| 释义 |
discursive, a. (n.)|dɪˈskɜːsɪv|
[f. L. discurs- ppl. stem of discurrĕre (see discursion) + -ive.]
1. Running hither and thither; passing irregularly from one locality to another. rare in lit. sense.
1626Bacon Sylva §745 Whatsoeuer moueth Attention.. stilleth the Naturall and discursiue Motion of the Spirits. 1834West Ind. Sketch Bk. II. 240 Misgivings, that Our road..might prove somewhat more discursive. Ibid. 282 The regularity of the streets..prevented the breezes being so discursive as..among the unconnected dwellings.
2. fig. Passing rapidly or irregularly from one subject to another; rambling, digressive; extending over or dealing with a wide range of subjects.
1599Marston Sco. Villanie iii. xi. 231 Boundlesse discursiue apprehension Giving it wings. 1665Hooke Microgr. Pref. G., Men are generally rather taken with the plausible and discursive, then the real and the solid part of Philosophy. 1791Boswell Johnson an. 1774 (1816) II. 296 Such a discursive Exercise of his mind. 1827Carlyle Richter Misc. Ess. 1872 I. 8 The name Novelist..would ill describe so vast and discursive a genius. 1850Tennyson In Mem. cix, Heart-affluence in discursive talk From household fountains never dry. 1867Freeman Norm. Conq. (1876) I. iv. 149 A most vivid, though very discursive and garrulous, history of the time.
3. Passing from premisses to conclusions; proceeding by reasoning or argument; ratiocinative. (Cf. discourse v. 2.) Often opp. to intuitive.
1608D. T. Ess. Pol. & Mor. 117 Ignorance..depriveth Reason of her discursive facultie. a1652J. Smith Sel. Disc. v. 137 We cannot attain to science but by a discursive deduction of one thing from another. 1667Milton P.L. v. 488 Whence the soule Reason receives, and reason is her being, Discursive, or Intuitive; discourse Is oftest yours, the latter most is ours. 1817Coleridge Biog. Lit. I. x. 161 Philosophy has hitherto been discursive: while Geometry is always and essentially intuitive. 1836–7Sir W. Hamilton Metaph. (1877) II. xx. 14 The Elaborative or Discursive Faculty..has only one operation, it only compares. 1874L. Stephen Hours in Library (1892) II. i. 15 Johnson..is always a man of intuitions rather than of discursive intellect.
†B. as n. A subject of ‘discourse’ or reasoning (as distinguished from a subject of perception). Obs. rare.
1677Hale Prim. Orig. Man. iv. viii, 364 Sometimes..the very subjectum discursus is imperceptible to Sense..such are also the discursives of moral good and evil, just, unjust, which are no more perceptible to Sense than Colour is to the Ear. |