organon
Americannoun
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organa,
plural
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organons
plural
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an instrument of thought or knowledge.
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Philosophy. a system of rules or principles of demonstration or investigation.
noun
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a system of logical or scientific rules, esp that of Aristotle
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archaic a sense organ, regarded as an instrument for acquiring knowledge
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of organon
First recorded in 1580–90; from Greek órganon; see organ
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Where Thomas Aquinas, in his thirteenth century “Summa Theologica,” wished to systematize all of Christian doctrine, Lem wrote a secular organon of human civilization’s entanglement with machines.
From The New Yorker ● Jan. 6, 2019
He worked out the first "organon," or manual of logical thought.
From Time Magazine Archive
They had of course inherited the technology from Ktesibios's hydraulis organ - and the name organum likewise comes from the Greek organon, meaning instrument or tool.
From "The Story of Music" by Howard Goodall
"Natural organic body" indicates that the body is an organon, or instrument in the function of the soul, the latter using the body to carry out its own purposes.
From A History of Mediaeval Jewish Philosophy by Isaac Husik
No man can invent an organon for writing tragedies and epic poems.
From Pioneers of Science by Sir Oliver Lodge
Winchester’s Troper of two-voice organa manuscripts and its mighty four- hundred-voice pipe organ were the work of Anglo-Saxon Christians.
From "The Story of Music" by Howard Goodall
A commentator on Aristotle, writing in the 4th century A.D., calls certain instruments used for fusion and calcination "chuika organa," that is, instruments for melting and pouring.
From The Story of Alchemy and the Beginnings of Chemistry by M. M. Pattison Muir
Or clumsy chilblain'd judgment; that with oath Magnificates his merit; and beapawls The conscious time, with humorous foam and brawls, As if his organons of sense would crack The sinews of my patience.
From The Poetaster by Ben Jonson
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
