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givenness

givenness

1 9.9
Something accepted as true and used as a base for reasoning
  • noun
  • /ˈɡɪvənəs/
: dado
  • At a time when the official Roman theology was conceptualist and ahistorical, focusing on the absolute givenness of divine revelation from which conclusions could be deduced in a positivist fashion, Newman was proposing a complex process of historical development for Christian doctrine.

Examples

  • Common to Heidegger and Arendt is the wish to promote a feeling of astonishment that there is a world that is just there, given without necessarily there being a giver; and beyond astonishment at givenness, grateful adherence, or attachment.

    Academic text (1997)
  • The givenness of certain facts in our discussion allowed us to build a strong argument about climate change.

  • History is the record of human freedom from the infinity or givenness of nature.

    Academic text (1996)
  • It is that by looking up, we can see the givenness of creation, the fact that it has been given.

  • Literature, in its turn, dramatizes the difficulty by which branches of knowledge negotiate the givenness of their own founding principles.

    Academic text (2017)
  • Arguably, that is because people are more reluctant than ever to embrace the naturalness or givenness of their timely demise.

    Academic text (2003)
  • Forgetfulness of eretz as earth, as the place of commonality where people stand together in the givenness of things, would lead to more and more attention to eretz as land, as the place of administration, property, rights, and business.

    Academic text (1995)
  • We have already mentioned the importance of Kolnai's Catholic faith to his efforts to recover the givenness of reality—to rediscover a common world of thought and action.

    Academic text (1997)
  • The givenness of reality must be accepted and even cherished, and therefore "morally inspired reforms ought to appeal to permanent standards, not constitute moral innovations" (UM, 196).

    Academic text (1997)
  • The motion of a particular member of the species Homo sapiens—at least until history's end—is actually a mixture of natural givenness and historical acquisition.

    Academic text (1996)

Synonyms

presupposition
vsgivenness
6 7.7

A belief people accept as true before they discuss something

describes the general state of being accepted as a basis for discussion

Antonyms

182 3.0

Not being accepted by people or a group

How Accepted

axiom
23 7.5
givenness
1 9.9
assumption
467 3.5

Surface Forms

givenness singular
givennesses plural

Morphology

givenness = given (transparent) = given + ness

A straightforward nominalization of the adjective 'given' by '-ness', yielding 'the state or quality of being given/assumed'.

Etymology

The word givenness comes from the everyday word give, which meant 'to hand over', plus the noun ending -ness. So givenness is the state of being already 'given' or accepted, and we use it for facts or ideas people assume as the base of a discussion.