Marginalia
Ⓐ  227 terms

Glossary

Every key term defined across the library — a priori to Übermensch — gathered automatically from the essays, each linked to the page that explains it in full.

A

A priori / a posteriori
Known independently of experience (necessary, universal) / known through experience. — Immanuel Kant
Ādikāvya
"The first poem" — the Rāmāyaṇa's traditional status. — The Rāmāyaṇa
Advaita
"Non-duality" — Brahman alone is real; the self is Brahman. — Ādi Śaṅkara
Agni-parīkṣā
Sītā's ordeal by fire. — The Rāmāyaṇa
Ambiguity
The human condition as both subject and object, free and bodily. — Simone de Beauvoir
Anagnōrisis
Recognition — the poem's chain of recognition scenes. — The Odyssey
Analytic / synthetic
Predicate contained in the subject concept / predicate adds something new. — Immanuel Kant
Anamnēsis
Recollection — the doctrine that learning is remembering what the soul knew before birth. — Plato
Anattā
Not-self — no permanent, independent self in any phenomenon. — Gautama Buddha
Anattā (No-Self)
The Buddha’s teaching that there is no permanent, unchanging self — only a flowing stream of physical and mental processes. — Anattā (No-Self)
Anekāntavāda
The Jain doctrine that reality is many-sided — that every thing has infinite aspects and every statement captures only one, so that truth requires holding many viewpoints together. Expressed in the parable of the blind men and the elephant and formalised in the sevenfold logic of syādvāda. — Anekāntavāda
Anicca
Impermanence. — Gautama Buddha
Antic disposition
Hamlet's feigned madness — "I am but mad north-north-west". — Hamlet
Anxiety
Not fear of something, but dread before freedom and nothingness — for Kierkegaard “the dizziness of freedom”, for Heidegger the mood that reveals the nothing. — Anxiety
Apollonian / Dionysian
The drives of form and individuation vs. intoxication and unity, whose union produced Greek tragedy. — Friedrich Nietzsche
Aporia
Perplexity, impasse; the state in which the early dialogues end. — Plato
Aporia
Perplexity, impasse — the productive state of knowing that one does not know. — Socrates
Aretē
Excellence — in Homer, chiefly prowess in battle and counsel. — Homer
Aristeia
A hero's "finest hour" of triumphant fighting — Diomedes', Patroclus's, Achilles'. — The Iliad
Articles of faith
Revealed truths beyond reason (Trinity, Incarnation). — Thomas Aquinas
Association of ideas
The "gentle force" by which ideas are linked — resemblance, contiguity, cause and effect. — David Hume
Ātman
The Self — the witness-consciousness, identical with Brahman. — Ādi Śaṅkara
Ātman is Brahman
The central Upanishadic insight — the innermost Self of each being is identical with the ultimate reality of the universe. — Ātman is Brahman
Attribute
What the intellect perceives as the essence of substance — we know thought and extension. — Baruch Spinoza
Aufhebung (sublation)
Cancelling, preserving and raising up at once. — Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
Avatāra
The descent of a god — Kṛṣṇa as Viṣṇu. — The Mahābhārata

B

Baciyelmo
Sancho's "basin-helmet" — the emblem of two perspectives at once. — Don Quixote
Bad faith
Self-deception that denies one's freedom or facticity. — Jean-Paul Sartre
Bad Faith
Self-deception about one’s own freedom — pretending to be a thing, determined by role or nature, to escape the anguish of choice. — Bad Faith
Barataria
The "island" Sancho governs — from barato, cheap. — Don Quixote
Being-in-itself / for-itself
The being of things versus the being of consciousness. — Jean-Paul Sartre
Being-in-the-world
Our unified existence as engaged in a world. — Martin Heidegger
Blank verse
Unrhymed iambic pentameter. — John Milton
Blank verse
Unrhymed iambic pentameter — the basic line of Shakespeare's drama. — William Shakespeare
Brahman
The ultimate reality — being, consciousness, bliss. — Ādi Śaṅkara

