Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A set of principles for use in scientific or philosophical investigation.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. An organ; an instrument.
- n. An instrument of thought. Originally applied to the logical theory of demonstration, and then by the Peripatetics to the whole of logic, especially to the topics of Aristotle or the rules for probable reasoning, as being only an instrument or aid to philosophy, and not meriting the higher place of a part of philosophy claimed for it by the Stoics and most of the Academics; thence given as a title to the logical treatises of Aristotle.
- n. Hence A code of rules or principles for scientific investigation. Bacon's work on this subject was called by him the “Novum Organum.” Kant uses the term to denote the particular rules for acquiring the knowledge of a given class of objects.
- n. Also organum.
Wiktionary
- n. A set of principles that are used in science or philosophy.
- n. The name given by Aristotle's followers to his six works on logic.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. An organ or instrument; hence, a method by which philosophical or scientific investigation may be conducted; -- a term adopted from the Aristotelian writers by Lord Bacon, as the title (“Novum
Organon ”) of part of his treatise on philosophical method.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a system of principles for philosophic or scientific investigations; an instrument for acquiring knowledge
Etymologies
- From Ancient Greek ὄργανον (organon). (Wiktionary)
- Greek, tool, organ of the body, instrument; see werg- in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“He defines logic as being neither a science nor an art, but, in keeping with the traditional meaning of the word organon, just an instrument”
“[717] On the word organon, a tool, as used of the Word of God, cf. Nestorius in Marius Merc.”
“Knowledge is here considered from the practical point of view, as a weapon in the struggle for life, as an "organon" which has been continuously in use for generations.”
“Beyond the general principle of utility, therefore, we have to consider the 'organon' constructed by him to give effect to a general principle too vague to be applied in detail.”
“The term (Latin super = above; Greek organon = tool) was coined in 1911 by the great American ant expert and biologist William Morton Wheeler (1865–1937) in an essay titled “The Ant-Colony as an Organism” and is defined as “a collection of single creatures that together possess the functional organization implicit in the formal definition of organism.””
“Rather, he appears to have seen it as an organon for the acquisition of knowledge from unquestionable first principles; in addition he wanted to use it in order to help make clear the epistemic foundations on which our knowledge rests.”
“To use Stumpf's terms, they are the atrium and the organon of all sciences and of philosophy.”
“In his systematic work on logic he pleaded for a unity of logic and metaphysics as found in the Aristotelian organon.”
“Is it not that this is the master organon for giving men the two precious qualities of breadth of interest and balance of judgment; multiplicity of sympathies and steadiness of sight?”
“Most Neoplatonists followed Alexander of Aphrodisias in regarding logic not as a separate philosophical discipline (the Stoic view) but rather as philosophy's tool, its organon.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘organon’.
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phrontistery - o
from phrontistery.info
oakum, oakus, oast, obambulate, obdormition, obduracy, obedible, obedientiary, obeism, obeliscolychny, obelize, obelus and 504 more...
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Logolepsy
"Luciferous Logolepsy is a collection of over 9,000 obscure English words. Though the definition of an 'English' word might seem to be straightforward, it is not. There exist so many adopted, deriv...
Anschauung, Areopagus, Argus, Briarean, Dei gratia, Dei judicium, Deo volente, Duecento, Foehn, Geflugelte Worte, Gegenschein, Hakenkreuz and 9230 more...
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Specifically
Being a list of words which have "specifically" in their definitions.
recompose, specifically, Dutch, abstinence, discipline, virtue, namely, opening, century, amalgamation, cup, second and 303 more...
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Words with two Os in them
theriomorphic, zoo, oberon, pool, tool, fool, cool, school, occlusion, operation, opioid, solenoid and 24 more...
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learning
A list of words whose meanings I am learning, either because a) I don't know the meaning b) I know the meaning, but could stand to better appreciate certain inflections or secondary meanings or c) ...
louche, educe, loam, cob, sclerotic, palliate, axial, syndicalist, ecumenical, sally, fatuous, parvenu and 1381 more...
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To Learn
paratonnerre, apophenia, aposiopesis, compline, rebarbatiive, comity, averruncate, apodictic, apophasis, farouche, accismus, abligurition and 157 more...
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gorgonglare's list
the best
zeppelin, ion, laconic, serendipity, cataract, saturnine, syzygy, cinnabar, bistro, lithium, paroxysm, scion and 694 more...
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Critical and Philosophical Terms
haecceity, aleatory, ontology, teratology, aporia, elective affinities, scholia, peroration, catachresis, architectonic, deixis, diegesis and 106 more...
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ruzuzu's taxonomy
limit cycle, gyre, oscillation, meander, general adaptatio..., barchan dune, soliton, guilloche, obverse, involute, damaskeening, superposition and 62 more...
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working words
erg, ergative, ergometer, energy, ergonomics, exergue, synergism, synergid, liturgy, exoergic, exergonic, urge and 30 more...
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Oakpangle's Words
fasten, plod, joke, spin, lathe, rot, extra, fowler, empirical, façon de parler, hermitage, rhetoric and 2 more...
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didascalica
from Ivan Illich's In the Vineyard of the Text - a commentary on the transition from a oral tradition to a text tradition of reading in the 12th century, and varied other discourses of Illich on a...
incipit, paideia, auctoritas, Varro, ecloga, studium, schriftlichkeitsg..., remedium, eigenlicht, sendelicht, zeigelicht, beleuchtungslicht and 59 more...
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Seedy's Words
dustyfoot, o-dark-thirty, architrave crown, limbeck, galoot, feckless, smock, snood, sleck, noceur, rake, libertine and 33 more...
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perhapsolutely's Words
polyradiculoneuro..., abulia, abubble, abscission, abaft, zareba, abatis, abigail, abiogenesis, ablate, ablaut, abo and 1705 more...
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Inteloquent
Useful or stunning intelligence and concepts in regards to logic, order, books, cleverness, planning, and academia.
indexical, corrigenda, operationalization, acumen, chaordic, stratagem, casuist, deliberative, acuity, deus ex machina, reconnoiter, mythographer and 72 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for organon.

oroboros Organon: Aristotilian logic: A = x or not-x.
Neo Organon: Francis Bacon: scientific method
Tertium Organon: Ouspensky: A = x and not-x. Aug 21, 2009
mutandis26 The Organon is the name given by Aristotle's followers, the Peripatetics, to the standard collection of his six works on logic. The works are Categories, On Interpretation, Prior Analytics, Posterior Analytics, Topics and Sophistical Refutations. - Organon on Wikipedia Aug 21, 2009