dormitive principle
nounEtymology
A modern translation of Latin, virtus dormitiva, coined by Molière in The Imaginary Invalid (1673). In the play, he lampoons a group of physicians providing an explanation in macaronic Latin of the sleep-inducing properties of opium as stemming from its "virtus dormitiva". The currency of this phrase as a critique of scientific claims is due to Gregory Bateson (1976, Steps to an Ecology of Mind p. 5), as is the translation of virtus as 'principle'.
Definitions
A type of tautology in which an item is explained in terms of the item itself, only put…
A type of tautology in which an item is explained in terms of the item itself, only put in different (usually more abstract) words.
- We note Bateson's (1968) dormitive principle at work in which behaviors are described as traits such as LD, which then are used to explain the behavior.
- For Arrow, many socioeconomic phenomena are explained in terms of the "dormitive principle", which, he says, simply repeats the phenomenon being explained.
The neighborhood
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sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA