TERMS STARTING WITH
Articles of incorporation - The primary legal document of a corporation; they serve as a corporation's constitution. The articles contain basic information on the corporation as required by law.
article by the compiler of this Dictionary.) Israfel
article “Demons and Spirits” speaks of the earliest
articled ::: imp. & p. p. --> of Article ::: a. --> Bound by articles; apprenticed; as, an articled clerk.
article ::: n. --> A distinct portion of an instrument, discourse, literary work, or any other writing, consisting of two or more particulars, or treating of various topics; as, an article in the Constitution. Hence: A clause in a contract, system of regulations, treaty, or the like; a term, condition, or stipulation in a contract; a concise statement; as, articles of agreement.
A literary composition, forming an independent portion of a magazine, newspaper, or cyclopedia.
TERMS ANYWHERE
a- ::: --> A, as a prefix to English words, is derived from various sources. (1) It frequently signifies on or in (from an, a forms of AS. on), denoting a state, as in afoot, on foot, abed, amiss, asleep, aground, aloft, away (AS. onweg), and analogically, ablaze, atremble, etc. (2) AS. of off, from, as in adown (AS. ofd/ne off the dun or hill). (3) AS. a- (Goth. us-, ur-, Ger. er-), usually giving an intensive force, and sometimes the sense of away, on, back, as in arise, abide, ago. (4) Old English y- or i- (corrupted from the AS. inseparable particle ge-,
abditory ::: n. --> A place for hiding or preserving articles of value.
ABSTRACTION, DESCRIPTIONS (see articles of those titles):
academicals ::: n. pl. --> The articles of dress prescribed and worn at some colleges and universities.
According to a view which is widely held by mathematicians, it is characteristic of a mathematical discipline that it begins with a set of undefined elements, properties, functions, and relations, and a set of unproved propositions (called axioms or postulates) involving them; and that from these all other propositions (called theorems) of the discipline are to be derived by the methods of formal logic. On its face, as thus stated, this view would identify mathematics with applied logic. It is usually added, however, that the undefined terms, which appear in the role of names of undefined elements, etc., are not really names of particulars at all but are variables, and that the theorems are to be regarded as proved for any values of these variables which render the postulates true. If then each theorem is replaced by the proposition embodying the implication from the conjunction of the postulates to the theorem in question, we have a reduction of mathematics to pure logic. (For a particular example of a set of postulates for a mathematical discipline see the article Arithmetic, foundations of.)
accretion ::: n. --> The act of increasing by natural growth; esp. the increase of organic bodies by the internal accession of parts; organic growth.
The act of increasing, or the matter added, by an accession of parts externally; an extraneous addition; as, an accretion of earth.
Concretion; coherence of separate particles; as, the accretion of particles so as to form a solid mass.
ace ::: n. --> A unit; a single point or spot on a card or die; the card or die so marked; as, the ace of diamonds.
Hence: A very small quantity or degree; a particle; an atom; a jot.
Acorn Online Media "company" A company formed in August 1994 by {Acorn Computer Group} plc to exploit the {ARM} RISC in television {set-top box} decoders. They planned to woo {British Telecommunications} plc to use the box in some of its {video on demand} trials. The "STB1" box was based on an {ARM8} core with additional circuits to enable {MPEG} to be decoded in software - possibly dedicated instructions for interpolation, inverse {DCT} or {Huffman} table extraction. A prototype featured audio {MPEG} chips, Acorn's {RISC OS} {operating system} and supported {Oracle Media Objects} and {Microword}. Online planned to reduce component count by transferring functions from boards into the single RISC chip. The company was origianlly wholly owned by Acorn but was expected to bring in external investment. [Article by nobody@tandem.com cross-posted from tandem.news.computergram, 1994-07-07]. In 1996 they releasd the imaginatively titled "Set Top Box 2" (STB20M) with a 32 MHz {ARM 7500} and 2 to 32 MB {RAM}. There was also a "Set Top Box 22". {(http://www.khantazi.org/Archives/MachineLst.html
advertise ::: v. t. --> To give notice to; to inform or apprise; to notify; to make known; hence, to warn; -- often followed by of before the subject of information; as, to advertise a man of his loss.
To give public notice of; to announce publicly, esp. by a printed notice; as, to advertise goods for sale, a lost article, the sailing day of a vessel, a political meeting.
A formula of the pure functional calculus of first order which contains no free individual variables is said to be satisfiable if it is possible to determine the underlying non-empty domain of individuals and to give meanings to the propositional and functional variables contained -- namely to each propositional variable a meaning as a particular proposition and to each n-adic functional variable a meaning as an n-adic propositional function of individuals (of the domain in question) -- in such a way that (under the accepted meanings of the sentential connectives, the quantifiers, and application of function to argument) the formula becomes true. The meaning of the last word, even for abstract, not excluding infinite, domains, must be presupposed -- a respect in which this definition differs sharply from most others made in this article.
"Ah! Since India is the cradle of religion and since so many gods preside over her destiny, who among them will accomplish the miracle of resuscitating the city?" A. Choumel (in an article on Pondicherry in 1928) Follows response by the Mother: "Blinded by false appearances, deceived by calumnies, held back by fear and prejudice, he has passed by the side of the god whose intervention he implores and saw him not; he has walked near to the forces which will accomplish the miracle he demands and had no will to recognise them. Thus has he lost the greatest opportunity of his life—a unique opportunity of entering into contact with the mysteries and marvelswhose existence his brain has divined and to which his heart obscurely aspires. In all times the aspirant, before receiving initiation, had to pass through tests. In the schools of antiquity these tests were artificial and by that they lost the greater part of their value. But it is no longer so now. The test hides behind some very ordinary every-day circumstance and wears an innocent air of coincidence and chance which makes it still more difficult and dangerous.It is only to those who can conquer the mind’s
references and prejudices of race and education that India reveals the mystery of her treasures. Others depart disappointed, failing to find what they seek; for they have sought it in the wrong way and would not agree to pay the price of the Divine Discovery."
Ref: CWM Vol. 13, Page: 372-373
(a) In metaphysics: Theory which admits in any given domain, two independent and mutually irreducible substances e.g. the Platonic dualism of the sensible and intelligible worlds, the Cartesian dinlism of thinking and extended substances, the Leibnizian dualism of the actual and possible worlds, the Kantian dualism of the noumenal and the phenomenal. The term dualism first appeared in Thomas Hyde, Historia religionis veterum Persarum (1700) ch. IX, p. 164, where it applied to religious dualism of good and evil and is similarly employed by Bayle m his Dictionary article "Zoroaster" and by Leibniz in Theodicee. C. Wolff is responsible for its use in the psycho-physical sense, (cf. A. Lalande, Vocabulaire de la Philosophie. Vol. I, p. 180, note by R. Eucken.)
al- ::: A prefix. --> All; wholly; completely; as, almighty, almost.
To; at; on; -- in OF. shortened to a-. See Ad-.
The Arabic definite article answering to the English the; as, Alkoran, the Koran or the Book; alchemy, the chemistry.
aloe ::: n. --> The wood of the agalloch.
A genus of succulent plants, some classed as trees, others as shrubs, but the greater number having the habit and appearance of evergreen herbaceous plants; from some of which are prepared articles for medicine and the arts. They are natives of warm countries.
The inspissated juice of several species of aloe, used as a purgative.
alpha particle {bit rot}
Altair 8800 "computer" An {Intel 8080}-based machine made by {MITS}. The Altair was the first popular {microcomputer} kit. It appeared on the cover of the January 1975 "Popular Electronics" magazine with an article (probably) by Leslie Solomon. Leslie Solomon was an editor at Popular Electronics who had a knack for spotting kits that would interest people and make them buy the magazine. The Altair 8800 was one such. The MITS guys took the prototype Altair to New York to show Solomon, but couldn't get it to work after the flight. Nonetheless, he liked it, and it appeared on the cover as "The first minicomputer in a kit." Solomon's blessing was important enough that some MITS competitors named their product the "SOL" to gain his favour. Some wags suggested {SOL} was actually an abbreviation for the condition in which kit purchasers would find themselves. {Bill Gates} and Paul Allen saw the article on the Altair 8800 in Popular Electronics. They realised that the Altair, which was programmed via its binary front panel needed a {high level language}. Legend has it that they called MITS with the claim that they had a {BASIC} {interpreter} for the Altair. When MITS asked them to demo it in Albuquerque, they wrote one on the plane. On arrival, they entered the machine code via the front panel and demonstrated and sold their "product." Thus was born "Altair BASIC." The original Altair BASIC ran in less than 4K of RAM because a "loaded" Altair had 4K memory. Since there was no {operating system} on the Altair, Altair BASIC included what we now think of as {BIOS}. It was distributed on {paper tape} that could be read on a {Teletype}. Later versions supported the 8K Altair and the 16K {diskette}-based Altair (demonstrating that, even in the 1970s, {Microsoft} was committed to {software bloat}). Altair BASIC was ported to the {Motorola 6800} for the Altair 680 machine, and to other 8080-based microcomputers produced by MITS' competitors. {PC-History.org Altair 8800 page (http://pc-history.org/altair_8800.htm)}. [Forrest M. Mimms, article in "Computers and Electronics", (formerly "Popular Electronics"), Jan 1985(?)]. [Was there ever an "Altair 9000" microcomputer?] (2002-06-17)
Alta Vista "web" A {website} provided by {Digital} which features a very fast Web and {Usenet} {search engine}. As of April 1996 its word index is 33GB in size. AltaVista is currently (June 1996) the largest Web index, with 30 million pages from 225,000 servers, and three million articles from 14,000 {Usenet} news groups. It is accessed over 12 million times per weekday. {(http://altavista.digital.com/)}. (1996-06-10)
altrical ::: a. --> Like the articles.
amalgamator ::: n. --> One who, or that which, amalgamates. Specifically: A machine for separating precious metals from earthy particles by bringing them in contact with a body of mercury with which they form an amalgam.
ammunition ::: n. --> Military stores, or provisions of all kinds for attack or defense.
Articles used in charging firearms and ordnance of all kinds; as powder, balls, shot, shells, percussion caps, rockets, etc.
Any stock of missiles, literal or figurative. ::: v. t.
amorphism ::: n. --> A state of being amorphous; esp. a state of being without crystallization even in the minutest particles, as in glass, opal, etc.
anarthrous ::: a. --> Used without the article; as, an anarthrous substantive.
Without joints, or having the joints indistinct, as some insects.
and ::: conj. --> A particle which expresses the relation of connection or addition. It is used to conjoin a word with a word, a clause with a clause, or a sentence with a sentence.
In order to; -- used instead of the infinitival to, especially after try, come, go.
It is sometimes, in old songs, a mere expletive.
If; though. See An, conj.
Andrew Fluegelman "person" A successful attorney, editor of {PC World Magazine}, and author of the {MS-DOS} communications program {PC-TALK III}, written in 1982. He once owned the trademark "{freeware}" but it wasn't enforced after his disappearance. In 1985, Fluegelman was diagnosed with cancer. He was last seen a week later, on 1985-07-06, when he left his Marin County home to go to his office in Tiburon. He called his wife later that day and has not been heard from since. His car was found at Vista Point on the north end of the Golden Gate Bridge. [San Francisco Examiner Sunday Magazine, October 1985]. {Shareware history (http://paulspicks.com/history.asp)}. {NEWSBYTES article (http://textfiles.fisher.hu/news/freeware.txt)}. {(http://doenetwork.bravepages.com/579dmca.html)}. (2003-07-25)
an ::: --> This word is properly an adjective, but is commonly called the indefinite article. It is used before nouns of the singular number only, and signifies one, or any, but somewhat less emphatically. In such expressions as "twice an hour," "once an age," a shilling an ounce (see 2d A, 2), it has a distributive force, and is equivalent to each, every. ::: conj.
apron ::: n. --> An article of dress, of cloth, leather, or other stuff, worn on the fore part of the body, to keep the clothes clean, to defend them from injury, or as a covering. It is commonly tied at the waist by strings.
Something which by its shape or use suggests an apron;
The fat skin covering the belly of a goose or duck.
A piece of leather, or other material, to be spread before a person riding on an outside seat of a vehicle, to defend him from the
artichoke ::: n. --> The Cynara scolymus, a plant somewhat resembling a thistle, with a dilated, imbricated, and prickly involucre. The head (to which the name is also applied) is composed of numerous oval scales, inclosing the florets, sitting on a broad receptacle, which, with the fleshy base of the scales, is much esteemed as an article of food.
See Jerusalem artichoke.
articling ::: p. pr. & vb. n. --> of Article
articulate ::: a. --> Expressed in articles or in separate items or particulars.
Jointed; formed with joints; consisting of segments united by joints; as, articulate animals or plants.
Distinctly uttered; spoken so as to be intelligible; characterized by division into words and syllables; as, articulate speech, sounds, words.
articulately ::: adv. --> After the manner, or in the form, of a joint.
Article by article; in distinct particulars; in detail; definitely.
With distinct utterance of the separate sounds.
ascus ::: n. --> A small membranous bladder or tube in which are inclosed the seedlike reproductive particles or sporules of lichens and certain fungi.
ashes ::: n. pl. --> The earthy or mineral particles of combustible substances remaining after combustion, as of wood or coal.
Specifically: The remains of the human body when burnt, or when "returned to dust" by natural decay.
The color of ashes; deathlike paleness.
asparagus ::: n. --> A genus of perennial plants belonging to the natural order Liliaceae, and having erect much branched stems, and very slender branchlets which are sometimes mistaken for leaves. Asparagus racemosus is a shrubby climbing plant with fragrant flowers. Specifically: The Asparagus officinalis, a species cultivated in gardens.
The young and tender shoots of A. officinalis, which form a valuable and well-known article of food.
asset ::: n. --> Any article or separable part of one&
associate ::: v. t. --> To join with one, as a friend, companion, partner, or confederate; as, to associate others with us in business, or in an enterprise.
To join or connect; to combine in acting; as, particles of gold associated with other substances.
To connect or place together in thought.
To accompany; to keep company with.
Assumption: A proposition which is taken or posed in order to draw inferences from it; or the act of so taking, posing, or assuming a proposition. The motive for an assumption may be (but need not necessarily be) a belief in the truth, or possible truth, of the proposition assumed; or the motive may be an attempt to refute the proposition by reductio ad absurdum (q.v.). The word assumption has also sometimes been used as a synonym of axiom, or postulate (see the article Mathematics). -- A.C.
a stream of a liquid, gas, or small solid particles forcefully shooting forth from a nozzle, orifice, etc. Also fig.
A. Tarski, On the calculus of relations, The Journal of Symbolic Logic, vol. 6 (1941), pp. 73-. 9. ZERMELO SET THEORY. The attempt to devise a system which deals with the logic of classes in a more comprehensive way than is done by the algebra of classes (§ 7), and which, in particular, takes account of the relation e between classes (see the article class), must be carried out with caution in order to avoid the Russell paradox and similar logical paradoxes (q. v.).
atomization ::: n. --> The act of reducing to atoms, or very minute particles; or the state of being so reduced.
The reduction of fluids into fine spray.
atom ::: n. --> An ultimate indivisible particle of matter.
An ultimate particle of matter not necessarily indivisible; a molecule.
A constituent particle of matter, or a molecule supposed to be made up of subordinate particles.
The smallest particle of matter that can enter into combination; one of the elementary constituents of a molecule.
Anything extremely small; a particle; a whit.
attraction ::: n. --> An invisible power in a body by which it draws anything to itself; the power in nature acting mutually between bodies or ultimate particles, tending to draw them together, or to produce their cohesion or combination, and conversely resisting separation.
The act or property of attracting; the effect of the power or operation of attraction.