C

Catalogue of Ships
The list of the Greek forces in Book 2. — The Iliad
Chekhov's gun
Every element in a story must be necessary. — Anton Chekhov
Cide Hamete Benengeli
The fictional Arab historian whose chronicle the narrator "translates". — Don Quixote
Clear and distinct perception
Perception so evident that it compels assent — the criterion of truth. — René Descartes
Cocytus
The frozen lake of the traitors at the bottom of Hell. — The Divine Comedy
Cogito
"I think, therefore I am" — the first certainty. — René Descartes
Cogito, ergo sum
I think, therefore I am — the one certainty Descartes found after doubting everything else. — Cogito, ergo sum
Contrapasso
The principle by which each punishment mirrors its sin. — The Divine Comedy
Copy Principle
Every simple idea is copied from a preceding simple impression. — David Hume
Crystal Palace
The symbol of rationalist utopia that the Underground Man refuses. — Fyodor Dostoevsky

D

Daimonion
Socrates' inner divine sign, which warned him against certain actions. — Socrates
Das Ewig-Weibliche
"The Eternal Feminine" — the principle of love that draws the soul upward. — Faust
Das Man
"The they" — anonymous everyday conformity. — Martin Heidegger
Dasein
"Being-there" — the human being as the entity whose being is an issue for it. — Martin Heidegger
Dasein
Heidegger’s term for the human being — “being-there” — the entity whose own being is an issue for it. — Dasein
Death of God
The collapse of belief in the Christian God and of everything built on it. — Friedrich Nietzsche
Determinate negation
Negation that yields a specific new content rather than empty nothing. — Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
Deus sive Natura
"God, or Nature" — their identity. — Baruch Spinoza
Dharma
Duty, law, righteousness — the order that the epic shows to be subtle and divided. — The Mahābhārata
Dharma
The central idea of Indian civilisation — the order that holds the world together, and the duty, law, virtue and right way of living that each being owes to it. For Buddhists, the Dhamma is also the Buddha’s teaching and the ultimate constituents of reality. — Dharma
Dharmayuddha
"War of dharma" — a righteous war fought by rules. — The Mahābhārata
Dialectic
The movement by which a concept or form of life reveals its inner contradiction and passes into a richer form. — Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
Dialectic
The movement of thought — and for Hegel, of reality — through contradiction toward a richer unity. — Dialectic
Dolce stil novo
"The sweet new style" — the love poetry of Dante's circle. — The Divine Comedy
Dukkha
Suffering, unsatisfactoriness — the first noble truth. — Gautama Buddha
Dunamis / Energeia
Potentiality and actuality — the acorn and the oak. — Aristotle

E

Eidos / Idea
Form — the eternal, unchanging, intelligible reality in which sensible things participate. — Plato
Eirōneia
Irony; feigned ignorance and dissembling praise. — Socrates
Either/Or
The decisive choice that cannot be mediated. — Søren Kierkegaard
Elenchus
Socratic refutation — testing a definition by drawing out its inconsistent consequences. — Plato
Elenchus
Socratic cross-examination that tests a belief by exposing its inconsistencies. — Socrates
Empyrean
The highest heaven, beyond space and time, where God and the blessed dwell. — The Divine Comedy
Essence and existence
What a thing is, and that it is — distinct in creatures, identical in God. — Thomas Aquinas
Eternal Recurrence
Nietzsche’s thought-experiment — would you will to live your life again, every moment, infinitely? The supreme test of affirming life. — Eternal Recurrence
Eudaimonia
Flourishing, living well — Aristotle’s name for the highest human good, activity of the soul in accordance with virtue. — Eudaimonia
Evil demon (malin génie)
A hypothetical omnipotent deceiver — the device that makes doubt universal. — René Descartes
Existence
The concrete, temporal, choosing life of an individual — irreducible to any system. — Søren Kierkegaard
Existence precedes essence
Humans exist first and define themselves through action. — Jean-Paul Sartre
Existence Precedes Essence
Sartre’s formula — humans have no pre-given nature; we exist first and make ourselves through our choices. — Existence Precedes Essence

