haecceity
Sign in to saveHaecceity (; from the Latin , 'thisness') is a term from medieval scholastic philosophy, coined by followers of Duns Scotus to denote a concept that he seems to have originated: the irreducible determination of a thing that makes it this particular thing. Haecceity is a person's or object's thisness, the individualising difference between the concept "a person" and the concept "Socrates" (i.e., a specific person). In modern philosophy of physics, it is sometimes referred to as primitive thisness.
~6 min read
Article
10 sectionsContents
- Etymology<!--'To ti esti' redirects here-->
- Haecceity vs. quiddity
- Haecceity in scholasticism
- Haecceity in anglophone philosophy
- Haecceity in sociology and continental philosophy
- Other uses
- See also
- References
- Further reading
- External links
Haecceity (; from the Latin , 'thisness') is a term from medieval scholastic philosophy, coined by followers of Duns Scotus to denote a concept that he seems to have originated: the irreducible determination of a thing that makes it this particular thing. Haecceity is a person's or object's thisness, the individualising difference between the concept "a person" and the concept "Socrates" (i.e., a specific person). In modern philosophy of physics, it is sometimes referred to as primitive thisness.
==Etymology== Haecceity is a Latin neologism formed as an abstract noun derived from the demonstrative pronoun , meaning 'this (very)' (feminine singular) or 'these (very)' (feminine or neuter plural). It is apparently formed on the model of another (much older) neologism ('whatness'), which is a calque of Aristotle's Greek '''''' () or 'the what (it) is'.