The power or act of alluring, drawing to, inviting, or engaging; an attractive quality; as, the attraction of beauty or
Aufklärung: In general, this German word and its English equivalent Enlightenment denote the self-emancipation of man from mere authority, prejudice, convention and tradition, with an insistence on freer thinking about problems uncritically referred to these other agencies. According to Kant's famous definition "Enlightenment is the liberation of man from his self-caused state of minority, which is the incapacity of using one's understanding without the direction of another. This state of minority is caused when its source lies not in the lack of understanding, but in the lack of determination and courage to use it without the assistance of another" (Was ist Aufklärung? 1784). In its historical perspective, the Aufklärung refers to the cultural atmosphere and contrlbutions of the 18th century, especially in Germany, France and England [which affected also American thought with B. Franklin, T. Paine and the leaders of the Revolution]. It crystallized tendencies emphasized by the Renaissance, and quickened by modern scepticism and empiricism, and by the great scientific discoveries of the 17th century. This movement, which was represented by men of varying tendencies, gave an impetus to general learning, a more popular philosophy, empirical science, scriptural criticism, social and political thought. More especially, the word Aufklärung is applied to the German contributions to 18th century culture. In philosophy, its principal representatives are G. E. Lessing (1729-81) who believed in free speech and in a methodical criticism of religion, without being a free-thinker; H. S. Reimarus (1694-1768) who expounded a naturalistic philosophy and denied the supernatural origin of Christianity; Moses Mendelssohn (1729-86) who endeavoured to mitigate prejudices and developed a popular common-sense philosophy; Chr. Wolff (1679-1754), J. A. Eberhard (1739-1809) who followed the Leibnizian rationalism and criticized unsuccessfully Kant and Fichte; and J. G. Herder (1744-1803) who was best as an interpreter of others, but whose intuitional suggestions have borne fruit in the organic correlation of the sciences, and in questions of language in relation to human nature and to national character. The works of Kant and Goethe mark the culmination of the German Enlightenment. Cf. J. G. Hibben, Philosophy of the Enlightenment, 1910. --T.G. Augustinianism: The thought of St. Augustine of Hippo, and of his followers. Born in 354 at Tagaste in N. Africa, A. studied rhetoric in Carthage, taught that subject there and in Rome and Milan. Attracted successively to Manicheanism, Scepticism, and Neo-Platontsm, A. eventually found intellectual and moral peace with his conversion to Christianity in his thirty-fourth year. Returning to Africa, he established numerous monasteries, became a priest in 391, Bishop of Hippo in 395. Augustine wrote much: On Free Choice, Confessions, Literal Commentary on Genesis, On the Trinity, and City of God, are his most noted works. He died in 430. St. Augustine's characteristic method, an inward empiricism which has little in common with later variants, starts from things without, proceeds within to the self, and moves upwards to God. These three poles of the Augustinian dialectic are polarized by his doctrine of moderate illuminism. An ontological illumination is required to explain the metaphysical structure of things. The truth of judgment demands a noetic illumination. A moral illumination is necessary in the order of willing; and so, too, an lllumination of art in the aesthetic order. Other illuminations which transcend the natural order do not come within the scope of philosophy; they provide the wisdoms of theology and mysticism. Every being is illuminated ontologically by number, form, unity and its derivatives, and order. A thing is what it is, in so far as it is more or less flooded by the light of these ontological constituents. Sensation is necessary in order to know material substances. There is certainly an action of the external object on the body and a corresponding passion of the body, but, as the soul is superior to the body and can suffer nothing from its inferior, sensation must be an action, not a passion, of the soul. Sensation takes place only when the observing soul, dynamically on guard throughout the body, is vitally attentive to the changes suffered by the body. However, an adequate basis for the knowledge of intellectual truth is not found in sensation alone. In order to know, for example, that a body is multiple, the idea of unity must be present already, otherwise its multiplicity could not be recognized. If numbers are not drawn in by the bodily senses which perceive only the contingent and passing, is the mind the source of the unchanging and necessary truth of numbers? The mind of man is also contingent and mutable, and cannot give what it does not possess. As ideas are not innate, nor remembered from a previous existence of the soul, they can be accounted for only by an immutable source higher than the soul. In so far as man is endowed with an intellect, he is a being naturally illuminated by God, Who may be compared to an intelligible sun. The human intellect does not create the laws of thought; it finds them and submits to them. The immediate intuition of these normative rules does not carry any content, thus any trace of ontologism is avoided. Things have forms because they have numbers, and they have being in so far as they possess form. The sufficient explanation of all formable, and hence changeable, things is an immutable and eternal form which is unrestricted in time and space. The forms or ideas of all things actually existing in the world are in the things themselves (as rationes seminales) and in the Divine Mind (as rationes aeternae). Nothing could exist without unity, for to be is no other than to be one. There is a unity proper to each level of being, a unity of the material individual and species, of the soul, and of that union of souls in the love of the same good, which union constitutes the city. Order, also, is ontologically imbibed by all beings. To tend to being is to tend to order; order secures being, disorder leads to non-being. Order is the distribution which allots things equal and unequal each to its own place and integrates an ensemble of parts in accordance with an end. Hence, peace is defined as the tranquillity of order. Just as things have their being from their forms, the order of parts, and their numerical relations, so too their beauty is not something superadded, but the shining out of all their intelligible co-ingredients. S. Aurelii Augustini, Opera Omnia, Migne, PL 32-47; (a critical edition of some works will be found in the Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum, Vienna). Gilson, E., Introd. a l'etude de s. Augustin, (Paris, 1931) contains very good bibliography up to 1927, pp. 309-331. Pope, H., St. Augustine of Hippo, (London, 1937). Chapman, E., St. Augustine's Philos. of Beauty, (N. Y., 1939). Figgis, J. N., The Political Aspects of St. Augustine's "City of God", (London, 1921). --E.C. Authenticity: In a general sense, genuineness, truth according to its title. It involves sometimes a direct and personal characteristic (Whitehead speaks of "authentic feelings"). This word also refers to problems of fundamental criticism involving title, tradition, authorship and evidence. These problems are vital in theology, and basic in scholarship with regard to the interpretation of texts and doctrines. --T.G. Authoritarianism: That theory of knowledge which maintains that the truth of any proposition is determined by the fact of its having been asserted by a certain esteemed individual or group of individuals. Cf. H. Newman, Grammar of Assent; C. S. Peirce, "Fixation of Belief," in Chance, Love and Logic, ed. M. R. Cohen. --A.C.B. Autistic thinking: Absorption in fanciful or wishful thinking without proper control by objective or factual material; day dreaming; undisciplined imagination. --A.C.B. Automaton Theory: Theory that a living organism may be considered a mere machine. See Automatism. Automatism: (Gr. automatos, self-moving) (a) In metaphysics: Theory that animal and human organisms are automata, that is to say, are machines governed by the laws of physics and mechanics. Automatism, as propounded by Descartes, considered the lower animals to be pure automata (Letter to Henry More, 1649) and man a machine controlled by a rational soul (Treatise on Man). Pure automatism for man as well as animals is advocated by La Mettrie (Man, a Machine, 1748). During the Nineteenth century, automatism, combined with epiphenomenalism, was advanced by Hodgson, Huxley and Clifford. (Cf. W. James, The Principles of Psychology, Vol. I, ch. V.) Behaviorism, of the extreme sort, is the most recent version of automatism (See Behaviorism). (b) In psychology: Psychological automatism is the performance of apparently purposeful actions, like automatic writing without the superintendence of the conscious mind. L. C. Rosenfield, From Beast Machine to Man Machine, N. Y., 1941. --L.W. Automatism, Conscious: The automatism of Hodgson, Huxley, and Clifford which considers man a machine to which mind or consciousness is superadded; the mind of man is, however, causally ineffectual. See Automatism; Epiphenomenalism. --L.W. Autonomy: (Gr. autonomia, independence) Freedom consisting in self-determination and independence of all external constraint. See Freedom. Kant defines autonomy of the will as subjection of the will to its own law, the categorical imperative, in contrast to heteronomy, its subjection to a law or end outside the rational will. (Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysics of Morals, § 2.) --L.W. Autonomy of ethics: A doctrine, usually propounded by intuitionists, that ethics is not a part of, and cannot be derived from, either metaphysics or any of the natural or social sciences. See Intuitionism, Metaphysical ethics, Naturalistic ethics. --W.K.F. Autonomy of the will: (in Kant's ethics) The freedom of the rational will to legislate to itself, which constitutes the basis for the autonomy of the moral law. --P.A.S. Autonymy: In the terminology introduced by Carnap, a word (phrase, symbol, expression) is autonymous if it is used as a name for itself --for the geometric shape, sound, etc. which it exemplifies, or for the word as a historical and grammatical unit. Autonymy is thus the same as the Scholastic suppositio matertalis (q. v.), although the viewpoint is different. --A.C. Autotelic: (from Gr. autos, self, and telos, end) Said of any absorbing activity engaged in for its own sake (cf. German Selbstzweck), such as higher mathematics, chess, etc. In aesthetics, applied to creative art and play which lack any conscious reference to the accomplishment of something useful. In the view of some, it may constitute something beneficent in itself of which the person following his art impulse (q.v.) or playing is unaware, thus approaching a heterotelic (q.v.) conception. --K.F.L. Avenarius, Richard: (1843-1896) German philosopher who expressed his thought in an elaborate and novel terminology in the hope of constructing a symbolic language for philosophy, like that of mathematics --the consequence of his Spinoza studies. As the most influential apostle of pure experience, the posltivistic motive reaches in him an extreme position. Insisting on the biologic and economic function of thought, he thought the true method of science is to cure speculative excesses by a return to pure experience devoid of all assumptions. Philosophy is the scientific effort to exclude from knowledge all ideas not included in the given. Its task is to expel all extraneous elements in the given. His uncritical use of the category of the given and the nominalistic view that logical relations are created rather than discovered by thought, leads him to banish not only animism but also all of the categories, substance, causality, etc., as inventions of the mind. Explaining the evolution and devolution of the problematization and deproblematization of numerous ideas, and aiming to give the natural history of problems, Avenarius sought to show physiologically, psychologically and historically under what conditions they emerge, are challenged and are solved. He hypothesized a System C, a bodily and central nervous system upon which consciousness depends. R-values are the stimuli received from the world of objects. E-values are the statements of experience. The brain changes that continually oscillate about an ideal point of balance are termed Vitalerhaltungsmaximum. The E-values are differentiated into elements, to which the sense-perceptions or the content of experience belong, and characters, to which belongs everything which psychology describes as feelings and attitudes. Avenarius describes in symbolic form a series of states from balance to balance, termed vital series, all describing a series of changes in System C. Inequalities in the vital balance give rise to vital differences. According to his theory there are two vital series. It assumes a series of brain changes because parallel series of conscious states can be observed. The independent vital series are physical, and the dependent vital series are psychological. The two together are practically covariants. In the case of a process as a dependent vital series three stages can be noted: first, the appearance of the problem, expressed as strain, restlessness, desire, fear, doubt, pain, repentance, delusion; the second, the continued effort and struggle to solve the problem; and finally, the appearance of the solution, characterized by abating anxiety, a feeling of triumph and enjoyment. Corresponding to these three stages of the dependent series are three stages of the independent series: the appearance of the vital difference and a departure from balance in the System C, the continuance with an approximate vital difference, and lastly, the reduction of the vital difference to zero, the return to stability. By making room for dependent and independent experiences, he showed that physics regards experience as independent of the experiencing indlvidual, and psychology views experience as dependent upon the individual. He greatly influenced Mach and James (q.v.). See Avenarius, Empirio-criticism, Experience, pure. Main works: Kritik der reinen Erfahrung; Der menschliche Weltbegriff. --H.H. Averroes: (Mohammed ibn Roshd) Known to the Scholastics as The Commentator, and mentioned as the author of il gran commento by Dante (Inf. IV. 68) he was born 1126 at Cordova (Spain), studied theology, law, medicine, mathematics, and philosophy, became after having been judge in Sevilla and Cordova, physician to the khalifah Jaqub Jusuf, and charged with writing a commentary on the works of Aristotle. Al-mansur, Jusuf's successor, deprived him of his place because of accusations of unorthodoxy. He died 1198 in Morocco. Averroes is not so much an original philosopher as the author of a minute commentary on the whole works of Aristotle. His procedure was imitated later by Aquinas. In his interpretation of Aristotelian metaphysics Averroes teaches the coeternity of a universe created ex nihilo. This doctrine formed together with the notion of a numerical unity of the active intellect became one of the controversial points in the discussions between the followers of Albert-Thomas and the Latin Averroists. Averroes assumed that man possesses only a disposition for receiving the intellect coming from without; he identifies this disposition with the possible intellect which thus is not truly intellectual by nature. The notion of one intellect common to all men does away with the doctrine of personal immortality. Another doctrine which probably was emphasized more by the Latin Averroists (and by the adversaries among Averroes' contemporaries) is the famous statement about "two-fold truth", viz. that a proposition may be theologically true and philosophically false and vice versa. Averroes taught that religion expresses the (higher) philosophical truth by means of religious imagery; the "two-truth notion" came apparently into the Latin text through a misinterpretation on the part of the translators. The works of Averroes were one of the main sources of medieval Aristotelianlsm, before and even after the original texts had been translated. The interpretation the Latin Averroists found in their texts of the "Commentator" spread in spite of opposition and condemnation. See Averroism, Latin. Averroes, Opera, Venetiis, 1553. M. Horten, Die Metaphysik des Averroes, 1912. P. Mandonnet, Siger de Brabant et l'Averroisme Latin, 2d ed., Louvain, 1911. --R.A. Averroism, Latin: The commentaries on Aristotle written by Averroes (Ibn Roshd) in the 12th century became known to the Western scholars in translations by Michael Scottus, Hermannus Alemannus, and others at the beginning of the 13th century. Many works of Aristotle were also known first by such translations from Arabian texts, though there existed translations from the Greek originals at the same time (Grabmann). The Averroistic interpretation of Aristotle was held to be the true one by many; but already Albert the Great pointed out several notions which he felt to be incompatible with the principles of Christian philosophy, although he relied for the rest on the "Commentator" and apparently hardly used any other text. Aquinas, basing his studies mostly on a translation from the Greek texts, procured for him by William of Moerbecke, criticized the Averroistic interpretation in many points. But the teachings of the Commentator became the foundation for a whole school of philosophers, represented first by the Faculty of Arts at Paris. The most prominent of these scholars was Siger of Brabant. The philosophy of these men was condemned on March 7th, 1277 by Stephen Tempier, Bishop of Paris, after a first condemnation of Aristotelianism in 1210 had gradually come to be neglected. The 219 theses condemned in 1277, however, contain also some of Aquinas which later were generally recognized an orthodox. The Averroistic propositions which aroused the criticism of the ecclesiastic authorities and which had been opposed with great energy by Albert and Thomas refer mostly to the following points: The co-eternity of the created word; the numerical identity of the intellect in all men, the so-called two-fold-truth theory stating that a proposition may be philosophically true although theologically false. Regarding the first point Thomas argued that there is no philosophical proof, either for the co-eternity or against it; creation is an article of faith. The unity of intellect was rejected as incompatible with the true notion of person and with personal immortality. It is doubtful whether Averroes himself held the two-truths theory; it was, however, taught by the Latin Averroists who, notwithstanding the opposition of the Church and the Thomistic philosophers, gained a great influence and soon dominated many universities, especially in Italy. Thomas and his followers were convinced that they interpreted Aristotle correctly and that the Averroists were wrong; one has, however, to admit that certain passages in Aristotle allow for the Averroistic interpretation, especially in regard to the theory of intellect. Lit.: P. Mandonnet, Siger de Brabant et l'Averroisme Latin au XIIIe Siecle, 2d. ed. Louvain, 1911; M. Grabmann, Forschungen über die lateinischen Aristotelesübersetzungen des XIII. Jahrhunderts, Münster 1916 (Beitr. z. Gesch. Phil. d. MA. Vol. 17, H. 5-6). --R.A. Avesta: See Zendavesta. Avicehron: (or Avencebrol, Salomon ibn Gabirol) The first Jewish philosopher in Spain, born in Malaga 1020, died about 1070, poet, philosopher, and moralist. His main work, Fons vitae, became influential and was much quoted by the Scholastics. It has been preserved only in the Latin translation by Gundissalinus. His doctrine of a spiritual substance individualizing also the pure spirits or separate forms was opposed by Aquinas already in his first treatise De ente, but found favor with the medieval Augustinians also later in the 13th century. He also teaches the necessity of a mediator between God and the created world; such a mediator he finds in the Divine Will proceeding from God and creating, conserving, and moving the world. His cosmogony shows a definitely Neo-Platonic shade and assumes a series of emanations. Cl. Baeumker, Avencebrolis Fons vitae. Beitr. z. Gesch. d. Philos. d. MA. 1892-1895, Vol. I. Joh. Wittman, Die Stellung des hl. Thomas von Aquino zu Avencebrol, ibid. 1900. Vol. III. --R.A. Avicenna: (Abu Ali al Hosain ibn Abdallah ibn Sina) Born 980 in the country of Bocchara, began to write in young years, left more than 100 works, taught in Ispahan, was physician to several Persian princes, and died at Hamadan in 1037. His fame as physician survived his influence as philosopher in the Occident. His medical works were printed still in the 17th century. His philosophy is contained in 18 vols. of a comprehensive encyclopedia, following the tradition of Al Kindi and Al Farabi. Logic, Physics, Mathematics and Metaphysics form the parts of this work. His philosophy is Aristotelian with noticeable Neo-Platonic influences. His doctrine of the universal existing ante res in God, in rebus as the universal nature of the particulars, and post res in the human mind by way of abstraction became a fundamental thesis of medieval Aristotelianism. He sharply distinguished between the logical and the ontological universal, denying to the latter the true nature of form in the composite. The principle of individuation is matter, eternally existent. Latin translations attributed to Avicenna the notion that existence