| 释义 |
▪ I. postulate, n.1|ˈpɒstjʊlət|
[ad. L. postulātum (a thing) demanded or claimed: see postulatum. Cf. F. postulat (1771 in Dict. Trévoux).
In sense 1 representing classical L. postulātum; in 2, 3, = mod.L. postulātum for med.L. petītio rendering Gr. αἴτηµα (Aristotle, Euclid). Postulāta (pl.) occurs in the L. transl. of Rhet. ad Alex. by Philelphus (died 1489) printed 1523, and is always used by Pacius Aristot. Organ. 1584. In L. edd. of Euclid, postulāta appears in Commandinus 1619.]
I.
1. A demand, a request; spec. a demand of the nature of a stipulation: cf. 2 d. Now rare.
1588in Motley Netherl. (1860) II. xviii. 397 Our postulates do trouble the King's commissioners very much, and do bring them to despair. 1656Blount Glossogr., Postulate, a request, demand or suit. 1660Jer. Taylor Worthy Commun. i. iii. 56 This St. Peter calls the stipulation of a good conscience; the postulate and bargain which man then makes with God. 1826Scott Diary 4 Feb. in Lockhart Life, Give me my popularity, (an awful postulate) and all my present difficulties shall be a joke in four years. 1860[see postulate v. 1 b].
II.
2. Logic and gen. A proposition demanded or claimed to be granted; esp. something claimed, taken for granted, or assumed, as a basis of reasoning, discussion, or belief; hence, a fundamental condition or principle.
1646Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. i. vii. 25 Ipse dixit, or oportet discentem credere,..may be Postulates very accomodable unto Junior indoctrinations; yet are their authorities but temporary. Ibid. iii. vii. 120 This conceit was probably first begot by such as held the contrary opinion of sight by extramission,..and is the postulate of Euclide in his Opticks. 1653Hales Brevis Disquisitio in Phenix (1708) II. 332 The Monk's Postulate in the fifth Proposition of the second Chapter: ‘The Christian Faith excludes all doubting, and is certain and infallible’. 1715tr. Gregory's Astron. (1726) I. 195 Astronomers, (who..make it a Postulate, that any Star may be moved with any motion). 1860Westcott Introd. Study Gosp. viii. (ed. 5) 400 Christianity is essentially miraculous. This is a postulate of Biblical criticism. 1884F. Temple Relat. Relig. & Sc. i. (1885) 6 The Supreme Postulate, without which scientific knowledge is impossible, is the Uniformity of Nature.
b. Sometimes with special reference to its undemonstrated or hypothetical quality: An unproved assumption, a hypothesis.
1646Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. vi. vi. 296 Which wee shall labour to induce not from postulates and entreated Maximes, but undeniable principles declared in holy Scripture. 1751Johnson Rambler No. 155 ⁋2 An opinion which, like innumerable other postulates, an enquirer finds himself inclined to admit upon very little evidence. 1837Hallam Hist. Lit. i. i. §23 (1847) I. 19 And as their reasonings commonly rest on disputable postulates, the accuracy they affect is of no sort of value. 1841–4Emerson Ess., Hist. Wks. (Bohn) I. 15 All the postulates of elfin annals.
c. Sometimes with special reference to the self-evident nature of a proposition of fact: hardly distinct from axiom.
1751Johnson Rambler No. 158 ⁋1 Any settled principle or self-evident postulate. 1812G. Chalmers Dom. Econ. Gt. Brit. 326 [They] had all taken it for granted, as a postulate, which could not be disputed, that a balance of trade, either favourable, or disadvantageous, enriched, or impoverished, every commercial country. 1816Playfair Nat. Phil. II. 223 The postulate on which this rule proceeds is, that though each of the given equations is incorrect,..there is nothing that determines the amount of the errors to be on one side more than another, or in excess rather than defect.
d. Something required as the necessary condition of some actual or supposed occurrence or state of things; a pre-requisite.
1841Myers Cath. Th. iv. xxiii. 293 A Personal and Providential Deity—this is the necessary postulate of all Religion properly so called. 1860Maury Phys. Geog. Sea xix. §796 The low barometer, the revolving storm, and the ascending column require for a postulate the approach by spirals of the wind from circumference to centre.
