Absolute identity. “The system which reduces mind and matter to phenomenal modifications of the same common substance.” Hamilton.
“Nature should be the visible mind, and mind invisible nature. Here, therefore, in the absolute identity of the mind within us, and nature without us, must we solve the problem how it is possible for a nature out of us to be.” Schelling.
Absolute impossibility. “The absolutely impossible is that which involves a contradiction; as, that a man is a stone.” Burgersdicius.
Absolute independence. “That is said to be absolutely independent which does not owe its being to another; and that, either positively, in which way God alone is independent, or negatively, in which way non-ens owes its being to nothing, in as much as it has none.” Chauvin.
Absolute indivisibility. “The absolutely indivisible is that which has no parts into which it can be divided, and so is a simple ens. “
Absolute intellection. Intellection not performed by means of comparison. “Absolute intellection can only be of some simple object contained under the object of the concept (intellectus). “ Scotus, In sententiarum, lib. 2, dist. 6, qu. 1, vol. 2, p. 242.
Absolute knowledge. Knowledge not relative. See Relativity of knowledge.
Absolute liberty. “The absolutely free is free from servitude, from a law established over him by others, from compulsion, and from natural necessity.” Burgersdicius, Institutionum Logicarum, p. 66.
Absolute locality. “I call absolute locality, provisionally until an apter word occurs, that by which a thing exists alone anywhere, that is, without respect to another thing; of which sort was the locality of God before the foundation of the world, and even now is, out of the circuit of the world, where there are no things.” Burgersdicius, Institutionum Metaphysicarum, lib. 1, cap. 21.
Absolute motion “is the translation of a body from one absolute place into another.” Newton.
Absolute name. Names not connotative. “Merely absolute names are those which do not signify one thing principally and another or the same secondarily, but whatever is signified by such a name is alike primarily signified, as appears concerning this name, ‘animal’.” Occam. Quoted by Prantl, iii, 364.
Absolute necessity. “The absolutely necessary is that whose negation implies contradiction.” Burgersdicius.
Absolute pain. See absolute pleasure.
Absolute perfection. Perfection in every respect. “That to which no imperfection of any sort belongs.” Burgersdicius.
Absolute philosophy. A philosophy which is absolute knowledge, if true.
Absolute place. “The part of absolute space which a body occupies.” Newton.
Absolute pleasure. “Absolute pleasure is all that pleasure which we feel above a state of indifference and which is therefore prized as a good in itself, and not simply as the removal of an evil.” Hamilton, Metaphysical Lecture 42.
Absolute power. The power of a despot or autocrat.
Absolute prescience. “Is that by which God knows that things absolutely and without condition will be.” Burgersdicius, Institutionum Metaphysicarum, lib. 2, cap. 8.
Absolute principle. Absolute principles are those “from which in the construction of a science, cognitions altogether certain not only are, but must be derived.” Hamilton.
Absolute problem. Where it is asked whether an attribute belongs to a subject or not, not to which of two subjects it belongs the most. Burgersdicius.
Absolute proposition. A term which Hamilton recommends in place of categorical proposition. He cites the authorities of Gassendi and Mocenicus. Logic, Lecture 13, p. 165 note.
Absolute reality. Inherence in things as a condition or mark without regard to the forms of human intuition and thought. See Kant’s Kritik d. r. Vernunft, 1st Ed., p. 35 ad fin.
Absolute scepticism. That is, the very last degree of scepticism. But different writers understand this differently. The simple negation of understanding in inanimate objects is not considered scepticism; neither is idiocy. It is the employment of the reason exclusively “to inquire and debate, but not to fix and determine.” It is the adoption of the principle that all possible opinions upon all possible subjects are equally probable,—the adoption of this not as a doctrine but as a principle actually determining the state of mind. See Montaigne’s Essays, Book 2, cap. 12. This is what the ultima thule of scepticism really is. But what is usually meant by absolute scepticism is one or other of the following dogmas—
1. “Absolute scepticism declares everything to be illusion.” Kant, Logik, Einleitung X.
2. It is the doctrine “that unconditionally certain knowledge is from its own nature impossible.” Seydel, Logik, §4.
Absolute space “is that which remains always similar and immovable.” Newton.
“The space in which all motion must ultimately be thought, is called pure or absolute space.” Kant, Anfangsgründe der Naturwissenschaft
Absolute term “is a term which connotes nothing; as, elephant, cedar.” Eck, In summulas Petri Hispani, Tractatus 2, text 2, Note 1.
Absolute time. “Absolute, true, and mathematical time, of itself and from its own nature, flows equably without regard to anything external, and is called duration.” Newton.
I give the definition of Newton since he invented the term, although it is a little nonsensical.
Absolute truth “is the agreement of the content of cognition with the actuality.” Überweg.
Absolute utility. “We may call the higher utility or that conducive to the perfection of a man viewed as an end in himself, by the name of absolute.” Hamilton.
ABSOLUTELY
Absolutely first and last. The very first and last.
Absolutely practical What relates to the absolute good. Kant.
Absolutely proper adjunct. A proper adjunct “which emanates from the essence of the subject; and that either immediately (thus, the faculty of laughing and wondering emanates immediately from the human essence) or by the medium of another property (thus to occupy space emanates from the essence through the quantity of the body).” Burgersdicius.
Absolutely pure. “A cognition is termed absolutely pure in which no experience or impression is mixed.” Kant.
ABSTINENCE
“is whereby a man refraineth from anything which he may lawfully take.” Elyot, Governour. Quoted by Fleming.
ABSTRACT
1. That which signifies or represents an attribute or relation, apart from any reference to a subject.
This appears to be the original meaning of the term. The word is said to be employed by the Roman philosophers and grammarians. It certainly was not in common use in logic before Scotus who uses it frequently. Before him, we meet the expressions, ex abstractione, per abstractionem, inabstractum, abstrahens, ablatum, and remotum, where abstractum might be expected.
2. That which signifies or represents objects in certain of their elements apart from others, whether these latter be the matter, certain forms, or the individuality. See Abstract concept.
3. Kant uses this adjective in a peculiar sense. The following is from his elucidator Schmid.
“Abstract concepts are, 2ndly, in particular, abstract concepts in the narrower signification, sensuously abstracted (Critik d. r. Vernunft,