is an accident to essence (see e.g. Guilelmus Parisiensis, De Universo). The process adopted by Avicenna was one of paraphrasis of the Aristotelian texts with many original thoughts interspersed. His works were translated into Latin by Dominicus Gundissalinus (Gondisalvi) with the assistance of Avendeath ibn Daud. This translation started, when it became more generally known, the "revival of Aristotle" at the end of the 12th and the beginning of the 13th century. Albert the Great and Aquinas professed, notwithstanding their critical attitude, a great admiration for Avicenna whom the Arabs used to call the "third Aristotle". But in the Orient, Avicenna's influence declined soon, overcome by the opposition of the orthodox theologians. Avicenna, Opera, Venetiis, 1495; l508; 1546. M. Horten, Das Buch der Genesung der Seele, eine philosophische Enzyklopaedie Avicenna's; XIII. Teil: Die Metaphysik. Halle a. S. 1907-1909. R. de Vaux, Notes et textes sur l'Avicennisme Latin, Bibl. Thomiste XX, Paris, 1934. --R.A. Avidya: (Skr.) Nescience; ignorance; the state of mind unaware of true reality; an equivalent of maya (q.v.); also a condition of pure awareness prior to the universal process of evolution through gradual differentiation into the elements and factors of knowledge. --K.F.L. Avyakta: (Skr.) "Unmanifest", descriptive of or standing for brahman (q.v.) in one of its or "his" aspects, symbolizing the superabundance of the creative principle, or designating the condition of the universe not yet become phenomenal (aja, unborn). --K.F.L. Awareness: Consciousness considered in its aspect of act; an act of attentive awareness such as the sensing of a color patch or the feeling of pain is distinguished from the content attended to, the sensed color patch, the felt pain. The psychologlcal theory of intentional act was advanced by F. Brentano (Psychologie vom empirischen Standpunkte) and received its epistemological development by Meinong, Husserl, Moore, Laird and Broad. See Intentionalism. --L.W. Axiological: (Ger. axiologisch) In Husserl: Of or pertaining to value or theory of value (the latter term understood as including disvalue and value-indifference). --D.C. Axiological ethics: Any ethics which makes the theory of obligation entirely dependent on the theory of value, by making the determination of the rightness of an action wholly dependent on a consideration of the value or goodness of something, e.g. the action itself, its motive, or its consequences, actual or probable. Opposed to deontological ethics. See also teleological ethics. --W.K.F. Axiologic Realism: In metaphysics, theory that value as well as logic, qualities as well as relations, have their being and exist external to the mind and independently of it. Applicable to the philosophy of many though not all realists in the history of philosophy, from Plato to G. E. Moore, A. N. Whitehead, and N, Hartmann. --J.K.F. Axiology: (Gr. axios, of like value, worthy, and logos, account, reason, theory). Modern term for theory of value (the desired, preferred, good), investigation of its nature, criteria, and metaphysical status. Had its rise in Plato's theory of Forms or Ideas (Idea of the Good); was developed in Aristotle's Organon, Ethics, Poetics, and Metaphysics (Book Lambda). Stoics and Epicureans investigated the summum bonum. Christian philosophy (St. Thomas) built on Aristotle's identification of highest value with final cause in God as "a living being, eternal, most good." In modern thought, apart from scholasticism and the system of Spinoza (Ethica, 1677), in which values are metaphysically grounded, the various values were investigated in separate sciences, until Kant's Critiques, in which the relations of knowledge to moral, aesthetic, and religious values were examined. In Hegel's idealism, morality, art, religion, and philosophy were made the capstone of his dialectic. R. H. Lotze "sought in that which should be the ground of that which is" (Metaphysik, 1879). Nineteenth century evolutionary theory, anthropology, sociology, psychology, and economics subjected value experience to empirical analysis, and stress was again laid on the diversity and relativity of value phenomena rather than on their unity and metaphysical nature. F. Nietzsche's Also Sprach Zarathustra (1883-1885) and Zur Genealogie der Moral (1887) aroused new interest in the nature of value. F. Brentano, Vom Ursprung sittlicher Erkenntnis (1889), identified value with love. In the twentieth century the term axiology was apparently first applied by Paul Lapie (Logique de la volonte, 1902) and E. von Hartmann (Grundriss der Axiologie, 1908). Stimulated by Ehrenfels (System der Werttheorie, 1897), Meinong (Psychologisch-ethische Untersuchungen zur Werttheorie, 1894-1899), and Simmel (Philosophie des Geldes, 1900). W. M. Urban wrote the first systematic treatment of axiology in English (Valuation, 1909), phenomenological in method under J. M. Baldwin's influence. Meanwhile H. Münsterberg wrote a neo-Fichtean system of values (The Eternal Values, 1909). Among important recent contributions are: B. Bosanquet, The Principle of Individuality and Value (1912), a free reinterpretation of Hegelianism; W. R. Sorley, Moral Values and the Idea of God (1918, 1921), defending a metaphysical theism; S. Alexander, Space, Time, and Deity (1920), realistic and naturalistic; N. Hartmann, Ethik (1926), detailed analysis of types and laws of value; R. B. Perry's magnum opus, General Theory of Value (1926), "its meaning and basic principles construed in terms of interest"; and J. Laird, The Idea of Value (1929), noteworthy for historical exposition. A naturalistic theory has been developed by J. Dewey (Theory of Valuation, 1939), for which "not only is science itself a value . . . but it is the supreme means of the valid determination of all valuations." A. J. Ayer, Language, Truth and Logic (1936) expounds the view of logical positivism that value is "nonsense." J. Hessen, Wertphilosophie (1937), provides an account of recent German axiology from a neo-scholastic standpoint. The problems of axiology fall into four main groups, namely, those concerning (1) the nature of value, (2) the types of value, (3) the criterion of value, and (4) the metaphysical status of value. (1) The nature of value experience. Is valuation fulfillment of desire (voluntarism: Spinoza, Ehrenfels), pleasure (hedonism: Epicurus, Bentham, Meinong), interest (Perry), preference (Martineau), pure rational will (formalism: Stoics, Kant, Royce), apprehension of tertiary qualities (Santayana), synoptic experience of the unity of personality (personalism: T. H. Green, Bowne), any experience that contributes to enhanced life (evolutionism: Nietzsche), or "the relation of things as means to the end or consequence actually reached" (pragmatism, instrumentalism: Dewey). (2) The types of value. Most axiologists distinguish between intrinsic (consummatory) values (ends), prized for their own sake, and instrumental (contributory) values (means), which are causes (whether as economic goods or as natural events) of intrinsic values. Most intrinsic values are also instrumental to further value experience; some instrumental values are neutral or even disvaluable intrinsically. Commonly recognized as intrinsic values are the (morally) good, the true, the beautiful, and the holy. Values of play, of work, of association, and of bodily well-being are also acknowledged. Some (with Montague) question whether the true is properly to be regarded as a value, since some truth is disvaluable, some neutral; but love of truth, regardless of consequences, seems to establish the value of truth. There is disagreement about whether the holy (religious value) is a unique type (Schleiermacher, Otto), or an attitude toward other values (Kant, Höffding), or a combination of the two (Hocking). There is also disagreement about whether the variety of values is irreducible (pluralism) or whether all values are rationally related in a hierarchy or system (Plato, Hegel, Sorley), in which values interpenetrate or coalesce into a total experience. (3) The criterion of value. The standard for testing values is influenced by both psychological and logical theory. Hedonists find the standard in the quantity of pleasure derived by the individual (Aristippus) or society (Bentham). Intuitionists appeal to an ultimate insight into preference (Martineau, Brentano). Some idealists recognize an objective system of rational norms or ideals as criterion (Plato, Windelband), while others lay more stress on rational wholeness and coherence (Hegel, Bosanquet, Paton) or inclusiveness (T. H. Green). Naturalists find biological survival or adjustment (Dewey) to be the standard. Despite differences, there is much in common in the results of the application of these criteria. (4) The metaphysical status of value. What is the relation of values to the facts investigated by natural science (Koehler), of Sein to Sollen (Lotze, Rickert), of human experience of value to reality independent of man (Hegel, Pringle-Pattlson, Spaulding)? There are three main answers: subjectivism (value is entirely dependent on and relative to human experience of it: so most hedonists, naturalists, positivists); logical objectivism (values are logical essences or subsistences, independent of their being known, yet with no existential status or action in reality); metaphysical objectivism (values --or norms or ideals --are integral, objective, and active constituents of the metaphysically real: so theists, absolutists, and certain realists and naturalists like S. Alexander and Wieman). --E.S.B. Axiom: See Mathematics. Axiomatic method: That method of constructing a deductive system consisting of deducing by specified rules all statements of the system save a given few from those given few, which are regarded as axioms or postulates of the system. See Mathematics. --C.A.B. Ayam atma brahma: (Skr.) "This self is brahman", famous quotation from Brhadaranyaka Upanishad 2.5.19, one of many alluding to the central theme of the Upanishads, i.e., the identity of the human and divine or cosmic. --K.F.L.
bacteroidal ::: a. --> Resembling bacteria; as, bacteroid particles.
bar code "convention" A printed horizontal strip of vertical bars of varying widths, groups of which represent decimal digits and are used for identifying commercial products or parts. Bar codes are read by a bar code reader and the code interpreted either through {software} or a {hardware} decoder. All products sold in open trade are numbered and bar-coded to a worldwide standard, which was introduced in the US in 1973 and to the rest of the world in 1977. The Uniform Code Council in the US, along with the international article numbering authority, EAN International, allocate blocks of unique 12 or 13-digit numbers to member companies through a national numbering authority. In Britain this is the Article Number Association. Most companies are allocated 100,000 numbers that they can use to identify any of their products, services or locations. Each code typically contains a leading "quiet" zone, start character, data character, optional {check digit}, stop character and a trailing quiet zone. The check digit is used to verify that the number has been scanned correctly. The quiet zone could be white, red or yellow if viewed by a red scanner. Bar code readers usually use visible red light with a wavelength between 632.8 and 680 nanometres. [Details of code?] (1997-07-18)
barrel ::: n. --> A round vessel or cask, of greater length than breadth, and bulging in the middle, made of staves bound with hoops, and having flat ends or heads.
The quantity which constitutes a full barrel. This varies for different articles and also in different places for the same article, being regulated by custom or by law. A barrel of wine is 31/ gallons; a barrel of flour is 196 pounds.
A solid drum, or a hollow cylinder or case; as, the barrel
articled ::: imp. & p. p. --> of Article ::: a. --> Bound by articles; apprenticed; as, an articled clerk.
article ::: n. --> A distinct portion of an instrument, discourse, literary work, or any other writing, consisting of two or more particulars, or treating of various topics; as, an article in the Constitution. Hence: A clause in a contract, system of regulations, treaty, or the like; a term, condition, or stipulation in a contract; a concise statement; as, articles of agreement.
A literary composition, forming an independent portion of a magazine, newspaper, or cyclopedia.
::: articles
basalt ::: n. --> A rock of igneous origin, consisting of augite and triclinic feldspar, with grains of magnetic or titanic iron, and also bottle-green particles of olivine frequently disseminated.
An imitation, in pottery, of natural basalt; a kind of black porcelain.
bed ::: n. --> An article of furniture to sleep or take rest in or on; a couch. Specifically: A sack or mattress, filled with some soft material, in distinction from the bedstead on which it is placed (as, a feather bed), or this with the bedclothes added. In a general sense, any thing or place used for sleeping or reclining on or in, as a quantity of hay, straw, leaves, or twigs.
(Used as the symbol of matrimony) Marriage.
A plat or level piece of ground in a garden, usually a little
bell jar ::: --> A glass vessel, varying in size, open at the bottom and closed at the top like a bell, and having a knob or handle at the top for lifting it. It is used for a great variety of purposes; as, with the air pump, and for holding gases, also for keeping the dust from articles exposed to view.
Bertrand Meyer The author of the {Eiffel} Language and many articles on {object-oriented} software techniques. (1995-03-01)
Bibliography. The various theories outlined in this article do not exhaust the possible definitions and problems concerning probability, but they give an idea of the trend of the discussions. The following works are selected from a considerable literature of the subject. Laplace, Essai sur les Probabilites. Keynes, A Treatise on Probability. Jeffreys, Theory of Probability. Uspensky, Introduction to Mathematical Probability. Borel, Traite de Calcul des Probabilites (especially the last volume dealing with its philosophical aspects). Mises, Probability, Statistics and Truth. Reichenbach, Les Fondements Logiques du Calcul dcs Probabilites. Frechet, Recherches sur le Calcul des Probabilites. Ville, Essai sur la Theorie des Collectifs. Kolmogoroff, Grundbegriffe der Wahrscheinhchkeitsrechnung. Wald, Die Widerspruchsfreiheit des Kollektivbegriffes. Nagel, The Theory of Probability.
BIFF /bif/ (Or "B1FF", from {Usenet}) The most famous {pseudo}, and the prototypical {newbie}. Articles from BIFF are characterised by all uppercase letters sprinkled liberally with bangs, typos, "cute" misspellings (EVRY BUDY LUVS GOOD OLD BIFF CUZ HE'S A K00L DOOD AN HE RITES REEL AWESUM THINGZ IN CAPITULL LETTRS LIKE THIS!!!), use (and often misuse) of fragments of {chat} abbreviations, a long {sig block} (sometimes even a {doubled sig}), and unbounded naivete. BIFF posts articles using his elder brother's VIC-20. BIFF's location is a mystery, as his articles appear to come from a variety of sites. However, {BITNET} seems to be the most frequent origin. The theory that BIFF is a denizen of BITNET is supported by BIFF's (unfortunately invalid) {electronic mail address}: "BIFF@BIT.NET". [1993: Now It Can Be Told! My spies inform me that BIFF was originally created by Joe Talmadge "jat@cup.hp.com", also the author of the infamous and much-plagiarised "Flamer's Bible". The BIFF filter he wrote was later passed to Richard Sexton, who posted BIFFisms much more widely. Versions have since been posted for the amusement of the net at large. - ESR] [{Jargon File}] (1997-09-22)
bijoutry ::: n. --> Small articles of virtu, as jewelry, trinkets, etc.
bindery ::: n. --> A place where books, or other articles, are bound; a bookbinder&
bit bucket "jargon" 1. (Or "{write-only memory}", "WOM") The universal data sink (originally, the mythical receptacle used to catch bits when they fall off the end of a {register} during a {shift} instruction). Discarded, lost, or destroyed data is said to have "gone to the bit bucket". On {Unix}, often used for {/dev/null}. Sometimes amplified as "the Great Bit Bucket in the Sky". 2. The place where all lost mail and news messages eventually go. The selection is performed according to {Finagle's Law}; important mail is much more likely to end up in the bit bucket than junk mail, which has an almost 100% probability of getting delivered. Routing to the bit bucket is automatically performed by mail-transfer agents, news systems, and the lower layers of the network. 3. The ideal location for all unwanted mail responses: "Flames about this article to the bit bucket." Such a request is guaranteed to overflow one's mailbox with flames. 4. Excuse for all mail that has not been sent. "I mailed you those figures last week; they must have landed in the bit bucket." Compare {black hole}. This term is used purely in jest. It is based on the fanciful notion that bits are objects that are not destroyed but only misplaced. This appears to have been a mutation of an earlier term "bit box", about which the same legend was current; old-time hackers also report that trainees used to be told that when the CPU stored bits into memory it was actually pulling them "out of the bit box". Another variant of this legend has it that, as a consequence of the "parity preservation law", the number of 1 bits that go to the bit bucket must equal the number of 0 bits. Any imbalance results in bits filling up the bit bucket. A qualified computer technician can empty a full bit bucket as part of scheduled maintenance. In contrast, a "{chad box}" is a real container used to catch {chad}. This may be related to the origin of the term "bit bucket" [Comments ?]. (1996-11-20)
bit rot "jargon" A hypothetical disease the existence of which has been deduced from the observation that unused programs or features will often stop working after sufficient time has passed, even if "nothing has changed". The theory explains that bits decay as if they were radioactive. As time passes, the contents of a file or the code in a program will become increasingly garbled. People with a physics background tend to prefer the variant "bit decay" for the analogy with particle decay. There actually are physical processes that produce such effects (alpha particles generated by trace radionuclides in ceramic chip packages, for example, can change the contents of a computer memory unpredictably, and various kinds of subtle media failures can corrupt files in mass storage), but they are quite rare (and computers are built with {error detection} circuitry to compensate for them). The notion long favoured among hackers that {cosmic rays} are among the causes of such events turns out to be a myth. Bit rot is the notional cause of {software rot}. See also {computron}, {quantum bogodynamics}. [{Jargon File}] (1998-03-15)
blog "web" (From "web log") Any kind of diary published on the {web}, usually written by an individual (a "blogger") but also by corporate bodies. Blogging is regarded by some as an important social phenomenon as it contributes to the easy exchange of ideas among a large and growing international community ("the blogosphere"). A blog is just a special kind of {website}. The {home page} usually shows the most recent article and links to earlier articles, the owner's profile and web logs written by the owner's friends. There is usually a facility for readers to add comments to the bottom of articles. Blogs usually provide an {RSS feed} of current articles, allowing readers to subscribe by adding the feed to their favourite RSS reader. Many sites, e.g. {(http://blogger.com/)}, let you create a blog for free. Many blogs consist almost entirely of links to other web logs, some publish original content, a few are worth reading. (2013-08-15)
bogon /boh'gon/ (By analogy with proton/electron/neutron, but doubtless reinforced after 1980 by the similarity to Douglas Adams's "Vogons") 1. The elementary particle of bogosity (see {quantum bogodynamics}). For instance, "the Ethernet is emitting bogons again" means that it is broken or acting in an erratic or bogus fashion. 2. A query {packet} sent from a {TCP/IP} {domain resolver} to a root server, having the reply bit set instead of the query bit. 3. Any bogus or incorrectly formed packet sent on a network. 4. A person who is bogus or who says bogus things. This was historically the original usage, but has been overtaken by its derivative senses. See also {bogosity}; compare {psyton}, {fat electrons}, {magic smoke}. The bogon has become the type case for a whole bestiary of nonce particle names, including the "clutron" or "cluon" (indivisible particle of cluefulness, obviously the antiparticle of the bogon) and the futon (elementary particle of {randomness}, or sometimes of lameness). These are not so much live usages in themselves as examples of a live meta-usage: that is, it has become a standard joke or linguistic maneuver to "explain" otherwise mysterious circumstances by inventing nonce particle names. And these imply nonce particle theories, with all their dignity or lack thereof (we might note parenthetically that this is a generalisation from "(bogus particle) theories" to "bogus (particle theories)"!). Perhaps such particles are the modern-day equivalents of trolls and wood-nymphs as standard starting-points around which to construct explanatory myths. Of course, playing on an existing word (as in the "futon") yields additional flavour. [{Jargon File}]
borrow ::: v. t. --> To receive from another as a loan, with the implied or expressed intention of returning the identical article or its equivalent in kind; -- the opposite of lend.