3. spec. in Geom. (or derived use). A claim to take for granted the possibility of a simple operation, e.g. that a straight line can be drawn between any two points; a simple problem of self-evident nature: distinguished from axiom (a self-evident theorem).
The earlier Eng. term was petition (sense 5).
1660Barrow Euclid i. (1714) 6 Postulates or Petitions. 1. From any point to any point to draw a right line... 3. Upon any center, and at any distance, to describe a circle. 1704J. Harris Lex. Techn. I, Postulates, or Demands in Mathematicks, &c. are such easie and self-evident Suppositions as need no Explication or Illustration to render them Intelligible. 1814D. Stewart Hum. Mind II. ii. §3. 162 (tr. Wallis) According to some, the difference between axioms and postulates is analogous to that between theorems and problems; the former expressing truths which are self-evident, and from which other propositions may be deduced; the latter, operations which may be easily performed, and by the help of which more difficult constructions may be effected. 1825J. Nicholson Operat. Mechanic 681 Postulates are things required to be granted true, before we proceed to demonstrate a proposition. 1827Hutton Course Math. I. 3 A Postulate, or Petition, is something required to be done, which is so easy and evident that no person will hesitate to allow it. 1864Bowen Logic xi. 374 An indemonstrable judgment, if theoretical, is called an Axiom; if practical, it is styled a Postulate.
▪ II. postulate, n.2 (a.) Sc. Eccl. Hist.|ˈpɒstjʊlət|
[ad. L. postulāt-us, pa. pple. of postulāre to ask, request, desire, etc., in med.L. to nominate or designate to a bishopric or abbacy, subject to the sanction of the Pope: see postulate v. 2.]
A person nominated by the sovereign to some superior ecclesiastical benefice, as a bishopric, etc.
‘Although the Scottish kings had maintained their prerogative of appointing persons chosen by themselves to vacant Sees and Abbacies, the consent of the Pope was an indispensable form to complete an election’ (Small, Wks. Gavin Douglas, I. pref. xii). A person thus nominated was in the mean time entitled ‘Postulate’.
1514Sederunt of Council 2 June, Gavin Douglas..Postulat of Arbroth. 1514Acta Dom. Concil. 21 Sept., The Lords ordains that a letter be written under the King's Signet requiring Gavin, Postulat of Arbroth, to deliver the keyis of the Grete Sele fra him. 1515(July 6) Ibid. XXVII. lf. 26 My Lord Gouernour shew that he was informit..that the said Postulat [Gavin Douglas] was promovit to the Bishopry of Dunkeld be the King of Inglandis writings..the quhilk the said Postulat denyit that he knew anything off. 1566Reg. Privy Council Scot. I. 463 James Erle of Mortoun..George Dowglas callit the Postulat, sone naturall to umquhile Archibald Erle of Angus..with diverse utheris..delaittit of the vyle and tressonabill slauchtir of umquhile David Riccio [etc.]. 1729in Macfarlane's Genealog. Collect. (1900) 11 Alexander Gordon Postulate of Galloway. 1755in Keith Hist. Catal. Scot. Bps. (1824) 146 He [Bp. Foreman] was postulate of Moray in the year 1501. 1828Scott F.M. Perth Introd., [An inaccurate explanation: see above]. 1830R. Chambers Life Jas. I, I. i. 20 George Douglas of Todholes..known by the epithet of the Postulate of Aberbrothwick.
b. attrib. or as adj.
1710Ruddiman Life Douglas in æneis 5 note, One is said to be Postulate Bishop, who could not be canonically elected, but may through favour, and a dispensation of his superior, be admitted.
▪ III. † ˈpostulate, a. Obs. rare—1.
[ad. L. postulāt-us, pa. pple. of postulāre: see next.]
= postulated.
1664Butler Hud. ii. i. 763 I'll prove that I have one: I mean by postulate illation.
▪ IV. postulate, v.|ˈpɒstjʊleɪt|
[f. ppl. stem of L. postulāre to demand, request: see -ate3.]
1. trans. To demand; to require; to claim.
