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University of Virginia Library

Dictionary of the History of Ideas

Studies of Selected Pivotal Ideas

Preface to the Electronic Edition

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EDITORIAL BOARD

MANAGING EDITORS

CONSULTING EDITORS

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I. The history of ideas about the external order of nature studied by the physical and biological sciences, ideas also present in common usage, imaginative literature, myths about nature, metaphysical speculation.

II. The history of ideas about human nature in anthropology, psychology, religion, and philosophy as well as in literature and common sense.

III. The history of ideas in literature and the arts in aesthetic theory and literary criticism.

IV. The history of ideas about or attitudes to history, historiography, and historical criticism.

V. The historical development of economic, legal, and political ideas and institutions, ideologies, and movements.

VI. The history of religious and philosophical ideas.

VII. The history of formal mathematical, logical, linguistic, and methodological ideas.

LIST OF ARTICLES

LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS

NOTE TO THE READER

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VI.

ABSTRACTION IN THE FORMATION OF CONCEPTS

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V.

ACADEMIC FREEDOM

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VI.

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I.

ALCHEMY IN ANTIQUITY

ISLAMIC ALCHEMY

THE EARLY LATIN ALCHEMY OF THE WEST

RENAISSANCE ALCHEMY AND THE “NEW SCIENCE”

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VI.

ALIENATION IN CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY

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V.

ALIENATION IN HEGELAND MARX

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III.

ALLEGORY INLITERARY HISTORY

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III.

AMBIGUITY ASAESTHETIC PRINCIPLE

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VI.

ANALOGY INEARLY GREEK THOUGHT

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VI.

ANALOGY IN PATRISTICAND MEDIEVAL THOUGHT

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V.

ANALOGY OF THEBODY POLITIC

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V.

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III.

ANCIENTS AND MODERNS INTHE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

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VII.

ANTHROPOMORPHISMIN SCIENCE

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VI.

ANTINOMY OF PURE REASON

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VI.

APPEARANCE AND REALITY

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III.

III. THE THEORY LAPSES

VI. RECENT AND CURRENT VIEWS

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III.

ART FOR ART'S SAKE

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II.

ASSOCIATION OF IDEAS

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I.

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I.

ATOMISM: ANTIQUITY TO THESEVENTEENTH CENTURY

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I.

ATOMISM IN THESEVENTEENTH CENTURY

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V.

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VII.

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VI.

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V.

BALANCE OF POWER

I. THE ANCIENT WORLD

II. THE RENAISSANCE

III. THE ASSEMBLY OF THE CONSTITUENT IDEAS

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IV. THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

1. The Eighteenth-Century Theory of International Politics.

2. The Operation of the Balance.

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III.

BAROQUE IN LITERATURE

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III.

THEORIES OF BEAUTY TOTHE MID-NINETEENTH CENTURY

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I. THE FUNDAMENTAL POSITIONS

1. The Objective Existence of Beauty.

2. The Objective Conception of Beauty in Artistic Representation.

3. Other Instances of the Objective Conception of Beauty.

4. The Subjective Approach to Beauty.

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II. MODES OF PERCEPTION AND RESPONSE

1. Metaphysical Foundation.

2. Immediate Perception.

3. The Process of Knowledge.

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III.

THEORIES OF BEAUTY SINCETHE MID-NINETEENTH CENTURY

I. BEAUTY IN DECLINE

II. CONCEPTS OF BEAUTY

III. STUDIES OF BEAUTY

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II.

I. THE INTELLECTUAL ANCESTRY OF BEHAVIORISM

II. THE IMMEDIATE ORIGINS OF WATSON'S BEHAVIORISM

III. THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF BEHAVIORISM

IV. SUMMARY AND EVALUATION

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I.

BIOLOGICAL CONCEPTIONSIN ANTIQUITY

I. THE FOUR ELEMENTS

V. CLASSIFICATION

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I.

BIOLOGICAL HOMOLOGIESAND ANALOGIES

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I.

BIOLOGICAL MODELS

WHAT IS A MODEL?

FUNCTIONS OF MODELS

DETERMINISTIC AND STOCHASTIC MODELS

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VI.

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VII.

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III.

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VII.

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VII.

CAUSATION IN HISTORY

I. SUBSTANTIVE THEORIES

II. ANALYTICAL APPROACHES

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VII.

CAUSATION INISLAMIC THOUGHT

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V.

CAUSATION IN LAW

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VI.

CAUSATION IN THESEVENTEENTH CENTURY

I. PRE-NEWTONIAN PHILOSOPHERS IN ENGLAND

II. DESCARTES AND HIS SUCCESSORS

III. NEWTON AND LEIBNIZ

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VI.

