Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A set of principles for use in scientific or philosophical investigation.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun An organ; an instrument.
  • noun An instrument of thought.
  • noun Hence A code of rules or principles for scientific investigation.
  • noun Also organum.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun 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.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A set of principles that are used in science or philosophy.
  • noun The name given by Aristotle's followers to his six works on logic.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a system of principles for philosophic or scientific investigations; an instrument for acquiring knowledge

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Greek, tool, organ of the body, instrument; see werg- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Ancient Greek ὄργανον (organon).

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word organon.

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

    Giacomo Zabarella Mikkeli, Heikki 2005

  • [717] On the word organon, a tool, as used of the Word of God, cf. Nestorius in Marius Merc.

    NPNF2-08. Basil: Letters and Select Works 1895

  • 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.

    Evolution in Modern Thought Gustav Schwalbe 1880

  • 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 English Utilitarians, Volume I. Leslie Stephen 1868

  • 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.”

    SuperCooperators Martin A. Nowak 2011

  • In his systematic work on logic he pleaded for a unity of logic and metaphysics as found in the Aristotelian organon.

    Leibniz's Influence on 19th Century Logic Peckhaus, Volker 2009

  • 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.

    Saving Prostitutes in Sevilla 2009

  • To use Stumpf's terms, they are the atrium and the organon of all sciences and of philosophy.

    On A Trans-Atlantic Flight 2009

  • 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?

    Voltaire 2007

  • 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.

    John Philoponus Wildberg, Christian 2007

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • 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

    August 21, 2009

  • Organon: Aristotilian logic: A = x or not-x.

    Neo Organon: Francis Bacon: scientific method

    Tertium Organon: Ouspensky: A = x and not-x.

    August 21, 2009