Word Meanings - PHILOSOPHY - Book Publishers vocabulary database

1. Literally, the love of, including the search after, wisdom; in actual usage, the knowledge of phenomena as explained by, and resolved into, causes and reasons, powers and laws. Note: When applied to any particular department of knowledge,

Additional info about word: PHILOSOPHY

1. Literally, the love of, including the search after, wisdom; in actual usage, the knowledge of phenomena as explained by, and resolved into, causes and reasons, powers and laws. Note: When applied to any particular department of knowledge, philosophy denotes the general laws or principles under which all the subordinate phenomena or facts relating to that subject are comprehended. Thus philosophy, when applied to God and the divine government, is called theology; when applied to material objects, it is called physics; when it treats of man, it is called anthropology and psychology, with which are connected logic and ethics; when it treats of the necessary conceptions and relations by which philosophy is possible, it is called metaphysics. Note: "Philosophy has been defined: tionscience of things divine and human, and the causes in which they are contained; -- the science of effects by their causes; -- the science of sufficient reasons; -- the science of things possible, inasmuch as they are possible; -- the science of things evidently deduced from first principles; -- the science of truths sensible and abstract; -- the application of reason to its legitimate objects; -- the science of the relations of all knowledge to the necessary ends of human reason; -- the science of the original form of the ego, or mental self; -- the science of science; -- the science of the absolute; -- the scienceof the absolute indifference of the ideal and real." Sir W. Hamilton. 2. A particular philosophical system or theory; the hypothesis by which particular phenomena are explained. of Aristotle and his philosophie. Chaucer. We shall in vain interpret their words by the notions of our philosophy and the doctrines in our school. Locke. 3. Practical wisdom; calmness of temper and judgment; equanimity; fortitude; stoicism; as, to meet misfortune with philosophy. Then had he spent all his philosophy. Chaucer. 4. Reasoning; argumentation. Of good and evil much they argued then, . . . Vain wisdom all, and false philosophy. Milton. 5. The course of sciences read in the schools. Johnson. 6. A treatise on philosophy. Philosophy of the Academy, that of Plato, who taught his disciples in a grove in Athens called the Academy. -- Philosophy of the Garden, that of Epicurus, who taught in a garden in Athens. -- Philosophy of the Lyceum, that of Aristotle, the founder of the Peripatetic school, who delivered his lectures in the Lyceum at Athens. -- Philosophy of the Porch, that of Zeno and the Stoics; -- so called because Zeno of Citium and his successors taught in the porch of the Poicile, a great hall in Athens.

Related words: (words related to PHILOSOPHY)

• APPLICABLE
  Capable of being applied; fit or suitable to be applied; having relevance; as, this observation is applicable to the case under consideration. -- Ap"pli*ca*ble*ness, n. -- Ap"pli*ca*bly, adv.
• AFTERCAST
  A throw of dice after the game in ended; hence, anything done too late. Gower.
• AFTER
  To ward the stern of the ship; -- applied to any object in the rear part of a vessel; as the after cabin, after hatchway. Note: It is often combined with its noun; as, after-bowlines, after- braces, after-sails, after-yards, those on the mainmasts
• AFTERPAINS
  The pains which succeed childbirth, as in expelling the afterbirth.
• ACTUALIZE
  To make actual; to realize in action. Coleridge.
• PHENOMENALISM
  That theory which limits positive or scientific knowledge to phenomena only, whether material or spiritual.
• APPLICATIVE
  Having of being applied or used; applying; applicatory; practical. Bramhall. -- Ap"pli*ca*tive*ly, adv.
• SEARCHLESS
  Impossible to be searched; inscrutable; impenetrable.
• APPLICANCY
  The quality or state of being applicable.
• PHENOMENAL
  Relating to, or of the nature of, a phenomenon; hence, extraordinary; wonderful; as, a phenomenal memory. -- Phe*nom"e*nal*ly, adv.
• DEPARTMENT
  1. Act of departing; departure. Sudden departments from one extreme to another. Wotton. 2. A part, portion, or subdivision. 3. A distinct course of life, action, study, or the like; appointed sphere or walk; province. Superior to Pope in Pope's
• APPLICABILITY
  The quality of being applicable or fit to be applied.
• LITERALLY
  1. According to the primary and natural import of words; not figuratively; as, a man and his wife can not be literally one flesh. 2. With close adherence to words; word by word. So wild and ungovernable a poet can not be translated literally.
• DEPARTMENTAL
  Pertaining to a department or division. Burke.
• ACTUAL
  1. Involving or comprising action; active. Her walking and other actual performances. Shak. Let your holy and pious intention be actual; that is . . . by a special prayer or action, . . . given to God. Jer. Taylor. 2. Existing in act or reality;
• WISDOM LITERATURE
  The class of ancient Hebrew writings which deal reflectively with general ethical and religious topics, as distinguished from the prophetic and liturgical literature, and from the law. It is comprised chiefly in the books of Job, Proverbs,
• EXPLAIN
  out+plandare to make level or plain, planus plain: cf. OF. esplaner, 1. To flatten; to spread out; to unfold; to expand. The horse-chestnut is . . . ready to explain its leaf. Evelyn. 2. To make plain, manifest, or intelligible; to clear
• RESOLVENT
  Having power to resolve; causing solution; solvent.
• APPLICATORILY
  By way of application.
• AFTERSHAFT
  The hypoptilum.
• PREKNOWLEDGE
  Prior knowledge.
• UNAPPLIABLE
  Inapplicable. Milton.
• REAPPLICATION
  The act of reapplying, or the state of being reapplied.
• ACKNOWLEDGE
  1. To of or admit the knowledge of; to recognize as a fact or truth; to declare one's belief in; as, to acknowledge the being of a God. I acknowledge my transgressions. Ps. li. 3. For ends generally acknowledged to be good. Macaulay. 2. To own
• UNWISDOM
  Want of wisdom; unwise conduct or action; folly; simplicity; ignorance. Sumptuary laws are among the exploded fallacies which we have outgrown, and we smile at the unwisdom which could except to regulate private habits and manners by statute. J.
• INAPPLICABILITY
  The quality of being inapplicable; unfitness; inapplicableness.