| 释义 |
objective, a. and n.|əbˈdʒɛktɪv|
[ad. Schol. L. objectīv-us (a 1300, in adv. objectīvē in Duns Scotus Qu. de Anima 17, 14), f. objectus ppl. a., objectum n.; F. objectif, -ive (represented by the adv. objectivement, 15th c. in Hatz.-Darm.).]
A. adj.
†1. Philos.
a. Pertaining or considered in relation to its object; constituting, or belonging to, an object of action, thought, or feeling (as distinguished from the exercise of these); ‘material’, as opposed to subjective or ‘formal’ (in the old sense of these words). Obs.
1620Brent tr. Sarpi's Hist. Counc. Trent viii. 799 [He] added, that, where they were dedicated,..a worship did belong vnto them, besides the adoration due vnto the Saint worshipped in them, calling this adoration Relatiue, and the other Obiectiue. 1645Rutherford Tryal and Tri. Faith vii. (1845) 85 Christ himself, the objective happiness, is far above a created and formal beatitude, which issueth from him. 1675Traherne Chr. Ethics 16 Objective happiness is all the goodness that is fit to be enjoyed either in God or in His creatures: while formal happiness is an active enjoyment of all objects by contemplation and love, attended with full complacency in all their perfections.
†b. Of or pertaining to the object or end as the cause of action; objective cause = final cause: see cause n. 4 b, 5. Obs.
1626J. Yates Ibis ad Cæsarem ii. 25 God,..who doth..by a most sweet influence, and not by any coactiue violence, nor yet only by obiectiue allurements,..turne the wils of men at his pleasure. 1678Cudworth Intell. Syst. i. iii. 170 Aristotle's first mover is not properly the efficient, but only the final and objective cause, of the heavenly motions.
2. Philos. Used of the existence or nature of a thing as an object of consciousness (as distinguished from an existence or nature termed subjective).
The Scholastic Philosophy made the distinction between what belongs to things subjectively (subjectīvē), or as they are ‘in themselves’, and what belongs to them objectively (objectīvē), as they are presented to consciousness. In later times the custom of considering the perceiving or thinking consciousness as pre-eminently ‘the subject’ brought about a different use of these words, which now prevails in philosophical language. According to this, what is considered as belonging to the perceiving or thinking self is called subjective, and what is considered as independent of the perceiving or thinking self is called in contrast objective. As to this transition of use (which primarily concerns the word subjective, and affects objective as its antithesis) resulting in what is almost an exchange of sense between the two adjectives, see Hamilton Reid's Wks. 806 note, R. L. Nettleship Philos. Lect. & Remains I. 193.
†a. Opposed to subjective in the older sense = ‘in itself’: Existing as an object of consciousness as distinct from having any real existence; considered only as presented to the mind (not as it is, or may be, in itself or its own nature). Obs.[c1325Occam Sent. 1, Dict. 2, qu. 8 E, Universale non est aliquid reale habens esse subiectivum nec in anima nec extra animam, sed tantum habet esse obiectivum in anima et est quoddam fictum habens esse tale in esse obiectivo, quale habet res extra in esse subiectivo.] 1647Jer. Taylor Lib. Proph. 133 This confession was the objective foundation of faith; and Christ and his Apostles, the subjective. 1659Pearson Creed ii. (1839) 168 ‘In the beginning was the Word’; there was must signify an actual existence; and if so, why in the next sentence (‘the Word was with God’) shall the same verb signify an objective being only? 1727–41Chambers Cycl., Objective..is used in the schools in speaking of a thing which exists no otherwise than as an object known. The esse, or existence of such thing is said to be objective. 1744Berkeley Siris §292 Natural phænomena are only natural appearances. They are, there⁓fore, such as we see and perceive them: Their real and objective natures are, therefore, the same.
b. Opposed to subjective in the modern sense: That is or belongs to what is presented to consciousness, as opposed to the consciousness itself; that is the object of perception or thought, as distinct from the perceiving or thinking subject; hence, that is, or has the character of being, a ‘thing’ external to the mind; real.
This sense is occasional in writers of the later 17th and early 18th c. (the early examples being more or less transitional); but its current use appears to be derived from Kant, and to appear in Eng. subsequently to 1790, and chiefly after 1817 (see quot. from Coleridge).
