Genre (philosophy)

Genus ( syn .: Generic term ; Greek γένος génos ; Latin genus ) is a term used in logic that includes several species . For example, the generic term “living being” includes the species terms “human” and “animal”.

The word "genus" has the same meaning as the word " generic term " in this regard .

etymology

The ancient Greek word génos was first used as a philosophical term by Plato . However, Plato does not adhere to a consistent terminology. Such was first introduced by Aristotle , who used génos consistently for "genus" and eîdos consistently for "species". The German translation of this philosophical term "genus" comes from the 18th century by Christian Wolff .

illustration

If the subordination relationship of the terms (the generic term and the species term) is marked by connecting lines, a pyramid-like scheme results. An example of the history of philosophy is the conceptual hierarchy in the form of the tree of Porphyry . The following is an illustration of the relationship between genus, type and difference (left), as well as a concrete example (right).

genus

Type (1)

species-forming
difference

Type (2)

Creature

human

sensible

animal

History of philosophy

Plato

In Plato the concept of the genus plays an important role in the method of classification ( Dihairesis ). With the Dihairesis, a superordinate generic idea is gradually differentiated until one arrives at a species idea that cannot be further subdivided. However, Plato does not make a sharp terminological distinction between genus ( genos ) and species ( eidos ); he uses the term genos not only for "genus", but sometimes also for "species".

In the dialogue of Sophistes , Plato introduces five “greatest genres” ( mégista géne ): Being, identity or self, difference, movement or change and calm or persistence.

Aristotle

Genera in logic

Aristotle defines the genus as follows: “Genus is that which is predicted by several things and according to their kind according to different things when specifying their what or essence [ en to ti estin ]”.

Genera in Biology

Aristotle (in his work Historia animalium ) and his pupil Theophrast already used the term genus in the sense of the biological genus for the systematic classification of animals and plants.

Porphyry

In the second chapter of his work Isagoge, Porphyrios deals in detail with the Platonic-Aristotelian concept of the genus.

Kant

For Kant , on the one hand, the genre is quite simply, in the sense of traditional logic, “the higher concept in consideration of its lower”. But behind this logical principle of the genre is a transcendental one:

“If there were such a great difference among the phenomena that present themselves to us, I do not want to say the form (because in this they may be similar to one another), but the content, i. i. According to the diversity of existing beings, that even the keenest human understanding could not find the slightest resemblance by comparing the one with the other (a case that can be imagined), then the logical law of the species would not take place at all, and there would be no concept of genus itself, or any general concept, nay, even an understanding other than that which only has to do with such. The logical principle of the species thus presupposes a transcendental principle if it is to be applied to nature (by which I mean only objects that are given to us). According to the same, similarity is necessarily presupposed in the manifold of a possible experience (although we cannot determine its degree a priori), because without it no empirical concepts, hence no experience, would be possible. "

- Immanuel Kant : Critique of Pure Reason B681–682

Class logic

In class logic , the genus is no longer used to determine the essence as it was in antiquity (e.g. "Socrates is a person"). This is replaced by a mathematical relation: every class (e.g. "living being") that has sub-classes (e.g. "human" and "animal") is a genus. And: Every element (e.g. "Socrates") of one of the sub-classes (e.g. "Human") is also an element of the genus (e.g. "Living being") and there is at least one element (e.g. the dog "Rex"), which is not an element of the subclass (e.g. "Human").

literature

Hans Michael Baumgartner , F. Krafft, HM Nobis: genus, genus . In: Joachim Ritter u. a. (Ed.): Historical dictionary of philosophy . Volume 3, Schwabe, Basel 1972, Col. 24-30

Web links

Rudolf Eisler : genus . In: Dictionary of Philosophical Terms . Berlin, 1904

Individual evidence

↑ Hans Michael Baumgartner : genus, genus . In: Joachim Ritter ua (Hrsg.): Historical dictionary of philosophy . Volume 3, Schwabe, Basel 1972, Sp. 24–30, here: Sp. 24
↑ Michael Schramm: Diheresis . In: Christian Schäfer (Ed.): Platon-Lexikon , Darmstadt 2007, pp. 92–95, here: 93.
↑ Plato, Sophistes 254b – 259b. See Michael Erler : Platon (= Hellmut Flashar (Hrsg.): Grundriss der Geschichte der Philosophie . Die Philosophie der Antike , Volume 2/2), Basel 2007, p. 242.
↑ Aristotle, Topik 102a31f.
↑ Immanuel Kant, Logic §10
↑ Hans Michael Baumgartner : genus, genus . In: Joachim Ritter u. a. (Ed.): Historical dictionary of philosophy . Volume 3, Schwabe, Basel 1972, Col. 24–30, here: Col. 25

[1] Hans Michael Baumgartner : genus, genus . In: Joachim Ritter ua (Hrsg.): Historical dictionary of philosophy . Volume 3, Schwabe, Basel 1972, Sp. 24–30, here: Sp. 24

[2] Michael Schramm: Diheresis . In: Christian Schäfer (Ed.): Platon-Lexikon , Darmstadt 2007, pp. 92–95, here: 93.

[3] Plato, Sophistes 254b – 259b. See Michael Erler : Platon (= Hellmut Flashar (Hrsg.): Grundriss der Geschichte der Philosophie . Die Philosophie der Antike , Volume 2/2), Basel 2007, p. 242.

[4] Aristotle, Topik 102a31f.

[5] Immanuel Kant, Logic §10

[6] Hans Michael Baumgartner : genus, genus . In: Joachim Ritter u. a. (Ed.): Historical dictionary of philosophy . Volume 3, Schwabe, Basel 1972, Col. 24–30, here: Col. 25