haecceity meaning

Noun: haecceity  hek'seeitee

1. The essence that makes something the kind of thing it is and makes it different from any other
   - quiddity

Derived forms: haecceities

Type of: center [US], centre [Brit, Cdn], core, essence, gist, heart, heart and soul, inwardness, kernel, marrow, meat, nitty-gritty, nub, pith, substance, sum

Encyclopedia: Haecceity

Examples

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1. Later followers of Scotus called this principle haecceity or'thisness '.
2. A haecceity or individual essence is a property that only a single object instantiates.
3. Haecceity thus enabled Scotus to find a middle ground in the debate over universals between Nominalism and Realism.
4. This is at the heart of Scotist realism, particularly at the theories of haecceity and formal distinction.
5. Phenomenology is the field of studying the phenomena as such, and can thus be seen as a contemporary philosophical version of the medieval concept of haecceity.