1647J. Cardell Serm. (1648) 15 We do not say, That God doth infuse any positive, objective malice or wickedness into the hearts of men. 1662Stillingfl. Orig. Sacr. iii. i. §3 The Idea may be considered in regard of its Objective Reality, or as it represents some outward object. Ibid., Wee are apt to imagine such a Power in the understanding, whereby it may form Idea's of such things which have no objective reality at all. 1724Watts Logic ii. ii. §8 Objective certainty, is when the proposition is certainly true in itself; and subjective, when we are certain of the truth of it. The one is in things, the other is in our minds. 1793Monthly Rev. XI. 498 Have the objects..in fact a real objective existence, independent of our mode of perceiving them? 1817Coleridge Biog. Lit. I. x. 160 The very words objective and subjective of such constant recurrence in the schools of yore, I have ventured to re-introduce. 1853Hamilton Discuss., Philos. Unconditioned 5 note, In the philosophy of mind, subjective denotes what is referred to the thinking subject, the Ego; objective what belongs to the object of thought, the Non-Ego. 1856De Quincey Confess. Wks. V. 265 note, Objective: This word, so nearly unintelligible in 1821, so intensely scholastic, and, consequently, when surrounded by familiar and vernacular words, so apparently pedantic, yet, on the other hand, so indispensable to accurate thinking, and to wide thinking, has since 1821 become too common to need any apology. 1861Mill Utilit. 43 A person who sees in moral obligation..an objective reality belonging to the province of ‘Things in themselves’. 1879Farrar St. Paul I. 372 This [Christ's resurrection] was an historic objective fact.
3. transf. (from 2 b)
a. Of a person, a writing, work of art, etc.: Dealing with, or laying stress upon, that which is external to the mind; treating of outward things or events, rather than inward thoughts or feelings; regarding or representing things from an objective standpoint. (Occas., after mod. Ger. objektiv: Treating a subject so as to exhibit the actual facts, not coloured by the feelings or opinions of the writer.)
1838J. S. Mill in London & Westm. Rev. Aug. 496 An essentially objective people, like those of Northern and Central Italy. 1855Fitzjames Stephen in Camb. Ess. 190 The book [Robinson Crusoe]..is, to use a much-abused word, eminently objective; that is, the circumstances are drawn from a real study of things as they are, and not in order to exemplify the workings of a particular habit of mind. 1878Gladstone Prim. Homer xiii. 153 Of all poets he [Homer] is the most objective, and the least speculative. 1888Bryce Amer. Commw. II. lxxv. 619 To complete the survey of the actualities of party politics by stating in a purely positive, or as the Germans say ‘objective’, way, what the Americans think about..their system. 1899Lecky Map of Life ii. 8 English character on both sides of the Atlantic is an eminently objective one—a character in which thoughts, interests, and emotions are most habitually thrown on that which is without. 1967H. Arendt Orig. Totalitarianism (new ed.) xii. 423 The Jews in Nazi Germany or the descendants of the former ruling classes in Soviet Russia were not really suspected of any hostile action; they had been declared ‘objective’ enemies of the regime in accordance with its ideology.
b. Med. Applied to symptoms ‘observed by the practitioner, in distinction from those which are only felt by the patient’ (Syd. Soc. Lex. 1892).
1877Roberts Handbk. Med. (ed. 3) I. 19 The actual clinical phenomena observed, especially those of an objective character. 1898Allbutt's Syst. Med. V. 871 He manifests the subjective and objective signs of valvular disease.
4. With to: That is the object of sensation or thought; that is presented or exposed as an object, perceived, apprehended, etc. In Metaph. Related as object to subject (see object n. 6).
1762Gibbon Misc. Wks. (1814) IV. 148 Operations, which are made objective to sense by the means of speech, gesture and action. 1837New Monthly Mag. L. 535 The inhabitants of this hostel were seldom ‘objective’ to the garish eye of day. 1841Myers Cath. Th. iv. §13. 251 The Supreme Creator has..so separated Himself from His creation as to make it objective to Himself.
5. Perspective. That is, or belongs to, the object of which the delineation is required.
1706Phillips, Line Objective (in Perspect.), is the Line of an Object; from whence the Appearance is sought for in the Draught or Picture. 1727–41Chambers Cycl. s.v. Line, Objective Line, in perspective, is any line drawn on the geometrical plane, whose representation is sought for in the draught, or picture. Ibid. s.v. Plane, Objective Plane, in perspective, is any plane situate in the horizontal plane, whose representation in perspective is required. Ibid. s.v. Perspective, To exhibit the perspective appearance, h, of an objective point, H.
6. Applied to the lens or combination of lenses in an optical instrument which is nearest to the object (objective glass; now commonly called object-glass, or simply objective).
1753Short in Phil. Trans. XLVIII. 165 An heliometer; which is an instrument, consisting of two objective glasses, for measuring the diameters of the planets. 1762Maty ibid. LII. 375 The objective-glass of my 9 feet telescope. 1837Goring & Pritchard Microgr. 154 So far as the objective part of the instrument is concerned.
7. Gram.
a. Expressing or denoting the object of an action; spec. applied to that case of mod.Eng. in which a substantive or pronoun stands when it is the object of a verb, or is governed by a preposition, with which it forms an attributive or advb. phrase (see object n. 7); also to the relation of such noun or pronoun to such verb or preposition.
