Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- transitive verb To ascribe material existence to.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To attribute substantial existence to; make into or regard as a distinct individual substance or reality.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- transitive verb To make into, or regarded as, a separate and distinct substance.
- transitive verb To attribute actual or personal existence to.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb transitive To make into, or regarded as, a separate and distinct substance; to construct a contextually-
subjective and complex abstraction,idea , or concept into auniversal objectwithout regard to nuance or change in character. - verb transitive To
attribute actual orpersonal existence to.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb construe as a real existence, of a conceptual entity
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
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Examples
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As in the other disciplines of metaphysics, Kant suggests that we are motivated (perhaps even constrained) to represent the idea as a real object, to hypostatize it, in accordance the demand for the unconditioned:
Kant's Critique of Metaphysics Grier, Michelle 2007
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Ernst Bloch, who also rejects the Christian tendency to hypostatize the future into an already existing God.
FAITH, HOPE, AND CHARITY MARY DALY 1968
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Recourse has also been made to vague principles which hypostatize the problem and call it a solution, e.g.,
ASSOCIATION OF IDEAS ROBERT M. YOUNG 1968
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When we hypostatize our hopes and wishes and treat them as matters of fact, even though they cannot be proved to be either true or false, they assume a form which Sorel describes as myth.
Introduction to the Science of Sociology Robert Ezra Park 1926
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They hypostatize and deify an abstraction as though it were itself existent and divine.
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 5: Diocese-Fathers of Mercy 1840-1916 1913
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The Reformation ran the same course as in England earlier; one is almost tempted to hypostatize it and say that it took the bit between its teeth and ran away with its riders.
The Age of the Reformation Preserved Smith 1910
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If we apply it also to qualities of things, we hypostatize the abstract quality.
A History of Mediaeval Jewish Philosophy Isaac Husik 1907
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But the temptation must have been great for the philosopher to hypostatize this hope, or rather this impetus, of the new science, and to convert a general rule of method into a fundamental law of things.
Evolution créatrice. English Henri Bergson 1900
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We proceed afterwards to hypostatize this idea of the sum-total of all reality, by changing the distributive unity of the empirical exercise of the understanding into the collective unity of an empirical whole -- a dialectical illusion, and by cogitating this whole or sum of experience as an individual thing, containing in itself all empirical reality.
The Critique of Pure Reason Immanuel Kant 1764
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Together we hypostatize the divine presence, not to be maligned by Jackanapes Marprelate orthographers!!!
Pioneers of Alienation and 50s Sci-Fi at Thing Street Asylum 8
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