noun
definition
An assumption made beforehand; a preliminary conjecture or speculation.
definition
The act of presupposing.
definition
An assumption or belief implicit in an utterance or other use of language.
Examples of presupposition in a Sentence
Nor need this be wondered at if we consider that the unity of the human mind with the divine is its underlying presupposition.
In spite of some waverings towards what has lately been called " conditional immortality " (see Apologetics) the doctrine of " natural immortality " championed by Augustine became dominant in the church; an instalment of what was afterwards to be called Natural Theology; and a postulate or presupposition to-day - like free will - in Roman Catholic apologetics.
The systematic theosophy of Plotinus and his successors does not belong to the present article, except so far as it is the presupposition of their mysticism; but, inasmuch as the mysticism of the medieval Church is directly derived from Neoplatonism through the speculations of the pseudo-Dionysius, Neoplatonic mysticism fills an important section in any historical review of the subject.
It presents itself historically as an intellectual revolt against the difficulties involved in the presupposition of theistic and polytheistic systems, and in philosophy as an attempt to solve the dualism of the one and the many, unity and difference, thought and extension.
The idea of a perfect harmony of thinking and being is a presupposition that underlies all knowing but cannot itself be realized in knowledge.
That the deists appreciated fully the scope of difficulties in Christian theology and the sacred books is not their most noteworthy feature; but that they made a stand, sometimes cautiously, often with outspoken fearlessness, against the presupposition that the Bible is the religion of Protestants.
The great attainment of the Old Testament, ethical monotheism, had become the common property of the nation; it occurs in Christianity as a simple presupposition.
The doctrine of Atonement, destined to be the focus of Protestant evangelicalism, has remained undefined in Catholic circles,' an implicate or presupposition, but no part of the explicit and authorized creeds.
The distinguishing characteristic of scholasticism is the acceptance by reason of a given matter, the truth of which is independent of rational grounds, and which remains a presupposition even when it cannot be understood.
The general presupposition involved is that a man cannot be saved except within the Catholic Church.
Accordingly the history of philosophy is the presupposition of logic, or the three branches of philosophy form a circle.
The sense in which the presupposition of a further reference is to be interpreted and in which justificatory notions for it can be adduced is only determinable in a philosophic system as a whole, where feeling has a place as well as thought, value equally with validity.
Nevertheless the latter continues because of its presence in the primary sources, but it is no longer a determining factor, since its presupposition - the Messianic kingdom on earth - has been obscured.
This explanation was the more urgent because under the influence of Jewish monotheism the rule of God was accepted as an undoubted presupposition, so that the death of Jesus must be in accordance with his will.
Now the second presupposition depends, according to Paley, on the credibility of the Christian religion (which he treats almost exclusively as the revelation of these "new sanctions" of morality).
This position is assumed throughout the treatise, and as against the deists with justice, for their whole argument rested upon the presupposition of the existence of God, the perfect Ruler of the world.
Before there was heaven or earth, there was primitive substance or Pneuma, the everlasting presupposition of particular things.
They themselves gave way to another presupposition equally fatal to true historical research, though in great measure common to them and their opponents.