Proprium
Definition, Meaning & Examples
Part of speech noun
Quick meaning: Proprium is a noun meaning (theology) Selfhood.
Meaning
(theology) Selfhood.
More Meanings
- (philosophy) A property that applies to all members of a species and only to them, serving to distinguish the species from other species within the same genus, yet is not part of the true definition or the essence of the species.
Example Sentences
Man of himself, so far as he is under the influence of his proprium, is worse than the brutes. If man should be led by his own proprium, he could not possibly be saved.
(So you can use a proprium to pick out a species—for example, you could say: “a human is a risible mortal animal”—but, in that case, you aren’t picking out the species by its true definition.)
Word Forms
- propria
Related Words
Related dictionary entries include speciesism, specism, speciesm, specieism, differentia, bioproperty.
Related Dictionary Tools
Sources & Attribution
FreeDictionaryAPI.com / Wiktionary · Original source · CC BY-SA 4.0
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