F

Faustian bargain
Trading one's soul or deepest values for knowledge, power or pleasure. — Faust
Faustian man
Spengler's term for restless, infinitely striving Western humanity. — Faust
Felix culpa
"Happy fault" — the Fall that made redemption possible. — John Milton
First Folio
The 1623 collected edition of 36 plays, compiled by Heminges and Condell. — William Shakespeare
Five Ways
Five arguments from motion, causation, contingency, degrees, governance to a first being. — Thomas Aquinas
Form of life
The shared practices in which language is embedded. — Ludwig Wittgenstein

G

Gāndharva marriage
Marriage by mutual consent. — Kālidāsa
Geist (Spirit)
Reality as self-knowing activity — mind in individuals, cultures and history. — Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
Geist (Spirit)
Hegel’s name for reality as self-knowing mind unfolding through nature, history, culture and philosophy. — Geist (Spirit)
Gretchen tragedy
The seduction and destruction of Margarete in Part One. — Faust
Groundlings
The audience standing in the yard of the Globe. — William Shakespeare

H

Hamartia
Aristotle's "tragic error" — Lear's pride and blindness in the love test. — King Lear
Haymarket (Sennaya)
The squalid market square at the heart of the novel's Petersburg. — Crime and Punishment
Homunculus
The tiny artificial human Wagner creates in a vial. — Faust
Hume's Fork
Every meaningful claim is either a relation of ideas (certain but empty) or a matter of fact (informative but uncertain) — metaphysics is neither. — Hume's Fork
Hylomorphism
The doctrine that physical things are compounds of matter (hylē) and form (morphē). — Aristotle

I

Idea
A fainter copy of an impression, used in thinking and memory. — David Hume
Immanence / transcendence
Repetitive maintenance of life versus creative projection into the future. — Simone de Beauvoir
Impression
A lively perception — sensation, passion, emotion — as it first appears in the mind. — David Hume
In medias res
Beginning a story in the middle. — John Milton
In medias res
Beginning in the middle of the story. — The Odyssey
Indirect communication
Communicating existential truth through pseudonyms and irony so the reader must choose for themselves. — Søren Kierkegaard
Intuition (Anschauung)
Immediate, singular representation of an object — given through sensibility. — Immanuel Kant
Ipsum esse subsistens
"Subsistent being itself" — God, whose essence is to exist. — Thomas Aquinas

J

Jīva
The individual, embodied self. — Ādi Śaṅkara

K

Karma
“Action” — and the law that every intentional action leaves a trace that ripens, in this life or a future one, as happiness or suffering. Shared by Hindus, Buddhists, Jains and Sikhs, karma explains the inequalities of fortune without a judge, and binds the self to the round of rebirth. — Karma
Kāvya
Ornate classical Sanskrit poetry. — Kālidāsa
Kleos
Glory, fame — "what is heard" in song; the hero's only immortality. — Homer
Kleos aphthiton
"Undying glory" — what Achilles chooses over a long life. — The Iliad
Knight-errant
A wandering knight seeking adventures to right wrongs — the ideal of the chivalric romances. — Don Quixote
Kṣatriya
The warrior class, whose dharma is to fight. — The Mahābhārata

L

Lakṣmaṇa rekhā
The line not to be crossed — a boundary of safety. — The Rāmāyaṇa
Language game
Language together with the activities into which it is woven. — Ludwig Wittgenstein
Last Man
The comfortable, mediocre human who wants only security and "happiness". — Friedrich Nietzsche
Lendings
Clothes — and everything else borrowed from society that covers the "thing itself". — King Lear
Lessness
Beckett's art of reduction and subtraction. — Samuel Beckett
Limbo
The first circle, home of virtuous pagans and unbaptized infants. — The Divine Comedy
Louse
Raskolnikov's word for the ordinary person — and, finally, for himself. — Crime and Punishment
Love test
Lear's demand that his daughters measure their love in words — the original sin of the play. — King Lear

