Online Encyclopedia

Search over 40,000 articles from the original, classic Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition.

ACCIDENTALISM

Online Encyclopedia

Originally appearing in Volume V01, Page 114 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.

» Make a correction to this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.

Encyclopedia Home :: A10-ADA

Spread the word:

del.icio.us it!

ACCIDENTALISM , a See also:

TERM

term used (I) in See also:

PHILOSOPHY (Gr. gthos, fond of, and vo4 (a, wisdom)

philosophy for any See also:

SYSTEM

system of thought which denies the causal nexus and maintains that events succeed one another haphazard or by See also:

CHANCE (through the O. Fr. cheance, from the Late Lat. cadentia, things happening, from cadere, to fall out, happen; cf. " case ")

chance (not in the mathematical but in the popular sense). In See also:

metaphysics, accidentalism denies the See also:

DOCTRINE

doctrine that everything occurs or results from a definite cause. In this connexion it is synonymous with Tychism (rirxn, chance), a term used by C. S. See also:

PEIRCE, BENJAMIN (1809-188o)

Peirce for the theories which make chance an See also:

OBJECTIVE, or OBJECT GLASS

objective See also:

FACTOR (from Lat. facere, to make or do)

factor in theprocess of the Universe. Opponents of this accidentalism maintain that what seems to be the result of chance is in reality due to a cause or causes which, owing to the lack of See also:

IMAGINATION

imagination, knowledge or scientific See also:

INSTRUMENTS

instruments, we are unable to detect. In See also:

ethics the term is used, like indeterminism, to denote the theory that See also:

MENTAL

mental See also:

CHANGE (derived through the Fr. from the Late Lat. cambium, cambiare, to barter; the ultimate derivation is probably from the root which appears in the Gr. «a urmu', to bend)

change cannot always be ascribed to previously ascertained psychological states, and that volition is not causally related to the motives involved. An example of this theory is the doctrine of the liberum arbitrium indifferentiae (" See also:

LIBERTY (Lat. libertas, from liber, free)

liberty of indifference "), according to which the choice of two or more alternative possibilities is affected neither by contemporaneous data of an ethical or prudential See also:

KIND (O. E. ge-cynde, from the same root as is seen in " kin," supra)

kind nor by crystallized See also:

HABIT (through the French from Lat. habitus, from habere, to have, hold, or, in a reflective sense, to be in a certain condition; in many of the English senses the French use habitude, not habit)

habit (See also:

CHARACTER (Gr. xapareri7p, from xap&crew, to scratch)

character). (2) In See also:

PAINTING

painting, the term is used for the effect produced by accidental See also:

LIGHTS, CEREMONIAL USE OF

lights (See also:

RUSKIN, JOHN (1819-1goo)

Ruskin, See also:

MODERN

Modern Painters, I. r1. 4, iii. § q, 287). (3) In See also:

MEDICINE

medicine, it stands for the See also:

HYPOTHESIS (from Gr. inrorcOivat, to put under; cf. Lat. suppositio, from sub-ponere)

hypothesis that disease is only an accidental modification of the healthy See also:

CONDITION (Lat. condicio, from condicere, to agree upon, arrange; not connected with conditio, from condere, conditum, to put together)

condition, and can, therefore, be avoided by modifying See also:

EXTERNAL

external conditions.

End of Article: ACCIDENTALISM

Additional information and Comments

There are no comments yet for this article.

» Add information or comments to this article.

Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click, and select "copy." Then paste it into your website, email, or other HTML.

Site content, images, and layout Copyright © 2006 - Net Industries, worldwide.
Do not copy, download, transfer, or otherwise replicate the site content in whole or in part.

Links to articles and home page are always encouraged.

[back]
ACCIDENT (from Lat. accidere, to happen)

[next]
ACCIUS