1593Hist. K. Leir (1605) D j, A prince perhaps might postulate my love. 1651Biggs New Disp. §282 This doth not postulate or require the Physitians consent. 1703T. N. City & C. Purchaser Ded. 4 These your extraordinary Favours..seem to Postulate from me..a Publick Recognition. a1820W. Tooke (Webster 1828), The Byzantine emperors appear to have exercised, or at least to have postulated a sort of paramount supremacy over this nation. 1865Mill Exam. Hamilton 437 Logic, therefore, postulates to express in words what is already in the thoughts.
b. intr. To make a request; to stipulate.
1860Motley Netherl. II. xviii. 397 The excellent Doctor had not even yet discovered that the King's commissioners were delighted with his postulates [cf. 1588 in postulate n.1 1]; and that to have kept them postulating thus five months in succession..was one of the most decisive triumphs ever achieved by Spanish diplomacy. 1893J. Fahey Hist. Kilmacduagh 438 He was..obliged in 1866 to postulate for a coadjutor.
2. trans. Eccl. Law. To ask legitimate ecclesiastical authority to admit (a nominee) by dispensation, when a canonical impediment is supposed to exist (see Du Cange s.v. Postulari); hence, to nominate or elect to an ecclesiastical dignity, subject to the sanction of the superior authority. See postulate n.2, postulation 2. (The earliest use in Eng.)
1533–4Act 25 Hen. VIII, c. 20 §1 No..person..to be named, elected, presented, or postulated to any archebyshopriche or bishopriche within this realme. 1688Lond. Gaz. No. 2389/4 The most..Reverend Cardinal..was postulated by 13 of the 24 Canons. 1710Ruddiman Life of Douglas in æneis 5 [On the death of the Bp. of Dunkeld, 15 January 1515] Andrew Stewart..Brother to the Earl of Athole, had got himself postulated Bishop, by such of the Chapter as were present. 1762tr. Busching's Syst. Geog. V. 619 From the year 1561, Princes of the electoral house of Saxony have been constantly postulated by the chapter as administrators of the bishopric. 1874Small Douglas' Wks. I. Pref. 16 Although Douglas was postulated to it [Abbacy of Arbroath], and signed letters and papers under this designation [Postulat of Arbroth] his nomination..was never completed. 1878Stubbs Const. Hist. III. xix. 307 The chapter was then allowed to postulate the bishop of Bath.
3. To claim (explicitly or tacitly) the existence, fact, or truth of (something); to take for granted; esp. to assume as a basis of reasoning, discussion, or action. [med.L. postulāre, transl. Gr. αἰτεῖν.]
1646Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. ii. iv. 78 Yet do they most powerfully magnifie him [God],..who not from postulated or precarious inferences, intreat a courteous assent, but from experiments and undeniable effects, enforce the wonder of its Maker. 1649J. H. Motion to Parl. Adv. Learn. 7 They seem to be among the postulated principles of nature. 1855H. Spencer Princ. Psychol. (1872) I. ii. i. 146 That which we must postulate as the substance of Mind. 1862― First Princ. i. iv. §26 (1875) 88 Every one of the arguments by which the relativity of our knowledge is demonstrated, distinctly postulates the positive existence of something beyond the relative. 1878R. B. Smith Carthage 103 It postulated a skill in seamanship and a confidence in their own powers both of attack and defence. 1885S. Cox Expositions xv. 186 Reason postulates God, though it cannot prove him.
b. To assume the possibility of (some construction or operation). Cf. postulate n.1 3.
1817Coleridge Biog. Lit. I. xii. 250 In geometry the primary construction is not demonstrated, but postulated. 1882Proctor Fam. Sc. Stud. 16 [They] might postulate..that such lines when finite may be indefinitely produced.
†4. intr. To plead as an advocate. (So med.L. postulare.) Obs. rare—1.
1566Painter Pal. Pleas. I. 168 In Athenes..a yong man..being desirous to be an orator, and a pleading aduocate, to the intent he might postulate, according to the accustomed manner of Athenes in those daies, accorded [etc.].
Hence ˈpostulated ppl. a., claimed, required.
1646–9[see sense 3]. 1860Farrar Orig. Lang. 208 Even if we grant the postulated length of time. |