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Definition: Alexander, Samuel from The Columbia Encyclopedia

1859–1938, British philosopher, b. Australia. From 1893 to 1924 he was professor of philosophy at Victoria Univ., Manchester. Strongly influenced by the theory of evolution, Alexander conceived of the world as a single cosmic process in which higher forms of being emerge periodically. The basic principle of this process is space-time, and the result is God. His works include Space, Time, and Deity (1920), Spinoza and Time (1921), Art and the Material (1925), and Beauty and Other Forms of Value (1933).

  • See studies by S. R. Dasgupta (1965) and M. Weinstein (1984).

Alexander, Samuel (1859-1933)

From Encyclopedia of Time: Science, Philosophy, Theology, & Culture
Influenced by the Darwinian movement of the late 19th century, the philosopher Samuel Alexander developed a dynamic worldview that focused on time and emergence. He presented a comprehensive metaphysical system in his major work Space, Time, and Deity (1920). Alexander distinguished between spacetime or motion as the infinite whole of this universe and those finite units of spacetime or motion that fill the endless cosmos. As such, evolving reality is a complex continuum of interrelated events grounded in the psychic point-instants of spatiotemporal motions. Alexander maintained that the dynamic universe manifests an innate creative trend that generates new emergent qualities throughout cosmic time. The resultant hierarchy of empirical levels consists of motion, matter, life, mind, and a future deity. Consequently, through time and evolution, the existence of each higher level emerges from the preceding level of reality (from the metaphysical perspective, it was time that generated…
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Full text Article Alexander, Samuel (1859-1938)

From Encyclopedia of Philosophers on Religion
In accordance with the Jewish tradition of the family into which he was born, Alexander experienced bar mitzvah at the age of thirteen. After receiving a broad education in the Classics, Mathematics, Science, and Foreign Languages at Wesley College in Melbourne, he went to England and won a…
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Full text Article Alexander, Samuel

From Chambers Biographical Dictionary
1859-1938 Australian philosopher Born of Jewish parents in Sydney, he moved to England and studied at Balliol College, Oxford (1877). He was made a Fellow of Lincoln College, Oxford, where he was tutor in philosophy until 1893, when he was appointed professor of philosophy at Manchester University. …
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Full text Article Alexander Samuel (1859–1938),

From Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy
Australian-born British philosopher. He was educated at Balliol College, Oxford, and taught for most of his career at the University of Manchester. His aim, most fully realized in Space, Time, and Deity (1920), was to provide a realistic account of the place of mind in nature. He described nature as…
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Full text Article INDIVIDUALITY

From Gaither's Dictionary of Scientific Quotations
Australian-born British philosopher Individuality is a pervasive character of things, but so also it would seem that there is nothing individual which has not in it a character recognisable by thought, and known as a universal. Space, Time, and Deity: The Gifford Lectures at Glasgow, 1916-1918…
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Full text Article Emergence

From Philosophy of Science A-Z
The process by which novel properties of systems (or complexes) arise. It is supposed to characterise the relationship between a whole and its parts: the whole has novel properties vis-à-vis its parts and the laws that govern their interactions. This idea of novel properties is explained in various…
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Full text Article PHILOSOPHY

From Gaither's Dictionary of Scientific Quotations
Australian-born British philosopher The more comprehensive a science becomes the closer it comes to philosophy, so that it may become difficult to say where the science leaves off and philosophy begins. Space, Time, and Deity: The Gifford Lectures at Glasgow, 1916-1918 (Volume 1 ) Introduction (p. 2…
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Full text Article CAUSATION

From The Essentials of Philosophy and Ethics
When DEMOCRITUS (460–370 BCE) said that he would rather discover one true cause than gain the kingdom of Persia, he signalled both the difficulty and the value of gaining causal knowledge. It is arguably the acquisition of causal knowledge that is the primary goal of scientific enquiry; and within…
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Full text Article TIME, THEORIES OF

From Elsevier's Dictionary of Psychological Theories
To the psychologist, the concept of time refers to a dimension of consciousness by which one gives order to experiences. However, to the physicist, time is one of the three basic quantities (the other two are distance and mass ) by which the universe is described in physical terms; and, to the…
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Full text Article Alexander, Samuel

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
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Full text Article TIME

From Gaither's Dictionary of Scientific Quotations
English instrument maker Nothing can be more shocking to reason than eternal time; infinite divisibility is not less absurd. Lectures on Natural and Experimental Philosophy (Volume 3 ) Chapter XXIV (p. 12 ) Printed by R. Hindmarsh. London England . 1794. ... …
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