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''Haecceity'' (; from the Latin ''haecceitas'', which translates as "thisness") is a term from medieval scholastic philosophy, first coined by Duns Scotus, which denotes the discrete qualities, properties or characteristics of a thing which make it a ''particular'' thing. Haecceity is a person or object's "thisness", the individualising difference between the concept 'a man' and the concept 'Socrates' (a specific person).〔W. H. Gardner, ''Gerald Manley Hopkins'' (1975), p. xxiii〕 Haecceity is a literal translation of the equivalent term in Aristotle's Greek ''to ti esti'' (τὸ τί ἐστι)〔Aristotle, ''Metaphysics'', 1030a〕 or "the what (it) is." Charles Sanders Peirce later used the term as a non-descriptive reference to an individual.〔M. A. Bertman, ''Humanities Insights'' (2007), p. 39〕 ==Haecceity and quiddity== Haecceity may be defined in some dictionaries as simply the "essence" of a thing, or as a simple synonym for quiddity or hypokeimenon. However, such a definition deprives the term of its subtle distinctiveness and utility. Whereas haecceity refers to aspects of a thing which make it a ''particular'' thing, quiddity refers to the universal qualities of a thing, its "whatness", or the aspects of a thing which it may share with other things and by which it may form part of a genus of things.〔Peter Hicks, ''The Journey So Far'' (2003), p. 218〕 Duns Scotus makes the following distinction: While terms such as haecceity, quiddity, noumenon and hypokeimenon all evoke the essence of a thing, they each have subtle differences and refer to different aspects of the thing's essence. Haecceity thus enabled Scotus to find a middle ground in the debate over universals between Nominalism and Realism.〔Hicks, p. 218〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Haecceity」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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