Pl. syntheses. [a. L. synthesis collection, set or suit, composition (of a medicament), garment (sense 7), hyperbaton, a. Gr. σύνθεσις composition, logical and mathematical synthesis, f. συντιθέναι (see prec.). In F. synthèse, It. sintesi, Sp. sintesis, Pg. synthese, synthesis, G. synthese.]
1. Logic, Philos., etc. The action of proceeding in thought from causes to effects, or from laws or principles to their consequences. (Opposed to ANALYSIS 8.)
1611. Coryat, Crudities, 432. A Sciographie of sacred Theologie according to the three formes of methode, synthesis, analysis, and definition.
1620. [see SYNTHETICAL 1].
1656. trans. Hobbes’ Elem. Philos. (1839), 312. Synthesis is ratiocination from the first causes of the construction, continued through all the middle causes till we come to the thing itself which is constructed or generated.
1702. Ralphson, Math. Dict., 27. Synthesis or Composition is the Art of searching the Truth or Demonstration, the Possibility or Impossibility of a Proposition, by reasons drawn from Principles, that is by Propositions which demonstrate one another, beginning from the most simple, and so going on to more general and compounded ones,… till at length you arrive to the last Proposition designed, or Conclusion which is the thing to be demonstrated.
1704. Newton, Optics (1721), 380. The Synthesis consists in assuming the Causes discover’d, and establish’d as Principles, and by them explaining the Phænomena proceeding from them.
1911. Case, in Encycl. Brit., XVI. 892/1. Deduction is analysis when it is regressive from consequence to real ground…. Deduction is synthesis when it is progressive from real ground to consequence.
[Cf. Sir W. Hamilton, in Edin. Rev. (1833), LVII. 236, note. ‘In one respect,’ says Aristotle, ‘the Genus is called a part of the Species; in another, the Species a part of the Genus.’ (Metaph. L. v. c. 25.) In like manner, the same method, viewed in different relations, may be styled either Analysis or Synthesis. This, however, has not been acknowledged; nor has it even attracted notice, that different logicians and philosophers, though severally applying the terms only in a single sense, are still at cross purposes with each other. One calls Synthesis, what another calls Analysis; and this both in ancient and modern times.]
† 2. Gram. A figure by which a sentence is constructed according to the sense, in violation of strict syntax. Obs. (So It. sintesi.)
Two kinds were distinguished, synthesis generis and synthesis numeri.
1612. Brinsley, Posing of the Parts (1615), 44 b. Names of heathenish Gods, men, flouds, moneths, winds [are masculine]. margin, Albula pota Deo; aqua is vnderstood by Synthesis.
1657. J. Smith, Myst. Rhet., 197. Synthesis is a construction made for significations sake, or a speech congruous in sense, not in voyce.
1678. Phillips (ed. 4), Synthesis,… a figure of construction, wherein a noun Collective singular [is] joyned to a Verb plural [etc.].
1704. J. Harris, Lex. Techn., I.
3. Surg. (See quots.) rare–0.
1706. Phillips (ed. Kersey), Synthesis.… In Surgery … that Method whereby the divided Parts are re-united, as in Wounds.
1848. Dunglison, Med. Lex. (ed. 7), Synthesis of continuity means the union of the edges of a wound, or the approximation of the extremities of a fractured bone. Synthesis of contiguity is the reduction of displaced organs; as in cases of hernia and luxations.
4. Chem. Formation of a compound by combination of its elements or constituents; esp. applied to artificial production in this way of organic compounds formerly obtained by extraction from natural products. (Opposed to ANALYSIS 3.)
1733. P. Shaw, Chem. Lect., ix. (1755), 179. We have seen that … a true Resolution and Recomposition are practicable; and as Chemistry improves, the Business of Analysis and Synthesis must likewise improve.
1859. J. A. Wanklyn, in Proc. Roy. Soc., X. 4. On the synthesis of acetic acid.
1869. Roscoe, Elem. Chem., 299. Alcohol can also be prepared from its elements by synthesis.
1876. trans. Schützenberger’s Ferment., 6. M. Berthelot … made the first successful attempt to perform organic syntheses.
