| 释义 |
synthesis|ˈsɪnθɪsɪs|
Pl. syntheses |-siːz|.
[a. L. synthesis collection, set or suit, composition (of a medicament), garment (sense 7), hyperbaton, a. Gr. σύνθεσις composition, logical and mathematical synthesis, f. συντιθέναι (see syntheme). In F. synthèse, It. sintesi, Sp. sintesis, Pg. synthese, synthesis, G. synthese.]
1. Logic, Philos., etc.
a. The action of proceeding in thought from causes to effects, or from laws or principles to their consequences. (Opposed to analysis 8.)
1611Coryat Crudities 432 A Sciographie of sacred Theologie according to the three formes of methode, synthesis, analysis, and definition. 1620[see synthetical 1]. 1656tr. Hobbes' Elem. Philos. (1839) 312 Synthesis is ratiocination from the first causes of the construction, continued through all the middle causes till we come to the thing itself which is constructed or generated. 1702Ralphson Math. Dict. 27 Synthesis or Composition is the Art of searching the Truth or Demonstration, the Possibility or Impossibility of a Proposition, by reasons drawn from Principles, that is by Propositions which demonstrate one another, beginning from the most simple, and so going on to more general and compounded ones,..till at length you arrive to the last Proposition designed, or Conclusion which is the thing to be demonstrated. 1704Newton Optics (1721) 380 The Synthesis consists in assuming the Causes discover'd, and establish'd as Principles, and by them explaining the Phænomena proceeding from them. 1911Case in Encycl. Brit. XVI. 892/1 Deduction is analysis when it is regressive from consequence to real ground... Deduction is synthesis when it is progressive from real ground to consequence. [Cf. Sir W. Hamilton in Edin. Rev. (1833) LVII. 236 note, ‘In one respect,’ says Aristotle, ‘the Genus is called a part of the Species; in another, the Species a part of the Genus.’ (Metaph. L. v. c. 25.) In like manner, the same method, viewed in different relations, may be styled either Analysis or Synthesis. This, however, has not been acknowledged; nor has it even attracted notice, that different logicians and philosophers, though severally applying the terms only in a single sense, are still at cross purposes with each other. One calls Synthesis, what another calls Analysis; and this both in ancient and modern times.] b. In philosophical systems influenced by Hegelian ideas, the final stage of a triadic progression in which an idea is proposed, then negated, and finally transcended by a new idea that resolves the conflict between the first and its negation.
The process is often represented as that of thesis, antithesis, and synthesis, although the terms are not Hegel's. The term is freq. used in relation to the political philosophy of Marx, where this process is seen as exemplified in the history of man's social development (see dialectical materialism s.v. dialectical a. 1 b).
1896J. M. E. McTaggart Stud. in Hegelian Dialectic i. 2 This idea of the synthesis of opposites is perhaps the most characteristic in the whole of Hegel's system. It is certainly one of the most difficult to explain. 1904N. I. Stone tr. Marx's Introd. Critique Pol. Econ. 288 The two systems by mutually modifying each other may result in something new, a synthesis (which partly resulted from the Germanic conquests). In all of these conquests the method of production..determines the nature of the new distribution which comes into play. 1936S. Hook From Hegel to Marx i. 68 A dialectical synthesis is all this and more. Thesis and antithesis are resolved in such a way that..aspects of each are retained or conserved in every new whole or situation; and are reinterpreted or elevated. Ibid., For Marx..the manner of synthesis depends..upon the shifts and realignments of human interests in time. 1958P. Heath tr. Wetter's Dialectical Materialism i. i. 4 This third phase then figures in turn as the first step in a new dialectical process, leading to a new synthesis. 1963F. Copleston Hist. Philos. VII. ix. 177 We have used the word ‘synthesis’ for the moment of identity-in-difference in the dialectical advance. But..the terms ‘thesis’, ‘antithesis’ and ‘synthesis’ are more characteristic of Fichte than of Hegel. 1978P. S. Falla tr. Kolakowski's Main Currents Marxism I. vii. 152 As private property develops it necessarily creates its own antagonist; this negative force is itself dehumanized, and as its dehumanization progresses it becomes the precondition of a synthesis that will abolish the existing opposition together with both its terms.
†2. Gram. A figure by which a sentence is constructed according to the sense, in violation of strict syntax. Obs. (So It. sintesi.)
Two kinds were distinguished, synthesis generis and synthesis numeri.
1612Brinsley Posing of the Parts (1615) 44 b, Names of heathenish Gods, men, flouds, moneths, winds [are masculine]. margin, Albula pota Deo; aqua is vnderstood by Synthesis. 1657J. Smith Myst. Rhet. 197 Synthesis..is a construction made for significations sake, or a speech congruous in sense, not in voyce. 1678Phillips (ed. 4), Synthesis,..a figure of construction, wherein a noun Collective singular [is] joyned to a Verb plural [etc.]. 1704J. Harris Lex. Techn. I.
3. Surg. (See quots.) rare—0.
1706Phillips (ed. Kersey), Synthesis... In Surgery..that Method whereby the divided Parts are re-united, as in Wounds. 1848Dunglison Med. Lex. (ed. 7), Synthesis of continuity means the union of the edges of a wound, or the approximation of the extremities of a fractured bone. Synthesis of contiguity is the reduction of displaced organs; as in cases of hernia and luxations.
4. a. Chem. Formation of a compound by combination of its elements or constituents; esp. applied to artificial production in this way of organic compounds formerly obtained by extraction from natural products. (Opposed to analysis 3.)
