| 释义 |
agnostic, n. and a.|ægˈnɒstɪk|
[f. Gr. ἄγνωστ-ος unknowing, unknown, unknowable (f. ἀ not + γνο- know) + -ic. Cf. gnostic; in Gr. the termination -ικός never coëxists with the privative ἀ-.]
A. n. One who holds that the existence of anything beyond and behind material phenomena is unknown and (so far as can be judged) unknowable, and especially that a First Cause and an unseen world are subjects of which we know nothing.[Suggested by Prof. Huxley at a party held previous to the formation of the now defunct Metaphysical Society, at Mr. James Knowles's house on Clapham Common, one evening in 1869, in my hearing. He took it from St. Paul's mention of the altar to ‘the Unknown God.’ R. H. Hutton in letter 13 Mar. 1881.] 1870Spect. 29 Jan. 135 In theory he [Prof. Huxley] is a great and even severe Agnostic, who goes about exhorting all men to know how little they know. 1874Mivart Ess. Relig. etc. 205 Our modern Sophists—the Agnostics,—those who deny we have any knowledge, save of phenomena. 1876Spect. 11 June, Nicknames are given by opponents, but Agnostic was the name demanded by Professor Huxley for those who disclaimed atheism, and believed with him in an ‘unknown and unknowable’ God; or in other words that the ultimate origin of all things must be some cause unknown and unknowable. 1880Bp. Fraser in Manch. Guardn. 25 Nov., The Agnostic neither denied nor affirmed God. He simply put Him on one side.
B. adj. Of or pertaining to agnostics or their theory.
1873Q. Rev. CXXXV. 192 The pseudo-scientific teachers of what has..been termed..the Agnostic Philosophy. 1876Tulloch Agnosticism in Weekly Scotsm. 18 Nov., The same agnostic principle which prevailed in our schools of philosophy had extended itself to religion and theology. Beyond what man can know by his senses or feel by his higher affections, nothing, as was alleged, could be truly known. 1880G. C. M. Birdwood Ind. Arts I. 4 The agnostic teaching of the Sankhya school is the common basis of all systems of Indian philosophy. 1882Froude Carlyle II. 216 The agnostic doctrines, he (Carlyle) once said to me, were to appearance like the finest flour, from which you might expect the most excellent bread; but when you came to feed on it, you found it was powdered glass, and you had been eating the deadliest poison.
Add:[B.] 2. Path. = agnosic a.
[1935Bull. Johns Hopkins Hosp. LVII. 332 It is significant that finger agnosia should be present without other autotopagnostic features.] 1941J. M. Nielsen Clin. Neurol. x. 274 Agnostic alexia is due to loss of power of visual recognition of the symbols of language. 1946― Agnosia, Apraxia, Aphasia (ed. 2) ii. 34 Agnostic alexia is the failure of recognition of letters, figures, syllables, and words. 1953Brain LXXVI. 546 Our agnostic patient..seemed to have an alexia. 1975Bull. N.Y. Acad. Med. LI. 1161 The actions of naloxone were not agnostic, since the administration of either morphine or oxymorphone routinely reduced the amplitude of all reflexes tested. |