To take (one or more) from the next higher denomination in order to add it to the next lower; -- a term of subtraction when the figure of the subtrahend is larger than the corresponding one of the minuend.
To copy or imitate; to adopt; as, to borrow the style,
bosom ::: n. --> The breast of a human being; the part, between the arms, to which anything is pressed when embraced by them.
The breast, considered as the seat of the passions, affections, and operations of the mind; consciousness; secret thoughts.
Embrace; loving or affectionate inclosure; fold.
Any thing or place resembling the breast; a supporting surface; an inner recess; the interior; as, the bosom of the earth.
The part of the dress worn upon the breast; an article, or a
branch ::: n. --> A shoot or secondary stem growing from the main stem, or from a principal limb or bough of a tree or other plant.
Any division extending like a branch; any arm or part connected with the main body of thing; ramification; as, the branch of an antler; the branch of a chandelier; a branch of a river; a branch of a railway.
Any member or part of a body or system; a distinct article; a section or subdivision; a department.
bread ::: a. --> To spread. ::: n. --> An article of food made from flour or meal by moistening, kneading, and baking.
Food; sustenance; support of life, in general.
breakage ::: n. --> The act of breaking; a break; a breaking; also, articles broken.
An allowance or compensation for things broken accidentally, as in transportation or use.
bronzing ::: p. pr. & vb. n. --> of Bronze ::: n. --> The act or art of communicating to articles in metal, wood, clay, plaster, etc., the appearance of bronze by means of bronze powders, or imitative painting, or by chemical processes.
A material for bronzing.
by-bidder ::: n. --> One who bids at an auction in behalf of the auctioneer or owner, for the purpose of running up the price of articles.
cabinetmaker ::: n. --> One whose occupation is to make cabinets or other choice articles of household furniture, as tables, bedsteads, bureaus, etc.
cabinetmaking ::: n. --> The art or occupation of making the finer articles of household furniture.
cabinet ::: n. --> A hut; a cottage; a small house.
A small room, or retired apartment; a closet.
A private room in which consultations are held.
The advisory council of the chief executive officer of a nation; a cabinet council.
A set of drawers or a cupboard intended to contain articles of value. Hence:
A decorative piece of furniture, whether open like an
Cancelmoose "messaging" A semi-mythical being that cancels {Usenet} {articles} posted by others. (In general, an article can only be cancelled by its original author.) The Cancelmoose's usual target is {spam} or extremely excessive {cross-post}ing. Some believe that the Cancelmoose exists only in the same mythic sense that {B1FF}, the {NSA line eater} and {Shub Internet} exist; others consider Cancelmoose's historicity to be closer to that of {Kibo}. The latter group assume that the real Cancelmoose is not one person (or moose), but instead is a cabal of {NNTP} wonks. However, the Cancelmoose is probably real, seeing as how it has its own {website}. {(http://nocem.org/)}. (1999-01-14)
Cancelpoodle "messaging" (Or Cancelbunny) A manifestation of the {Cancelmoose} in the form of a more selective (and probably not automated) way to cancel {Usenet} articles. The term became common during the alt.religion.scientology wars of the mid-90s, during which Cancelpoodles were used. The "poodle" part is an allusion to one of the parties obliquely involved in the fray, who an earlier well-known witticism had compared to "a psychotic poodle". (1999-01-14)
candy ::: v. t. --> To conserve or boil in sugar; as, to candy fruits; to candy ginger.
To make sugar crystals of or in; to form into a mass resembling candy; as, to candy sirup.
To incrust with sugar or with candy, or with that which resembles sugar or candy.
A more or less solid article of confectionery made by boiling sugar or molasses to the desired consistency, and than
cantarro ::: n. --> A weight used in southern Europe and East for heavy articles. It varies in different localities; thus, at Rome it is nearly 75 pounds, in Sardinia nearly 94 pounds, in Cairo it is 95 pounds, in Syria about 503 pounds.
A liquid measure in Spain, ranging from two and a half to four gallons.
canterbury ::: n. --> A city in England, giving its name various articles. It is the seat of the Archbishop of Canterbury (primate of all England), and contains the shrine of Thomas a Becket, to which pilgrimages were formerly made.
A stand with divisions in it for holding music, loose papers, etc.
capitulate ::: n. --> To settle or draw up the heads or terms of an agreement, as in chapters or articles; to agree.
To surrender on terms agreed upon (usually, drawn up under several heads); as, an army or a garrison capitulates. ::: v. t. --> To surrender or transfer, as an army or a fortress,
capitulation ::: n. --> A reducing to heads or articles; a formal agreement.
The act of capitulating or surrendering to an emeny upon stipulated terms.
The instrument containing the terms of an agreement or surrender.
Carnap proposes a purely syntactical definition of equipollence by defining two sentences (or two classes of sentences) to be equipollent if they have the same class of non-valid consequences. See the article Valid. -- A.C.
cart ::: n. --> A common name for various kinds of vehicles, as a Scythian dwelling on wheels, or a chariot.
A two-wheeled vehicle for the ordinary purposes of husbandry, or for transporting bulky and heavy articles.
A light business wagon used by bakers, grocerymen, butchers, etc.
An open two-wheeled pleasure carriage.
catalogue ::: n. --> A list or enumeration of names, or articles arranged methodically, often in alphabetical order; as, a catalogue of the students of a college, or of books, or of the stars. ::: v. t. --> To make a list or catalogue; to insert in a catalogue.
celluloid ::: n. --> A substance composed essentially of gun cotton and camphor, and when pure resembling ivory in texture and color, but variously colored to imitate coral, tortoise shell, amber, malachite, etc. It is used in the manufacture of jewelry and many small articles, as combs, brushes, collars, and cuffs; -- originally called xylonite.
centrepiece ::: n. --> An ornament to be placed in the center, as of a table, ceiling, atc.; a central article or figure.
CERN "body" The European Laboratory for Particle Physics in Swizerland. Sir {Tim Berners-Lee} invented the {World-Wide Web} while working at CERN. Other notable computing developments at CERN include {ADAMO}, {Application Software Installation Server}, {CERNLIB}, {cfortran.h}, {CHEOPS}, {CICERO}, {Cortex}, {EMDIR}, {HBOOK}, {LIGHT}, {NFT}, {PATCHY}, {PL-11}, {Schoonschip}, {SHIFT}, and {ZEBRA}. {CERN Home (http://cern.ch/)}. (2004-10-24)
chapiter ::: n. --> A capital [Obs.] See Chapital.
A summary in writing of such matters as are to be inquired of or presented before justices in eyre, or justices of assize, or of the peace, in their sessions; -- also called articles.
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).
clause ::: a distinct article, stipulation, or provision, in a document.
clause ::: n. --> A separate portion of a written paper, paragraph, or sentence; an article, stipulation, or proviso, in a legal document.
A subordinate portion or a subdivision of a sentence containing a subject and its predicate.
See Letters clause / close, under Letter.
clayish ::: a. --> Partaking of the nature of clay, or containing particles of it.
clay ::: n. --> A soft earth, which is plastic, or may be molded with the hands, consisting of hydrous silicate of aluminium. It is the result of the wearing down and decomposition, in part, of rocks containing aluminous minerals, as granite. Lime, magnesia, oxide of iron, and other ingredients, are often present as impurities.
Earth in general, as representing the elementary particles of the human body; hence, the human body as formed from such particles.
cloud ::: 1. A visible collection of particles of water or ice suspended in the air, usually at an elevation above the earth"s surface. 2. Any similar mass, esp. of smoke or dust. 3. Something fleeting or unsubstantial. 4. Anything that obscures or darkens something, or causes gloom, trouble, suspicion, disgrace, etc. clouds, clouds", cloud-veils.
cloud ::: n. --> A collection of visible vapor, or watery particles, suspended in the upper atmosphere.
A mass or volume of smoke, or flying dust, resembling vapor.
A dark vein or spot on a lighter material, as in marble; hence, a blemish or defect; as, a cloud upon one&
coarse ::: 1. Composed of relatively large parts or particles. 2. Lacking in fineness or delicacy of texture, structure, etc. Not refined or delicate, rough.
coarse ::: superl. --> Large in bulk, or composed of large parts or particles; of inferior quality or appearance; not fine in material or close in texture; gross; thick; rough; -- opposed to fine; as, coarse sand; coarse thread; coarse cloth; coarse bread.
Not refined; rough; rude; unpolished; gross; indelicate; as, coarse manners; coarse language.
cocobolas ::: n. --> A very beautiful and hard wood, obtained in the West India Islands. It is used in cabinetmaking, for the handles of tools, and for various fancy articles.
cohesion ::: n. --> The act or state of sticking together; close union.
That from of attraction by which the particles of a body are united throughout the mass, whether like or unlike; -- distinguished from adhesion, which unites bodies by their adjacent surfaces.
Logical agreement and dependence; as, the cohesion of ideas.
cohesive ::: a. --> Holding the particles of a homogeneous body together; as, cohesive attraction; producing cohesion; as, a cohesive force.
Cohering, or sticking together, as in a mass; capable of cohering; tending to cohere; as, cohesive clay.
comminute ::: v. t. --> To reduce to minute particles, or to a fine powder; to pulverize; to triturate; to grind; as, to comminute chalk or bones; to comminute food with the teeth.
comminution ::: n. --> The act of reducing to a fine powder or to small particles; pulverization; the state of being comminuted.
Fracture (of a bone) into a number of pieces.
Gradual diminution by the removal of small particles at a time; a lessening; a wearing away.
compact ::: p. p. & a --> Joined or held together; leagued; confederated.
Composed or made; -- with of.
Closely or firmly united, as the particles of solid bodies; firm; close; solid; dense.
Brief; close; pithy; not diffuse; not verbose; as, a compact discourse. ::: v. t.
Concerning Frege's distinction between sense and denotation see the article Descriptions. -- A.C.
Concerning the distinction between form and content see further the articles formal, and syntax, logical.
Concerning the relationship between general recursiveness and the notion of effectiveness, see the article logistic system. -- A.C.
concrescence ::: n. --> Coalescence of particles; growth; increase by the addition of particles.
concrete ::: 1. Formed by the coalescence of separate particles or parts into one mass; solid. 2. Made real, tangible, or particular as opposed to abstract.
concrete ::: a. --> United in growth; hence, formed by coalition of separate particles into one mass; united in a solid form.
Standing for an object as it exists in nature, invested with all its qualities, as distinguished from standing for an attribute of an object; -- opposed to abstract.
Applied to a specific object; special; particular; -- opposed to general. See Abstract, 3.
concretion ::: n. --> The process of concreting; the process of uniting or of becoming united, as particles of matter into a mass; solidification.
A mass or nodule of solid matter formed by growing together, by congelation, condensation, coagulation, induration, etc.; a clot; a lump; a calculus.
A rounded mass or nodule produced by an aggregation of the material around a center; as, the calcareous concretions common in beds of clay.
confession ::: n. --> Acknowledgment; avowal, especially in a matter pertaining to one&
congeries ::: n. sing & pl. --> A collection of particles or bodies into one mass; a heap; an aggregation.
contributer ::: n. --> One who, or that which, contributes; specifically, one who writes articles for a newspaper or magazine.
corpuscle ::: n. --> A minute particle; an atom; a molecule.
A protoplasmic animal cell; esp., such as float free, like blood, lymph, and pus corpuscles; or such as are imbedded in an intercellular matrix, like connective tissue and cartilage corpuscles. See Blood.
corpuscular ::: a. --> Pertaining to, or composed of, corpuscles, or small particles.
corrode ::: v. t. --> To eat away by degrees; to wear away or diminish by gradually separating or destroying small particles of, as by action of a strong acid or a caustic alkali.
To consume; to wear away; to prey upon; to impair. ::: v. i. --> To have corrosive action; to be subject to corrosion.
corset ::: n. --> In the Middle Ages, a gown or basque of which the body was close fitting, worn by both men and women.
An article of dress inclosing the chest and waist worn (chiefly by women) to support the body or to modify its shape; stays. ::: v. t. --> To inclose in corsets.
court-cupboard ::: n. --> A movable sideboard or buffet, on which plate and other articles of luxury were displayed on special ocasions.
credendum ::: n. --> A thing to be believed; an article of faith; -- distinguished from agendum, a practical duty.
creed ::: v. t. --> A definite summary of what is believed; esp., a summary of the articles of Christian faith; a confession of faith for public use; esp., one which is brief and comprehensive.
Any summary of principles or opinions professed or adhered to.
To believe; to credit.
Creighton, James Edwin: (1861-1924) Professor of Logic and Metaphysics at Cornell University. He was one of the founders and a president of the American Philosophical Association, American editor of Kant-Studien and editor of The Philosophical Review. He was greatly influenced by Bosanquet. His Introductory Logic had long been a standard text. His basic ideas as expressed in articles published at various times were posthumously published in a volume entitled Studies in Speculative Philosophy, a term expressive of his intellectualistic form of objective idealism. -- L.E.D.
crock ::: n. --> The loose black particles collected from combustion, as on pots and kettles, or in a chimney; soot; smut; also, coloring matter which rubs off from cloth.
A low stool.
Any piece of crockery, especially of coarse earthenware; an earthen pot or pitcher. ::: v. t.
crush ::: v. t. --> To press or bruise between two hard bodies; to squeeze, so as to destroy the natural shape or integrity of the parts, or to force together into a mass; as, to crush grapes.
To reduce to fine particles by pounding or grinding; to comminute; as, to crush quartz.
To overwhelm by pressure or weight; to beat or force down, as by an incumbent weight.
To oppress or burden grievously.
cryptocrystalline ::: a. --> Indistinctly crystalline; -- applied to rocks and minerals, whose state of aggregation is so fine that no distinct particles are visible, even under the microscope.
crystalloid ::: a. --> Crystal-like; transparent like crystal. ::: n. --> A body which, in solution, diffuses readily through animal membranes, and generally is capable of being crystallized; -- opposed to colloid.
One of the microscopic particles resembling crystals,
curio ::: n. --> Any curiosity or article of virtu.
dandruff ::: n. --> A scurf which forms on the head, and comes off in small or particles.
Definition: In the development of a logistic system (q. v.) it is usually desirable to introduce new notations, beyond what is afforded by the primitive symbols alone, by means of syntactical definitions or nominal definitions, i.e., conventions which provide that certain symbols or expressions shall stand (as substitutes or abbreviations) for particular formulas of the system. This may be done either by particular definitions, each introducing a symbol or expression to stand for some one formula, or by schemata of definition, providing that any expression of a certain form shall stand for a certain corresponding formula (so condensing many -- often infinitely many -- particular definitions into a single schema). Such definitions, whether particular definitions or schemata, are indicated, in articles herein by the present writer, by an arrow →, the new notation introduced (the definiendum) being placed at the left, or base of the arrow, and the formula for which it shall stand (the definiens) being placed at the right, or head, of the arrow. Another sign commonly employed for the same purpose (instead of the arrow) is the equality sign = with the letters Df, or df, appearing either as a subscript or separately after the definiens.
