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ABSOLUTE (Lat. absolvere, to loose, s...
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See also:ABSOLUTE (See also:Lat. absolvere, to loose, set See also:free) , a See also:term having the See also:general signification of See also:independent, self-existent, unconditioned. Thus we speak of " absolute " as opposed to limited " or " constitutional " See also:monarchy, or, in See also:common parlance, of an " absolute failure," i.e. unrelieved by any satisfactory circumstances. In See also:philosophy the word has several technical uses. (1) In See also:Logic, it has been applied to non-connotative terms which do not imply attributes (sec See also:CONNOTATION), but more commonly, in opposition to Relative, to terms which do not imply the existence of some other (correlative) term; e.g. " See also:father " irhplies " son," " See also:tutor " " See also:pupil," and therefore each of these terms is relative. In fact, however, the distinction is formal, and, though convenient in the terminology of elementary logic, cannot be strictly maintained. The term " See also:man," for example, which, as compared with " father," " son," " tutor," seems to be absolute, is obviously relative in other connexions; in various contexts it implies its various possible opposites, e.g. " woman," " boy," " See also:master," " See also:brute." In other words, every term which issusceptible of See also:definition is ipso facto relative, for definition is precisely the segregation of the thing defined from all -other things which it is not, i.e. implies a relation. Every term which has a meaning is, therefore, relative, if only to its contradictory. (2) The term is used in the phrase "absolute knowledge " to imply knowledge per se. It has been held, however, that, since all knowledge implies a knowing subject and a known See also:object, absolute knowledge is a See also:contradiction in terms (see RELATIVITY). So also See also:Herbert See also:Spencer spoke of "absolute See also:ethics," as opposed to systems of conduct based on particular See also:local or temporary See also:laws and conventions (see ETHICS). (3) By far the most important use of the word is in the phrase " the Absolute " (see See also:METAPHYSICS). It is sufficient here to indicate the problems involved in their most elementary See also:form. The See also:process of knowledge in the See also:sphere of See also:intellect as in that of natural See also:science is one of generalization, 'i.e. the co-ordination of particular facts under general statements, or in other words, the explanation of one fact by another, and that other by a third, and so on. In this way the particular facts or existences are See also:left behind in the See also:search for higher, more inclusive conceptions; as twigs are traced to one See also:branch, and branches to one See also:trunk, so, it is held, all the See also:plurality of sense-given data is absorbed in a unity which is all-inclusive and self-existent, and has no " beyond. By a See also:metaphor this process has been described as the 636s avw (as of tracing a See also:river to its source). Other phrases from different points of view have been used to describe the See also:idea, e.g. First Cause, Vital Principle (in connexion with the origin of See also:life), See also:God (as the author and sum of all being), Unity, Truth (i.e. the sum and See also:culmination of all knowledge), Causa Causans, &c. The idea in different senses appears both in idealistic and realistic systems of thought. - The theories of the Absolute may be summarized briefly as follows. (r) The Absolute does not exist, and is not even in any real sense thinkable. This view is held by the empiricists, who hold that nothing is knowable See also:save phenomena. The Absolute could not be conceived, for all knowledge is susceptible of definition and, therefore, relative. The Absolute includes the idea of See also:necessity, which the mind cannot cognize. (2) The Absolute exists for thought only. In this theory the absolute is the unknown x which the human mind is logically compelled to postulate a priori as the only coherent explanation and See also:justification of its thought. (3) The Absolute exists but is unthinkable, because it is an aid to thought which comes into operation, as it were, as a final explanation beyond which thought cannot go. Its existence is shown by the fact that without it all demonstration would be a See also:mere circulus in probando or verbal exercise, because the existence of See also:separate things implies some one thing which includes and explains them. (4) The Absolute both exists and is conceivable. It is argued that we do in fact conceive it in as much as we do conceive Unity, Being, Truth. The conception is so clear that its inexplicability (admitted) is of no See also:account. Further, since the unity of our thought implies the absolute, and since the existence of things is known only to thought, it appears ab§urd that the absolute itself should be regarded as non-existent. The Absolute is substance in itself, the ultimate 'basis and See also:matter of existence. All things are merely manifestations of it, exist in virtue of it, but are not identical with it. (5) Metaphysical idealists pursue this See also:line of See also:argument in a different way. For them nothing exists save thought; the only existence that can be predicated of any thing and, therefore, of the Absolute, is that it is thought. Thought creates God, things, the Absolute. (6) Finally, it has been held that we can conceive the Absolute, though our conception is only partial, just as our conception of all things is limited by the imperfect See also:powers of human intellect. Thus the Absolute exists for us only in our thought of it (4 above). But thought itself comes from the Absolute which, being itself the pure thought of thoughts, separates from itself individual minds. It is, therefore, perfectly natural that human thought, being essentially homogeneous with the Absolute, should be able by the See also:consideration of the universe to arrive at some imperfect conception of the source from which all is derived. - The whole controversy is obscured by inevitable difficulties in terminology. The fundamental problem is whether a thing which is by See also:hypothesis See also:infinite can in any sense be defined, and if it is not defined, whether it can be said to be cognized or thought. It would appear to be almost an See also:axiom that anything which by hypothesis transcends the intellect (i.e. by including subject and object, knowing and known) is ipso facto beyond the limits of the knower. Only an Absolute can cognize an absolute. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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