The accusative and dative of earlier Eng. (as well as the instrumental, locative, and ablative of prehistoric times) are merged in mod.Eng. in the objective, which in personal and relative pronouns is distinct in form from the nominative, but in ns. and other pronominal words is identical with the nominative.
1763Lowth Eng. Gram. (ed. 2) 32 A Case, which follows the Verb Active, or the Preposition..answers to the Oblique Cases in Latin; and may be properly enough called the Objective Case. 1824L. Murray Eng. Gram. (ed. 5) I. 86 There seems to be great propriety in admitting a case in English substantives, which shall serve to denote the objects of active verbs and of prepositions; and which is, therefore, properly termed the objective case. Ibid. 268 Part of a sentence..may be said to be in the objective case, or to be put objectively, governed by the active verb... Sentences or phrases under this circumstance, may be termed objective sentences or phrases. 1879Roby Lat. Gram. iv. xi. §1312 [Genitive denoting] Object of action implied in substantives and adjectives. (Objective genitive.) 1881Mason Eng. Gram. (ed. 24) §368 When a verb, participle, or gerund denotes an action which is directed towards some object, the word denoting that object stands in the objective relation to the verb, participle, or gerund.
b. objective complement = object complement (object n. 7).
1870C. P. Mason Eng. Gram. (ed. 14) 127 When the verb is transitive, and in the active voice, the complement of the predicate stands in the attributive relation to the object of the verb; as, ‘He dyed the cloth red.’.. This kind of complement may be termed the Objective Complement, inasmuch as it is closely connected with the object of the verb. 1897Clarke & Muller Class Bk. Eng. Gram. 219 The name Objective Complement would be applied by some Grammarians [to ‘captain’ in the sentence ‘They elected James captain’]. 1945M. M. Bryant Functional Eng. Gram. xii. 132 In ‘They made him chairman’..the second complement is called an objective complement. Ibid., In the sentence ‘The frost turned the leaves red’, the objective complement is of a somewhat different nature, since here the word red is an adjective rather than a noun. 1963[see object n. 7].
8. objective point: orig. Mil. the point towards which the advance of troops is directed; hence gen. the point aimed at.
1864Daily Tel. 18 Oct., In acquiring possession of Atlanta the Federals have gained a great..advantage. It is the objective point to which their western campaign was directed. 1865Spectator 4 Feb. 117 No light as to his next ‘objective point’, as the slang phrase goes, has yet been gained. 1890Times 27 Dec. 9/1 When the railway is extended to Mafeking, the objective point in Mashona-land is stil 800 miles from the base. 1893Earl Dunmore Pamirs II. 338 The city of Meshed being my objective point.
9. Characterized by objecting; that states objections: cf. objectively 4.
1814W. Taylor in Monthly Mag. XXXVIII. 34 Let us examine Mr. Pilgrim's objective argument. 1833H. Martineau Brooke Farm i. 14 ‘And what says Sergeant Rayne?’ ‘He too is of the objective school, sir’. ‘And were his objections listened to?’
B. n. (elliptical uses of the adj.)
1. Short for objective glass (see A. 6): the object-glass of an optical instrument.
1835Lindley Introd. Bot. (1848) I. 17, I commonly make use, in important investigations, of the three strongest of Plössl's objectives. 1879Newcomb & Holden Astron. 61 The construction of the achromatic objective. 1889Nature 31 Oct. 648 An objective which can be adjusted to work as either a photographic or visual objective.
2. Gram. Short for objective case: see A. 7.
1861Angus Handbk. Eng. Tongue 275 Objective with Passive Verb. 1881Mason Eng. Gram. (ed. 24) §80 note, The fact that pronouns still distinguish the Objective from the Nominative..compels us to recognize three cases in English.
3. Short for objective point (see A. 8); also fig. something aimed at, an object or end.
1881Burnie Mem. Thomas 152 At Johnstown, one objective was the Cambrian Works. 1882Times 10 Feb., Servian Railways..have been for years past the objective of innumerable financial attempts. 1882Standard 14 July, The objective must be Cairo,..the most useful strategical point. 1894Dublin Rev. Apr. 391 The king had for his objective the divorce, and contingently the religious policy..subsequently engrafted upon it.
4. Something objective or external to the mind.
1884Chr. Commw. 20 Mar. 536/2 The value and attraction of the externals and objectives.
5. attrib., as objective function, in linear programming, the function that it is desired to maximize or minimize.
1949Econometrica XVII. 207 The optimum feasible program is that feasible program which maximizes a specified linear objective function. 1958Riley & Gass Linear Programming i. 5 The linear-programming problem has a linear function of the variables to aid in choosing a solution to the problem. This linear combination of the variables, called the objective function, must be optimized by the selected solution. 1969D. C. Hague Managerial Econ. i. i. 16 We shall find that the aim of the business is set out in what is called an objective function—a name which indicates its purpose exactly. |