1880. Med. Temp. Jrnl., 62. The protoplasm of those cells whose function lies in chemical synthesis.
b. Physics. Production of white or other compound light by combination of its constituent colors, or of a complex musical sound by combination of its component simple tones. (Cf. ANALYSIS 4.)
1869. Tyndall, Notes Lect. Light, § 263. In reblending the constituent colours, so as to produce the original, we illustrate, by synthesis, the composition of white light.
1879. Prescott, Sp. Telephone, 51. Helmholtz had not only analyzed the vowel sounds into their constituent musical elements, but had actually performed the synthesis of them.
5. In the philosophy of Kant, the action of the understanding in combining and unifying the isolated data of sensation into a cognizable whole.
1817. Coleridge, Biog. Lit., xii. (1907), I. 187. The whole synthesis of our intelligence is first formed in and through the self-consciousness.
1819. J. Richardson, Kant’s Logic, Introd. 87. That sort of distinctness, which arises, not by the analysis, but by the synthesis of the marks, is synthetic distinctness. Ibid., 88. The making of objects distinct belongs to the synthesis, the making of conceptions distinct, to the analysis.
1839. Penny Cycl., XIII. 173/2. Experience proves the possibility of the synthesis of the predicate ‘heavy,’ with the subject ‘body’; for these two notions, although neither is contained in the other, are nevertheless parts of a whole, or of experience.
1855. Meiklejohn, trans. Kant’s Crit. Pure Reason, 80–1. But the conception of conjunction includes, besides the conception of the manifold and the synthesis of it, that of the unity of it also.
6. In wider philosophical use and gen. The putting together of parts or elements so as to make up a complex whole; the combination of immaterial or abstract things, or of elements into an ideal or abstract whole. (Opposed to ANALYSIS 1.) Also, the state of being put so together.
1833. Mrs. Browning, Prometh. Bound, 534. I … devised for them Number, the inducer of philosophies, The synthesis of Letters, and [etc.].
a. 1836. Coleridge, in Lit. Rem. (1838), III. 208. The happiest synthesis of the divine, the scholar, and the gentleman was … exhibited in him.
1836–7. Sir W. Hamilton, Metaph., vi. (1877), I. 100. By synthesis … I view the parts in relation to each other, and finally to the whole…; I reconstruct them.
1842. Mrs. Browning, Grk. Chr. Poets, Poet. Wks. (1904), 640/2. Disclosing from the analysis of the visible things the synthesis or unity of the ideal.
1855. Browning, Cleon, 94. Mankind, made up of all the single men,—In such a synthesis the labour ends.
1855. Spencer, Princ. Psychol., II. xxi. 302. To remember that what in the infant is an elaborate synthesis, afterwards becomes an instantaneous … cognition.
1864. Bowen, Logic, i. 20. The synthesis of their common Elements into one Concept.
1887. G. T. Ladd, Elem. Physiol. Psychol., II. vi. 388, note. The word ‘synthesis’ for this mental activity is employed and defended by Wundt … who … objects to the word ‘association.’ [For preceding context see SYNTHETIC 5.]
b. A body of things put together; a complex whole made up of a number of parts or elements united.
1865. Lecky, Ration. (1878), I. 168. A system which would unite in one sublime synthesis all the past forms of human belief.
1870. J. H. Newman, Gram. Assent, I. iii. 31. We fancy that we are doing justice to individual men and things by making them a mere synthesis of qualities.
1882. Farrar, Early Chr., II. 100. The Christian life is the synthesis of these Divine graces.
c. Philol. Synthetic formation or construction.
1869. Farrar, Fam. Speech, ii. (1870), 62. The immense victory which has been achieved by the Aryan race, in adopting inflectional synthesis as the basis of their grammatical structure.
7. Rom. Antiq. A loose flowing robe, white or bright-colored, worn at meals and festivities.
1606. Holland, Sueton., 207. He ware a dainty and effeminate pied garment called Synthesis.
1622. S. Ward, Life of Faith in Death (1627), 109. At feasts great persons were wont to change their guests ordinary clothes with a white Synthesis.
1891. Farrar, Darkn. & Dawn, ix. Nero … was dressed in a loose synthesis—a dress of light green, unconfined by any girdle.