Demiurge: (Gr. demiourgos) Artisan, craftsman, the term used by Plato in the Timaeus to designate the intermediary maker of the world. -- G.R.M Democritus of Abdera: (c 460-360 B.C.) Developed the first important materialist philosophy of nature, unless we are to count that of Leukippus. His influence was transmitted by Lucretius' poem till the centuries of the Renaissance when scholars' attention began to turn toward the study of nature. He taught that all substance consists of atoms, that is, of indivisible and imperceptibly small particles. The variety of atomic forms corresponds to, and accounts for, the variety of material qualities) the finest, smoothest, and most agile atoms constitute the substance of mind. Human perception is explained by him as an emanation of tiny copies of sensible things (eidola). which, through their impact upon the atoms of mind, leave impressions responsible for facts of memory. Diels, Fragm der Vorsokr, 4a; F. A. Lange, Gesch. der Materialismus, bd. I. -- R.B.W.
diatom ::: n. --> One of the Diatomaceae, a family of minute unicellular Algae having a siliceous covering of great delicacy, each individual multiplying by spontaneous division. By some authors diatoms are called Bacillariae, but this word is not in general use.
A particle or atom endowed with the vital principle.
digester ::: n. --> One who digests.
A medicine or an article of food that aids digestion, or strengthens digestive power.
A strong closed vessel, in which bones or other substances may be subjected, usually in water or other liquid, to a temperature above that of boiling, in order to soften them.
disdiaclast ::: n. --> One of the dark particles forming the doubly refracting disks of muscle fibers.
disintegrating ::: reducing to components, fragments, or particles. self-disintegrating.
dissociate ::: v. t. --> To separate from fellowship or union; to disunite; to disjoin; as, to dissociate the particles of a concrete substance.
disunite ::: v. t. --> To destroy the union of; to divide; to part; to sever; to disjoin; to sunder; to separate; as, to disunite particles of matter.
To alienate in spirit; to break the concord of. ::: v. i. --> To part; to fall asunder; to become separated.
Dogma: The Greek term signified a public ordinance of decree, also an opinion. A present meaning: an established, or generally admitted, philosophic opinion explicitly formulated, in a depreciative sense; one accepted on authority without the support of demonstration or experience. Kant calls a directly synthetical proposition grounded on concepts a dogma which he distinguishes from a mathema, which is a similar proposition effected by a construction of concepts. In the history of Christianity dogmas have come to mean definition of revealed truths proposed by the supreme authority of the Church as articles of faith which must be accepted by all its members. -- J.J.R.
drizzle ::: v. i. --> To rain slightly in very small drops; to fall, as water from the clouds, slowly and in fine particles; as, it drizzles; drizzling drops or rain. ::: v. t. --> To shed slowly in minute drops or particles.
drysaltery ::: n. --> The articles kept by a drysalter; also, the business of a drysalter.
duffer ::: n. --> A peddler or hawker, especially of cheap, flashy articles, as sham jewelry; hence, a sham or cheat.
A stupid, awkward, inefficient person.
dust ::: n. --> Fine, dry particles of earth or other matter, so comminuted that they may be raised and wafted by the wind; that which is crumbled too minute portions; fine powder; as, clouds of dust; bone dust.
A single particle of earth or other matter.
The earth, as the resting place of the dead.
The earthy remains of bodies once alive; the remains of the human body.
Figuratively, a worthless thing.
ebonite ::: n. --> A hard, black variety of vulcanite. It may be cut and polished, and is used for many small articles, as combs and buttons, and for insulating material in electric apparatus.
ecphonema ::: n. --> A breaking out with some interjectional particle.
editorial ::: a. --> Of or pertaining to an editor; written or sanctioned by an editor; as, editorial labors; editorial remarks. ::: n. --> A leading article in a newspaper or magazine; an editorial article; an article published as an expression of the views of the editor.
editorially ::: adv. --> In the manner or character of an editor or of an editorial article.
eider ::: n. --> Any species of sea duck of the genus Somateria, esp. Somateria mollissima, which breeds in the northern parts of Europe and America, and lines its nest with fine down (taken from its own body) which is an article of commerce; -- called also eider duck. The American eider (S. Dresseri), the king eider (S. spectabilis), and the spectacled eider (Arctonetta Fischeri) are related species.
Eidola: (Gr. eidola) Images; insubstantial forms, phantoms. Democritus and Epicurus use the term to denote the films, or groups of very fine particles, believed to be thrown off by bodies and to convey impressions to the eye. -- G.R.M.
elutriate ::: v. t. --> To wash or strain out so as to purify; as, to elutriate the blood as it passes through the lungs; to strain off or decant, as a powder which is separated from heavier particles by being drawn off with water; to cleanse, as by washing.
elutriation ::: n. --> The process of elutriating; a decanting or racking off by means of water, as finer particles from heavier.
emication ::: n. --> A flying off in small particles, as heated iron or fermenting liquors; a sparkling; scintillation.
enclitical ::: v. i. --> Affixed; subjoined; -- said of a word or particle which leans back upon the preceding word so as to become a part of it, and to lose its own independent accent, generally varying also the accent of the preceding word.
encyclopaedia ::: a book or set of books containing articles on various topics, usually in alphabetical arrangement, covering all branches of knowledge or, less commonly, all aspects of one subject.
enerlasting ::: n. --> Eternal duration, past of future; eternity.
(With the definite article) The Eternal Being; God.
A plant whose flowers may be dried without losing their form or color, as the pearly everlasting (Anaphalis margaritacea), the immortelle of the French, the cudweeds, etc.
A cloth fabic for shoes, etc. See Lasting.
Engels, Frederick: Co-founder of the doctrines of Marxism (see Dialectical materialism) Engels was the life-long friend and collaborator of Karl Marx (q.v.). He was born at Barmen, Germanv, in 1820, the son of a manufacturer. Like Marx, he became interested in communism early in life, developing and applying its doctrines until his death, August 5, 1895. Beside his collaboration with Marx on Die Heilige Familie, Die Deutsche Ideologie, Manifesto of the Communist Party, Anti-Dühring and articles for the "New York Tribune" (a selection from which constitutes "Germany: revolution and counter-revolution"), and his editing of Volumes II and III of Capital, published after Marx's death, Engels wrote extensively on various subjects, from "Condition of the Working Class in England (1844)" to military problems, in which field he had received technical training. On the philosophical side of Marxism, Engels speculated on fundamental questions of scientific methodology and dialectical logic in such books as Dialectics of Nature and Anti-Dühring. Works like Ludwig Feuerbach and the Outcome of Classical German Philosophy and Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State are likewise regarded as basic texts. The most extensive collection of Engels' works will be found in Marx-Engels "Gesamtausgabe", to which there is still much unpublished material to be added. -- J.M.S.
engrosser ::: n. --> One who copies a writing in large, fair characters.
One who takes the whole; a person who purchases such quantities of articles in a market as to raise the price; a forestaller.
equipment ::: n. --> The act of equipping, or the state of being equipped, as for a voyage or expedition.
Whatever is used in equipping; necessaries for an expedition or voyage; the collective designation for the articles comprising an outfit; equipage; as, a railroad equipment (locomotives, cars, etc. ; for carrying on business); horse equipments; infantry equipments; naval equipments; laboratory equipments.
eriometer ::: n. --> An instrument for measuring the diameters of minute particles or fibers, from the size of the colored rings produced by the diffraction of the light in which the objects are viewed.
etagere ::: n. --> A piece of furniture having a number of uninclosed shelves or stages, one above another, for receiving articles of elegance or use.
etui ::: n. --> A case for one or several small articles; esp., a box in which scissors, tweezers, and other articles of toilet or of daily use are carried.
evangelist ::: n. --> A bringer of the glad tidings of Church and his doctrines. Specially: (a) A missionary preacher sent forth to prepare the way for a resident pastor; an itinerant missionary preacher. (b) A writer of one of the four Gospels (With the definite article); as, the four evangelists, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. (c) A traveling preacher whose efforts are chiefly directed to arouse to immediate repentance.
Event-particle: A. N. Whitehead's term meaning a material event with all its dimensions ideally restricted. -- R.B.W.
exciseman ::: n. --> An officer who inspects and rates articles liable to excise duty.
excise ::: n. --> In inland duty or impost operating as an indirect tax on the consumer, levied upon certain specified articles, as, tobacco, ale, spirits, etc., grown or manufactured in the country. It is also levied to pursue certain trades and deal in certain commodities. Certain direct taxes (as, in England, those on carriages, servants, plate, armorial bearings, etc.), are included in the excise. Often used adjectively; as, excise duties; excise law; excise system.
That department or bureau of the public service charged
exemption ::: n. --> The act of exempting; the state of being exempt; freedom from any charge, burden, evil, etc., to which others are subject; immunity; privilege; as, exemption of certain articles from seizure; exemption from military service; exemption from anxiety, suffering, etc.
expand ::: v. t. --> To lay open by extending; to open wide; to spread out; to diffuse; as, a flower expands its leaves.
To cause the particles or parts of to spread themselves or stand apart, thus increasing bulk without addition of substance; to make to occupy more space; to dilate; to distend; to extend every way; to enlarge; -- opposed to contract; as, to expand the chest; heat expands all bodies; to expand the sphere of benevolence.
To state in enlarged form; to develop; as, to expand an
expire ::: v. t. --> To breathe out; to emit from the lungs; to throw out from the mouth or nostrils in the process of respiration; -- opposed to inspire.
To give forth insensibly or gently, as a fluid or vapor; to emit in minute particles; to exhale; as, the earth expires a damp vapor; plants expire odors.
To emit; to give out.
To bring to a close; to terminate.
Extension: See Intension and Extension. Extensionality, axiom of: See Logic, formal, § 9. Extensity: A rudimentary spatiality alleged to characterize all sensation. See J. Ward, article "Psychology" in Encyclopaedia Bntannica, 9th Ed. pp. 46, 53 -- L.W.
Faith: (Kant. Ger. Glaube) The acceptance of ideals which are theoretically indemonstrable, yet necessarily entailed by the indubitable reality of freedom. For Kant, the Summum Bonum, God, and immortality are the chief articles of faith or "practical" belief. See Kantianism. Cf. G. Santayana, Skepticism and Animal Faith, where faith is the non-rational belief in objects encountered in action. -- O.F.K.
fanon ::: n. --> A term applied to various articles, as: (a) A peculiar striped scarf worn by the pope at mass, and by eastern bishops. (b) A maniple.
ferruginous ::: a. --> Partaking of iron; containing particles of iron.
Resembling iron rust in appearance or color; brownish red, or yellowish red.
feuilleton ::: n. --> A part of a French newspaper (usually the bottom of the page), devoted to light literature, criticism, etc.; also, the article or tale itself, thus printed.
figure ::: n. --> The form of anything; shape; outline; appearance.
The representation of any form, as by drawing, painting, modeling, carving, embroidering, etc.; especially, a representation of the human body; as, a figure in bronze; a figure cut in marble.
A pattern in cloth, paper, or other manufactured article; a design wrought out in a fabric; as, the muslin was of a pretty figure.
A diagram or drawing; made to represent a magnitude or the relation of two or more magnitudes; a surface or space inclosed on all
filing ::: p. pr. & vb. n. --> of File ::: n. --> A fragment or particle rubbed off by the act of filing; as, iron filings.
filtration ::: n. --> The act or process of filtering; the mechanical separation of a liquid from the undissolved particles floating in it.
Finite: For the notion of finiteness as applied to classes and cardinal numbers, see the article cardinal number. An ordered class (see order) which is finite is called a finite sequence or finite series. In mathematical analysis, any fixed real number (or complex number) is called finite, in distinction from "infinity" (the latter term usually occurs, however, only as an incomplete symbol, in connection with limits, q. v.). Or finite may be used to mean bounded, i.e., having fixed real numbers as lower bound and upper bound. Various physical and geometrical quantities, measured by real numbers, are called finite if their measure is finite in one of these senses. -- A.C.
fitter ::: n. --> One who fits or makes to fit;
One who tries on, and adjusts, articles of dress.
One who fits or adjusts the different parts of machinery to each other.
A coal broker who conducts the sales between the owner of a coal pit and the shipper.
A little piece; a flitter; a flinder.
fitting ::: 1. Appropriate or proper; suitable. 2. Used with prefixed adverbs to denote an appropriate or inappropriate fit. 3. Of a manufactured article: Of the right measure or size; made to fit, accurate in fit, well or close-fitting. close-fitting, ill-fitting.
fixture ::: n. --> That which is fixed or attached to something as a permanent appendage; as, the fixtures of a pump; the fixtures of a farm or of a dwelling, that is, the articles which a tenant may not take away.
State of being fixed; fixedness.
Anything of an accessory character annexed to houses and lands, so as to constitute a part of them. This term is, however, quite frequently used in the peculiar sense of personal chattels annexed to
flatware ::: n. --> Articles for the table, as china or silverware, that are more or less flat, as distinguished from hollow ware.
flocculation ::: n. --> The process by which small particles of fine soils and sediments aggregate into larger lumps.
flow ::: --> imp. sing. of Fly, v. i. ::: v. i. --> To move with a continual change of place among the particles or parts, as a fluid; to change place or circulate, as a liquid; as, rivers flow from springs and lakes; tears flow from the eyes.
fluid ::: a. --> Having particles which easily move and change their relative position without a separation of the mass, and which easily yield to pressure; capable of flowing; liquid or gaseous. ::: n. --> A fluid substance; a body whose particles move easily among themselves.
flux ::: 1. Constant or frequent change; fluctuation; movement. 2. A flowing or flow: Also used with reference to other forms of matter and energy that can be regarded as flowing, such as radiant energy, particles, etc.
former ::: n. --> One who forms; a maker; a creator.
A shape around which an article is to be shaped, molded, woven wrapped, pasted, or otherwise constructed.
A templet, pattern, or gauge by which an article is shaped.
A cutting die. ::: a.
For particular examples of logistic systems (all of which satisfy the requirement of effectiveness) see the article logic, formal, especially §§1, 3, 9.
For the account given by Brouwerian intuitionism of the nature of mathematics, and the asserted priority of mathematics to logic and philosophy, see the article Mathematics. This account, with its reliance on the intuition of ordinary thinking and on the immediate evidence of mathematical concepts and inferences, and with its insistence on intuitively understandable construction as the only method for mathematical existence proofs, leads to a rejection of certain methods and assumptions of classical mathematics. In consequence, certain parts of classical mathematics have to be abandoned and others have to be reconstructed in different and often more complicated fashion.
For the notions of cardinal number, relation-number, and ordinal number, see the articles of these titles. -- Alonzo Church
For the terminology used in connection with functions, see the article function. Cf. also the articles Constant, and Combinatory logic. -- A.C.
Frege, (Friedrich Ludwig) Gottlob, 1848-1925, German mathematician and logician. Professor of mathematics at the University of Jena, 1879-1918. Largely unknown to, or misunderstood by, his contemporaries, he is now regarded by many as "beyond question the greatest logician of the Nineteenth Century" (quotation from Tarski). He must be regarded -- after Boole (q. v.) -- as the second founder of symbolic logic, the essential steps in the passage from the algebra of logic to the logistic method (see the article Logistic system) having been taken in his Begriffsschrift of 1879. In this work there appear tor the first time the propositional calculus in substantially its modern form, the notion of propositional function, the use of quantifiers, the explicit statement of primitive rules of inference, the notion of an hereditary property and the logical analysis of proof by mathematical induction or recursion (q. v.). This last is perhaps the most important element in the definition of an inductive cardinal number (q.v.) and provided the basis for Frege's derivation of arithmetic from logic in his Grundlagen der Anthmetik (1884) and Grundgesetze der Arithmetik, vol. 1 (1893), and vol. 2 (1903). The first volume of Grundgesetze der Arithmetik is the culmination of Frege's work, and we find here many important further ideas. In particular, there is a careful distinction between using a formula to express something else and naming a formula in order to make a syntactical statement about it, quotation marks being used in order to distinguish the name of a formula from the formula itself. In an appendix to the second volume of Grundgesetze , Frege acknowledges the presence of an inconsistency in his system through what is now known as the Russel paradox (see Paradoxes , logical), as had been called to his attention by Russell when the book was nearly through the press. -- A.C.
Frege held it to be desirable in a formalized logistic system that every formula should have not only a sense but also a denotation -- as can be arranged by arbitrary semantical conventions where necessary. When this is done, Frege's sense of a sentence nearly coincides with proposition (in sense (b) of the article of that title herein). -- Alonzo Church
fundamental ::: a. --> Pertaining to the foundation or basis; serving for the foundation. Hence: Essential, as an element, principle, or law; important; original; elementary; as, a fundamental truth; a fundamental axiom. ::: n. --> A leading or primary principle, rule, law, or article,
furniture ::: v. t. --> That with which anything is furnished or supplied; supplies; outfit; equipment.
Articles used for convenience or decoration in a house or apartment, as tables, chairs, bedsteads, sofas, carpets, curtains, pictures, vases, etc.
The necessary appendages to anything, as to a machine, a carriage, a ship, etc.