M

Mahākāvya
The court epic. — Kālidāsa
Maieutics
The art of midwifery — helping others bring forth their own ideas. — Socrates
Malebolge
"Evil ditches" — the ten trenches of the eighth circle, for the fraudulent. — The Divine Comedy
Man-god / God-man
Kirillov's ideal of man who becomes God by self-will, versus Christ, God who became man. — Fyodor Dostoevsky
Master and Slave Morality
Nietzsche’s genealogy — “good/bad” was the self-affirmation of nobles; “good/evil” was invented by the resentful weak to revenge themselves on the strong. — Master and Slave Morality
Māyā
The power of appearance — in Advaita, the cosmic illusion by which the one Brahman appears as a world of many things. — Māyā
Measure (la mesure)
A sense of limits opposed to revolutionary absolutes. — Albert Camus
Mēnis
Wrath — the divine-scale anger of Achilles, the first word of the Iliad. — Homer
Mēnis
Wrath — the first word and the subject of the poem. — The Iliad
Methexis
Participation — the relation between a particular and its Form. — Plato
Methodical doubt
Doubting everything that can possibly be doubted, in order to find what cannot. — René Descartes
Mētis
Cunning intelligence. — The Odyssey
Mode
A modification of substance — every particular thing. — Baruch Spinoza
Mokṣa
Liberation — release from the cycle of rebirth and from all suffering, the highest goal of human life in the Hindu and Jain traditions (and, as nirvāṇa, in Buddhism). Every Indian school defines it differently, and the arguments over what it is, and how it is won, are the backbone of Indian philosophy. — Mokṣa

N

Natura naturans / naturata
Nature as active cause / nature as the totality of effects. — Baruch Spinoza
Nekyia
The journey to consult the dead (Book 11). — The Odyssey
Nibbāna (nirvāṇa)
"Blowing out" — the cessation of craving and suffering; the unconditioned. — Gautama Buddha
Nihilism
The devaluation of the highest values; the sense that nothing has meaning. — Friedrich Nietzsche
Nirguṇa / saguṇa
Brahman without attributes / with attributes (as personal God, Īśvara). — Ādi Śaṅkara
Nirvāṇa
The Buddhist goal — the “blowing out” of the fires of greed, hatred and delusion, the end of suffering and of rebirth. The Buddha described it as unborn and unconditioned, and refused to say whether the awakened exist after death. — Nirvāṇa
Noontime thought (la pensée de midi)
Mediterranean balance, sun and limits. — Albert Camus
Nostos
Homecoming — the subject of the poem. — The Odyssey
Nothing from Nothing
The ancient principle that nothing comes from nothing — the foundation of Greek physics and the target of the Christian doctrine of creation from nothing. — Nothing from Nothing
Nothingness
What consciousness introduces into being — negation, absence, possibility. — Jean-Paul Sartre

O

Objectivity
The writer as impartial witness, not judge. — Anton Chekhov
Open ending
Stories that end at a moment of unresolved transition. — Anton Chekhov
Ousia (substance)
What is most fundamentally real — in the Categories, the individual; in the Metaphysics, form or essence. — Aristotle

P

Pandæmonium
The capital of Hell — Milton's coinage. — John Milton
Philosophical suicide
Escaping the absurd through a leap of faith. — Albert Camus
Picture theory
Propositions represent facts by sharing their logical form. — Ludwig Wittgenstein
Polyphony
Bakhtin's term for the multiplicity of independent, fully valid voices in Dostoevsky's novels. — Fyodor Dostoevsky
Polytropos
"Of many turns" — the first epithet of Odysseus: versatile, much-travelled, devious. — The Odyssey
Poor Tom
Edgar's disguise as a naked "Bedlam beggar" — the image of "unaccommodated man". — King Lear
Pratītyasamutpāda (Dependent Origination)
The Buddha’s central insight — “when this exists, that comes to be; when this ceases, that ceases.” Nothing exists independently; everything arises from conditions. Applied to suffering, it becomes the twelve-linked chain from ignorance to death. — Pratītyasamutpāda (Dependent Origination)
Preambles of faith
Truths about God that reason can prove (God's existence, unity), which faith presupposes. — Thomas Aquinas
Prestuplenie
"Crime" — literally a stepping-across, a transgression. — Crime and Punishment
Principium individuationis
The principle of individuation — space and time, which make the one Will appear as many individuals. — Arthur Schopenhauer
Purgatory
The Ghost's place of suffering — a Catholic idea in a Protestant England, which some critics see as central. — Hamlet

