Concept
Haecceity
Overview
Haecceity (; from the Latin haecceitas, '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.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
Possible passages
Found by search and not yet checked by a person; they may only mention the idea in passing.
The individual, with his immutable, innate character strictly determined in all his modes of expression by the law of Causality, which, as acting through the medium of the intellect, is here called by the name of Motivation,--the individual so constituted is only the =phaenomenon= (_Erscheinung_). The =Thing= in itself which underlies this phaenomenon is outside of Time and Space, consequently free from all…
Arthur Schopenhauer, The Basis of Morality
States what Haecceity is.
Modern philosophy, like ancient, begins with very simple conceptions. It is almost wholly a reflection on self. It might be described as a quickening into life of old words and notions latent in the semi-barbarous Latin, and putting a new meaning into them. Unlike ancient philosophy, it has been unaffected by impressions derived from outward nature: it arose within the limits of the mind itself. From the time of…
Plato, Meno
Close in meaning to Haecceity; the term itself is not named.
_I answer that,_ As regards relative things, we must admit extrinsic denomination; as, a thing is denominated "placed" from "place," and "measured" from "measure." But as regards absolute things opinions differ. Plato held the existence of separate ideas (Q. 84, A. 4) of all things, and that individuals were denominated by them as participating in the separate ideas; for instance, that Socrates is called man…
Aquinas Thomas, Summa Theologica, Part I
States what Haecceity is.
Philosophers who discussed Haecceity
Related ideas
- Scotism
- James Wood (critic)
- Philosophy of physics
- Gilles Deleuze
- Ancient Greek
- James Joyce
- Latin
- Contingency (philosophy)
- Metaphysics
- Metaphysics (Aristotle)
- Medieval philosophy
- Aristotle
- Duns Scotus
- Scholasticism
- Literary criticism
- Charles Sanders Peirce
- New York City
- Amsterdam
- Alvin Plantinga
- Quiddity
- Indexicality
- Richard Kearney
Opposing perspectives
Place in the tradition
Part of British philosophy.