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Chambers' Cyclopædia
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ADJUNCT

ADJUNCT, Adjunctum, in philosophy, something added to a being from without. See ADJUNCTION.

Or, an adjunct is an additament or accession to a thing, not essentially belonging to it, but only accidental thereto.See ACCIDENT.

There are two kinds of adjuncts; the one, a substance (whether spirit or body) accidentally superadded to another, as its subject—Such is water in a sponge, or vessel, and the soul in the body. See SUBSTANCE.


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ATTRIBUTE

ATTRIBUTE, ATTRIBUTUM, in Philosophy, a Property which agrees to some Person, or Thing; or a Quality, which determines something to be after a certain Manner. See PROPERTY and QUALITY.
Thus, Understanding is an Attribute of Mind; Figure, an Attribute of Body, etc. Spinoza makes the Soul and the Body to be of the same Substance; with this only Difference, that the Soul is to be conceived under the Attribute of Thought, and the Body under that of Extension. See SUBSTANCE, SPINOSISM, etc.
Of the several Attributes belonging to any Substance, that which presents itself first, and which the Mind conceives as the Foundation of all the rest, is called its essential Attribute. See ESSENCE and ESSENTIAL.
Thus, Extension is by some; and Solidity by others, made the essential Attribute of Body or Matter. See BODY, MATTER, EXTENSION, SOLIDITY, etc. The other Attributes are called accidental ones. See ACCIDENT. Mr. Lock endeavours to prove, that Thinking, which the Cartesians make the essential Attribute of the Mind, is only an accidental one. See THINKING, MIND, SOUL, etc.


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ACATALEPSIA

ACATALEPSIA, Acatalepsy, in Philosophy, Incomprehensibleness; or the Impossibility of comprehending or conceiving a thing. See COMPREHENSION.

The Pyrrhonians and Sceptics, and even the Ancient Academy, asserted an absolute Acatalepsia: All human Science or Knowledge, according to them, went no further than to Appearances and Verisimilitude.
See PYRRHONIAN, SCEPTIC, and ACADEMY.


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ABSOLUTE

is understood of something that is free, or independent of another. Hence, as there are various ways wherein one thing may be consider'd is free in respect of another, there arise divers sorts of Absolutes.

Absolute, e. g. sometimes imports a Thing which does not include the Idea of Relation to another ; in which Sense it Hands oppos'd to Relative.

Thus, Man is an absolute Term ; and, on the contrary, Creature and Father are Relatives, the one referring to Creator, the other to Children. See RELATIVE.

In the like Sense, the Schoolmen hold Absolute to imply a Thing's not being in ordine ad, in order to any other Thing. Thus, Man, Tree, &c. are Absolutes ; and every other Thing which has any real Existence which it does not owe to another.

In this Sense too, the Terms of a Proposition are said to be taken absolutely ; that is, without Relation to each other.


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Physics

  • ABSTRACT
  • ARGUMENT
  • ACRASIA
  • ADJOINING
  • ABSTRACTION
  • ACCENSION
  • ADJUNCT

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