1733P. Shaw Chem. Lect. ix. (1755) 179 We have seen that..a true Resolution and Recomposition are practicable; and as Chemistry improves, the Business of Analysis and Synthesis must likewise improve. 1859J. A. Wanklyn in Proc. Roy. Soc. X. 4 On the synthesis of acetic acid. 1869Roscoe Elem. Chem. 299 Alcohol can also be prepared from its elements by synthesis. 1876tr. Schützenberger's Ferment. 6 M. Berthelot..made the first successful attempt to perform organic syntheses. 1880Med. Temp. Jrnl. 62 The protoplasm of those cells whose function lies in chemical synthesis.
b. Physics. Production of white or other compound light by combination of its constituent colours, or of a complex musical sound by combination of its component simple tones. (Cf. analysis 4.)
1869Tyndall Notes Lect. Light §263 In reblending the constituent colours, so as to produce the original, we illustrate, by synthesis, the composition of white light. 1879Prescott Sp. Telephone 51 Helmholtz had not only analyzed the vowel sounds into their constituent musical elements, but had actually performed the synthesis of them.
5. In the philosophy of Kant, the action of the understanding in combining and unifying the isolated data of sensation into a cognizable whole.
1817Coleridge Biog. Lit. xii. (1907) I. 187 The whole synthesis of our intelligence is first formed in and through the self-consciousness. 1819J. Richardson Kant's Logic Introd. 87 That sort of distinctness, which arises, not by the analysis, but by the synthesis of the marks, is synthetic distinctness. Ibid. 88 The making of objects distinct belongs to the synthesis, the making of conceptions distinct, to the analysis. 1839Penny Cycl. XIII. 175/2 Experience proves the possibility of the synthesis of the predicate ‘heavy’, with the subject ‘body’; for these two notions, although neither is contained in the other, are nevertheless parts of a whole, or of experience. 1855Meiklejohn tr. Kant's Crit. Pure Reason 80 But the conception of conjunction includes, besides the conception of the manifold and the synthesis of it, that of the unity of it also.
6. a. In wider philosophical use and gen. The putting together of parts or elements so as to make up a complex whole; the combination of immaterial or abstract things, or of elements into an ideal or abstract whole. (Opposed to analysis 1.) Also, the state of being put so together.
1833Mrs. Browning Prometh. Bound 534, I..devised for them Number, the inducer of philosophies, The synthesis of Letters, and [etc.]. a1836Coleridge in Lit. Rem. (1838) III. 208 The happiest synthesis of the divine, the scholar, and the gentleman was..exhibited in him. 1836–7Sir W. Hamilton Metaph. vi. (1877) I. 100 By synthesis..I view the parts in relation to each other, and finally to the whole..; I reconstruct them. 1842Mrs. Browning Grk. Chr. Poets Poet. Wks. (1904) 640/2 Disclosing from the analysis of the visible things the synthesis or unity of the ideal. 1855Browning Cleon 94 Mankind, made up of all the single men,—In such a synthesis the labour ends. 1855Spencer Princ. Psychol. ii. xxi. 302 To remember that what in the infant is an elaborate synthesis, afterwards becomes an instantaneous..cognition. 1864Bowen Logic i. 20 The synthesis of their common Elements into one Concept. 1887G. T. Ladd Elem. Physiol. Psychol. ii. vi. 388 note, The word ‘synthesis’ for this mental activity is employed and defended by Wundt..who..objects to the word ‘association’. [For preceding context see synthetic a. 5 a.]
b. A body of things put together; a complex whole made up of a number of parts or elements united.
1865Lecky Ration. (1878) I. 168 A system which would unite in one sublime synthesis all the past forms of human belief. 1870J. H. Newman Gram. Assent i. iii. 31 We fancy that we are doing justice to individual men and things by making them a mere synthesis of qualities. 1882Farrar Early Chr. II. 100 The Christian life is the synthesis of these Divine graces.
c. Philol. Synthetic formation or construction.
1869Farrar Fam. Speech ii. (1870) 62 The immense victory which has been achieved by the Aryan race, in adopting inflectional synthesis as the basis of their grammatical structure.
7. Rom. Antiq. A loose flowing robe, white or bright-coloured, worn at meals and festivities.
1606Holland Sueton. 207 He ware a dainty and effeminate pied garment called Synthesis. 1622S. Ward Life of Faith in Death (1627) 109 At feasts great persons were wont to change their guests ordinary clothes with a white Synthesis. 1891Farrar Darkn. & Dawn ix, Nero..was dressed in a loose synthesis—a dress of light green, unconfined by any girdle.
8. Special Comb.: synthesis gas, a gas used as a feedstock in the industrial synthesis of a chemical, esp. a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide.
1941Thorpe's Dict. Appl. Chem. (ed. 4) V. 503/1 Synthesis Gas.—There is required for the synthesis of methanol or the Fischer synthesis of hydrocarbons, a gas in which the ratio of carbon monoxide to hydrogen is 1:2. The ratio of CO/H2 in normal blue water-gas is 1:1·25. 1965M. Sittig Nitrogen in Industry ii. 31 Synthesis gas, as the term is used here, is the gaseous mixture of one part nitrogen and three parts hydrogen used as a feed material for ammonia manufacture. 1972Sci. Amer. Oct. 28/1 Lurgi has built more than 50 units to provide town gas (for domestic use) or synthesis gas (for making gasoline). 1980Prospects for Petrochemicals in W. Europe (Shell Internat. Petroleum Co.) 8 A more speculative, but nonetheless plausible, prospect..would be the development of a petrochemicals industry based on synthesis gas. |