dormitive principle

English

Etymology

A modern translation of Latin, virtus dormitiva, coined by Molière in The Imaginary Invalid. In the play, he lampoons a group of physicians providing an explanation in macaronic Latin of the sleep-inducing properties of opium as stemming from its "virtus dormitiva".

Noun

dormitive principle ‎(plural dormitive principles)

1. (idiomatic, rhetoric, logic, linguistics) A type of tautology in which an item is being explained in terms of the item itself, only put in different (usually more abstract) words.
   • 1988, Doreen Kronick, New Approaches to Learning Disabilities: Cognitive, Metacognitive, and Holistic,

     We note Bateson's (1968) dormitive principle at work in which behaviors are described as traits such as LD, which then are used to explain the behavior.

   • 2002, Bradford Keeney, Aesthetics of Change, The Guilford Press, ISBN 978-1572308305, page 33

     If we examine traditional explanations of behavior through the lens of recursion, we will sometimes find what Bateson called "dormitive principles," a form of circular description. A "dormitive principle" is a more abstract repackaging of a description of the item you claim to be explaining. To paraphrase Bateson, this occurs when the cause of a simple action, as for example, when aggression is explained as being caused by an "aggressive instinct" or psychotic symptomatology is attributed to "madness."

   • 2003, Ian Glynn, An Anatomy of Thought: The Origin and Machinery of the Mind,

     And to any intelligent reader, explanation of an 'inherent ability' was reminiscent of Molière's mock explanation of the soporific effects of opium - that it contained a 'dormitive principle'.

Synonyms

• dormitive virtue

Translations

rhetoric

• Finnish: virtus dormitiva
• Latin: virtus dormitiva

• Portuguese: princípio dormitivo m
• Russian: снотво́рный при́нцип m ‎(snotvórnyj príncip)

See also

• aureation
• jargon
• skotison