Ontologism

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A philosophical viewpoint that examines the essence and existence of entities within being
2. A doctrine concerned with the fundamental attributes and nature of existence and the properties of objects
3. A philosophical theory that studies the underlying nature and reality of being and entities

Etymology: "Ontologism" names a specific school of Catholic thought rather than the general study of being. Its best-known advocate, the Italian priest Vincenzo Gioberti, argued that the human mind grasps God immediately, through the idea of being itself, before any reasoning begins. The Church later condemned that claim, so the term now appears mostly in histories of theology. The word is built from "ontology," which combines the Greek "on" (genitive "ontos"), meaning "being," with "logos," meaning "study" or "discourse," plus the suffix "-ism," which marks a doctrine or system. "Ontology" is a comparatively late coinage, so the word's parts come from ancient Greek while the combined term does not. The suffix turns the study of being into a named position within it.

Synonyms: ontology, philosophy of being