the categories in which we think and the relations that pertain between our percepts. Again, since we recognize ourselves to be part of a larger whole with which we are in relations, those relations and that whole cannot be created by the finite self, but must be produced by an absolute all-inclusive mind of which our minds are parts and of which the world-process in its totality is the experience.
An examination of desire and will leads to the same conclusion. These, too, betoken a self which fulfills itself in attaining an ideal. This ideal can be found only in the Absolute, revealed now not only as an absolute mind but as an absolute moral person, enshrining goodness and beauty as well as truth -- that is as God. -- B.A.G.F.
T. H. Green: Prolegomena to Ethics, 1883.
Grotesque: (It. grottesca, from grotta, grotto) The idealized ugly. In aesthetics, the beauty of fantastic exaggeration, traditionally achieved by combining foliate and animal or human figures, as for example those found in the classic Roman and Pompeiian palaces and reproduced by Raphael in the Vatican. -- J.K.F.
Grotius, Hugo: (1583-1645) Dutch jurist. In his celebrated De jure belli et pacis (1625) he presents a theory of natural rights, based largely upon Stoicism and Roman legal principles. A sharp distinction is made between inviolable natural law and the ever changing positive or civil law.
His work has been basic in the history of international law.
Other works: De mari libero, 1609; De veritate religionis christianae, 1622. -- L.E.D.
Guilt: In ethics, conduct involving a breach of moral law. The commission of a moral offense considered as the failure of duty. Defection from obligation or responsibility. In the psychology of ethics, the sense of guilt is the awareness of having violated an ethical precept or law. Opposite of innocence, merit. -- J.K.F.
Guna: (Skr. thread, cord) Quality, that which has substance (see dravya) as substratum. It is variously conceived in Indian philosophy and different enumerations are made. The Vaisesika, e.g., knows 24 kinds, along with subsidiary ones; the Sankhya, Trika, and others recognize three: sativa, rajas, tamas (q.v.). -- K.F.L.
Guru: (Skr.) Teacher.