Q

Quarto
A small single-play edition; some ("bad quartos") contain corrupt texts. — William Shakespeare
Quarto and Folio
The two early texts of the play (1608 and 1623), which differ significantly. — King Lear
Quixotic
Exceedingly idealistic, unrealistic, impractical. — Don Quixote

R

Rāma-rājya
The ideal just kingdom. — The Rāmāyaṇa
Ransom of Hector
Priam's visit to Achilles, the climax of the poem. — The Iliad
Rasa
Aesthetic emotion evoked in the audience. — Kālidāsa
Rasa
The Indian theory of aesthetic experience — the “flavour” or “relish” that art evokes in the audience. Bharata named eight rasas; Abhinavagupta added peace and explained rasa as the self tasting its own consciousness through universalised emotion. — Rasa
Rational Egoism
Chernyshevsky’s doctrine that people always act from self-interest, and that enlightened self-interest will make everyone good. — Rational Egoism
Ready-to-hand / present-at-hand
Equipment in use versus objects observed. — Martin Heidegger
Recognition (Anerkennung)
Mutual acknowledgment of self-consciousnesses as free — the core of social freedom. — Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
Relations of ideas / matters of fact
Hume's Fork — demonstrable truths whose denial is contradictory vs. contingent truths known by experience. — David Hume
Representation (Vorstellung)
The world as it appears to a subject, shaped by space, time and causality. — Arthur Schopenhauer
Res cogitans / res extensa
Thinking substance / extended substance. — René Descartes
Revenge tragedy
The popular Elizabethan genre (Kyd's Spanish Tragedy) that Hamlet inherits and transforms. — Hamlet
Revolt
Living with the absurd without hope or resignation; in the second cycle, the refusal of oppression that affirms shared value. — Albert Camus

S

Saṃsāra
“Wandering” — the beginningless cycle of birth, death and rebirth through which beings pass according to their karma, and from which every major Indian religion seeks release. — Saṃsāra
Saying / showing
What can be stated versus what can only be shown. — Ludwig Wittgenstein
Situation
The concrete conditions within which freedom is exercised, and which can limit it. — Simone de Beauvoir
Śoka / śloka
Grief turned into verse — the origin of poetry. — The Rāmāyaṇa
Soliloquy
A speech by a character alone on stage, revealing their thoughts. — William Shakespeare
Soliloquy
Hamlet's seven great solo speeches — the record of a mind thinking. — Hamlet
Śṛṅgāra
The erotic rasa — love in union and separation (vipralambha). — Kālidāsa
Stages (spheres) of existence
Aesthetic, ethical, religious — possibilities of life separated by leaps. — Søren Kierkegaard
Substance
That which is in itself and conceived through itself — for Spinoza, only God. — Baruch Spinoza
Subtext
The drama beneath what characters actually say. — Anton Chekhov
Śūnyatā (Emptiness)
Emptiness — the Mahāyāna teaching that all things lack intrinsic, independent existence (svabhāva), because they arise in dependence on causes, parts and concepts. Not nothingness, but the openness that makes change and freedom possible. — Śūnyatā (Emptiness)
Svayaṃvara
A bride's choice of husband at a contest. — The Mahābhārata
Synthetic a priori
Judgments that are informative about the world yet knowable independently of experience. Kant’s master question was how they are possible. — Synthetic a priori

