concept (konsept)

[F. concept = Sp. con cep to Pg. conceito = It. concetto = D. G. con cept = Dan. Sw. koncept, The term concept was in common use among the older philosophical writers in English, though, like many other valuable expre ions of these authors, it has been overlooked by our English lexicographers. Sir W. Hamilton , Logic, iii, For the object of conception, or that which is conceived, the term concept should be used. Sir W. Hamilton , Logic, iii. The understanding is the faculty of thinking, and thinking is knowledge by means of concepts , while concepts , as predicated of po ible judgments, refer to some representation of an object yet undetermined. Kant , Critique of Pure Reason, tr. by Müller (Mac[mill an, 1881), II. 61. Apprehensive concept. See apprehensive. - Higher concept, in logic , a more abstract concept. conceptacle (kon-sep'ta-kl), n. [= F. concep tacle (in sense 2), conceptaculum , pere , pp. conceptus , contain, conceive: see con There can be little doubt that the perfection of art in Greece is to be largely traced to those conceptions of the Faiths of the World , p. 74. was filled. (b) In philos.: (1) The act of conceiving or of forming a concept, or the concept itself; a motion. [Latin conceptio was used in this sense by Boëthius.] The most uncivilised parts of mankind have some way or other climbed up into the conception of a god. Swift , Tale of a Tub, viii. All thought is a comparison, a recognition of similarity or difference; a conjunction or disjunction. of its objects. In Conception , that is, in the forming of concepts (or general notions), it compares, disjoins, or conjoins attributes. Sir W. Hamilton , Logic, i. ject conceived. Conception means both the act of conceiving and the obNow this is a source of great vaguene in our philosophical discu ions. For the act of conceiving, the term Conception should be employed, and that exclusively. Sir W. Hamilton , Logic, iii. Conception we regard equally as an occurrence in consciousne ; and, though we suppose it to take place in the absence of any object at the time affecting the senses, we practically separate in our thoughts the conceived content or object from the conception , and imagine it vaguely as residing elsewhere than in consciousne . T. H. Green, Prolegomena to Ethics, § 58. (2) Improperly, the faculty of reproductive imagination. D. Stuart. (c) Thought, notion, or idea, in a loose sense: as, you have no conception how clever he is. But a religion whose object was the truth was at this time so unknown a thing that a pagan magistrate could have no conception of it but as a new sect of philosophy. War burton , Works, IX. i. 21. A fanciful thought; a conceit. Full of conceptions, points of epigram, and witticisms. Dryden, Ded. of Tr. of Juvenal. 3. The act of becoming pregnant; the begin ceive. Cf. receptacle.] 1. That in which anyning of pregnancy; the inception of the life of thing is contained; a ve el; a receiver or receptacle. Woodward.-2. In bot.: (a) Originally, as used by Linnæus, a follicle-that is, a fruit formed of a single carpel dehiscing by the ventral suture. (b) In lower cryptogams, an IMG:content-0966.png:[blocks in formation] an embryo; hence, figuratively, beginning; origination. I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception . Gen. iii. 16. Shak ., T. of A., i. 2. High living generates a fullne of habit unfavorable to conception. N. A. Rev. , CXXXIX. 421. False conception, in pathol ., conception in which, instead of a well-organized embryo, a mi hapen fleshy ma is formed; a mole. Immaculate conception. See immaculate.-Negative conception, a notion formed only indirectly by means of a negation. Order of the Conception, an order founded in the seventeenth century by some of the nobles of the Holy Roman Empire, and common to Germany and Italy. = Syn. Image, apprehension, sentiment, view. Joy had the like conception in our eyes. conceptional (kon-sep's hon-al), a. [= It. con cezionale, conceptional There is movement in the whole vocabulary of language, from the designation of what is coarser, gro er, more material, to the designation of what is finer, more abstract and conceptional , more formal. Whitney , Life and Growth of Lang., p. 90. conception a list (kon-sep's hon-al-ist), n. [ ist .] Same as conceptualist . conception ist (kon-sep's hon-ist), n. [ concep tion + -ist .] Same as conceptualist . Cole ridge . concepti oust (kon-sep's hus), a. [ Thy fertile and conceptious womb. Shak . , T. of A., iv. 3. concept ism (kon's ep-tizm), n. [ concept + -ism.] In rhet . , the expre ion of general or vague notions; a style of writing in which more may be meant than is directly expre ed; ambiguousne through double meaning. See extract. His [Quevedo's] phrases are of set purpose charged with a double meaning, and we are never sure on reading whether we have taken in all that the author meant to convey. Concept ism is the name that has been given to this refinement of thought, which was doomed in time to fall into the ambiguous and equivocal. Encyc. Brit ., XXII. 360. conceptivæ (kon-sep-tī ́vē), n. pl . See fer iæ . conceptive (kon-sep'tiv), a . [= F. concept if , conceptivus , conceptus , pp. of concipere , conceive: see conceive .] 1. Capable of conceiving mentally. The alleged inconceivablene of a minimum or a limit is not due to an arrest of the conceptive power, but a baffling of it. H. Spencer , Prin. of Psychol. With a conceptive imagination vigorous beyond any in his generation, he [Carlyle] wants altogether the plastic imagination, the shaping faculty. Lowell, Study Windows, p. 126. 2. Capable of conceiving physically. The uterine parts may be reduced into a cоncер tive constitution. Sir T. Browne, Vulg. Err., vii. 7. conceptual (kon-sep'tū-al), a. [= F. concер tuel, NL. * conceptual is, Every conceptual act is so immediately followed as to seem accompanied by a nomenclatory one. Whitney, Life and Growth of Lang., p. 139.