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ONTOLOGY (adapted from a modern Latin...

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Originally appearing in Volume V20, Page 118 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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ONTOLOGY (adapted from a See also:modern Latin See also:form ontologia used by See also:Jean le Clerc 1692; Gr. 6v, Evros, pres. See also:part. of See also:dam, to be, and klryos, See also:science)  , the name given to that See also:branch of See also:philosophy which deals specially with the nature of being (ouQta) i.e. reality in the abstract . The See also:idea, denoted in See also:modern philosophy by the See also:term " See also:ontology " in contrast to the broader " See also:metaphysics " and the correlative " See also:epistemology," goes back to such phrases as Evros 6vra, which See also:Plato uses to describe the See also:absolute reality of ideas; Plato, however, uses the term "See also:dialectic " for this particular branch of metaphysics . See also:Aristotle, likewise, holding that the See also:separate sciences have each their own subject See also:matter, postulates a See also:prior See also:science of existence in See also:general which he describes as " first philosophy." So far, therefore, the science of being is distinguished not from that of knowing but from that of the See also:special forms of being: as to the possibility of See also:objective reality there is no question . A new distinction arises in the philosophy of See also:Wolff who first made " ontology " a technical term . Theoretical philosophy (metaphysics) is by him divided into that which deals with being in general whether objective or subjective, as contrasted with the particular entities, the soul, the See also:world and See also:God . The former is ontology . This intermediate See also:stage in the See also:evolution of the science of being gave See also:place to the modern view that the first See also:duty of the philosopher is to consider knowledge itself (see EPISTEMOLOGY), and that only in the See also:light of conclusion as to this See also:primary problem is it possible to consider the nature, of being . The evolution of metaphysics has thus relegated ontology to a secondary place . On the other See also:hand it remains true that the science of knowing is inseparable from, and in a sense identical with that of being . Epistemological conclusions cannot be expressed ultimately without the aid of ontological terms . For the wider relations of ontology, see further PHILOSOPHY .

End of Article: ONTOLOGY (adapted from a modern Latin form ontologia used by Jean le Clerc 1692; Gr. 6v, Evros, pres. part. of dam, to be, and klryos, science)
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