T

Taṇhā
Craving, "thirst" — the origin of suffering. — Gautama Buddha
Telemachy
The first four books, following Telemachus's journey. — The Odyssey
Telos
End, purpose, that for the sake of which. — Aristotle
Terza rima
Dante's interlocking rhyme scheme, aba bcb cdc… — The Divine Comedy
The absurd
The confrontation between the human need for meaning and the world's silence. — Albert Camus
The Categorical Imperative
Kant’s supreme principle of morality — act only on maxims you could will as universal laws; treat humanity always as an end, never merely as a means. — The Categorical Imperative
The Copernican Revolution
Kant’s reversal — instead of the mind conforming to objects, objects must conform to the mind’s forms of knowing. — The Copernican Revolution
The Death of God
Nietzsche’s announcement that belief in God has become unbelievable — and that with Him the foundations of Western morality have gone. — The Death of God
The double plot
Lear and his daughters mirrored by Gloucester and his sons. — King Lear
The embassy
Agamemnon's offer of gifts, which Achilles refuses. — The Iliad
The extraordinary man
Raskolnikov's theory that great men may "step over" moral law. — Fyodor Dostoevsky
The extraordinary man
Raskolnikov's theory that great men may step over moral law. — Crime and Punishment
The Fool
The licensed jester who tells the king the truth; vanishes after Act 3. — King Lear
The Forms
Plato’s eternal, perfect, unchanging realities — Beauty itself, Justice itself, the Good — of which the things we see are imperfect copies. — The Forms
The four causes
Material, formal, efficient, final — the four kinds of explanation. — Aristotle
The heath
The bare, storm-swept place where Lear loses everything and finds compassion. — King Lear
The ladder
The Tractatus's own propositions — to be climbed and thrown away. — Ludwig Wittgenstein
The Leap of Faith
Kierkegaard’s claim that faith cannot be reached by reasoning — it is a passionate decision made in the face of the absurd. — The Leap of Faith
The Look
The gaze of the Other, which makes me an object. — Jean-Paul Sartre
The Mousetrap
The play-within-the-play that catches Claudius's conscience. — Hamlet
The Other
The inessential being defined in relation to the Subject — woman's position. — Simone de Beauvoir
The Problem of Induction
No non-circular argument shows that the future will resemble the past — yet all science and daily life depend on it. — The Problem of Induction
The serious man
One who sacrifices freedom to an absolute idol. — Simone de Beauvoir
The Shield of Achilles
Hephaestus's shield, engraved with the whole world of peace and war. — The Iliad
The Thing-in-Itself
Reality as it is independently of how it appears to us — for Kant, thinkable but never knowable. — The Thing-in-Itself
The Übermensch
Nietzsche’s “overman” — the human being who, after the death of God, creates new values and affirms life wholly. — The Übermensch
The wager
Faust's bet with Mephistopheles that no moment will ever satisfy him. — Faust
The Will
Schopenhauer’s name for the thing-in-itself — a blind, aimless, insatiable striving that expresses itself in everything, from gravity to human desire. — The Will
The yellow ticket
The licence of a registered prostitute in tsarist Russia. — Crime and Punishment
Theatre of the Absurd
Martin Esslin's term (1961) for drama portraying the senselessness of the human condition. — Samuel Beckett
Theodicy
Justifying God's goodness in the face of evil. — John Milton
Thrownness
Being delivered into a situation we did not choose. — Martin Heidegger
Tilting at windmills
Attacking imaginary enemies. — Don Quixote
Timē
Honour, publicly measured — prizes, gifts, precedence. — Homer
Tragicomedy
The mixture of despair and clowning. — Samuel Beckett
Transcendental
Concerning the a priori conditions of the possibility of experience. — Immanuel Kant
Transcendental idealism
The doctrine that space, time and the categories are forms of our cognition, so that we know only appearances. — Immanuel Kant
Trichinae dream
The epilogue's vision of a plague of self-certain ideas destroying humanity. — Crime and Punishment
Truth is subjectivity
For existential truths, the "how" of passionate appropriation matters as much as the "what". — Søren Kierkegaard

U

Übermensch
The "overman" who creates values and affirms life after God's death. — Friedrich Nietzsche
Underground
The condition of hyper-conscious, spiteful, isolated modern man. — Fyodor Dostoevsky

V

Veil of Māyā
The illusion of separateness between individuals. — Arthur Schopenhauer

W

Will (Wille)
The thing-in-itself — blind, aimless, insatiable striving, one behind all appearances. — Arthur Schopenhauer
Will to Power
Nietzsche’s idea that the basic drive of all life is not survival but growth, mastery, self-overcoming. — Will to Power
Will-less subject of knowledge
The state of pure aesthetic contemplation. — Arthur Schopenhauer
Wittenberg
Hamlet's university — Luther's, and Faustus's. — Hamlet

X

Xenia
Guest-friendship — the sacred obligations between host and guest. — Homer
Xenia
The sacred bond of guest-friendship. — The Odyssey