Concept
A
Overview
A (minuscule: a) is the first letter and the first vowel letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, and others worldwide. Its name in English is a (pronounced as in say), plural aes.
It is similar in shape to the Ancient Greek letter alpha, from which it derives. The uppercase version consists of the two slanting sides of a triangle, crossed in the middle by a horizontal bar. The lowercase version is often written in one of two forms: the double-storey |a| and single-storey |ɑ|. The latter form is commonly used in handwriting and fonts based on it, especially fonts intended to be read by children, and is also found in italic type.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
In the original texts
Passages from public-domain books where A is discussed.
If, for instance, we find that when A is double, _a_ is double; that when A is treble or quadruple, _a_ is treble or quadruple; we may conclude that if A were a half or a third, _a_ would be a half or a third, and finally, that if A were annihilated, _a_ would be annihilated; and that _a_ is wholly the effect of A, or wholly the effect of the same cause with A. And so with any other numerical relation according to…
John Stuart Mill, A System of Logic, Ratiocinative and Inductive
names the idea; states what it is; the book is about it; opens on it
When a child is being taught to read, he learns to recognise a given letter, say H, whether it is large or small, black or white or red. However it may vary in these respects his reaction is the same: he says “H”. That is to say, the essential feature in the stimulus is its _form_.
Bertrand Russell, Philosophy
names the idea; a chapter is titled for it; opens on it
[Thus, those who never visited Rome do not doubt that it is a city of Italy, though it might be that all from whom they got their information were deceived]. Again, if any one, wishing to decipher a letter written in Latin characters that are not placed in regular order, bethinks himself of reading a B wherever an A is found, and a C wherever there is a B, and thus of substituting in place of each letter the one…
René Descartes, Selections from the Principles of Philosophy
names the idea; states what it is; author linked in the graph; opens on it
In which Characters or ways of Writing a Vowel is always join'd with a Consonant into one compound Character to make it effable. And then the single Strokes may be taken for single ineffable Letters as are the Consonants, and the composition of two or three (of which one at least may be a Vowel) will make Syllables. Of this kind, there are not so many in the whole _Chinese_ Character, but that it will be easie…
Royal Society, Miscellanea Curiosa, Vol. 3
names the idea; the book is about it; opens on it
The idea of a plain surface is as little susceptible of a precise standard as that of a right line; nor have we any other means of distinguishing such a surface, than its general appearance. It is in vain, that mathematicians represent a plain surface as produced by the flowing of a right line. It will immediately be objected, that our idea of a surface is as independent of this method of forming a surface, as our…
David Hume, A Treatise of Human Nature
names the idea; states what it is; the book is about it; opens on it
Related ideas
- French language
- First-order logic
- German language
- Glyph
- Hungarian language
- Ancient Greek
- Latin
- Latin alphabet
- Æ
- Algebra
- Geometry
- Azerbaijani language
- Ä
- Dutch language
- Turkish alphabet
- Norwegian language
- Polish language
- Motivation
- Portuguese language
- Russian language
- Roman Empire
- René Descartes
- Spanish orthography
- Croatian language
Opposing perspectives
Place in the tradition
Part of Alphabetical order.