The masts and rigging of a ship.
fur ::: n. --> The short, fine, soft hair of certain animals, growing thick on the skin, and distinguished from the hair, which is longer and coarser.
The skins of certain wild animals with the fur; peltry; as, a cargo of furs.
Strips of dressed skins with fur, used on garments for warmth or for ornament.
Articles of clothing made of fur; as, a set of furs for a lady
fuzz ::: v. t. --> To make drunk. ::: n. --> Fine, light particles or fibers; loose, volatile matter. ::: v. i.
F(x), the result of application of the (monadic, propositional or other) function F to the argument x -- the value of the function F for the argument x -- ftF of x." Sometimes the parentheses are omitted, so that the notation is Fx. -- See the articles function, and propostttonal function.
garment ::: n. --> Any article of clothing, as a coat, a gown, etc.
geoduck ::: n. --> A gigantic clam (Glycimeris generosa) of the Pacific coast of North America, highly valued as an article of food.
ginseng ::: n. --> A plant of the genus Aralia, the root of which is highly valued as a medicine among the Chinese. The Chinese plant (Aralia Schinseng) has become so rare that the American (A. quinquefolia) has largely taken its place, and its root is now an article of export from America to China. The root, when dry, is of a yellowish white color, with a sweetness in the taste somewhat resembling that of licorice, combined with a slight aromatic bitterness.
girdle ::: n. --> A griddle.
That which girds, encircles, or incloses; a circumference; a belt; esp., a belt, sash, or article of dress encircling the body usually at the waist; a cestus.
The zodiac; also, the equator.
The line ofgreatest circumference of a brilliant-cut diamond, at which it is grasped by the setting. See Illust. of Brilliant.
glass ::: v. t. --> A hard, brittle, translucent, and commonly transparent substance, white or colored, having a conchoidal fracture, and made by fusing together sand or silica with lime, potash, soda, or lead oxide. It is used for window panes and mirrors, for articles of table and culinary use, for lenses, and various articles of ornament.
Any substance having a peculiar glassy appearance, and a conchoidal fracture, and usually produced by fusion.
Anything made of glass.
glassware ::: n. --> Ware, or articles collectively, made of glass.
glasswork ::: n. --> Manufacture of glass; articles or ornamentation made of glass.
globe ::: n. --> A round or spherical body, solid or hollow; a body whose surface is in every part equidistant from the center; a ball; a sphere.
Anything which is nearly spherical or globular in shape; as, the globe of the eye; the globe of a lamp.
The earth; the terraqueous ball; -- usually preceded by the definite article.
A round model of the world; a spherical representation of the earth or heavens; as, a terrestrial or celestial globe; -- called
globule ::: n. --> A little globe; a small particle of matter, of a spherical form.
A minute spherical or rounded structure; as blood, lymph, and pus corpuscles, minute fungi, spores, etc.
A little pill or pellet used by homeopathists.
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.
grail ::: n. --> A book of offices in the Roman Catholic Church; a gradual.
A broad, open dish; a chalice; -- only used of the Holy Grail.
Small particles of earth; gravel.
One of the small feathers of a hawk.
grained ::: imp. & p. p. --> of Grain ::: a. --> Having a grain; divided into small particles or grains; showing the grain; hence, rough.
Dyed in grain; ingrained.
Painted or stained in imitation of the grain of wood,
granule ::: n. --> A little grain a small particle; a pellet.
grater ::: a. --> One who, or that which, grates; especially, an instrument or utensil with a rough, indented surface, for rubbing off small particles of any substance; as a grater for nutmegs.
gravel ::: n. --> Small stones, or fragments of stone; very small pebbles, often intermixed with particles of sand.
A deposit of small calculous concretions in the kidneys and the urinary or gall bladder; also, the disease of which they are a symptom. ::: v. t.
gravitation ::: n. --> The act of gravitating.
That species of attraction or force by which all bodies or particles of matter in the universe tend toward each other; called also attraction of gravitation, universal gravitation, and universal gravity. See Attraction, and Weight.
grit ::: n. --> Sand or gravel; rough, hard particles.
The coarse part of meal.
Grain, esp. oats or wheat, hulled and coarsely ground; in high milling, fragments of cracked wheat smaller than groats.
A hard, coarse-grained siliceous sandstone; as, millstone grit; -- called also gritrock and gritstone. The name is also applied to a finer sharp-grained sandstone; as, grindstone grit.
Structure, as adapted to grind or sharpen; as, a hone of good
gritty ::: a. --> Containing sand or grit; consisting of grit; caused by grit; full of hard particles.
Spirited; resolute; unyielding.
gross reductionism ::: One of two major versions of reductionism, along with subtle reductionism. Gross reductionism, in effect, reduces all quadrants to the Upper-Right quadrant, or the exterior of an individual, and then reduces all higher-order complexity in the Upper Right to atomic and subatomic particles. Also known as “atomism.” See subtle reductionism and flatland.
habiliment ::: n. --> A garment; an article of clothing.
Dress, in general.
hail ::: n. --> Small roundish masses of ice precipitated from the clouds, where they are formed by the congelation of vapor. The separate masses or grains are called hailstones.
A wish of health; a salutation; a loud call. ::: v. i. --> To pour down particles of ice, or frozen vapors.
hailstone ::: n. --> A single particle of ice falling from a cloud; a frozen raindrop; a pellet of hail.
hall-mark ::: n. --> The official stamp of the Goldsmiths&
hamper ::: n. --> A large basket, usually with a cover, used for the packing and carrying of articles; as, a hamper of wine; a clothes hamper; an oyster hamper, which contains two bushels.
A shackle; a fetter; anything which impedes.
Articles ordinarily indispensable, but in the way at certain times. ::: v. t.
hanaper ::: n. --> A kind of basket, usually of wickerwork, and adapted for the packing and carrying of articles; a hamper.
hardness ::: n. --> The quality or state of being hard, literally or figuratively.
The cohesion of the particles on the surface of a body, determined by its capacity to scratch another, or be itself scratched;-measured among minerals on a scale of which diamond and talc form the extremes.
The peculiar quality exhibited by water which has mineral salts dissolved in it. Such water forms an insoluble compound with
haze ::: 1. An aggregation in the atmosphere of very fine, widely dispersed, solid or liquid particles, or both, giving the air an opalescent appearance that subdues colours. 2. Reduced visibility in the air as a result of condensed water vapour, dust, etc., in the atmosphere. 3. Vagueness of obscurity, as of the mind or perception; confused or vague thoughts, feelings, etc.
Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich: Born at Stuttgart in 1770 and died at Berlin in 1831. He studied theology, philosophy and the classics at Tübingen, 1788-93, occupied the conventional position of tutor in Switzerland and Frankfort on the Main, 1794-1800, and went to Jena as Privatdocent in philosophy in 1801. He was promoted to a professorship at Jena in 1805, but was driven from the city the next year by the incursion of the French under Napoleon. He then went to Bamberg, where he remained two years as editor of a newspaper. The next eight years he spent as director of the Gymnasium at Nürnberg. In 1816 he accepted a professorship of philosophy at Heidelberg, from which position he was called two years later to succeed Fichte at the University of Berlin. While at Jena, he co-operated with Schelling in editing the Kritisches Journal der Philosophie, to which he contributed many articles. His more important volumes were published as follows: Phänomenologie des Geistes, 1807; Wissenschaft der Logik, 1812-16; Encyklopädie der philosophischen Wissenschaften im Grundrisse, 1817; Grundlinien der Philosophie des Rechts, 1820. Shortly after his death his lectures on the philosophy of religion, the history of philosophy, the philosophy of history, and aesthetics were published from the collated lecture-notes of his students. His collected works in nineteen volumes were published 1832-40 by a group of his students. -- G.W.C.
hemstitched ::: imp. & p. p. --> of Hemstitch ::: a. --> Having a broad hem separated from the body of the article by a line of open work; as, a hemistitched handkerchief.
heretic ::: n. --> One who holds to a heresy; one who believes some doctrine contrary to the established faith or prevailing religion.
One who having made a profession of Christian belief, deliberately and pertinaciously refuses to believe one or more of the articles of faith "determined by the authority of the universal church."
Hierarchy of types: See Logic, formal, § 6. Hilbert, David, 1862-, German mathematician. Professor of mathematics at the University of Göttingen, 1895-. A major contributor to many branches of mathematics, he is regarded by many as the greatest mathematician of his generation. His work on the foundations of Euclidean geometry is contained in his Grundlagen der Geometrie (1st edn., 1899, 7th edn., 1930). Concerning his contributions to mathematical logic and mathematical philosophy, see the articles mathematics, and proof theory. -- A. C.
Hilbert has given a formalization of arithmetic which takes the shape of a logistic system having primitive symbols some of a logical and some of an arithmetical character, so that logic and arithmetic are formalized together without taking logic as prior; similarly also for analysis. This would not of itself be opposed to the Frege-Russell view, since it is to be expected that the choice as to which symbols shall be taken as primitive in the formalization can be made in more than one way. Hilbert, however, took the position that many of the theorems of the system are ideale Aussagen, mere formulas, which are without meaning in themselves but are added to the reale Aussagen or genuinely meaningful formulas in order to avoid formal difficulties otherwise arising. In this respect Hilbert differs sharply from Frege and Russell, who would give a meaning (namely as propositions of logic) to all formulas (sentences) appearing. -- Concerning Hilbert's associated program for a consistency proof see the article Proof theory.
hoarfrost ::: n. --> The white particles formed by the congelation of dew; white frost.
homogeneous ::: a. --> Of the same kind of nature; consisting of similar parts, or of elements of the like nature; -- opposed to heterogeneous; as, homogeneous particles, elements, or principles; homogeneous bodies.
Possessing the same number of factors of a given kind; as, a homogeneous polynomial.
housewife ::: n. --> The wife of a householder; the mistress of a family; the female head of a household.
A little case or bag for materials used in sewing, and for other articles of female work; -- called also hussy.
A hussy. ::: v. t.
huckster ::: n. --> A retailer of small articles, of provisions, and the like; a peddler; a hawker.
A mean, trickish fellow. ::: v. i. --> To deal in small articles, or in petty bargains.
Hylons: This name (combining the Greek words hyle matter and on being) was given by Mitterer to the heterogeneous subatomic and subelemental particles of matter (electrons, neutrons, protons, positrons) which enter into the composition of the elements without being elements themselves. The natural elements represent distinct types or species of natural bodies, while the hylons do not. These matter-particles have an important role in the exposition of the cosmological doctrine of hylosystemism. -- T.G.
Hylosystemism: A cosmological theory developed by Mitterer principally, which explains the constitution of the natural inorganic body as an atomary energy system. In opposition to hylomorphism which is considered inadequate in the field of nuclear physics, this system maintains that the atom of an element and the molecule of a compound are reallv composed of subatomic particles united into a dynamic system acting as a functional unit. The main difference between the two doctrines is the hylomeric constitution of inorganic matter: the plurality of parts of a particle form a whole which is more than the sum of the parts, and which gives to a body its specific essence. While hylomorphism contends that no real substantial change can occur in a hylomeric constitution besides the alteration of the specific form, hvlosystemism maintains that in substantial change more remains than primary matter and more changes than the substantial form. -- T.G.
Hylotheism: (Gr. hyle matter, and theism q.v.). A synonym for either pantheism or materialism in that this doctrine identifies mattei and god, or has the one merge into the other. -- K.F.L Hylozoism: (Gr. hyle, mattei -- zoe, life) The doctrine that life is a property of matter, that matter and life are inseparable, that life is derived from matter, or that matter has spiritual properties. The conception of nature as alive or animated, of reality as alive. The original substance as bearing within itself the cause of all motion and change. The early Greek cosmologists of the Milesian school made statements which implied a belief in life for their primary substances. For Straton of Lampsacus each of the ultimate particles of matter possesses life. For the Stoics the universe as a whole is alive. For Spinoza different kinds of things possess life in different grades. -- J.K F.
Idol: (Gr. eidolon, and Lat. idolum, image or likeness) Democritus (5th c. B.C.) tried to explain sense perception by means of the emission of little particles (eidola) from the sense object. This theory and the term, idolum, are known throughout the later middle ages, but in a pejorative sense, as indicating a sort of "second-hand" knowledge. G. Bruno is usually credited with the earliest Latin use of the term to name that which leads philosophers into error, but this is an unmerited honor. The most famous usage occurs in F. Bacon's Novum Oiganum, I, 39-68, where the four chief causes of human error in philosophy and science are called the Idols of the Tribe (weakness of understanding in the whole human race), of the Cave (individual prejudices and mental defects), of the Forum (faults of language in the communication of ideas), and of the Theatre (faults arising from received systems of philosophy). A very similar teaching, without the term, idol, had been developed by Grosseteste and Roger Bacon in the 13th century. -- V.J.R.
illative ::: a. --> Relating to, dependent on, or denoting, illation; inferential; conclusive; as, an illative consequence or proposition; an illative word, as then, therefore, etc. ::: n. --> An illative particle, as for, because.
impregnate ::: v. t. --> To make pregnant; to cause to conceive; to render prolific; to get with child or young.
To come into contact with (an ovum or egg) so as to cause impregnation; to fertilize; to fecundate.
To infuse an active principle into; to render fruitful or fertile in any way; to fertilize; to imbue.
To infuse particles of another substance into; to communicate the quality of another to; to cause to be filled, imbued,
In articles herein by the present writer, the notation λx[A] will be employed for the function obtained from A by abstraction relative to (or, as we may also say, with respect to) x. Russell, and Whitehead and Russell in Principia Mathematica, employ for this purpose the formula A with a circumflex ˆ placed over each (free) occurrence of x -- but only for propositional functions. Frege (1893) uses a Greek vowel, say ε, as the variable relative to which abstraction is made, and employs the notation ε(A) to denote what is essentially the function in extension (the "Werthverlauf" in his terminology) obtained from A by abstraction relative to ε.
In articles in this dictionary by the present writer the word proposition is to be understood in sense (b) above. This still leaves an element of ambiguity, since common usage does not always determine of two sentences whether they are strictly synonymous or merely logically equivalent. For a particular language or logistic system, this ambiguity may be resolved in various ways. -- A.C.
In connection with logic, and logical syntax, the word sentence is used for what might be called more explicitly a declarative sentence -- thus for a sequence of words or symbols which (in some language or system of notation, as determined by the context) expresses a proposition (q.v.), or which can be used to convey an assertion. A sequence of words or symbols which contains free variables and which expresses a proposition when values are given to these variables (see the article variable) may also be called a sentence.
In connection with logistic systems, sentence is often used as a technical term in place of formula (see the explanation of the latter term in the article logistic system). This may be done when, under the intended interpretation of the system, sentences in this technical or formal sense become sentences in the sense of the preceding paragraph. -- A.C.
"In every particle, atom, molecule, cell of Matter there lives hidden and works unknown all the omniscience of the Eternal and all the omnipotence of the Infinite.” Essays Divine and Human*
“In every particle, atom, molecule, cell of Matter there lives hidden and works unknown all the omniscience of the Eternal and all the omnipotence of the Infinite.” Essays Divine and Human
infection ::: n. --> The act or process of infecting.
That which infects, or causes the communicated disease; any effluvium, miasm, or pestilential matter by which an infectious disease is caused.
The state of being infected; contamination by morbific particles; the result of infecting influence; a prevailing disease; epidemic.
That which taints or corrupts morally; as, the infection
Infinitesimal: In a phraseology which is logically inexact but nevertheless common, an infinitesimal is a quantity, or a variable, whose limit is 0. Thus in considering the limit of f(x) as x approaches c, if this limit is 0 the "quantity" f(x) may be said to be an infinitesimal; or in considering the limit of f(x) as x approaches 0, the "quantity" x may be said to be an infinitesimal. (See the article limit.) -- A.C.
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.
In logic: Given a relation R which is transitive, symmetric, and reflexive, we may introduce or postulate "new elements corresponding to the members of the field of R, in such a way that the same new element corresponds to two members x and y of the field of R if and only if xRy (see the article relation). These new elements are then said to be obtained by abstraction with respect to R. Peano calls this a method or kind of definition, and speaks, e.g., of cardinal numbers (q.v.) as obtained from classes by abstraction with respect to the relation of equivalence -- two classes having the same cardinal number if and only if they are equivalent.
In modern thought, two general types of usage are discernible. In the empirical tradition. the notion of thing and properties continues the meaning of independence as expressed in first substance. Under the impact of physical science, the notion of thing and its properties tends to dissolve. Substance becomes substratum as that in which properties and qualities inhere. The critique of Berkeley expressed the resultant dilemma: either sub-stratum is property-less and quality-less, and so is nothing at all, or else it signifies the systematic and specific coherence of properties and qualities, and so substance or sub-stratum is merely the thing of common sense. Within science 'first substance' persists as the ultimate discrete particle with respect to which spatial and temporal coordinates are assigned. Within empirical philosophical thought the element of meaning described as 'independence' tends to be resolved into the order and coherence of experience.
inseparable ::: a. --> Not separable; incapable of being separated or disjoined.
