"dormitive principle" meaning in English

See dormitive principle in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Forms: dormitive principles [plural]
Etymology: A modern translation of Latin, virtus dormitiva, coined by Molière in The Imaginary Invalid (1673). In the play, he lampoons a group of physicians providing an explanation in macaronic Latin of the sleep-inducing properties of opium as stemming from its "virtus dormitiva". The currency of this phrase as a critique of scientific claims is due to Gregory Bateson (1976, Steps to an Ecology of Mind p. 5), as is the translation of virtus as 'principle'. Etymology templates: {{uder|en|la|-}} Latin, {{m|la|virtus dormitiva}} virtus dormitiva Head templates: {{en-noun}} dormitive principle (plural dormitive principles)
  1. (idiomatic, rhetoric, logic, linguistics) A type of tautology in which an item is explained in terms of the item itself, only put in different (usually more abstract) words. Tags: idiomatic, rhetoric Categories (topical): Linguistics, Logic, Rhetoric Synonyms: dormitive virtue Related terms: aureation, jargon, skotison Translations (rhetoric): virtus dormitiva (Finnish), virtus dormitiva (Latin), princípio dormitivo [masculine] (Portuguese), снотво́рный при́нцип (snotvórnyj príncip) [masculine] (Russian)

Inflected forms

Download JSON data for dormitive principle meaning in English (5.9kB)

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          "text": "If we examine traditional explanations of behavior through the lens of recursion, we will sometimes find what Bateson called \"dormitive principles,\" a form of circular description. A \"dormitive principle\" is a more abstract repackaging of a description of the item you claim to be explaining. To paraphrase Bateson, this occurs when the cause of a simple action, as for example, when aggression is explained as being caused by an \"aggressive instinct\" or psychotic symptomatology is attributed to \"madness.\"",
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          "ref": "2003, Ian Glynn, An Anatomy of Thought: The Origin and Machinery of the Mind",
          "text": "And to any intelligent reader, explanation of an 'inherent ability' was reminiscent of Molière's mock explanation of the soporific effects of opium - that it contained a 'dormitive principle'.",
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          "ref": "2017, Bradford P. Keeney, Aesthetics of Change, page 38",
          "text": "Similarly, to view “leadership\" as something that resides in a person is to generate a dormitive principle. This would inspire such pseudoexplanations as “He leads because he possesses leadership qualities.”",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2018, Roberto Pereira, Juan Luis Linares, Clinical Interventions in Systemic Couple and Family Therapy, page 215",
          "text": "Prevent disability from becoming a dormitive principle that can, per se, justify any conduct or event in the interaction of the disabled person",
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          "ref": "2018, Michael D. Reiter, Systems Theories for Psychotherapists: From Theory to Practice",
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      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "rhetoric",
      "word": "virtus dormitiva"
    },
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      "code": "la",
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      "sense": "rhetoric",
      "word": "virtus dormitiva"
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      "sense": "rhetoric",
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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-10 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-05-02 using wiktextract (a644e18 and edd475d). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

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