Haecceitas
Haecceitas (neulat to lat.. Haec: "this") or this-being or thisness refers to a philosophical concept of art , which in the scholasticism , from Duns Scotus following, in particular from him widespread mindset of Scotists was developed . The Haecceitas describes the specifics of an individual object, in contrast to the Quidditas , the general properties of an object class. The term belongs to the area of individuation, i.e. the division of the general into the individual. The originally late scholastic term is thus located in the context of the philosophical disciplines ontology or metaphysics and relates in particular to the universality controversy and questions of general logic .
In scholasticism, Thomas Aquinas and Aristotle initially viewed the individual as a special case of the general. The individual itself cannot be scientifically discussed ( individual est ineffabile ). The core of the doctrine of Haecceitas is now based on the idea that individual existence is not a defect but a perfection. It is unique and special. The individual can only be pointed out as something unique: a “this-there”. Through the introduction and use of the term Haecceitas , individuality , which was previously classified as secondary, was given greater weight. The individual thing as a positive being is now conceptually recognizable as having a higher rank. In addition, the individual, the special compared to the general, becomes the perfect. The individual has an independent reality, is a fact that cannot be further deduced.
Web links
- Richard Cross: Medieval Theories of Haecceity. In: Edward N. Zalta (Ed.): Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy .
- Sam Cowling: Haecceitism. In: Edward N. Zalta (Ed.): Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Axel Schmid: Nature and mystery: Critique of naturalism through modern physics and Scottish metaphysics. Munich: Alber, 2003, here p. 268