Invariably attached to some word, stem, or root; as, the inseparable particle un-.
intermobility ::: n. --> Capacity of things to move among each other; as, the intermobility of fluid particles.
In the Frege-Russell derivation of arithmetic from logic (see the article Mathematics) necessity for the postulates of Peano is avoided. If based on the theory of types, however, this derivation requires some form of the axiom of infinity -- which may be regarded as a residuum of the Peano postulates.
In this article we explore definitions of the words ‘artifice’ and ‘artificer’ from various dictionary sources, their use in two poems, one by Marge Percy, The Bonsai Tree and the other, Sailing to Byzantium by William Butler Yeats, followed by all the brilliant uses by Sri Aurobindo in his magnum opus, Savitri.
intussusception ::: n. --> The reception of one part within another.
The abnormal reception or slipping of a part of a tube, by inversion and descent, within a contiguous part of it; specifically, the reception or slipping of the upper part of the small intestine into the lower; introsusception; invagination.
The interposition of new particles of formative material among those already existing, as in a cell wall, or in a starch grain.
iota ::: n. --> The ninth letter of the Greek alphabet (/) corresponding with the English i.
A very small quantity or degree; a jot; a particle.
ironmongery ::: n. --> Hardware; a general name for all articles made of iron.
ironware ::: n. --> Articles made of iron, as household utensils, tools, and the like.
irony ::: a. --> Made or consisting of iron; partaking of iron; iron; as, irony chains; irony particles.
Resembling iron taste, hardness, or other physical property. ::: n. --> Dissimulation; ignorance feigned for the purpose of confounding or provoking an antagonist.
item ::: adv. --> Also; as an additional article. ::: n. --> An article; a separate particular in an account; as, the items in a bill.
A hint; an innuendo.
A short article in a newspaper; a paragraph; as, an item
ivory ::: n. --> The hard, white, opaque, fine-grained substance constituting the tusks of the elephant. It is a variety of dentine, characterized by the minuteness and close arrangement of the tubes, as also by their double flexure. It is used in manufacturing articles of ornament or utility.
The tusks themselves of the elephant, etc.
Any carving executed in ivory.
Teeth; as, to show one&
japannish ::: a. --> After the manner of the Japanese; resembling japanned articles.
jasperated ::: a. --> mixed with jasper; containing particles of jasper; as, jasperated agate.
joiner ::: n. --> One who, or that which, joins.
One whose occupation is to construct articles by joining pieces of wood; a mechanic who does the woodwork (as doors, stairs, etc.) necessary for the finishing of buildings.
A wood-working machine, for sawing, plaining, mortising, tenoning, grooving, etc.
Joseph, Albo: (1380-1444) Jewish philosopher. His Ikkarim, i.e., Dogmas is devoted primarily to the problem of dogmatics. He differs with Maimonides who fixed the Articles of Creed at thirteen, and posits only three fundamental dogmas. Belief in the existence of God; Divine origin of the Torah; Reward and punishment. The others are of secondary importance. See Jewish Philosophy. -- M. W.
jot ::: n. --> An iota; a point; a tittle; the smallest particle. Cf. Bit, n. ::: v. t. --> To set down; to make a brief note of; -- usually followed by down.
knits ::: n. pl. --> Small particles of ore.
lapilli ::: n. pl. --> Volcanic ashes, consisting of small, angular, stony fragments or particles.
larder ::: n. --> A room or place where meat and other articles of food are kept before they are cooked.
lathe ::: n. --> Formerly, a part or division of a county among the Anglo-Saxons. At present it consists of four or five hundreds, and is confined to the county of Kent.
A granary; a barn.
A machine for turning, that is, for shaping articles of wood, metal, or other material, by causing them to revolve while acted upon by a cutting tool.
The movable swing frame of a loom, carrying the reed for
lead ::: n. --> One of the elements, a heavy, pliable, inelastic metal, having a bright, bluish color, but easily tarnished. It is both malleable and ductile, though with little tenacity, and is used for tubes, sheets, bullets, etc. Its specific gravity is 11.37. It is easily fusible, forms alloys with other metals, and is an ingredient of solder and type metal. Atomic weight, 206.4. Symbol Pb (L. Plumbum). It is chiefly obtained from the mineral galena, lead sulphide.
An article made of lead or an alloy of lead
ledge ::: n. --> A shelf on which articles may be laid; also, that which resembles such a shelf in form or use, as a projecting ridge or part, or a molding or edge in joinery.
A shelf, ridge, or reef, of rocks.
A layer or stratum.
A lode; a limited mass of rock bearing valuable mineral.
A piece of timber to support the deck, placed athwartship between beams.
leg ::: n. --> A limb or member of an animal used for supporting the body, and in running, climbing, and swimming; esp., that part of the limb between the knee and foot.
That which resembles a leg in form or use; especially, any long and slender support on which any object rests; as, the leg of a table; the leg of a pair of compasses or dividers.
The part of any article of clothing which covers the leg; as, the leg of a stocking or of a pair of trousers.
lend ::: v. t. --> To allow the custody and use of, on condition of the return of the same; to grant the temporary use of; as, to lend a book; -- opposed to borrow.
To allow the possession and use of, on condition of the return of an equivalent in kind; as, to lend money or some article of food.
To afford; to grant or furnish in general; as, to lend assistance; to lend one&
Leucippus: (a. 450 B.C.) A contemporary of Empedocles and Anaxagoras and founder of the School of Abdera, developed the fruitful principle that all qualitative differences in nature may be reduced to quantitative ones. Thus Leucippus breaks up the homogeneous "Being" of Parmenides into an infinity of equally homogeneous parts or atoms and he distributes these, in an infinite variety of forms, through infinite space. These small particles of "Being" are separated from one another by that which is not-Being, i.e. by empty space. "Becoming", or the coming into being of things, is essentially the result of the motion of these atoms in space and their accidental coming together. -- M.F.
Li hsueh: The Rational Philosophy or the Reason School of the Sung dynasty (960-1279) which insisted on Reason or Law (li) as the basis of reality, including such philosophers as Chou Lien-hsi (1017-1073), Shao K'ang-chieh (1011-1077), Chang Heng-ch'u (1020-1077), Ch'eng I-ch'uan (1033-1107), Ch'eng Ming-tao (1032-1086), Chu Hsi (1130-1200), and Lu Hsiang-shan (1139-1193). It is also called Hsing-li Hsueh (Philosophy of the Nature and Reason) and Sung Hsueh (Philosophy of the Sung Dynasty). Often the term includes the idealistic philosophy of the Ming dynasty (1368-1644), including Wang Yang-ming (1473-1529), sometimes called Hsin Hsueh (Philosophy of Mind). Often it also includes the philosophy of the Ch'ing dynasty (1644-1911), called Tao Hsueh, including such philosophers as Yen Hsi-chai (1635-1704) and Tai Tung-yuan (1723-1777). For a summary of the Rational Philosophy, see Chinese philosophy. For its philosophy of Reason (li), vital force (ch'i), the Great Ultimate (T'ai Chi), the passive and active principles (yin yang), the nature of man and things (hsing), the investigation of things to the utmost (ch'iung li), the extension of knowledge (chih chih), and its ethics of true manhood or love (jen), seriousness (ching) and sincerity (ch'eng), see articles on these topics. -- W.T.C.
Limit: We give here only some of the most elementary mathematical senses of this word, in connection with real numbers. (Refer to the articles Number and Continuity.)
liquid ::: a. --> Flowing freely like water; fluid; not solid.
Being in such a state that the component parts move freely among themselves, but do not tend to separate from each other as the particles of gases and vapors do; neither solid nor aeriform; as, liquid mercury, in distinction from mercury solidified or in a state of vapor.
Flowing or sounding smoothly or without abrupt transitions or harsh tones.
lombar-house ::: n. --> A bank or a pawnbroker&
lumber ::: n. --> A pawnbroker&
macaroni ::: n. --> Long slender tubes made of a paste chiefly of wheat flour, and used as an article of food; Italian or Genoese paste.
A medley; something droll or extravagant.
A sort of droll or fool.
A finical person; a fop; -- applied especially to English fops of about 1775.
The designation of a body of Maryland soldiers in the Revolutionary War, distinguished by a rich uniform.
Manicheism, a religio-philosophical doctrine which spread from Persia to the West and was influential during the 3rd and 7th century, was instituted by Mani (Grk. Manes, Latinized: Manichaeus), a Magian who, upon conversion to Christianity, sought to synthesize the latter with the dualism of Zoroastrianism (q.v.), not without becoming a martyr to his faith. To combat the powers of darkness, the mother of light created the first man. As Buddha (q.v.) and Zoroaster he worked illumination among men ; as Jesus, the Son of Man, he had to suffer, become transfigured and symbolize salvation by his apparent death at the cross; as spirit of the sun he attracts all connatural light particles to himself. But final salvation from the throes of evil demons is accomplished by ascetic living, reminding of the Hindu code of ethics (see Indian Ethics), and belief in Mani as the prophesied paraclete (John 14.16-17). Revived once more in the Occident during the crusades by the Cathari. -- K.F.L.
margin ::: n. --> A border; edge; brink; verge; as, the margin of a river or lake.
Specifically: The part of a page at the edge left uncovered in writing or printing.
The difference between the cost and the selling price of an article.
Something allowed, or reserved, for that which can not be foreseen or known with certainty.
marketing ::: p. pr. & vb. n. --> of Market ::: n. --> The act of selling or of purchasing in, or as in, a market.
Articles in, or from, a market; supplies.
Marx, Karl: Was born May 5, 1818 in Trier (Treves), Germany, and was educated at the Universities of Bonn and Berlin. He received the doctorate in philosophy at Berlin in 1841, writing on The Difference between the Democritean and Epicurean Natural Philosophy, which theme he treated from the Hegelian point of view. Marx early became a Left Hegelian, then a Feuerbachian. In 1842-43 he edited the "Rheinische Zeitung," a Cologne daily of radical tendencies. In 1844, in Paris, Marx, now calling himself a communist, became a leading spirit in radical groups and a close friend of Friedrich Engels (q.v.). In 1844 he wrote articles for the "Deutsch-Französische Jahrbücher," in 1845 the Theses on Feuerbach and, together with Engels, Die Heilige Familie. In 1846, another joint work with Engels and Moses Hess, Die Deutsche Ideologie was completed (not published until 1932). 1845-47, Marx wrote for various papers including "Deutsche Brüsseler Zeitung," "Westphälisches Dampfbot," "Gesellschaftsspiegel" (Elberfeld), "La Reforme" (Paris). In 1847 he wrote (in French) Misere de la Philosophie, a reply to Proudhon's Systeme des Contradictions: econotniques, ou, Philosophie de la Misere. In 1848 he wrote, jointly with Engels, the "Manifesto of the Communist Party", delivered his "Discourse on Free Trade" in Brussels and began work on the "Neue Rheinische Zeitung" which, however, was suppressed like its predecessor and also its successor, the "Neue Rheinische Revue" (1850). For the latter Marx wrote the essays later published in book form as Class Struggles in France. In 1851 Marx did articles on foreign affairs for the "New York Tribune", published The 18th Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte and the pamphlet "Enthülungen über den Kommunistenprozess in Köln." In 1859 Marx published Zur Kritik der politischen Okonomie, the foundation of "Das Kapital", in 1860, "Herr Vogt" and in 1867 the first volume of Das Kapital. In 1871 the "Manifesto of the General Council of the International Workingmen's Association on the Paris Commune," later published as The Civil War in France and as The Paris Commune was written. In 1873 there appeared a pamphlet against Bakunin and in 1875 the critical comment on the "Gotha Program." The publication of the second volume of Capital dates from 1885, two years after Marx's death, the third volume from 1894, both edited by Engels. The essay "Value Price and Profit" is also posthumous, edited by his daughter Eleanor Marx Aveling. The most extensive collection of Marx's work is to be found in the Marx-Engels Gesamtausgabe. It is said by the Marx-Engels-Lenin Institute (Moscow) that the as yet unpublished work of Marx, including materials of exceptional theoretical significance, is equal in bulk to the published work. Marx devoted a great deal of time to practical political activity and the labor movement, taking a leading role in the founding and subsequent guiding of the International Workingmen's Association, The First International. He lived the life of a political refugee in Paris, Brussels and finally London, where he remained for more than thirty years until he died March 14, 1883. He had seven children and at times experienced the severest want. Engels was a partial supporter of the Marx household for the better part of twenty years. Marx, together with Engels, was the founder of the school of philosophy known as dialectical materialism (q.v.). In the writings of Marx and Engels this position appears in a relatively general form. While statements are made within all fields of philosophy, there is no systematic elaboration of doctrine in such fields as ethics, aesthetics or epistemology, although a methodology and a basis are laid down. The fields developed in most detail by Marx, besides economic theory, are social and political philosophy (see Historical materialism, and entry, Dialectical materialism) and, together with Engels, logical and ontological aspects of materialist dialectics. -- J.M.S.
mass ::: n. --> The sacrifice in the sacrament of the Eucharist, or the consecration and oblation of the host.
The portions of the Mass usually set to music, considered as a musical composition; -- namely, the Kyrie, the Gloria, the Credo, the Sanctus, and the Agnus Dei, besides sometimes an Offertory and the Benedictus.
A quantity of matter cohering together so as to make one body, or an aggregation of particles or things which collectively make
master ::: n. --> A vessel having (so many) masts; -- used only in compounds; as, a two-master.
A male person having another living being so far subject to his will, that he can, in the main, control his or its actions; -- formerly used with much more extensive application than now. (a) The employer of a servant. (b) The owner of a slave. (c) The person to whom an apprentice is articled. (d) A sovereign, prince, or feudal noble; a chief, or one exercising similar authority. (e) The head of a
material world ::: Sri Aurobindo: "Our material world is the result of all the others, for the other principles have all descended into Matter to create the physical universe, and every particle of what we call Matter contains all of them implicit in itself; their secret action, as we have seen, is involved in every moment of its existence and every movement of its activity. And as Matter is the last word of the descent, so it is also the first word of the ascent; as the powers of all these planes, worlds, grades, degrees are involved in the material existence, so are they all capable of evolution out of it. It is for this reason that material being does not begin and end with gases and chemical compounds and physical forces and movements, with nebulae and suns and earths, but evolves life, evolves mind, must evolve eventually Supermind and the higher degrees of the spiritual existence.” The Life Divine
matting ::: p. pr. & vb. n. --> of Mat ::: v. t. & i. --> The act of interweaving or tangling together so as to make a mat; the process of becoming matted.
Mats, in general, or collectively; mat work; a matlike fabric, for use in covering floors, packing articles, and the
Mead, George Herbert: (1863-1931) Professor of Philosophy at Chicago University. One of the leading figures in the Deweyan tradition. He contributed an important article to the volume, Creative Intelligence. He emphasized the relationship between the individual and his formulation and testing of hypotheses, on the one hand, as against the organic relationship of the individual with the society which is responsible for him. -- L.E.D.
Mechanics: The science of motion, affording theoretical description by means of specification of position of particles bound by relations to other particles, usually having no extension but possessing mass. This involves space and time and frames of reference (in a relative fashion). Particles are assumed to traverse continuous paths. Auxiliary kinematical concepts are displacement, velocity, acceleration. The dynamical concept of forces (F's) acting independently of one another is coupled with mass (M) in a defining law, as F = Ma, where a = acceleration. Explicit reference to causation is avoided and is held to be unnecessary. Classical mechanics is restricted to the use of central forces (along the lines joining particles and a function of the length of those lines). This with a knowledge of boundary conditions leads to complete mechanistic determinism. The entire system of mechanics may also be developed by starting with other cortcepts such as energy and a stationary principle (usually that of "least action") in either an integral or differential form. -- W.M.M.
miasma ::: n. --> Infectious particles or germs floating in the air; air made noxious by the presence of such particles or germs; noxious effluvia; malaria.
micella ::: n. --> A theoretical aggregation of molecules constituting a structural particle of protoplasm, capable of increase or diminution without change in chemical nature.
millefiore glass ::: --> Slender rods or tubes of colored glass fused together and embedded in clear glass; -- used for paperweights and other small articles.
milliner ::: n. --> Formerly, a man who imported and dealt in small articles of a miscellaneous kind, especially such as please the fancy of women.
A person, usually a woman, who makes, trims, or deals in hats, bonnets, headdresses, etc., for women.
millinery ::: n. --> The articles made or sold by milliners, as headdresses, hats or bonnets, laces, ribbons, and the like.
The business of work of a milliner.
million ::: n. --> The number of ten hundred thousand, or a thousand thousand, -- written 1,000, 000. See the Note under Hundred.
A very great number; an indefinitely large number.
The mass of common people; -- with the article the.
Mind-Dust Theory: Theory that individual minds result from the combination of particles of mind which have always existed in association with material atoms. The rival theory is emergent evolution which assumes that mind is a novel emergent in the process of biological evolution. -- L.W.