CAUSATION IN THESEVENTEENTH CENTURY, FINAL CAUSES

1. THE CRITICS OF FINAL CAUSES

II. DEFENDERS OF FINAL CAUSES

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VI.

CERTAINTY IN SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY THOUGHT

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VI.

CERTAINTY SINCE THESEVENTEENTH CENTURY

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VI.

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VII.

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III.

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IV.

CHINA IN WESTERN THOUGHTAND CULTURE

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VI.

CHRISTIANITY IN HISTORY

I. THE EARLY CHURCH

II. THE MIDDLE AGES

III. THE REFORMATION AND COUNTER-REFORMATION

IV. THE MODERN WORLD

V. THE ORTHODOX CHURCH

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VI.

CHURCH AS ANINSTITUTION

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VI.

MODERNISM IN THECHRISTIAN CHURCH

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V.

I. ANCIENT CITIES

II. MEDIEVAL “ORGANIC” TOWN

III. RENAISSANCE IDEAS OF THE CITY

IV. MODERN CITY PLANNING

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V.

CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE

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V.

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III.

CLASSICISM IN LITERATURE

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III.

CLASSIFICATION OF THE ARTS

II. THE MIDDLE AGES

III. THE RENAISSANCE

IV. MODERN TIMES

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VII.

CLASSIFICATION OFTHE SCIENCES

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III.

SENSE OF THE COMIC

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I.

CONSERVATION OFNATURAL RESOURCES

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V.

I. INTRODUCTION

II. NONIDEOLOGICAL CONSERVATISM

III. CONSERVATISM AS A POLITICAL IDEA AND IDEOLOGY

IV. VARIOUS TYPES OF CONSERVATIVE THOUGHT

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V.

CONSTITUTIONALISM

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VII.

CONTINUITY ANDDISCONTINUITY IN NATURE AND KNOWLEDGE

I. INTRODUCTION

II. PHYSICAL SCIENCE

III. ATOMISM AND DISCONTINUITY IN THEOLOGY

IV. MATHEMATICS

V. GEOLOGY AND BIOLOGY

VII. HISTORIOGRAPHY

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VI.

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I.

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I.

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I.

COSMOLOGY FROMANTIQUITY TO 1850

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I.

COSMOLOGY SINCE 1850

I. INTRODUCTION

II. DISCREPANCIES IN THE NEWTONIAN UNIVERSE

III. CONTRADICTIONS IN THE NEWTONIAN COSMOLOGY

IV. COSMOLOGY AND THE THEORY OF RELATIVITY

V. THE EINSTEIN STATIC UNIVERSE

VI. THE DE SITTER EMPTY EXPANDING UNIVERSE

VII. THE NONSTATIC MODELS OF A NONEMPTY UNIVERSE

VIII. MODEL UNIVERSES WITH THE COSMICAL CONSTANT EQUAL TO ZERO

IX. MODELS OF THE UNIVERSE WITH THE COSMICAL CONSTANT DIFFERENT FROM ZERO

X. THE STEADY-STATE THEORY AND OTHER COSMOLOGIES

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VI.

CREATION IN RELIGION

1. THE RATIONALE OF CREATIO EX NIHILO

II. PERSISTENT CREATIONIST ISSUES

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III.

CREATIVITY IN ART

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IV.

CRISIS IN HISTORY

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III.

LITERARY CRITICISM

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IV.

CULTURAL DEVELOPMENTIN ANTIQUITY

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IV.

CULTURE AND CIVILIZATIONIN MODERN TIMES

SPECULATIONS ON CULTURE AND CIVILIZATION

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IV.

I. COSMIC CYCLES

II. CYCLES IN HUMAN AFFAIRS

III. TWENTIETH-CENTURY DEVELOPMENTS

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VI.

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VI.

DEATH AND IMMORTALITY

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I. IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL

II. RESURRECTION

III. REINCARNATION

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VI.

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V.

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III.

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VI.

DESIGN ARGUMENT

I. ANCIENT ORIGINS OF THE ARGUMENT

II. THE MEDIEVAL “SYNTHESIS”

III. MODERN DEVELOPMENTS OF THE ARGUMENT

IV. THE ARGUMENT SINCE DARWIN

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The cyclical Theory of History is a doctrine that all
events occur in cycles that are more or less alike. It
has two main forms, one that posits cosmic cycles and
one that posits cycles only in human affairs. Though
the second of these concepts is logically independent
of the first, it is sometimes found in company with it.
One must also distinguish those thinkers, like Plato and
Aristotle, who believed in periodic cataclysms and
beginnings, from those, like the Stoics, who believed
in the return of identical events. The doctrine in some
of its forms is found in ancient India, in Babylonia,
and in Greece.