See dormitive principle in All languages combined, or Wiktionary
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"etymology_text": "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'.",
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"ref": "1988, Doreen Kronick, New Approaches to Learning Disabilities: Cognitive, Metacognitive, and Holistic:",
"text": "We note Bateson's (1968) dormitive principle at work in which behaviors are described as traits such as LD, which then are used to explain the behavior.",
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"ref": "2000, “Rational Choice and Rationallity”, in The Paradox of Social Order: Linking Psychology and Sociology, page 14:",
"text": "For Arrow, many socioeconomic phenomena are explained in terms of the \"dormitive principle\", which, he says, simply repeats the phenomenon being explained.",
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"ref": "2002, Bradford Keeney, Aesthetics of Change, The Guilford Press,, →ISBN, page 33:",
"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": "quote"
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"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:",
"text": "To say that \"he only uses drugs because he is the black sheep” is to mix up these logical types, also called invoking the dormitive principle.",
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"word": "virtus dormitiva"
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"text": "For Arrow, many socioeconomic phenomena are explained in terms of the \"dormitive principle\", which, he says, simply repeats the phenomenon being explained.",
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"ref": "2002, Bradford Keeney, Aesthetics of Change, The Guilford Press,, →ISBN, page 33:",
"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.”",
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"ref": "2018, Roberto Pereira, Juan Luis Linares, Clinical Interventions in Systemic Couple and Family Therapy, page 215:",
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"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "rhetoric",
"word": "virtus dormitiva"
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"code": "la",
"lang": "Latin",
"sense": "rhetoric",
"word": "virtus dormitiva"
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"word": "princípio dormitivo"
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"roman": "snotvórnyj príncip",
"sense": "rhetoric",
"tags": [
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"word": "снотво́рный при́нцип"
}
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"word": "dormitive principle"
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Download raw JSONL data for dormitive principle meaning in English (5.0kB)
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-01-10 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-01-01 using wiktextract (df33d17 and 4ed51a5). 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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