Mind-Stuff Theory: Theory that individual minds are constituted of psychic particles analogous to physical atoms. Differs from mind-dust theory in its emphasis on the constitution rather than the genesis of mind. See Mind-Dust Theory. -- L.W.
mist ::: n. --> Visible watery vapor suspended in the atmosphere, at or near the surface of the earth; fog.
Coarse, watery vapor, floating or falling in visible particles, approaching the form of rain; as, Scotch mist.
Hence, anything which dims or darkens, and obscures or intercepts vision. ::: v. t.
modiste ::: n. --> A female maker of, or dealer in, articles of fashion, especially of the fashionable dress of ladies; a woman who gives direction to the style or mode of dress.
molecule ::: n. --> One of the very small invisible particles of which all matter is supposed to consist.
The smallest part of any substance which possesses the characteristic properties and qualities of that substance, and which can exist alone in a free state.
A group of atoms so united and combined by chemical affinity that they form a complete, integrated whole, being the smallest portion of any particular compound that can exist in a free
monopoly ::: n. --> The exclusive power, or privilege of selling a commodity; the exclusive power, right, or privilege of dealing in some article, or of trading in some market; sole command of the traffic in anything, however obtained; as, the proprietor of a patented article is given a monopoly of its sale for a limited time; chartered trading companies have sometimes had a monopoly of trade with remote regions; a combination of traders may get a monopoly of a particular product.
Exclusive possession; as, a monopoly of land.
mosaic ::: n. --> A surface decoration made by inlaying in patterns small pieces of variously colored glass, stone, or other material; -- called also mosaic work.
A picture or design made in mosaic; an article decorated in mosaic. ::: a.
moulder ::: n. --> One who, or that which, molds or forms into shape; specifically (Founding), one skilled in the art of making molds for castings. ::: v. i. --> To crumble into small particles; to turn to dust by natural decay; to lose form, or waste away, by a gradual separation of
nipple ::: n. --> The protuberance through which milk is drawn from the breast or mamma; the mammilla; a teat; a pap.
The orifice at which any animal liquid, as the oil from an oil bag, is discharged.
Any small projection or article in which there is an orifice for discharging a fluid, or for other purposes; as, the nipple of a nursing bottle; the nipple of a percussion lock, or that part on which the cap is put and through which the fire passes to the charge.
nor ::: conj. --> A negative connective or particle, introducing the second member or clause of a negative proposition, following neither, or not, in the first member or clause (as or in affirmative propositions follows either). Nor is also used sometimes in the first member for neither, and sometimes the neither is omitted and implied by the use of nor.
Notations, logical: There follows a list of some of the logical symbols and notations found in contemporary usage. In each case the notation employed in articles in this dictionary is given first, afterwards alternative notations, if any.
Note, a unit is a summation of sub-units—even the ultimate units are composites (masses, in case of bigger units)—e.g., molecule, atom, particle (nucleon), point. Mother India—Nolini’s reply to a letter from Huta.
Note on the Indian Sign-Language. Certain general principles concerning gesture speech may be established, by considering the sign-language of the North American Indian which seems to be the most developed. A sign-language is established when equally powerful tribes of different tongues come into contact. Better gestures are composed and undesirable ones are weeded out, partly as a result of tribal federations and partly through the development of technical skills and crafts. Signs come into being, grow and die, according to the needs of the time and to the changes in practical processes. Stimulus of outside intercourse is necessary to keep alive the interest required for the maintenance and growth of a gesture speech; without it, the weaker tribe is absorbed in the stronger, and the vocal language most easily acquired prevails. Sign-languages involve a basic syntax destined to convey the fundamental meanings without refinement and in abbreviated form. Articles, prepositions and conjunctions are omitted; adjectives follow nouns; verbs are used in the present tense; nouns and verbs are used in the singular, while the idea of plurality is expressed in some other way. The use of signals with the smoke, the pony, the mirror, the blanket and the drum (as is also the case with the African tam-tams) may be considered as an extension of the sign-language, though they are related more directly to the general art of signalling. -- T.G.
now ::: adv. --> At the present time; at this moment; at the time of speaking; instantly; as, I will write now.
Very lately; not long ago.
At a time contemporaneous with something spoken of or contemplated; at a particular time referred to.
In present circumstances; things being as they are; -- hence, used as a connective particle, to introduce an inference or an explanation.
octroi ::: n. --> A privilege granted by the sovereign authority, as the exclusive right of trade granted to a guild or society; a concession.
A tax levied in money or kind at the gate of a French city on articles brought within the walls.
odoriferous ::: a. --> Bearing or yielding an odor; perfumed; usually, sweet of scent; fragrant; as, odoriferous spices, particles, fumes, breezes.
Of quite a different kind are so-called real definitions, which are not conventions for introducing new symbols or notations -- as syntactical and semantical definitions are -- but are propositions of equivalence (material, formal, etc.) between two abstract entities (propositions, concepts, etc.) of which one is called the definiendum and the other the definiens. Not all such propositions of equivalence, however, are real definitions, but only those in which the definiens embodies the "essential nature" (essentia, ουσια) of the definiendum. The notion of a real definition thus has all the vagueness of the quoted phrase, but the following may be given as an example. If all the notations appearing, including ⊃x, have their usual meanings (regarded as given in advance), the proposition expressed by (F)(G)[[F(x) ⊃x G(x)] ≡ (x)[∼F(x) ∨ G(x)]] is a real definition of formal implication -- to be contrasted with the nominal definition of the ¦notation for formal implication which is given in the article Logic, formal, § 3. This formula, expressing a real definition of formal implication, might appear, e.g., as a primitive formula in a logistic system.
olfaction ::: n. --> The sense by which the impressions made on the olfactory organs by the odorous particles in the atmosphere are perceived.
omnibus ::: n. --> A long four-wheeled carriage, having seats for many people; especially, one with seats running lengthwise, used in conveying passengers short distances.
A sheet-iron cover for articles in a leer or annealing arch, to protect them from drafts.
onion ::: n. --> A liliaceous plant of the genus Allium (A. cepa), having a strong-flavored bulb and long hollow leaves; also, its bulbous root, much used as an article of food. The name is often extended to other species of the genus.
On the ambiguities of the term, as well as an analysis of one of its meanings as the characteristics of thought shared by some German thinkers from about 1790 to 1830, cf. A. O. Lovejoy, "Meaning of Romanticism for the Historian of Ideas," Jour. Hist. Ideas (Jan. 1941), which refers also to Lovejoy's now famous articles on the subject. -- I.J.
or ::: conj. --> A particle that marks an alternative; as, you may read or may write, -- that is, you may do one of the things at your pleasure, but not both. It corresponds to either. You may ride either to London or to Windsor. It often connects a series of words or propositions, presenting a choice of either; as, he may study law, or medicine, or divinity, or he may enter into trade. ::: prep. & adv.
otolite ::: n. --> One of the small bones or particles of calcareous or other hard substance in the internal ear of vertebrates, and in the auditory organs of many invertebrates; an ear stone. Collectively, the otoliths are called ear sand and otoconite.
“Our material world is the result of all the others, for the other principles have all descended into Matter to create the physical universe, and every particle of what we call Matter contains all of them implicit in itself; their secret action, as we have seen, is involved in every moment of its existence and every movement of its activity. And as Matter is the last word of the descent, so it is also the first word of the ascent; as the powers of all these planes, worlds, grades, degrees are involved in the material existence, so are they all capable of evolution out of it. It is for this reason that material being does not begin and end with gases and chemical compounds and physical forces and movements, with nebulae and suns and earths, but evolves life, evolves mind, must evolve eventually Supermind and the higher degrees of the spiritual existence.” The Life Divine
pacos ::: n. --> Same as Alpaca.
An earthy-looking ore, consisting of brown oxide of iron with minute particles of native silver.
pantechnicon ::: n. --> A depository or place where all sorts of manufactured articles are collected for sale.
papier-mache ::: n. --> A hard and strong substance made of a pulp from paper, mixed with sise or glue, etc. It is formed into various articles, usually by means of molds.
parelcon ::: n. --> The addition of a syllable or particle to the end of a pronoun, verb, or adverb.
parterie ::: n. --> Articles made of the blades or fiber of the Lygeum Spartum and Stipa (/ Macrochloa) tenacissima, kinds of grass used in Spain and other countries for making ropes, mats, baskets, nets, and mattresses.
Particulate: An adjective which means, having the form of minute particles, or assuming such a form. Also a verb now almost obsolete which signified, to divide into parts mentally, or to separate into really existing particles. Formerly it also meant, to particularize. -- J.J.R.
particulate ::: v. t. & i. --> To particularize. ::: a. --> Having the form of a particle.
Referring to, or produced by, particles, such as dust, minute germs, etc.
pastry ::: n. --> The place where pastry is made.
Articles of food made of paste, or having a crust made of paste, as pies, tarts, etc.
particle ::: n. --> A minute part or portion of matter; a morsel; a little bit; an atom; a jot; as, a particle of sand, of wood, of dust.
Any very small portion or part; the smallest portion; as, he has not a particle of patriotism or virtue.
A crumb or little piece of concecrated host.
The smaller hosts distributed in the communion of the laity.
A subordinate word that is never inflected (a
pearl ::: n. --> A fringe or border.
A shelly concretion, usually rounded, and having a brilliant luster, with varying tints, found in the mantle, or between the mantle and shell, of certain bivalve mollusks, especially in the pearl oysters and river mussels, and sometimes in certain univalves. It is usually due to a secretion of shelly substance around some irritating foreign particle. Its substance is the same as nacre, or mother-of-pearl. Pearls which are round, or nearly round, and of fine luster, are highly
peppercorn ::: n. --> A dried berry of the black pepper (Piper nigrum).
Anything insignificant; a particle.
perfume ::: v. t. --> To fill or impregnate with a perfume; to scent. ::: v. --> The scent, odor, or odoriferous particles emitted from a sweet-smelling substance; a pleasant odor; fragrance; aroma.
A substance that emits an agreeable odor.
photon ::: the quantum of electromagnetic energy, regarded as a discrete particle having zero mass, no electric charge, and an indefinitely long lifetime. photon"s.
pickpocket ::: n. --> One who steals purses or other articles from pockets.
piece ::: n. --> A fragment or part of anything separated from the whole, in any manner, as by cutting, splitting, breaking, or tearing; a part; a portion; as, a piece of sugar; to break in pieces.
A definite portion or quantity, as of goods or work; as, a piece of broadcloth; a piece of wall paper.
Any one thing conceived of as apart from other things of the same kind; an individual article; a distinct single effort of a series; a definite performance
pie ::: n. --> An article of food consisting of paste baked with something in it or under it; as, chicken pie; venison pie; mince pie; apple pie; pumpkin pie.
See Camp, n., 5.
A magpie.
Any other species of the genus Pica, and of several allied genera.
The service book.
pilfer ::: v. i. --> To steal in small quantities, or articles of small value; to practice petty theft. ::: v. t. --> To take by petty theft; to filch; to steal little by little.
pin ::: v. t. --> To peen.
To inclose; to confine; to pen; to pound. ::: n. --> A piece of wood, metal, etc., generally cylindrical, used for fastening separate articles together, or as a support by which one article may be suspended from another; a peg; a bolt.
pityriasis ::: n. --> A superficial affection of the skin, characterized by irregular patches of thin scales which are shed in branlike particles.
placer ::: n. --> One who places or sets.
A deposit of earth, sand, or gravel, containing valuable mineral in particles, especially by the side of a river, or in the bed of a mountain torrent.
plank ::: n. --> A broad piece of sawed timber, differing from a board only in being thicker. See Board.
Fig.: That which supports or upholds, as a board does a swimmer.
One of the separate articles in a declaration of the principles of a party or cause; as, a plank in the national platform. ::: v. t.
plantain ::: n. --> A treelike perennial herb (Musa paradisiaca) of tropical regions, bearing immense leaves and large clusters of the fruits called plantains. See Musa.
The fruit of this plant. It is long and somewhat cylindrical, slightly curved, and, when ripe, soft, fleshy, and covered with a thick but tender yellowish skin. The plantain is a staple article of food in most tropical countries, especially when cooked.
Any plant of the genus Plantago, but especially the P.
plastide ::: n. --> A formative particle of albuminous matter; a monad; a cytode. See the Note under Morphon.
One of the many minute granules found in the protoplasm of vegetable cells. They are divided by their colors into three classes, chloroplastids, chromoplastids, and leucoplastids.
plastidule ::: n. --> One of the small particles or organic molecules of protoplasm.
plater ::: n. --> One who plates or coats articles with gold or silver; as, a silver plater.
A machine for calendering paper.
Pneumatology: (Gr. pneuma, spirit + logos, theory) In the most general sense pneumatology is the philosophical or speculative treatment of spirits or souls, including human, divine and those intermediate between God and man. D'Alembert restricted pneumatology to human souls. Discours preliminaire de I'Encyclopedie, § 73; he considered pneumatology, logic and ethics the three branches of the philosophical science of man. The term has also been considered to exclude man and to apply only to God and the angelic hierarchy. (See article by Bersot in Franck's Dict. des Sci. Philos. ) The wide sense in which pneumatology embraces first, God, second, the angels and third, man is perhaps the most convenient and justifiable usage. -- L.W.
pocket ::: n. --> A bag or pouch; especially; a small bag inserted in a garment for carrying small articles, particularly money; hence, figuratively, money; wealth.
One of several bags attached to a billiard table, into which the balls are driven.
A large bag or sack used in packing various articles, as ginger, hops, cowries, etc.
A hole or space covered by a movable piece of board, as in
polonaise ::: a. --> Of or pertaining to the Poles, or to Poland. ::: n. --> The Polish language.
An article of dress for women, consisting of a body and an outer skirt in one piece.
A stately Polish dance tune, in 3-4 measure, beginning
pore ::: v. --> One of the minute orifices in an animal or vegetable membrane, for transpiration, absorption, etc.
A minute opening or passageway; an interstice between the constituent particles or molecules of a body; as, the pores of stones. ::: v. i. --> To look or gaze steadily in reading or studying; to fix
postposition ::: n. --> The act of placing after, or the state of being placed after.
A word or particle placed after, or at the end of, another word; -- distinguished from preposition.
pound ::: v. t. --> To strike repeatedly with some heavy instrument; to beat.
To comminute and pulverize by beating; to bruise or break into fine particles with a pestle or other heavy instrument; as, to pound spice or salt.
To confine in, or as in, a pound; to impound. ::: v. i.
powder ::: n. --> The fine particles to which any dry substance is reduced by pounding, grinding, or triturating, or into which it falls by decay; dust.
An explosive mixture used in gunnery, blasting, etc.; gunpowder. See Gunpowder. ::: v. t.
preliminary ::: a. --> Introductory; previous; preceding the main discourse or business; prefatory; as, preliminary observations to a discourse or book; preliminary articles to a treaty; preliminary measures; preliminary examinations. ::: n. --> That which precedes the main discourse, work, design,
preposition ::: n. --> A word employed to connect a noun or a pronoun, in an adjectival or adverbial sense, with some other word; a particle used with a noun or pronoun (in English always in the objective case) to make a phrase limiting some other word; -- so called because usually placed before the word with which it is phrased; as, a bridge of iron; he comes from town; it is good for food; he escaped by running.
A proposition; an exposition; a discourse.
prepositive ::: a. --> Put before; prefixed; as, a prepositive particle. ::: n. --> A prepositive word.
Presentational continuum: (Lat. praesentare, to present) The conception of an individual mind as an originally undifferentiated continuum which becomes progressively differentiated in the course of experience. See article Psychology by J. Ward in Encyclopaedia Britannica, 9th ed., also J. Ward Psychological Principles, Ch. IV. -- L.W.
privative ::: a. --> Causing privation; depriving.
Consisting in the absence of something; not positive; negative.
Implying privation or negation; giving a negative force to a word; as, alpha privative; privative particles; -- applied to such prefixes and suffixes as a- (Gr. /), un-, non-, -less. ::: n.
producer ::: n. --> One who produces, brings forth, or generates.
One who grows agricultural products, or manufactures crude materials into articles of use.
A furnace for producing combustible gas which is used for fuel.
Propositional calculus: See Logic, formal, § 1. Propositional calculus, many-valued: The truth-table method for the classical (two-valued) propositional calculus is explained in the article logic, formal, § 1. It depends on assigning truth-tables to the fundamental connectives, with the result that every formula -- of the pure propositional calculus, to which we here restrict ourselves for the sake of simplicity -- has one of the two truth-values for each possible assignment of truth-values to the variables appearing. A formula is called a tautology if it has the truth-value truth for every possible assignment of truth-values to the variables; and the calculus is so constructed that a formula is a theorem if and only if it is a tautology.
proposition ::: n. --> The act of setting or placing before; the act of offering.
That which is proposed; that which is offered, as for consideration, acceptance, or adoption; a proposal; as, the enemy made propositions of peace; his proposition was not accepted.
A statement of religious doctrine; an