Definitions

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

  • adjective Providing introductory instruction.
  • noun Preparatory instruction.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Pertaining to propædeutics, or the introduction to any art or science; relating to preliminary instruction: instructing beforehand.
  • noun A branch of knowledge introductory to a particular art or science; a subject to be mastered as a preliminary to some other subject.

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

  • adjective Of, pertaining to, or conveying, preliminary instruction; introductory to any art or science; instructing beforehand.

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

  • adjective Providing preparatory or introductory teaching.
  • noun Such a course of instruction.

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

  • noun a course that provides an introduction to an art or science (or to more advanced study generally)
  • adjective preceding and preparing for something

Etymologies

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

[From Greek propaideuein, to teach beforehand : pro-, before; see pro– + paideuein, to teach (from pais, paid-, child; see pedo–).]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Ancient Greek προπαιδεύω (propaideuō, "to give preparatory instruction"), from πρό (pro, "before") + παιδεύω (paideuō, "to teach").

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Examples

  • Descartes 'famous rules are per - haps best described as propaedeutic, or even as prophylactic, injunctions.

    Dictionary of the History of Ideas HENRY GUERLAC 1968

  • The philosophy of pure reason is either propaedeutic, that is, an inquiry into the powers of reason in regard to pure a priori cognition, and is termed critical philosophy; or it is, secondly, the system of pure reason -- a science containing the systematic presentation of the whole body of philosophical knowledge, true as well as illusory, given by pure reason -- and is called metaphysic.

    The Critique of Pure Reason Immanuel Kant 1764

  • I suggest not only because it has become a living language, but because it has great propaedeutic values as well.

    Web Translations » Blog Archive » Language learning: how much is too much? 2008

  • There is nothing better than mathematics as propaedeutic for literary criticism.

    The Concept of the Aesthetic Shelley, James 2009

  • From Magical to Analogical Thinking: The System of Corrospondences Though Shankara's path of jnana yoga ultimately rejects the idea that the self has dimensions or a location, it does recognize the propaedeutic and metaphoric role such conceptions play within the Vedanta system of meditation-devotion upasana.

    Archive 2009-02-01 Tusar N Mohapatra 2009

  • A deliberation is a weighing-up, as a propaedeutic to action.

    Søren Kierkegaard McDonald, William 2009

  • From Magical to Analogical Thinking: The System of Corrospondences Though Shankara's path of jnana yoga ultimately rejects the idea that the self has dimensions or a location, it does recognize the propaedeutic and metaphoric role such conceptions play within the Vedanta system of meditation-devotion upasana.

    The most eloquent spiritual personality of all time Tusar N Mohapatra 2009

  • In fact, by adopting this starting point in Sehdinge, Hering would have recognized the methodological primacy of phenomenology over the other sciences and its propaedeutic status in the study of the essential properties or attributes (space, intensity, brightness, etc.) of sense phenomena.

    On A Trans-Atlantic Flight 2009

  • Now, it is conceivable that Hume encountered these texts, and recognized their propaedeutic value, only after completing his Treatise; but this bare possibility (the letter was written two years before its publication) is absolutely ruled out in the case of Bayle, if not of the other texts Hume names, by Hume's so-called early memoranda and especially by the use

    This, About The Man I Met Out Here In Nearly Nowhere 2009

  • Four schools in Britain have introduced this neutral international language, in order to test its propaedeutic values.

    Talking in New Tongues -- How Easy is It? josh 2008

Comments

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  • n. a course that provides and introduction to an art or science (or to more advanced study generally)

    adj. preceding and preparing for something; "preparatory steps"

    March 12, 2007

  • I offer a free hermeneutic;

    The difficult work is propaedeutic;

    But, competence gained,

    Then freedom’s attained

    And learning thereafter is therapeutic.

    July 29, 2018